422

For true it is, as in principio,

• Mulier est hominis confusio.

425

• Madam, the meaning of this Latin is,
'That woman is to man his sov'reign bliss.
For when, by night, I feel your tender side,
Though, for the narrow perch, I cannot ride,
Yet I have such a solace in my mind,

430

That all my boding cares are cast behind; 'And e'en, already, I forget my dream.' He said; and downward flew from off the beam, For day-light now began apace to spring, The thrush to whistle, and the lark to sing. Then crowing clapp'd his wings, th' appointed call, To chuck his wives together in the hall. 435

By this, the widow had unbarr'd the door; And Chanticleer went strutting out before, With royal courage, and with heart so light, As shew'd he scorn'd the visions of the night. Now, roaming in the yard, he spurn'd the ground, And gave, to Partlet, the first grain he found. 441 Then often feather'd her with wanton play, And trod her twenty times, ere prime of day:. And took, by turns, and gave so much delight, Her sisters pin'd with envy at the sight. He chuck'd again, when other corns he found, And scarcely deign'd to set a foot to ground. But swagger'd, like a lord about his hall, And his seven wives came, running, at his call. 'Twas now the month in which the world

began ;

(If March beheld the first created man ;)

445

450

And, since the vernal equinox, the sun,

In Aries, twelve degrees, or more, had run;
When casting up his eyes against the light,

Both month, and day, and hour, he measur'd right;

And told more truly, than th' Ephemeris:

For Art may err, but Nature cannot miss.

455

Thus numb'ring times, and seasons, in his breast, His second crowing the third hour confess'd. Then turning, said to Partlet, 'See, my dear, 460 How lavish nature has adorn'd the year; How the pale primrose and blue violet spring, And birds essay their throats disus'd to sing: All these are ours; and I with pleasure see • Man strutting on two legs, and aping me: • An unfledg'd creature, of a lumpish frame, Endow'd with fewer particles of flame: • Our dame sits couring o'er a kitchen fire, 'I draw fresh air, and Nature's works admire: And, c'en this day, in more delight abound, 470 Than, since I was an egg, I ever found.'

465

The time shall come when Chanticleer shall wish His words unsaid, and hate his boasted bliss: The crested bird shall by experience know, Jove made not him his master-piece below; 475 And learn, the latter end of joy is woe. The vessel of his bliss to dregs is run, And Heav'n will have him taste his other tun. Ye wise, draw near, and hearken to my tale, Which proves that oft the proud by flatt'ry fall:

The legend is as true, I undertake,

As Tristran is, and Launcelot of the lake:
Which all our ladies in such reverence hold,
As if, in book of martyrs, it were told.

A fox full-fraught with seeming sanctity, 485
That fear'd an oath, but, like the devil, would lie ;
Who look'd like Lent, and had the holy leer,
And durst not sin before he said his prayer;
This pious cheat, that never suck'd the blood,489
Nor chew'd the flesh of lambs, but when he
could;

Had pass'd three summers in the neighb'ring

wood:

And musing long, whom next to circumvent,
On Chanticleer his wicked fancy bent:
And, in his high imagination, cast,

By stratagem, to gratify his taste.

495

The plot contriv'd, before the break of day, Saint Reynard through the hedge had made his way; The pale was next, but, proudly, with a bound, He leapt the fence of the forbidden ground: Yet, fearing to be seen, within a bed

Of coleworts he conceal'd his wily head;

500

There sculk'd till afternoon, and watch'd his time,

(As murd❜rers use) to perpetrate his crime.

O hypocrite ingenious to destroy !:
traitor worse than Sinon was to Troy !

O vile subverter of the Gallic reign,
More false than Gano was to Charlemagne !-

505

Chanticleer! in an unhappy hour

Didst thou forsake the safety of thy bow'r:
Better for thee thou hadst believ'd thy dream, 510
And not that day descended from the beam!
But here the doctors eagerly dispute:

Some hold predestination absolute :

515

Some clerks maintain, that Heav'n at first foresees,
And, in the virtue of foresight, decrees.
If this be so, then prescience binds the will,
And mortals are not free to good or ill:
For what He first foresaw, He must ordain,
Or its eternal prescience may be vain:
As bad for us as prescience had not been:
For first, or last, He 's author of the sin.
And who says that? Let the blaspheming man
Say worse e'en of the devil, if he can.

520

For how can that Eternal Power be just
To punish man, who sins because he must? 525
Or, how can He reward a virtuous deed,
Which is not done by us; but first decreed.

I cannot bolt this matter to the bran,
As Bradwardin and holy Austin can;
If prescience can determine actions so
That we must do, because He did foreknow,
Or that, foreknowing, yet our choice is free,
Not forc'd to sin by strict necessity;
This strict necessity they simple call,
Another sort there is conditional.

530

535

The first so binds the will, that things foreknown
By spontaniety, not choice, are done.

Thus galley-slaves tug, willing, at their oar,
Content to work, in prospect of the shore;

But would not work at all, if not constrain'd

before.

That other does not liberty constrain,

540

But man may either act, or may refrain.
Heav'n made us agents free to good or ill,
And forc'd it not, though He foresaw the will.
Freedom was, first, bestow'd on human race, 545
And prescience only held the second place.

550

If He could make such agents wholly free, I not dispute; the point's too high for me ; For Heav'n's unfathom'd pow'r what man can sound, Or put to His Omnipotence a bound? He made us to His image, all agree; That image is the soul, and that must be, Or not the maker's image, or be free. But whether it were better man had been

By nature bound to good, not free to sin,
I wave, for fear of splitting on a rock.
The tale I tell is only of a cock,-
Who had not run the hazard of his life,

555

Had he believ'd his dream, and not his wife:

For women, with a mischief to their kind,

560

Pervert, with bad advice, our better mind.
A woman's counsel brought us first to woe,
And made her man his paradise forego,-