Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1900.djvu/65

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Long thou for love never so high,
My love is more than thine may be.
Thou weepest, thou gladdest, I sit thee by:
Yet wouldst thou once, love, look unto me!
Should I always feede thee
With children meat? Nay, love, not so!
I will prove thy love with adversitè
  Quia amore langueo. Wax not weary, mine own wife! What mede is aye to live in comfort? In tribulation I reign more rife Ofter times than in disport. In weal and in woe I am aye to support: Mine own wife, go not me fro! Thy mede is marked, when thou art mort: Quia amore langueo.

25. The Nut-Brown Maid

15th Cent.

He. Be it right or wrong, these men among
         On women do complain;
       Affirming this, how that it is
         A labour spent in vain
       To love them wele; for never a dele
         They love a man again:
       For let a man do what he can
         Their favour to attain,
       Yet if a new to them pursue,
         Their first true lover than
       Laboureth for naught; for from her thought
         He is a banished man.


25. never a dele] never a bit. than] then.

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