Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/208

With pleasant friends, who all about
Their steps still keep them, in and out,
Whereso they wend, and well-nigh break
Their backs for your great honour’s sake
As lord and seignior; loudly they
Declare them prone to cast away5170
Their lives in your defence, like dirt.
Vowing, each one, his very shirt
Is yours if so you will, and they
Will fight for you whate’er the way
False friends depart with wealth Your arm shall lead them. Far too oft
Men swell with pride to hear these soft
But treacherous fawners, and believe
Their flattering words as they receive
The gospel’s holy truths, though not
More worth than those Iscariot5180
Used to betray his Lord, and this
They prove when riches fleet, ywis,
Past hope of bettering. Though five-score
Of friends they lately had, if more
Than one remain, they well may raise
Their vows to God in humble praise
For boon so great.
When Fortune makes
Her home with men, she lightly wakes
Their worser selves. Contrarily
When from their proud estate they be,5190
By turn of Fortune’s wheel, cast down,
From lordly seat to stool of clown,
Then she, as step-dame, doth apply
(Smarting sore hearts most recklessly)
No plaister mixed of eager wine,
But poverty that stings like brine.