¶ Guystarde and Sygysmonde, ¶ Here followeth the amorous history of Guystarde and Sygysmonde/ and of their dolorous death by her father/ newly translated out of latin in to english by Wyllym Walter servant to sir Henry Marney knight chancellor of the duchy of Lancastre. ¶ R. Coplande to the translator. THynflammate desire/ of your good intent News to compile/ eschewing idleness Cometh of grace/ & of wisdom excellent To occupy tuche/ as have no business which utu of doing/ moche harm doth oppress For surely idleness/ is portresse of all sin Every vice/ ready to let in ¶ The wretched life/ of osyosyte Engendereth sloth/ poverty and pain It is nouryce/ of voluptuousity And setteth the mind on all things vain It sleeth the body/ and troubleth the brain Vnstedyeth the wit/ and wasteth good deed And letteth virtue/ and goodness to proceed ¶ Example plain/ of idle Sygysmonde ●edde daintily/ no manner work to use which caused idleness/ for to habonde And unto pleasure/ set only for to muse Dance/ song/ and play/ she did not refuse which things assembled/ engendered delight Ot natural lust/ to do her appetite ¶ Here lacketh business/ and good pastime Grace of good doing/ was from her exiled Caught as a bird/ tangled with lime Fyr it by one feather/ and than with all beguiled Right so who with this vice is filed Take with one sin/ all other doth ensue Ere go/ good business/ is gate of virtue ¶ Thus endeth the prologue. ¶ How Sygysmonde after the death of her husband was enamoured of one Guystarde a man of her father's house. Prince of Salerne sometime was one Tancerde A noble man gentle lowly and sage Greatly praised for his manhood and ded If he had not take vengeance in his age Of two lovers/ done by his fell courage For they loved each other tenderly By cruel mean he caused them to die ¶ This noble man had never other child But a daughter of excellent beauty Prudent in her youth sage and nothing wild Her father loved her right tenderly So loath he was to lose her company That no man could have her in marriage Till that she was above her lawful age ¶ Sygysmonde was the name of this lady which was wedded with her fathers counsel Unto the dukes son of Campany But in short time after their espousayle death with his dart her husband did assail After whose death she did not long sojourn But to her father she did home return ¶ Of shape and person she was well formed Her face and colour fair and amiable Nature in beauty her so fornysshed That none to her was equiperable Her manner and wisdom commendable In all her deeds she was excellent More than to woman is expedient ¶ In her father's house she long sojourning In wealth and ease and great prosperity Her fathers mind when she had perceiving How he in her had such felicity That to marry her he would not agree And how it should be shame for him to require To accomplish her pleasure and desire ¶ Wherefore she concluded in her mind Some gentle man for her lover to choose which would unto her be secret and kind with whom she might her pleasure sometime use The chance of love she could no wise refuse cupid so sore her heart had set on fire That need she must accomplish her desire ¶ Of nobles and other of mean degree Her father's house was greatly fornysshed As noble householders are wont for to be Sygysmonde their manners oft regarded Among whom one out she had espied Virtuous/ humble/ steadfast/ prew/ and sage How be it he was but of small lineage ¶ This noble young man Guystarde had the name Upon whom oft Sygysmonde her look did cast His noblesse her heart did sore inflame And for she had full oft found him steadfast Him for to love she was nothing aghast His sad behaviour wounded her sore That love in her increased more and more ¶ This young man likewise of wit excellent Perceiving the noblesse of this lady In her love so fervently he brent That night nor day he could rest quietly To love his mind so moche he did apply That by desire he was so sore oppressed His painful love he could in no wise digest ¶ Each of other was sore enamoured Yet none of them knew the others mind Sygysmonde nothing so much desired As Guystarde in a secret place to find To whom she might bewray her love so kind To none other she durst show her purpose least they to her father would it disclose ¶ She coveyting her mind for to fulfil All her mind she wrote in a lettere And in an hollow read she put the bill And to him she gave it with smiling cheer Bidding him to bear it to her chambere And to deliver it unto her maid To kindle the fire/ it was good she said ¶ Guystarde than took the foresaid reed saying he would soon do her commandment But in his thought he well imagined It was not given him but for some intent wherefore unto his chamber he forth went And broke the reed/ wherein he did espy The letter enclosed right secretly ¶ When that he had over red the bill well wherein her purpose he had perceived He was so merry that no tongue can tell The joy which his heart had surprised For it was the thing he most desired wherefore he agreed her mind to fulfil According to the tenor of the bill ¶ R. Coplande to these lovers in the effect of their love see here in love/ the marvelous effect without foresight/ compassing the end Only of lust/ the doing to conject As by this lady/ which did condescend Unto this knight/ her mind so to have pend Not regarding/ her state of widowhood Honour and good fame/ forgetting as deed ¶ O foolish Guystarde/ O unwise Sygysmonde/ O new Pryamus/ O young wanton Thysbe/ was no reason/ nor fere in you found To ponder of tancred/ the inward cruelty O blind love/ such is thy property Youth to enclose with thy lubryke fire Nothing regarded/ but to do their desire ¶ Alas Guystarde where is thy memory Thou dost not ponder thy masters gentleness which from thy youth hath fostered tenderly His house & daughter thou wilt pollute reckless Thou wilt disdain/ his honour and nobleness His love thou lesest/ his good word and his deed Beware/ such service/ such is the wage or meed ¶ How after that Guystarde had received the rede of Sygysmonde he found the cave where thorough he went to her chamber. THere was a cave joining unto the place which was out of man's remembrance passed For it was not used of long space On the top thereof in light for to cast There was an hole which was so old and waste That thorns and briars did it over grow So that the entry thereof none might know ¶ And from the cave there was a secret way which of no creature was espied Unto the chamber where as Sygysmonde lay The way thereof so long was dysused The door of the said cave was fast barred which passage was stopped so secretly That hard it was the encring to espy ¶ Sygysmonde by the secret introduction Of love from whose eyes nothing can be hid Of the said cave she found the entering soone And in to it alone she descended Both length and deepness she well regarded And to Guystarde she made thereof report By writing how he might to her resort ¶ Guystarde of this being advertised Ordered all thing meet to his business A leather cote for him he devised From thorns and briars to keep him harmless And in the night thither he did him dress And by a rope in to the cave did slide And there for her all night he did abide ¶ In the morning when the day 'gan to appear Sygysmonde caused to avoid by a train The maids which lay within her chamber saying that night she could not sleep for pain And quietly than to rest she would fain And after them she locked fast the door Of her purpose she thought she would be sure ¶ Into the cave she goeth incontinent Finding Guystarde/ she oft did him embrace In to her chamber they both after went And unto bed they go for their solace Their pleasant life they continue a space enforcing themself to please each other Till it was time for them to dissever ¶ Guystarde in to the cave went secretly After whom she locked the door full fast And to her maidens she went hastily But he durst not while the day did last Go from the cave but when midnight was past He went out so that none him espied And unto his house fast he him hied ¶ Often times this custom they used Their life amorous leading covertly Of a long time it was not perceived But fortune which is always contrary By his hard chance these lovers did dyscry So that with sorrow ended their pleasure There is no joy that always may endure ¶ tancred alone used customably Unto his daughters chamber to resort And on her bed to sleep sometime would lie Or else with her to find some game and sport In her talking he had full great consort And when he had been there a certain space He would depart unto some other place ¶ He came unto her chamber on a day while she was with her maidens in the garden He saying that she was busy in play Beside her bed he did himself decline Afore his face he did draw the curtyne A soft pillow under his heed he cast His weary body fell a sleep full fast Sygysmonde before her chamber windows shut For with Guystarde she had made appointment The same day to have a merry fit And when she thought her time convenient Out of the garden secretly she went And unto her chamber she resorted And after her the door she fast locked ¶ She not knowing her father there a sleep The cave door she opened with her key And caused Guystarde out of it to creep And on the bed as they were wont always Of Venus they used the sport and play So that by noise and words that they did make tancred her father out of his sleep did wake ¶ tancred from his sleep moved suddenly All their pastime he well advertised At the first time he did think for to cry But in himself he well delivered By silence his mind should be better sped And that he might with deliberation Upon them both take just correction ¶ Where from noise he kept himself full close These lovers when they had done their pleasure With glad semblant they both from the bed rose The deed they thought right secret and sure In to the cave which was deep and obscure Guystarde went in as he was wont to do And Sygysmonde did to her maidens go ¶ R. Coplande by exclamation to fortune. Unstable fortune/ tumbling as the see Than ice more sliper frozen after rain Here is thy deed/ here is thy property Never in one/ but changeable sudden These two lovers/ by thy brittle train Thou hast assembled/ and now wilt dyscever A worthy act/ this is thy guise ever ¶ Priam and Thy she/ thou goodly behight Dydo to Even/ thou caused to combine Arcyte to Emely/ in sturdy fight And Helen to Paris/ holly to incline Ypomyneus to Athelant of noble line Troilus to Cresede/ by reason of Pander At last unwares/ thou didst them separe ¶ O fortune hard/ of chances most extreme To bring her father/ O wicked slack traitress was there none other