Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/116

88

His former love, and choose to make,

While yet the first love is awake,

Some presents to his later flame,

Such as may please a gentle dame,

Fair kerchief, buckle, chaplet, ring,

Jewel or other dainty thing,

’Twere wise to hide it from the first,

For nought could salve her rage accurst

If she thereof became aware.

Moreover, should he have great care

That ne’er the two in self-same place

Should meet, and one the other face;

For if the former should discover

The latter with her faithless lover,

Never wild boar with bristles set,

When yelping hounds are round him met,

Were fiercer; never lioness

Who hears the hunt when cublings press

Her teats, sprang forth more wild and mad;

No viper when some traveller had

Set foot upon its tail, and thus

Alarmed it, were more venomous

Than is a woman who beholds

Her rival while her lover folds

His arms around her; fire and flame

Flash from her eyes, and scorn and blame

Her lips exhale, until for breath

She pants, as one ’neath stroke of death.

And e’en though she should ne’er surprise

The two together, but surmise

Alone doth move her, jealousy

Within her heart as fire will be.