StoryTitle("caps", "The~Old~Cloak") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "This winter's weather it waxeth cold,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And frost it freezeth on every hill,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And Boreas blows his blast so bold", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That all our cattle are like to spill.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Bell, my wife, she loves no strife;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "She said unto me quietlye,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Rise up, and save cow Crumbock's life!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Man, put thine old cloak about thee!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "O Bell my wife, why dost thou flyte?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Thou kens my cloak is very thin:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It is so bare and over worn,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A crické thereon cannot renn.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then I'll no longer borrow nor lend;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For once I'll new apparell'd be;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To-morrow I'll to town and spend;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For I'll have a new cloak about me.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Cow Crumbock is a very good cow:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "She has been always true to the pail;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She has helped us to butter and cheese, I trow,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And other things she will not fail.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I would be loth to see her pine.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Good husband, counsel take of me:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It is not for us to go so fine—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Man, take thine old cloak about thee!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "My cloak it was a very good cloak,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "It hath been always true to the wear;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But now it is not worth a groat:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "I have had it four and forty year'.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Sometime it was of cloth in grain:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2SQ", "", "'Tis now but a sigh clout, as you may see:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It will neither hold out wind nor rain;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And I'll have a new cloak about me.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It is four and forty years ago", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Sine the one of us the other did ken;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And we have had, betwixt us two,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Of children either nine or ten:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We have brought them up to women and men:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "In the fear of God I trow they be.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And why wilt thou thyself misken?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Man, take thine old cloak about thee!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "O Bell my wife, why dost thou flyte?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Now is now, and then was then:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Seek now all the world throughout,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Thou kens not clowns from gentlemen:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They are clad in black, green, yellow and blue,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "So far above their own degree.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Once in my life I'll take a view;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For I'll have a new cloak about me.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "King Stephen was a worthy peer;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "His breeches cost him but a crown;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He held them sixpence all too dear,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Therefore he called the tailor \"lown.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He was a king and wore the crown,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And thou'se but of a low degree:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It's pride that puts this country down:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Man, take thy old cloak about thee!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Bell my wife, she loves not strife,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Yet she will lead me, if she can;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And to maintain an easy life", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "I oft must yield, though I'm good-man.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It's not for a man with a woman to threap,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Unless he first give o'er the plea:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As we began, so will we keep,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And I'll take my old cloak about me.", "") ?>
Poet("Anonymous", "16th century (?)") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>