dde his mayde. She said there came no bodye of all the daye, but syr
Antony.[290] They asked him, and he sayde he had none. At length, they
sayde in erneste, he and no man els had the pot. By my fayth (quod he),
I borowed suche a potte vpon a tyme, but I sente hit home agayne; and so
called witnes to them, and sayde: lo, howe peryllous it is to deale with
men nowe a dayes withoute wrytynge. They wolde lay thefte to my charge,
an' if I had no wrytinge of the vsurers hande; and so he shewed oute the
wrytinge. And whan they vnderstode the disceyte, there was good
laughynge.

FOOTNOTES:

[288] Louvaine.

[289] Cooked.

+ _Of the same chaplen and one that spited him._ cii.

+ The same Antony dyned on a tyme with a sorte of merye felowes, amonge
whome there was one that greatly spited[291] him in his scoffes and
merye iestes. And as they sate laughynge and sporting, one asked whiche
was the most reuerent part of mans bodye? One sayd the eie, an other the
nose; but Antony, bycause he knew his enuyer wolde name the clene
contrarye, sayde the mouth was the most reuerent parte. Naye, quod his
enuyer, the parte that we sytte on is the moste reuerent; and bicause
they meruayled whye, he made this reason, that he was moste honourable
amonge the common people, that was fyrste sette; and the parte that he
named was fyrste sette. Whiche sayenge contented them, and they laughed
merelye. He was nat a littell proude of his sayenge, and that he hadde
ouer come Antonye. This past forth. Four or fyue dayes after, they were
bothe bydde to dyner in a nother place. Whan Antony cam in, he found his
enuier, that sat talkynge with other, whyle the diner was makynge redy.
Antony tourned his backe to him and lette a great ***** agaynst his
face. His enuyer, greatlye disdayninge, sayde: walke knaue with a
myschiefe, where hast thou ben nourtered? Why and dysdaynest thou, quod
Antony? if I had saluted the with my mouthe, thou woldest haue saluted
me agayne; and nowe I grete the with that parte of my body, that by
thyn owne sayenge is moste honourable, thou callest me knaue.

Thus he got agayne his praise, that he hadde loste before.

FOOTNOTES:

[290] It is scarcely necessary to mention that formerly all priests were
styled Sir. One of John Heywood's interludes is called: _A Play between
Johan the Husband, Tyb the Wife, and Sir Johan the Prest_. In an old
ballad in the Ashmole Collection, beginning, "Adew! my pretty pussy,"
there is