And, standing the nonage of this gentleman, On my peril take no care therefore. I shall demean it as well as I can Till he be passed forty years and more; And Reason then, if ye will undershore His crooked old age, when lusty youth is spent, Then take upon you: I hold me content.
For, trust ye me! the very truth is this: This man is put in his own liberty; And, certainly, the free choice is his Whether he will be governed by thee or by me. Let us, therefore, put it to his own jeopardy, And therein stand to his arbitrament To which of us twain he had liefer assent.
_Rea._ Nay, sir, not so! I know his frailty; The body is disposed for to fall Rather to the worse than the better part; But it be holpen by power supernal.
_Sens._ Yet, Reason! when thou hast said all, If thou see him not take his own way, Call me cut when thou meetest me another day.
_Rea._ For certain yet, according to mine office, I must advertise and counsel him, at the least, To haunt virtue and 'schew all vice; And therein assist him to the uttermost; And if he will algates be a beast, And take none heed to my lore and doctrine, The peril and hurt shall be his, not mine.
_Inno._ Sirs! I shall answer for this man, as yet That he is maiden for all such folly As should disdain nature, or dishonour it. Brought up with me, full well and tenderly, Wherefore I dare the surelier testify For Innocency, that he is yet virgin, Both for deed and eke consent of sin.
And longer will not I be of his acquaintance Than he is virtuous, and of good living; For, fleshly lust and worldly pleasance Is, with Innocency, nothing according. But, if his behaviour and daily demeaning Be of such draught as reason will allow, I shall him favour and love, as I do now.
_Sens._ Well spoken and wisely! now have ye all done? Or, have ye ought else to this man to say?
_Sens._ Peace, no more of this disputation! Here be many fantasies to drive forth the day; That one chattereth like a pie; that other like a jay; And yet, when they both have done what they can, Maugre their teeth, I shall rule the man.
_Man._ O, blessed Lord! what manner strife is this Atwixt my reason and sensuality, That one meaneth well, and that other all amiss. In one is sikerness, and in tother great frailty; And both they be so annexed to me That needest I must with one of them abide. Lord, as Thou thinkest best for me, do provide!