Title: Desperato’s Banquet (from The Floating Island)
Composer: Henry Lawes (1595-1662)
Author: William Strode (1600-1643)
Free at Art Song Central (PDF files):
- PDF: Desperato’s Banquet
- Key: D Minor
- Range: F2 – D4
- Source: Twenty Four Songs by English Composers of the 17th & 18th Centuries
Elsewhere on the Internet:
Mp3:
MIDI:
Come, heavy souls, oppressed with the weight
Of crimes, and pangs, or want of your delight;
Come, drown in Lethe’s sleeply Lake,
Whatever makes you ache;
Drink healths from poisoned bowls,
Breathe out your cares together with your souls;
Cool death’s a salve
That all may have,
There’s no distinction in the grave.
Lay down your loads before death’s iron door;
Sigh, and sigh out; groan once, and groan no more.
