At the last there came commandment For to set the ladies free, With their jewels still adorned, None to do them injury: 15 "Alas," then said this lady gay, "full woe is me; O let me still sustain this kind captivity! "O gallant captain, shew some pity To a lady in distress; Leave me not within the city, For to die in heaviness; 20 Thou hast set this present day my body free, "How should'st thou, fair lady, love me, Whom thou know'st thy country's foe? Thy fair words make me suspect thee; Serpents are where flowers grow." 25 "All the evil I think to thee, most gracious knight, God grant unto myself the same may fully light! 30 "Blessed be the time and season, That you came on Spanish ground; If you may our foes be termed, Gentle foes we have you found. With our city, you have won our hearts each one; 35 Then to your country bear away that is your own." "Rest you still, most gallant lady, Rest you still, and weep no more; Of fair lovers there are plenty ; 40 Spain doth yield a wondrous store." "Spaniards fraught with jealousie we often find; But English men throughout the world are counted kind. "Leave me not unto a Spaniard ; You alone enjoy my heart; I am lovely, young, and tender, And so love is my desert. 45 Still to serve thee day and night my mind is prest; The wife of every English man is counted blest." "It would be a shame, fair lady, For to bear a woman hence; English soldiers never carry 50 "I will quickly change myself, if it be so, And like a page I'll follow thee, where'er thou go." "I have neither gold nor silver To maintain thee in this case, And to travel, 'tis great charges, As you know, in every place." 55 "My chains and jewels every one shall be thine own, And eke ten thousand pounds in gold that lies unknown." 60 "On the seas are many dangers; Many storms do there arise, Which will be to ladies dreadful, And force tears from wat'ry eyes." 65 "Well in worth I could endure extremity, For I could find in heart to lose my life for thee." "Courteous lady, be contented; Here comes all that breeds the strife; I in England have already A sweet woman to my wife: I will not falsifie my vow for gold or gain, 70 Nor yet for all the fairest dames that live in Spain." "Oh how happy is that woman That enjoys so true a friend!. Many days of joy God send you! Of my suit I'll make an end: 75 On my knees I pardon crave for this offence, Which love and true affection did first commence. "Commend me to thy loving lady; Bear to her this chain of gold, And these bracelets for a token; Grieving that I was so bold. All my jewels in like sort bear thou with thee, For these are fitting for thy wife, and not for me. "I will spend my days in prayer, Love and all her laws defie; 80 85 In a nunnery will I shroud me, Far from other company: But ere my prayers have end, be sure of this, [To pray] for thee and for thy love I will not miss. "Thus farewell, most gentle captain, And farewell my heart's content! Count not Spanish ladies wanton, Though to thee my love was bent: 90 Joy and true prosperity goe still with thee!" 95 "The like fall ever to thy share, most fair lady." ron. PATIENT GRISSEL. THE story of Griselda was first told in the DecameBoccaccio derived the incidents from Petrarch, and Petrarch seems to have communicated them also to Chaucer, who (in his Clerk of Oxenford's Tale) first made known the tale to English readers. The theme was subsequently treated in a great variety of ways. Two plays upon the subject are known to have been written, one of which (by Dekker, Chettle and Haughton) has been printed by the Shakespeare Society, while the other, an older production of the close of Henry VIII.'s reign, is lost. About the middle of the sixteenth century; (1565,) a Song of Patient Grissell is entered in the Stationers' Registers, and a prose history the same year. The earliest edition of the popular prose history as yet recovered, dated 1619, has been reprinted in the third volume of the Percy Society's Publications. The ballad here given is taken from Thomas Deloney's Garland of Good Will, a collection which was printed some time before 1596. It was circulated after that time, and probably even before the compilation of the Garland, as a broadside, in black-letter, and also, with the addition of a prose introduction and conclu |