_Sens._ Let me alone! It will none otherwise be. And ye saw the sorrowful countenance Of my company, your old acquaintance, That they make For your sake-- I daresay ye would mone them in your mind They be so loving and so kind That I am sure If ye endure In this peevish opinion, It will be their confession There is none other remedy But, for sorrow, they shall die. _Man._ Nay, God forbid they should so do! _Sens._ In faith! without ye help thereto There is none other way. _Man._ I will help it in all that I may And I wist by what mean. _Sens._ Marry! call them to your company! _Man._ By Saint John! I am content. For, I may say here to thee, Since I forsook my liberty And did to Reason assent I had never merry day; But lived under awe and dread alway, Nothing to mine intent. Another while I will me disport And to mine old company resort. _Sens._ O then shall ye them comfort, And your self also. Wot ye who will be very glad? _Man._ Who? _Sens._ Margery! _Man._ Why, was she sad? _Sens._ Yea, by the mass! she was stark mad, Even for very woe When she heard tell of this chance; And, because she would live in penance Her sorrow for to quench, She hath entered into a religious place, At the Green Friars hereby. _Man._ Yea, has'e? Alack, good little wench! Is it an house of strait religion? _Sens._ Yea, as any that ever was bygone Sith the world stood. _Man._ Be they close nuns as other be? _Sens._ Close, quod a? nay, nay, parde! That guise were not good-- Ye must beware of that gere! Nay, all is open that they do there; As open as a goose eye! _Man._ And cometh any man into their cells? _Sens._ Yea, yea, God forbid else! It is free for everybody; And, beside all this, they be _Ex omni gente cognite_. No nation they forsake; Without it be beggars, going by the way, That have never a penny to pay For that that they do take. And yet can I beggars thither lead Where they shall, for lumps of bread, Satisfy their desire: Such drabs some there be That require none other fee, Not yet any other hire. _Man._ Be they not wedded, as other folk be? _Sens._ Wedded, quod a? no, so mot I thee! They will not tarry therefore; They can wed themselves alone. "Come kiss me, John;" "Gramercy, Joan!" Thus wed they evermore. And it is the more to commend; For, if the woman hap to offend, As it is their guise, A man may let her alone with sorrow And wed another whore on the morrow; Even of the same wise.