Betrayal

How should I
Be so pleasant
In my semblant,
As my fellows be?

Not long ago
It chanced so,
As I did walk alone,
I heard a man
That now and than
Himself did thus bemoan:

"Alas!' he said,
"I am betrayed
and utterly undone;
Whom I did trust
And think so just
Another man hath won.

"Love did assign
Her to be mine,
And not to love none new;
But who can bind
Their fickle kind,
That never will be true?

"My service due
And heart so true
On her I did bestow;
I never meant
For to repent
In wealth nor yet in woe.

"Each western wind
Hath turned her mind
And blown it clean away;
Thereby my wealth,
My mirth and health,
Are driven to great decay.

"Fortune did smile
A right short while
And never said me nay,
With pleasant plays
and joyful days
My time to pass away.

"Alas! alas!
The time so was;
So never shall it be,
Since she is gone
And I alone
Am left as ye may see.

"Where is the oath,
Where is the troth,
That she to me did give?
Such feigned words
With silly bourds
Let no wise man believe.

"For even as I
Thus woefully
Unto myself complain,
If ye then trust,
Needs learn ye must
To sing my song in vain.'

How should I
Be so pleasant
In my semblant,
As my fellows be?
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