|
33
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
|
Page 182
[CHAPTER CXXXI.]
[The Knight of Latour speaks:]
"Lady, ye make me to be merveilled how that ye so
sore discounceille them to love. Wene ye to doo me
to
Page 183
beleve that ye be so trewe in your spekinge, that ye
never
were amorous? Certainly I have wel herd the complainte
of
some, of whome ye hold wel your pees." "Sire, sayd the
lady,
"I trowe that ye wold not beleve me if I told to you
the very
trouthe therof; but as for to saye I have ben prayd of
love,
I have many times perceived how somme men were aboute
to
speke to me therof, but ever I brake their wordes,
& called
to me somme other, wherby I did breke their faitte.
Wherof
ones hit befelle, as many knightes and ladyes were
playinge
with me, that a knight sayd to me how that he loved
all the
ladyes that ben in this world. And I did demaunde and
asked
him if hit was long syn that sekenes & eville had
taken him.
& he answerd that it was wel ij yere gone and
past, and
that never he durst telle it to me. I thenne answerd
to him
that it was nothinge of that space of time, & that
he hasted
him too moche, and that it was but a temptacion, &
that he
shold goo to the chirche for to cast upon him holy
water, and
that he shold saye his Aue Maria, & that his
temptacion shold
sone after go fro him, For the love was newe. And he
demaunded of me why. And thenne I sayd to him that
none paramoure or lover ought not to saye to his lady
that he
loveth her, till the time of seven yere and an half be
passed & gone, and that it was but a litell
temptacion.
Thenne he wende to have argued, and put many reasons
unto
me, whanne I sayd al on highe: `Behold ye all what
sayth
this knight, whiche is but two yere syn he loved first
one
lady! And thenne he prayd that I shold kepe my pees
therof,
and that in good faithe he shold never speke to me
therof."
|
|
