Nota exemplum cuiusdam poete de Ytalia, qui Dante vocabatur.
To a flatour, the tale I herde.2330*
Upon a strif bitwen hem tuo
He seide him, ‘Ther ben many mo[1125]
Of thy servantes than of myne.
For the poete of his covyne
Hath non that wol him clothe and fede,
But a flatour may reule and lede
P. iii. 164
A king with al his loun aboute.’