BISHOP JUSTUS
A2 ENGLISH LITERATURE
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
Poetry Anthology Part 1
Chaucer to Walsh
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LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
Intro Old Teatament, ovid, plato,
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BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
Types of Love
Courtly Love
Unrequited Love
Godly Love
Lust
Marriage
Familial Love
Themes that are frequently present:
The profound
Nature
Illness
Heaven
The Ethereal
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BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400 –est.)
Brief Biog:
Chaucer was the first great poet writing in English, whose bestknown work is 'The Canterbury Tales'.
Geoffrey Chaucer was born between 1340 and 1345, probably in
London. His father was a prosperous wine merchant. We do not
know any details of his early life and education.
In 1357, he was a page to Elizabeth, Countess of Ulster, wife of
Edward III's third son. Chaucer was captured by the French during
the Brittany expedition of 1359, but was ransomed by the king.
Edward III later sent him on diplomatic missions to France, Genoa and Florence. His travels
exposed him to the work of authors such as Dante, Boccaccio and Froissart.
Around 1366, Chaucer married Philippa Roet, a lady-in-waiting in the queen's household. They are
thought to have had three or four children. Philippa's sister, Katherine Swynford, later became the
third wife of John of Gaunt, the king's fourth son and Chaucer's patron.
In 1374, Chaucer was appointed comptroller of the lucrative London customs. In 1386, he was
elected member of parliament for Kent, and he also served as a justice of the peace. In 1389, he
was made clerk of the king's works, overseeing royal building projects. He held a number of other
royal posts, serving both Edward III and his successor Richard II.
Chaucer's first major work was 'The Book of the Duchess', an elegy for the first wife of his patron
John of Gaunt. Other works include 'Parlement of Foules', 'The Legend of Good Women' and
'Troilus and Criseyde'. In 1387, he began his most famous work, 'The Canterbury Tales', in which a
diverse group of people recount stories to pass the time on a pilgrimage to Canterbury.
His social
commentary through the use of diverse characters and their recounting of stories is sharply satirical.
Chaucer disappears from the historical record in 1400, and is thought to have died soon after. He
was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Social and Historical context:
1170 The murder of Thomas Becket on orders of the King.
Far from their dour reputation, the Middle Ages were a period of massive social change, burgeoning
nationalism, international conflict, terrible natural disaster, climate change, rebellion, resistance and
renaissance.
1340s The Black Death an horrific plague which ravaged England and Scotland
1381 The Peasants’ Revolt – Feudal society begins to fracture
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LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
Further Reading:
The Reeve’s Tale
The Knight’s Tale
The Prologue to the Wife of Bath’s Tale
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BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
Geoffrey Chaucer
From Troilus and Criseyde
If no love is, O God, what fele I so?
And if love is, what thing and which is he?
If love be good, from whennes cometh my woo?
If it be wikke, a wonder thynketh me,
When every torment and adversite
That cometh of hym, may to me savory thinke,
For ay thurst I, the more that ich it drynke.
And if that at myn owen lust I brenne,
From whennes cometh my waillynge and my pleynte?
If harm agree me, whereto pleyne I thenne?
I noot, ne whi unwery that I feynte.
O quike deth, O swete harm so queynte,
How may of the in me swich quantite,
But if that I consente that it be?
And if that I consente, I wrongfully
Compleyne, iwis.
Thus possed to and fro,
Al sterelees withinne a boot am I
Amydde the see, betwixen wyndes two,
That in contrarie stonden evere mo.
Allas! what is this wondre maladie?
For hete of cold, for cold of hete, I dye.
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LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
The Miller's Tale
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Heere bigynneth the Millere his tale.
Here begins The Miller's Tale.
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Whilom ther was dwellynge at Oxenford
There was once dwelling at Oxford
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A riche gnof, that gestes heeld to bord,
A rich churl, who took in boarders,
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And of his craft he was a carpenter.
And of his craft he was a carpenter.
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With hym ther was dwellynge a poure scoler,
With him there was dwelling a poor scholar,
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Hadde lerned art, but al his fantasye
Who had learned the arts curriculum, but all his desire
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Was turned for to lerne astrologye,
Was turned to learning astrology,
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And koude a certeyn of conclusiouns,
And he knew a certain (number of) of astronomical operations,
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To demen by interrogaciouns,
To determine by scientific calculations,
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If that men asked hym, in certein houres
If men asked him, in specific (astronomical) hours
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When men should have drought or else showers,
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Or if men asked hym what sholde bifalle
Or if people asked him what should happen
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Of every thyng; I may nat rekene hem alle.
Concerning every thing; I can not reckon them all.
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This clerk was cleped hende Nicholas.
This clerk was called clever Nicholas.
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Of deerne love he koude and of solas;
Of secret love he knew and of its satisfaction;
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And therto he was sleigh and ful privee,
And moreover he was sly and very discreet,
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And lyk a mayden meke for to see.
And like a maiden meek in appearance.
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A chambre hadde he in that hostelrye
A room had he in that hostelry
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Allone, withouten any compaignye,
Alone, without any company,
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Ful fetisly ydight with herbes swoote;
Very elegantly strewn with sweet-smelling herbs;
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And he hymself as sweete as is the roote
And he himself as sweet as is the root
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Of lycorys or any cetewale.
Of licorice or any zedoary (a ginger-like herb).
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His Almageste, and bookes grete and smale,
His Almagest, and books large and small,
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His astrelabie, longynge for his art,
His astrolabe, belonging to his art (of astronomy),
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His augrym stones layen faire apart,
His counting stones (for his abacus) lie neatly apart,
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On shelves couched at his beddes heed;
Arranged on shelves at his bed's head;
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His presse ycovered with a faldyng reed;
His linen press covered with a red woolen cloth;
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And al above ther lay a gay sautrie,
And all above there lay a fine psaltery,
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On which he made a-nyghtes melodie
On which at night he made melody
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So swetely that all the chambre rong;
So sweetly that all the room rang;
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And Angelus ad virginem he song;
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7
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
And "The Angel to the Virgin" he sang;
And after that he song the Kynges Noote.
And after that he sang the King's Tune.
Ful often blessed was his myrie throte.
Very often his merry throat was blessed.
And thus this sweete clerk his tyme spente
And thus this sweet clerk spent his time
After his freendes fyndyng and his rente.
Living on his friends' support and his (own) income.
This carpenter hadde wedded newe a wyf,
This carpenter had recently wedded a wife,
Which that he lovede moore than his lyf;
Whom he loved more than his life;
Of eighteteene yeer she was of age.
She was eighteen years of age.
Jalous he was, and heeld hire narwe in cage,
Jealous he was, and held her narrowly in confinement,
For she was wylde and yong, and he was old
For she was wild and young, and he was old
And demed hymself been lik a cokewold.
And believed himself likely to be a cuckold.
He knew nat Catoun, for his wit was rude,
He knew not Cato, for his wit was rude,
That bad man sholde wedde his simylitude.
Who advised that man should wed his equal.
Men sholde wedden after hire estaat,
Men should wed according to their status in life,
For youthe and elde is often at debaat.
For youth and old age are often in conflict.
But sith that he was fallen in the snare,
But since he was fallen in the snare,
He moste endure, as oother folk, his care.
He must endure, like other folk, his troubles.
Fair was this yonge wyf, and therwithal
Fair was this young wife, and moreover
As any wezele hir body gent and smal.
As any weasel was her body graceful and slender.
A ceynt she werede, barred al of silk,
A belt she wore, with decorative strips all of silk,
A barmclooth as whit as morne milk
An apron as white as morning milk
Upon hir lendes, ful of many a goore.
Upon her loins, full of many a flounce.
Whit was hir smok, and broyden al bifoore
White was her smock, and embroidered all in front
And eek bihynde, on hir coler aboute,
And also behind, around her collar,
Of col-blak silk, withinne and eek withoute.
With coal-black silk, within and also without.
The tapes of hir white voluper
The ribbons of her white cap
Were of the same suyte of hir coler;
Were of the same color as her collar;
Hir filet brood of silk, and set ful hye.
Her headband broad of silk, and set very high.
And sikerly she hadde a likerous ye;
And surely she had a wanton eye;
Ful smale ypulled were hire browes two,
Her two eyebrows were plucked very thin,
And tho were bent and blake as any sloo
And those were bent and black as any sloe.
She was ful moore blisful on to see
She was much more blissful to look upon
Than is the newe pere-jonette tree,
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
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Than is the new early-ripe pear tree,
And softer than the wolle is of a wether.
And softer than the wool is of a sheep.
And by hir girdel heeng a purs of lether,
And by her girdle hung a purse of leather,
Tasseled with silk and perled with latoun.
Tasseled with silk and ornamented with latten "pearls."
In al this world, to seken up and doun,
In all this world, to seek up and down,
There nys no man so wys that koude thenche
There is no man so wise that he could imagine
So gay a popelote or swich a wenche.
So lovely a little doll or such a wench.
Ful brighter was the shynyng of hir hewe
Much brighter was the shining of her complexion
Than in the Tour the noble yforged newe.
Than the newly minted noble in the Tower.
But of hir song, it was as loude and yerne
But of her song, it was as loud and lively
As any swalwe sittynge on a berne.
As any swallow sitting on a barn.
Therto she koude skippe and make game,
Moreover she could skip and play,
As any kyde or calf folwynge his dame.
Like any kid or calf following its mother.
Hir mouth was sweete as bragot or the meeth,
Her mouth was sweet as ale and honey or mead,
Or hoord of apples leyd in hey or heeth.
Or a hoard of apples laid in hay or heather.
Wynsynge she was, as is a joly colt,
Skittish she was, as is a spirited colt,
Long as a mast, and upright as a bolt.
Tall as a mast, and straight as an arrow.
A brooch she baar upon hir lowe coler,
A brooch she wore upon her low collar,
As brood as is the boos of a bokeler.
As broad as is the boss of a shield.
Hir shoes were laced on hir legges hye.
Her shoes were laced high on her legs.
She was a prymerole, a piggesnye,
She was a primrose, a pig's eye (a flower),
For any lord to leggen in his bedde,
For any lord to lay in his bed,
Or yet for any good yeman to wedde.
Or yet for any good yeoman to wed.
Now, sire, and eft, sire, so bifel the cas
Now, sir, and again, sir, it so happened
That on a day this hende Nicholas
That one day this clever Nicholas
Fil with this yonge wyf to rage and pleye,
Happened with this young wife to flirt and play,
Whil that hir housbonde was at Oseneye,
While her husband was at Oseneye,
As clerkes ben ful subtile and ful queynte;
For clerks are very subtle and very clever;
And prively he caughte hire by the queynte,
And intimately he caught her by her crotch,
And seyde, "Ywis, but if ich have my wille,
And said, "Indeed, unless I have my will,
For deerne love of thee, lemman, I spille."
For secret love of thee, sweetheart, I die."
And heeld hire harde by the haunchebones,
And held her hard by the thigh,
And seyde, "Lemman, love me al atones,
And said, "Sweetheart, love me immediately
Or I wol dyen, also God me save!"
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8
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
Or I will die, so save me God!"
And she sproong as a colt dooth in the trave,
And she sprang as a colt does when restrained,
And with hir heed she wryed faste awey,
And with her head she twisted fast away,
And seyde, "I wol nat kisse thee, by my fey!
And said, "I will not kiss thee, by my faith!
Why, lat be!" quod she. "Lat be, Nicholas,
Why, let me be!" said she. "Let me be, Nicholas,
Or I wol crie `out, harrow' and `allas'!
