Volume I Part 5 (2/2)

EX. Yes, that I can well prove,[20]

For this ye know as well as I, Ye see the North Star in the sky, Mark well, ye shall unneth it spy, That ever it doth remove.

But this I a.s.sure you, if you go Northward an hundredth mile or two, Ye shall think it riseth, And how that it is near approached The point over the top of your head, Which is called your zenith.

Yet if ye go the other way, Southward ten or twelve days' journey, Ye shall then think anon It descended, and come more nigh The circle parting the earth and sky, As ye look straight with your eye, Which is called your horizon; But ye may go southward so far, That at the last that same star Will seem so far down right, Clear underneath your horizon, That sight thereof can you have none, The earth will stop your sight.

This proveth of necessity That the earth must needs round be: This conclusion doth it try.

HU. Now that is the properest conclusion That ever I heard, for by reason No man may it deny.

But, sir, if that a man sail far Upon the sea, will then that star Do there as on the ground?

EX. Yea, doubtless, sail northward, rise it will, And sail southward, it falleth still, And that proveth the sea round.

STU. So doth it in mine opinion; But know you any other conclusion To prove it round, save that alone?

EX. Yea, that I know right well, As thus: mark well when the sea is clear, That no storm nor wave thereon doth 'ppear, This mariners can tell; Then if a fire be made on night Upon the sh.o.r.e, that giveth great light, And a s.h.i.+p in the sea far, They in the top the fire see shall, And they on hatch nothing at all, Yet they on hatches be near; Also on the sea, where men be sailing Far from land, they see nothing But the water and the sky; Yet when they draw the land more near, Then the hill-tops begin to appear, Still they near more high and high, As though they were still growing fast Out of the sea till, at last, When they come the sh.o.r.e to, They see the hill, top, foot, and all; Which thing so could not befal, But the sea lay round also.

HU. Methinketh your argument somewhat hard.

EX. Then ye shall have it more plainly declared, If ye have great desire; For here, lo, by mine instruments, I can show the plain experiments.

HU. Thereto I you require.

EX. With all my heart it shall be done; But for the first conclusion, That I speak of the fire, Be this the sea that is so round, And this the fire upon the ground, And this the s.h.i.+p that is here; You know well that a man's sight Can never be but in a line right.

HU. Just you say; that is clear.

EX. Mark well then; may not that man's eye.

[_Eight leaves are here wanting_.]

IGNORANCE. With arguing here their foolish [saws]

That is not worth three straws.

I love not this wh.o.r.eson 'losophers, Nor this great cunning extromers, That tell how far it is to the stars; I hate all manner cunning!

I would ye knew it, I am Ignorance!

A lord I am of greater puissance Than the king of England or France, Yea, the greatest lord living!

I have servants at my retinue, That long to me, I a.s.sure you, Herewith in England, That with me, Ignorance, dwell still, And term of life continue will, Above five hundred thousand.

SEN. Gog's nails, I have paid some of them, I trow.

IGN. Why, man, what aileth thee so to blow?

SEN. For I was at a shrewd fray.

IGN. Hast thou any of them slain, then?

SEN. Yea, I have slain them every man, Save them that ran away.

IGN. Why, is any of them scaped and gone?

SEN. Yea, by Gog's body, every one, All that ever were there.

IGN. Why, then, they be not all slain.

SEN. No, but I have put some to pain, For one wh.o.r.eson there was, that turned again, And straight I cut off his ear.

IGN. Then thou hast made him a cutpurse.

SEN. Yea, but yet I served another worse!

I smote off his leg by the hard a.r.s.e, As soon as I met him there.

IGN. By my troth, that was a mad deed!

Thou shouldst have smit off his head, Then he should never have troubled thee more.

SEN. Tus.h.!.+ then I had been but mad, For there was another man that had Smit off his head before!

IGN. Then thou hast quit thee like a tall knight!

SEN. Yea, that I have, by this light!

But, I say, can you tell me right Where became my master?

IGN. What, he that you call Humanity?

SEN. Yea.

IGN. I wot never, except he be Hid here in some corner.

SEN. Gog's body! and true ye say, For yonder, lo! behold, ye may See where the mad fool doth lie.

IGN. Now, on my faith and truth, It were even great alms To smite his head from his body!

SEN. Nay, G.o.d forbid ye should do so, For he is but an innocent, lo!

In manner of a fool.

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