’Tis thus our chapter hath decreed.
Most surely thou in thought and deed
Art but a rogue, a common thief,
A villain almost past belief,
A hundred thousand times forsworn,
Held of all honest men in scorn;11430
Speak out I charge thee, have no fear,
Make all thy ways and doings clear,
And let the assembly know amain
Where they may find thee, since they fain
Would learn thy woning: say also
What sign there is by which to know
Where thou may’st commonly be found.
False-Seeming.
False-Seeming’s declaration
In truth, great lord, I shift my ground
So often that ’tis hard to say
Where ’tis I dwell from day to day,
And should I all my mansions name,
Alack! it would but bring me shame,
For if my vile companions knew
That I had told this thing to you,
Good lord! on my devoted head
A thousand cruelties were sped.
Their wickedness I know too well,
And how they’d treat me should I tell
The truth, which hate they of all things;
And grievous pains and sufferings11450
Were put upon me, dared I say
One word about their evil way
Of life, or had the hardihood
To speak of them aught else but good,
