A Merry Dialogue Declaringe the Properties of Shrowde Shrews and Honest WivesErasmus, Desiderius
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A Merry Dialogue Declaringe the Properties of Shrowde Shrews and Honest Wives
Erasmus, Desiderius
Dialogues, Latin (Medieval and modern) -- Translations into English; Imaginary conversations
There was a man that maried a woman whiche hadde great riches and beawtye.
Howe bee it she hadde suche an impedyment of nature that she was domme and
coulde not speake, whiche thynge made him ryghte pensyfe, and sayd,
wherfore vpon a daye as he walked alone ryght heuye in hearte thynkynge
vpon his wyfe. There came one to hym and asked him what was the cause of
his heuynesse whiche answered that it was onely bycause his wife was borne
dōme. To whome this other said I shal shewe the soone a remedy and a
medicyne (therfore that is thus) go tak an aspen leafe and lay it vnder
her tōge this night shee beinge a sleape, and I warrant the that shee
shall speake on the morowe whiche man beyng glad of thys medycyne prepared
therfore and gathered aspen leaues, wherfore he layd thre of them vnder
her tonge whan shee was a sleape. And on the morow when he him selfe
awaked he Desyrous to know how hys medicine wrought being in bed with her,
he demaunded of her how she did, and sodēly she answered and sayd, I
beshrewe thy harte for waking me so early, and so by the vertue of that
medycyne she was restored to her speche. But in cōclusion her spech
encresed day by day and she was so curst of cōdycyon that euery daie
she brauled and chyd with her husbande, so muche at the laste he was more
weped, and had much more trouble and disease wyth her shrewed wordes then
he hadde before whē she was dumme, wherfore as he walked another time
alone he happened to mete agayne with the same personne that taught hym
the sayde medycine and sayde to hym thys wyse. Syr ye taught me a medicin
but late to make my domme wyfe to speake, byddynge me lay an aspen leafe
vnder her toūg when she sleapte, and I layde three Aspen leaves
there. Wherfore nowe she speaketh. But yet she speaketh soo much & so
shrewdlye that I am more werier of her now, then I was when she was dōme:
Wherfore I praie you teache me a medycine to modyfye her that she speake
not so muche. This other answered and sayd thus. Sir I am a deuyl of hel
but I am one of thē that haue least power there. Al be yet I haue
power to make a womā to speake, but and yf a woman begin ones to
speake, I nor al the deuyls in hel that haue the mooste power be not able
to make a woman to be styll, nor to cause her to leue speakyng.
The end of this pleasant dialogue declaryng the seueral properties of ye
two contrary disposers of the wyues aforesayde.
Imprinted at London in Paules
church yearde, at the sygne of
the
Sunne, by Antony
Kytson.
[This section produced by David Widger]
A mery Dialogue, declaringe the propertyes of shrowde shrewes, and
honest wyues, not onelie verie pleasaunte, but also not a lytle
profitable: made by ye famous clerke D. Erasmus. Roterodamus.
Translated into Englyshe.
A mery Dia-
logue, declaringe the propertyes
of shrowde shrewes,
and ho-
nest wyues, not onelie verie
pleasaunte, but also not a
lytle profitable: made
by ye famous clerke
D. Erasmus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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