“For I tell the now trevely,
Is none so wyse ne to sle,
But ever ye may som what lere,”
which, of course, should be,
“ne so sle
But ever he may som what lere.”
Worse than all, Mr. Hazlitt tells us (Vol. I. p. 158) that when they bury the great Khan, they lay his body in a tabernacle,
“With sheld and spere and other wede
With a whit mere to gyf him in ylke.”
We will let Sir John Maundeville correct the last verse: “And they seyn that when he shale come into another World ... the mare schalle gheven him mylk.” Mr. Hazlitt gives us some wretched doggerel by “Piers of Fulham,” and gives it swarming with blunders. We take at random a couple of specimens:—
“And loveship goith ay to warke
Where that presence is put a bake,” (Vol. II. pp. 13, 14,)
where we should read “love’s ship,” “wrake,” and “abake.” Again, just below,
“Ffor men haue seyn here to foryn,
That love laughet when men be forsworn.”
Love should be “Iove.” Ovid is the obscure person alluded to in the “men here to foryn”: