CRADLE SONG, THE
Created on 30/10/2025Latest update on 30/10/2025
Artist: Thomas Dekker, Henry Chettle, William Haughton
Author: Thomas Dekker
Year: 1600
Lullaby from Act IV, Scene 2 in play Patient Grissill, first set to music in 1885 by W.J. Henderson and in 1918 by Charles Villiers Stanford/Alfredo Casella. The plot of Patient Grissill came from Patient Grisselda, a middle aged story mentioned in Chauser's Canterbury Tales, the Diary of Samuel Pepys and in Boccaccio's Decamerone.
Covers:
- 1918:
Admiral's Men [from Nottingham]
- 1969:
Beatles [lyrics of Golden Slumbers on Abbey Road; Paul McCartney copied lines from Dekkers lullaby: Golden slumbers kiss your eyes, Smiles await you when you rise, Sleep my little one, do not cry, And I will sing a lullaby; credits went tot Lennon/McCartney, as usual]
- 1969:
Trash [idem, top 40 UK shortly after Abbey Road's release; also for Apple]
- 2015:
Unthanks [as Last Lullaby on CD Mount The Air]
- 2017:
Elbow [as Golden Slumbers on 45]
- 2023:
Eliza Carthy [idem on Conversations We Had Before, well aware of the age of some of the words]
