their
wordes slee[191] theyr enmyes a great waye of, but whan they se theyr
enmye, they put on a sure breste plate and a gorget of a myle of
lengthe. Plutarche wryteth that, whan Memnon made warre for Darius
agaynste Alexander, he harde one of his souldyours crake and speake many
yll wordes agaynst Alexander; wherfore he rapte hym on the pate with a
iauelynge, sayenge: I hyred the to fyght agaynste Alexandre, and not to
crake and prate.

Otherwhyle sayth Quintus Curtius, the couetousnes of glory and
insaciable desire of fame causeth, that we thynke nothing ouermoche or
ouer hard. But Salust saith: Before a man enterprise any feate, he ought
fyrst to counsayle: and after to go in hande there with nat
heedlynge[192] nor slowly.

FOOTNOTES:

[189] Dreams. Thus Chaucer, in the opening lines of the _House of Fame_
(called in the old editions and in the present text the _Boke of Fame_),
says:--

"God turne us every dreme to goode! For hyt is wonder thing, be the
roode, To my wytte, what causeth swevenes Eyther on morwes, or on
evenes."

For examples of the later use of the word, see Nares by Halliwell and
Wright, art. _Sweven_.

[190] Boasting.

[191] Singer reads _flee_.

+ _Of hym that fell of a tre and brake his rybbe._ xxx.

+ There was a husbande man whiche, on a tyme, as he clymbed a tree to
gette downe the frute, felle and brake a rybbe in his syde. To comforte
hym there came a very merye man whiche, as they talked to gether sayde,
he wolde teache hym suche a rule that, if he wold folowe it, he shuld
neuer falle from tree more. Marye, sayde the hurte man, I wolde ye hadde
taught me that rule before I felle: neuer the lesse, bycause it may
happe to profyte me in tyme to come, lette me here what it is. Than the
other sayd: Take hede, that thou go neuer downe faster than thou wentest
vp, but discende as softly as thou clymmest vp; and so thou shalt neuer
fall.

By this tale ye may note, that abidyng and slownesse otherwhile are
good and commendable, specially in those thynges, wherin spede and
hastines cause great hurte and damage. Seneca saythe: A sodayne thynge
is nought.

FOOTNOTES:

[192] Headlong.

+ _Of the frier that brayde in his sermon._ xxxi.

+ A fryer, that preached to the people on a tyme, wolde otherwhyle crie
out a loude (as the maner of some fooles is) whiche brayenge dyd so moue
a woman that stode herynge his sermone, that she wepte. He, parceyuyng
that, thought in hi