English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 1066-1485 -- Sources
Socrates said that women be the apparels to catch men, but they take
none but them that will be poor or else them that know them not. And he
said that there is none so great empechement unto a man as ignorance and
women. And he saw a woman that bare fire, of whom he said that the
hotter bore the colder. And he saw a woman sick, of whom he said that
the evil resteth and dwelleth with the evil. And he saw a woman brought
to the justice, and many other women followed her weeping, of whom he
said the evil be sorry and angry because the evil shall perish. And he
saw a young maid that learned to write, of whom he said that men
multiplied evil upon evil. And he said that the ignorance of a man is
known in three things, that is to wit, when he hath no thought to use
reason; when he cannot refrain his covetise; and when he is governed by
the counsel of women, in that he knoweth that they know not. And he said
unto his disciples: "Will ye that I enseign and teach you how ye shall
now escape from all evil?" And they answered, "Yea." And then he said to
them, "For whatsoever thing that it be, keep you and be well ware that
ye obey not women." Who answered to him again, "And what sayest thou by
our good mothers, and of our sisters?" He said to them, "Suffice you
with that I have said to you, for all be semblable in malice." And he
said, "Whosoever will acquire and get science, let him never put him in
the governance of a woman." And he saw a woman that made her fresh and
gay, to whom he said, "Thou resemblest the fire; for the more wood is
laid to the fire the more will it burn, and the greater is the heat."
And on a time one asked him what him semed of women; he answered that
the women resemble a tree called Edelfla, which is the fairest tree to
behold and see that may be, but within it is full of venom. And they
said to him and demanded wherefore he blamed so women? and that he
himself had not come into this world, ne none other men also, without
them. He answered, "The woman is like unto a tree named Chassoygnet, on
which tree there be many things sharp and pricking, which hurt and prick
them that approach unto it; and yet, nevertheless, that same tree
bringeth forth good dates and sweet." And they demanded him why he fled
from the women? And he answered, "Forasmuch as I see them flee and
eschew the good and commonly do evil." And a woman said to him, "Wilt
thou have any other woman than me?" And he answered to her, "Art not
ashamed to offer thyself to him that demandeth nor desireth thee not?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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