From the musical “The Merry Widow”, 1907
Words by Adrian Ross
Music by Franz Lehar
Arranged by H. M. Higgs
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
There once was a Vilia
A witch of the wood
A hunter beheld her alone as she stood
The spell of her beauty upon him was laid
He looked and he longed for the magical maid
For a sudden tremor ran
Right through the love-bewildered man
And he sighed as a hapless lover can
“Vilia, O Vilia! the witch of the wood
Would I not die for you, dear, if I could
Vilia, O Vilia, my love and my bride”
Softly and sadly he sighed
“Vilia, O Vilia, the witch of the wood
Would I not die for you, dear if I could
Vilia, O Vilia, my love and my bride”
Softly and sadly he sighed
The wood-maiden smiled
And no answer she gave
But beckoned him into the shade of the cave
He never had known such a rapturous bliss
No maiden of mortals so sweetly can kiss
As before her feet he lay
She vanished in the wood away
And he called vainly till his dying day
“Vilia, O Vilia, the witch of the wood
Would I not die for you, dear, if I could?
Vilia, O Vilia, my love and my bride”
Softly and sadly he sighed
“Vilia, O Vilia, the witch of the wood
Would I not die for you, dear, if I could?
Vilia, O Vilia, my love and my bride”
Softly and sadly he sighed
Sadly he sighed, Vilia
Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: