"What is the cause she leaves thee thus,
And a new way doth take,
That some times loved thee as her life,
And thee her joy did make?"
"I that loved her all my youth,
Growe olde, now as you see;
Love liketh not the falling fruite,
Nor yet the withered tree.
"For love is like a carelesse childe,
Forgetting promise past
He is blind, or deaf, whenere he list;
His faith is never fast.
"His fond desire is fickle found,
And yieldes a trustlesse joye;
Wonne with a world of toil and care,
And lost ev'n with a toye.
"Such is the love of womankinde,
Of LOVES faire name abusde,
Beneathe which many vaine desires,
And follyes are excusde.
"But true love is a lasting fire,
Which viewless vestals[3] tend.
That burns for ever in the soule,
And knowes nor change, nor end."
NOTES
- Even in the time of Langland, pilgrimages to Walsingham were not unfavourable to
the rites of Venus. Thus in his Visions of Pierce Plowman, fo. 1.
Hermets on a heape, with hoked staves,
Wenten to Walsingham, and her [i.e. their] wenches after.- Sc. pale.
- Sc. angels.