| |
| SUCH hap as I am happed in, | |
| Had never man of truth I ween; | |
| At me Fortune list to begin, | |
| To shew that never hath been seen, | |
| A new kind of unhappiness; | 5 |
| Nor I cannot the thing I mean | |
| Myself express. | |
| Myself express my deadly pain, | |
| That can I well, if that might serve; | |
| But when I have not help again, | 10 |
| That know I not, unless I sterve, | |
| For hunger still amiddes my food | |
| [Lacking the thing] that I deserve | |
| To do me good. | |
| To do me good what may prevail, | 15 |
| For I deserve, and not desire, | |
| And still of cold I me bewail, | |
| And raked am in burning fire; | |
| For though I have, such is my lot, | |
| In hand to help that I require, | 20 |
| It helpeth not. | |
| It helpeth not but to increase | |
| That, that by proof can be no more; | |
| That is, the heat that cannot cease; | |
| And that I have, to crave so sore. | 25 |
| What wonder is this greedy lust! | |
| To ask and have, and yet therefore | |
| Refrain I must. | |
| Refrain I must; what is the cause? | |
| Sure as they say, ‘So hawks be taught.’ | 30 |
| But in my case layeth no such clause; | |
| For with such craft I am not caught; | |
| Wherefore I say, and good cause why, | |
| With hapless hand no man hath raught | |
| Such hap as I. | 35 |
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