¶ The spectacle of lovers,  
¶ Here after followeth a little contravers dialogue between love and council/ with many goodly arguments of good women and bad/ very compendious to all estates/ newly compiled by wyllyam walter servant unto sir Henry Marnaye knight chancellor of the duchy of Lancastre.  

Council. love.    

¶ Here beginneth the prologue of the author.  

FOr as much as idleness is rote of all vices  
whom to eschew the wiseman doth us counsel  
I therefore intend with some manner of business  
Against the same that I might prevail  
Record of Phylosepher which maketh rehearsal  
Better it is to write and some thing for to say  
Than in sloth & idleness to spend the time away   

¶ And thus thinking my mind for to apply  
To make some thing for my recreation  
It came to my remembrance to show and notyfy  
between a lover and me the great alteration  
Of his peteous complaint making demonstration  
The answers again there unto replyenge  
In manner of argument together disputing   

¶ wherefore I require you with humble petition  
This my poor work to take agreeable  
And there as is amiss to make reformation  
From measure & good making which is so variable  
Let ignorance excuse my fault reprovable  
which made it not for any presumption  
But only for pastime and recreation   
¶ Finis.   


IN a morning for my recreation  
In to the fields as I went walking  
To behold the ground I had delectation  
Arrayed with flowers fair and sweet smelling  
The trees budding and the birds singing  
Phoebus his beams shining like the gold  
Made my heart joy such pleasures to behold   

¶ And as I was thus walking all alone  
By an herber I heard right suddenly  
A lover that piteously made his moan  
saying alas for sorrow I shall die  
Venus' dart hath wounded me so cruelly  
without I may my purpose soon attain  
For sorrow my heart will break in twain   

¶ O goddess of love that hath the signory  
Of all creatures attend to my petition  
incline my lady that she do apply  
To my desire by thine instigation  
That love in her may have such operation  
That our two wills together may be knit  
For as a prisoner to her I me submit   

¶ Alas how great sorrow it is and pain  
To live in dread alway imagining  
How her good grace that I might attain  
In thought and pensyfnesse alway desiring  
At a good end my purpose for to bring  
Thus do I live between hope and dread  
Sometime trusting/ and sometime not to speed   

¶ when her noble person first I did behold  
The sovenance of her beauty my heart so embraced  
That my colour changed/ my blood waxed cold  
Love there my heart and will together interlaced  
So firmly that never it can be defaced  
But as her true lover to love her perdurable  
which for no chance shall be found variable   

¶ Alas good lady hold me excused  
If I desire thee/ which I am unworthy  
Love had my heart so greatly abused  
Above all other to love you specially  
To my hard fortune I can no wise reply  
But to submit me unto your grace and will  
It is at your pleasure to save or to spill   

wherefore good lady  
Into your hands  
Love hath me brought  
Lose not his life  
In thought and care  
Alas sweet lady  
Mercy I ask   

with pity do intend  
As a prisoner  
Let love my care amend  
That loveth you so dear  
Ever I stand in fere  
Remember my great pain  
Do not my love disdain   

¶ By her love my mind is solycyted  
That sleeping nor waking I am in quietness  
But in imaginations & thoughts greatly tormented  
My colour is faded/ my mind for heaviness  
Is greatly oppressed/ my body for weariness  
And lack of sustenance is so weak of nature  
That without her pity/ it may not long endure   

¶ when that I do her beauty contemplayre  
Her noble virtue/ her goodly countenance  
who that dame nature/ hath made so passing fair  
Than am I surprised with her remembrance  
As a man that were all in a trance  
Inflamed with the hot brenning fire  
Of love/ that nothing may slake my great desire   

¶ I would jesus she had the prerogative  
That she knew the thoughts of all creatures human  
Than should she know what a bitter life  
I lead for her/ to might she not refrain  
But for pity release me out of pain  
And by her love to comfort me restore  
For there is nothing that I desire so sore   

¶ Alas how am I thus greatly abused  
That my mind to her dare not express  
For if she should once have me refused  
Alway in sorrow I should live comfortless  
Ones must she know my cause of heaviness  
Or of my purpose I shall nothing attain  
But thus still my fortune to complain   

¶ O how great joy should my heart embrace  
If that my lady of her feminine pity  
would me accept in to her special grace  
That together in marriage unyed we might be  
Than were I brought from care to felicity  
well might I say my love were not in vain  
Sith her goodly person that I did obtain   

