For by my father’s soul, as to my dome,4031
Thou art a master when thou art at home;
No poorë cloisterer, nor no novíce,
But a govérnor, both wily and wise,
And therewithal, of brawnës4032 and of bones,
A right well-faring person for the nonce.
I pray to God give him confusión
That first thee brought into religión.
Thou would’st have been a treadëfowl4033 aright;
Hadst thou as greatë leave, as thou hast might,
To perform all thy lust in engendrure,
Thou hadst begotten many a creatúre.
Alas! why wearest thou so wide a cope?4034
God give me sorrow, but, an’4035 I were pope,
Not only thou, but every mighty man,
Though he were shorn full high upon his pan,4036
Should have a wife; for all this world is lorn;4037
Religión hath ta’en up all the corn
Of treading, and we borel4038 men be shrimps:4039
Of feeble trees there comë wretched imps.4040
This maketh that our heirës be so slender
And feeble, that they may not well engender.
This maketh that our wives will assay
Religious folk, for they may better pay
Of Venus’ payëmentës than may we:
God wot, no lushëburghës4041 payë ye.
But be not wroth, my lord, though that I play;
Full oft in game a sooth have I heard say.”
This worthy Monk took all in patiénce,
And said, “I will do all my diligence,
As far as souneth unto honesty,4042
To tellë you a tale, or two or three.
And if you list to hearken hitherward,
I will you say the life of Saint Edward;
Or ellës first tragédies I will tell,
Of which I have an hundred in my cell.
Tragédy is to say4043 a certain story,
As oldë bookës maken us memóry,
Of him that stood in great prosperitý,
And is y-fallen out of high degree
In misery, and endeth wretchedly.
And they be versifiëd commonly
Of six feet, which men call hexámetron;
In prose eke be indited many a one,
And eke in metre, in many a sundry wise.
Lo, this declaring ought enough suffice.
Now hearken, if ye likë for to hear.
But first I you beseech in this mattére,
Though I by order tellë not these things,
Be it of popës, emperors, or kings,
After their ages,4044 as men written find,
But tell them some before and some behind,
As it now cometh to my remembránce,
Have me excused of mine ignorance.”
The Tale4045
I will bewail, in manner of tragédy,
The harm of them that stood in high degree,
And fellë so, that there was no remédy
To bring them out of their adversitý.
For, certain, when that Fortune list to flee,
There may no man the course of her wheel hold:
Let no man trust in blind prosperity;
Beware by these examples true and old.
At Lucifer, though he an angel were,
And not a man, at him I will begin.
For though Fortúnë may no angel dere,4046
From high degree yet fell he for his sin
Down into hell, where as he yet is in.
O Lucifer! brightest of angels all,
Now art thou Satanas, that may’st not twin4047
Out of the misery in which thou art fall.
Lo Adam, in the field of Damascene4048
With Goddë’s owen finger wrought was he,
And not begotten of man’s sperm unclean;
And welt4049 all Paradise saving one tree:
Had never worldly man so high degree
As Adam, till he for misgovernance4050
Was driven out of his prosperity
To labour, and to hell, and to mischance.
Lo Sampson, which that was annunciate
By the angel, long ere his nativity;4051
And was to God Almighty consecrate,
And stood in nobless while that he might see;
Was never such another as was he,
To speak of strength, and thereto hardiness;4052
But to his wivës told he his secré,
Through which he slew himself for wretchedness.
Sampson, this noble and mighty champión,
Withoutë weapon, save his handës tway,
He slew and all to-rentë4053 the lión,
Toward his wedding walking by the way.
His falsë wife could him so please, and pray,
Till she his counsel knew; and she, untrue,
Unto his foes his counsel gan bewray,
And him forsook, and took another new.
Three hundred foxes Sampson took for ire,
And all their tailës he together band,
And set the foxes’ tailës all on fire,
For he in every tail had knit a brand,
And they burnt all the cornës of that lend,
And all their olivéres4054 and vinës eke.
A thousand men he slew eke with his hand,
And had no weapon but an ass’s cheek.
When they were slain, so thirsted him, that he
Was well-nigh lorn,4055 for which he gan to pray
That God would on his pain have some pitý,
And send him drink, or ellës must he die;
And of this ass’s check, that was so dry,
Out of a wang-tooth4056 sprang anon a well,
Of which, he drank enough, shortly to say.
Thus help’d him God, as Judicum4057 can tell.
By very force, at Gaza, on a night,
Maugré the Philistines of that citý,
The gatës of the town he hath up plight,4058
And on his back y-carried them hath he
High on an hill, where as men might them see.
O noble mighty Sampson, lefe4059 and dear,
Hadst thou not told to women thy secré,
In all this world there had not been thy peer.
This Sampson never cider drank nor wine,
Nor on his head came razor none nor shear,
By precept of the messenger divine;
For all his strengthës in his hairës were;
And fully twenty winters, year by year,
He had of Israel the governance;
But soonë shall he weepë many a tear,
For women shall him bringë to mischance.
Unto his leman4060 Dalila4061 he told,
That in his hairës all his strengthë lay;
And falsely to his foemen she him sold,
And sleeping in her barme4062 upon a day
She made to clip or shear his hair away,
And made his foemen all his craft espien.
And when they foundë him in this array,
They bound him fast, and put out both his eyen.
But, ere his hair was clipped or y-shave,
There was no bond
