How may we this endure?
Wherefore we make you sure,
Ye preachers shall be yaw'd; 1
And some shall be saw'd,
As noble Isaias,
The holy prophet, was;
And some of you shall die,
Like holy Jeremy;
Some hanged, some slain,
Some beaten to the brain;
And we will rule and reign,
And our matters maintain
Who dare say there again,
Or who dare disdain
At our pleasure and will:
For, be it good or be it ill,
As it is, it shall be still,
For all master doctor of Civil,
Or of Divine, or doctor Drivel,
Let him cough, rough,2 or snivel;
Run God, run devil,
Run who may run best,
Printed for to be,
For that no man should see
Nor read in any scrolls
Of their drunken nolls,
Nor of their noddy polls,1
Nor of their silly souls,
Nor of some witless pates
Of divers great estates,
As well as other men.
Now to withdraw my pen,
And now a while to rest,
Me seemeth it for the best.
The forecastle of my ship
Shall glide, and smoothly slip
Out of the waves wod 5
Of the stormy flood;
2 For rout, i.e., snore?
To Mistress Margaret Hussey (1. 1002)
Merry Margaret,
As midsummer flower,
Gentle as falcon
Or hawk of the tower; 1
With solace and gladness,
Much mirth and no madness,
All good and no badness,
So joyously,
So maidenly,
So womanly
Her demeaning
In every thing,
Far, far passing
That I can endite,
Or suffice to write
Of merry Margaret,
As midsummer flower,
Gentle as a falcon
Or hawk of the tower;
As patient and as still,
And as full of good will,
As fair Isaphill; 2
Coliander,
Sweet pomander,
Good cassander; 5
Steadfast of thought,
Well made, well wrought;
Far may be sought
Erst that ye can find
So courteous, so kind
As merry Margaret,
This midsummer flower,
Gentle as falcon
Or hawk of the tower.
WITH, Lullay, lullay, like a child,
Thou sleepest too long, thou art beguiled.
1 high-flying, towering, hawk.
8 kissed him. stock adjective with water.
⚫ rough. 10 Wan is a 11 embraced. 12 dear
13 snores. 14 Certainly. 15 stupid sot. 16 Apparently "pole-hatchet," i.e., worthless fellow. Cf. "hatchet-face." 17 deceived you.
THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE
(From Cap. xiv. A commendation of Gower, Chaucer, and especially Lydgate)
O THOUGHTFUL herte, tombled all aboute
Upon the se of stormy ignoraunce,
For to sayle forthe thon arte in grete doute,
Over the waves of grete encombraunce;
Wythout ony comforte, saufe of esperaunce,
Whiche the exhorteth hardely to sayle
Unto thy purpose wyth diligent travayle.
Afrycus' Auster bloweth frowardly
Towarde the lande and habitacyon
Of thy wel faverde and moost fayre lady,
For whose sake and delectacyon
Thou hast take this occupacyon,
Principally ryht well to attayne
Her swete rewarde for thy besy payne.
Of the fall of prynces, ryght wofully
He did endyte in all piteous wyse,
Folowynge his auctoure Bocas rufully; 11
A ryght greate boke he did truly compryse,
A good ensample for us to dispyse
This worlde, so ful of mutabilyte,
In whiche no man can have a certente.
And thre reasons ryght greatly profytable
Under coloure he cloked craftely;
And of the chorle he made the fable
That shutte the byrde in a cage so closely, 60
The pamflete sheweth it expressely; 12
He fayned also the Courte of Sapyence,18
And translated wyth all his dylygence
The grete boke of the last destruccyon
Of the cyte of Troye, whylome so famous,
How for woman was the confusyon;
And betwene vertue and the lyfe vycyous
Of goddes and goddess, a boke solacyous
He did compyle; and the tyme to passe,
Of love he made the bryght Temple of
Glasse.
Is this a corruption of some word like royally? 10 Lydgate composed a Life of the Virgin and several other pieces about and to her and St. Edmund. See the complete list of his works in MacCracken's Minor Poems of Lydgate.
11 Lydgate's Fall of Princes is from Boccaccio's (Bocas') De Casibus Virorum Illustrium; and he tells us that he set about his 36,000-line task ruefully.
