The old English versions of the Gesta Romanorum: edited for the first time from manuscripts in the British Museum and University Library, Cambridge, with an introduction and notes / By Sir Frederic Madden. Printed for the Roxburghe Club.
- Date:
- 1838
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The old English versions of the Gesta Romanorum: edited for the first time from manuscripts in the British Museum and University Library, Cambridge, with an introduction and notes / By Sir Frederic Madden. Printed for the Roxburghe Club. Source: Wellcome Collection.
19/544 (page 11)
![* lasse eville is to be chosyne. For it is not vnknowe to you, that the cite was in gret perille, and if I hadde not take that armour, I hadde not deliuered the cite, nor yow neither; and therfore me thenkithe I sholde rather have hye honour and thonking of you for my goode dede, than suche vilany; for I am y-brou3t hedir as a thefe to be hongid. Also, sire, another resone is for me. Who so withedraweth ony thinge thefly, he purposithe not to bere it a3en; but, sir, it was not so witht me, for tho} I toke as in borowing the armour of the ded kny3t, to deliuer the cite ther with, as soone as I hadde deliveryd the cite, and hadde the victorye, I bare the armour a3en, so that the dede had his owne, as the lawe wolle it.” Then spake the iuge, and seide, “ I sette cas, that a thefe make an hole in a hous, for to take out good, and after to bring it a3en, I pray the, kny3t, lat see, say whedir doithe he wele or no ?” “ Sir,” quoth the kny3t, “ some tyme is suche holiyng and perforacion goode, and not wikkide, as if ony thirle or make an hole in a feble walle of a feble hous, in entent that the lord of the hous make the walle strenge, for perille of thefis, that thei entre not so lately, if thei come.” Thenne seide the iuge, “ Sir, tho3 suche perforacione be goode, and don for that the walle shuld be made moore sikir and stronger, 3it is violence y-made to the lord of the hous; and so with the, for tho3 that thou dudist goode with the armys of the kny3t, 3it thou dudist violence to the dede, in that thu toke away his armour.” Thenne seide the kny3t, “ Ser, I seide to you erwhile, that if too ivelis were commaundid, the lesse were to be chosyne, and that iville, by doynge of whiche comithe good and profitte, shold not be y-callid an ivelle dede, but a goode dede that was like to an iville ; as thus, loo ! if ther weere an hous in the cite i-sette afire, and bigonne to brenne, weere it not better to drawe downe the hous that stondithe next, or elles that thei take fire also, and so alle the cite be brend ? And so, sir, the armour, if I [f.i96.b. c. i.] hadde not taken it out for a tyme the armour of the dede kny3t, ellis the cite and 3e alle shulde haue ben distroyd.” Thenne the iuge](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22007118_0019.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
