To speke to mech it is a fowle custome,
And grete foly þerin is to presume.
Saturne, as I haue seide before,[[324]] is a planeth hevy and sclowe. Therfor it is seide to þe good knyght that his tong shulde be leke to hym; for the tong shulde not be to hasty in spekyng to mych, but wysyly, so that it speke non harme of noon, ne no thyng þat a mane myth there impresun folye,[[325]] for a poyete seyth, “By the worde men knowyth a wyse man, and by the looke a foole.”
Be the tong, the which shulde be lech Saturne, is vndirstonden the sadenes[[326]] of speche. Hue of Seynt Victore seith to this purpose that þe mouth þe which hathe not the kepyng of discrecion farith as a cete that is withoute a walle, as a vessell that hathe no bothom,[[327]] as an horse that hath no brydel, and as a chippe þat hath no rothir. An evil kepte tong glydith as an ele, it perchith as an arwe; frendes [are] sone turned therby and ennemyes multiplied. It is sclaunderus and soweth discordes; at a strok it smyttyth and kyllyth many persones. Whoso kepyth his tong kepith his soule; for[[328]] deth and lyffe is in the poure off þe soule. And to this purpose Dauid seith in the Sawter booke, [“Prohibe linguam tuam a malo, et labia tua ne loquantur dolum”].[[329]]
LII.
Beleue the Crow and his true counsell,
And be neuer besy ne trauele
In evil thyngges to be þe berer;
Off thi deme thou mayst be þe suerer.[[330]]
The fable seith that the crowe mette þe ravyn when he browte the tidynges to Phebus of his loue Corinis, þe which hade done |f. 37.| amysse, and she[[331]] requiryd of hym so ferre þat he tolde hyr[[332]] the cawse of this iurneye. But[[333]] she dissalowed hyme because he went not for to gyffe hym example of the same, the which for a lych cas hade ben chassede owte of the pallas howse, where some [time] he was wonte to be gretly avanced. But he wolde not beleue hyr, for þe which harme folowed to hym. Where it is seyde to þe good knyght þat he shulde trost þe crowe; and Platon seith, “Be no iangeler ne to the knyng grete reportur of tydynges.”