[53. Old Robin of Portingale]
I
God! let never soe old a man
Marry soe young a wife
As did old Robin of Portingale!
He may rue all the days of his life.
II
For the Mayor’s daughter of Lin, God wot,
He chose her to his wife,
And thought to have lived in quietnesse
With her all the dayes of his life.
III
They had not in their wed-bed laid,
Scarcely were both on sleepe,
But up she rose, and forth she goes
To Sir Gyles, and fast can weepe.
IV
Saies, ‘Sleepe you, wake you, faire Sir Gyles?
Or be you not within?
[Or hear you not your true love
That tirleth at the pin?’]—