Under that colour had I many a mirth. For all such wit is given us of birth; Deceipt, weeping, spinning, God hath give To women kindely while they may live. And thus of one thing I avaunte me, At th' end I had the bet in each degree, By sleight or force, or of some maner thing, As by continual murmur or chiding. "Kindely" is by nature.] [Footnote 11: In the original, With empty hand men may no hawkes lure. When the falconer had let fly his hawks, and wanted them to return, he was commonly obliged to entice them by some bait. The tassel, or tercel, was the male of the peregrine falcon, and was noted for its docility and gentleness. It would seem as if this species would obey the summons of the trainer without any other inducement, for when Juliet calls after Romeo, and he does not instantly reappear, she says, O for a falconer's voice To lure this tassel-gentle back again. [Footnote 12: In Chaucer she states that her husbands would grant all her demands to soothe her into good humour: That made me that ever I would them chide. For though the pope had seten them beside, I nold not spare them at their owne board, For, by my troth, I quit them word for word. As help me very God omnipotent, Though I right now should make my testament, I owe them nought a word, that it nis quit; I brought it so aboute by my wit, That they must give it up, as for the best, Or elles had we never been in rest. For though he looked as a grim lion, Yet should he fail of his conclusion. Pope has omitted the latter half of the lines and thus obliterated one of those nicer traits of nature with which the original abounds. Men put on the grimness of the lion, and think to prevail by strength, but women conquer by pertinacity. The majority of men grow weary of perpetual conflict, and purchase peace by concession; but women of the stamp of the wife of Bath wilt wrangle for ever, and prefer endless discord to the subjugation of self-will. Dryden, adding to Virgil's thought, has expressed the idea, Æn. v. 1024: Ev'n Jove is thwarted by his haughty wife, Still vanquished yet she still renews the strife.] [Footnote 13: Chaucer represents her as still youthful: And I was young, and full of ragerie, Stubborn and strong and jolly as a pye.] [Footnote 14: The flour is gone, there nis no more to tell, The bran as I best can, now must I sell.] [Footnote 15: In the original she does not say that she set his marrow frying, but that she fried him in his own grease, by stirring up in him the tormenting jealousy which his faithlessness had first engendered in herself.