The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Errata and Addenda
• Introduction
• I: The Testament of Love.
• Book I Prologue. [ ]
• Book II.
• Book III.
• II.: The Plowmans Tale.
• III.: Jack Upland.
• IV.: John Gower Unto the Worthy and Noble Kinge Henry the Fourth.
• V.: Thomas Hoccleve. the Letter of Cupid.
• VI.: To the Kinges Most Noble Grace; and to the Lordes and Knightes of the Garter.
• VII.: A Moral Balade.
• VIII.: John Lydgate. the Complaint of the Black Knight; Or, the Complaint of a Loveres Lyfe.
• IX.: The Flour of Curtesye.
• X.: A Balade; In Commendation of Our Lady.
• XI.: To My Soverain Lady.
• XII.: Ballad of Good Counsel.
• XIII.: Beware of Doubleness.
• XIV.: A Balade: Warning Men to Beware of Deceitful Women.
• XV.: Three Sayings.
• XVI.: La Belle Dame Sans Mercy. Translated Out of French By Sir Richard Ros.
• XVII.: The Testament of Cresseid.
• XVIII.: The Cuckoo and the Nightingale; Or the Book of Cupid, God of Love.
• XIX.: Envoy to Alison.
• XX.: The Flower and the Leaf.
• XXI.: The Assembly of Ladies.
• XXII.: A Goodly Balade.
• XXIII.: Go Forth, King.
• XXIV.: The Court of Love.
• XXV.: Virelai.
• XXVI.: Prosperity.
• XXVII.: Leaulte Vault Richesse.
• XXVIII.: Sayings Printed By Caxton.
• XXIX.: Balade In Praise of Chaucer.
• Notes.
• Glossarial Index.
• List of Subscribers.

XIV.

A BALADE: WARNING MEN TO BEWARE OF DECEITFUL WOMEN.

From Trin. (Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 3. 19), printed in Ed. (ed. 1561); T. (Trin. Coll. O. 9. 38); H. (Harl. 2251).

• • LOKE wel aboute , ye that lovers be;
  • Lat nat your lustes lede you to dotage;
  • Be nat enamoured on al thing that ye see .
  • Sampson the fort, and Salamon the sage
  • Deceived were, for al hir gret corage;5
  • Men deme hit is right as they see at y;
  • Bewar therfore; the blinde et many a fly.[ ]
• • I mene, in women , for al hir cheres queinte ,
  • Trust nat to moche; hir trouthë is but geson ;
  • The fairest outward ful wel can they peinte ,10
  • Hir stedfastnes endureth but a seson;
  • For they feyn frendlines and worchen treson.
  • And for they be chaungeáble naturally,
  • Bewar therfore; the blinde et many a fly.
• • Though al the world do his besy cure15
  • To make women stonde in stablenes ,
  • Hit may nat be, hit is agayn nature;
  • The world is do whan they lak doublenes ;
  • For they can laughe and love nat ; this is expres .[ ]
  • To trust in hem, hit is but fantasy;20
  • Bewar therfore; the blind et many a fly.
• • What wight on-lyve trusteth in hir cheres
  • Shal haue at last his guerdon and his mede;
  • They can shave nerer then rasóurs or sheres;
  • Al is nat gold that shyneth ! Men, take hede;[ ]25
  • Hir galle is hid under a sugred wede.[ ]
  • Hit is ful hard hir fantasy t’aspy ;
  • Bewar therfore; the blinde et many a fly.
• • Women, of kinde, have condicions three ;[ ]
  • The first is, that they be fulle of deceit;30
  • To spinne also hit is hir propertee ;
  • And women have a wonderful conceit ,
  • They wepen ofte, and al is but a sleight ,
  • And whan they list, the tere is in the y;
  • Bewar therfore; the blinde et many a fly.35
• • What thing than eyr is lighter and meveable ?[ ]
  • The light, men say, that passeth in a throw;
  • Al if the light be nat so variable
  • As is the wind that every wey [can] blow ;
  • And yet , of reson, som men deme and trow40
  • Women be lightest of hir company;
  • Bewar therfore; the blind et many a fly.
• • In short to say, though al the erth so wan[ ]
  • Were parchëmyn smothe, whyte and scribable ,
  • And the gret see, cleped the occian ,45
  • Were torned in inke, blakker then is sable,
  • Ech stik a penne, ech man a scriveyn able ,
  • They coud nat wryte wommannes traitory ;
  • Bewar therfore; the blinde et many a fly.49

[1. ]Trin. welle. T. abowte; Trin. about.

[2. ]Trin. leede.

[3. ]Trin. se.

[4. ]T. H. Salamon; Trin. Salomon.

[5. ]T. here (read hir)); Trin. H. theyr (and elsewhere).

