A POEM AGAINST IDLENESS, AND THE
HISTORY OF SARDANAPALUS:
[From MS. Harl. 2251, fol. 95-100.]
Two maner of folkes to put in remembraunce,
Of vice and vertu to put a difference,✓
The goode alwey have set theyr plesaunce
In vertuous labour to done theyr diligence;
And vicious peple in slouth and necligence;
Of whiche the reporte of both is thus reserved,
With lawde or lack, liche as they have deserved.
Men must of right the vertuous preferre,
And triewly labour preyse and besynesse;
And ageynwarde dispreyse folke that erre,
Whiche have no joye but al in idelnesse ;
And to compare by a maner wytnesse,
The vertuous folke I wille to mynde calle,
In the rebukyng of the mysdoers alle.
The olde wise cleped Pictagoras,
By the sowne of hamours, th'auctours specifye, Ensample toke, and chief mayster was,
That fonde first al musyk and melodye;
Yit of Thubal som bookis specifye,
That hevy strokis of smythes there they stoode
Found out first musyk to-fore Noes floode.
The chieldren of Seth in story ye may se,
Flowryng in vertu by longe successiouns,
For to profite to theyr posteryté,
Founde first the crafte of hevenly mocyouns,
Of sundry sterris the revoluciouns,
Byqwath theyr konnyng, for grete avauntage,
To theym that com after of theyr lynage.
For theyre vertu, God gaf hem grete konnyng,
Touchyng natures ye bothe of erthe and hevene,
And it remembrid sothly by writyng,
To lasten ay for water and for levene;
Generaciouns of hem were sevene,
Whiche for vertue, without werre and stryff,
Travailed in konnyng duryng al theyr lyf.
But for that Adam first dide prophecye
That twyes this world shuld distroyed be,
With water oonys stonde in jupartye,
Next with the fuyre whiche no man may flee;
But Seeth his chieldren al this did wele see,
And made two pillers: wherein men myght grave, From fuyre and water the carectis for to save.
That oone was made of tyles ful harde y-bake,
From touche of fuyre ay for to save scripture;
Of hard marble they dide another make,
Agenst water strongly for to endure,
To save of lettris the prynte and the fygure;
For theyr konnyng aforne gan so provide,
For fuyre and water perpetually to abyde. ✓
They demed theyr konnyng hadde ben al in veyne,
But if that folke with hem han ben partable;
And for theyr labour shulde after be seene,
They it remembred by writyng ful notable,
Unto-fore God a thyng ful commendable,
To hem that folwe by scripture of writyng,
So that men dy departen theyr konnyng.
For in th' olde tyme men dyvers craftis first fonde, In sundry wise, thurgh occupacioune ;
Vertu to cherisshe and vices to confounde,
Theyre wittes they sette and theyr entencioune,
To putte theyr labour in execusioune,
And to outraye, this is the verray trowth,
For mannes lyff is necligence and slowth.
Olde Ennok, ful famous of vertu,
Duryng that age fonde fyrste of everychone,
Thurghe his prudence, the lettres of Ebrew,
Whiche in a piler were keped al of stone,
Til that the floode of Nooe was agone;
And, after hym, Cham was the secunde,
By whom of Ebrew the lettres were first founde,
And Catarismus the first was that founde
Lettres also as of that langage;
But lettres writen withe Goddis owne hand,
Moyses first toke most of his visage,
On Synay as he hield his passage,
Whiche of carectis and names in sentence,
From other writyng had a grete difference.
Eke after this, as other bokes telle,
As seynt Jerom rehersithe in his style,
That under th' empire of Zorobabelle
Esdras of Ebrew first lettres gan compile,
And Abraham gan sithe a grete while,
The first he was in bookis men may se,
That fonde lettres of Cirye and of Caldee.
Isys in Egipt fonde a diversité
Of sundry lettres parted in tweyne;
First to pristes and to the comunalté,
Vulgar lettres he dide also ordeyne,
And Phenicis did theyr besy peyne
Lettres of Greke to fynde in theyr entent,
Whiche that Cadmus into Grece sent.
Of whiche the nombre fully was seventene; Whan that of Troy endid was the bataile, Palamydes theyr langage to sustene,
Put thre theyrto whiche gretely dide avayle. Pictagoras for prudent governayle,
Fonde first out .y. a figure to discerne, Theyre lyff here short and lyff that is eterne.
First Latyn lettres of our .a.b.c.,
Carmentis fonde hem of ful highe prudence;
Grete Omerus in Isodre ye may see,
Among Grekis fonde craft of eloquence;
First in Rome, by soverayne excellence,
Of rethoriques Tullius fonde the floures,
Plee and defence of sotyl oratoures.
Calcicatres a graver most notable,
Of white ivory he dide his besynesse,
His hande, his eye, so just was and stable,
Of an ampte to grave out the lyknesse,
Upon the grounde, as nature doth hym dresse,
This craft he fonde, as dide Sarnadapalle
Fonde ydelnes, moder to vices alle.
Murmyehides, he made a chare also,
And a smal shyppe with al th'apparaile,
So that a by myght close hem both two,
Under his wynges, whiche is grete mervaile,
And nothyng seyn of al the hole entaile,
This crafte he fonde of vertuous besynesse,
To eschew the vice of froward idelnesse.
Perdix by compas fonde tryangle and lyne,
And Euclyte first fonde out geometrye,
And Phebus fonde out the craft of medicyne,
Albumazar fonde first Astronomye;
And Mynerva gan first charis to guye;
Jason first sayled, in story it is tolde,
Toward Colchos to wynne the flees of golde.
Ceres the Goddes fond first the tilthe of londe;
Dionysius fonde the tryumphes transitorye;
And Bellona by force first he fonde,
Conquest by knyghthod and in the fielde victorye;
And Martis soone, as put is in memory,
Called Etholus, fonde first speres sharp and kene, To renne in werre in platis so bright and shene.
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