Goe from my Window

JOHN MUNDAY (1560—1630)

There are few more successful sets of virginalist variations on a large scale than this lovely work.

It appears earlier in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book in a slightly varied text and minus the final variation, and is there attributed to Thomas Morley.

It is not unlikely, therefore, that Munday merely added the one variation; particularly since Var. 4 closely resembles the 2nd strain of Morley’s Passymeasures Pavan .

The original song must have been very popular, for it was also set by Byrd and several others. Its words are lost; but those that appear in Beaumont and Fletcher’s Knight of the Burning Pestle fit the melody and admirably reflect its gentle melancholy:

Go from my window, love, go;
Go from my window, my dear;
The wind and the rain
Will drive you back again:
You cannot be lodged here.