Though John Dowland's personal musical forte was playing the lute, he also published several collections of songs for lute and voice, which culminated and crowned an Elizabethan craze for the genre. Though he somehow never obtained from Queen Elizabeth the coveted position of Court Lutenist, his songs spread through Europe and were eagerly collected by musicians everywhere. Typically in this genre, Dowland keeps the lute writing fairly compact so that the listener's ear may focus better on his carefully chiseled melodies. His melodies carefully follow and support the natural cadences of his poetry, and beautifully highlight the sense of the text by melodic gestures and sudden shifts in harmony. The second piece in Dowland's Third and Last Booke of Songs elegantly captures the timelessness of love, taking its musical cue from the first line: "Time stands still with gazing on her face...." Every aspect of Dowland's melody supports this image of suspension. Nearly the entire melody moves in simple stepwise fashion, and the overall melodic shape wanders again and again around the same pitches, as if the singer cannot leave the tiny space from which he can see her face. "All other things shall change but she remains the same." This beloved—as reflected in the song—even remains the same, as similar melodic repetitions detail the heavens changing course, Cupid himself hovering up and down, and fortune lies captive at her feet. Twice, the composer inserts small musical surprises: a harmonic shift on mention of her eyes, which ensnared Cupid, and an ornamental flourish in both voice and lute as fortune is brought to her feet. Otherwise, the melody, which the listener perceives in time, literally stands still in its accustomed yet tranquil rut. "My settled vows and spotless faith no fortune can remove."

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