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[top]
[contents]
[home]
[preface]
[book 1]
[book 2]
[book 3]
[book 4]
[book 5]
[book 6]
[book 7]
[book 8]
[book 9]
[book 10]
[book 11]
[book 12]
[grammatical notes]
1. De preceptis rei rustice.
Consideraunce is taken atte prudence
What mon me moost enforme: and husbondrie
No rhetorick doo teche or eloquence;
As sum have doon hemself to magnifie. (4)
What com therof: That wyse men folie
Her wordes helde. Yit other thus to blame
We styntte, in cas men doo by us the same.
2.
Us is to write tillinge of everie londe, (8)
With Goddes grace, eke pasture aand housying;
For husbondry how water shal be fonde;
What is to rere or doon in everything,
Plesaunce and fruyte the tilier to bring (12)
As season wol; his appultreen what houre
Is best to set is part of our laboure.
3. De iii rebus quibus agricultura consistit.
In thinges IIII alle husbondrie mot stande:
In water, aier, in lande, and gouvernance. (16)
And III the first, as water, aier, and lande
Beth natural, the IIIIth is of plesaunce
And crafte of men; but this consideraunce
Is first to seen, how thyng is of nature (20)
In places there thou wilt have the culture.
4.
And first beholde aboute and se thin aire,
Yf it be clere and hole stand out of fere;
The Water eke beholde yf it be faire, (24)
Hoolsum, and light, and eyther springing there
Or elles thider brought from elles where,
Or that it come of rayne; eke se thi lande
Be bering, and commodiously stande.
5. De aieris probacione.
Good ayer is there as dales deep are noon,
And mystes derk noo dayes maketh nyght;
The contreemen coloured well ichone,
Thaire wittes clere and unoffended sight, (32)
Her voices faire, her herynge pure and light.
All this is preef of holsum aire and clene,
And there as is contraier is aire unclene.
6. De acquâ probandâ.
The water out of gayseyn or of myer (36)
Be it not brought, nor out of metal synke,
That it be freshe coloured first desire,
Not poury, but plesaunt and good to drinke,
And smell also therto in cas it stynke; (40)
If it be coole in heete and luke in colde,
The better may thowe with that water holde.
7.
Yit although thees in water faire appere,
An hidde defaicte is sumtyme in nature (44)
Under covert, and therof thus thowe lere.
Yf countreymen in likying hele endure,
Her hedes good, her chekes also pure,
And lite or no compleynt inwith the brest, (48)
The longes hole and wynded with the best.
8.
The longe-woo cometh ofte of yvel eire,
The stomake eke of eire is overtake,
Take heede eke yf the dwellers in that leire (52)
Her wombes, sydes, reynes swell or ake,
Yf langoure in thaire bledders ough' awake.
And if thoue see the people sounde and faire,
No doubte is in thy water nor thin aire. (56)
9. De electione terre.
Ffecunditee thowe see thus in thi lande:
See not the swerd all naked, white, unclene,
All chalk or gravel groissying in thi hande
Withouten moolde admixt, nor sandy lene, (60)
Nor hongrie clay, nor stones ful iche rene,
To ronke and weete, yolgh, bitter, salt ragstone,
Valeyes herde and depe eke be ther noon.
10.
A roten swerd and welny blaake, it selve (64)
Suffysing wel with graas to outerwrie,
And tough to glue ayein though thowe it delve,
The fruit of it not scabby, rosted drie,
With walwort that goode lande wol signifie. (68)
With ryshes, reede, graas, trefoil, plummes wilde,
And briers fatte also goo it with childe.
11.
Coloured stonde not on to besily
To see thi lande; but rather fatte and swete; (72)
To preve it fatte, a clodde avisely
To take, and with gode water weel it wete,
And loke if it be glewy, tough to trete;
Or make a dyche, and yf the moolde abounde (76)
And wol not in agayn, it is fecounde.
12.
Yf it be lene, it goeth all in and more,
Yf it be meene, it wol be with the brinke.
But for to take it swete, ataste alore (80)
The bitterest erthe and werst that thou canst thinke;
An earthen potte thou take and yeve it drinke
In water swete, and theruppon thou deme.
Ffor vynes land to chees eke must thou yeme, (84)
13.
In coors and in colour solute and rare,
The treen thereon light, fertile, fair, and lange,
As peres wilde, as plummes boshes are,
Not croked, lene, or seke, but hole and strange; (88)
Ne pulle it not, but goodly plaine elonge,
Ne pitche it not to sore into the vale,
Nor breke it not all doun aboute a dale.
14.
Tempest, if it be hilly, must assaille; (92)
An even feelde thou chese, and in the mene,
Thater by the cleef awaie travaille;
Or hille or dale in mesure thou demene.
