Jackson was a pupil of John Travers, and wrote canzonets and elegies after the model established by Travers, close to, but separate from, the glee tradition. He was organist of Exeter Cathedral and a theorist on music. A friend of Thomas Gainsborough, he corresponded with him on the subject of aesthetics.

This piece is an adaptation and expansion of a song by Maurice Greene, published in Jackson's vocal quartets, Op. XI.

Lyrics: John Gay

Go rose, my Chloe's bosom grace,
How happy should I prove
Might I supply that envied place
With never-fading love;
There phoenix-like, beneath her eye,
Involved in fragrance burn and die.

Know, hapless flower, that thou shalt find
More fragrant roses there;
I see thy with'ring head reclined
With envy and despair.
One common fate we both must prove:
You die with envy, I with love.