Page:Poems, now first collected, Stedman, 1897.djvu/88

PROVENÇAL LOVERS

With gowns well tattered by the briars,

The saints who lift their eyes and whine:

I like them not—a starveling set!

Who'd care with folk like these to dine?

The other road 't were just as well

That you and I should take, ma belle!"—

Said Aucassin to Nicolette.

With pleasant comrades whom we know,

Fair scholars, minstrels, lusty knights

Whose deeds the land will not forget,

The captains of a hundred fights,

The men of valor and degree:

We'll join that gallant company,"—

Said Aucassin to Nicolette.

And beauteous ladies debonair,

The pretty dames, the merry brides,

Who with their wedded lords coquette

And have a friend or two besides,—

And all in gold and trappings gay,

With furs, and crests in vair and gray;"—

Said Aucassin to Nicolette.

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