The Devonshire Manuscript, thou haste no faith of him that eke hath none

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The Devonshire Manuscript facsimile 69v (Image: DMSEG, CC BY-SA 3.0) |

f. [69v]

1    thou haste no faith of him that eke hath none
2    {es}{{th}+u+} but thou must love him nedes bye good reason
3    for as the pro{p2}verbe saith right notable
4    everye thinksekith his semblable /
5    {_on}{_o} {{th}+u+} and thou hast thyne of thy owne condicion
6    yet ys yt not the thing I passe vppon
7    nother hot nor colde is my affection
8    for sins thi hert is this so mutable /
9    thou haste no faith /

10    I demid the trwe with{w+t+}out exception
11    but I perceyve I lacked dastrestion discretion
12    to fasten faith to wordes{es} so dobtable
13    thye thought is to light and variable /
14    to chaunge so oft without  occasion occacoion{_i}{w+t+}
15    thou hast no faith

Commentary

Attributed to Sir Thomas Wyatt,1] this poem was entered by [H8. The speaker complains of his love's fickleness, which was a common theme in medieval and early Tudor courtly love poetry. Wyatt adopts the French rondeau structure for his poem, a form which consists of thirteen lines, two stanzas of four lines, five lines in the last stanza, and a refrain that appears after each stanza. In this particular rondeau, Wyatt omits the refrain after the first stanza.

The two refrains following are aligned to the right.

Works Cited

• ↑ R.A. Rebholz, ed. Sir Thomas Wyatt: The Complete Poems. London: Penguin, 1978. 73-74.

Textual Notes

Texts Collated

LEge41

Collation

1 thou] Thou LEge41 haste] hast LEge41 eke] LEge41
2 bye good] by LEge41
3 the proverbe saith right] saieth a proverbe LEge41
4 everye thinkg] eche thing LEge41 sekith] seketh LEge41 semblable /] semblable LEge41
5 thyne] thyn LEge41 owne condicion] conditions LEge41
6 ys yt] is it LEge41 vppon] on LEge41
7 nother] nor LEge41 hot] hote LEge41 colde] cold LEge41 is my] ofis myn LEge41
8 sins] syns LEge41 thi] thyn LEge41 this] LEge41 mutable /] mutable LEge41
9 haste] hast LEge41 faith /] faith LEge41
10 demid] thought LEge41 trwe] true / LEge41 without] withoute LEge41
11 perceyve] perceve LEge41 dastrestiondiscretion] discretion LEge41
12 fasten] fasshion LEge41 so doblable] mutable LEge41
13 thye] thy LEge41 and variable /] & variable LEge41
14 without] withoute LEge41 occacion] occasion LEge41
15 thou] Thou LEge41

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