Whether they feltë none effect4345 in dreams.
Whoso will seek the acts of sundry remes4346
May read of dreamës many a wondrous thing.
Lo Croesus, which that was of Lydia king,
Mette he not that he sat upon a tree,
Which signified he shouldë hanged be?4347
Lo here, Andromaché, Hectorë’s wife,
That day that Hector shouldë lose his life,
She dreamed on the samë night beforn,
How that the life of Hector should be lorn,4348
If thilkë day he went into battaile;
She warned him, but it might not avail;
He wentë forth to fightë natheless,
And was y-slain anon of Achillés.
But thilkë tale is all too long to tell;
And eke it is nigh day, I may not dwell.
Shortly I say, as for conclusión,
That I shall have of this avisión
Adversity; and I say furthermore,
That I ne tell of laxatives no store,4349
For they be venomous, I wot it well;
I them defy,4350 I love them never a del.4351
“But let us speak of mirth, and stint4352 all this;
Madamë Partelote, so have I bliss,
Of one thing God hath sent me largë4353 grace;
For when I see the beauty of your face,
Ye be so scarlet-hued about your eyen,
I maketh all my dreadë for to dien,
For, all so sicker4354 as In principio,4355
Mulier est hominis confusio.4356
(Madam, the sentence4357 of this Latin is,
Woman is mannë’s joy and mannë’s bliss.)
For when I feel at night your softë 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,4358
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 hennës 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 Partelotë twenty time,
And as oft trode her, ere that it was prime.
He looked as it were a grim lioún,
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 rannë then his wivës all.
Thus royal, as a prince is in his hall,
Leave I this Chanticleer in his pastúre;
And after will I tell his áventúre.
When that the month in which the world began,
That hightë March, when God first maked man,
Was cómplete, and y-passed were also,
Sincë March ended, thirty days and two,
Befell that Chanticleer in all his pride,
His seven wivës walking him beside,
Cast up his eyen to the brightë sun,
That in the sign of Taurus had y-run
Twenty degrees and one, and somewhat more;
He knew by kind,4359 and by none other lore,4360
That it was prime, and crew with blissful steven.4361
“The sun,” he said, “is clomben up in heaven
Twenty degrees and one, and more y-wis.4362
Madamë Partelote, my worldë’s bliss,
Hearken these blissful birdës how they sing,
And see the freshë flowers how they spring;
Full is mine heart of revel and solace.”
But suddenly him fell a sorrowful case;4363
For ever the latter end of joy is woe:
God wot that worldly joy is soon y-go:
And, if a rhetor4364 couldë fair indite,
He in a chronicle might it safely write,
As for a sov’reign notability.4365
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 senténce.
A col-fox,4366 full of sly iniquity,
That in the grove had wonned4367 yearës three,
By high imaginatión forecast,
The samë night thorough the hedges brast4368
Into the yard, where Chanticleer the fair
And in a bed of wortës4369 still he lay,
Till it was passed undern4370 of the day,
Waiting his time on Chanticleer to fall:
As gladly do these homicidës all,
That in awaitë lie to murder men.
O falsë murd’rer! Rouking4371 in thy den!
O new Iscariot, new Ganilion!4372
O false dissimuler, O Greek Sinón,4373
That broughtest Troy all utterly to sorrow!
O Chanticleer! accursed be the morrow
That thou into thy yard flew from the beams;4374
Thou wert full well y-warned by thy dreams
That thilkë day was perilous to thee.
But what that God forewot4375 must needës be,
After th’ opinion of certain clerkës.
Witness on him that any perfect clerk is,
That in school is great altercatión
In this matter, and great disputatión,
And hath been of an hundred thousand men.
But I ne cannot boult it to the bren,4376
As can the holy doctor Augustine,
Or Boece, or the bishop Bradwardine,4377
Whether that Goddë’s worthy foreweeting4378
Straineth me needly4379 for to do a thing
(Needly call I simple necessity),
Or ellës if free choice be granted me
To do that samë thing, or do it not,
Though God forewot4380 it ere that it was wrought;
Or if his weeting4381 straineth4382 never a deal,4383
But by necessity conditionel.
I will not have to do of such mattére;
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.
Womanë’s counsels be full often cold;4384
Womanë’s counsel brought us first to woe,
And made Adám from Paradise to go,
There as he was full merry and well at case.
But, for I n’ot4385 to whom I might displease
If I counsél of women wouldë blame,
Pass over, for I said it in my game.4386
Read authors, where they treat of such mattére,
And what they say of women ye may hear.
These be the cockë’s wordës, and not mine;
I can no harm of no woman divine.
