All right of love for to abuse.
For as they say one happy hour May more prevail than right or might; If Fortune then list for to lower,
What 'vaileth right?
3 What 'vaileth right if this be true!
Then trust to chance, and go by guess:
Then whoso loveth may well go sue
Uncertain hope for his redress.
Yet some would say assuredly
Thou mayst appeal for thy release
To Fantasy.1
4 To Fantasy pertains to choose!
All this I know: for Fantasy
First unto love did me induce;
But yet I know as steadfastly,
That if love have no faster knot,
So nice a choice slips suddenly;
It lasteth not.
5 It lasteth not, that stands by change;
Fancy doth change; Fortune is frail;
Both these to please the way is strange.
Therefore methinks best to prevail,
There is no way that is so just
As truth to lead; the other fail,
And thereto trust.
16 Fantasy: fancy.
DESERTED BY HIS MISTRESS,
HE RENOUNCETH ALL JOY FOR EVER.
1 HEART oppress'd with desperate thought,
Is forced ever to lament;
Which now in me so far hath wrought,
That needs to it I must consent:
Wherefore all joy I do refuse,
And cruel will thereof accuse.
2 If cruel will had not been guide,
Despair in me had [found] no place;
For my true meaning she well espied;
Yet for all that would give no grace;
Wherefore all joy I do refuse,
And cruel will thereof accuse.
3 She might well see, and yet would not;
And may daily, if that she will;
How painful is my hapless lot;
Join'd with despair me for to spill;
Wherefore all joy I do refuse,
And cruel will thereof accuse.
THAT NO WORDS MAY EXPRESS THE CRAFTY TRAINS OF LOVE.
1 FULL Well it may be seen
To such as understand,
How some there be that ween
They have their wealth at hand:
Through love's abused band
But little do they see
The abuse wherein they be.
2 Of love there is a kind
Which kindleth by abuse;
As in a feeble mind
Whom fancy may induce
By love's deceitful use,
To follow the fond lust
And proof of a vain trust.
3 As I myself may say,
By trial of the same;
No wight can well bewray
That falsehood love can frame;
say, 'twixt grief and game,
There is no living man
That knows the craft love can.
4 For love so well can feign
To favour for the while;
That such as seeks the gain
Are served with the guile;
And some can this concile1
To give the simple leave
Themselves for to deceive.
5 What thing may more declare
Of love the crafty kind,
Than see the wise so ware,
In love to be so blind;
If so it be assign'd;
Let them enjoy the gain,
That thinks it worth the pain.
THAT THE POWER OF LOVE EXCUSETH
THE FOLLY OF LOVING.
1 SINCE love is such as that
Cannot always be wisely used;
say therefore then blame me not,
Though I therein have been abused.
For as with cause I am accused,
Guilty I grant such was my lot;
And though it cannot be excused,
Yet let such folly be forgot.
2 For in my years of reckless youth
Methought the power of love so great,
That to his laws I bound my truth,
And to my will there was no let.
Me list no more so far to fet;1
Such fruit! lo! as of love ensu❜th;
The gain was small that was to get,
And of the loss the less the ruth.
3 And few there is but first or last,
A time in love once shall they have;
And glad I am my time is past,
Henceforth my freedom to withsave."
Now in my heart there shall I grave
The granted grace that now I taste;
Thanked be fortune that me gave
So fair a gift, so sure and fast.
4 Now such as have me seen ere this, When youth in me set forth his kind;
1'Fet:' fetch. Withsave:' preserve.
And folly fram'd my thought amiss,
The fault whereof now well I find;
Lo! since that so it is assign'd,
That unto each a time there is,
Then blame the lot that led my mind,
Some time to live in love's bliss.
5 But from henceforth I do protest,
By proof of that that I have past,
Shall never cease within my breast
The power of love so late outcast:
The knot thereof is knit full fast,
And I thereto so sure profess'd
For evermore with me to last
The power wherein I am possess'd.
RESOLVETH TO BE ASSURED WHETHER HE IS TO LIVE IN JOY OR WOE.
1 Lo! how I seek and sue to have
That no man hath, and may be had;
There is [no] more but sink or save,
And bring this doubt to good or bad.
To live in sorrows always sad,
I like not so to linger forth;
Hap evil or good I shall be glad
To take that comes, as well in worth.1
2 Should I sustain this great distress,
Still wandering forth thus to and fro,
1 'Worth:' meekly, patiently.
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