Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (46 page)

“Here may ye see that dreames be to dread.
And certes in the same book I read,
Right in the nexte chapter after this
(I gabbe
¹
not, so have I joy and bliss),
¹
talk idly
Two men that would, have passed over sea,
For certain cause, into a far country,
If that the wind not hadde been contrary,
That made them in a city for to tarry,
That stood full merry upon an haven side;
But on a day, against the even-tide,
The wind gan change, and blew right
¹
as them lest.
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as they wished
¹
Jolly and glad they wente to their rest,
And caste
¹
them full early for to sail.
¹
resolved
But to the one man fell a great marvail
That one of them, in sleeping as he lay,
He mette
¹
a wondrous dream, against the day:
¹
dreamed
He thought a man stood by his bedde’s side,
And him commanded that he should abide;
And said him thus; ‘If thou to-morrow wend,
Thou shalt be drown’d; my tale is at an end.’
He woke, and told his follow what he mette,
And prayed him his voyage for to let;
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delay
As for that day, he pray’d him to abide.
His fellow, that lay by his bedde’s side,
Gan for to laugh, and scorned him full fast.
‘No dream,’ quoth he,’may so my heart aghast,
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frighten
That I will lette
¹
for to do my things.
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delay
I sette not a straw by thy dreamings,
For swevens
¹
be but vanities and japes.
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dreams
²
jokes,deceits
Men dream all day of owles and of apes,
And eke of many a maze
¹
therewithal;
¹
wild imagining
Men dream of thing that never was, nor shall.
But since I see, that thou wilt here abide,
And thus forslothe
¹
wilfully thy tide,
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idle away
²
time
God wot,
¹
it rueth me;
¹
and have good day.’
¹
I am sorry for it
¹
And thus he took his leave, and went his way.
But, ere that he had half his course sail’d,
I know not why, nor what mischance it ail’d,
But casually
¹
the ship’s bottom rent,
¹
by accident
And ship and man under the water went,
In sight of other shippes there beside
That with him sailed at the same tide.

“And therefore, faire Partelote so dear,
By such examples olde may’st thou lear,
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learn
That no man shoulde be too reckeless
Of dreames, for I say thee doubteless,
That many a dream full sore is for to dread.
Lo, in the life of Saint Kenelm
 
I read,
That was Kenulphus’ son, the noble king
Of Mercenrike,
 
how Kenelm mette a thing.
A little ere he was murder’d on a day,
His murder in his vision he say.
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saw
His norice
¹
him expounded every deal
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nurse
²
part
His sweven, and bade him to keep
¹
him well
¹
guard
For treason; but he was but seven years old,
And therefore
¹
little tale hath he told
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he attached little
Of any dream, so holy was his heart. significance to
¹
By God, I hadde lever than my shirt
That ye had read his legend, as have I.
Dame Partelote, I say you truely,
Macrobius, that wrote the vision
In Afric’ of the worthy Scipion,
Affirmeth dreames, and saith that they be
‘Warnings of thinges that men after see.
And furthermore, I pray you looke well
In the Old Testament, of Daniel,
If he held dreames any vanity.
Read eke of Joseph, and there shall ye see
Whether dreams be sometimes (I say not all)
Warnings of thinges that shall after fall.
Look of Egypt the king, Dan Pharaoh,
His baker and his buteler also,
Whether they felte none effect
¹
in dreams.
¹
significance
Whoso will seek the acts of sundry remes
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realms
May read of dreames many a wondrous thing.
Lo Croesus, which that was of Lydia king,
Mette he not that he sat upon a tree,
Which signified he shoulde hanged be?
Lo here, Andromache, Hectore’s wife,
That day that Hector shoulde lose his life,
She dreamed on the same night beforn,
How that the life of Hector should be lorn,
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lost
If thilke day he went into battaile;
She warned him, but it might not avail;
He wente forth to fighte natheless,
And was y-slain anon of Achilles.
But thilke tale is all too long to tell;
And eke it is nigh day, I may not dwell.
Shortly I say, as for conclusion,
That I shall have of this avision
Adversity; and I say furthermore,
That I ne
¹
tell of laxatives no store,
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hold laxatives
For they be venomous, I wot it well; of no value
¹
I them defy,
¹
I love them never a del.
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distrust
²
whit

“But let us speak of mirth, and stint
¹
all this;
¹
cease
Madame Partelote, so have I bliss,
Of one thing God hath sent me large
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grace; liberal
For when I see the beauty of your face,
Ye be so scarlet-hued about your eyen,
I maketh all my dreade for to dien,
For, all so sicker
¹
as In principio,
¹
certain
Mulier est hominis confusio.
Madam, the sentence
¹
of of this Latin is,
¹
meaning
Woman is manne’s joy and manne’s bliss.
For when I feel at night your softe side, —
Albeit that I may not on you ride,
For that our perch is made so narrow, Alas!
I am so full of joy and of solas,
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delight
That I defy both sweven and eke dream.”
And with that word he flew down from the beam,
For it was day, and eke his hennes all;
And with a chuck he gan them for to call,
For he had found a corn, lay in the yard.
Royal he was, he was no more afear’d;
He feather’d Partelote twenty time,
And as oft trode her, ere that it was prime.
He looked as it were a grim lion,
And on his toes he roamed up and down;
He deigned not to set his feet to ground;
He chucked, when he had a corn y-found,
And to him ranne then his wives all.
Thus royal, as a prince is in his hall,
Leave I this Chanticleer in his pasture;
And after will I tell his aventure.

