Chapter VI: Gentility

For gentilnesse nys but renomé
Of thin auncestres, for her heigh bounté
Which is a straunge thing to thy persone.

(_The Wyf of Bathes Tale_, vol. ii. p. 241.)

For if þe name of gentilesse be referred to renoun and clernesse
of linage. þan is gentil name but a foreine þing.

(_Chaucer’s Boethius_, p. 78.)

_Quæ_ [nobilitas], _si ad claritudinem refertur, aliena est._

(_Boethius_, lib. iii. pr. 6.)