syre to Tryboll? Than quod the scoler: by God! father, ye [have] sayd
trouthe. Let me alone nowe; ye shall se me do well ynoughe the nexte
tyme. Wherfore on the morowe he wente to the bysshoppe agayne, and sayd
he coulde soyle his questyon. Than sayd the bysshoppe: Noye had thre
sonnes, Sem, Came,[118] and Japhete. Now, tell me who was Japhetes
father. Mary, syr, quod the scoler, if it plese youre lordeshyppe, Colle
my fathers dogge.

By this tale a man may lerne, that it is but loste tyme to teche a fole
any thynge, whiche hathe no wytte to perceyue it.

FOOTNOTES:

[117] Satisfy, a very rare word.

+ _Of the husbandman that lodgyd the frere in his own bedde._ lxx.

+ It fortuned so that a frere, late in the euenynge, desyred lodgynge of
a poore man of the countrey, the whiche for lacke of other lodgyng,
glad to harborowe the frere, lodged him in his owne bedde. And after, he
and his wyfe, the frere beynge a slepe, came and laye in the same bedde;
and in the mornynge after the poore man rose and went to the market,
leauyng the frere in the bedde with his wyfe. And as he wente he smiled
and laughte to hym selfe; wherfore hys neyghbours demaunded of hym, why
he so smyled. He answered and sayd: I laughe to thynke, howe shamefaste
the frere shal be whanne he waketh, whome I left in bedde with my wyfe.

By this tale a man may lerne, that he that ouershoteth hym selfe doth
folysshely: yet he is more fole to shewe it openly.

FOOTNOTES:

[118] Ham.

+ _Of the preste that wolde say two gospels for a grote._ lxxi.

+ Somtyme there dwelled a preest in Stretforde vpon Auyne of small
lernyng, which vndeuoutly sange masse and oftentymes twyse on one day.
So it happened on a tyme, after his seconde masse was done in shorte
space, nat a myle from Stretforde there mette with hym dyuers marchaunte
men whiche wolde haue harde masse, and desyred hym to synge masse and he
shuld haue a grote; whiche answered them and sayd: syrs, I wyll say
masse no more this day; but I wyll say you two gospels for one grote,
and that is dogge chepe [for] a masse in any place in Englande.

By this tale a man may se, that they that be rude and unlerned regarde
but lytell the meryte and goodness of holy prayer.

+ _Of the coutear that dyd cast the frere ouer the bote._ lxxii.

_Too much damaged to decypher._

+ _Of the frere that prechyd what mennys sowles were._ lxxiii.

+ A precher in pulpet whiche prechyd t