Ne, neyther our spirites afcentioun,
Ne our materes that lien al fix adoun,
Mown in our werking nothing us availle,
For loft is all our labour and travaille,
And all the cost a twenty devil way
Is loft also which we upon it lay.

Ther is alfo ful many another thing That is unto our craft apperteining,

16250

Though I by ordre hem nat reherfen can,
Because that I am a lewed man,

16255

Yet wol I telle hem as they come to minde,

Though I ne cannot fet hem in hir kinde,

As bole armoniak, verdegrese, boras,

And fondry veffels made of erthe and glas,
Our urinales, and our defcenfories,

Viols, croflettes and fublimatories,

Cucurbites and alembikes eke,

16260

And other swiche ger, dere ynough a leke,
What nedeth it for to reherfe hem alle?

Wateres rubifying, and bolles galle,
Arfenik, fal armoniak, and brimfton,
And herbes coude I tell eke many on,
As egremoine, valerian, and lunarie,
And other swiche, if that me lift to tarie,

16265

Our lampes brenning bothe night and day, 16270
To bring about our craft if that we may,
Our fourneis eke of calcination,

And of wateres albification,

Unflekked lime, chalk, and gleire of an ey,

Poudres divers, ashes, dong, piffe, and cley, 16275 Sered pokettes, fal peter, and vitriole,

And divers fires made of wode and cole,

Sal tartre, alcaly, and falt

preparat,

And combuft materes and coagulat,

Cley made with hors and mannes here, and oile 16280
Of tartre, alum, glas, berme, wort, and argoile,
Rofalgar, and other materes enbibing,

And eke of our materes encorporing,
And of our filver citrination,

Our cementing and fermentation,

Our ingottes, teftes, and many thinges mo?
I wol you tell as was me taught also
The foure fpirites and the bodies fe vene

By ordre, as oft I herd my lord hem nevene.
The firfte spirit Quiksilver cleped is,

16285

16290

The fecond Orpiment, the thridde ywis
Sal Armoniak, and the fourth Brimfton.

The bodies sevene eke, lo hem here anon: Sol gold is, and Luna filver we threpe,

Mars iren, Mercurie quikfilver we clepe,

16295

Saturnus led, and Jupiter is tin,

And Venus coper, by my fader kin.

This curfed craft who fo wol exercise

He fhal no good have that him may fuffice,

. 16288. The foure spirites, &c.] Compare Gower, De Conf. Amant. b. iv. fol. 76, b.

For all the good he spendeth theraboute
He lefen fhal, therof have I no doute.

Who fo that lifteth uttren his folie

Let him come forth and lernen multiplie;
And every man that hath ought in his cofre
Let him appere and wex a philofophre,

16300

16305

Afcaunce that craft is fo light to lere.
Nay, nay, God wot al be he monk or frere,

Preeft or chanon, or any other wight,

Though he fit at his book both day and night
In lerning of this elvish nice lore

16310

All is in vain, and parde mochel more

To lerne a lewed man this fubtiltee:

Fie! fpeke not therof, for it wol not be :

This is to fain, they faillen bothe two.
Yet forgate I to maken reherfaile

Of waters corofif and of limaile,
And of bodies mollification,

And alfo of hir induration,
Oiles, ablufions, metal fufible;

16320

To tellen all wold paffen any Bible

16325

That o wher is; wherfore as for the best

Of all thise names now wol I me reft;

. 16306. Ataunce] See the note on ver. 7327.

For as I trow I have you told ynow
To reife a fend, al loke he never fo row.

A! nay, let be; the philofophres fton,
Elixer cleped, we feken faft eche on,

For had we him than were we siker ynow;
But unto God of heven I make avow,

For all our craft, whan we han all ydo,

16330

And all our fleight, he wol not come us to:
He hath ymade us fpenden mochel good,
For forwe of which almost we waxen wood,
But that good hope crepeth in our herte,
Supposing ever, though we fore smerte,
To ben releved of him afterward:

16335

16340

Swiche fuppofing and hope is sharpe and hard;
warne you wel it is to feken ever:

That future temps hath made men diffever,
In trust therof, from all that ever they had,
Yet of that art they conne not waxen fad,
For unto hem it is a bitter fwete;

16345

So femeth it, for ne had they but a shete
Which that they might wrappen hem in a-night,
And a bratt to walken in by day-light,

They wold hem fell, and spend it on this craft: 16350
They conne not ftinten til no thing be laft;
And evermore, wher ever that they gon,
Men may hem kennen by smell of brimston:
For all the world they stinken as a gote;
Hir favour is fo rammifh and fo hote

16355

That though a man a mile from hem be
The favour wol enfect him, trufleth me.
Lo, thus by smelling and thred-bare array
If that men lift this folk they knowen may;
And if a man wol axe hem prively

16360

Why they be clothed fo unthriftily,
They right anon wol rounen in his ere,
And faien, if that they espied were

Men wolde hem fle because of hir science.

Lo, thus thise folk betraien innocence.
Paffe over this; I go my Tale unto.

Er that the pot be on the fire ydo,
Of metals with a certain quantitee

16365

My lord hem tempereth, and no man but he,

(Now he is gon I dare fay boldely)

16370

For as men fain he can don craftily,

Algate I wote wel he hath swiche a name,
And yet ful oft he renneth in a blame;

And wete ye how? ful oft it falleth fo

The pot to-breketh, and farewel! all is go.

16375

Thife metales ben of fo gret violence

Our walles may not make hem resistence,
But if they weren wrought of lime and fton;
They percen fo that thurgh the wall they gon,
And fom of hem finke doun into the ground, 16380
(Thus have we loft by times many a pound)
And fom are fcatered all the flore aboute,

Som lepen into the roof withouten doute.