250
To love you best, whyl I have lyf and mynde':—
Thus herde I foules in the dawëninge
Upon the day of saint Valentyne singe.
'Yet chese I, at the ginning, in this entente,
To love you, though I no mercy fynde;
255
And if you liste I dyed, I wolde assente,
As ever twinne I quik out of this lynde!
Suffyseth me to seen your fetheres ynde':—