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

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The Devonshire Manuscript
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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

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

Commentary

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Attributed to Sir Thomas Wyatt,[1] 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.[2]

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.

Works Cited

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