Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/281

Rh

Would set her tongue to. More than much

I marvel one so sage should smutch

Her speech with such a phrase, unless

She glossed it into seemliness.

Oft have I heard a gentle nurse

Washing an infant say ‘the purse’

(While she her love on it hath spent

With many a kiss and blandishment)

For that you named so shamelessly.

Speak out and say then, do I lie?”

Then Reason smiled a merry smile.

And smiling, thus she spake the while:

“Fair friend, I may with justice call

(Yet nowise under censure fall)

That by its name which if not good

Is nothing ; no unseemlihood

I see therein. I feel no shame

For that which none as sin can blame.

Nay, even though ’twere thing unfit,

Yet may I fitly speak of it.

Rest you assured that when of sin

A matter savours, nought therein

Would I take part. But ’tis without

A taint of sin to speak about

Such things as God’s own hands have made,

Free of all gloss, and unafraid

Discourse of what in paradise

Our Maker ordered to suffice