Piers Plowman - Maybe You Like It

12.136: For alle hir kynde knowyng com but of diverse sightes.
12.137: " Patriarkes and prophetes repreveden hir science,
12.138: And seiden hir wordes ne hir wisdomes was but a folye;
12.139: As to the clergie of Crist, counted it but a trufle:
12.139: Sapiencia huius mundi stultitia est apud Deum.
12.140: "For the heighe Holy Goost hevene shal tocleve,
12.141: And love shal lepe out after into this lowe erthe,
12.142: And clennesse shal cacchen it and clerkes shullen it fynde:
12.142: Pastores loquebantur ad invicem.
12.143: " He speketh there of riche men right noght, ne of right witty,
12.144: Ne of lordes that were lewed men, but of the hyeste lettred oute:
12.145: Ibant magi ab oriente.
12.146: (If any frere were founde there, I yyve thee fyve shillynges!)
12.147: Ne in none beggers cote was that barn born,
12.148: But in a burgeises place, of Bethlem the beste:
12.148: Sed non erat ei locus in diversorio — et pauper non habet diversorium.
12.149: "To pastours and to poetes appered the aungel,
12.150: And bad hem go to Bethlem Goddes burthe to honoure,
12.151: And songe a song of solas, Gloria in excelsis Deo.!
12.152: Riche men rutte tho and in hir reste were,
12.153: Tho it shon to shepherdes, a shewer of blisse.
12.154: Clerkes knewen it wel and comen with hir presents,
12.155: And diden hir homage nurably to hym that was almyghty.
12.156: "Why I have told thee I this — I took ful good hede
12.157: How thow contrariedest lergie with crabbede wordes,
12.158: How that lewed men lightloker than lettrede were saved,
12.159: Than clerkes or kynde witted men, of Cristene peple.
12.160: And thow seidest sooth of somme — ac se in what manere.
12.161: "Tak two stronge men and in Themese cast hem,
12.162: And bothe naked as a nedle, hir noon sikerer than other;
12.163: That oon hath konnynge and kan swymmen and dyven,
12.164: That oother is lewed of that labour, lerned nevere swymme.
12.165: Which trowestow of tho two in Themese is in moost drede —
12.166: He that nevere ne dyved ne noght kan of symmyng
12.167: Or the swymmere that is saff by so hymself like,
12.168: Ther his felawe fleteth forthas the flood liketh,
12.169: And is in drede to drenche, that nevere dide swymme?'
12.170: "That swymme kan noght,' I seide, "it semeth to my wittes.'
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