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.

    62/544 (page 54)
    of his soule. And the worldly drynke is perilous drynke, for ife a man drynke oonys thereof, he may vnnethe be fulde; he farithe as doth a man that hath the dropcye, the more he drynketh, the more he thristethe. And so hit is of worldly goodis, for the more that a man hathe of hem, the more he covetithe; and therfore suche men take non hede of this text that folowithe, Totus mundus in maligno ponitur, that is to sey, Alle the worlde is set in wikkednesse. And therfore ife there be any suche, hit were nedeful that he ronne to the bellis of confessione. But we see somtyme that bellis may not wele be yronge, for thei beth bounde so strongly to a tre, that they may [not] be ymevede. Yn the same wise beth tongis of synners boundyne by the Deuylle, that thei may not be yshrivene. The Devil doth as dothe thefes; for if thefes here berkyng of houndis, their castith hem brede or flesshe, and so thei leve berkyng; and so the thef entrithe the hous, and holdith men by the throtis, that thei cry not for help; and doth oute the fire, vnto the tyme thei haue sped of her pray. So the Deville castith forthe a delectacione or a thought in to a man, and makith him to thenk thus, 3a, I am young [f.204.b.c. i.] ynow, I may alle in tyme shryve me, when I am a litelle elder. And so the man rennythe not to confessione; for ife he do, he takith him by the throte, sell, he puttith in him shame, that he shalle not shrive him, and with that the fire of devocione is slaked. And therfore, dere frendis, let vs fie fro this thef the Devil, for we knowith not in what hour that thefe, soil, deth, shal come vpone vs, in age or in yon- githe; and therfore let vs euer be redy with the virgynes that toke oyle, scil. meritory werkys, and so we mow come to the blisse aboue. Ad quod nos per ducat qui viuit et regnat &c.