we can pick out little that is
intelligible, saving that avarice is defined "a likourishness of heart
after earthly things."] A little farther there seems to have been a gay
account of Margery's wedding with Ralph the Tasker, the running at the
quintain, and other rural games practised on the occasion. There are also
fragments of a mock sermon preached by Gregory upon that occasion, as for
example:--
"Mv dear cursed caitiffs, there was once a king, and he wedded a young
old queen, and she had a child; and this child was sent to Solomon the
Sage, praying he would give it the same blessing which he got from the
witch of Endor when she bit him by the heel. Hereof speaks the worthy Dr.
Radigundus Potator. Why should not Mass be said for all the roasted shoe
souls served up in the king's dish on Saturday? For true it is that Saint
Peter asked father Adam, as they journeyed to Camelot, an high, great,
and doubtful question: 'Adam, Adam, why eated'st thou the apple without
paring?'"
[This tirade of gibberish is literally taken or selected from a mock
discourse pronounced by a professed jester, which occurs in an ancient
manuscript in the Advocates' Library, the same from which the late
ingenious Mr.
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