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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 — 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 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

O, haveth of my deeth pitee!                                          325
  Y-wis, my dere herte, ye
  Knowen ful wel that never yit,
  As fer-forth as I hadde wit,
  Agilte [I] yow in thoght ne deed.
  O, have ye men swich goodliheed                                       330
  In speche, and never a deel of trouthe?
  Allas, that ever hadde routhe
  Any woman on any man!
  Now see I wel, and telle can,
  We wrecched wimmen conne non art;                                     335
  For certeyn, for the more part,
  Thus we be served everichone.
  How sore that ye men conne grone,
  Anoon as we have yow receyved!
  Certeinly we ben deceyved;                                            340
  For, though your love laste a sesoun,
  Wayte upon the conclusioun,
  And eek how that ye determynen,
  And for the more part diffynen.
    'O, welawey that I was born!                                        345
  For through yow is my name lorn,
  And alle myn actes red and songe
  Over al this lond, on every tonge.
  O wikke Fame! for ther nis
  Nothing so swift, lo, as she is!                                      350
  O, sooth is, every thing is wist,
  Though hit be kevered with the mist.
  Eek, thogh I mighte duren ever,
  That I have doon, rekever I never,
  That I ne shal be seyd, allas,                                        355
  Y-shamed be through Eneas,
  And that I shal thus Iuged be--
  "Lo, right as she hath doon, now she
  Wol do eftsones, hardily;"
  Thus seyth the peple prevely.'--                                      360
  But that is doon, nis not to done;
  Al hir compleynt ne al hir mone,
  Certeyn, availeth hir not a stre.
    And whan she wiste sothly he
  Was forth unto his shippes goon,                                      365
  She in hir chambre wente anoon,
  And called on hir suster Anne,
  And gan hir to compleyne thanne;
  And seyde, that she cause was
  That she first lovede [Eneas],                                        370
  And thus counseilled hir therto.
  But what! when this was seyd and do,
  She roof hir-selve to the herte,
  And deyde through the wounde smerte.
  But al the maner how she deyde,                                       375
  And al the wordes that she seyde,
  Who-so to knowe hit hath purpos,
  Reed Virgile in Eneidos
  Or the Epistle of Ovyde,
  What that she wroot or that she dyde;                                 380
  And nere hit to long to endyte,
  By god, I woldë hit here wryte.
    But, welaway! the harm, the routhe,
  That hath betid for swich untrouthe,
  As men may ofte in bokes rede,                                        385
  And al day seen hit yet in dede,
  That for to thenken hit, a tene is.
    Lo, Demophon, duk of Athenis,
  How he forswor him ful falsly,
  And trayed Phillis wikkedly,                                          390
  That kinges doghter was of Trace,
  And falsly gan his terme pace;
  And when she wiste that he was fals,
  She heng hir-self right by the hals,

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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

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