Here followeth the copy of a letter which master Alayn Charetier wrote to his brother/ which desired to come dwell in Court/ in which he rehearseth many miseries & wretchydnesses therein used/ For taduyse him not to enter in to it/ lest he after repent/ like as hire after follow/ and late translated out of french in to english/ which Copy was delivered to me by a noble and virtuous earl/ At whose Instance & request I have reduced it in to english   

right well-beloved brother & person Eloquent/ thou admonestest and exhortest me to prepare & make ready place and entry for the unto the life curial/ which thou desirest/ And that by my help and request thou mightest have therein office/ And hereto thou art duly moved by common error of the people/ which repute thonour mundane & pomps of them of the court/ to be things more blessed & happy than other/ or to th'end that I judge not well of thy desire/ Thou weenest peraventure/ that they that wait on offices/ been in virtuous occupations & reputest them the more worthy for to have rewards & merits/ And also thou adioustest other causes that move the thereto/ by th'example of me/ that impeach myself for to serve in the court Ryall/ And to th'end that thou mightest use thy days in taking company with me/ and that we might together enjoy the swettenes of friendship/ which long time hath been between us twain/ And this know I well/ that thy courage is not with drawn far from my friendship/ And the grace of humanity is not dreyed up in thee/ which compriseth his friends as present And leaveth not at need to council & aid them absent to his power/ And I trow that thine absence is not lass grievous to me/ than mine is to thyself/ For me seemeth that thou being absent I am there where the places and affairs desjoine us/ But by cause god of fortune hath so departed our destiny/ that thou awaitest freely on thine own private things/ And that I am occupied on things publycque & services in sorrowful passions/ that when I have on myself compassion/ then am I enjoyed of thine ease/ & take great pleasure/ in this that thou avoydest the myserries that I suffer every day/ And if I blame or accuse fortune for me/ I praise and thank her on that other part for thee/ For so moche as she hath exempt the fro the anguishes that I suffer in the court/ And that she hath not made us both meschaunte/  
Thou desirest as thou sayest to be in the court with me/ And I covet yet more to be privily and singularly with thee/ And also for me thou wouldest gladly leave thy franchise and private life/ I aught more gladly for the love of the leave this scruptude mortal/ For as much as love acquyteth him letter in humble tranqullyte than in orguyllous misery/ late it suffice to the & to me/ that one of us twain be infortunate/ And that by my meschaunte life thou mayst see and know more certainly that one and that other fortune/ But what demandest thou/ Thou sechest the way to lose thyself/ by th'example of me/ And wilt leap fro the haven of sewerte/ for to drown thyself in the see of peril and misery/ Repentest thou the to have liberty/ Art thou annoyed to live in peace/ human nature hath suffered such unhappiness/ that she appetiteth and desireth to have that thing/ which she hath not/ Thus mesprysest thou the peace of thy courage/ and the sure estate of thy thought/ And by therrour of mesprysement which thou hast gotten/ the things which of their own condition been more to be mesprised/ than they that been showed by the life of another/ I marvel me moche/ how thou that art prudent and wise of goods/ art so over seen and fro thyself for to dare expose thyself to so many perillis And if thou wilt use my council/ Take none example by me for to poursewe the courts/ Ne the publycque murmurs of high palaysis/ But alway let my peril be example to the for to i'll and eschew them/ For I dare not affirm/ that among the bruit of them that torn/ be any thing steadfast ne wholesome/ Thou shalt ween & hope to find/ exercite of virtue/ in misery thus common & publycque/ And so certainly shalt thou find/ if thou makest thy view to fight constantly against all vices/ But be ware & make good watch that thou be not the first that shall be overcome/ For I say thee/ that the courts of high princes be never disgarnysshed of people deceiving by fair language/ or fering by menaces/ or striving by envy/ or corrupt by force of yefts/ or blandishing by flatterers/ or accusing of trespasses/ or impeaching & letting in some manner wise/ the good will of true men For our power humanity is lightly inclined to ensue & fololowe the manners & conditions of other/ And to do as they do And uneath may he escape that is asseged and assailed of so many adversaries/ Now let us grant that thou wouldest persevere in virtue/ And that thou shouldest escape the vicious and the corruption of such vicious persons/ yet in this case thou hadst vanquished none but thyself/ But this had been better that thou hadst done it in thy own secret prive place And be thou certain that for thy virtue thou shalt be mocqued and for thy truth thou shalt be hated/ or that thy discretion shall cause the to be suspect/ For there is nothing more suspect to evil people/ than them whom they know to be wise and true/  
