Quoth Will whereto should he come here
He cannot hold him dumb.
He speaks ay, and seeks ay,
Delay of time by drifts;
He grieves us, and deives us
With sophistry and shifts.
XXXII.
Why may not these three lead this one,
—I led a hundred mine alone,
But counsel of them all.
I grant quoth Wisdom, ye have led,
But I would ask how many sped,
Or further’d, but a fall.
But either few or none I trow,
Experience can tell;
He says the man may blame but you
The first time ere he fell.
He kens then, what pens then
You borrow’d him to flee;
His wounds yet that stounds yet,
He gat I think thro’ thee.
XXXIII.
That quoth Experience is true,
Will flatter’d him when once he flew:
Will set him in a low;
Will has his counsel and convoy,
To borrow from the blinded boy
His quiver, wings, and bow;
Wherewith before he ’say’d to shoot
He yielded not to youth,
Nor yet had need of any fruit,
To quench his deadly drouth,
Which pines him and dwines him
To death I wot not how,
If Will then, did ill then,
Himself remembers now.
XXXIV.
Quoth Skill, why should we longer strive?
Far better late than never thrive;
