THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY GIRL

Men byhove to take hede of maydens; for they ben hote and tendre of complexion, smale, pliaunt and fayre of disposicion of body: shamfaste, ferdefull, and mery touchynge the affeccion of the mynde. Touchynge outwarde disposicion they be well nurtured, demure and softe of speche, and well ware of what they say: and delycate in theyr apparell.… Their hondes and the uttermeste party of their membres ben ful subtyll and plyaunt, theyr voyce small, theyr speche easy and shorte; lyght in goynge, and shorte steppes, and lyght wit and heed; they ben sone angry, and they ben mercyable and envyous, bytter, gylefull, able to lerne.…And, for a woman is more meker than a man, she wepeth soner. And is more envyousse, and more laughinge, and lovinge, and the malice of the soule is more in a woman than in a man. And she is of feble kinde, and she makith more lesynges, and is more shamefaste and more slowe in werkynge and in mevynge, than is a man, as sayth Aristotle lib. 8.