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and we drank, till I rose to do an occasion. During my absence, the host questioned the two others of me, and they replied that they knew me not; whereupon quoth he, “This fellow is a spunger, but he is well-bred and pleasant; so entreat him fairly.” Then I came back and sat down in my place, whilst the damsel sang the following verses to a pleasing air:
Say thou unto the she-gazelle, who yet is no gazelle, And the wild heifer, languorous-eyed, who yet no heifer is,
“One, who in dalliance affects the male, no female is, And he who is effeminate of step’s no male, ywis.”
She sang it excellent well, and the company drank and her song pleased them. Then she sang various songs to rare tunes, and amongst the rest one of mine, to the following words:
The pleasant girls have gone and left The homesteads empty and bereft
Of their sweet converse, after cheer, All void and ruined by Time’s theft.
She sang this even better than the first; then she sang other rare songs, old and new, and amongst them, another of mine, with the following words:
To the loved one, who turneth in anger away And withdraweth himself far apart from thee, say,
“The mischief thou wroughtest, thou wroughtest indeed, For all, peradventure, thou wast but in play.”
I asked her to repeat the song, that I might correct it for her; whereupon one of the men turned to me and said, “Never saw I a more brazen-faced parasite than thou. Art thou not content with spunging, but thou must meddle, to boot? Verily, in thee is the saying made true, ‘A parasite and a meddler.’” I hung down my head for shame and made him no answer, whilst his companion would have restrained him from me; but he would not be restrained. Presently, they rose to pray, but I hung behind a little and taking the lute, tuned it after a particular fashion and stood up to pray with the rest. When
