Complete Works of Sir Thomas Wyatt Read online

  SIR THOMAS WYATT

  (1503-1542)

  Contents

  The Poetry of Wyatt

  BRIEF INTRODUCTION: SIR THOMAS WYATT

  The Poems

  LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

  LIST OF POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

  The Letters

  THE LETTERS OF SIR THOMAS WYATT

  The Oration

  SIR THOMAS WYATT’S DEFENCE

  The Biographies

  SIR THOMAS WYATT by Sidney Lee

  THE LIFE OF SIR THOMAS WYATT by Charles Cowden Clarke

  © Delphi Classics 2014

  Version 1

  SIR THOMAS WYATT

  By Delphi Classics, 2014

  NOTE

  When reading poetry on an eReader, it is advisable to use a small font size, which will allow the lines of poetry to display correctly.

  The Poetry of Wyatt

  Allington Castle, north of Maidstone, Kent — Wyatt’s birthplace

  Sir Thomas Wyatt by Hans Holbein the Younger, c. 1540

  BRIEF INTRODUCTION: SIR THOMAS WYATT

  Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542), who is now credited with introducing the sonnet into English literature, was born at Allington Castle, near Maidstone in Kent, though his family were originally of Yorkshire origin. His mother was Anne Skinner and his father, Henry Wyatt, had been one of Henry VII’s Privy Councillors and remained a trusted adviser when Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509. In his turn, Thomas Wyatt followed his father to court after his university education at Cambridge.

  Reportedly, Wyatt was over six feet tall and both handsome and physically strong. Although interested in poetry from an early age, Wyatt was to achieve more renown during his lifetime for his work as an ambassador in the service of Henry VIII. He first entered the King’s service in 1515 as “Sewer Extraordinary” and in the same year he began studying at St John’s College of the University of Cambridge. Later, Wyatt accompanied Sir John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, to Rome to help petition Pope Clement VII to annul the marriage of Henry VIII to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, an embassy whose goal was to make Henry free to marry Anne Boleyn. In 1535 Wyatt was knighted and appointed High Sheriff of Kent for 1536.

  In 1520, Wyatt married Elizabeth Brooke, (1503–1550), the daughter of Thomas Brooke, 8th Baron Cobham, and a year later they had a son: However, early in the marriage, marital difficulties arose, with Wyatt claiming these were ‘chiefly her fault’, accusing Elizabeth of being an adulteress, although there is no surviving evidence to support the truth of this claim. Elizabeth separated from Wyatt in 1526 and he supported her until 1537, when he refused to do so any longer and sent her to live with her brother, Lord Cobham. In that same year, Lord Cobham attempted to force Wyatt to continue his financial support, which the poet refused. It was not until 1541 that Wyatt, being accused of treason, was arrested and his properties confiscated, that the Brooke family was able to force a reconciliation as a condition for Wyatt’s pardon.

  Many legends have persisted over time concerning the notion that the young and unhappily married Wyatt had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn in the early 1520s. It is certain that they knew each other and the nineteenth-century critic George Gilfillan argues extensively that Wyatt and Boleyn were romantically connected. In several of his verses Wyatt calls his mistress Anna and allegedly alludes to events in her life:

  And now I follow the coals that be quent,

  From Dover to Calais against my mind . . . .

  Gilfillan claims that these lines could refer to Anne’s trip to France in 1532, immediately prior to her marriage to Henry VIII, perhaps implying that Wyatt was present, although his name is not included among those who accompanied the royal party to France. Wyatt’s sonnet “Whoso List To Hunt” may also allude to Anne’s relationship with the King:

  Graven in diamonds with letters plain,

  There is written her fair neck round about,

  ‘Noli me tangere [Do not touch me], Caesar’s, I am’.

  In May 1536 Wyatt was imprisoned in the Tower of London for allegedly committing adultery with Anne Boleyn, though he was released later that year, due to his friendship with Thomas Cromwell and he returned to his duties. During his stay in the Tower, he may have witnessed not only the execution of Anne Boleyn from his cell window, but also the prior executions of the five men with whom she was accused of adultery. Wyatt is known to have written a poem inspired by the experience, which, though it avoids declaring the executions groundless, expresses grief and shock.

