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If so thou wilt, my heart is fain

Thy good esteem and lore to gain;

Talk on if so thou wilt, and I

Will stand to hear thee silently.

Ready am I to suffer all

That may be; so thou dost not fall

From bad to worse, I care not how

Thou treat’st me, I my neck will bow.

It seems as if thou’dst draw me on

To talk as fool or simpleton:

That is but vain, for thine own good

I speak to thee with hardihood:

Thine enemy forsooth were I

If I should stoop me angrily

To check thy folly. Vengeance is

An evil weapon, but, ywis,

Slander is worse. Some fitter way

Than that I’d surely find to pay

My vengeance were I thereto driven;

And if it happed that you had given

By word or deed offence to me,

’Twould be more fit that secretly

I gave reproof without disgrace

Or shame to thee; and if in face

Of kind and friendly counsel thou

Laughed me to scorn, ’twere then, I trow,

Better before some magistrate,

Whate’er the grievance were, to state

It calmly, and redress amain,

Receive or other vengeance gain

Unblameful. No desire to scold

My neighbours have I, or to hold