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ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC. |
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His fair lady's words
Nothing he regarded; Wantonness affords,
To some, delightful sport; While they dance and sing,
With great mirth prepared, She her hands did wring In most grievous sort.
Oh! what hap had I,
Thus to wail and cry, Unrespected every day.
Living in disdain,
While that others gain • All the right I should enjoy !
I am left forsaken,
Others they are taken; Ah! my love why dost thou so ?
Her flatteries believe not,
Come to me and grieve not; Wantons will thee overthrow.
The knight, with his fair piece,
At length the lady spied, Who did him daily fleece
Of his wealth and store; Secretly she stood,
While she her fashions tryed With a patient mind;
While deep the strumpet swore : " O sir knight," quoth she, "So dearly I love thee, My life doth rest at thy dispose.
By day, and eke by night,
For thy s,weet delight Thou shalt me in thy arms enclose;
I am thine for ever,
Still I will persever, True to thee where'er I go."
Her flatteries believe not,
Come to me and grieve not; Wantons will thee overthrow.
The virtuous lady mild
Enters then among them, Being big with child '
As ever she might be; With distilling tears
She looked then upon them, Filled full of fears,
Thus replyed she: "Ah, my love and dear, Wherefore stay you here, |
Refusing me, your loving wife, For an harlot's sake, Which each one will take ;
Whose vile deeds provoke much strife. Many can accuse her, O, my love, refuse her,
With thy lady home return; Her flatteries believe not, Come to me and grieve not;
Wantons will thee overthrow."
All in a fury then
The angry knight upstarted, Very furious when
He heard his lady's speech; With many bitter terms
His wife he ever thwarted, Using hard extremes
While she did him beseech.
From her neck so white
He took away in spite Her curious chain of purest gold:
Her jewels and her rings,
And all such costly things, As he about her did behold;
The harlot, in her presence,
He did gently reverence, And to her he gave them all.
He sent away his lady,
Full of woe as may be, Who in a swound with grief did fall.
At the lady's wrong
The harlot fleer'd and laughed; Enticements are so strong,
They overcome the wise : The knight nothing regarded
To see the lady scoffed; Thus she was rewarded For her enterprise.
The harlot all this space
Did him oft embrace; She flatters him, and thus doth say : " For thee I'll die and live,
For thee my faith I'll give, No woe shall work my love's decay ;
Thou shalt be my treasure,
Thou shalt be my pleasure, Thou shalt be my heart's delight;
I will be thy darling,
I will be thy worldling, In despite of fortune's spite." |
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