S Ome fowles +Birds, winged creatures; see the proverb ‘Only the eagle can gaze at the sun’, Tilley, Proverbs , E3. there be that haue so perfit sight, Against the sunne their eies for to defend: And some, because the light doth them offend, Neuer appeare, but in the darke, or night. (5) Other reioyce, to se the fire so bright, And weneween, expect, hope to play in it, as they pretend: But find contrary of it, that they intend. Alas, of that sort may I be, by right. For to withstand her loke I am not able: (10) Yet can I not hide me in no dark place: So foloweth me remembrance of that face: That with my teary eyeneye , swolne, and vnstable, My desteny to behold her doth me lead: And yet I know, I runne into the glead. +gleed, red-hot fire; Daalder also suggests ‘glede’, the kite, ‘proverbially the meanest of the birds of prey’.
Against his tonge that failed to vtter his sutes. +Imitates Petrarch, Rime 49 ‘Perch’ io t’abbia guardata di menzogna/a mio podere et onorato assai,/… Solo la vista mia del cor non tace’, ‘Although I have kept you from lying, as far as I could, and paid you much honor,… Only my eyes are not silent about my heart’, translation Durling ; imitated by George Turberville, ‘The Louer blames his tongue that failed to vtter his sute in time of neede’, Epitaphes (1567): ‘F[or]cause I still preferde the truth before/Shamelesse vntruth, and lothsome leesings lore/… By tongues vntroth’ (fols. 101v-2r). Other copies in ARUND: Harrington, Temp. Eliz., c. 1550-92, fol. 66-6v; L: Egerton 2711, fol. 20. Author: Sir Thomas Wyatt. Structure: 14: abbaabbacddcee5
B Ecause I stil kept thee frofrom lyes, and blame, And to my power alwayes thee honoured, Unkindunnatural tongue, to yleither ‘too ill’ or ‘to ill’ hast thou me rendred, For such desertworthy of recompense to do me wrekewreck, ruin, harm and shame. (5) In nede of succour most when that I am, To aske reward: thou standst like one afraied, Alway most cold: and if one word be said, As in a dreame, vnperfitimperfect, inexpert is the same. And yethe salt teares, against my wyll eche nyght, (10) That are with me, when I would be alone: Then are ye gone, when I shold make my mone. And yethe so ready sighes, to make me shrightshriek , Then are ye slacke, when that ye should outstart, And onely doth my loke declare my hart.
Description of the contra- rious passions in a louer. +Imitates Petrarch, Rime 134, ‘Pace non trovo et non ò da far Guerra,/e temo et spero, et ardo et son un ghiacco,/… In questo stato son, Donna, per vui’, ‘Peace I do not find, and I have no wish to make war; and I fear and hope, and burn and am of ice… In this state I am, Lady, on account of you’, translation Durling . For other imitations of Petrarch’s Rime 134, see also: ‘The diverse and contrary passions of the lover’. * Other copies in: L: Add. 17492, fol. 82-82v; L: Add. 36529, fol. 32; L: Egerton 2711, fol. 20v. Author: Sir Thomas Wyatt. Structure: 14: abbaabbacddcee5
I Finde no peace, and all my warre is done: I feare, and hope: I burne, and frese like yseice : +Lines 1-2: ‘I find no peace… like yse’: borrowed by Melbancke, Philotimus (1583): ‘Ah deare Aurelia, my power is too weake to make any warre, and yet I can find no peace, I am not scorcht with any fire, and yet no cold adawes my heate’ (p. 137); cited by Puttenham as an example of iambic verse composed entirely of monosyllables, Art of English Poesie ; see also Whigham and Rebhorn’s edition , p. 208.