Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/285

Evil-Tongue unregretted The death of Evil-Tongue doth not
Cause unto them much grief, I wot:
For he within the place had made
Few friends, but each in turn betrayed
And slandered to foul Jealousy,
Past master of all falsehood, he.
Not one among the whole of them
Had given a wretched garlick stem15270
To save his life, except that dame
Perchance, whom I of late did name.
Upon her ear more sweetly fell
His slanders than a chapel bell,
And, her foul wretchedness, delight
Found, when his shalm piped hate and spite.
From her he hid no evil thing,
That he could through long memory bring
To light, if it might mischief do
And foul misfortune thence ensue.15280
But counted ’mong his worst of crimes
It was, that he would oftentimes
Declare for truth tales false and vile,
The which he would invent the while;
Or add to simple stories true
A fringe, which mean and base he knew,
And thus, confounding wrong with right,
Please Jealousy’s foul appetite,
For of a truth he all his life
Pastured on envy, hate, and strife.15290
For him no mass was said or sung,
When in the moat his corse was flung,
Nor did his friends his loss deplore,
For when their strength they reckoned o’er,