Stanzas CXXXV–CXLV

CXXXV
Look at them there, by twos and threes,
Upon their gowns' hem seated low,
In churches and in nunneries :
Speak not, but softly near them go
And speedily you'll come to know
Such judgments as Macrobius ne'er
Did give. Whate'er you catch, I trow,
'Twill all some flower of wisdom bear.

CXXXVI
Item, unto Mount Martyr hill
(Old past the memory of man)
Let them adjoin (it is my will)
The knoll called Mount Valerian :
I give it for a quarter's span
The indulgences from Rome I brought ;
Whence shall the convent, where no man
Might come, of many now be sought.

CXXXVII
Item, to serving men and maids
Of good hostels (in no despite),
Pheasants, tarts, custards and croustades
And high carousal at midnight :
Seven pints or eight, the matter's slight,
Whilst sound asleep are lord and dame:
* * * * *
* * * * *

CXXXVIII
Item, to honest wenches who
Have fathers, mothers, aunts . . . 'Fore God !
I've nothing left to give to you :
All on the servants I've bestowed.
Poor silly wantons, they had showed
Themselves with little satisfied !
Some scraps might well have gone their road
Of all the convents cast aside.

CXXXIX
Cistercians and Celestines,
Though they be railed off from the rest,
They eat rich meats and drink sweet wines,
Whereof poor whores know not the zest :
As Jehanne and Perrette can attest
And Isabeau that says "Is't not?"
Since they therefor are so distrest,
One scarce were damn'd for it, God wot.

CXL
Item, to sturdy stout Margot,
Of face and favour fair and feat,
A pious creature, too, eno', —
I' faith, by God Almighty be't,
I love her well, the proper peat,
As she (sweet chuck) loves me indeed :
If any chance with her to meet,
Let him this Ballad to her read.

CXLI
Item, to Marion (Statue hight)
And to tall Jehanne of Brittany,
I give to keep a school by night,
Where masters taught of scholars be :
A thing you everywhere may see,
Except in Mehun gaol alone.
Wherefore I say, Out on the fee !
Since that the trick is so well known.

CXLII
Item, to Noel Well-beseen
No other gift I do ordain
Than both hands full of osiers green,
Out of my garden freshly ta'en :
(One should to chastisement be fain ;
In sooth it is fair almsgiving:)
Eleven score strokes laid on amain,
Of Master Hal's administ'ring.

CXLIII
Item, the Hospitals unto
What to bequeath I hardly know :
Here jests are neither right nor due,
For sick poor folk have ills eno' :
Let each man's leavings to them go.
The Mendicants have had my goose :
Nought but the bones they'll get, I trow ;
The poor can seldom pick and choose.

CXLIV
I give my barber, (an he list) —
By name that Colin Galerne hight,
Near Angelot's the Herbalist, —
A lump of ice: let him apply't
Upon his paunch and hold it tight,
So he may freeze as seems him meet :
If thus o* winter deal the wight,
He'll not complain of summer heat.

CXLV
Item, I leave the Foundlings nought :
But to the Lostlings comfort's due,
Who should, if anywhere, be sought
Where lodges Marion the Statue.
A lesson of my sort to you
I'll read : 'twill soon be overpast.
Turn not, I pray, deaf ears thereto,
But listen sadly : 'tis the last.