Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/108

Earth’s curses Till Fraud arose, his lance in rest,
And Crime and Evil-Hap confessed
Stood, foes of sweet sufficiency.
Then Pride, who scorns to equal be
With others, came in grand estate
With Covetousness, and hideous Hate,
And Envy dire, and Avarice,
And many another foul-faced vice.9990
And Poverty from hell they brought,
Who there had long-time lived, and nought
Men knew her on the happy earth,
Till now new-born, ah! woeful birth!
Wherefore, alas! came she at all?
Worst evil that can man befall.

Drear Poverty, of wit bereft,
Led by the hand her infant, Theft,
Who to the gibbet goes straightway,
Seeking his mother’s needs to stay.10000
All powerless she to take his part,
As eke his sire, y’clept Faint-Heart;
Nor doth for him aught good provide
Laverna, of all thieves the guide
And goddess, who with cloud and night
Conceals their evil deeds, till light
At last discovers them; and when
They’re haled before their fellow-men,
No pitying eye doth she afford,
Seeing around their necks the cord10010
Fast tied, but gaily pulls it tight
When penitence they’ve made aright.

Suddenly these mad fiends accurst
(When once they hell’s dread bounds had burst),