Tottel sig. Miiv | Verse Miscellanies Online

[sig. Miiv]

But when the rage doth leade them from the right: That loking backward, Uertue they may se, Euen as she is, so goodly fayre and bright.  And whilst they claspe their lustespleasures  in armes a crosse: Graunt them good Lord, as thou maist of thy might, To freatfret  inwarde, for losyng such a losse. 

Of the Courtiers life written
to Ihon Poins. +Influenced by Luigi Alamanni, ‘À Thommaso Sertini’, Opere Toscane (1532), Satire X, ‘Io ui dirò poi che d’ udir ui cale/Thommaso mio gentil, perch’ amo, & colo/… Auaritia, & liuor, ma pace uera’ (400-4), reprinted in Muir and Thomson , pp. 347-9; probably written during Wyatt’s enforced exile in Kent after his release from prison in either 1536 or 1541. For John Poins, see glossary . Other copies in: L: Egerton 2711, fols. 49-49v (lines 52-103); L: Add. 17492, fol. 85v-7 (lines 1-12, 20-8, 32-103); ARUND: Harrington, Temp. Eliz., c. 1550-92, fols. 64-5 (lines 1-17, 20-8, 32-103); L: Add. 36529, fols. 30-1 (lines 1-17, 20-8, 32-103); C: CCC 168, no. 22; C: Ff.5.14, fols. 5v-7. Author: Sir Thomas Wyatt. Structure: 103: terza

M Yne owne Ihon Poins: sinssince  ye delite to know The causes why that homeward I me draw, And fle the preasepress, crowd, pressure  of courtes, where so they go: Rather then to liue thrall vnder the awe,  Of lordly lokes, wrapped within my cloke, +For other uses of the cloak, see: ‘A careless man’, l. 1:                         ‘carelesse cloke’ *; see also Horace,  Odes , III.29: ‘laudo                         manentum; si celeries quatit/pennas, resign quae dedit et mea/virtute me involve probamque/Pauperiem sine dote quaero’ (53-56), ‘I praise her                         while she stays, but if she shakes her swift wings, I return her presents, wrap myself in my virtue, and go in search of honest Poverty, though                         she brings no dowry’. To will and lust learning to set a law: It is not that because I scorne or mocke The power of them: whom fortune here hath lent Charge ouer vs, of ryght to strike the stroke.  But true it is that I haue alwayes ment Lesse to esteme them, then the common sort Of outward thinges: that iudge in their entent, without regarde, what inward doth resort. +Lines 10-13: ‘I have always … resort’: ‘I esteem the great less than the common sort                         of people do, who in their intent, i.e., view of things, judge of persons by their outward appearance, without regard to what is their internal merit’                          ( Nott  ). I graunt, sometime of glory that the fire  Doth touch my hart. Me list not to report Blame by honour, and honour to desire. +‘I do not like to talk censoriously about honour while yet I desire it’                          ( Daalder  ). But how may I this honour now attaine? That can not dye the colour blacke a lier. +Proverbial: see ‘Black will take no other hue’, Tilley,                          Proverbs , B436. My Poyns, I can not frame my time to faynfeign, dissemble :  To cloke the truth, for praise without desertdeserving, worthiness , Of them that list all vice for to retaine. I can not honour them, that set their partinterest With  Uenus  , and  Bacchus  , all their life long: Nor holde my peace of them, although I smart.  I can not crouch nor knele to such a wrong: To worship them like God on earth alone: That areas wolues these sely lambes among. +Silly, innocent; see Matthew x.16: ‘Beholde, I send you forth as sheepe in the                         midst of Wolues: be ye therefore wise as the serpents, and harmelesse as the Doues’,  The Bishops’ Bible ; also proverbial, ‘Give not the wolf (fox) the wether (sheep) to keep (Make not the wolf your shepherd), Tilley,                          Proverbs , W602. I can not with my wordes complaine and mone, And suffer nought: nor smart without complaynt:  Nor turnecall back  the word that from my mouth is gone, +Proverbial: ‘A word and a stone let go                         (A word spoken) cannot be called back’ Tilley,  Proverbs , W777. I can not speake and loke like as a saint: Use wiles for wit, +‘substitute deceitful subtleties for reason’ ( Daalder  ).                          and make disceyt a pleasure: 