Definition of "sayen"

But diuine Shepheards ſoothly ſayen,In their high Layes with wordes plaine: […]

1606, N[athaniel] B[axter], Sir Philip Sydneys Ouránia, That Is, Endimions Song and Tragedie, Containing All Philosophie, London: […] Ed. Allde, for Edward White, […], signature [D4], verso

No more do souls of men. For stories sayenWell known 'mongst countrey folk, our spirits fly, […]

1647, Henry More, “[Philosophical Poems.] Antipsychopannychia or The Third Book of the Song of the Soul: Containing a Confutation of the Sleep of the Soul after Death. The Præexistency of the Soul, […].”, in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Complete Poems of Dr. Henry More (1614–1687) […] (Chertsey Worthies’ Library), [Edinburgh: […] Edinburgh University Press; Thomas and Archibald Constable, […]] for private circulation, published 1878, stanza 78, page 126, column 1

That men sayen I make trewe melody,

1747, William Mason, Musaeus: a Monody to the Memory of Mr. Pope