LXVII.
Opon the harpe assot the not to sore
Off Orpheus. Yf thou sete any store
Be armes, thou wylte þerin wele spede.
To fre[[415]] instrementis thou hast non nede.
Orpheus was a poyete, and the fabill seyth that he cowde welle pleye on the harrpe, so that the ryngyng[[416]] wateres all only tournyd theyre coruse, and the birdes of the eyre, the wylde bestes and the fres[[417]] serpentis foryate there cruelnes and restyd to here the songge and the swete sounde of his harpe. This is to vnderstond he pleyith so wele that all maner of pepill of whate condicions that they were delytede theyme to here the poietis pley. And becawse that syche instrumentis sotted often the hertis of men, it is seyde to the goode knyght that he shuld not delyte hym to meche therein, for it longeth not to the sones of knyghthode to mvse to mych in instrumentis ne in othir ydylnes. To this purpose an auctorite seyth, “The soule of the instrument is the snare of the serpent”; and Platon seyth, “He þat settyth holy his plesauns of fleysly delythes is more bond þan a sclawe,” that is to seye, than a man that is bought and solde.
Orpheus harpe, vpon the wich a man shulde not be assotted, we may vndirstonde that the knyghtly sperite shulde not be assotted ne mvsyd in no maner of wordly felacheppe, be it kynne or othir. Seynt Austyn seyth in the booke of the Syngularyte off Clerkis that the solytary man felyth lesse prekynges of his fleych that havntyth not voluptuousenes than he that hawntyth it, and lesse it |f. 49.| sterith to couetyse the which seeth not wordly riches[[418]] than he that seeth it. Therefor Dauyd seith, [“Vigilavi et factus sum sicut passer solitarius in tecto”].[[419]]