But nowe a dayes the contrary is used:
Το wynne the mony theyr studyes be all set.
The commen profyt is often refused,
For well is he that may the money get
From his neyghbour wythout any let.
They thynke nothynge they shall from it pas,
Whan all that is shall be tourned to was.
The bryttel fleshe, nourisher of vyces,
Under the shadowe of evyll slogardy,
Must need haunte the carnall delices;
Whan that the brayne, by corrupt glotony,
Up so downe is tourned than contrary.
Frayle is the bodye to grete unhappynes,
Whan that the head is full of dronkennes.
So doo they now; for they nothyng prepence
Howe cruell deth doth them sore ensue.
They are so blynded in worldly necligence,
That to theyr merite they wyll nothyng renewe
The seven scyences, theyr slouth to eschewe;
To an others profyt they take now no keepe,
But to theyr owne, for to eate, drynke, and sleepe.
And all thys dame Gramer told me every dele,
To whom I herkened wyth all my diligence;
And after thys she taught me ryght well
Fyrst my Donet and then my accidence.
I set my mynde wyth percyng influence
To lerne her scyence, the fyrst famous arte,
Eschewyng ydlenes and layeng all aparte.
Madame, quod I, for as much as there be
Eight partes of speche, I would knowe ryght fayne,
What a noune substantive is in hys degre,
And wherefore it is so called certayne?
To whom she answered ryght gentely agayne,
Sayeng alway that a nowne substantyve
Might stand wythout helpe of an adjectyve.
The Latyn worde whyche that is referred
Unto a thynge whych is subtancyall,
For a nowne substantyve is wel averred,
And wyth a gender is declynall;
So all the eyght partes in generall
Are Laten wordes, annexed properly
To every speche, for to speke formally.
And gramer is the fyrst foundement
Of every science to have construccyon:
Who knewe gramer wythout impediment
Shoulde perfytely have intelleccion
Of a lytterall cense and moralyzacion.
To construe every thynge ententifly,
The worde is gramer wel and ordinatly.
By worde the world was made orygynally,
The hye Kynge sayde, it was made incontinent;
He dyd commaunde, al was made shortly.
To the world the worde is sentencious judgemente.
I marked well dame Gramers sentement,
And of her than I dyd take my lycence,
Goynge to Logyke wyth all my dylygence.
HOW HE WAS RECEYVED OF LOGYKE.
So up I went unto a chambre bryghte,
Where was wonte to be a ryght fayre lady,
Before whome than, it was my
hole delyght,
I kneeled adowne ful well and mekely,
Besechynge her to enstructe me shortely
In her noble science, which is expedient
For man to knowe in many an argument.
You shall, quod she, my scyence wel lerne,
In tyme and space, to your gret utilite;
So that in lokynge you shal than decerne
A frende from fo, and good from iniquyte:
Ryght from wronge ye shall know in certainte.
My scyence is all the yll to eschewe,
And for to knowe the false from the trewe.
Who wyll take payne to folowe the trace,
In this wrecched world, of trouth and ryghtwysenes,
In heven above he shal have dwellynge place.
And who that walketh the waye of derkenes,
Spendyng his tyme in worldly wretchednes,
Amyddes the erth, in hel most horrible,
He shall have payne nothyng extinguyssible.
So by logyke is good perceyveraunce
To devyde the good and the evyll asondre:
It is alwaye at mannes pleasaunce
To take the good and caste the evyll under.
If God made hell, it is thereof no wonder,
For to punyshe man that hadde intelligence,
To knowe goode from yll by trewe experience.
Logyke alwaye doth make probacion,
Provyng the pro well from the contrary,
In sondry wyse by argumentacion,
Grounded on reason well and wonderly.
Who understod all Logyke truely,
Nothynge by reason myght be in pledynge,
But he the trouth should have in knowlegyng.
Her wyse doctryne I marked in memory,
And toke my leve of her hye person,
Because that I myght no lenger tary.
The yere was spent, and so ferre than gon,
And of my lady yet syght had I none,
Whych was abydyng in the toure of Musyke:
Wherfore anone I went to Rethoryke.
HOW HE WAS RECEYVED OF RETHORYKE, AND WHAT
RETHORYKE IS.
THAN above Logyke up we went a stayre,
Into a chambre gayly glorified,
Strowed wyth floures of all goodly ayre;
Where sate a lady gretly magnified,
And her true vesture clerely purified,
And over her head, that was bryght and shene,
She had a garlande of the laurell grene.
Her goodly chambre was set all about
With depured myrrours of speculacion;
The fragraunt fumes dyd well encense out
All misty vapours of perturbacion.
More lyker was her habitacyon
Unto a place which is celestiall,
Than to a certayne mancion fatall.
Before whom, than, I dyd knele adowne,
Sayeng: O sterre of famous eloquence,
O gylted goddesse of hyghe renowne,
Enspyred wyth the hevenly influence
Of the doulcet well of complacence,
Upon my mynd, wyth dewe aromatyke,
Distyll adowne thy lusty rethoryke.
|