THE DANCE OF THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS THROUGH HELL.
I.
Of Februar' the fifteenth night,
Full long before the dayis light,
I lay into a trance;
And then I saw both Heaven and Hell;
Methought among the fiendis fell,
Mahoun[1] gart[2] cry a Dance,
Of shrewis[3] that were never shrevin,[4]
Against the feast of Fastern's even,
To make their observànce:
He bade gallants go graith[5] a guise,[6]
And cast up gamounts[7] in the skies,
As varlets do in France.
II.
* * * * *
Holy harlottis in hautane[8] wise,
Came in with many sundry guise,
But yet laugh'd never Mahòun,
Till priests came in with bare shaven necks,
Then all the fiends laugh'd and made gecks,[9]
Black-Belly and Bawsy-Broun.[10]
* * * * *
III.
'Let's see,' quoth he, 'now who begins:'
With that the foul Seven Deadly Sins
Began to leap at anis.[11]
And first of all in dance was Pride,
With hair wyld[12] back, and bonnet on side,
Like to make wasty weanis;[13]
And round about him, as a wheel,
Hang all in rumples to the heel,
His kethat[14] for the nanis.[15]
Many proud trompour[16] with him tripped,
Through scalding fire aye as they skipped,
They girn'd[17] with hideous granis.[18]
IV.
Then Ire came in with sturt[19] and strife,
His hand was aye upon his knife,
He brandish'd like a beir;
Boasters, braggers, and barganeris,[20]
After him passed into pairis,[21]
All bodin in feir of weir.[22]
In jackis, scripis, and bonnets of steel,
Their legs were chenyiet[23] to the heel,
Froward was their affeir,[24]
Some upon other with brands beft,[25]
Some jaggit[26] others to the heft[27]
With knives that sharp could shear.
V.
Next in the dance follow'd Envy,
Fill'd full of feud and felony,
Hid malice and despite,
For privy hatred that traitor trembled;
Him follow'd many freik[28] dissembled,
With feigned wordis white.
And flatterers into men's faces,
And backbiters in secret places
To lie that had delight,
And rowneris[29] of false lesìngs;[30]
Alas, that courts of noble kings
Of them can never be quite![31]