"Now was ther of that churche a parish clerk The which that was y-cleped[6] Absolon. Curl'd was his hair, and as the gold it shone, And strutted[7] as a fannë large and broad; Full straight and even lay his folly shode.[8] His rode[9] was red, his eyen grey as goose, With Paulë's windows carven on his shoes.[10] In hosen red he went full febishly.[11] Y-clad he was full small and properly, All in a kirtle of a light waget;[12] Full fair and thickë be the pointës set. And thereupon he had a gay surplice, As white as is the blossom on the rise.[13] A merry child he was, so God me save; Well could he letten blood, and clip, and shave, And make a charter of land and a quittance. In twenty manners could he trip and dance, After the school of Oxenfordë tho',[14] And with his leggës castë to and fro; And playen songës or a small ribible;[15] Thereto he sung sometimes a loud quinible.[16] And as well could he play on a gitern.[17] In all the town was brewhouse nor tavern That he not visited with his solas,[18] There as that any gaillard tapstere[19] was. This Absolon, that jolly was and gay Went with a censor on the holy day, Censing the wivës of the parish fast: And many a lovely look he on them cast, * * * * * Sometimes to show his lightness and mast'ry He playeth Herod on a scaffold high." [Footnote 6: Called.] [Footnote 7: Stretched.] [Footnote 8: Head of hair.] [Footnote 9: Complexion.] [Footnote 10: His shoes were decked with an ornament like a rose-window in old St. Paul's.] [Footnote 11: Daintily.] [Footnote 12: A kind of cloth.] [Footnote 13: A bush.] [Footnote 14: The Oxford school of dancing is satirised by the poet.] [Footnote 15: A kind of fiddle.] [Footnote 16: Treble.] [Footnote 17: Guitar.] [Footnote 18: Sport, mirth.] [Footnote 19: Tavern-wench.] I fear me Master Absolon was a somewhat frivolous clerk, or his memory has been traduced by the poet's pen, which lacked not satire and a caustic but good-humoured wit. Here was a parish clerk who could sing well, though he did not confine his melodies to "Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." He wore a surplice; he was an accomplished scrivener, and therefore a man of some education; he could perform the offices of the barber-surgeon, and one of his duties was to cense the people in their houses. He was an actor of no mean repute, and took a leading part in the mysteries or miracle-plays, concerning which we shall have more to tell. He even could undertake the prominent part of Herod, which doubtless was an object of competition among the amateurs of the period. Such is the picture which Chaucer draws of the frivolous clerk, a sketch which is accurate enough as far as it goes, and one that we will endeavour to fill in with sundry details culled from medieval sources.