Syth it is so that ye wyll goo, I wol not leve1 behynde;

Shal ne'er be sayd the Nutbrowne Mayd was to her love unkind.

Make you redy, for soo am I, all though it were anoon;

For in my mynde of all mankynde I love but you alone."

"Yet I you rede to take good hede, what men wyl thinke and sey;

Of yonge and olde it shalbe tolde that ye be

gone away,

50

Your wanton wylle for to fulfylle, in grene wood you to play,

And that ye myght from your delyte noo lenger make delay.

Rather than ye shuld thus for me be called an ylle woman,

Yet wolde I to the grenewodde goo, alone, a bannysshed man."

"Though it be songe of olde and yonge that I shuld be to blame,

Theirs be the charge that speke so large in hurting of my name;

For I wyl prove that feythful love it is devoyd of shame,

In your distresse and hevynesse to parte wyth you the same;

And sure all thoo3 that doo not so, trewe

lovers ar they noon;

men say that ye bee

Ne may not fayle of good vitayle, where is so

"I shal, as now, do more for you than longeth to womanhede,

To short my here, a bowe to bere to shote in time of nede.

1

rescue

2 roof