for to haue the name of a kynge with out royame is a name voyde/ and honour with oute prouffit/ And alle noblesse wyth oute good maners/ and with out suche thinges as noblesse may be mayntenyd/ ought better be callid folye than noblesse. And shamefull pouerte is the more greuous whan hit cometh by nature of an hyhe and noble burth or hous. For noman gladly wole repreue a poure man of the comyn peple/ But euery man hath in despite a noble man that is poure yf he haue not in hym good maners and vertuous/ by whiche his pouerte is forgoten/ and truly a royame with oute haboundance of goodes by whiche hit may be gouerned and prospere/ may better be callyd a latrocynye or a nest of theeuys than a royame/ Alas what haboundance was some tymes in the royames. And what prosþite/ In whiche was Iustice/ And euery man in his office contente/ how stood the cytees that tyme in worship and renome/ how was renomed the noble royame of Englond Alle the world dredde hit And spack worship of hit/ how hit now standeth and in what haboundance I reporte me to them that knowe hit yf ther ben theeuis wyth in the royame or on the see/ they knowe that laboure in the royame And sayle on the see I wote well the fame is grete therof I pray god saue that noble royame And sende good true and politicque counceyllours to the gouernours of the same &c./ And noblesse of lignage wyth oute puyssance and might is but vanyte and despite. And hit is so as we haue sayd to fore that theschequer whiche the philosopher ordeyned represented and figured the sayd cyte of Babilone And in lyke wyse may hit figure a royame and signefye alle the world And yf men regarde and take heed vnto the poyntes vnto the middes of euery quadrante and so to double euery quadrant to other the myles of this cyte all way doublinge vnto the nombre of .lxiiii. The nombre of the same shulde surmounte alle the world/ And not only the world but many worldes by the doublinge of mylis/ whiche doublinge so as a fore is sayd shuld surmounte alle thynges/ And thus endeth the first chapitre of the fourth booke. [Illustration] _The seconde chaitre of the fourth tractate tretheth of the draught of the kynge/ And how he meuyth hym in the chequer._