FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98  
99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   >>   >|  
by licence and leave, All is possible! or again-- Forget not! O forget not this!-- How long ago hath been, and is, The mind that never meant amiss: Forget not yet! or again (can personal note go straighter?)-- And wilt thou leave me thus? Say nay, say nay, for shame! To save thee from the blame --Of all my grief and grame. And wilt thou leave me thus? Say nay! say nay! (Say 'nay,' say 'nay'; and don't say, 'the answer is in the negative.') No: I have yet to mention the straightest, most natural of them all, and will read it to you in full-- What should I say? Since Faith is dead And Truth away From you is fled? Should I be led With doubleness? Nay! nay! mistress. I promised you And you promised me To be as true As I would be: But since I see Your double heart, Farewell my part! Thought for to take Is not my mind; But to forsake One so unkind; And as I find, So will I trust, Farewell, unjust! Can ye say nay But that you said That I alway Should be obeyed? And--thus betrayed Or that I wist! Farewell, unkist! I observe it noted on p. 169 of Volume iii of "The Cambridge History of English Literature" that Wyat 'was a pioneer and perfection was not to be expected of him. He has been described as a man stumbling over obstacles, continually falling but always pressing forward.' I know not to what wiseacre we owe that pronouncement: but what do you think of it, after the lyric I have just quoted? I observe, further, on p. 23 of the same volume of the same work, that the Rev. T. M. Lindsay, D.D., Principal of the Glasgow College of the United Free Church of Scotland, informs us of Wilson's "Arte of Rhetorique" that there is little or no originality in the volume, save, perhaps, the author's condemnation of the use of French and Italian phrases and idioms, which he complains are 'counterfeiting the kinges Englishe.' The warnings of Wilson will not seem untimely if to be remembered that the earlier English poets of the period--Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder, and the Earl of Surrey--drew their inspiration from Petrarch and Ariosto, that their earlier attempts at poetry were translations from Italian sonnets, and that thei
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98  
99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Farewell

 

promised

 
English
 

observe

 

Wilson

 

volume

 

Should

 

Italian

 

Forget

 
earlier

quoted

 
inspiration
 
attempts
 
Lindsay
 
Ariosto
 

Petrarch

 

translations

 

obstacles

 

continually

 

stumbling


sonnets

 

falling

 

Principal

 

wiseacre

 

forward

 

pressing

 

poetry

 

pronouncement

 
Church
 

idioms


complains

 

phrases

 

Thomas

 

period

 
untimely
 
remembered
 

warnings

 
counterfeiting
 
kinges
 

Englishe


French
 
Surrey
 

informs

 

Scotland

 

College

 

United

 

Rhetorique

 

author

 

condemnation

 

originality