Was John Dowland's life so completely full of tears (lachrymae)? The image of him both in his own time and for posterity is semper Dowland, semper dolens (always Dowland, always sorrowful). The standard image began in his own lifetime, with events in his life the sadness of which no one could fathom: years, perhaps even decades of being passed over for the best jobs in the English court, years spent in exile from his family in consequence, decades feeling his faith, and his personality blocking him from advancement. Even those who knew Dowland believed that these circumstances helped fuel a depressive personality. The selfsame image was fed by the remarkable popularity of one song of his—the melody know as Lachrymae, or tears. Dowland's original conception of this melody apparently was a plangent dance setting (a Pavan, to be exact) to which he gave the tearful subtitle. Yet apparently from an early moment, his Pavan Lachrymae had attained such popularity that he was performing several different versions: no fewer than three lute versions survive from his pen, in addition to the famous vocal arrangement Flow, My Tears, and the present adaptation of the "tears" into a completely different courtly dance.

Dowland's original "tear"-full dance tune seems to have been a pavan, an Italian processional dance. In Elizabeth's England, it was eagerly adopted as a duple-meter dance during which noble partners would promenade before one another in procession. The galliard, a more lively dance form (perhaps a courtship ritual) in triple meter, may or may not be historically related. Yet Dowland very quickly adapted his pavan into this more lively dance form. His galliard to Lachrymae follows in its fundamental musical characteristics the pavan, which started the hype: minor mode, affective melody, rich harmonic supports. But whereas the galliard to Lachrymae might fill a few minutes of courtly entertainment, his music speaks more deeply. In actuality, the adaptation of the original melody to a different metrical pattern remains a bit awkward. The dance form of the galliard does allow for some hemiolas, or passages in which the meter shifts its overall emphasis, but the striking and memorable melody of the "tears" pavan does not easily translate itself into another meter. Dowland's personal artistry drives the ear's renewed interest in this melody, as he adapts the well-known and plangent progressions of his harmony to a somewhat more upbeat context of the faster courtly dance. Dowland's transformation almost soothes the mournful soul.

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