The language I have learnt these forty years,
My native English, now I must forgo;
And now read more

The language I have learnt these forty years,
My native English, now I must forgo;
And now my tongue's use is to me no more
Than an unstringed viol or a harp,
Or like a cunning instrument cased up
Or, being open, put into his hands
That knows no touch to tune the harmony.

You play the spaniel,
And think with wagging of your tongue to win me.

You play the spaniel,
And think with wagging of your tongue to win me.

My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which
I have made touching the king: read more

My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which
I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready
writer.

Marry, you are the wiser man; for many a man's tongue shakes out
his master's undoing.

Marry, you are the wiser man; for many a man's tongue shakes out
his master's undoing.

Is there a tongue like Delia's o'er her cup,
That runs for ages without winding up?

Is there a tongue like Delia's o'er her cup,
That runs for ages without winding up?

For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of
things in the sea, is tamed, read more

For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of
things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of
deadly poison.

Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under
his tongue;
Though he spare it, read more

Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under
his tongue;
Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within
his mouth:
Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps
within him.

The windy satisfaction of the tongue.

The windy satisfaction of the tongue.

The first vertue, sone, if thou wilt lerne,
Is to restreyne and kepen wel thy tonge.

The first vertue, sone, if thou wilt lerne,
Is to restreyne and kepen wel thy tonge.