For they to-gider may nought dwelle.

For as the water of the welle

Of fire abateth the malice,

Right fo vertu fordoth the vice.

Ayein envie is charite,

Whiche is the moder of pite,

That maketh a mannes herte tender,
That it may no malice engender

In him, that is inclined therto.
For his corage is tempred fo,

That though he might him self releve,
Yet wolde he nought another greve,
But rather for to do plesaunce

He bereth him felven the grevaunce,
So fain he wolde another efe.

Wherof, my fone, for thin efe
Now herken a tale, whiche I rede,
And understonde it well I rede.
Among the bokes of latin

Hic ponit confeffor exemplum de virtute charitatis contra invi- I

diam et narrat de

finde it writ of Conftantin, Conftantino Elene fi- The worthy emperour of Rome, lio, qui cum imperii Such infortunes to him come, Romani dignitatem

obtinuerat, a morbo Whan he was in his lufty age, lepre infectus, medici

pro fanitate recupe- The lepre caught in his visage

randa ipfum in fan

guine puerorum maf- And fo forth over all aboute,

culorum balneare

propofuerant,fed cum That he ne mighte riden oute.

› left he bothe shield and spere,

s he that might him nought beftere,
nd helde him in his chamber close.
hrough all the world the fame arose.
The grete clerkes ben affent
nd com at his commaundement
To tret upon this lordes hele.
o longe they to-gider dele,
That they upon this medicine
Appointen hem and determine,
That in the maner as it stood

They wolde him bath in childes blood
Withinne feven winter

age.

For as they fain, that fhulde affuage
The leper and all the violence,
Which that they knewe of accidence
And nought by way of kinde is falle.
And therto they accorden alle
As for finall conclufion

And tolden her opinion

To themperour. And he anone
His counfeil toke, and therupon
With letters and with feales out
They send in every londe about
The yonge children for to feche,
Whose blood, they faid, fhulde be leche
For themperours maladie.

There was inough to wepe and crie
Among the moders, whan they herde,
How wofully this cause ferde.

innumera multitudo matrum cum filiis huiufmodi medicine caufa in circuitu palacii affuiffet imperatorque eorum gemitus et clamores percepiffet, charitate motus ingemifcens fic ait: Overe eft ipfe dominus, qui fe facit fervum pietatis. Et his dictis ftatum fuum cunctipotentis medele committens, fui ipfius morbum pocius quam infancium mortem benignius elegit,unde ipfe, qui antea paganus et leprofus extiterat, ex unda baptifmatis renatus utriufque materie tam corporis quam anime divino miraculo confecutus eft falutem.

But netheles they moten bowe,
And thus women there come inowe,
With children foukend on the tete
Tho was there many teres lete.

And

The

But were hem liefe or were hem loth, The women and the children both Into the paleis forth be brought With many a fory hertes thought Of hem, whiche of her body bore The children hadde, and fo forlore Within a while shulden fe. The moders wepe in her degre many of hem a fwoune falle, yonge babies crieden alle. This noife arose, this lorde it herde And loked out, and how it ferde He figh, and as who faith abraide Out of his flepe and thus he saide : O thou divine purveaunce, Which every man in the balaunce Of kinde haft formed to be liche, The pouer is bore as is the riche And dieth in the fame wife, Upon the fole, upon the wife Sikneffe and hele enter comune, May none efcheue that fortune, Which kinde in her lawe hath fette. Her ftrengthe and beaute ben besette To every man aliche free,

That she preferreth no degree

As in the difpoficion

Of bodely complexion.

And eke of foule refonable

The pouer childe is bore as able
To vertue as the kinges fone.
For every man his owne wone
After the luft of his affay
The vice or vertue chefe may.
Thus ftonden alle men fraunchised,
But in estate they ben devised,
To fome worship and richeffe,

To fome pouerte and diftreffe.
One lordeth and an other ferveth,
But yet as every man deserveth

The world yeveth nought his yeftes here.

But certes he hath great matere
To ben of good condicion,
Whiche hath in his subjection

The men, that ben of his femblaunce.
And eke he toke his remembraunce,
How he that made lawe of kinde
Wolde every man to lawe binde
And bad a man, fuche as he wolde,
Toward him self right such he sholde
Toward an other done also.

And thus this worthy lord as tho
Set in balaunce his owne estate
And with him self stood in debate
And thoughte, howe it was nought good
To fe fo mochel mannes blood

Be fpilt by cause of him alone.
He figh also the grete mone
Of that the moders were unglad
And of the wo the children made,
Wherof that all his herte tendreth
And fuch pite within engendreth,
That him was lever for to chefe
His owne body for to lefe,
Than se so great a mordre wrought
Upon the blood, which gilteth nought.
Thus for the pite, whiche he toke,
All other leches he forfoke

And put him out of aventure

Alonly into goddes cure

And faith: who that woll maister be

He mot be fervaunt to pite.

So ferforth he was overcome

With charite, that he hath nome
His counfeil and his officers,
And badde unto his treforers,
That they his trefour all about
Departe among the pouer route

Of women and of children both,
Wherof they might hem fede and cloth
And faufly tornen home ayein
Withoute lofs of

any grein.
Through charite thus he dispendeth
His good, wherof that he amendeth
The pouer people and countrevaileth
The harm, that he hem fo travaileth.