/ they ben not worthy to dye/ but for to haue
moche worship and honour/ For they haue ben trewe to theyr lord/
wherfore the kynge gaf hem a grete lawde and honour for their feet And
after hit happend that the propre squyer and seruant of godeberd slewe
the traytre Goribalde that by trayson had slayn his lord at a feste of
seynt Iohn in his Cyte of Tauryn wherof he was lord and duc/ Thus ought
the knyghtes to love to gyder/ And eche to put his lyf in aventure for
other/ For so ben they the strenger And the more doubted/ Lyke as were
the noble knyghtes Ioab and Abysay that fought agaynst the syryens and
Amonytes/ And were so trewe that oon to that other that they
vaynquysshid theyr enemies And were so Ioyned to gyder that yf the
siryens were strenger than that one of them/ that other helpe hym/ we
rede that damon and phisias were so ryght parfyt frendes to gyder that
whan Dionisius whiche was kynge of cecylle had Iuged one to deth for his
trespaas in the cyte of syracusane whom he wold haue executed/ he
desired grace and leue to goo in to hys contre for to dispose and
ordonne his testament/ And his felawe pleggid hym and was sewrte for hym
vpon his heed that he shold come agayn. Wherof they that sawe & herd
this/ helde hym for a fool and blamed hym/ And he said all way that he
repentid hym nothynge at all/ For he knewe well the trouth of his felawe
And whan the day cam and the oure that execusion shold be doon/ his
felawe cam and presented hymself to fore the Iuge/ And dischargid his
felawe that was plegge for hym/ wherof the kynge was gretly abasshid And
for the grete trouthe that was founden in hym He pardonyd hym and prayd
hem bothe that they wold resseyue hym as their grete frende and felawe/
Lo here the vertues of loue that a man ought nought to doubte the deth
for his frende/ Lo what it is to doo for a frende/ And to lede a lyf
debonayr And to be wyth out cruelte/ to loue and not to hate/ whiche
causeth to doo good ayenst euyll And to torne payne into benefete and to
quenche cruelte Anthonyus sayth that Julius Cesar/ lefte not lightly
frenshippe and Amytye/ But whan he had hit he reteyned hit faste and
maynteyned hit alleway/ Scipion of Affricque sayth that ther is no
thynge so stronge/ as for to mayntene loue vnto the deth The loue of
concupiscence and of lecherye is sone dissoluyd and broken/ But the
verray true loue of the comyn wele and prouffit now a dayes is selde
founden/ where shall thou fynde a man in thyse d