To Rosemounde (Chaucer, 1396)
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Madame, ye ben of al beaute shryne
As fer as cercled is the mapamounde,
For as the cristal glorious ye shyne,
And lyke ruby ben your chekes rounde.
Therwith ye ben so mery and so jocounde
That at a revel whan that I see you daunce,
It is an oynement unto my wounde,
Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce.
For thogh I wepe of teres ful a tyne,
Yet may that wo myn herte nat confounde;
Your semy voys that ye so smal out twyne
Maketh my thoght in joy and blis habounde.
So curtaysly I go with love bounde
That to myself I sey in my penaunce,
"Suffyseth me to love you, Rosemounde,
Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce."
Nas never pyk walwed in galauntyne
As I in love am walwed and ywounde,
For which ful ofte I of myself devyne
That I am trewe Tristam the secounde.
My love may not refreyde nor affounde,
I brenne ay in an amorous plesaunce.
Do what you lyst, I wyl your thral be founde,
Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce.
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Composed for Isabella of Valois (France)
(November 9, 1387-September 13, 1409)
on the occasion of her marriage
(November 1, 1396) to King Richard II of England
(January 6, 1367 - January 6, 1400)
(reigned July 16, 1377 - September 1399 deposed)
Isabella of Valois (1387-1410), a Princess of France,
daughter of King Charles VI, and queen consort of
England from 1396 to 1400. When Isabella was eight,
she was married to the widower King Richard II of
England, in a move for peace with France.
Although the union was political, Richard II and the
child Isabella developed a mutual respectful relation.
When Richard II was imprisoned and murdered,
Isabella was ordered by a new king Henry IV to move
out of Windsor and had to settle into a place called
Sunninghill. Henry IV didn't know what to do with her;
he then decided that she should marry his son, the
future Henry V. But Isabella put her foot down and
utterly refused to have anything to do with the prince.
Knowing her husband was dead, she went into
mourning and ignored Henry IV's demand; eventually
Henry let her go back to France. She married again
with Charles, Duke of Orleans. Isabella didn't live long:
she died in childbirth at the age of 21.
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