In ‘They Flee from Me’ by Thomas Wyatt there is a mood of surveillance that must have permeated the court in his day:
They flee from me, that sometime did me seek
With naked foot stalking in my chamber.
From our visit to Hampton Court it was evident that all actions at court were heavily scrutinized by others. There was an atmosphere of suspicion and no sense of privacy as people collected together in the ‘watching room’ to wait for the company of the King. It would only have been in the closets adjoining the main areas that any illicit activity could have taken place. This is further suggested by the line ‘that sometime they put themselves in danger’ which implies that intimacy at court was not easy and would have resulted in accusations and recrimination that would preclude the offendant from further courtly activity. Perhaps Wyatt is expecting too much from these women who evidently had much to lose if associated with him. Indeed Wyatt’s women as exemplified in ‘Whoso List To Hunt’ are the property of other men and so would be putting themselves in danger by being with him. But, Wyatt is ambivalent. Courtly practice seems now to allow women free ‘range’ but it is now that they flee from him. Was it that Wyatt had once been able to offer excitement and sexual favours and had a position in court that the lady’s lusted after and now for some reason, unbeknown to himself he is out of favour? He has been long forgotten.
In an attempt to humiliate the women that now flee from him Wyatt reminds us of a specific incident when a woman made herself sexually available to him. Wyatt wants to remind the readers, possibly other men at court, and himself, of a time when women desired him. Through evoking the woman in parts, first her naked foot, then her shoulders, then her arms Wyatt employs a Petrarchan blazon to dismantle the woman and distance himself from her as a fully realized subject and the emotions attatched to that.
Wyatts loss of sex appeal turns to anger in the last stanza when he proclaims:
But since that I so kindely am served,
I fain would know what she hath deserved.
Wyatt is asking if the lady should be punished for her ‘newfangleness’ and for politely but emasculatingly giving him leave to go. But his power is impotent. The lady is evidently in a position of authority over him through perhaps some change in status at court that once saw him as taming them with bread but now sees him being ostracised for his ‘gentleness.’
This theme is also addressed in ‘The Long Love that in my Thought Doth Harbour’ as here, the lady teaches him to ‘reign’ in his emotions as she takes displeasure in his ‘bold’ claims of love. In both poems Wyatt is at the mercy of the woman/women he loves but who do not requite his feelings. As in ‘They Flee From Me’, ‘The Long Love’ also seems to suggest that openness about love is unacceptable. In this way Wyatt seems to echo John Skelton in ‘Phyllype Sparowe’ who has to replace the possibility of real affection and sexual gratification with the writing of tittilating soft porn. Just as Skelton cannot live out his desires in the atmosphere of a congested court and so retreats into fantasy nor can Wyatt be free to love or be loved. However, whereas Skelton finds solace in his poetry there is a sense that Wyatt must hide his emotions and accept the lonliness that is bestowed on him. Far from being able to appeal to other men in recompense for his unrequited love, Wyatt retreats into the lonely ‘heart’s forest’, vulnerable, angry, confused and bitter. Wyatt is unable to deal satirically or ironically with his emotions. Rather, his poems convey an ambiguity ( the women are both tame and wild, he talks about them tenderly and sensitively but also objectifies them) which expresses to the reader the insecurity of his position of a man at court who cannot make sense of the women around him and the codes of conduct that control them all.
