[Sidenote: Why need I enlarge upon the favourites of princes having thus displayed the imbecility of kings!]
¶ what sholde I telle þe any þing. syn þat I my self haue shewed þe þat realmes 2092 hem self ben ful of gret feblenesse.
[Sidenote: Their prosperity is affected by the caprice of their fortunate masters as well as by the adversity to which they are incident.]
þe whiche familiers certis þe real power of kynges in hool estat { and} in estat abated ful [ofte] þroweþ adou{ n}.
[Sidenote: Nero only allowed his master Seneca to choose the manner of his death.]
¶ Nero co{ n}streined[e] his familier { and} his maistre seneca to chesen on what 2096 deeþ he wolde deien.
[Sidenote: Antonius (Caracalla) commanded Papinian to be slain by the swords of his soldiers.]
¶ Antonius comau{ n}did[e] þat kny[gh]tis slowen wiþ her swerdis Papinian his familier whiche Papinian had[de] ben long tyme ful my[gh]ty a-monges hem of þe courte.
[Sidenote: Yet both would have given up all they possessed.]
and [gh]it certis þei wolde boþe 2100 han renou{ n}ced her power.
[Sidenote: Seneca begged for poverty and exile. But relentless fortune precipitated them to destruction, and did not permit them to choose their fate.]
of whiche [two] senek enforced[e] hym to [gh]iue{ n} to Nero his rychesses. { and} also to han gon in to solitarie exil. ¶ But whan þe grete wey[gh]t. þat is to sein of lordes power or of fortune 2104 draweþ hem þat sholden falle. neyþer of hem ne my[gh]t[e] do þat he wolde.
[Sidenote: What then is Power, which terrifies its possessors, and which cannot be got rid of at pleasure?]
what þing is þanne þilke power þat þou[gh] men han it þat þei ben agast. ¶ { and} whan þou woldest han it þou nart nat siker. ¶ And 2108 yif þou woldest forleten it þou mayst nat eschewen it.
[Sidenote: No advantage is to be gained by friendship based on prosperity instead of virtue.]
¶ But wheþir swiche men ben frendes at nede as ben conseiled by fortune { and} nat by vertue.
[Sidenote: Adversity will turn this sort of friendship into enmity. And what greater plague can there be than the enmity of thy familiar friend?]
Certys swiche folk as weleful fortune makeþ frendes. contrarious fortune [[pg 77]] makeþ hem enmyse. ¶ And what pestilence is 2113 more my[gh]ty forto anoye a wi[gh]t þan a familier enemy.