And maugre mine so let it pass,
My will thereto is not the lass[1],
If I might otherwise away.
"For this, my father, I you pray
Tell what you thinketh thereupon,
If I thereof have guilt or none."
"Thy will, my son, is for to blame,
The rem-e-nant is but a game
That I have thee told as yet.
But take this lore into thy wit,
That all things have time and stead.
The church serveth for the bead[2],
The chamber is of an other speech:
But if thou wistest of the wreche[3],
How sacrilege it hath abought,
Thou woldest better be bethought."
Confessio Amantis, Lib. V,
I have transcribed the whole of this tale, (though the latter part of it is but the moral) because of the truth and nature with which it is replete. Our churches are filled in this day with too many of the characters described so admirably by Gower.
Ibid. "For two especial reasons took away the beard. The first was, that she should look more like
