The tragedies, gathered by Ihon Bochas, of all such princes as fell from theyr estates throughe the mutability of fortune since the creacion of Adam, vntil his time wherin may be seen what vices bring menne to destruccion, wyth notable warninges howe the like may be auoyded. Translated into Englysh by Iohn Lidgate, monke of Burye.

¶ The .xiii. Chapter.

¶ Here Bochas writeth agaynste them that geueth hastye credence to lyers and flatterers.

IN this chapter Bochas in sentence, Repreueth & blameth not onely princes, But all them that lyghtly geueth credēce To euery tale and fable whiche is Reported vnto them for sothfastnesse: And list nothing do as it were due, To proue the truth were it false or true.

All though so be in euery maner age Folkes ben diuers of condicions, To turne, plye, and chaunge in their courage To outher party with sodayne mocions, And for to bowe by transmutations With euery wynde as the vnstable leaues, Which hang on trees, in forestes & in greues.

But of al chaūges y^• chaunge is most to drede And most fearfull is that variaunce, Whā that princes whych may the people lede, Ben founde vnstable in their gouernaunce: For their nobles and their hye puissaunce Assureth them by a maner of forme, What euer thē list to accomplyshe & performe

To cōmen profite they most may aueyle, Whan they ben ruled by wisdome and reason And to the people they may most disaueyle, Whan they lacke wytte and discrecion. Thus betwene twayne in euery region The people draweth, who that can discerne, To good or badde as prynces them gouerne.

They may not be to hasty, ne to sodayne, But do all thyng by good aduisement: Kepe thē fro tonges y^t parted be in twayne, Not be to hasty to geue no iudgement: And of folkes whan they ben absent, Lieue no tales▪ neither geue no credence, Tyll that the party may come to euidence.

Sumtime hath happed that slowe credence Hath in some be founde full noyons, But hasty credence I dare say in sentence, A thousande folde is more perillous: For vnaduised all haste is odious.

For haste full oft for lacke of reason, Of muche people hath ben destruction.

There is no domage that men can purpose More to be dradde nor more lamentable Than a prynce his eares to vnclose To euery tale and euery fable: It is a token their hartes be not stable, Whan they to flatterers their eares do apply Namely to suche that can well forge & lye.

Folke ben diuers, some false, some true, In diuers studies done their busines: Some can study, and finde out tales newe, And some for lucre can maintayne falsenes, And holde vp quarels ayenst ryght wisenes. Pretendyng truth vnder a false entent, To hinder folkes whiche ben innocent.

Men to suppose it were a great folye That folkes shoulde in their opinion Speake or pronounce all on one party, Or holde one way in their intencion: For semblably as there is a diuision Of courages, of hye or lowe degre, So is there truly a great diuersitie

In rehearsall, or report of a thing. For to his party eche man is fauourable, Some man can say well in al his rehearsyng Some man is double, and some disceauable: Some men say true, and some be variable, Wherfore a prynce of ryght as it doth seme, Should well examen before that he deme.

For there is none more dreadfull pestilence, Than a tonge that can flatter and fage: For wyth his cursed crabbed vyrulence, He enfecteth folke of euery age. Wo to tonges froward of their langage, And wo to tonges, false, furious, and wode, Which of no person neuer can say good.

Bochas rehearseth, it is right well sittyng That euery man other do commende, And say the best alway in reportyng: For in well saiyng no man may offende, Where men say well god will his grace send. After as men be, mē must their praise vpraise Like their merites alowe them or disprayse.

But where a thing is vtterly vnknowe, Let no man there be hasty of sentence: For ryghtfull iudges sittyng on a rowe Of their wisdome and of their hye prudence, Will of trouth haue first some euidence. (I meane such as gouerned be by grace) Or any dome forthe of their lippes pace.

A prynce should assemble thinges twayne Within him selfe, full prudently: Shut vp the domes betwene lockes twayne, One of the soule: to reason for that party Prudence chosen, and right for the body. And betwene them bothe or he geue sentence, To counsayle call truth and good conscience.

First to consider wyth euery circumstaunce, And diligently do theron his laboure, Of discrecion to take the balaunce: And first wey out who is the accusour, And whether that he for falsenes or fauoure, In his processe list to procede, Hereof a prynce must of ryght take hede.

He must also consider by and by What he is, that to him is accused, And whether the accusour, be frend or enemy Or whether he shalbe accept or refused. In his actes this must afore be mused. And whether he be by report of his name, A man well noysed, or slaundred by diffame.

If Thesius thus had ben auysed, And considered of reason the manere: He had not so hastely deuised His sonnes death, like as ye shall leare. For if there had assembled be in fere, In his person, prudence and reason, He shoulde haue sene in his descrecion.

By knowlegyng of long experience, Of his wyfe the great vnstedfastnes: Which through her false compassed eloquence Was ready euer to bryng folke to distresse. And in his writyng Bochas beareth witnes, Of their nature women can flatter and fage, And be sumtyme to copious of their langage.

Also of wisdome, duke Thesius Should haue considred afore in his entent, How that his sonne called Jpolytus, Of all vnclennes was founde euer innocent: And how that he by custome made his went Into forestes durynge his yonge age, To hunt at beastes, which that were sauage.

Rennyng on fote, as ye shall vnderstande,

On hilles and valeys, to eschue idlenes Mother of vices, with his bow in hand, Diana to serue of huntyng chefe goddesse: Sumtime to hauke he did his busines, Also vnto fishyng greatly he was applyed, So that his youth was neuer vnoccupied.

Thus he liued in woodes solitary, And of Venus dispised the seruice: Among women he would neuer tary, Their felowshyp he did alway despise, For he demed by sentence of the wise, Who toucheth pytche by a saye men may se, It fayleth not he shall defouled be.

