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Can She Excuse My Wrongs

from The Plum Tree and The Rose by Sarah McQuaid

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about

I came across this striking song of sexual frustration in a book that I found in my mother’s library: An Elizabethan Song Book, edited by W.H. Auden, C. Kallman and N. Greenberg. John Dowland (1563-1626) was a renowned composer and performer in his time, but failed in his ambition to win a position as court lutenist to Queen Elizabeth I. The lyrics to “Can She Excuse My Wrongs” (also called “The Earl of Essex’s Galliard”) were reputedly written by Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, who like the other Robert mentioned earlier was an unsuccessful suitor for the Queen’s hand.

lyrics

Can she excuse my wrongs with Virtue’s cloak
Shall I call her good when she proves unkind
Are those clear fires which vanish into smoke
Must I praise the leaves where no fruit I find

No no: where shadows do for bodies stand
Thou may’st be abus’d if thy sight be dim
Cold love is like to words written on sand
Or to bubbles which on the water swim

Wilt thou be thus abused still
Seeing that she will right thee never
If thou can’st not o’ercome her will
Thy love will be thus fruitless ever

Was I so base, that I might not aspire
Unto those high joys which she holds from me
As they are high, so high is my desire
If she this deny, what can granted be

If she will yield to that which Reason is,
It is Reason’s will that Love should be just
Dear, make me happy still by granting this
Or cut off delays if that I die must

Better a thousand times to die
Than for to live thus still tormented
Dear, but remember it was I
Who for thy sake did die contented

credits

from The Plum Tree and The Rose, released March 5, 2012
John Dowland, published in 1597 in The First Booke Of Songes, arr. Sarah McQuaid
Vocals & Guitar – Sarah

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Sarah McQuaid Penzance, UK

“One of the most instantly recognisable voices in current music … Shades of Joni Mitchell in a jam with Karen Carpenter and Lana Del Rey.” —Neil March, Trust The Doc

“Captivating, unorthodox songwriting … layered satin vocals ... enthralling, harrowing arrangements … a gateway into a true innovator’s soul.” —PopMatters

See sarahmcquaid.com/about for more info.
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