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

Lamech <31> was, that alderfirst* began *first of all To love two, as write folk beforn,

Nor ever since the firste man was born, Coulde no man, by twenty thousand

Counterfeit the sophimes* of his art; *sophistries, beguilements Where doubleness of feigning should approach, Nor worthy were t’unbuckle his galoche, shoe <32>

Nor could so thank a wight, as he did me.

His manner was a heaven for to see

To any woman, were she ne’er so wise;

So painted he and kempt, at point devise, combed, studied As well his wordes as his countenance. *with perfect precision*

And I so lov’d him for his obeisance,

And for the truth I deemed in his heart, That, if so were that any thing him smart, pained All were it ne’er so lite,* and I it wist, *little Methought I felt death at my hearte twist.

And shortly, so farforth this thing is went, gone That my will was his wille’s instrument; That is to say, my will obey’d his will In alle thing, as far as reason fill, fell; allowed Keeping the boundes of my worship ever; And never had I thing *so lefe, or lever, so dear, or dearer*

As him, God wot, nor never shall no mo’.

 

“This lasted longer than a year or two, That I supposed of him naught but good.

But finally, thus at the last it stood, That fortune woulde that he muste twin depart, separate Out of that place which that I was in.

Whe’er* me was woe, it is no question; *whether I cannot make of it description.

For one thing dare I telle boldely,

I know what is the pain of death thereby; Such harm I felt, for he might not byleve. stay <33>

So on a day of me he took his leave,

So sorrowful eke, that I ween’d verily, That he had felt as muche harm as I,

When that I heard him speak, and saw his hue.

But natheless, I thought he was so true, And eke that he repaire should again

Within a little while, sooth to sayn,

And reason would eke that he muste go

For his honour, as often happ’neth so, That I made virtue of necessity,

And took it well, since that it muste be.

As I best might, I hid from him my sorrow, And took him by the hand, Saint John to borrow, witness, pledge And said him thus; ‘Lo, I am youres all; Be such as I have been to you, and shall.’

What he answer’d, it needs not to rehearse; Who can say bet* than he, who can do worse? *better When he had all well said, then had he done.

Therefore behoveth him a full long spoon, That shall eat with a fiend; thus heard I say.

So at the last he muste forth his way, And forth he flew, till he came where him lest.

When it came him to purpose for to rest, I trow that he had thilke text in mind, That alle thing repairing to his kind

Gladdeth himself; <34> thus say men, as I guess; *Men love of [proper] kind newfangleness, see note <35>*

As birdes do, that men in cages feed.

For though thou night and day take of them heed, And strew their cage fair and soft as silk, And give them sugar, honey, bread, and milk, Yet, *right anon as that his door is up, immediately on his He with his feet will spurne down his cup, door being opened*

And to the wood he will, and wormes eat; So newefangle be they of their meat,

And love novelties, of proper kind;

No gentleness of bloode may them bind.

So far’d this tercelet, alas the day!

Though he were gentle born, and fresh, and gay, And goodly for to see, and humble, and free, He saw upon a time a kite flee, fly And suddenly he loved this kite so,

That all his love is clean from me y-go: And hath his trothe falsed in this wise.

Thus hath the kite my love in her service, And I am lorn* withoute remedy.” lost, undone And with that word this falcon gan to cry, And swooned eft in Canacee’s barme* again **lap Great was the sorrow, for that hawke’s harm, That Canace and all her women made;

They wist not how they might the falcon glade. gladden But Canace home bare her in her lap,

And softely in plasters gan her wrap,

There as she with her beak had hurt herselve.

Now cannot Canace but herbes delve

Out of the ground, and make salves new Of herbes precious and fine of hue,

To heale with this hawk; from day to night She did her business, and all her might.

And by her bedde’s head she made a mew, bird cage And cover’d it with velouettes* blue,<36> velvets In sign of truth that is in woman seen; And all without the mew is painted green, In which were painted all these false fowls, As be these tidifes, tercelets, and owls; *titmice And pies, on them for to cry and chide, Right for despite were painted them beside.

 

Thus leave I Canace her hawk keeping.

I will no more as now speak of her ring, Till it come eft* to purpose for to sayn *again How that this falcon got her love again Repentant, as the story telleth us,

By mediation of Camballus,

The kinge’s son of which that I you told.

But henceforth I will my process hold

To speak of aventures, and of battailes, That yet was never heard so great marvailles.

First I will telle you of Cambuscan,

That in his time many a city wan;

And after will I speak of Algarsife,

How he won Theodora to his wife,

For whom full oft in great peril he was, *N’had he* been holpen by the horse of brass. had he not

And after will I speak of Camballo, <37>

That fought in listes with the brethren two For Canace, ere that he might her win; And where I left I will again begin.

… . <38>

 

Notes to the Squire’s Tale

 

1. The Squire’s Tale has not been found under any other form among the literary remains of the Middle Ages; and it is unknown from what original it was derived, if from any. The Tale is unfinished, not because the conclusion has been lost, but because the author left it so.

