LXII.
Iff it happe thou be of loue doited,[[395]]
Be ware at the leste to whom thou tell it;
That thi dedes discouered not be,
Vmbethynke the welle of Semelle.[[396]]
The fable seith that Semelle was a gentylwoman that Jubiter loved paramours. Juno, the wiche was in ialoucie, tooke the lekenes of an auncient woman and cam to Semelle and with fayre wordys began to reson hyre in so moche that Semelle knowliged to hyre all the love off hyre and of hyr loue, and to [be] well beloued and knowen of hyme she vaunted hire. The godesse þanne seyde to hir, the |f. 45.| wiche tooke no hede of the dissayte, [that] she perceyued[[397]] nothyng yit of the love of hire love, [but] when she shulde be nexte with hym, that she shulde aske hym a yifte and, when she hadde well requyred hym and that he hadde grawnted, that she shulde desyre of hym that he wolde vouchesafe to halse[[398]] hir in syche wyse as [he] halsed Juno his wyffe, when that he wolde solace hym with here, and in syche wyse myght she perceyue the loue of hyre love. Semelle fforyate it not, and when she hade made the requeste to Jubiter, the wiche hade promysyd it hyre and as a god that myght not calle it agayne, he was full sori and wyst wele that sche hadde bene disseyved. Than Jubiter tooke lekenes of fire[[399]] and halsed his loue, the wiche in a litell while was all bruled and brent, for the wiche Jubiter was full hevy of þat aventure. Opon this fabill may be takyn many vnderstondynges, anamly opon the science off astronomie, as maystris seyne. But it may be allso that be some weye a gentilwoman may be disseyved by the wyffe of hyr loue, wherethrowgh hym selfe made hir to die be inaduertance. And therfor it is seyde to the good knyght that he shuld be ware, whanne he spekyth of a thyng that he wolde that it were secrete, afore or he speke hys worde, to whome he seyth it and whatte he seyth, for by the circumstances thyngges ma ben vndirstondyn. Therefor Hermes seith, “Shewe not the secretes of thi thoughtes but to thoo that thou hast well preued.”
How he shulde take hede to whome he spekyth we may vndirstond that the good sperite, what so euer hys thowtys be, he shulde be ware in euery cas where evil suspeccion myght falle to ony othir. As Seynt Austyn seith in the booke of Job,[[400]] that we shuld not all only sete store to haue good conscience, but in as myche as owre infirmyte may, and as myche [as] the diligence of mankyndly frelnes may, wee shuld take good hede that we dede no thyng that myght come to evil suspeccion to owre stedefast brothir.[[401]] To this purpose seith Seynt Poule the apostle, [“In omnibus præbe te ipsum exemplum bonorum operum”].[[402]]