A Bundle of Ballads

Ballads, English -- England -- Texts; Songs, English -- England -- Texts

HE.
     "Nay, nay, not so; ye shall not go,
       And I shall tell you why,--
     Your appetite is to be light
       Of love, I well espy:
     For, right as ye have said to me,
       In like wise hardily
     Ye would answere whosoever it were,
       In way of company,
     It is said of old, Soon hot, soon cold;
       And so is a wom-an:
     Wherefore I to the wood will go,
       Alone, a banished man."

          SHE.
     "If ye take heed, it is no need
       Such words to say by me;
     For oft ye prayed, and long assayed,
       Or I you loved, pard-e;
     And though that I of ancestry
       A baron's daughter be,
     Yet have you proved how I you loved.
       A squire of low degree;
     And ever shall, whatso befall;
       To die therefore anone;
     For, in my mind, of all mankind
       I love but you alone."

          HE.
     "A baron's child to be beguiled!
       It were a curs-ed dede;
     To be fel-aw with an out-law
       Almighty God forbede!
     Yet better were, the poor squyere
       Alone to forest yede,
     Than ye shall say another day,
       That by my wicked dede
     Ye were betrayed:  Wherefore, good maid,
       The best rede that I can,
     Is, that I to the green wood go,
       Alone, a banished man."

          SHE.
     "Whatsoever befall, I never shall
       Of this thing you upbraid:
     But if ye go, and leave me so,
       Then have ye me betrayed.
     Remember you wele, how that ye dele,
       For if ye, as ye said,
     Be so unkind to leave behind
       Your love, the Nut-brown Maid,
     Trust me tru-ly, that I shall die
       Soon after ye be gone:
     For, in my mind, of all mankind
       I love but you alone."

          HE.
     "If that ye went, ye should repent;
       For in the forest now
     I have purveyed me of a maid,
       Whom I love more than you;
     Another fairer than ever ye were,
       I dare it well avow;
     And of you both, each should be wroth
       With other, as I trow:
     It were mine ease to live in peace;
       So will I, if I can:
     Wherefore I to the wood will go,
       Alone, a banished man."

          SHE.
     "Though in the wood I understood
       Ye had a paramour,
     All this may nought remove my thought,
       But that I will be your:
     And she shall find me soft and kind,
       And courteis every hour;
     Glad to fulfil all that she will
       Command me, to my power:
     For had ye, lo! an hundred mo,
       Yet would I be that one:
     For, in my mind, of all mankind
       I love but you alone."

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

A Bundle of Ballads

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