Or I will cry `out, help' and `alas'!
Do wey youre handes, for youre curteisye!"
Take away your hands, for your courtesy!"
This Nicholas gan mercy for to crye,
This Nicholas began to cry for mercy,
And spak so faire, and profred him so faste,
And spoke so fair, and pressed his suit so fast,
That she hir love hym graunted atte laste,
That she granted him her love at the last,
And swoor hir ooth, by Seint Thomas of Kent,
And swore her oath, by Saint Thomas of Kent,
That she wol been at his comandement,
That she will be at his commandment,
Whan that she may hir leyser wel espie.
When she may well espy her opportunity.
"Myn housbonde is so ful of jalousie
"My husband is so full of jealousy
That but ye wayte wel and been privee,
That unless you wait patiently and are secretive,
I woot right wel I nam but deed," quod she.
I know right well I am as good as dead," said she.
"Ye moste been ful deerne, as in this cas."
"You must been very secret in this matter."
"Nay, therof care thee noght," quod Nicholas.
"No, care thee not about that," said Nicholas.
"A clerk hadde litherly biset his whyle,
"A clerk had badly wasted his time (studying),
But if he koude a carpenter bigyle."
If he could not outwit a carpenter."
And thus they been accorded and ysworn
And thus they are agreed and sworn
To wayte a tyme, as I have told biforn.
To wait for a time, as I have told before.
Whan Nicholas had doon thus everideel
When Nicholas had done thus every bit
And thakked hire aboute the lendes weel,
And well patted her about the loins,
He kiste hire sweete and taketh his sawtrie,
He kissed her sweetly and takes his psaltery,
And pleyeth faste, and maketh melodie.
And plays fast, and makes melody.
Thanne fil it thus, that to the paryssh chirche,
Then it thus happened, that to the parish church,
Cristes owene werkes for to wirche,
Christ's own works to do,
This goode wyf went on an haliday.
This good wife went on a holiday.
Hir forheed shoon as bright as any day,
Her forehead shone as bright as any day,
So was it wasshen whan she leet hir werk.
It was so washed when she left her work.
Now was ther of that chirche a parissh clerk,
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
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Now was there of that church a parish clerk,
The which that was ycleped Absolon.
Who was called Absolon.
Crul was his heer, and as the gold it shoon,
Curly was his hair, and as the gold it shone,
And strouted as a fanne large and brode;
And stretched out like a fan large and broad;
Ful streight and evene lay his joly shode.
Very straight and even lay his elegant parted hair.
His rode was reed, his eyen greye as goos.
His complexion was ruddy, his eyes gray as a goose.
With Poules wyndow corven on his shoos,
With St. Paul's window carved on his shoes,
In hoses rede he wente fetisly.
In red hose he went elegantly.
Yclad he was ful smal and proprely
Clad he was very trimly and properly
Al in a kirtel of a lyght waget;
All in a tunic of a light blue;
Ful faire and thikke been the poyntes set.
Very fair and thick are the laces set.
And therupon he hadde a gay surplys
And over that he had a gay surplice
As whit as is the blosme upon the rys.
As white as is the blossom upon the branch.
A myrie child he was, so God me save.
A merry lad he was, so save me God.
Wel koude he laten blood, and clippe and shave,
Well could he draw blood, and cut hair and shave,
And maken a chartre of lond or acquitaunce.
And make a charter of land or a legal release.
In twenty manere koude he trippe and daunce
In twenty different ways could he trip and dance
After the scole of Oxenforde tho,
After the school of Oxford as it was then,
And with his legges casten to and fro,
And with his legs kick to and fro,
And pleyen songes on a smal rubible;
And play songs on a small fiddle,
Therto he song som tyme a loud quynyble;
To which he some times sang a loud high treble;
And as wel koude he pleye on a giterne.
And he could play as well on a guitar.
In al the toun nas brewhous ne taverne
In all the town there was no brew house nor tavern
That he ne visited with his solas,
That he did not visit with his entertainment,
Ther any gaylard tappestere was.
Where any merry barmaid was.
But sooth to seyn, he was somdeel squaymous
But to say the truth, he was somewhat squeamish
Of fartyng, and of speche daungerous.
About farting, and fastidious in his speech.
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This Absolon, that jolif was and gay,
This Absolon, who was elegant and gay,
Gooth with a sencer on the haliday,
Goes with a censer on the holiday,
Sensynge the wyves of the parisshe faste;
Censing the wives of the parish eagerly;
And many a lovely look on hem he caste,
And many a lovely look he cast on them,
And namely on this carpenteris wyf.
And especially on this carpenter's wife.
To looke on hire hym thoughte a myrie lyf,
To look on her he thought a merry life,
She was so propre and sweete and likerous.
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9
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
She was so attractive and sweet and flirtatious.
I dar wel seyn, if she hadde been a mous,
I dare well say, if she had been a mouse,
And he a cat, he wolde hire hente anon.
And he a cat, he would have grabbed her at once.
This parissh clerk, this joly Absolon,
This parish clerk, this elegant Absolon,
Hath in his herte swich a love-longynge
Has in his heart such a love-longing
That of no wyf took he noon offrynge;
That of no wife took he any offering;
For curteisie, he seyde, he wolde noon.
For courtesy, he said, he would have none.
The moone, whan it was nyght, ful brighte shoon,
The moon, when it was night, very brightly shone,
And Absolon his gyterne hath ytake;
And Absolon his guitar has taken;
For paramours he thoghte for to wake.
For the sake of love he intended to stay awake.
And forth he gooth, jolif and amorous,
And forth he goes, elegant and amorous,
Til he cam to the carpenteres hous
Until he came to the carpenter's house
A litel after cokkes hadde ycrowe,
A little after cocks had crowed,
And dressed hym up by a shot-wyndowe
And took his place up by a casement window
That was upon the carpenteris wal.
That was upon the carpenter's wall.
He syngeth in his voys gentil and smal,
He sings in his voice gentle and high,
"Now, deere lady, if thy wille be,
"Now, dear lady, if it be thy will,
I praye yow that ye wole rewe on me,"
I pray yow that you will have pity on me,"
Ful wel acordaunt to his gyternynge.
Very well in harmony with his guitar-playing.
This carpenter awook, and herde him synge,
This carpenter awoke, and heard him sing,
And spak unto his wyf, and seyde anon,
And spoke unto his wife, and said at once,
"What! Alison! Herestow nat Absolon,
"What! Alison! Hearest thou not Absolon,
That chaunteth thus under oure boures wal?"
That chants thus next to our bedroom's wall?"
And she answerde hir housbonde therwithal,
And she answered her husband immediately,
"Yis, God woot, John, I heere it every deel."
"Yes indeed, God knows, John, I hear it every bit."
This passeth forth; what wol ye bet than weel?
This goes on; what more would you have?
Fro day to day this joly Absolon
From day to day this elegant Absolon
So woweth hire that hym is wo bigon.
So woos her that he is in a sorry state.
He waketh al the nyght and al the day;
He stays awake all the night and all the day;
He kembeth his lokkes brode, and made hym gay;
He combs his flowing locks, and dressed himself elegantly;
He woweth hire by meenes and brocage,
He woos her by go-betweens and agents,
And swoor he wolde been hir owene page;
And swore he would be her own servant;
He syngeth, brokkynge as a nyghtyngale;
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
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He sings, trilling like a nightingale;
He sente hire pyment, meeth, and spiced ale,
He sent her sweetened wine, mead, and spiced ale,
And wafres, pipyng hoot out of the gleede;
And wafers, piping hot out of the fire;
And, for she was of town, he profred meede;
And, because she was a townie, he offered money;
For som folk wol ben wonnen for richesse,
For some folk will be won for riches,
And somme for strokes, and somme for gentillesse.
And some by force, and some for noble character.
Somtyme, to shewe his lightnesse and maistrye,
Sometimes, to show his agility and skill,
He pleyeth Herodes upon a scaffold hye.
He plays Herod upon a high stage.
But what availleth hym as in this cas?
But what good does it do him in this case?
She loveth so this hende Nicholas
She so loves this clever Nicholas
That Absolon may blowe the bukkes horn;
That Absolon may go whistle;
He ne hadde for his labour but a scorn.
He had for his labor nothing but scorn.
And thus she maketh Absolon hire ape,
And thus she makes Absolon her fool,
And al his ernest turneth til a jape.
And turns all his earnestness into a joke.
Ful sooth is this proverbe, it is no lye,
Very true is this proverb, it is no lie,
Men seyn right thus: "Alwey the nye slye
Men say right thus: "Always the nearby sly one
Maketh the ferre leeve to be looth."
Makes the distant loved one to be disliked."
For though that Absolon be wood or wrooth,
For though Absolon be crazed or angry,
By cause that he fer was from hire sight,
Because he was far from her sight,
This nye Nicholas stood in his light.
This nearby Nicholas cast him in the shadow.
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Now ber thee wel, thou hende Nicholas,
Now bear thyself well, thou clever Nicholas,
For Absolon may waille and synge "allas."
For Absolon may wail and sing "alas."
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3409
And so bifel it on a Saterday,
And so it happened on a Saturday,
This carpenter was goon til Osenay;
This carpenter was gone to Osenay;
And hende Nicholas and Alisoun
And clever Nicholas and Alisoun
Acorded been to this conclusioun,
Are agreed on this plan,
That Nicholas shal shapen hym a wyle
That Nicholas shall devise a trick
This sely jalous housbonde to bigyle;
To beguile this hapless jealous husband;
And if so be the game wente aright,
And if it so be the game went right,
She sholde slepen in his arm al nyght,
She should sleep in his arms all night,
For this was his desir and hire also.
For this was his desire and hers also.
And right anon, withouten wordes mo,
And right away, without more words,
This Nicholas no lenger wolde tarie,
3432
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10
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
This Nicholas no longer would tarry,
But dooth ful softe unto his chambre carie
But has carried very quietly unto his chamber
Bothe mete and drynke for a day or tweye,
Both food and drink for a day or two,
And to hire housbonde bad hire for to seye,
And told her to say to her husband,
If that he axed after Nicholas,
If he asked about Nicholas,
She sholde seye she nyste where he was;
She should say she knew not where he was;
Of al that day she saugh hym nat with ye;
Of all that day she saw him not with eye;
She trowed that he was in maladye,
She believed that he was ill,
For, for no cry hir mayde koude hym calle,
Because, for no shout could her maid call him,
He nolde answere for thyng that myghte falle.
He would not answer for anything that might befall.
This passeth forth al thilke Saterday,
This goes on all that same Saturday,
That Nicholas stille in his chambre lay,
That Nicholas still in his chamber lay,
And eet and sleep, or dide what hym leste,
And ate and slept, or did what he pleased,
Til Sonday, that the sonne gooth to reste.
Until Sunday, when the sun goes to rest.
This sely carpenter hath greet merveyle
This hapless carpenter has great marvel
Of Nicholas, or what thyng myghte hym eyle,
About Nicholas, or what thing might ail him,
And seyde, "I am adrad, by Seint Thomas,
And said, "I am afraid, by Saint Thomas,
It stondeth nat aright with Nicholas.
Things are not right with Nicholas.
God shilde that he deyde sodeynly!
God forbid that he should suddenly die!
This world is now ful tikel, sikerly.
This world is now very ticklish, surely.
I saugh today a cors yborn to chirche
I saw today a corpse carried to church
That now, on Monday last, I saugh hym wirche.
