Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/165

Bethink thee otherwhere to root
The grafts to which thou look’st for
fruit. Delay thou not, but act amain—
I’ve said—my mouth will I refrain11660
From further speech thereon, lest some
My words with weariness o’ercome.

Fraud all-powerful My promise readily I give
From henceforth with your friends to live
In peaceful wise, if they agree
Thereto, or else I warrant me
They’ll meet grim death.
They must receive
My leman too would they achieve
Their end. I am with justice named
A traitor, and have been proclaimed11670
By Love as common thief. Forsworn
Am I, but till mine end is worn
No man perceives it. Oft my blow
Is dealt, yet nought thereof men know;
And should one be of it aware,
Unless he too seeks death, will spare
Resentment. Treachery is so strong,
That all the world condones its wrong.
Proteus himself, who changed his shape
Whene’er he pleased, for guile or jape,11680
Was less adept at fraud than I.
So great is my dexterity,
That though within some town I’ve been
A thousand times, but little ween
The folk who meet me unaware
That oft before I’ve entered there.