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Front Page  Titles (by Subject) THE PRIORESSES TALE. - The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. 4 (The Canterbury Tales)
THE PRIORESSES TALE. - Geoffrey Chaucer, The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. 4 (The Canterbury Tales) [1899]Edition used:The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, edited from numerous manuscripts by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat (2nd ed.) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1899). 7 vols. Vol. 4.
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THE PRIORESSES TALE.
The Prologe of the Prioresses Tale.
-
- Domine, dominus noster.
- O LORD our lord, thy name how merveillous
- Is in this large worlde y-sprad—quod she:—
- For noght only thy laude precious1645
- Parfourned is by men of dignitee,
- But by the mouth of children thy bountee
- Parfourned is, for on the brest soukinge
- Som tyme shewen they thyn heryinge.
-
- Wherfor in laude, as I best can or may,1650
- Of thee, and of the whyte lily flour
- Which that thee bar, and is a mayde alway,(10)
- To telle a storie I wol do my labour;
- Not that I may encresen hir honour;
- For she hir-self is honour, and the rote1655
- Of bountee, next hir sone, and soules bote.—
-
- O moder mayde! o mayde moder free!
- O bush unbrent, brenninge in Moyses sighte,
- That ravisedest doun fro the deitee,
- Thurgh thyn humblesse, the goost that in thalighte,1660
- Of whos vertu, whan he thyn herte lighte,
- Conceived was the fadres sapience,(20)
- Help me to telle it in thy reverence!
-
- Lady! thy bountee, thy magnificence,
- Thy vertu, and thy grete humilitee1665
- Ther may no tonge expresse in no science;
- For som-tyme, lady, er men praye to thee,
- Thou goost biforn of thy benignitee,
- And getest us the light, thurgh thy preyere,
- To gyden us un-to thy sone so dere.1670
-
- My conning is so wayk, o blisful quene,
- For to declare thy grete worthinesse,(30)
- That I ne may the weighte nat sustene,
- But as a child of twelf monthe old, or lesse,
- That can unnethes any word expresse,1675
- Right so fare I, and therfor I yow preye,
- Gydeth my song that I shal of yow seye.
Explicit.
Here biginneth the Prioresses Tale.
-
- Ther was in Asie, in a greet citee,
- Amonges cristen folk, a Iewerye,
- Sustened by a lord of that contree1680
- For foule usure and lucre of vilanye,
- Hateful to Crist and to his companye;(40)
- And thurgh the strete men mighte ryde or wende,
- For it was free, and open at either ende.
-
- A litel scole of cristen folk ther stood1685
- Doun at the ferther ende, in which ther were
- Children an heep, y-comen of cristen blood,
- That lerned in that scole yeer by yere
- Swich maner doctrine as men used there,
- This is to seyn, to singen and to rede,1690
- As smale children doon in hir childhede.
-
- Among thise children was a widwes sone,(50)
- A litel clergeon, seven yeer of age,
- That day by day to scole was his wone,
- And eek also, wher-as he saugh thimage1695
- Of Cristes moder, hadde he in usage,
- As him was taught, to knele adoun and seye
- His Ave Marie, as he goth by the weye.
-
- Thus hath this widwe hir litel sone y-taught
- Our blisful lady, Cristes moder dere,1700
- To worshipe ay, and he forgat it naught,
- For sely child wol alday sone lere;(60)
- But ay, whan I remembre on this matere,
- Seint Nicholas stant ever in my presence,
- For he so yong to Crist did reverence.1705
-
- This litel child, his litel book lerninge,
- As he sat in the scole at his prymer,
- He Alma redemptoris herde singe,
- As children lerned hir antiphoner;
- And, as he dorste, he drough him ner and ner,1710
- And herkned ay the wordes and the note,
- Til he the firste vers coude al by rote.(70)
-
- Noght wiste he what this Latin was to seye,
- For he so yong and tendre was of age;
- But on a day his felaw gan he preye1715
- Texpounden him this song in his langage,
- Or telle him why this song was in usage;
- This preyde he him to construe and declare
- Ful ofte tyme upon his knowes bare.
