The Squire of Low Degree
 It was a squyer of lowe degréThat loved the kings doughter of Hungré. After seven years of undeclared love the squire opens his heart to the princess. She replies that she loves him, but that as a mere squire he will have to prove himself by fighting his way to Jerusalem and laying his sword on the Holy Sepulchre. Only this, she believes, will be enough to convince her father that they should marry. Their conversation is overheard by the king&#39;s steward, who steals off to the king to report it, and adds the malicious lie that the squire has made an attempt on the princess&#39;s virtue. The king has a good opinion of the squire and is reluctant to believe this, but tells the steward to watch the princess&#39;s room closely to see whether the squire will visit her. The squire now goes to the king to ask his leave to go abroad adventuring. On being given this permission the squire sets out, but turns aside from his way to visit the princess&#39;s chamber and make his farewells. There, finding the steward and a numerous body of men-at-arms lying in wait for him, he asks the princess to let him in. Anone he sayde: "Your dore undo!Undo," he sayde, "nowe, fayre lady!I am beset with many a spy.Lady as whyte as whales bone,There are thyrty agaynst me one." But she, as a virtuous unmarried lady, turns him from her door and tells him to win her in marriage. Now the steward and his men approach the chamber to take the squire prisoner. Though he resists to such good effect that the steward is killed, the squire is finally taken prisoner by the steward&#39;s men. These men mutilate the dead steward&#39;s face, dress him in the squire&#39;s clothes, and leave him at the princess&#39;s door hoping she will mistake him for the squire. The princess is taken in by this trick, embalms the body of the dead steward and keeps it in a tomb by her bed. Meanwhile the squire is taken to the king, who imprisons him. Finally, finding that his daughter is inconsolable, the king releases the squire and allows him to go abroad. Anone the squyer passed the se.In Tuskayne and in Lumbardy,There he dyd great chyvalry.In Portyngale nor yet in Spayne,There myght no man stand hym agayne;And where that ever that knyght gan fare,The worshyp with hym away he bare.And thus he travayled seven yereIn many a land bothe farre and nere,Tyll on a day he thought hym thoUnto the sepulture for to go.And there he made his offerynge soone,Right as the kinges doughter bad him don. Having done all this he returns to Hungary. Here the princess, still lamenting her supposedly dead lover, has decided to retire from the world: And, squyer, for the love of thee,Fy on this worldes vanyté!Farewell golde pure and fyne;Farewell velvet and satyne;Farewell castelles and maners also;Farewell huntynge and hawkynge to;Farewell revell, myrthe, and play;Farewell pleasure and garmentes gay;Farewell perle and precyous stone;Farewell my juielles everychone;Farewell mantell and scarlet reed;Farewell crowne unto my heed;Farewell hawkes, and farewell hounde;Farewell markes and many a pounde;Farewell huntynge at the hare;Farewell harte and hynde for evermare.Nowe wyll I take the mantell and the rynge,And become an ancresse in my lyvynge.And yet I am a mayden for thee. Her father now belatedly tells her that she has been mourning the steward, and that the squire has returned from Jerusalem. He gives the lovers his blessing, and they marry.