[6-text p 271] , [6-text p 272]
No teere out of hise eyen / for that sighte
Ne cam / but seyde / a fair womman was she
Greet wonder is / how þat he koude / or myghte
Be domesman / of hire dede beautee
Line 3680
The wyn to bryngen hym comanded he
And drank / anon / noon oother wo he made
Whan myght is ioyned vn-to crueltee
Allas to depe / wol the venym wade
Line 3684
In yowthe / a maister hadde this Emperour [folio 178a]
To teche hym lettrure / and curteisye
ffor of moralitee / he was the flour
As in his tyme / but if bookes lye
Line 3688
And whil this maister / hadde of hym maistrye
He maked hym / so konnyng and so sowple
That longe tyme it was / er tirannye
Or any vice / dorste on hym vncowple
Line 3692
This Seneca / of which that I deuyse
By cause Nero / hadde of hym swich drede
ffor he fro vices / wolde hym chastise
Discreetly / as by word / and nat by dede
Line 3696
Sire wolde he seyn / an Emperour moot nede
Be vertuous / and hate tirannye
ffor which / he in a bath / made hym to blede
On bothe hise Armes / til he moste dye
Line 3700
This Nero / hadde eek/ of acustumaunce
In youthe / agayns his maister for to ryse
Which afterward / hym thoughte greet greuaunce
Therfore / he made hym dyen in this wise
Line 3704
But nathelees / this Seneca the wise
Chees in a Bath to dye / in this manere
Rather than han / any oother tormentise
And thus hath Nero / slayn his maister deere
Line 3708
