PERSEVERANCE.
Son, remember the great pains of hell,
They are so horrible that no tongue can tell;
Beware, lest thou thither do go.
FREEWILL.
Nay, by Saint Mary, I hope not so;
I will not go to the devil, while I have my liberty,
He shall take the labour to fet me, and he will have me;
For he that will go to hell by his will voluntarily,
The devil and the whirlwind go with him:
I will you never fro thence tidings bring;
Go you before, and show me the way,
And as to follow you I will not say nay:
For, by God's body, and you be in once,
By the mass, I will shit[150] the door at once,
And then ye be take in a pitfall.
CONTEMPLATION.
Now, Jesus, soon defend us from that hole,
For, "Qui est in inferno nulla est redemptio:"
Holy Job spake these words full long ago.
FREEWILL.
Nay, I have done; and you laid out Latin with scope,
But therewith can you clout me a pair of boots?[151]
By our lady, ye should have some work of me,
I would have them well underlaid and easily,
For I use alway to go on the one side;
And trow ye how? by God, in the stocks I sat till,
I trow a three weeks, and more a little stound,
And there I laboured sore day by day,
And so I tread my shone inward in good fay;
Lo, therefore methink you must sole them round.
If you have any new boots, a pair I would buy,
But I think your price be too high.
Sir, once at Newgate I bought a pair of stirrups,[152]
A mighty pair and a strong,
A whole year I ware them so long,
But they came not fully to my knee,
And to clout them it cost not me a penny:
Even now, and ye go thither, ye shall find a great heap,
And you speak in my name, ye shall have good cheap.
PERSEVERANCE.
Sir, we came never there, ne never shall do.