The rest then is this/ that thou shalt have labour without fruit,/ And shalt use thy life in peril/ And shalt get many envious at thee/ And if thou strive at their envy/ or that thou takest vengeance/ I tell to the that thy vengement shall engender to the more grievous adversities than thou hadst tofore/ And by the contrary/ they that con dyssymyle been praised and use better their time in courts than the other people/ The abuses of the court/ And the manner of the people curyall or courtly been such that a man is never suffered tenhance himself/ but if he be corrumpable/ For virtue which is in so many manners envy/ if she be not proud/ she is mesprysed/ if she bow not/ she is by force set aback/ if she be broken or hurt she is by force hunted away/ who is he then that may keep him that he be not corrupt or coromped/ or who is he that shall escape without having harm/ such be the works of the court that they that be simple been mesprysed/ the virtuous envy/ And the proud arrogaunts in mortel peryllis/ And if thou be set down and put aback under the other courtyours/ Thou shalt be envious of their power/ if thou be in mean estate/ of which thou hast not suffisance/ thou shalt strive for to mount and rise higher/ And if thou mayst come unto the high secrets which been strongly for to doubt and dread/ in the doubtous courteynes of the most high princes/ then shalt thou be most meschant/ Of so much as thou weenest to be most ewrous and happy/ so moche more shalt thou be in great peril to fall/ like to him that is mounted in to the most high place/ For to them whom fortune the variable hath most highly lift up/ and enhanced/ resteth no more but for to fall fro so high down/ by cause she oweth to them nothing but ruin/ if thou haste take of her all that thou mightest/ and that she would give/ then art thou debytour of thyself/ To th'end that she render and yield him meschant whom she had enhanced/ And that she mocque him of his meschef whom she had made blind of vain glory of his enhaunsing/ For the great winds that blow in high courts been of such condition/ that they only that been highest enhanced/ been after their despoyntement/ as a spectacle of envy/ of detraction/ or of hate unto all people/ and find themself subjects till they be shamed and put down among the people/ And that they/ that tofore poursiewed to them and flattered/ Report of them more greater blames and divisions than the other/ For multytud of people mespryse always them/ that fortune hath most availed and thrown down/ And also is envious of them that she seeth enhanced and life up/ Fortune gladly hath set his eyen on 'em that been in high degree and on the sovereigns yet more/ And when she playeth with small and pour folks/ that is no certain/ for of the mischief of power people she retcheth not/ ne doth but smile/ But she lawgheth with full mouth and smiteth her paulmes together when she seeth great lords fall in to mischief/ she retcheth but/ little for tessaye and prove her fortune in little and low places/ But for to make the great and mighty to fall and overthrow she setteth gladly her gins/ And them that been pour & cast down maketh she of times to rise & mount fro certainty to Incertaynte and fro good rule to evil rule/ Them deceiveth she gladly/ whom she findeth easy to deceive/ and variable as she is/ But she doth the custommes & strength to them that setteth by her And when she seeth her despised & nought set by/ then she loveth them in peace/ But she flateryth and lawgheth for nought unto them that have high and hold courage/ Now she essayeth to just against them that been most strong/ And now she enhanceth them that been most feeble/ now she lawheth to one/ and she grymmeth to other/ But the man that hath great courage & virtuous mespriseth her laughings and mows/ And nothing doubteth her menaces/ But the court maketh over moche count of this fortune/ that draweth the people lightly to her/ forgetting their power estate/ And forgetting and not knowing themself as soon as they been enhanced/ which the wise men do not/ which for none advancement ne having of good enpayre not themself/ There assay thou for to mount/ if thou wilt leave thy liberty and franchise/ then oughtest thou to know/ that thou shalt have abundance thyself/ when thou shalt will to poursewe the court/ which maketh a man to leave his proper manners/ And to apply himself to the manners of other For if he be veritable/ men shall hold him at school of faintise/ if he love honest life/ men shall teach him to lead dishonest life/ if he be patient/ & set by no profit/ he shall be left to have sufferance/ For if he can nought/ men shall demand him nothing/ And also he shall find none/ that shall give him any thing/ if he enter Inportunatly/ They that be Inportune shall put him aback/ if he be accustomed to eat soberly/ and at a certain hour/ he shall dine late and shall soup in such fashion that he shall dysacustomme his time and his manner of living/ If he have be accustomed to read and study in books/ he shall muse idly alday in awaiting that men