+ _Of Augustus and Athenodorus the Phylosopher._ cxxxvii.

+ What tyme Athenodorus the Phylosopher had (by reason of hys greate
age) obteyned lycence of Auguste to depart home, he admonysshed him,
that beyng angry, he should neyth saye nor dooe any thyng, before he had
by hym selfe rehearsed ouer the xxiiii Greeke letters. Whych saying whan
the prince heard, he sayed: he had yet nede of him to teache hym the
arte to keepe sylence, by coloure whereof he retayned the olde man about
hym a whole yere longer.

By this tale we maie perceyue, that of al things a prince, a ruler, a
iudge ought specyally to eschewe wrathe. For the morall booke sayeth:
Anger troubleth the mynde, that it can not discerne the truth. And
Seneca wryteth, that slowe tarryinge doeth profite in nothyng but in
wrathe.

+ _Of the frenche kyng and the brome seller._[339] cxxxviii.

+ As a Frenche kyng on a tyme was in huntyng, he hapned to lose his
companie, and comyng through a brome heath, he herde a poore man and his
wife piteously complayne on fortune. The kyng, after he had wel heard
the long lamentacion of theyr poore and miserable state, came vnto them,
and after a few words he questioned with them howe they liued. They
shewed him, how they came daily to that heath, and all the brome, that
thei and their asse coud cary home, was lyttell enough to finde theim
and their poor children meat. Well (quoth the kyng), loke that you bryng
to morow early to the court gate as many bromes as you and your asse can
carye, and see that you sell them well. For I warrant you thei shalbe
bought apase. They thanked hym, and so he departed from them. Anon came
the lordes, knightes, and gentilmen to the kinge, and home they rode.
After supper the kyng called them all before hym, and gaue them in
commaundement that neither lord, knyght, nor gentilman, should on the
morow come into the courte wythout a new brome in his hande. For he had
a thyng to doe, whiche they shoulde know afterwarde. So on the morowe,
whan they come to the court gate, there found they the poore man, his
wife and the asse, loded with bromes, whiche hee solde to the galauntes
of the court, euen as he wolde him selfe. Wherby the sayd poore man was
made riche for euer and they lyttell the woorse. Thus whan the kynge
sawe the states and gentilmen of his court come in so wel furnished with
grene bromes, and consydring the cause wherfore it was, he laughed
merilye.

FOOTNOTES:

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