“And if thou go with any man in field or in town,
By wall or by hedge, by palace or by pale,
To go without (outside) him, look thou be bown (ready),
And take him betwixt thee and that same wall;
And if thou meet him, look thou be sure
That thou go without him, and leave him next the wall.”
“Stare not on a strange man too much, be thou ware.”
“Nor never mock an old man, though he be old.”
Various other MSS. are (1) Jesus College, Cambridge (Q.T. 8, printed by Wright & Halliwell, in Reliquiæ Antiquæ, I., 156-58), (2) Cotton Caligula A ii, Harl. 4011, Lansdowne 699, Additional 5467, &c. It was printed once by Caxton, and several times by Wynkyn de Worde.
The only reason for considering John Lydgate as the author lies in the attribution to him in the last stanza (see next page).