Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/226

192

Examples, since the world was made,

That this most perfect love betrayed;

Nay fewer e’en than this I trow,

Who did by word of mouth avow

Themselves such friends.

And am I then

Wiser than Tully? Surely men

Would call me fool if I should try

To find such love as certainly

Dwells not on earth? Where should one go

For love that lives not here below?

Deem you that I dare soar as high

As cranes, or seek to pierce the sky

Of thought with Plato? Nay, I tire

Of speaking, and have small desire

The Gods should think of me as one

Who’d storm their heaven, and cast adown

Dread thunder on me as on those

Old giants of whom the story goes.

You’d scarce desire such fate should be

For self-same cause dealt out to me,

Thereof have I no shade of doubt.”

“Fair friend,” quoth Reason, “hear me out.

To fly aloft would suit thee not,

But flight of thought and will, I wot,

May all men compass. Set delay

Aside, and list me when I say,

If thou esteemest all too high

The love I tell of, possibly

The fault is thine. Thou yet shalt know

From me another love—but no—