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, whofe crime was too much love!
If this be ftruggling, by this holy light,

760

765

'Tis ftruggling with a vengeance, (quoth the knight)
So heav'n preserve the fight it has restor'd,
As with these eyes I plainly faw thee whor'd;

Whor'd by my flave-perfidious wretch! may hell
As furely feize thee, as I faw too well.

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 thefe killing words to me:
So help me fates, as 'tis no perfect fight,
But fome faint glimm'ring of a doubtful light.

770

775

What I have faid, (quoth he) I must maintain, For by th' immortal pow'rs, it feem'd too plainBy all those pow'rs, fome frenzy feiz'd your mind, (Reply'd the dame) are these the thanks I find? 780 Wretch that I am, that e'er I was so kind! She faid; a rifing figh exprefs'd her woe, The ready tears apace began to flow, And as they fell, she wip'd from either eye

The drops, (for women, when they lift, can cry.) 789

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 ;

790

Come down, and vex your tender heart no more:
Excuse me, dear, if aught amiss was faid,
For, on my foul, amends fhall foon be made:
Let my repentance your forgiveness draw,
By heav'n, I fwore but what I thought I saw.
Ah my lov'd lord! 'twas much unkind (she cry'd)
On bare suspicion thus to treat your bride.
But till your fight's establish'd, for a while,
Imperfect objects may your fenfe beguile.
Thus when from fleep we firft our eyes display,
The balls are wounded with the piercing ray,
And dufky vapours rife, and intercept the day. 800
So just recov'ring from the fhades of night,

795

Your fwimming eyes are drunk with fudden light, Strange phantoms dance around, and fkim before your fight.

Then, Sir, be cautious, nor too rafhly deem; Heav'n knows how feldom 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 fo wrong as those who think amifs.

With that, the leap'd into her Lord's embrace, 810

With well-diffembled virtue in her face.

He hugg'd her clofe, and kiss'd her o'er and o'er,
Disturb'd with doubts and jealoufies no more:

Both, pleas'd and bless'd, renew'd their mutual vows, A fruitful wife, and a believing spouse. 815

Thus ends our tale, whofe 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.

THE

WIFE of BATH

HER

PROLOGUE,

FROM

CHAUCER.

M 3