The Court Of Love Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFE GHIJKLL MNEOBEE PFPFFEE QEQEERR DPDPPSD TRU LLDLRQVLLUP PWPXXLL RPLBPPR LUDLBPLLRU PRPRR DRRPPLR QLPPLPP VRLLPPPLLDPBLL RTRRTPP RYRYLPP LPDZLDP RPRUPRR RLR LLA2LLLL RRPRRB2B2 LUQUUBWith timorous heart and trembling hand of dread | A |
Of cunning naked bare of eloquence skill | B |
Unto the flow'r of port in womanhead one who is the perfection | C |
I write as he that none intelligence of womanly behaviour | D |
Of metres hath nor flowers of sentence | E |
Save that me list my writing to convey | F |
In that I can to please her high nobley nobleness | E |
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The blossoms fresh of Tullius' garden swoot Cicero sweet | G |
Present they not my matter for to born burnish polish | H |
Poems of Virgil take here no root | I |
Nor craft of Galfrid may not here sojourn | J |
Why n'am I cunning O well may I mourn am I not | K |
For lack of science that I cannot write | L |
Unto the princess of my life aright | L |
- | |
No terms are dign unto her excellence worthy | M |
So is she sprung of noble stirp and high stock | N |
A world of honour and of reverence | E |
There is in her this will I testify | O |
Calliope thou sister wise and sly skilful | B |
And thou Minerva guide me with thy grace | E |
That language rude my matter not deface | E |
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Thy sugar droppes sweet of Helicon | P |
Distil in me thou gentle Muse I pray | F |
And thee Melpomene I call anon | P |
Of ignorance the mist to chase away | F |
And give me grace so for to write and say | F |
That she my lady of her worthiness | E |
Accept in gree this little short treatess with favour treatise | E |
- | |
That is entitled thus The Court of Love | Q |
And ye that be metricians me excuse skilled versifiers | E |
I you beseech for Venus' sake above | Q |
For what I mean in this ye need not muse | E |
And if so be my lady it refuse | E |
For lack of ornate speech I would be woe | R |
That I presume to her to write so | R |
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But my intent and all my busy cure care | D |
Is for to write this treatise as I can | P |
Unto my lady stable true and sure | D |
Faithful and kind since first that she began | P |
Me to accept in service as her man | P |
To her be all the pleasure of this book | S |
That when her like she may it read and look it pleases her | D |
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When he was young at eighteen year of age | T |
Lusty and light desirous of pleasance | R |
Approaching full sad and ripe corage gradually attaining | U |
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Then says the poet did Love urge him to do | L |
him obeisance and to go the Court of Love to | L |
see a lite little beside the Mount of Citharee | D |
Mercury bade him on pain of death to | L |
appear and he went by strange and far countries | R |
in search of the Court Seeing at last a crowd of | Q |
people as bees making their way thither the | V |
poet asked whither they went and one that | L |
answer'd like a maid said that they were bound to | L |
the Court of Love at Citheron where the King | U |
of Love and all his noble rout company | P |
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Dwelleth within a castle royally | P |
So them apace I journey'd forth among | W |
And as he said so found I there truly | P |
For I beheld the town so high and strong | X |
And high pinnacles large of height and long | X |
With plate of gold bespread on ev'ry side | L |
And precious stones the stone work for to hide | L |
- | |
No sapphire of Ind no ruby rich of price | R |
There lacked then nor emerald so green | P |
Balais Turkeis nor thing to my devise in my judgement | L |
That may the castle make for to sheen be beautiful | B |
All was as bright as stars in winter be'n | P |
And Phoebus shone to make his peace again | P |
For trespass done to high estates twain offence | R |
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When he had found Venus in the arms of Mars and hastened to | L |
tell Vulcan of his wife's infidelity Now he was shining | U |
brightly on the castle in sign he looked after Love's grace for | D |
there is no god in Heaven or in Hell but he hath been right | L |
subject unto Love Continuing his description of the castle | B |
Philogenet says that he saw never any so large and high within | P |
and without it was painted with many a thousand daisies red | L |
as rose and white also in signification of whom he knew not | L |
unless it was the flower of Alcestis who under Venus | R |
was queen of the place as Admetus was king | U |
