Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/192

Of false lovers Mocking fair ladies with pretence
Of true devotion and intense
And earnest love; full ripe to swear
Black-hearted lies for truths, where’er
They find fond dames, and thus they gain
Their pleasure oft through kind heart’s pain.
These are the jolly folk who thrive
At cost of others, and contrive
To show that better ’tis to be
Duper, than suffer dupery.4680
⁠Now hearken what doth most befit
Love, as laid down in Holy Writ:
Although well ’ware am I that few
Follow the course God sets them to,
Namely, to carry on the race
He made, true image of his face.
Behold the end for which should mate
Man with a woman; to create
One who may follow him when he
Through God’s goodwill hath ceased to be.4690
For when the parents pass away,
Nature hath ordered it that they
Shall children leave, who, following still
Their forbears, shall the world refill.
Thereto her hand hath placed the fire,
Within men’s^{[errata 1]} breast, of fierce desire,
That Love’s great work they should not hate,
But eagerly perpetuate
Their kind, which work were left undone
Unless soft joyance drew them on.4701
Nature herein with subtle hand
Doth work, and you may understand

1. Correction: men’s should be amended to man’s: detail