Of cloth of golde a mantel riche,
Which femeth worth a kinges riche,
And that was unto Creufa fent
In name of yeft and of present,
For fufterhode hem was betwene.
And whan that yonge freshe quene
That mantel lapped her aboute,
Anon therof the fire sprang oute
And brent her bothe fleshe and bon.
Tho cam Medea to Jason
With both his fones on her honde
And faid: O thou of
The most untrewe creature,
Lo, this shall be thy forfeiture.
With that she both his fones flough
Before his eye, and he out drough
His fwerd and wold have flain her tho,
But farewell she was ago
Unto Pallas the court above,
Where as the pleigneth upon love,
As fhe, that was with that goddeffe,
And he was lefte in great diftreffe.
Thus might thou fe, what forwe it doth
To fwere an oth, which is nought foth,
In loves cause namely.
My fone, be well ware forthy
And kepe, that thou be nought forfwore.
For this, whiche I have told to-fore,
Ovide telleth every dele.
My fader, I may leve it wele,
For I have herde it ofte say,
How Jafon toke the flees awey
Fro Colchos, but yet herde I nought,
By whom it was first thider brought.
And for it were good to here,
If that you lift at my praieré
To telle I wold you befeche.
My fone, who that woll it feche,
In bokes he may finde it write.
And netheles, if thou wolt wite
In the maner as thou hast preide,
I shall the tell, how it is faide.
The fame of thilke shepes felle,
Whiche in Colchos, as it befelle,
Was all of gold, shal never deie,
Wherof I thenke for to say,
Howe it cam firft into that ile.
There was a king in thilke while
Towardes Grece, and Athemas
The cronique of his name was.
And had a wif, which Philen hight,
By whom, fo as fortune it dight,
He had of children yonge two.
Frixus the firfte was of tho,
A knave child, right faire with all.
A doughter eke, the which men call
Hellen, he hadde by his wife.
But for there may no mannes life
Endure this erthe here,
This worthy quene, as thou might here,
Nota,qualiter aureum vellus in partes infule Colchos primo devenit. Athemas rex Philen habuit conjugem, ex qua Frixum et Hellen genuit, mortua autem Philen Athemas Ynonem regis Cadmi filiam poftea in uxorem duxit, que more noverce dictos infantes in tantum recollegit odium, quod ambos in mari proici penes regem procuravit, unde Juno compaciens quendam arietem grandem aureo vestitum vellere ad litus natantem deftinavit, fuper cuius dorfum pueros apponi juffit, quo facto aries fuper undas regreffus cum folo Frixo fibi adherente in Colchos applicuit, ubi Juno dictum arietem cum fuo vellere, prout in aliis canitur cronicis, fub arcta cuftodia collocavit.
Toke of her ende the paffage
With great worship and was begrave.
What thing it liketh god to have
It is great refon to ben his.
Forthy this king, fo as it is,
With great fuffrance it underfongeth.
And afterward, as him belongeth,
Whan it was time for to wedde,
A newe wife he toke to bedde,
Whiche Yno hight and was a maide
And eke the doughter, as men faide,
Of Cadme, whiche a king also
Was holde in thilke daies tho.
Whan Yno was the kinges make,
She cast, how that she mighte make
These children to her fader loth
And shope a wile ayein hem both,
Which to the king was all unknowe.
yere or two fhe let do fowe
The lond with fode whete aboute,
Wherof no corn may fpringen oute.
And thus by fleight and by covine
Aros the derth and the famine
Through out the londe in fuch a wife,
So that the king a facrifice
Upon the point of this diftreffe
To Ceres, which is the goddesse
Of corne, hath shape him for to yive
To loke, if it may be foryive
The mischefe, which was in his londe.
But she, which knewe to-fore the honde,
The circumstance of all this thing,
Ayein the coming of the king
Into the temple hath fhape fo
Of her accord, that alle tho,
Which of the temple preftes were,
Have faid and full declared there
Unto the king, but if so be,
That he deliver the contre
Of Frixus and of Hellen bothe,
With whom the goddes ben fo wrothe,
That while tho children ben withinne,
Such tilthe shall no man beginne,
Wherof to get him any corne.
Thus was it faid, thus was it fworne
Of all the preftes, that there are.
And fhe, which causeth all this fare,
Said eke therto, what that the wolde.
And every man than after tolde
So as the quene had hem preide.
The king, which hath his ere leide
And leveth all, that ever he herde,
Unto her tales thus answerde
And faith, that lever him is to chefe
His children bothe for to lefe
Than him and all the remenaunt
Of hem, which are appertenaunt
Unto the lond, whiche he shall kepe.
And bade his wife to take kepe
In what manere is beft to done,
That they delivered were fone
Out of this worlde. And she anone
Two men ordeineth for to gone,
But first she made hem for to fwere,
That they the children fhulde bere
Unto the fee, that none it knowe,
And hem therinne bothe throwe.
The children to the fee ben lad,
Where in the wife, as Yno bad,
These men be redy for to do.
But the goddeffe, which Juno
Is hote, appereth in the stede
And hath unto the men forbede,
That they the children nought ne slee,
But bad hem loke into the fee
And taken hede of that they fighen.
There swam a shepe to-fore her eyen,
Whose flees of burned gold was all.
And this goddesse forth with all
Commaundeth, that withoute let
They fhulde anon the children set
Above upon the shepes back.
And all was do, right as she spak,
Wherof the men gone home ayein.
And fell fo, as the bokes fain,
Hellen the yonge maiden tho,
Whiche of the fee was wo bego,
pure drede her hert hath lore, That fro the fhepe, which hath her bore,
|