With regard to the date of the following ballad, we have taken a middle course,
neither placed it so high as Wanley and Prior, nor quite so low as the editor of the
Prolusions: we should have followed the latter in dividing every other line into two,
but that the whole would then have taken up more room than could be allowed it in
this volume.
"BE it ryght, or wrong, these men among
On women do complayne;[2]
Affyrmynge this, how that it is
A labour spent in vayne,
To love them wele; for never a dele
They love a man agayne:
For late a man do what he can,
Theyr favour to attayne,
Yet, yf a newe do them persue,
Theyr first true lover than
Laboureth for nought; for from her thought
He is a banyshed man."
"I say nat nay, but that all day
It is bothe writ and sayd
That womens faith is, as who sayth,
All utterly decayd;
But, neverthelesse, ryght good wytnèsse
In this case might be layd,
That they love true, and continue
Recorde the Not-browne Mayde:
Which, when her love came, her to prove,
To her to make his mone,
Wolde nat depart; for in her hart
She loved but hym alone."
"Than betwaine us late us discus
What was all the manere
Betwayne them two: we wyll also
Tell all the payne, and fere,
That she was in. Nowe I begyn,
So that ye me answère;
Wherfore, all ye, that present be,
I pray you, gyve an ere.
I am the knyght: I come by nyght,
As secret as I can;
Sayinge, "Alas! thus standeth the case,
I am a banyshed man.'"
SHE"And I your wyll for to fulfyll
In this wyll nat refuse;
Trustying to shewe, in wordès fewe,
That men have an yll use
(To theyr own shame) women to blame,
And causelesse them accuse;