Classic Poem

Their task detained them but a little time,
And then all three returned and fell on me,
Who outside lingered, grieving, overcome,
Doleful, and in tears. Now they assailed
Me once again with comminations dire.
God grant they may someday repent their crimes!
My heart at their attack almost stopped still,
For though I offered willingly to yield
They seemed determined not to let me live.
I undertook to make my peace with them,
And gladly would have shared Fair Welcome's cell.
" Danger, " said I, " most charming gentleman,
Of nature frank, of body valorous,
More pious than all others that I know,
And you, fair Shame and lovely Fear, two maids
Frank, noble, wise, well taught in word and deed,
Of Reason's lineage born, permit that I
Become your slave by such a covenant
That I Fair Welcome's prison house may share
Without a hope of ultimate release.
Most loyally I promise you to give
Such service as may please you to devise
If you will put me in your castle tower.
If I were traitor, thief, or ravisher,
Accused of murder or some other crime
For which I might deserve imprisonment,
My faith! I would not need to beg, by God,
For I'd be jailed, without my own request,
Provided I arrested were by law.
If I to be dismembered were condemned
None would allow me to escape that fate,
Provided they could catch me. Now I ask
For God's sake let me share imprisonment
With him forever, and if I be found,
Whether by proof or not, to be so vile
As not to serve your ends without defect,
Out of your jail for good I will depart.
No man is faultless; but, if I default,
Then make me pack my clothes and sally forth
Out of your precincts. If I you offend,
Then let me feel the rod of your revenge.
Be you my judges; I'll have none but you.
In high or low on you I rest my fate —
On just you three — unless Fair Welcome join
With you to make a fourth; that I accept.
Let him recall the facts, and if you three
Cannot agree to tolerate my stay
Then let him bring you to accord, and hold
To his decision. Fear not I'll escape,
Though I be beaten or e'en put to death. "
Then Danger cried, " By God, a fine request!
To put you both together in one cell —
You with your philandering, and he
So debonair! One might as well pen up
Sir Reynard with the chickens and expect
True love. Whatever service you might do for us,
Well know we that you have but one design:
To shame us and to bring us to disgrace.
We care not for your service. You must be
Devoid of sense to ask that he be judge.
Judge! By the gracious King of Heaven above!
How can a person, taken and condemned
Already, be a judge and make decrees?
Fair Welcome has been caught and brought to trial,
And yet you think him of such dignity
That he might arbitrator be himself!
The flood shall come again ere he escape
From out our tower. When we return to him,
He'll be destroyed as he so well deserves
For one thing that he did, if for no more,
When he debased himself by offering you
All that he had. The roses all are lost
Through him. Each dotard thinks to pluck a rose
When he is well received. There is but one
Alternative: to keep him in a cage
Where no one can do harm and where no man
Alive can rescue him, more than the wind,
Unless it were some churl who force would use.
If he did that, such sin he would commit
That he would hanged or banished be for it. "
" But certainly, " said I, " most grievous wrong
A man would do who someone else destroyed
Without a reason, or imprisoned him.
Most evilly you act when you arrest,
Without occasion, such a worthy man
As is Fair Welcome, so benevolent
That for the world he makes a festival,
And just because he granted me good cheer
And favored my acquaintanceship with him.
It were more reasonable, I submit,
That he were out of prison. So I pray
That he may issue forth — be of the charge
Considered quit. Too much you've punished him
Already. See to it that he is freed. "

" My faith, " cried they, " this fool is mocking us.
We must appear to him such men as live
On semblances, when thus he would betray
Us by his speech to set at large his friend.
He asks what cannot be; never again
Will that one show his face at door or even grill. "