[6. ]So T.; Trin. H. hit right that they se with. T. eye; Trin. ey; H. ye; (read y).

[7. ]T. ette, alt. to ettyth; Trin. H. eteth (read et, and so elsewhere).

[8. ]H. T. in; Trin. of. Trin. wemen; queynt.

[9. ]Trin. H. hem nat (T. om. hem). Trin. trowth; geason (T. geson).

[10. ]T. fulle; Trin. H. om. Trin. peynt.

[12. ]Trin. feyne.

[13. ]T. be; Trin. ar; H. are. Trin. chaungeabylle.

[15–28. ]So T. H.; Trin. transposes 15–21 and 22–28.

[16. ]Trin. wemen stond; stabylnes.

[17. ]T. H. may; Trin. wolle.

[18. ]Trin. doubylnes.

[19. ]Trin. lawgh; expresse. H. om. nat.

[20. ]H. T. in; Trin. on. Trin. theym.

[22. ]T. yn; Trin. on. Trin. cherys.

[24. ]T. They; Trin. For wemen.

[25. ]Trin. shynyth.

[26. ]Trin. sugryd.

[27. ]T. harde; Trin. H. queynt. Trin. to aspy.

[29. ]T. has the note: Fallere flere nere tria sunt hec in muliere. Trin. thre.

[30. ]T. that; Trin. H. om.

[31. ]T. hyt; Trin. om. T. properte; Trin. propurte.

[32. ]H. haue; T. hath; Trin. om. Trin. conseyte.

[33. ]Trin. H. For they; T. om. For. T. wepyth (read wepen); Trin. wepe. T. H. but; Trin. om. H. a sleight; T. deceyt; Trin. asteyte; Ed. a sleite.

[34. ]Trin. teere; ey.

[36–42. ]In T. only.

[37. ]T. passyth.

[38. ]T. All yff; waryabylle.

[39. ]T. wynde; ys blow (alt. to blowth; read can blow).

[40. ]T. yut; summen.

[41. ]T. ther (for hir).

[43. ]T. schorte; Trin. sothe. Trin. erthe; wanne.

[44. ]Trin. parchemyne; scrybabylle.

[45. ]T. H. that clepyd is; Trin. that callyd ys (read cleped). H. om. the. Trin. occiane.

[46. ]T. yn; Trin. into; H. to. T. H. is; Trin. om.

[47. ]T. H. Eche; Trin. Euery. Trin. yche; abylle. H. scryven; T. Trin. scriuener.

[48. ]T. They cowde not; Trin. Nat cowde then (!). T. wymmenys; Trin. womans; H. wommans. T. treytorye; Trin. H. trechery

[6.]see at y, see by the outward appearance; cf. C. T., G 964, 1059. This Balade resembles no. XIII. Cf. l. 4 with XIII. 63, 81.

[7.]et, eateth, eats. This contracted form evidently best suits the scansion. The copy in MS. T. had originally ette, mis-spelt for et, with ettyth written above it, shewing that the old form et was obsolescent. Et (eateth) occurs in P. Plowman, C. vii. 431; and again, in the same, B. xv. 175, the MSS. have eet, eteth, ette, with the same sense. ‘The blind eat many flies’ is given in Hazlitt’s Collection of Proverbs. Skelton has it, Works, ed. Dyce, i. 213; and Hazlitt gives four more references.

[9.]geson, scarce, rare, seldom found; see note to P. Plowman, B. xiii. 270.

[19.]Remember to pronounce this is (this ’s) as this.

[25.]A common proverb; see note to C. T., G 962.

[26.]‘But ay fortune hath in hir hony galle’; C. T., B 3537.

[29.]The proverbial line quoted in T. is here referred to, viz. ‘Fallere, flere, nere, tria sunt hec in muliere.’ In the margin of the Corpus MS. of the C.T., opposite D 402, is written—‘Fallere, flere, nere, dedit Deus in muliere.’ See that passage in the Wife’s Preamble.

[33.]sleight; pronounced (sleit), riming with bait; shewing that the gh was by this time a negligible quantity.

[36.]The reference is to the proverb quoted in the note to C. T., B 2297 (vol. v. p. 208):—

• ‘Vento quid leuius? fulgur; quid fulgure? flamma.
• Flamma quid? mulier. Quid muliere? nichil.’

Hence light in l. 37 should be leit, as it means ‘lightning’; which explains ‘passeth in a throw,’ i. e. passes away instantly. We also see that Lydgate’s original varied, and must have run thus:—

• ‘Aëre quid leuius? fulgur; quid fulgure? uentus.
• Vento quid? mulier. Quid muliere? nichil.’

[43.]Curiously imitated in the modern song for children:—

• ‘If all the world were paper, And all the sea were ink,
• And all the trees were bread and cheese, What should we do for drink?’
• The Baby’s Bouquet, p. 26.