Warnings about the Adulteress

1My sonne, kepe my wordes, & laye vp my comaundemetes by the.

2Kepe my comaundemetes & my lawe, eue as the aple of thine eye, & thou shalt lyue.

3Bynde them vpon thy fyngers, & wryte the in the table of thine hert.

4Saye vnto wysdome: thou art my sister, and call vnderstondinge thy kynswoman:

5that she maye kepe ye fro ye strauge woma, & fro ye harlot which geueth swete wordes.

6For 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 foole

8goinge ouer the stretes, by the corner in the waye towarde the harlottes house

9in the twylight of of the euenynge, when it begane now to be night and darcke.

10And beholde, there mett him a woma in an harlottes apparell

11(a disceatfull, waton & an vnstedfast woma: whose fete coude not abyde in ye house,

12now is she without, now i ye stretes, & lurketh i euery corner)

13she caught ye yoge ma, kyssed him & was not ashamed, sayege:

14I had a vowe to paye, & this daye I perfourme it.

15Therfore came I forth to mete the, that I might seke thy face, and so I haue founde the.

16I haue deckte my bed with coueringes & clothes of Egipte.

17My bed haue I made to smell of Myrre, Aloes and Cynamom.

18Come, let vs lye together, & take oure pleasure till it be daye light.

19For the good man is not at home, he is gone farre of.

20He hath taken the bagg of moneye with him, who can tell whe he cometh home?

21Thus with many swete wordes she ouercame him, and with hir flateringe lippes she wanne him.

22Immediatly he foloweth her, as it were an oxeled to the slaughter (and like as it were to the stockes, where fooles are punyshed)

23so 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.

24Heare me now therfore (o my sonne) and marcke the wordes of my mouth.

25Let not thine herte wandre in hir wayes, & be not thou disceaued in hir pathes.

26For many one hath she wouded and cast downe, yee many a stronge ma hath she slayne.

27Hir house is the waye vnto hell, where men go downe to the chambers of death.