Man may there of eat enoy,

All with riyt,' and nought with woy.2
All is common to young and old,
To stout and stern, meek and bold.

There is a cloister fair and light,
Broad and long of seemly sight.
The pillars of that cloister all
Beth y-turned of chrystal,
With harlas 3 and capital
Of green jaspe and red coràl.
In the praer is a tree,
Swithe 5 likeful for to see.

The root is ginger and galingale,

The scions beth all sedwale.7

The meaning seems to be, that meat was not weighed out, but in abundance, and at the disposal of all who chose to seize it. Eat, meat. Sax. ette, cibus.

3 Probably the plinth, in Italian orlo. In Cotgrave's Dict. we have orle, for a hem or border; hence the word ourler. 4 Meadow, prairie. Fr.

5 Very.

6 The sweet cyperus, a sort of rush, the roots of which were supposed to be an excellent stomachic. It was probably, like the real galanga, one of the ingredients in the hypocras, or medicated wine, used at the conclusion of their meals.

7 Valerian; or perhaps the mountain spikenard; for Parkinson calls them both by the name of setwall.

Trie' maces beth the flower,
The rind canel of sweet odour;
The fruit gilofre3 of good smack.
Of cucubes there n'is no lack,
There beth roses of red blee, 5
And lily, likeful for to see:

6

They falloweth never day no night;
This ought be a sweet sight.

There beth four wells 7 in the abbey

Cloves. Fr. They were first introduced into the West in 1190. Anderson's Hist. of Commerce.

• Probably cuckoo-flowers, or lady-smocks.

5 Colour.

6 They fade; grow yellow. Our word fallow had originally the same meaning.

7 Springs.

8 Any sovereign remedy was at this time called treacle: Venice treacle is still in some repute. The sirop of the sugar-bakers, now called treacle, cannot have been known so early.

9 Holy-water?
"Spiced-wine. Fr.

13 In a full stream.

10 Balsam. Fr.

12

Running. Sax.

Of they streames all the mould,
Stones precious, and gold.

There is sapphire, and uniune, ▾
Carbuncle, and astiune,2

3

4

Smaragde, lugre, and prassiune, 5

Beryl, onyx, toposiune,

Amethyst, and chrysolite,

Chalcedon, and epetite. 6

There beth birdes, many and fale,"
Throstle, thrush, and nightingale,

8

Chalandre, and wood-wale, 9

And other birdes without tale,
That stinteth never by har might

Merry to sing day and night.
[Here a few lines are lost.]

Yet I do you mo to wit,

The geese y-roasted on the spit

123456 Of these names three only are intelligible; the unio, or pearl; the smaragde, or emeralde; and the prassiune (prasius), a stone generally found in the emerald mines. Astiune may perhaps be the astrios or astroites of Pliny; lugre the leuco-chrysus, or chrysolite; and epetite the hæmatites, or blood-stone. The virtues formerly assigned to gems will account for the length of this list.

7 Numerous. Sax.

Gold-finch.

• Wood-lark ?

Flee to that abbey, God it wot,
And gredith' "Geese all hot! all hot!"
Hi bringeth galek,2 great plentè,

The best y-dight 3 that man may see.

4

The leverokes that beth couth,5

Lieth adown to man-is mouth,
Y-dight in stew full swithe well,
Powder'd with gingelofre and canèl.7

N'is no speech of no drink;
All take enough withoute swink.8
When the monkes geeth 9 to mass,

10

All the fenestres, that beth of glass,

Turneth into chrystal bright,
To give monkes more light.
When the masses beth isend 11
And the bookes up-ilend,12
The chrystal turneth into glass
In state that it rather was.

N'is there hawk no fowl so swift
Better fleeing by the lift

Than the monkes, high of mood,
With har sleeves and har hood.
When the abbot seeth ham flee,
That he holds for much glee.
Ac natheless, all there among,
He biddeth ham 'light to eve song.
The monkes 'lighteth nought adown,
Ac far fleeth into randùn; I
When the abbot him y-seeth

2

That his monkes from him fleeth,
He taketh maiden of the route,
And turneth up her white toute;'
And beateth the tabor with his hand,
To make his monkes 'light to land.
When his monkes that y-seeth,

To the maid down hi fleeth,

And goeth the wench all aboute,

And thwacketh all her white toute:

At random.

• There is much pleasantry in this picture of the young monks taking wing, by means of their sleeves and hoods, and flying like so many Cupids: and our ancestors were probably not offended by the direct mention of the drum by which the reverend abbot called them back to their devotions.