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Not one, but all would I embrace,

Could I but find fit time and place;

Giving to each in turn his due

Had I been equal thereunto;

And each had will, as I believe,

In turn my favours to receive:

Prelate or monk except I not,

Nor knight, nor canon, sage or sot,

Burgess or friar, within my fold

All would I take, if not too old.

Religion they’d have cast aside,

Except they feared to be denied

When they should court me. If that they

Had only understood my way

Of thinking, as of women all,

Such fear they ne’er had let befall

Their hearts. Each one, had they dared,

I trow, had readily declared

Their wedlock void, that they to me

Might give themselves all utterly,

Religion spurning, and despite

Of oath or honour, faith or right,

Except perchance, ’twere some poor fool,

Who ne’er had let his love grow cool

For her whose heart he’d gained in youth.

Such one would courteously, forsooth,

Decline my love and turn to her

His well-beloved sweet comforter.

But lovers of that sort are rare.

By God and Saint Amand I swear,

If only opportunity

Of time and place were given to me

VOL. II.