That just now, on last Monday, I saw him work.
"Go up," quod he unto his knave anoon,
"Go up," he said unto his servant at once,
"Clepe at his dore, or knokke with a stoon.
"Call at his door, or knock with a stone.
Looke how it is, and tel me boldely."
Look how it is, and tell me quickly."
This knave gooth hym up ful sturdily,
This servant goes up very resolutely,
And at the chambre dore whil that he stood,
And at the chamber door while he stood,
He cride and knokked as that he were wood,
He cried and knocked as if he were crazy,
"What, how! What do ye, maister Nicholay?
"What, hey! What do you, master Nicholay?
How may ye slepen al the longe day?"
How can you sleep all the long day?"
But al for noght; he herde nat a word.
But all for naught; he heard not a word.
An hole he foond, ful lowe upon a bord,
He found a hole, very low upon a board,
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
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3447
Ther as the cat was wont in for to crepe,
Where the cat was accustomed to creep in,
And at that hole he looked in ful depe,
And through that hole he looked in very carefully,
And at the laste he hadde of hym a sight.
And at the last he had a sight of him.
This Nicholas sat evere capyng upright,
This Nicholas sat ever gaping upward,
As he had kiked on the newe moone.
As if he were gazing on the new moon.
Adoun he gooth, and tolde his maister soone
Down he goes, and told his master immediately
In what array he saugh this ilke man.
In what condition he saw this same man.
3474
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3462
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3466
3467
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3469
3470
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3472
3473
This carpenter to blessen hym bigan,
This carpenter began to bless himself,
And seyde, "Help us, Seinte Frydeswyde!
And said, "Help us, Saint Frideswide!
A man woot litel what hym shal bityde.
A man knows little what shall happen to him.
This man is falle, with his astromye,
This man is fallen, because of his astronomy,
In some woodnesse or in som agonye.
In some madness or in some fit.
I thoghte ay wel how that it sholde be!
I always thought well how it should be!
Men sholde nat knowe of Goddes pryvetee.
Men should not know of God's secrets.
Ye, blessed be alwey a lewed man
Yes, blessed be always an unlearned man
That noght but oonly his bileve kan!
Who knows nothing but only his belief!
So ferde another clerk with astromye;
So fared another clerk with astronomy;
He walked in the feeldes for to prye
He walked in the fields to look
Upon the sterres, what ther sholde bifalle,
Upon the stars, (to find) there what should happen,
Til he was in a marle-pit yfalle;
Until he was fallen in a fertilizer pit;
He saugh nat that. But yet, by Seint Thomas,
He did not see that. But yet, by Saint Thomas,
Me reweth soore of hende Nicholas.
I feel very sorry for clever Nicholas.
He shal be rated of his studiyng,
He shall be scolded for his studying,
If that I may, by Jhesus, hevene kyng!
If that I may, by Jesus, heaven's king!
Get me a staf, that I may underspore,
Get me a staff, that I may pry up from below,
Whil that thou, Robyn, hevest up the dore.
While thou, Robyn, lift up the door.
He shal out of his studiyng, as I gesse."
He shall (come) out of his studying, as I guess."
And to the chambre dore he gan hym dresse.
And to the chamber door he turned his attention.
His knave was a strong carl for the nones,
His servant was a strong fellow for this purpose,
And by the haspe he haaf it of atones;
And by the hasp he heaved it off at once;
Into the floor the dore fil anon.
Onto the floor the door fell straightway.
This Nicholas sat ay as stille as stoon,
This Nicholas sat ever as still as stone,
And evere caped upward into the eir.
And ever gaped upward into the air.
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11
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
This carpenter wende he were in despeir,
This carpenter supposed he was in despair,
And hente hym by the sholdres myghtily,
And seized him by the shoulders vigorously,
And shook hym harde, and cride spitously,
And shook him hard, and cried loudly,
"What! Nicholay! What, how! What, looke adoun!
"What! Nicholay! What, how! What, look down!
Awak, and thenk on Cristes passioun!
Awake, and think on Christ's passion!
I crouche thee from elves and fro wightes."
I bless thee from elves and from evil creatures."
Therwith the nyght-spel seyde he anon-rightes
Therewith the night-charm he said straightway
On foure halves of the hous aboute,
On four corners of the house about,
And on the thresshfold of the dore withoute:
And on the threshold of the door outside:
"Jhesu Crist and Seinte Benedight,
"Jesus Christ and Saint Benedict,
Blesse this hous from every wikked wight,
Bless this house from every wicked creature,
For nyghtes verye, the white pater-noster!
For evil spirits of the nights, the white pater-noster!
Where wentestow, Seinte Petres soster?"
Where went thou, Saint Peter's sister?"
And atte laste this hende Nicholas
And at the last this clever Nicholas
Gan for to sik soore, and seyde, "Allas!
Began to sigh deeply, and said, "Alas!
Shal al the world be lost eftsoones now?"
Shall all the world be lost right now?"
This carpenter answerde, "What seystow?
This carpenter answered, "What sayest thou?
What! Thynk on God, as we doon, men that swynke."
What! Think on God, as we do, men who work."
This Nicholas answerde, "Fecche me drynke,
This Nicholas answered, "Fetch me drink,
And after wol I speke in pryvetee
And after will I speak in private
Of certeyn thyng that toucheth me and thee.
About a certain matter that concerns me and thee.
I wol telle it noon oother man, certeyn."
I will tell it to no other man, certainly."
This carpenter goth doun, and comth ageyn,
This carpenter goes down, and comes again,
And broghte of myghty ale a large quart;
And brought of strong ale a large quart;
And whan that ech of hem had dronke his part,
And when each of them had drunk his part,
This Nicholas his dore faste shette,
This Nicholas shut fast his door,
And doun the carpenter by hym he sette.
And the carpenter sat down by him.
He seyde, "John, myn hooste, lief and deere,
He said, "John, my host, beloved and dear,
Thou shalt upon thy trouthe swere me heere
Thou shalt upon thy pledged word swear to me here
That to no wight thou shalt this conseil wreye,
That to no person thou shalt this counsel reveal,
For it is Cristes conseil that I seye,
For it is Christ's secrets that I say,
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
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And if thou telle it man, thou art forlore;
And if thou tell it to anyone, thou art completely lost;
For this vengeaunce thou shalt han therfore,
For this vengeance thou shalt have therefore,
That if thou wreye me, thou shalt be wood."
That if thou betray me, thou shalt go mad."
"Nay, Crist forbede it, for his hooly blood!"
"Nay, Christ forbid it, for his holy blood!"
Quod tho this sely man, "I nam no labbe,
Said then this hapless man, "I am no blabbermouth,
Ne, though I seye, I nam nat lief to gabbe.
And, though I say it, I do not like to gab.
Sey what thou wolt, I shal it nevere telle
Say what thou will, I shall never tell it
To child ne wyf, by hym that harwed helle!"
To child nor wife, by Him that rescued souls from hell!"
3536
"Yis," quod this Carpenter, "ful yoore ago."
"Yes indeed," said this Carpenter, "very long ago."
3538
"Hastou nat herd," quod Nicholas, "also
"Hast thou not heard," said Nicholas, "also
The sorwe of Noe with his felaweshipe,
The sorrow of Noah with his fellowship,
Er that he myghte gete his wyf to shipe?
Before he could get his wife onto the ship?
Hym hadde be levere, I dar wel undertake,
He would rather, I dare well guarantee,
At thilke tyme, than alle his wetheres blake
At that time, than have all his black sheep
That she hadde had a ship hirself allone.
That she had had a ship for herself alone.
And therfore, woostou what is best to doone?
And therefore, knowest thou what is best to do?
This asketh haste, and of an hastif thyng
This needs haste, and of a hasty thing
Men may nat preche or maken tariyng.
Men may not preach nor make tarrying.
3539
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3541
3542
"Now John," quod Nicholas, "I wol nat lye;
"Now John," said Nicholas, "I will not lie;
I have yfounde in myn astrologye,
I have found in my astrology,
As I have looked in the moone bright,
As I have looked on the bright moon,
That now a Monday next, at quarter nyght,
That now on Monday next, after midnight,
Shal falle a reyn, and that so wilde and wood
Shall fall a rain, and that so wild and raging
That half so greet was nevere Noes flood.
That Noah's flood was never half so large.
This world," he seyde, "in lasse than an hour
This world," he said, "in less than an hour
Shal al be dreynt, so hidous is the shour.
Shall all be drowned, so hideous is the shower.
Thus shal mankynde drenche, and lese hir lyf."
Thus shall mankind drown, and lose their lives."
3543
This carpenter answerde, "Allas, my wyf!
This carpenter answered, "Alas, my wife!
And shal she drenche? Allas, myn Alisoun!"
And shall she drown? Alas, my Alisoun!"
For sorwe of this he fil almoost adoun,
For sorrow of this he almost fell down,
And seyde, "Is ther no remedie in this cas?"
And said, "Is there no remedy in this case?"
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3527
"Why, yis, for Gode," quod hende Nicholas,
"Why, yes indeed, by God," said clever Nicholas,
"If thou wolt werken after loore and reed.
"If thou will act in accordance with learning and (good)
advice.
3528
Thou mayst nat werken after thyn owene heed;
Thou mayst not act according to thine own ideas;
3529
For thus seith Salomon, that was ful trewe:
For thus says Salomon, which was very true:
3530
`Werk al by conseil, and thou shalt nat rewe.'
`Do all in accordance with good advice, and thou shalt
not rue (it).'
3531
And if thou werken wolt by good conseil,
And if thou will act in accordance with good advice,
3532
I undertake, withouten mast and seyl,
I guarantee, without mast and sail,
3533
Yet shal I saven hire and thee and me.
Yet shall I save her and thee and me.
3534
Hastow nat herd hou saved was Noe,
Hast thou not heard how Noah was saved,
3535
Whan that oure Lord hadde warned hym biforn
12
When our Lord had warned him before
That al the world with water sholde be lorn?"
That all the world should be destroyed by water?"
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3526
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
3557
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3560
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3566
"Anon go gete us faste into this in
"Right now go bring us quickly into this dwelling
A knedyng trogh, or ellis a kymelyn,
A kneading trough, or else a large vat,
For ech of us, but looke that they be large,
For each of us, but see that they be large,
In which we mowe swymme as in a barge,
In which we may float as in a barge,
And han therinne vitaille suffisant
And have therein sufficient victuals
But for a day -- fy on the remenant!
But for a day -- fie on the remnant!
The water shal aslake and goon away
The water shall recede and go away
Aboute pryme upon the nexte day.
About nine a.m. on the next day.
But Robyn may nat wite of this, thy knave,
But Robin, thy knave, may not know of this,
Ne eek thy mayde Gille I may nat save;
And also thy maid Gille I can not save;
Axe nat why, for though thou aske me,
Ask not why, for though thou ask me,
I wol nat tellen Goddes pryvetee.
I will not tell God's secrets.
Suffiseth thee, but if thy wittes madde,
It suffices thee, unless thy wits go mad,
To han as greet a grace as Noe hadde.
To have as great a grace as Noah had.
Thy wyf shal I wel saven, out of doute.
Thy wife shall I well save, beyond doubt.
Go now thy wey, and speed thee heer-aboute.
Go now thy way, and speed thee on this business.
"But whan thou hast, for hire and thee and me,
"But when thou hast, for her and thee and me,
Ygeten us thise knedyng tubbes thre,
Got us these three kneading tubs,
Thanne shaltow hange hem in the roof ful hye,
Then shalt thou hang them in the roof very high,
That no man of oure purveiaunce espye.
