"Away Delights" was written for Beaumont and Fletcher's play The Captain (first presented by the King's Men, the early 1600s theater group of which William Shakespeare was a member and for whom he wrote plays). This brief two-verse song beautifully parlays a varying harmonic language into a perfect reflection of the text. The opening lines of both verses are set to a standard minor-key tonal progression as the voice first laments, "Away delights, go seek some other dwelling,/For I will die," and then "Never again deluding love shall know me/For I will die." These are followed by brief lines in the relative major, providing a touch of positive hope for leaving behind "... false hope, thy tongue is ever telling Lie after lie" and "... all those griefs that think to overflow me." The music progresses to lovely counterpoint in a modal scale at the thought of a lasting peace: "For ever let me rest now from thy smart" and "For ever will I rest whilst poor maids cry ." The final phrases of the two verses are set to a quietly chilling ascending chromatic scale in an expression of finality: "...hearts,/That have been hard to thee ... mine was not so" and "... men cannot mock us ... in the clay."

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