The louer excuseth him of wordes wherwith he was vniustly charged. +Imitates Petrarch, Rime 206, ‘S’ i ‘l dissi mai, ch’ i’ vegna in odio a quella/de cui amor vivo et senza ‘l qual morrei;/… girmen con ella in sul carro de Elia’, ‘If I ever said it, let her hate me by whose love I live, without which I would die… going off with her on the chariot of Elijah’, translation Durling . For the music for this lyric, see Musical Settings . Other copies in: L: Add. 17492, fols. 70v-1; D: D.2.7. fol. 145. Author: Sir Thomas Wyatt. Structure: 48: 6×8 ababacac6
P Erdypar Dieu, by God I sayd it not: Nor neuer thought to do. As well as I ye wotknow : I haue no power therto, (5) And if I did, the lot, That first did me enchayne: May neuer slakeloosen the knot, +For other uses of this motif, see also ‘A description’, l. 8: ‘knit … slide’. *But strayght it to my payne.But tighten it to add to my pain And if I did ech thing, (10) That may do harme or wo; Continually may wring My hart where so I go. Report may alwayes ring Of shame on me for ayeever : +Lines 13-14: ‘Report … aye’: see Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde : ‘Throughout the world my belle shal be ronge!/And women moost wol haten me of alle’ (V.1061-2). (15) If in my hart did spring The wordes that you do say And if I did ech starre, That is in heauen aboue, +Lines 1-18: ‘Perdy … heauen above’: cited in Puttenham as an example of ‘Echphonisis, or the Outcry’, Art of English Poesie ; see also Whigham and Rebhorn’s edition , p. 298. May frowne on me to marre (20) The hope I haue in loue. +Lines 19-20: ‘May … love’: see Petrarch, Rime 206.5: ‘s’ i’ ‘l dissi, contra me s’arme ogni stella’, ‘If I said it, let ever star be armed against me’, translation Durling . And if I did such warre, As they brought vnto Troye, Bring all my life as farre From all his lustpleasure and ioye. (25) And if I did so say: The beautie that me bounde, Encrease from day to day More cruel to my wounde: With al the mone that may, (30) To plaintcomplaint, lament may turne my song: My life may sone decay, Without redresse by wrong. If I be cleare from thought, Why do you then complayne? (35) Then is this thing but sought. To turne my hart to payne,
