Many men there ben that with eeres openly sprad so moche swalowen the delyciousnesse of jestes and of ryme by queynt knyttyng coloures that of the goodnesse or of the badnesse of the sentence take they lytel hede or els none. Sothely, dul wytte and a thoughtful soule so sore have myned and graffed in my spyrites that suche craft of endytyng wol not ben of myn acqueyntaunce. And, for rude wordes and boystous, percen the herte of the herer to the inrest poynte and planten there the sentence of thynges, so that with lytel helpe it is able to spring, this boke, that nothyng hath of the great floode of wyt ne of semelych colours, is dolven with rude wordes and boystous, and so drawe togyder to maken the catchers therof ben the more redy to hent sentence.

There are many people, ears wide open, who indulge themselves in the taste for rhetoric. They gulp down jokes and rhymes and find them delicious because of the curious, intricate and colorful knots of rhetoric that compose them. Such is their appetite that they pay little or no attention to the moral value of the sentence, whether it promotes good or bad. Truly, though, none of this indulgence in rhetoric will be found in this work of mine, so deeply have anxiety and distraction undermined my spirits. Moreover, since plain and unadorned words pierce the heart of the one who hears them, even to the innermost point, and thus, in just that way, plant there the true meaning, so that almost effortlessly that true meaning emerges, like a blossom almost, this book of mine is turned, cultivated actually, with plain and unadorned words, no flood of wit or taint of rhetoric anywhere, and so constructed, as a result, the better to make those who read prepared to grasp its meaning. (My translation)