Turns out King Henry VIII wrote some poems in his spare time.
Or to be more precise, lyrics, as most of his poems were also designed to be sung and played. Some of the lyrics were collated in the Henry VIII Manuscript circa 1522 along with other court composers of the time. They reveal that during the early years of his reign, young Henry’s court was one of lively fun and courtly pleasure.
Brevity also seemed to be much in favour.
Alas! what shall I do for love? was written for four voices.
“Alas! what shall I do for love?”
By King Henry VIII
|Early Modern English||Modern English|
|Alas what shall I do for love||Alas, what shall I do for love?|
|for love alasse what shall I do||For love, alas, what shall I do?|
|Syth now so kynd||Since now so kind|
|I do yow fynde||I do you find|
|to kepe yow me vnto||To keep you me unto|
Note the play on words with alas at the end of the original with a lass.
Given the number of wives and mistresses Henry would go on to have, it turned out there wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for love!
Below is a Naxos 2006 version of the poem with the Alamire choir.