LXV.
Iff to grete desyre will them brynge
To loue mechell disporte of huntynge,
Dadonius[[408]] than remenbre may the,
For with a woode wilde bore dede was he.
Dadanius was a ioly gentylman[[409]] and of grete beaute. Venus loued hym paramoures, but because he delytyd hym to myche in huntyng, Venus, the wich douted that some hurt myth com to hym by some aventure, she prayed hym ofte to be ware how he huntyd to grete bestes. But Dadonius wolde not be ware, and therfor he was slayne wyth a wilde bore. Therfor it is seyde to the good knyght that, yf he wille all gates hunte, late [hym] kepe hym from sych huntyng that may doo hym harme. To this purpose the profete Sedechias[[410]] seith that a knyght shulde not suffre his sone hunte to myche ne be ydyll, but he shulde make hym to be enformed to goode condicions and to fle vanyte.
How he shulde thynke on Dadonius may be vnderstondyn that, yif the goode sperite be in any wyse out off the weye, that at the leste he shulde thynke on the grete perell of perseuerance; for, as the fende hath grete myght opon synners, Seynt Petir seythe in the secund Pystyll[[411]] that synners ben bownde to corupcion and the fende hath power ouer theyme, for he that in batayle is ouercome of an othir is becomyn bonde to hym. And in tokyn therof it is seyde in the Pocalipse, [“Data est bestiæ potestas in omnem tribum et populum.”][[412]]