The Mopey Pleasures of John Dowland

When I listen to John Dowland, I don’t just hear a great English lutenist and composer of the late Renaissance/early modern period. I also hear the first singer-songwriter, the godfather of Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, and Elliott Smith. Dowland wrote for the lute, for one thing, that feathery godfather of the guitar, but the real link is the creative and self-cherished melancholy that saturates songs like “I saw my Lady weep,” “Come, heavy sleep,” and the killer “In darkness let...