Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/89

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Will seize his heart and nought can heal

His hopeless woe, nor aught anneal.

This mirror valiant men hath cost

Dear life; though fairly might they boast

Themselves for prudent, wise, and great,

They here alas! have found their fate.

Hence passion springs in man anew

And to his life gives fresh purview,

No measure, sense, or mode knows he,

Love, love, alone, hath mastery

Good counsel to the winds is cast,

For Cupid, Venus’ son, hath passed

Around the fount to sow the grain

Whereof all men are madly fain,

The seed of Love to wit, and set

His springes there, and many a net

For damsels fair, and gallants eke:—

Such birds alone doth Cupid seek.

By reason of the seed there sown.

This Fountain is to all men known

As that of Love: thereof is told

The tale full oft in many an old

Romance and song, but ne’er before

Hath any man so fully or

So truly set all forth as now

’Tis writ within this book I trow.

Beside the fount awhile I stayed,

Admiring how the crystals made

Mirrors for all the lovesome things

That filled the garden. Memory brings