The coforte of louers The Comfort of Lovers

Excerpt

Some do endyte / vpon good moralyte

Of chyualrous actes / done in antyquyte

Whose fables and storyes ben pastymes pleasaunt

To lordes and ladyes / as is theyr lykynge

Dyuers to moralyte / ben oft attendaunt

And many delyte to rede of louynge

Youth loueth aduenture / pleasure and lykynge

Aege foloweth polycy / sadnesse and prudence

Thus they do dyffre / eche in experyence

I lytell or nought / experte in this scyence

Compyle suche bokes / to deuoyde ydlenes

Besechynge the reders / with all my delygence

Where as I offende / for to correct doubtles

Submyttynge me to theyr grete gentylnes

As none hystoryagraffe / nor poete laureate

But gladly wolde folowe / the makynge of Lydgate

Fyrst noble Gower / moralytees dyde endyte

And after hym Cauncers / grete bokes delectable

Lyke a good phylozophre / meruaylously dyde wryte

After them Lydgate / the monke commendable

Made many wonderfull bokes moche profytable

But syth the are deed / & theyr bodyes layde in chest

I pray to god to gyue theyr soules good rest

¶ Finis prohemii.

Whan fayre was / w his bemes bryght

Amyddes of gemyny / aloft the fyrmament

Without blacke cloudes / castynge his pured lyght

With sorowe opprest / and grete incombrement

Remembrynge well / my lady excellent

Saynge o fortune helpe me to preuayle

For thou knowest all my paynfull trauayle

I went than musynge / in a medowe grene

Myselfe alone / amonge the floures in dede

With god aboue / the futertens is sene

To god I sayd / thou mayst my mater spede

And me rewarde / accordynge to my mede

Thou knowest the trouthe / I am to the true

Whan that thou lyst / thou mayst them all subdue

Who dyde preserue the yonge edyppus

Whiche sholde haue be slayne by calculacyon

To deuoyde grete thynges / the story sheweth vs

That were to come / by true reuelacyon

Takynge after theyr hole operacyon

In this edyppus / accordynge to affecte

Theyr cursed calkynge / holly to abiecte

Who dyde preserue / Ionas and moyses

Who dyde preserue yet many other mo

As the byble maketh mencyon doubles

Who dyde kepe Charles frome his euyll fo

Who was he / that euer coude do so

But god alone / than in lyke wyse maye he

Kepe me full sure / frome all inyquyte

Thus as I called to my remembraunce

Suche trewe examples / I tenderly dyde wepe

Remembrynge well / goddes hyghe ordynaũce

Syghynge full oft / with inwarde teres depe

Tyll at the last / I fell in to a slepe

And in this slepe / me thought I dyde repayre

My selfe alone / in to a garden fayre

This goodly gardyn / I dyde well beholde

Where I sawe a place / ryght gaye and gloryous

With golden turrettes / paynted many afolde

Lyke a place of pleasure moste solacyous

The wyndowes glased / with crystall precyous

The golden fanes / with wynde and melody

By dulcet sounde / and meruaylous armony

The knottes flagraunt / with aromatyke odoure

With goodly sprynges / of meruaylous mountaynes

I dyde than tast / the redolent lycoure

Moost clere and swete / of the goodly vaynes

Whiche dyde me ease / somwhat of my paynes

Tyll to me came / a lady of goodly age

Apareyled sadly / and demure of vysage

To me she sayd / me thynke ye are not well

ye haue caught colde / and do lyue in care

Tell me your mynde / now shortly euerydele

To layne the trouthe / I charge you to beware

I shall for you / a remedy prepare

Dyspeyre you not / for no thynge that is past

Tell me your mynde / and be nought agast

Alas madame / vnto her than I sayd

It is no wonder / of myne inwarde payne

yf that my herte be meruayllously dysmayde

My trouthe and loue / therof is cause certayne

Dyuers yeres ago / I dyde in mynde retayne

A lady yonge / a lady fayre of syght

Good wyse / and goodly / an holsome sterre of lyght

I durst not speke vnto her of my loue

Yet vnder coloure I dyuers bokes dyde make

Full pryuely / to come to my aboue

Thus many nyghtes / I watched for her sake

To her and to hers / my trouthe well to take

Without ony spotte / of ony maner yll

God knoweth all myn herte / my mynde & my wyll

The hygh dame nature / by her grete myght & power

Man / beest / and foule / in euery degre

Fro whens they came at euery maner houre

Dooth trye the trouthe / without duplycyte

For euery thynge must shewe the properte

Gentyll vngentyll / dame nature so well tryet

That all persones it openly espyeth

The lorde and knyght / delyteth for to here

Cronycles and storyes / of noble chyualry

The gentyll man gentylnes / for his passe tyme dere

The man of lawe / to here lawe truely

The yeman delyteth to talke of yomanry

The ploman his londe for to ere and sowe

Thus nature werketh / in hye degre and lowe

For yf there were one of the gentyll blode

Conuayde to yomanry for nourysshement

Dyscrecyon comen he sholde chaunge his mode

Though he knewe not / his parentes verament

Yet nature wolde werke / so by entendyment

That he sholde folowe / the condycyons doubtles

Of his true blode / by outwarde gentylnes

In all this worlde / ben but thynges twayne

As loue and hate / the trouth for to tell

And yf I sholde hate my lady certayne

Than worthy I were / to dye of deth cruell

Seynge all ladyes / that she doth excell

In beaute / grace / prudence and mekenes

What man on lyue / can more in one expres

yf she with me sholde take dyspleasure

Whiche loueth her by honoures desyre

What sholde she do / with a creature

That hateth her / by inwarde fraude and yre

I yet a louer / do not so atyre

My fayth and hope / I put in her grace

Releace to graunt me / by good tyme and space

Thretened with sorowe / of may paynes grete

Thre yeres ago my ryght hande I dyde bynde

Fro my browes for fere / y dropes doune dyde sweet

God knoweth all it was nothynge my mynde

Vnto no persone / I durst my vntwynde

yet the trouthe knowynge / the good gretest P

Maye me release / of all my / p / p / p / thre

Now ryght fayre lady / so sadde and demure

My mynde ye knowe / in euery maner thynge

I trust for trouthe / ye wyll not me dyscure

Sythes I haue shewed you without lesynge

At your request / the cause of my mournynge

Whiche abyde in sorowe / in my remembraunce

Without good conforte / saufe of esperaunce

Fayre sone sayd she / sythens I knowe your thought

your worde and dede / and here to be one

Dyspayre you not / for it auayleth nought

Ioye cometh after / whan the payne is gone

Conforte yourselfe / and muse not so alone

Doubt ye no thynge / but god wyll so agre

That at the last / ye shall your lady se

Be alwaye meke / let wysdome be your guyde

Aduenture for honoure / and put your selfe in preace

Clymbe not to fast / lest sodenly ye slyde

Lete god werke styll / he wyll your mynde encrece

Begynne no warre / be gladde to kepe the peace

Prepence no thynge / agaynst the honoure

Of ony lady / by fraudolent fauoure

Alas madame / vnto her than sayd I