Peter -- you did a wonderful job describing the music in the production you saw the other night... but what about the "featured" song -- the one that Balthazar sings when Don Pedro, Leonato and Claudio first "bait" Benedick into falling in love with Beatrice?

(since the players didn't have their characters' names embroidered on the backs of their costumes, I'll cut and paste the lines):

BALTHASAR
Note this before my notes;
There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting.

DON PEDRO
Why, these are very crotchets that he speaks;
Note, notes, forsooth, and nothing.

Air

BENEDICK
Now, divine air! now is his soul ravished! Is it
not strange that sheeps' guts should hale souls out
of men's bodies? Well, a horn for my money, when
all's done.

The Song

BALTHASAR
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never:
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey nonny, nonny.
Sing no more ditties, sing no moe,
Of dumps so dull and heavy;
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer first was leafy:
Then sigh not so, & c.

DON PEDRO
By my troth, a good song.

BALTHASAR
And an ill singer, my lord.

DON PEDRO
Ha, no, no, faith; thou singest well enough for a shift.
---
(Boy, talk about a left-handed compliment!) ;-P

Btw, in his film verison, Kenneth Branauh made this the "theme song" of the play -- having Beatrice (Emma Thompsom) recite the lines during the opening sequence, and having the entire cast sing it as a finale.

It's my gut feeling that this is a song that Shakespeare wrote specifically for the play. Not exactly sure why I think that, except maybe its slightly irreverent, satirical take on romance (kinda reminds me of the twentieth century t-shirt slogan: "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle."), and how neatly it dovetails into Beatrice's attitude toward marriage. It's a good "bait" song for Benedick, too, since if he overheard a song praising love and romance, he'd get his defenses up. But he's such a contrarian at heart, his instinct is to disprove any "common knowledge" -- if "they" say that men are untrue, than he'll be true.

If this is a lyric penned by Shakespeare, I fear it would be much harder to find the 'original' tune that goes with it...

But nonetheless, I wonder: does anyone out there know of an early tune this song was sung to?

How's that for a Mudcat challenge?