Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/165

Rh

Bethink thee otherwhere to root

The grafts to which thou look’st for fruit. Delay thou not, but act amain—

I’ve said—my mouth will I refrain

From further speech thereon, lest some

My words with weariness o’ercome.

My promise readily I give

From henceforth with your friends to live

In peaceful wise, if they agree

Thereto, or else I warrant me

They’ll meet grim death.

They must receive

My leman too would they achieve

Their end. I am with justice named

A traitor, and have been proclaimed

By Love as common thief. Forsworn

Am I, but till mine end is worn

No man perceives it. Oft my blow

Is dealt, yet nought thereof men know;

And should one be of it aware,

Unless he too seeks death, will spare

Resentment. Treachery is so strong,

That all the world condones its wrong.

Proteus himself, who changed his shape

Whene’er he pleased, for guile or jape,

Was less adept at fraud than I.

So great is my dexterity,

That though within some town I’ve been

A thousand times, but little ween

The folk who meet me unaware

That oft before I’ve entered there.