aries

[45] The .vi. is of tauerners and hostelers

[46] The .vii. is of y'e gardes of the citees & tollers & cuftomers

[47] The .viii. is of ribauldes disepleyars and currours The .iiii.
traytee is of the meuyng and yssue of them And hath .viii. chapitres

The first is of the eschequer

The seconde of the yssue and progression of the kynge

The thirde of the yssue of the quene

The fourth is of the yssue of the alphyns

The fifth is of the yssue of the knyghtes

The sixty chapitre of the yssue of the rooks

The seuenth is of the meuynge & yssue of the comyn peple

And the eyght and laste chapitre is of the epilegacion.

And of the recapitulacion of all these forsaid chapitres.

BOOK I.

[Illustration]

_This first chapiter of the first tractate sheweth under what kynge the
play of the chesse was founden and maad.:._

Amonge all the euyll condicions and signes that may be in a man the
first and y'e grettest is whan he feereth not/ ne dredeth to displese
and make wroth god by synne/ and the peple by lyuyng disordynatly/ whan
he reccheth not/ ner taketh hede unto them that repreue hym and his
vices/ but fleeth them/ In suche wyse as dide the emperour Nero/ whiche
dide do slee his maister seneque For as moche as he might not suffre to
be repreuid and taught of hym In lyke wyse was somtyme a kynge in
babiloine that was named Evilmerodach a Jolye man with oute Justice and
so cruell that he dyde do hewe his faders body in thre honderd pieces/
And gaf hit to ete and deuour to thre honderd birdes that men calle
wultres And was of suche condicion as was Nero/ And right well resemblid
and was lyke unto his fader Nabogodonosor/ whiche on a tyme wold do flee
alle the sage and wyse men of babylonye/ For as moche as they coude not
telle hym his dreme that he had dremed on a nyght and had forgoten hit
lyke as it is wreton in the bible in the book of danyell/ Under this
kynge than Evilmerodach was this game and playe of the chesse founden/
Trewe it is that some men wene/ that this playe was founden in the tyme
of the bataylles & siege of troye But that is not soo For this playe cam
to the playes of the caldees as dyomedes the greek sayth and reherceth
That amonge the philosophrs was the most renomed playe amonge all other
playes/ And after that/ cam this playe in the tyme of Alixandre the
grete in to Egipte And so unto alle the parties toward the south/ And
the cause wherfore thys playe was so reno