Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/101

The mother-in-law Her goods to spare my purse, or give
All she calls hers that I might live
Untouched by want or care. I’d see
Her burnt alive, most joyfully9780
(The vile whoremongering old cat),
And you along with her, if that
Be not the very thing you said!
I’ll surely ask her, by my head,
But no, alas! it were but vain,
Great the vexation, nought the gain;
Past doubt you’ve talked to one another,
Like as two marbles—child and mother,
Two bells with self-same clapper rung,
Two weeds from one vile root upsprung.9790
Right well ye hop and step together,
Two evil birds of equal feather.
She in her youth days was as vile
As you are now, and every wile
That then she learned she taught to you,
Apt pupil for her devil’s brew!
And doubt I not that she, forsooth,
Of many a dog hath proved the tooth,
And hath but ceased to trip the dance,
Because right well she knows her chance9800
Therein is past and gone. Her face,
Besmeared with paint, hath lost all trace
Of beauty, and the harridan
Employs her short remaining span
Of life to sell her child. Therefor
It is she comes three times or four
Each week, pretending to engage
You to set forth on pilgrimage