Authors -- Biography; Authors, English -- Biography; Literature -- History and criticism
In that Lond they have a Queen that governeth all the Lond, and all they
ben obeyssant to her. And she is the Queen of Englond; for Englishmen
have taken all the Lond of Ynde. For they were right good werryoures of
old, and wyse, noble, and worthy. But of late hath risen a new sort of
Englishman very puny and fearful, and these men clepen Radicals. And
they go ever in fear, and they scream on high for dread in the streets
and the houses, and they fain would flee away from all that their fathers
gat them with the sword. And this sort men call Scuttleres, but the mean
folk and certain of the baser sort hear them gladly, and they say ever
that Englishmen should flee out of Ynde.
Fro Englond men gon to Ynde by many dyverse Contreyes. For Englishmen
ben very stirring and nymble. For they ben in the seventh climate, that
is of the Moon. And the Moon (ye have said it yourself, Sir John,
natheless, is it true) is of lightly moving, for to go diverse ways, and
see strange things, and other diversities of the Worlde. Wherefore
Englishmen be lightly moving, and far wandering. And they gon to Ynde by
the great Sea Ocean. First come they to Gibraltar, that was the point of
Spain, and builded upon a rock; and there ben apes, and it is so strong
that no man may take it. Natheless did Englishmen take it fro the
Spanyard, and all to hold the way to Ynde. For ye may sail all about
Africa, and past the Cape men clepen of Good Hope, but that way unto Ynde
is long and the sea is weary. Wherefore men rather go by the Midland
sea, and Englishmen have taken many Yles in that sea.
For first they have taken an Yle that is clept Malta; and therein built
they great castles, to hold it against them of Fraunce, and Italy, and of
Spain. And from this Ile of Malta Men gon to Cipre. And Cipre is right
a good Yle, and a fair, and a great, and it hath 4 principal Cytees
within him. And at Famagost is one of the principal Havens of the sea
that is in the world, and Englishmen have but a lytel while gone won that
Yle from the Sarazynes. Yet say that sort of Englishmen where of I told
you, that is puny and sore adread, that the Lond is poisonous and barren
and of no avail, for that Lond is much more hotter than it is here. Yet
the Englishmen that ben werryoures dwell there in tents, and the skill is
that they may ben the more fresh.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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