bell;
Beseeching you, that ye will tell
First of your name, and what cuntre
Without more shortly that ye be,
That looke so pale, all devoid of bloud,
Upon your head a wonder thred-bare Hood,
Well arrayed for to ride late:
I answered my Name was _Lydgate_
Monke of _Bury_, me fifty yeare of age,
Come to this Town to do my Pilgrimage
As I have hight, I have thereof no shame:
Dan _John_ (quoth he) well brouke ye your name,
Thogh ye be sole, beeth right glad and light,
Praying you to soupe with us this night;
And ye shall have made at your devis,
A great Pudding, or a round hagis,
A _Franche_ Moile, a Tanse, or a Froise,
To been a Monk slender is your [A]coise,
Ye have been sick I dare mine head assure,
Or let feed in a faint pasture.
Lift up your head, be glad, take no sorrow,
And ye should ride home with us to morrow,
I say, when ye rested have your fill.
After supper, sleep will doen none ill,
Wrap well your head, clothes round about,
Strong nottie Ale will make a man to rout;
Take a Pillow, that ye lye not low;
If nede be, spare not to blow;
To hold wind, by mine opinion,
Will engender colles passion,
And make men to greven on her [B]rops,
When they have filled her maws and her crops;
But toward night, eate some Fennell rede,
Annis, Commin, or Coriander-seed,
And like as I have power and might,
I charge you rise not at midnight,
Thogh it be so the Moon shine clere,
I will my self be your [C]Orlogere,
To morrow early, when I see my time,
For we will forth parcel afore prime,
Accompanie [D]parde shall do you good.

[Footnote A: Countenance.]

[Footnote B: Guts.]

[Footnote C: Clock.]

[Footnote D: Verily.]

But I have digressed too far: To return therefore unto _Lydgate_.
_Scripsit partim Anglice, partim Latine; partim Prosa, partim Versu
Libros numero plures, eruditione politissimos_. He writ (saith my
Author) partly _English_, partly _Latine_; partly in Prose, and partly
in Verse, many exquisite learned Books, saith _Pitseus_, which are
mentioned by him and _Bale_, as also in the latter end of _Chaucer's_
Works; the last Edition, amongst which are _Eglogues_, _Odes_,
_Satyrs_, and other Poems. He flourished in the Reign of _Henry_ the
Sixth, and departed this world (aged about 60 years) _circiter_ An.
1440. and was buried in his own Convent at _Bury_, with this Epitaph,

_Mortuus saeclo, superis Superstes,
Hic ja