  By 1540 Wyatt was again in royal favour, having been granted the site and many of the manorial estates of the dissolved Boxley Abbey. However, in 1541 he was charged again with treason and the charges were again lifted, though only thanks to the intervention of Henry’s fifth wife, Queen Catherine Howard, and upon the condition of reconciling with his ‘adulterous’ wife. Wyatt was granted a full pardon and restored once again to his duties as ambassador. After the execution of Catherine Howard, there were rumours that Wyatt’s wife, Elizabeth, was a possibility for Henry’s sixth wife, although she was still married to Wyatt. He became ill not long after, and died on 11 October 1542, aged 39, while staying with his friend Sir John Horsey at Clifton Maybank House in Dorset. Wyatt is buried in nearby Sherborne Abbey.

  At a time when French and Italian poetry was the most highly revered form of literature, Wyatt’s professed object in writing verses was to experiment with the English tongue, to ‘civilise it’ and to raise its powers to those of its neighbours. A significant amount of Wyatt’s literary output consists of translations and imitations of sonnets by the Italian poet Petrarch, though Wyatt also composed sonnets of his own. He borrowed much subject matter from Petrarch’s sonnets, but Wyatt’s rhyme schemes make a significant departure from those of his Italian model. Petrarch’s sonnets consist of an “octave”, rhyming abba abba, followed, after a turn by a “sestet” with various rhyme schemes. Wyatt employs the Petrarchan octave, but his most common sestet scheme is cddc ee, signalling the beginnings of an exclusively English sonnet structure, that is three quatrains with a closing couplet.

  In addition to imitations of works by the classical writers Seneca and Horace, Wyatt experimented in stanza forms including the rondeau, epigrams, terza rima, ottava rima songs, satires and also with monorime, triplets with refrains, quatrains with different length of line and rhyme schemes, quatrains with codas, and the French forms of douzaine and treizaine. He also introduced his contemporaries to his poulter’s measure form (Alexandrine couplets of twelve syllable iambic lines alternating with a fourteener, fourteen syllable line) and Wyatt is now widely regarded by scholars as a master of the iambic tetrameter.

  Many of Wyatt’s poems deal with the trials of romantic love and the devotion of the suitor to an unavailable or cruel mistress, whilst other poems concern scathing attacks or satirical indictments of the pandering courtiers that Wyatt often met at the Tudor court. While Wyatt’s poetry reflects classical and Italian models, he was also greatly influenced by the works of Chaucer, as demonstrated by the high frequency of Chaucerian words found in Wyatt’s compositions. The Egerton Manuscript, originally an album containing Wyatt’s personal selection of his poems and translations, preserves 123 texts, partly in the poet’s hand. None of Wyatt’s poems were published during his lifetime — the first book to feature his verse, Tottel’s Miscellany of 1557, was printed a full fifteen years after the poet’s death, including 97 poems attributed to Wyatt among the 271 poems in Tottel’s Miscellany.

  Wyatt was one of the earliest poets of the Renaissance that was responsible for original innovations in English poetry and, alongside Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, he introduced
the sonnet from Italy into English literature. Wyatt’s poetry demonstrates a supreme sensitive feeling and purity of diction, paving the way for the imminent genius of Spenser and Shakespeare.

  Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) was an Italian scholar and poet in Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch’s sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical poetry.

  Anne Boleyn (c. 1501-1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of King Henry VIII.

  Henry VIII (1491-1547) was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death in 1547.

  Thomas Wyatt — drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger

  CONTENTS

  Songs and Sonnets

  THE LOVER FOR SHAMEFASTNESS HIDETH HIS DESIRE WITHIN HIS FAITHFUL HEART

  THE LOVER WAXETH WISER, AND WILL NOT DIE FOR AFFECTION

  THE ABUSED LOVER SEETH HIS FOLLY AND INTENDETH TO TRUST NO MORE

  THE LOVER DESCRIBETH HIS BEING STRICKEN WITH SIGHT OF HIS LOVE

  THE WAVERING LOVER WILLETH, AND DREADETH, TO MOVE HIS DESIRE

  THE LOVER HAVING DREAMED ENJOYING OF HIS LOVE, COMPLAINETH THAT THE DREAM IS NOT EITHER LONGER OR TRUER

  THE LOVER UNHAPPY BIDDETH HAPPY LOVERS REJOICE IN MAY, WHILE HE WAILETH THAT MONTH TO HIM MOST UNLUCKY

  THE LOVER CONFESSETH HIM IN LOVE WITH PHYLLIS

  OF OTHERS’ FEIGNED SORROW, AND THE LOVER’S FEIGNED MIRTH

  OF CHANGE IN MIND

  HOW THE LOVER PERISHETH IN HIS DELIGHT AS THE FLY IN THE FIRE

  AGAINST HIS TONGUE THAT FAILED TO UTTER HIS SUITS

  DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTRARIOUS PASSIONS IN A LOVER

