The Devonshire Manuscript/how shold I
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| ←to my meshap alas I ffynd | what nedythe lyff when I requyer→ |
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f. [43r]
1 how shold I
2 be so plesent
3 in my semblent
4 as my ffelws be
5 not long ago
6 yt chancet so
7 as I walkyt alone
8 I hard a man that1
9 that now and then
10 hym selff thys ded bemone
11 alas he sayd
12 I am betrayt2
13 and ovterly vndwne
14 hovm I ded trust
15 and thynk so Iust
16 another man has wone
17 my sarwes due3
18 and hart so tru
19 on her I ded bestow
20 I never ment
21 ffor to repent
22 in welth nor yet in wo
23 love ded asyen
24 her to be myn
25 and nat to love non nwe
26 but who can bynd
27 ther ffe [] ffeckell kynd
28 that never wyll be tru
29 the western wynd
30 has tovrnyt her myd4
31 and blone her clen away
32 wher be my welth
33 my merth my helth
34 ys turnd to gret decay
35 wher ys the trowth
36 wher ys ^5the owth
37 that ye to me ded geve
38 seche craffty words
39 and wyly bords
40 let no yovng man beleve
41 how shold I
42 be so plesent
43 in my semblent
44 as my ffelos be
ffynes
Notes & Glosses
edit 1. It is likely that the writer started the next line, realized the error, and crossed out the mistake.
2. This phrase resonates with Henry VIII's "Heard a may most pitiously."
3. Note the same spelling as that which Mary Shelton uses, for instance on her "undesired service" remark.
4. There is no macron to supply the word "mynd."
5. This is an inverse caret.
Commentary
editAttributed to Sir Thomas Wyatt,[1] this poem was entered by Margaret Douglas. The poem's genre derives from the medieval French chanson à personnages in which the speaker listens to the complaint of a young woman or male lover.[2] In this case the speaker overhears a complaint about the fickleness and changeability of women. Two instances of this poem appear in the manuscript. The second version was entered into the manuscript by H8; it is nine lines longer and titled "howe shulde I" (77r).
Works Cited
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