Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50)

by Homer

  Summon’d unto your court in all my life;

  Nor never I was but of my body true.

  Unto the devil rough and black of hue

  Give I thy body and my pan also.”

  And when the devil heard her curse so

  Upon her knees, he said in this mannere;

  “Now, Mabily, mine owen mother dear,

  Is this your will in earnest that ye say?”

  “The devil,” quoth she, “so fetch him ere he dey,1 1die

  And pan and all, but1 he will him repent.” 1unless

  “Nay, olde stoat,1 that is not mine intent,” 1polecat

  Quoth this Sompnour, “for to repente me

  For any thing that I have had of thee;

  I would I had thy smock and every cloth.”

  “Now, brother,” quoth the devil, “be not wroth;

  Thy body and this pan be mine by right.

  Thou shalt with me to helle yet tonight,

  Where thou shalt knowen of our privity1 1secrets

  More than a master of divinity.”

  And with that word the foule fiend him hent.1 1seized

  Body and soul, he with the devil went,

  Where as the Sompnours have their heritage;

  And God, that maked after his image

  Mankinde, save and guide us all and some,

  And let this Sompnour a good man become.

  Lordings, I could have told you (quoth this Frere),

  Had I had leisure for this Sompnour here,

  After the text of Christ, and Paul, and John,

  And of our other doctors many a one,

  Such paines, that your heartes might agrise,1 1be horrified

  Albeit so, that no tongue may devise,1 — 1relate

  Though that I might a thousand winters tell, —

  The pains of thilke1 cursed house of hell 1that

  But for to keep us from that cursed place

  Wake we, and pray we Jesus, of his grace,

  So keep us from the tempter, Satanas.

  Hearken this word, beware as in this case.

  The lion sits 1in his await1 alway 1on the watch1

  To slay the innocent, if that he may.

  Disposen aye your heartes to withstond

  The fiend that would you make thrall and bond;

  He may not tempte you over your might,

  For Christ will be your champion and your knight;

  And pray, that this our Sompnour him repent

  Of his misdeeds ere that the fiend him hent.1 1seize

  List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

  List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

  The Pardoner’s Tale

  Geoffrey Chaucer (1340–1400)

  Lordings (quoth he), in churche when I preach,

  I paine me to have an hautein1 speech, 1take pains 2loud

  And ring it out, as round as doth a bell,

  For I know all by rote that I tell.

  My theme is always one, and ever was;

  Radix malorum est cupiditas.

  First I pronounce whence that I come,

  And then my bulles shew I all and some;

  Our liege lorde’s seal on my patent,

  That shew I first, 1my body to warrent,1 1for the protection

  That no man be so hardy, priest nor clerk, of my person1

  Me to disturb of Christe’s holy werk.

  And after that then tell I forth my tales.

  Bulles of popes, and of cardinales,

  Of patriarchs, and of bishops I shew,

  And in Latin I speak a wordes few,

  To savour with my predication,

  And for to stir men to devotion

  Then show I forth my longe crystal stones,

  Y-crammed fall of cloutes1 and of bones; 1rags, fragments

  Relics they be, as 1weene they1 each one. 1as my listeners think1

  Then have I in latoun1 a shoulder-bone 1brass

  Which that was of a holy Jewe’s sheep.

  “Good men,” say I, “take of my wordes keep;1 1heed

  If that this bone be wash’d in any well,

  If cow, or calf, or sheep, or oxe swell,

  That any worm hath eat, or worm y-stung,

  Take water of that well, and wash his tongue,

  And it is whole anon; and farthermore

  Of pockes, and of scab, and every sore

  Shall every sheep be whole, that of this well

  Drinketh a draught; take keep1 of that I tell. 1heed

  “If that the goodman, that the beastes oweth,1 1owneth

  Will every week, ere that the cock him croweth,

  Fasting, y-drinken of this well a draught,

  As thilke holy Jew our elders taught,

  His beastes and his store shall multiply.

  And, Sirs, also it healeth jealousy;

  For though a man be fall’n in jealous rage,

  Let make with this water his pottage,

  And never shall he more his wife mistrist,1 1mistrust

  1Though he the sooth of her defaulte wist;1 1though he truly

  All had she taken priestes two or three. knew her sin1

  Here is a mittain1 eke, that ye may see; 1glove, mitten

  He that his hand will put in this mittain,

  He shall have multiplying of his grain,

  When he hath sowen, be it wheat or oats,

  So that he offer pence, or elles groats.

  And, men and women, one thing warn I you;

  If any wight be in this churche now

  That hath done sin horrible, so that he

  Dare not for shame of it y-shriven1 be; 1confessed

  Or any woman, be she young or old,

  That hath y-made her husband cokewold,1 1cuckold

  Such folk shall have no power nor no grace

  To offer to my relics in this place.

  And whoso findeth him out of such blame,

  He will come up and offer in God’s name;

  And I assoil1 him by the authority 1absolve

  Which that by bull y-granted was to me.”

  By this gaud1 have I wonne year by year 1jest, trick

  A hundred marks, since I was pardonere.

