And on his lippe he gan for angir byte;

And to himself he seyde, 'I schal the quyte.'

Who rubbith now, who froteth now his lippen With dust, with sand, with straw, with cloth, with

chippes,

But Absolon? that seith ful ofte, 'Allas,

My soule bytake I unto Sathanas !

But me were lever than alle this toun,' quod he,

"Of this dispit awroken for to be.

Allas quod he, 'allas! I nadde bleynt !
His hoote love was cold, and al i-queint.
For fro that tyme that he had kist her ers,
Of paramours ne sette he nat a kers,
For he was helyd of his maledye;
Ful ofte paramours he gan deffye,
And wept as doth a child that is i-bete.
A soft paas went he over the strete
Unto a smyth, men clepith daun Gerveys,
That in his forge smythed plowh-harneys;
He scharpeth schar and cultre bysily.
This Absolon knokketh al esily,

And seyde, Undo, Gerveys, and that anoon.'
What, who art thou?

It am I Absolon.'

'What? Absolon, what? Cristes swete tree!
Why ryse ye so rathe ? benedicite,

What eyleth you? some gay gurl, God it woot,
Hath brought you thus upon the verytrot;
By seinte Noet! ye wot wel what I mene.'
This Absolon ne roughte nat a bene
Of al his pleye, no word agayn he gaf;
For he hådde more tow on his distaf❜

Than Gerveys knew, and seyde, 'Freend so deere,
That hote cultre in the chymney heere

1 St. Neot was a Saxon saint, and therefore appropriately invoked by the blacksmith.

He had other business to think of. The same expression is used by Froissart, as quoted by Tyrwhitt-Il aura en bref temps autres soupes en sa quenoille.'

As lene it me, I have therwith to doone;
I wol it bring agayn to the ful soone.'
Gerveys answerde, Certes, were it gold,
Or in a poke nobles al untold,

6

Ye schul him have, as I am trewe smyth.
Ey, Cristes fote!' what wil ye do therwith!'
Therof,' quod Absolon, 'be as be may;
I schal wel telle it the to morwe day;'
And caughte the cultre by the colde stele.
Ful soft out at the dore he gan it stele,
And wente unto the carpenteres wal.
He cowheth first, and knokketh therwithal
Upon the wyndow, right as he dede er.
This Alisoun answerde, 'Who is ther
That knokketh so? I warant it a theef.'

'Why nay,' quod he, 'God woot, my sweete leef,
I am thyn Absolon, o my derlyng.

Of gold,' quod he, 'I have the brought a ryng;
My mooder gaf it me, so God me save!
Ful fyn it is, and therto wel i-grave;
This wol I give the, if thou me kisse.'
This Nicholas was rise for to pysse,
And thought he wold amenden al the jape,
He schulde kisse his ers or that he skape.
And up the wyndow dyde he hastily,
And out his ers putteth he pryvely
Over the buttok, to the haunche bon.

And therwith spak this clerk, this Absolon,
'Spek, sweete bryd, I wot nat wher thou art'
This Nicholas anon let flee a fart,

As gret as it had ben a thundir dent,

And with that strook he was almost i-blent;
And he was redy with his yren hoot,
And Nicholas amid the ers he smoot.

This strange profanity of swearing by different parts of the Re deemer's body has a counterpart in the devotions addressed to them. This particular oath may be considered appropriate to the blacksmith, part of whose business consisted in shoeing horses.

Of goth the skyn an hande-brede aboute,
The hoote cultre brente so his toute;
And for the smert he wende for to dye;
As he were wood, anon he gan to crye,
'Help, watir, watir, help, for Goddes herte !
This carpenter out of his slumber sterte,
And herd on crye watir, as he wer wood,
And thought, Allas, now cometh Noes flood!
He sit him up withoute wordes

mo,

And with his ax he smot the corde a-two ;
And doun he goth; he fond nowthir to selle'
No breed ne ale, til he com to the selle
Upon the floor, and ther aswoun he lay.
Up styrt hir Alisoun, and Nicholay,
And cryden, 'out and harrow!' in the strete.
The neyghebours bothe smal and grete,
In ronnen, for to gauren on this man,
That yet aswowne lay, bothe pale and wan;
For with the fal he brosten had his arm.
But stond he muste to his owne harm,
For whan he spak, he was anon born doun
With heende Nicholas and Alisoun.
They tolden every man that he was wood
He was agast and feerd of Noes flood
Thurgh fantasie, that of his vanité

d;

