| Share page |
|
SEAFORD AND CUCKMERE VALLEY 143
So in the habit of a page, She did entreat his lord That, being boy of tender age He would this grace afford.
That he might goe
Service to show. To him both fare and neere
Who little thought
What love she ought To the pride of Lester-shire."
The lord, thinking she seemed a " bright and
pretty lad," engaged her as a page, and the ballad
follows on, after an omission of two or three
verses which partake of rather a Rabelaisian spirit :
" For having travelled sixe weeks Unknown to her lover, With rosie blushes in her cheeks, Her mind she did discover :
' See here,' quoth she,
' One that for thee Have left her parents dear—
Poor Magery,
The Mayde of Rie I am, behold me here '! "
Anthony heard, and his " heart did leape with
joy," and the noble lord looked up and down the
mayde's graceful figure and muttered a wicked
swear word:
" ' Of such a page, In any age,' Quoth he, ' I did not heare.' |
||