Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/50

22

Fair friend! fair friend! right good were this

Against an open foe, ywis,

But Evil-Tongue is too occult

And sly for war, and poor result

You’d have with him; whene’er some carl

Or dame he’d injure, with a snarl

Behind their backs he speaks. His base

And traitorous head may God disgrace!

Most poisonous is he when most fair

He shows, and in his heart doth bear

Cruel deception hid beneath

The smile that’s born of lips and teeth,

Not of the heart. Ne’er for a friend

A traitor takes me, nor expend

I love on him; and if perchance

His treachery fall to Treason’s lance,

For lack of time and means whereby

To venge oneself more honourably,

’Tis his desert, and small regret

Were mine whatever fate he met.

If you ’gainst Evil-Tongue should plead,

Dream you by such means you’d succeed

To stay his prattling lies?

You’d find,

Alas! you could in no wise bind

The slanderous wretch. Although you brought

A hundred witnesses, they nought

Could stay his cackle; more thy proof,

The more he’d talk, and less behoof

You’d gain therefor. More widely known

Would be the slander, though ’twere shown