XXII.
Pimaliones ymage for to fele,
Iff that thou be wyse, sette þerby no deele, |f. 24.|
For of siche an ymage so wele wroght
The beaute thereof is to dere bought.
Pymalion was a ful sotyl workeman in makyng of ymages, and a ffable seith þat, for þe grete lewdenes that he sawe in the women of Cidonie,[[247]] he dispreisyd them and seyde he shuld make an ymage wherein ther shulde be no thyng for to blame. He mad an ymage after a woman, of souereyne beaute. When he had full made it, loue, the which sotely can ravysshe hertis, made hym to be amorous opon the ymage, so that for hire he was vexed with wooes of love, full of clamorous and full of petyous syghynges that he made to hit. Butte the ymage, which was of ston, vndirstode hym notte. Pymalion wente to the temple of Venus and he made there so deuote prayores to hyre that the godesse [was full] of pete,[[248]] and in shewyng therof the brond that she helde be hire selfe began to take fire and shew flame, and than the louer was mery for þat tokyn and wente toward his ymage and toke it in his armes and warmed it so sore wyth hys nakyd flesch that the ymage hadde lyff and began to speke, and so Pymalyon recouuered ioye.
To this fable may be set [many][[249]] exposicions, and in leche wise to othir sich fables; and the poietes made them becawse that mennes vndirstondyng shuld be the more scharppe and subtyle to fynde dyueres exposicions. It may be vnderstond also by the dyspreysyng that Pymalion dispreysed the lewdenes of lewde wemen and enamoured hym on a mayden of ryght grete beaute, the which wolde not, or myght not, vnderstond hys petous pleyntes, no more than the ymage of a ston had done; that is to sey, that by thynkkyng on the fayre beautes he was enamoured, but at the last he prayed hir so myche and kepte hym so nere hir that the maydyn louyd hym and at his wille [he] had hir to mariage. And thus the ymage that was hard as stone recouuered lyff by the godesse Venus. So it wolde be seyde that the good knygh shuld not be assottede of sych a made ymage in sych wise that he lyst to folowe[[250]] the crafte of armes, to the which he is bownde by þe ordere of knyghthode. And to this purpose seyth Abtalin,[[251]] “It longghit nothyng ffor a prynce to assote hym on nothyng that is to be reproued.”
Pymaliones ymage on qwome þe good knygh shuld not be assotted we shall take for the synne of lechery, from þe which þe knyghtly gostly sperit shuld kepe his body. Wherefor Seynt |f. 25.| Jerom saith in a pistill, “O fire of hell,” seith he, “of whom the woode is glotenye, the flambe is pride, the sparkes is foule wordes, the smoke is evil name, the asches is pouerte, and the ende is the turnementes of hell.” To this purpose seyth Seynt Petir the apostel, [“Voluptatem existimantes diei delicias, coinquinationes et maculæ deliciis affluentes, in conviviis suis luxuriantes”].[[252]]