Aboute the cat’s necke to hang on any[275] bell,

Had first neede to cut the cat’s clawes away,

Least if the cat bee curst, and[276] not tamed well,

She haply[277] with her nayles may clawe him to the fell:

So putting on[278] the bell about the cat’s necke,

By being to busy I caught a cruell checke.[279]

14.

Reade well the sentence of the rat of renowne,[280]

Which Pierce the plowman describes in his dreame,[281]

And who so hath wit the sence to expowne,[282]