Or ten, or twelve, or manye sommes mo,
And make hem wenen, at the leeste weye,
That of a pound we koude make tweye.
Yet is it fals, but ay we han good hope
It for to doon, and after it we grope.
But that science is so fer us biforn,
We mowen nat, although we hadden it sworn,
It overtake, it slit awey so faste.
It wole us maken beggers atte laste.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Canon’s Yeoman’s Prologue. The Yeoman confesses that he is on the road to beggary from his master the Canon’s failed attempts at alchemy – turning base metals into gold through a chemical process. They take money from people, making them believe they can turn one pound into two. Yet it is false, the Yeoman says, for that science is so far ahead of them.