De Vere Poem 18: My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is

See the Introduction to this presentation of early poems by Edward de Vere. Click here to go to the next poem or the previous poem in the series. All the poems, and a printable pdf version of the entire presentation, may also be accessed from the Introduction. See also Note on Sources, Titles, and Presentation of Parallels, Key to Abbreviations, and Bibliography of Works Cited.

 

Poem No. 18: “My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is”

(see also four additional stanzas in No. 18b, below)

1            My mind to me a kingdom is;
2            Such perfect joy therein I find
3            That it excels all other bliss
4            That world affords or grows by kind.
5            Though much I want which most men have,
6            Yet still my mind forbids to crave.

7            No princely pomp, no wealthy store,
8            No force to win the victory,
9            No wily wit to salve a sore,
10          No shape to feed each gazing eye,
11          To none of these I yield as thrall.
12          For why? My mind doth serve for all.

13          I see how plenty suffers oft,
14          How hasty climbers soon do fall;
15          I see that those that are aloft
16          Mishap doth threaten most of all;
17          They get with toil, they keep with fear.
18          Such cares my mind could never bear.

19          Content I live, this is my stay;
20          I seek no more than may suffice;
21          I press to bear no haughty sway;
22          Look what I lack my mind supplies.
23          Lo, thus I triumph like a king,
24          Content with that my mind doth bring.

25          Some have too much yet still do crave;
26          I little have and seek no more.
27          They are but poor though much they have
28          And I am rich with little store.
29          They poor, I rich; they beg, I give;
30          They lack, I leave; they pine, I live.

31          I laugh not at another’s loss,
32          I grudge not at another’s gain.
33          No worldly waves my mind can toss;
34          My state at one doth still remain.
35          I fear no foe nor fawning friend,
36          I loathe not life nor dread my end.

37          Some weigh their pleasure by their lust,
38          Their wisdom by their rage of will;
39          Their treasure is their only trust,
40          And cloaked craft their store of skill.
41          But all the pleasure that I find,
42          Is to maintain a quiet mind.

43          My wealth is health and perfect ease,
44          My conscience clear my chief defense;
45          I neither seek by bribes to please
46          Nor by deceit to breed offense.
47          Thus do I live, thus will I die.
48          Would all did so as well as I.

 

Textual sources: Various manuscripts, including Harvard Library MS 1015 (c. 1581), Rawlinson MS 85 (Bodleian Library, Oxford University) (c. 1585), and Petyt MS 538.10 (Inner Temple, London). No. 18 was first published in William Byrd’s collection, Psalms, Sonnets, and Songs (1588), but appears to have been written no later than 1581. See Hannah (149-50) (reprinting No. 18 with its earlier, mistaken attribution to Sir Edward Dyer); May (PBO #2) (1975; 1980, 39-40, 81, 122; 1991, 283-84) (not in Grosart or Looney).

Structure: Eight six-line stanzas of iambic tetrameter rhyming ABABCC.

Past commentaries on parallels: Sobran (262-65); Brazil & Flues; Goldstein (2016, 63-66).

The title used for No. 18 in the Petyt MS (see May 1991, 283), possibly not chosen by de Vere, was In Praise of a Contented Mind (see Note on Sources, Titles, and Presentation of Parallels).

Clarification of the text:

(9) The term wit as used here refers to intelligence or mental sharpness, not humor (OED 20: 432-34).

Orthodox scholars have generally tried to minimize the size of de Vere’s canon, though some, like May (1975), have occasionally sought to enlarge it with poems misattributed to other Elizabethan poets, such as No. 18, which is included here on the strength of May’s 1975 attribution (reassigning it from Dyer to de Vere). See also Appendix B (explaining why we also attribute to de Vere the four stanzas in No. 18b, below).

The correct attribution of No. 18 is important. It has long been regarded as one of “the most popular verses in the English language” (May 1975, 385). As May noted, it “has been continuously reprinted since 1588 …. Of the thousands of lines of moral and philosophical verse turned out during the first half of the Elizabethan age, only this poem seems to have captured the attention of later generations …” (1991, 64; see also 1975, 393, noting its “extraordinary and enduring popularity”).

