The Canterbury Tales [286]
With form and shape thereto convenient, In which the *goddes' milk-white path* doth shine; *the galaxy* And eke her eyne be bright and orient As is the smaragd,* unto my judgment, *emerald Or yet these starres heav'nly, small, and bright; Her visage is of lovely red and white.
Her mouth is short, and shut in little space, Flaming somedeal,* not over red I mean, *somewhat With pregnant lips, and thick to kiss, percase* *as it chanced (For lippes thin, not fat, but ever lean, They serve of naught, they be not worth a bean; For if the bass* be full, there is delight; *kiss <29> Maximian <30> truly thus doth he write).
But to my purpose: I say, white as snow Be all her teeth, and in order they stand Of one stature; and eke her breath, I trow, Surmounteth all odours that e'er I fand* *found In sweetness; and her body, face, and hand Be sharply slender, so that, from the head Unto the foot, all is but womanhead.* *womanly perfection
I hold my peace of other thinges hid: Here shall my soul, and not my tongue, bewray; But how she was array'd, if ye me bid, That shall I well discover you and say: A bend* of gold and silk, full fresh and gay, *band With hair *in tress, y-broidered* full well, *plaited in tresses* Right smoothly kempt,* and shining every deal. *combed
About her neck a flow'r of fresh device With rubies set, that lusty were to see'n; And she in gown was, light and summer-wise, Shapen full well, the colour was of green, With *aureate seint* about her sides clean, *golden cincture* With divers stones, precious and rich: Thus was she ray'd,* yet saw I ne'er her lich,** *arrayed **like
If Jove had but seen this lady, Calisto and Alcmena had never lain in his arms, nor had he loved the fair Europa, nor Danae, nor Antiope; "for all their beauty stood in Rosial; she seemed like a thing celestial." By and by, Philogenet presented to her his petition for love, which she heard with some haughtiness; she was not, she said, well acquainted with him, she did not know where he dwelt, nor his name and condition. He informed her that "in art of love he writes," and makes songs that may be sung in honour of the King and Queen of Love. As for his name --
"My name? alas, my heart, why mak'st thou strange?* *why so cold Philogenet I call'd am far and near, or distant?* Of Cambridge clerk, that never think to change From you, that with your heav'nly streames* clear *beams, glances Ravish my heart; and ghost, and all in fere:* *all together Since at the first I writ my bill* for grace, *petition Me thinks I see some mercy in your face;"
And again he humbly pressed his suit. But the lady disdained the idea that, "for a word of sugar'd eloquence," she should have compassion in so little space; "there come but few who speede here so soon." If, as he says, the beams of her eyes pierce and fret him, then let him withdraw from her presence:
"Hurt not yourself, through folly, with a look; I would be sorry so to make you sick! A woman should beware eke whom she took: Ye be a clerk: go searche well my book, If any women be so light* to win: *easy Nay, bide a while, though ye were *all my kin."* *my only kindred*
He might sue and serve, and wax pale, and green, and dead, without murmuring in any wise; but whereas he desired her hastily to lean to love, he was unwise, and must cease that language. For some had been at Court for twenty years, and might not obtain their mistresses' favour; therefore she marvelled that he was so bold as to treat of love with her. Philogenet, on this, broke into pitiful lamentation; bewailing the hour in which he was born, and assuring the unyielding lady that the frosty grave and cold must be his bed, unless she relented.
With that I fell in swoon, and dead as stone, With colour slain,* and wan as
Her mouth is short, and shut in little space, Flaming somedeal,* not over red I mean, *somewhat With pregnant lips, and thick to kiss, percase* *as it chanced (For lippes thin, not fat, but ever lean, They serve of naught, they be not worth a bean; For if the bass* be full, there is delight; *kiss <29> Maximian <30> truly thus doth he write).
But to my purpose: I say, white as snow Be all her teeth, and in order they stand Of one stature; and eke her breath, I trow, Surmounteth all odours that e'er I fand* *found In sweetness; and her body, face, and hand Be sharply slender, so that, from the head Unto the foot, all is but womanhead.* *womanly perfection
I hold my peace of other thinges hid: Here shall my soul, and not my tongue, bewray; But how she was array'd, if ye me bid, That shall I well discover you and say: A bend* of gold and silk, full fresh and gay, *band With hair *in tress, y-broidered* full well, *plaited in tresses* Right smoothly kempt,* and shining every deal. *combed
About her neck a flow'r of fresh device With rubies set, that lusty were to see'n; And she in gown was, light and summer-wise, Shapen full well, the colour was of green, With *aureate seint* about her sides clean, *golden cincture* With divers stones, precious and rich: Thus was she ray'd,* yet saw I ne'er her lich,** *arrayed **like
If Jove had but seen this lady, Calisto and Alcmena had never lain in his arms, nor had he loved the fair Europa, nor Danae, nor Antiope; "for all their beauty stood in Rosial; she seemed like a thing celestial." By and by, Philogenet presented to her his petition for love, which she heard with some haughtiness; she was not, she said, well acquainted with him, she did not know where he dwelt, nor his name and condition. He informed her that "in art of love he writes," and makes songs that may be sung in honour of the King and Queen of Love. As for his name --
"My name? alas, my heart, why mak'st thou strange?* *why so cold Philogenet I call'd am far and near, or distant?* Of Cambridge clerk, that never think to change From you, that with your heav'nly streames* clear *beams, glances Ravish my heart; and ghost, and all in fere:* *all together Since at the first I writ my bill* for grace, *petition Me thinks I see some mercy in your face;"
And again he humbly pressed his suit. But the lady disdained the idea that, "for a word of sugar'd eloquence," she should have compassion in so little space; "there come but few who speede here so soon." If, as he says, the beams of her eyes pierce and fret him, then let him withdraw from her presence:
"Hurt not yourself, through folly, with a look; I would be sorry so to make you sick! A woman should beware eke whom she took: Ye be a clerk: go searche well my book, If any women be so light* to win: *easy Nay, bide a while, though ye were *all my kin."* *my only kindred*
He might sue and serve, and wax pale, and green, and dead, without murmuring in any wise; but whereas he desired her hastily to lean to love, he was unwise, and must cease that language. For some had been at Court for twenty years, and might not obtain their mistresses' favour; therefore she marvelled that he was so bold as to treat of love with her. Philogenet, on this, broke into pitiful lamentation; bewailing the hour in which he was born, and assuring the unyielding lady that the frosty grave and cold must be his bed, unless she relented.
With that I fell in swoon, and dead as stone, With colour slain,* and wan as