owys my sonne, I perceve well by certaine evidences thyne abylyte
to lerne scyences, touching nombres and proporcions, and also well consydre
I thy besye prayer in especyal to lerne the tretyse of the _astrolabye_.
Than for as moche as a philosopher saithe, he wrapeth hym in his frende,
that condiscendeth to the ryghtfull prayers of his frende: therefore I have
given the a sufficient astrolabye for oure orizont, compowned after the
latitude of Oxenforde: vpon the whiche by meditacion of this lytell
tretise, I purpose to teche the a certame nombre of conclusions,
pertainynge to this same instrument."--GEOFFREY CHAUCER: _Of the
Astrolabe_.

45. _Example written about 1385--to be compared with that of 1555, on p.
87_.

"And thus this companie of muses iblamed casten wrothly the chere dounward
to the yerth, and shewing by rednesse their shame, thei passeden sorowfully
the thresholde. And I of whom the sight plounged in teres was darked, so
that I ne might not know what that woman was, of so Imperial aucthoritie, I
woxe all abashed and stonied, and cast my sight doune to the yerth, and
began still for to abide what she would doen afterward."--CHAUCER: _Version
from Boethius: Johnson's Hist. of E. L._, p. 29.

46. _Poetical Example--probably written before 1380_.

"O Socrates, thou stedfast champion;
She ne might nevir be thy turmentour,
Thou nevir dreddist her oppression,
Ne in her chere foundin thou no favour,
Thou knewe wele the disceipt of her colour,
And that her moste worship is for to lie,
I knowe her eke a false dissimulour,
For finally Fortune I doe defie."--CHAUCER.

47. _Reign of Edward III, 1377 to 1327.--Example written about 1360_.

"And eke full ofte a littell skare
Vpon a banke, er men be ware,
Let in the streme, whiche with gret peine,
If any man it shall restreine.
Where lawe failleth, errour groweth;
He is not wise, who that ne troweth."--SIR JOHN GOWER.

48. _Example from Mandeville, the English traveller--written in 1356_.

"And this sterre that is toward the Northe, that wee clepen the lode
sterre, ne apperethe not to hem. For whiche cause, men may wel perceyve,
that the lond and the see ben of rownde schapp and forme. For the partie of
the firmament schewethe in o contree, that schewethe not in another
contree. And men may well preven be experience and sotyle compassement of
wytt, that zif a man fond passages be schippes, that w