Who likes to love, let him take heed
And wot you why
Among the Gods it is decreed
That love shall die,
And every wight that takes his part
Shall forfeit each a mourning heart

The cause is this, as I have heard
A sort of dames
Whose beauty he did not regard
Nor secret flames
Complained before the gods above
That gold corrupts the God of love

The gods did storm to hear this news
And there they swore
That sith he did such dames abuse
He should no more
Be god of love, but that he should
Both die and forfeit all his gold

His bow and shafts they took away
Before their eyes
And gave these dames a longer day
For to devise
Who should them keep, and they be bound
That love for gold should not be found

These ladies, striving long
At last they did agree
To give them to a maiden chaste
Whom I did see,
Who with the same did pierce my heart
Her beauty's rare, and so I rest