The Devonshire Manuscript, Grudge on who liste this ys my lott

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The Devonshire Manuscript facsimile 78v (Image: DMSEG, CC BY-SA 3.0) |

f. [78v]

1    Grudge on who liste this ys my lott
2    no thing to want if it ware not

3    my yeris be yong even as ye see
4    all thinges{es} thereto dothe well agre
5    yn faithe in face in iche degre
6    no thing dothe wante as semithe me
7    if yt ware not

8    {es}{{th}+t+} {_e} Some men dothe saye that frindes be skace
9    but I have founde as in this cace
10    afrinde wiche gyvith to no man{_a}1 place
11    {u'}{{th}+t+} but makis me happiest that euer was
12    yf &c

13    Groudge on who list this is my lot
14    no thing to wan{_a}t if yt ware not
15    a hart I have besidis all this
16    that hathe my herte & I have his
17    if he dothe well yt is my blis
18    and when we mete no lak there is /
19    yf & c

20    {_a}{{th}+t+} {_a} Yf he can finde that can me please
21    athinckes{es} he dois his owne hertes{es}  ease
22    and likewise I coulde well apease
23    the chefest cause of his misease
24    yf &c

25    Groudge on &c
26    nothing to wan{_a}te &c
27    A master{t'} eke god hathe me sente
28    to hom my will is hollye ben{_e}te
29    {_e}{{th}+t+} {{s}8} to serue & love for that intente
30     both we {_e} {_o} that bothe/we2 might be well contente /
31    yf c

32    And here an ende yt dothe suffise
33    {{th}+e+}{es} to speke fewe wordes among the wise /
34    yet take this note before yor eyes
35    my mirthe shulde doble ons or twise /
36    yf yt ware not
Groudge on who liste &c /

fs

Notes & Glosses

1. See Petti.[1] This form of macron is an ornamental variant.
2. The division line between the words may have been a retroactive addition/clarification, since there is no space between the words.

Commentary

Attributed to Sir Thomas Wyatt,2] this poem was entered by [H8. Rebholz notes that this poem could be considered a modified carol since the "burden" appears as a refrain.3] Other versions of this poem are titled "My yeris be yong even as ye see.” Wyatt rarely employs a female speaker in his poetry; this particular female speaker expresses a similar sentiment of acceptance of fate as in the previous poem, [“Spight hathe no powre to make me sadde” (77r). An interpretation of the poem as politicized verse depends on the meaning of “it” in the burden, “if it were not.” “Grudge not” was also one of Anne Boleyn’s early mottoes, which she had taken from the Burgundian court. A few other traces of Anne Boleyn's mottoes appear in the manuscript: “Ye know my herte my ladye dere” (73v) contains Boleyn’s motto, “Me and Myne,”4] and the anagram [“Am el mem” (67v) is possibly a reply by Anne Boleyn to Wyatt’s riddle “What word is that that changeth not though it be turned.”

Works Cited

• ↑ Anthony G. Petti. English Literary Hands from Chaucer to Dryden. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1977. 22.
• ↑ R.A. Rebholz, ed. Sir Thomas Wyatt: The Complete Poems. London: Penguin, 1978. 275-76.
• ↑ ibid., 523.
• ↑ ibid., 436.

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