e, yet for feare lest he shulde lose
the first somme, with moche grutchynge he lente hym the other fyfty
crownes. And so wente home to his house ryghte heuye and sorowfull in
his mynde. Thus thynkynge and dredynge diuers thynges, he passed many
nyghtes awaye without slepe. And as he laye wakyng, he harde his wyfe
nowe and than rappe out *****. At the monethes' ende the lorde sente for
the marchant, and asked him, if he neuer sythe harde his wyfe let a
*****. The marchant aknoweleginge his folye, answered thus: Forsothe,
syr, if I shulde for euery ***** paye a souper, all my goodes and landes
wolde nat suffice therto. After whiche answere, the lorde payde the
marchant his money, and the marchant payde the souper.

Here by ye maye se, that many thinges passe by them that slepe, and it
is an old sayenge: He that slepeth, byteth no body. By this tale ye may
note also that they, the whiche fortune swetelye enbraceth, take theyr
reste and slepe soundely; And contrarye wyse, they that bene oppressed
with aduersite, watche sorowefullye whan they shulde slepe. This man,
which for a very folisshe thing preysed his wyfe, afterwarde whan a
lyttell care beganne to crepe aboute his stomacke, he perceiued that
faute in her ryght great. The morall boke, called Cato,[195] counsayleth
vs to watche for the more parte: For moche slomber and slepe is the
norisshinge of vice.

FOOTNOTES:

[195] Vide supra, p. 22.

+ _Of the friere that gaue scrowes agaynst the pestilence._ xxxvii.

+ Amonge the limitours[196] in the cyte of Tiburtine (Tivoli), was a
certayne friere, which vsed to preache about in the villages to men of
the countrey: and for as moch as they greately suspecte[d] that a plague
of pestilence shulde come amonge them, he promysed eche of them a lytell
scrowe:[197] which he sayde was of suche a vertue, that who so euer bare
hit hangynge aboute his necke xv dayes shulde nat dye of the pestilence.
The folisshe people trustynge herevpon, euerye one after his power gaue
him money for a scrowe; and with a threde of a mayden's spynninge, they
hanged hit aboute their neckes. But he charged them that they shuld nat
open it tyll the xv dayes ende: for, if they did, he sayde hit had no
vertue. So whan the frire hadde gathered moche moneye, he wente his
waye. Soone after (as the desyre of folkes is to knowe newes) the sayd
scrowes were redde, in which was writen in Italian speche:

_Donna, si fili et cadeti lo fuso,
Quando