¶ Often times I have been purposed  
My piteous sorrow to 〈◊〉 declare  
But when my love I should have disclosed  
Despair biddeth me for to beware  
Lest by disdain I were brought in care  
Desire my mind than greatly doth advance  
Of my fortune to know the final chance   

¶ Thus have I lived alway languishing  
In variance between love/ hope and dread  
with pensive thoughts alway imagining  
Of my purpose how that I might speed  
And if I should be unreguardoned  
For the love that I to her do bear  
Thus am I alway put in thought and fere   

¶ O cruel love O love insatiable  
what have I offended to be thus troubled  
By the cruel darts of desire intolerable  
which hath my heart so greatly abused  
with continual care to be thus tormented  
That at no time I am in any rest  
But by desire and fere alway oppressed   

¶ Cursed be ye my cruel eyes twain  
which have perfyxed my mind so desirous  
That my heart in no wise can refrain  
But of my lady for to be amorous  
Ye have me wounded with pains dolorous  
Of sorrow and care that pierced hath my heart  
without her comfort my life will soon depart   ¶ Consultor. 

¶ when that I heard him thus piteously complain  
My heart for pity sorrowed inwardly  
And for to cause him his sorrow to refrain  
with words of comfort I did my mind apply  
For in trouble there is no better remedy  
Than to a friend for to disclose his sore  
For sorrow close kept engendereth more and more   

¶ wherefore these words to him did I say  
why do ye thus piteously lament  
comfort yourself if that ye may  
Or else right soon ye will repent  
For where as sorrow on sorrow doth augment  
In process of time think it as no wonder  
But that it will pierce your heart asunder   ¶ Amator. 

¶ He looked on me with face pale and wan  
His face discovered his woeful heaviness  
Alas he said I am a woeful man  
That by love am brought in to distress  
I love and dare not my love to her express  
That hath my heart wholly in her cure  
Marvel it is that I may this woe endure   

¶ I love a lady whose beauty doth excel  
Like as aurora all other stars in light  
Of her noble virtue the truth I can not tell  
Nature and fortune hath given her that might  
Her noble beauty hath pierced so my sight  
inflaming my heart by desire continual  
That unto love I am made bond and thrall.   ¶ Consultor. 

¶ Such dysordynat love/ proceedeth of idleness  
To behold women/ having delectation  
which by continuance/ doth more & more increase  
Encensing their minds/ by busy imagination  
To find the craft/ and operation  
To bring poor women/ in to such dotage  
In their love/ that they might mad and rage   

¶ Some to their lovers/ tokens do send  
Other delight them/ in goodly apparel  
Some other in writing/ their lovers do commend  
And by false promises procure them to do ill  
Other lewd tales/ of ribaldry to tell  
And to hot meats and drinks women desire  
By such provocation/ to set them on a fire   

¶ Thus do they daily/ and study in their mind  
How foolish women/ that they might abuse  
And if by chance/ any such they find  
Than for a time/ they will them haunt and use  
And for an other/ soon after them refuse  
They do not care/ how many they beguile  
For such mad love lasteth but a while   ¶ Amator. 

¶ what man is he/ that would himself abstain  
From beholding of so noble a creature  
Or what is he that would not take great pain  
If that he might/ to purchase such a treasure  
which might be most/ to his singular pleasure  
God never created thing/ under the firmament  
So noble as woman/ nor to man more convenient   

¶ And where as ye say men have great delectation  
To disdain women by some subtle train  
And to be mutable of their disposition  
Truth it is/ true love will never stain  
But to be steadfast/ true/ faithful and plain  
Though some intend to women to do shame  
All true lovers of them are not to blame   ¶ Consultor. 

¶ True love/ nay nay/ mad love men may it call  
A fool is he/ he can it not deny  
Where he is free to make him bond and thrall  
In loving a woman with heart so steadfastly  
Which by his love in no mean can apply  
Yet from her love he can him not refrain  
Though that he knew his love spe●● in vain   

¶ Such is the condition of lovers impatient  
That do desire/ that they may not attain  
Which to their degrees is not equivalent  
Yet by reason they can not them refrain  
But of their possibility to complain  
Of the difficulty they seek no remedy  
Both counsel and shame they utterly deny   ¶ Amator. 

¶ Why should not men love women in their mind  
Sith that brute beasts do love their semblable  
All thing is governed by nature and by kind  
And sith that nature in beasts is so stable  
Why should not a man a creature reasonable  
Love a woman sith nature doth him bind  
Would ye have men err against their kind  
Specta. of lo.   

