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. 8: “The Lively Lark Stretched Forth Her Wing”
1 The lively lark stretched forth her wing,
2 The messenger of morning bright,
3 And with her cheerful voice did sing
4 The day’s approach, discharging night,
5 When that Aurora, blushing red,
6 Descried the guilt of Thetis’ bed.
7 I went abroad to take the air,
8 And in the meads I met a knight,
9 Clad in carnation colour fair;
10 I did salute this gentle wight,
11 Of him I did his name inquire.
12 He sighed, and said he was desire.
13 Desire I did desire to stay,
14 Awhile with him I craved to talk;
15 The courteous knight said me no nay,
16 But hand in hand with me did walk.
17 Then of desire I asked again
18 What thing did please and what did pain?
19 He smiled, and thus he answered then,
20 “Desire can have no greater pain
21 “Than for to see another man
22 “That he desireth to obtain;
23 “Nor greater joy can be than this,
24 “Than to enjoy that others miss.”
Textual sources: Poems 2 through 9 were first published in The Paradise of Dainty Devices (Richard Edwards ed. 1576). Like No. 7, however, No. 8 was dropped from all later editions of Paradise. See Hannah (241-42, text not provided); Grosart (405-06); Looney (1921, 7, Miller ed. 1975, 1: 565); May (#8) (1980, 30-31, 68-69, 72, 118; 1991, 275-76). No. 8 is the only one of de Vere’s eight Paradise poems also preserved in surviving contemporary independent manuscripts. May notes (1980, 68) that No. 8 “survives in three superior manuscript versions,” including Harleian MS 7392(2) (British Library) (see May 1991, 276).
Many of the poems in Paradise (perhaps most of the eight by de Vere) were apparently written as song lyrics to be put to music (see May 1980, 70). Since Edwards, the editor who apparently collected them, died in 1566, they may all date to the 1560s, when de Vere was still a teenager.
Structure: Four six-line stanzas of iambic tetrameter rhyming ABABCC.
Looney’s title: “Desire”
Past commentaries on parallels: Looney (1920, 165); Ogburn (586); Sobran (244-45); Eagan-Donovan.
Clarifications of the text:
(5-6) Aurora refers to the dawning sun. Thetis is a mythological Greek sea-nymph.
(10) A wight means a person (who can be male or female), with some connotation of commiseration or contempt (OED 20: 328).
(20-24) May used quotation marks (kept here for clarity), though Looney did not. The evident meaning (lines 21-22) is to see another man … obtain … [t]hat [which] he [the other man] desireth and (line 24) to enjoy that [which] others miss.
None of the parallels to No. 8 seem particularly strong, taken individually. But the following seem significant as additional echoes, especially in overall context.
(1-2) The lively lark stretched forth her wing, The messenger of morning bright
‘Lo here the gentle lark, weary of rest, From his moist cabinet mounts up on high, And wakes the morning’ (Venus, 853); ‘the morning lark’ (Dream, 4.1.94, and Shrew, ind.2.44); ‘the lark, the herald of the morn’ (R&J, 3.5.6); ‘Hark! Hark! The lark at heaven’s gate sings, And Phoebus ’gins arise’ (Cym., 2.3.19-20); ‘Like to the Lark at break of day arising, From sullen earth sings hymns at Heaven’s gate’ (Sonnets, 29.11-12).
Phoebus (referenced in Nos. 14.31, 17.24, 19.8, and 20.4) is an epithet for Apollo, Greco-Roman god of the sun. The quotation above from Cymbeline is one of 23 references to Phoebus (including one spelled “Phibbus”) in canonical Shakespeare (Spevack 976-77). Apollo is referenced once in these de Vere poems (No. 3.6) and 29 times in canonical Shakespeare (Spevack 54).
(3) cheerful voice
‘with one cheerful voice welcome my love’ (2 Hen. VI, 1.1.36); cf. ‘This general applause and cheerful shout’ (Rich. III, 3.7.39).
(4) The day’s approach
‘the approach of day’ (Hen. V, 4.1.86); cf. ‘[French Lord 2:] We shall not then have his company tonight? [Lord 1:] Not till after midnight, for he is dieted to his hour. [Lord 2:] That approaches apace’ (All’s Well, 4.3.26-29); ‘The vaporous night approaches’ (Meas., 4.1.57); ‘The time approaches’ (Mac., 5.4.16); ‘Approach, thou beacon [the sun] to this under globe’ (Lear, 2.2.159).
(5-6) When that Aurora, blushing red, Descried the guilt of Thetis’ bed
‘Many a morning hath he there been seen … as the all-cheering sun Should in the farthest East begin to draw The shady curtains from Aurora’s bed’ (R&J, 1.1.129, 132-34); ‘And yonder shines Aurora’s harbinger, At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there, Troop home to churchyards’ (Dream, 3.2.380-82); cf. ‘When lo the blushing morrow Lends light to all’ (Lucrece, 1082); ‘King Richard doth himself appear, As doth the blushing discontented sun From out the fiery portal of the east’ (Rich. II, 3.3.63); ‘a blush Modest as morning’ (Troil., 1.3.229).
Aurora refers to the dawning sun (referred to twice as such by Shakespeare, as quoted above, Spevack 78). Shakespeare refers six times to the Greek sea-nymph Thetis (Spevack 1310). See also No. 14.31-33 (When Phoebus from the bed Of Thetis doth arise, The morning, blushing red). Phoebus is an epithet for Apollo, Greco-Roman god of the sun (see parallels to lines 1-2). See also parallels to line 6 below.
(6) Thetis’ bed
‘Juno’s crown, O blessed bond of board and bed!’ (As You, 5.4.142); ‘Hymen’s purest bed’ (Timon, 4.3.383); ‘Cytherea, how bravely thou becom’st thy bed!’ (Cym., 2.2.15); ‘Whom Jove hath marked The honour of your bed’ (Kins., 1.1.30); cf. ‘And Phoebus ’gins arise’ (Cym., 2.3.20).
See also parallels to lines 5-6 above. The Ovidian conjunction of mythological figures and bed-play is a motif these de Vere poems and the works of Shakespeare have in common. The amours of the gods are a conspicuous point of curiosity in both. See also No. 3.6, No. 6 (lines 7-10, 17-18, and 23-24), and No. 14.31-32.
(15) The courteous knight
‘You are right courteous knights’ (Per., 2.3.27).
(18) What thing did please and what did pain?
‘Having no other pleasure of his gain But torment that it cannot cure his pain’ (Lucrece, 860-61); ‘No pains, sir. I take pleasure in singing, sir’ (Twelfth, 2.4.67); ‘since you make your pleasure of your pains’ (Twelfth, 3.3.2).
See also No. 2.8 (to whose most pain least pleasure doth befall) and No. 13.14 (a pleasure mixed with pain).
Continue to Poem No. 9, return to Poem No. 7, or return to the Introduction.
[published June 22, 2018, updated 2021]
