Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 2.pdf/87

E’en as before it was bedeckt.

Fair deckings vain And if some dotard should affect
To say that, though all foul within,
Fair is the dungheap for its skin
Of silk and flowers, in same-like way
As ladies who themselves array
To help their beauty, and conceal
Their ugliness, I could but feel9350
Amazed, nor dare to make reply,
Except I said that probably
Such strange delusion must arise
From some wild vision of the eyes,
Which see alone the outward show,
And ne’er the heart’s vagaries know,
By seeming-sweet imaginings
Led to forget the depth of things
In suchwise that they nought can see
How to distinguish verity9360
From falsehood, nor with ease unknit
A fallacy, through lack of wit.

But if they had the eyes of lynx,
Men would not find a jade or minx
Better because she chanced to wear
Rich mantles trimmed around with rare
And line Siberian marten fur,
Nor think one atom more of her
For heaps of diamonds and laces,
Set off with mincing airs and graces,9370
Nor frillings, furbelows, and stays,
Arranged a dozen different ways,
Nor hats with gayest flowers bedeckt.

None could be fairer in respect