He hadde i-bought him knedyng tubbes thre,
And hadde hem hanged in the roof above;
And that he preyed hem for Goddes love
To sitten in the roof par compaignye.
The folk gan lawhen at his fantasye;
Into the roof they kyken, and they gape,
And torne al his harm into a jape.
For whatsoever the carpenter answerde,
It was for nought, no man his resoun herde,

He found no business or advantage to stop him, till, &c. Tyrwhitt quotes a similar phrase from the Fabliaux, tom. ii., p. 282:-

Ainc tant come il mist à descendre,

Ne trouva point de pain à vendre.

With othis greet he was so sworn adoun,

That he was holden wood in al the toun.
For every clerk anon right heeld with othir;
They seyde, 'The man was wood, my leeve brother;
And every man gan lawhen at his stryf.

Thus swyved was the carpenteres wyf
For al his kepyng and his gelousye;
And Absolon hath kist hir nethir ye;
And Nicholas is skaldid in his towte.
This tale is doon, and God save al the route.

THE PROLOGE OF THE REEVE.

WHAN folk hadde lawhen of this nyce cass

Of Absolon and heende Nicholas,

Dyverse folk dyversely they seyde,

But for the moste part they lowh and pleyde;
Ne at this tale I sawh no man him greve.
But it were oonly Osewald the Reeve.
Bycause he was of carpentrye craft,'

A litel ire in his herte is laft;

He gan to grucche and blamed it a lite.

'So theek," quod he, 'ful wel coude I the quyte With bleryng of a prowd mylleres ye,'

If that me luste speke of ribaudye.

But yk am old; me list not pley for age;
Gras tyme is doon, my foddir is now forage."

1 There appears to have been a strong esprit de corps among fellow. craftsmen in the middle ages, arising from the necessity of combination for mutual protection at a time when the laws were weak. Hence the guilds and confraternities then so prevalent.

2 Put for so thee ich, so may I thrive. Ich, which is also the German for I, is often used in Chaucer by the lower orders, who may be supposed to have retained most of the Saxon forms. It occurs again in other places. [See note on p. 70.-W. W. S.]

3 With a trick put upon a proud miller. To blear the eye is, literally, to make the sight dim; metaphorically, to cheat.

My grass has become hay, a metaphor common in Scripture, as in Isaiah xl. 6.

My whyte top writeth myn olde yeeres;
Myn hert is al so moulyd as myn heeres;
But yit I fare as doth an open-ers;
That ilke fruyt is ever lenger the wers,
Til it be rote in mullok or in stree.
We olde men, I drede, so fare we,
Til we be roten, can we nat be rype;
We hoppen alway, whil the world wol pype;
For in oure wil ther stiketh ever a nayl,
To have an hoor heed and a greene tayl,'

As hath a leek; for though oure might be doon,
Oure wil desireth folye ever in oon;
For whan we may nat do, than wol we speke,
Yet in oure aisshen old is fyr i-reke.'
Foure gledys have we, which I schal devyse,
Avanting, lyyng, angur, coveytise.
This foure sparkys longen unto eelde.
Oure olde lymes mowen be unweelde,
But wil ne schal nat fayle us, that is soth.
And yet I have alwey a coltes toth,
As many a yeer as it is passed henne,
Syn that my tappe of lyf bygan to renne.
For sikirlik, whan I was born, anon

Deth drough the tappe of lyf," and leet it goon;
And now so longe hath the tappe i-ronne,

Til that almost al empty is the tonne.

The streem of lyf now droppeth on the chymbe."
The sely tonge may wel rynge and chimbe
Of wrecchednes, that passed is ful yoore:
With olde folk, sauf dotage, is no more.'

r

1 Boccaccio has the same allusion. Dec. Introd. to D. 4, Che il porro habbi il capo bianchi, che la coda sia verde.'

2 Tyrwhitt remarks that this beautiful metaphor has been used in his Elegy by Gray, who, however, refers to the 169th Sonnet of Petrarch as his original.

3 Another and more refined form of the thought occurs in the Knightes Tale

⚫ That schapen was my deth erst than my scherte.'

4 Kime, Teut., means the prominence of the staves beyond the head