O Lord our Lord! thy name how marvellous Is in this largë world y-spread! (quoth she) For not only thy laudë precious Performed is by men of high degree, But by the mouth of children thy bounté Performed is, for on the breast sucking Sometimës showë they thy herying.
Wherefore in laud, as I best can or may Of thee, and of the whitë lily flow’r Which that thee bare, and is a maid alway, To tell a story I will do my laboúr; Not that I may increasë her honoúr, For she herselven is honoúr and root Of bounté, next her son, and soulës’ boot.
O mother maid, O maid and mother free! O bush unburnt, burning in Moses’ sight, That ravished’st down from the deity, Through thy humbless, the ghost that in thee light; Of whose virtúe, when he thine heartë light, Conceived was the Father’s sapience; Help me to tell it to thy reverence.
Lady! thy bounty, thy magnificence, Thy virtue, and thy great humility, There may no tongue express in no science: For sometimes, Lady! ere men pray to thee, Thou go’st before, of thy benignity, And gettest us the light, through thy prayére, To guiden us unto thy son so dear.
My conning is so weak, O blissful queen, For to declarë thy great worthiness, That I not may the weight of it sustene; But as a child of twelvemonth old, or less, That can unnethës any word express, Right so fare I; and therefore, I you pray, Guidë my song that I shall of you say.
There was in Asia, in a great citý, Amongës Christian folk, a Jewery, Sustained by a lord of that countrý, For foul usure, and lucre of villainy, Hateful to Christ, and to his company; And through the street men mightë ride and wend, For it was free, and open at each end.