Then o’er his broider’d trousers,
And jacket flower’d fair,
The skin of a hart he donneth
The maiden to ensnare.
Now sported the wild little hart
The damsel’s house before,
Glitter’d like the ruddy gold
Each hair the creature bore.
Open stood the castle gate,
The hart therein has stray’d;
And lo with little puppies
The merry maiden play’d.
Up and down he sported,
To the green wood he sped;
Behind the Damsel hasting
In a leash the puppies led.
He sported up, he sported down,
Towards the mead he hied;
The Damsel speeding after
With hand to lure him tried.
The Damsel speeding after
With hand to lure him strove:
“That yonder lovely hart were tame
O would to God above!
“O would to God in heaven,
That yonder hart were mine!
Nothing should he ever drink
Except the rosy wine.
“Nothing should he ever drink
Except the rosy wine,
And nowhere should he slumber
Save in these arms of mine.”
The knight he off has shaken
The deer shape from his frame;
In verity fair damsel,
The hart he now is tame!
Long stood she, the Damsel,
So deep reflected she:
“O for some cunning artifice
To rid me quick of thee!”