Source: https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/fein-harley2253-volume-3-article-78
Timestamp: 2019-02-22 03:38:47+00:00

Document:
Art. 78, Nicholas Bozon, Femmes a la pye | Robbins Library Digital Projects
Robbins Library Digital Projects > TEAMS Middle English Texts > The Complete Harley 2253 Manuscript, Volume 3 > Art. 78, Nicholas Bozon, Femmes a la pye
Art. 78, Nicholas Bozon, Femmes a la pye
ART. 78, NICHOLAS BOZON, FEMMES A LA PYE: EXPLANATORY NOTES
13 Compare the long robes of the proud in The Sayings of St. Bernard (art. 74), line 133.
49–51 This warning about marriage, which Jeffrey and Levy call “gratuitious and slightly clumsy” (p. 228), expands the stanza and is not found in BL Addit. MS 46919.
69 blestes. “Setbacks.” Compare The Sayings of Saint Bernard (art. 74), line 150. According to the poet, a magpie predicts future glory, while a woman’s presence promises the opposite.
ART. 78, NICHOLAS BOZON, FEMMES A LA PYE: TEXTUAL NOTES
3 maners. So MS (er abbreviated), W3, Do. Ken: maneres.
19 pie. So MS, W3, Ken. Do: pye.
29 honme. So MS, W3. Ken: homme. Do: houme.
31 pye. So MS, W3, Do. Ken: pie.
42 desyre. So MS, Ken. Do. W3: de syre.
66 nous. So MS, Ken. W3: nus. Do: vus.
73 purveit. So MS (ur abbreviated), W3, Ken. Do: priveit.
76 Bien. So W3, Do. MS, Ken: bie.
112ra]
112rb]
¶ Femmes a la pye
En maners e en mours.
Escotez que vous dye
E quele assocye
Yl tienent en amours.
La pie de costume
Porte penne e plume
De divers colours,
E femme se delite
En estraunge habite
De divers atours.
La pie ad longe cowe
Que pend en la bowe
Pur la pesauncie,
E femme fet la sowe
Plus long que nule cowe
De poun ou de pye.
La pie est jangleresse
E reelement cesse
De mostrer ou ele est,
E la femme par son us
D’assez jangle plus.
Issi nature crest.
Par jangle de la pie,
Um vient a troverye
De gopyl e de chat;
Femme par parole
Meynt honme afole
E ly rend tot mat.
Vous troverez la pye
Si pleyne de boydie
Que ele se garde bien,
Mes la femme pase
La pie en cele grace,
Quar ele ne doute rien.
La pie en arbre haut
En freit e en chaut
Prent soun repos,
E femme velt reposer
En hautesse de cuer
E desyre los.
La pie quant ele greve
Countre son mary leve
E l’enchace de ly,
E femme de grant cuer
Son baroun par tencer
Fet autresy.
Pour icele gyse,
Je lou que un se avyse
Avaunt qu’l soit mary.
E, nequedent, la pye
Soun compaignoun espye
De quel part s’en va,
E la femme auxi
Espie son mary
Par gelosie que ele a.
La pie par yre
Les gardyns empire
Par braunche debruser,
E en femme corocee
Rien serra celee
Quant ele se puet venger.
Hom dit que la pie
En sa nature crye,
“Il nous viegnent gestes.”
E la femme puet dire
A soun mary, “Syre,
Par moi averez blestes.”
La pie siet musser
Quanqe ele puet gayner
En un privé lu,
E la femme se purveit
Avant qe ele vidve seit
Dount ert sustenu.
Bien dust la pie,
Queiqe um en die,
A femme estre chere,
Puis qe lur vie
Par tiele compagnie
Acordent en manere. ¶ Women with magpies
Keep close company
In manners and in morals.
And what likenesses
They maintain in love.
Magpie by custom
Wears feather and plumage
And woman delights
In outlandish clothes
Of various ornament.
Magpie has a long tail
That hangs in the mud
For heaviness,
And woman makes her own
Longer than any tail
Of peacock or magpie.
Magpie is a chatterbox
And she rarely ceases
Revealing where she is,
And it’s woman’s habit
To chatter even more.
Thus she expands nature.
By magpie’s chatter,
One comes to the discovery
Of fox and cat;
Woman by speech
Drives man crazy
And entirely breaks him.
You’ll find magpie
So full of trickery
That she keeps herself safe,
Yet woman surpasses
Magpie in this talent,
For she’s afraid of nothing.
Magpie in lofty tree
In cold and in heat
Takes its rest,
And woman wants to rest
In loftiness of spirit
And wishes for praise.
Magpie when she’s upset
Rises up against her mate
And drives him from her,
And proud-hearted woman
When scolding her husband
Given this behavior,
I advise that one reflect
Before he gets married.
And, nonetheless, magpie
Spies on her companion
Regarding where he goes,
And likewise woman
Spies on her husband
For the jealousy she feels.
Magpie in anger
Harms gardens
By breaking branches,
And from enraged woman
Nothing may be hidden
When she’s bent on revenge.
They say that magpie
By her nature announces,
“Glorious events come to us.”
And woman can say
To her husband, “Lord,
By me you’ll have setbacks.”
Magpie knows how to hide
Whatever she can acquire
And woman provides for herself
Before she becomes a widow
What will be her sustenance.
Well ought the magpie,
Whatever one may say,
Be dear to woman,
Since their lives
By such comparison
Accord in behavior.
Go To Art. 79, Un sage honme de grant valour, introduction
Go To Art. 79, Un sage honme de grant valour, text
d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/fein-harley2253-volume-3-article-78

References: Art. 78

Art. 78

ART. 78

ART. 78
 Art. 79
 Art. 79