I would my lover kneeling at my feet
  In humble manliness should cry, O sweet! 
  I know not if thy heart my heart will meet: 
  I ask not if thy love my love can greet: 
  Whatever thy worshipful soft tongue shall say,
  I’ll kiss thine answer, be it yea or nay: 
  I do but know I love thee, and I pray
  To be thy knight until my dying day.
  Woe him that cunning trades in hearts contrives! 
  Base love good women to base loving drives. 
  If men loved larger, larger were our lives;
  And wooed they nobler, won they nobler wives.”

  There thrust the bold straightforward horn
  To battle for that lady lorn;
  With heartsome voice of mellow scorn,
  Like any knight in knighthood’s morn. 
    “Now comfort thee,” said he,
       “Fair Ladye. 
  Soon shall God right thy grievous wrong,
  Soon shall man sing thee a true-love song,
  Voiced in act his whole life long,
    Yea, all thy sweet life long,
       Fair Ladye. 
  Where’s he that craftily hath said
  The day of chivalry is dead? 
  I’ll prove that lie upon his head,
    Or I will die instead,
       Fair Ladye. 
  Is Honor gone into his grave? 
  Hath Faith become a caitiff knave,
  And Selfhood turned into a slave
    To work in Mammon’s cave,
       Fair Ladye? 
  Will Truth’s long blade ne’er gleam again? 
  Hath Giant Trade in dungeons slain
  All great contempts of mean-got gain
    And hates of inward stain,
       Fair Ladye? 
  For aye shall Name and Fame be sold,
  And Place be hugged for the sake of gold,
  And smirch-robed Justice feebly scold
    At Crime all money-bold,
       Fair Ladye? 
  Shall self-wrapt husbands aye forget
  Kiss-pardons for the daily fret
  Wherewith sweet wifely eyes are wet—­
    Blind to lips kiss-wise set—­
       Fair Ladye? 
  Shall lovers higgle, heart for heart,
  Till wooing grows a trading mart
  Where much for little, and all for part,
    Make love a cheapening art,
       Fair Ladye? 
  Shall woman scorch for a single sin
  That her betrayer can revel in,
  And she be burnt, and he but grin
    When that the flames begin,
       Fair Ladye? 
  Shall ne’er prevail the woman’s plea,
  We maids would far, far whiter be
  If that our eyes might sometimes see
    Men maids in purity,
       Fair Ladye? 
  Shall Trade aye salve his conscience-aches
  With jibes at Chivalry’s old mistakes,
  The wars that o’erhot knighthood makes
    For Christ’s and ladies’ sakes,
      Fair Ladye? 
  Now by each knight that e’er hath prayed
  To fight like a man and love like a maid,
  Since Pembroke’s life, as Pembroke’s blade,
    I’ the scabbard, death, was laid,
      Fair Ladye. 
  I dare avouch my faith is bright
  That God doth right and God hath might,