Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/457

Rh "We'll give a hint for once, how to apply The meaning first, then hang the tale thereby.
 * People full oft are put into a pother

For want of understanding one another; And strange amusing stories creep about, That come to nothing if you trace them out; Lies of the day, perhaps, or month, or year, Which, having served their purpose, disappear. From which, meanwhile, disputes of every size, That is to say, misunderstandings rise, The springs of ill, from bick'ring up to battle, From wars and tumults down to tittle tattle. Such as, for instance, (for we need not roam Far off to find them, but come nearer home;) Such as befall, by sudden misdivining, On cuts, on coals, on boxes, and on signing, Or on what now, in the affair of mills, To us and you portends such serious ills. To note how meanings, that were never meant, By eager giving them too rash assent, Will fly about, just like so many crows, Of the same breed of which the story goes,—