Les laudes chante en sa gorgette.’ (5635 ff.)
Again, Praise is like the bee which flies over the meadows in the sunshine, gathering that which is sweet and fragrant, but avoiding all evil odours (12853 ff.). The robe of Conscience is like a cloud with ever-changing hues (10114 ff.). Devotion is like the sea-shell which opens to the dew of heaven and thus conceives the fair white pearl; not an original idea, but gracefully expressed:
‘Si en resçoit le douls rosé,
Que chiet du ciel tout en celée,
Dont puis deinz soi ad engendré
La margarite blanche et fine;
Ensi Devocioun en dée
Conceipt, s’elle est continué,
La Contemplacioun divine.’ (10818 ff.)
The lines in which our author describes the life of the beggar show that, though he disapproves, he has a real understanding of the delights of vagabondage, with its enjoyment of the open-air life, the sunshine, the woods, and the laziness: