Centuries before the world came to know a rock star called Sting - or any rock star, for that matter - another English troubadour traveled the globe, playing songs about love and yearning, isolation and despair.

"John Dowland was our first alienated singer/songwriter," Sting says. "A totally conflicted man but a genius musician. We're just following in his footsteps."

Mind you, Sting offers little evidence of personal conflict on this pleasant afternoon. The 55-year-old pop icon, whose early hits made him a poster boy for existential angst, chooses a chair on the sunny side of a garden in The Cloisters, a Metropolitan Museum of Art enclave showcasing works from medieval Europe. It actually was during the Elizabethan era that Dowland made his name as a composer and master lute player.