Page:The Life of Sir Thomas More (William Roper, ed by Samuel Singer).djvu/190

fooles all myght not be rulers. Now when they longed so sore to bere a rule among fooles, that so they so myghte, they would be gladde to leese their witte and be fooles to, the foolishe reyne hadde washed them metely well. Howe be it to saye the trouth, before the rayne came, if they thoughte that all the remenaunte should turne into fooles, than either were so foolishe that they woulde, or so madde to thinke that they shoulde, so fewe rule so many fooles, and hadde not so much wit, as to consider that there are none so vnruly as they that lack witte and are fooles, than were these wyse men starke fooles before the rayne came. Howe be it, daughter Roper, whom my Lorde here taketh for the wyse menne, and whome he meaneth to be fooles, I cannot verye well geasse, I cannot reade well such ryddles. For as Davus saythe in Therence: Non sum Oedipus. I may saye you wot well: Non sum Oedipus, sed Morus, which name of myne what it signieyeth in Greke, I nede not tell you. But I truste my lorde reckoncth me amonge the fooles, and so reckoneth I my self, as my name is in Greke. And I finde I thanke God, causes not a fewe, wherfore I so should in very dede. But surelye among those that long to be rewlers, God and myne owne conscience clerely knoweth, that no man may truely noumber and reckon me. And I wene eche other mans conscience can tell himself the same, since it is so well knowen that of the kinges great goodnes, I was one of the greatest rewlers in thys noble realine, and that at mine owne great labour by his gret, goodnes dyscharged. But whomsoeuer my lord meane for the wyse men, and whomsoeuer his lordeshyp take for the fooles, and whomsocuer long for the rule, and whosoever long for none, I beseche our lord make vs all so wise as that we may euery man here so wiselye rule our self, in this tyme of teares, thys vale of miserye, thys simple wretched world (in which, as Boece sayth, one man to be prowde that he beareth rule ouer other men, is much like as one mouce wold be proude to beare a rule ouer other mice in a barne) God, I say, geue vs the grace so wisely to rule our self here, that when we shall hence in hast to mete the greate spouse, we be not taken slepers, and for lacke of light in our lampes, shyt out of heaven among the v. foolishe virgins. The second fable, Marget, semeth not to