person in all the reme For to discover/ their secret business None? no/ alas here is great heaviness Of any other/ it might have been denayed But nay for sooth/ thou fortune hast them trayde ¶ How Guystarde was taken coming out of the cave. tancred for this chance being troubled From the chamber secretly did issue And with watch men the cave he enclosed within the night Guystarde for to pursue As he came out they took this lover true In his leather cote as he was clothed Before tancred they have him presented ¶ tancred unto him spoke thus cruelly Guystarde my kindness hath not deserved That thou should do to me this villainy which with mine eyen this day I espied I have alway the greatly favoured Thou hast dishonoured me by thine offence For kindness shame thou dost me recompense ¶ The true lover answered piteously Unto tancred saying sir for certain The hard chance of love no man can deny It is greater than is the power human From it I could myself in no wise refrain Your puissance may not unto love compare Love is so great that it will no man spare ¶ This prince for this being full of sorrow Commanded him to be kept in prison And after dinner on the next morrow Unto his daughters chamber he went right soon All were avoided save they two alone with heavy cheer thus unto her he said which knew nothing her council was bewrayed ¶ Sygysmonde I have been long deceived By your honest virtue and sad prudence which unto me so steadfast appeared That in you I had so great confidence Thinking ye would never do such offence No man could have made me it to believe If with mine eyes the deed I did not prove ¶ Thy heinous trespass doth my heart sore grieve which continually is in my thought That the small time which I have to leave In sorrow to end thou hast it now brought At least if thou had minded to be nought Thou should have taken one to thy degree convenient the less the fault had be ¶ But of the multitude that use my hall Thou hast chosen Guystarde thy love to be which is most simple and poorest of them all Not gentle borne but come of low degree whom we have nourished for charity wherefore I am so wrapped in sorrow That what to do as yet I do not know ¶ Of Guystarde which is in captivity what I will do I am delivered But what punishment I shall take on the As yet my mind is not determined Love would the offence to be pardoned The trespass requireth vengeance certain justice would punish/ nature would refrain ¶ Therefore my mind as yet is variable Not knowing what to done what council Should to this matter be most profitable But I thought first to know thy mind and will And upon that my pleasure to fulfil These words said/ he cast aside his eye And like a child he wept abundantly ¶ Sygysmonde hearing her father thus speak And how Guystarde was put in prison deep For sorrow her heart in two did nigh break uneath from swooning she could herself keep But lamentably she full fast did weep Knowing their love to be discovered which of long time had be full closely hid ¶ She vanquishing her fentynyne courage with constant mind she did cease to lament For anger she knit the brows and visage And for to die in heart she did assent If Guystarde died by her father's judgement wherefore of death she being not dismayed Unto her father these words she said ¶ Father your mercy I will not require Sith your mind ●s my lover for to kill I shall nothing obtain of my desire And as for me it shall be at your will whither that ye will my life do save or spill The one I know well I shall never get The other to have I do not covet ¶ Wherefore your mercy I do now despise And with good reason for to purge my fame Of this my deed let it you now suffice That ye yourself of it are most to blame For I had never come unto this shame If it had not been by your negligence Sith I did ill/ it is but your offence ¶ To love Guystarde I knowledge and confess And ever shall while that my life doth last which is but short the truth for to express My heart and will shall ever be steadfast If love may be when that the life is passed Him for to love/ my heart shall never seize But and it may/ it shall rather increase ¶ Father ye should have well considered That I am not made of iron nor stone But of your flesh and nature engendered And though that by age your courage is gone Of youth ye should have consideration How they be brent with right fervent desire Of flove which doth their hearts sore set on fire ¶ furthermore ye might right well consider That idleness and delicate feeding In young people to lust is a breder And how I am in young age flourishing And of my husband having knowledging Of love what the delycyousnes meant Wherefore with desire I should soon be brent ¶ I being in voluptuousity Both night and day my mind I did apply My flaming heat how quenched it might be without man's help I know no remedy wherefore my courage for to satisfy In secret wise I thought to use the game So that no man thereof me should dysfame ¶ Love and fortune my purpose furthering A secret cave they made me for to find whereof no man had any knowledging which cave advanced my desire and mind Thinking I might secretly use my kind But to your knowledge I greatly marvel The entering thereof how that ye could tell ¶ Guystarde I have not loved feignedly As most women be wont of their usage But of long time I did diligently