Canterbury Tales and Other Poems by Geoffrey Chaucer (best summer reads .TXT) 📕

> proof To fire and hammer; might no man say nay, But that they weren as they ought to be.

This sotted* priest, who gladder was than he? *stupid, besotted Was never bird gladder against the day; Nor nightingale in the season of May

Was never none, that better list to sing; Nor lady lustier in carolling,

Or for to speak of love and womanhead; Nor knight in arms to do a hardy deed, To standen in grace of his lady dear,

Than had this priest this crafte for to lear; And to the canon thus he spake and said; “For love of God, that for us alle died, And as I may deserve it unto you,

What shall this receipt coste? tell me now.”

“By our Lady,” quoth this canon, “it is dear.

I warn you well, that, save I and a frere, In Engleland there can no man it make.”

*“No force,” quoth he; “now, Sir, for Godde’s sake, no matter What shall I pay? telle me, I you pray.”

“Y-wis,” quoth he, “it is full dear, I say. certainly Sir, at one word, if that you list it have, Ye shall pay forty pound, so God me save; And n’ere* the friendship that ye did ere this *were it not for To me, ye shoulde paye more, y-wis.”

This priest the sum of forty pound anon Of nobles fet,* and took them every one *fetched To this canon, for this ilke receipt.

All his working was but fraud and deceit.

“Sir Priest,” he said, “I keep* to have no los** care *praise <16>

Of my craft, for I would it were kept close; And as ye love me, keep it secre:

For if men knewen all my subtlety,

By God, they woulde have so great envy To me, because of my philosophy,

I should be dead, there were no other way.”

“God it forbid,” quoth the priest, “what ye say.

Yet had I lever* spenden all the good rather Which that I have (and elles were I wood), *mad Than that ye shoulde fall in such mischief.”

“For your good will, Sir, have ye right good prefe,” results of your Quoth the canon; “and farewell, grand mercy.” *experiments*

He went his way, and never the priest him sey saw After that day; and when that this priest should Maken assay, at such time as he would, Of this receipt, farewell! it would not be.

Lo, thus bejaped* and beguil’d was he; *tricked Thus made he his introduction

To bringe folk to their destruction.

 

Consider, Sirs, how that in each estate Betwixte men and gold there is debate, So farforth that *unnethes is there none. scarcely is there any*

This multiplying blint* so many a one, *blinds, deceive That in good faith I trowe that it be

The cause greatest of such scarcity.

These philosophers speak so mistily

In this craft, that men cannot come thereby, For any wit that men have how-a-days.

They may well chatter, as do these jays, And in their termes set their *lust and pain, pleasure and exertion*

But to their purpose shall they ne’er attain.

A man may lightly* learn, if he have aught, *easily To multiply, and bring his good to naught.

Lo, such a lucre* is in this lusty** game; profit *pleasant A manne’s mirth it will turn all to grame, sorrow <17>

And empty also great and heavy purses, And make folke for to purchase curses

Of them that have thereto their good y-lent.

Oh, fy for shame! they that have been brent, burnt Alas! can they not flee the fire’s heat?

Ye that it use, I rede* that ye it lete,* advise **leave Lest ye lose all; for better than never is late; Never to thrive, were too long a date.

Though ye prowl aye, ye shall it never find; Ye be as bold as is Bayard the blind,

That blunders forth, and *peril casteth none; perceives no danger*

He is as bold to run against a stone,

As for to go beside it in the way:

So fare ye that multiply, I say.

If that your eyen cannot see aright,

Look that your minde lacke not his sight.

For though you look never so broad, and stare, Ye shall not win a mite on that chaffare, traffic, commerce But wasten all that ye may *rape and renn. get by hook or crook*

Withdraw the fire, lest it too faste brenn; burn Meddle no more with that art, I mean;

For if ye do, your thrift* is gone full clean. prosperity And right as swithe I will you telle here *quickly What philosophers say in this mattere.

 

Lo, thus saith Arnold of the newe town, <18>

As his Rosary maketh mentioun,

He saith right thus, withouten any lie; “There may no man mercury mortify,<13>

But* it be with his brother’s knowledging.” *except Lo, how that he, which firste said this thing, Of philosophers father was, Hermes;<19>

He saith, how that the dragon doubteless He dieth not, but if that he be slain

With his brother. And this is for to sayn, By the dragon, Mercury, and none other, He understood, and Brimstone by his brother, That out of Sol and Luna were y-draw. drawn, derived “And therefore,” said he, “take heed to my saw. *saying Let no man busy him this art to seech, study, explore But if that he th’intention and speech *unless Of philosophers understande can;

And if he do, he is a lewed* man. ignorant, foolish For this science and this conning,” quoth he, *knowledge “Is of the secret of secrets <20> pardie.”

Also there was a disciple of Plato,

That on a time said his master to,

As his book, Senior, <21> will bear witness, And this was his demand in soothfastness: “Tell me the name of thilke* privy** stone.” that *secret And Plato answer’d unto him anon;

“Take the stone that Titanos men name.”

“Which is that?” quoth he. “Magnesia is the same,”

Saide Plato. “Yea, Sir, and is it thus?

This is ignotum per ignotius. <22>

What is Magnesia, good Sir, I pray?”

“It is a water that is made, I say,

Of th’ elementes foure,” quoth Plato.

