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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

(90) 1180
    But natheles al the substance
  I have yit in my remembrance:
  For-why me thoughte, by Seynt Gyle!
  Al was of stone of beryle,
  Bothe castel and the tour,                                           1185
  And eek the halle, and every bour,
  Withouten peces or Ioininges.
  But many subtil compassinges,
  Babewinnes and pinacles,
  Imageries and tabernacles,                                     (100) 1190
  I saw; and ful eek of windowes,
  As flakes falle in grete snowes.
  And eek in ech of the pinacles
  Weren sondry habitacles,
  In whiche stoden, al withoute--                                      1195
  Ful the castel, al aboute--
  Of alle maner of minstrales,
  And gestiours, that tellen tales
  Bothe of weping and of game,
  Of al that longeth unto Fame.                                  (110) 1200
    Ther herde I pleyen on an harpe
  That souned bothe wel and sharpe,
  Orpheus ful craftely,
  And on his syde, faste by,
  Sat the harper Orion,                                                1205
  And Eacides Chiron,
  And other harpers many oon,
  And the Bret Glascurion;
  And smale harpers with her gleës
  Seten under hem in seës,                                       (120) 1210
  And gonne on hem upward to gape,
  And countrefete hem as an ape,
  Or as craft countrefeteth kinde.
    Tho saugh I stonden hem behinde,
  A-fer fro hem, al by hemselve,                                       1215
  Many thousand tymes twelve,
  That maden loude menstralcyes
  In cornemuse and shalmyes,
  And many other maner pype,
  That craftely begunne pype                                     (130) 1220
  Bothe in doucet and in rede,
  That ben at festes with the brede;
  And many floute and lilting-horne,
  And pypes made of grene corne,
  As han thise litel herde-gromes,                                     1225
  That kepen bestes in the bromes.
    Ther saugh I than Atiteris,
  And of Athenes dan Pseustis,
  And Marcia that lost her skin,
  Bothe in face, body, and chin,                                 (140) 1230
  For that she wolde envyen, lo!
  To pypen bet then Apollo.
  Ther saugh I famous, olde and yonge,
  Pypers of the Duche tonge,
  To lerne love-daunces, springes,                                     1235
  Reyes, and these straunge thinges.
    Tho saugh I in another place
  Stonden in a large space,
  Of hem that maken blody soun
  In trumpe, beme, and clarioun;                                 (150) 1240
  For in fight and blood-shedinge
  Is used gladly clarioninge.
    Ther herde I trumpen Messenus,
  Of whom that speketh Virgilius.
  Ther herde I Ioab trumpe also,                                       1245
  Theodomas, and other mo;
  And alle that used clarion
  In Cataloigne and Aragon,
  That in hir tyme famous were
  To lerne, saugh I trumpe there.                                (160) 1250
    Ther saugh I sitte in other seës,
  Pleyinge upon sondry gleës,
  Whiche that I cannot nevene,

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

Opening the text

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

General

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

Chaucer, Geoffrey

English poetry -- Middle English, 1100-1500

(90) 1180
    But natheles al the substance
  I have yit in my remembrance:
  For-why me thoughte, by Seynt Gyle!
  Al was of stone of beryle,
  Bothe castel and the tour,                                           1185
  And eek the halle, and every bour,
  Withouten peces or Ioininges.
  But many subtil compassinges,
  Babewinnes and pinacles,
  Imageries and tabernacles,                                     (100) 1190
  I saw; and ful eek of windowes,
  As flakes falle in grete snowes.
  And eek in ech of the pinacles
  Weren sondry habitacles,
  In whiche stoden, al withoute--                                      1195
  Ful the castel, al aboute--
  Of alle maner of minstrales,
  And gestiours, that tellen tales
  Bothe of weping and of game,
  Of al that longeth unto Fame.                                  (110) 1200
    Ther herde I pleyen on an harpe
  That souned bothe wel and sharpe,
  Orpheus ful craftely,
  And on his syde, faste by,
  Sat the harper Orion,                                                1205
  And Eacides Chiron,
  And other harpers many oon,
  And the Bret Glascurion;
  And smale harpers with her gleës
  Seten under hem in seës,                                       (120) 1210
  And gonne on hem upward to gape,
  And countrefete hem as an ape,
  Or as craft countrefeteth kinde.
    Tho saugh I stonden hem behinde,
  A-fer fro hem, al by hemselve,                                       1215
  Many thousand tymes twelve,
  That maden loude menstralcyes
  In cornemuse and shalmyes,
  And many other maner pype,
  That craftely begunne pype                                     (130) 1220
  Bothe in doucet and in rede,
  That ben at festes with the brede;
  And many floute and lilting-horne,
  And pypes made of grene corne,
  As han thise litel herde-gromes,                                     1225
  That kepen bestes in the bromes.
    Ther saugh I than Atiteris,
  And of Athenes dan Pseustis,
  And Marcia that lost her skin,
  Bothe in face, body, and chin,                                 (140) 1230
  For that she wolde envyen, lo!
  To pypen bet then Apollo.
  Ther saugh I famous, olde and yonge,
  Pypers of the Duche tonge,
  To lerne love-daunces, springes,                                     1235
  Reyes, and these straunge thinges.
    Tho saugh I in another place
  Stonden in a large space,
  Of hem that maken blody soun
  In trumpe, beme, and clarioun;                                 (150) 1240
  For in fight and blood-shedinge
  Is used gladly clarioninge.
    Ther herde I trumpen Messenus,
  Of whom that speketh Virgilius.
  Ther herde I Ioab trumpe also,                                       1245
  Theodomas, and other mo;
  And alle that used clarion
  In Cataloigne and Aragon,
  That in hir tyme famous were
  To lerne, saugh I trumpe there.                                (160) 1250
    Ther saugh I sitte in other seës,
  Pleyinge upon sondry gleës,
  Whiche that I cannot nevene,

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

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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