In Women is Rest, Peas, and Pacience

In Women is Rest, Peas, and Pacience

Original Text
Cambridge University MS Hh.2.6, fol. 58r; Rossell Hope Robbins, ed., Secular Lyrics of the XIVth and XVth Centuries (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952): no. 112, p. 102. PR 1203 S4 1952 Trinity College Library. Carleton Brown and Rossell Hope Robbins, eds., The Index of Middle English Verse (New York, 1943): no. 1593. Z 2012 B86 General Reference Robarts Library.
1In women is rest, peas, and pacience --
2  No season -- for soth, outht of charite --
3Bothe be nyght and day -- thei haue confidence --
4  All wey of treasone -- Owt of blame thei be --
5  No tyme as men say -- Mutabilite --
6    They haue without nay -- but stedfastnes --
7  In theym may ye neuer fynde, y gesse -- Cruelte
8    Suche condicons they haue more and lesse --

Notes

1] Read this poem in one-line units, or in enjambed half-lines (the second half of one line, and the first half of the next). Back to Line
2] season: time. outht: out. Back to Line
6] without nay: no doubt. Back to Line
7] y gesse: I guess. Back to Line
8] condicons: traits, habits. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1939
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2002
Rhyme
ababbcbc