Tortured in mind and raging with his smart:
“Unheard of (thus he thought), of speech deprived,
How shall I now seduce a female heart?
By cunning, not by force, must this be done;
But how can I my cunning bring to pass?
Who both as weak and dumb to all is known,
Must ever for a hopeless blockhead pass.”
Much musing on his errand night and day,
His brain a thought conceiv’d that pleased him well:
Could not a rune, carv’d on a staff, convey,