Geoffrey Chaucer, from “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”

1 My fourthe housbonde was a revelour –
2 This is to seyn, he hadde a paramour –
3 And I was yong and ful of ragerye,
4 Stibourn and strong, and joly as a pye.
5 How koude I daunce to an harpe smale,
6 And synge, ywis, as any nyghtyngale,
7 Whan I had dronke a draughte of sweete wyn!
8 Metellius, the foule cherl, the swyn,
9 That with a staf birafte his wyf hir lyf,
10 For she drank wyn, thogh I hadde been his wyf,
11 He sholde nat han daunted me fro drynke!
12 And after wyn on Venus moste I thynke,
13 For al so siker as cold engendreth hayl,
14 A likerous mouth moste han a likerous tayl.
15 In wommen vinolent is no defence –
16 This knowen lecchours by experience.
17 But – Lord Crist! – whan that it remembreth me
18 Upon my yowthe, and on my jolitee,
19 It tikleth me aboute myn herte roote.
20 Unto this day it dooth myn herte boote
21 That I have had my world as in my tyme.
22 But age, allas, that al wole envenyme,
23 Hath me biraft my beautee and my pith.
24 Lat go. Farewel! The devel go therwith!
25 The flour is goon; ther is namoore to telle;
26 The bren, as I best kan, now moste I selle;
27 But yet to be right myrie wol I fonde.
28 Now wol I tellen of my fourthe housbonde.
29 I seye, I hadde in herte greet despit
30 That he of any oother had delit.
31 But he was quit, by God and by Seint Joce!
32 I made hym of the same wode a croce;
33 Nat of my body, in no foul manere,
34 But certeinly, I made folk swich cheere
35 That in his owene grece I made hym frye
36 For angre, and for verray jalousye.
37 By God, in erthe I was his purgatorie,
38 For which I hope his soule be in glorie.
39 For, God it woot, he sat ful ofte and song,
40 Whan that his shoo ful bitterly hym wrong.
41 Ther was no wight, save God and he, that wiste,
42 In many wise, how soore I hym twiste.
43 He deyde whan I cam fro Jerusalem,
44 And lith ygrave under the roode beem,
45 Al is his tombe noght so curyus
46 As was the sepulcre of hym Daryus,
47 Which that Appelles wroghte subtilly;
48 It nys but wast to burye hym preciously.
49 Lat hym fare wel; God yeve his soule reste!
50 He is now in his grave and in his cheste.

1 revelour – profligate;
3 ragerye – wantonness;
4 stibourn – stubborn; pye magpie;
8 cherl – villain;
9 birafte – took away from;
13 al so siker as – as sure as;
14 likerous – gluttonous;
15 vinolent – drunken;
17 it remembreth me – I remember;
19 herte root – the bottom of my heart;
20 boote – good;
22 envenyme – poison;
23 biraft – taken away;
26 bren – bran;
27 fonde – try;
32 croce – cross;
35 grece – grease;
38 hope – suppose;
40 wrong – pinched;
42 twiste – tormented;
43 deyde – died;
44 ygrave – buried; roode beem – rood beam (in church);
45 curyus – elaborate;
48 wast – waste; preciously – expensively;
50 cheste – coffin

Geoffrey Chaucer, 1343-1400 – from The Canterbury Tales