Lydgate's Reson and Sensuallyte Edited from the Fairfax MS. 16 (Bodleian) and the additional MS. 29,729 (Brit. Mus.) by Ernst Sieper |
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Now speketh the auctour of the two vertues that nature hath yive to man. |
 | Lydgate's Reson and Sensuallyte |  |
Now speketh the auctour of the two vertues that nature hath yive to man.
“God the which of hys goodnesse,As to forne y dyd expresse,
As he that bothe may and kan,
Hath yove and graunted vnto man
Many vertu in substaunce,
Throgh hys myghty purveyaunce,
Twoo maners of knowlychynge,
As he that is most souereyn kynge,
And thys myghty lorde also
Hath graunted hym vertues two,
That ben in pris of gret noblesse,
Which conveye him and eke dresse
And conduyte him, out of drede,
In euery thing, whan he hath nede.
The first, without[e] werre or stryf,
Called the vertu sensytif,
By which he feleth and doth knowe
Thinges, bothen high and lowe,
Which to forn him be present,
Conceyvynge in hys entent
Foreyn thinges accidental:
I mene thus, in special,
As is recorded in scriptures,
As ben colours and figures
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Hoot and colde in storm and shours,
And, shortly also to compyle,
Other formes that be sotyle,
Naturely, as hyt ys dywe,
Of hys kynde to pursywe
Thinges that be to his plesaunce,
And eschewe hem that do greuaunce,
And flen fro hem that ben odible;
Whiche vertu namyd ys sensible,
And is, as y reherse kan,
Yove to beste and eke to man,
But vn-to man him to governe
More perfytly, who kan discerne.
The tother vertu, out of drede,
Myn ovne frende, who taketh hede,
Ys called, in conclusion,
Vnderstondyng and reson,
By whiche of ryght, with-out[e] shame,
Of a man he bereth the name,
And throgh clere intelligence
Fro bestes bereth the difference,
And of nature ys resemblable
To goddys that be pardurable;
Knowynge throgh hys dignite
Many thinges that be secre;
Wher sensityf, this is certeyn,
Is in knowynge but foreyn,
As of the barke which is withoute
For-derked with a maner doute,
Of thinges which by accident
Ne ben but out-warde (but) apparent,
And ne kan no ferther wynne
To know the prevy pithe withynne;
Wher as man, in sentence,
By reson hath intelligence
To make hys wytt to enclyne,
To knowe thinges that be dyvyne,
Lastyng and perpetuel,
Hevenly and espirituel,
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And of euery element,
Whos wyt ys so clere y-founde,
So perfyt pleynly and profounde,
That he perceth erthe and hevene
And fer above the sterris sevene,
So that he hath of euery thing
Verray perfyt knowlechyng
In his secret ynwarde syght,
So that this vertu to no wyght,
Of reson and entendement,
I mene as in this lyve present,
Is yiven oonly but to man.
And as me semeth trewly than,
He sholde, who so kan discerne,
Oonly by reson him governe,
Lyst that he, whiche wer grete shame,
Be depryved of hys name.
| Lydgate's Reson and Sensuallyte | |