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
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3593
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3595
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3597
3598
In a way that no man may espy our preparations.
And whan thou thus hast doon as I have seyd,
And when thou thus hast done as I have said,
And hast oure vitaille faire in hem yleyd,
And hast laid our victuals carefully in them,
And eek an ax to smyte the corde atwo,
And also an axe to smite the cord in two,
Whan that the water comth, that we may go
When the water comes, so that we may go
And breke an hole an heigh, upon the gable,
And break a hole on high, upon the gable,
Unto the gardyn-ward, over the stable,
Toward the garden, over the stable,
That we may frely passen forth oure way,
That we may freely pass forth on our way,
Whan that the grete shour is goon away.
When the great shower is gone away.
Thanne shaltou swymme as myrie, I undertake,
Then shalt thou float as merry, I guarantee,
As dooth the white doke after hire drake.
As does the white duck after her drake.
Thanne wol I clepe, `How, Alison! How, John!
Then will I call, `How, Alison! How, John!
Be myrie, for the flood wol passe anon.'
Be merry, for the flood will soon pass.'
And thou wolt seyn, `Hayl, maister Nicholay!
And thou will say, `Hail, master Nicholay!
Good morwe, I se thee wel, for it is day.'
Good morrow, I see thee well, for it is day.'
And thanne shul we be lordes al oure lyf
And then shall we be lords all our life
Of al the world, as Noe and his wyf.
Of all the world, like Noah and his wife.
3599
3600
3601
3602
3603
3604
3605
3606
3607
3608
3609
3610
3611
3612
3613
3614
"But of o thyng I warne thee ful right:
"But of one thing I warn thee very sternly:
Be wel avysed on that ilke nyght
Be well advised on that same night
That we ben entred into shippes bord,
On which we are entered onto shipboard,
That noon of us ne speke nat a word,
That not one of us speak a word,
Ne clepe, ne crie, but be in his preyere;
Nor call, nor cry, but be in his prayer;
For it is Goddes owene heeste deere.
For it is God's own dear command.
3615
3616
3617
3618
3619
3620
"Thy wyf and thou moote hange fer atwynne,
"Thy wife and thou must hang far apart,
For that bitwixe yow shal be no synne,
So that between yow shall be no sin,
Namoore in lookyng than ther shal in deede.
No more in looking than there shall be in deed.
This ordinance is seyd. Go, God thee speede!
This ordinance is said. Go, God give thee success!
Tomorwe at nyght, whan men ben alle aslepe,
Tomorrow at night, when people are all asleep,
Into oure knedyng-tubbes wol we crepe,
Into our kneading-tubs will we creep,
And sitten there, abidyng Goddes grace.
And sit there, awaiting God's grace.
Go now thy wey; I have no lenger space
Go now thy way; I have no more time
To make of this no lenger sermonyng.
To make of this any longer preaching.
Men seyn thus, `sende the wise, and sey no thyng.'
3621
3622
3623
3624
3625
3626
3627
3628
3629
3630
13
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
Men say thus, `send the wise, and say nothing.'
Thou art so wys, it needeth thee nat teche.
Thou art so wise, one needs not teach thee.
Go, save oure lyf, and that I the biseche."
Go, save our life, and that I beseech thee."
This sely carpenter goth forth his wey.
This hapless carpenter goes forth his way.
Ful ofte he seide "Allas and weylawey,"
Very often he said "Alas and woe is me,"
And to his wyf he tolde his pryvetee,
And to his wife he told his secret,
And she was war, and knew it bet than he,
And she was aware, and knew it better than he,
What al this queynte cast was for to seye.
What all this ingenious scheme meant.
But nathelees she ferde as she wolde deye,
But nonetheless she acted as if she would die,
And seyde, "Allas! go forth thy wey anon,
And said, "Alas! go forth thy way quickly,
Help us to scape, or we been dede echon!
Help us to escape, or we are dead each one of us!
I am thy trewe, verray wedded wyf;
I am thy faithful, truly wedded wife;
Go, deere spouse, and help to save oure lyf."
Go, dear spouse, and help to save our lives."
Lo, which a greet thyng is affeccioun!
Lo, what a great thing is emotion!
Men may dyen of ymaginacioun,
One can die of imagination,
So depe may impressioun be take.
So deeply may a mental image be taken.
This sely carpenter bigynneth quake;
This hapless carpenter begins to tremble;
Hym thynketh verraily that he may see
He thinks truly that he can see
Noees flood come walwynge as the see
Noah's flood come surging like the sea
To drenchen Alisoun, his hony deere.
To drown Alisoun, his honey dear.
He wepeth, weyleth, maketh sory cheere;
He weeps, wails, looks wretched;
He siketh with ful many a sory swogh;
He sighs with very many a sorry groan;
He gooth and geteth hym a knedyng trogh,
He goes and gets him a kneading trough,
And after that a tubbe and a kymelyn,
And after that a tub and a large vat,
And pryvely he sente hem to his in,
And secretly he sent them to his dwelling,
And heng hem in the roof in pryvetee.
And hanged them in the roof secretly.
His owene hand he made laddres thre,
With his own hand he made three ladders,
To clymben by the ronges and the stalkes
To climb by the rungs and the uprights
Unto the tubbes hangynge in the balkes,
Unto the tubs hanging in the beams,
And hem vitailled, bothe trogh and tubbe,
And provisioned them, both trough and tub,
With breed, and chese, and good ale in a jubbe,
With bread, and cheese, and good ale in a jug,
Suffisynge right ynogh as for a day.
Sufficing just enough for a day.
But er that he hadde maad al this array,
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
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3656
But before he had made all this preparation,
He sente his knave, and eek his wenche also,
He sent his servant, and also his servant girl,
Upon his nede to London for to go.
Upon his business to go to London.
And on the Monday, whan it drow to nyght,
And on the Monday, when it drew toward night,
He shette his dore withoute candel-lyght,
He shut his door without candlelight,
And dressed alle thyng as it sholde be.
And prepared everything as it should be.
And shortly, up they clomben alle thre;
And shortly, up they climbed all three;
They seten stille wel a furlong way.
They sat still a good two and one-half minutes.
3662
"Now, Pater-noster, clom!" seyde Nicholay,
"Now, Pater-noster, quiet!" said Nicholay,
And "Clom!" quod John, and "Clom!" seyde Alisoun.
And "Quiet!" said John, and "Quiet!" said Alisoun.
This carpenter seyde his devocioun,
This carpenter said his devotion,
And stille he sit, and biddeth his preyere,
And still he sits, and says his prayer,
Awaitynge on the reyn, if he it heere.
Awaiting the rain, if he might hear it.
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3667
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3669
The dede sleep, for wery bisynesse,
The dead sleep, for weary business,
Fil on this carpenter right, as I gesse,
Fell on this carpenter right, as I guess,
Aboute corfew-tyme, or litel moore;
About curfew time, or a little more;
For travaille of his goost he groneth soore,
For suffering of his spirit he groans deeply,
And eft he routeth, for his heed myslay.
And also he snores, for his head lay wrong.
Doun of the laddre stalketh Nicholay,
Down on the ladder stalks Nicholay,
And Alisoun ful softe adoun she spedde;
And Alisoun very quietly down she sped;
Withouten wordes mo they goon to bedde,
Without more words they go to bed,
Ther as the carpenter is wont to lye.
Where the carpenter is accustomed to lie.
Ther was the revel and the melodye;
There was the revel and the sounds of festivity;
And thus lith Alison and Nicholas,
And thus lie Alison and Nicholas,
In bisynesse of myrthe and of solas,
In business of mirth and of pleasure,
Til that the belle of laudes gan to rynge,
Until the bell of the early morning service began to ring,
And freres in the chauncel gonne synge.
And friars in the chapel began to sing.
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3661
This parissh clerk, this amorous Absolon,
This parish clerk, this amorous Absolon,
That is for love alwey so wo bigon,
That is for love always so woebegone,
Upon the Monday was at Oseneye
Upon the Monday was at Oseneye
With compaignye, hym to disporte and pleye,
With company, to be merry and amuse himself,
And axed upon cas a cloisterer
And by chance asked a cloistered monk
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14
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
Ful prively after John the carpenter;
Very discreetly about John the carpenter;
And he drough hym apart out of the chirche,
And he drew him apart out of the church,
And seyde, "I noot; I saugh hym heere nat wirche
And said, "I know not; I have not seen him working here
Syn Saterday; I trowe that he be went
Since Saturday; I suppose that he is gone
For tymber, ther oure abbot hath hym sent;
For timber, where our abbot has sent him;
For he is wont for tymber for to go
For he is accustomed to go for timber
And dwellen at the grange a day or two;
And dwell at the granary a day or two;
Or elles he is at his hous, certeyn.
Or else he is at his house, certainly.
Where that he be, I kan nat soothly seyn."
Where he may be, I can not truly say."
This Absolon ful joly was and light,
This Absolon very was jolly and happy,
And thoghte, "Now is tyme to wake al nyght,
And thought, "Now is time to stay awake all night,
For sikirly I saugh hym nat stirynge
For surely I saw him not stirring
Aboute his dore, syn day bigan to sprynge.
About his door, since day began to spring.
"So moot I thryve, I shal, at cokkes crowe,
"As I may prosper, I shall, at cock's crow,
Ful pryvely knokken at his wyndowe
Very quietly knock at his window
That stant ful lowe upon his boures wal.
That stands very low upon his bedroom's wall.
To Alison now wol I tellen al
To Alison now I will tell all
My love-longynge, for yet I shal nat mysse
My love-longing, for yet I shall not miss
That at the leeste wey I shal hire kisse.
That at the very least I shall her kiss.
Som maner confort shal I have, parfay.
Some sort of comfort shall I have, by my faith.
My mouth hath icched al this longe day;
My mouth has itched all this long day;
That is a signe of kissyng atte leeste.
That is a sign of kissing at the least.
Al nyght me mette eek I was at a feeste.
All night I dreamed also I was at a feast.
Therfore I wol go slepe an houre or tweye,
Therefore I will go sleep an hour or two,
And al the nyght thanne wol I wake and pleye."
And all the night then will I stay awake and play."
Whan that the firste cok hath crowe, anon
When the first cock has crowed (about midnight), at once
Up rist this joly lovere Absolon,
Up rises this elegant lover Absolon,
And hym arraieth gay, at poynt-devys.
And dresses himself handsomely, in every detail.
But first he cheweth greyn and lycorys,
But first he chews cardamom and licorice,
To smellen sweete, er he hadde kembd his heer.
To smell sweet, ere he had combed his hair.
Under his tonge a trewe-love he beer,
Under his tongue he had a true-love herb,
For therby wende he to ben gracious.
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
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For thus he thought he would be gracious.
He rometh to the carpenteres hous,
He goes to the carpenter's house,
And stille he stant under the shot-wyndowe -And he stands still under the casement window -Unto his brest it raughte, it was so lowe -Unto his breast it reached, it was so low -And softe he cougheth with a semy soun:
And softly he coughs with a gentle sound:
"What do ye, hony-comb, sweete Alisoun,
"What do you, honey-comb, sweet Alisoun,
My faire bryd, my sweete cynamome?
My fair bird, my sweet cinnamon?
Awaketh, lemman myn, and speketh to me!
Awake, sweetheart mine, and speak to me!
Wel litel thynken ye upon my wo,
Well little you think upon my woe,
That for youre love I swete ther I go.
