Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/183

Rh

God’s holy fear.

If men eschew

All evil and uprightly do,

Nought will they win of worldly good,

But must eftsoons for livelihood

Beg alms of others and drink deep

Of sorrow their poor lives to keep:

Such lot do I in horror hold.

But see what goodly heaps of gold,

Have usurers in their treasuries

And other folk akin to these;

Base-coining knaves, and limitours,

Provosts, catchpoles, and gold-chained mayors,

Who fat on fraud and rapine grow,

While the poor people bend alow

Before them. They, like wolves, devour

And rob all folk beneath their power;

For each and all of these in turn

Despoil the poor of that they earn,

And most ingeniously contrive

To pluck their victims while alive.

The stronger rob the weaker ever,

And, ’neath my simple cloak, so clever

Am I, that cozeners by the dozen

Who cozen others do I cozen

Lightly, and robbers and robbed alike

I rob, yet none know when I strike.

By my chicanery I rake

Together treasure none can take

From out my hands, grand palaces,

I build that I my fantasies

May please, and gather friends around

My tables, where rich meats abound.