Here’s a Truce to Idle Sorrow | AI-Revived Charles I’s Merry May Song

A joyful early 20th-century revival of the 17th-century marching tune “The Glory of the North”, once played for King Charles I himself. One cheerful male voice and a dancing parlor piano chase away every care on the first of May.

[Verse 1]
Here’s a truce to idle sorrow,
Joy nor rival owns today,
Put off sighing till tomorrow,
’Tis the merry first of May.
Dancing, jumping, twirling round,
The blithesome lads and lasses go,
Skipping to the magic sound,
Waken’d by the fiddler’s bow.

[Chorus]
Youth its lightsome cares forgetting
Straight obeys the tuneful touch;
Crabbed age, no longer fretting,
Casts aside its useless crutch;
Mirth enlivens, smiles invite,
And not a churl will answer no!
Hearts are gay, and feet are light,
And nimbly goes the fiddler’s bow.

[Verse 2]
Still the merry dance pursuing,
Still the circling pairs are seen,
Till the moonlight, softly gluing
Silver to the smiling green.
Then, when daylight comes again,
And the merry lads and lasses go,
Still the tune lives in their brain,
Waken’d by the fiddler’s bow.

[Final Chorus]
Hearts are gay, and feet are light,
And nimbly goes the fiddler’s bow!

Perfect for spring mornings, country dances, and forgetting yesterday’s troubles.

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