John Dowland
Many of his best-known songs are full of sadness.  One lute song is called "Flow My Tears".  A very well-known instrumental work is Lachrimae (the Latin word for "tears"), a set of seven songs for five viols and lute, each based on the tune of his song "Flow My Tears." It became one of the best known pieces of consort music in his own time. His pavane "Lachrymae antiquae" was also one of the big hits of the seventeenth century.