This charming madrigal is perhaps the best known of all English madrigals, and is the prototype of the pastoral-style madrigal, complete with references to nymphs, springtime, and dancing, and slightly suggestive references to games.

One factor that makes this madrigal so popular is the way that the frequent use of unison and simple harmonics makes the words very easy to understand, in contrast to a number of the English writers, who probably assumed that the listeners knew the text and so had less need to make the writing "transparent." The harmonics, too, are quite simple, and the repetitious melody is easy both to remember and to sing. But while this piece is quite simple, it is also very finely crafted, with a good deal of art going into the creation of the pastoral atmosphere. It seems to evoke perfectly the Tudor world of sophisticated gentlemen and ladies enthusing about an idealized simple, pastoral life of nymphs and shepherds, creating an artificial, but charming, image of rural life.

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