PITY.
Sir, such as I can I shall show you:
I have heard many men complain piteously;
They say they be smitten with the swerd of poverty.
In every place where I do go:
Few friends poverty doth find,
And these rich men been unkind;
For their neighbours they will nought do,
Widows doth curse lords and gentle men,
For they constrain them to marry with their men,
Yea, whether they will or no:
Men marry for good,[113] and that is damnable,
Yea, with old women that is fifty and beyond:
The peril now no man dread will;
All is not God's law that is used in land;
Beware will they not, till death in his hand
Taketh his sword, and smiteth asunder the life vein,
And with his mortal stroke cleaveth the heart atwain:
They trust so in mercy, the lantern of brightness,
That no thing do they dread God's rightwiseness.
PERSEVERANCE.
O Jesu, sir, here is a heavy tiding.
PITY.
Sir, this is true, that I do bring.
CONTEMPLATION.
How am I beloved, master Pity, where ye come?
PITY.
In good faith, people have now small devotion;
And as for with you, brother Contemplation,
There meddleth few or none.