The Canterbury Tales, and Other Poems
Merrier than the nightingale,
For now I will you rown,* *whisper
How Sir Thopas, with sides smale,* *small <18>
Pricking over hill and dale,
Is come again to town.
His merry men commanded he
To make him both game and glee;
For needes must he fight
With a giant with heades three,
For paramour and jollity
Of one that shone full bright.
“*Do come,*” he saide, “my minstrales *summon*
And gestours* for to telle tales. *story-tellers
Anon in mine arming,
Of romances that be royales, <19>
Of popes and of cardinales,
And eke of love-longing.”
They fetch’d him first the sweete wine,
And mead eke in a maseline,* *drinking-bowl
And royal spicery; of maple wood <20>
Of ginger-bread that was full fine,
And liquorice and eke cumin,
With sugar that is trie.* *refined
He didde,* next his white lere,** *put on **skin
Of cloth of lake* fine and clear, *fine linen
A breech and eke a shirt;
And next his shirt an haketon,* *cassock
And over that an habergeon,* *coat of mail
For piercing of his heart;
And over that a fine hauberk,* *plate-armour
Was all y-wrought of Jewes’* werk, *magicians’
Full strong it was of plate;
And over that his coat-armour,* *knight’s surcoat
As white as is the lily flow’r, <21>
In which he would debate.* *fight
His shield was all of gold so red
And therein was a boare’s head,
A charboucle* beside; *carbuncle <22>
And there he swore on ale and bread,
How that the giant should be dead,
Betide whatso betide.
His jambeaux* were of cuirbouly, <23> *boots
His sworde’s sheath of ivory,
His helm of latoun* bright, *brass
His saddle was of rewel <24> bone,
His bridle as the sunne shone,
Or as the moonelight.
His speare was of fine cypress,
That bodeth war, and nothing peace;
The head full sharp y-ground.
His steede was all dapple gray,
It went an amble in the way
Full softely and round
In land.
Lo, Lordes mine, here is a fytt;
If ye will any more of it,
To tell it will I fand.* *try
The Second Fit
Now hold your mouth for charity,
Bothe knight and lady free,
And hearken to my spell;* *tale <25>
Of battle and of chivalry,
Of ladies’ love and druerie,* *gallantry
Anon I will you tell.
Men speak of romances of price* * worth, esteem
Of Horn Child, and of Ipotis,
Of Bevis, and Sir Guy, <26>
Of Sir Libeux, <27> and Pleindamour,
But Sir Thopas, he bears the flow’r
Of royal chivalry.
His goode steed he all bestrode,
And forth upon his way he glode,* *shone
As sparkle out of brand;* *torch
Upon his crest he bare a tow’r,
And therein stick’d a lily flow’r; <28>
God shield his corse* from shand!** *body **harm
And, for he was a knight auntrous,* *adventurous
He woulde sleepen in none house,
But liggen* in his hood, *lie
His brighte helm was his wanger,* *pillow <29>
And by him baited* his destrer** *fed **horse <30>
Of herbes fine and good.
Himself drank water of the well,
As did the knight Sir Percivel, <31>
So worthy under weed;
Till on a day - . . .
Notes to Chaucer’s Tale of Sir Thopas
1. “The Rhyme of Sir Thopas,” as it is generally called, is
introduced by Chaucer as a satire on the dull, pompous, and
prolix metrical romances then in vogue. It is full of phrases
taken from the popular rhymesters in the vein which he holds up
to ridicule; if, indeed — though of that there is no evidence — it
be not actually part of an old romance which Chaucer selected
and reproduced to point his assault on the prevailing taste in
literature.
Transcriber’s note: The Tale is full of incongruities of every
kind, which Purves does not refer to; I point some of them out
in the notes which follow - marked TN.
2. Poppering, or Poppeling, a parish in the marches of Calais of
which the famous antiquary Leland was once Rector. TN: The
inhabitants of Popering had a reputation for stupidity.
3. TN: The lord of Popering was the abbot of the local
monastery - who could, of course, have no legitimate children.
4. Paindemain: Either “pain de matin,” morning bread, or “pain
de Maine,” because it was made best in that province; a kind of
fine white bread.
5. Cordewane: Cordovan; fine Spanish leather, so called from
the name of the city where it was prepared
6. Ciclatoun: A rich Oriental stuff of silk and gold, of which was
made the circular robe of state called a “ciclaton,” from the
Latin, “cyclas.” The word is French.
7. Jane: a Genoese coin, of small value; in our old statutes
called “gallihalpens,” or galley half-pence.
8. TN: In Mediaeval falconry the goshawk was not regarded as
a fit bird for a knight. It was the yeoman’s bird.
9. A ram was the usual prize of wrestling contests. TN:
Wrestling and archery were sports of the common people, not
knightly accomplishments.
10. Launcegay: spear; “azagay” is the name of a Moorish
weapon, and the identity of termination is singular.
12. Clove-gilofre: clove-gilliflower; “Caryophyllus hortensis.”
13. TN: The sparrowhawk and parrot can only squawk
unpleasantly.
14. TN: The sudden and pointless changes in the stanza form
are of course part of Chaucer’s parody.
15. Sir Oliphaunt: literally, “Sir Elephant;” Sir John Mandeville
calls those animals “Olyfauntes.”