  I stande like a clerk in my pulpit,

  And when the lewed1 people down is set, 1ignorant

  I preache so as ye have heard before,

  And telle them a hundred japes1 more. 1jests, deceits

  Then pain I me to stretche forth my neck,

  And east and west upon the people I beck,

  As doth a dove, sitting on a bern;1 1barn

  My handes and my tongue go so yern,1 1briskly

  That it is joy to see my business.

  Of avarice and of such cursedness1 1wickedness

  Is all my preaching, for to make them free

  To give their pence, and namely1 unto me. 1especially

  For mine intent is not but for to win,

  And nothing for correction of sin.

  I recke never, when that they be buried,

  Though that their soules go a blackburied.

  For certes 1many a predication 1preaching is often inspired

  Cometh oft-time of evil intention;1 by evil motives1

  Some for pleasance of folk, and flattery,

  To be advanced by hypocrisy;

  And some for vainglory, and some for hate.

  For, when I dare not otherwise debate,

  Then will I sting him with my tongue smart1 1sharply

  In preaching, so that he shall not astart1 1escape

  To be defamed falsely, if that he

  Hath trespass’d1 to my brethren or to me. 1offended

  For, though I telle not his proper name,

  Men shall well knowe that it is the same

  By signes, and by other circumstances.

  Thus 1quite I1 folk that do us displeasances: 1I am revenged on1

  Thus spit I out my venom, under hue

  Of holiness, to seem holy and true.

  B
ut, shortly mine intent I will devise,

  I preach of nothing but of covetise.

  Therefore my theme is yet, and ever was, —

  Radix malorum est cupiditas.

  Thus can I preach against the same vice

  Which that I use, and that is avarice.

  But though myself be guilty in that sin,

  Yet can I maken other folk to twin1 1depart

  From avarice, and sore them repent.

  But that is not my principal intent;

  I preache nothing but for covetise.

  Of this mattere it ought enough suffice.

  Then tell I them examples many a one,

  Of olde stories longe time gone;

  For lewed1 people love tales old; 1unlearned

  Such thinges can they well report and hold.

  What? trowe ye, that whiles I may preach

  And winne gold and silver for1 I teach, 1because

  That I will live in povert’ wilfully?

  Nay, nay, I thought it never truely.

  For I will preach and beg in sundry lands;

  I will not do no labour with mine hands,

  Nor make baskets for to live thereby,

  Because I will not beggen idlely.

  I will none of the apostles counterfeit;1 1imitate (in poverty)

  I will have money, wool, and cheese, and wheat,

  All1 were it given of the poorest page, 1even if

  Or of the pooreste widow in a village:

  All should her children sterve1 for famine. 1die

  Nay, I will drink the liquor of the vine,

  And have a jolly wench in every town.

  But hearken, lordings, in conclusioun;

  Your liking is, that I shall tell a tale

  Now I have drunk a draught of corny ale,

  By God, I hope I shall you tell a thing

  That shall by reason be to your liking;

  For though myself be a full vicious man,

  A moral tale yet I you telle can,

  Which I am wont to preache, for to win.

  Now hold your peace, my tale I will begin.

  In Flanders whilom was a company

  Of younge folkes, that haunted folly,

  As riot, hazard, stewes,1 and taverns; 1brothels

  Where as with lutes, harpes, and giterns,1 1guitars

  They dance and play at dice both day and night,

  And eat also, and drink over their might;

  Through which they do the devil sacrifice

  Within the devil’s temple, in cursed wise,

  By superfluity abominable.

  Their oathes be so great and so damnable,

  That it is grisly1 for to hear them swear. 1dreadful

  Our blissful Lorde’s body they to-tear;1 1tore to pieces

  Them thought the Jewes rent him not enough,

  And each of them at other’s sinne lough.1 1laughed

  And right anon in come tombesteres

  Fetis1 and small, and younge fruitesteres.2 1dainty 2fruit-girls

  Singers with harpes, baudes,1 waferers,2 1revellers 2cake-sellers

  Which be the very devil’s officers,

  To kindle and blow the fire of lechery,

  That is annexed unto gluttony.

  The Holy Writ take I to my witness,

  That luxury is in wine and drunkenness.

  Lo, how that drunken Lot unkindely1 1unnaturally

  Lay by his daughters two unwittingly,

  So drunk he was he knew not what he wrought.

  Herodes, who so well the stories sought,

  When he of wine replete was at his feast,

  Right at his owen table gave his hest1 1command

  To slay the Baptist John full guilteless.

  Seneca saith a good word, doubteless:

  He saith he can no difference find

  Betwixt a man that is out of his mind,

  And a man whiche that is drunkelew:1 1a drunkard

  But that woodness,1 y-fallen in a shrew,1 1madness 2one evil-tempered

  Persevereth longer than drunkenness.

  O gluttony, full of all cursedness;

  O cause first of our confusion,

  Original of our damnation,

  Till Christ had bought us with his blood again!

  Looke, how deare, shortly for to sayn,

  Abought1 was first this cursed villainy: 1atoned for

  Corrupt was all this world for gluttony.

