Excerpt
Some do endyte / vpon good moralyte
Of chyualrous actes / done in antyquyte
Whose fables and storyes ben pastymes pleasaunt
To lordes and ladyes / as is theyr lykynge
Dyuers to moralyte / ben oft attendaunt
And many delyte to rede of louynge
Youth loueth aduenture / pleasure and lykynge
Aege foloweth polycy / sadnesse and prudence
Thus they do dyffre / eche in experyence
I lytell or nought / experte in this scyence
Compyle suche bokes / to deuoyde ydlenes
Besechynge the reders / with all my delygence
Where as I offende / for to correct doubtles
Submyttynge me to theyr grete gentylnes
As none hystoryagraffe / nor poete laureate
But gladly wolde folowe / the makynge of Lydgate
Fyrst noble Gower / moralytees dyde endyte
And after hym Cauncers / grete bokes delectable
Lyke a good phylozophre / meruaylously dyde wryte
After them Lydgate / the monke commendable
Made many wonderfull bokes moche profytable
But syth the are deed / & theyr bodyes layde in chest
I pray to god to gyue theyr soules good rest
¶ Finis prohemii.
Whan fayre was phebus / wt his bemes bryght
Amyddes of gemyny / aloft the fyrmament
Without blacke cloudes / castynge his pured lyght
With sorowe opprest / and grete incombrement
Remembrynge well / my lady excellent
Saynge o fortune helpe me to preuayle
For thou knowest all my paynfull trauayle
I went than musynge / in a medowe grene
Myselfe alone / amonge the floures in dede
With god aboue / the futertens is sene
To god I sayd / thou mayst my mater spede
And me rewarde / accordynge to my mede
Thou knowest the trouthe / I am to the true
Whan that thou lyst / thou mayst them all subdue
Who dyde preserue the yonge edyppus
Whiche sholde haue be slayne by calculacyon
To deuoyde grete thynges / the story sheweth vs
That were to come / by true reuelacyon
Takynge after theyr hole operacyon
In this edyppus / accordynge to affecte
Theyr cursed calkynge / holly to abiecte
Who dyde preserue / Ionas and moyses
Who dyde preserue yet many other mo
As the byble maketh mencyon doubles
Who dyde kepe Charles frome his euyll fo
Who was he / that euer coude do so
But god alone / than in lyke wyse maye he
Kepe me full sure / frome all inyquyte
Thus as I called to my remembraunce
Suche trewe examples / I tenderly dyde wepe
Remembrynge well / goddes hyghe ordynaũce
Syghynge full oft / with inwarde teres depe
Tyll at the last / I fell in to a slepe
And in this slepe / me thought I dyde repayre
My selfe alone / in to a garden fayre
This goodly gardyn / I dyde well beholde
Where I sawe a place / ryght gaye and gloryous
With golden turrettes / paynted many afolde
Lyke a place of pleasure moste solacyous
The wyndowes glased / with crystall precyous
The golden fanes / with wynde and melody
By dulcet sounde / and meruaylous armony
The knottes flagraunt / with aromatyke odoure
With goodly sprynges / of meruaylous mountaynes
I dyde than tast / the redolent lycoure
Moost clere and swete / of the goodly vaynes
Whiche dyde me ease / somwhat of my paynes
Tyll to me came / a lady of goodly age
Apareyled sadly / and demure of vysage
To me she sayd / me thynke ye are not well
ye haue caught colde / and do lyue in care
Tell me your mynde / now shortly euerydele
To layne the trouthe / I charge you to beware
I shall for you / a remedy prepare
Dyspeyre you not / for no thynge that is past
Tell me your mynde / and be nought agast
Alas madame / vnto her than I sayd
It is no wonder / of myne inwarde payne
yf that my herte be meruayllously dysmayde
My trouthe and loue / therof is cause certayne
Dyuers yeres ago / I dyde in mynde retayne
A lady yonge / a lady fayre of syght
Good // wyse / and goodly / an holsome sterre of lyght
I durst not speke vnto her of my loue
Yet vnder coloure I dyuers bokes dyde make
Full pryuely / to come to my aboue
Thus many nyghtes / I watched for her sake
To her and to hers / my trouthe well to take
Without ony spotte / of ony maner yll
God knoweth all myn herte / my mynde & my wyll
The hygh dame nature / by her grete myght & power
Man / beest / and foule / in euery degre
Fro whens they came at euery maner houre
Dooth trye the trouthe / without duplycyte
For euery thynge must shewe the properte
Gentyll vngentyll / dame nature so well tryet
That all persones it openly espyeth
The lorde and knyght / delyteth for to here
Cronycles and storyes / of noble chyualry
The gentyll man gentylnes / for his passe tyme dere
The man of lawe / to here lawe truely
The yeman delyteth to talke of yomanry
The ploman his londe for to ere and sowe
Thus nature werketh / in hye degre and lowe
For yf there were one of the gentyll blode
Conuayde to yomanry for nourysshement
Dyscrecyon comen he sholde chaunge his mode
Though he knewe not / his parentes verament
Yet nature wolde werke / so by entendyment
That he sholde folowe / the condycyons doubtles
Of his true blode / by outwarde gentylnes
In all this worlde / ben but thynges twayne
As loue and hate / the trouth for to tell
And yf I sholde hate my lady certayne
Than worthy I were / to dye of deth cruell
Seynge all ladyes / that she doth excell
In beaute / grace / prudence and mekenes
What man on lyue / can more in one expres
yf she with me sholde take dyspleasure
Whiche loueth her by honoures desyre
What sholde she do / with suceh a creature
That hateth her / by inwarde fraude and yre
I yet a louer / do not so atyre
My fayth and hope / I put in her grace
Releace to graunt me / by good tyme and space
Thretened with sorowe / of may paynes grete
Thre yeres ago my ryght hande I dyde bynde
Fro my browes for fere / ye dropes doune dyde sweet
God knoweth all it was nothynge my mynde
Vnto no persone / I durst my her to vntwynde
yet the trouthe knowynge / the good gretest P
Maye me release / of all my / p / p / p / thre
Now ryght fayre lady / so sadde and demure
My mynde ye knowe / in euery maner thynge
I trust for trouthe / ye wyll not me dyscure
Sythes I haue shewed you without lesynge
At your request / the cause of my mournynge
Whiche abyde in sorowe / in my remembraunce
Without good conforte / saufe of esperaunce
Fayre sone sayd she / sythens I knowe your thought
your worde and dede / and here to be one
Dyspayre you not / for it auayleth nought
Ioye cometh after / whan the payne is gone
Conforte yourselfe / and muse not so alone
Doubt ye no thynge / but god wyll so agre
That at the last / ye shall your lady se
Be alwaye meke / let wysdome be your guyde
Aduenture for honoure / and put your selfe in preace
Clymbe not to fast / lest sodenly ye slyde
Lete god werke styll / he wyll your mynde encrece
Begynne no warre / be gladde to kepe the peace
Prepence no thynge / agaynst the honoure
Of ony lady / by fraudolent fauoure
Alas madame / vnto her than sayd I
Aboue .xx....