This wedding being solemnized then,
With music performèd by skilfullest men,
The nobles and gentlemen down at the side,
Each one beholding the beautiful bride.
But after the sumptuous dinner was done,
To talk and to reason a number begun,
And of the blind beggar’s daughter most bright;
And what with his daughter he gave to the knight.
Then spoke the nobles, ‘Much marvel have we
This jolly blind beggar we cannot yet see!’
‘My lords,’ quoth the bride, ‘my father so base
Is loth with his presence these states to disgrace.’
‘The praise of a woman in question to bring,
Before her own face is a flattering thing;
But we think thy father’s baseness,’ quoth they,
‘Might by thy beauty be clean put away.’
They no sooner this pleasant word spoke,
But in comes the beggar in a silken cloak,
A velvet cap and a feather had he,
And now a musician, forsooth, he would be.
And being led in from catching of harm,
He had a dainty lute under his arm,
Said, ‘Please you to hear any music of me,
A song I will sing you of pretty Bessee.’
With that his lute he twangèd straightway,
And thereon began most sweetly to play,
And after a lesson was played two or three,
He strained out this song most delicately:—
‘A beggar’s daughter did dwell on a green,
Who for her beauty may well be a queen,
A blithe bonny lass, and dainty was she,
And many one callèd her pretty Bessee.
‘Her father he had no goods nor no lands,
But begged for a penny all day with his hands,
And yet for her marriage gave thousands three,
Yet still he hath somewhat for pretty Bessee.
‘And here if any one do her disdain,
Her father is ready with might and with main
To prove she is come of noble degree,
Therefore let none flout at my pretty Bessee.’