 

2. The Russians and Tartars waged constant hostilities between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries.

 

3. In the best manuscripts the name is “Cambynskan,” and thus, no doubt, it should strictly be read. But it is a most pardonable offence against literal accuracy to use the word which Milton has made classical, in “Il Penseroso,” speaking of “him that left half-told

The story of Cambuscan bold,

Of Camball, and of Algarsife,

And who had Canace to wife,

That owned the virtuous Ring and Glass, And of the wondrous Horse of Brass,

On which the Tartar King did ride”

 

Surely the admiration of Milton might well seem to the spirit of Chaucer to condone a much greater transgression on his domain than this verbal change — which to both eye and ear is an unquestionable improvement on the uncouth original.

 

4. Couth his colours longing for that art: well skilled in using the colours — the word-painting — belonging to his art.

 

5. Aries was the mansion of Mars — to whom “his” applies.

Leo was the mansion of the Sun.

 

6. Sewes: Dishes, or soups. The precise force of the word is uncertain; but it may be connected with “seethe,” to boil, and it seems to describe a dish in which the flesh was served up amid a kind of broth or gravy. The “sewer,” taster or assayer of the viands served at great tables, probably derived his name from the verb to “say” or “assay;” though Tyrwhitt would connect the two words, by taking both from the French, “asseoir,” to place — making the arrangement of the table the leading duty of the “sewer,” rather than the testing of the food.

 

7. Heronsews: young herons; French, “heronneaux.”

 

8. Purpose: story, discourse; French, “propos.”

 

9. Gawain was celebrated in mediaeval romance as the most courteous among King Arthur’s knights.

 

10. Gin: contrivance; trick; snare. Compare Italian, “inganno,”

deception; and our own “engine.”

 

11. Mr Wright remarks that “the making and arrangement of seals was one of the important operations of mediaeval magic.”

 

12. Remued: removed; French, “remuer,” to stir.

 

13. Polies: Apulian. The horses of Apulia — in old French “Poille,” in Italian “Puglia” — were held in high value.

 

14. The Greeke’s horse Sinon: the wooden horse of the Greek Sinon, introduced into Troy by the stratagem of its maker.

 

15. Master tower: chief tower; as, in the Knight’s Tale, the principal street is called the “master street.” See note 86 to the Knight’s Tale.

 

16. Alhazen and Vitellon: two writers on optics — the first supposed to have lived about 1100, the other about 1270.

Tyrwhitt says that their works were printed at Basle in 1572, under the title “Alhazeni et Vitellonis Opticae.”

 

17. Telephus, a son of Hercules, reigned over Mysia when the Greeks came to besiege Troy, and he sought to prevent their landing. But, by the art of Dionysus, he was made to stumble over a vine, and Achilles wounded him with his spear. The oracle informed Telephus that the hurt could be healed only by him, or by the weapon, that inflicted it; and the king, seeking the Grecian camp, was healed by Achilles with the rust of the charmed spear.

 

18. Ferne: before; a corruption of “forne,” from Anglo-Saxon, “foran.”

 

19. Aldrian: or Aldebaran; a star in the neck of the constellation Leo.

 

20. Chamber of parements: Presence-chamber, or chamber of state, full of splendid furniture and ornaments. The same expression is used in French and Italian.

 

21. In Pisces, Venus was said to be at her exaltation or greatest power. A planet, according to the old astrologers, was in “exaltation” when in the sign of the Zodiac in which it exerted its strongest influence; the opposite sign, in which it was weakest, was called its “dejection.”

 

22. Launcelot: Arthur’s famous knight, so accomplished and courtly, that he was held the very pink of chivalry.

 

23. Trill: turn; akin to “thirl”, “drill.”

 

24. Ride: another reading is “bide,” alight or remain.

 

25. Feastying: entertaining; French, “festoyer,” to feast.

 

26. The old physicians held that blood dominated in the human body late at night and in the early morning. Galen says that the domination lasts for seven hours.

 

27. Fumosity: fumes of wine rising from the stomach to the head.

 

28. Fremde: foreign, strange; German, “fremd” in the northern dialects, “frem,” or “fremmed,” is used in the same sense.

 

29. Leden: Language, dialect; from Anglo-Saxon, “leden” or “laeden,” a corruption from “Latin.”

 

30. Tercelet: the “tassel,” or male of any species of hawk; so called, according to Cotgrave, because he is one third (“tiers”) smaller than the female.

 

31. “And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one Adah, and the name of the other Zillah” (Gen. iv. 19).

 

32. Galoche: shoe; it seems to have been used in France, of a “sabot,” or wooden shoe. The reader cannot fail to recall the same illustration in John i. 27, where the Baptist says of Christ: “He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me; whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.”

 

33. Byleve; stay; another form is “bleve;” from Anglo-Saxon, “belitan,” to