Page:Disciplina Clericalis (English translation) from the fifteenth century Worcester Cathedral Manuscript F. 172.djvu/32



The Voice of the Owl.

"It is reported of two disciples that in going out of a certain city they came to a place where the voice of a woman was heard very distinctly, and the words of the song were well written and the music of the song was so arranged that it sounded beautifully and delightfully. One of them, stopped on account of the beauty of the song, but his companion said to him: 'Let's turn aside'. And they did it; for one is so far deceived by the song of a bird that he may be led to death. Then the one said: 'This voice is sweeter than that which my master and I heard long ago'. 'What kind of voice was that', asked the other, 'and how did you hear it?' 'It happened,' the companion said, 'that we had gone out of the city and we heard a very harsh voice in an unattractive song, and the words sounded discordantly; the one who sang repeated the words frequently and lingered over the unmelodious song as if it was delightful.' Then the master said to me: 'If it is true as men say, that the voice of the owl portends the death of some one, then that is without doubt the voice of an owl fortelling death.' To this I said: 'I wonder, if the song is so dreadful, why this man alone is delighted with it?' And he answered me: 'Dost not thou remember the philosopher who says: "Man takes delight in three things even though they may not be good: in his own voice, his own song, and his own son"?' After he told this about himself and his master they both went away." A certain philosopher said to his son: "Follow a scorpion, a lion, and a dragon, but do not follow a wicked woman." Another philosopher said: "Pray God that he keep thee from the snares of vile women, and be thyself on guard lest thou be deceived. For it is said about a certain philosopher that in passing by the place where a fowler had stretched a net for snaring birds, he saw a base woman in wanton sport with the fowler and said to him: 'While thou art trying to snare birds, be careful that thou art not caught in the filth of the lime thou preparedst for he birds'."