From a sparke sprongen amys,
Tille alle a citee brent up ys.”
That there may be no mistake about the sort of people to whom the pleasant art of stretching a lie is so familiar, Chaucer is careful to name them, and there we find almost every one of our friends already mentioned or hereafter described, the sea or land wayfarers:
“And lord! this hous in alle tymes
Was ful of shipmen and pilgrimes,
With scrippes (bags) bret-ful of leseyngs (lies)
Entremedled with tydynges, {227}
And eke allone be hemselve,
O many a thousand tymes twelve
Saugh I eke of these pardoners,