The epistle of Othea to Hector; or, The boke of knyghthodeChristine, de Pisan
Philosophy
The epistle of Othea to Hector; or, The boke of knyghthode
Christine, de Pisan
Fastolf, John, 1378?-1459; French poetry -- To 1500 -- Translations into English
Yo was a yong ientilwoman and doughter to knyng Ynacus;[277] þe which
was rygh konnyng and fond many maners of letteris þat hade not be se
afore. Though that some fables sey þat Yo was Jupiteris love and þat
sche becam a kowe and after a woman as she was, [this was not so], but,
as the poietis hathe hyde trowth vnder couerture of fable, it may be þat
Jubiter lovid hire, þat is to vndirstond by the vertues þe which was in
here[278] she become a kowe, for, as a kowe yevith mylke, the which is
swete and norisshyng, she be the letteris that she fonde gaffe
norysshyng to [Sidenote: f. 29.] vnderstondyng. And in that she was a
comon woman may be vndirstond that here wytte was comon to all, as
lettris be comon to all peple. Þerfore it is seide þat þe good knygh
shuld full mych love Yo,[279] þe which may be vnderstondyn þe letteris
and scriptures and stories of good peple, þe which þe good knygh shold
hire telle gladely and reede þe example of, þe which may be vailable to
hym. To this purpos Hermes seith, “Who so enforceth hyme to gete konyng
and goode condicions, he fyndith þat þe which shall plese hym in this
worlde and in the tothir.”
Yo, the which is noted for letteris and scriptures, may be vnderstondyn
þat þe good sperit shuld delyte hym to reede or to here Holy Writte and
not[280] þe Scriptures in his mynde, and thereby may he lerne to clyme
to hevyn with Jhesu Cryst by good werkys and holy contemplacion and
shuld beleve the worethi Article that Seynt Bertylmw seith, [“Ascendit
ad cœlos, sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris Omnipotentis”].
XXX.
Beware in whatte place so that it be
In the noyse of flowtes slepe not ye;
For Mercurius that softe syngeth
With his flowte þe peple enchaunteth.
A ffabill seyth þat, when Jubiter louede fayre Yo, Juno had hym gretly
in suspeccion and discendid from heven in a skye[281] for to take hire
husbonde whit[282] the dede. But qwhan Jubiter sawe hir come, he
chawnged his love to a cowe; yit for all that Juno was [not] owt of
suspeccion, but askyd hym þe cowe of yifte, and Jubiter ayens his lyst
grauntyd [it] to hyr, as he þat dryst not ayens say hire for doute of
suspeccion. Þan Juno gaffe Argus, þe which hade .c. yen, this cow to
kepe, and euer he wchid[283] it. But the god Mercurius by þe
commaundement of Jubiter toke his flowte, þe which song softly, and blew
so longe in Argus eyre þat all his .c. eyne were aslepe. Than he smote
of hys hede and toke the cowe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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