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72
Läsebok. N:o 62.
My liege, quo’ the abbot, I would it were known,
I never spend nothing, but what is my own;
And I trust your Grace will do me no dear,
For spending of my own true-gotten gear.
Yes, yes, father abbot, thy fault it is high,
And now for the same thou needs must die,
For except thou canst answer me questions three,
Thy head shall be smitten from thy body.
And first, quo’ the King, when I’m in this stead,
With my crown of gold so fair on my head,
Among all my liege-men so noble of birth,
Thou must tell me to one penny what I’m worth.
Secondly, tell me, without any doubt,
How soon I may ride the whole world about.
And at the third question thou must not shrink,
But tell me here truly what I do think.
0, these are hard questions for my shallow wit,
Nor I cannot answer your Grace as yet:
But if you will give me but three weeks’ space,
I’ll do my endeavour to answer your Grace.
Now three weeks’ space to thee will I give,
And that is the longest time thou hast to live;
For if thou dost not answer my questions three,
Thy lands and thy livings are forfeit to me.
Away röde the abbot all sad at that word,
And he röde to Cambridge and Oxenford;
O ’
But never a doctor there was so wise,
That could with his learning an answer devise.
Then home röde the abbot of comfort so cold,
And he met his shepherd a-going to fold:
How now, my Lord abbot, you are welcome home;
What news do you bring us from good King John?
Sad news, sad news, shepherd, I must give;
That I have but three davs more to live:
For if I do not answer him questions three,
My head will be smitten from my body.
The first is to tell him there in that stead,
With his crown of gold so fair on his head,
Among all his liege-men so noble of birth,
To within one penny of what he is worth.
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