Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Introduction To The Man Of Law's Tale (A Minimalist Translation) Poem by Forrest Hainline

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Introduction to The Man of Law's Tale (A Minimalist Translation)

Our Host saw well that the bright sun
The arc of his artificial day has run
The fourth part, and half an hour and more,
And though he was not deep expert in lore,
5 He knew it was the eighteenth day
Of April, that is messenger to May;
And saw well that the shadow of every tree
Was in length the same quantity
That was the erect body that caused it.
10 And therefore by the shadow he took his wit
That Phoebus, which that shone so clear and bright,
Degrees was five and forty climbed on height,
And for that day, as in that latitude,
It was ten of the clock, he gan conclude,
15 And suddenly he pulled his horse about.

"Lordings" said he, "I warn you, all this route,
One fourth part of this day is gone.
Now for the love of God and of Saint John,
Lose no time, as far forth as you may.
20 Lordings, the time wastes night and day,
And steals from us, what privily sleeping,
And what through negligence in our waking,
As does the stream that turneth never again,
Descending from the mountain into plain.
25 Well can Seneca and many a philosopher
Bewail time more than gold in coffer;
For `Loss of catel may recovered be,
But loss of time shends us, ' said he.
It will not come again, without dread,
30 No more than will Malkin's maidenhead,
When she has lost it in her wantonness.
Let us not moldy thus in idleness.

"Sir Man of Law, " said he, "so have you bliss,
Tell us a tale anon, as forward is.
35 You've been submitted, through your free assent,
To stand in this case at my judgment.
Acquitteth you now of your behest;
Then have you done your duty at the least."

"Host, " said he, "depardieux, I assent;
40 To break forward is not my intent.
Behest is debt, and I will hold fain
All my behest, I can no better say.
For such law as a man gives another wight,
He should himself use it, by right;
45 Thus will our text.But nonetheless, certain,
I can right now no thrifty tale say
That Chaucer, though he kan but lewdly
On meters and on rhyming craftily,
Has said them in such English as he kan
50 Of old time, as knows many a man;
And if he has not said them, lief brother,
In one book, he has said them in another.
For he has told of lovers up and down
More than Ovid made of mention
55 In his Epistles, that be full old.
Why should I tell them, since they have been told?

"In youth he made of Ceyx and Alcion,
And since than has he spoken of every one,
These noble wives and these lovers eek.
60 Whoever that will his large volume seek,
Called the Saints' Legend of Cupid,
There may he see the large wounds wide
Of Lucretia, and Babylon Thisbe;
The sword of Dido for the false Anea;
65 The tree of Phyllis for her Demophon;
The plaint of Dianira of Hermione,
Of Ariadne, and of Hypsipyle -
The barren isle standing in the sea -
The drowned Leander for his Hero;
70 The tears of Helen, and eek the woe
Of Briseis, and of thee, Laodamia;
The cruelty of thee, queen Medea,
Thy little children hanging by the hals,
For thy Jason, that was of love so false!
75 O Hypermnestra, Penelope, Alcest,
Your wifehood he commends with the best!

"But certainly no word writes he
Of that wicked example of Canace,
That loved her own brother sinfully -
80 Of such cursed stories I say fie! -
Or else of Tyro Apollonius,
How that the cursed king Antiochus
Bereft his daughter of her maidenhead,
That is so horrible a tale for to read,
85 When he threw her upon the pavement.
And therefore he, of full advisement
Would never write in none of his sermons
Of such unkind abominations,
Nor I will none rehearse, if that I may.

90 "But of my tale how shall I do this day?
Me were loath be likened, doubtless,
To Muses that men call Pierides -
Metamorphoses shows what I mean;
But nonetheless, I reck not a bean
95 Though I come after him with hawebake.
I speak in prose, and let him make rhymes."
And with that word he, with a sober cheer,
Began his tale, as you shall after hear.

© 20016,2019 Forrest Hainline