Marry, I shall tell you:
Consider ye have good enou'
And think ye come of noble kind;
Above all men exalt thy mind;
Put down the poor, and set nought by them;
Be in company with gentlemen;
Get up and down in the way,
And your clothes look they be gay;
The pretty wenches will say then,
Yonder goeth a gentleman;
And every poor fellow that goeth you by,
Will do off his cap, and make you courtesy:
In faith, this is true.
YOUTH.
Sir, I thank thee, by the rood,
For thy counsel that is so good;
And I commit me even now
Under the teaching of Riot and you.
RIOT.
Lo, Youth, I told you
That he was a lusty fellow.
YOUTH.
Marry, sir, I thank thee
That you would bring him unto me.
PRIDE.
Sir, it were expedient that ye had a wife,
To live with her all your life.
RIOT.
A wife? nay, nay, for God avow,
He shall have flesh enou',
For, by God that me dear bought,
Over-much of one thing is nought;
The devil said he had liever burn all his life
Than once for to take a wife;
Therefore I say, so God me save,
He shall no wife have:
Thou hast a sister fair and free,
I know well his leman she will be;
Therefore I would she were here,
That we might go and make good cheer
At the wine somewhere.
YOUTH.
I pray you hither thou her do bring,
For she is to my liking.
PRIDE.
Sir, I shall do my diligence
To bring her to your presence.
YOUTH.
Hie thee apace, and come again;
To have a sight I would be fain
Of that lady free.
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