Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (39 page)

“Thou sayest eke, that there be thinges three,
¹
thrive
Which thinges greatly trouble all this earth,
And that no wighte may endure the ferth:
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fourth
O lefe
¹
sir shrew, may Jesus short
²
thy life.
¹
pleasant
²
shorten
Yet preachest thou, and say’st, a hateful wife
Y-reckon’d is for one of these mischances.
Be there
¹
none other manner resemblances
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no other kind of
That ye may liken your parables unto, comparison
¹
But if a silly wife be one of tho?
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those
Thou likenest a woman’s love to hell;
To barren land where water may not dwell.
Thou likenest it also to wild fire;
The more it burns, the more it hath desire
To consume every thing that burnt will be.
Thou sayest, right as wormes shend
¹
a tree,
¹
destroy
Right so a wife destroyeth her husbond;
This know they well that be to wives bond.”

Lordings, right thus, as ye have understand,
¹
Bare I stiffly mine old husbands on hand,
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made them believe
¹
That thus they saiden in their drunkenness;
And all was false, but that I took witness
On Jenkin, and upon my niece also.
O Lord! the pain I did them, and the woe,
‘Full guilteless, by Godde’s sweete pine;
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pain
For as a horse I coulde bite and whine;
I coulde plain,
¹
an’
²
I was in the guilt,
¹
complain
²
even though
Or elles oftentime I had been spilt
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ruined
Whoso first cometh to the nilll, first grint;
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is ground
I plained first, so was our war y-stint.
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stopped
They were full glad to excuse them full blive
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quickly
Of things that they never
¹
aguilt their live.
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were guilty in their
                                                                  lives
¹
Of wenches would I
¹
beare them on hand,
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falsely accuse them
¹
When that for sickness scarcely might they stand,
Yet tickled I his hearte for that he
Ween’d
¹
that I had of him so great cherte:
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though
²
affection
I swore that all my walking out by night
Was for to espy wenches that he dight:
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adorned
Under that colour had I many a mirth.
For all such wit is given us at birth;
Deceit, weeping, and spinning, God doth give
To women kindly, while that they may live.
¹
naturally
And thus of one thing I may vaunte me,
At th’ end I had the better in each degree,
By sleight, or force, or by some manner thing,
As by continual murmur or grudging,
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complaining
Namely
¹
a-bed, there hadde they mischance,
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especially
There would I chide, and do them no pleasance:
I would no longer in the bed abide,
If that I felt his arm over my side,
Till he had made his ransom unto me,
Then would I suffer him do his nicety.
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folly
And therefore every man this tale I tell,
Win whoso may, for all is for to sell;
With empty hand men may no hawkes lure;
For winning would I all his will endure,
And make me a feigned appetite,
And yet in bacon
¹
had I never delight:
¹
i.e. of Dunmow
That made me that I ever would them chide.
For, though the Pope had sitten them beside,
I would not spare them at their owen board,
For, by my troth, I quit
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them word for word
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repaid
As help me very God omnipotent,
Though I right now should make my testament
I owe them not a word, that is not quit
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repaid
I brought it so aboute by my wit,
That they must give it up, as for the best
Or elles had we never been in rest.
For, though he looked as a wood
¹
lion,
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furious
Yet should he fail of his conclusion.
Then would I say, “Now, goode lefe
¹
tak keep
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dear
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heed
How meekly looketh Wilken oure sheep!
Come near, my spouse, and let me ba
¹
thy cheek
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kiss
Ye shoulde be all patient and meek,
And have a
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sweet y-spiced
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conscience,
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tender, nice
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Since ye so preach of Jobe’s patience.
Suffer alway, since ye so well can preach,
And but
¹
ye do, certain we shall you teach
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unless
That it is fair to have a wife in peace.
One of us two must bowe
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doubteless:
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give way
And since a man is more reasonable
Than woman is, ye must be suff’rable.
What aileth you to grudge
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thus and groan?
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complain
Is it for ye would have my [love]
 
alone?
Why, take it all: lo, have it every deal,
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whit
Peter!
 
shrew
¹
you but ye love it well
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curse
For if I woulde sell my
¹
belle chose
¹
,
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beautiful thing
¹
I coulde walk as fresh as is a rose,
But I will keep it for your owen tooth.
Ye be to blame, by God, I say you sooth.”
Such manner wordes hadde we on hand.

