Fie on Sinful Fantasy (mp3 Sample)

Merry Wives of Windsor, Act V, Scene 5

Lyrics

Fie on sinful fantasy!

Fie on lust and luxury!

Lust is but a bloody fire,

Kindled with unchaste desire,

Fed in heart, whose flames aspire

As thoughts do blow them, higher and higher.


Pinch him, fairies, mutually;

Pinch him for his villany;


Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about,

Till candles and starlight and moonshine be out.

About the Song

"Fie on Sinful Fantasy" comes at the climactic moment of Act V in Merry Wives of Windsor. The wives take their revenge on Falstaff - who has been trying to get them into bed the whole play - by setting up a clandestine meeting with him in the forest in the middle of the night.

When he gets there, he finds himself tormented by "fairies" - really the inhabitants of Windsor in disguise. They sing him this vicious little song, scaring the dickens out of him.

Track Info

Lyrics by William Shakespeare.

Music by Jon Watson.

Musicians: