The_Second_Booke_of_Songes_or_Ayres
The Second Book of Songs (title in Early Modern English: The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres of 2, 4 and 5 parts: with Tableture for the Lute or Orpherian, with the Violl de Gamba[1]) is a book of songs composed by Renaissance composer John Dowland and published in London in 1600. He dedicated it to Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford.
The book contains 22 songs plus an instrumental number, a "lesson for the Lute and Base Viol, called Dowlands a dew" (his First Book of Songs of 1597 contained 21 songs plus an instrumental number). The music is often described as lute songs, but this is somewhat misleading. The title page offers options regarding the instruments to be used. Also, some songs are appropriate for more than one voice, although madrigal-like scoring is less prominent than in the First Booke where all the songs can be performed in a four-part version.