The Confutation of the Misshapen Answer to a Wicked Ballad, Part 32 – Part 34
☞The confutacion
You answere euen as you hauehave learned and fourme your argumentes, I po…e ad esse, as you are wont to do. Go… coulde make y• his bodye, wherof he saide this is my bodie, wherfore you conclude and saye that it is so in veri dede, meaneinge, I am sure (as you hauehave sayed before) his natural bodye. For in significacion we graunte and defende that it was and is his bodie, hys verie naturall bodye therefore you wyll hauehave it, and because we saye naye to that, you charge vsus wyth denieynge that Christ affirmeth, because reasone wyl not thereto agre. And then to declare your self to be none of thē that foloweth reasone in youre dooinges, you bryng fourth an vnreasonable similitud to declare your vnreasonable fayth. And you bring your similitude a minorie admaius. Moyses, you saye, was commaunded to caste downe hys rodde, and so he dyd, haueynge no worde of consecracion at all, and yet it was tourned into a Serpente. And takynge the serpente by the … the cōmaundement of god, it … to a rod agayne. This was done you say… thorough gods diuine power wtout any word …t all, Muche more able therefore is god to do the lyke with his word. And then you triūphe and saye you hauehave layed reasonne flat on the grounde. Ualiantlie fought.
But nowe after your triumphe let vsus retourne to your similitud and se how it serueth for thys purpose. Moyses thinking it far vnlike that he beinge a man without eloquence or goodly vtteraunce of speach, should any thing preuaile amonge the Egyptians whō he knew to be men of greate learneinge and wonderful artes: was by thys meanes encoraged. God cō maunded him to cast downe his rod, and incō tinent as he had so done, it was turned into a serpent. Here I my…ht demaunde, of you howe this proueth your purpose: seinge that the rod was turned into a verie serpēt in nature forme and shape, colour, quantitie and all other vtter appearaunce, and not into a serpente in the fourme of a rod, as you say of the bread. This doth your foleishnes appear so playnly y• a mā woulde wonder how it shoulde come to passe that you or anye other reasonable creature myght be so blinde in iudgemente. But considering that your reasone is in prisone and captyue to your fond opiniō, I meruayle so much the less… at your blynde ignoraun…, both in the pykeynge out of your similitudes so farre vn… mete for your purpose, and also in answering so slenderlye to thynges that you woulde seme to hauehave vtterlye confounded.
☞The ballad
If▪ I say to the, This is my head
It must so be, Before I so sayde
Or els with a lye, I hauehave the fed
…
¶The answere
Ye forsoth syr, but nowe if ye should tel
Thys to a dome beast theē durst I depose
That he coulde skantly vnderunder…ade you well
For he can nether iuge, head, eye, nor nose
But tell thys to a man, and I supose
He would thynke you to be ful dronke or mad
To point him to knowe his legge frō his hose
For he would thinke in y• he ful knowlege had
But nowe my knowlege may me here begile
For may hape, ye be a man of grauite
And therfore agayne I wyl turne my style
And wyl speake to you in thys thinge sadly
By your example ye meane ful madly
That christ pointed to his bodie natural
What scripture hauehave ye I would know gladl…
That christe ment not ther of the breade at all
Yf in the scripture that wyll not be founde
To beleue your fancie I am not bounde
Mary, your example your parte…trew to trye
Sayth if thrist ment not so, he made a false lye