Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/58

Supreme; my best and truest friend
I’ll count her till my life-days end.700
Sir Mirth and his company Now will I set myself to tell
The further tale of what befell
In that fair spot.
What things Mirth did,
And who the friends were that he bid
To keep him company will I
Declare all faithfully, and try
To show and picture forth to you,
What happed to me, in order due.
Set out the whole in little space
Could no man, but if kindly grace710
You grant me, then shall be unrolled
The tale complete, till all be told.

Within this garden, past compare.
The birds sweet voicing filled the air
With honeyed songs and roundelays.
Discoursing in a thousand ways
Their tales of tender woodland love.
I listed how some sang above
My head, perched high among the leaves.
And others ’mid the fragrant sheaves720
Of blossom near the ground, and all,
With melody most musical.
Rejoiced my heart exceedingly:
Then woke a new desire in me
To look on Mirth’s fair countenance
And grasp his hand; the radiance
That flooded all my soul, I felt
Would be redoubled if he dealt
Me welcoming. I now forsook
The open grassy space, and took730