LI.

Gouerne thou thi tong aftir Saturne; Late not evill theryn long soiorne. To speke to mech it is a fowle custome, And grete foly þerin is to presume.

Saturne, as I haue seide before,[324] is a planeth hevy and sclowe. Therfor it is seide to þe good knyght that his tong shulde be leke to hym; for the tong shulde not be to hasty in spekyng to mych, but wysyly, so that it speke non harme of noon, ne no thyng þat a mane myth there impresun folye,[325] for a poyete seyth, “By the worde men knowyth a wyse man, and by the looke a foole.”

Be the tong, the which shulde be lech Saturne, is vndirstonden the sadenes[326] of speche. Hue of Seynt Victore seith to this purpose that þe mouth þe which hathe not the kepyng of discrecion farith as a cete that is withoute a walle, as a vessell that hathe no bothom,[327] as an horse that hath no brydel, and as a chippe þat hath no rothir. An evil kepte tong glydith as an ele, it perchith as an arwe; frendes [are] sone turned therby and ennemyes multiplied. It is sclaunderus and soweth discordes; at a strok it smyttyth and kyllyth many persones. Whoso kepyth his tong kepith his soule; for[328] deth and lyffe is in the poure off þe soule. And to this purpose Dauid seith in the Sawter booke, [“Prohibe linguam tuam a malo, et labia tua ne loquantur dolum”].[329]