The Hengwrt ms of Chaucer's Canterbury tales / edited by Frederick J. Furnivall.

                                
                                     [6-text p 553] 
                                  
                                  Thus was I ones/ lerned of a clerk
                                
                                  Of þat no charge / I wol speke of oure werk
                                  Line 749 
                                
                                  ¶ Whan we be þere / as we shul exercise
                                
                                  Oure eluyssh craft / we seme wonder wise
                                
                                  Oure termes be / so clergeal and so queynte
                                
                                  I blowe þe fire / til þat myn herte feynte
                                  Line 753 
                                
                                  what shulde I telle / eche proporcion
                                
                                  Of thinges whiche / þat we worchen on
                                
                                  As of fyve or sixe vnces / it may wel be
                                
                                  Of siluer / or of som oþer quantite
                                  Line 757 
                                
                                  And besie me / to telle ȝow the names
                                
                                  Of orpement/ brent bones . yren squames
                                
                                  That in to pouder / grounde be ful smal
                                
                                  And in an erthen pot / how it put is al
                                  Line 761 
                                
                                  And salt yput in / and also papire
                                
                                  Bifore thise pouders / that I speke of here
                                
                                  And wel y-couered / with a lampe of glas
                                
                                  And of moche other thing / what that ther was
                                  Line 765 
                                
                                  And of the pot/ and glas englutyng
                                
                                  That of the eyre / myght passe no thyng
                                
                                  And of the esy fire / and smart also
                                
                                  Whiche þat were made / and of the care and wo
                                  Line 769 
                                
                                  That we had / in oure maters sublymynge
                                
                                  And amalgamynge / and calcenynge
                                
                                  Of quic siluer / y-cleped mercurie crude
                                
                                  ffor alle oure sleightes/ we can not conclude
                                  Line 773 
                                
                                  Oure orpement / and sublymed mercurie
                                
                                  Oure grounde litarge / eke on the porphirie
                                
                                  Of eche of þise / of vnces a certayn
                                
                                  Not helpeth vs / oure labour is in vayn
                                  Line 777 
                                
                                  Ne eke oure spirites / ascensioun
                                
                                  Ne eke oure mater / that lyn al fixe adoun
                                
                                  May in oure werching / no thing vs avayle
                                
                                  ffor lost is al oure labour / and trauayle
                                  Line 781 
                                
                                  And al the cost/ on twenty deuel way
                                
                                  Is lost also / which we vpon it lay

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Title: The Hengwrt ms of Chaucer's Canterbury tales / edited by Frederick J. Furnivall.
Author: Chaucer, Geoffrey, d. 1400.
Canvas: Page #720
Publication: London :: Published for the Chaucer Society by N. Trübner,; 1868-1879.

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Collection: Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse
Link to this Item: https://name.umdl.umich.edu/agz8233.0001.001
Link to this scan: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/agz8233.0001.001/720:19

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Manifest: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/api/manifest/cme:agz8233.0001.001

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Full citation: "The Hengwrt ms of Chaucer's Canterbury tales / edited by Frederick J. Furnivall." In the digital collection Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/agz8233.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 27, 2025.

The Hengwrt ms of Chaucer's Canterbury tales / edited by Frederick J. Furnivall.

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