m what
it was, but he was ashamed to shew. So moche the kyng instanted[181]
hym, that at laste he confessed hit was a louce. Oh! quod the kynge, it
is good lucke: for this declareth me to be a man. For that kynde of
vermyne principally greueth mankynde, specially in youth. And so the
kynge commanded to gyue him fyfty crownes for his labour.

Nat longe after, an other, seynge that the kynge gaue so good a rewarde
for so smalle a pleasure, came and kneled downe, and put vp his hande,
and made as though he toke and conueyed some what priuelye awaye. And
whan the kynge constrayned him to tell what hit was, with moche
dissemblyng shamfastnes he sayd, hit was a flee. The kynge, perceyuinge
his dissimulation, sayd to him: what, woldest thou make me a dogge? and
so for his fifty crownes, that he prooled[182] for, the kinge commaunded
to gyue him fiftye strypes.

Wherby ye may note, that there is great difference betwene one that doth
a thynge of good will and mynde, and hym that doth a thynge by crafte
and dissymulation; whiche thinge this noble and moste prudent prince
well vnderstode. And one ought to be well ware[183] howe he hath to do
with highe princes and their busynes. And if _Ecclesiast[es]_ forbid,
that one shall mynde none yll to a kynge, howe shulde any dare speake
yll?

FOOTNOTES:

[181] Importuned.

+ _Of Thales the astronomer that fell in a ditch._ xxv.

+ Laertius wryteth,[184] that Thales Milesius wente oute of his house
vpon a time to beholde the starres for a certayn cause: and so longe he
went backeward, that he fell plumpe in to a ditche ouer the eares;
wherfore an olde woman, that he kepte in his house laughed and sayde to
him in derision: O Thales, how shuldest thou haue knowlege in heuenly
thinges aboue, and knowest nat what is here benethe vnder thy feet?

FOOTNOTES:

[182] Prowled.

[183] Careful.

[184] Diogenes Laertius (_Lives of the Philosophers_, translated by
Yonge. 1853, p. 18).

+ _Of the astronomer that theues robbed._ xxvi.

+ As an astronomer that satte vpon a tyme in the market place of a
certayne towne, and toke vpon him to dyuine and to shewe what theyr
fortunes and chaunses shuld be, that came to him: there came a felow and
tolde him (as it was in deede) that theues had broken in to his house,
and had borne away all that he hadde. These tidinges greued him so sore,
that all hevy and sorowefullye he rose vp and wente his waye. Whan the
felowe sawe him do s