[Sidenote: You, who have made so much progress in virtue, are not to be carried away by delights and bodily lusts.]
¶ Ne certys þou þat art put in þe encrese or in þe hey[gh]t of uertue ne hast nat comen to fleten wiþ delices { and} forto welken in bodyly lust.
[Sidenote: You must engage in a fierce conflict with every fortune--with adversity, lest it dismay you--with prosperity, lest it corrupt you.]
¶ þou sowest 4224 or plauntest a ful egre bataile in þi corage a[gh]eins euery fortune. for þat þe sorweful fortune ne co{ n}fou{ n}de þe nat. ne þat þe myrye fortune ne corrumpe þe nat.
[Sidenote: Seize the _golden mean_ with all your strength. All below or above this line is a contemptible and a thankless felicity.]
¶ Occupy þe mene by stedfast strengþes. for al þat euer is vndir 4228 þe mene. or ellys al þat ou{ er}-passeþ þe mene despiseþ welefulnesses. ¶ As who seiþ. it is vicious { and} ne haþ no mede of hys trauaile.
[Sidenote: The choice of fortune lies in your own hands, but remember that even adverse fortune, unless it exercises the virtues of the good or chastises the wicked, is a punishment.]
¶ For it is set in [gh]our{ e} hand. as who seiþ it lieþ in [gh]our{ e} power what fortune [gh]ow is 4232 leuest. þat is to seyne good or yuel. ¶ For alle fortune þat semeþ sharpe or aspre yif it ne ex{ er}cise nat þe good [[pg 147]] folk. ne chastisiþ þe wicked folk. it punisseþ.
[Linenotes: 4210 _soþe_--soth 4211 _confessen_--co{ n}fesse 4212 _no strong_--the stronge 4213 _abassen_--abayssen 4215 _oft[e]_--ofte 4219 _seine_--seyn 4223 _hey[gh]t_--heyhte 4224 _welken_--wellen 4226 _confounde_--MS. co{ n}fou{ n}ded, C. confownde 4227 _Occupy_--Ocupye 4228 _stedfast_--stydefast 4230 _haþ_--MS. haþe 4231 _set_--MS. sette, C. set 4232 _lieþ_--lith 4233 _seyne_--seyn 4234 _sharpe_--sharp]
[Sidenote: Atrides carried on a ten years' war to punish the licentious Paris.]
++ÞE wrekere attrides ¶ þat is to seyne agamenon þat 4236 wrou[gh]t[e] { and} continued[e] þe batailes by ten [gh]ere recouered[e] { and} p{ ur}ged[e] in wrekyng by þe destrucc{ i}ou{ n} of troie þe loste chambres of mariage of hys broþer þis is to seyn þat [he] agamenon wan a[gh]ein Eleine þat 4240 was Menelaus wif his broþer.
[Sidenote: With blood he purchased propitious gales for the Grecian fleet, by casting off all fatherly pity, and sacrificing his daughter Iphigenia to the vengeance of Diana.]