Canterbury Tales continued.] Who so shall telle a tale after a man, He moste reherse, as neighe as ever he can, All speke he never so rudely and so large; For May wol have no slogardie a-night. 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, 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. Pars v. Line 8797. The Clerkes Tale. They demen gladly to the badder end. The Squiers Tale. Line 10538. Fie on possession, But if a man be vertuous withal. The Frankeleines Prologue. Line 10998. Truth is the highest thing that man may keep. The Frankeleines Tale. Line 11789. Mordre wol out, that see we day by day. The firste vertue, sone, if thou wilt lere, For of fortunes sharpe adversite, 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. Canterbury Tales continued.] For out of the old fieldes, as men saithe, The Assembly of Foules. Line 22. 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 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. 1 This expression is of much greater antiquity; it ap pears 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. And when he is out of he out of mind.1 [Imitation of Christ continued sight, quickly also is Book i. Ch. 23. Of two evils, the less is always to be chosen. Book iii. Ch. 12. FRANCIS RABELAIS. 1495-1553. I am just going to leap into the dark.2 From Motteux's Life. He left a paper sealed up, wherein were found three articles as his last will, "I owe much, I have nothing, I give the rest to the poor." To return to our wethers." Ibid. Works. Book i. Ch. i. note 2. I drink no more than a sponge. Ibid. Ch. 5. Appetite comes with eating, says Angeston. Ibid. Hoped to catch larks if ever the heavens should fall. Book i. Ch. II. 1 Out of syght, out of mynd. Googe's Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonettes, 1563. And out of mind as soon as out of sight. Lord Brooke, Sonnet lvi. Fer from eze, fer from herte, Quoth Hendyng. Hendyng's Proverbs, MSS. Circa 1320. 2 Je m'en vay chercher un grand peut-estre. 3 Revenons à nos moutons, a proverb taken from the old French farce of Pierre Patelin (ed. 1762, p. 90). Then I began to think that it is very true, which is commonly said, that one half of the world knoweth not how the other half liveth. Book ii. Ch. 32, ad fin. I'll go his halves. Book iv. Ch. 23. 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 Good Husbandry Lessons. the meat. The stone that is rolling can gather no moss.1 Ibid. Better late than never.2 An Habitation Enforced. At Christmas play, and make good cheer, The Farmer's Daily Dict. 1 A rowling stone gathers no moss. Gosson's Ephemerides of Phialo. 2 See Proverbial Expressions. |