For that princess of price so hotly him press’d + 

To the limit of love, that at last him behoved + 

Or consent to her suit or sullen refuse. + 

He cared for his courtesy, lest caitiff he prove, + 

And for his dámnation more, to be doomèd in sin, + 

And be traitor untrue to the lord that him trusted. + 

“God shield,” quoth the wight, “that sháll not befall.” + 

With a lover’s laugh he put lightly aside + 

All the speeches so fond that fell from her lips. + 

Then sadly she said, “Ye are surely to blame, + 

If ye love not her life that ye lie here beside, + 

Woman in the world most wounded in heart, + 

Unless ye have a leman that ye love very dear, + 

And have plighted your troth with a pledge so true + 

That ye list never loose it; I believe it as now, + 

And I pray, on your troth, that truly ye tell me⁠— + 

By all saints that there are conceal not the sooth, + 

for guile.” + 

The knight said “By Saint John,” + 

And gently did he smile, + 

“In faith I have right none, + 

And none will have this while.” + 