  THE LOVER COMPARETH HIS STATE TO A SHIP IN PERILOUS STORM TOSSED ON THE SEA

  OF DOUBTFUL LOVE

  THE LOVER ABUSED RENOUNCETH LOVE

  TO HIS LADY, CRUEL OVER HER YIELDING LOVER

  HOW UNPOSSIBLE IT IS TO FIND QUIET IN LOVE

  OF LOVE, FORTUNE, AND THE LOVER’S MIND

  THE LOVER PRAYETH HIS OFFERED HEART TO BE RECEIVED

  THE LOVER’S LIFE COMPARED TO THE ALPS

  CHARGING OF HIS LOVE AS UNPITEOUS AND LOVING OTHER

  THE LOVER FORSAKETH HIS UNKIND LOVE

  THE LOVER DESCRIBETH HIS RESTLESS STATE

  THE LOVER LAMENTS THE DEATH OF HIS LOVE

  A RENOUNCING OF LOVE

  THE LOVER DESPAIRING TO ATTAIN UNTO HIS LADY’S GRACE RELINQUISHETH THE PURSUIT

  THE DESERTED LOVER CONSOLETH HIMSELF WITH REMEMBRANCE THAT ALL WOMEN ARE BY NATURE FICKLE

  THAT HOPE UNSATISFIED IS TO THE LOVER’S HEART AS A PROLONGED DEATH

  HE PRAYETH HIS LADY TO BE TRUE, FOR NO ONE CAN RESTRAIN A WILLING MIND

  THE DESERTED LOVER WISHETH THAT HIS RIVAL MIGHT EXPERIENCE THE SAME FORTUNE HE HIMSELF HAD TASTED

  Rondeaux

  REQUEST TO CUPID FOR REVENGE OF HIS UNKIND LOVE

  COMPLAINT FOR TRUE LOVE UNREQUITED

  THE LOVER SENDETH SIGHS TO MOVE HIS SUIT

  THE LOVER SEEKING FOR HIS LOST HEART PRAYETH THAT IT MAY BE KINDLY ENTREATED BY WHOMSOEVER FOUND

  HE DETERMINETH TO CEASE TO LOVE

  OF THE FOLLY OF LOVING WHEN THE SEASON OF LOVE IS PAST

  THE ABUSED LOVER RESOLVETH TO FORGET HIS UNKIND MISTRESS

  THE ABSENT LOVER PERSUADETH HIMSELF THAT HIS MISTRESS WILL NOT HAVE THE POWER TO FORSAKE HIM

  THE RECURED LOVER RENOUNCETH HIS FICKLE MISTRESS FOR HER NEWFANGLENESS

  Odes

  THE LOVER COMPLAINETH THE UNKINDNESS OF HIS LOVE

  THE LOVER REJOICETH THE ENJOYING OF HIS LOVE

  THE LOVER SHEWETH HOW HE IS FORSAKEN OF SUCH AS HE SOMETIME ENJOYED

  THE LOVER TO HIS BED, WITH DESCRIBING OF HIS UNQUIET STATE

  THE LOVER COMPLAINETH THAT HIS LOVE DOTH NOT PITY HIM

  THE LOVER COMPLAINETH HIMSELF FORSAKEN

  A RENOUNCING OF HARDLY ESCAPED LOVE

  THE LOVER TAUGHT, MISTRUSTETH ALLUREMENTS

  THE LOVER REJOICETH AGAINST FORTUNE THAT BY HINDERING HIS SUIT HAD HAPPILY MADE HIM FORSAKE HIS FOLLY

  THE LOVER’S SORROWFUL STATE MAKETH HIM WRITE SORROWFUL SONGS, BUT SUCH HIS LOVE MAY CHANGE THE SAME

  THE LOVER SENDETH HIS COMPLAINTS AND TEARS TO SUE FOR GRACE

  THE LOVER’S CASE CANNOT BE HIDDEN HOWEVER HE DISSEMBLE

  THE LOVER PRAYETH NOT TO BE DISDAINED, REFUSED, MISTRUSTED, NOR FORSAKEN