That for your love I sweat wherever I go.
No wonder is thogh that I swelte and swete;
No wonder is though that I swelter and sweat;
I moorne as dooth a lamb after the tete.
I mourn as does a lamb after the tit.
Ywis, lemman, I have swich love-longynge
Indeed, sweetheart, I have such love-longing
That lik a turtel trewe is my moornynge.
That like a true turtledove is my mourning.
I may nat ete na moore than a mayde."
I can eat no more than a maiden."
3724
"Go fro the wyndow, Jakke fool," she sayde;
"Go from the window, you idiot," she said;
"As help me God, it wol nat be `com pa me.'
"So help me God, it will not be `come kiss me.'
I love another -- and elles I were to blame -I love another -- and else I were to blame -Wel bet than thee, by Jhesu, Absolon.
Well better than thee, by Jesus, Absolon.
Go forth thy wey, or I wol caste a ston,
Go forth thy way, or I will cast a stone,
And lat me slepe, a twenty devel wey!"
And let me sleep, in the name of twenty devils!"
"Allas," quod Absolon, "and weylawey,
"Alas," said Absolon, "and woe is me,
That trewe love was evere so yvel biset!
That true love was ever in such miserable circumstances!
Thanne kysse me, syn it may be no bet,
Then kiss me, since it can be no better,
For Jhesus love, and for the love of me."
For Jesus' love, and for the love of me."
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"Wiltow thanne go thy wey therwith?" quod she.
"Wilt thou then go thy way with that?" said she.
3719
"Ye, certes, lemman," quod this Absolon.
"Yes, certainly, sweetheart," said this Absolon.
3720
"Thanne make thee redy," quod she, "I come anon."
"Then make thee ready," said she, "I come right now."
And unto Nicholas she seyde stille,
And unto Nicholas she said quietly,
"Now hust, and thou shalt laughen al thy fille."
"Now hush, and thou shalt laugh all thy fill."
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BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
And seyde, "I am a lord at alle degrees;
And said, "I am a lord in every way;
For after this I hope ther cometh moore.
For after this I hope there comes more.
Lemman, thy grace, and sweete bryd, thyn oore!"
Sweetheart, thy grace, and sweet bird, thy mercy!"
The wyndow she undoth, and that in haste.
The window she undoes, and that in haste.
"Have do," quod she, "com of, and speed the faste,
"Get done with it," said she, "come on, and hurry up,
Lest that oure neighebores thee espie."
Lest our neighbors espy thee."
This Absolon gan wype his mouth ful drie.
This Absolon wiped his mouth very dry.
Derk was the nyght as pich, or as the cole,
Dark was the night as pitch, or as the coal,
And at the wyndow out she putte hir hole,
And at the window out she put her hole,
And Absolon, hym fil no bet ne wers,
And Absolon, to him it happened no better nor worse,
But with his mouth he kiste hir naked ers
But with his mouth he kissed her naked ass
Ful savourly, er he were war of this.
With great relish, before he was aware of this.
Abak he stirte, and thoughte it was amys,
Back he jumped, and thought it was amiss,
For wel he wiste a womman hath no berd.
For well he knew a woman has no beard.
He felte a thyng al rough and long yherd,
He felt a thing all rough and long haired,
And seyde, "Fy! allas! what have I do?"
And said, "Fie! alas! what have I done?"
"Tehee!" quod she, and clapte the wyndow to,
"Tehee!" said she, and clapped the window to,
And Absolon gooth forth a sory pas.
And Absolon goes forth walking sadly.
"A berd! A berd!" quod hende Nicholas,
"A beard! A beard!" said clever Nicholas,
"By Goddes corpus, this goth faire and weel."
"By God's body, this goes fair and well."
This sely Absolon herde every deel,
This hapless Absolon heard every bit,
And on his lippe he gan for anger byte,
And on his lip he began for anger to bite,
And to hymself he seyde, "I shal thee quyte."
And to himself he said, "I shall pay thee back."
Who rubbeth now, who froteth now his lippes
Who rubs now, who now scrubs his lips
374 With dust, with sond, with straw, with clooth, with chippes,
With dust, with sand, with straw, with cloth, with chips,
3749
But Absolon, that seith ful ofte, "Allas!"
But Absolon, who says very often, "Alas!"
3750
"My soule bitake I unto Sathanas,
"My soul I entrust to Satan,
3751
But me were levere than al this toun," quod he,
If I would not rather than (have) all this town," said he,
3752
"Of this despit awroken for to be.
"Be avenged for this insult.
3753
Allas," quod he, "allas, I ne hadde ybleynt!"
This Absolon doun sette hym on his knees
This Absolon set himself down on his knees
15
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
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Alas," said he, "alas, I did not turn away!"
His hoote love was coold and al yqueynt;
His hot love was cold and all extinguished;
For fro that tyme that he hadde kist hir ers,
For from that time that he had kissed her ass,
Of paramours he sette nat a kers,
Love-making he thought not worth not a watercress,
For he was heeled of his maladie.
For he was healed of his malady.
Ful ofte paramours he gan deffie,
Very often he did renounce love-making,
And weep as dooth a child that is ybete.
And wept as does a child that is beaten.
A softe paas he wente over the strete
At a slow pace he went down the street
Until a smyth men cleped daun Gerveys,
To a smith men called dan Gerveys,
That in his forge smythed plough harneys;
Who in his forge made plowing equipment;
He sharpeth shaar and kultour bisily.
He sharpens ploughshares and plough blades busily.
This Absolon knokketh al esily,
This Absolon knocked all gently,
And seyde, "Undo, Gerveys, and that anon."
And said, "Open up, Gerveys, and that right now."
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"What, who artow?" "It am I, Absolon."
"What, who art thou?" "It am I, Absolon."
"What, Absolon! for Cristes sweete tree,
"What, Absolon! for Christ's sweet cross,
Why rise ye so rathe? Ey, benedicitee!
Why rise you so early? Ay, bless me!
What eyleth yow? Som gay gerl, God it woot,
What ails yow? Some pretty girl, God knows it,
Hath broght yow thus upon the viritoot.
Hath brought you to be running around like this.
By Seinte Note, ye woot wel what I mene."
By Saint Note, you know well what I mean."
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This Absolon ne roghte nat a bene
This Absolon cared not a bean
Of al his pley; no word agayn he yaf;
For all his joking; no word he gave in reply;
He hadde moore tow on his distaf
He had more business on hand
Than Gerveys knew, and seyde, "Freend so deere,
Than Gerveys knew, and said, "Friend so dear,
That hoote kultour in the chymenee heere,
That hot plough blade in the hearth here,
As lene it me; I have therwith to doone,
Lend it to me; I have something to do with it,
And I wol brynge it thee agayn ful soone."
And I will bring it back to thee very soon."
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Gerveys answerde, "Certes, were it gold,
Gerveys answered, "Certainly, were it gold,
Or in a poke nobles alle untold,
Or in a sack countless silver coins,
Thou sholdest have, as I am trewe smyth.
Thou sholdest have it, as I am true smith.
Ey, Cristes foo! What wol ye do therwith?"
Ay, Christ's foe! What will you do with it?"
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"Therof," quod Absolon, "be as be may.
"Concerning that," said Absolon, "be as be may.
I shal wel telle it thee to-morwe day" --
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16
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
I shall well tell it to thee to-morrow" -And caughte the kultour by the colde stele.
And caught the plough blade by the cold handle.
Ful softe out at the dore he gan to stele,
Very softly out at the door he began to steal,
And wente unto the carpenteris wal.
And went unto the carpenter's wall.
He cogheth first, and knokketh therwithal
He coughs first, and knocks then
Upon the wyndowe, right as he dide er.
Upon the window, just as he did before.
This Alison answerde, "Who is ther
This Alison answered, "Who is there
That knokketh so? I warante it a theef."
That knocks so? I swear it is a thief."
"Why, nay," quod he, "God woot, my sweete leef,
"Why, nay," said he, "God knows, my sweet beloved,
I am thyn Absolon, my deerelyng.
I am thy Absolon, my darling.
Of gold," quod he, "I have thee broght a ryng.
Of gold," said he, "I have brought thee a ring.
My mooder yaf it me, so God me save;
My mother gave it to me, as God may save me;
Ful fyn it is, and therto wel ygrave.
Very fine it is, and also nicely engraved.
This wol I yeve thee, if thou me kisse."
This will I give thee, if thou kiss me."
This Nicholas was risen for to pisse,
This Nicholas was risen to piss,
And thoughte he wolde amenden al the jape;
And thought he would make the joke even better;
He sholde kisse his ers er that he scape.
He should kiss his ass before he escapes.
And up the wyndowe dide he hastily,
And he opened up the window hastily,
And out his ers he putteth pryvely
And he puts out his ass stealthily
Over the buttok, to the haunche-bon;
Over the buttock, to the thigh;
And therwith spak this clerk, this Absolon,
And then spoke this clerk, this Absolon,
"Spek, sweete bryd, I noot nat where thou art."
"Speak, sweet bird, I know not where thou art."
This Nicholas anon leet fle a fart
This Nicholas immediately let fly a fart
As greet as it had been a thonder-dent,
As great as if it had been a thunder-bolt,
That with the strook he was almoost yblent;
So that with the stroke he was almost blinded;
And he was redy with his iren hoot,
And he was ready with his hot iron,
And Nicholas amydde the ers he smoot.
And he smote Nicholas in the middle of the ass.
Of gooth the skyn an hande-brede aboute,
Off goes the skin a hand's breadth about,
The hoote kultour brende so his toute,
The hot plough blade so burned his rump
And for the smert he wende for to dye.
And for the pain he thought he would die.
As he were wood, for wo he gan to crye,
As if he were crazy, for woe he began to cry,
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
3815
"Help! Water! Water! Help, for Goddes herte!"
"Help! Water! Water! Help, for God's heart!"
3836
3816
This carpenter out of his slomber sterte,
This carpenter woke suddenly out of his slumber,
And herde oon crien "water!" as he were wood,
And heard someone cry "water!" as if he were crazy,
And thoughte, "Allas, now comth Nowelis flood!"
And thought, "Alas, now comes Nowell's flood!"
He sit hym up withouten wordes mo,
He sits up without more words,
And with his ax he smoot the corde atwo,
And with his ax he smote the cord in two,
And doun gooth al; he foond neither to selle,
And down goes all; he found nothing to sell (wasted no
3837
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3819
3820
3821
time),
3822
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3824
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Ne breed ne ale, til he cam to the celle
Neither bread nor ale, until he came to the pavement
Upon the floor, and ther aswowne he lay.
Upon the floor, and there he lay in a swoon.
3844
3845
Up stirte hire Alison and Nicholay,
Up started Alison and Nicholay,
And criden "Out" and "Harrow" in the strete.
And cried "Out" and "Help" in the street.
The neighebores, bothe smale and grete,
The neighbors, both low-ranking and high,
In ronnen for to gauren on this man,
Run in to gawk at this man,
That yet aswowne lay, bothe pale and wan,
Who yet lay in a swoon, both pale and wan,
For with the fal he brosten hadde his arm.
For with the fall he had broken his arm.
But stonde he moste unto his owene harm;
But he had to stand up for himself, though it went badly;
For whan he spak, he was anon bore doun
For when he spoke, he was immediately put down
With hende Nicholas and Alisoun.
By clever Nicholas and Alisoun.
