The Canterbury Tales [197]
gate, As she was wont of old usage algate* *always And all that night in mirthe they beset;* *spent For he was rich, and clearly out of debt. When it was day, the merchant gan embrace His wife all new, and kiss'd her in her face, And up he went, and maked it full tough.
"No more," quoth she, "by God ye have enough;" And wantonly again with him she play'd, Till at the last this merchant to her said. "By God," quoth he, "I am a little wroth With you, my wife, although it be me loth; And wot ye why? by God, as that I guess, That ye have made a *manner strangeness* *a kind of estrangement* Betwixte me and my cousin, Dan John. Ye should have warned me, ere I had gone, That he you had a hundred frankes paid By ready token; he *had him evil apaid* *was displeased* For that I to him spake of chevisance,* *borrowing (He seemed so as by his countenance); But natheless, by God of heaven king, I thoughte not to ask of him no thing. I pray thee, wife, do thou no more so. Tell me alway, ere that I from thee go, If any debtor hath in mine absence Y-payed thee, lest through thy negligence I might him ask a thing that he hath paid."
This wife was not afeared nor afraid, But boldely she said, and that anon; "Mary! I defy that false monk Dan John, I keep* not of his tokens never a deal:** *care **whit He took me certain gold, I wot it well. -- What? evil thedom* on his monke's snout! -- *thriving For, God it wot, I ween'd withoute doubt That he had given it me, because of you, To do therewith mine honour and my prow,* *profit For cousinage, and eke for belle cheer That he hath had full often here. But since I see I stand in such disjoint,* *awkward position I will answer you shortly to the point. Ye have more slacke debtors than am I; For I will pay you well and readily, From day to day, and if so be I fail, I am your wife, score it upon my tail, And I shall pay as soon as ever I may. For, by my troth, I have on mine array, And not in waste, bestow'd it every deal. And, for I have bestowed it so well, For your honour, for Godde's sake I say, As be not wroth, but let us laugh and play. Ye shall my jolly body have *to wed;* *in pledge* By God, I will not pay you but in bed; Forgive it me, mine owen spouse dear; Turn hitherward, and make better cheer."
The merchant saw none other remedy; And for to chide, it were but a folly, Since that the thing might not amended be. "Now, wife," he said, "and I forgive it thee; But by thy life be no more so large;* *liberal, lavish Keep better my good, this give I thee in charge." Thus endeth now my tale; and God us send Taling enough, until our lives' end!
Notes to the Shipman's Tale
1. In this Tale Chaucer seems to have followed an old French story, which also formed the groundwork of the first story in the eighth day of the "Decameron."
2. "He must us clothe": So in all the manuscripts and from this and the following lines, it must be inferred that Chaucer had intended to put the Tale in the mouth of a female speaker.
3. Dan: a title bestowed on priests and scholars; from "Dominus," like the Spanish "Don".
4. Bruges was in Chaucer's time the great emporium of European commerce.
5. The monk had been appointed by his abbot to inspect and manage the rural property of the monastery.
6. Malvesie or Malmesy wine derived its name from Malvasia, a region of the Morea near Cape Malea, where it was made, as it also was on Chios and some other Greek islands. Vernage was "vernaccia", a sweet Italian wine.
7. Contour-house: counting-house; French, "comptoir."
8. Under the yarde: under the rod; in pupillage; a phrase properly used of children, but employed by the Clerk in the prologue to his tale. See note 1 to the Prologue to the Clerk's Tale.
9. Genelon, Ganelon, or Ganilion; one of Charlemagne's officers, whose treachery was the cause of the disastrous defeat of the
"No more," quoth she, "by God ye have enough;" And wantonly again with him she play'd, Till at the last this merchant to her said. "By God," quoth he, "I am a little wroth With you, my wife, although it be me loth; And wot ye why? by God, as that I guess, That ye have made a *manner strangeness* *a kind of estrangement* Betwixte me and my cousin, Dan John. Ye should have warned me, ere I had gone, That he you had a hundred frankes paid By ready token; he *had him evil apaid* *was displeased* For that I to him spake of chevisance,* *borrowing (He seemed so as by his countenance); But natheless, by God of heaven king, I thoughte not to ask of him no thing. I pray thee, wife, do thou no more so. Tell me alway, ere that I from thee go, If any debtor hath in mine absence Y-payed thee, lest through thy negligence I might him ask a thing that he hath paid."
This wife was not afeared nor afraid, But boldely she said, and that anon; "Mary! I defy that false monk Dan John, I keep* not of his tokens never a deal:** *care **whit He took me certain gold, I wot it well. -- What? evil thedom* on his monke's snout! -- *thriving For, God it wot, I ween'd withoute doubt That he had given it me, because of you, To do therewith mine honour and my prow,* *profit For cousinage, and eke for belle cheer That he hath had full often here. But since I see I stand in such disjoint,* *awkward position I will answer you shortly to the point. Ye have more slacke debtors than am I; For I will pay you well and readily, From day to day, and if so be I fail, I am your wife, score it upon my tail, And I shall pay as soon as ever I may. For, by my troth, I have on mine array, And not in waste, bestow'd it every deal. And, for I have bestowed it so well, For your honour, for Godde's sake I say, As be not wroth, but let us laugh and play. Ye shall my jolly body have *to wed;* *in pledge* By God, I will not pay you but in bed; Forgive it me, mine owen spouse dear; Turn hitherward, and make better cheer."
The merchant saw none other remedy; And for to chide, it were but a folly, Since that the thing might not amended be. "Now, wife," he said, "and I forgive it thee; But by thy life be no more so large;* *liberal, lavish Keep better my good, this give I thee in charge." Thus endeth now my tale; and God us send Taling enough, until our lives' end!
Notes to the Shipman's Tale
1. In this Tale Chaucer seems to have followed an old French story, which also formed the groundwork of the first story in the eighth day of the "Decameron."
2. "He must us clothe": So in all the manuscripts and from this and the following lines, it must be inferred that Chaucer had intended to put the Tale in the mouth of a female speaker.
3. Dan: a title bestowed on priests and scholars; from "Dominus," like the Spanish "Don".
4. Bruges was in Chaucer's time the great emporium of European commerce.
5. The monk had been appointed by his abbot to inspect and manage the rural property of the monastery.
6. Malvesie or Malmesy wine derived its name from Malvasia, a region of the Morea near Cape Malea, where it was made, as it also was on Chios and some other Greek islands. Vernage was "vernaccia", a sweet Italian wine.
7. Contour-house: counting-house; French, "comptoir."
8. Under the yarde: under the rod; in pupillage; a phrase properly used of children, but employed by the Clerk in the prologue to his tale. See note 1 to the Prologue to the Clerk's Tale.
9. Genelon, Ganelon, or Ganilion; one of Charlemagne's officers, whose treachery was the cause of the disastrous defeat of the