Then I round it in the ear of many a goodwife

How they may plague their husbands out of their life.

Whereon the good man getteth such gobbets to his meat

That ere eight days he is snug in his winding sheet.

This merry cheat I have more than once played

And thereof Lucifer, I ween, is not evil apaid.

630 Likewise I take my good pleasure

In getting folk to seek out hidden treasure.

Thereby one got his bane but yesterday.

I told him where treasure had been hid away