Page:The Book of the Duke of True Lovers - 1908.djvu/110

 my famished heart and eyes by granting them opportunity to see your loved and much-desired self. And may you be minded to send me the very joyous news concerning this the which I long for. Sweet and winsome one, who art renowned above all others, I plead for your help more often than I can tell unto you, and I pray God to grant you a happy life, and the will to love me well.—Written right joyously, in the hope of better fortune,

Your humble slave.

Thus did I finish my letter, and, at the end, I added a short ballad, so that she might not be wearied in the reading. Therefore listen to the device of it, for it is after a strange manner—

BALLAD

Kind and fair Saint,

My heart's repose,

Whose sweet constraint

Doth all enclose

That the world knows

Of graciousness,

Vouchsafe me grace!