One can readily detect the intimate influence of both Seneca and Ovid in No. 18, which is a remarkable testament to the author’s striking philosophical originality and poetic fluency.

 

Strongest parallels to No. 18:

(1) My mind to me a kingdom is

‘My library Was dukedom large enough’ (Tem., 1.2.108-09); ‘O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams’ (Ham., 2.2.254); cf. ‘For ’tis the mind that makes the body rich’ (Shrew, 4.3.169); ‘our Caesar tells, I am conqueror of myself’ (A&C, 4.14.62).

The following lines in Henry VI, Part 2, are perhaps closest to the overall thought and diction of No. 18:

This small inheritance my father left me
Contenteth me, and worth a monarchy.
I seek not to wax great by others’ waning,
Or gather wealth, I care not with what envy.
Sufficeth that I have maintains my state
And send the poor well pleased from my gate.
(4.10.17-22)

See also No. 18b.16-18 (I wait not at the mighty’s gate. I scorn no poor, nor fear no rich, I feel no want nor have too much).

No. 16 and No. 18 express several related thoughts. Compare the manuscript title of No. 18 (In Praise of a Contented Mind) (though possibly not chosen by de Vere, as noted above), with No. 18, lines 19 and 24 (Content) and No. 16, line 1 (Were I a king I could command content).

The Shakespearean words mind (393 references), and kingdom (136) (Spevack 665-66, 821-22), express core concepts in the canon. Mind relates to the playwright’s exploration of human psychology, and kingdom to his study of political organization, especially the contrast between tyranny and legitimate monarchy and problems of governance and law more generally. Fused as they are in de Vere’s lyric, these terms attest to the fluid nature of the boundary between the psychological and the political—a relationship that is characteristically Shakespearean.

(10-11) No shape to feed each gazing eye, To none of these I yield as thrall

‘Whose sudden sight hath thralled my wounded eye’ (Shrew, 1.1.220); ‘all eyes saw his eyes enchanted with gazes’ (LLL, 2.1.245); ‘So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape’ (Dream, 3.1.139); cf. ‘youth with comeliness plucked all gaze his way’ (Cor., 1.3.6-7).

The above-quoted line in Love’s Labour’s Lost is part of an extended passage on the theme of enthralled gaze (2.1.226-51). Compare also these lines in Venus and Adonis:

But, when his glutton eye so full hath fed
(399)
Alas, he naught esteems that face of thine,
To which Love’s eyes pay tributary gazes
(631-32)
Fold in the object that did feed her sight
(822)
He fed them with his sight [i.e., his beauty], they him with berries
(1104)

See also: ‘gaze on and grovel on thy face’ (2 Hen. VI, 1.2.9); ‘The abject people gazing on thy face’ (2 Hen. VI, 2.4.11); ‘No shape but his can please your dainty eye’ (3 Hen. VI, 5.3.38); ‘with gazing fed’ (Merch., 3.2.68); ‘I have fed mine eyes on thee’ (Troil., 4.5.231); ‘Her eye must be fed’ (Oth., 2.1.225); ‘That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye?’ (All’s Well, 1.1.221); ‘I feed Most hungerly on your sight’ (Timon, 1.1.252); ‘mine eyes have drawn thy shape’ (Sonnets, 24.10).

The words gaze (and its variants) and eye(s) appear together more than a dozen times in the Shakespeare canon (Spevack 468). See also No. 11.21 (What feedeth most your sight?).

(14-16)         How hasty climbers soon do fall;
                     I see that those that are aloft
                     Mishap doth threaten most of all

‘The art o’ the court, As hard to leave as keep, whose top to climb Is certain falling’ (Cym., 3.3.46-48).

(23-24) I triumph like a king, Content with that my mind doth bring

‘For ’tis the mind that makes the body rich’ (Shrew, 4.3.169); ‘Poor and content is rich and rich enough’ (Oth., 3.3172).

See also line 19 (Content I live), the discussion of the parallels to line 1, and No. 16.1 (Were I a king I could command content).

