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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.

Confeffor.

Hic ponit exemplum,

This finde I writen in poefy

qualiter fompnia pre- Ceix the king of Troceny

noftice veritatis

quan

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

mittens Yridem nun

ciam fuam in partes Into a goshauke for likenesse,

Chimerie ad domum

Sompni juffit, quod Wherof this king great hevineffe ipfe Alceone dicti re

gis uxori huius rei e- Hath take and thought in his corage

ventum per fompnia

certificaret. Quo facto To gone upon a pelrinage

Alceona rem perferu

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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