SyreP dowell dwellith quod witt / not a daie hens

In a Castell þat Kynde made / of foure sondrie thinges

Of erthe and Eyre / it is made medelid togethers

With Wynde and with water / wittely enioyned

Kynde hath closed therin / craftely withe all

A Lemman that he louith / Like to himself

Anima she hight / But Envie hir hateth

A proude pricker of Fraunce / Princeps huius mundi

And wolde wynne hir awaie / with wiles if he myght

But Kynde knoweth this well / & kepith hir the better

And dothe hir with syr dowell / duke of thise Marches

Do{well}betP is hir Damosell / syr dowellis doughter

To serue this Ladie trulie / bothe Late and rathe

Dobest is abouen bothe / A Bisshopes peere

That he bid must be done / he ruleth them all

Anima that ladie is led /T by his lernyng

But the Constable of þat castell / þat kepith all þe wache

Ys a wise knyght withall / Syr Inwit he hight

And hath fyue faire sonnes / by his fyrst wyfe

Syr sewell & saywell / and here well the hende

Syr workewell with thyne handes / a wight man of strength

And syr Godfrey Gowell / great lordes for sothe

Thise fyue be set / to saue this Ladie Anima

Till Kynde come or sende / to saue hir for euer

What thing is Kynde quod I / canst þou me telle

Kynde quod witt is Creatour / of all manere thinges

Father and fourmer / of all þat euer was made

And that is the great god / þat begynnyng had neuer

Lorde of Lyfe and Light / of blisseT and of peyne

Aungellis and all thinges / are at his will

But man is most like him / of marke and of shape

For through the worde that he spake / wexed furth beastes

And made man / Likest vnto himself

And Eue of his rybbone / without any meane

For he was synguler himself / and seid Faciamus

And as who seith more must herto / than my worde alone

My might must helpe / now with my speche

Right as a lorde shulde make lettres / and lackid paper

Though he could wright neuer so well / if he had no penne

The letter for all the lordship / I think were neuer made

And so it semeth by him / as the Bible tellith

There he said / dixit et facta sunt /

he must worke with his worde / and his wit shewe

And in this manere was Man made / through goddes myght

With his worde and workmanship / & with Life to Last

And thus god gaue him a spyrite / of þe godhede of heauen

And of his great grace / grauntid him blisse

That is Life euerlasting / to all our linage after

And that is the Castell that Kynde made Caro it hight

And is asmuch / as much to mene / as Man with a soule

And that he wrought with worke / & with worde bothe

Through myght of his magestie / man was made

Inwitt and all wittes be closed therin

For loue of þat Ladie anima / that Life is callid

Ouerall in mannes bodie / she walketh and wandereth

But in the hart is hir home / & hyr most rest /

And inwitte is in the head / and to the hart he lokith

What anima is leef or lothe / he ledith hir at his will

For After the grace of god / the greatest is Inwitte

Muche wo is that man / þat mysruleleth / mysruleth his Inwitte

And that be glotonouse glubbers / whose god is theyr wombe

Quorum deus venter est /

For they serue Sathan / theyr soules shall he haue

That Synfullie Lyue here / theyr soule is Like þe deuill

And all that liue godlye / are Like to god allmightie

Alas that drinke shulde lose / þat god dere bought

And do god forsake them / þat he made to his Likenesse

Et dimisi eos secundum desideria eorum /

Foles that want Inwitte / I Fynde that holie chirche

Shuld fynde them that they Lack / and fatherlesse childerne

And widowes þat haue not wherwith / to get them theyr Food

Madde men and maydens / that helplesse be

All thise Lack Inwitte / And Learning behouithe

Of this matere I might / make a long tale

And fynde many witnesses / Among the olde doctors

And that I lye not in that {.}I Learne þe / Luke beareth witnes

Godfathers and godmothers / that se theyr godchilderne

At misease and mischefe / and may them amende

Shall haue Penaunce in Purgatorie / but they them helpe

For more belongeth to the Litill childe / ere he the Lawe knowe

Then to be named with a name / and he neuer the wiser

Sholde no cristen creature / crie at the gate

Nor faile bread or potage / And prelates did as they shold

A Iewe wold not se a Iewe / go Iangling for defaute

For all the Mouables on this molde / if he amende it might

Alasse that a xpcristen creature / shuld be vnkynde till another

Sithen Iewes that we iudge / Iudas felawes

Eche of them helpe other / of that they nede

Why then wilnot / will not we xpcristen / of Christes good be as kynde

As Iewes that be our Lores men / shame to vs all

The Commons for their vnkyndnesse / I drede me shall abie

Bisshopes shalbe / shall be blamed / for beggers sakes

He is worse then Iudas / that giueth a Iaper syluer

And biddeth the begger go / for his broken clothes

He d{.}oth not well that dothe thus / nor drede not god allmyghtie

He louith not Salomons Sawes / þat sapience taught

Inicium sapiencie timor domini /

He that dreadeth god dothe well / & dreade him for loue

And not for drede of vengeaunce / doth þerfor the better

He doith best þat withdraweth him / by daie & by night

from spilling of speche / or anie space of tyme

Qui offendit in vno , in omnibus est reus /

Losyng of tyme / Truthe wottithe the sothe

Ys most hatid vpon Erthe / of them þat be in heauen

And Sithen that speche / is inspirid of grace /

