His fair Ladie's words
Nothing he regarded;
Wantonnesse affords
Such delightfull sport.
While they dance and sing,25
With great mirth prepared,
She her hands did wring
In most grievous sort.
"O what hap had I
Thus to wail and cry,30
Unrespected every day,
Living in disdain,
While that others gain
All the right I should enjoy!
I am left forsaken,35
Others they are taken:
Ah my love! why dost thou so?
Her flatteries beleeve not,
Come to me, and grieve not;
Wantons will thee overthrow."40
The Knight with his fair peece
At length the Lady spied,
Who did him daily fleece
Of his wealth and store:
Secretly she stood,45
While she her fashions tryed,
With a patient mind,
While deep the strumpet swore.
"O Sir Knight, O Sir Knight," quoth she,
"So dearly I love thee,50
My life doth rest at thy dispose:
By day, and eke by night,
For thy sweet delight,
Thou shalt me in thy arms inclose.
I am thine for ever;55
Still I will persever
True to thee, where ere I go."
"Her flatteries believe not,
Come to me, and grieve not;
Wantons will thee overthrow."60
The vertuous Lady mild
Enters then among them,
Being big with child
As ever she might be:
With distilling tears65
She looked then upon them;
Filled full of fears,
Thus replyed she:
"Ah, my love and dear!
Wherefore stay you here,70
Refusing me, your loving wife,
For an harlot's sake,
Which each one will take;
Whose vile deeds provoke much strife?
Many can accuse her:75
O my love, O my love, refuse her!
With thy lady home return.
Her flatteries beleeve not,
Come to me, and grieve not;
Wantons will thee overthrow."80
All in a fury then
The angry Knight up started,
Very furious when
He heard his Ladie's speech.
With many bitter terms85
His wife he ever thwarted,
Using hard extreams,
While she did him beseech.
From her neck so white
He took away in spite90
Her curious chain of purest gold,
Her jewels and her rings,
And all such costly things
As he about her did behold.
The harlot in her presence95
He did gently reverence,
And to her he gave them all:
He sent away his Lady,
Full of wo as may be,
Who in a swound with grief did fall.100
At the Ladie's wrong
The harlot fleer'd and laughed;
Enticements are so strong,
They overcome the wise.
The Knight nothing regarded105
To see the Lady scoffed:
Thus was she rewarded
For her enterprise.
The harlot, all this space,
Did him oft embrace;110
She flatters him, and thus doth say:
"For thee Ile dye and live,
For thee my faith Ile give,
No wo shall work my love's decay;
Thou shalt be my treasure,115
Thou shalt be my pleasure,
Thou shalt be my heart's delight:
I will be thy darling,
I will be thy worldling,
In despight of fortune's spight."120
Thus he did remain
In wastfull great expences,
Till it bred his pain,
And consumed him quite.
When his lands were spent,125
Troubled in his sences,
Then he did repent
Of his late lewd life.
For relief he hies,
For relief he flyes130
To them on whom he spent his gold:
They do him deny,
They do him defie;
They will not once his face behold.
Being thus distressed,135
Being thus oppressed,
In the fields that night he lay;
Which the harlot knowing,
Through her malice growing,
Sought to take his life away.140