One of John Dowland's most famous songs, "I saw my Lady weep" (from The Second Book of Songs) has the sustained melancholy and poetic pathos of the best Elizabethan music, and is unmistakably Dowlandian in it's treatment. When you listen to or play this music, the sense of katharsis is real - as welcome a thing in our age as ever!

Performed by OPHELIA: Sanna Kola (mezzo-soprano) and Tuomas Kourula (archlute). This video was shot in 18th century Qwensel house museum in Turku, Finland.

I saw my lady weep,
And Sorrow proud to be advanced so,
In those fair eyes where all perfections keep.
Her face was full of woe,
But such a woe believe me as wins more hearts,
Than Mirth can do with her enticing parts.

Sorrow was there made fair,
And Passion wise, tears a delightful thing,
Silence beyond all speech a wisdom rare.
She made her sighs to sing,
And all things with so sweet a sadness move,
As made my heart at once both grieve and love.

O fairer than aught else
The world can show, leave off in time to grieve.
Enough, enough, (enough, enough,) your joyful looks excels.
Tears kill the heart, believe;
O strive not to be excellent in woe,
Which only breeds your beauty's overthrow.

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