shall open the door to him of the chamber or wythdraught of the prince/ if he love the rest of his body he shall be annoyed now here/ now there/ as a courrour or renner perpetual/ if he will early go to his bed and Rise late at his pleasure he shall fail thereof/ For he shall wake long and late/ and rise right early/ and that oft he shall lose the night without sleeping/ if he study for to find friendship/ he shall never con trot so moche through the halls of the great lords that he shall find her/ but she holdeth her without and entereth not with any/ For she is moche better known by them that usen her which been expert of refuse/ thrown down by fortune/ than by them that enter ignorant/ and not known her tornes/ Now behold then/ and see which of the two thou shalt cheese/ or that in my issuing and going out/ I draw the to our common profit or in thine entering thou bring me to our common damage and hurt/ And forget not that who serveth in the court/ Always him behoveth to be a guest/ and herberowed in another mannes house/ And also he must eat after thappetite of other/ and otherwhile without hunger and fain he may/ And in like wise he must wake otherwhile at the will of other/ after that he hath begun to sleep and by great grief what thing is more domageus than to set under fortune the virtues of nature/ and the rights and droytes of life human/ seen that it is a thing more free in a man/ than to live naturally among us servants of court/ we do nothing but live after thordinance of other/ And thou livest in thine house like an Emperor/ thou reignest as a king paysyble/ under the cowerte of thine house/ And we tremble for dread to dysplayse the lords of high houses/ Thou mayst eat when thou hast hunger/ at thine hour and at thy pleasure/ And we eat so greedily & gloutounously that otherwhile we cast it up again and make vomits/ Thou passest the night in sleeping as long as it pleaseth thee/ And we after overmuch drinking of wines and great pains lie down oft in beds full of vermin/ & sometime with strife and debate/ Return brother/ Return to thyself/ And learn to know the felicity/ by the miseries that we suffer/ But noman praiseth enough the ayses that he hath in his private and proper house/ but he that tofore mespryseth thanguishes that he hath suffered in administration publycque/ Arystotle the philosopher glorified in himself/ that he had left the high palace of king Alysaundre/ And had liefer to leave there his disciple Calisthenes/ than there longer to dwell/ Dyogenes also which in his time above all other men loved liberty and franchise Refused the great richesses and worldly joys to which he was called/ he fled them for to inhabit and dwell freely within the town/ wherein he slept/ And also durst so much avaunt him/ that he was more puissant prince in that he might more refuse of goods than the said Alysaundre hath power to give him For the very philosopher/ that can well mespryse thambitious vanity of the people of the court/ teacheth to his counselors/ that there is more of humanity in small things and eases/ than in the courts of princes/ And the benes of Pictagoras/ And the wortes that Orace eat/ rendered and gave better savour/ than that Sardanapalus fond in the great and delicious wines Aromatyques that he drank/ for as much as the delices were meddled with the gall of poison/ Feures/ & anguishes mundanes/ that he had always upon his heart/ not only our life/ but thexaction of our life/ his torments adjoin to our life in such wise that she ne hath glory mundane/ ne pomp caduque without adversity/ oft-times the people make great wondrynges of the Rich rob of the courtyour/ but they know not by what labour ne by what difficulty he hath gotten it/ The people otherwhile honoureth and worshippeth the great apparel of a puissant man But they account not the pryckking that he hath felt in the pourchassing of it/ Ne the grievous that he hath gotten in showing of it/ oftentime behold the people thordynaunces and great household of the high and great lords/ but they know not of what dispense they been charged for to nourish them/ Ne consider nothing the title/ of which they know certainly/ that they have in them no merits/ If we call an hare/ a lion/ or say that a fair maid is fowl/ or a fowl/ crokebacked/ halting/ or evil shapen to be as fair as Helen/ that should be a great losing/ and worthy of derision/ And allway among us covetyours enfayned/ we fallow more the names of thoffices/ than the droytes and rights/ we be verbal/ or full of words/ and desire more the words than the things/ And in this we been contrary to the wise Cathon/ Which desired more to exercise himself virtuously in common office and publycque/ than to have the name/ And in such wise governeth he himself/ that when he was called/ he was allway found worthy to have better than he was called to/ And so much more was he honowred/ as when he fled most the worldly honours/ But by the contrary we covet to be honowred/ how well that we been not worthy/ And so take the honours as by force and strength/ ere we been called thereto And hereof followeth that we lose by good right/ that which we judge to ourself and that we dare demand indewly/ And to say truth the honours flee fro us/ which we poursewe over foolily/  
