Who likes to love, let him take heed!

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 his 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 breast:

Her beauty's rare, and so I rest.