The Minor Poems of John Lydgate :: :: University of Virginia Library

Þer beoþe foure thinges þat makeþ man a fool.
Honnour first puteþe him in oultrage
And aldernexst solytarye and sool.
Þe secound is vnweldy crooked aage,
Wymmen also bring men in dotage,
And mighty wyne in many dyuers wyse
Distempren folk wheche beon holden wyse.

yit of þe same.

Þer beon foure thinges causing gret folye.
Honnour first and vnweldy aage;
Wymmen and wyne, I dare eeke specefye,
Make wyse men fallen in dotage
Wherfore, by counseyle of phylosofres saage,
In gret honnour, lerne þis of me,
With þyne estate haue humylytee.

[_]

The second part of this poem is in Latin and has thus been omitted.

709

III. Another Version of the Four Things.

[_]

[MS. Bodl. Fairfax 16, leaf 195.]

Quatuor infatuant, honor, etas, femina, vinum.

Wurship, women, wyne, vnweldy age
Maken men to fonne for lakke of ther resoun;
Elde causeth dulnesse and dotage;
Worship causeth chaunge of condicioun;
Excesse of wyne blyndeth discrecioun;
And bookes alle, that poetes wroot and radde,
Seyn women moste maken men to madde.

[Ye wilbe shent, Dane Iohan Lidegate for your triew seyeng.]

IV. On Worldly Worship.

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[MS. B.M. Adds. 34360, leaf 77.]

Worldly worship is ioye transitory,
Vnsure assuraunce, highnes declinable,
Vaynegloryous gladnes, flatery proditory,
Disceyt disceyvous ful dissymulable,
To mannys soule most preiudiciable,
In whiche who hym most surely assurith
In most vnsuerte perilously endurith.

Verbum Magistri I. Lidgate. quasi honor mundi.

710

V. Balade de Bone Counseyle.

[_]

[MS. Trin. Col. Camb., R. 3. 20, p 48.]

Yif hit befalle, þat God þee list visyte
With any tourment or aduersytee,
Thank first þe Lord; and, þy-self to qwyte,
Vpon souffraunce and humylytee
Founde þou þy qwarell, whateuer þat it be.
Make þy defence,—and þou shalt haue no losse—
Þe remembraunce of Cryst and of His Crosse.