O scatheful harm, condition of povérty, With thirst, with cold, with hunger so confounded; To askë help thee shameth in thine heartë; If thou none ask, so sore art thou y-wounded, That very need unwrappeth all thy wound hid. Maugré thine head thou must for indigence Or steal, or beg, or borrow thy dispence. 1425
Thou blamest Christ, and sayst full bitterly, He misdeparteth 1426 riches temporal; Thy neighëbour thou witest 1427 sinfully, And sayst, thou hast too little, and he hath all: “Parfay (sayst thou) sometime he reckon shall, When that his tail shall brennen in the glede, 1428 For he not help’d the needful in their need.”