The Minor Poems of John Lydgate edited from all available mss. with an attempt to establish The Lydgate Canon: By Henry Noble MacCracken |
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 | The Minor Poems of John Lydgate |  |
FABLE IV. The Tale of þe Hownde and þe Shepe groundyd ayen periure & false wytnes founde by Isopus.
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T]he world made diuerse by froward folkis tweyne,By a false iorrour and a false wytnesse,
Horryble monstres enbrasyd in a cheyne
Trouþe forto assayle & greuosly to oppresse,
Whyche forto clypse þe lyght of ryghtwysnesse
Be nat aferde with hande put forþe toforn
Vppon a boke falsely to be forsworn!
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With cancryd lyppes & with tung[e] doubleTwene ryght & wrong forþe þey woll procede,
585
To be forsworn on a boke for mede,
Of conscience þey take so lytell hede;
Whyche þyng to preue by exsamples full notable
Of olde Isopus whylom wrote þys fable.
78
Hauyng thys conceyte, set hit for a grounde;By maner lyknes rehersyng in sentence,
He wrete þer was whylom a gret hounde,
Whyche toke a quarell by hatefull violence
Agayns a shepe simple of innocence,
Whyche stood alone voyde of all refuge,
Constreynyd by force to apere afore a iuge.
79
Agenst the sheepe, quakyng in his drede,Withouten support of any proctour,
This ravenous hound thus wrongely gan procede,
His tale aforsyng like a false iurrour:
How he had lent the sheepe, his neygh[e]bour,
A large lofe, his hunger to releve,
As he was redy by lawe for to preve.
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And his quarel more to fortefye,The sely shepe to bryng[en] in distresse,
He affermed it, and falsly did lye,
Towchyng his loff, that he of kyndenesse
Toke it the sheepe, whan he stoode in distresse
Of mortal hunger, whan plente dide faile,
Likly to dye for lak of vitaile.
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Straitly requyreng the iuge in this matiereTo yeve hym audience and to do hym right,
By apparence shewyng ful sad chiere,
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The sely sheepe, astonyed in his sight,
Stoode abasshed ful like an innocence;
To help hym-self cowde fynd[e] no diffence.
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Towchyng the loff requyred by the hound,With humble chiere the sheepe did it deny,
Sothly affermyng, levyng on this ground,
Vnto his day he neuer on no party
No loff receyved, and loth he was to ly,
Prayeng the iuge, that he myght frely gon,
For other aunswer plainly cowde he none.
83
Quod the iuge: “The lawe thow must abide,Til ther be yoven sentence of iugement;
I may no favour do to nowther side,
But atwene both stande indifferent,
As rightful iuge of hert and hole intent,
Til I may se by lawe to make me strong,
Whiche of the partyes have right or wrong.”
84
The lawe, first founde on a triew[e] grounde,May nat declyne from his stabilnesse.
The iuge, abraidyng, axed of the hound,
“Hastow,” quod he, “record or witnesse
This douteful cause to set in sikernesse,
For to stynt[en] al contrauersy
Be triewe report of suche as wil nat ly?”
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The hound answerd: “My cause is iust and triewe,And my-self in lawe here for to aquyte,
I have brought two, that the couenant knewe,
The faithful wolf, in trowth that doth delite,
And with hym comyth the gentil foule, the kyte,
Chose for the nones by report of theyr names,
As folke wele knowe, that dredith sclaundre and shames.
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“To offende trewth the wolf doth gretly drede,He is so stidefast and triew of his nature;
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He had lever grete hunger to endure,
Lovyng no raveyn vnto his pasture,
Thanne take a chykken, by record of writyng,
To his repast, or any goselyng.”
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The hound, to acomplissh thend of his entent,Agayn the sheepe to susteyne his partye
Witnesse tweyne brought in iugement,
The wolf, the puttok that were ful loth to ly;
And for to stynte the contrauersy
Of this matier, they vpon hem toke
To lay theyr hondis boldly vpon a booke.
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Mote they be hanged on high by the halse,Be-cawse they swore wetyngly vntriewe!
The hound wele wiste his [com]playnt was false,
The sheepe condempned, tristy and pale of hewe,
The twey witnesse, albe it they ne knewe
The matier false, rehersed here to-forn,
Yit drad they nat falsely to be forsworn.
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Thus al thre were false by oon assent,The hound, the wolf, and the cursid kyte,
The sheepe, allas, though he were innocent,
By doome compelled, as Isopos doth write,
To pay the loff, his dettis to acquyte,
Thus constrayned, the lawe dide hym compelle,
At grete myschief his wynter flees to selle.
90
The ram of Colchos bare a flees of gold,Whiche was conquered manly by Iason;
But this sheepe, whan he his flees hath sold,
With cold constrayned, wynter cam vpon,
Deyd at myschief, socour had he none;
Be-twene the wolf and the puttok that nought were lost in veyne,
As myn auctour sayth, parted was the kareyne.
588
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The sheepe thus deyd, his body al to-rent,The ravenous wolf the kareyne did assaile;
The hound recouered his part by iugement;
The false kyte cast hym nat to faile,
To have a repast vpon his adventaile.
