The cõforte of louers The Comfort of Lovers — Inside the Classic

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Authors: Hawes, Stephen, -1523? Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2007 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Poetry Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 10,944

Reading time 48 min

Text sections 2

The catalog record for The cõforte of louers The Comfort of Lovers — Inside the Classic provides practical reading context through 10,944 words, 48 min estimated reading time, and 2 detected text sections.

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Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Poetry,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #22326

Stephen Hawes's early Tudor dream-vision poem employs allegorical figures, chess metaphors, and a first-person narrator who wins a flower, sword, and shield through fortune. The verse is marked by intricate rhyme schemes and a self-conscious defense of poetic obscurity.

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Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
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File: pg22326

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on In this edyppus / accordynge to affecte Theyr cursed calkynge / holly to abiecte

Who dyde preserue / Ionas and moyses Who dyde preserue yet many other mo As the byble maketh mencyon doubles Who dyde kepe Charles frome his euyll fo Who was he / that euer coude do so But god alone / than in lyke wyse maye he Kepe me full sure / frome all inyquyte

Thus as I called to my remembraunce Suche trewe examples / I tenderly dyde wepe Remembrynge well / goddes hyghe ordynaũce Syghynge full oft / with inwarde teres depe Tyll at the last / I fell in to a slepe And in this slepe / me thought I dyde repayre My selfe alone / in to a garden fayre

This goodly gardyn / I dyde well beholde Where I sawe a place / ryght gaye and gloryous With golden turrettes / paynted many afolde Lyke a place of pleasure moste solacyous The wyndowes glased / with crystall precyous The golden fanes / with wynde and melody By dulcet sounde / and meruaylous armony

The knottes flagraunt / with aromatyke odoure With goodly sprynges / of meruaylous mountaynes I dyde than tast / the redolent lycoure Moost clere and swete / of the goodly vaynes Whiche dyde me ease / somwhat of my paynes Tyll to me came / a lady of goodly age Apareyled sadly / and demure of vysage

To me she sayd / me thynke ye are not well ye haue caught colde / and do lyue in care Tell me your mynde / now shortly euerydele To layne the trouthe / I charge you to beware I shall for you / a remedy prepare Dyspeyre you not / for no thynge that is past Tell me your mynde / and be nought agast

Alas madame / vnto her than I sayd It is no wonder / of myne inwarde payne yf that my herte be meruayllously dysmayde My trouthe and loue / therof is cause certayne Dyuers yeres ago / I dyde in mynde retayne A lady yonge / a lady fayre of syght Good // wyse / and goodly / an holsome sterre of lyght

I durst not speke vnto her of my loue Yet vnder coloure I dyuers bokes dyde make Full pryuely / to come to my aboue Thus many nyghtes / I watched for her sake To her and to hers / my trouthe well to take Without ony spotte / of ony maner yll God knoweth all myn herte / my mynde & my wyll

The hygh dame nature / by her grete myght & power Man / beest / and foule / in euery degre Fro whens they came at euery maner houre Dooth trye the trouthe / without duplycyte For euery thynge must shewe the properte Gentyll vngentyll / dame nature so well tryet That all persones it openly espyeth

The lorde and knyght / delyteth for to here Cronycles and storyes / of noble chyualry The gentyll man gentylnes / for his passe tyme dere The man of lawe / to here lawe truely The yeman delyteth to talke of yomanry The ploman his londe for to ere and sowe Thus nature werketh / in hye degre and lowe

For yf there were one of the gentyll blode Conuayde to yomanry for nourysshement Dyscrecyon comen he sholde chaunge his mode Though he knewe not / his parentes verament Yet nature wolde werke / so by entendyment That he sholde folowe / the condycyons doubtles Of his true blode / by outwarde gentylnes

In all this worlde / ben but thynges twayne As loue and hate / the trouth for to tell And yf I sholde hate my lady certayne Than worthy I were / to dye of deth cruell Seynge all ladyes / that she doth excell In beaute / grace / prudence and mekenes What man on lyue / can more in one expres

yf she with me sholde take dyspleasure Whiche loueth her by honoures desyre What sholde she do / with suceh a creature That hateth her / by inwarde fraude and yre I yet a louer / do not so atyre My fayth and hope / I put in her grace Releace to graunt me / by good tyme and space

