Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/78

 ANONYMOUS

Shall never be said the Nut-brown Maid

Was to her love unkind. Make you ready, for so am I,

Although it were anone: For, in my mind, of all mankind

I love but you alone.

He. Yet I you rede to take good heed

What men will think and say: Of young, of old, it shall be told

That ye be gone away Your wanton will for to fulfil,

In green-wood you to play; And that ye might for your delight

No longer make delay Rather than yc should thus for me

Be called an ill woman Yet would I to the green-wood go,

Alone, a banished man.

She. Though it be sung of old and young

That I should be to blame, Theirs be the charge that speak so large

In hurting of my name For I will prove that faithful love

It is devoid of shame; In your distress and heaviness

To part with you the same. And sure all tho that do not so

True lovers are they none For, in my mind, of all mankind

I love but you alone.

part with] share with. tho] those.

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