A Clerk ther was of Oxenforde also.

[Canterbury Tales continued.

Prologue. Line 287.

For him was lever han at his beddes hed
A twenty bokes, clothed in black or red,
Of Aristotle, and his philosophie,

Than robes riche, or fidel, or sautrie.
But all be that he was a philosophre,
Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre.

Line 295. And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche. Line 310.

Nowher so besy a man as he ther n' as,
And yet he semed besier than he was.

His studie was but litel on the Bible.

For gold in phisike is a cordial;
Therefore he loved gold in special.

Line 323.

Line 440.

Line 445.

Wide was his parish, and houses fer asonder. Line 493.

This noble ensample to his shepe he yaf,
That first he wrought, and afterwards he taught.
Line 498.

But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve,
He taught, but first he folwed it himselve.

Line 529.

And yet he had a thomb of gold parde.1

Line 565.

1 In allusion to the proverb, "Every honest miller has a golden thumb."

Canterbury Tales continued.]

Who so shall telle a tale after a man,

He moste reherse, as neighe as ever he can, Everich word, if it be in his charge,

All speke he never so rudely and so large;
Or elles he moste tellen his tale untrewe,
Or feinen thinges, or finden wordes newe.
Prologue. Line 733.

For May wol have no slogardie a-night.
The seson priketh every gentil herte,
And maketh him out of his slepe to sterte.
The Knightes Tale. Line 1044.
Up rose the sonne, and up rose Emelie.
Ibid. Line 2275.
To maken vertue of necessite. Ibid. Line 3044.
And brought of mighty ale a large quart.
The Milleres Tale. Line 3497.

Yet in our ashen cold is fire yreken.
The Reves Prologue. Line 3880.

So was hire joly whistle wel ywette.
The Reves Tale. 4153.

And for to see, and eek for to be seye.1
The Wif of Bathes Prologue. Line 6134.
Loke who that is most vertuous alway,
Prive and apert, and most entendeth ay
To do the gentil dedes that he can,
And take him for the gretest gentilman.

The Wif of Bathes Tale. Line 6695. 1 Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsae. Ovid, Art of Love, 1. 99.

[Canterbury Tales continued. That he is gentil that doth gentil dedis.

The Wif of Bathes Tale. Line 6752.

This flour of wifly patience.

The Clerkes Tale.

Pars Line 8797.

Fie on possession, But if a man be vertuous withal.

The Frankeleines Prologue. Line 10998.

Mordre wol out, that see we day by day.
The Nonnes Preestes Tale. Line 15058.

The firste vertue, sone, if thou wilt lere,
Is to restreine, and kepen wel thy tonge.
The Manciples Tale. Line 17281.

For of fortunes sharpe adversite,
The worst kind of infortune is this,
A man that hath been in prosperite,
And it remember, whan it passed is.

Troilus and Creseide. Book iii. Line 1625. One eare it heard, at the other out it went. Ibid. Book iv. Line 435.

The lyfe so short, the craft so long to lerne, Th' assay so hard, so sharpe the conquering. The Assembly of Foules. Line 1.

For out of the old fieldes, as men saithe,
Cometh al this new corne fro yere to yere,
And out of old bookes, in good faithe,
Cometh al this new science that men lere.
Ibid. Line 22.

Canterbury Tales continued.]

Nature, the vicar of the almightie Lord.

Ibid. Line 379.

Of all the floures in the mede, Than love I most these floures white and rede, Soch that men callen daisies in our toun. The Legend of Good Women. Line 41.

That well by reason men it call may
The daisie, or els the eye of the day,
The emprise, and floure of floures all.

Ibid. Line 184.

THOMAS À KEMPIS. 1380 - 1471.

Man proposes, but God disposes.1

Imitation of Christ. Book i. Ch. 19.

5

And when he is out of sight, quickly also is he out of mind. Ibid. Book i. Ch. 23.

Of two evils, the less is always to be chosen. Ibid. Book iii. Ch. 12.

1 This expression is of much greater antiquity; it appears in the Chronicle of Battel Abbey, page 27 (Lower's Translation), and in Piers Ploughman's Vision, line 13,994.

A man's heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps. Proverbs xvi. 9.

FRANCIS RABELAIS. 1495 - 1553.

I am just going to leap into the dark.'

To return to our wethers.2

Motteux's Life.

Book i. Ch. i. note 2.
Ibid. Ch. 5.

I drink no more than a sponge.
Appetite comes with eating, says Angeston.

Ibid.

By robbing Peter he paid Paul, . . . . and hoped to catch larks if ever the heavens should fall. Book i. Ch. II. Book iv. Ch. 23.

I'll go his
his halves.

The Devil was sick, the Devil a monk would be ;
The Devil was well, the Devil a monk was he.
Book iv. Ch. 24.

THOMAS TUSSER.

1523-1580.

FIVE HUNDRED POINTS OF GOOD HUSBANDRY. Time tries the troth in everything.

The Author's Epistle. Ch. 1. God sendeth and giveth, both mouth and the Good Husbandry Lessons. The stone that is rolling can gather no moss.

meat.

Ibid.

1 Je m'en vay chercher un grand peut-estre.

2 Revenons à nos moutons, a proverb taken from the old French farce of Pierre Patelin (ed. 1762, p. 90).