Wherefore take heed, all ye that be parents,
And follow a part after my counsel;
Instruct your children and make them students,
That unto all goodness they do not rebel;
Remember what writeth Solomon the wise:
_Qui parcit virgae, odit filium_.
Therefore for as much as ye can devise,
Spare not the rod, but follow wisdom:
Further, ye young men and children also,
Listen to me and hearken a while,
What in few words for you I will show
Without any flattery, fraud, or guile.
This rich man's son whom we did set forth
Here evidently before our eyes,
Was (as it chanced) nothing worth:
Given to all noughtiness, vice, and lies.
The cause whereof was this for a truth:
His time full idly he did spend,
And would not study in his youth,
Which might have brought him to a good end;
His father's commandment he would not obey,
But wantonly followed his fantasy,
For nothing that he could do or say
Would bring this child to honesty.
And at the last (as here ye might see)
Upon a wife he fixed his mind,
Thinking the same to be felicity,
When indeed misery came behind;
For by this wife he carefully[379] lived,
Who under his father did want nothing,
And in such sort was hereby tormented,
That ever anon he went lamenting.
His father did will him lightness[380] to leave,
And only to give himself unto study,
But yet unto virtue he would not cleave,
Which is commodious for soul and body.
You heard that by sentences ancient and old,
He stirred his son as he best thought;
But he, as an unthrift stout and bold,
His wholesome counsel did set at nought;
And since that he despised his father,
God unto him did suddenly then send
Such poverty with a wife and grief together,
That shame and sorrow was his end.
Pages:
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232