Withoute lepe to waken ever, So that I fhulde nought diffever Fro her, in whom is all my light. And than I curse also the night With all the will of my corage And fay: Away thou black ymage, Which of thy derke cloudy face Makest all the worldes light deface And causeft unto lepe a way, By which I mot now gone away Out of my ladies compaignie. O flepy night, I the defie
And wolde that thou lay in presse With Proferpine the goddesse And with Pluto the helle king. For till I fe the daies spring, I fette flepe nought at a risshe. And with that worde I figh and wisshe And fay: Ha, why ne were it day, For yet my lady than I may Beholde, though I do no more. And efte I thenke furthermore,
To fome man how the night doth ese, Whan he hath thing, that may him plese The longe nightes by his fide,
Where as I faile and go befide.
But flepe I not wherof it ferveth, Of which no man his thank deferveth
To get him love in any place,
But is an hindrer of his grace
And maketh hem dede as for a throwe, Right as a stoke were overthrowe. And fo, my fader, in this wife The slepy nightes I despise
And ever amiddes of my tale I thenke upon the nightingale,
Which slepeth nought by wey of kinde For love, in bokes as I finde.
Thus ate laft I go to bedde
And yet min herte lith to wedde With her, where as I came fro, Though I departe, he woll nought so. There is no lock may fhet him out, Him nedeth nought to gon about, That perce may the harde wal, Thus is he with her overall, That be her lefe, or be her loth, Into her bed min herte goth And foftly taketh her in his arme And feleth how that she is warme And wisfheth, that his body were To fele, that he feleth there. And thus my felven I torment, Til that the dede flepe me hent. But thanne by a thousand score Wel more than I was to-fore I am tormented in my flepe, But that I dreme is nought on fhepe, For I ne thenke nought on wulle, But I am drecched to the fulle
Of love, that I have to kepe,
That now I laugh and now I wepe And now I lefe and now I winne And now I ende and now beginne. And other while I dreme and mete, That I alone with her mete And that daunger is left behinde. And than in slepe fuch joy I finde, That I ne bede never awake. But after, whan I hede take, And shall arise upon the morwe, Than is all torned into forwe, Nought for the cause I fhall arise, But for I mette in fuche a wife, And ate last I am bethought, That all is vein and helpeth nought, But yet me thenketh by my wille I wold have lay and slepe stille To meten ever of fuch a fweven, For than I had a slepy heven.
My fone, and for thou telleft so, A man may finde of time ago, That many a fweven hath be certain, All be it fo, that fom men fain, That fwevens ben of no credence. But for to fhewe in evidence, That they full ofte fothe thinges Betoken, I thenke in my writinges To telle a tale therupon, Which fell by olde daies gone.
This finde I writen in poefy
qualiter fompnia pre- Ceix the king of Troceny
doque certitudinem Hadde Alceon to his wife, figurant. Et narrat,
quod cum Ceix rex Which as her owne hertes life Trocinie pro refor
macione fratris fui Him loveth. And he had also Dedalionis in ancipi-
trem tranfmutati pe- A brother, which was cleped tho regre proficifcens in mari longius a patria Dedalion, and he par cas
dimerfus fuerat, Juno Fro kinde of man forshape was
ciam fuam in partes Into a goshauke for likenesse,
Sompni juffit, quod Wherof this king great hevineffe ipfe Alceone dicti re
gis uxori huius rei e- Hath take and thought in his corage
certificaret. Quo facto To gone upon a pelrinage
tans corpus mariti fui, Into a ftraunge region,
ubi fuper fluctus mor- Where he hath his devocion tuus jactabatur, inve
nit, que pre dolore To done his facrifice and prey, anguftiata cupiens
corpus amplectere, in If that he might in any wey altum mare fuper ip
fum profiliit, unde dii Toward the goddes finde grace
miferti amborum cor
pora in aves, que ad
huc Alceones dicte funt, fubito converterunt.
His brothers hele to purchace, So that he mighte be reformed Of that he hadde be transformed. To this purpose and to this ende This king is redy for to wende As he, which wolde go by ship. And for to done him felafhip His wife unto the fee him brought With all her herte and him befought, That he the time her wolde fain, Whan that he thoughte come ayein. Within, he faith, two monthes day. And thus in alle hafte he may
He toke his leve and forth he faileth Wepend, and the her felf bewaileth And torneth home there fhe cam fro. But whan the monthes were ago, The which he set of his coming, And that she herde no tiding, There was no care for to feche, Wherof the goddes to beseche. Tho she began in many a wise And to Juno her facrifice
Above all other most she dede
And for her lord fhe hath so hede
To wite and knowe how that he ferd, That Juno the goddeffe her herde Anone, and upon this matere She badde Yris her meffagere To Slepes hous that the fhal wende And bid him, that he make an ende By fweven and fhewen all the cas Unto this lady, how it was.
This Yris fro the highe stage, Whiche undertake hath the meffage, Her reiny cope did upon,
The which was wonderly begone With colours of diverse hewe
An hunderd mo than men it knewe, The heven liche unto a bowe
She bende and the cam downe lowe, The god of flepe where that she fond And that was in a ftraunge lond,
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