The Lyrics of Henry VIII/Wher be ye (Unattributed)

[ff. 110v-112r]

Wher be ye my loue my loue and where be ye gone I am so sad to make me glad yt is but you my loue alone alone yt is but you my loue alone alone

Yower company makes me so mery from care and from all mone. but when ye mysse no Ioy it is but you my loue alone alone alone it ys but you my loue alon alon

when ye be hens with yor absence my myrth and Ioy is gone me to comfort is no resort. but you my loue alone alone alone it ys but you my loue alon alon

The tyme passyng to daunce or syng to swage sum what my mone Is nothing no comforting but yow my loue alone alone

Thus with my care with yor welfare crist kepe you from yor'' fone And god aboue kepe yor loue for you haue myne alone for you haue myne alone.

Textual Commentary
In this lyric, the speaker bemoans the absence of a lover. The speaker notes that there is no comfort in the lover’s absence—even in pastimes akin to those proposed by Henry in “Pastyme with good companye” (H 5)—save for that of the lover’s company.


 * 11 ye mysse   You are missed, absent.


 * 22–3 The tyme passyng / to daunce or syng   Cf. Henry’s “Pastyme with good companye” (H 5.5–6).


 * 24 swage  Assuage.


 * 31 fone  Foes.

“Wher be ye” is through-set for three voices, in all but the last two stanzas, which are underlaid following the completion of the second and third stanzas of the first voice (f. 111v). The second and third stanzas are presented under the same music, with the last two lines of each presented singly, to be shared by the stanzas’ first five lines.

This piece is indexed in Robbins Index & Suppl. 4058.3, Boffey, and Ringler MS TM2037. It is reprinted in Flügel Anglia 251–52, Flügel Neuengl 137, Stevens M&P 420–21, and Stevens MCH8 80–81.

Texts Collated
Texts Collated: H1,2,3  (ff. 110v–112r, ll. 1–21 H1,2,3).


 * 6   alone alone] a lone alone alone. H3


 * 9   so mery] mery H3


 * 13 alone alone] alone alone alone H1,2, alone alone alone alone. H3


 * 18 substitute  but when ye mysse H3


 * 19 substitute  no Ioy it is H3


 * 20–21 provided from 13–14


 * 28 repeated from 27


 * 35 repeated from 34