“Full many a cause, my good sir Summoner,” Replied the fiend. “But all things have a time; The day is short, and it is now past prime, Yet have I not won anything to-day; I’ll give my mind to winning, if I may, And not our privy doings to declare.” For you see the fiend was more intent upon his business than even the Summoner. However, he goes on to say, that sometimes he is obliged to work under the great God, without whose sufferance he could never have any power at all. For somtyme we ben Goddis instrumentes God’s And menes to don his comaundementes, means When that Him list, upon His creatures, He chooses In divers acts and in divers figures. various “Sometimes God uses us as instruments And means, to work out His all-wise intents: When on us this divine command He lays, We serve in divers forms and divers ways.” “But you needn’t be in such a hurry,” he says to the Summoner. “You’ll know more than you like perhaps before long.” But oon thing warne I the, I wol not jape, one, jest Thou wilt algates wite how we ben schape. always know Thou schalt herafterward, my brother deere, Com wher the nedith not of me to leere,[126] come, learn For thou schalt by thin oughn experience own Conne,[127] in a chayer, reden of this sentence be able, to counsel, meaning Bet than Virgile[128] when he was on lyve, better, alive Or Daunt also. Now let us ryde blyve, quickly For I wol holde companye with the Til it be so that thou forsake me. “But of one thing I warn thee, not in play, That thou shalt know what we are like, some day. Thou shalt hereafter come, my brother dear, Whither thou wilt not need of me to hear; For thou shalt learned be--nay, specially wise By self-experience--in these mysteries: Wiser than Virgil ere from earth he past, Or Dante either. Let us now ride fast, For I will keep companionship with thee Till thou desirest to depart from me.” A pleasant prospect! However, the Summoner was quite content, so long as the silver and gold were shared with him. He declares he will never forsake his sworn brother, though he be a fiend, and promises to share all his own goods with the evil one! adding-- Tak thou thi part, and that men wil the yyven, thee, give And I schal myn, thus may we bothe lyven; mine, live And if that eny of us have more than other, either Let him be trewe, and part it with his brother. I graunte, quod the devel, by my fay. And with that word thay riden forth hir way. ride