Now will I speaken of my fourth husband.
My fourthe husband was a revellour;
This is to say, he had a paramour,
And I was young and full of ragerie,
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wantonness
Stubborn and strong, and jolly as a pie.
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magpie
Then could I dance to a harpe smale,
And sing, y-wis,
¹
as any nightingale,
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certainly
When I had drunk a draught of sweete wine.
Metellius, the foule churl, the swine,
That with a staff bereft his wife of life
For she drank wine, though I had been his wife,
Never should he have daunted me from drink:
And, after wine, of Venus most I think.
For all so sure as cold engenders hail,
A liquorish mouth must have a liquorish tail.
In woman vinolent
¹
is no defence,
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full of wine
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resistance
This knowe lechours by experience.
But, lord Christ, when that it rememb’reth me
Upon my youth, and on my jollity,
It tickleth me about mine hearte-root;
Unto this day it doth mine hearte boot,
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good
That I have had my world as in my time.
But age, alas! that all will envenime,
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poison, embitter
Hath me bereft my beauty and my pith:
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vigour
Let go; farewell; the devil go therewith.
The flour is gon, there is no more to tell,
The bran, as I best may, now must I sell.
But yet to be right merry will I fand.
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try
Now forth to tell you of my fourth husband,
I say, I in my heart had great despite,
That he of any other had delight;
But he was quit,
¹
by God and by Saint Joce:
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requited, paid back
I made for him of the same wood a cross;
Not of my body in no foul mannere,
But certainly I made folk such cheer,
That in his owen grease I made him fry
For anger, and for very jealousy.
By God, in earth I was his purgatory,
For which I hope his soul may be in glory.
For, God it wot, he sat full oft and sung,
When that his shoe full bitterly him wrung.
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pinched
There was no wight, save God and he, that wist
In many wise how sore I did him twist.
He died when I came from Jerusalem,
And lies in grave under the
¹
roode beam:
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cross
¹
Although his tomb is not so curious
As was the sepulchre of Darius,
Which that Apelles wrought so subtlely.
It is but waste to bury them preciously.
Let him fare well, God give his soule rest,
He is now in his grave and in his chest.

Now of my fifthe husband will I tell:
God let his soul never come into hell.
And yet was he to me the moste shrew;
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cruel, ill-tempered
That feel I on my ribbes all
¹
by rew,
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in a row
And ever shall, until mine ending day.
But in our bed he was so fresh and gay,
And therewithal so well he could me glose,
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flatter
When that he woulde have my belle chose,
Though he had beaten me on every bone,
Yet could he win again my love anon.
I trow, I lov’d him better, for that he
Was of his love so dangerous
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to me.
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sparing, difficult
We women have, if that I shall not lie,
In this matter a quainte fantasy.
Whatever thing we may not lightly have,
Thereafter will we cry all day and crave.
Forbid us thing, and that desire we;
Press on us fast, and thenne will we flee.
With danger
¹
utter we all our chaffare;
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difficulty
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merchandise
Great press at market maketh deare ware,
And too great cheap is held at little price;
This knoweth every woman that is wise.
My fifthe husband, God his soule bless,
Which that I took for love and no richess,
He some time was
¹
a clerk of Oxenford,
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a scholar of Oxford
¹
And had left school, and went at home to board
With my gossip,
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dwelling in oure town:
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godmother
God have her soul, her name was Alisoun.
She knew my heart, and all my privity,
Bet than our parish priest, so may I the.
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thrive
To her betrayed I my counsel all;
For had my husband pissed on a wall,
Or done a thing that should have cost his life,
To her, and to another worthy wife,
And to my niece, which that I loved well,
I would have told his counsel every deal.
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jot
And so I did full often, God it wot,
That made his face full often red and hot
For very shame, and blam’d himself, for he
Had told to me so great a privity.
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secret
And so befell that ones in a Lent
(So oftentimes I to my gossip went,
For ever yet I loved to be gay,
And for to walk in March, April, and May
From house to house, to heare sundry tales),
That Jenkin clerk, and my gossip, Dame Ales,
And I myself, into the fieldes went.
Mine husband was at London all that Lent;
I had the better leisure for to play,
And for to see, and eke for to be sey
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seen
Of lusty folk; what wist I where my grace
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favour
Was shapen for to be, or in what place?
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appointed
Therefore made I my visitations
To vigilies,
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and to processions,
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festival-eves
To preachings eke, and to these pilgrimages,
To plays of miracles, and marriages,
And weared upon me gay scarlet gites.
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gowns
These wormes, nor these mothes, nor these mites
On my apparel frett
¹
them never a deal
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fed
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whit
And know’st thou why? for they were used
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well.
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worn
Now will I telle forth what happen’d me:
I say, that in the fieldes walked we,
Till truely we had such dalliance,
This clerk and I, that of my purveyance
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foresight
I spake to him, and told him how that he,
If I were widow, shoulde wedde me.
For certainly, I say for no bobance,
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boasting
Yet was I never without purveyance
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foresight
Of marriage, nor of other thinges eke:
I hold a mouse’s wit not worth a leek,
That hath but one hole for to starte
¹
to,
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escape
And if that faile, then is all y-do.
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done
[
¹
I bare him on hand
¹
he had enchanted me
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falsely assured him
¹
(My dame taughte me that subtilty);
And eke I said, I mette
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of him all night,
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dreamed
He would have slain me, as I lay upright,
And all my bed was full of very blood;
But yet I hop’d that he should do me good;
For blood betoken’d gold, as me was taught.
And all was false, I dream’d of him right naught,
But as I follow’d aye my dame’s lore,
As well of that as of other things more.]
But now, sir, let me see, what shall I sayn?
Aha! by God, I have my tale again.
When that my fourthe husband was on bier,
I wept algate
¹
and made a sorry cheer,
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always
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countenance
As wives must, for it is the usage;
And with my kerchief covered my visage;
But, for I was provided with a make,
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mate
I wept but little, that I undertake
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promise
To churche was mine husband borne a-morrow
With neighebours that for him made sorrow,
And Jenkin, oure clerk, was one of tho:
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those
As help me God, when that I saw him go
After the bier, methought he had a pair
Of legges and of feet so clean and fair,
That all my heart I gave unto his hold.
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keeping
He was, I trow, a twenty winter old,
And I was forty, if I shall say sooth,
But yet I had always a colte’s tooth.
Gat-toothed
¹
I was, and that became me well,
¹
see note
I had the print of Sainte Venus’ seal.
[As help me God, I was a lusty one,
And fair, and rich, and young, and
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well begone:
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in a good way
¹
For certes I am all venerian
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under the influence of Venus
In feeling, and my heart is martian;
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under the influence of Mars
Venus me gave my lust and liquorishness,
And Mars gave me my sturdy hardiness.]
Mine ascendant was Taure,
¹
and Mars therein:
¹
Taurus
Alas, alas, that ever love was sin!
I follow’d aye mine inclination
By virtue of my constellation:
That made me that I coulde not withdraw
My chamber of Venus from a good fellaw.
[Yet have I Marte’s mark upon my face,
And also in another privy place.
For God so wisly
¹
be my salvation,
¹
certainly
I loved never by discretion,
But ever follow’d mine own appetite,
All
¹
were he short, or long, or black, or white,
¹
whether
I took no keep,
¹
so that he liked me,
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heed
How poor he was, neither of what degree.]
What should I say? but that at the month’s end
This jolly clerk Jenkin, that was so hend,
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courteous
Had wedded me with great solemnity,
And to him gave I all the land and fee
That ever was me given therebefore:
But afterward repented me full sore.
He woulde suffer nothing of my list.
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pleasure
By God, he smote me ones with his fist,
For that I rent out of his book a leaf,
That of the stroke mine eare wax’d all deaf.
Stubborn I was, as is a lioness,
And of my tongue a very jangleress,
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prater
And walk I would, as I had done beforn,
From house to house, although he had it sworn:
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had sworn to
For which he oftentimes woulde preach prevent it
And me of olde Roman gestes
¹
teach
¹
stories
How that Sulpitius Gallus left his wife
And her forsook for term of all his
For nought but open-headed
¹
he her say
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bare-headed
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saw
Looking out at his door upon a day.
Another Roman
 