-
- His felaw, which that elder was than he,1720
- Answerde him thus: ‘this song, I have herd seye,
- Was maked of our blisful lady free,(80)
- Hir to salue, and eek hir for to preye
- To been our help and socour whan we deye.
- I can no more expounde in this matere;1725
- I lerne song, I can but smal grammere.’
-
- ‘And is this song maked in reverence
- Of Cristes moder?’ seyde this innocent;
- ‘Now certes, I wol do my diligence
- To conne it al, er Cristemasse is went;1730
- Though that I for my prymer shal be shent,
- And shal be beten thryes in an houre,(90)
- I wol it conne, our lady for to honoure.’
-
- His felaw taughte him homward prively,
- Fro day to day, til he coude it by rote,1735
- And than he song it wel and boldely
- Fro word to word, acording with the note;
- Twyës a day it passed thurgh his throte,
- To scoleward and homward whan he wente;
- On Cristes moder set was his entente.1740
-
- As I have seyd, thurgh-out the Iewerye
- This litel child, as he cam to and fro,(100)
- Ful merily than wolde he singe, and crye
- O Alma redemptoris ever-mo.
- The swetnes hath his herte perced so1745
- Of Cristes moder, that, to hir to preye,
- He can nat stinte of singing by the weye.
-
- Our firste fo, the serpent Sathanas,
- That hath in Iewes herte his waspes nest,
- Up swal, and seide, ‘o Hebraik peple, allas!1750
- Is this to yow a thing that is honest,
- That swich a boy shal walken as him lest(110)
- In your despyt, and singe of swich sentence,
- Which is agayn your lawes reverence?’
-
- Fro thennes forth the Iewes han conspyred1755
- This innocent out of this world to chace;
- An homicyde ther-to han they hyred,
- That in an aley hadde a privee place;
- And as the child gan for-by for to pace,
- This cursed Iew him hente and heeld him faste,1760
- And kitte his throte, and in a pit him caste.
-
- I seye that in a wardrobe they him threwe(120)
- Wher-as these Iewes purgen hir entraille.
- O cursed folk of Herodes al newe,
- What may your yvel entente yow availle?1765
- Mordre wol out, certein, it wol nat faille,
- And namely ther thonour of god shal sprede,
- The blood out cryeth on your cursed dede.
-
- ‘O martir, souded to virginitee,
- Now maystou singen, folwing ever in oon1770
- The whyte lamb celestial,’ quod she,
- ‘Of which the grete evangelist, seint Iohn,(130)
- In Pathmos wroot, which seith that they that goon
- Biforn this lamb, and singe a song al newe,
- That never, fleshly, wommen they ne knewe.’1775
-
- This povre widwe awaiteth al that night
- After hir litel child, but he cam noght;
- For which, as sone as it was dayes light,
- With face pale of drede and bisy thoght,
- She hath at scole and elles-wher him soght,1780
- Til finally she gan so fer espye
- That he last seyn was in the Iewerye.(140)
-
- With modres pitee in hir brest enclosed,
- She gooth, as she were half out of hir minde,
- To every place wher she hath supposed1785
- By lyklihede hir litel child to finde;
- And ever on Cristes moder meke and kinde
- She cryde, and atte laste thus she wroghte,
- Among the cursed Iewes she him soghte.
-
- She frayneth and she preyeth pitously1790
- To every Iew that dwelte in thilke place,
- To telle hir, if hir child wente oght for-by.(150)
- They seyde, ‘nay’; but Iesu, of his grace,
- Yaf in hir thought, inwith a litel space,
- That in that place after hir sone she cryde,1795
- Wher he was casten in a pit bisyde.
-
- O grete god, that parfournest thy laude
- By mouth of innocents, lo heer thy might!
