wel coude he / in eschaunges / sheldes selle
This worthy man / ful wel / his wyt bysette
There wyst no wyght / that he was in dette
Line 280
So stedefastly dede he / of his gouernance
with his bargeyns / and with his cheuysance
ffor sothe he was / a worthy man with alle
But sothe to seyn / I ne wot how men him calle
Line 284
A Clerk ther was / of Oxenford also [¶ A Clerk]
That vnto logyk / had longe I-go
And lene was his hors / as it were a rake
And he was nouȝt right fat / I vndertake
Line 288
But loked holwe / and ther-to soberly
fful thredbare was his ouerest Courteby
ffor he had ȝet / geten him no benefice
Ne was nouȝt wordly / to haue an Office
Line 292
ffor him was leuer / haue / at his beddis hede
Twenty bokes clad / in blak and in rede [folio 6b]
Of Aristotle / and his philosophie
Than riche robes / or fethil or sautrie
Line 296
But al be it though / he were a Philosophre
Ȝet had he but litel / gold in his coffre
But al þat he / from his frendis hent
On bokes and on lernyng / he it spent/
Line 300
And bisily gan / for the soules pray
Of hem / þat ȝaf him / wherwith to scoley
Of stody tok he / most eure and hede
Nouȝt a word spak he / more than was nede
Line 304
And þat was seide / in fourme and reuerence
And short and quyk / & ful of heigh sentence
Sownyng in moral vertue / was his speche
And gladly wold he lerne / and gladly teche
Line 308
A Sergeaunt of lawe / there was / war & wys [¶ A ser|geant of lawe]
That ful often had ben / at Pardys
That was ful riche / of excellence
Discrete he was / and of gret reuerence
Line 312
he semed swich / his wordes were so wyse
