Page:The Book of the Duke of True Lovers - 1908.djvu/126



For thy love: and loosed from care

All my song is, "Lady fair,

Living I consume for thee."

But thy gentle love hath sent

The fair comfort that I need:

I therewith am well content.

Gladness doth my spirit lead.

Rightly am I glad, pardie!

For of old my jollity

Drowned in woes I had to bear:

Of thy help when I was ware

Gone was all my misery,

Sweet, in whom my joy must be.

Since the day that thou hast lent

Thy dear heart, my life is freed

From the sorrows I lament:

Peace and gladness are my meed.

Lady, love despatcheth me

Succour sweet, who thus am free

From my sickness: pale despair

Rules no longer when I share

Hope that I thy face my see,

Sweet, in whom my joy must be.

Now have I recounted unto you how that in the first instance I was surprised and subdued by love, and was afterward grievously constrained by great