“Can She Excuse My Wrongs” is a late 16th-century song by the English Renaissance composer John Dowland, the fifth song in his First Booke of Songes or Ayres (Peter Short, London 1597). The words are set to a dance-tune, a galliard. The song is associated with Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, who was executed for treason in 1601 after he rebelled against Elizabeth I. The song is sometimes referred to as “The Earl of Essex Galliard”, although that title normally refers to an instrumental version, “The Earl of Essex his galiard”, scored for viol consort and lute.
Dowland’s lyricists are often anonymous, their identities lost over time. Given this, it is often unclear as to whether the tune or the text came first. The tune for “Can She Excuse My Wrongs” was included in the “Dowland Lutebook”, now in Washington, completed at least before 1594, before any earlier dating of the text. Edward Doughtie notes that the lyrics do not have a metric structure that combines well with music, and at times forces the singer into unusual word stresses. Bertrand Harris Bronson makes a similar observation, noting how the timing and meter of the tune forces “the text into its service”. The upbeat and energetic style and pace of the music seems to be at odds with the somewhat downbeat mood of the lyrics. For these reasons it is generally assumed that the lyrics were a later addition.
It has also been suggested that Dowland makes a veiled reference to the Earl in the third strain by quoting the melody of the popular early 16th-century Tudor ballad, “Will Yow Walke the Woods soe Wylde”. Contemporary listeners would have picked up the allusion to woods, and, according to some scholars, would have gone on to make the connection to the Earl’s habit of retreating to the woods north-east of London where he had a house. Both retreat to the country and, drawing from older poetic traditions, the utilisation of woodland imagery, were common features of this type of ballad. The song has been interpreted as recording the poet’s feelings of exile and alienation, after being banished from court to the countryside, presumably having fallen from favour with Elizabeth I. This was a popular theme in Tudor poetry and lyrical balladry, and often the poet would use the sense of political alienation to make acute, often satirical commentary on the world of the court, with all its intrigues and jostling for position.
The lyrics present a stereotypical Petrarchan lover, and appear to form a personal plea to Elizabeth I. Essex is known to have addressed poems to the Queen. The song appeared before Essex’s greatest failure, his period as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland which led to his ill-fated coup d’état, but he had previous fallings out with her. Many commentators see the favours (“high joys”) the poet expects from his disdainful mistress as political rather than sexual. As a virginal queen in a staunchly traditional patriarchal society, Elizabeth was naturally a focus for the imagination of English lyricists. This seems to have reached its peak during the last two decades of the 1500s, and there is reason to believe that Elizabeth encouraged it as a means to keep ambitious suitors in competition and preoccupied with petty jealousies.
Dowland gave more than one option for performance of “Can She Excuse My Wrongs”. It is often performed as a lute song by soloist and lute, but, like other songs in the First Book, was originally printed in a format that can also be performed as a madrigal by a small vocal group (SATB). The video of Sting’s version of the song shows how the musicians could have sat around a single music book. As one of the finest lutenists of his time, Dowland would presumably have played the lute part, although he may also have performed as a singer. Although Dowland worked for aristocratic patrons, the First Book was aimed at a wider market, and it is assumed that he did not compose “Can She Excuse My Wrongs” with highly trained singers in mind. The book sold well and appeared in various editions during the composer’s lifetime.
