Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/157

Rh

’Tis thus our chapter hath decreed.

Most surely thou in thought and deed

Art but a rogue, a common thief,

A villain almost past belief,

A hundred thousand times forsworn,

Held of all honest men in scorn;

Speak out I charge thee, have no fear,

Make all thy ways and doings clear,

And let the assembly know amain

Where they may find thee, since they fain

Would learn thy woning: say also

What sign there is by which to know

Where thou may’st commonly be found.

In truth, great lord, I shift my ground

So often that ’tis hard to say

Where ’tis I dwell from day to day,

And should I all my mansions name,

Alack! it would but bring me shame,

For if my vile companions knew

That I had told this thing to you,

Good lord! on my devoted head

A thousand cruelties were sped.

Their wickedness I know too well,

And how they’d treat me should I tell

The truth, which hate they of all things;

And grievous pains and sufferings

Were put upon me, dared I say

One word about their evil way

Of life, or had the hardihood

To speak of them aught else but good,