Thus in this world by extorcion veriliche
Poore folk be devoured alwey by the riche.
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By examples, in stwes long and large,Of grete fissh devoured bien the smale.
Hardy is the bote that stryvith agenst the barge.
To ouerpresse a pore man the riche set no tale.
A cloth sakke stuffid, shame it is to pike a male.
What nedith the see to borwe of smale rivers,
Or a grete barne to borow of strait garners?
93
Al suche outrages and inconveniencesTakith origynal of pillage and ravyne;
An extorcioner, to amend his expences,
Can make the poore to bowe and declyne;
Lierne this prouerbe, founde of old doctryne,
“Suche as have no conscience of no maner wronges,
Of other mennys ledir can kut ful large thonges.”
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The shepe is ded, the puttok hath his part,Ioynt from ioynt the wolf hath rent a-sunder,
The hound by dome recouered hath his part,
Suche false practik is vsed here and yonder:
The fiebler playneth, and that is litel wonder.
Al suche raveyne on poraile to theyr distresse
Beganne at false iurrours and at false witnesse.
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To a false witnesse, record in Salamon,Prouerbiorum, .iij. thynges bien compared
A shrew[e]d dart, an hoked arow is oon,
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Yit vnder trety somtyme they be spared;
But a false witnesse hath this avauntage
With mowth infect alwey to do damage.
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Agayne sharpe quarels helpith a pavice,Agayne arowes may be made defence,
And though a swerd be riche and of grete price,
Somtyme he sparith for to do offence;
But a false iurrour, by mortal violence,
Nat only causith men her bloode to shede,
But makith hem lese theyr lyf and goode for meede.”
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Ageyne verray poyson ordeyned is triacle,As auctours sayne, by craft of medicyne;
But ageyn a iurrour there were no bettir obstacle
Than to geld hym yong, hys venym to declyne,
That no false braunche myght spryng of his lyne,
For the nombre suffisith only of ij. or iij.
To enfecte a shyre or a grete contre.
98
It is remembred by record of auctours,As writeth Holcot vpon sapience,
How ther folwith .iij. incomoditees
Of false forsweryng ageyn conscience:
First, rehersith this auctour in sentence,
Vpon a booke whan a false iurrour
Forswerith hym-self, he is to God a traytour.
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There-vpon, this matier to conclude,That false forsweryng is to God treason,
First he makith this simylitude:
That if a man withyn a regioun
Wold countrefete, by false collusioun,
The kynges seale, the people to begile,
What were he worthy to deye by civile?
590
100
And semblaly, who can considre wele,The name of God, ordeyned to impresse,
Is the signacle of the celestial seale,
Yoven to al Cristen of trowth to bere witnesse,
And who that euer mysvsith it in falsenesse,
Holcot affermyth it, for short conclusioun,
That he to God doth opinly treason.
101
Who with his hand the Holy Booke doth towche,And to record takith Cristes name,
On Holy Writ, I dare me wele avowche,
If he swere falsely, gretely is to blame,
Hande of periurye to his eternal shame;
God and His werkis he doth vtterly forsake,
And to the fiend for euer he doth hym take.
102
In His preceptis, whiche that be devyne,God bad man bere no false witnesse,
And of oure faith to folwe the doctryne.
Periury is enemy to al rightwisnesse;
What man for lucre or for [gret] richesse
Wilbe forsworn, by sentence of clerkis,
Falsly forsakith God and al His werkis.
103
Who swerith by God, his hand leyd on a booke,He causith God, auctours doth expresse,
Vnto the record of the charge he toke,
In right or wronge, in trowth or in falsenesse,
To preve his oth Hym takith to wittnesse:
If his causyng to make his party strong,
Falsly concludith, he doth to God grete wrong.
104
Of periurye the trespas is ful huge,Wonder perilous in Oure Lordis sight,
For the iurrours first disseyvith the iuge,
Causith his neyghburgh for to lese his right,
His conscience hurt, of grace blent the light,
591
Lyke to be dampned, but he amendis make.
105
Isopos iurrours doth discryve,Callith theym Arpies, houndes infernal,
With ravenous feete, wynged to flee blyve,
Like to Carberos, that receyvith al,
Gredy Tantalus, whos hunger is nat smal;
And be suche peple, who that takith kepe,
As sayth my[n] auctour, devoured was the shepe.
106
Thus false forsweryng, frawde, and extorcioun,With false witnesse afore God be dampnable,
But if they make diew satisfaccioun,
Thynges to restore, wherof they bien culpable;
And for suche folkes Isopos wrote this fable,
To this intent, that I have told aforn,
What peril it is falsly to be forsworn.
107
Late al false iurrours have this in mynde,Remembre at shyres and at cessions:
Who is forsworn, settith God behynde,
And puttith the fiend in ful possessioun
Of soule and body, vnder his dampcioun,
Toforn his deth, but if he have repentaunce,
Or make restitucioun, or do som penaunce.
Here endith the .iij. fable of Isopos, what perel it is to be forsworn wetyngly, as was the wolf and the kyte for synguler love, that they hadde to the hounde, and to have the sheepe ded and slayn, as iurrours dampne þe triewe and save the false.
592
| The Minor Poems of John Lydgate | |