¶ We lovers have always such hard chance  
Some for to love far under their degree  
Or themself more greatly do advance  
We never be at our own liberty  
To have respect unto the quality  
Nature hath us in such subjection  
There to love/ where we ought not of reason   

¶ Love her I will while my life shall last  
What so ever thereof/ here after shall ensue  
My heart and will shall ever be steadfast  
Her only to love/ as a lover true  
Reason nor counsel/ my mind can not subdue  
No shame it is to love in honest  
Though that she pass far above my degree   ¶ Consultor. 

¶ What man is so mad to love his enemy  
Which daily putteth him to such encumbrance  
That at no time he can rest quietly  
Nor many times take bodily sustenance  
But loseth his colour/ and mysspendeth his substance  
His credence/ his virtue and all his good name  
For such mad love/ wise men will him diffame   

¶ such vices ensue mad lovers commonly  
They are suspicious and them do deadly hate  
That with their lovers use to company  
And with them often fight/ chide and debate  
Moche mischief ensueth/ they be infortunate  
Now in/ now out/ this is their condition  
Some lose their life/ some their wit and reason   ¶ Amator. 

¶ Of a noble heart proceedeth gentleness  
would ye have me my lover to disdain  
Though she be part of my great heaviness  
I am chief ground of my mortal pain  
Though I her love she can me not refrain  
why should I her for my misfortune blame  
Sith I myself am chief cause of the same   

¶ It was never my purpose will nor mind  
By such misgovernance myself to abuse  
No false suspections in me shall she find  
For by good cause my love she might refuse  
If that therein I might me not excuse  
Though I her love/ yet will I not go mad  
Nor lose my life/ my wit is not so bad   

¶ I marvel that ye love so despise  
which of heartily kindness is engendered  
Nature a man there unto doth entice  
Of mirth and pleasure it doth also proceed  
Friendship and charity there with all agreed  
rancour and malice it destroyeth utterly  
All thing by it doth grow and multiply   

¶ Love doth quicken every man's heart  
It provoketh the mind to pleasure and lustiness  
sloth and sadness it causeth to depart  
Strength and manhood by it doth increase  
It haieth penury/ it loveth largesse  
Love causeth a man to have delight and pleasure  
with a woman to do the course of nature   ¶ Consultor. 

¶ For asmuch as ye he taken in the snare  
Therefore ye do love more greatly advance  
But in love there is sorrow and care  
It consumeth a man by space and continuance  
The longer ye love the more is your grievance  
Love brenneth them so with her cruel fire  
The more they take the more they do desire   

¶ Their laughters been short their mournings are long  
Full little joy but sighs many and great  
In plenty of sorrow small pleasure is among  
Anger and trouble their hearts doth oft frete  
Sleeping nor waking they be in quiet  
In thought and desire they bren fervently  
Such doleful pain they suffer wilfully   ¶ Amator. 

¶ Love is not so as ye have made report  
women to men are most profitable  
Their words and beauty doth men great comfort  
Their kisses and looks are much delectable  
To mirth and joy they be agreeable  
where that woman be/ there is great solace  
Happy is he that may attain their grace   

¶ We wilful lovers do live pleasantly  
To us by kind it is appropried  
Sometime to suffer sorrow patiently  
And in joy again to be exalted  
A thing hard won shall better be loved  
He that will not suffer such little pain  
Is not worthy such pleasure to attain   ¶ Consultor. 

¶ O foolish lover/ false is thy sentence  
To think thy pain/ to be to the pleasure  
For well thou dost know/ by experience  
That love thy reason hath made dull and obscure  
That will thou or not/ this pain thou must endure  
Love hath the made/ for to be aghast  
That wisdom and virtue/ is clearly from the past   

¶ The lovers delight/ in sloth and sadness  
In stead of mirth/ ye sigh continually  
Despare doth oft increase your heaviness  
Ye be also troubled by jalousy  
By such means/ ye be brought in frenzy  
In idle thoughts/ and slombres of the night  
such is to you/ great pleasure and delight   ¶ Amator. 

¶ To see you continue in error I marvel  
what man is so constant/ in his living  
But love and nature/ shall him oft assail  
with womento have/ their bodily liking  
In age/ wisdom/ and beauty flourishing  
I trow none can be found in any place  
But that love hath/ or shall his heart embrace   

¶ To behold women/ so fair and sweet of visage  
Their colour shining/ their membres well formed  
Their pretty countenance/ with hands fair & large  
Their eyes twynkeling/ their words well uttered  
Their behaviour & courtesy of kindness doth proceed  
What heart is so hard/ that could himself refrain  
To eschew their company/ or at them to disdain   ¶ Consultor. 