They tolden every man that he was wood;
They told every one that he was crazy;
He was agast so of Nowelis flood
He was so afraid of Nowell's flood
Thurgh fantasie that of his vanytee
Because of his imagination that in his foolishness
17
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BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
He hadde yboght hym knedyng tubbes thre,
He had bought himself three kneading tubs,
And hadde hem hanged in the roof above;
And had hanged them in the roof above;
And that he preyed hem, for Goddes love,
And that he begged them, for God's love,
To sitten in the roof, par compaignye.
To sit in the roof, to keep him company.
The folk gan laughen at his fantasye;
The folk did laugh at his foolishness;
Into the roof they kiken and they cape,
Into the roof they stare and they gape,
And turned al his harm unto a jape.
And turned all his harm into a joke.
For what so that this carpenter answerde,
For whatever this carpenter answered,
It was for noght; no man his reson herde.
It was for naught; no one listened to his explanation,
With othes grete he was so sworn adoun
With oaths great he was so sworn down
That he was holde wood in al the toun;
That he was considered crazy in all the town;
For every clerk anonright heeld with oother.
For every clerk immediately agreed with the other.
They seyde, "The man is wood, my leeve brother";
They said, "The man is crazy, my dear brother";
And every wight gan laughen at this stryf.
And every person did laugh at this strife.
Thus swyved was this carpenteris wyf,
Thus screwed was this carpenter's wife,
For al his kepyng and his jalousye,
In spite of all his guarding and his jealousy,
And Absolon hath kist hir nether ye,
And Absolon has kissed her lower eye,
And Nicholas is scalded in the towte.
And Nicholas is scalded in the rump.
This tale is doon, and God save al the rowte!
This tale is done, and God save all this company!
Heere endeth the Millere his Tale
[Here ends the Miller's Tale]
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
Renaissance Era
The historical context:
The renaissance of Chaucer, Gower, Barbour and Dunbar percolated society.
Libraries, such as that of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, were established and the
art of biography began.
Universities increased in number and scope. Oxford and Cambridge were joined by
Scotland's St Andrews in 1410 and two other Scottish universities by 1500.
Throughout England much that we recognise today was established and survives:
the parish churches with their towers, now fossilised in their late medieval form by
the Reformation; oak-framed timber buildings scattered across the country;
universities and schools.
Ireland, Scotland and Wales all enjoy similar cultural characteristics. Maybe it was
the wars of the period that led the Scots to place their faith in education with their
several universities and the Welsh and Irish to develop their bardic and oral
traditions during a turbulent but heroic period of British and Irish history.
And what of the ordinary people? In 1485 over 95% of the people of Britain lived in
the countryside, towns despite their small share of national populations had an
impact far outweighing their demographic significance.
The period between the Black Death of 1348 and 1485 was, among much else, a
golden age for women. War and depopulation allowed them to contribute much
more effectively and influentially to society.
Across Europe, Humanism challenged the power of the Church. Fear of death and
the after-life began to be replaced by more experiential philosophies. A return to
classical sciences from Ancient Greece and Rome became popular. The invention of
the printing press began to bring education to the masses. Education meant
further social mobility.
The Tudor dynasty oversaw a break from the Catholic Church, the birth of
Protestantism and then the growth of Puritanism. The Tudors provided legendary
Monarchs: Henry VIII with his six wives, Mary who executed the Protestant Bishops
returning England to Catholicism and then Elizabeth. Elizabeth was the longest
reigning Monarch. As a female in a patriarchal society, to rule for 50 years and
return the country to peaceful Protestantism was impressive.
18
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
Edmund Spenser
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
1552-1598
Brief Biog:
Best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory
celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the
premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the
greatest poets in the English language.
Structure of the Spenserian Stanza
Spenser used a distinctive verse form, called the Spenserian stanza, in
several works, including The Faerie Queene.
The stanza's main meter is iambic pentameter with a final line in iambic
hexameter (having six feet or stresses, known as an Alexandrine), and the
rhyme scheme is ababbcbcc. Structure of the Spenserian Sonnet
The Spenserian Sonnet is based on a fusion of elements of both the
Petrarchan sonnet and the Shakespearean sonnet. It is similar to the
Shakespearan sonnet in the sense that its set up is based more on the 3
quatrains and a couplet,a system set up by Shakespeare; however it is more
like the Petrarchan tradition in the fact that the conclusion follows from the
argument or issue set up in the earlier quatrains. ABAB,BCBC; CDCDEE..
Adheres to a very strict pentameter.
are in balladic form – as his epic faerie queen shows
Spenser’s roots
The rhyme scheme and
strict rhythm causes the poems to have more “storylike qualities”)
Spenser’s influence
There is also a great use of the parody of the blason and the idealisation or
praise of the mistress, a literary device used by many poets. It is a way to
look at a woman through the appraisal of her features in comparison to other
things. In this description, the mistress's body is described part by part, i.e.,
much more of a scientific way of seeing one. As William Johnson states in his
article "Gender Fashioning and Dynamics of Mutuality in Spenser's Amoretti,"
the poet-love in the scenes of Spenser's sonnets in Amoretti, is able to see his
lover in an objectified manner by moving her to another, or more clearly, an
19
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
item. The purpose of Spenser doing this is to bring the woman from the
"transcendental ideal" to a woman in everyday life. "Through his use of
metonymy and metaphor, by describing the lady not as a whole being but as
bodily parts, by alluding to centuries of topoi which remove her in time as well
as space, the poet transforms the woman into a text, the living 'other' into an
inanimate object".
20
LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
Faerie queen extract Canto 1:
Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine,
Y cladd in mightie armes and siluer shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe wounds did remaine,
The cruell markes of many' a bloudy fielde;
Yet armes till that time did he neuer wield:
His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:
Full iolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.</img >
But on his brest a bloudie Crosse he bore,
The deare remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead as liuing euer him ador'd:
Vpon his shield the like was also scor'd,
For soueraine hope, which in his helpe he had:
Right faithfull true he was in deede and word,
But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad;
Yet nothing did he dread, but euer was ydrad.
Vpon a great aduenture he was bond,
That greatest Gloriana to him gaue,
That greatest Glorious Queene of Faerie lond,
To winne him worship, and her grace to haue,
Which of all earthly things he most did craue;
And euer as he rode, his hart did earne
To proue his puissance in battell braue
Vpon his foe, and his new force to learne;
Vpon his foe, a Dragon horrible and stearne.
A louely Ladie rode him faire beside,
Vpon a lowly Asse more white then snow,
Yet she much whiter, but the same did hide
Vnder a vele, that wimpled was full low,
And ouer all a blacke stole she did throw,
As one that inly mournd: so was she sad,
And heauie sat vpon her palfrey slow:
Seemed in heart some hidden care she had,
And by her in a line a milke white lambe she lad.
So pure and innocent, as that same lambe,
She was in life and euery vertuous lore,
And by descent from Royall lynage came
Of ancient Kings and Queenes, that had of yore
Their scepters stretcht from East to Westerne shore,
And all the world in their subiection held;
Till that infernall feend with foule vprore
Forwasted all their land, and them expeld:
Whom to auenge, she had this Knight from far co[m]peld.
Edmund Spenser
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Sonnet 75
One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Agayne I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray.
"Vayne man," sayd she, "that doest in vaine assay.
A mortall thing so to immortalize,
For I my selve shall lyke to this decay,
and eek my name bee wyped out lykewize."
"Not so," quod I, "let baser things devize,
To dy in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens wryte your glorious name.
Where whenas death shall all the world subdew,
Our love shall live, and later life renew."
Edmund Spenser
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Sonnet 30
My love is like to ice, and I to fire:
how comes it then that this her cold so great
is not dissolv’d through my so hot desire,
but harder grows, the more I her entreat?
Or how comes it that my exceeding heat
is not delayed by her heart frozen cold,
but that I burn much more in boiling sweat,
and feel my flames augmented manifold?
What more miraculous thing may be told
that fire, which all thing melts, should harden ice:
and ice which is congealed with senseless cold,
should kindle fire by wonderful device?
Such is the pow’r of love in gentle mind
that it can alter all the course of kind.
Edmund Spenser
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LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
William Shakespeare
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
1564-1616
Brief Biog:
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire and was
baptised a few days later on 26 April 1564. His father, John Shakespeare, was a
glove maker and wool merchant and his mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a
well-to-do landowner from Wilmcote, South Warwickshire. It is likely Shakespeare was
educated at the local King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford.
The next documented event in Shakespeare’s life is his marriage at the age of 18 to
Anne Hathaway, the daughter of a local farmer, on November 28, 1582. She was
eight years older than him and their first child, Susanna, was born six months after
their wedding. Two years later, the couple had twins, Hamnet and Judith, but their son
died when he was 11 years old.
Again, a gap in the records leads some scholars to refer to Shakespeare’s life
between 1585 and 1592 as 'the lost years'. By the time he reappears again,
mentioned in a London pamphlet, Shakespeare has made his way to London without
his family and is already working in the theatre.
Having gained recognition as an actor and playwright Shakespeare had clearly ruffled
a few feathers along the way – contemporary critic, Robert Green, described him in the
1592 pamphlet as an, "upstart Crow".
As well as belonging to its pool of actors and playwrights, Shakespeare was one of
the managing partners of the Lord Chamberlain's Company (renamed the King's
Company when James succeeded to the throne), whose actors included the famous
Richard Burbage. The company acquired interests in two theatres in the Southwark
area of London near the banks of the Thames - the Globe and the Blackfriars.
In 1593 and 1594, Shakespeare’s first poems, 'Venus and Adonis' and 'The Rape of
Lucrece', were published and he dedicated them to his patron, Henry Wriothesley, the
Earl of Southampton. It is thought Shakespeare also wrote most of his sonnets at this
time.
Shakespeare was a prolific playwright, with records of his first plays beginning to
appear in 1594, from which time he produced roughly two a year until around 1611.
His hard work quickly paid off, with signs that he was beginning to prosper emerging
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soon after the publication of his first plays. By 1596 Shakespeare’s father, John had
been granted a coat of arms and it’s probable that Shakespeare had commissioned
them, paying the fees himself. A year later he bought New Place, a large house in
Stratford.
His earlier plays were mainly histories and comedies such as 'Henry VI', 'Titus
Andronicus', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'The Merchant of Venice' and 'Richard II'.
The tragedy, 'Romeo and Juliet', was also published in this period. By the last years
of Elizabeth I's reign Shakespeare was well established as a famous poet and
playwright and was called upon to perform several of his plays before the Queen at
court. In 1598 the author Francis Meres described Shakespeare as England’s greatest
writer in comedy and tragedy.
In 1602 Shakespeare's continuing success enabled him to move to upmarket Silver
Street, near where the Barbican is now situated, and he was living here when he
wrote some of his greatest tragedies such as 'Hamlet', 'Othello', 'King Lear' and
'Macbeth'.
Shakespearean Sonnet Form:
Rhyme scheme: ABABCDCD;EFEFGG
Adheres mainly to 10 syllable lines (pentameter). Shakespeare’s background is
in drama
and this essence is present in his sonnets.
makes it Shakespearean.
The SOUND primarily
The meter is moved with frequent trochees and
spondees and can vary from ten syllables.
