Lettres to loke and see,
By this bok men may devyne,
That Christe’s body was ful of pyne,
That dyed on wod tree.
After the difficulties of the primer had been overcome, a great deal of elementary knowledge was taught to the children, as in Saxon times, through the vehicle of verse. For instance, we find a versified geography of the fourteenth century, of which the two following verses may serve as a specimen, though it must be owned the second is not very creditable to our mediæval geographers:—
This world is delyd (divided), al on thre,
Asie, Affrike, and Eu-ro-pe.
Wol ye now here of A-si-e,
How mony londes ther inne be?
The lond of Macedonie,