The Lyrics of Henry VIII/What remedy what remedy (Unattributed)

[ff. 108v-110r]

What remedy what remedy such is fortune what remedy such is fortune what remedy.

A thorne hath percyd my hart ryght sore. Which daly encressith more and more. 5 thus withowt comfort I am forlore what remedy what remedy such is fortun what remedy

Bewayll I may myn aduenture. To se the paynes that I endure                                                10 Insaciently withowt recure what remedy what remedy such is fortune what remedy.

O my swet hart whome I loue best whos vnkyndnes hat me opprest                                             15 for whih my hart ys lyk to brest what remedy what remedy such is fortune what remedy

Textual Commentary
“What remedy what remedy” is a complaint of love bewailing the lack of remedy for the pain the courtly lover feels (following the tradition). While the phrase “what remedy” has some resonance in the early Tudor lyric, at a tournament held 2 March 1522—two days before the Schatew Vert entertainment, and thematically related to it by the common focus of amorous desire (see Hall 631; Streitberger, Court Revels, 112–13)—a close variant of it, “sance remedy,” saw courtly application in the motto of Anthony Browne. Elements of Browne’s device on that day, broken spears set over a broken heart, has parallel in lines 4–5 of this lyric, as does that of Henry VIII. For the details of the Schatew Vert entertainment and its relation to lyrics in H, see the commentary to Cornish’s “Yow and I and amyas” (H 35).


 * 1   What remedy   See the commentary, above, and cf. Henry’s “Withowt dyscord” (H 49.23) and Cornish’s “My loue sche morneth for me” (H 21.26); echoed below (l. 11).


 * 4   percyd my hart   See the device of Browne, in the commentary, above, and note.     thorne . . . hart   Cf. Sidney’s “The Nightingale so soone as Aprill bringeth” (Englands Helicon; also Palgrave’s Golden Treasury 1.XLVII): “my thorne my hart inuadeth” (ll. 12, 24).


 * 5   encressith  Increases.


 * 11 Insaciently   In an insatiate or unsatisfied manner (OED “insatiately” adv ).     withowt recure  without remedy; cf. the unattributed “My thought oppressed my mynd in trouble” (H 72.14).


 * 16 brest  Burst.

The unattributed “What remedy what remedy” is through-set for three voices. Illuminated capitals are provided for the final stanza only.

This piece is indexed in Robbins Index & Suppl. 98.5, Boffey, and Ringler MS TM42. It is reprinted in Flügel Anglia 251, Stevens M&P 419–20, and Stevens MCH8 80.

Texts Collated
H1,2,3 (ff. 108v–110r).


 * 4   ryght] so H3


 * 12 what(1)] what what H1, what H2,3


 * 17–18 what ~ remedy.] in H1,2,3 the text is jointly underlaid stanzas 3 and 4.