ot well,' or 'Fair and softly, husband
mine' or 'I'll buy me a cock, a cock of an hundred pounds
sterling'?"[292] Therewithal the queen, somewhat provoked, though all
the other ladies laughed, said, "Dioneo, leave jesting and sing us a
goodly one; else shalt thou prove how I can be angry." Hearing this,
he gave over his quips and cranks and forthright fell a-singing after
this fashion:

[Footnote 292: The songs proposed by Dioneo are all apparently of a
light, if not a wanton, character and "not fit to be sung before
ladies."]

O Love, the amorous light
That beameth from yon fair one's lovely eyes
Hath made me thine and hers in servant-guise.

The splendour of her lovely eyes, it wrought
That first thy flames were kindled in my breast,
Passing thereto through mine;
Yea, and thy virtue first unto my thought
Her visage fair it was made manifest,
Which picturing, I twine
And lay before her shrine
All virtues, that to her I sacrifice,
Become the new occasion of my sighs.

Thus, dear my lord, thy vassal am I grown
And of thy might obediently await
Grace for my lowliness;
Yet wot I not if wholly there be known
The high desire that in my breast thou'st set
And my sheer faith, no less,
Of her who doth possess
My heart so that from none beneath the skies,
Save her alone, peace would I take or prize.

Wherefore I pray thee, sweet my lord and sire,
Discover it to her and cause her taste
Some scantling of thy heat
To-me-ward,--for thou seest that in the fire,
Loving, I languish and for torment waste
By inches at her feet,--
And eke in season meet
Commend me to her favour on such wise
As I would plead for thee, should need arise.[293]

[Footnote 293: This singularly naive give-and-take fashion of asking a
favour of a God recalls the old Scotch epitaph cited by Mr. George
Macdonald:

Here lie I Martin Elginbrodde:
Hae mercy o' my soul, Lord God;
As I wad do, were I Lord God
And ye were Martin Elginbrodde.]

Dioneo, by his silence, showing that his song was ended, the queen let
sing many others, having natheless much commended his. Then, somedele
of the night being spent and the queen feeling the heat of the day to
be now overcome of the coolness of the night, she bade each at his
pleasure betak