Et liz de paille n’est pas liz,
Et en mon lit n’a fors la paille.
—Œuvres de Rutebeuf, vol. i. p. 3.
In another poem, Rutebeuf laments that he has rendered his condition still more miserable by marrying, when he had not wherewith to keep a wife and family. In a third, he complains that in the midst of his poverty, his wife has brought him a child to increase his domestic expenses, while his horse, on which he was accustomed to travel to places where he might exercise his profession, had broken its leg, and his nurse was dunning him for money. In addition to all these causes of grief, he had lost the use of one of his eyes.
Or a d’enfant géu ma fame;
Mon cheval a brisié la jame
A une lice;
Or veut de l’argent ma norrice,
Qui m’en destraint et me pélice,
For l’enfant pestre.