Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/176

142

Who now on every side behold

These traitors, venomous as bold,

Who fain would hunt my soul to death.

Ah! dear Fair-Welcome, they their breath

But spend with purpose to deceive

And bind you with the cord they weave.

Alas! God help me, know I not

But what already they have got

Their will against you. Darkest fear

Invades me, lest it should appear

That you forget me quite; what woe

Untold would fall on me to know

That I had lost your friendship, then

Were I unhappiest of men;

All pleasure, joy, and comfort sped,

And hope itself nigh perishèd.

[The next eighty lines, which give a sort of conclusion to the story, are found only in some manuscripts. M. Méon gives it as his opinion that they were suppressed by Jean de Meun, in order that they might not interfere with his continuation of the poem. M. Croissandeau, on the other hand, considers them altogether spurious, inasmuch as they are not, as he very clearly points out, in accord with the spirit of the tale or of William Lorris. As M. Croissandeau thought well to print them, it has been judged advisable to give the transla­tion. They were evidently unknown to the English translator of the fourteenth century.]

[Might I but see your face, and speak

In converse sweet, but once the week