The seventh head of the evil beast is the sin of the mouth; and because
the mouth has two offices, whereof the one belongs to the swallow, as to
meat and to drink, the other is in speech; therefore the same sin is
divided principally into two parts: to wit, into the sin of gluttony,
which is in meat and in drink; and into the sin of an evil tongue, that
is, foolish speaking. And first let us speak of the sin of gluttony,
which is a vice that the devil is much pleased with, and (which) much
displeases God. Through such sin has the devil very great power over
man. Whereof we read in the Gospel, that God gave the devils leave to go
into the swine, and when they were in them (they) drowned them in the
sea, as a sign that gluttons lead the life of swine, and the devil has
leave to go into them, and drown them in the sea of hell, and to cause
them to eat so much that they burst asunder, and to drink so much that
they drown themselves.
When the champion has felled his man and holds him by the throat, with
great difficulty he arises. And so it is with those that the devil holds
through sin, and therefore blithely he runs at the throat, like the wolf
to the sheep, in order to strangle him, as he did to Eve and to Adam in
the terrestrial paradise. That is the fisherman of hell, who takes the
fish by the throat and by the chin. This sin much displeases God. For
the glutton works too great a shame when he makes his god of a sack full
of dung, that is, of his belly, which he loves more than God, and in it
remains, and serves it. God commands him to fast; the belly says: ‘Thou
shalt not, but eat long and continuously.’ God commands him in the
morning to arise; the belly says: ‘Thou shalt not; I am too full, it
behoves me to sleep; the church is no hare, it can well await me.’ And
when he arises, he begins his matins and his prayers and his orisons,
and says: ‘Ah, God! what shall we eat to-day? whether one shall find
anything that is worth (eating)?’ After these matins come the praises,
and he says: ‘Ah, God! lo, we had good wine yester evening and good
meats.’ And after that he beweeps his sins and says: ‘Alas!’ he says: ‘I
have been nigh dead to-night; too strong was that wine last evening. My
head aches; I shall not be at ease until I have drunk.’ Thus, too, the
evil man says. This sin leads man to shame. For first of all he becomes
a tavern-goer, then he plays at dice, then he sells his own, then he
becomes ribald, a whoremonger and thief, and then one hangs him. This is
the scot (payment) that one often pays.
This sin is divided, as by St. Gregory, into five boughs. For in five
ways one sins by meat and by drink; either in that one eats and drinks
before time, or too greedily, or out of measure, or too ardently, or too
plenteously. The first bough, then, of this sin is to eat before time,
and too foul a thing it is of a man that has age when he cannot wait for
the time to eat; and of great lechery of throat it comes that a man who
is strong and whole of body without reasonable cause yearns for meat
before the right hour, as does a dumb beast. And many sins come of the
same habit. Then it comes about that such a man says, that he cannot
fast or do penance; for he has said this: ‘I have too bad a head.’ And
he says true, for he has made it such, and an evil heart also, which
that sin has made, and has caused him to break the fasts, which is a
great sin. And if he damned himself by himself, thereof no matter; but
he will have fellows, that do as he does, whom he draws from well-doing,
and leads them with him into hell. For he causes them to break their
fasts and do their gluttonies, wherefrom they would keep themselves, if
there were no evil companions. For the drinker and the whoremonger,
among the other evils that they do, [commit] one sin that is properly
the devil’s, when they withdraw [others] from well-doing. They say that
they cannot fast, but they lie. For little love of God possesses them
that I speak of. For if they loved the true joy of heaven as much as
they do the idle bliss of this world, as they fast because of temporal
needs until night, as well might they fast until noon for God, if they
loved Him so much. But they are just like the child that will always
have the bread in his hand. And thou shalt know that as one sins by too
early rising in order to eat, so also one sins in supping late. The
folk, then, that love to sup late, and to keep awake at night, and waste
the time in idleness, and go late to bed and rise late, sin in many
ways. First, in that they waste the time and misspend it, when they make
of the night day and of the day night. Such folk God accurses by the
prophet. For one shall by day do good, and by night praise God and pray;
but whoever lies abed when he should arise, sleep he must when he should
pray, and his service hear, and praise God; and thus he loses all his
time, both by night and by day. Afterwards in such vigils one does many
evils, as play at chess or at games of hazard, and one says much scorn
and folly, and thus the wretch wastes his time and his wits and his
goods, and angers God, and harms his body, and still more his soul.
The second bough is excess and want of moderation in meat and in drink.
The same are properly gluttons, who devour all, as does the kite with
his sparrow. There is great sense in observing moderation in meat and in
drink, and great health, for many people die, and often there come great
sicknesses. But whoever will learn this moderation, he shall know and
understand that there are many ways of living in the world. The first
lives by the flesh, the second by his jollity, the third by his physic,
the fourth by his honesty, the fifth by what his (their) sins require,
the sixth by the spirit and by the love of God.
Those that live by the flesh, as says St. Paul, slay their souls, for
they make their god of their belly. The same observe neither reason nor
measures, and therefore they shall have in the other world torment
without measure.
Those that live by their jollity will keep their foolish fellowships, so
that they neither know how, nor are able to observe measure.
Those that live by hypocrisy, who are the devil’s martyrs, have two
measures, for the two devils that torment the hypocrite are much opposed
to each other. The one says to him: ‘Eat enough, until thou art fair and
fat;’ the other says to him: ‘Thou shalt not, but thou shalt fast until
thou art pale and lean.’ Now, it behoves to have two measures, one
little and (one) scant that he uses before people; and another good and
liberal, which he uses so that none sees; this holds not the right
measure. He whom covetousness leads has such a measure as the purse
wills, who is lady and hostess of the house. Then shall we between the
purse and the belly of the glutton have a fair strife. The belly says:
‘I will be full;’ the purse says: ‘I will be full.’ The belly says: ‘I
will that thou eat and drink, and that thou spend.’ And the purse says:
‘Thou shalt not; I will that thou keep and retrench.’ Alas! what shall
he do, this wretch who is thrall to two such evil lords? Two measures
make the wight mad: the measure of the belly, in other men’s house good
and liberal; and the measure of the purse, of her who is sorrowful and
sparing.
