[6-text p 465]
He made a gardyn / walled al with stoon
So fair a gardyn / woot I nowher noon
ffor out of doute / I verraily suppose
That he / þat wroot the romance of the Rose
Line 2032
Ne koude of it/ the beautee wel deuyse
Ne Priapus / ne myghte nat suffise
Though he be god of gardyns / for to telle
The beautee of the gardyn / and the welle
Line 2036
That stood vnder a laurer / alwey grene
fful ofte tyme / he Pluto and his queene
Proserpina / and al hire fairye
Disporten hem / and maken melodye
Line 2040
Aboute that welle / and daunced as men tolde
¶ This noble knyght this Ianuarie the olde
Swich deyntee hath / in it to walke and pleye
That he wol no wight suffren bere the keye
Line 2044
Saue he hym self/ for of the smale wyket
He baar alwey / of siluer a Clyket
With which / whan þat hym leste he it vnshette
And whan he wolde / paye his wyf hir dette
Line 2048
In Somer seson / thider wolde he go
And May his wyf/ and no wight but they two
And thynges / whiche þat were nat doon a bedde
He in the gardyn / parfourned hem and spedde
Line 2052
And in this wyse / many a murye day
Lyued this Ianuarie / and fresshe May
But worldly Ioye / may nat alwey dure
To Ianuarie / ne to no creature
Line 2056
Osodeyn hape / o thou fortune Instable [¶ Auctor.]
Lyk to the Scorpion / so deceyuable
That flaterest with thyn heed / whan thou wolt synge
Thy tayl is deeth / thurgh thyn enuenymynge
Line 2060
O brotil Ioye / o sweete venym queynte
O Monstre / that so subtilly kanst peynte
Thy yiftes / vnder hewe of stidefastnesse
That thou deceyuest bothe moore and lesse
Line 2064
