Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/453

Rh His gold out of his purse within, He found his stone also therein. * ***** And thus it fell him overall, Where he it sold in sundry place, Such was the fortune, and the grace." Confessio Amantis, Lib. 5. fol. Ill, 12.

"From this beautiful tale, of which the opening only is here given, Occleve, commonly called Chaucer's disciple, framed a poem in the octave, which was printed in the year 1614, by William Browne, in his set of Eclogues called the . Occleve has literally followed the book before us, and has even translated into English prose the annexed. He has given no sort of embellishment to his original, and by no means deserves the praises which Browne, in the following elegant pastoral lyrics, has bestowed on his performance, and which more justly belong to the genuine gothic, or rather Arabian, inventor.

Well I wot, the man that first Sung this lay, did quench his thirst,