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

The tale is this, convynable and mete,
The moralite remembrid in sentence;
First in Cancro, whan Phebus takith his hete,
Inportable ful ofte is his fervence,
That som while the persynge violence
Of his beames, oft or men take heede,
The soyle consumyth of herbe, grayne, and seede.

124

In somer season whan Phebus shadde his streames,
The orasont clierly to enlumyne,
It so byfelle, that with his fervent beames
On Tellus lordship brent vp braunche and vyne,
Til a false lust his corage dide inclyne,
Causyng hym to fal in dotage,
To wedde a wif, born of hie parage.

125

But for to procede for the comowne availe,
He hath his lettres and [his] brief[e]s sent
To goddis, goddessis, beyng of his counsaile,
Of erthe, of see, and of the firmament,
And Saturne ther to be present,
With Parchas sustren, that in the nombre thre
Ben callid of poetis spynners of destyne.

126

In this matier was grete contrauersye
Atwene the goddes and goddesses of grete prise,
Towchyng this mariage and this straunge ally,
Whether they shal holde to shewe theyr devise;
Til it fel, that a philosophre wise,
Called Theofrast, a man ronne ferre in age,
Gaf sentence as towchyng this mariage.

127

Ioyned with hym to gyve iugement
Of this alliaunce in especial,

597

Were assigned by al the hole perlement,
The Romayn poete Cocus Marcial,
Cloto, Lachesis, that spynne the threde smal,
And Antropos, withouten difference,
To gyve hereon a diffinytif sentence.

128

Among these owmperis was werre none, ne stryf,
But concludyd to accord, al beyng of assent,
That, if so be that Phebus take a wyf,
And procreacioun be vnto hym sent,
By his lynage therth[e] shuld be brent;
This is to sayne, that no erthely creature
Hete of ij. sunnes may nowhile endure.

129

Thus concludyng, it doth inow suffice,
Vnto heven oo sunne to shyne bright,
Twey sunnes were like in many wise,
To brenne al the erth, by fervence of theyr myght;
And, semblaly, who-so looke aright,
O myghti tiraunt suffisith in a shyre
Al the contrey for to sette a-fuyre.

130

If he have eyres for to succede,
Folowe theyr fader in successioun,
By tirauntry, than are they more to drede
In theyr ravyne and extorcioun,
By theyr counseil and false convencioun;
For multitude of robbers, where they gon,
Doth more damage, sothly, than doth oon.

131

Men may at the ie se a pref
Of this matere, old and yong of age,
Lasse is to drede the malice of oo thief,
So sayne merchauntis, ridyng in theyr viage,
But wher many on awaytith on the passage,
Ther standith the parell, as it is often sene,
By whiche example ye wote what I mene.

598

132

Oon ageyn oon may make resistence,
Oon ageyn many, the conquest is vnkowth;
Nombre of tirauntis thurgh theyr violence
Pursweth the pore, both est and sowth;
Gredy wolfis, that comyn with open mowth,
Vpon a folde theyr nature can declare
By experience, whether they wil hurt or spare.

133

By example of Phebus, as to-fore is previd
By an vnkowth moral for liknes,
Whervpon this fable was contryved
By Isopos of grete advisenesse,
Plainly to shewe and opinly to expresse,
If oo tiraunt the people may constrayne,
Than the malice is worse and damagith more of twayne.

Here endith the .vj. fable of Isopos, disclosyng what hurt or hyndryng tirauntis done, where they may have power.