[* I.e. Lucifer.] Th'Almighty, seeing their so bold assay, 85 Kindled the flame of his consuming yre, And with his onely breath them blew away From heavens hight, to which they did aspyre, To deepest hell, and lake of damned fyre,

Several preliminary assays were made in reaching this method.

After long stormes and tempests sad assay, Which hardly I endured heretofore, In dread of death, and daungerous dismay, With which my silly bark was tossed sore, I doe at length descry the happy shore, In which I hope ere long for to arryve: Fayre soyle it seemes from far, and fraught with store Of all that deare and daynty is alyve.

From thence read on the story of his life, His humble carriage, his unfaulty ways, His cankered foes, his fights, his toil, his strife, His pains, his poverty, his sharp assays, temptations or trials.

But gold of the Mint is all-golden, Safe in the strictest assay.

There is a still more interesting allusion in the interlude of the "World and the Child," 1522, where Folly is made to say: "Yea, and we shall be right welcome, I dare well say, In East Cheap for to dine; And then we will with Lombards at passage play, And at the Pope's Head sweet wine assay.