XIX.
Ferre ne[[233]] slowe be ware that thou not be;
Fro[[234]] the malyce loke that thou kepe the
Off Vlyxes, that the geauntes ye[[235]]
Stale, though he looke neuer so clerely.
A ffable seyth that, when Vlixes retorned into Grece aftir the |f. 22.| destruccion off Troye, grete rages of tempestes brought hys chip into an ile where a geaunt was that hade but on eye in the myddes of his forred, the whiche was of an hooges gretnes. Vlixes by hy sutylte stale it and toke it fro hym, that ys to saye he putte it owte. This is to vndyrstond that the good knyght shulde be ware that slowthe ouercome hym not with disseytes and willes of malycyous peple, so that his eye be not takyn away, that is to seye, the eye of his vndirstondynge in his worchip, in his gettyng or in that the which is derrer to hym, as many inconu[en]iencies falleth ofte throwe slowthe and lachesse. And to this purpose Hermes seythe, “Blyssyd is he that vsyth hys dayes in dwe occupacions.”
Where it is seide that the good knygh shulde not be ferre ne slowe, we may vndyrstond the synne of slewthe, the which the good spiryte shuld not haue. For, as Bede[[236]] seith in Salomones Prouerbes, the slowe man is not worthi to rengne with God, the which wil not laboure for the lowe of God, and he is not worthi to receyve the coronne promysyd to knyghtes that is a coward to vndyrtake feldes of baytaile. Therefor the Scripture seyth, [“Cogitationes robusti semper in abundantia, omnis autem piger semper in egestate est”].[[237]]