The Devonshire Manuscript/Wyll ye se / What Wonderous love hathe wrought

←To make an ende of all this strif

Deme as ye list vppon goode cause→

The Devonshire Manuscript facsimile 84r

 f. [84r] 

1    Wyll ye se / What Wonderous love hathe wrought¹
2    then come and loke at me
3    there nede no where els to be sought
4    yn me / ye maye thim see /

5    ffor vnto that that men maye ssee
6    most monstruous thing of kinde
7    my self maye beste com{_o}parid bee
8    love hathe me soo assignid

9    there is a Rok in the salte floode
10    a Rook of suche nature /
11    that drawithe the yron from{_o} the woode
12    and levithe the ship vnsure /

13    She is the Rok . the ship am I
14    that Rok my dedelie ffoo /
15    that drawithe me there / where I muste die /
16    and Robbithe my harte me ffroo /

17    A burde there fliethe and that but on
18    of her this thing enswethe /
19    then that when{_e} her dayes be spent and gone /
20    withe fyre she renewithe /

21    and I withe here maye well com{_o}pare
22    my love that is alone
23    the flame whereof doth aye repare
24    my lif when yt is gone /

fs

Notes & Glosses

     1. This line is larger, darker, and longer than the others.

Commentary

Attributed to Sir Thomas Wyatt, this poem was entered by H8. The speaker compares the lady’s power to a magnetic stone and a phoenix -- images which rarely appear in this manuscript. Rebholz notes that Wyatt loosely imitated the first two stanzas of Petrarch's Rime 135 for this poem.

H8 entered the first line in larger characters than the rest of the lyric. He or she also frequently overlines a word in this section, but his or her overlining leaves the significance of the words indeterminate. H8 also entered “I finde no peace and all my warre is donne" (82r-82v) with extensive overlining.