Text and Music: John Willbye
Edited: Edmund H. Fellowes
Published: Stainer & Bell / ECS Publishing

Soprano: Julie Bailey
Mezzo: Janet Malkiewicz
Alto: Jennifer Kujawski
Tenor: Jeffrey Armstrong
Bass: Allen Fisher

Sweet honey-sucking bees why do you still
Surfeit on roses, pinks and violets?
As if the choicest nectar lay in them,
Wherewith you store your curious cabinets
Ah, make your flight to Melisuavia’s lips.
There may you revel in Ambrosian cheer,
Where smiling roses and sweet lilies sit
Keeping their springtide graces all the year.

Yet, sweet take heed, all sweets are hard to get.
Sting not her soft lips. O beware of that.
For if one flaming dart, come from her eye,
Was never dart so sharp, Ah, then you die.