"But I pray you, good youth, to tell us
whether you are a learned clerk, and, if so, whether you have
studied at Oxenford or at Paris."
"I have some small stock of learning," Alleyne answered, picking
at his herring, "but I have been at neither of these places. I
was bred amongst the Cistercian monks at Beaulieu Abbey."
"Pooh, pooh!" they cried both together. "What sort of an
upbringing is that?"
"_Non cuivis contingit adire Corinthum_," quoth Alleyne.
"Come, brother Stephen, he hath some tincture of letters," said
the melancholy man more hopefully. "He may be the better judge,
since he hath no call to side with either of us. Now, attention,
friend, and let your ears work as well as your nether jaw. _Judex
damnatur_--you know the old saw. Here am I upholding the good
fame of the learned Duns Scotus against the foolish quibblings
and poor silly reasonings of Willie Ockham."
"While I," quoth the other loudly, "do maintain the good sense
and extraordinary wisdom of that most learned William against the
crack-brained fantasies of the muddy Scotchman, who hath hid such
little wit as he has under so vast a pile of words, that it is
like one drop of Gascony in a firkin of ditch-water.
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