The Best of the Worlds Classics, Restricted to prose. | Page 5

those skins no evil air may enter into the palace. Those skins be
as red as blood, and they shine so bright against the sun, that scarcely
no man may behold them. And many folk worship these beasts, when
they meet them first at morning, for their great virtue and for the good
smell that they have. And those skins they prize more than tho they
were plate of fine gold.
And in the midst of this palace is the reservoir for the great Chan, that
is all wrought of gold and of precious stones and great pearls. And at
four corners of the reservoir be four serpents of gold. And all about
there is made large nets of silk and gold and great pearls hanging all
about the reservoir. And under the reservoir be conduits of beverage
that they drink in the emperor's court. And beside the conduits be many
vessels of gold, by the which they that be of household drink at the
conduit.

And the hall of the palace is full nobly arrayed, and full marvellously
attired on all parts in all things that men apparel with any hall. And first,
at the chief of the hall is the emperor's throne, full high, where he sits at
the meat. And that is of fine precious stones, bordered all about with
pure gold and precious stones, and great pearls. And the steps that he
goes up to the table be of precious stones mingled with gold.
And at the left side of the emperor's seat is the seat of his first wife, one
degree lower than the emperor; and it is of jasper, bordered with gold
and precious stones. And the seat of his second wife is also another seat
more lower than his first wife; and it is also of jasper, bordered with
gold, as that other is. And the seat of the third wife is also more low, by
a degree, than the second wife. For he has always three wives with him,
where that ever he be.
And after his wives, on the same side, sit the ladies of his lineage yet
lower, after that they be of estate. And all those that be married have a
counterfeit made like a man's foot upon their heads, a cubit long, all
wrought with great pearls, fine and orient, and above made with
peacocks' feathers and of other shining feathers; and that stands upon
their heads like a crest, in token that they be under man's foot and under
subjection of man. And they that be unmarried have none such.[14]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 5: From the "Travels," the earliest extant book written in
English. In this specimen the spelling has been in part modernized.
First printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1429. "Mandeville" has been
called the "Father of English Prose."]
[Footnote 6: An old name for Hungary.]
[Footnote 7: Now known as Livonia, one of the Baltic provinces of
Russia.]
[Footnote 8: Now Oedenburg, a city of Hungary.]
[Footnote 9: The Morava, one of the chief rivers of Servia.]

[Footnote 10: Philippolis.]
[Footnote 11: Adrianople.]
[Footnote 12: An old form of the word Byzantium, a town founded by
Megariaus in the seventh century B.C. When Constantine founded the
city to which he gave his own name, Byzantium, lying east of it, was
included within the city limits.]
[Footnote 13: From the "Travels."]
[Footnote 14: The quaint words in which "Mandeville" concludes his
book are these: "And I, John Mandeville, knight, above said (altho I be
unworthy), that departed from our countries and passed the sea, the
year of grace a thousand three hundred and twenty-two, that have
passed many lands and many isles and countries, and searched many
full strange places, and have been in many a full good honorable
company, and at many a fair deed of arms (albeit that I did none myself,
for mine unable insuffisance), now I am come home, in spite of myself,
to rest, for gouts arthritic that me distrain, that define the end of my
labor; against my will (God knows)."]

JOHN WYCLIF
Born about 1324, died in 1384; "The Morning Star of the Reformation";
educated at Oxford; rector in Lincolnshire and Buckinghamshire; Royal
ambassador to papal nuncios at Bruges in 1374; in sermons attacked
the Church of Rome; five papal bulls, authorizing his imprisonment,
signed against him; threw off allegiance to the Church and wrote
fearlessly against papal claims; died of paralysis; his bones in 1428
exhumed and burnt and his ashes cast into the river Swift by order of
the synod of Constance; his translation of the Bible from the Vulgate,
completed about 1382 was the first complete translation ever made.

THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST[15]

1. The bigynnynge of the gospel of Jhesu Crist, the sone of God.
2.