Begarde his good manners and wisdom sage His constant virtue/ and manly courage Or I would unto him any love cast which is so sure that it shall ever last ¶ But for he is borne but of low degree Ye say to me the deed to be to me more shame By your saying as seemeth unto me Fortune and not Guystarde ye do now blame Unworthy men which bringeth to great fame And they that be worthy of great renome She keepeth low under her fell thraldom ¶ Of one man we took our original Virtue maketh man to be excellent whose deed is good him noble men may call Though your saying thereto do not assent But ignorant men think by their judgement He is noble that is of great estate Though their manners be worthy for to hate ¶ The deeds of your nobles remember And the manners of Guystarde therewithal Certes if ye will justly consider Of nobleness he shall be special Noble unnoble either ye may call Their birth and manners are full contrary From nobleness they greatly do vary ¶ I take record thereof of your report Whom ye have praised so excellently Of your affirming I took great comfort His virtue ye so moche did magnify And without I am deceived truly There is no praise to him attrybuted But that he hath it full well deserved ¶ If he be poor yet he is excellent His noble virtue doth enhance his name His youth in your service hath long spent If he be poor thereof ye be to blame with richesse ye might have raised his name promotion he hath deserved full well poverty doth not gentleness expel ¶ And where ye be in ambyguyte How ye may do to punish mine offence Of the said doubt I will make your heart fire To punish Guystarde if ye do pretence Upon me execute the same sentence I was the cause that he did the trespass If that he die I covet not your grace ¶ death I fear not nor life I would obtain But of Guystarde if ye take not mercy Though ye would me spare I shall not refrain But of myself take vengeance cruelly And if we have deserved for do die Upon us both accomplish your pleasure For after him my life shall not long dure ¶ Robert Coplande to the constancy in love of Sygysmonde. O Constant lady/ O light of lovers sheen O turtle true/ thy lover so absent what might thou more/ than with courage clean Offer thyself/ to death most violent For thy Guystarde/ which hath his judgement Alas my pen/ for ruth sorrow doth quake Only for ruth/ that I have for thy sake ¶ Alas sweet woman/ thou loved not for meed Nor yet in common/ but steadfastly to one which secret was in word/ thought and deed And never loved but only the alone Alas what sorrow/ now that he is gone Doth the compass/ standing all in dread Hearing him judged/ to death by fierce tancred ¶ Will none excuse/ thy father's heart relent And thou his child/ O nature most untrue Alas me think I see the here present Berayned with tears/ and ashy deadly hew Thou do●st not pray this favour to eschew But hardyed in love/ making thy judgement weening thereby/ his heart for to relent ¶ Finis. ¶ How Guystarde was taken out of prison and his heart cut out of his body/ & sent in a cup of gold to Sygysmonde. THis prince perceiving his daughters courage Thought not that she would her saying fulfil But from her chamber he took his passage To slay his daughter it was not his will But Guystarde he determined to kill After whose death he thought she would refrain forgetting the love that was with them twain ¶ He commanded them that did keep the jail To strangle Guystarde by his fell judgement Secretly in the night they should not fail And from his body his heart they should rend And there withal they should do him present whose commandment they durst not disobey But executed it without delay ¶ tancred in a cup of gold put the heart And by a secret servant he it sent Unto his daughter with this message smart saying your father sendeth you this present That you should take comfort is his intent Of that which ye loved best in your mind whom ye have found so steadfast true and kind ¶ But Sygysmonde after her father was gone Out of her chamber her mind to fulfil To the garden she went secret alone And gathered veynymous herbs to still where with she might herself suddenly kill If Guystarde were slain as she did suppose Than by that venom herself she would lose ¶ But after this message was to her told She took the cup with a sad countenance The heart therein sadly she did behold She pondered within her remembrance That it was his heart she had no dowtaunce wherefore she said unto the messangere These words following with heavy cheer ¶ Certain my father hath well considered This noble heart is not worthy to have Other sepulture to be entired For in a cup of gold should be his grave So great a gift he never to me gave with great thanks have me recommended For his kindness can not be deserved ¶ R. Coplande by exclamation to tancred in executing tyranny. OVte on the tyrant/ O cruel Trancrede what haste thou done/ fury to commit Behold Guystarde withouten heart here bleed woe worth thy doom/ and hasty shyttle wit Outrage alas how is thy reason quit Only but death/ fie out alas for woe No prison/ banysshment/ nor punishing but so ¶ Thou hast not regarded the words of thy child Nor her answers/ with promise desperate But in anger thou hast/ thyself beguiled Now to repent/ thou shalt it find to late Ace what cometh of domes abrevyate But repentance/ O fool insapyent