MAID. Tush, tush, we shall come in very good season,
If so be thou goest as fast as I;
Take up thy basket, and quickly have done,
We will be both there by and by.
MAN. I for my part will never leave running,
Until that I come to the sign of the Whiting.
[Here the two Cooks run out, and in cometh the
Young Man and the Young Woman his lover.
THE YOUNG WOMAN.
Where is my sweeting,[325] whom I do seek?
He promised me to have met me here:
Till I speak with him I think it a week,
For he is my joy, he is my cheer!
There is no night, there is no day,
But that my thoughts be all of him;
I have no delight, if he be away:
Such toys in my head do ever swim.
But behold at the last, where he doth come.
For whom my heart desired long;
Now shall I know, all and some,[326]
Or else I would say I had great wrong.
THE YOUNG MAN.
My darling, my coney,[327] my bird so bright of ble:[328]
Sweetheart, I say, all hail to thee!
How do our loves? be they fast asleep?
Or the old liveliness do they still keep?
YOUNG WOMAN. Do ye ask, and[329] my love be fast asleep?
O, if a woman may utter her mind,
My love had almost made me to weep,
Because that even now I did not you find;
I thought it surely a whole hundred year,[330]
Till in this place I saw you here.
YOUNG MAN. Alack, alack, I am sorry for this!
I had such business, I might not come;
But ye may perceive what my wit is,
How small regard I have and wisdom.
YOUNG WOMAN. Whereas ye ask me concerning my love,
I well assure you it doth daily augment;
Nothing can make me start or move;
You only to love is mine intent.
YOUNG MAN. And as for my love it doth never relent,
For of you I do dream, of you I do think;
To dinner and supper I never went,
But of beer and wine to you I did drink.
Now of such thinks[331] therefore to make an end,
Which pitiful lovers do cruelly torment,
To marriage, in God's name, let us descend,
As unto this hour we have been bent.
YOUNG WOMAN. Your will to accomplish I am as ready
As any woman, believe me truly.