"I saw my lady weepe", "Flow my teares", "Would my conceit" - Dowland

The Dutch Church, London, 10th September 2022
Tenor - Benjamin Staniforth
Bass - Fabian Tindale Geere
Cantus - Rachel Dawson
Lute - Sam Brown
Music by John Dowland
Lyrics:
"I saw my lady weepe,
and sorrow proud to bee advanced so:
in those faire eies, where all perfections keepe,
hir face was full of woe,
but such a woe (beleeve me) as wins more hearts,
then mirth can doe, with hir intysing parts"
"Flow my teares
fall from your springs,
exilde for ever: let mee morne
where nights blackbird hir sad infamy sings,
there let mee live forlorne.
Downe vaine lights
shine you no more,
no nights are dark enough for those that in dispaire
their last fortuns deplore,
light doth but shame disclose.
Never may my woes be relieved,
since pitie is fled,
and teares, and sighes, and grones
my wearie dayes of all joyes have deprived.
From the highest spire of contentment,
my fortune is throwne,
and feare, and griefe, and paine
for my deserts are my hopes since hope is gone.
Harke you shadowes that in darcknesse dwell,
learne to contemne light,
Happie they that in hell
feele not the worlds despite."
"Would my conceit that first enforst my woe,
or els mine eyes which still the same encrease,
might be extinct, to end my sorrowes so
which nowe are such as no-thing can release:
Whose life is death,
whose sweet each change of sowre
and eke whose hell renueth every houre."

[@EnricoDandolo1204]

Mesmerising!