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

them gan cryen loud,

“Let me go first!” — “Nay, but let me!

And here I will ensure thee,

With vowes, if thou wilt do so,

That I shall never from thee go,

But be thine owen sworen brother!

We will us medle* each with other, *mingle That no man, be he ne’er so wroth,

Shall have one of us two, but both

At ones, as *beside his leave, despite his desire*

Come we at morning or at eve,

Be we cried or *still y-rowned.” quietly whispered*

Thus saw I false and sooth, compouned, compounded Together fly for one tiding.

Then out at holes gan to wring squeeze, struggle Every tiding straight to Fame;

And she gan give to each his name

After her disposition,

And gave them eke duration,

Some to wax and wane soon,

As doth the faire white moon;

And let them go. There might I see

Winged wonders full fast flee,

Twenty thousand in a rout, company As Aeolus them blew about.

And, Lord! this House in alle times

Was full of shipmen and pilgrimes, <85>

With *scrippes bretfull of leasings, wallets brimful of falsehoods*

Entremedled with tidings true stories And eke alone by themselve.

And many thousand times twelve

Saw I eke of these pardoners,<86>

Couriers, and eke messengers,

With boistes* crammed full of lies *boxes As ever vessel was with lyes. lees of wine And as I altherfaste* went *with all speed About, and did all mine intent

Me *for to play and for to lear, to amuse and instruct myself*

And eke a tiding for to hear

That I had heard of some country,

That shall not now be told for me; —

For it no need is, readily;

Folk can sing it better than I.

For all must out, or late or rath, soon All the sheaves in the lath; barn <87>

I heard a greate noise withal

In a corner of the hall,

Where men of love tidings told;

And I gan thitherward behold,

For I saw running ev’ry wight

As fast as that they hadde might,

And ev’reach cried, “What thing is that?”

And some said, “I know never what.”

And when they were all on a heap,

Those behinde gan up leap,

And clomb* upon each other fast, <88> *climbed And up the noise on high they cast,

And trodden fast on others’ heels,

And stamp’d, as men do after eels.

 

But at the last I saw a man,

Which that I not describe can;

But that he seemed for to be

A man of great authority.

And therewith I anon abraid awoke Out of my sleepe, half afraid;

Rememb’ring well what I had seen,

And how high and far I had been

In my ghost; and had great wonder

Of what the mighty god of thunder

Had let me know; and gan to write

Like as ye have me heard endite.

Wherefore to study and read alway

I purpose to do day by day.

And thus, in dreaming and in game,

Endeth this little book of Fame.

 

Here endeth the Book of Fame

 

Notes to The House of Fame

 

1. Rood: the cross on which Christ was crucified; Anglo-Saxon, “Rode.”

 

2. Well worth of this thing greate clerks: Great scholars set much worth upon this thing — that is, devote much labour, attach much importance, to the subject of dreams.

 

3. The poet briefly refers to the description of the House of Somnus, in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” 1. xi. 592, et seqq.; where the cave of Somnus is said to be “prope Cimmerios,” (“near the Cimmerians”) and “Saxo tamen exit ab imo Rivus aquae Lethes.” (“A stream of Lethe’s water issues from the base of the rock”)

 

4. See the account of the vision of Croesus in The Monk’s Tale.

 

5. The meaning of the allusion is not clear; but the story of the pilgrims and the peas is perhaps suggested by the line following — “to make lithe [soft] what erst was hard.” St Leonard was the patron of captives.

 

5. Corsaint: The “corpus sanctum” — the holy body, or relics, preserved in the shrine.

 

7. So, in the Temple of Venus described in The Knight’s Tale, the Goddess is represented as “naked floating in the large sea”.

 

8. Vulcano: Vulcan, the husband of Venus.

 

9. Ered: ploughed; Latin, “arare,” Anglo-Saxon, “erean,”

plough.

 

10. Sours: Soaring ascent; a hawk was said to be “on the soar”

when he mounted, “on the sours” or “souse” when he descended on the prey, and took it in flight.

 

11. This is only one among many instances in which Chaucer disclaims the pursuits of love; and the description of his manner of life which follows is sufficient to show that the disclaimer was no mere mock-humble affectation of a gallant.

 

12. This reference, approximately fixing the date at which the poem was composed, points clearly to Chaucer’s daily work as Comptroller of the Customs — a post which he held from 1374

to 1386.

 

13. This is a frank enough admission that the poet was fond of good cheer; and the effect of his “little abstinence” on his corporeal appearance is humorously described in the Prologue to the Tale of Sir Thopas, where the Host compliments Chaucer on being as well shapen in the waist as himself.

 

14. “To make the beard” means to befool or deceive. See note 15 to the Reeve’s Tale. Precisely the same idea is conveyed in the modern slang word “shave” — meaning a trick or fraud.

 

15. Lovedays: see note 21 to the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.

 

16. If this reference is to any book of Chaucer’s in which the House of Fame was mentioned, the book has not come down to us. It has been reasonably supposed, however, that Chaucer means by “his own book” Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” of which he was evidently very fond; and in the twelfth book of that poem the Temple of Fame is described.

 

17. Saint Julian was the patron of hospitality; so the Franklin, in the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is said to be “Saint Julian in his country,” for his open house and liberal cheer. The eagle, at sight of the House of Fame, cries out “bon hostel!” — “a fair lodging, a glorious house, by St Julian!”

