Would my conceit that first enforc'd my woe (John Dowland)

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• CPDL #16000: NoteWorthy Composer

Editor: Brian Russell (submitted 2008-02-15).   Score information: A4, 4 pages, 31 kbytes   Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes: NoteWorthy Composer file may be viewed and printed with NoteWorthy Composer Viewer.

• CPDL #05483: PDF, MIDI and Capella 4 files

Editor: Ulrich Alpers (submitted 2003-08-18).   Score information: A4, 2 pages, 49 kbytes   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

• CPDL #02993: PDF, MIDI, ABC and LilyPond files.

Editor: Laura Conrad (submitted 2001-09-11).   Score information: A4, 5 pages, 89 kbytes   Copyright: GnuGPL

Edition notes: in partbook format.

General Information

Title: Would my conceit that first enforc'd my woe
Composer: John Dowland

Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Lute song

Language: English
Instruments: Lute
Published: The First Booke of Songs or Ayres (1597), no.16

Description:

External websites:

Original text and translations

English text

Would my conceit that first enforc'd my woe,
Or else mine eyes which still the same increase,
Might be extinct, to end my sorrows so
Which now are such as nothing can release:
Whose life is death, and eke whose change,
Each change of sour, and eke whose hell reneweth every hour.

Each hour amidst the deep of hell I fry,
Each hour I waste and wither where I sit,
But that sweet hour wherein I wish to die,
My hope alas may not enjoy it yet,
Whose hope is such bereaved, of the bliss,
Which unto all save me allotted is.

To all save me is free to live or die,
To all save me remaineth hap or hope,
But all perforce, I must abandon it,
Sith Fortune still directs my hap a slope,
Wherefore to neither hap nor hope I trust,
But to my thralls I yield, for so I must.