The Canterbury tales and Faerie queene &c., &c., &c., ed. for popular perusal with current illustrations and explanatory notes, by D. Laing Purves.

t20 -THE CANTERBURY TALES.
If that I verily the causes knew And in this wise he served his intent,
Of your disease,' if it lay in my might, That, save the fiend, none wiste what he meant:
I would amend it, ere that it were night, Till he so long had weeped and complain'd,
So wisly 2 help me the great God of kind.3 And many a year his service to me feign'd,
And herbes shall I right enoughe find, Till that mine heart, too piteous and too nice,17
To heale with your hurtis hastily." All innocent of his crowned malice,
Then shriek'd this falcon yet more piteously Forfeared of his death,l8 as thoughti me,
Than ever she did, and fell to ground anon, Upon his oathes and his surety
And lay aswoon, as dead as lies a stone, Granted him love, on this conditioin,
Till Canace had in her lap her take, That evermore mine honour and renown
Unto that time she gan of swoon awake: Were saved, bothe privy and apert; 19
And, after that she out of swoon abraid,4 This is to say, that, after his desert,
Right in her hawke's leden thus she said: I gave him all my heart and all my thought
" That pity runneth soon in gentle heart (God wot, and he, that other wayes nought 20),
(Feeling his simil'tude in paine's smart), And took his heart in change of mine for aye.
Is proved every day, as men may see, But sooth is said, gone since many a day,
As well by work as by authority; 5 A true wight and a thiefe think not one.21
For gentle hearte kitheth 6 gentleness. And when he saw the thing so far y-gone,
I see well, that ye have on my distress That I had granted him fully my love,
Compassi6n, my fairi Canace, In such a wise as I have said above,
Of very womanly benignity And given him my tru6 heart as free
That nature in your principles hath set. As he swore that he gave his heart to me,
But for no hope for to fare the bet,7 Anon this tiger, full of doubleness,
But for t' obey unto your hearte free, Fell on his knees with so great humbleness,
And for to make others aware by me, With so high reverence, as by his cheer,2'
As by the whelp chastis'd 8 is the li6n, So like a gentle lover in mannere,
Right for that cause and that conclusi6n, So ravish'd, as it seemed, for the joy,
While that I have a leisure and a space, That never Jason, nor Paris of Troy,Mine harm I will confessen ere I pace." 9 Jason? certes, nor ever other man,
And ever while the one her sorrow told, Since Lamech was, that alderfirst 23 began
The other wept, as she to water wo'ld,l To love two, as write folk beforn,
Till that the falcon bade her to be still, Nor ever since the firste man was born,
And with a sigh right thus she said her till: 11 Coulde no man, by twenty thousand part,
" Where I was bred (alas that ilke 12 day!) Counterfeit the sophimes 24 of his art;
And foster'd in a rock of marble gray Nor worthy were t' unbuckle his galoche,25
So tenderly, that nothing ailed me, Where doubleness of feigning should approach,
I wiste not what was adversity, Nor could so thank a wight, as he did me.
Till I could flee full high under the sky. His manner was a heaven for to see
Then dwell'd a tercilet 13 me faste by, To any woman, were she ne'er so wise;
That seem'd a well of alle gentleness; So painted he and kempt,26 at point devise,27
All were he 4 full of treason and falsen6ss, As well his wordes as his countenance.
It was so wrapped under humble cheer,5 And I so lov'd him for his obeisance,
And under hue of truth, in such mann6re, And for the truth I deemed in his heart,
Under pleasance, and under busy pain, That, if so were that any thing him smart,28
That no wight weened that he coulde feign, All were it ne'er so lite,29 and I it wist,
So deep in grain he dyed his colours. Methought I felt death at my hearte twist.
Right as a serpent hides him under flow'rs, And shortly, so farforth this thing is went,30
Till he may see his time for to bite, That my will was his wille's instrument;
Right so this god of love's hypocrite That is to say, my will obey'd his will
Did so his ceremonies and obeisances, In alle thing, as far as reason fill,31
And kept in semblance all his 6bservances, Keeping the boundes of my worship ever;
That sounden unto 16 gentleness of love. And never had I thing so lefe, or lever,32
As on a tomb is all the fair above, As him, God wot, nor never shall no mo'.
And under is the corpse, which that ye wot, " This lasted longer than a year or two,
Such was this hypocrite, both cold and hot; That I supposed of him naught but good.
1 Distress. 2 Surely. 3 Nature. 4 Awoke. 21 Do not think alike. 22 Mien.
5 By experience as by text or doctrine. 23 First of all. " And Lamech took unto him two
t; Sheweth. 7 Better. 8 Instructed, corrected. wives: the name of the one Adah, and the name of the
9 Depart. 10 As if she would dissolve into water, other Zillah " (Gen. iv. 19).
11 To her. 12 Same. 24 Sophistries, beguilements.
13 The "tassel," or male of any species of hawk; so 25 Shoe; it seems to have been used in France, of a
called, according to Cotgrave, because he is one-third "sabot," or wooden shoe. The reader cannot fail to
(" tiers ") smaller than the female. recall the same illustration in John i. 27, where the
14 Although he was. Baptist says of Christ: "He it is, who coming after
15 Under an aspect, mien, of humility. me is preferred before me; whose shoe's latchet I am
16 Are consonant to. 17 Foolish, simple. not worthy to unloose." 26 Combed, studied.
18 Greatly afraid lest he should die. 27 With perfect precision. 28 Pained.
19 Both privately and in public. 29 Little. 30 So far did this go.
20 In no other way, on no other terms. 31 Fell; allowed. 32 So dear, or dearer.