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THE ROMANCE OF THE ROSE.

Juvenal’s sayings And Juvenal supporteth this.
He saith: If e’er thy luck it is9130
To find an honest woman, go
Straight to the temple, fall alow
To Jupiter on bended knees,
And Goddess Juno strive to please
With sacrificial cow, whose horns
A film of precious gold adorns.
For never while thou liv’st will be
A rarer sight vouchsafed to thee.
Valerius moreover saith:
(Sans shame for that he uttereth)9140
That either at home or over-sea
Would one affect the company
Of vicious women, they are found
Plenty as bees when swarms fly round.
What deem you then shall be the fate
Of such a fool? ’Twere desperate—
He who a branch so frail doth choose
To trust, shall soul and body lose.

Valerius, when ’twas plainly seen
That young Rufinus, who had been9150
His friend from youth, would bend the knee
To Hymen, cried: What’s come to thee
In name of ail the Gods! dost set
Thy foot within the treacherous net
Designing women spread for men?
And Juvenal these words wrote when
Young Postumus would take a wife:
’Twere better far to end thy life!
Doth no man now stout halters sell?
Or can’st thou nowhere find a well9160