16. Termagaunt: A pagan or Saracen deity, otherwise named
Tervagan, and often mentioned in Middle Age literature. His
name has passed into our language, to denote a ranter or
blusterer, as be was represented to be.
17. TN: His “fair bearing” would not have been much defence
against a sling-stone.
18. TN: “Sides small”: a conventional description for a woman,
not a man.
19. Romances that be royal: so called because they related to
Charlemagne and his family.
20. TN: A knight would be expected to have a gold or silver
drinking vessel.
21. TN: The coat-armour or coat of arms should have had his
heraldic emblems on it, not been pure white
22. Charboucle: Carbuncle; French, “escarboucle;” a heraldic
device resembling a jewel.
23. Cuirbouly: “Cuir boulli,” French, boiled or prepared
leather; also used to cover shields, &c.
24. Rewel bone: No satisfactory explanation has been furnished
of this word, used to describe some material from which rich
saddles were made. TN: The OED defines it as narwhal ivory.
25. Spell: Tale, discourse, from Anglo-Saxon, “spellian,” to
declare, tell a story.
26. Sir Bevis of Hampton, and Sir Guy of Warwick, two
knights of great renown.
27. Libeux: One of Arthur’s knights, called “Ly beau
desconus,” “the fair unknown.”
28. TN: The crest was a small emblem worn on top of a knight’s
helmet. A tower with a lily stuck in it would have been
unwieldy and absurd.
29. Wanger: pillow; from Anglo-Saxon, “wangere,” because
the “wanges;” or cheeks, rested on it.
30. Destrer: “destrier,” French, a war-horse; in Latin,
“dextrarius,” as if led by the right hand.
31. Sir Percival de Galois, whose adventures were written in
more than 60,000 verses by Chretien de Troyes, one of the
oldest and best French romancers, in 1191.
CHAUCER’S TALE OF MELIBŒUS.
THE PROLOGUE.
“No more of this, for Godde’s dignity!”
Quoth oure Hoste; “for thou makest me
So weary of thy very lewedness,* *stupidity, ignorance <1>
That, all so wisly* God my soule bless, *surely
Mine eares ache for thy drafty* speech. *worthless <2>
Now such a rhyme the devil I beteche:* *commend to
This may well be rhyme doggerel,” quoth he.
“Why so?” quoth I; “why wilt thou lette* me *prevent
More of my tale than any other man,
Since that it is the best rhyme that I can?”* *know
“By God!” quoth he, “for, plainly at one word,
Thy drafty rhyming is not worth a tord:
Thou dost naught elles but dispendest* time. *wastest
Sir, at one word, thou shalt no longer rhyme.
Let see whether thou canst tellen aught *in gest,* *by way of
Or tell in prose somewhat, at the least, narrative*
In which there be some mirth or some doctrine.”
“Gladly,” quoth I, “by Godde’s sweete pine,* *suffering
I will you tell a little thing in prose,
That oughte like* you, as I suppose, *please
Or else certes ye be too dangerous.* *fastidious
It is a moral tale virtuous,
*All be it* told sometimes in sundry wise *although it be*
By sundry folk, as I shall you devise.
As thus, ye wot that ev’ry Evangelist,
That telleth us the pain* of Jesus Christ, *passion
He saith not all thing as his fellow doth;
But natheless their sentence is all soth,* *true
And all accorden as in their sentence,* *meaning
All be there in their telling difference;
For some of them say more, and some say less,
When they his piteous passion express;
I mean of Mark and Matthew, Luke and John;
But doubteless their sentence is all one.
Therefore, lordinges all, I you beseech,
If that ye think I vary in my speech,
As thus, though that I telle somedeal more
Of proverbes, than ye have heard before
Comprehended in this little treatise here,
*T’enforce with* the effect of my mattere, *with which to
And though I not the same wordes say enforce*
As ye have heard, yet to you all I pray
Blame me not; for as in my sentence
Shall ye nowhere finde no difference
From the sentence of thilke* treatise lite,** *this **little
After the which this merry tale I write.
And therefore hearken to what I shall say,
And let me tellen all my tale, I pray.”
Notes to the Prologue to Chaucer’s Tale of Melibœus.
1. Chaucer crowns the satire on the romanticists by making the
very landlord of the Tabard cry out in indignant disgust against
the stuff which he had heard recited — the good Host ascribing
to sheer ignorance the string of pompous platitudes and prosaic
details which Chaucer had uttered.
2. Drafty: worthless, vile; no better than draff or dregs; from
the Anglo-Saxon, “drifan” to drive away, expel.
THE TALE.<1>
A young man called Melibœus, mighty and rich, begat upon his
wife, that called was Prudence, a daughter which that called was
Sophia. Upon a day befell, that he for his disport went into the
fields him to play. His wife and eke his daughter hath he left
within his house, of which the doors were fast shut. Three of his
old foes have it espied, and set ladders to the walls of his house,
and by the windows be entered, and beaten his wife, and
wounded his daughter with five mortal wounds, in five sundry
places; that is to say, in her feet, in her hands, in her ears, in her
nose, and in her mouth; and left her for dead, and went away.
When Melibœus returned was into his house, and saw all this
mischief, he, like a man mad, rending his clothes, gan weep and
cry. Prudence his wife, as farforth as she durst, besought him of