Mony ladde þer forth-lep to laue & to kest
Many a lad there forth leapt to lave and to cast,
Scopen out þe scaþel water, þat fayn scape wolde
To scoop out the scathful water that fain escape would;
For be monnes lode neuer so luþer, þe lyf is ay swete
For be man’s lot never so bad, the life is aye sweet. —([p. 93].)
The writer, in concluding the story of Jonah, exhorts his readers to be “patient in pain and in joy.”
For he þat is to rakel to renden his cloþeȝ,
Mot efte sitte with more vn-sounde to sewe hem togeder.
For he that is too rash to rend his clothes,