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Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury TalesChaucer, Geoffrey

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Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales

Name: Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales
Author: Chaucer, Geoffrey

Chaucer, Geoffrey

English poetry -- Middle English, 1100-1500

Of Decembre the tenthe day,
  Whan hit was night, to slepe I lay
  Right ther as I was wont to done,
  And fil on slepe wonder sone,
  As he that wery was for-go                                            115
  On pilgrimage myles two
  To the corseynt Leonard,
  To make lythe of that was hard.
    But as I sleep, me mette I was
  Within a temple y-mad of glas;                                        120
  In whiche ther were mo images
  Of gold, stondinge in sondry stages,
  And mo riche tabernacles,
  And with perre mo pinacles,
  And mo curious portreytures,                                          125
  And queynte maner of figures
  Of olde werke, then I saw ever.
  For certeynly, I niste never
  Wher that I was, but wel wiste I,
  Hit was of Venus redely,                                              130
  The temple; for, in portreyture,
  I saw anoon-right hir figure
  Naked fletinge in a see.
  And also on hir heed, parde,
  Hir rose-garlond whyt and reed,                                       135
  And hir comb to kembe hir heed,
  Hir dowves, and daun Cupido,
  Hir blinde sone, and Vulcano,
  That in his face was ful broun.
    But as I romed up and doun,                                         140
  I fond that on a wal ther was
  Thus writen, on a table of bras:
  'I wol now singe, if that I can,
  The armes, and al-so the man,
  That first cam, through his destinee,                                 145
  Fugitif of Troye contree,
  In Itaile, with ful moche pyne,
  Unto the strondes of Lavyne.'
  And tho began the story anoon,
  As I shal telle yow echoon.                                           150
    First saw I the destruccioun
  Of Troye, through the Greek Sinoun,
  [That] with his false forsweringe,
  And his chere and his lesinge
  Made the hors broght into Troye,                                      155
  Thorgh which Troyens loste al hir Ioye.
  And after this was grave, allas!
  How Ilioun assailed was
  And wonne, and king Priam y-slayn,
  And Polites his sone, certayn,                                        160
  Dispitously, of dan Pirrus.
    And next that saw I how Venus,
  Whan that she saw the castel brende,
  Doun fro the hevene gan descende,
  And bad hir sone Eneas flee;                                          165
  And how he fledde, and how that he
  Escaped was from al the pres,
  And took his fader, Anchises,
  And bar him on his bakke away,
  Cryinge, 'Allas, and welaway!'                                        170
  The whiche Anchises in his honde
  Bar the goddes of the londe,
  Thilke that unbrende were.
    And I saw next, in alle this fere,
  How Creusa, daun Eneas wyf,                                           175
  Which that he lovede as his lyf,
  And hir yonge sone Iulo,
  And eek Ascanius also,
  Fledden eek with drery chere,
  That hit was pitee for to here;                                       180
  And in a forest, as they wente,
  At a turninge of a wente,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Chaucer's Works, Volume 3 — The House of Fame; The Legend of Good Women; The Treatise on the Astrolabe; The Sources of the Canterbury Tales

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