Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/208

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With pleasant friends, who all about

Their steps still keep them, in and out,

Whereso they wend, and well-nigh break

Their backs for your great honour’s sake

As lord and seignior; loudly they

Declare them prone to cast away

Their lives in your defence, like dirt.

Vowing, each one, his very shirt

Is yours if so you will, and they

Will fight for you whate’er the way

Your arm shall lead them. Far too oft

Men swell with pride to hear these soft

But treacherous fawners, and believe

Their flattering words as they receive

The gospel’s holy truths, though not

More worth than those Iscariot

Used to betray his Lord, and this

They prove when riches fleet, ywis,

Past hope of bettering. Though five-score

Of friends they lately had, if more

Than one remain, they well may raise

Their vows to God in humble praise

For boon so great.

When Fortune makes

Her home with men, she lightly wakes

Their worser selves. Contrarily

When from their proud estate they be,

By turn of Fortune’s wheel, cast down,

From lordly seat to stool of clown,

Then she, as step-dame, doth apply

(Smarting sore hearts most recklessly)

No plaister mixed of eager wine,

But poverty that stings like brine.