That in this world was never wight so wooWithoute deth– and yf I shal not feyne,My purpos was to Pite to compleyneUpon the crueltee and tirannyeOf Love, that for my trouthe doth me dye.And when that I, be lengthe of certeyne yeres,Had evere in oon a tyme sought to speke,To Pitee ran I al bespreynt…
Syn I am fre, I count hym not a bene.He may answere, and sey this and that,I do no fors, I speke ryght as I mene ;Syn I fro love escaped am so fat.Love hath my name i-strike out of his sclat,And he is strike out of my bokes clene :For ever mo ther is…
For hit is wonder, be the rode,To my wit, what causeth swevensEither on morwes, or on evens;And why the effect folweth of somme,And of somme hit shal never come;Why that is an avisioun,And this a revelacioun,Why this a dreem, why that a sweven,And nat to every man liche even;Why this a fantom, these oracles,I noot;…
Must folowe his trace, and alle his wittes dresseVertu to love and vyces for to flee.For unto vertu longeth digniteeAnd noght the revers, saufly dar I deme,Al were he mytre, croune, or diademe.This firste stok was ful of rightwisnesse,Trewe of his word, sobre, pitous, and free,Clene of his gost, and loved besinesse,Ayeinst the vyce of…
In days of old there lived, of mighty fame,A valiant Prince, and Theseus was his name;A chief, who more in feats of arms excelled,The rising nor the setting sun beheld.Of Athens he was lord; much land he won,And added foreign countries to his crown.In Scythia with the warrior Queen he strove,Whom first by force he…
Heere folweth the Prologe of the Persouns tale.By that the Maunciple hadde his tale al ended,The sonne fro the south lyne was descendedSo lowe, that he nas nat to my sighteDegrees nyne and twenty as in highte.Ten of the clokke it was tho, as I gesse,For ellevene foot, or litel moore or lesse,My shadwe was…
THE SECONDE NONNES TALEThe Prologe of the Seconde Nonnes Tale.The ministre and the norice unto vices,Which that men clepe in Englissh ydelnesse,That porter of the gate is of delices,To eschue, and by hir contrarie hir oppresse,(That is to seyn by leveful bisynesse),Wel oghten we to doon al oure entente,Lest that the feend thurgh ydelnesse us…
Within thy grisly temple ful of dredeHonoured art as patroun of that place;With thy Bellona, Pallas, ful of grace,Be present and my song contynue and guye;At my begynnyng thus to the I crye.For hit ful depe is sonken in my mynde,With pitous hert in Englyssh to endyteThis olde storie, in Latyn which I fynde,Of quene…
Hyd, Jonathas, al thy frendly manere;Penalopee, and Marcia Catoun,Mak of your wyfhod no comparisoun;Hyde ye your beautes, Isoude and Eleyne;My lady cometh, that al this may disteyne.Thy faire body, lat hit nat appere,Lavyne; and thou, Lucresse of Rome toun,And Polixene, that boghten love so dere,And Cleopatre, with al thy passioun,Hyde ye your trouthe of love…
Bihoold the murye wordes of the Hoost to Chaucer.Whan seyd was al this miracle, every manAs sobre was, that wonder was to se,Til that oure Hooste japen tho bigan,And thanne at erst he looked upon me,And seyde thus, ‘What man artow,’ quod he,‘Thow lookest as thou woldest fynde an hare,For ever upon the ground I…
