Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/103

His savage tongue, till neighbours haste
To separate the fools who waste9840
Their days in strife, and save from death
The wife, for nought but outworn breath
Can stay the husband’s rage.
Estrangement When o’er
This scene of turmoil and uproar
She thinketh, and the ballading
Her jongleur made doth loudly ring
Within her ears, imagine you
The wife more faithfully will do
Her duty towards her spouse?
Nay, nay!
She will but wish him right away9850
In far Roumania or at Meaux.
Nor should I very widely go
From truth were I to say she ne’er
Will love him more, although that air
She may assume: could he but fly,
And get a bird’s-eye view on high
In safety, and from thence behold
What men are doing in this old
Worn world, and calmly muse thereon,
He’d see what misery he hath won,9860
And how his vision hath been blind
To all the ruses womenkind
Use to defend them, and to be
Safe-harboured from men’s tyranny.

If with his wife he shares his bed,
Much risk he runneth, by my head,
For if he sleep or if he wake,
Great fear pursues him lest she take