told he me by name,
That, for his wife was at a summer game
Without his knowing, he forsook her eke.
And then would he upon his Bible seek
That ilke
¹
proverb of Ecclesiast,
¹
same
Where he commandeth, and forbiddeth fast,
Man shall not suffer his wife go roll about.
Then would he say right thus withoute doubt:
“Whoso that buildeth his house all of sallows,
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willows
And pricketh his blind horse over the fallows,
And suff’reth his wife to
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go seeke hallows,
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make pilgrimages
¹
Is worthy to be hanged on the gallows.”
But all for nought; I
¹
sette not a haw
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cared nothing for
¹
Of his proverbs, nor of his olde saw;
Nor would I not of him corrected be.
I hate them that my vices telle me,
And so do more of us (God wot) than I.
This made him wood
¹
with me all utterly;
¹
furious
I woulde not forbear
¹
him in no case.
¹
endure
Now will I say you sooth, by Saint Thomas,
Why that I rent out of his book a leaf,
For which he smote me, so that I was deaf.
He had a book, that gladly night and day
For his disport he would it read alway;
He call’d it Valerie, and Theophrast,
And with that book he laugh’d alway full fast.
And eke there was a clerk sometime at Rome,
A cardinal, that highte Saint Jerome,
That made a book against Jovinian,
Which book was there; and eke Tertullian,
Chrysippus, Trotula, and Heloise,
That was an abbess not far from Paris;
And eke the Parables
¹
of Solomon,
¹
Proverbs
Ovide’s Art,
 
and bourdes
¹
many one;
¹
jests
And alle these were bound in one volume.
And every night and day was his custume
(When he had leisure and vacation
From other worldly occupation)
To readen in this book of wicked wives.
He knew of them more legends and more lives
Than be of goodde wives in the Bible.
For, trust me well, it is an impossible
That any clerk will speake good of wives,
(
¹
But if
¹
it be of holy saintes’ lives)
¹
unless
Nor of none other woman never the mo’.
Who painted the lion, tell it me, who?
By God, if women haddde written stories,
As clerkes have within their oratories,
They would have writ of men more wickedness
Than all the mark of Adam
 
may redress
The children of Mercury and of Venus,
Be in their working full contrarious.
Mercury loveth wisdom and science,
And Venus loveth riot and dispence.
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extravagance
And for their diverse disposition,
Each falls in other’s exaltation.
As thus, God wot, Mercury is desolate
In Pisces, where Venus is exaltate,
And Venus falls where Mercury is raised.
Therefore no woman by no clerk is praised.
The clerk, when he is old, and may not do
Of Venus’ works not worth his olde shoe,
Then sits he down, and writes in his dotage,
That women cannot keep their marriage.
But now to purpose, why I tolde thee
That I was beaten for a book, pardie.