  THE LOVER LAMENTETH HIS ESTATE WITH SUIT FOR GRACE

  THE LOVER WAILETH HIS CHANGED JOYS

  TO HIS LOVE THAT HATH GIVEN HIM ANSWER OF REFUSAL

  THE LOVER DESCRIBETH HIS BEING TAKEN WITH SIGHT OF HIS LOVE

  THE LOVER EXCUSETH HIM OF WORDS, WHEREWITH HE WAS UNJUSTLY CHARGED

  THE LOVER CURSETH THE TIME WHEN FIRST HE FELL IN LOVE

  THE LOVER DETERMINETH TO SERVE FAITHFULLY

  TO HIS UNKIND LOVE

  THE LOVER COMPLAINETH HIS ESTATE

  WHETHER LIBERTY BY LOSS OF LIFE, OR LIFE IN PRISON AND THRALDOM BE TO BE PREFERRED

  HE RULETH NOT THOUGH HE REIGN OVER REALMS, THAT IS SUBJECT TO HIS OWN LUSTS

  THE FAITHFUL LOVER GIVETH TO HIS MISTRESS HIS HEART AS HIS BEST AND ONLY TREASURE

  A DESCRIPTION OF THE SORROW OF TRUE LOVERS’ PARTING

  THE NEGLECTED LOVER CALLETH ON HIS STONY HEARTED MISTRESS TO HEAR HIM COMPLAIN ERE THAT HE DIE

  HE REJOICETH THE OBTAINING THE FAVOUR OF THE MISTRESS OF HIS HEART

  THE LOVER PRAYETH VENUS TO CONDUCT HIM TO THE DESIRED HAVEN

  THE LOVER PRAISETH THE BEAUTY OF HIS LADY’S HAND

  THAT THE EYE BEWRAYETH ALWAY THE SECRET AFFECTIONS OF THE HEART

  THE LOVER COMPLAINETH THAT FAITH MAY NOT AVAIL WITHOUT THE FAVOUR OF FANTASY

  THAT TOO MUCH CONFIDENCE SOMETIMES DISAPPOINTETH HOPE

  THE LOVER BEMOANETH HIS UNHAPPINESS THAT HE CANNOT OBTAIN GRACE, YET CANNOT CEASE LOVING

  THE MOURNFUL LOVER TO HIS HEART WITH COMPLAINT THAT IT WILL NOT BREAK

  THE LOVER RENOUNCES HIS CRUEL LOVE FOR EVER

  A COMPLAINT OF HIS LADY’S CRUELTY

  OF THE CONTRARY AFFECTIONS OF THE LOVER

  THAT RIGHT CANNOT GOVERN FANCY

  THAT TRUE LOVE AVAILETH NOT WHEN FORTUNE LIST TO FROWN

  THE DECEIVED LOVER SUETH ONLY FOR LIBERTY

  THE LOVER CALLETH ON HIS LUTE TO HELP HIM BEMOAN HIS HAPLESS FATE

  THAT THE POWER OF LOVE IS SUCH HE WORKETH IMPOSSIBILITIES

  THAT THE LIFE OF THE UNREGARDED LOVER IS WORSE THAN DEATH

  THE LOVER WHO CANNOT PREVAIL MUST NEEDS HAVE PATIENCE

  WHEN FORTUNE SMILES NOT, ONLY PATIENCE COMFORTETH

  THAT PATIENCE ALONE CAN HEAL THE WOUND INFLICTED BY ADVERSITY

  THE LOVER, HOPELESS OF GREATER HAPPINESS, CONTENTETH HIMSELF WITH ONLY PITY

  THAT TIME, HUMBLENESS, AND PRAYER, CAN SOFTEN EVERY THING SAVE HIS LADY’S HEART

  THAT UNKINDNESS HATH SLAIN HIS POOR TRUE HEART

  THE DYING LOVER COMPLAINETH THAT HIS MISTRESS REGARDETH NOT HIS SUFFERINGS

  THE CAREFUL LOVER COMPLAINETH, AND THE HAPPY LOVER COUNSELLETH

