The Lyrics of Henry VIII/I loue vnloued suche is myn aduenture (Unattributed)

[ff. 122^v-124^r]

I loue vnloued suche is myn aduenture
and can not cesse tyl I sore smart
but loue my for that feruent creature
whose vnkyndnes hath kyld myn hart
From her loue nothinge can be reuert                                       5
but leue in payne whyls I endure
and loue vnloued such ys myne aduenture.

Textual Commentary

“I loue vnloued suche is myn aduenture” is a lyric dealing with unrequited love and the consequent pain.  Along with Henry’s “Pastyme with good companye” (H 5), this lyric was incorporated into a sermon given in the king’s hall by the Royal Almoner, March 1521; see the commentary to “Pastyme with good companye.”  Songs in the same rhetorical tradition include “I loue vnloued I wotte nott what loue may be” (Oxford, Bodleian Rawlinson C.813 ff. 45^r–46^r), Wyatt’s “I loue louyd and so doth she” (LDev f. 6^r), and “I love loved and loved would I be” (LFay ff. 28^v–30^r).

1    loue vnloued   Cf. Amour’s words to Pucell in Hawes’ Comforte of Louers: “full lytell knoweth ywys / To loue vnloued what wofull payne it is” (ll. 755–56; see also Hawes’ Pastime of Pleasure ll. 2188, 4046), and its near echo “Full lytell it ywys / Knowe ye I gesse / What payne it is / To loue vnloued” (Thomas Feylde, Cotrauerse Bytwene a Louer and a Iaye ll. 145–48).

5    reuert   Recover, recuperate; also, to return to a person or party after estrangement or separation (OED “revert” v 1.b, 4.a).

6    leue  Live.

The unattributed “I loue vnloued suche is myn aduenture” is through-set in three voices.  As with “My thought oppressed my mynd in trouble” (H 72), the manner in which this the song is presented is remniscent of the lyrics extant in the earlier Fayrfax MS (LFay).

This lyric is indexed in Robbins Index & Suppl. 1329.5, Boffey, and Ringler MS TM667.  It is reprinted in Flügel Anglia 255, Stevens M&P 424, and Stevens MCH8 92–94.

Textual Notes

Texts Collated

H^1,2,3 (ff. 122^v–124^r).

7    and loue] and H²