An answer to Q's question of four years ago. The text that occurs on the famous last page of Harley MS 6580, in 17th-century hand, is:

A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds; a man of deeds and not of words is like a prive full of turds

This indicates to me that this text is not, as Halliwell thought, the "genuine" form of the song, but perhaps the original form of the related, and earlier, proverb. Its sententious character is, to my ear, entirely different from the crazy logic and imagery of the later song.