The louer vnhappy biddeth happy louers reioice in Maie, while he waileth that month to him most vnlucky. +Has many Chaucerian echoes; imitated and expanded by George Turberville, ‘The Lover hoping in May to have had redresse of his woes, and yet foully missing his purpose, bewailes his cruell hap’, Epitaphes (1567): ‘You that in May haue bathde in blis/And found a salue to ease your sore:/… Cast off my care, and chaunge my lay’ (f. 109v-10v). Other copies in ARUND: Harrington, Temp. Eliz., c. 1550-92, 2nd, fol. 67v-68 (bis.); L: Egerton 2711, fol. 64. Author: Sir Thomas Wyatt. Structure: 14: abbaabbabcbcbb5
Y E that in loue finde luck and swete abundance, And liue in lust of ioyfull iolitie, Arise for shame, do waydo away, put off your sluggardy: Arise I say, do May some obseruaunce. +Lines 3-4: ‘Aryse for shame … observaunce’: see Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde : ‘Do wey youre book, rys up, and lat us daunce,/And lat us don to May som observaunce’ (II.111-12). (5) Let me in bed lye, dreaming of mischance. Let me remember my mishappes vnhappy. That me betidehappens to me in May +Wyatt was imprisoned in England in May 1534 and 1536 and probably in May 1527 in Italy. most commonly: As one whom loue list little to aduance. +See Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde : ‘Of hem that Love list feebly for to avaunce’ (I.518). Stephan +Edward Sephame, a lecturer in Logic at Oxford, cast a horoscope for Edward VI, also cast one for Wyatt, according to W.H. Wiatt . said true, that my natiuitie (10) Mischanced was with the ruler +‘The sign of Taurus was supposed to be governed by Venus’ ( Daalder ). of May. He gestguessed, or related (I proue) of that the veritie. In May my wealthwell-being, prosperity , and ekealso my wittes, I say, Haue stand so oft in such perplexitie. Ioye: let me dreame of your felicitie.
The louer confesseth him in loue with Phillis. +Loosely translates Petrarch, Rime 224: ‘S’una fede amorosa, un cor non finto,/un languir dolce, un desiar cortese,/… vostro, Donna, ‘l peccato et mio fia ‘l danno’ (1-4), ‘If faithfulness in love, an unfeigning heart, a sweet yearning, a courteous desire … yours will be the blame, Lady, mine the loss’; for other translations of Petrarch’s Rime 224, see: ‘Description of the restless’ *: 18, ‘Charging his love as [unpiteous] and loving other’ *, ‘The lover prayeth’, l. 14: ‘And yours… payne’ *; imitated by George Turberville, ‘The Louer confesseth himselfe to be in Loue and enamored of Mistresse. P.’, Epitaphes (1567): ‘If banisht sleepe, and watchfull care,/If minde affright with dreadfull dreames:/… But think my loue ylent to gaine’ (fol. 39r-v). Other copies in ARUND: Harrington, Temp. Eliz., c. 1550-92, 2nd, fol. 68; L: Egerton 2711, fol. 66v. Author: Sir Thomas Wyatt. Structure: 14: abbaabbacdcdee5
I F waker caresleepless grief : if sodayn pale colour: If many sighes, with litle speche to plainelament : Now ioye, now wo: if they my chereface distainediscolour, stain : For hope of smalllittle , if much to feare therfore, +Lines 1-4: ‘If waker care … feare therefore’: cited by Puttenham as example of ‘Irmus, or the long loose’, Art of English Poesie ; see also Whigham and Rebhorn’s edition , pp. 260-1. (5) To haste, or slack: my pace to lesse, or more: Be signe of loue: then do I loue againe. If thou aske whom: sure sinssince I did refraine Brunet, +Rollins suggests Anne Boleyn. that set my welthwealth, well-being in such a roreconfusion , Thunfaynedthe unfeigned, true, natural chereface, countenance of Phillis +Daalder suggests Elizabeth Darrell, Wyatt’s mistress. hath the place, (10) That Brunet +Rollins suggests Anne Boleyn. had: she hath, and euer shall: She from my self now hath me in her grace: She hath in hand my wit, my will, and al: My hart alone wel worthy she doth staysupport , Without whose helpe skantscant, barely do I liue a day.