Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/233

Rh No provostship or bailiehood

Would people need if all were good;

No judge would then be set above

His fellow-man, and therefore Love

Should before Justice be preferred,

Although ’tis true her voice is heard

Restraining evil, which hath been

Wellspring of all earth’s lords, I ween.

In whom is freedom lost. For ne’er

Except for Crime and Sin, vile pair,

Had kings been known in any land,

Nor Justice shown her iron hand.

For judges, even from the first,

Bewray themselves as men accurst,

But they their own souls should discern,

In hope the world’s respect to earn

As men, fair, careful, and upright,

Not giving sentence in despite

Of truth; not false, with palms that itch

For bribes, alike from poor and rich.

But judgment set they at a price,

And ancient usage in a trice

Upset to serve their turn; they clip

And gather, grasp and pare and snip;

And poor and helpless men beguile

Of land or chattels; many a while

The judge who hangs the thief is he

Who ought to deck the gallows tree,

If only he were doomed aright

For all the crimes his hands have dight.”