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¹ My sonne kepe my words, and lay vp my commaundements by thee.² Kepe my commaundementes & my lawe, euen as the apple of thyne eye, and thou shalt liue.³ Binde them vpon thy fingers, and wryte them in the table of thyne heart.⁴ Say vnto wysdome, thou art my sister: and call vnderstanding thy kinsewoman:⁵ That they may kepe thee from the straunge woman, and from the forraine woman which geueth sweete wordes.

⁶ For at the windowe of my house I loked through the windowe,⁷ And behelde among the simple people and among the chyldren a young man voyde of wyt,⁸ Goyng ouer the streate by the corner in the way towarde her house⁹ In the twylight of the euening, when it began nowe to be night and darke:¹⁰ And behold there met hym a woman with open tokens of an harlot, onlye her heart was hid:¹¹ She was full of loude wordes and redye to dallie, whose feete coulde not abide in the house:¹² Nowe is she without, nowe in the streates, and lyeth in wayte at euery corner.¹³ She caught hym and kissed him, and was not ashamed, saying:¹⁴ I had a vowe of peace offeringes to pay, and this day I perfourme it:¹⁵ Therefore came I foorth to meete thee, that I might seeke thy face, and so haue I founde thee.¹⁶ I haue deckt my bed with coueringes of tapessarie, and clothes of Egypt.¹⁷ My bed haue I made to smell of Myrre, Aloes, and Cinamon.¹⁸ Come let vs take our fill of loue vntyll the morning, and let vs solace our selues with the pleasures of loue.¹⁹ For the good man is not at home, he is gone farre of.²⁰ He hath taken the bagge of money with hym, and wyll returne at the appointed solempne feast.²¹ Thus with many sweete wordes she ouercame him, and with her flattering lippes she entised hym.²² Sodainly he folowed her, as it were an oxe led to the slaughter, and lyke as it were a foole [that laugheth] when he goeth to the stockes to be punished,²³ So long tyll she had wounded his lyuer with her dart: lyke as if a byrde hasted to the snare, not knowing that the perill of his life lieth thervpon.

²⁴ Heare me now therfore O my chylde, and marke the wordes of my mouth:²⁵ Let not thyne heart wander in her wayes, and be not thou deceaued in her pathes.²⁶ For many one hath she wounded and cast downe, yea many a strong man hath ben slaine by the meanes of her.²⁷ Her house is the way vnto hell, and bryng men downe into the chaumbers of death.