No More Learning

'And further over, if ye suffre this, 85
Your renoun is fordo than in a throwe;
Ther shal no man wite wel what Pite is.
Allas! that your renoun shuld be so lowe!
Ye be than fro your heritage y-throwe
By Crueltee, that occupieth your place; 90
And we despeired, that seken to your grace.

Have mercy on me, thou Herenus quene,
That you have sought so tenderly and yore;
Let som streem of your light on me be sene
That love and drede you, ay lenger the more. 95
For, sothly for to seyne, I bere the sore,
And, though I be not cunning for to pleyne,
For goddes love, have mercy on my peyne!

? 'My peyne is this, that what so I desire
That have I not, ne no-thing lyk therto; 100
And ever set Desire myn herte on fire;
Eek on that other syde, wher-so I go,
What maner thing that may encrese wo
That have I redy, unsoght, everywhere;
Me [ne] lakketh but my deth, and than my bere. 105

What nedeth to shewe parcel of my peyne?
Sith every wo that herte may bethinke
I suffre, and yet I dar not to you pleyne;
For wel I woot, al-though I wake or winke,
Ye rekke not whether I flete or sinke. 110
But natheles, my trouthe I shal sustene
Unto my deth, and that shal wel be sene.

This is to seyne, I wol be youres ever;
Though ye me slee by Crueltee, your fo,
Algate my spirit shal never dissever 115
Fro your servyse, for any peyne or wo.
Sith ye be deed--allas! that hit is so! --
Thus for your deth I may wel wepe and pleyne
With herte sore and ful of besy peyne.
' 119

_Here endeth the exclamacion of the Deth of Pyte. _

_The_ MSS. _are_: Tn. (Tanner 346); F. (Fairfax 16); B. (Bodley 638); Sh.
(Shirley's MS. , Harl. 78); Ff. (Ff. 1. 6, in Camb. Univ. Library); T. ,
_here used for_ Trin. (Trin.