The play begins with voyeuristic means: the, seemingly omniscient, narrator stumbles upon two witty lovers on a hilly knoll close to a river. The young man—the first of the two speaking roles—professes his love for a fair, wealthy maiden—the second and wittier. She is reluctant to comply with this wish to be married, and replies that love, "is like a fishers angle,/ which oft hath golden baites, silly maidens to intangle." The young man continues to profess his adoration and enchantment with the maid, but she can see through his falsity—she acknowledges that young men constantly chase after young women, vocalizing their love, but are only interested in the woman's virginity. The young man is undeterred and asks for a test to prove his ardor. The maid takes to the riverbed and plucks a bouquet of "may" and "time" and she hands it to him as a riddle. The young man blushes and answers the riddle: "This May [May first is the month and date of the ballad's setting] stuck in Time which is to me presenting,/ shew that I may in time gain your love with sweet con-tenting." The maiden then agrees to marry him and they do. The narrator ends by praising this marriage in which both gained something: he—money—and she—a loyal husband. But it also warns young maids to: "Try before you trust, be careful in consenting."
