The Devonshire Manuscript/All women have vertues noble & excelent

f. [18v]

1    # All women have vertues noble &amp; excelent 2    Who can per {p+} ceyve that / they do offend 3   {w+t+} {{s}8}   dayly / they serve god with good intent 4    Seldome / they dysplease there husbandes {es} to theyr lyves end 5    Always / to plese them they do intend / 6   shrewdness   neuer {u'} / man may fynd in them srewdnes 7    comonly / suche condycyons they haue more &amp; lese

8    What man can per {p+} cyve that women be evyll 9   {_e} {u'} euery man that hathe wytt. gretly wyll them prayse 10    ffor vyce : they Abhorre with {w+t+} all theyre wyll 11    prudence mer {m'} cy &amp; pacyence ./.1 they vse always 12    ffoly wrathe &amp; cruelte / they hate As men says 13    meknes meekness &amp; all vertue. they prattyse euer 14    syn. to Avoyde vertues they do procure

15    Sum men speke muche evyll be women 16    truly. the y fore they be to blame 17    nothyng. A man may chekk in them 18    haboundantly. they haue of gra {gA} ce &amp; good fame 19    Lakkyng. few vertues to A good name 20    in them fynd ye. All constantnes 21    shrewdness they lak per {p+} de. all srewdnes As I gese

fynys quod {q+d+} Richard Hattfield s

Notes & Glosses
1.   This punctuation is "high dot--forward slash--low dot."

Commentary
Attributed to Richard Hattfield in the text, this poem was entered by H2. This poem's first stanza appears in the Arundel-Harington Manuscript and in Cambridge MS Pepys 2553 as an anonymous Scottish poem and in the manuscripts of the Marquis of Bath, including Longleat 258. The version in the Devonshire Manuscript contains two additional stanzas that are unique to this manuscript. Hattfield may have composed the additional stanzas. Depending on how one reads the punctuation and line breaks in this poem, the lyric can either describe the virtue of women or their wickedness.