(27-28) They are but poor though much they have And I am rich with little store

The antithesis becomes, again, one of Shakespeare’s favorites: ‘poorly rich’ (Lucrece, 97); ‘My riches are these poor habiliments’ (Two Gent., 4.1.13); ‘Wise things seem foolish and rich things but poor’ (LLL, 5.2.378); ‘If thou art rich, thou’rt poor’ (Meas., 3.1.25); ‘Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich being poor’ (Lear, 1.1.250); ‘Rich gifts wax poor’ (Ham., 3.1.100).

Indeed, consider carefully not just lines 27-28 but the entire stanza where they appear (lines 25-30):

Some have too much yet still do crave;
I little have and seek no more.
They are but poor though much they have
And I am rich with little store.
They poor, I rich; they beg, I give;
They lack, I leave; they pine, I live.

Then compare the following stanza in Lucrece:

Those that much covet are with gain so fond
That what they have not, that which they possess,
They scatter and unloose it from their bond,
And so, by hoping more, they have but less;
Or, gaining more, the profit of excess
Is but to surfeit, and such griefs sustain
That they prove bankrupt in this poor rich gain.
(134-40)

 

Additional parallels to No. 18:

(2) Such perfect joy therein I find

‘the perfectest herald of joy’ (Much, 2.1.306).

(3-4) all other bliss That world affords

‘What other pleasure can the world afford?’ (3 Hen. VI, 3.2.147); ‘the sweet degrees that this brief world affords’ (Timon, 4.3.253); ‘The world affords no law to make thee rich’ (R&J, 5.1.73); cf. ‘The spacious world cannot again afford’ (Rich. III, 1.2.245).

(4) grows by kind

‘Your cuckoo sings by kind’ (All’s Well, 1.3.63); ‘Fitted by kind for rape and villainy’ (Titus, 2.1.116).

(6) Yet still my mind forbids to crave

‘The affliction of my mind amends, with which, I fear, a madness held me: this must crave’ (Tem., 5.1.122).

(7) No princely pomp, no wealthy store

‘To love, to wealth and pomp, I pine and die’ (LLL, 1.1.31); cf. ‘O, him she stores, to show what wealth she had’ (Sonnets, 67.13).

(8) No force to win the victory

‘you have won a happy victory’ (Cor., 5.3.186).

(9) No wily wit

‘upon my wit, to defend my wiles’ (Troil., 1.2.247-48). See also No. 6.9 (wit so wise), No. 9.16 (wisest wit), and No. 10.12 (wit … will).

(9) to salve a sore

‘A salve for any sore that may betide’ (3 Hen. VI, 4.6.88).

See also parallels to No. 9.22 (She is my salve, she is my wounded sore) and No. 5.29-30 (So long to fight with secret sore, And find no secret salve therefor). The salve … sore motif (like some others) was echoed by some other Elizabethan poets and these parallels may not be that telling in and of themselves (see May 2004, 229), but as with many of the additional parallels noted, much of their significance is in the overall cumulative context.

(20) I seek no more than may suffice

‘and have no more of life than may suffice’ (Per., 2.1.74).

(31-32) I laugh not at another’s loss, I grudge not at another’s gain

‘laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains’ (Merch., 3.1.55); ‘I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man’s happiness, glad of other men’s good, content with my harm’ (As You, 3.2.74). See also lines 19 and 24 (Content).

(33, 36) No worldly waves my mind can toss … I loathe not life nor dread my end

‘Your mind is tossing on the ocean’ (Merch., 1.1.8); ‘By waves from coast to coast is tossed’ (Per., 2.ch.34); cf. ‘madly tossed between desire and dread’ (Lucrece, 171); ‘My life’s foul deed, my life’s fair end shall free it’ (Lucrece, 1208).

Once again, using language similar to Shakespeare’s, de Vere associates the inner life of the human subject with the motions of the sea. See also Nos. 6.26 and 12.19.

Also: ‘the weariest and most loathed worldly life’ (Meas., 3.1.128); cf. ‘Why then, though loath, yet must I be content’ (3 Hen. VI, 4.6.48). See also lines 19 and 24 (Content).

(40) cloaked craft

‘To cloak offenses with a cunning brow’ (Lucrece, 749).

