71. Prosperity; pr. in vol. vi. p. 296, for the first time. This is taken from MS. Arch. Selden B. 24, fol. 119, where it follows
Chaucer's Poem on 'Truth.' It has but one stanza of eight lines, and I here give it precisely as it stands in this Scottish MS.:—
'Richt as pouert causith sobirnes,
And febilnes enforcith contenence,
Rycht so prosperitee and grete riches
The moder is of vice and negligence;
And powere also causith Insolence;
And honour oftsiss changith gude thewis;
Thare is no more perilouss pestilence
Than hie estate geven vnto schrewis.