What menythe thys when I lye alone

The Devonshire Manuscript · Wikibooks

0%

Contents

    Text

    Size
    100%
    Theme
    Typeface
    Line length
    Spacing

    From Wikibooks, under CC BY-SA 4.0, as the source states it. This page at Wikibooks.

    What menythe thys when I lye alone

    Introduction  |  Contributors  |  Textual Introduction
    The Devonshire Manuscript
    Bibliography A-M  |  Bibliography N-Z  |  Encoded Materials

    ←At most myscheffe Pacyence tho I have not→
    Illustration
    The Devonshire Manuscript facsimile 12v
    Illustration
    The Devonshire Manuscript facsimile 13r

    f. [12v] 

    1    What menythe thys when I lye alone
    2    I tosse I turne I syghe I g [] e grone
    3    My bedd me semys as hard as stone
    4    What menys thys

    5    I syghe I pleyne contynually
    6    the clothes that{{th}+t+} on my bedd do ly
    7    always methynk they lye awry
    8    What menys thys

    9    In slumbers oft for fere I quake
    10    ffor hete & cold I burne & shake
    11    ffor lake of slepe my hede dothe ake
    12    What menys thys

    13    A mornyngs then when I do rysse
    14    I t [] rn torne vnto my wontyd gysse
    15    all day after muse & devysse
    16    What menys thys

    17    & yff per{p+}chanse by me there passe
    18    she vnto whome I Sy sue for gra{gA}ce
    19    the cold blood forsakythe my face
    20    What menythe thys

    f. [13r] 

    21    But yff I sytte nere her by
    22    with{w+t+} lowd voyce my hart dothe cry
    23    & yet my mowthe ys dome & dry
    24    What menys thys

    25    to aske ffor helpe no hart I have
    26    my tong dothe fayle What I shuld crave
    27    yet inwardly I Rage & Rave
    28    What menys thys

    29    Thus have I passyd many A yere
    30    & many A day tho nowght Apere
    31    but most of that{{th}+t+} that most I fere
    32    What menys thys

    fynys quod{q+d+} Wyatt s

    Commentary

    Attributed to Sir Thomas Wyatt,[1] this poem was entered by H2. The poem depicts a lover suffering from unrequited love. Rebholz notes that the first two stanzas may be a deliberate imitation of Ovid's Amores I, ii, 1-4 and the refrain may translate the first words of "Esse quid hoc dicam."[2]

    Contrary to H2’s attention to visual presentation, (see "Farewell all my wellfare" (9v) and "May not thys hate from the estarte" (10v)), the two parts of the poem are on facing pages, 12v and 13r, but there are five stanzas on one page and three on the other, thereby creating an imbalance in the poem's presentation.

    Works Cited