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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=346038" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=346038" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">I read that once in Affrica<br>A princely wight did raine,<br>Who had to name Cophetua, <br>As poets they did faine.<br>From natures lawes he did decline,<br>For sure he was not of my minde,<br>He cared not for women-kind,<br>But did them all disdaine.<br>But marke what hapned on a day;<br>As he out of his window lay,<br>He saw a beggar all in gray,<br>The which did cause his paine.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=346038" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The blinded boy that shootes so trim<br>From heaven downe did hie,<br>He drew a dart and shot at him,<br>In place where he did lye:<br>Which soone did pierse him to the quicke,<br>And when he felt the arrow pricke,<br>Which in his tender heart did sticke,<br>He looketh as he would dye.<br>'What suden chance is this,' quoth he,<br>'That I to love must subject be,<br>Which never thereto would agree,<br>But still did it defie?'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=346038" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Then from the window he did come,<br>And laid him on his bed;<br>A thousand heapes of care did runne <br>Without his troubled head.<br>For now he meanes to crave her love,<br>And now he seekes which way to proove<br>How he his fancie might remoove,<br>And not this beggar wed.<br>But Cupid had him so in snare,<br>That this poor beggar must prepare<br>A salve to cure him of his care,<br>Or els he would be dead.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=346038" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And as he musing thus did lye,<br>He thought for to devise<br>How he might have her companye,<br>That so did 'maze his eyes.<br>'In thee,' quoth he, 'doth rest my life;<br>For surely thou shalt be my wife,<br>Or else this hand with bloody knife,<br>The Gods shall sure suffice.'<br>Then from his bed he soon arose,<br>And to his pallace gate he goes;<br>Full little then this begger knowes <br>When she the king espies.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=346038" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'The gods preserve your majesty,'<br>The beggers all gan cry;<br>'Vouchsafe to give your charity,<br>Our childrens food to buy.'<br>The king to them his purse did cast,<br>And they to part it made great haste;<br>This silly woman was the last<br>That after them did hye.<br>The king he cal'd her back againe,<br>And unto her he gave his chaine;<br>And said, 'With us you shal remaine<br>Till such time as we dye.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=346038" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'For thou,' quoth he, 'shalt be my wife,<br>And honoured for my queene;<br>With thee I meane to lead my life,<br>As shortly shall be seene:<br>Our wedding shall appointed be,<br>And every thing in its degree;<br>Come on,' quoth he, 'and follow me,<br>Thou shalt go shift thee cleane.<br>What is thy name, faire maid?' quoth he.<br>'Penelophon, O King,' quoth she;<br>With that she made a lowe courtsey;<br>A trim one as I weene.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=346038" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Thus hand in hand along they walke<br>Unto the king's pallace:<br>The king with courteous, comly talke<br>This begger doth embrace.<br>The begger blusheth scarlet red,<br>And straight againe as pale as lead,<br>But not a word at all she said,<br>She was in such amaze.<br>As last she spake with trembling voyce,<br>And said, 'O King, I doe rejoyce<br>That you wil take me for your choyce,<br>And my degree so base.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=346038" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And when the wedding day was come,<br>The king commanded straight<br>The noblemen, both all and some,<br>Upon the queene to wait.<br>And she behaved herself that day<br>As if she had never walkt the way;<br>She had forgot her gowne of gray,<br>Which she did weare of late.<br>The proverbe old is come to passe,<br>The priest, when he begins his masse,<br>Forgets that ever clerke he was;<br>He knoweth not his estate.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=346038" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Here you may read Cophetua,<br>Through long time fancie-fed,<br>Compelled by the blinded boy <br>The begger for to wed:<br>He that did lovers lookes disdaine,<br>To do the same was glad and faine,<br>Or else he would himselfe have slaine,<br>In storie, as we read.<br>Disdaine no whit, O lady deere,<br>But pitty now thy servant heere,<br>Least that it hap to thee this yeare,<br>As to that king it did.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=346038" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And thus they led a quiet life<br>During their princely raine,<br>And in a tombe were buried both,<br>As writers sheweth plaine.<br>The lords they tooke it grievously,<br>The ladies tooke it heavily,<br>The commons cryed pitiously,<br>Their death to them was paine.<br>Their fame did sound so passingly,<br>That it did pierce the starry sky,<br>And throughout all the world did flye<br>To every princes realme.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Anonymous+Olde+English">Anonymous Olde English</a></strong></div>