[6-text p 206] þat they been / fresshe & newe / and with loud voys / they criden. Werre. werre ‖
[2227] Vp roos tho. oon of thise olde wise / & with his hand made contenance / þat men sholde holden hem stille / and yeuen hym audience [2228] ¶ Lordynges quod he / ther is ful many a man þat crieth werre. werre. þat woot ful litel / what werre amounteth ‖ [2229] Werre at his bigynnyng hath so greet an entree & so large [folio 218a] þat euery wight may entre whan hym liketh / & lightly fynde werre ‖ [2230] But certes what ende / þat ther-of shal falle / it is noght light to knowe ‖ [2231] for soothly / whan þat werre is ones bigonne / ther is ful many a child / vnborn of his moder / þat shal sterue yong by cause of thilke werre / or ellis lyue in sorwe / & dye in wrecchednesse / [2232] and ther fore / er þat any werre be bigonne / men moste haue gret conseil / & gret deliberacion [2233] ¶ And whan this olde man / wende to enforcen his tale by resons / wel neigh alle atones / bigonne they to rise / for to breken his tale / and beden hym ful ofte / hise wordes for to abregge / [2234] for sothly / he þat precheth to hem / þat listen nat heren hise wordes / hys sarmon / hem anoyeth ‖ [2235] ffor Ihesus Syrak seith /. That Musyk in wepynge / is a-noyous thyng This is to seyn / As muche auaileth / to speken biforn folk to whiche his speche anoyeth / as it is / to synge biforn hym þat wepeth ‖ [2236] And whan this wise man say þat hym wanted audience / al shamefast he sette hym doun agayn ‖ [2237] ffor Salomon seith / ther as thow / ne mayst haue non audience / enforce thee nat to speke [2238] ¶ I se wel quod this wise man / þat the comune prouerbe is sooth ‖ that good conseil wanteth / whan it is moost nede //
[2239] Yet hadde this Melibeus / in his conseil many folk / þat priuely in his ere / conseiled hym certeyn thyng. and conseiled hym the contrarie / in general audience
[2240] ¶ Whan Melibeus hadde herd / þat the gretteste