  THE LOVER HAVING BROKEN HIS BONDAGE, VOWETH NEVER MORE TO BE ENTHRALLED

  THE ABUSED LOVER, ADMONISHES THE UNWARY TO BEWARE OF LOVE

  A REPROOF TO SUCH AS SLANDER LOVE

  DESPAIR COUNSELLETH THE DESERTED LOVER TO END HIS WOES BY DEATH, BUT REASON BRINGETH COMFORT

  THE LOVER’S LUTE CANNOT BE BLAMED THOUGH IT SING OF HIS LADY’S UNKINDNESS

  THE NEGLECTED LOVER CALLETH ON HIS PEN TO RECORD THE UNGENTLE BEHAVIOUR OF HIS UNKIND MISTRESS

  THAT CAUTION SHOULD BE USED IN LOVE

  AN EARNEST REQUEST TO HIS CRUEL MISTRESS EITHER TO PITY HIM OR LET HIM DIE

  THE ABUSED LOVER REPROACHETH HIS FALSE MISTRESS OF DISSIMULATION

  HE BEWAILS HIS HARD FATE THAT THOUGH BELOVED OF HIS MISTRESS HE STILL LIVES IN PAIN

  A COMPLAINT OF THE FALSENESS OF LOVE

  THE LOVER SUETH THAT HIS SERVICE MAY BE ACCEPTED

  OF THE PA
INS AND SORROWS CAUSED BY LOVE

  THE LOVER RECOUNTETH THE VARIABLE FANCY OF HIS FICKLE MISTRESS

  THE ABUSED LOVER BEWAILS THE TIME THAT EVER HIS EYE BEHELD HER TO WHOM HE HAD GIVEN HIS FAITHFUL HEART

  AN EARNEST SUIT TO HIS UNKIND MISTRESS NOT TO FORSAKE HIM

  HE REMEMBERETH THE PROMISE HIS LADY ONCE GAVE HIM OF AFFECTION, AND COMFORTETH HIMSELF WITH HOPE

  THAT ALL HIS JOY DEPENDETH ON HIS LADY’S FAVOUR

  HE PROMISETH TO REMAIN FAITHFUL WHATEVER FORTUNE BETIDE

  THE FAITHFUL LOVER WISHETH ALL EVIL MAY BEFALL HIM IF HE FORSAKE HIS LADY

  OF FORTUNE, LOVE, AND FANTASY

  DESERTED BY HIS MISTRESS, HE RENOUNCETH ALL JOY FOR EVER

  THAT NO WORDS MAY EXPRESS THE CRAFTY TRAINS OF LOVE

  THAT THE POWER OF LOVE EXCUSETH THE FOLLY OF LOVING

  THE DOUBTFUL LOVER RESOLVETH TO BE ASSURED WHETHER HE IS TO LIVE IN JOY OR WOE

  OF THE EXTREME TORMENT ENDURED BY THE UNHAPPY LOVER

  HE BIDDETH FAREWELL TO HIS UNKIND MISTRESS

  HE REPENTETH THAT HE HAD EVER LOVED

  THE LOVER BESEECHETH HIS MISTRESS NOT TO FORGET HIS STEADFAST FAITH AND TRUE INTENT

  HE BEWAILS THE PAIN HE ENDURES WHEN BANISHED FROM THE MISTRESS OF HIS HEART

  HE COMPARES HIS SUFFERINGS TO THOSE OF TANTALUS

  THAT NOTHING MAY ASSUAGE HIS PAIN SAVE ONLY HIS LADY’S FAVOUR

  THE LOVER PRAYETH THAT HIS LONG SUFFERINGS MAY AT LENGTH FIND RECOMPENSE

  HE DESCRIBETH THE CEASELESS TORMENTS OF LOVE

  THAT THE SEASON OF ENJOYMENT IS SHORT, AND SHOULD NOT PASS BY NEGLECTED

  THAT THE PAIN HE ENDURED SHOULD NOT MAKE HIM CEASE FROM LOVING

  THE COMPLAINT OF A DESERTED LOVER

  THAT FAITH IS DEAD, AND TRUE LOVE DISREGARDED