Captain Digorie Piper was a notorious figure whose glory was nearly as brief as this galliard. In 1585, the English government gave him command of a ship and orders to attack Spanish shipping; instead, Piper and his partner turned pirate and preyed upon any vessel they found in the English Channel. Piper was brought to justice the following year and forced to provide full restitution to his victims. Dowland's galliard—there's also a Captain Piper's Pavan—repeats a particularly mournful but determined melody for viols several times, energizing the piece with a florid lute part. (Some editions incorporate a flute or recorder, thus forming a so-called "broken consort.") Perhaps expressing sympathy for Piper's victims, Dowland offers an almost funereal treatment of a dance form that was usually more rollicking.

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