Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/70

36

Whose worth deserveth laud and praise.

Chiefest among their devious ways

Is this—with false viled tongue to speak

’Fore men on whom they long to wreak

Their vengeance, but their poisonous clacks

Sound loudly when they turn their backs,

For noblest men would they abase,

To miscreants giving power and place.

Disloyal, they all loyalty

Treat with contempt and acorn, but vie

In persecuting good men, while

They laud the vilest of the vile,

And many an upright man one sees

Forth driven from courts by perfidies,

But may these envious flatterers be

By God brought down to misery.

Alas! that e’er such folk were born!

Their ways and works all good men scorn.

A purple robe did Richesse wear,

Than which, ’fore heaven and earth I swear,

Fearless to be convict of lie,

None e’er was wrought more daintily;

The purple broidered with great store

Of orfreys, rich with golden ore.

With forms of mighty men it shone

Renowned in ages past and gone,

Great dukes and kings, and such as be

Writ large in ancient history.

The golden band around her neck

Did many an orlèd shield bedeck,

Silver, on ruddy gold annealed,

Illumined each bright quartered shield;