Thretened with sorowe / of may paynes grete Thre yeres ago my ryght hande I dyde bynde Fro my browes for fere / [the] dropes doune dyde sweet God knoweth all it was nothynge my mynde Vnto no persone / I durst my her to vntwynde yet the trouthe knowynge / the good gretest P Maye me release / of all my /p/p/p/ thre

Now ryght fayre lady / so sadde and demure My mynde ye knowe / in euery maner thynge I trust for trouthe / ye wyll not me dyscure Sythes I haue shewed you without lesynge At your request / the cause of my mournynge Whiche abyde in sorowe / in my remembraunce Without good conforte / saufe of esperaunce

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Stephen Hawes's The Comfort of Lovers opens with a prohemy that defends the use of 'cloudy figures' in poetry, asserting that 'gentyl poets' conceal truth under fable. The narrator then describes walking alone in a 'medowe grene' under a bright sun, lamenting his unrequited love. This dream-vision framework, common in late medieval poetry, is here used to stage a debate between the lover and his lady, who appears later in the poem. Hawes's diction is notably archaic even for his time, with spellings like 'cõforte' and 'cõstrue' reflecting early Tudor orthography.

Allegorical Objects and Their Origins

The poem centers on three symbolic items—a flower, a sword, and a shield—which the narrator wins through fortune. The lady expresses surprise at his success, explaining that these objects were 'made to a meruaylous entente' in antiquity and that many knights had attempted but failed to obtain them. This suggests a chivalric allegory where the items represent virtues or rewards attainable only by the worthy. Hawes does not explicitly decode their meaning, leaving the reader to infer from the lady's words that the narrator's fortune is 'ordynate'—preordained. The vagueness of the allegory aligns with the prohemy's claim that poets 'cloke it subtylly.'

Chess as a Metaphor for Love's Uncertainty

In a striking passage, the narrator compares his situation to a chess game: 'yf at the chesse I drawe / My selfe I knowe not / as a cheke frome a mate.' This metaphor underscores the lover's confusion and lack of control, as he cannot distinguish between a check (a threat) and a checkmate (defeat). The chess imagery is not extended beyond this single couplet, but it encapsulates the poem's theme of fortune's caprice. Hawes uses the game to convey the lover's helplessness, a contrast to the confident tone of the prohemy.

Repetition and Emotional Intensity in the Lover's Complaint

The lover's monologue is structured around anaphora and parallel clauses: 'The more my payne, the more my loue encreaseth / The more my Ieopardy, the truer is my harte.' This rhetorical pattern builds a sense of escalating passion and despair. Hawes also employs a refrain-like address to fortune and the lady, repeating 'O thou fayre fortune' and 'O ryght fayre lady.' Such repetition gives the complaint a liturgical quality, emphasizing the lover's fixation. The diction is hyperbolic—'my herte is colde and faynt,' 'my teeres dystyll'—but remains within the conventions of courtly love poetry.

Self-Conscious Authorship and Literary Lineage

In the prohemy, Hawes explicitly names his predecessors: 'Fyrst noble Gower / moralytees dyde endyte,' followed by Chaucer and Lydgate. He humbly disclaims expertise, calling himself 'no hystoryagraffe / nor poete laureate,' yet he asserts his desire to follow Lydgate's 'makynge.' This genealogy situates The Comfort of Lovers within a recognized English poetic tradition. Hawes also addresses his readers directly, asking them to correct his errors 'with all my delygence.' Such self-conscious framing reveals an author aware of his place in a literary lineage and anxious about his own skill.

Readers approaching The Comfort of Lovers should attend to the interplay between the prohemy's theoretical claims and the poem's actual practice. The 'cloudy figures' Hawes defends are not merely ornamental; they structure the narrative through allegory and metaphor. The poem rewards close attention to its rhetorical patterns and historical context, particularly the influence of Lydgate. As a short dream-vision, it offers a concentrated example of early Tudor poetic craft.

Reading Hawes’s chessboard of fortune, where every move feels preordained yet strangely personal, I found myself thinking of the quiet loyalty in The dog's book of verse — Themes and Context. Both speak of waiting and winning, though one stakes claims with swords, the other with a worn paw placed gently on a knee. Obscurity has its own soft patience.