Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
| THIS winter’s weather it waxeth cold, | |
And frost it freezeth on every hill, | |
And Boreas blows his blast so bold | |
That all our cattle are like to spill. | |
Bell, my wife, she loves no strife; | 5 |
She said unto me quietlye, | |
Rise up, and save cow Crumbock’s life! | |
Man, put thine old cloak about thee! | |
|
He. | O Bell my wife, why dost thou flyte? | |
Thou kens my cloak is very thin: | 10 |
It is so bare and over worn, | |
A crickè thereon cannot renn. | |
Then I’ll no longer borrow nor lend; | |
For once I’ll new apparell’d be; | |
To-morrow I’ll to town and spend; | 15 |
For I’ll have a new cloak about me. | |
|
She. | Cow Crumbock is a very good cow: | |
She has been always true to the pail; | |
She has helped us to butter and cheese, I trow, | |
And other things she will not fail. | 20 |
I would be loth to see her pine. | |
Good husband, counsel take of me: | |
It is not for us to go so fine— | |
Man, take thine old cloak about thee! | |
|
He. | My cloak it was a very good cloak, | 25 |
It hath been always true to the wear; | |
But now it is not worth a groat: | |
I have had it four and forty year’. | |
Sometime it was of cloth in grain: | |
‘Tis now but a sigh clout, as you may see: | 30 |
It will neither hold out wind nor rain; | |
And I’ll have a new cloak about me. | |
|
She. | It is four and forty years ago | |
Sine the one of us the other did ken; | |
And we have had, betwixt us two, | 35 |
Of children either nine or ten: | |
We have brought them up to women and men: | |
In the fear of God I trow they be. | |
And why wilt thou thyself misken? | |
Man, take thine old cloak about thee! | 40 |
|
He. | O Bell my wife, why dost thou flyte? | |
Now is now, and then was then: | |
Seek now all the world throughout, | |
Thou kens not clowns from gentlemen: | |
They are clad in black, green, yellow and blue, | 45 |
So far above their own degree. | |
Once in my life I’ll take a view; | |
For I’ll have a new cloak about me. | |
|
She. | King Stephen was a worthy peer; | |
His breeches cost him but a crown; | 50 |
He held them sixpence all too dear, | |
Therefore he called the tailor ‘lown.’ | |
He was a king and wore the crown, | |
And thou’se but of a low degree: | |
It ‘s pride that puts this country down: | 55 |
Man, take thy old cloak about thee! | |
|
He. | Bell my wife, she loves not strife, | |
Yet she will lead me, if she can; | |
And to maintain an easy life | |
I oft must yield, though I’m good-man. | 60 |
It ‘s not for a man with a woman to threap, | |
Unless he first give o’er the plea: | |
As we began, so will we keep, | |
And I’ll take my old cloak about me. | |