And like Grisield in patience
Or more their bounty for to eke;
But I full long may go and seek
Ere I can find a good repast,
A morrow to break with my fast.

"I trow there be a dear year
Of patient women now-a-days.
Who grieveth them with word or cheer
Let him beware of such assays;
For it is more than thirty Mays
That I have sought from lond to lond,
But yet one Grisield ne'er I fond.

"I found but one in all my live,
And she was dead ago full yore;
For more pasture I will not strive
Nor seeke for my food no more.
Ne for vitail me to restore;
Women ben woxen so prudent {88a}
They will no more be patient."

Then shall be pourtrayed, after Chichevache, an old man with a baton
on his back, menacing the beast for devouring of his wife.

"My wife, alas, devoured is,
Most patient and most pesible!
She never said to me amiss,
Whom now hath slain this beast horrible!
And for it is an impossible