Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/281

The gifts that I have named to you,
Fair son, are such as well will do15140
The fools to cozen, cheat, and gull,
Of which, good Lord, the world’s brimfull.
Forget not old age All that is given to you, hold fast,
Remembering youth will soon be past,
For on us creepeth, day by day,
Old age which none can let or stay.
Take care to garnish well your purse,
For thus may you avoid the curse
That surely falls on all folk left
In age’s cave, of goods bereft.15150
Get wealth, for men of starveling need
Are valued not one mustard seed.
Alas! poor fool! that I did not
Practise what now I preach, God wot!

All the fair gifts that came to me
From those who loved me follily,
As readily I gave again
To men of whom my heart was fain,
And gifts have brought me in old age
To eat the bread of vassalage;15160
The flight of time ne’er troubled me,
And hence, alas! my misery.
Of poverty had I no dread.
But as time came e’en so it sped,
All that I gat I freely spent,
’Twas lightly won and lightly went;
Yea, by my soul I might have been,
If prudent, wealthy as a queen,
For many a rich man at my feet
Had I, when gentle, young, and sweet,15170