[6-text p 393]
¶ With-Inne thyn hous ne be thou no leoun [¶ Noli esse sicut leo in domo tua / euertens domesticos tuos op|primens subiectos tibi.]
To thy subgitz / do noon oppressioun
Ne make thyne aqueyntances / nat for to flee
And Thomas / yet eft-soones I charge thee
Line 1992
Be war from hire / þat in thy bosom slepeth
Be war/ fro the serpent/ that so slily crepeth
Vnder the gras / and styngeth subtilly
Be war my sone / and herkne paciently
Line 1996
That twenty thousand men / han lost hir lyues
ffor stryuyng with hir lemmans and hir wyues
Now sith ye han / so hooly meke a wyf
What nedeth yow Thomas / to maken stryf
Line 2000
Ther nys ywys / no serpent so cruel
What man tret on his tayl / ne half so fel
As womman is / whan she hath caught an Ire
Vengeance is thanne / al that they desire
Line 2004
Ire is a synne / oon of the grete of seuene
Abhomynable / vn-to the god of heuene
And to hym self/ it is destruccion
This euery lewed viker or person
Line 2008
Kan seye / how Ire engendreth homycide
Ire is in sooth / executour of pryde
I koude of Ire seye / so muche sorwe [folio 88b]
My tale / sholde laste / til tomorwe
Line 2012
And therfore / preye I god / bothe day and nyght
An Irous man / god sende hym litel myght
It is greet harm / and eek greet pitee
To sette an Irous man / in heigh degree
Line 2016
WHilom / ther was an Irous potestat/ [¶ de quodam potes|tate Iracundo]
As seith Senek that durynge his estaat
Vp-on a day / out ryden knyghtes two
And as ffortune / wolde that it were so
Line 2020
That oon of hem cam hoom/ that oother noght
Anon the knyght bifore the Iuge is broght
That seyde thus / thou hast thy felawe slayn
ffor which / I deme thee to the deeth certayn
Line 2024
