all would be equal, like beasts Þanne ferde þe worlde as a feld · þat ful were of bestes,
Whan eueri lud liche wel · lyuede up-on erþe.
But some must be kings For þat enchesoun god ches · oþur chef kinguus,
108and Alexander their chief Þat scholde maistrus be maad · ouur mene peple;
And me is markid to be · most of alle oþure,
Whan þis sawe was said · þe semliche prynce
112For þe fore-saide folk · fondes to ride
Þanne he farus to a feld · ful fair & ful large,
Alexander sees some trees,
which bear fruit while the sun shines, Þat stod on an hie stede · a-stored wiþ frutus.
Þere sai he semliche tres · wiþ þe sonne woxe,
116Þat frut baren hem a-boue · on bowus ful þikke.
& al so sone as þe sonne · sesed to schine,
Þat don[1] was þe day · fordon of þe cloudus,
Þe tres seseden of siȝht · & sonken to gronde,
120Þat frekus miȝht no friþ · no no frut kenne.
As raþe as þe sonne ros · & reed gan schine,
but disappear when it is dark. Þat his lem on þe loft ·liȝht ȝaf aboute,
spiritum, qui meo sensui tam fortiter dominatur, quod nullo modo hoc facere me permittit." Et hec dicens dimisit eos illesos.
[A portion of the story is here omitted in the English poeml it relates to the finding of the pillars of Hercules and a nation of Amazons; to elephants in the woods of India; to a nation of bearded women; and a nation of men and women walkiny about unclothed. Then comes a description of intolerable cold and severe snowstorms, so terrible that five hundred soldiers died; there was also a great fall of rain, after which it seemed as if burning torches fell from heaven. Alexander offers sacrifices, and the storms cease. The story then goes on with the arrival of Alexander at the river Ganges; see l. 137 of our English version. The substance of ll. 111-136 occurs further on in the Latin, being evidently taken from the chapter I here transcribe, which begins on leaf h 6, back.]
Quomodo alexander inuenit arbores que nascebantur cum sole.
[I]Nde amoto exercitu deuenit ad alium campum in quo arbores consistebant mire magnitudinis, que cum sole oriebantur et cum sole occidebant. A prima siquidem hora diei egrediebantur de sub terra et vsque ad horam sextam cressebant (sic) altissime. A sexta vero hora vsque ad occasum solis intantum descendebat, vt nullatenus super
- ↑ MS. 'þat siȝt don'