Of foolish judge/ a hasty judgement ¶ With death of one/ thou thought to have the other Thou lesest both/ and all with hastiness True love of death is the very mother Record of Dido/ as Vyrgyll doth express Dyanyra/ Isyphyll/ and Lucrece with many other which at this time Ispare And now by the is come these lovers share ¶ Finis. ¶ How Sygysmonde died after the heart of Guystarde was sent to her. THe said messengere with this did depart Sygysmonde holding the cup tenderly with her lips often kissed the heart replenished with tears abundantly with face pale for woe and melancholy Beholding it with deadly countenance In this wise she wailed the woeful chance ¶ O noble heart the pleasant hospital Of my desire which by great cruelty Hast finished for me thy life mortal To know thy death it had sufficed me Though with mine eyes I did it not see But me think it is to me agreeable Thou hast thy grave to the convenable ¶ At thy last departing there lacked nought But the tears of thy lover so free Yet god hath put within my father's thought Thy heart he hath sent hither unto me To fornysshe them at this thine obseque He knew it loved me specially But with dry eyes I did think for to die ¶ I can desire no better company Than thy noble heart at my departing For to the it is right necessary To have knowledge of my life the ending By soul with thine to be is desiring Ensemble that they may go their passage where pleaseth god to their last pilgrimage ¶ These words said she did decline her eye Upon the cup wherein the heart was laid Like a river she wept abundantly But noise or cry she did not out brayed As women be wont but with mind dysmayde Full oft she kissed there the deed heart Complaining on fortune false and pervert ¶ Her gentle women being there present what the heart signified they did marvel And wherefore she did so greatly lament And for pity they did weep and wail praying her to make to them rehearsal The cause wherefore she made so moche sorrow But in no wise of her they might it know And when she had wept sufficiently She dried her eyen and ceased her weeping And to the heart she said thus piteously O noble heart best beloved of all thing The office of love I make now ending For time it is that I should follow the By cruel death thy fellow for to be ¶ This said she drank the poison without fere And on her bed down herself she laid The deed heart to hers she held hard and near Abiding her death without noise or brayed The maidens of this being sore afraid Suspecting the drink and lamentation To tancred thereof they made relation ¶ Her father of this was greatly moved For he feared his daughters fell courage That herself with some thing had grieved To her chamber he took fast his passage But the poison no medicine could assuage wherefore he sighed and wept asperly Complaining his daughters hard destiny ¶ She prayed him to cease so for to rave And that he of his extreme charity would bury her and Guystarde in one grave And for she living suffered might not be Secret to use familiarity That after her death she uncovertlye Might be laid by him where so he did lie ¶ tancred for woe and sorrow could not speak Sygysmonde feeling death to approach fast And that her eye strings began to break She bad them all farewell with mind steadfast with that her soul out of her body past The heart full hard she held until her breast Until that death her life had over priest ¶ Thus the love of these lovers finished tancred after his woeful heaviness In one sepulture them both entered within the city of Salerne doubtless Full like a prince with great pomp and richesse To these two lovers jesus of his grace Grant mercy & in heaven to have a place. Amen. ¶ The envoy of R. Coplande. GO tragedy unto thy translator Bewail to him thy chance unfortunate If ought be amiss/ thine impressoure In addition/ or sense myslytterate Pray him of help/ thy faults to castigate And where need is/ to add or else detray Pardon of mysmaking/ gladly thou him pray ¶ And him require/ according to promise His book to achieve/ he knoweth mine intent which is of substance worth many of this And more worthy/ of matter excellent How be it with this I do right well assent That he with Pamphletes many doth occupy which moral books/ readeth not willingly ¶ And if thou hap to reimpressyon Desire them/ the which shall be the cause Though thou be ill/ that no transgression By them nor theirs/ be made in any clause correction/ I agre/ but there a pause Follow your copy/ and let thamending alone He may ill mend two tongues that can but one ¶ None be the masters/ that with me will deal Than beware/ my little book I pray From boy's/ and learners/ lest they thy trowthe steel And holly thy faults/ unto me lay Show forth thy matter/ what ever that they say Of love/ folly/ fortune/ hastiness/ and shame Unto thine author/ and not to me the blame ¶ And unto them/ which chained be in love Show example/ of wilful appetite Ordre each where/ their courages to move well cometh intent/ taken of wise respite give council/ to leave sensual delight Take the as mirror/ such danger to ensue By harm of other/ they may the same eschew. FINIS ¶ Thus endeth the amorous history of Guystarde and Sygysmonde. Imprinted at London in Fleetstreet at the sign of the Son by Wynkyn de word. In the year of our lord. M. CCCCC.XXXij. W C Wynkyn. de. word.