shall it learn whether ye will or no. For in this world certáin no wight there is, That he not doth or saith sometimes amiss. Ire, or sicknéss, or constellatión, Wine, woe, or changing of complexión, Causeth full oft to do amiss or speaken: On every wrong a man may not be wreaken. After the timë must be temperance To every wight that can of governance. And therefore hath this worthy wisë knight (To live in easë) suff’rance her behight; And she to him full wisly gan to swear That never should there be default in her. Here may men see a humble wife accord; Thus hath she ta’en her servant and her lord, Servant in love, and lord in marriáge. Then was he both in lordship and servage? Servage? nay, but in lordship all above, Since he had both his lady and his love: His lady certes, and his wife also, The which that law of love accordeth to. And when he was in this prosperity, Home with his wife he went to his country, Not far from Penmark, where his dwelling was, And there he liv’d in bliss and in solace. Who couldë tell, but he had wedded be, The joy, the ease, and the prosperity, That is betwixt a husband and his wife? A year and more lasted this blissful life, Till that this knight, of whom I spakë thus, That of Cairrud was call’d Arviragus, Shope him to go and dwell a year or twain In Engleland, that call’d was eke Britáin, To seek in armës worship and honoúr (For all his lust he set in such laboúr); And dwelled there two years; the book saith thus.
Now will I stint of this Arviragus, And speak I will of Dorigen his wife, That lov’d her husband as her heartë’s life. For his abséncë weepeth she and siketh, As do these noble wivës when them liketh; She mourneth, waketh, waileth, fasteth, plaineth; Desire of his presénce her so distraineth, That all this widë world she set at nought. Her friendës, which that knew her heavy thought, Comfórtë her in all that ever they may; They preachë her, they tell her night and day, That causëless she slays herself, alas! And every comfort possible in this case They do to her, with all their business, And all to make her leave her heaviness. By process, as ye knowen every one, Men may so longë graven in a stone, Till some figúre therein imprinted be: So long have they comfórted her, till