Many people seem to view these pieces as pretty tunes with no
relationship to each other. To me, there are three characters, and a
plot at least as well defined as the ones in Schubert's song cycles.
The way I see it, the point-of-view character in all but one of the
songs (Leave now mine eyes lamenting) is male, and at the
beginning of the cycle he is in love with Flora. (When lo by
break of morning, Sweet nymphe come to thy lover)
Then, he meets Phyllis at a party, and goes off into the woods with
her. (I goe before my darling, Miraculous loves
wounding, Loe heere another love)
Flora finds them together and is upset. (Leave now mine eyes
lamenting)
She dumps him (we never hear of Phyllis again, so presumably she loses
interest when Flora shows up), and he spends the rest of the book
complaining about how cruel she is. (Fyre and lightning,
Flora wilt thou torment mee, In nets of golden wyres,
Thou that art so cruell, I should for greife and anguish)
When I was first playing these pieces, it occurred to me to wonder
what Shakespeare was doing in 1595, the year they were published, and
the answer turns out to be that that was the year A Midsummer
Night's Dream was first performed.