So, thinking to pass away the dinner-hour with some pleasant chat
(lest, being overcloyed with too many dishes, they should surfeit), he
discovered to them his merry meaning, who, being glad of so good an
occasion of mirth, instead of a cup of sack and sugar for digestion,
these men of little wit began to make inquiry and to search for the
aforesaid fool, thinking it a deed of charity to ease him of so great a
burden as his motley coxcomb was, and because such weak brains as are
now resident almost in every place, might take benefit hereat. In this
manner began the inquiry:
_The Foole of Hereford._
"'Upon a time (quoth one of the jury) it was my chance to be in the city
of Hereford, when, lodging at an inn, I was told of a certain
silly-witted gentleman there dwelling, that would assuredly believe all
things that he heard for a truth; to whose house I went upon a
sleeveless errand, and finding occasion to be acquainted with him, I was
well entertained, and for three days' space had my bed and board in his
house; where, amongst many other fooleries, I, being a traveller, made
him believe that the steeple of Brentwood, in Essex, sailed in one night
as far as Calais, in France, and afterwards returned again to its proper
place. Another time I made him believe that in the forest of Sherwood,
in Nottinghamshire, were seen five hundred of the King of Spain's
galleys, which went to besiege Robin Hood's Well, and that forty
thousand scholars with elder squirts performed such a piece of service
as they were all in a manner taken and overthrown in the forest.
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