The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems
And fare now well, I charge thee no more.
But ere I go, thus much I will thee tell, —
Never shall no true lover come in hell.
These other ladies, sitting here a-row,
Be in my ballad, if thou canst them know,
And in thy bookes all thou shalt them find;
Have them in thy Legend now all in mind;
I mean of them that be in thy knowing.
For here be twenty thousand more sitting
Than that thou knowest, goode women all,
And true of love, for aught that may befall;
Make the metres of them as thee lest;
I must go home, — the sunne draweth west, —
To Paradise, with all this company:
And serve alway the freshe daisy.
At Cleopatra I will that thou begin,
And so forth, and my love so shalt thou win;
For let see now what man, that lover be,
Will do so strong a pain for love as she.
I wot well that thou may’st not all it rhyme,
That suche lovers didden in their time;
It were too long to readen and to hear;
Suffice me thou make in this mannere,
That thou rehearse of all their life the great,* *substance
After* these old authors list for to treat; *according as
For whoso shall so many a story tell,
Say shortly, or he shall too longe dwell.”
And with that word my bookes gan I take,
And right thus on my Legend gan I make.
Thus endeth the Prologue.
Notes to The prologue to The Legend of Good Women
1. Bernard, the Monke, saw not all, pardie!: a proverbial saying,
signifying that even the wisest, or those who claim to be the
wisest, cannot know everything. Saint Bernard, who was the
last, or among the last, of the Fathers, lived in the first half of
the twelfth century.
2. Compare Chaucer’s account of his habits, in “The House of
Fame.”
3. See introductory note to “The Flower and the Leaf.”
4. “ye have herebefore
Of making ropen, and led away the corn”
The meaning is, that the “lovers” have long ago said all that can
be said, by way of poetry, or “making” on the subject. See note
89 to “Troilus and Cressida” for the etymology of “making”
meaning “writing poetry.”
5. The poet glides here into an address to his lady.
6. Europa was the daughter of Agenores, king of Phrygia. She
was carried away to Crete by Jupiter, disguised as a lovely and
tame bull, on whose back Europa mounted as she was sporting
with her maidens by the sea-shore. The story is beautifully told
in Horace, Odes, iii. 27.
7. See “The Assembly of Fowls,” which was supposed to
happen on St. Valentine’s day.
8. The tidife: The titmouse, or any other small bird, which
sometimes brings up the cuckoo’s young when its own have
been destroyed. See note 44 to “The Assembly of Fowls.”
9. Ethic: the “Ethics” of Aristotle.
10. “For as to me is lever none nor lother,
I n’am withholden yet with neither n’other.”
i.e For as neither is more liked or disliked by me, I am not
bound by, holden to, either the one or the other.
11. All of another tun i.e. wine of another tun — a quite
different matter.
12. Compare the description of the arbour in “The Flower and
the Leaf.”
13. Flowrons: florets; little flowers on the disk of the main
flower; French “fleuron.”
14. Mr Bell thinks that Chaucer here praises the complaisance
of Marcia, the wife of Cato, in complying with his will when he
made her over to his friend Hortensius. It would be in better
keeping with the spirit of the poet’s praise, to believe that we
should read “Porcia Catoun” — Porcia the daughter of Cato,
who was married to Brutus, and whose perfect wifehood has
been celebrated in The Franklin’s Tale. See note 25 to the
Franklin’s Tale.
15. Isoude: See note 21 to “The Assembly of Fowls”.
16. Lavine: Lavinia, the heroine of the Aeneid, who became the
wife of Aeneas.
17. Polyxena, daughter of Priam, king of Troy, fell in
love with Achilles, and, when he was killed, she fled to the
Greek camp, and slew herself on the tomb of her hero-lover.
18. Mountance: extent, duration. See note 84 to “The House of
Fame”.
19. Relic: emblem; or cherished treasure; like the relics at
the shrines of saints.
20. Losengeour: deceiver. See note 31 to the Nun’s Priest’s
Tale.
21. “Toteler” is an old form of the word “tatler,” from the
Anglo-Saxon, “totaelan,” to talk much, to tattle.
22. Envy is lavender of the court alway: a “lavender” is a
washerwoman or laundress; the word represents “meretrice”in
Dante’s original — meaning a courtezan; but we can well
understand that Chaucer thought it prudent, and at the same
time more true to the moral state of the English Court, to
change the character assigned to Envy. He means that Envy is
perpetually at Court, like some garrulous, bitter old woman
employed there in the most servile offices, who remains at her
post through all the changes among the courtiers. The passage
cited from Dante will be found in the “Inferno,” canto xiii. 64 —
69.
23. Chaucer says that the usurping lords who seized on the
government of the free Lombard cities, had no regard for any
rule of government save sheer tyranny — but a natural lord, and
no usurper, ought not to be a tyrant.
24. Farmer: one who merely farms power or revenue for his
own purposes and his own gain.
25. This was the first version of the Knight’s tale. See the
introductory note, above
26. Boece: Boethius’ “De Consolatione Philosophiae;” to which
frequent reference is made in The Canterbury Tales. See, for
instances, note 91 to the Knight’s Tale; and note 34 to the
Squire’s Tale.
27. A poem entitled “The Lamentation of Mary Magdalene,”
said to have been “taken out of St Origen,” is included in the
editions of Chaucer; but its authenticity, and consequently its
identity with the poem here mentioned, are doubted.
28. For the story of Alcestis, see note 11 to “The Court of
Love.”
