In love, meek, kind, and stable;
Let never man reprove them than,
Or call them vari-able;
But, rather, pray God that we may
To them be comfort-able,
Which sometime proveth such as he loveth,
If they be charit-able.
For sith men would that women should
Be meek to them each one;
Much more ought they to God obey,
And serve but Him alone.



ADAM BELL, CLYM OF THE CLOUGH, AND WILLIAM OF CLOUDESLIE.

THE FIRST FYTTE.

Merry it was in green for-est,
Among the leav-es green,
Where that men walk both east and west
With bows and arrows keen,
To raise the deer out of their den,
Such sights as hath oft been seen;
As by three yeomen of the North Countrey:
By them is as I mean.

The one of them hight Adam Bell,
The other Clym of the Clough,
The third was William of Cloudeslie,