XVII.
Athamas full of ryght grete madnes, |f. 20.|
The goodes verily of woodnes,
She feirsly strangled hir childern tweyne.[[218]]
Therefor ire I thefende the pleyne.
Athamas was a kyng maried to qwene Yno, the which made sothyn[[219]] corne to be sowne for to disheryte hyr[[220]] stepe childire, for she[[221]] with mony coromped the prestes of the lawe, the which reported the answeres of the godes, thus seyyng to the kyng or to theyme of the cuntre that the corne that the men hadden sowene profyted not, where it plesyd the godes that .ii.o fayre and ientyl childir the whiche the kyng hade were dreven away and exiled. And becawse that the kyng consentyd [to] the exillyng of the .ii.o childyrne, all though that he dyde [it] ayens hys wylle and wyth grete sorowe, the fabyl seyth that the godes Iuno[[222]] wolde take vengance therefor and went into helle to compleyne to the godesse of woodnes that sche myght come to the kyng Athamas. Than the orrible and the fereful goodes come with all hir serpently herres and sette hyr on the fumerelle[[223]] of the palais and streged hir armes to bothe sydys of the yate, and than there began sych stryfe betwene the kyng and the qwene that werrant[[224]] yche of them hade slayne othir. And whan they wend a hade rune oute of the palais, than þe woode goodes drwe out of hyr ryght foule herres .iio. horrible serpentis and kest in there lappes; and qwen that the goodes saw theyme so ferefull,[[225]] than they wexe both madde. Athamas slewe the qwene for woodnes and than his .ii.o childerne, and hym selfe leep into the see of frome a hght roche. The exposycion of this fable may wele be that a qwen myght be so dyuers to stepe chyldirne that for some malice she myght disheryte hem, for the which after pes myght notte be hadde betwene the fadir and the steppe modir. And it myght be soo that at the last he slewe theyme. And because that ire is a dedly vice and soo evyle that he that is sore teynt therewyth hath no knowyng of reson, it is seide to the goode knyght that he shuld kepe hym from ire, for it is too grete defaute in a goode knyght to be angry. And there[fore] Arystotile seithe “Kepe the from ire, for it trobelyth the vndyrstondyng and destroubeth reson.”
Be Athamas, the which was soo full of ire, we shall propirly vnderstond the synne of ire, the whiche the goode spyryte shuld woyde from hyme. And Seynte Austyn seith in a pistyll, “Lech as venegre, where it is poote, corrompeth the vessell that it is in, yf it abyde longe therinne, so ire corrumpyth the hert wherein it is sette, yf that it abyde long thereinne, that is to seye fro day to day.”[[226]] |f. 21.| Therfor seyth Seynt Poule the postell, [“Sol non occidat super iracundiam vestram”].[[227]]