The Devonshire Manuscript/To yowr gentyll letters an answere to resyte

←I may well say with Ioyfull harte || width="200" align="right" | And now my pen alas wyth wyche I wryte→ The Devonshire Manuscript facsimile 29r|thumb|389px f. [29r] 1    To yowr gentyll letters an answere to resyte2    both I and my penne there to wyll aply3    and thowgh that I can not yor goodnes aquyte4    In ryme and myter elegantly5    yet do I meane as faythfully6    As euer dyd louer for hys part7    I take god to record whych knowyth my hart8    And where as ye wyll contynew myne9    To reporte for me ye may be bold10    That yff I had lyves as argus had yne11    yet soner all them lyse I wold12    then to be tempte for fere or for gold13    yow to refuse or to forsake14    wych ys my faythful and louyng make15    Wych faythfullnes ye dyd euer pretend16    and gentylnes as now I see17    off me wych was yowr pore old frend18    yowr louyng husband now to be19    synce1 ye desende from yor degre20    take ye thys vnto yowr part21    my faythful / trwe and louyng hart22    for terme off lyfe thys gyft ye haue23    Thus now adwe my none swete wyfe224    from T. h. wych nowght doth crave3, 425    but yow the stay off all my lyfe26    and the that wold other bate or stryfe26    to be tyed wyth yn yoower louyng bandys27    I wold the were on goodwyn sandys5finis __NOTOC__ Notes & Glosses      1. This is an unusual spelling.      2. This phrase is repeated.      3. Presumably, the initials refer to Lord Thomas Howard.      4. The space in the text was created and the initials were added later, not unlike the gaps on "O very lord / o loue / o god alas" (29v).      5. The Goodwin Sands are notorious shoals off the coast of Dover. Commentary Attributed to Lady Margaret Douglas,EA Bond, “Wyatt’s Poems,” Athenaeum 27 (1871): 655. this poem denotes her feelings for her husband, Lord Thomas Howard. "To yowr gentyll letters an answere to resyte," entered by TH2, follows the same ruled page format as the preceding poem. Helen Baron observes that "I may well say with Ioyfull harte" (28v) and "To yowr gentyll letters an answere to resyte" follow an epistolary formulae: "I may well say with Ioyfull harte" ends with the hope that the two will meet again (line 24), and this poem responds to the plea, beginning: "To yowr gentyll letters an answere to resyte / both I and my penne there to wyll aply" (lines 1-2).Helen Baron, “Mary (Howard) Fitzroy's Hand in the Devonshire Manuscript,” Review of English Studies 45 (1994): 325. While E.A. Bond argues that this relation shows internal evidence that the lovers exchanged letters during imprisonment in the Tower,Bond, 655. Baron notes that no existing evidence supports the theory that Margaret wrote in the manuscript while at the Tower.Baron, 325. Works Cited