Further Reading:
Sonnet 1 “From Fairest Creatures We Desire Increase”
Sonnet 29 “When In Disgrace With Fortune and Men’s Eyes”
Sonnet 73 “That Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold”
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Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate;
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
William Shakespeare
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Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! It is an ever-fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
William Shakespeare
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Sonnet 130
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
William Shakespeare
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Lady Mary Wroth 1586-1651
LADY Mary Wroth, "daughter to the right noble Robert, Earl of Leicester, and niece to
the ever famous and renowned Sir Philip Sidney...and to the most excellent Lady
Mary, Countess of Pembroke", was born in 1586 or 1587. She was often in the home
of her namesake, Mary Sidney Herbert, where she had access to classical and
humanist literature and the unpublished works of various Sidneys, including probably
the Old Arcadia. Throughout much of young Mary's childhood, Robert Sidney was in
charge of the English garrison at Flushing, in the Netherlands, and was able to see
the family only at infrequent intervals. Upon the death of Queen Elizabeth, he began a
rapid rise at Court, being created Baron Sidney of Penshurst by King James.
Thereafter the family was frequently seen at Court, and Mary, now a young woman,
became an active participant in Court doings about 1604. She participated in Court
Masques before Queen Anne, one of which was Ben Jonson's The Masque of
Blackness, which was designed by Inigo Jones. Jonson took an interest in Mary
Sidney's writing, as did a number of other poets of the time, including George
Chapman. Jonson dedicated The Alchemist to Mary, and wrote of her that her sonnets
made him "a better lover and a much better Poet".
Mary Sidney was married in 1604 to Sir Robert Wroth. The match apparently was not
a happy one. Her husband ran up massive debts and died in 1614, leaving the young
widow to apply to the King for relief from her creditors. She had one child from her
marriage, who died at about the age of two, and two "natural" children whose father
was William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, her first cousin and very probably the person
in her life for whom Amphilanthus is a persona.
Lady Mary Wroth's prose romance The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania appeared
in 1621, perhaps in a bid for income from writing. The first ever long fiction work by
an Englishwoman, it recounts the adventures of Pamphilia, Queen of Pamphilia, and
her lover Amphilanthus, interspersing many incidental stories of women disappointed in
love, particularly as a result of their being married by their families to the wrong man.
Some of the stories appear to have been based on intrigues in the Court of King
James; as a consequence Lady Mary was ordered to withdraw the book from sale and
it was never reprinted. A second volume may have been planned, as the story is
continued in manuscript but remains unfinished. The sonnet cycle presented in the
present etext edition, Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, appears at the end of the Urania
under separate pagination but clearly intended to be read as written by the fictional
persona of Pamphilia. An unpublished pastoral drama, Loues Victorie, comprises the
remainder of Wroth's known work. The scandal over the publication of the Urania
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seems to have permanently discredited Lady Mary Wroth at Court, and almost nothing
is known of her later years. She never remarried, and died about 1651-3.
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From Pamphilia to Ampphilanthus
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
23.
When euery one to pleasing pastime hies
Some hunt, some hauke, some play, while some delight
In sweet discourse, and musicke shewes ioys might:
Yet I my thoughts doe farr aboue these prize.
The ioy which I take is, that free from eyes
I sit and wonder at this day-like night,
So to dispose themselues as voyd of right,
And leaue true pleasure for poore vanities.
When others hunt, my thoughts I haue in chase;
If hauke, my minde at wished end doth flye:
Discourse, I with my spirit talke and cry;
While others musicke choose as greatest grace.
O God say I, can thes fond pleasures moue,
Or musicke bee but in sweet thoughts of Loue?
34.
TAke heed mine eyes, how you your looks doe cast,
Lest they betray my hearts most secret thought:
Be true vnto your selues; for nothing's bought
More deare then Doubt, which brings a Louers fast.
Catch you al watching eyes ere they be past,
Or take yours fix't, where your best Loue hath sought
The pride of your desires; let them be taught
Their faults for shame they could no truer last.
Then looke, and looke with ioy, for conquest won,
Of those that search'd your hurt in double kinde:
So you kept safe, let them themselues looke blinde,
Watch, gaze, and marke till they to madnesse run.
While you mine eyes enioye full sight of Loue,
Contented that such happinesses moue.
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LOVE THROUGH THE AGES:
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A Crowne of Sonnets dedicated
to L O V E.
IN this strange Labyrinth how shall I turne,
Wayes are on all sids while the way I misse:
If to the right hand, there, in loue I burne,
Let mee goe forward, therein danger is.
If to the left, suspition hinders blisse;
Let mee turne back, shame cryes I ought returne:
Nor faint, though crosses [with] my fortunes kiss,
Stand still is harder, allthough sure to mourne.
Thus let mee take the right, or left hand way,
Goe forward, or stand still, or back retire:
I must these doubts indure without allay
Or helpe, but trauell finde for my best hire.
Yet that which most my troubled sense doth moue,
Is to leaue all, and take the threed of Loue.
2.
IS to leaue all, and take the threed of Loue,
Which line straite leades vnto the soules content,
Where choice delights with pleasures wings doe moue,
And idle fant'sie neuer roome had lent.
When chaste thoughts guide vs, then our minds are bent
To take that good which ills from vs remoue:
Light of true loue brings fruite which none repent;
But constant Louers seeke and wish to proue.
Loue is the shining Starre of blessings light,
The feruent fire of zeale, the roote of peace,
The lasting lampe, fed with the oyle of right,
Image of Faith, and wombe for ioyes increase.
Loue is true Vertue, and his ends delight,
His flames are ioyes, his bands true Louers might.
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3.
HIs flames are ioyes, his bandes true Louers might,
No stain is there, but pure, as purest white,
Where no cloud can appaere to dimme his light,
Nor spot defile, but shame will soon requite.
Heere are affections, tryde by Loues iust might
As Gold by fire, and black discern'd by white;
Error by truth, and darknes knowne by light,
Where Faith is vallu'd, for Loue to requite.
Please him, and serue him, glory in his might
And firme hee'le be, as Innocency white,
Cleere as th'ayre, warme as Sun's beames, as day light
Iust as Truth, constant as Fate, ioy'd to requite.
Then loue obey, striue to obserue his might
And be in his braue Court a glorious light.
4.
ANd be in his braue Court a glorious light
Shine in the eyes of Faith, and Constancy
Maintaine the fires of Loue, still burning bright,
Not slightly sparkling, but light flaming be.
Neuer to slake till earth no Starres can see,
Till Sun, and Moone doe leaue to vs darke night,
And secound Chaos once againe doe free
Vs, and the World from all deuisions spight,
Till then affections which his followers are,
Gouerne our hearts, and prooue his powers gaine,
To taste this pleasing sting, seeke with all care
For happy smarting is it with small paine.
Such as although it pierce your tender heart,
And burne, yet burning you will loue the smart.
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5.
ANd burne, yet burning you will loue the smart,
When you shall feele the waight of true desire,
So pleasing, as you would not wish your part
Of burthen showld be missing from that fire.
But faithfull and vnfaigned heate aspire
Which sinne abollisheth, and doth impart
Salues to all feare, with vertues which inspire
Soules with diuine loue; which showes his chast art.
And guide he is to ioyings, open eyes
He hath to happinesse, and best can learne
Vs, meanes how to deserue, this he descries,
Who blinde, yet doth our hiden'st thoughts discerne.
Thus we may gaine since liuing in blest Loue,
He may our [profitt], and our Tutor prooue.
6.
HE may our Prophett, and our Tutor prooue,
In whom alone we doe this power finde,
To ioine two hearts as in one frame to mooue
Two bodies, but one soule to rule the minde
Eyes which must care to one deare Obiect binde,
Eares to each others speach as if aboue
All else, they sweete, and learned were; this kind
Content of Louers witnesseth true loue.
It doth inrich the wits, and make you see
That in your selfe which you knew not before,
Forceing you to admire such guifts showld be
Hid from your knowledge, yet in you the store.
Millions of these adorne the throane of Loue,
How blest [bee] they then, who his fauours proue?
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7.
HOw bless'd be they, then, who his fauors proue,
A life whereof the birth is iust desire?
Breeding sweete flame, which harts inuite to moue,
In these lou'd eyes which kindle Cupids fire,
And nurse his longings with his thoughts intire,
Fix't on the heat of wishes form'd by Loue,
Yet whereas fire destroyes, this doth aspire,
Increase, and foster all delights aboue.
Loue will a Painter make you, such, as you
Shall able be to draw, your onely deare,
More liuely, perfect, lasting, and more true
Then rarest Workeman, and to you more neere.
These be the least, then all must needs confesse,
He that shuns Loue, doth loue himselfe the lesse.
8.
HE that shuns Loue, doth loue himselfe the lesse,
And cursed he whose spirit, not admires
The worth of Loue, where endlesse blessednes
Raignes, & commands, maintain'd by heau'nly fires.
Made of Vertue, ioyn'd by Truth, blowne by Desires,
Strengthned by Worth, renew'd by carefulnesse,
Flaming in neuer changing thoughts: bryers
Of Iealousie shall heere misse welcomnesse.
Nor coldly passe in the pursutes of Loue
Like one long frozen in a Sea of yce:
And yet but chastly let your passions [mooue],
No thought from vertuous Loue your minds intice.
Neuer to other ends your Phant'sies place,
But where they may returne with honor's grace.
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9.
BVt where they may returne with Honor's grace,
Where Venus follies can no harbour winne,
But chased are, as worthlesse of the face,
Or stile of Loue, who hath lasciuious beene.
Our hearts are subiect to her Sonne; where sinne
Neuer did dwell, or rest one minutes space;
What faults he hath in her did still beginne,
And from her breast he suck'd his fleeting pace.
If Lust be counted Loue 'tis falsely nam'd,
By wickednesse, a fairer glosse to set
Vpon that Vice, which else makes men asham'd
In the owne Phrase to warrant, but beget
This Childe for Loue, who ought like Monster borne
Be from the Court of Loue, and Reason torne.
10.
BEe from the Court of Loue, and Reason torne,
For Loue in Reason now doth put his trust,
Desert, and liking are together borne
Children of Loue, and Reason, Parents iust,
Reason aduiser is, Loue ruler must
Be of the State, which Crowne he long hath worne;
Yet so, as neither will in least mistrust
The gouernment where no feare is of scorn.
Then reuerence both their mights thus made of one,
But wantonesse, and all those errors shun,
Which wrongers be, Impostures, and alone
Maintainers of all follies ill begunne.
Fruit of a [sowre], and vnwholsome grownd
Vnprofitably pleasing, and vnsound.
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11.
VNprofitably pleasing, and vnsound.
When Heauen gaue liberty to fraile dull earth,
To bringe foorth plenty that in ills abound,
Which ripest, yet doe bring a certaine dearth.
A timelesse, and vnseasonable birth,
Planted in ill, in worse time springing found,
Which Hemlocke like might feed a sicke-wits mirth
Where vnrul'd vapours swimme in endlesse round.
Then ioy we not in what we ought to shunne,
Where shady pleasures shew, but true borne fires
Are quite quench'd out, or by poore ashes won,
Awhile to keepe those coole, and wann desires.
O no, let Loue his glory haue, and might
Be giu'n to him, who triumphs in his right.
12.
BE giu'n to him who triumphs in his right;
Nor fading be, but like those blossomes faire,
Which fall for good, and lose their colours bright,
Yet dye not, but with fruit their losse repaire:
So may Loue make you pale with louing care,
When sweet enioying shall restore that light,
More cleere in beauty, then we can compare,
If not to Venus in her chosen [night].
And who so giue themselues in this deare kinde,
These happinesses shall attend them still,
To be supplide with ioyes enrich'd in minde,
With treasures of content, and pleasures fill.
