Iff thou wilte haue a croune of victorie,

Which is better than ony good wordly,

Damee[[521]] thou most folue and purswe

And shalt haue hir, if thou will wele swe.

The fabil seith Damee was a gentylwoman that Phebus loued hertily, and he purswede hire sore, but she wolde not agre to hym. It felle on a day that he sawe the fayre creature go in a way and he folowed and, whanne she sawe hym come, she fledde and the god aftir. And when he was so nere that she sawe well she myght not scape hym, she made hir prayers to the godes Diane that she shulde save hire virginite, and the body of the maydyn chaunged into a grene lorier; and when Phebus was come nere therto, he tooke of the brawnches of the tre and made hym a chaplete in syngne of victorie. And anamly in the tyme[[522]] of the Romayns greete felicite the victorius pepill of theyme were crowned with |f. 66.| lorier. This fabill may haue many vndirstondynges. It myght happe that some myty man with long traveyle swed a lady in so mych that with his grete pursvte he com to his will vndir a lorier, and for that cavse fro theyns forth he loued the lorier and bare it in his devyse in signe of the victorie that he hade of his love vndir the lorier. And allso the lorier may be take for golde, the which betokynyth worchippe. It is seide to the good knyght that he most pursue Damee, if that he will haue a croune of lorier, that is to seyne, payne and traveyle, yf he will com to worchippe. To this purpose Omer seyth, “Be grete diligence a man comyth to grete perfeccion.”

That Damee wolde be purswede for to have a croune of lorier, we may vndirstonde that, yf the goode speryth will haue a glorius victorie, he must haue perseuerance, the which sall lede hym to the victorie of paradyse, of the which the ioies be infynite. As Seynt Grygory seith, “Who hath þat tong that may suffice to tell it, and where is the vndirstondyng that may or canne comprehend it, who[[523]] many ioyes be there in that souereyne cete off paradyse, euer to be present[[524]] ... visage of God, to se the vnscribable lyght, to be in surte neuer to haue fere off deth, to be mery with the gyfte of euerlastyng clennes?” To this purpose Dauid seith in þe Savter, [“Gloriosa dicta sunt de te, civitas Dei”].[[525]]

LXXXVIII.

To the also I make mencion

Off Andromathais[[526]] vision;

Dispite not thi wyfe, I counsell the,