The English Lute Songs

Series I

Edited by Edmund H Fellowes

Revised by Thurston Dart


5 & 6

John Dowland

Second Book of Songs (1600)


Published by Stainer & Bell Ltd, 1969 (?)



From the Preface:

"This Second Volume of Dowland's songs was first published in 1600, the same year which saw the issue of the second edition of his first Book.  It was produced, as the dedication to Lucy, Lady Bedford shows, while Dowland was living at the Court of Christian IV, King of Denmark, at Elsinore.

In the address 'to the Curteous Reader,' which George Eastland the published printed at the beginning of the book, allusion is made to the great reputation which, as we know from other sources, Dowland had by that time earned as a composer; Eastland states, in fact, that the work is no ordinary one.  And when this same work comes to be examined again now, after a lapse of more than three hundred years, during which it has suffered amazing neglect, Eastland's statement will be frankly endorsed; for, remarkable and beautiful as is his first Book, it will come as something of a surprise to modern musicians, to most of whom the second and subsequent books must be almost entirely unknown, seeing they have never been reprinted since the 17th century, to find that any composer by the year 1600 had developed song-forms so fully as is in the case with some of these later songs of Dowland.  Several of the songs in this book will serve to show how he elaborated the earlier and simpler designs, notably "Sorrow Stay", with its very independent and important lute-accompaniment, and the celebrated Lachrymae, "Flow, my tears"."



From the reviser's note  within the book:

"The musical and verbal texts h ave been checked (and, where necessary, corrected) by David Scott against copies of the original edition in the British Museum; the Royal College of Music; the Henry Watson Library, Manchester; and the library of Lincoln Cathedral.
 "

This is a wonderful book with a selection of music which dates back to the early 17th century.  Contents are as follows:

Preface by Edmund H Fellowes

Reviser's Note


I saw my lady weep

Flow my tears

Sorrow, stay

Die not before they day

Mourn, day is with darkness fled

Time's oldest son, Old Age

Then sit thee down and say

When others sing Venite

Praise blindness eyes

O sweet woods

If floods of tears

Fine knacks for ladies

Now cease my wand'ring eyes

Come ye heavy states of night

White as lilies was her face

Woeful heart

A shepherd in a shade

Faction that ever dwells

Shall I sue

Toss not my soul

Clear or cloudy

Humour say what mak'st thou here



This is a large paperback book in good condition, spine is firm, slight rubbing to edges of cover and corners turned.   Small surface tear to front cover where sticker has been removed.  No annotations within book. 


I also have an accompanying book - The English Lute Songs, 12 & 14 (John Dowland, A Pilgrimes Solace (1612) with three songs from A Musical Banquet (1610)) for sale in my shop and will happily combine postage and packing costs if you wish to purchase both books.

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