LI.
Gouerne thou thi tong aftir Saturne;
Late not evill theryn long soiorne.
To speke to mech it is a fowle custome,
And grete foly þerin is to presume.
Saturne, as I haue seide before,[[324]] is a planeth hevy and sclowe. Therfor it is seide to þe good knyght that his tong shulde be leke to hym; for the tong shulde not be to hasty in spekyng to mych, but wysyly, so that it speke non harme of noon, ne no thyng þat a mane myth there impresun folye,[[325]] for a poyete seyth, “By the worde men knowyth a wyse man, and by the looke a foole.”
Be the tong, the which shulde be lech Saturne, is vndirstonden the sadenes[[326]] of speche. Hue of Seynt Victore seith to this purpose that þe mouth þe which hathe not the kepyng of discrecion farith as a cete that is withoute a walle, as a vessell that hathe no bothom,[[327]] as an horse that hath no brydel, and as a chippe þat hath no rothir. An evil kepte tong glydith as an ele, it perchith as an arwe; frendes [are] sone turned therby and ennemyes multiplied. It is sclaunderus and soweth discordes; at a strok it smyttyth and kyllyth many persones. Whoso kepyth his tong kepith his soule; for[[328]] deth and lyffe is in the poure off þe soule. And to this purpose Dauid seith in the Sawter booke, [“Prohibe linguam tuam a malo, et labia tua ne loquantur dolum”].[[329]]