o be,
Have women ay, of custom and usage.
And well they can a manis ire assuage,
With softe wordis, discreet and benign.
What they be inward, they show outward by sign.

Womanis heart unto no cruelty
Inclined is; but they be Charitable,
Piteous, Devout, Full of Humility,
Shamefaste, Debonaire, and Amiable,
Dread full, and of their wordis measurable:
What women, these have not, peradventure;
Followeth not the way of her nature.

Men sayen that our First Mother na'theless
Made all mankinde lose his liberty,
And nakid it of joye, doubteless,
For Godis hestes disobeyed she,
When she presumed to taste of the tree,
That God forbade that she eat thereof should.
And ne had the Devil be, no more she would!

The envious swelling, that the Fiend our foe
Had unto man in hearte, for his wealth,
Sent a serpent, and made her for to go
To deceive EVE; and thus was manis health
Bereft him by the Fiend, right in a stealth,
The woman not knowing of the deceit,
God wot! Full far was it from her conceit!

Wherefore I say, that this good woman EVE
Our father ADAM, ne deceived nought.
There may no man for a deceit it preve
Properly, but if that she, in heart and thought,
Had it compassed first, ere she it wrought.
And for such was not her impression,
Men may it call no Deceit, by reason.

Ne no wight deceiveth, but he purpose!
The fiend this deceit cast, and nothing she.
Then it is wrong to deemen or suppose
That of this harm she should the cause be.
Wytith the Fiend, and his be the maugree!
And all excused have her innocence,
Save only, that she brake obedience!

And touching this, full fewe men there be,
Unnethis any, dare I safely say!
From day to day, as men may all day see,
But that the hest of God they disobey.
Have this in minde, siris! I you pray.
If that ye be discreet and reasonable;
Ye will her holde the more excusable!

And where men say, "In man is stedfastness;
And woman is of her courage unstable."
Who may of ADAM bear such a witness?
Tellith me this! Was he not changeable?
They bothe werin in one case semblable.
Save that willing the Fiend deceived EVE;
And so did she not ADAM, by your leave!

Yet was this sinne happy to mankind,
The Fiend deceived was, for all his sleight;
For au