SI QUIS ARCTURI SIDERA. — Metrum 5
"Whoso that ne knowe nat the sterres of Arctour, ytorned
neyghe to the sovereyne centre or poynt (that is to seyn, ytorned
neyghe to the sovereyne pool of the firmament), and wot nat why
the sterre Boetes passeth or gadreth his waynes and drencheth his
late flaumbes in the see; and whi that Boetes, the sterre,
unfooldeth hise overswifte arysynges, thanne schal he wondryn of
the lawe of the heie eyr. And eek yif that he ne knowe nat why
that the hornes of the fulle mone waxen pale and infect by
bowndes of the derk nyght, and how the mone derk and confus
discovereth the sterres that sche hadde covered by hir clere
vysage. The comune errour moeveth folk, and [the Coribantes maken
hir tabours sounen and maken] weery hir basyns of bras by thikke
strokes. (That is to seyn, that ther is
a maner
peple that hyghte Coribantes, that wenen that whan the mone is
in the eclips that it be enchaunted, and therfore for to rescowe
the mone thei betyn hir basyns with thikke strokes.) Ne no
man ne wondreth
whanne the blastes of the wynd Chorus beten the strondes of the
see by quakynge floodes; ne no man ne wondrith whan the weighte
of the snowh, ihardid by the cold, is resolvyd by the brennynge
hete of Phebus, the sonne; for her seen men redily the causes.
But [ther] the causes yhidd (that is to
seyn, in
hevene) trowblen the brestes of men. The moevable peple is
astoned of alle thinges that comen seelde and sodeynly in our
age; but yif the trubly errour of our ignoraunce departed fro us,
so that we wisten the causes why that swiche thinges bytyden,
certes thei scholde cesen to seme wondres."