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To whom obey'd the ladies good nineteen | P |
With many a thousand other bright of face | R |
And young men fele came forth with lusty pace many | P |
And aged eke their homage to dispose | R |
But what they were I could not well disclose | R |
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Yet nere and nere forth in I gan me dress nearer | D |
Into a hall of noble apparail furnishings | R |
With arras spread and cloth of gold I guess | R |
And other silk of easier avail less difficult costly to attain | P |
Under the cloth of their estate sans fail state canopy | P |
The King and Queen there sat as I beheld | L |
It passed joy of Elysee the feld The Elysian Fields | R |
- | |
There saintes have their coming and resort martyrs for love | Q |
To see the King so royally beseen adorned | L |
In purple clad and eke the Queen in sort suitably | P |
And on their heades saw I crownes twain | P |
With stones frett so that it was no pain adorned | L |
Withoute meat or drink to stand and see | P |
The Kinge's honour and the royalty | P |
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To treat of state affairs Danger stood by the | V |
King and Disdain by the Queen who cast her eyes | R |
haughtily about sending forth beams that seemed | L |
shapen like a dart sharp and piercing and small and | L |
straight of line while her hair shone as gold so fine | P |
dishevel crisp down hanging at her back a yard in | P |
length Amazed and dazzled by her beauty | P |
Philogenet stood perplexed till he spied a Maid | L |
Philobone a chamberwoman of the Queen's who | L |
asked how and on what errand he came thither | D |
Learning that he had been summoned by Mercury she | P |
told him that he ought to have come of his free will | B |
and that he will be shent rebuked disgraced | L |
because he did not | L |
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For ye that reign in youth and lustiness | R |
Pamper'd with ease and jealous in your age | T |
Your duty is as far as I can guess | R |
To Love's Court to dresse your voyage direct address | R |
As soon as Nature maketh you so sage | T |
That ye may know a woman from a swan | P |
Or when your foot is growen half a span | P |
- | |
But since that ye by wilful negligence | R |
This eighteen year have kept yourself at large | Y |
The greater is your trespass and offence | R |
And in your neck you must bear all the charge | Y |
For better were ye be withoute barge boat | L |
Amid the sea in tempest and in rain | P |
Than bide here receiving woe and pain | P |
- | |
That ordained is for such as them absent | L |
From Love's Court by yeares long and fele many | P |
I lay my life ye shall full soon repent wager | D |
For Love will rive your colour lust and heal health | Z |
Eke ye must bait on many a heavy meal feed | L |
No force y wis I stirr'd you long agone no matter | D |
To draw to Court quoth little Philobone | P |
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Ye shall well see how rough and angry face | R |
The King of Love will show when ye him see | P |
By mine advice kneel down and ask him grace | R |
Eschewing peril and adversity avoiding | U |
For well I wot it will none other be | P |
Comfort is none nor counsel to your ease | R |
Why will ye then the King of Love displease | R |
- | |
Thereupon Philogenet professed humble repentance | R |
and willingness to bear all hardship and chastisement | L |
for his past offence | R |
- | |
These wordes said she caught me by the lap edge of the garment | L |
And led me forth into a temple round | L |
Both large and wide and as my blessed hap | A2 |
And good adventure was right soon I found | L |
A tabernacle raised from the ground | L |
Where Venus sat and Cupid by her side | L |
Yet half for dread I gan my visage hide | L |
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And eft again I looked and beheld afterwards | R |
Seeing full sundry people in the place people of many sorts | R |
And mister folk and some that might not weld craftsmen | P |
Their limbes well me thought a wonder case use | R |
The temple shone with windows all of glass | R |
Bright as the day with many a fair image | B2 |
And there I saw the fresh queen of Carthage | B2 |
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Dido that brent her beauty for the love burnt | L |
Of false Aeneas and the waimenting lamenting | U |
Of her Annelide true as turtle dove | Q |
To Arcite false and there was in painting | U |
Of many a Prince and many a doughty King | U |
Whose martyrdom was show'd about the wall | B |
Geoffrey Chaucer
(1)
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