Adam, quoth she, I shall be in, In spite of all such churls as thee: Thou’rt the original of all sin, For eating of the forbidden tree: For which thou art not flyting free, But for thy foul offences fled. Adam went back and let her be; Looking as if his nose had bled. Then mother Eve did at him speer Who was it that made such a din? He said a woman would be here, For me, I durst not let her in. I’ll go, said she, and ask her will, Her company I would have fain; But aye she cried and knocked still, And in no ways she would refrain. Daughter, said Eve, you will do well, And come again another time Heaven is not won by sword or steel, Nor one that’s guilty of a crime. Mother, said she, the fault is thine, That knocking here so long I stand: Thy guilt is more than that of mine, If thou wilt rightly understand, Our misery thou didst begin, By thee thy husband was deceived. Eve went back where Noah was, And told him all how she was blam’d, Of her great sin and first trespass, Whereof she was so much ashamed. Then Noah said, I will go down, And will forbid her that she knock; Go back, he said, ye drunken lown, You’re none of the celestial flock. Noah, she said, hold thou thy piece, Where I drank ale, thou didst drink wine, Discovered was to thy disgrace, When thou wast full like to a swine: If I was drunk I learned at thee, For thou’rt the father and the first, That others taught, and likewise me, To drink when we as had no thirst. Then Noah turned back with speed, And told the Patriarch Abraham then, How that the carlin made him dread, And how she all his deeds did ken. Abraham then said, now get you gone, Let us no more hear of your din No lying wife as I suppone, May enter in these gates within. Abraham, she said, will you but spare, I hope you are not flyting free; You of yourself had such a care, Denied your wife and made a lie; O then I pray you let me be, For I repent of all my sin, Do thou but open the gates to me, And let me quietly come in. Abraham went back to Jacob then, And told his nephew how he sped, How that of her he nothing wan, And that he thought the carlin mad. Then down came Jacob throu’ the close, And said, go backward down to hell: Jacob, quoth she, I know thy voice, That gate pertaineth to thy sell Of thy old trumperies I can tell, With two sisters thou led’st thy life And the third part of these tribes twelve, Thou got with maid’s besides thy wife: And stole thy father’s bennison, Only by fraud thy father frae; Gave thou not him for venison,