Lesson 24 – Pithy Metres of divers matters from the sages of old, written in the 1500s.

Pithy Metres of divers matters from the sages of old, written in the 1500s.

1. He that to Wrath and Anger is thrall,
Over his Wit hath no power at all.
2. Be merry and glad, honest and virtuous!
For that suffices to anger the envious.
3. The more that a man has of abundance,
So much the less hath he of assurance.
4. The friends, whom profit or lucre increase;
When substance fails, therewithal will cease!
But friends that are coupled with heart and with love;
Neither Fear, nor Fortune, nor Force, may remove!
5. If that in Virtue thou take any pain,
The pain departs; but virtues remain:
But if thou have pleasure to do that is ill,
The pleasure abates; but Ill tarries still.
6. If that by Destiny, things be decreed;
To labour to shun them is pained lost indeed!
But if that the Chance of Things be unset;
It is folly to fear that, we know we may let!
7. It is the part of him that is wise
Things to foresee, with diligent advice:
But whenas things as unlucky do frame;
It becomes the valiant to suffer the same.
8. If not for to speed, thou think it a pain;
Will not the thing that thou mayest not attain!
For thou, and none other, art cause of thy let;
If that which thou may’st not, thou travail to get.
9. To feign and to flatter, to gloss and to lie,
Require divers colours, and words fair and sly:
But the utterance of truth is so simple and plain,
That it needs no study to forge, or to feign.
10. To the Avaricious is no suffisance;
For covetise increases as fast as his substance.
11. He is neither rich, happy, nor wise,
That is a bondman to his own Avarice.
12. To strike another, if that thou pretend;
Think, if he struck thee, thou would’st thee defend!
13. To beasts much hurt happens; because they be dumb:

But much more to men, by means of Speech has come.
14. All envious hearts with the dead men depart;
But, after death, dureth the Slanderer’s dart!
15. He that, at one’s instance, another will defame,
Will also, at another’s, to the last do the same:
For none are so dangerous and doubtful to trust,
As those that are readiest to obey every lust.
16. Since Making of Manners, in company does lie,
Enhaunt the good; and the evil, see thou fly!
But if to the evil, thou needs wilt resort;
Return betimes! for fear thou come short.
17. Love between Wise men, by effect may fall;
but not between Fools, though Folly be equal:
For Wit goes by order, and may agree in one;
But Folly lacks order, so that concord is none.
18. For a man much better it is, among Raveners
To fall and be taken; than among Flatterers:
For Ravens but of flesh, dead bodies do deprive;
But Flatterers devour men, while they be alive.
19. He that, of all men will be a Corrector,
Shall, of the most part, win hate for his labour!
20. Of Slanderers, and Flatterers, take heed, if ye will!
For neither fame, nor wild, beast, can bite us so ill:
For of wild beasts, Slander is the worst biter;
And of the tame, most bites the Flatterer.
21. They that to talk of Wisdom are bent,
Not following the same, are like an instrument;
Whose pleasant sound, the hearers does delight:
But, itself not hearing, hath thereby no profit.
22. As long as a tun, or a vessel, may last,
Of the first liquor it keeps the taste;
And Youth, being seasoned in virtuous labour;
Will, ever after, thereof keep the savour.
23. What thing a man in tender age has most in ure;
That same to death, always to keep he shall be sure:
Therefore in Age who greatly longs good fruit to mow,
In Youth he must himself apply good seed to sow.
24. Beware of thine en’my, when he does menace;
And trust thou him not, if fair seem his face!
For serpents never so deadly do sting
As when they bite without any hissing.
25. Treasures, which Falsehood seems to augment,
Are evilly gotten; and worser are spent:
Wherefore to be rich whoso does intend,
Ought truly to win, and duly to spend.
26. Since the World, unsteady, does oft ebb and flow,
It behoves a wise man all times for to know;
And so for to sail, while he has fair weather,
That the haven may keep him, when hold may no anchor.
27. Of a churlish nature proceeds Foul Language;
But Fair Speech is token of a noble courage.
28. A friend is not known but in necessity;
For, in time of wealth, each man seems friendly
29. Wisdom and Science, which are pure by kind,
Should not be writ in books; but in mind:
For Wisdom in books, with the book will rot;
But writ in mind will never be forgot.
30. For covetous people, to die it is best;
For the longer they live, the less is their rest.
For Life them leads, their substance to double;
Where Death them discharges of endless trouble.
31. Men ought not weep for him that guiltless is slain;
But for the Slayer, which quick does remain:
For to die guiltless is loss but of body;
But body and Soul both, are lost of the guilty.
32. Of works begun, when goodness may breed,
We should, with all swiftness, devise to proceed;
But if, by our works, may grow any Ill;
We should be as swift to conquer our will.
33. By ordering the Tongue is a trial most true,
To know if a man, his lusts can subdue.
For he that ne rule can his Tongue as him list,
Hath much less power, other lusts to resist.
34. Whatever it chance thee of any to hear,
Thine Eye not consenting, believe not thine Ear!
For the Ear is a subject full oft led awry;
But the Eye is a judge that in nothing will lie.
35. Wisdom and Honour most commonly be found
In them that in Virtue and Goodness abound:
And therefore are better than Silver and Gold,
Which the evil commonly most have in hold.
36. Stop the beginning! so shalt thou be sure,
All doubtful diseases to ‘suage and to cure:
But if thou be careless, and suffer them brast;
Too late cometh plaster, when all cure is past.
37. If that it chance thee, in war for to fight;
More than to Wit, trust not to thy Might!
For Wit without Strength much more does avail,
Than Strength without Wit, to conquer in battle.
38. Both Hatred, Love, and their own Profit,
Cause Judges oft times the Truth to forget.
Purge all these vices therefore from thy mind;
So shall Right rule thee, and thou the Truth find!
39. Although, for a while, thy vice thou may’st hide;
Yet canst thou not always keep it unespied!
For Truth, the true daughter of God and of Time,
Has sworn to detect all sin, vice, and crime.
40. The having of Riches is not so commodious,
As the departing from them is grievous.
41. Happy is the realm, the which has a King
Endued with Wisdom, Virtue, and Learning:
And much unhappy is the realm and province
Whereas these points do lack in their Prince.
42. To whatsoever the King does him frame;
His men, for the most part, delight in the same:
Wherefore a good King should Virtue ensue,
To give his subjects example of Virtue.
43. Better it is for a Wife to be barren,
Than to bring forth a vile, wicked, carion.
44. Alms distributed unto the indigent
Is like a medicine given to the impotent:
But to the unneedy, a man to make his dole,
Is like the ministering of plasters to the whole.
45. Better it is for a man to be mute,
Than with the ignorant much to dispute:
And better it is to live solitarily,
Then to enhaunt much evil company.
46. Try, and then trust, after good assurance;
But trust not, ere ye try, for fear of repentance!
47. That thing in a realm is worthy of renown,
For which Right is raised,and Wrong beaten down.
48. Goodness itself do good men declare;
For which many more, the better do fare.
49. Unhappy he is, wheresoever he come,
That hath a Wit, and will not learn Wisdom.