Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/59

Rh

Kind nature gave me: since the day

That first we met, not once astray

Have gone our hearts, but many a proof

Have had that, like the web with woof,

Are they conjoined in friendship true,

And proof alone assurance due

Affordeth of a friendship’s worth.

If all that I possess on earth

You deigned to take, my heart would be

Grateful to you exceedingly,

So powerful are the cords that bind

Two men whose bodies hold one mind.

For I, quoth he, to heal your woe

To prison, light of heart, would go

As borrow, pawn, or hostage plight,

While all my goods were sold outright

For your behoof.

But this dear friend

Permitted not his work to end

With offering, but would take no rest

Until he generously had pressed

His having on me, who, for shame,

Stood silently, as one who’d blame

Himself, yet dares not ope his lips

To tell the wretchedness that grips

His inmost heart, but tries to hide

The poverty that like a tide

O’erwhelms him, and with cheerful face

Would fain conceal his dire disgrace.

Far different is the case, I doubt,

With monkish mendicants, those stout