If Music and sweet Poetry agree;
As they must needs, the sister and the brother:
Then must the love be great 'twixt thee and me!
Because thou lov'st the one; and I, the other.
Dowland to thee, is dear; whose heavenly touch
Upon the lute doth ravish human sense:
Spenser, to me; whose deep conceit is such
As, passing all conceit, needs no defence.
Thou lov'st to hear the sweet melodious sound
That Phœbus's Lute, the Queen of Music, makes:
And I, in deep delight, am chiefly drowned
When as himself to singing he betakes.
One god is god of both, as Poets feign:
One knight loves both, and both in thee remain!
The other poems set to music by Dowland, will be found at pp. 519-534, 609-622, 644-656.
John Dowland, Bachelor of Music.
The First Book of Songs or Airs.
1597.
