[Love's Renewal]
[Love's Renewal]
Original Text
d' Orléans, Chalres. The English Poems of Charles of Orleans. Ed. Robert Steele and Mabel Day. London: Oxford University Press, (1940) 1970: 156-157
1Now felle me when þis Iubile þus was made
2Not kowde y ellis but wandir vp & downe
3Mysyng in my wakyng dremys sad
4Myn ydille thought so besy gan me rowne
5That alle the hertis dwellyng in a towne
6Ne nad no no so smalle to doon as y
7For in no care thus lyvid y wot ye whi
8Seyng y nadde as lady nor maystres
9As laboure noon me left nas soth to say
10Without it were to here evensong and masse
11And for the sowle of my swet hert to pray
12Which esy lijf y ledde this many day
13Without it were that sum oon he or she
14Wolde me complayne of ther aduersite
15And pray me that y wolde suche labour take
16Of ther complayntis as they to me tolde
17In a Roundelle or balade them to make
18This for y was so moche to loue biholde
19In my fer afore past dayes olde
20Ther nas to loue so sympille servyng wight
21But that y fayne wolde plese hem if y might
22And now but lat that on me ded requere
23Forto biwayle fortunes stabilnes
24And tolde me alle the case of his matere
25And y that fayne wolde doon hem alle gladnes
26Had tane on me right so the bisynes
27And took me so myn enke and papir to
28And for bi cause me thought it best to do
29Forth bi my silf thus went y me alone
30Toward the see where nygh my bidyng was
31To y come to an high huge Rokke of stone
32That to biholde hit glemshid bright as glas
33Where as y fonde a benche of mosse & gras
34So moche y-growe and ekk so verry soft
35That it was lijk a Carpet as me thought
36Where as anoon that downe my silf y sat
37And gan me muse to maken þis complaynt
38Syn it must nede be doon as wot yow what
39And that y kan not make it ouyr quaynt
40But neuyrtheles these were my wordis faynt
41I for him seide and gan my papir sprede
42And wrote right thus if so ye list to rede
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire, assisted by Ana Berdinskikh
RPO Edition
2009
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