The Manciple’s Tale 163-188 and the Romance of the Rose

Taak any bryd, and put it in a cage,
And do al thyn entente and thy corage
To fostre it tendrely with mete and drynke
Of alle deyntees that thou kanst bithynke,
And keep it al so clenly as thou may,
Although his cage of gold be never so gay,
Yet hath this brid, by twenty thousand foold,
Levere in a forest that is rude and coold
Goon ete wormes and swich wrecchednesse.
For evere this brid wol doon his bisynesse
To escape out of his cage, yif he may.
His libertee this brid desireth ay.

But pay good attention to Nature, for in order that you may see more clearly what wondrous power she has I can give you many examples which will show this power in detail. When the bird from the green wood is captured and put in a cage, very attentively and delicately cared for there within, you think that he sings with a gay heart as long as he lives; but he longs for the branching woods that he loved naturally, and he would want to be on the trees, no, matter how well one could feed him. He always plans and studies how to regain his free life. He tramples his food under his feet with the ardor that his heart fills him with, and he goes trailing around his cage, searching in great anguish for a way to find a window or hole through which he might fly away to the woods. In the same way, you know, all women of every condition, whether girls or ladies, have a natural inclination to seek out voluntarily the roads and paths by which they might come to freedom for they always want to gain it. (RR 13941-58)

Lat take a cat, and fostre hym wel with milk
And tendre flessh, and make his couche of silk,
And lat hym seen a mous go by the wal,
Anon he weyveth milk and flessh and al,
And every deyntee that is in that hous,
Swich appetit hath he to ete a mous.
Lo, heere hath lust his dominacioun,
And appetit fleemeth discrecioun.

Fair son, take a kitten that had never seen a rat, large or small. If it had been fed for a long time, with the most careful attention, on delicate fare, without ever seeing a rat or a mouse, and then saw a mouse come, there is nothing that could hold it back, if one let it escape, from going immediately to seize the mouse. He would leave all his other food for it, no matter how hungry he was; and no matter what trouble one went to, nothing could make peace between them. (RR 14039-52)

A she-wolf hath also a vileyns kynde.
The lewedeste wolf that she may fynde,
Or leest of reputacioun, wol she take,
In tyme whan hir lust to han a make.

She repulses the worthy man and takes the worst of the lot. She feeds her loves there and broods over them just as the she-wolf does, whose madness makes her so much worse that she always takes the worst of the wolves. (RR 7761-66)

Alle thise ensamples speke I by thise men
That been untrewe, and nothyng by wommen.