The epistle of Othea to Hector; or, The boke of knyghthode
Christine, de Pisan, approximately 1364-approximately 1431., Scrope, Stephen, -1472, tr., Warner, George F. (George Frederic), Sir, 1845-1936, ed., Bath, Thomas Henry Thynne, 5th Marquis of, 1862-, Roxburghe Club.
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LXXVIII.

BE not to mery ne to sori
For thi dremes, though thei be hevy.
Morpheus byddyth, the messanger
Off the god of slepe and dremes seere. 1. [Au dieu qui dort et fait songer, H.]

A ffabill seyth that Morpheus is sone to the god of slepe, and he is his massenger and he is god of dremes and cawsyth men to dreme. And because that dremes be trobolous thynges and a derke and some tyme it may syngnifie contrarie to the dreme, þer is noon so wyse that may propirly speke 2. [That may propirly that may speke, MS.; qui proprement en puisse parler quoy∣que les expositeurs en dient, H.] liche as the expositours seith of theyme 3. [Tyme, MS.] Therfor it ys seide to the good knyght that he shulde not be to heuy ne to mery ffor sich avysyons, be the which a man may not shewe no certeyne knowlych ne to what thyng thei sal turne, and anamely þat a man shulde not be to mery ne to hevy ffor thynges off fortune, the which be transsitorie. Socrates seith, "Thou that arte a man, thou shuld not be to hevy ne to mery ffor no maner cawse."

Where it is seide that a man shuld not be to mery ne to hevy for non avysyons, we shall seye that the good speryte shuld not be to heuy ne to meri for no maner cause that cometh to hym and that he shuld suffre tribulacions paciently. Seynt Austyn seith vpon the Savter, "Fayre son," seith he, "yf thou wilte wepe for thi sorres that thou felest, veepe vnder the correccion off thi Fadir; yf thou wepe ffor tribulacions that comyth to the, be ware that it be not for indignacion ne for pride, for the aduersyte that God sendyth to the it is a medycyne and no payne, it is a chastisment and no dampnacion. Put not fro the thi Fadris rodde but yf that þou wylt that [he] put the from his heritage; and thynk not on the payne Page  89 that thow owghtes to suffre of his scorge, but considir what place thow haste in his testament. To this purpose the wyse [man] seythe, ["Omne quod tibi applicitum fuerit accipe et in dolore sustine, et in humilitate tua patientiam habe."] 1. [Eccl. ii. 4.]