The next is complete, and, from its early imitations and glosses, it must probably be quite ancient. It begins “Fonte frida, Fonte frida,” and is, perhaps, itself an imitation of “Rosa fresca, Rosa fresca,” another of the early and very graceful lyrical ballads which were always so popular. Cooling fountain, cooling fountain, Cooling fountain, full of love! Where the little birds all gather, Thy refreshing power to prove; All except the widowed turtle Full of grief, the turtle-dove. There the traitor nightingale All by chance once passed along, Uttering words of basest falsehood In his guilty, treacherous song: “If it please thee, gentle lady, I thy servant-love would be.” “Hence, begone, ungracious traitor, Base deceiver, hence from me! I nor rest upon green branches, Nor amidst the meadow’s flowers; The very wave my thirst that quenches Seek I where it turbid pours. No wedded love my soul shall know, Lest children’s hearts my heart should win; No pleasure would I seek for, no! No consolation feel within;-- So leave me sad, thou enemy! Thou foul and base deceiver, go! For I thy love will never be, Nor ever, false one, wed thee, no!” The parallel ballad of “Rosa fresca, Rosa fresca,” is no less simple and characteristic; Rosa being the name of the lady-love. “Rose, fresh and fair, Rose, fresh and fair, That with love so bright dost glow, When within my arms I held thee, I could never serve thee, no! And now that I would gladly serve thee, I no more can see thee, no!” “The fault, my friend, the fault was thine,-- Thy fault alone, and not mine, no! A message came,--the words you sent,-- Your servant brought it, well you know. And naught of love, or loving bands, But other words, indeed, he said: That you, my friend, in Leon’s lands A noble dame had long since wed;-- A lady fair, as fair could be; Her children bright as flowers to see.” “Who told that tale, who spoke those words, No truth he spoke, my lady, no! For Castile’s lands I never saw, Of Leon’s mountains nothing know, Save as a little child, I ween, Too young to know what love should mean.”[191] [191] These two ballads are in the Cancionero of 1535, ff. 107 and 108; both evidently very old. The use of _carta_ in the last for an unwritten message is one proof of this. I give the originals of both for their beauty. And first:--