From John Dowland’s First Book of Songs or Airs, 1597.
Dear, if you change, I’ll never choose again;
Earth with her flowers shall sooner heaven adorn;
Heaven her bright stars through earth’s dim globe shall move;
Fire heat shall lose, and frosts of flames be born;
Air, made to shine, as black as hell shall prove:
Earth, heaven, fire, air, the world transformed shall view,
Ere I prove false to faith or strange to you.
From Thomas Morley’s Canzonets, 1593.
Do you not know how Love lost first his seeing?
From John Wilbye’s Second Set of Madrigals, 1609.
Draw on, sweet Night, best friend unto those cares
Sweet Night, draw on; my griefs, when they be told
To shades and darkness, find some ease from paining;
And while thou all in silence dost enfold,
I then shall have best time for my complaining.
From Henry Youll’s Canzonets to three Voices, 1608.
Each day of thine, sweet month of May,