Great was the press, that swarmed to and fro To gauren* on this horse that stoode so: *gaze For it so high was, and so broad and long, So well proportioned for to be strong, Right as it were a steed of Lombardy; Therewith so horsely, and so quick of eye, As it a gentle Poileis <13> courser were: For certes, from his tail unto his ear Nature nor art ne could him not amend In no degree, as all the people wend.* *weened, thought But evermore their moste wonder was How that it coulde go, and was of brass; It was of Faerie, as the people seem’d. Diverse folk diversely they deem’d; As many heads, as many wittes been. They murmured, as doth a swarm of been,* *bees And made skills* after their fantasies, *reasons Rehearsing of the olde poetries, And said that it was like the Pegasee,* *Pegasus The horse that hadde winges for to flee;* *fly Or else it was the Greeke’s horse Sinon,<14> That broughte Troye to destruction, As men may in the olde gestes* read. *tales of adventures Mine heart,” quoth one, “is evermore in dread; I trow some men of armes be therein, That shape* them this city for to win: *design, prepare It were right good that all such thing were know.” Another rowned* to his fellow low, *whispered And said, “He lies; for it is rather like An apparence made by some magic, As jugglers playen at these feastes great.” Of sundry doubts they jangle thus and treat. As lewed* people deeme commonly *ignorant Of thinges that be made more subtilly Than they can in their lewdness comprehend; They *deeme gladly to the badder end.* *are ready to think And some of them wonder’d on the mirrour, the worst* That borne was up into the master* tow’r, *chief <15> How men might in it suche thinges see. Another answer’d and said, it might well be Naturally by compositions Of angles, and of sly reflections; And saide that in Rome was such a one. They speak of Alhazen and Vitellon,<16> And Aristotle, that wrote in their lives Of quainte* mirrors, and of prospectives, *curious As knowe they that have their bookes heard. And other folk have wonder’d on the swerd,* *sword That woulde pierce throughout every thing; And fell in speech of Telephus the king, And of Achilles for his quainte spear, <17> For he could with it bothe heal and dere,* *wound Right in such wise as men may with the swerd Of which right now ye have yourselves heard. They spake of sundry hard’ning of metal, And spake of medicines therewithal, And how, and when, it shoulde harden’d be, Which is unknowen algate* unto me. *however Then spake they of Canacee’s ring, And saiden all, that such a wondrous thing