¶ O cruel youth/ fulfil thou art abused  
To suffer so quietly/ thy pain intolerable  
The flames of love/ with cold thought increased  
saying the pleasure/ so short and abominable  
Moche sorrow for small joy/ is not commendable  
Pondre thy pain/ and pleasure in thy mind  
For small joy/ soon moche sorrow thou shalt find   

¶ What is beauty/ but a flower vanishing  
The carnal felicity/ the infection of the eye  
The dysceyving of the mind of men so coveting  
A frail pleasure full of treachery  
There as it is taken/ it deceiveth kindly  
beauty and wisdom/ seldom doth agree  
It causeth them unstable/ and inconstant for to be   

¶ In youth their colour/ is fair and flourishing  
By age and sickness/ it is soon faded  
Where they were ruddy/ they be pale and louring  
Their skin in all places/ swart and wrynkeled  
There is nothing ought more to be mistrusted  
For it blindeth the eye/ with such voluptuousity  
That from their danger/ none escapeth free   

¶ Full hard it is/ to find a woman steadfast  
For if one eye weep/ the other doth contrary  
Their troth and faith/ but a small while doth last  
Their pleasure and lust/ is hard to satisfy  
In wrath and malice/ they be continually  
truth/ shame/ ne love/ can not them refrain  
Their singular pleasure/ but that they will obtain   

¶ What woman is so steadfast/ chaste and sure  
But for prayer/ lust or meed she will be agreeable  
That thou of her should have thy will and pleasure  
Scant one among a thousand shall be so stable  
Yet dread/ shame/ or wrath that one shall able  
Or else she is such/ the which that lacketh beauty  
Whom that no man desireth to company   

¶ If she be a maiden that hath the in favour  
Will not she for small lust lose her virginity  
If she be a wife/ consider her error  
How by her craft men deceived be  
If she be a widow/ thou mayst plainly see  
How soon their husbands death that they do forget  
Wherefore he is not wise/ that in them trust doth set   

¶ If she be an harlot/ she maketh no question  
Of thy manner/ wisdom/ beauty or alliance  
But for her reward first she maketh motion  
Or that thou of her shall have any dalliance  
Thus doth she love thee/ only for thy substance  
As long as ye have/ so long their love doth last  
Where poverty is/ all love is clearly passed   

¶ Love is convenient/ to a man of sad discretion  
For mad lovers set little by their friends  
Their hearts be so take by loves provocation  
To dream and sigh/ and behold their seemliness  
To the praise of their lovers all things they do express  
They have eyen and see not/ and wit without reason  
Thus be they brought to shame and confusion   ¶ Amator. 

¶ If fortune be to us/ sometime contrary  
And that love hath put us/ to annoyance  
Fortune will turn/ and love will apply  
To them that seek it/ in space and continuance  
Love healeth quickly/ all sorrow and grievance  
All thing is pleasure/ that we lovers covet  
Love causeth us/ our sorrow to forget   

¶ Against age/ none can make assistance  
If beauty fail/ should love be minished  
kindness and love/ would them recompense  
For that they have had/ for to be cherished  
Love seldom decayeth/ but sooner is increased  
The bond of wedlock/ them also doth combined  
Unto their death/ to be steadfast and kind   

¶ Man's reason to nature doth apply  
For no man can have greater delectation  
Than with women to converse and company  
And with them to have carnal copulat you  
To sow their sweet seed of generation  
what better pleasure may a man covet  
Than children of his own seed to beget   

¶ God created woman for man's pleasure  
without them the world could not multiply  
Arystotell saith/ it is the greatest pleasure  
Unto a man/ the thing most necessary  
To have a wife/ of excellent beauty  
courteous/ gracious/ steadfast/ wife/ and sad  
Were not a man happy/ that such a lover had   

¶ such there be/ and many in the number  
If some be light/ and unstable of condition  
Ye ought not/ on all other for to wondre  
Let every for themself/ make declaration  
And as they have deserved/ so regard the person  
Full many in trouble/ steadfast proved be  
Suffering for their husbands/ both pain & poverty   

¶ Like as the daughter/ will morn and bewail  
without of the mother/ she be comforted  
In likewise love/ can no time prevail  
without of gladness/ it be nourished  
There is no lover/ but that he is advanced  
Sometime in mirth/ to have delight and pleasure  
Or else their sorrow/ they might no while endure   

¶ What causeth a man/ to love sooner apply  
Than a quick wit/ gentleness and good living  
Unto a wise man/ it is most necessary  
That can keep counsel/ and is sad of governing  
Their right and honest/ alway dyffending  
unkindness and shames/ they utterly defy  
wherefore in true love/ all nobleness dothelye   ¶ Consultor. 

