Salomon, Solomon; the reference is to Prov. xxi. 23; cf. Ps. xxxiv. 13.
317. Sayings similar to those quoted below are common; but Dr. E. Köppel has shewn (in Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen, ed. L. Herrig, vol. lxxxvi, p. 44) that Chaucer had particularly in mind a treatise by Albertano of Brescia, entitled De arte loquendi et tacendi. He refers us to a new edition by Thor Sundby, in a work entitled Brunetto Latinos levnet og skrifter, Kopenhagen, 1869.
We may further compare a passage in Le Roman de la Rose, 7069, which professes to follow Ptolemy's Almagest. And we find similar pieces of advice in Middle English, with such titles as 'How the Good Wife taught her Daughter,' and 'How the Wise man taught his Son'; but these are probably later than the time of Chaucer.
325. The corresponding passage in Albertano's treatise is the following, p. xcviii:—'Paucos vel neminem tacendo, multos loquendo circumventos vidimus, quod pulchre voluit, qui ait: Nil tacuisse nocet, nocet esse saepe locutum.' This hexameter is quoted from Dionysius Cato, Distich. lib. i. dist. 12, slightly altered. Cato has: 'Nam nulli tacuisse nocet, nocet esse locutum.' Cf. the common proverb—'a fool's bolt is soon shot,' which appears in the Proverbs of Alfred, l. 421. As to Cato, see note to G. 688.
329. The corresponding passage in Albertano is:—'Causa igitur finalis tui dicti sit aut pro Dei servitio aut pro humano commodo, aut pro utroque'; p. cx.
332. In Albertano's treatise, p. xcvi, we find:—'Catho dixit: Virtutem primam esse puta compescere linguam.' From Dion. Cato, Distich. lib. i. dist. 3. Chaucer quotes it again in Troilus, iii. 294. Cf. Le Rom. de la Rose, 7073-4.
335. Cf. Albertano, p. cxv:—'In quantitate insuper modum requiras non multa dicendo; nam in multiloquio non deest peccatum.' This refers to Prov. x. 19:—'In multiloquio non deerit peccatum.'
340. Cf. Ps. lvii. 4:—'and their tongue a sharp sword.'
344. See Prov. vi. 17, where 'a lying tongue' is said to be one of the seven things which 'are an abomination unto' the Lord. See also Prov. x. 31, xvii. 20, xxvi. 28, &c.