Jpolitus sawe wel this thing before, Kept him at large from such contagiositie His grene youth he would not haue it lore, To be defouled for lacke of chastitie. For he liued euer in virginitie, And neuer did (Bochas will not vary) Nothing that was vnto God contrary.

Thus of entent he kept his body clene, Duryng his life both in thought and dede: Whose mother was Jpolita, the quene Of Amasones, in Ouide ye may rede. But wo alas that Theseus toke hede, For a tale of Phedra full of gyle, Without gilte his sonne so to exyle.

After whose death some Poetes sayne, Howe that Dyana for his chastitie, Restored him vnto life agayne By Esculapius, and gaue him lybertye In her forestes to hunt and to go fre: For whiche restoryng (as write Ouidius) As twyse a man men call hym Virbius.

But Bochas here I not what he doth mene, Maketh in his boke an exclamation, Agaynst women, that pity is to sene: Sayth how their life, and their generation, Ben of their nature double of condicion. And calleth them also, diuers and vnstable, Beastes resemblyng, that ben insaciable.

He meaneth of women borne in Crete, And nothyng of them y^• dwell in this coūtrey. For women here all doublenes they lete, And haue no tatche of mutabilitie: They loue no chaunges, ne no duplicitie. For their husbandes in causes small or great, Whatsoeuer they say, they can not coūterplete

Blessed be god that them hath made so meke, So humble and fearfull of their condicions: For though men would cause and matter seke Against their pacience, to finde occasions, They haue refused all contradictions. And thē submitted through their gouernaūce, Onely to mekenes and womanly suffraunce.

I speake not of one, I speke of euerychone That ben professed vnto lowlines, Thei mai haue mouthes, but lāgage haue thei none All true husbandes can beare hereof witnesse. For wedded men, I dare full well expresse, That haue assayed, and had experience, Best can recorde, of wifely pacience.

For as it longeth to men to be sturdy, And sumwhat frowarde as of their nature: Right so can women suffer paciently, And all wronges womanly endure. Men shoulde attempt no maner creature. And namely women, their mekenes to preue, Which may wel suffer, if no man them greue.

Euery thing resorteth to his kynde, (As Bochas writeth) sumtyme of the yere: And who sercheth by processe he shall fynde, That truth & vertue may neuer fade of there: For rightwisenes will alway shyne clere. Truth and falsnes in what they haue to done, They may no while assemble in one persone.

Feare and flattery they ben contrary, They may together hold no long soiour: Neither simplesse whiche that can not vary, May neuer accorde with a baratour. Neyther innorence with a lesyngour, Neither chastite can not her selfe apply, Her to conforme vnto no rybaudry.

Eche thing hath a proper disposition, By the ordinaunce set in their courage: And ech man foloweth his condicion, As of the stocke the frute hath the tarrage. Pilgrymes may go full farre in their passage But I dare say how farre that euer they go, They beare some tarrage of y^• they came fro.

Bochas maketh an introduction In this chapiter, of hygh noblesse That prynces haue in their possession: And by a maner laughyng doth expresse, How for toset them in great sykernesse They haue seruauntes vpon them abidynge,

And men of armes day and nyght awaytyng

That no man may enter but he haue lycence. The froward porters standyng at the gate, Put men abacke by sturdy vyolence: It were full harde agaynst them to debate. Their watches kept early and also late, Them to assure on nyghtes whan they slepe, The chāberlains their dores straightly kepe.

Men assigned their meates to assay, To taste their wynes lest there were treason, Such mortall drede these lordes do affray, So is their surenes meynt with suspection: Who feadeth him glaoly that feareth poyson▪ But pore folke franchised from such dreade, Such as god doth sende, w^t myrthe they fede.

But Poetes that write tragedies, Their complàynyng is all of hye estates: Rehearsyng euer their piteous ieopardyes, Their sodayne chaūges, & their wofull fates, Their deuisyons, and their mortall debates. And euer cōclude, their dities who so canrede, High estates stande aye most in drede.

Ground and rote of all this mortall trouble, As Bochas writeth and beareth witnes, Ben these lyers with their tonges double, Them selfe aye forsyng truth to oppresse: With whom flattery is a chiefe maistresse, And worst of all, to their dreadfull sentence, Is whan prynces be hasty of credence.

Hasty credence is roote of all erroure, A froward stepmother of all good counsayle: Ground of great hindring, a dredefull discey∣uour, Fayre of face with a perillous tayle. Gladly concluding w^t ful great disauayle. Next neighbour vnto repentaunce, To all that trust & haue in her pleasaunce.

¶ Lenuoy.

PRynces, pricesses cōsider how in euery age Folkes ben diuers of their condicion: To ply & turne and chaunge in their courage, Yet is there none to mine opinion, So dreadfull chaunge ne transmutation, As chaunge of prynces, to geue iugement, Or hasty credence without auisement.

It is well founde a passyng great domage, Knowen and expert in euery region, Though a tale haue a fayre vysage, It may enclude full great deception, Hide vnder suger ga••e and fell poyson, With a freshe face of double entendem cut: Yet geue no credence without auisement.

Let folkes beware of their laugage, Kepe their tonges from oblocution: To hynder or hurte by no maner outrage, Preserue their lyppes from all detraction, From champarty, and contradiction, Lest that fraude were found in their entent, Ne geue no credence without auisement.

Prynces princesses of noble and high parage, Whiche haue lordshyp and do nination, Voyde them asyde that can flatter and fage: Fro tonges that haue a terrage of ••reason, Stoppe your eares, from their bitter soun, Be circumspect, not hastye but prudent, And geue no credence without auisement.