Can she excuse my wrongs. John Dowland. Grace Davidson, Soprano, David Miller, lute

Can she excuse my wrongs with virtues cloak
Grace Davidson, Soprano, David Miller, lute
John Dowland
(c. 1563 - buried 20 February 1626)
The Firste Booke of Songes, 1597
Subsequently published as the Earl of Essex galliard
Related videos:
(Be sure to watch Sting performing "Can she excuse my wrongs")
Rick Beato
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Dowland. Can She Excuse My Wrongs (by Sting / Karamazov)
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Julian Bream / The Earl of Essex's Galliard by John Dowland
• Julian Bream / The Ear...
Be sure to watch Sting performing Can she excuse my wrongs
Dowland. Can She Excuse My Wrongs (by Sting / Karamazov)
• Dowland. Can She Excus...
The gloriously passionate Can she excuse my wrongs?, a hit in its day, is another galliard, but it overcomes a potential limitation of the dance-form song-that the tune can become a metrical straitjacket-by quickening the rhythm as the song progresses. The words seem to be by the Earl of Essex, framed as a love song, but expressing his tempestuous relationship with the Queen, and the accompaniment of the last strain incorporates a popular song, Shall I go walk the woods so wild?, alluding to the Earl wandering the woods of his estate at Wanstead during an exile from Court. In fact the tune was only publicly named The Earl of Essex’s Galliard after both the Earl (executed for a madcap coup attempt in 1600) and the Queen herself had died.