As I went to Walsingham, To the shrine with speede, Met I with a jolly palmer In a pilgrimes weede. 'Now God you save, you jolly palmer!' 'Welcome, lady gay! Oft have I sued to thee for love.' 'Oft have I said you nay.' The pilgrimages undertaken on pretence of religion were often productive of affairs of gallantry, and led the votaries to no other shrine than that of Venus.[1]" "The following ballad was once very popular; it is quoted in Fletcher's '_Knight of the Burning Pestle_,' Act ii. sc. ult., and in another old play, called "_Hans Beer-pot, his invisible Comedy_, &c. 4to 1618, Act i." "_As I went to Walsingham_ is quoted in Nashe's _Have with you to Saffron-Walden_, 1596, sign. L." CHAPPELL. [1] 'Hermets on a heape, with hoked staves, Wenten to Walsingham, and her wenches after.' _Visions of Pierce Plowman_, fo. i. "As you came from the holy-land Of Walsingham, Met you not with my true love By the way as you came?" "How should I know your true love, 5 That have met many a one, As I came from the holy-land, That have come, that have gone?" "She is neither white nor brown, But as the heavens fair; 10 There is none hath a form so divine, On the earth, in the air." "Such a one did I meet, good sir, With angellike face, Who like a queen did appear 15 In her gait, in her grace." "She hath left me here all alone, All alone and unknown, Who sometime lov'd me as her life, And call'd me her own." 20 "What's the cause she hath left thee alone, And a new way doth take, That sometime did love thee as her life, And her joy did thee make?" "I loved her all my youth, 25 But now am old, as you see; Love liketh not the fallen fruit, Nor the withered tree. "For love is a careless child, And forgets promise past; 30 He is blind, he is deaf, when he list, And in faith never fast. "For love is a great delight, And yet a trustless joy; He is won with a word of despair, 35 And is lost with a toy. "Such is the love of womankind, Or the word abus'd, Under which many childish desires And conceits are excus'd. 40 "But love is a durable fire, In the mind ever burning; Never sick, never dead, never cold, From itself never turning." KING COPHETUA AND THE BEGGAR-MAID. From Richard Johnson's _Crowne-Garland of Goulden Roses_, (1612,) as reprinted by the Percy Society, vi. 45. It is there simply entitled _A Song of a Beggar and a King_. Given in Percy's _Reliques_, i. 202, "corrected by another copy."