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

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• CPDL #16000: MIDI and NoteWorthy Composer files.

Editor: Brian Russell (submitted 2008-02-15).   Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes: Files listed alphabetically by nationality and composer. Some composers have separate pages available from their country of origin page.

• CPDL #5483: PDF, MIDI and Capella 4 files

Editor: Ulrich Alpers (submitted 2003-08-18).   Score information: A4   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

• CPDL #2993: PDF, MIDI, ABC and LilyPond files.

Editor: Laura Conrad (submitted 2001-09-11).   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.