Here again we have the leitmotif of dissimulation, using the word cloak in common. See also No. 5.16 (to cloak the covert mind). On this important topos, a suggestive common interest, see also No. 5 (line 1 and passim) and Nos. 6.4, 9.2, 10.9-10, and 12.16.

(43) My wealth is health and perfect ease

‘With honor, wealth, and ease in waning age’ (Lucrece, 142); ‘Leaving his wealth and ease’ (As You, 2.5.52).

(46) breed offense

‘love breeds such offense’ (Oth., 3.3.380).

 

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Poem No. 18b: “My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is” (additional stanzas)

1            I joy not in no earthly bliss,
2            I force not Croesus’ wealth a straw.
3            For care I know not what it is,
4            I fear not Fortune’s fatal law.
5            My mind is such as may not move
6            For beauty bright nor force of love.

7            I wish but what I have at will,
8            I wander not to seek for more.
9            I like the plain, I climb no hill,
10          In greatest storms I sit on shore
11          And laugh at those that toil in vain,
12          To get what must be lost again.

13          I kiss not where I wish to kill,
14          I feign not love where most I hate.
15          I break no sleep to win my will,
16          I wait not at the mighty’s gate.
17          I scorn no poor, nor fear no rich,
18          I feel no want nor have too much.

19          The Court ne cart I like ne loathe,
20          Extremes are counted worst of all.
21          The golden mean betwixt them both
22          Doth surest sit and fear no fall.
23          This is my choice, for why I find
24          No wealth is like the quiet mind.

 

Textual sources: Various manuscripts, including Harleian MS 4286 (British Library). No. 18b, like No. 18, was first published in Byrd’s 1588 song collection, but as a separate poem. The first documented mergers of Nos. 18 and 18b into a single poem occurred c. 1609–24. See May (1975, 389-93) (not in Hannah, Grosart, or Looney); see also Rollins (1929, 1: 225-31).

Rollins attributed both Nos. 18 and 18b to Sir Edward Dyer, but May (1975, 386-90) leaned in favor de Vere as the author of No. 18, while suggesting that no clear ascription was possible for No. 18b. See Appendix B for an explanation of why we think it is reasonable to attribute No. 18b to de Vere.

Structure: Four six-line stanzas of iambic tetrameter similar to those in No. 18.

Past commentaries on parallels: None to our knowledge.

Clarifications of the text:

(19) The word ne is an archaic conjunction (already becoming so by the early Elizabethan period), that was sometimes used in place of “nor” in late-15th to mid-16th century English (so ne … ne essentially means “neither … nor”) (OED, 10: 264-65). Court and cart refer to the royal court in contrast to a menial cart, thus reinforcing the poet’s asserted indifference to wealth (see lines 2 and 24) or status. The original text uses loath, but since it is used as a verb, the modern spelling of loathe is given here. It should be noted that in early modern English, loathe did not have so intense a connotation of aversion as it does today (OED 8: 1071).

Line 19 could thus be translated: I [neither] like [nor dislike] the [royal] Court [nor menial] cart. That is, the poet disdains extremes of feeling (especially as between wealth and status or their absence, as also suggested by lines 2, 18, and 20-22). See parallels to lines 16-19.

 

Strongest parallels to No. 18b:

(16-19)          I wait not at the mighty’s gate.
                      I scorn no poor, nor fear no rich,
                      I feel no want nor have too much.
                      The Court ne cart I like ne loath

Compare, again, lines quoted in relation to No. 18.1:

I seek not to wax great by others’ waning,
Or gather wealth, I care not with what envy.
Sufficeth that I have maintains my state
And send the poor well pleased from my gate.
(2 Hen. VI, 4.10.19-22)

Cf. ‘The poor mechanic porters crowding in Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate’ (Hen. V, 1.2.203-04); ‘I live with bread like you, feel want’ (Rich. II, 3.2.175); ‘You have too much respect upon [i.e., concern for] the world’ (Merch., 1.1.74); ‘Why, Paris hath color enough … Then Troilus should have too much’ (Troil., 1.2.95, 97); ‘yet you Have too much blood in him’ (Win., 2.1.56-57); ‘I have too much believed mine own suspicion’ (Win., 3.2.149).

