Their friendship was not newë to begin. Well knew he the old Esculapius, And Dioscorides, and eke Rufus; Old Hippocras, Hali, and Gallien; Serapion, Rasis, and Avicen; Averrois, Damascene, and Constantin; Bernard, and Gatisden, and Gilbertin. 151 Of his diet measúrable was he, For it was of no superfluity, But of great nourishing, and digestible. His study was but little on the Bible. In sanguine and in perse 152 he clad was, all Lined with taffeta, and with sendall. 153 And yet he was but easy of dispence: He kept that he won in the pestilence. 154 For gold in physic is a cordial; Therefore he loved gold in special.