s to take the cure
Of my penne for he was expert
In eloquent termes subtyll and couert

Where is now lydgate flourynge in sentence
That shold my mynde forge to endyte
After the termes of famous eloquence
And strength my penne well for to wryte
With maters fresshe of pure delyte
They can not helpe me there is no remedy
But for to praye to god almyghty

For to dystyll the dewe of influence
Vpon my brayn so dull and rude
And to enlumyn me with his sapyence
That I my rudnes may exclude
And in my mater well to conclude
Vnto thy pleasure and to the reders all
To whome I excuse me now in generall

Explicit exemplum virtutis

[Illustration: {Printer's symbol}]

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Errors and Irregularities

_Transposed Text_

Two groups of pages appear to have been printed out of sequence. Each
involves pages from the later part of a signature, so visible page
numbering is absent. It is not known whether the error is from the
original printing or from the facsimile reprint.

Pages 9-11 = aa.v.(recto) - aa.vi.(recto) [unnumbered]
Pages 69-71 = ff.iii.(recto) - ff.iiii.(recto) [unnumbered]

Pages beginning:

Vnto her I answerde o lady gloryous [printed as page 11]
Be to thy kynge euer true subgete
Whan she to me had made relacyon [printed as pages 9, 10]

Whan I had scomfyte this serpent venymous [printed as page 71]
Than came dame fayth that lady gloryous [printed as page 70]
And there met me dame clennes blyue [printed as page 69]

Printed folio numbers show an unusual pattern:
aa, cc, ee: 16 pages each
gg: 12 pages
bb, dd, ff, hh: 8 pages

_Numbers_

Numbers such as .x. were usually printed without spaces.

Chapter headings for .vi. and .vii. were printed near the bottom of
the page-- as main text, not catchwords-- and again at the top of the
following page. This pattern was not consistently followed for all
chapters that began at the top of a page.

_Typographical Errors_

Unless otherwise noted, errors were left unchanged.

Tabula Libri, cap. viii:
-maunded Discrec[on]n to lede youth to marye with clen-
Tabula Libri, cap. ix:
... dyscrecyon he dyde withstande theyr temptac[on]n and ...
[error for Discrecy[on], temptacy[on]]
[Both words occur in full-length lines of prose. When the
typesetter saw that he needed an abbreviation to make th