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

THE PARDONER'S TALE. I3'
Your liking is, that I shall tell a tale. From Paradise, to labour and to woe,
Now I have drunk a draught of corny ale, Were driven for that vice, it is no dread.l8
By God, I hope I shall you tell a thing For while that Adam fasted, as I read,
That shall by reason be to your liking; He was in Paradise; and when that he
For though myself be a full vicious man, Ate of the fruit defended 19 of the tree,
A moral tale yet I you telle can, Anon he was cast out to woe and pain.
Which I am wont to preache, for to win. O gluttony! well ought us on thee plain.
Now hold your peace, my tale I will begin. Oh! wist a man how many maladies
Follow of 6xcess and of gluttonies,
In Flanders whilom was a company He woulde be the more measurable 20
Of younge folkes, that haunted folly, Of his dieti, sitting at his table.
As riot, hazard, stewes, and taverns; Alas! the shorti throat, the tender mouth,
Whieres with lutes, harplis, and git6rns,1 Maketh thlia anta d west, and northi and south,
They dance and play at dice both day and night, In earth, in air, in water, men do swink 21
And eat also, and drink over their might; To get a glutton dainty meat and drink.
Through which they do the devil sacrifice Of this matt6re, O Paul! well canst hho treat.
Within the devil's temple, in cursed wise,' Meat unto womb, and womb eke unto meat,
By superfluity abominable.' Shall God destroye both, as Paulus saith.22
Their oathis be so great and so damnable, Alas! a foul thing is it, by my faith,
That it is grisly 2 for to hear them swear. To say this word, and fouler is the deed,
Our blissful Lorde's body they to-tear;3 WVhen man so drinketh of the white and red,23
Them thought the Jewes rent him not enough; That of his throat he maketh his priv
And each of them at other's sinnd lough.4 Through thilke cursed superfluidy
And right anon in come tombesteres 5 The apostle saith,24 weeping full piteously,
_etis and small, and youngi frulitestere.7 There walk many, of which you told have I,Singers with harpes, baudes,8 waferers9 I say it now weeping with piteous voice,Which be the very devil's offiers, That they be enemies of Christe's crois;25
To kindle and blow the fire of lechery, Of which the end is death; womb is their God.
That is annexed unto gluttony. 0 womb, 0 belly, stinking is tliy cod, 26
The Holy Writ take I to my witn6ss, Full fill'd of dung and of corruptioun;
That luxury is in wine and drunkenness.l0 At either end of thee foul is the soun'.
Lo, how that drunken Lot unkindilyll How great labour and cost is thee to find! 27
Lay by his daughters two unwittingly, These cookes how they stamp, and strain, and
So drunk he was he knew not what he wrought. grind,
Her6des, who so well the stories sought,2 And turne substance into accidents
When he of wine replete was at his feast, To ffifil all thy likerous talent I
Right at his owen table gave his hest 13 Out of the harde bones knocke they
To slay the Baptist John full guilteless. The marrow, for they caste naught away
Seneca saith a good word, doubteless: That may go through the gullet soft and swoot;28
He saith he can no difference find Of spicery and leaves, of bark and root,
Betwixt a man that is out of his mind, Shall be his sauce y-maked by delight,'And a man whiche that is drunkelew:14 To make him have a newer appetite.~
But that woodness,l5 y-fallen in a shrew,16 But, certes, he that haunteth such delices
Persevereth longer than drunkenness. Is dead while that he liveth in those vices.
O gluttony, full of all cursedness; A lecherous thing is wine, and drunkenness
O cause first of our confusi6n, Is full of striving and of wretchedness.
Original of our damnati6n, O drunken man! disfigur'd is thy face,29
Till Christ had bought us with his blood again! Sour is thy breath, foul art thou to embrace:
Looke, how deare, shortly for to sayn, And through thy drunken nose sowneth the
Aboughtl7 was first this cursed villainy: soun',
Corrupt was all this world for gluttony. As though thou saidest aye, Samsofn! Samsoftn!
Adam our fatherand his wife also And yet, God wot, Samson drank never wine.
1 Guitars. 14 A drunkard. "Perhaps," says Tyrwhitt, "Chaucer
2 Dreadful; fitted to "agrise" or horrify the listener. refers to Epist. lxxxiii.,'Extende in plures dies ilium
3 See note 18, page 42. Mr Wright says: "The ebrii habitum; nunquid de furore dubitabis? nune
common oaths in the Middle Ages were by the different quoque non est minor sed brevior.' " s Madness.
parts of God's body; and the popular preachers repre- 16 One evil-tempered. 17 Atoned for. 18 Doubt.
sentedthatprofane swearers tore Christ's bodybytheir 19 Forbidden. St Jerome, in his book against Joimprecations." The idea was doubtless borrowed from vinian, says that so long as Adam fasted, he was in
the passage in Hebrews (vi. 6), where apostates are Paradise; he ate, and he was thrust out,.
said to " crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, o2 Moderate. 21 Labour.
and put Him to an open shame." 4 Laughed. 2 " Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; but
5 Female dancers or tumblers; from Anglo-Saxon, God shall destroy both it and them" (1 Cor. vi. 13).
" tumban," to dance. 6 Dainty. 23 Wine. 24 See Phil. iii. 18, 19.
7 Fruit-girls. 8 Revellers. 9 Cake-sellers. 25 Cross; French, "croix."
10 "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess" 26 Bag; Anglo-Saxon, "codde;" hence peas-cod,
(Eph. v. 18). 11 Unnaturally. pin-cod (pin-cushion), &c. 27 Supply. 28 Sweet.
1' The reference is probably to the diligent inquiries 29 Compare with the lihes which follow, the picture
he made at the time of Christ's birth. See Matt. ii. of the drunken messenger in the Man of Law's Tale,
-8. 13 Command. page 67,