| 1695 | But cruel day, so welawey the stounde! |
| Gan for to aproche, as they by signes knewe, |
| For whiche hem thoughte felen dethes wounde; |
| So wo was hem, that changen gan hir hewe |
| And day they goonnen to dispyse al newe, |
| 1700 | Calling it traytour, envyous, and worse, |
| And bitterly the dayes light they curse. |
| Quod Troilus, `Allas! Now am I war |
| That Pirous and tho swifte stedes three, |
| Whiche that drawen forth the sonnes char, |
| 1705 | Han goon som by-path in despyt of me; |
| That maketh it so sone day to be; |
| And, for the sonne him hasteth thus to ryse, |
| Ne shal I never doon him sacrifyse!' |
| But nedes day departe moste hem sone, |
| 1710 | And whanne hir speche doon was and hir chere, |
| They twynne anoon as they were wont to done, |
| And setten tyme of meting eft yfere; |
| And many a night they wroughte in this manere. |
| And thus Fortune a tyme ladde in joye |
| 1715 | Criseyde, and eek this kinges sone of Troye. |
| In suffisaunce, in blisse, and in singinges, |
| This Troilus gan al his lyf to lede; |
| He spendeth, jousteth, maketh festeynges; |
| He yeveth frely ofte, and chaungeth wede, |
| 1720 | And held aboute him alwey, out of drede, |
| A world of folk, as cam him wel of kinde, |
| The fressheste and the beste he koude fynde; |
| That swich a voys was of hym and a stevene |
| Thurgh-out the world, of honour and largesse, |
| 1725 | That it up rong unto the yate of hevene. |
| And, as in love, he was in swich gladnesse, |
| That in his herte he demede, as I gesse, |
| That there nis lovere in this world at ese |
| So wel as he, and thus gan love him plese. |
| 1730 | The godlihede or beautee which that kinde |
| In any other lady hadde yset |
| Can not the mountaunce of a knot unbinde, |
| A-boute his herte, of al Criseydes net. |
| He was so narwe ymasked and yknet, |
| 1735 | That it undon on any manere syde, |
| That nil not been, for ought that may betyde. |
| And by the hond ful ofte he wolde take |
| This Pandarus, and into gardin lede, |
| And swich a feste and swich a proces make |
| 1740 | Him of Criseyde, and of hir womanhede, |
| And of hir beautee, that, withouten drede, |
| It was an hevene his wordes for to here; |
| And thanne he wolde singe in this manere: |
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