¶ For asmuch as these words can not refrain your heart  
Take ensample by them/ that have been deceived  
And in thy mind/ prudently advert  
first of king david be it remembered  
For all his holiness/ adultery he committed  
with one Barsabe/ wife unto Vrye  
And after for her sake/ caused him to die  
Specta. of lo.   

¶ King Solomon that all men in wisdom did excel  
By women was inclined unto idolatry  
The wife of king Acab/ called jesabel.  
The prophets of god caused for do die  
Progne's her son/ roasted full truly  
And gave him to Tereo/ her husband to eat  
Because her sister Phylomine/ with child he beget   

¶ Samson the strong/ Was also betrayed  
By balida his leman/ in whom he had confidence  
Vyrgyll by a woman/ in a basket was hanged  
A woman road on aristotell/ with shame and violence  
Thus were they vanquished/ for all their science  
Medea/ slew her child/ like a cruel mother  
And gave jason one part/ and took herself the other   

¶ The cities of troy/ and also of Thebes  
By woman's trespass/ was brought to destruction  
The wife of king Minos/ called Pasyphe  
Made a Cow of wood/ like in proportion  
Covered with a skin/ by which deception  
To fulfil her lust/ with a Bull she meddled  
Of whom Mynotawre/ the monster she conceived   

¶ Of many other/ I could rehearse the living  
But for my purpose/ these do no we suffice  
what availed their holiness/ wisdom & cunning  
Or strength/ sith women can them so entice  
To do that thing/ that men should them despise  
Is not he mad/ saying the experience  
That will have in them/ trust or confidence   ¶ Amator. 

¶ I marvel that ye could speak or think the same  
For the trespass of few/ on all other for to rail  
Pretending by your words them utterly to diffame  
How be it your saying/ shall nothing prevail  
For of as many good women I shall make rehearsal  
The merits of whom/ are asmuch to be praised  
As the vices of the other/ should be dyscommended   

¶ Mynerua of Athenes/ was called the gods  
Of her wisdom/ for her cunning and policy  
Carmenta of latin/ found first the letters  
Nycostrates also/ the letters of Italy  
what say you to the sybylles/ with their great prophecy  
Aregenes found also/ first the craft of giving  
Thus did they excel men/ by their wit & cunning   

¶ What man can give them praising convenient  
which studied so busily/ to get fruitful science  
To provoke man's heart/ to study to be diligent  
who can express/ the wifely patience  
Of Grysell/ or of Penolype the prudence  
The steadfastness of Lucre's/ against her will ravished  
which slew herself/ after the deed published   

¶ Who will not praise the faithful and true Orestyll  
which when she same Mercus prolancus to ship go  
That was her husband/ against her mind and will  
For his love fell down there deed for woe  
Elyssa/ after the death of her husband Dydo  
For sorrow ran/ unto the funeral fire  
Her body with her lords/ to burn was her desire   

¶ Of Arthemesya/ Porcya/ and also Tysbe  
Judith/ julia/ Valerya/ and Hester  
Read the histories/ there shall ye plainly see  
from steadfast love/ they never did dissever  
For length of time/ their stories I differ  
And for their virtues/ I affirm certainly  
That men ought them to praise and magnify   ¶ Consultor. 

¶ If men considered/ the trouble and the pain  
That they should suffer when they be married  
I think they would themself soon refrain  
In eschewing the dannger/ that after should proceed  
For an heavy life/ many of them do lead  
which for to treat of/ in every circumstance  
It would ask/ a long continuance   

¶ Some of them do wake/ when that they should sleep  
Some for their livings/ labour continually  
Other adventure them/ in to perils deep  
where they lose life/ and substance suddenly  
Thus do they live in dread and jeopardy  
Some steel or borrow/ to bear their importune charge  
Some hanged/ some in prison and dare not go at large   

¶ Some to bring up their children/ are intentive  
And greatly troubled/ for their untowardness  
Some with their wives/ continue an heavy life  
As in chiding/ fighting/ and other frowardness  
Some by jalousy/ are put in heaviness  
In care/ trouble/ sorrow/ and seldom in tranquillity  
such is their life/ never at no certainty   

¶ For if she be fair/ she shall have great resort  
And for her beauty she shall be much desired  
Few men will have pleasure or comfort  
To take a wife which that is dyfformed  
A fair wife to keep a man doth stand in great dread  
A foul wife to him is but little pleasure  
Thus is their mind neither stable nor sure   ¶ Amator. 

