HKB
in our working nothing us avail; For lost is all our labour and travail, And all the cost, a twenty devil way, Is lost also, which we upon it lay.
There is also full many another thing That is unto our craft appertaining, Though I by order them not rehearse can, Because that I am a lewed* man; unlearned Yet will I tell them as they come to mind, Although I cannot set them in their kind, As sal-armoniac, verdigris, borace; And sundry vessels made of earth and glass; <4> Our urinales, and our descensories, Phials, and croslets, and sublimatories, Cucurbites, and alembikes eke, And other suche, dear enough a leek, worth less than a leek It needeth not for to rehearse them all. Waters rubifying, and bulles’ gall, Arsenic, sal-armoniac, and brimstone, And herbes could I tell eke many a one, As egremoine, valerian, and lunary,** *agrimony **moon-wort And other such, if that me list to tarry; Our lampes burning bothe night and day, To bring about our craft if that we may; Our furnace eke of calcination, And of waters albification, Unslaked lime, chalk, and glair of an ey, egg-white Powders diverse, ashes, dung, piss, and clay, Seared pokettes,<5> saltpetre, and vitriol; And divers fires made of wood and coal; Sal-tartar, alkali, salt preparate, And combust matters, and coagulate; Clay made with horse and manne’s hair, and oil Of tartar, alum, glass, barm, wort, argoil, potter’s clay<6> Rosalgar, and other matters imbibing; flowers of antimony And eke of our matters encorporing, incorporating And of our silver citrination, <7> Our cementing, and fermentation, Our ingots, tests, and many thinges mo’. moulds <8> I will you tell, as was me taught also, The foure spirits, and the bodies seven, By order, as oft I heard my lord them neven. name The first spirit Quicksilver called is; The second Orpiment; the third, y-wis, Sal-Armoniac, and the fourth Brimstone. The bodies sev’n eke, lo them here anon. Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe name <9> Mars iron, Mercury quicksilver we clepe; *call Saturnus lead, and Jupiter is tin, And Venus copper, by my father’s kin.
This cursed craft whoso will exercise, He shall no good have that him may suffice; For all the good he spendeth thereabout, He lose shall, thereof have I no doubt. Whoso that list to utter* his folly, display Let him come forth and learn to multiply: And every man that hath aught in his coffer, Let him appear, and wax a philosopher; Ascaunce that craft is so light to lear.** *as if *learn Nay, nay, God wot, all be he monk or frere, Priest or canon, or any other wight; Though he sit at his book both day and night; In learning of this elvish nice lore, * fantastic, foolish All is in vain; and pardie muche more, Is to learn a lew’d man this subtlety; ignorant Fie! speak not thereof, for it will not be. And conne he letterure, or conne he none, if he knows learning As in effect, he shall it find all one; For bothe two, by my salvation, Concluden in multiplication transmutation by alchemy Alike well, when they have all y-do; This is to say, they faile bothe two. Yet forgot I to make rehearsale Of waters corrosive, and of limaile, metal filings And of bodies’ mollification, And also of their induration, Oiles, ablutions, metal fusible, To tellen all, would passen any Bible That owhere is; wherefore, as for the best, *anywhere Of all these names now will I me rest; For, as I trow, I have you told enough To raise a fiend, all look he ne’er so rough.