 

18. The laurel-tree is sacred to Apollo. See note 11 to The Assembly of Fowls.

 

19. French, “roche,” a rock.

 

20. St. Thomas of Kent: Thomas a Beckett, whose shrine was at Canterbury.

 

21. The half or side of the rock which was towards the poet, was inscribed with, etc.

 

22. Cop: summit; German, “kopf”; the head.

 

23. Gestiours: tellers of stories; reciters of brave feats or “gests.”

 

24. Arion: the celebrated Greek bard and citharist, who, in the seventh century before Christ, lived at the court of Periander, tyrant of Corinth. The story of his preservation by the dolphin, when the covetous sailors forced him to leap into the sea, is well known.

 

25. Chiron the Centaur was renowned for skill in music and the arts, which he owed to the teaching of Apollo and Artemis. He became in turn the instructor of Peleus, Achilles, and other descendants of Aeacus; hence he is called “Aeacides” — because tutor to the Aeacides, and thus, so to speak, of that “family.”

 

26. Glasgerion is the subject of a ballad given in “Percy’s Reliques,” where we are told that

“Glasgerion was a king’s own son,

And a harper he was good;

He harped in the king’s chamber,

Where cup and candle stood.”

 

27. Cornemuse: bagpipe; French, “cornemuse.” Shawmies: shalms or psalteries; an instrument resembling a harp.

 

28. Dulcet: a kind of pipe, probably corresponding with the “dulcimer;” the idea of sweet — French, “doux;” Latin, “dulcis”

— is at the root of both words.

 

29. In the early printed editions of Chaucer, the two names are “Citherus” and “Proserus;” in the manuscript which Mr Bell followed (No. 16 in the Fairfax collection) they are “Atileris”

and “Pseustis.” But neither alternative gives more than the slightest clue to identification. “Citherus” has been retained in the text; it may have been employed as an appellative of Apollo, derived from “cithara,” the instrument on which he played; and it is not easy to suggest a better substitute for it than “Clonas” -

- an early Greek poet and musician who flourished six hundred years before Christ. For “Proserus,” however, has been substituted “Pronomus,” the name of a celebrated Grecian player on the pipe, who taught Alcibiades the flute, and who therefore, although Theban by birth, might naturally be said by the poet to be “of Athens.”

 

30. Marsyas: The Phrygian, who, having found the flute of Athena, which played of itself most exquisite music, challenged Apollo to a contest, the victor in which was to do with the vanquished as he pleased. Marsyas was beaten, and Apollo flayed him alive.

 

31. The German (Deutsche) language, in Chaucer’s time, had not undergone that marked literary division into German and Dutch which was largely accomplished through the influence of the works of Luther and the other Reformers. Even now, the flute is the favourite musical instrument of the Fatherland; and the devotion of the Germans to poetry and music has been celebrated since the days of Tacitus.

 

32. Reyes: a kind of dance, or song to be accompanied with dancing.

 

33. Beam: horn, trumpet; Anglo-Saxon, “bema.”

 

34. Messenus: Misenus, son of Aeolus, the companion and trumpeter of Aeneas, was drowned near the Campanian headland called Misenum after his name. (Aeneid, vi. 162 et seqq.)

 

35. Joab’s fame as a trumpeter is founded on two verses in 2

Samuel (ii. 28, xx. 22), where we are told that he “blew a trumpet,” which all the people of Israel obeyed, in the one case desisting from a pursuit, in the other raising a siege.

 

36. Theodamas or Thiodamas, king of the Dryopes, plays a prominent part in the tenth book of Statius’ “Thebaid.” Both he and Joab are also mentioned as great trumpeters in The Merchant’s Tale.

 

37. Jongelours: jugglers; French, “jongleur.”

 

38. Tregetours: tricksters, jugglers. For explanation of this word, see note 14 to the Franklin’s tale.

 

39. Pythonesses: women who, like the Pythia in Apollo’s temple at Delphi, were possessed with a spirit of divination or prophecy. The barbarous Latin form of the word was “Pythonissa” or “Phitonissa.” See note 9 to the Friar’s Tale.

 

40. Subfumigations: a ceremony employed to drive away evil spirits by burning incense; the practice of smoking cattle, corn, &c., has not died out in some country districts.

 

41. In certain ascendents: under certain planetary influences.

The next lines recall the alleged malpractices of witches, who tortured little images of wax, in the design of causing the same torments to the person represented — or, vice versa, treated these images for the cure of hurts or sickness.

 

42. Medea: celebrated for her magical power, through which she restored to youth Aeson, the father of Jason; and caused the death of Jason’s wife, Creusa, by sending her a poisoned garment which consumed her to ashes.

 

43. Circes: the sorceress Circe, who changed the companions of Ulysses into swine.

 

44. Calypsa: Calypso, on whose island of Ogygia Ulysses was wrecked. The goddess promised the hero immortality if he remained with her; but he refused, and, after a detention of seven years, she had to let him go.

 

45. Hermes Ballenus: this is supposed to mean Hermes Trismegistus (of whom see note 19 to the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale); but the explanation of the word “Ballenus” is not quite obvious. The god Hermes