¶ Hold your peace/ your words are frustrate  
To allege in marriage such importunity  
For many men are so fortunate  
That never were married/ nor never shall be  
No man can continue always in felicity  
For man is predestinate by fortune's operation  
To live in this world in trouble and vexation   

¶ If men should follow their natural disposition  
between beasts and them there were no difference.  
Wherefore for to have nature's operation  
By wedlock it is suffered to be without offence  
Otherwise to do/ is shame and inconvenience  
Both gods law & man's/ he offendeth grievously  
Wherefore no man can say/ but wedlock is necessary   

¶ Better than chaste love/ what thing is to be loved  
Which is grounded in holiness and also in honest  
Friendship and affinity is thereby increased  
In one body together joined be  
Children borne in wedlock be lawful and free  
They be combined with bond so chartable  
That nothing but death can make them separable   

¶ Love must be first/ or they be married  
For by the bond of love marriage is consecrate  
There ought nothing/ more to be commended  
Than love that with charity/ and peace is confyderate  
For there as is love/ there seldom is debate  
And if among lovers/ happen any variance  
Seldom it is seen of any long continuance   

¶ It is long of their husbands/ if they do not well  
wherefore ye do now/ accuse them wrongfully  
To follow their minds/ men may them compel  
But women can not to theirs apply  
what cause hath a man to be than in jealousy  
For if any trouble be/ anger or variance  
women bear the brunt/ and suffer the penance   

¶ What pleasure it is for a man to take a foul wife  
without her virtue be the more acceptable  
Full often he shall be weary of his life  
A fair wife to him/ shall be more agreeable  
As good and as kind/ and as much profitable  
Folly it is/ to have them mistrusted  
For ill they may be/ if they be so disposed   ¶ Consultor. 

¶ When broom bear apples/ or homlockes' honey  
Than trust the words of women/ and steadfastness  
That nature hath given them/ no man can deny  
It is their proprytees/ to be full of dysceytfulnes  
To weep and spin/ and hide no secretness  
To lie and flatter/ such conditions they have  
Few other good propryte●s/ god unto them gave   

¶ Beware of women/ for they be fraudulent  
Their words are venom/ mingled with honey  
Thou knowest her saying/ thou knowest not her intent  
A fool is he/ that in them doth affy  
Tell them thy council/ and they will it dyscrye  
imperfect/ deceitful/ and full of mutability  
such is their kind/ nature and property   

¶ Women can look on men/ with face double  
For in their hearts/ they be full variable  
Their feigned love/ hath put many men to trouble  
Which have supposed them/ to be farm and stable  
By blandishing words/ their bait detestable  
Like the scorpion/ that showeth the face smiling  
And with the tail/ suddenly doth sting.   ¶ Amator. 

¶ Fie fie for shame/ ye do rail in your sentence  
them so to dispraise/ it is not commendable  
Sith they bebounde/ by virtue of obedience  
To obey their husbands/ & to them to be serviceable  
Not as a servant/ but by love chartable  
And as a friend/ to be to them steadfast  
In word and deed/ while that their lives last   

¶ Why do ye despise women/ so shamefully  
Sith that in these offence/ that men be more infect  
what is he that justly can deny  
In none of them/ that he may be detect  
Some women in wisdom/ have better circumspect  
Than some have/ with wisdom and providence  
To eschew such shame/ and inconvenience   

¶ To have a friend/ it is a singular pleasure  
who can have a better/ than his wedded wife  
For she can do to him no displeasure  
Sith she is partner/ of all his sorrow and strife  
with him she must continue all her life  
And to her power to help them at their need  
For of their husbands they stand in fere and dread   

¶ Women be full of pity and compassion  
Their merits can not be to much praised  
Love is in them/ by nature and complexion  
Of heartily kindness/ to men so perfyxed  
In wealth and woe it is not minished  
All pain and trouble/ they take agreeable  
That might for us be good and profitable   ¶ Consultor. 

