Here’s a
link to another (Ten Commandments in verse) in Middle English from the 14th century, edited by George Shuffelton.
I am not all that familiar with Middle English but, thanks to Mr. Shuffelton’s notes, if translated into a more modern English, though some of the rhyme is lost, it might go something like this:
Harken, sirs, that stand about:
I will you tell with good intent,
How ye to God should kneel and obey,
If you will keep his commandment.
Thou shall love God with heart entire,
With all thy soul and with all thy might.
Other god in no manner
Thou shall not have by day nor night.
Thy God’s name in vain
Thou shall not take, for good or bad;
Dismember him not that on the cross
For thee was made full black and blue.
Thy holy days keep well also;
From worldly works thou take thy rest.
All thy household the same shall do,
Both wife and child, servant and beast.
Thy father and mother thou shall honor,
Not only with thy reverence:
In all their need be their succor,
And keep always God’s obedience.
Of mankind thou shall not slay,
Nor harm with word nor will nor deed.
Nor no man’s good thou take away,
If thou may help them at their need.
Thy wife thou may in time well take,
But none other lawfully.
Lechery and sinful lust thou forsake,
And dread always God wherever thou be.
Be thou no thief nor thief’s companion,
Nor nothing gain through treachery.
Usury nor simony come thou not near,
But conscience clear keep always truly.
Thou shall in word be true also,
And witness false shall thou none bear.
No lie thou make for friend nor foe,
Lest thou thy soul full greatly damage.
Thy neighbor’s wife thou naught desire,
Nor woman none through sin covet;
But as Holy Church wants it to be,
Right so thy purpose look thou set.
House nor land nor other thing
Thou shall not covet wrongfully;
But keep well always God’s bidding,
And Christian faith believe steadfastly.
These be the commandments ten
That be writ in this scripture,
That God gave to Moses
(Them to keep, look ye to it)
In two tablets of stone right
To help mankind out of sin,
Written with the hand of God almighty,
To teach mankind this world to gain.
All them that these commandments keep,
In heaven with God shall ever dwell;
If that they will from sin them keep,
They shall be brighter than the sun.
