Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/91

 ANONYMOUS

He. O BcJl my wife, why dost thou flyte?

Thou kens my cloak is very thin: It is so bare and over worn,

A cricket thereon cannot renn. Then I'll no longer borrow nor lend;

For once I'll new apparell'd be; To-morrow I'll to town and spend,

For I'll have a new cloak about me.

She. Cow Crumbock is a very good cow.

She has been always true to the pail; She has helped us to butter and cheese, I trow,

And other things she will not fail. I would be loth to sec her pine.

Good husband, counsel take of me: It is not for us to go so fine

He. My cloak it was a very good cloak,

It hath been always true to the wear; But now it is not worth a groat.

I have had it four and forty year*. Sometime it was of cloth in grain.

'Tis now but a sigh clout, as you may see: It will neither hold out wind nor rain;

And I'll have a new cloak about me.

She. It is four and forty years ago

Sine the one of us the other did ken; And we have had, betwixt us two, Of children cither nine or ten:

flyte] scold. cloth in grain] scarlet cloth. sigh clout] a rag for straining.

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