- This gemme of chastitee, this emeraude,
- And eek of martirdom the ruby bright,1800
- Ther he with throte y-corven lay upright,
- He ‘Alma redemptoris’ gan to singe(160)
- So loude, that al the place gan to ringe.
-
- The Cristen folk, that thurgh the strete wente,
- In coomen, for to wondre up-on this thing,1805
- And hastily they for the provost sente;
- He cam anon with-outen tarying,
- And herieth Crist that is of heven king,
- And eek his moder, honour of mankinde,
- And after that, the Iewes leet he binde.1810
-
- This child with pitous lamentacioun
- Up-taken was, singing his song alway;(170)
- And with honour of greet processioun
- They carien him un-to the nexte abbay.
- His moder swowning by the bere lay;1815
- Unnethe might the peple that was there
- This newe Rachel bringe fro his bere.
-
- With torment and with shamful deth echon
- This provost dooth thise Iewes for to sterve
- That of this mordre wiste, and that anon;1820
- He nolde no swich cursednesse observe.
- Yvel shal have, that yvel wol deserve.(180)
- Therfor with wilde hors he dide hem drawe,
- And after that he heng hem by the lawe.
-
- Up-on his bere ay lyth this innocent1825
- Biforn the chief auter, whyl masse laste,
- And after that, the abbot with his covent
- Han sped hem for to burien him ful faste;
- And whan they holy water on him caste,
- Yet spak this child, whan spreynd was holy water,1830
- And song—‘O Alma redemptoris mater!’
-
- This abbot, which that was an holy man(190)
- As monkes been, or elles oghten be,
- This yonge child to coniure he bigan,
- And seyde, ‘o dere child, I halse thee,1835
- In vertu of the holy Trinitee,
- Tel me what is thy cause for to singe,
- Sith that thy throte is cut, to my seminge?’
-
- ‘My throte is cut un-to my nekke-boon,’
- Seyde this child, ‘and, as by wey of kinde,1840
- I sholde have deyed, ye, longe tyme agoon,
- But Iesu Crist, as ye in bokes finde,(200)
- Wil that his glorie laste and be in minde,
- And, for the worship of his moder dere,
- Yet may I singe “O Alma” loude and clere.1845
-
- This welle of mercy, Cristes moder swete,
- I lovede alwey, as after my conninge;
- And whan that I my lyf sholde forlete,
- To me she cam, and bad me for to singe
- This antem verraily in my deyinge,1850
- As ye han herd, and, whan that I had songe,
- Me thoughte, she leyde a greyn up-on my tonge.(210)
-
- Wherfor I singe, and singe I moot certeyn
- In honour of that blisful mayden free,
- Til fro my tonge of-taken is the greyn;1855
- And afterward thus seyde she to me,
- “My litel child, now wol I fecche thee
- Whan that the greyn is fro thy tonge y-take;
- Be nat agast, I wol thee nat forsake.” ’
-
- This holy monk, this abbot, him mene I,1860
- His tonge out-caughte, and took a-wey the greyn,
- And he yaf up the goost ful softely.(220)
- And whan this abbot had this wonder seyn,
- His salte teres trikled doun as reyn,
- And gruf he fil al plat up-on the grounde,1865
- And stille he lay as he had been y-bounde.
-
- The covent eek lay on the pavement
- Weping, and herien Cristes moder dere,
- And after that they ryse, and forth ben went,
- And toke awey this martir fro his bere,1870
- And in a tombe of marbul-stones clere
- Enclosen they his litel body swete;(230)
- Ther he is now, god leve us for to mete.
-
- O yonge Hugh of Lincoln, slayn also
- With cursed Iewes, as it is notable,1875
- For it nis but a litel whyle ago;
- Preye eek for us, we sinful folk unstable,
- That, of his mercy, god so merciable
- On us his grete mercy multiplye,(237)
- For reverence of his moder Marye. Amen.1880
Here is ended the Prioresses Tale.
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