29. “For he who gives a gift, or doth a grace,
Do it betimes, his thank is well the more”
A paraphrase of the well-known proverb, “Bis dat qui cito dat.”
(“He gives twice who gives promptly”)
30. The same prohibition occurs in the Fifteenth Statute of “The
Court of Love.”
31. Chaucer is always careful to allege his abstinence from the
pursuits of gallantry; he does so prominently in “The Court of
Love,” “The Assembly of Fowls,” and “The House of Fame.”
32. Pity runneth soon in gentle heart: the same is said of
Theseus, in The Knight’s Tale, and of Canace, by the falcon, in
The Squire’s Tale.
33. Stellify: assign to a place among the stars; as Jupiter did to
Andromeda and Cassiopeia.
34. Agathon: there was an Athenian dramatist of this name,
who might have made the virtues and fortunes of Alcestis his
theme; but the reference is too vague for the author to be
identified with any confidence.
CHAUCER’S A. B. C. <1>
CALLED
LA PRIERE DE NOSTRE DAME <2>
A.
ALMIGHTY and all-merciable* Queen, *all-merciful
To whom all this world fleeth for succour,
To have release of sin, of sorrow, of teen!* *affliction
Glorious Virgin! of all flowers flow’r,
To thee I flee, confounded in errour!
Help and relieve, almighty debonair,* *gracious, gentle
Have mercy of my perilous languour!
Vanquish’d me hath my cruel adversair.
B.
Bounty* so fix’d hath in thy heart his tent, *goodness, charity
That well I wot thou wilt my succour be;
Thou canst not *warne that* with good intent *refuse he who*
Asketh thy help, thy heart is ay so free!
Thou art largess* of plein** felicity, *liberal bestower **full
Haven and refuge of quiet and rest!
Lo! how that thieves seven <3> chase me!
Help, Lady bright, ere that my ship to-brest!* *be broken to pieces
C.
Comfort is none, but in you, Lady dear!
For lo! my sin and my confusion,
Which ought not in thy presence to appear,
Have ta’en on me a grievous action,* *control
Of very right and desperation!
And, as by right, they mighte well sustene
That I were worthy my damnation,
Ne were it mercy of you, blissful Queen!
D.
Doubt is there none, Queen of misericorde,* *compassion
That thou art cause of grace and mercy here;
God vouchesaf’d, through thee, with us t’accord;* *to be reconciled
For, certes, Christe’s blissful mother dear!
Were now the bow y-bent, in such mannere
As it was first, of justice and of ire,
The rightful God would of no mercy hear;
But through thee have we grace as we desire.
E.
Ever hath my hope of refuge in thee be’;
For herebefore full oft in many a wise
Unto mercy hast thou received me.
But mercy, Lady! at the great assize,
When we shall come before the high Justice!
So little fruit shall then in me be found,
That,* thou ere that day correcte me, *unless
Of very right my work will me confound.
F.
Flying, I flee for succour to thy tent,
Me for to hide from tempest full of dread;
Beseeching you, that ye you not absent,
Though I be wick’. O help yet at this need!
All* have I been a beast in wit and deed, *although
Yet, Lady! thou me close in with thy grace;
*Thine enemy and mine,* — Lady, take heed! — *the devil*
Unto my death in point is me to chase.
G.
Gracious Maid and Mother! which that never
Wert bitter nor in earthe nor in sea, <4>
But full of sweetness and of mercy ever,
Help, that my Father be not wroth with me!
Speak thou, for I ne dare Him not see;
So have I done in earth, alas the while!
That, certes, but if thou my succour be,
To sink etern He will my ghost exile.
H.
He vouchesaf’d, tell Him, as was His will,
Become a man, *as for our alliance,* *to ally us with god*
And with His blood He wrote that blissful bill
Upon the cross, as general acquittance
To ev’ry penitent in full creance;* *belief
And therefore, Lady bright! thou for us pray;
Then shalt thou stenten* alle His grievance, *put an end to
And make our foe to failen of his prey.
I.
I wote well thou wilt be our succour,
Thou art so full of bounty in certain;
For, when a soule falleth in errour,
Thy pity go’th, and haleth* him again; *draweth
Then makest thou his peace with his Sov’reign,
And bringest him out of the crooked street:
Whoso thee loveth shall not love in vain,
That shall he find *as he the life shall lete.* *when he leaves
life*
K.
*Kalendares illumined* be they *brilliant exemplars*
That in this world be lighted with thy name;
And whoso goeth with thee the right way,
Him shall not dread in soule to be lame;
Now, Queen of comfort! since thou art the same
To whom I seeke for my medicine,
Let not my foe no more my wound entame;* *injure, molest
My heal into thy hand all I resign.
L.
Lady, thy sorrow can I not portray
Under that cross, nor his grievous penance;
But, for your bothe’s pain, I you do pray,
Let not our *aller foe* make his boastance, *the foe of us all —
That he hath in his listes, with mischance, Satan*
*Convicte that* ye both have bought so dear; *ensnared that which*
As I said erst, thou ground of all substance!
Continue on us thy piteous eyen clear.
M.
Moses, that saw the bush of flames red
Burning, of which then never a stick brenn’d,* *burned
Was sign of thine unwemmed* maidenhead. *unblemished
Thou art the bush, on which there gan descend
The Holy Ghost, the which that Moses wend* *weened, supposed
Had been on fire; and this was in figure. <5>
Now, Lady! from the fire us do defend,
Which that in hell eternally shall dure.
N.
Noble Princess! that never haddest peer;
Certes if any comfort in us be,