Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/103

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His savage tongue, till neighbours haste

To separate the fools who waste

Their days in strife, and save from death

The wife, for nought but outworn breath

Can stay the husband’s rage.

When o’er

This scene of turmoil and uproar

She thinketh, and the ballading

Her jongleur made doth loudly ring

Within her ears, imagine you

The wife more faithfully will do

Her duty towards her spouse?

Nay, nay!

She will but wish him right away

In far Roumania or at Meaux.

Nor should I very widely go

From truth were I to say she ne’er

Will love him more, although that air

She may assume: could he but fly,

And get a bird’s-eye view on high

In safety, and from thence behold

What men are doing in this old

Worn world, and calmly muse thereon,

He’d see what misery he hath won,

And how his vision hath been blind

To all the ruses womenkind

Use to defend them, and to be

Safe-harboured from men’s tyranny.

If with his wife he shares his bed,

Much risk he runneth, by my head,

For if he sleep or if he wake,

Great fear pursues him lest she take