¶ Now adays old women/ and young go strangely  
Like comen women/ their apparel is disguised  
To provoke young hearts/ their desires to apply  
Their here dysplayed/ their faces painted  
Their gowns low collered/ their breasts enhanced  
such venom they proffer/ though it be not acceptable  
yet is their intent/ approved damnable   

¶ Thus few of them/ do regard their honest  
And follow their pleasure/ and sensual delectation  
For at feasts and esbatementes there will they be  
where young people resort/ for their recreation  
which are disposed/ by natural inclination  
To talk and dally/ and busily to procure  
To provoke them to apply to their disordynat pleasure   

¶ All thing that youth and courage can delight  
At such feasts as is prepared commonly  
Their minds to solace and pleasure to excite  
As good meats & drinks/ merry talking & mynstralsy  
Dancing and singing/ and jests of ribaldry  
Which bringeth women to such perplexity  
That they forget both shame and honest   

¶ O what great mischief ensued and adversity  
For that queen Helyn by coloured devotion  
Went to Venus' temple there Paris was for to see  
And the other trojans making their oblation  
To see the experience she had delectation  
If his beauty were as it was reported  
Where by her argument after she was ravished   

Under such colour they used their haunts damnable  
To be new fangled it is their property  
And blasyngly to show their beauty delectable  
And to be prompt in speaking such is their felicity  
By such means they break their wedlock & chastity  
For the ship should never by tempest spill  
If in the haven it continued still   

¶ When ye have a wife keep her from liberty▪  
On her do not dote nor be not to tender  
For by such means she will have such felicity  
That of the she will not stand in any fere  
To moche famylyaryte/ disdain doth engender  
Without dread be/ love they soon forget  
Love and dread together ill purpose doth let  
Specta. of lo.   ¶ Amator 

¶ Why should not women unto feasts resort  
One friend with another I think ordinate  
To pass the time with honest game and sport  
For to be solitary▪ the mind is fatigate  
To be in company/ the mind is recreate  
Ill thoughts and humours/ engendereth of idleness  
It shorteth the life with sloth and heaviness   

¶ Too were such apparel/ it is the guise compnly  
From the comen usage they may them not refrain  
Their husbands pleasures for to satisfy  
To were new fations they must be glad and fain  
Or as an abject they will at them disdain  
And as unworldly they shall be else reprobate  
Not regarding their honest and estate   

¶ To go on pilgrimage it is meritorious  
For god would be worshipped in many a sundry place  
Both to body and soul it is commodious  
For by it the soul purchaseth pardon and grace  
It feebleth the body by continuance and space  
Their hearts to more devotion doth incline  
Wherefore at their doing men ought not to repine   

¶ To keep their wedlock they have great diligence  
If they break wedlock they live in worldly shame  
To god they make an heavy offence  
Their husbands honesty they utterly diffame  
Wrong heirs inherit by their importune blame  
With peaaunce they may their sins purify  
But the trespass and slander they can never remedy   

¶ Full little a man/ regardeth his honest  
If he keep his wife/ in such subjection  
That seldom she should have any liberty  
with her friends to have recreation  
To keep them to strait/ it is a provocation  
To cause a good woman/ her husband for to hate  
For if she be ill/ nothing can her abate   ¶ Consultor. 

¶ women be likened/ to the Chymer of Thesayle  
Having the similitude/ or heed of a lion  
The body of a Goat/ the last part or tail  
Unto a Chure/ a venomous Dragon  
To this monster/ by their disposition  
They be likened/ by the poets feigning  
For. iij. principal vices in them most reigning   

¶ first they do look/ with a lions countenance  
To have pre-eminence/ they desire utterly  
And that men should them/ in every place advance  
And to them do service/ pleasure or courtesy  
They frete in their hearts/ for dysdaynt and envy  
If they see any better/ than they be appareled  
Or better taken/ or more to be commended   

¶ The second to a Goat/ for sin & vycyousnesse  
They be likened/ and to the see swallowing  
A man shall never find them out of readiness  
How moche he will do/ he shall have no denying  
But alway more and more/ they be coveting  
And for as much/ as one cannot suffice their appetite  
To have help of many/ some of them delight   

¶ The. iij. they be likened/ to a dragon venomous  
For their beys tongues/ that alway talk and clatter  
If they be disposed/ than be they so fumous  
That they care not what they say or who they slander  
Moche grudge and quareling mischief and danger  
Ensueth by their tongues serpentine  
which are so double that they can bite and whine   ¶ Amator. 

