Elizabethean songs

Author of light

Author of light, revive my dying spright,
Redeem it from the snares of all-confounding night.
Lord, light me to thy blessed way:
For blind with worldly vain desires I wander as a stray.
Sun and moon, stars and underlights I see,
But all their glorious beams are mists and darkness being compared to thee.

Fountain of health, my soul's deep wounds recure,
Sweet showers of pity rain, wash my uncleaness pure.
One drop of thy desired grace
The faint and fading heart can raise, and in joy's bosom place.
Sin and death, hell and tempting fiends may rage;
But God his own will guard, and their sharp pains and grief in time assuage.

by Thomas Campion

So Beauty on the Waters Stood

So Beauty on the waters stood,
When Love had sever'd earth from flood,
So when he parted air from fire,
He did with concord all inspire,
And then a motion he them taught,
That elder than himself was thought,
Which thought was yet the child of earth,
For Love is elder than his birth.

by Alfonso Ferrabosco