And goddes gleman / and a game of heauen

Wold neuer the feithfull father / this Fiddill were vntemperid

Nor his gleeman a gadling / a goar to Tauernes

To all true tidie men / that travaile desyre

Our Lorde loue them & lende them / lowde or stille

Grace to go to them and ofgoneLX their Liuelode

Trewe Weddid Laboring folke / in þis world is dowell

For they must worke and wynne / and þe world susteyne

for of thirT Kynde they come / þat Confessours be callid

Kynges and Knightes / Keysers and Kerles

Maidyns and Martirs / out of wone man came

The wyfe was made þe weyeLX / for to helpe worke

And thus was wedlok wrought / with a meane persone

Fyrst by the fathers will / and the Freindes counseile

And Sithen by assent of them bothe / as they ij / two might agree

And thus was wedlock wrought / & god himself it made

In erthe and in Heauen / himself was the witnesse

But false folke feithlesse / theues and Lyers

Wastors and wreches / out of wedlocke I trowe

Conceyuid be in euill tyme / as Cayme was on Eue

Of such synfull shrewes / the Psalter maketh mencion

Concepit in dolore et peperit iniquitatem /

And all þat came of that Cayme / came to euill ende

For God sent to Sem / and said by an Aungell

Thine yssue in thine issue / I will that they be wedded

And not thi kynde with Caymes kynde / coupled nor espowsed

Yet Sem against the sond / of our Sauiour of heauen

Caymes kynde and his / coupled togethers

Till god was Angrie / for theyr workes / And then said

That euer I made man / now I do repent

Penitet me fecisse hominem /

And came to Noe anon / and bad him not faile

But shortlie shape him a ship / of shydes & boordes

Thy self and þi sonnes iij / thre / and also your wyues

Busk you to þat Boat / and bide you therin

Till fourtie dayis be fynished / þat flood haue wasshed

Clene awaie þe cursed blood / that Caym hath made

Beastis that now be shall banne the tyme

That euer þat cursyd Cayme / came on this earthe

All shall die for his dedes / by dales and by downes

And the foules þat flie / forth with other beastes

Eccept onlie of euery Kynde / a couple

That in thi shinglid ship / shalbe / shall be savid

Here abought the barne / the belsyres giltes

And all for theyr forefathers farid the worse

The gospell is against this / in one degree /

But I fynde if the father / be fals and a shrewe

That somedele the son / shall haue the syres condicions

Ympe on an Ellerne / And if thyne Appull be swete

Much merueile I haue / & more of a shrewe

That bringeth forth any barne / but if it be the same

And haue a savour after the syre / seld seist þou other

And thus through cursed Cayme / came care vpon erthe

And for they wrought wedlockes / against goddes will

Therfor haue they no ioy of theyr mariages / þat marrie so þer childerne

For as I se now / sothe for to telle

for Couetyse of goodes / Vnkyndelie be weddid

As carefull concepcion / commeth of such mariages

As befelle of the folke that I before of told

For good shuld wed good / though they no goodes had

I am Via et veritas seyth Christ / I may avaunce all

It is an vncomelie couple / by Christ as me think

To giue a yong wenche / to an olde Feble man

Or wedde any widowe / for welth of hir goodes

That neuer shall barne beare / But if it be in hyr armes

Many a couple sithe the Pestilence / haue plight them togithers

The fruyte þat they bring forth / are foule wordes

In Ielousye ioylesse / and iangle abedd

They haue no childerne bu / bu[t] cheesteLX / and clapping them betwene

And though they go to Dunnemowe / but if the deuill helpe

To feche the fliche / get they it neuer

For but they bothe be forsworne / þat Bacon they lose / .

Therfore I counseile all xpcristen / Couete not to be weddid

For couetise of goodes / nor of kynrede riche

But maidyns & maidyns / mach you togithers

Widowes & widewers / do you the same

For no londes but for loue / Loke ye be weddid

And then shall ye haue the grace of god / & good ynough to liue with

And euery manner man / that maynot / may not contynue

Wiselie go wedde / And ware him frome synne

For Lecherie in Licking / ys a Lymetwigg of hell

Whilles þou art yong / and þi weapyn kene

Wreke the with wyving / yf þou wilt be excused

When ye haue wyvid beware / & worke in tyme

Not as Adam and Eue / when Cayme was begotten

For in vntyme trulie / betwene man and woman

Ne shuld no bourde in bed be / But if they were bothe clene

Bothe of Life and soule / and in perfect cheritie

That ilk derne dede / do noman / no man shulde

And ifT lede thus their lyfe / it liketh god allmightie

For he made wedloke Fyrst / and himself it seyde

And they that otherwise / be begotton / for gedlinges them hold

As false folke fondelinges / faitors and Lyars

Vngraciouse to get goode / or loue of the people

Wandre and wast / what they may cache

Against dowell they do euill and the deuill serue

And after their deathe daye / shall dwell with the same

But if god giue them grace here / them-self t'amende

Dowell my frende is / to do as Lawes teache

To loue thy freinde and thi foo / beleue me is dobet

To giue and to lende / Bothe to yong and old

To heale and to helpe / is Dobest of all

And dowell is to drede god / & dobet to suffre

And so commeth Dobest of bothe / & bringeth doune the modie

And that is wicked will / þat many thinges shendith

And dryueth awaie dowell / through deadlie synnes /