For oft ye prayed, and longe assayed,

Or I you loved, pardè :

255

And though that I of auncestry

A barons daughter be,

Yet have you proved howe I

you

loved

260

A squyer of lowe degrè;

And ever shall, whatso befall;

To dy therfore* anone;

For in my mynde, of all mankynde

I love but you alone.

Whatever befall, I never shall

Of this thyng you upbrayd:

V. 262, dy with him. Editor's MS. Prol. and Mr. W.

V. 278, outbrayd.

* i. e. for this cause; though I were to die for having loved you.

Sone after ye be gone;

For, in my mynde, of all mankynde

I love but you alone.

HE.

Yf that ye went, ye sholde repent;

For in the forest nowe

I have purvayed me of a mayd,

Whom I love more than you;

290

Another fayrère, than ever ye were,

I dare it wele avowe;

Though in the wode I undyrstode

Ye had a paramour,

V. 282, ye be as. Prol. and Mr. W.

kynde to leve me behynde. Prol. and Mr. W.

300

V. 283, Ye were un

All this may nought remove my thought,

But that I wyll be your:

And she shall fynde me soft, and kynde,

305

Of mayde, and wyfe, in all my lyfe,

315

The best that ever I knewe.

mery and glad, be no more sad,

Be

The case is chaunged newe;

For it were ruthe, that, for your truthe,

Ye sholde have cause to rewe.

Be nat dismayed; whatsoever I sayd

To you, whan I began;

I wyll nat to the grene wode go,

I am no banyshed man.

V. 310, So the Editor's MS. All the printed copies read,

Yet wold I be that one.

V. 315, of all. Prol. and Mr. W.

and Mr. W.

320

V. 325, gladder. Prol.

SHE.

These tydings be more gladd to me,

Than to be made a quene,

Yf I were sure they sholde endure:

But it is often sene,

Whan men wyll breke promyse, they speke

The wordès on the splene.

Ye shape some wyle me to begyle,

325

330

And stele from me, I wene :

You, (God defend!) syth ye descend

Of so grete a lynàge.

340

Now undyrstande; to Westmarlande,

Which is myne herytage,

I wyll you brynge; and with a rynge,

By way of maryage

345

I wyll you take, and lady make,

As shortely as I can :

Thus have you won an erlys son,

And not a banyshed man.

V. 340, grete lynyage. Prol. and Mr. W. have. Prol.

V. 347, Then

V. 348, And no bany shed. Prol. and Mr. W.

AUTHOR.

Here may ye se, that women be

In love, meke, kynde, and stable:

350

Late never man reprove them than,

Or call them variable;

But, rather, pray God, that we may

To them be comfortable;

Which sometyme proveth such, as he loveth, 355

Yf they be charytable.

For syth men wolde that women sholde

Be meke to them each one;

Moche more ought they to God obey,

And serve but hym alone.

360

V. 352, This line wanting in Prol. and Mr. W. proved-loved. Prol. and Mr. W.

V. 355,

Ib. as loveth. Camb.

V. 357, Forsoth. Prol. and Mr. W.

VII.

A Balet by the Earl Ribers.

The amiable light in which the character of Anthony Widville, the gallant Earl Rivers, has been placed by the elegant author of the Catalogue of Noble Writers, interests us in whatever fell from his pen. It is presumed, therefore, that the insertion of this little sonnet will be pardoned, though it should not be found to have much poetical merit. It is the only original poem known of that nobleman's; his more voluminous works being only trans