Adieu, Farewell Earth’s Bliss is a lyric by the Elizabethan writer Thomas Nashe. Nashe probably wrote it in 1592, when it appeared as a song in Nashe’s play Summer’s Last Will and Testament. The play and the song were published in 1600, the year before Nashe’s death.
The “Summer” of the play’s title refers to a character and to the summer of 1592, when London was suffering from an epidemic of bubonic plague (see Plague). The lyric “Farewell, Adieu Earth’s Bliss” is also known as “A Litany in Time of Plague.” In the play, the allegorical character Summer, a dying old man, requests a “doleful ditty” on the lute:
Adieu, farewell earth’s bliss; This world uncertain is; Fond are life’s lustful joys; Death proves them all but toys; None from his darts can fly; I am sick, I must die. Lord, have mercy on us! Rich men, trust not in wealth, Gold cannot buy you health; Physic himself must fade. All things to end are made, The plague full swift goes by; I am sick, I must die. Lord, have mercy on us! Beauty is but a flower Which wrinkles will devour; Brightness falls from the air; Queens have died young and fair; Dust hath closed Helen’s eye. I am sick, I must die. Lord, have mercy on us! Strength stoops unto the grave, Worms feed on Hector brave; Swords may not fight with fate, Earth still holds ope her gate. “Come, come” the bells do cry. I am sick, I must die. Lord, have mercy on us. Wit with his wantonness Tasteth death’s bitterness; Hell’s executioner Hath no ears for to hear What vain art can reply. I am sick, I must die. Lord, have mercy on us. Haste, therefore, each degree, To welcome destiny; Heaven is our heritage, Earth but a player’s stage; Mount we unto the sky. I am sick, I must die. Lord, have mercy on us.
The refrain at the end of each stanza is from the Litany, a form of responsive prayer used in Church of England services. Nashe’s lyric is a reflection on the harsh realities of death. Its echoes of church liturgy (rites of worship) are both comforting and haunting, a relentless reminder of death’s power.
Attitudes towards death were, by necessity, more matter-of-fact in Nashe’s time than today. Epidemics killed tens of thousands of people, and plague attacked princes and peasants alike. The commonness of death and the undiscriminating nature of the disease led writers like Nashe to reflect on the fleetingness of “earth’s bliss.” Life’s joys are “fond” (foolish) things; beauty fades like a flower. The great heroes of Greek mythology, the lovely Helen or the great warrior Hector, merely end up among the “dust” and “worms.” Nashe, a famous wit and rogue, admits here that his art will disappear; the “wantonness” (immorality) of wit must ultimately face “death’s bitterness.” “Vain art” is no match for “Hell’s executioner.” The only consolation in the face of such horror is the belief in Heaven. All people must therefore learn to “welcome destiny.”
Critics and readers consider Nashe an innovative prose writer whose use of satire and verbal humor made his work highly original. Many critics regard his fictional masterpiece The Unfortunate Traveller; or, The Life of Jack Wilton (1594) as a forerunner to the modern novel. But his poem “Adieu, Farewell Earth’s Bliss,” with its simple and direct message that “All things to end are made,” remains a favorite.
