I.

IRE as the gentle hart itselfe bewrayes n doing gentle deedes with franke delight, ven fo the bafer mind itselfe difplayes a cancred malice and revengefull fpight; or to maligne, t'envie, t'ufe fhifting flight, le arguments of a vile donghill mind, Which what it dare not dee by open might, To worke by wicked treafon wayes doth find, by fuch difcourteous deeds difcovering his base kind.

*II.

That well appears in this difcourteous knight,
The coward Turpine, whereof now I treat,
Who notwithstanding that in former fight
He of the prince his life received late,
Yet in his mind, malitious and ingrate,
He gan devize to be aveng'd anew

For all that shame which kindled inward hate;
Therefore fo foone as he was out of vew

And both combynd whatever chaunce were blowne

Betwixt them to divide, and each to make his

owne.

IV.

To whom falfe Turpine comming courteously,
To cloke the mischiefe which he inly ment,
Gan to complaine of great discourtefie

Which a ftraunge knight, that neare afore him

went,

Had doen to him, and his deare ladie fhent ;
Which if they would afford him ayde at need
For to avenge in time convenient,

They should accomplish both a knightly deed, And for their paines obtaine of him a goodly meed.

V.

The knights beleev'd that all he fayd was trew, And being fresh and full of youthly spright, Were glad to heare of that adventure new,

So up he rose, and forth streightway he went
Backe to the place where Turpine late he lore;
There he him found in great astonishment
To fee him fo bedight with bloodie gore
And griefly wounds, that him appailed fore.
Yet thus at length he fayd, "How now,
"Knight!

"What meaneth this which here I fee before?
"How fortuneth this foule uncomely plight,
"So different from that which earft ye feem'd a
"fight?"

xv. "Perdic," faid he, "in evill houre it fell, "That ever I for meed did undertake "So hard a taske as life for hyre to fell, "The which I earst adventur'd for your fike, "Witnesse the wounds, and this wide blot "lake,

"Which ye may fee yet all about me ftecme; "Therefore now yeeld, as ye did promife make "My due reward, the which right we "deeme

" I yearned have, that life fo dearely did re"deeme."