Rainer has raised the point as to why one would include a piece in the Dowland Canon without attribution. It is a good question. let's take a quick look. It turns out many "works" by Dowland have no attribution. And this is true for many composers.
In The Poulton/Lam edition (CLM) No. 60 is a good example. It is anonymous, no attribution, and the Title is "Come away" which is of course, not even the correct title. Poulton corrects the title to the song. Furthermore, it is different than other settings in other sources. Did Dowland write the very poorly composed piece--though a charming tune--and then fail to sign it in embarrassment, and put the wrong title on it? I think not. So why was it included? Because similar pieces (although in this case, not similar pieces) are attributed in other sources. However, Dowland's piece in Francisque has much stronger credentials. It has multiple attributions in other sources, it has all of the stylistic traits (which No 60 does not), and there is the intriguing reference by Dowland himself about the imperfect foreign sources, all of which fit neatly onto a timeline that results in the publication of LoST. It uses the full polyphonic framework, which is very rare, and has very difficult fingering, exhibiting typical Dowland "harder than it looks" virtuosity. Note that I did not say it is in the same class of attribution as the holograph sources, I merely put it into the second, or "strong" category. In this respect, it is below "Farewell Fancy" but clearly above No. 60 in CLM. And it clearly has stronger credentials than many of the pieces in CLM. Another thing to consider, if we start using the attribution rule to decide authorship, much of our favorite music will instantly become anonymous, including works by Josquin, Isaac, Francesco, Handel & Bach. As for whether Poulton knew of the piece, my concern is only that it does not appear in the sources in CLM, The role of the editor is not to discard the music you don't like, it is to include the sources. And then if you wish, rate it lower. dt To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
