If music be the food of love, sing on till I am fill'd with joy; for then my list'ning soul you move with pleasures that can never cloy, your eyes, your mien, your tongue declare that you are music ev'rywhere.

[the second verse comes from the alternate setting (Z 379a) published in the ›gentleman's journal‹ of june 1692.]

t: henry heveningham m: henry purcell

listen

the first line of heveningham's poem quotes the opening seven words of twelfth night:

If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it, that surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.