Fair-Welcome in prison
Who now on every side behold
These traitors, venomous as bold,4220
Who fain would hunt my soul to death.
Ah! dear Fair-Welcome, they their breath
But spend with purpose to deceive
And bind you with the cord they weave.
Alas! God help me, know I not
But what already they have got
Their will against you. Darkest fear
Invades me, lest it should appear
That you forget me quite; what woe
Untold would fall on me to know4230
That I had lost your friendship, then
Were I unhappiest of men;
All pleasure, joy, and comfort sped,
And hope itself nigh perishèd.
[The next eighty lines, which give a sort of conclusion to the story, are found only in some manuscripts. M. Méon gives it as his opinion that they were suppressed by Jean de Meun, in order that they might not interfere with his continuation of the poem. M. Croissandeau, on the other hand, considers them altogether spurious, inasmuch as they are not, as he very clearly points out, in accord with the spirit of the tale or of William Lorris. As M. Croissandeau thought well to print them, it has been judged advisable to give the translation. They were evidently unknown to the English translator of the fourteenth century.]
[Might I but see your face, and speak
In converse sweet, but once the week
