Note 843 — from the Origins To the Renaissance (continued 8)
Reading edition
This appeal to Chaucer is in itself quite touching; here it is:
For he that was grounde of well sayinge, In all his lyfe hyndred no makyng, My maister Chaucer y^t founde ful many spot Hym list not pynche nor grutche at every blot.... Sufferynge goodly of his gentilnesse, Full many thynge embraced with rudenesse, And if I shall shortly hym discrive, Was never none to thys daye alive, To reken all bothe of yonge and olde, That worthy was his ynkehorne for to holde.
"The Auncient Historie," London, 1554, 4to, Book v. chap, xxxviii.