INGEBORG’S DISGUISE
Such handsome court clothes the proud Ingeborg buys,
Says she “I’ll myself as a courtier disguise.”
Proud Ingeborg hastens her steed to bestride,
Says she “I’ll away with the King to reside.”
“Thou gallant young King to my speech lend an ear,
Hast thou any need of my services here?”
“O yes, my sweet lad, of a horseboy I’ve need,
If there were but stable room here for his steed.
“But thy steed in the stall with my own can be tied,
And thou ’neath the linen shalt sleep by my side.”
Three years in the palace good service she wrought,
That she was a woman no one ever thought.
She filled for three years of a horse-boy the place,
And the steeds of the monarch she drove out to graze.
She led for three years the King’s steeds to the brook,
For else than a youth no one Ingeborg took.
Proud Ingeborg knows how to make the dames gay,
She also can sing in such ravishing way.