741, 742. This saying of Plato is taken from Boethius, De Consolatione, bk.
iii. pr. 12, which Chaucer translates: 'Thou hast lerned by the sentence of
Plato, that nedes the wordes moten be cosines to the thinges of which they
speken'; see vol. ii. p. 90, l. 151. In Le Roman de la Rose, 7131, Jean de
Meun says that Plato tells us, speech was given us to express our wishes
and thoughts, and proceeds to argue that men ought to use coarse language.
Chaucer was thinking of this singular argument. We also find in Le Roman
(l. 15392) an exactly parallel passage, which means in English, 'the saying
ought to resemble the deed; for the words, being neighbours to the things,
ought to be cousins to their deeds.' In the original French, these passages
stand thus:--
'Car Platon disoit en s'escole
Que donnee nous fu parole
Por faire nos voloirs entendre,
Por enseignier et por aprendre'; &c.
'Li dis doit le fait resembler;
Car les vois as choses voisines
Doivent estre a lor faiz cousines.'
So also in the Manciple's Tale, H. 208.