Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/267

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Shuts on him, and for evermore

A prisoner stays he, till ashore

He’s cast to die; but those without

Crowd round untroubled by a doubt

But what he hath great plenitude

Therein of leisure, peace, and food,

When they perceive him wheel and turn

As if content, and fain would learn

How they may likewise live at ease

With nought to do except appease

Their hunger, and the livelong day

They pass in seeking out some way

By which they too may enter in

And equal life of joyance win:

They vex and worry them to get

An entry to that envied net,

But once within, they must remain,

Escape past hope, repentance vain,

And they therein their lives must spend

Till friendly death brings welcome end.

So each bright youth to servitude

Doth go who takes the monkish hood,

For neither cowl, nor broad-brimmed hat,

Nor cloister gown, can smother that

Which Nature in his heart did plant,

And, unfulfilled, still leaves a want.

He’s worse than dead, for all his life

Is racked and torn by mental strife,

Or else with broken spirit he

Plays virtue ’gainst necessity.

Dame Nature lieth not, but still

His mind with bitter thoughts doth fill