“It is sayd that a man in servytude Hym putteth, whan he doth to woman bende: He ne hath but only habytude Unto her the whiche well doth hym tende. Who wyll to householde comprehende, And there a bout studyeth in youth alwayes, He shall have honoure in his olde dayes. “Some chyldren unto the courtes hauntes, And ben purvayed of benefyces; Some haunteth markettes and be marchauntes, Byenge and sellynge theyr marchaundyses; Or elles constytuted in offyces. Theyr faders and moders have grete solace, That to late maryed by no waye hase. “I be wayll the tyme that is so spent, That I ne me hasted for to wedde; For I shall have herytage and rente, Both golde and sylver and kynred; But syth that our lorde hath ordeyned That I this sacrament take me upon, I wyll kepe it trewely at all season.” In the subsequent stanza, which occurs soon afterwards, the author seems to allude to the first of the three tracts now under consideration. “Yf that there be ony tryfelers, That have wylled for to blame maryage, I dare well saye that they ben but lyers, Or elles god fayled in the fyrste age: Adam bereth wytnesse and tesmonage: Maryed he was, and comen we ben. God dyde choyse maryage unto all men.” This stanza affords an instance of the employment of an anglicised French word because it happened to answer the translator’s purpose as a rhyme to “age.” His objection is not to marriage generally, but to marriage when a man has ceased to be the subject of amorous affection; for he says expressly, “All they that by theyr subtyll artes Hath wylled for to blame maryage, I wyll susteyne that they be bastardes, Or at least wage an evyll courage, For to saye that therein is servage In maryage; but I it reny, For therin is but humayne company. “Yf ther be yll women and rebell, Shrewed, dispytous, and eke felonyous, There be other fayre, and do full well, Propre, gentyll, lusty and joyous, That ben full of grace and vertuous; They ben not all born under a sygnet: Happy is he that a good one can get.” He adds just afterwards:— “Galantes, playne ye the tyme that ye have lost, Mary you be tyme, as the wyse man sayth. Tossed I have ben fro pyler to post In commersynge natures werke alwayes. I have passed full many quasy dayes, That now unto good I can not mate, For mary I dyde my selfe to late.” In the second line we ought to read “sayes” for “sayth,” as the rhyme evidently shews. The last stanza of the body of the poem is in the same spirit. “Better it is in youth a wyfe for to take, And lyve with her to goddes pleasaunce, Than to go in age, for goddes sake, In worldly sorowe and perturbaunce, For youthes love and utteraunce, And than to dye at the last ende, And be dampned in hell with the foule fende.”