I love but you alone." "Ye shall not need further to dread: I will not disparage You, God defend! sith you descend Of so great a lineage. Now understand, to Westmoreland, Which is my heritage, I will you bring, and with a ring, By way of marriage, I will you take, and lady make, As shortly as I can: Thus have ye won an earlés son, And not a banished man." Here may ye see that women be In love meek, kind, and stable: Let never man reprove them than, Or call them variable; But rather pray God, that we may To them be comfortable, Which sometime proveth such as loveth, If they be charitable; For sith men would that women should Be meek to them each one, Much more ought they to God obey, And serve but Him alone. [Illustration: 0207] [Illustration: 0208] ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE |When shaws been sheen, and shrads full fair, And leaves both large and long, It is merry walking in the fair forrèst, To hear the small bird's song. The woodweel sang, and would not cease, Among the leaves o' line; And it is by two wight yeomen, By dear God, that I mean. * (_shaws_ wood. _sheen,_ bright. _shrad,_ an opening in a wood. _line,_ tree.) * The lost stanza probably states that Robin Hood is having a dream. "Methought they did me beat and bind, And took my bow me fro; If I be Robin alive in this land, I'll be wroken on them two." "Swevens are swift, master," quoth John, "As the wind that blows o'er a hill; For if it be never so loud this night, To-morrow it may be still." "Busk ye, boun ye, my merry men all, For John shall go with me, For I'll go seek yond wight yeomen, In greenwood where they be." They cast on their gowns of green, A shooting gone are they; Until they came to the merry greenwood, Where they had gladdest be; There were they ware of [a] wight yeoman, His body leaned to a tree. A sword and a dagger he wore by his side, Had been many a mans bane; And he was clad in his capull hide, Top and tail and mane. (_wroken_, revenged. _swevens_, dreams. _boun_, make ready. _capull_, horse.) "Stand you still, master," quoth Little John, "Under this trusty tree, And I will go to yond wight yeoman, To know his meaning truly." "Ah! John, by me thou sets no store, And that's a farley thing: 'How oft send I my men before, And tarry myself behind? "It is no cunning a knave to ken, And a man but hear him speak; And it were not for bursting of my bow, John, I would thy head break." But often words they breeden bale, That parted Robin and John; John is gone to Barnesdale; The gates he knows each one. And when he came to Barnesdale, Great heaviness there he had, He found two of his own fellows, Were slain both in a slade. And Scarlet a-foot flying was