Tarleton’s Resurrection is a beautiful and melancholic piece by the English grandmaster for the lute John Dowland. Much of his work is steeped in the so-called Elizabethan melancholy. Fair enough, times were hard in 16th century England.
Richard Tarleton, the dedicatee of this piece, was a jester and a clown at the court of Elizabeth I. Additionally he was a player in the company of William Shakespeare. It is said that he was the person that Shakespeare had in mind as the clown Yorick in Hamlet, the very clown who became immortal by the funeral oration with the famous words Alas poor Yorick and To Be or Not to Be, That’s the Question.