Farewell all my wellfare

The Devonshire Manuscript · Wikibooks

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    Illustration
    The Devonshire Manuscript facsimile 9v
    Illustration
    The Devonshire Manuscript facsimile 10r

     f. [9v] 

    1    3# Ffarewell all my wellfare
    2    my shwe ys trode awry
    3    and thys now may I karke & care
    4    to syng lullay by by
    5    Alas what shall I do there do to
    6    there ys no shyffte to helpe me now

    7    Who made hytt suche a fence
    8    to love for love agayn
    9 {p'}{{th}+t+}    god wott that my pretence
    10    was but to ease hys payn
    11    ffor I had ruthe to se hys wo
    12    alas more fole why dyd I so

    13    Ffor he frome me ys gone
    14    & makes{es} there at a game
    15    & hathe leffte me Alone
    16    to suffer sorow & shame
    17    alas he ys vnkynd dowtles
    18    to leve me thus all comfortles

    f. [10r]

    19    Hytt ys A grevows smarte
    20    to suffer paynes{es} & sorowe
    21    but most grevyd my hart
    22    he leyde hys feythe to borow
    23    & falshode hathe hys feythe & trowthe
    24    & he forsworne by many a nothe an oath 

    25    All ye lovers perde
    26    hathe cawse to blame hys dede
    27    Whyche shall example be
    28    to lett yow off yowre spede
    29    let neuer{u'} woman A gayn
    30    trust to suche wordes{es} as men can fayn

    31    Ffor I vnto my coste
    32    am warnyng to yow all
    33    that{{th}+t+} they whom you trust most
    34    sonest dysceyve yow shall
    35    But complaynt cannot redresse
    36    of my gret greff the gret excesse

    fynys s

    Commentary

    Attributed to Sir Thomas Wyatt,[1] this poem was entered by H2. This poem was written from a woman’s perspective.[2] Rebholz notes that the speaker may be lamenting an unfaithful lover; in particular, line 4 -- that is, "To sing lullay by by" -- denotes her dilemma by alluding to the lullabies she sings to her illegitimate child.[3]

    H2 paid particular attention to the presentation of this poem: it begins on the verso of f.9 and continues on the recto of f.10 (facing pages). The stanzas are evenly spaced for the maximum visual effect of balance. "Farewell all my wellfare" is one of seventeen entries in which Margaret Douglas marks: “and thys.” Paul Remley suggests that these annotations relate to another in-text annotation of hers, “lerne but to syng it” (81r), and may indicate a group of texts to be learned for entertaining.[4]

    Works Cited

    1. ↑ R.A. Rebholz, ed., Sir Thomas Wyatt: The Complete Poems (London: Penguin, 1978), 311.
    2. ↑ We should, however, exercise caution in ascribing a female author to the poem. For a discussion of female voices, see Julia Boffey, "Women Authors and Women's Literacy in Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-Century England," in Women and Literature in Britain, 1150-1500, ed. Carole M. Meale (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 169. and Elizabeth D. Harvey, Ventriloquized Voices: Feminist Theory and English Renaissance Texts (London: Routledge, 1992), 15-24.
    3. ↑ Rebholz, 536.
    4. ↑ Paul Remley, "Mary Shelton and Her Tudor Literary Milieu," in Rethinking the Henrician Era: Essays on Early Tudor Texts and Contexts, ed. Peter C. Herman (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 40-77.