The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900

English poetry
_She._ Now, sith that ye have showed to me
             The secret of your mind,
           I shall be plain to you again,
             Like as ye shall me find.
           Sith it is so that ye will go,
             I will not live behind.
           Shall never be said the Nut-brown Maid
             Was to her love unkind.
           Make you readý, for so am I,
             Although it were anone:
           For, in my mind, of all mankind
             I love but you alone.

    _He._ Yet I you rede to take good heed
             What men will think and say:
           Of young, of old, it shall be told
             That ye be gone away
           Your wanton will for to fulfil,
             In green-wood you to play;
           And that ye might for your delight
             No longer make delay
           Rather than ye should thus for me
             Be called an ill womàn
           Yet would I to the green-wood go,
             Alone, a banished man.

    _She._ Though it be sung of old and young
             That I should be to blame,
           Theirs be the charge that speak so large
             In hurting of my name:
           For I will prove that faithful love
             It is devoid of shame;
           In your distress and heaviness
             To part with you the same:
           And sure all tho that do not so
             True lovers are they none:
           For in my mind, of all mankind
             I love but you alone.

    _He._ I counsel you, Remember how
             It is no maiden’s law
           Nothing to doubt, but to run out
             To wood with an outlàw.
           For ye must there in your hand bear
             A bow readý to draw;
           And as a thief thus must you live
             Ever in dread and awe;
           Whereby to you great harm might grow:
             Yet had I liever than
           That I had to the green-wood go,
             Alone, a banished man.

     part with] share with. tho] those.

    _She._ I think not nay but as ye say;
             It is no maiden’s lore;
           But love may make me for your sake,
             As I have said before,
           To come on foot, to hunt and shoot,
             To get us meat and store;
           For so that I your company
             May have, I ask no more.
           From which to part it maketh my heart
             As cold as any stone;
           For, in my mind, of all mankind
             I love but you alone.

    _He._ For an outlàw this is the law,
             That men him take and bind:
           Without pitie, hangèd to be,
             And waver with the wind.
           If I had need (as God forbede!)
             What socours could ye find?
           Forsooth I trow, you and your bow
             For fear would draw behind.
           And no mervail; for little avail
             Were in your counsel than:
           Wherefore I’ll to the green-wood go,
             Alone, a banished man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900

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