Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/102

74

According to the ancient use;

violence But well I know she makes excuse

Thereof to trot you forth for sale

Like any nag, nor doth she fail

To snare while teaching you to snare.

Deem you that I am unaware

Of these vile tricks ? I scarce restrain

My arm from laying on amain

With this good stick, until you lie

All in a heap, like pullet pie.

ORTHWITH as one whose every pore

With rage and passion boileth o’er,

His wife he seizes by the hair,

Shakes her as rudely as a bear

Is shaken by a lion, then,

E’en as it were a wild beast’s den,

He drags her madly round the room,

With frantic threats of direst doom,

While to her vows of innocence

He’s deaf, as one devoid of sense

Or hearing, foams, and rolls his eyes,

Regardless of the piteous cries

And shrieks with which she fills the air,

Piercing and shrill as trumpet blare,

Pours forth each brutal epithet

To which he in his wrath can set