20. Thescile

by: John William Sutton (Editor)

from: The Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers  2006

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Thescile seith: "Thu oughtest to love bettir the boystous and true wordes that bene profitable thanne the sweete wordes that bene medled with barate and flaterye, for somme medlen the venyme with sweete drynkes: and thes medecynes that sonnest geven heele bene bitter and of evel savoure." And seith: "It is an evel thinge for us to be desyerous of goode meetes for the body, and leve the coryous meetes that shulde refresshe the soulle." And seith: "A maryner dare nat put him- self into the see but yf the wynde be propre for hym, and we dyspose oure soulle absolutely to alle maner of wyndes." And seith: "Thu oughtest to do suche thinges as bene moste profitable for the body and moste covenable to the soulle, and flee the contrarye." And seith: "He that counsellith other men wele ought by reasoun to counseyle [fol. 61v] wel himself and to thenke wele on his soule, for ho that can honoure other men and dyshonoure himself it is right a sorowful vyce." And seithe: "In lyke wyse as it becometh a man evel that hathe a foulle body and a sluttysshe to be cladde in cloth of golde or sylke, in lyke wyse it is a lewde thinge to a man for to have grete beauté in his body and vysage and to be full of evell werkes." And seithe: "Lyke as we are bounden of propre nature to kepe oure membres, and namely the heed that is moste pryncipal, meche more are we bounden to kepe that that geveth us suche knoweleche, that is to seye oure undirstondinge." And it was asked him how a man myght kepe himself from angre. He aunsuerd and seide: "Lete him bethenke hym wele that it is impossible that men shulde alleweyes ob- beye to hym, for he himself muste nedes serve at somme tymes othir men, wher- fore he maye not at alle tymes commaunde other men, but he shal be com- maunded himself. And also God seethe everythinge, and yf his thinges weren wele consydered, he shulde nat be at any tyme longe wrothe though so were that he were angred." And he sawe a man whiche was right fatte, to whome he seide: "Thu doste grete peyne for to breke the walles of thi pryson." And seithe: "Whanne thu wilte corecte anothir man, loke thu shewe nat thiself lyke him that wole be avenged on his enemye, but shewe thiself lyke the leeche that speketh sweetely to his paciente, and whanne thu wilt corecte thiself, shewe thee as the seeke man dothe to the leeche."

Go To 21. Gregory

Footnotes

20. THESCILE: FOOTNOTES

1 boystous, blunt.

2 barate, deception.

3 venyme, venom.

4 sonnest geven heele, soonest give healing.

5 desyerous, desirous; meetes, foods; leve, leave; coryous, exquisite.

7 see, sea; wynde, wind.

9 covenable, appropriate.

17 heed, head; meche, much.

23 seethe, sees.

24 wrothe, angry.

26 doste, do; breke, break.

27 wilte, will; wole, will.

28 leeche, physician.

29 seeke, sick.

20. THESCILE: EXPLANATORY NOTES

ABBREVIATIONS: B = Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers, ed. Bühler (1941); CA = Gower's Confessio Amantis; CT = Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; G = Pierpont Morgan Library MS G.66; MED = Middle English Dictionary; OED = Oxford English Dictionary; S = Scrope, Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers, ed. Schofield (1936).

These explanatory notes cannot hope to provide a complete accounting for the source of every proverbial statement in Dicts and Sayings. That task would be a separate book in its own right. Instead, I have attempted to contextualize this rather heterogeneous body of lore by identifying the people and places named in the text, as well as noting points that may be of interest to students and general readers. Those interested in tracing the source of particular quotations should begin by consulting Whiting's Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases From English Writings Mainly Before 1500. Readers are also invited to consult the thorough notes to Knust's Bocados de Oro, the Spanish translation of the original Arabic ancestor of Dicts and Sayings.

1 Thescile. Schofield suggests that this is "Basilius" (S, p. 213n92), by whom I assume she means St. Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea, among the most celebrated of the fourth-century Church doctors. He was one of the "Three Cappadocians," along with Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa.

12 ff. See the note to Plato, lines 400 ff.