wiate being in prison, to Brian. +Probably written during Wyatt’s imprisonment January to March, 1541; addressed to Sir Francis Bryan. Another copy in L: Harl. 78, fol. 27. Author: Sir Thomas Wyatt. Structure: 8: abababcc10
S Yghes are my foode: my drink are my teares. Clinking of fetters would such musick craue. Stink, and close ayre away my life it weares. Poore innocence is all the hope I haue. (5) Rain, winde, or wetherweather iudge I by mine eares. Malice assaultes, +Malice is attributed by editors to Bonner, Wyatt’s accuser in 1541. that righteousnesse should haue.Instead of the righteousness I deserve, I am treated with malice Sure am I, Brian, this wound shall heale again: But yet alas, the skarre shall still remain. +Proverbial: ‘Though the wound be healed yet the scar remains’, Tilley, Proverbs , W929; for other uses of this proverb, see also Wyatt’s ‘Exhortation to learn by others trouble’, * ‘The louer describeth his restlesse state’. *
Of dissembling wordes. +Another copy, without the closing couplets, in Y: Osborn b.234, p. 26. Author: Sir Thomas Wyatt. Structure: 6: ababcc8
T Hroughout the world if it wer sought, Faire wordes inough a man shall finde: They be good chepea bargain they cost right nought. +Lines 2-3: ‘Fair words … nought’: proverbial, ‘Good words are good cheap’, ‘Good words cost nought (nothing)’, Tilley, Proverbs , W804, W808. Their substance is but onely winde: +Proverbial: ‘Words are but wind’, Tilley, Proverbs , W833. (5) But well to say and so to mene, That swete acord is seldom sene.
Of the meanepoor and sure estate. +A source is Seneca, Thyestes , II: ‘Stet quicunque volet potens/aulae culmine lubrico;/… Ignotos moritur sibi’ (391-403), ‘Let him stand who will, in pride of power, on empire’s slippery height… dies to himself unknown’. For other poems on the ‘mean’ as in poor estate, see: ‘Of the mean and sure estate written to John Poins’ *; ‘The mean estate is best’ *; ‘The poor estate to be holden for best’ *; ‘They of the mean estate are happiest’ *). For poems on the ‘mean’ as in middle estate, see: ‘Praise of mean’ *, ‘The mean estate is to be [accompted] the best’ *; ‘Of the golden mean’ *; ‘The answere’, l. 5: ‘No … meane’ *; ‘Praise of measure’. * Another copy in ARUND: Harrington, Temp. Eliz., c. 1550-92, fol. 216v Author: Sir Thomas Wyatt. Structure: 10:
ababcbdcdc10
S Tond who so listdesires vpon the slipperslippery, uncertain wheeleWheel of Fortune , Of hye astatehigh estate and let me here reioyce. And vse my life in quietnesse eche deleeach deal, entirely , Unknowen in court that hath the wanton toyes, (5) In hidden place my time shal slowly passe And when my yeres be past withouten noyceannoyance Let me dye olde after the common tracein the normal course of things For gripes of death doth he to hardly passetoo harshly endure That knowen is to all: but to him selfe alas, (10) He dyeth vnknowen, dased with dreadfull faceface full of fear, dread .
The courtiers life +Only appears in Tottel . Author: attributed to Sir Thomas Wyatt. Structure: 7: RR
I N court to serue decked with fresh aray, Of sugred meatesperhaps sweetmeats, sugared cakes, pastries and other confectionary feling the swete repastrefreshment : The life in banketsbanquets , and sundry kindes of play,