Canterbury Tales and Other Poems, Geoffrey Chaucer [good fiction books to read txt] 📗

saw I in another place,

Standing in a large space,

Of them that make bloody* soun’, martial In trumpet, beam, and clarioun; *horn <33>

For in fight and blood-sheddings

Is used gladly clarionings.

There heard I trumpe Messenus. <34>

Of whom speaketh Virgilius.

There heard I Joab trump also, <35>

Theodamas, <36> and other mo’,

And all that used clarion

In Catalogne and Aragon,

That in their times famous were

To learne, saw I trumpe there.

There saw I sit in other sees,

Playing upon sundry glees,

Whiche that I cannot neven, name More than starres be in heaven;

Of which I will not now rhyme,

For ease of you, and loss of time:

For time lost, this knowe ye,

By no way may recover’d be.

 

There saw I play jongelours, jugglers <37>

Magicians, and tregetours,<38>

And Pythonesses, <39> charmeresses,

And old witches, and sorceresses,

That use exorcisations,

And eke subfumigations; <40>

And clerkes* eke, which knowe well *scholars All this magic naturel,

That craftily do their intents,

To make, in certain ascendents, <41>

Images, lo! through which magic

To make a man be whole or sick.

There saw I the queen Medea, <42>

And Circes <43> eke, and Calypsa.<44>

There saw I Hermes Ballenus, <45>

Limote, <46> and eke Simon Magus. <47>

There saw I, and knew by name,

That by such art do men have fame.

There saw I Colle Tregetour <46>

Upon a table of sycamore

Play an uncouth* thing to tell; *strange, rare I saw him carry a windmell

Under a walnut shell.

Why should I make longer tale

Of all the people I there say, saw From hence even to doomesday?

 

When I had all this folk behold,

And found me *loose, and not y-hold, at liberty and unrestrained*

And I had mused longe while

Upon these walles of beryle,

That shone lighter than any glass,

And made well more than it was *much greater To seemen ev’rything, y-wis,

As kindly* thing of Fame it is; <48> *natural I gan forth roam until I fand found The castle-gate on my right hand,

Which all so well y-carven was,

That never such another n’as; was not And yet it was by Adventure chance Y-wrought, and not by *subtile cure. careful art*

It needeth not you more to tell,

To make you too longe dwell,

Of these gates’ flourishings,

Nor of compasses,* nor carvings, *devices Nor how they had in masonries,

As corbets, <49> full of imageries.

But, Lord! so fair it was to shew,

For it was all with gold behew. coloured But in I went, and that anon;

There met I crying many a one

“A largess! largess! <50> hold up well!

God save the Lady of this pell, palace Our owen gentle Lady Fame,

And them that will to have name

Of us!” Thus heard I cryen all,

And fast they came out of the hall,

And shooke *nobles and sterlings, coins <51>

And some y-crowned were as kings,

With crownes wrought fall of lozenges; And many ribands, and many fringes,

Were on their clothes truely

Then at the last espied I

That pursuivantes and herauds, heralds That cry riche folke’s lauds, praises They weren all; and ev’ry man

Of them, as I you telle can,

Had on him throwen a vesture

Which that men call a coat-armure, <52>

Embroidered wondrously rich,

As though there were *naught y-lich; nothing like it*

But naught will I, so may I thrive,

*Be aboute to descrive concern myself with describing*

All these armes that there were,

That they thus on their coates bare,

For it to me were impossible;

Men might make of them a bible

Twenty foote thick, I trow.

For, certain, whoso coulde know

Might there all the armes see’n

Of famous folk that have been

In Afric’, Europe, and Asie,

Since first began the chivalry.

 

Lo! how should I now tell all this?

Nor of the hall eke what need is

To telle you that ev’ry wall

Of it, and floor, and roof, and all,

Was plated half a foote thick

Of gold, and that was nothing wick’, counterfeit But for to prove in alle wise

As fine as ducat of Venise, <53>

Of which too little in my pouch is?

And they were set as thick of nouches ornaments Fine, of the finest stones fair,

That men read in the Lapidaire, <54>

As grasses growen in a mead.

But it were all too long to read declare The names; and therefore I pass.

But in this rich and lusty place,

That Fame’s Hall y-called was,

Full muche press of folk there n’as, was not Nor crowding for too muche press.

But all on high, above a dais,

Set on a see* imperial, <55> *seat That made was of ruby all,

Which that carbuncle is y-call’d,

I saw perpetually install’d

A feminine creature;

That never formed by Nature

Was such another thing y-sey. seen For altherfirst,* sooth to say, *first of all Me thoughte that she was so lite, little That the length of a cubite

Was longer than she seem’d to be;

But thus soon in a while she

Herself then wonderfully stretch’d,

That with her feet the earth she reach’d, And with her head she touched heaven,

Where as shine the starres seven. <56>

And thereto* eke, as to my wit, *moreover I saw a greater wonder yet,

Upon her eyen to behold;

But certes I them never told.

