The Booke of Thenseygnementes and Techynge that the Knyght of the Towre made to his Doughters/Chapter 90
HOW CATHONET EXPOSED HIS AUENTURE OR HAP.
OW haue ye herd how it is happed to me by cause i dyd not byleue the counceylle of my Fader, whiche was so trewe and wyse a man. To me therfore is come almost a grete euylie." And notwithstondynge thus sayd Cathonet to themperour, "Syre, I rendre and discharge me of your offyce, and from hensforth I shalle not be enpeched of hit." And he therof was discharged with grete payne. Neuertheles he wasfreteyned for to be mayster of the grete counceill of Rome, and in especiall of the grete fayttes and dedes. And themperour made hym to haue grete prouffitees, and gaf hym grete yeftes, and loued hym aboue al other, and regned moche holyly in the loue of god and of the peple. And therfore, my fayre doughters, this is here a good ensample how ye ought to kepe the counceyll of your lord, and not telle it to no body what someuer it be, for ofte comen therof many euyls; and for to be secrete, and specially in suche thyng that is deffended, may not come sauf only good. And in lyke wyse as the shafte is departed fro the bowe must take her flyght. and cours, and neuer cometh ageyne to the bowe tyll it haue smyte somme thynge, soo is the word whiche yssued oute of the mouthe lyke it, for after that he is put out of the mouth it may neuer be put in to the mouthe ageyne, but that it shal be herd, be it good or euylle. Wherfor we ought wel to haue in our memorye the sayenges and auctorytees of the wyse Salamon, whiche sayth that men must thynke on the wordes twyes or thryes or they be putt oute of the mouthe. And thus ought to doo al wyse folke, for ouer many grete euyls haue ben done and engendered for to haue discouered the counceyll and suche thynges as haue ben sayd there in counceylle. Therfore I pray yow, fayre doughters, that ye wylle haue this ensample in your memory and neuer forgete it. For all good and worship may therof come to yow, and hit is a vertue the whiche escheweth grete hate and grete enuye, and many euyls also. For many one I knowe whiche haue loste moche of theyr goodes & suffred many grete euyls for to haue spoke to lyghtely of other, and for to haue reported suche wordes as they herd saye, of the whiche they had nought to doo at al. For none soo wyse is that may knowe what to hym is to come, and full of naturel wytte be they whiche kepe them self fro recordynge of ony wordes. For he whiche wythsayeth them that blameth other, as wel in ryght as in wronge, he doth but wel; and for to hold and kepe secretely the dommage and euylle of other may come but good, as hit is reherced in the booke of my two sonnes, and also in an Euangely.
Here fynysshed the booke whiche the knyght of the Toure made to the enseygnement and techyng of his doughters, translated oute of Frenssh in to our maternall Englysshe tongue by me, William Caxton, whiche book was ended & fynysshed the fyrst day of Iuyn, the yere of oure lord mcccclxxxiii, And enprynted at westmynstre the last day of Ianyuer the fyrst yere of the regne of kynge Rychard the thyrd.