¶ To dispraise women it can not you prevail  
Their good names by you can not be impaired  
It becometh no man on them so to rail  
Though some have done amiss all have not offended  
For one woman's trespass should all be dyscommended  
No man will repute your saying reasonable  
To allege on them such vices detestable   

¶ Men give them pre-eminence by custom & courtesy  
Though that women would they can it not refrain  
Their duties they must use and occupy  
Not by no pride such custom they do use  
They are not so ignorant themself so to abuse  
Nor to disdain any that them doth excel  
In beauty substance or good apparel   

¶ The Philosopher saith it is expedient  
The gentle to be of greater strength and virtue  
The patient in nature more feeble and impotent  
For if they were equal than might they not subdue  
The one the other nor no fruit should ensue  
wherefore the oldest man is of more hotter kind  
Than the hottest woman that ●ny man can find   

¶ Why should not women/ of their tongues be rise  
To plead their causes/ their truth to veryfy  
They have none other armour dyffensyfe  
Their power is to feeble/ their wrongs to iustyfy  
To speak nor to do/ none can live so patiently  
Though that they chide/ their anger is soon past  
Their words of wind/ is lyckened to ablast   

¶ Ten months/ women with their children go  
And of their bodies/ that time be they nourished  
with pangs and stitches/ they suffer pain and woe  
In peril of death/ when they be delivered  
with their milk after/ a season they be fed  
Moche pain and trouble/ our mothers for us take  
wherefore all women/ we aught to love for their sake   

¶ To make of women men should be glad and fain  
Sith they to us/ be so tender with diligence  
One man for another/ would not take the pain  
Their kindness we can not duly recompense  
To love them we have good cause/ by experience  
They are so much our friends in sickness & in health  
He that them hateth/ loveth not his wealth   ¶ Consultor. 

¶ We will no longer/ in these matters debate  
Follow my counsel/ his company eschew  
If ye intend your sorrow to mitigate  
In secret places/ do not ye continue  
imaginations & thoughts/ your mind will subdue  
wherefore such haunts/ if ye do not cease  
Love will in you/ more and more increase   

¶ Experience by fire/ which is nigh quenched  
with brimstone it will be kindled soon again  
In likewise love/ if it be frequented  
wherefore from her love/ do yourself refrain  
find some occasion/ at her to disdain  
To desire her love/ be not ye to mad  
Except of yours/ that she would be as glad   ¶ Amator. 

¶ To give me such counsel/ me think ye be not wise  
Your sugared lips can not me beguile  
For if I should follow your advise  
My life would continue/ but a small while  
From her company/ I can not me exile  
To leave that thing/ which that I love best  
No reasonable man/ will make no such request   

¶ Wherefore of this talking/ now let us cease  
Eusamples I have/ right many and excellent  
Their wisdom and nobleness/ for to increase  
But at this time/ these shall be competent  
Wherefore from henceforth/ leave your false argument  
And of women speak not so reprovable  
For shame it is to you/ and nothing commendable   ¶ Consultor. 

¶ Thus did we finish/ our communication  
desiring the assistance to take this agreeable  
And in that is amiss/ to make reformation  
And also all women/ I humbly them supply  
At this poor treatise/ for to have none envy  
I have nothing said/ that is to their dispraise  
But I have made answer/ their honour more to raise   

¶ But for asmuch as some men have delectation  
To rail upon women and them to dyscommende  
I therefore intend to make demonstration  
Of their opprobrious words/ wherein they do offend  
By reasonable answers to induce them to amend  
Whereby they may have perfitly knowledge  
That women be not gyite in that they do allege   

¶ Wherefore I require you consider mine intent  
Which made it not for malice or any despytefulnesse  
For if I should so do/ I were right negligent  
And worthy to be rebuked of shame and ungentleness  
Both praise and dispraise herein I do express  
If I deserve blame in speaking so largely  
I trust to have thank for replyenge the contrary   

¶ lenvoy of Robert Coplande.  

endeavour thyself thou little book I pray  
To thine author and unto each degree  
Excusing thine impression always  
If to their mind it fortune not to be  
And where miss is/ that they will pardon me  
And to correct after their good intent  
With less or more as it is convenient.   
¶ Finis.    

¶ Imprinted at London in Fleetstreet at the sign of the Son by me Wynkynde word▪  

W C  
mynhyg the word