For *as fele eyen* hadde she, as many eyes

As feathers upon fowles be,

Or were on the beastes four

That Godde’s throne gan honour,

As John writ in th’Apocalypse. <57>

Her hair, that *oundy was and crips, wavy <58> and crisp*

As burnish’d gold it shone to see;

And, sooth to tellen, also she

Had all so fele* upstanding ears, *many And tongues, as on beasts be hairs;

And on her feet waxen saw I

Partridges’ winges readily.<59>

But, Lord! the pierrie* and richess *gems, jewellery I saw sitting on this goddess,

And the heavenly melody

Of songes full of harmony,

I heard about her throne y-sung,

That all the palace walles rung!

(So sung the mighty Muse, she

That called is Calliope,

And her eight sisteren* eke, *sisters That in their faces seeme meek);

And evermore eternally

They sang of Fame as then heard I:

“Heried* be thou and thy name, *praised Goddess of Renown and Fame!”

Then was I ware, lo! at the last,

As I mine eyen gan upcast,

That this ilke noble queen

On her shoulders gan sustene sustain Both the armes, and the name

Of those that hadde large fame;

Alexander, and Hercules,

That with a shirt his life lese.* <60> *lost Thus found I sitting this goddess,

In noble honour and richess;

Of which I stint* a while now, *refrain (from speaking) Of other things to telle you.

 

Then saw I stand on either side,

Straight down unto the doores wide,

From the dais, many a pillere

Of metal, that shone not full clear;

But though they were of no richess,

Yet were they made for great nobless,

And in them greate sentence. significance And folk of digne* reverence, worthy, lofty Of which I will you telle fand, I will try to tell you*

Upon the pillars saw I stand.

Altherfirst, lo! there I sigh saw Upon a pillar stand on high,

That was of lead and iron fine,

Him of the secte Saturnine, <61>

The Hebrew Josephus the old,

That of Jewes’ gestes* told; *deeds of braver And he bare on his shoulders high

All the fame up of Jewry.

And by him stooden other seven,

Full wise and worthy for to neven, name To help him bearen up the charge, burden It was so heavy and so large.

And, for they writen of battailes,

As well as other old marvailes,

Therefore was, lo! this pillere,

Of which that I you telle here,

Of lead and iron both, y-wis;

For iron Marte’s metal is, <62>

Which that god is of battaile;

And eke the lead, withoute fail,

Is, lo! the metal of Saturn,

That hath full large wheel* to turn. *orbit Then stoode forth, on either row,

Of them which I coulde know,

Though I them not by order tell,

To make you too longe dwell.

These, of the which I gin you read,

There saw I standen, out of dread,

Upon an iron pillar strong,

That painted was all endelong from top to bottom*

With tiger’s blood in ev’ry place,

The Tholosan that highte Stace, <63>

That bare of Thebes up the name

Upon his shoulders, and the fame

Also of cruel Achilles.

And by him stood, withoute lease, falsehood Full wondrous high on a pillere

Of iron, he, the great Homere;

And with him Dares and Dytus, <64>

Before, and eke he, Lollius, <65>

And Guido eke de Colempnis, <66>

And English Gaufrid <67> eke, y-wis.

And each of these, as I have joy,

Was busy for to bear up Troy;

So heavy thereof was the fame,

That for to bear it was no game.

But yet I gan full well espy,

Betwixt them was a little envy.

One said that Homer made lies,

Feigning in his poetries,

And was to the Greeks favourable;

Therefore held he it but a fable.

Then saw I stand on a pillere

That was of tinned iron clear,

Him, the Latin poet Virgile,

That borne hath up a longe while

The fame of pious Aeneas.

And next him on a pillar was

Of copper, Venus’ clerk Ovide,

That hath y-sowen wondrous wide

The greate god of Love’s fame.

And there he bare up well his name

Upon this pillar all so high,

As I might see it with mine eye;

For why? this hall whereof I read

Was waxen in height, and length, and bread, breadth Well more by a thousand deal times Than it was erst, that saw I weel.

Then saw I on a pillar by,

Of iron wrought full sternely,

The greate poet, Dan Lucan,

That on his shoulders bare up than,

As high as that I might it see,

The fame of Julius and Pompey; <68>

And by him stood all those clerks

That write of Rome’s mighty works,

That if I would their names tell,

All too longe must I dwell.

And next him on a pillar stood

Of sulphur, like as he were wood, mad Dan Claudian, <69> the sooth to tell,

That bare up all the fame of hell,

Of Pluto, and of Proserpine,

That queen is of *the darke pine the dark realm of pain*

Why should I telle more of this?

The hall was alle fulle, y-wis,

Of them that writen olde gests, histories of great deeds As be on trees rookes’ nests;

But it a full confus’d mattere

Were all these gestes for to hear,

That they of write, and how they hight. are called But while that I beheld this sight,

I heard a noise approache blive, quickly That far’d* as bees do in a hive, *went Against their time of outflying;

Right such a manner murmuring,

For all the world, it seem’d to me.

Then gan I look about, and see

That there came entering the hall

A right great company withal,

And that of sundry regions,

Of all kinds and conditions

That dwell in earth under the moon,

Both poor and rich; and all so soon

As they were come into the hall,

They gan adown on knees to fall,

Before this ilke* noble queen, *same And saide, “Grant us, Lady sheen, bright, lovely Each of us of thy grace a boon.” favour And some of them she granted