Guerdon

For would she of her gentlenesse, Withouten more, me ones kesse, It were to me a great guerdoon. Release of all my passion […]

Is this the guerdon wherewithall ye quite my fruitfulnesse? Is this the honor that ye gave for my plenteousnesse And dutie done with true intent?

Done to death by slanderous tongues Was the Hero that here lies: Death, in guerdon of her wrongs, Gives her fame which never dies.

He hearkned, and did stay from further harmes, To gayne so goodly guerdon, as she spake […]

Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise (That last infirmity of noble mind) To scorn delights and live laborious days; But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, And think to burst out into sudden blaze, Comes the blind Fury with th'abhorred shears, And slits the thin-spun life.

Verse, like the laurel its immortal meed, Should be the guerdon of a noble deed

"That will I do blithely," replied the Pilgrim, "and without guerdon; my oath, for a time, prohibits me from touching gold."

I had some faint recollection of having a penny-piece in my waistcoat pocket, and, pleased with the service he had rendered to us, I gave it him as his guerdon. "Thank ye, sir—thank ye, sir—thank ye, sir," he cried, and immediately returned to his station near the footway.