As discussed above, ne … ne (line 19) means “neither … nor.” There appears to be one analogous usage in canonical Shakespeare (below):

‘he, good prince [Pericles], having all lost, By waves from coast to coast is tost. All perishen of man, of pelf [i.e., all other people and goods being lost], Ne aught escapend but himself [i.e., Nor anyone escaping but Pericles himself]’ (Per., 2.ch.33-36).

Seven other appearances of ne in canonical Shakespeare appear to involve common usages in Latin and French where it has a somewhat different meaning, or as an abbreviation or equivalent of the English words “neigh” or “nay” (Spevack 872).

 

Additional parallels to No. 18b:

(1) I joy not in no earthly bliss

‘I know you joy not in a love discourse’ (Two Gent., 2.4.124); ‘by the hope I have of heavenly bliss’ (3 Hen. VI, 3.3.182).

(3) Care, I know not what it is

‘Madam, I know not, nor I greatly care not’ (Rich. II, 5.2.48); ‘My aunt Lavinia Follows me everywhere, I know not why … My Lord, I know not, I, nor can I guess’ (Titus, 4.1.2, 16); ‘Nay, by my troth, I know not, but I know to be up late is to be up late’ (Twelfth, 2.3.4-5); ‘Why I should fear I know not, Since guiltiness I know not’ (Oth., 5.2.38-39).

(5-6) My mind is such as may not move For beauty bright nor force of love

‘She moves me not, or not removes, at least, Affection’s edge in me’ (Shrew, 1.2.70-71); cf. ‘If this letter move him not, his legs cannot’ (Twelfth, 3.4.159).

(6) nor force of love

‘And love you ’gainst the nature of love—force ye’ (Two Gent., 5.4.58); ‘If this inducement force her not to love’ (Rich. III, 4.4.386); ‘This flower’s force in stirring love’ (Dream, 2.2.69).

(7) I wish but what I have at will

‘Why, now thou hast thy wish. Wouldst have me weep? Why, now thou hast thy will’ (3 Hen. VI, 1.4.143-44); ‘Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy will’ (Sonnets, 135.1); cf. ‘To let him slip at will’ (Cor., 1.6.39); ‘For them to play at will’ (Win., 2.1.52).

(10) In greatest storms I sit on shore

‘When from thy shore the tempest beat us back, I stood upon the hatches in the storm’ (2 Hen. VI, 3.2.102-03).

(11) And laugh at those that toil in vain

‘And all the rest forgot for which he toiled’ (Sonnets, 25.12); ‘bootless toil must recompense itself With its own sweat’ (Kins., 1.1.153-54).

The locution in vain, which occurs three times in these de Vere poems (see also Nos. 5.32 and 9.26), appears around 40 times in canonical Shakespeare (Spevack 1421).

(13) I kiss not where I wish to kill

‘He thought to kiss him, and hath killed him so’ (Venus, 1110); cf. ‘What follows more she murders with a kiss’ (Venus, 54).

(15) I break no sleep to win my will

‘Break not your sleeps for that’ (Ham., 4.7.30); cf. ‘broke their sleep’ (2 Hen. IV, 4.5.68, and Cor., 4.4.19); ‘Shall I go win my daughter to thy will?’ (Rich. III, 4.4.426).

See also No. 15.6 (break thy sleeps).

(22) Doth surest sit and fear no fall

‘Ours is the fall, I fear’ (Timon, 5.2.17); ‘Does fall in travail with her fear’ (Per., 3.ch.52); cf. ‘They well deserve to have That know the strong’st and surest way to get’ (Rich. II, 3.3.200-01); ‘open perils surest answered’ (Caes., 4.1.47); ‘My love and fear glued many friends to thee, And now I fall’ (3 Hen. VI, 2.6.5-6).

The word surest appears once (here) in these de Vere poems and twice (as quoted above) in the Shakespeare canon (Spevack 1235).

Continue to Poem No. 19, return to Poem No. 17, or return to the Introduction.

[published June 22, 2018, updated 2021]