Dowland: First Booke of Songes, 1597 - 12. Rest awhile you cruel cares - Julian Bream, Golden Age Singers, Margaret Field-Hyde

Rest awhile, you cruel cares

Be not more severe than love

Beauty kills and beauty spares

And sweet smiles sad sighs remove:

Laura, fair queen of my delight

Come grant me love in love’s despite

And if I fail ever to honour thee

Let this heavenly light I see

Be as dark as hell to me

If I speak, my words want weight

Am I mute, my heart doth break

If I sigh, she fears deceit

Sorrow then for me must speak:

Cruel unkind, with favour view

The wound that first was made by you:

And if my torments feigned be

Let this heavenly light I see

Be as dark as hell to me

Never hour of pleasing rest

Shall revive my dying gost

Till my soul hath repossess’d

The sweet hope which love hath lost:

Laura redeem the soul that dies

By fury of thy murdering eyes:

And if it prove unkind to thee

Let this heavenly light I see

Be as dark as hell to me