Therefore brother I council thee/ that thou delight thee/ in thyself/ of thy virtue/ For she yieldeth joy and praising to them that live well/ late thy great suffisance retain the within thy little Cenacle/ And repute not thyself virtuous by hearing say as done men of the court/ But do pain to be veritable by theffect of the work/ whereto coveytest thou the glories of palaces which for their wretched misery have need that men have pity on them/ Ne poursewe it not in faith/ But by the plaint of mine unhappiness/ follow not me/ by cause I am oft-times clad with the best/ But have pity and compassion of the perils/ of which I am asseged/ and of th'assaults of which I am environed night and day/ For I have need to behold on what foot that every man cometh to me/ And to note and mark the pace and the peril of every word that departeth fro my mouth to th'end that by my utterance I be not surprised/ and that in speaking unpurveyedly I ne give matter to any man to make false relation/ ne to interpret evil my word/ which I may never revoke ne put in again/ For the court is the nourish of people/ which by fraud and franchise/ study for to draw from one and other such words/ by which they may persecute them/ by that/ which by the perils of other/ they may entie in to the grace of them that have authority to help/ or to annoy/ And which take more pleasure in false reports/ than in veritable and true words/ if thou have office in court/ make the ready to fight/ For if thou have any good/ other shall desire to take it fro thee/ and thou shalt not escape without debate/ Some shall machyne by some moyen to deceive thee/ And the behoveth to torment thyself to resist him/ And after when thou shalt have employed thy body/ thy time and thy goods for to defend thee/ Another new one cometh to the court & shall supplant thy benediction/ And shall take it guilefully fro thee/ Thus shalt thou lose with great sorrow/ that which thou haste gotten with great labour/ Or if thine office abide with thee/ so shall thou not abide long without dread and fere of him or of other envious which shall labour to take it fro thee/ Tofore that thou hast any offices thou boughtest peace and moderation to live/ And as soon as thou shalt have it/ thou shalt be deffyed of an other/ which shall enforce him for to give largely for to take it fro the And the behoveth maugre thyself/ that thou give as much as he/ to th'end that thou keep it/ And that it abide with thee/ Behold then brother behold/ how moche thy little house giveth the liberty and franchise/ And thank it that it hath received the as only lord/ And after that thy door is shut and closed there entereth none other but such as pleaseth thee/ Men knock oft-times at yates of rich and high palaces/ There is alway noise and murmur/ In great places been great and moche peoples/ of which some been hard pressed/ The hall of a great prince is commonly Infect and eschaufed of the breath of the people/ The usher smiteth with his Rod upon the heeds of them that been there/ Some enter by force of thresting/ And other strive for to resist/ Some time a power man meschant that hath tofore be sore set aback is further set forth than an other/ And the most fierce and proud whom a man durst not tofore touch/ is put further aback and is in more greater danger/ There knoweth noman in certain if his estate be sure or not/ But who somever it be always he is in doubt of his fortune/ And when thou weenest to be most in grace/ then remember the of the poet that saith/ that it is no great praising/ for to have been in the grace of a great prince/ And to th'end that thou mayst the better know now the court/ I will describe and define it to thee/  
The court to th'end that thou understand it/ is a convent of people that under faintise of cumin we'll assemble 'em together for to deceive each other/ For there be not many of them but that they sell buy/ or eschange sometime their rents or proper vestementis/ For among us of the court/ we be meschaunt and newfangle/ that we buy the other people/ And sometime for their money we sell to them our humanity precious/ we buy other/ And other buy us/ But we can much better sell ourself to them that have to do with us/ how moche then mayst thou get/ that it be certain/ or what sewrte/ that it be without doubt and without peril/ will thou go to the court for to sell or lose/ the goodness of virtues which thou haste gotten without the court/ I say to the when thou enforcest the to enter/ then beginnest thou to lose the signory of thyself/ And thou shalt no more enjoy the droytes and rights of thy franchise and liberty/ Certes brother thou demandest that/ which thou oughtest to defy/ And fyxest thine hope in that/ that shall draw the to peril and perdition/ And if thou come/ the court shall serve the with so many contrived losings on that one part/ And on that other side she shall deliver to the so many cures and charges/ that thou shalt have within thyself continual battle/ thought/ and anguishes/ And for certain a man man not well say/ that he is well happy/ that in time of tempest is bought and in so many contrarytees assayeed and proved/  
