| |
| FAIN would I have a pretty thing | |
| To give unto my Lady: | |
| I name no thing, nor I mean no thing, | |
| But as pretty a thing as may be. | |
| |
| Twenty journeys would I make, | 5 |
| And twenty ways would hie me, | |
| To make adventure for her sake, | |
To set some matter by me:
But fain would I have … | |
| |
| Some do long for pretty knacks, | |
| And some for strange devices: | 10 |
| God send me that my Lady lacks, | |
I care not what the price is.
Thus fain … | |
| |
| I walk the town and tread the street, | |
| In every corner seeking | |
| The pretty thing I cannot meet, | 15 |
That’s for my Lady’s liking:
For fain … | |
| |
| The mercers pull me, going by, | |
| The silk-wives say ‘What lack ye?’ | |
| ‘The thing you have not,’ then say I: | |
‘Ye foolish knaves, go pack ye!’
But fain … | 20 |
| |
| It is not all the silk in Cheap, | |
| Nor all the golden treasure; | |
| Nor twenty bushels on a heap | |
Can do my Lady pleasure.
But fain … | |
| |
| But were it in the wit of man | 25 |
| By any means to make it, | |
| I could for money buy it than, | |
And say, ‘Fair Lady, take it!’
Thus fain … | |
| |
| O Lady, what a luck is this, | |
| That my good willing misseth | 30 |
| To find what pretty thing it is | |
| That my Good Lady wisheth! | |
| Thus fain would I have had this pretty thing | |
| To give unto my Lady; | |
| I said no harm, nor I meant no harm, | 35 |
| But as pretty a thing as may be. | |
| |
