The Canon's Yeoman's Tale
Folio 181r
20 of 21 folios
With his broþer and þat is for to sayn
By þe dragoū mercury and noon oþer
720
He vnderstood and brimstoon be his broþer
That out of sol and luna were I drawe /
And þerfore sayde he take heed to my sawe /
Let no man besy him þis art to seche /
But þat he thentencioun and speche /
725
Of philosophres vnderstonde can
And if he do he is a lewed man
For þis sciens and þis connyng quod he
Is of þe secre of secretz perde
Also þer was a disciple / of plato
730
That on a tyme sayde his maister to
As his book somer wil bere witnesse
And þis was his demaunde in sothfastnesse /
Tel me þe name of þe priue stoon
And plato answered vnto him anoon
735
Take þe stoon þat titanos men name /
Which is þat quod he magnasia is þe same
Sayde plato ȝe sire and is it þus
This ignotus þer ignotius
What is magnasia good sir I ȝou pray
740
It is a water þat is maad I say
Of elementes foure quod plato
Telle me þe rooche good sire quod he þo
Of þat water if it be ȝour wille
Nay nay quod plato certeyn þat I nylle
745
The philosophres sworn were euerich oon
That þay scholde discouere it vnto man noon
Ne in no book it write in no manere /
For vnto crist it is so leef and deere
That he wil not þat it discouered be /
750
But wher it likeþ to his deite /
Men to enspire and eek for to defende
Whom þat him likeþ lo þis is þe ende
Than conclude I þus syn god of heuene /
Ne wol not þat þe philosophres neuene /
755
How þat a man schal come vnto þis stoon