Does anyone have any information on sound recordings of this song? I heard it decades ago on a collection of Morley's madrigals. I started tracking down info on this song several years ago and found that you have to use the Middle English spelling to even begin. I can still hear the melody in my head when I read the text: Fair in a morn, O fairest morn: was ever morn so fair? When as the sun, but not the same that shineth in the air, But of the earth, no earthly sun, and yet no earthly creature, There shone a face, was never face that carried such a feature. And on a hill, O fairest hill; was never hill so blessed, there stood a man, was never man for no man so distressed. This man had hap, O happy man; no man so happ'd as he, For none had hap to see the hap that he had happ'd to see. Andas he beheld, this man beheld, he saw so fair a face, The which would daunt the fairest here and stain the bravest grace. Pity, he cried, and Pity came, and pitied for his pain, That dying would not let him die, but gave him life again. For joy whereof he made such mirth that all the world did ring, And Pan with all his nymphs came forth to hear the shepherds sing. But such a song sung never was, nor ne'er will be again, Of Phillida the shepherds queen, and Corydon the swain.
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