[6-text p 553]
Thus was I / ones lerned of a Clerk
Of that no charge / I wol speke of oure werk
Line 749
¶ Whan we been there / as we shul excercise
Oure Eluysshe craft/ we semen wonder wise
Oure termes / been so clergial / and so queynte [folio 198b]
I blowe the fir / til that myn herte feynte
Line 753
What sholde I tellen eche proporcion
Of thynges / whiche þat we werche vpon
As on fyue / or sixe Ounces / may wel be
Of siluer / or som oother quantitee
Line 757
And bisye me / to telle yow the names
Of Orpyment brent bones / Iren Squames
That in-to poudre / grounden been ful smal
And in an erthen pot put is al
Line 761
And salt yput In / and also papeer
Biforn thise poudres / that I speke of heer
And wel ycouered / with a lampe of glas
And muchel oother thyng / which þat ther was
Line 765
And of the pot and glasses enlutyng
That of the Eyr/ myghte passe out no thyng
And of the esy fir / and smart also
Which that was maad / and of the care and wo
Line 769
That we hadden / in oure matires sublymyng
And in Almalgamyng and calceniyng
Of quyk/ siluer / yclept Mercurie crude
ffor alle our sleightes / we kan nat conclude
Line 773
Oure Orpyment. and sublymed Mercurie
Oure grounden litarge eek in the P[o]rfurie
And ech of thise / of Ounces a certeyn
Noght helpeth vs / oure labour is in veyn
Line 777
Ne eek oure spirites Ascencioun
Ne oure matires / þat lyen al fix adoun
Mowe in oure werkyng no thyng vs auaille
ffor lost is / al oure labour and trauaille
Line 781
And al the cost/ a twenty deuel way
Is lost also / which we vp-on it lay
