Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 3.pdf/66

44

Of life; for she doth mould things so

That ne’er shall any species know

The power of death, but as one dies

Forthwith another may arise

To fill his place. In vain doth death

With hurrying footsteps spend his breath;

So closely Nature followeth him,

That if some few are by his grim

And massive club destroyed who are

His due, (for some of them no bar

Oppose to him, but readily

Give welcome wheresoe’er they be,

Wasting themselves in common course,

While others through their waste gain force)

When he perchance doth fondly think

That one and all his cup must drink,

He is deceived, for though he catch

One here, another there doth hatch.

This one he taketh on the right,

But on the left a new one’s dight.

If Death perchance the father kill,

Mother, or son, or daughter still

Remain, though they the father dead

Have seen, and when their day is sped,

They too must fall beneath death’s power,

Nought stays the inevitable hour;

Nor subtlest leechdom, vow, nor prayer.

Nephews and nieces straightway fare

Afar, with hurrying feet, upbuoyed

With hope they may dread death avoid.

One doth him to the dance betake,

Another doth the minster make