Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/281

Rh

The gifts that I have named to you,

Fair son, are such as well will do

The fools to cozen, cheat, and gull,

Of which, good Lord, the world’s brimfull.

All that is given to you, hold fast,

Remembering youth will soon be past,

For on us creepeth, day by day,

Old age which none can let or stay.

Take care to garnish well your purse,

For thus may you avoid the curse

That surely falls on all folk left

In age’s cave, of goods bereft.

Get wealth, for men of starveling need

Are valued not one mustard seed.

Alas! poor fool! that I did not

Practise what now I preach, God wot!

All the fair gifts that came to me

From those who loved me follily,

As readily I gave again

To men of whom my heart was fain,

And gifts have brought me in old age

To eat the bread of vassalage;

The flight of time ne’er troubled me,

And hence, alas! my misery.

Of poverty had I no dread.

But as time came e’en so it sped,

All that I gat I freely spent,

’Twas lightly won and lightly went;

Yea, by my soul I might have been,

If prudent, wealthy as a queen,

For many a rich man at my feet

Had I, when gentle, young, and sweet,