companày:
            It is said of old, Soon hot, soon cold;
                And so is a womàan:
            Wherefore I to the wood will go,
                Alone, a banished man.

She.      If ye take heed, it is no need
               Such words to say to me;
            For oft ye prayed, and long assayed,
                Or I loved you, pardàe:
            And though that I of ancestry
                A baron’s daughter be,
            Yet have you proved how I you loved,
                A squire of low degree;
            And ever shall, whatso befall,
                To die therefore anone;
            For, in my mind, of all mankind
                I love but you alone.

He.      A baron’s child to be beguiled,
               It were a cursàed deed!
            To be felàaw with an outlaw—
                Almighty God forbede!
            Yet better were the poor squyere
                Alone to forest yede⁹
            Than ye shall say another day
                That by my cursàed rede
            Ye were betrayed. Wherefore, good maid,
                The best rede that I can,
            Is, that I to the green- wood go,
                Alone, a banished man.

She.      Whatever befall, I never shall
               Of this thing be upbraid:
            But if ye go, and leave me so,
                Then have ye me betrayed.
            Remember you wele, how that ye dele;
                For if ye, as ye said,
            Be so unkind to leave behind
                Your love, the Nut-brown Maid,
            Trust me trulày that I shall die
                Soon after ye be gone:
            For, in my mind, of all mankind
                I love but you alone.

He.      If that ye went, ye should repent;
               For in the forest now
            I have purveyed me of a maid
                Whom I love more than you:
            Another more fair than ever ye were
                I dare it well avow;
            And of you both each should be wroth
                With other, as I trow:
            It were mine ease to live in peace;
                So will I, if I can:
            Wherefore I to the wood will go,
                Alone, a banished man.

She.      Though in the wood I understood
               Ye had a paramour,
            All this may nought remove my thought,
                But that I will be your’:
            And she shall find me soft and kind
                And courteis every hour;
            Glad to fulfil all that she will
                Command me, to my power:
            For had ye, lo, an hundred mo,
                Yet would I be that one:
            For, in my mind, of all mankind
                I love but you alone.

He.      Mine own dear love, I see the prove
               That ye be kind and true;
            Of maid, of wife, in all my life,
                The best that ever I knew.
            Be merry and glad; be no more sad;
                The case is changàed new;
            For it were ruth that for your truth
                Ye should have cause to rue.
            Be not dismayed, whatsoever I said
                To you when I began:
            I will not to the green-wood go;
                I am no banished man.

She.      These tidings be more glad to me
               Than to be made a queen,
            If I were sure they should endure;
                But it is often seen
            When men will break promise they speak
                The wordis on the splene.¹⁰
            Ye shape some wile me to beguile,
                And steal from me, I ween:
            Then were the case worse than it was,
                And I more wo- begone:
            For, in my mind, of all mankind
                I love but you alone.

He.      Ye shall not nede further to drede:
               I will not disparàage
            You (God defend), sith you descend
                Of so great a linàage.
            Now understand: to Westmoreland,
                Which is my heritage,
            I will you bring; and with a ring,
                By way of marriàage
            I will you take, and lady make,
                As shortly as I can:
            Thus have you won an Earles son,
                And not a banished man.

Here may ye see that women be
    In love meek, kind, and stable;
Let never man reprove them than,
    Or call them variable;
But rather pray God that we may
    To them be comfortable;
Which sometime proveth such as He loveth,
    If they be charitable.
For sith men would that women should
    Be meek to them each one;
Much more ought they to God obey,
    And serve but Him alone.

   33Cradle Song

16th Cent.

O MY deir hert, young Jesus sweit,
Prepare thy creddil in my spreit,
And I sall rock thee in my hert
And never mair from thee depart.