this proverb thou shalt well understand, Have thou enough, what thar thee reck or care How merrily that other folkës fare? For certes, oldë dotard, by your leave, Ye shall have [pleasure] right enough at eve. He is too great a niggard that will werne A man to light a candle at his lantérn; He shall have never the less light, pardie. Have thou enough, thee thar not plainë thee. Thou say’st also, if that we make us gay With clothing and with precious array, That it is peril of our chastity. And yet—with sorrow!—thou enforcest thee, And say’st these words in the apostle’s name: ‘In habit made with chastity and shame Ye women shall apparel you,’ quoth he, ‘And not in tressed hair and gay perrie, As pearlës, nor with gold, nor clothës rich.’ After thy text nor after thy rubrich I will not work as muchel as a gnat. Thou say’st also, I walk out like a cat; For whoso wouldë singe the cattë’s skin Then will the cattë well dwell in her inn; And if the cattë’s skin be sleek and gay, She will not dwell in housë half a day, But forth she will, ere any day be daw’d, To shew her skin, and go a caterwaw’d. This is to say, if I be gay, sir shrew, I will run out, my borel for to shew. Sir oldë fool, what helpeth thee to spyen? Though thou pray Argus with his hundred eyen To be my wardécorps, as he can best, In faith he shall not keep me, but me lest: Yet could I make his beard, so may I thé.
“Thou sayest eke, that there be thingës three, Which thingës greatly trouble all this earth, And that no wightë may endure the ferth: O lefe sir shrew, may Jesus short thy life. Yet preachest thou, and say’st, a hateful wife Y-reckon’d is for one of these mischances. Be there none other manner resemblánces That ye may liken your parables unto, But if a silly wife be one of tho? Thou likenest a woman’s love to hell; To barren land where water may not dwell. Thou likenest it also to wild fire; The more it burns, the more it hath desire To cónsume every thing that burnt will be. Thou sayest, right as wormës shend a tree, Right so a wife destroyeth her husbond; This know they well that be to wivës bond.”
Lordings, right thus, as ye have understand, Bare I stiffly mine old husbands on hand, That thus they saiden in their drunkenness; And all