I read that once in Africa A princely wight did reign,Who had to name Cophetua,As poets they did feign:
From nature's laws he did decline,For sure he was not of my mind,He car-ed not for women-kind,But did them all disdain.
But mark what happened on a day:
As he out of his window lay,He saw a beggar all in gray,The which did cause his pain.
The blinded boy,that shoots so trim,From heaven down did hie;
He drew a dart and shot at him,In place where he did lie:
Which soon did pierce him to the quick,And when he felt the arrow prick,Which in his tender heart did stick,He looked as he would die.
"What sudden chance is this,"quoth he,"That I to love must subject be,Which never thereto would agree,But still did it defy?"
Then from the window he did come,And laid him on his bed,A thousand heaps of care did run Within his troubled head:
For now he means to crave her love,And now he seeks which way to prove How he his fancy might remove,And not this beggar wed.
But Cupid had him so in snare,That this poor beggar must prepare A salve to cure him of his care,Or else he would be dead.
And,as he musing thus did lie,He thought for to devise How he might have her company,That so did 'maze his eyes.
"In thee,"quoth he,"doth rest my life;
For surely thou shalt be my wife,Or else this hand with bloody knife The gods shall sure suffice!"
Then from his bed he soon arose,And to his palace gate he goes;
Full little then this beggar knows When she the king espies.
"The gods preserve your majesty!"
The beggars all gan cry:
"Vouchsafe to give your charity Our children's food to buy!"
The king to them his purse did cast,And they to part it made great haste;
This silly woman was the last That after them did hie.
The king he called her back again,And unto her he gave his chain;
And said,"With us thou shalt remain Till such time as we die:
"For thou,"quoth he,"shalt be my wife
