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The First Booke of Songes and Ayres - 1600
Composed by Robert Jones
Part 4 - Airs X to XI (of 21 airs).
Go ahead to The First Booke, Part 5 - XII
Go back to 'The First Booke, Part 3 - VII to IX'
Return to ' The First Booke, Part 1 - To The Reader, Airs I to III '

Under Construction.
This is an unfinished page that I hope to edit sometime in the future.

X. SWEET COME AWAY, MY DARLING

1. Sweet come away, my darling,
2. And sweetly let me hear thee sing.
3. Come away, come away, come away and bring
4. My heart thou hast so fast in keeping.

5. O fie upon this long stay
6. That thus my loving hopes delay!
7. Come again, come again, come again and stay:
8. Sweet heart, I'll never more say thee nay.

9. Dear, be not such a tyrant
10. Still to rejoice thee in my want.
11. Come and do, come and do, come and do not scant
12. Me of thy sight so fair and pleasant.

13. Why hear'st thou not his sighing,
14. Whose voice all hoarse is with crying?
15. Come and do, come and do, come and do something
16. That may revive thy true love dying.

17. This is the pride of women,
18. That they make beggares of all men.
19. We must sigh, we must cry, We must die, and then
20. Forsooth it may be they will hearken.

Source ; The English School of Lutenist Song-Writers Series 2, volume 4. The first booke of songes and ayres, 1600. Stainer & Bell (1959).

X. Sweet, come away, my darling - Notes, Recordings and Comments

This is a lovely little song, of the come away genre, much like John Dowland's 'Come away, come sweet love' song XI from Dowland's first book (1597). I think Dowland's song is a little bit more sophisticated in lyric and music but this song of Jones still has charm and I can not understand why it has been ignored for four hundred years. I think the last verse could be cut on any future rendering of the song to make it more palatable.

I don't know of any recording of this song but there is a midi file made by Mr. Harald Lillmeyer that was available from his site as of June, 2004. There are no notes about this song in Edward Doughtie's 'Lyrics From Elizabethan Airs , 1596-1622'. - P. T. C.

Edmund H. Fellowes in English Madrigal Verse writes;
The words 'come away' in line 3, 'come again' in line 7, 'come and do' in line 11, and 'come and do' in line 15, are printed thrice in the original edition. In the final stanza only the corresponding line is expanded to an equivalent length by the addition of different words.

XI. WOMEN, WHAT ARE THEY?
1
Women what are they ? changing weather-cocks,
That smallest puffes of lust haue power to turne,
Women what are they ? vertues stumbling blockes,
Whereat weake fooles doe fall, the wiser spurne,
We men what are wee ? fooles and idle boies,
To spend our time in sporting with such toies.
2
Women what are they ? trees whose outward rinde
Makes shew for faire when inward hart is hallow:
Women what are they ? beasts of Hi naes kinde,
That speak those fairst, whom most they mean to swallow:
We men what are wee ? fooles and idle boies,
To spend our time in sporting with such toies.
3
Women what are they ? rocks vpon the coast,
Where on we suffer shipwracke at our landings:
Women what are they ? patient creatures most,
That rather yeld them striue gainst ought withstanding.
We men what are wee ? fooles and idle boies,
To spend our time in sporting with such toies.

Source ; A site created by Harald Lillmeyer. Mr. Lillmeyer typed the text from a facsimile of the 1600 booke and preserved the original spelling. This text is copyright © by Harald Lillmeyer, 2004 and is used by his permission. This site can be found at; http://kulturserver-bayern.de/home/harald-lillmeyer/Texte/Downloads/Downloads.html

XI. Women, What are they? - Notes, Recordings and Comments

I don't know of any recording of this song but there is a midi file available from Mr. Harald Lillmeyer's site. - P. T. C

Notes from Edward Doughtie's 'Lyrics From Elizabethan Airs , 1596-1622 ';

" XI. Bond (III. 489) ascribes this to Lyly without evidence (except, perhaps, for lines 10 -11 ; see note below).
This poem occurs in two MSS: (D) BM MS Harlein 6057 (mid-17th century), fol. 7v, headed "An Invective against weomen" ; and (E) Rosenbach MS 1086/16 (formerly Phillipps ; c. 1630), pp. 39 - 40, poem No. 53. The variants are:

...

E contains "The Reply" (No. 54) :

O men what are you ? ...
...
10 -11 Hi naes kinde. This vulgar error probably originated in Pliny's Natural History VIII. xliv, and was repeated by (among others) John Lyly in Euphues (ed. Bond, I. 250).

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Page Bibliography

Edward Doughtie's 'Lyrics From Elizabethan Airs , 1596-1622' Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press, 1970.

The English School of Lutenist Song-Writers Series 2, volume 4. The first booke of songes and ayres, 1600. Stainer & Bell (1959).

A site created by Harald Lillmeyer that can be found at; http://kulturserver-bayern.de/home/harald-lillmeyer
Look under 'Downloads'.

The Metamorphoses Of Ovid - by Ovid, translated by Mary Innes 1955, page ? - Penguin Books