Page:Famous history of the learned Friar Bacon (1).pdf/5

(5) the sheep and oxen; for sirrah! continued he, have I any body else to leave my farm to but you, and yet you take upon you, forsooth, to be a scholard, and consequently a gentleman; for they all profess themselves so, though never so beggarly, living lazily, and eating up the fat of other men’s labours, marry gaup! Goodman Twoshoes, your great-grandfather, your grandfather, and I, have thought it no scorn to dig and delve; and pray what better are you than us ? Here sirrah, take this whip, and go with me to plough, or I’ll so lace your fine scholardship, that you had better this had never been mentioned to me.

Young Bacon was much displeased, and highly grieved, but durst not reply, knowing his father to be a very hasty, choleric old man; however, this sort of living so little agreed with his sprightly genius, that in a short time he gave him the slip; and going to a Monastry, making his desires known to the superior, he kindly entertained him, and made him a brother of the Augustin Friars. There he profited so much, that in a few years he was sent to Oxford, to study at their charge; where he soon grew such a proficient, that his fame soon spread, not only in the University, but also over all England and came to the ears of King Edward the third, who then reigned: And he taking