FROM COLYN CLOUTE

My name is Colyn Cloute.

I purpose to shake oute
All my connyng bagge,

Lyke a clerkely hagge;

For though my ryme be ragged, Tattered and jagged,

Rudely rayne beaten,

Rusty and moughte-eaten,3
If ye take well therwith,
It hath in it some pyth.

For, as farre as I can se,

It is wronge with eche degre;
For the temporalte

5

Accuseth the spiritualte;
The spirituall agayne
Dothe grudge and complayne
Upon the temporall men:
Thus eche of other blother 4
The tone agayng the tother.
Alas, they make me shoder!
For in hoder moder 6
The Churche is put in faute.7
The prelates ben so haut,8
They say, and loke so hy,
As though they wolde fly
Above the sterry skye.
Laye-men say indede
How they take no hede
Theyr sely shepe to fede,
But plucke away and pull
The fleces of theyr wull;
Unethes they leve a locke
Of wull amonges theyr flocke.
And as for theyr connynge,

A glommynge and a mummynge,
And make therof a jape;
They gaspe and they gape,

All to have promocyon;

There is theyr hole devocyon,

With money, if it wyll hap,

70

80

"Be it right or wrong, these men among 'on women do complaine,

Affermyng this, how that it is a labour spent in vaine

To love them wele, for never a dele they love a

That she was in. Now I begynne, soo that

4 complain

the one in secret 7 fault haughty scarcely

9

20

4 two together 5 habit,

"A barons childe to be begyled, it were a curssed dede,

To be felaw with an outlawe, almyghty God forbede!

Yet bettyr were the power 3 squyer alone to forest yede,

Than ye shal say, another day, that be 2 wyked dede

my

Ye were betrayed; wherfore, good maide, the

5

best red that I can,

Is that I too the grenewode goo, alone, a banysshed man."

91

Remembre you wele how that ye dele, for yf

ye, as ye sayde,

Be so unkynde to leve behynde your love, the Notbrowne Maide,

Trust me truly that I shal dey sone after ye be gone;

For in my mynde of all mankynde I love but you alone."

"Yef that ye went, ye shulde repent, for in the forest now

I have purveid me of a maide, whom I love more than you, Another fayrer than ever ye were, I dare it wel avowe;

And of you both, cche shuld be wrothe with other, as I trowe.

It were myn case to lyve in pease; so wyl I yf I can;

Wherfore I to the wode wyl goo, alone, a banysshid man.'

150

Though in the wood I undirstode ye had a paramour,

All this may nought remeve my thought, but that I wyl be your;

And she shal fynde me softe and kynde, and curteis every our,

Glad to fulfylle all that she wyl commaunde me, to my power;

For had ye, loo! an hondred moo, yet wolde I be that one;

For in my mynde of all mankynde I love but you alone."

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made a quene,

1 1 capriciously