Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/178

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’Fore Heaven! if Evil-Tongue had known,

Thereof no power on earth had thrown

It open. But Queen Venus, fair

And ever kind, with loving care

Snatched us the keys, and thus are we

Freed from the tower of Jealousy.

And then all round me in a ring

These six sat, greatly comforting

My griefworn heart. Then Beauty gave

In secret that my heart did crave,

The precious Rosebud, which I took

With rapture, while my being shook

With tremulous joy. Couched on the grass,

New sprung, we saw the moments pass

In soft content; our coverlet

Of fragrant rose-leaves made, while met

Our lips in fond embrace. The night

We passed in transports of delight

Fearful of morn, which all too soon

Appears when Maytide treads on June.

With dawn we rose, fordone with grief

To find such joy must be so brief:

But Beauty much desired to gain

Once more the bud, and I, though fain

To keep it, dared not disobey

Her high behest, woe worth the day!

Whate’er my pains. But ne’ertheless

The Rose no more in hard duress

Was shut, for, ere all thither sped.

Came Beauty, smilingly, and said:

“Though Jealousy should now espy

Our doings, and more thick and high