False-Seeming.
Sweet thanks, fair sir.
The Author.
Forthwith to spin
Her tale doth Abstinence begin.
LXVI
This tells how Abstinence reproves
The sin that Evil-Tongue most loves.
Constrained-Abstinence holds forth
Fair sir, the first and best among
The Christian virtues is, one’s tongue12850
To curb from falseness, and refrain
From speech injurious, rude, and vain.
No other thing I trow on earth
So proves a man of wit and worth.
A hundred times ’tis better far
To practise silence than to mar
One’s mouth with evil words and those
Who listen to them, but disclose
Their baseness. ’Tis, fair sir, too true
That this vile crime disgraceth you12860
Sadly. You lately told a lie
Which did most grievous injury
Unto a loving youth who came
Hither some days past, laying blame
On him because you said that he
Desired and purposed wrongfully
Fair-Welcome to seduce: this I
Denounce in God’s name as a lie,
