After the bere me thought he had a paire
Of legges and of feet so clene and faire
That all my herte I yave unto his hold.
He was, I trow, a twenty winter old,
And I was fourty, if I fhal say soth,
But yet I had alway a coltes toth.

6180

Gat-tothed I was, and that became me wele; 6185 Fhad the print of Seint Venus fele.

As helpe me God I was a lufty on,

And faire and riche, and yonge, and wel begon;

And trewely, as min hufbondes tolden me,

I had the befte queint that mighte be,
For certes I am all Venerian

In feling, and my herte is Martian:
Venus me yave my lust and likeroufneffe,

And Mars yave me my sturdy hardineffe.

Min afcendent was Taure, and Mars therinne:
Alas, alas! that ever love was finne!

I folwed ay min'inclination

By vertue of my constellation;

That made me that I coude nat withdraw

6190

6196

My chambre of Venus from a good felaw;
Yet have I Martes merke upon my face,
And alfo in another privee place:

6200

. 6191-4.] Thefe four lines are wanting in mff. A. Ask. 1, 2, and feveral others; and fo are the eight lines from ver. 6201 to ver. 6208 incl.: they certainly might very well be Spared.

For God fo wifly be my falvation
I loved never by no difcretion,
But ever folwed min appetit,

6205

All were he shorte, longe, blacke, or white:

I toke no kepe. fo that he liked me,

How poure he was, ne eke of what degree.

What fhulde I faye? but at the monthes ende

This joly clerk Jankin, that was so hende,

Hath wedded me with gret folempnitee,

And to him yave I all the lond and fee

6210

That ever was me yeven therbefore,
But afterward repented me ful fore.
He n'olde fuffre nothing of my lift:

6215

By God he fmote me ones with his fist,

For that I rent out of his book a lefe,

That of the ftroke myn ere wex al defe.
Stibborne I was as is a leoneffe,

And of my tonge a veray janglereffe;

6220

And walke I wold, as I had don beforn,

Fro hous to hous, although he had it sworn,

For which he oftentimes wold preche,

And me of olde Romaine geftes teche.

.6216. with his fift] Ms. A. reads-on the lyfle-and fo does ed. Ca. 2, with the addition of (what was at firft a marginal glofs) on the cheke. In support of this reading it may be obferved that Sir Thomas More, among many Chaucerian phrases, has this in his Merry Jeft of a Sergeant, Fc.

And with his fift

Upon the lyft

He gave him fuch a blow.

How he Sulpitius Gallus left his wif, And hire forfoke for terme of all his lif, Not but for open-heded he hire fay Loking out at his dore upon a day.

Another Romaine told he me by name, That for his wif was at a fommer game Without his weting he forfoke hire eke.

6225

6230

And than wold he upon his Bible seke

That ilke proverbe of Ecclefiafte,

Wher he commandeth, and forbedeth faste,
Man fhal not fuffer his wif go roule aboute.

6235

Than weld he fay right thus withouten doute,
Who fo that bildeth his hous all of falwes,
And priketh his blind hors over the falwes,
And fuffereth his wif to go feken halwes,
Is worthy to be honged on the galwes.
But all for nought; I fette not an hawe
Of his proverbes ne of his olde fawc;

6240

6227. open-beded] This is literally from Val. Max. 1. vi. c. 3;" Uxorem dimifit, quod eam capite aperto foris verfatam “cognoverat.” He gives the reafon of this feverity; "Lex enim "tibi meos tantum præfinit oculos, quibus formam tuam "approbes. His decoris inftrumenta compara: his efto ipe"ciofa," &c.

.6230. a fommer game] This expreffion, I suppose, took its rife from the fummer being the ufual feafon for games. It is uled in P. P. fol. 27;

I have lever here an harlotry or a fomers game This story is alfo from Val. Max. 1. vi. c. 3; "P. Sempronius "Sophus-conjugem repudii notâ affecit, nihil aliud quam fe "ignorante ludos aufam fpectare."

Ne I wold not of him corrected be.
I hate hem that my vices tellen me,

And fo do mo of us (God wote) than I.
This made him wood with me all utterly;

6245

I n'olde not forbere him in no cas.

Now wol I fay you foth, by Seint Thomas,
Why that I rent out of his book a lefe,
For which he fmote me fo that I was defe.

He had a book that gladly night and day

For his difport he wolde it rede alway;
He cleped it Valerie and Theophrast,

And with that book he lough alway ful fast.

6259

And eke ther was a clerk fomtime at Rome, 6255 A cardinal, that highte Seint Jerome,

That made a book again Jovinian,

Which book was ther, and eke Tertullian,

Crifippus, Trotula, and Helowis,

That was abbeffe not fer fro Paris,

6260

V.6253. Valerie and Theophraft] Some account has been given of these two treatises in the Difcourse, &c. n. 19. As to the rest of the contents of this volume, Hieronymus contra Jovinianum, and Tertullian de Pallio, are fufficiently known; and fo are the Letters of Eloifa and Abelard, the Parables of Solo. mon, and Ovid's Art of Love. I know of no Trotula but one, whofe book "Curandarum ægritudinum muliebrium ante, in, "et poft partum,” is printed int. Medicos antiqubs, Ven. 1547. What is meant by Crifippus I cannot guess.

V. 6258. Which book was ther] I have here departed from the mff. which all read—In which book ther was eke.-Perhaps, however, it might be fufficient to put a full Rop after Jo vinian,

And eke the Paraboles of Salomon,"
Ovides Art, and bourdes many on;
And alle thife were bonden in o volume.
And every night and day was his cuftume
(Whan he had leifer and vacation :
From other wordly occupation)

6265

To reden in this book of wikked wives:

He knew of hem mo legendes and mo lives

Than ben of goode wives in the Bible.

6270

For trufteth wel it is an impoffible That any clerk wol fpeken good of wives, (But if it be of holy feintes lives)

Ne of non other woman never the mo.

Who peinted the leon, telleth me who?

By God if wimmen hadden written stories,

6275

As clerkes han, within hir oratories,

They wold have writ of nen more wikkedneffe
Than all the merke of Adam may redreffe.

The children of Mercury and of Venus

Ben in hir werking ful contrarions. !...

6280

Mercury loveth wisdom and science,
And Venus loveth riot and difpence;
And for hir divers difpofition

Eche falleth in others exaltation:

.6284. exaltation] In the old astrology a planet was faid to be in its exaltation when it was in that fign of the zodiack in which it was fuppofed to exert its ftrongest influence; the oppofite fign was called its dejection, as in that it was fuppofed to be weakeft. To take the inftance in the text, the exaltation of Venus was in Pices, [See alfo ver. 10587,] and her de