Nay, be you pardoner or cheat, <br />Or cogger keen, or mumper shy, <br />You'll burn your fingers at the feat, <br />And howl like other folks that fry. <br />All evil folks that love a lie! <br />And where goes gain that greed amasses, <br />By wile, and trick, and thievery? <br />'Tis all to taverns and to lasses! <br /> <br />Rhyme, rail, dance, play the cymbals sweet, <br />With game, and shame, and jollity, <br />Go jigging through the field and street, <br />With MYST'RY and MORALITY; <br />Win gold at GLEEK,--and that will fly, <br />Where all you gain at PASSAGE passes, - <br />And that's? You know as well as I, <br />'Tis all to taverns and to lasses! <br /> <br />Nay, forth from all such filth retreat, <br />Go delve and ditch, in wet or dry, <br />Turn groom, give horse and mule their meat, <br />If you've no clerkly skill to ply; <br />You'll gain enough, with husbandry, <br />But--sow hempseed and such wild grasses, <br />And where goes all you take thereby? - <br />'Tis all to taverns and to lasses! <br /> <br />ENVOY. <br /> <br />Your clothes, your hose, your broidery, <br />Your linen that the snow surpasses, <br />Or ere they're worn, off, off they fly, <br />'Tis all to taverns and to lasses!<br /><br />Andrew Lang<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/villion-s-ballade-of-good-counsel-to-his-friends-of-evil-life/