When that the month in which the world began,
That highte March, when God first maked man,
Was complete, and y-passed were also,
Since March ended, thirty days and two,
Befell that Chanticleer in all his pride,
His seven wives walking him beside,
Cast up his eyen to the brighte sun,
That in the sign of Taurus had y-run
Twenty degrees and one, and somewhat more;
He knew by kind,
¹
and by none other lore,
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nature
²
learning
That it was prime, and crew with blissful steven.
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voice
“The sun,” he said, “is clomben up in heaven
Twenty degrees and one, and more y-wis.
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assuredly
Madame Partelote, my worlde’s bliss,
Hearken these blissful birdes how they sing,
And see the freshe flowers how they spring;
Full is mine heart of revel and solace.”
But suddenly him fell a sorrowful case;
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casualty
For ever the latter end of joy is woe:
God wot that worldly joy is soon y-go:
And, if a rhetor
¹
coulde fair indite,
¹
orator
He in a chronicle might it safely write,
As for
¹
a sov’reign notability
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a thing supremely notable
¹
Now every wise man, let him hearken me;
This story is all as true, I undertake,
As is the book of Launcelot du Lake,
That women hold in full great reverence.
Now will I turn again to my sentence.

A col-fox,
 
full of sly iniquity,
That in the grove had wonned
¹
yeares three,
¹
dwelt
By high imagination forecast,
The same night thorough the hedges brast
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burst
Into the yard, where Chanticleer the fair
Was wont, and eke his wives, to repair;
And in a bed of wortes
¹
still he lay,
¹
cabbages
Till it was passed undern
 
of the day,
Waiting his time on Chanticleer to fall:
As gladly do these homicides all,
That in awaite lie to murder men.
O false murd’rer! Rouking
¹
in thy den!
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crouching, lurking
O new Iscariot, new Ganilion!
O false dissimuler, O Greek Sinon,
That broughtest Troy all utterly to sorrow!
O Chanticleer! accursed be the morrow
That thou into thy yard flew from the beams;
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rafters
Thou wert full well y-warned by thy dreams
That thilke day was perilous to thee.
But what that God forewot
¹
must needes be,
¹
foreknows
After th’ opinion of certain clerkes.
Witness on him that any perfect clerk is,
That in school is great altercation
In this matter, and great disputation,
And hath been of an hundred thousand men.
But I ne cannot
¹
boult it to the bren,
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examine it thoroughly
¹
As can the holy doctor Augustine,
Or Boece, or the bishop Bradwardine,
Whether that Godde’s worthy foreweeting
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foreknowledge
¹
Straineth me needly
¹
for to do a thing
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forces me
¹
(Needly call I simple necessity),
Or elles if free choice be granted me
To do that same thing, or do it not,
Though God forewot
¹
it ere that it was wrought;
¹
knew in advance
Or if
¹
his weeting straineth never a deal,
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his knowing constrains
But by necessity conditionel. not at all
¹
I will not have to do of such mattere;
My tale is of a cock, as ye may hear,
That took his counsel of his wife, with sorrow,
To walken in the yard upon the morrow
That he had mette the dream, as I you told.
Womane’s counsels be full often cold;
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mischievous, unwise
Womane’s counsel brought us first to woe,
And made Adam from Paradise to go,
There as he was full merry and well at case.
But, for I n’ot
¹
to whom I might displease
¹
know not
If I counsel of women woulde blame,
Pass over, for I said it in my game.
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jest
Read authors, where they treat of such mattere
And what they say of women ye may hear.
These be the cocke’s wordes, and not mine;
I can no harm of no woman divine.
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conjecture, imagine
Fair in the sand, to bathe
¹
her merrily,
¹
bask
Lies Partelote, and all her sisters by,
Against the sun, and Chanticleer so free
Sang merrier than the mermaid in the sea;
For Physiologus saith sickerly,
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certainly
How that they singe well and merrily.
And so befell that, as he cast his eye
Among the wortes,
¹
on a butterfly,
¹
cabbages
He was ware of this fox that lay full low.
Nothing
¹
ne list him thenne
¹
for to crow,
¹
he had no inclination
¹
But cried anon “Cock! cock!” and up he start,
As man that was affrayed in his heart.
For naturally a beast desireth flee
From his contrary,
¹
if be may it see,
¹
enemy
Though he
¹
ne’er erst
¹
had soon it with his eye
¹
never before
¹
This Chanticleer, when he gan him espy,
He would have fled, but that the fox anon
Said, “Gentle Sir, alas! why will ye gon?
Be ye afraid of me that am your friend?
Now, certes, I were worse than any fiend,
If I to you would harm or villainy.
I am not come your counsel to espy.
But truely the cause of my coming
Was only for to hearken how ye sing;
For truely ye have as merry a steven,
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voice
As any angel hath that is in heaven;
Therewith ye have of music more feeling,
Than had Boece, or any that can sing.
My lord your father (God his soule bless)
And eke your mother of her gentleness,
Have in mnine house been, to my great ease:
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satisfaction
And certes, Sir, full fain would I you please.
But, for men speak of singing, I will say,
So may I brooke
¹
well mine eyen tway,
¹
enjoy, possess, or use
Save you, I hearde never man so sing
As did your father in the morrowning.
Certes it was of heart all that he sung.
And, for to make his voice the more strong,
He would
¹
so pain him,
¹
that with both his eyen
¹
make such an exertion
¹
He muste wink, so loud he woulde cryen,
And standen on his tiptoes therewithal,
And stretche forth his necke long and small.
And eke he was of such discretion,
That there was no man, in no region,
That him in song or wisdom mighte pass.
I have well read in Dan Burnel the Ass,
Among his verse, how that there was a cock
That, for
¹
a prieste’s son gave him a knock
¹
because
Upon his leg, while he was young and nice,
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foolish
He made him for to lose his benefice.
But certain there is no comparison
Betwixt the wisdom and discretion
Of youre father, and his subtilty.
Now singe, Sir, for sainte charity,
Let see, can ye your father counterfeit?”