Page:Poems and ballads (IA poemsballads00swinrich).pdf/300

 Let me die maiden after many pains. Though I be least among thy handmaidens, Doubtless I shall take death more sweetly thus. Now have they brought her to King Gabalus, Who laughed in all his throat some breathing-whiles: By God, he said, if one should leap two miles, He were not pained about the sides so much. This were a soft thing for a man to touch. Shall one so chafe that hath such little bones? And shook his throat with thick and chuckled moans For laughter that she had such holiness. What aileth thee, wilt thou do services? It were good fare to fare as Venus doth. Then said this lady with her maiden mouth, Shamefaced, and something paler in the cheek: Now, sir, albeit my wit and will to speak Give me no grace in sight of worthy men, For all my shame yet know I this again, I may not speak, nor after downlying Rise up to take delight in lute-playing, Nor sing nor sleep, nor sit and fold my hands, But my soul in some measure understands God's grace laid like a garment over me. For this fair God that out of strong sharp sea Lifted the shapely and green-coloured land, And hath the weight of heaven in his hand As one might hold a bird, and under him The heavy golden planets beam by beam