If Love now Reigned as it hath been

Henry VIII, king of England, (1491 - 1547)

Original Text

British Library Add. MS 31922, fols. 48v-49 (attributed to Henry VIII); and John Stevens, Music & Poetry in the Early Tudor Court (London: Methuen, 1961): 403.

1If love now reigned as it hath been

2And were rewarded as it hath sin,

3Noble men then would sure ensearch

4All ways whereby they might it reach,

5But envy reigneth with such disdain

6And causeth lovers outwardly to refrain,

7Which puts them to more and more

8Inwardly most grievous and sore.

9The fault in whom I cannot set,

10But let them tell which love doth get--

11To lovers I put now sure this case:

12Which of their loves doth get them grace?

13And unto them which doth it know

14Better than do I, I think it so.

Notes

2] sin: previously, "since." Back to Line

3] ensearch: look for. Back to Line

10] which love doth get: who find love (possibly "what love does beget or yield"). Back to Line

13] "And (further I put this case [11]) to those whom I think for a fact ("I think it so") know love better than myself." Back to Line

RPO poem Editors

Ian Lancashire

RPO Edition

RPO 1997.

Form

couplets