is harme to anoþer; and so, as Gods children have likyng in gode þing, so þo fende and his childer have likyng in harme. Ffor þo fende hafs no profite of his felowschip; ffor more felowschip shewis more consense in hor yvel wille; and þat dos hom more harme. And so, as godenes profites to a gode mon, so wickednesse plesis to an yvel mon. And so iche envyouse mon is an opun fole, ffor hym þenkes þat þing gode þat is yvel.
As men tellen in fablis of two men in a cyte; þo first was [The fable of the envious man and the covetous man.] envyous; þo secounde was covetous. Þo justise of þo cyte ordeyned to make a crye, þat wheþer of þese two men asked oght of þo juge, þo secounde schuld have þo double þat þo first asked. Þese two men comen at tyme and þo stede [So in BB; W has, at tyme assigned.] as∣signed, and stryven among homself, wheþer schuld first aske. Þis envyouse mon þoght þat if he asked first he schulde do myche gode to his first brother. Þo covetouse mon þoght þat if he asked first his broþer schulde have þo double to hym; and so hit was ordened þat þis elder broþer schulde aske first what he wolde. And so þis envyous mon moste nede stonde to þis decre; and he had sorowe to do profite to þis covetouse; and þerfore he asked þat his eye schulde be put out, undir∣stondyng þat by þis his broþer schulde be pure blynde; and þo juge of þo cyte made parforme þis sentense [A somewhat different version of this fable, in French of the thirteenth century, may be seen in the Recueil of Barbazan (I. 91; ed. 1808). St. Martin meets the two men on a plain, and on parting company with them, says that if one of them will ask him for something, he shall have it, whatever it may be, but the man who has not asked shall receive double. Urged on and me∣naced by the covetous man, the envious man asks that he may lose an eye; and the rest of the story agrees with the version given in the text. Barbazan took this fable from a MS. of S. Germain des Prés, No. 1830.
A third version is given in the appendix to Robert's edition of La∣fontaine's Fables (II. 509; Paris, 1825). In this version (which bears the name of Ysopet-Avionnet, who professes to have translated it, and his other fables, from the Latin), Phoebus occupies the place of St. Martin, and the language and whole air of the fable are of much later date.
From what source our author derived his version of the fable I cannot determine. The Gesta Ro∣manorum will immediately occur to the literary reader, but this fable is not found there.
] .
Þis justice of þis cyte may be God Almyghty, þat puttes in monnis fredame to chese gode or yvel; and by his godely