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What ails my lord? the trembling dame reply'd;
I thought your patience had been better try'd :
Is this your love, ungrateful and unkind,
This my reward, for having cur'd the blind?
Why was I taught to make my husband fee,
By ftruggling with a Man upon a Tree?
Did I, for this, the pow'r of magic prove?
Unhappy wife, whose crime was too much love!

760

If this be ftruggling, by this holy light,
'Tis ftruggling with a vengeance, (quoth the knight)
So heav'n preserve the fight it has restor'd,
As with these eyes I plainly saw thee whor'd;
Whor'd by my flave-perfidious wretch! may hell
As furely feize thee, as I saw too well.

765

770

Guard me, good angels! cry'd the gentle May,
Pray heav'n, this magic work the proper way!
Alas, my love! 'tis certain, could you fee,
You ne'er had us'd these killing words to me:
So help me fates, as 'tis no perfect fight,
But fome faint glimm'ring of a doubtful light.

780

What I have faid, (quoth he) I must maintain,
For by th' immortal pow'rs, it seem'd too plain-
By all those pow'rs, some frenzy seiz'd your mind,
(Reply'd the dame) are these the thanks I find?
Wretch that I am, that e'er I was so kind!
She said; a rifing figh express'd her woe,
The ready tears apace began to flow,

And as they fell, she wip'd from either eye

775

}

The drops, (for women, when they lift, can cry.) 785

VOL. III.

M

The

The knight was touch'd, and in his looks appear'd
Signs of remorse, while thus his spouse he chear'd.
Madam, 'tis past, and my short anger o'er;
Come down, and vex your tender heart no more:
Excuse me, dear, if aught amiss was said,
For, on my foul, amends shall soon be made :
Let my repentance your forgiveness draw,
By heav'n, I swore but what I thought I faw.

790

Ah my lov'd lord! 'twas much unkind (she cry'd)

795

On bare fufpicion thus to treat your bride.
But till your fight's establish'd, for a while,
Imperfect objects may your sense beguile.
Thus when from fleep we first our eyes display,
The balls are wounded with the piercing ray,
And dusky vapours rise, and intercept the day. 800
So just recov'ring from the shades of night,
Your swimming eyes are drunk with fudden light,
Strange phantoms dance around, and skim before your

fight.

Then, Sir, be cautious, nor too rashly deem; Heav'n knows how seldom things are what they seem! 805 Confult your reason, and you foon shall find 'Twas you were jealous, not your wife unkind : Jove ne'er spoke Oracle more true than this, None judge so wrong as those who think amiss.

With that, she leap'd into her Lord's embrace, 810 With well-dissembled virtue in her face. He hugg'd her close, and kiss'd her o'er and o'er, Disturb'd with doubts and jealousies no more:

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Both, pleas'd and bless'd, renew'd their mutual vows, A fruitful wife, and a believing spouse.

815

Thus ends our tale, whose moral next to make,

Let all wife husbands hence example take;
And pray, to crown the pleasure of their lives,
To be fo well deluded by their wives.

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THE

WIFE of BATH

HER

PROLOGUE,

FROM

CHAUCER.

M 3

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