Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/555

Rh saith, if his female play false, he will, if he can, kill her: or else utterly forsake her. Therefore Chaucer calleth him the wreker of adultery."

There is in the Latin Esop, a story of a "Father and his three Children," of which the latter part resembles the present tale.

"And the mill, how was it demised by your father, to be parted among you three? They answered the judge, he that shall be the most lyar, most evil, and most slow, ought to have it. Then said the eldest son, I am most slothful, for many years past I have dwelled in a great house, and lay under the conduits of the same, where fell upon me all the foul waters, as dish-water and other filth, that most wonderfully stank, insomuch that all my flesh was rotten therewith, and mine eyes blind, and the durt under my back was a foot high, and yet by sloth I had rather abide there than rise up. The second said [I] suppose, that the mill shall be mine, for if I came to a table covered with all manner of delicate meats, whereof I might eat if I would take of the best; I am so slothful that I may not eat,