  Adam our father, and his wife also,

  From Paradise, to labour and to woe,

  Were driven for that vice, it is no dread.1 1doubt

  For while that Adam fasted, as I read,

  He was in Paradise; and when that he

  Ate of the fruit defended1 of the tree, 1forbidden

  Anon he was cast out to woe and pain.

  O gluttony! well ought us on thee plain.

  Oh! wist a man how many maladies

  Follow of excess and of gluttonies,

  He woulde be the more measurable1 1moderate

  Of his diete, sitting at his table.

  Alas! the shorte throat, the tender mouth,

  Maketh that east and west, and north and south,

  In earth, in air, in water, men do swink1 1labour

  To get a glutton dainty meat and drink.

  Of this mattere, O Paul! well canst thou treat

  Meat unto womb,1 and womb eke unto meat, 1belly

  Shall God destroye both, as Paulus saith.

  Alas! a foul thing is it, by my faith,

  To say this word, and fouler is the deed,

  When man so drinketh of the 1white and red,1 1i.e. wine1

  That of his throat he maketh his privy

  Through thilke cursed superfluity

  The apostle saith, weeping full piteously,

  There walk many, of which you told have I, —

  I say it now weeping with piteous voice, —

  That they be enemies of Christe’s crois;1 1cross

  Of which the end is death; womb1 is their God. 1belly

  O womb, O belly, stinking is thy cod,1 1bag

  Full fill’d of dung and of corruptioun;

  At either end of thee foul is the soun.

  How great labour and cost is thee to find!1 1supply

  These cookes how they stamp, and strain, and grind,

  And turne substance into accident,

  To fulfill all thy likerous talent!

  Out of the harde bones knocke they

  The marrow, for they caste naught away

  That may go through the gullet soft and swoot1 1sweet

  Of spicery and leaves, of bark and root,

  Shall be his sauce y-maked by delight,

  To make him have a newer appetite.

  But, certes, he that haunteth such delices

  Is dead while that he liveth in those vices.

  A lecherous thing is wine, and drunkenness

  Is full of striving and of wretchedness.

  O drunken man! disfgur’d is thy face,

  Sour is thy breath, foul art thou to embrace:

  And through thy drunken nose sowneth the soun’,

  As though thous saidest aye, Samsoun! Samsoun!

  And yet, God wot, Samson drank never wine.

  Thou fallest as it were a sticked swine;

  Thy tongue is lost, and all thine honest cure;1 1care

  For drunkenness is very sepulture1 1tomb

  Of manne’s wit and his discretion.

  In whom that drink hath domination,

  He can no counsel keep, it is no dread.1 1doubt

  Now keep you from the white and from the red,

  And namely1 from the white wine of Lepe, 1especially

  That is to sell in Fish Street and in Cheap.

  This wine of Spaine creepeth subtilly —

  In other wines growing faste by,

  Of which there riseth such fumosity,

  That when a man hath drunken draughtes three,

  And weeneth tha
t he be at home in Cheap,

  He is in Spain, right at the town of Lepe,

  Not at the Rochelle, nor at Bourdeaux town;

  And thenne will he say, Samsoun! Samsoun!

  But hearken, lordings, one word, I you pray,

  That all the sovreign actes, dare I say,

  Of victories in the Old Testament,

  Through very God that is omnipotent,

  Were done in abstinence and in prayere:

  Look in the Bible, and there ye may it lear.1 1learn

  Look, Attila, the greate conqueror,

  Died in his sleep, with shame and dishonour,

  Bleeding aye at his nose in drunkenness:

  A captain should aye live in soberness

  And o’er all this, advise1 you right well 1consider, bethink

  What was commanded unto Lemuel;

  Not Samuel, but Lemuel, say I.

  Reade the Bible, and find it expressly

  Of wine giving to them that have justice.

  No more of this, for it may well suffice.

  And, now that I have spoke of gluttony,

  Now will I you 1defende hazardry.1 1forbid gambling1

  Hazard is very mother of leasings,1 1lies

  And of deceit, and cursed forswearings:

  Blasphem’ of Christ, manslaughter, and waste also

  Of chattel1 and of time; and furthermo’ 1property

  It is repreve,1 and contrar’ of honour, 1reproach

  For to be held a common hazardour.

  And ever the higher he is of estate,

  The more he is holden desolate.1 1undone, worthless

  If that a prince use hazardry,

  In alle governance and policy

  He is, as by common opinion,

  Y-hold the less in reputation.

  Chilon, that was a wise ambassador,

  Was sent to Corinth with full great honor

  From Lacedemon, to make alliance;

  And when he came, it happen’d him, by chance,

  That all the greatest that were of that land,

  Y-playing atte hazard he them fand.1 1found

  For which, as soon as that it mighte be,

  He stole him home again to his country

  And saide there, “I will not lose my name,

  Nor will I take on me so great diffame,1 1reproach

  You to ally unto no hazardors.1 1gamblers

  Sende some other wise ambassadors,

  For, by my troth, me were lever1 die, 1rather

  Than I should you to hazardors ally.

  For ye, that be so glorious in honours,

  Shall not ally you to no hazardours,

  As by my will, nor as by my treaty.”

  This wise philosopher thus said he.

  Look eke how to the King Demetrius