Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/127

To speak of her whose beauties fill
Thy ravished heart.
A sympathetic friend With ready will,2810
Thy tongue will every thought confess
That racks thy breast with anxiousness,
And thou wilt counsel with thy friend
How thou most fruitfully mayst spend
Thy life and goods to give delight
To her thou lovest
If the might
Of love hath struck thy friend, ’tis well,
His heart will know the tale ye tell,
And to thy sympathetic ear
Confide his hope, his joy, his fear,2820
Revealing if his love be maid,
Or light o’ love, or widow staid,
And who she be, and what her name.
Then thou from him wouldst fear no shame,
Or treacherous word, but all he saith
Believe, while he in thee puts faith.
Then shalt thou feel that passing good
It is to have in friendlihood
A man to whom thou dar’st to show
Thine inmost heart, and thou shalt know,2830
Whenso hereof thou makest proof
How greatly works it thy behoof.

My third gift, hight Sweet-Looks, hath birth
Of amorous eyes; of passing worth
It is to those whose cruel fate
Enforces them long years to wait
Their hope’s fulfilment; have a care
To keep thee near thy flame or ne’er