“O my hart and O my hart My hart it is so sore! Since I must nedys from my love depart And know no cause wherfore.” Or a song of constancy:— “Grene grouth the holy, so doth the ivie Thow winter’s blastys blow never so hye. As the holy growith grene and never chaungyth hew So I am—ever hath bene—unto my lady trew. Grene grouth, etc. As the holy grouth grene with ivie all alone Whose flowerys cannot be seen and grene wode levys be gone, Now unto my lady, promyse to her I make From all other only to her I me betake. Adew myne owne lady, adew my specyall Who hath my hart trewly, be sure, and ever shall. Grene grouth, etc.” And the song which became so popular, “Pastyme with good Company.” This song was actually taken by Latimer as a text for a sermon before Edward the Sixth:— “Pastyme with good companye I love and shall untyll I dye; Gruche who list—but none denye, So God be plesyd thus leve wyll I; For my Pastance Hunt, syng, and dance, My hart is sette; All goodly sport for my comfort Who shall be let? Youth must have some dalliance, Of good or yll sum pastance; Companye me thynkes then best All thoughts and fansys to dejest; For idleness Is chief mistress Of vices all; Then who can say But myrth and play Is best of all? Company with honeste Is vertu—vices to flee; Company is good and ill, But every man hath hys fre wyll; The best ensew, The worst eschew, My Mynde shall be Vertu to use, Vice to refuse, Thus shall I use me.” [Illustration: HENRY VIII. AS A MUSICIAN From a Royal MS. in British Museum.] At the outset there was nothing but feasting, jousts, feats of arms, masques, devices, pageants, and mummeries. At the feasts the King was lavish and free of hand; at the tilting the King challenged all and won the prize; at the masques and mummeries he was the best of all the actors; at the dance he was the most graceful and the most unwearied. There are long pages in contemporary history on this festive and splendid life at the Court, when as yet all the world was young to Henry, and no one had been executed except Empson and Dudley. The following extract from Holinshed shows the things in which he gloried, and the nature of a Court Pageant:—