Those that live by physic observe the measure of Hippocrates, which is
little and narrow; and it often befalls that he that by physic lives by
physic dies.
Those that live by their honesty, the same observe the measure of reason
and live honourably to the world, who eat at the time and at the hour,
and take with goodwill what they have both courteously and gladly.
Those that live by what their sins demand observe such manner and
measure as one enjoins on them in penance.
Those that live by the Spirit are those that dwell in the love of God,
whom the Holy Ghost teaches to observe order and reason and measure;
those that have control over their bodies, who is so taught that he asks
for no extraordinary thing, and does what the Spirit commands without
murmuring and without contradiction.
Now canst thou see, from what we have said here, that the devil has many
gins to take people by the throat; for first he shows them wines and
meats that are fair and pleasant, as he did the apple to Eve. And if
that avails not, he says to him: ‘Eat and drink like so and so and so
and so; it behoves thee to keep fellowship, if thou wilt that one should
not starve thee, nor esteem thee a hypocrite;’ or he says to him: ‘The
health of thy body thou shalt look after, for whoever hath not health
hath naught. Be not thine own manslayer; thou owest to thy body
sustenance.’ Or he says to him: ‘Take heed to the good things that thou
dost or mayest do; thou eatest not for the lust of thy body, but to
serve God; thou shalt keep thy strength for God, as David says.’ These
reasons are so convincing that the wisest and holiest man is sometimes
beguiled.
The third bough of this sin is to run hastily after meat, as does the
hound after the hare; and the greater the haste is, the greater is the
sin. For as it is no sin to have riches, but to love them too much; just
so it is no sin to eat good meats, but to eat them too hastily or
immoderately. To eat meats is good for the good, and for them that use
them in reason and in measure, and take them with the sauce of the dread
of our Lord. For one shall evermore have dread lest one mistake through
excess, and one shall praise God and yield Him thanks for His gifts. And
by the sweetness of the meat, which otherwise cannot be, one shall think
of God’s sweetness and of that meat which fills the heart. Therefore one
reads in a religious house at meat, in order that when the body takes
its meat on the one hand the heart should take its on the other hand.
The fourth bough of this sin is of those that will live too nobly, who
spend and waste, in order to fill (up the measure of) their gluttony,
(that) whereby a hundred poor might live and sufficiently be filled.
Such folk sin in many ways. First, in the great spendings that they
make; afterwards in that they use it in too great heat and in too great
lust; and afterwards in the idle bliss that they have. For it is not
only lechery of taste, but it is very often for boasting that they seek
such rich meats and make so many messes, whereof come often many evils.
The fifth bough is the anxiety of gluttons, who seek only the delight of
their swallow. These are properly lechers, who seek only the lust of
their swallow. In three things especially lies the sin of such folk.
First, in the great anxiety that they have to purchase and to prepare;
afterwards, in the great lust that they have in the use; afterwards, in
the bliss that they have in the recalling. And who (is there) that could
tell what trouble they take in order that their meats may be well
prepared, and each to his own smack, and how they may make of one meat
many disguised messes because of their foul lust. And when the messes
are come, one after the other, then are (there) jests and trifles for
_entrements_, and in this manner goes the time. The wretch forgets
himself, reason sleeps, the stomach (in complaint) cries and says: ‘Dame
Swallow, thou slayest me; I am so full that I burst asunder.’ But the
tongue, the lickster, answers him and says: ‘Though thou shouldst burst
asunder, I will not let this mess escape.’ After the lechery that is in
eating comes the bliss that is in him who recalls (it). Afterwards they
wish that they had the necks of a crane and the belly of a cow, in order
that the morsels might remain longer in the throat, and (that they)
might devour more.
Now thou hast heard the sins that come of gluttony and of lechery. And
because such sins arise commonly in the tavern, which is a well of sin,
therefore I will touch a little upon the sins that are done in the
tavern. The tavern is the school of the devil, where his disciples
study, and his own chapel, where one performs his service, and where he
does his miracles, such as it behoves the devil (to do). At church God
can show His virtues and do His miracles, to give sight to the blind, to
make the crooked straight, to restore the wits of the mad, speech to the
dumb, hearing to the deaf. But the devil does all, on the contrary, in
the tavern. For when the glutton goes into the tavern, he goes upright;
when he comes out, he has not a foot that can sustain or bear him. When
he goes therein, he sees and hears and speaks well and understands; when
he comes out, he has lost all this, just like one that has not wit or
reason or understanding. Such are the miracles that the devil does. And
what lessons he reads there! All filth he teaches there, gluttony,
lechery, swearing, forswearing; to lie, to slander, to deny God, to
misreport, to dispute, and too many other kinds of sins. There arise
chidings, strifes, manslaughters; there one teaches to steal and to be
hanged. The tavern is a ditch to thieves, and the devil’s castle in
order to war against God and His saints; and those that sustain the
taverns are sharers in all the sins that are done in their taverns; and
forsooth if one said or did as much shame to their father or to their
mother or to their lads, as one does to their heavenly Father and to our
Lady and to the saints of paradise, they would grow very angry and take
other counsel in regard to it than they do.
_To Dr. Skeat our cordial thanks are tendered for kindly looking over
the proof-sheets and making some valuable suggestions._