But se thin eyre be faire and land unlene, (96)
An higher hille the wynde that wolde offende
Must holde of, but yf woddes the defende.
15.
The landes fatte or lene, or thicke or rare,
Or drie, or moiste, and not withouten vice, (100)
Ffor divers seede yit thay right needful are;
But chese the fatte and moyste is myne avyse.
Her werk is leest, and fruyt is moost of price.
And after it the thicke and ronle is best: (104)
But thicke and drie espy, and grannt it rest.
16.
Ayer, water, lande considered in nature,
Nowe se the crafte;--the crafte is gouvernance;
Nowe every worde and sentence hath greet cure; (108)
The lord present his feelde may best avaunce.
The lande is goode, the colour nought perchaunce;
Therefore in hewe doo thou noo diligence,
ffor god by his plesaunce alle will dispence.(112)
17.
The graffe and grayne is goode, but after preef
Thou sowe or graffe, and seedes newe eschewe
To sowe or sette, and trust in thair bonchief.
Oute of thaire kynde eke seedes wol renewe (116)
And change hemself, as writeth cleres trewe,
In places weete all rather then in drie.
ffor vynes nowe, apointe of husbondire.
18.
Northwarde in places hote, in places colde (120)
Southward, and temporannt in Est and West;
Yet of tylling is dyvers reson holde;
But chus of thi province I holde it best.
To fructifie also this is honest, (124)
That yonger men obeye untu thaire eldron
In gouvernynge, as goode and buxom childron.
19.
To kytte a vyne is thinges iij to attende:
The vyne, and fuyt, and place in whom thai growe. (128)
Of erly kytting braunches fele ascende,
Of late kytting cometh grapes right enowe.
From feble lande eke chaunge hem yf thou mowe:
For man and tree from feble lande to goode (132)
Who can and wol not chaunge I holde him woode.
20.
And kytte hem streyt after thi goode vindage,
And grapes fewe and badde, thou kytte hem large.
Thyn yrons kepe in harde and sharpe usage (136)
For graffying and for kytting I the charge,
And doo thi dede, or flour or germ enlarge,
And yf the plough mys doo, the spade amende,
In landes drie and hoote noo vyne extende. (14)
21.
In places hoote, in places over drie
It is noo boote his vyne a man to sette,
There as for heete he must hem over wrie;
Yet if that he Vulturns oversette (144)
A vyne in heete or other blastes lette,
Or brenne a vyne, in stre or other thynge
To covert here is holsom husbondynge.
22.
The bareyne braunche, if ronke and greene it be, (148)
Right by lette kytte him of as mortal foo
Of alle thi tree; but barenne lande thou flee
As pestilence; in donged londe also
To sowe in vynes younge as do not so; (152)
Yit grekes seyen that after yeres thre
Save Wortes, sowe in hem what ever it be.
23.
Iche herbe also thai sayen it is to sowe,
In landes drie, outtake of hem the bene; (156)
The bene in landes weete is best to throwe;
And sette not oute thi landes fate or lene
To him whoos lande adjoyneth on thi rene;
For harme and stryffe of that upon thi self (160)
May ryse, ye and perchaunce the overwhelve.
24.
Tylle all thi felde, or all thy felde is lorne;
Thi whete, a wonder, chaunging, thries sowe,
In lande to fatte, wol tourne into other corne, (164)
And rie of whete ysowen wol up growe,
As thay that are expert in tilling knowe.
Iliched fre fro thinges thre thowe twynne,
Sterilitee, infirmitee, and synne. (168)
25.
In bareine lande to sette or foster vynes
Dispiseth alle the labour and expence.
In feldes more, in hilles hobler, wyne is;
Abundaunt wyne the north wynde wol dispence (172)
To vynes sette agayne his influence;
The southern wynde enspireth better wyne.
Nowe moche or noble chees; the choys is thyne.
26.
Necessitee nath never haliday: (176)
Take hede on that, and feldes temporate
All though it be goode sowying, yit alway,
Or long yf it be drie in oon astate,
Let sowe it forth, and god it fortunate; (180)
And yf thi wey be foule, it is dampnable,
And neither plesaunt, neither profitable.
27.
To tille a flede man must have diligence,
And balk it not; but eree it upne bydene. (184)
A litel tilled weel wol quyte expence,
So take on hande as thou may wele sustene.
And tender vynes kytte are therby shent, (188)
And stakes longe are vynes increment.
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[top]
[contents]
[home]
[preface]
[book 1]
[book 2]
[book 3]
[book 4]
[book 5]
[book 6]
[book 7]
[book 8]
[book 9]
[book 10]
[book 11]
[book 12]
[grammatical notes]