declare its more labored and challenging verse to be
decidedly “un-Shakespearean” in style and tone.
FURTHER READING
Burrow, Colin, ed. Shakespeare: The Complete Sonnets and
Poems. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press,
2002.
Jackson, MacDonald P. “A Lover’s Complaint Revisited.”
Shakespeare Studies 32 (2004): 267–294.
Sharon-Zisser, Shirley, ed. Suffering Ecstasy: Critical Essays
on Shakespeare’s A Lover’s Complaint. Aldershot, U.K., and
Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2006.
Katie Musgrave
“LOVER SHOWETH HOW HE IS FOR-
SAKEN OF SUCH AS HE SOMETIME
ENJOYED, THE” THOMAS WYATT (1557) This
poem appears in the 1557 collection TOTTEL’S MISCEL-
LANY. It is an edited version of SIR THOMAS WYATT’s
untitled poem known as “THEY FLEE FROM ME.” Read-
ing Tottel’s version of Wyatt’s poem is instructive, not
only because it demonstrates a surprising amount of
editorial control over early modern poetic texts, but
also because it provides a deeper appreciation for the
expressive quality of Wyatt’s irregular metrical line, a
quality that is absent in Tottel’s version.
In preparing Wyatt’s original 161-word poem for
publication, a title was added, 18 words and punctua-
tion marks were changed or moved, and the last line
was completely rewritten. Most of these changes were
made to regularize Wyatt’s rugged and powerful (but
uneven) IAMBIC PENTAMETER.
A comparison of Wyatt’s and Tottel’s versions of line
13 provides a representative example of Tottel’s
changes. Wyatt’s original reads:
Therewithal sweetly did me kiss.
/ x x / x x x /While Tottel’s version reads:And therewithal so sweetly did me kiss.
x / x x x / x / x /Wyatt’s line, irregularly metered, feels more like speech
and echoes the previous line: “And she me caught in her
arms long and small, / Therewithal sweetly did me kiss”
(ll. 12–13). Tottel’s revision is less speechlike and has a
relentless, sing-song quality, including three consecutive
lines that begin with And: “And she me caught... And
therewithal... / And softly said.” Tottel’s addition of
two fi ller words to Wyatt’s line revision not only makes
a 10-syllable line, the line itself is much more iambic—
that is, containing a preponderance of groups of one
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
Tottel’s intervention is most signifi cant in the last
two lines:Wyatt:
But since that I so kindely am served,
I would fain know what she hath deserved.
(ll. 20–21)Tottel:
But since that I unkindely so am served,
How like you this? What hath she now
deserved?
(ll. 20–21)Wyatt’s closing lines are biting and cynical; there is
venom just under the surface of the persona’s closing
comment. Wyatt’s persona knows perfectly well what
“she hath deserved,” and it’s nothing good. He puns on
the word kindely, which here means both the modern
“gently or friendly”—rather sarcastic in this context—
but also the directly angry “according to her kind.”
In changing Wyatt’s comment into a pair of ques-
tions, Tottel’s version is less complex and less acidic.
Tottel’s edit transforms Wyatt’s sarcastic and ambigu-
ous “so kindely” into the simple “unkindly.” Finally,
Tottel’s fi nal two questions directly address the reader,
creating a shrill and angry tone. Tottel’s changes, as in
line 13 above, were made in order to preserve the reg-
ularity of the iambic pentameter. Wyatt’s COUPLET has
nine syllables in each line; Tottel adds an extra syllable
to each to make up the full 10-syllable iambic pentam-
eter line. Wyatt’s couplet is highly metrically irregular,
especially the fi nal line, while Tottel’s couplet is com-
posed of 20 syllables of fl awless iambic pentameter.
Part of the beauty of the Wyatt poem is that the per-
sona’s bitterness is not made explicit, but kept barely“LOVER SHOWETH HOW HE IS FORSAKEN OF SUCH AS HE SOMETIME ENJOYED, THE” 253