There also was a Nun, a Prioress, Who of her smiling was most simple and coy; Her greatest oath was only ‘by St. Loy,’ And she was calléd Madame Eglantine. Full well she sang the services divine, Entunéd through her nose melodiously, And French she spoke fairly and fluently, After the school of Stratford atte Bow, For French of Paris--_that_ she did not know. At meal-times she was very apt withal; No morsel from her lips did she let fall, Nor in her sauce did wet her fingers deep; Well could she lift a titbit, and well keep, That not a drop should fall upon her breast; To cultivate refinement was her taste. Her upper lip she ever wiped so clean That in her drinking-cup no scrap was seen Of grease, when she had drank as she thought good. And gracefully she reach’d forth for her food. And she was very playful, certainly, And pleasant, and most amiable to see. And mighty pains she took to counterfeit Court manners, and be stately and discreet, And to be held as worthy reverence. But then to tell you of her conscience! She was so charitable and piteous That she would weep did she but see a mouse Caught in a trap, if it were dead or bled; And little dogs she had, which oft she fed With roasted meat, and milk, and finest bread; But sore she wept if one of them were dead, Or, haply, with a rod were smitten smart. And all was conscience and tender heart! Most daintily her wimple plaited was: Her nose was straight; her eyes were grey as glass; Her mouth was little, and so soft and red! Besides, she had a very fine forehead, That measured nigh a span across, I trow! For certainly her stature was not low. And very dainty was the cloak she wore; Around her arm a rosary she bore, Of coral small, with little gauds of green, And thereon hung a golden locket sheen, On which was graven first a crownéd A, And after, _Amor vincit omnia_. The Prioress was attended by another nun, who acted as her chaplain, and three priests. The Monk. [Illustration] A MONK ther was, a fair for the maistrie,[55] mastery An out-rydere, that lovede venerye; hunting A manly man, to ben an abbot able. be Ful many a deynte hors hadde he in stable: dainty horse And whan he rood, men might his bridel heere[56] when, hear Gyngle in a whistlyng wynd as cleere, jingling, clear And eek as lowde as doth the chapel belle, Ther as this lord was keper of the selle. where, religious house