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

Dowland: First Booke of Songes, 1597 - 12. Rest awhile you cruel cares

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