Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/85

 ANONYMOUS

She. Though in the wood I understood

Ye had a paramour, All this may nought remove my thought,

But that I "will be your'. And she shall find me soft and kind

And courteis every hour; Glad to fulfil all that she will

Command me, to my power* For had ye, lo, an hundred mo,

Yet would I be that one For, in my mind, of all mankind

I love but you alone.

He. Mine own dear love, I see the prove

That ye be kind and true, Of maid, of wife, in all my life,

The best that ever I knew. Be merry and glad, be no more sad,

The case is changed new; For it were ruth that for your truth

Ye should have cause to rue. Be not dismayed, whatsoever I said

To you when I began: I will not to the green-wood go;

I am no banished man.

She. These tidings be more glad to me

Than to be made a queen, If I were sure they should endure;

But it is often seen

When men will break promise they speak The word is on the splene. on the splene] in jest.

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