B. Reading Edition of the Emmanuel College
Fragment
[F2r] lenger place to my reasons, seyng that even so
as ye complayne of us, ye also complayne of your owne honours, gyvyng
occasyon that your fawtes may be manyfest to all the worlde, whiche as
yet are unknowen to moche people. This sayd by Affranio, Hortensia in
this wyse as foloweth dyde begyn.
I perceyve you, Affranio, so very cruell and unto us so coniured an hole
enmy that, yf ye were assured that trouth shold be dryven out of the
worlde and faythe loste and dystroyed and the chyrches defoyled, moche
sooner wolde ye consent to the ruyne of heven and erthe than ye wolde
absteyne your odyous purpose of saying evyll by women. Yet by as moche
as though your subtyl speche doth surmount me in dysputacion, your
evydent coleryke envy is sufficient to abate the weyght of your wordes
and to make them lyght and without credence. And yet if that women durst
deny without shame that men are the purchasers in lovyng, I am sure that
your secrete conscyence within you reproveth you and maketh you to
thynke all the contrary, admonysshing you of the manyfolde gracious
requestes that ye can make that, whyther we wyll or not, it behoveth us
to yelde as overcome. Wherfore yf in flateryng us thus ye can fynde
wordes to deceyve us, it is no wonder yf in dyspreysynge us ye be
inventyf by your reasons for to confounde us. But for all that these
your audacyous facyons be not gretely to be alowed, in that our ferefull
dulnesse and your extreme knowlege doth make a lesyng seme
to be true. And yet though I dyde nothyng but holde my peas, without
doubt symplenesse, whiche is subgect to many wronges and outra [F2
v] ge, oughte to be worthy of supportacion, for
bycause that who that hath leest knowlege and understandyng sholde take
councell of them that be more dyscrete and prudent. The whiche we do
whan we, ygnourauntly faylyng, beleve the councell of you that ought to
be the wysest, in suche wise that ye of all the ygnoraunt errour be unto
them the cause, which as dishonest you do disdayne. By this reason unto
you of whome all the evyll procedeth double blame ought to be imposed,
and natwithstandynge your counsell, yet happeneth it often unto them
that insueth it, that before the parfyte agrement, they fele a
mervaylous difference betwene the reason and the affeccyon. But for what
purpose shuld it serve me to brynge forth reasons and to argue agaynst
them that for them and in theyr favoure hathe approved and made the
lawes and all the ordynaunces? What constitucyon may I allege unto
unreasonable persons whiche wyll nat receyve reason, and the whiche hath
made the statutes unto their owne advauntage, contrarye unto us, theyr
mortall enemyes? And therfore nat so as ye ought you wold have it, but
even so as it semeth best unto youre pleasure, with th’infamye of your
fautes, you do us blame and sclaunder, and yet more wolde ye do havynge
none that wolde withsaye you, inasmoche as we nat beynge of auctoryte to
ordayne nor cannat alege the lawe accordyng unto our ryght, nor we have
none that in our faver wyll wryte, but you that have the penne in the
hande, as it pleaseth you, so do you dispose and wryte. Wherfore who
that suffereth, nat beynge of power to do any other thing than to
suffre, is more rather strengthed than vaynquesshed, and it foloweth nat
for all that, that in the malyce of youre ...
