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Mocking fair ladies with pretence

Of true devotion and intense

And earnest love; full ripe to swear

Black-hearted lies for truths, where’er

They find fond dames, and thus they gain

Their pleasure oft through kind heart’s pain.

These are the jolly folk who thrive

At cost of others, and contrive

To show that better ’tis to be

Duper, than suffer dupery.

Now hearken what doth most befit

Love, as laid down in Holy Writ:

Although well ’ware am I that few

Follow the course God sets them to,

Namely, to carry on the race

He made, true image of his face.

Behold the end for which should mate

Man with a woman; to create

One who may follow him when he

Through God’s goodwill hath ceased to be.

For when the parents pass away,

Nature hath ordered it that they

Shall children leave, who, following still

Their forbears, shall the world refill.

Thereto her hand hath placed the fire,

Within breast, of fierce desire,

That Love’s great work they should not hate,

But eagerly perpetuate

Their kind, which work were left undone

Unless soft joyance drew them on.

Nature herein with subtle hand

Doth work, and you may understand