A mery Dialogue, declaringe the propertyes of shrowde shrewes, and
honest wyues, not onelie verie pleasaunte, but also not a lytle
profitable: made by ye famous clerke D. Erasmus. Roterodamus.
Translated into Englyshe.
A mery Dia-
logue, declaringe the propertyes
of shrowde shrewes,
and ho-
nest wyues, not onelie verie
pleasaunte, but also not a
lytle profitable: made
by ye famous clerke
D. Erasmus.
Roteroda-
mus.
Translated into
Englyshe.
Anno. M.CCCCC.
LVII.
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Eulalia. God spede, & a thousand mine old acqueintāce.
xantippa.
xan. As many agayn, my dere hert. Eulalia. me semets ye ar warē
much faire now of late.
Eula. Saye you so? gyue you me a mocke at the first dash.
xan. Nay veryly but I take you so.
Eula. Happely mi new gown maketh me to loke fayrer then I sholde
doe.
xan. Sothe you saye, I haue not sene a mynioner this many dayes, I
reken it Englishe cloth.
Eu. It is english stuff and dyed in Venis.
xan. It is softer then sylke what an oriente purpel colore here is
who gaue you so rich a gift.
Eu. How shoulde honeste women come by their gere? but by their
husbandes.
xā. Happy arte thou that hathe suche an husband, but I wolde
to god for his passyon, that I had maryed an husband of clowts, when I had
maried col my good mā.
Eula. Why say ye so. I pray you, are you at oddes now.
xā. I shal neuer be at one wt him ye se how
beggerly I go. I haue not an hole smock to put on my backe, and he is wel
contente with all: I praye god I neuer come in heuen & I be not
ashamed oftimes to shewe my head, when I se other wiues how net and trim
they go that ar matched with farre porer mē then he is.
Eula. The apparell of honest wiues is not in the aray of the body,
nor in the tirements of their head as saynte Peter the apostle teacheth vs
(and that I learned a late at a sermon) but in good lyuynge and honest
conuersacion and in the ornamentes of the soule, the cōmon buenes ar
painted up, to please manye mennes eies we ar trime ynough yf we please
our husbands only.
xan. But yet my good man so euyll wylling to bestow ought vpon his
wyfe, maketh good chere, and lassheth out the dowrye that hee hadde with
mee no small pot of wine.
Eulaly, where vpon?
xantipha, wheron hym lykethe beste, at the tauerne, at the stewes
and at the dyce.
Eulalia Peace saye not so.
xan. wel yet thus it is, then when he cōmeth home to me at
midnight, longe watched for, he lyeth rowtyng lyke a sloyne all the leue
longe nyght, yea and now and thē he all bespeweth his bed, and worse
then I will say at this tyme.
Eulali. Peace thou dyshonesteth thy self, when thou doest
dishonesteth thy husbād.
xantip. The deuyl take me bodye and bones but I had leuer lye by a
sow with pigges, then with suche a bedfelowe.
Eulali. Doest thou not then take him vp, wel favoredly for stūbling.
Xantip. As he deserueth I spare no tonge.
Eulalia. what doth he thē.
xantip. At the first breake he toke me vp vengeably, trusting that
he shoulde haue shakē me of and put me to scilence with his crabid
wordes.
Eula Came neuer your hote wordes vnto hādstrokes.
xantip. On a tyme we fel so farre at wordes yt we wer
almost by ye eares togither.
Eula what say you womā?
xan. He toke vp a staffe wandryng at me, as the deuill had bene on
hym ready to laye me on the bones.
Eula. were thou not redye to ron in at the bēch hole.
xanti. Nay mary I warrant the. I gat me a thre foted stole in hand,
& he had but ones layd his littell finger on me, he shulde not haue
founde me lame. I woulde haue holden his nose to the grindstōe
Eulalia. A newe found shelde, ye wanted but youre dystaffe to haue
made you a speare.
xantip. And he shoulde not greatlye a laughed at his parte.
Eulali. Ah my frynde. xantyppa. that way is neither good nor godly,
xantippa what is neither good nor godly. yf he wyll not vse me, as
hys wyfe: I wil not take him for my husbande.
Eulalya. But Paule sayeth that wyues shoulde bee boner and buxome
vnto their husbandes with all humylytye, and Peter also bryngethe vs an
example of Sara, that called her husbande Abrahame, Lorde.
xantippa. I know that as well as you thē ye same
paule say that men shoulde loue theyr wyues, as Christ loues his spouse
the churche let him do his duete I wil do myne.
Eula. But for all that, when the matter is so farre that the one
muste forber the other it is reason that the woman giue place vnto the
man,
xan. Is he meete to be called my husbāde that maketh me his
vnderlynge and his dryuel?
Eula. But tel me dame xātip. Would he neuer offre the stripes
after that
xātip. Not a stripe, and therin he was the wyser man for &
he had he should haue repented euery vayne in hys harte.
Eulali. But thou offered him foule wordes plentie,
xantip. And will do.
Eula. What doth he ye meane seasō.
xantip. What doth he sometyme cowcheth an hogeshed, somtime he doth
nothing but stande and laughe at me, other whyle takethe hys Lute wheron
is scarslie three strynges layenge on that as fast as he may dryue because
he would not here me.
Eula. Doeth that greue thee?
xantippa. To beyonde home, manie a tyme I haue much a do to hold my
handes.
Eula. Neighbour. xantip. wylt thou gyue me leaue to be playn with
the.
xantippa Good leaue haue you.
Eula. Be as bolde on me agayne our olde acquayntaunce and amite,
euen frō our chyldhode, would it should be so.
xantippa. Trueth you saie, there was neuer woman kinde that I
fauoured more
Elaly Whatsoeuer thy husbād be, marke well this, chaunge thou
canst not, In the olde lawe, where the deuill hadde cast aboone betwene
the man and the wife, at the worste waye they myght be deuorsed, but now
that remedie is past, euē till death depart you he must nedes be thy
husbande, and thou hys wyfe,
xan. Il mote they thryue & thei that taken away that liberty
from vs
Eulalia. Beware what thou sayest, it was christes act.