And if thou demandest/ what is the life of them of the court I answer the brother/ that it is a pour richesse/ An abundance miserable/ an highness that falleth/ An estate not stable/ A sewrte trembling/ And an evil life/ And also it may be called of them that been amorous a desert liberty/ Flee ye men flee and hold and keep you far fro such an assembly/ if ye will live well and surely/ and as people well assured upon the rivage/ behold us drown by our own agreement/ And mespryse our blindness/ that may ne will know our proper mischief/ For like as the foolish mariners/ which sometime cause themself to be drowned/ by their dispurveyed advisement/ In like wise the court draweth to him and deceiveth the simple men/ and maketh them to desire and covet it/ like as a ribald or a common woman well arrayed/ by her laughing and by her kissing/ The court taketh merrily them that comen thereto/ in using to them false promesses/ The court lawheth at beginning on them that enter/ And after she grymmeth on them/ And sometime biteth them right aygrely/ The court retaineth the caytyvys which can not absent and keep them fro then/ and alday adnewe auctoryse and lorshippe upon such as they surmount/ The court also by error forgetteth oft them that best seren/ And dispend foolily her proper good for tenryche them that been not worthy/ and that have right evil deserved it/ And the man is unhappy that is taken in/ and had liefer to perish/ than to issue and go out/ And their to lose his course of nature/ without ever to have his franchise and liberty until his death/ Believe surely brother and doubt nothing that thou excersysest right good and right profitable office if thou canst well use thy maystryse that thou hast in thy little house/ and thou art and shall be puissant as long as thou hast and shall have of thyself suffisance/ For who that hath a small household and little main and governeth them wisely & in pras/ he is a lord/ And so much more is he ewrous & happy as he more freely maintaineth it/ As there is nothing so precious under heaven/ as for to be of sufficient comynycation with franchise/ O fortuned men/ O blessed famyllye where as is honest poverty that is content with reason without eating the fruits of other men's labour/ O well happy house in which is virtue without fraud ne barat/ and which is honestly governed in the dread of god and good moderation of life/ There enter no sins/ There is a true and rightful life/ where as is remorse of every sin and where is no noise/ murmur ne envy/ of such life enjoyeth nature/ and in small eases liveth she long/ and little and little she cometh to pleasant age and honest end/ For as saith Seneke in his tragedies/ Age cometh to late to people of small houses/ which live in suffisance/ But among us courtyours that be servants to fortune/ we live disordynatly/ we wexen old more by force of charges than by the number of years/ And by default of well living we been weary of the sweetness of our life/ which so much we desire and haste to go to the death the which we so much dread and doubt/ suffice the thenne brother to live in peace on thy party/ & learn to content the by our meschiefs/ Ne mesprise not thyself so moche/ that thou take the death/ for the life/ Ne leave not the goods that thou shalt be constrained to bring/ For to seche to get them after with great wailings and sorrow/ which shall be to the horrible and hard to find/ finally I pray thee/ council and warn thee/ that if thou hast taken any holy and honest life/ that thou will not go and lose it/ And that thou take away that thought And despise all thy will for to come to court/ And be content to withdraw the within thenclose of thy prive house/ And if thou have not in time passed known that thou hast been ewrous And happy/ then learn now to know it fro hens forth/ And to god I command the by this writing which give the his grace/  
Amen  
Thus endeth the Curial made by master Alain Charretier Translated thus in english by William Caxton   


Theridamas ne is dangyer/ but of a villain  
Ne pride/ but of a pour man enriched  
Ne so sure a way/ as is the plain  
Ne succour/ but of a true friend  
Ne despair/ but of jealousy  
Ne high courage/ but of one Amorous  
Ne pestilence/ but in great signory   

Ne chyere/ but of a man joyous  
Ne service/ like to the king sovereign  
Ne fowl name/ but of a man shamed  
Ne meet/ but when a man hath hunger  
Ne enterprise/ but of a man hardy  
Ne poverty/ like unto malady  
Ne to haunt/ but the good and wise  
Ne house/ but if it be well garnished   

Ne chyere/ but of a man joyous  
Ne there is no rychesshe/ but in health  
Ne love/ so good as mercy  
Ne than the death/ nothing more certain  
Ne none better chastised/ than of himself  
Ne treasure/ like unto wisdom  
Ne anguish/ but of ay heart covetous  
Ne puissance/ but their men have envy   

Ne chyere/ but of a man joyous  
What will ye that I say  
Theridamas is no speech/ but it be courteous  
Ne praising of men/ but after their life  
Ne chyer but of a man joyous   
Caxton