O causeles cowardes, O hartles hardynes! O manles manhod, enfayntyd all with fere! O connyng clergye, where ys your redynes To practise or postyll thys prosses here and there? For drede ye darre not medyll with suche gere, Or elles ye pynche curtesy, trulye as I trowe, Whyche of yow fyrste dare boldlye plucke the crowe.
The skye is clowdy, the coste is nothyng clere; 390 Tytan bathe truste vp hys tressys of fyne golde; Iupyter for Saturne darre make no royall chere; Lyacon lawghyth there att, and berythe hym more bolde; Racell, rulye ragged, she is like to cache colde; Moloc, that mawmett, there darre no man withsay; The reste of suche reconyng may make a fowle fraye.
_Dixit_, quod Parrott, the royall popagay.
_Cest chose maleheure[u]se,_ _Que mall bouche._
_Jupiter ut nitido deus est veneratus Olympo;_ _Hic coliturque deus._ 400 _Sunt data thura Jovi, rutilo solio residenti;_ _Cum Jove thura capit._ _Jupiter astrorum rector dominusque polorum;[107]_ _Anglica sceptra regit._
I compas the conveyaunce vnto the capitall Of ower clerke Cleros, whythyr, thydyr, and why not hethyr? For passe a pase apase ys gon to cache a molle, Over Scarpary _mala vi_, Monsyre cy and sliddyr: Whate sequele shall folow when pendugims mete togethyr? Speke, Parotte, my swete byrde, and ye shall haue a date, 410 Of frantycknes and folysshnes whyche ys the grett state?
Difficille hit ys to ansswere thys demaunde; Yet, aftyr the sagacite of a popagay,— Frantiknes dothe rule and all thyng commaunde; Wylfulnes and braynles no[w] rule all the raye; Agayne ffrentike frenesy there dar no man sey nay, For ffrantiknes, and wylfulnes, and braynles ensembyll, The nebbis of a lyon they make to trete and trembyll;
To jumbyll, to stombyll, to tumbyll down lyke folys, To lowre,[108] to droupe, to knele, to stowpe, and to play cowche quale, 420 To fysshe afore the nette, and to drawe polys; He make[th] them to bere babylles, and to bere a lowe sayle; He caryeth a kyng in hys sleve, yf all the worlde fayle; He facithe owte at a fflusshe, with, shewe, take all! Of Pope Julius cardys he ys chefe cardynall.
He tryhumfythe, he trumpythe, he turnythe all vp and downe, With, skyregalyard, prowde palyard, vaunteperler, ye prate! Hys woluys hede, wanne, bloo as lede, gapythe over the crowne: Hyt ys to fere leste he wolde were the garland on hys pate, Peregall with all prynces farre passyng hys estate; 430 For of ower regente the regiment he hathe, _ex qua vi,_ _Patet per versus_, quod _ex vi bolte harvi_.