[6-text p 393]
¶ With-Inne thyn hous / ne be thow no leon
To thy subgitz / do noon oppression
Ne make thyne aqueyntances / nat for to flee
And Thomas / yet eft soones I charge thee
Line 1992
Be war from hire / that in thy bosom slepeth
War fro the serpent that so sleighly crepeth
Vnder the gras / and styngeth subtilly
Be war my sone / and herkne paciently
Line 1996
That twenty thousand men / han lost hir lyues
ffor stryuyng with hir lemmans and hir wyues
Now sith ye han / so holy meke a wyf
What nedeth yow Thomas / to maken stryf/
Line 2000
Their nys ywis / no serpent so cruel
Whan man tret on his tayl / ne half so fel
As womman is / whan she hath caught an Ire
Vengeance is thanne / al that they desire
Line 2004
Ire is a synne / oon of the grete of seuene
Abhomynable / vn-to the god of heuene
And to hym self / it is destruccion
This euery lewed viker / or parson
Line 2008
Kan seye / how Ire engendreth homicide
Ire is in sooth / executour of pryde
I koude of Ire / seye so muche sorwe
My tale / sholde laste til to morwe
Line 2012
And ther-fore praye I god / bothe day and nyght
An Irous man / god sende hym litel myght
It is greet harm / and certes greet pitee
To sette an Irous man in heigh degree
Line 2016
WHilom / ther was an Irous potestat
As seith Senek that durynge his estat
Vp-on a day / out ryden knyghtes two
And as ffortune wolde / that it were so
Line 2020
That oon of hem cam hom / that oother noght
Anon the knyght bifore the Iuge is broght
That seyde thus / thow hast thy felawe slayn
ffor which / I deme thee to the deeth certayn
Line 2024
