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¹ My sonne, kepe my wordes, & laye vp my comaundemetes by the.² Kepe my comaundemetes & my lawe, eue as the aple of thine eye, & thou shalt lyue.³ Bynde them vpon thy fyngers, & wryte the in the table of thine hert.⁴ Saye vnto wysdome: thou art my sister, and call vnderstondinge thy kynswoman:⁵ that she maye kepe ye fro ye strauge woma, & fro ye harlot which geueth swete wordes.

⁶ For out of the wyndowe of my house I loked thorow the trelies,⁷ & behelde the simple people: & amonge other yonge folkes I spyed one yonge foole⁸ goinge ouer the stretes, by the corner in the waye towarde the harlottes house⁹ in the twylight of of the euenynge, when it begane now to be night and darcke.¹⁰ And beholde, there mett him a woma in an harlottes apparell¹¹ (a disceatfull, waton & an vnstedfast woma: whose fete coude not abyde in ye house,¹² now is she without, now i ye stretes, & lurketh i euery corner)¹³ she caught ye yoge ma, kyssed him & was not ashamed, sayege:¹⁴ I had a vowe to paye, & this daye I perfourme it.¹⁵ Therfore came I forth to mete the, that I might seke thy face, and so I haue founde the.¹⁶ I haue deckte my bed with coueringes & clothes of Egipte.¹⁷ My bed haue I made to smell of Myrre, Aloes and Cynamom.¹⁸ Come, let vs lye together, & take oure pleasure till it be daye light.¹⁹ For the good man is not at home, he is gone farre of.²⁰ He hath taken the bagg of moneye with him, who can tell whe he cometh home?²¹ Thus with many swete wordes she ouercame him, and with hir flateringe lippes she wanne him.²² Immediatly he foloweth her, as it were an oxeled to the slaughter (and like as it were to the stockes, where fooles are punyshed)²³ so longe till she hath wounded his lyuer with hir darte: like as yf a byrde haisted to the snare, not knowinge that the parell of his life lyeth there vpo.

²⁴ Heare me now therfore (o my sonne) and marcke the wordes of my mouth.²⁵ Let not thine herte wandre in hir wayes, & be not thou disceaued in hir pathes.²⁶ For many one hath she wouded and cast downe, yee many a stronge ma hath she slayne.²⁷ Hir house is the waye vnto hell, where men go downe to the chambers of death.