12 The Churl and the Bird. 13 The Court of Sapience and The Assembly of Gods (1. 67) may not be really Lydgate's- -see MacCracken, p. xxxv.
O mayster Lydgate, the most dulcet sprynge
Of famous rethoryke, wyth balade ryall,
The chefe orygynal of my lernyng,
What vayleth it on you for to call
Me for to ayde, now in especiall;
Sythen your body is now wrapte in chest,
I pray God to gyve your soule good rest.
O what losse is it of suche a one!
It is to grete truely for me to tell;
Sythen the tyme that his lyfe was gone,
In al this realme his pere did not dwell;
Above al other he did so excell,
None sith his time in arte wolde succede, 90
After their death to have fame for their mede.
By her propre hande, soft as any sylke, With due obeysaunce I dyd her then take; Her skynne was white as whales bone 4 mylke.
My thought was ravysshed, I might not aslake 5
My brennynge hert, she the fyre dyd make; These daunces truely musyke hath me tought To lute or daunce, but it avayleth nought:
For the fyre kyndled and waxed more and inore,
The dauncynge blewe it; wyth her beaute clere
My hert sekened and began to waxe sore; A mynute vi. houres, and vi. houres a yere, I thought it was, so hevy was my chere; But yet for cover my great love aryght, 20 The outwarde countenaunce I made glad and light.
And for fere myne eyes should my hert bewray,
I toke my leve and to a temple wente,
And all alone I to my selfe dyd saye:
Alas! what fortune hath me hyther sente,
To devoyde 6 my joye and my hert torment;
No man can tell howe great payne it is,
But yf he wyll fele it, as I do ywys.
(From Cap. xviii. Of the dolorous and lowly disputacion betwene La Bel Pucell and Graundamoure.)
Than forth so went Good Counsell and I,
At vi. a clocke, unto a garden fayre;
By Musykes toure walked most goodly,
Where La Bell Pucell used to repayre
In the swete mornyng for to take the ayre
Among the floures of aromatyke fume,
The mysty ayre to exyle and consume.
♦ ivory — originally from the tusks of the walrus $ quench. • 1ове.
Then good Curteysy, wythout taryenge,
Came unto us wyth all her diligence,
Prayeng us to take our entryng
And come unto the ladies
precence,
To tell our erande to her excellence.
Than in we wente to the garden gloryous,
Lyke to a place of pleasure most solacyous.
Wyth Flora paynted and wrought curyously,
In divers knottes of marvaylous gretenes;
Rampande lyous stode up wondersly,
Made all of herbes with dulcet swetenes, 39
Wyth many dragons of marvaylos likenes,
Of dyvers floures made ful craftely,
By Flora couloured wyth colours sundry.
Amiddes the garden so moche delectable
There was an herber fayre and quadrante,"
To paradyse right well comparable,
Set all about with flours fragraunt;
And in the myddle there was resplendy-
shaunte
A dulcet spring and a marvaylous fountaine,
Of golde and asure made all certaine.
1 saluted. 2 splendid. 3 the plant so called 4 arbor or garden. 6 square.
In wonderfull and curious similitude
There stode a dragon, of fyne golde so pure,
Upon his tayle of myghty fortitude,
Wretched and skaled al wyth asure;
Havyng thre hedes divers in fygure,
Whych in a bathe of the sylver grette
Spouted the water that was so dulcette.
Besyde whiche fountayne, the moost fayre lady
La Bel Pucel was galy syttyng;
Of many floures fayre and ryally
A goodly chaplet she was in makynge.
Her heer was downe so clerely shyuynge,
Lyke to the golde late purifyed with fyre,
Her heer was bryght as the drawne wyre.
Lyke to a lady for to be moost trewe,
She ware a fayre and goodly garment,
Of most fyne velvet, al of Indy blewe,
Wytharmynes powdred bordred at the vent.
On her fayre handes, as was convenient,
A payre of gloves ryght sclender and softe.
In approchyng nere I did beholde her oft. 70
And whan that I came before her presence,
Unto the ground I dyd knele adowne;
Sayeng: lady! moost fayre of excellence,
O stere so clere of vertuous renowne!
Whose beaute fayre in every realme and
towne,
Indued wyth grace and also wyth goodnes, Dame Fame the her selfe doth everinore expresse.
|