The Devonshire Manuscript, What menythe thys when I lye alone

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The Devonshire Manuscript facsimile 12v (Image: DMSEG, CC BY-SA 3.0) |
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The Devonshire Manuscript facsimile 13r (Image: DMSEG, CC BY-SA 3.0) |
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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

• ↑ R.A. Rebholz, ed., Sir Thomas Wyatt: The Complete Poems (London: Penguin, 1978), 139.
• ↑ Rebholz, 414.

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