ANONYMOUS

Be so unkind to leave behind Your love, the Nut-brown Maid,

Trust me truly 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.

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