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
Catalogue details

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.

    22/544 (page 14)
    Moralite. Seris, this Emperour is the Fadir of Hevene, that ordeynyd a lawe, that if ony woman, &c. soil, if ony sowle, the whiche is spouse of God, trespassid in avowtrye, sell, in eny dedly synne, thenne hit schulde be demyd to perpetuel prisone of Helle. And therfore, thou soule, if thou trespace in ony dedly synne a3en the wille of thi Lord God, thi spouse, thor} whiche synne thou art dampnabille in to suche a prisone, thenne behovithe the gretly to sorowe and wepe, for thou art thanne a-sundrid fro the li3t, and fro the glorie of Hevene above thine hede. The sone that seithe, as long as I may have mete and drinke y-nowe, bitokenithe the riche and the myjty wordly man of this wordle, the whiche in hire hertis, when prelatis and prechours spekithe to hem euerlasting li3t and joye of Hevene, thei sey, “ 3e, the whilis we may be heere, and have suche solas and comfort as we have, we sette not bye other Hevene, ne rekke we how long we bide in suche derkenesse of synne, and of thraldomand that is gretly to be sorowid. This stiward, that herithe this lamentacione, ys our [f. 197. c. i.] Lord, that herittit the priueteis of our hertys, and lovithe contricione for synnes. What doith he ? He goitht to the Fadir of Hevene, and praithe for vs to be loosid fro the hard blynde hertis, in so moche, that if we wolle vs selfe be deliveryde out of prisone, we mow, and come to euerlastinge blisse, and the li3t above. Ad quam nos et vos perducat, &c. [VI.] EMPERATOR POMPEIUS. Pompeius was a wise Emperour, regnynge in the cite of Rome;