¶ By Mynos the Iuge of hell desparate
¶ May be vnderstonde goddys ryghtwysnes
¶ That to euery wyght his payne deputate
¶ Assygneth acordyng to his wyckednes
¶ Wherfore he is called Iuge of cruelnes
¶ And as for Dyana & Neptunus compleynte
¶ Fygured may be fooles reason feynt.
¶ For lyke as they made her suggestyon
¶ To haue me Colus from cours of hys kynde
¶ Which was Impossyble to bryng to correccyon
¶ For euermore hys lyberte haue wyll the wynde
¶ In lyke wyse fooles other whyle be blynde
¶ Wenyng to subdew with her one honde
¶ That is ouermykell for all an hole londe
¶ But what foloweth therof that shall thou here
¶ When they were come to the bankete
¶ The grete Apollo with his sad chere
¶ Soo fayre & curtously gan theym entret
¶ That he made her beerdys on the new gete
¶ Loo what wysdome dooth to a foole
¶ Wherefore are children put to scoole
¶ Ofte is it seen with sobre contenaunce
¶ That wyse men fooles ouercome ay
¶ Tornyng as hem lyst & all her varyaunce
¶ Chaunge from ernest in to mery play
¶ What were they bothe amendeth that day
¶ When they were dreuen to her wyttes ende
¶ Were they not fayne to graunt to be his frende
¶ Ryght soo fooles when they haue done
¶ All that they can than be they fayne
¶ Gyue vp hed mater to oblyuyone
¶ Without rewarde they haue no more brayne
¶ And yet ful ofte hath hit be sayne
¶ When they it haue foryete & set at nought
¶ That they full dere haue afterwarde it bought
¶ And as for all tho that represent
¶ To be called goddys at that banket
¶ Resemble false ydollys but to his entent
¶ Was Morpleus commaunded thyder the to fet
¶ That thou sholdest know the maner & the get
¶ Of the paynym law and of her byleue
¶ How false ydolatry ledeth hem by the sleue
¶ For soone vppon the worldys creacyon
¶ When Adam and Eve had broke the precept
¶ Whiche clerkes call the tyme of deuyacyon
¶ The worldly people in paynym law slept
¶ Tyll moyses vnder god the tables of stone kept
¶ In whiche tyme Poetes feyned many a fable
¶ To dyscrete Reason ryght acceptable
¶ And to the entent that they sholde sounde
¶ To the eeres of hem the more pleasantly
¶ That theym sholde rede or here the yaue theym a grounde
¶ And addid names vnto theym naturally
¶ Of whom they spake & callid hem goddis hy
¶ Some for the strength & myght of her nature
¶ And some for her sotyll wytty coniecture
¶ By nature thus as the seuen planettes
¶ Haue her propre names by Astronomeres
¶ But goddys were they called by old Poetes
¶ For her gret feruency of werkyng in her speres
¶ Experyence preueth this at all yeres
¶ And for as other that goddys called be
¶ For sotyll wytte that shall I teche the
¶ How they by that hyghe name of god cam
¶ In this sayd tyme the people was so rude
¶ That what maner creature man or woman
¶ Coude ony newelte contryue and conclude
¶ For the comon wele all the multytude
¶ Of the comon people a god sholde hym call
¶ Or a goddesse after hit was fall