[6-text p 271]
[6-text p 272]
¶ No teere out of hise eyen / for that sighte
Ne cam / but seyde / a fair womman was she
Greet wonder is / how þat he koude / or myghte
Be domesman / of hire dede beautee
Line 3680
The wyn to bryngen hym / comanded he
And drank anoon / noon oother wo he made
Whan myght is ioyned / vn-to crueltee
Allas to depe / wol the venym wade
Line 3684
[¶] In youthe / a maister hadde this Emperour [folio 94b]
To teche hym lettrure / and curteisye
ffor of moralitee / he was the flour
As in his tyme / but if bookes lye
Line 3688
And whil this maister / hadde of hym maistrye
He maked hym / so louyng and so souple
That longe tyme it was / er tirannye
Or any vice / dorste in hym vncouple
Line 3692
¶ This Seneca / of which þat I deuyse
By cause Nero / hadde of hym swich drede
ffor he fro vices / wolde hym ay chastise
Discretly / as by word / and nat by dede
Line 3696
Sire wolde he seyn / an Emperour moot nede
Be vertuous / and hate tirannye
ffor which he in a bath / made hym to blede
On bothe hise armes / til he moste dye
Line 3700
¶ This Nero / hadde eek / of acustumance
In youthe / agayns his maister for to rise
Which afterward / hym thoughte a greet greuance
Ther-fore / he made hym dyen in this wise
Line 3704
But nathelees / this Seneca the wise
Chees / in a bath / to dye in this manere
Rather than han / another tormentrise
And thus hath Nero / slayn his maister deere
Line 3708
