God it wot, there may no man embrace

As to destreyne a thing, the which nature

Hath naturelly set in a creature.

Take any brid, and put him in a cage,

And do all thine entent and thy corrage

To foster it tendrely with meat and drynke,

And with alle the deyntees thou canst bethinke,

And keep it all so kyndly as thou may;

Although his cage of gold be never so gay,

Yet hath this brid, by twenty thousand fold,