"Fayre ladye, it is for your love
That all this dill I drye:
For if you wold comfort me with a kisse,
Then were I brought from bale to blisse,45
No lenger wold I lye."
"Sir knighte, my father is a kinge,
I am his onlye heire;
Alas! and well you knowe, syr knighte,
I never can be youre fere."50
"O ladye, thou art a kinges daughter,
And I am not thy peere;
But let me doe some deedes of armes,
To be your bacheleere."
"Some deedes of armes if thou wilt doe,55
My bacheleere to bee,
(But ever and aye my heart wold rue,
Giff harm shold happe to thee,)
"Upon Eldridge hill there groweth a thorne,
Upon the mores brodinge;60
And dare ye, syr knighte, wake there all nighte,
Untile the fayre morninge?
"For the Eldridge knighte, so mickle of mighte,
Will examine you beforne;
And never man bare life awaye,65
But he did him scath and scorne.
"That knighte he is a foul paynim,
And large of limb and bone;
And but if heaven may be thy speede,
Thy life it is but gone."70
"Nowe on the Eldridge hilles Ile walke,
For thy sake, fair ladie;
And Ile either bring you a ready token,
Or Ile never more you see."