178
The first Booke of
Cant. XII.
Who with great wisedome, and graue eloquenceThus gan to say. But eare he thus had sayd,With flying speede, and seeming great pretence,Came running in, much like a man dismayd,A Messenger with letters, which his message sayd.
All in the open hall amazed stood,At suddeinnesse of that vnwary sight,And wondred at his breathlesse hasty mood.But he for nought would stay his passage right,Till fast before the king he did alight;Where falling flat, great humblesse he did make,And kist the ground, whereon his foot was pight;Then to his handes that writt he did betake,Which he disclosing, read thus, as the paper spake.
To thee, most mighty king of Eden fayre,Her greeting sends in these sad lines addrest,The wofull daughter, and forsaken heyreOf that great Emperour of all the West;And bids thee be aduized for the best,Ere thou thy daughter linck in holy bandOf wedlocke to that new vnknowen guest:For he already plighted his right handVnto another loue, and to another land.
To me sad mayd, or rather widow sad,He was affyaunced long time before,And sacred pledges he both gaue, and had,Falfe erraunt knight, infamous, and forswore:Witnesse the burning Altars, which he swore,And guilty heauens of his bold periury,Which though he hath polluted oft of yore,Yet I to them for iudgement iust doe fly,And them coniure t'auenge this shamefull iniury.
Therefore
