The Book of the Knight of Latour Landry
[How to read this book; the moral value of stories.]
The text is lightly glossed; see the glossary in the Riverside Chaucer for words not explained here.
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Page 4 [CHAPTER I] The mirrour of the first redinge of these histories. Hit is a noble and a faire thing for a man or a woman to see and beholde hem-self in the mirrour of auncient stories, the which hathe ben writen by oure aunsetters forto shewe us good enasumples that they dide, to leve and eschewe the evell. And doughtres, I saye this for I am olde, and have lived longe, and see moche more of the world thanne ye. And therfor a parti, after my science, which is not gret, I will shew you, for I have gret desire that ye turn youre hertes and thoughtes to drede and serve God; for he thanne wol sende you good and worship in this world, and in the other. For in certaine all the verray good and worship honest of man and woman cometh of him only, and of none other, And yeveth longe lif and stont in this terrein and worldly [sic] thing like as him lust, for all lieth in his plesir and ordinaunce. And also he yeveth and yeldeth, for the good service that is yeve and do to him, the double an hundred tymes. And therfor, doughtres, it is good to serve such a lorde that gardoneth his seruant in suche wise. |
ancestors knowledge stands as he desires pleasure given and done rewards |
From The Book of the Knight of La Tour-Landry, EETS o.s. 33, London, ed. Thomas Wright (from MS Harley 1764 and Caxton's Print) rev. ed. 1903 [Widener 11472.33.3], corrected in few minor details.