“Tell me the roote, good Sir,” quoth he tho, then “Of that water, if that it be your will.”

“Nay, nay,” quoth Plato, “certain that I n’ill. will not The philosophers sworn were every one, That they should not discover it to none, Nor in no book it write in no mannere; For unto God it is so lefe* and dear, *precious That he will not that it discover’d be, But where it liketh to his deity

Man for to inspire, and eke for to defend’ protect Whom that he liketh; lo, this is the end.”

 

Then thus conclude I, since that God of heaven Will not that these philosophers neven name How that a man shall come unto this stone, I rede* as for the best to let it gon. *counsel For whoso maketh God his adversary,

As for to work any thing in contrary

Of his will, certes never shall he thrive, Though that he multiply term of his live. <23>

And there a point;* for ended is my tale. end God send ev’ry good man boot of his bale. remedy for his sorrow*

 

Note to the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale

 

1. The Tale of the Canon’s Yeoman, like those of the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner, is made up of two parts; a long general introduction, and the story proper. In the case of the Wife of Bath, the interruptions of other pilgrims, and the autobiographical nature of the discourse, recommend the separation of the prologue from the Tale proper; but in the other cases the introductory or merely connecting matter ceases wholly where the opening of “The Tale” has been marked in the text.

 

2. Jupartie: Jeopardy, hazard. In Froissart’s French, “a jeu partie” is used to signify a game or contest in which the chances were exactly equal for both sides.

 

3. Squames: Scales; Latin, “squamae.”

 

4. Descensories: vessels for distillation “per descensum;” they were placed under the fire, and the spirit to be extracted was thrown downwards.

Croslets: crucibles; French, “creuset.”.

Cucurbites: retorts; distilling-vessels; so called from their likeness in shape to a gourd — Latin, “cucurbita.”

Alembikes:stills, limbecs.

 

5. Seared pokettes: the meaning of this phrase is obscure; but if we take the reading “cered poketts,” from the Harleian manuscript, we are led to the supposition that it signifies receptacles — bags or pokes — prepared with wax for some process. Latin, “cera,” wax.

 

6. Argoil: potter’s clay, used for luting or closing vessels in the laboratories of the alchemists; Latin, “argilla;” French, “argile.”

 

7. Citrination: turning to a citrine colour, or yellow, by chemical action; that was the colour which proved the philosopher’s stone.

 

8. Ingots: not, as in its modern meaning, the masses of metal shaped by pouring into moulds; but the moulds themslves into which the fused metal was poured. Compare Dutch, “ingieten,” part. “inghehoten,” to infuse; German, “eingiessen,” part. “eingegossen,” to pour in.

 

9. Threpe: name; from Anglo-Saxon, “threapian.”

 

10. Bratt: coarse cloak; Anglo-Saxon, “bratt.” The word is still used in Lincolnshire, and some parts of the north, to signify a coarse kind of apron.

 

11. Long on: in consequence of; the modern vulgar phrase “all along of,” or “all along on,” best conveys the force of the words in the text.

 

12. Annualere: a priest employed in singing “annuals” or anniversary masses for the dead, without any cure of souls; the office was such as, in the Prologue to the Tales, Chaucer praises the Parson for not seeking: Nor “ran unto London, unto Saint Poul’s, to seeke him a chantery for souls.”

 

13. Mortify: a chemical phrase, signifying the dissolution of quicksilver in acid.

 

14. Blin: cease; from Anglo-Saxon, “blinnan,” to desist.

 

15. Name: took; from Anglo-Saxon, “niman,” to take.

Compare German, “nehmen,” “nahm.”

 

16. Los: praise, reputataion. See note 5 to Chaucer’s tale of Meliboeus.

 

17. Grame: sorrow; Anglo-Saxon, “gram;” German, “Gram.”

 

18. Arnaldus Villanovanus, or Arnold de Villeneuve, was a distinguished French chemist and physician of the fourteenth century; his “Rosarium Philosophorum” was a favourite text-book with the alchemists of the generations that succeeded.

 

19. Hermes Trismegistus, counsellor of Osiris, King of Egypt, was credited with the invention of writing and hieroglyphics, the drawing up of the laws of the Egyptians, and the origination of many sciences and arts. The Alexandrian school ascribed to him the mystic learning which it amplified; and the scholars of the Middle Ages regarded with enthusiasm and reverence the works attributed to him —

notably a treatise on the philosopher’s stone.

 

20. Secret of secrets: “Secreta Secretorum;” a treatise, very popular in the Middle Ages, supposed to contain the sum of Aristotle’s instructions to Alexander. Lydgate translated about half of the work, when his labour was interrupted by his death about 1460; and from the same treatise had been taken most of the seventh book of Gower’s “Confessio Amantis.”

 

21. Tyrwhitt says that this book was printed in the “Theatrum Chemicum,” under the title, “Senioris Zadith fi. Hamuelis tabula chymica” (“The chemical tables of Senior Zadith, son of Hamuel”); and the story here told of Plato and his disciple was there related of Solomon, but with some variations.

 

22. Ignotum per ignotius: To explain the unknown by the more unknown.

 

23. Though he multiply term of his live: Though he pursue the alchemist’s art all his days.

 

THE MANCIPLE’S TALE.

 

THE PROLOGUE.

 

WEET* ye not where there stands a little town, *know Which that y-called