So long dured the tree till that Solomon, King
David's son, reigned, and held the land after his father. This Solomon
was wise, and knew all the virtues of stones and trees, and so he knew
the course of the stars, and many other divers things. This Solomon
had an evil wife, wherethrough he weened that there had been no good
women, and so he despised them in his books. So answered a voice him
once: Solomon, if heaviness come to a man by a woman, ne reck thou
never; for yet shall there come a woman whereof there shall come
greater joy to man an hundred times more than this heaviness giveth
sorrow; and that woman shall be born of thy lineage. Then when Solomon
heard these words he held himself but a fool, and the truth he
perceived by old books. Also the Holy Ghost showed him the coming of
the glorious Virgin Mary. Then asked he of the voice, if it should be
in the yerde of his lineage. Nay, said the voice, but there shall come
a man which shall be a maid, and the last of your blood, and he shall
be as good a knight as Duke Josua, thy brother-in-law.
CHAPTER VI
HOW SOLOMON TOOK DAVID'S SWORD BY THE COUNSEL OF HIS WIFE, AND OF
OTHER MATTERS MARVELLOUS
Now have I certified thee of that thou stoodest in doubt.
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