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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

For he had do hir swich untrouthe;                                    395
  Lo! was not this a wo and routhe?
    Eek lo! how fals and reccheles
  Was to Briseida Achilles,
  And Paris to Enone;
  And Iason to Isiphile;                                                400
  And eft Iason to Medea;
  And Ercules to Dyanira;
  For he lefte hir for Iöle,
  That made him cacche his deeth, parde.
    How fals eek was he, Theseus;                                       405
  That, as the story telleth us,
  How he betrayed Adriane;
  The devel be his soules bane!
  For had he laughed, had he loured,
  He mostë have be al devoured,                                         410
  If Adriane ne had y-be!
  And, for she had of him pitee,
  She made him fro the dethe escape,
  And he made hir a ful fals Iape;
  For after this, within a whyle                                        415
  He lefte hir slepinge in an yle,
  Deserte alone, right in the see,
  And stal away, and leet hir be;
  And took hir suster Phedra tho
  With him, and gan to shippe go.                                       420
  And yet he had y-sworn to here,
  On al that ever he mighte swere,
  That, so she saved him his lyf,
  He wolde have take hir to his wyf;
  For she desired nothing elles,                                        425
  In certein, as the book us telles.
    But to excusen Eneas
  Fulliche of al his greet trespas,
  The book seyth, Mercurie, sauns faile,
  Bad him go into Itaile,                                               430
  And leve Auffrykes regioun,
  And Dido and hir faire toun.
    Tho saw I grave, how to Itaile
  Daun Eneas is go to saile;
  And how the tempest al began,                                         435
  And how he loste his steresman,
  Which that the stere, or he took keep,
  Smot over-bord, lo! as he sleep.
    And also saw I how Sibyle
  And Eneas, besyde an yle,                                             440
  To helle wente, for to see
  His fader, Anchises the free.
  How he ther fond Palinurus,
  And Dido, and eek Deiphebus;
  And every tourment eek in helle                                       445
  Saw he, which is long to telle.
  Which who-so willeth for to knowe,
  He moste rede many a rowe
  On Virgile or on Claudian,
  Or Daunte, that hit telle can.                                        450
    Tho saw I grave al tharivaile
  That Eneas had in Itaile;
  And with king Latine his tretee,
  And alle the batailles that he
  Was at him-self, and eek his knightes,                                455
  Or he had al y-wonne his rightes;
  And how he Turnus refte his lyf,
  And wan Lavyna to his wyf;
  And al the mervelous signals
  Of the goddes celestials;                                             460
  How, maugre Iuno, Eneas,
  For al hir sleighte and hir compas,
  Acheved al his aventure;
  For Iupiter took of him cure
  At the prayere of Venus;                                              465
  The whiche I preye alway save us,

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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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