The Riddle A Pleasant Pastoral Comedy Adapted from The Wife of Bath's Tale as it is set forth in the Works of Master Geoffrey Chaucer |
To the FIRST WOMAN.
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 | The Riddle |  |
To the FIRST WOMAN.
Mother Eve,
Thou who didst not blench at
the first question propounded in the Garden
of Paradise, which was asked by the Devil
and answered by thee; who gavest to man
of the Tree, not, as the dotage of certain
Rabbinical commentators doth allege, of
the twigs of the Hazel, but rather of the
fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and he did
eat; who, in the cool of the day, didst
hide thyself amongst the trees of the
garden;—to the memory of thy Speculative
Intrepidity, of thy Private and Familiar
Generosity, and of thy Dislike of Public
Fame, this
Riddle
, wherein the tastes of
thy numerous and worthy posterity of
daughters are investigated and unravelled,
is dedicated with remote veneration
by thy degenerate Great
Grandson,
ii
THE AUTHOR.
| The Riddle | |