[XLIX. Prouerbes of diuerse profetes and of poetes and of oþur seyntes.] [So the title in Index. Similar collections of sayings of fam|ous men, in prose, are frequent in northern MSS. (f. i. Rawl. A, Bodl. 938). A collection, comprising all the sayings of 'Philo|sophers' under each name, is Caxton's 'Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers,' fol. (1st ed. Westm., 1477, 2nd ed. Westm., 1480?, 3rd ed. Westm., 1490?—the 1st ed. being the 1st book printed in England; it was reproduced from Christie Miller's perfect copy by W. Blades, London 1877). These were originally compiled in Latin ab. 1350, and in 1410 translated into French by Guilleaume de Tignonville, from which version Earl Rivers made the English transl. ed. by Caxton: (it contains Sayings of Sedechias, Hermes, Tac, Zalquinus, Omer, Solon, Sabyon, Ypo|cras, Pitagoras, Dyogenes, Socrates, Platon, Aristotle, Alexander Tholome, Assaron, Legmon, Anese, Sacdarge, Thesille, S. Gre|gorie, Galyen). Lord Tollemache has a varying MS of the Dictes.]
Cher amys, receuez de moy
[folio cccvi]
Vn ben present ke vous enuoy,
Nunpas de or ne de Argent,
Mes de bon enseignement;
Ki en escripture ai troue
Line 5
E de latin translate
En comun langage pur amis
Ke de clergie ne ount a-pris.
Trestut est sen e verite
Ke issi trouereȝ en Romaunce.
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