Chaucer's translation of Boethius's "De consolatione philosphiæ" / edited from British Museum additional MS. 10, 340 collated with Cambridge University Library MS. Ii.3.21 by Richard Morris

QUISQUIS PROFUNDA MENTE.

Who so that sekith sotℏ by a deep thoght And coueyteth nat to ben deseyuyd by no mys-weyes // lat hym rollen and trenden with Inne hym self / the Lyht of his inward syhte // And lat hym gadere ayein enclynynge in to a compas the longe moeuynges of hys thowhtes / And lat hym techen his corage that he hath enclosed and hyd / in his tresors / al þat he compaseth or sekith fro with owte // And thanne thilke thing that the blake cloude of errour whilom hadde y-couered / shal lyhten more clerly thanne phebus hym self ne shyneth // Glosa [Chaucer's gloss.] // who so wole seken the dep[e] grounde / of soth in his thowht / and wol nat be deceyuyd by false proposiciouns / that goon amys fro the trouthe // lat hym wel examine / and rolle with inne hym self the nature and the propretes of the thing // and lat hym yit eft sones examine and rollen his thowhtes by good deliberacioun

or that he deme // and lat hym techen his sowle that it hat by naturel pryncyplis kyndeliche y-hyd with in it self alle the trowthe the whiche he ymagynith to ben in thinges with owte // And thanne alle the dyrknesse of his mysknowynge shal seen more euydently to [þe] syhte of his vndyrstondynge thanne the sonne ne semyth to [þe] syhte with owte forth / For certes the body bryngynge the weyhte of foryetynge / ne hath nat chasyd owt of yowre thowhte al the clernesse of yowre knowyng // For certeynly the seed of sooth haldith and clyueth with in yowre corage / and it is a-waked and excited by the wynde and by the blastes of doctryne // For where for elles demen ye of yowre owne wyl the ryhtes whan ye ben axed // but yif so were þat the noryssynges of resoun ne lyuede .I.-plowngyd in the depthe of yowre herte // this [is] to seyn how sholden men demen þe sooth of any thing þat weere axed / yif ther neere a Roote of sothfastnesse þat weere yplowngyd and hyd in the nature[l] pryncyplis / the whiche sothfastnesse lyued with in the depnesse of the thowght // and yif so be þat the Muse and the doctryne of plato syngyth sooth // al þat euery whyht lerneth / he ne doth no thing elles thanne but recordeth as men recordyn thinges þat ben foryetyn.