Thus loue to be deuine, doth here appeare,
Free from all foggs, but shining faire, and cleare.
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13.
FRee from all foggs, but shining faire, and cleare,
Wise in all good, and innocent in ill,
Where holly friendship is esteemed deare,
With Truth in loue, and Iustice in our Will.
In Loue these titles onely haue their fill
Of happy life-maintainer, and the meere
Defence of right, the punisher of skill,
And fraude, from whence directions doth appeare.
To thee then, Lord commander of all hearts,
Ruler of our affections, kinde, and iust,
Great King of Loue, my soule from faigned smarts,
Or thought of change, I offer to your trust,
This Crowne, my selfe, and all that I haue more,
Except my heart, which you bestow'd before.
14.
EXcept my heart, which you bestow'd before,
And for a signe of Conquest gaue away
As worthlesse to be kept in your choice store;
Yet one more spotlesse with you doth not stay.
The tribute which my heart doth truely pay,
Is faith vntouch'd, pure thoughts discharge the score
Of debts for me, where Constancy beares sway,
And rules as Lord, vnharm'd by Enuies sore,
Yet other mischiefes faile not to attend,
As enimies to you, my foes must be,
Curst Iealousie doth all her forces bend
To my vndoing, thus my harmes I see.
So though in Loue I feruently doe burne,
In this strange Labyrinth how shall I turne?
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From Pamphilia to Amphilanthus
2.
LAte in the Forrest I did Cupid see
Cold, wett, and crying, he had lost his way,
And being blinde was farther like to stray;
Which sight, a kind compassion bred in me.
I kindly tooke, and dry'd him, while that he,
(Poore Child) complain'd, he sterued was with stay
And pin'd for want of his accustom'd prey,
For none in that wilde place his Host would be.
I glad was of his finding, thinking sure,
This seruice should my freedome still procure,
And in my armes I tooke him then vnharm'd,
Carrying him safe vnto a Myrtle bowre,
But in the way he made me, feele his powre,
Burning my heart, who had him kindly warm'd.
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Ben Jonson 1572-1637
Brief Biog:
The tumultuous life of Ben Jonson began in London on June 11, 1572. His clergyman
father died before he was born, but his mother remarried to a bricklayer. Jonson
attended Westminster School before joining his stepfather in the bricklaying trade.
After a stint in the army he joined a theatre company run by Philip Henslowe.
In
1598 Jonson killed an actor named Gabriel Spencer in a duel, and he was arrested
and tried at the Old Bailey on a charge of murder. He escaped hanging only by
claiming benefit of clergy, and was imprisoned. It was after his release from prison
that Jonson's first play was performed at the Globe Theatre.
Every Man in His Humour had a cast including William Shakespeare, and the play
made Jonson an instant celebrity. He followed it up with Every Man Out of His
Humour (1599) and Cynthia's Revels (1600), both satirical comedies.
The volatile Jonson made enemies among his fellow playwrights, and his The
Poetaster satirised the work of rivals Dekker and Marston. They responded with the
vitriolic play Satiromastix, attacking Jonson and his work.
That was the least of Jonson's concerns, however, as his next two plays, Sejanus, His
Fall (1603) and Eastward Ho! (1604) both landed him in trouble with the authorities.
Jonson, a Catholic, was forced to appear before the Privy Council to answer charges
of "popery and treason". Despite the evident and understandable mistrust of Jonson by the authorities, he was
appointed court poet in 1605, and produced a number of highly successful court
masques. Many of his early masques were created in partnership with architect Inigo
Jones, who designed elaborate stage sets for the performances. Personal rivalry
between Jones and Jonson led to an inevitable falling out. It was during his period
at court that Jonson wrote some of hois most successful comedies, notably The
Alchemist (1610) and Bartholomew Fair (1614). He was created poet laureate in 1616.
Although several of his later plays were commercial disasters, Jonson found himself
at the centre of a literary group that met at the Mermaid Tavern in Cheapside. His
companions included the young poets Robert Herrick and Thomas Carew.
Ben Jonson died on August 6, 1637 and was buried under a plain slab in
Westminster Abbey. The slab was later inscribed with the words, "O rare Ben Jonson".
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On my first Sonne
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy
Seven yeeres thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
O, could I loose all father, now. For why
Will man lament the state he should envie?
To have so soone scap'd worlds, and fleshes rage,
And, if no other miserie, yet age?
Rest in soft peace, and, ask'd, say here doth lye
Ben. Jonson his best piece of poetrie.
For whose sake, hence-forth, all his vowes be such,
As what he loves may never like too much.
Ben Jonson
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17th Century Context: The English Civil War and Restoration
1605
Gunpowder Plot – A group of English Catholics, angered by
James I’s failure to relax laws against Catholicism attempted to blow up
Parliament
1611 King James Bible Published – The “Authorised Version of the
Bible” was commissioned in 1604.
It became and remains the most
famous English ranslation of the scriptures and had a massive impact on
the English language.
1616 Shakespeare dies
1620 Pilgrims sail for America in the “Mayflower”
1629 Charles I dissolves Parliament and begins 11 years of rule – after
the Parliament passed three resolutions condemning the King’s policies,
the King closes Parliament.
1644 Charles’ Northern Army destroyed by Cromwell’s Parliamentarian
troops. This is followed by Cromwell creating his New Model Army.
1649 Charles I is executed on Cromwell’s orders
1650 The Reformation – Puritans cleans Britain’s Cathedrals, Churches
and Monestaries of all religious imagery, icons, or sign of wealth.
this time Theatres are closed and drama banned.
1653 Oliver Cromwell makes himself Lord Protector
1658 Crowell’s Son, Richard, follows his father to become Lord
Protector
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1660 Charles is restored to the throne
1666 The Great Fire of London
1675 The Country Wife by William Wycherley opens.
The Metaphysical Poets
This was the name given to a group of English lyric poets of the 17th century.
The term was first used by Samuel Johnson (1744). The hallmark of their
poetry is the metaphysical conceit (a figure of speech that employs unusual
and paradoxical images), a reliance on intellectual wit, learned imagery, and
subtle argument. Although this method was by no means new, these men
infused new life into English poetry by the freshness and originality of their
approach. The most important metaphysical poets are John Donne, George
Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Thomas Traherne, Abraham Cowley, Richard Crashaw,
and Andrew Marvell. Their work has considerably influenced the poetry of the
20th cenury.
John Donne (1572 – 1631)
John Donne was an English poet, satirist, lawyer and priest. He is considered
the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are noted
for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems,
Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is
noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially
compared to that of his contemporaries. Donne's style is characterised by
abrupt openings and various paradoxes, ironies and dislocations. These features,
along with his frequent dramatic or everyday speech rhythms, his tense syntax
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and his tough eloquence, were both a reaction against the smoothness of
conventional Elizabethan poetry and an adaptation into English of European
baroque and mannerist techniques. His early career was marked by poetry that
bore immense knowledge of British society and he met that knowledge with
sharp criticism. Another important theme in Donne’s poetry is the idea of true
religion, something that he spent much time considering and theorising about.
He wrote secular poems as well as erotic and love poems. He is particularly
famous for his mastery of metaphysical conceits. Despite his great education
and poetic talents, Donne lived in poverty for several years, relying heavily on
wealthy friends. He spent much of the money he inherited during and after his
education on womanising, literature, pastimes, and travel. In 1601, Donne
secretly married Anne Moore, with whom he had twelve children. In 1615, he
became an Anglican priest, although he did not want to take Anglican orders.
He did so because King James I persistently ordered it. In 1621, he was
appointed the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London. He also served as a
member of parliament in 1601 and in 1614.
Further Reading:
John Donne: A Nocturnal upon S. Lucy's Day, Being the Shortest Day
John Donne: Elegy XIX: To His Mistress Going to Bed
John Donne: Elegy XVIII
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THE FLEA.
MARK but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is ;
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;
And this, alas ! is more than we would do.
O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,
And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou
Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.
'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;
Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.
John Donne
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George Herbert (1593-1633)
George Herbert was a Welsh born English poet, orator and Anglican priest.
Being born into an artistic and wealthy family, he received a good education
that led to his holding prominent positions at Cambridge University and
Parliament. As a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert excelled in
languages and music. He went to college with the intention of becoming a
priest, but his scholarship attracted the attention of King James I/VI. Herbert
served in Parliament for two years.
After the death of King James and at the urging of a friend, Herbert's
interest in ordained ministry was renewed. In 1630, in his late thirties he
gave up his secular ambitions and took holy orders in the Church of England,
spending the rest of his life as a rector of the little parish of Fugglestone St
Peter with Bemerton St Andrew, near Salisbury. He was noted for unfailing
care for his parishioners, bringing the sacraments to them when they were ill,
and providing food and clothing for those in need. Henry Vaughan said of him
"a most glorious saint and seer". Throughout his life, he wrote religious poems characterized by a precision
of language, a metrical versatility, and an ingenious use of imagery or conceits
that was favoured by the metaphysical school of poets. Charles Cotton
described him as a "soul composed of harmonies". Herbert himself, in a letter
to Nicholas Ferrar, said of his writings, "they are a picture of spiritual conflicts
between God and my soul before I could subject my will to Jesus, my Master".
Some of Herbert's poems have endured as hymns, including "King of Glory,
King of Peace" (Praise), "Let All the World in Every Corner Sing" (Antiphon)
and "Teach me, my God and King" (The Elixir). His first biographer, Izaak
Walton, described Herbert on his death-bed as "composing such hymns and
anthems as he and the angels now sing in heaven".
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The Altar
A broken ALTAR, Lord thy servant rears,
Made of a heart, and cemented with teares:
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workmans tool hath touch'd the same
A HEART alone
Is such a stone,
As nothing but
Thy pow'r doth cut.
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame,
To praise thy Name:
That if I chance to hold my peace,
These stones to praise thee may not cease.
O let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,
And sanctifie this ALTAR to be thine.
George Herbert
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Easter Wings
George Herbert
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Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)
Andrew Marvell an English metaphysical poet, Parliamentarian, and the son of a
Church of England clergyman (also named Andrew Marvell). As a metaphysical poet,
he is associated with John Donne and George Herbert. He was a colleague and friend
of John Milton.
Marvell was educated at Hull Grammar School. A secondary school in the city is now
named after him. His most famous poems include To His Coy Mistress, The Garden, An Horatian Ode
upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland, The Mower's Song and the country house
poem Upon Appleton House. At the age of twelve, Marvell attended Trinity College,
Cambridge and eventually received his BA degree. Afterwards, from the middle of
1642 onwards, Marvell probably travelled in continental Europe. He may well have
served as a tutor for an aristocrat on the Grand Tour; but the facts are not clear on
this point. While England was embroiled in the civil war, Marvell seems to have
remained on the continent until 1647. It is not known exactly where his travels took
him, except that he was in Rome in 1645 and Milton later reported that Marvell had
mastered four languages, including French, Italian and Spanish. First poems and Marvell's time at Nun Appleton Marvell's first poems, which were written in Latin and Greek and published when he
was still at Cambridge, lamented a visitation of the plague and celebrated the birth of
a child to King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria. He only belatedly became
sympathetic to the successive regimes during the Interregnum after Charles I's
execution, which took place 30 January 1649. His Horatian Ode, a political poem
dated to early 1650, responds with sorrow to the regicide even as it praises Oliver
Cromwell's return from Ireland. Circa 1650-52, Marvell served as tutor to the
daughter of the Lord General Thomas Fairfax, who had recently relinquished command
of the Parliamentary army to Cromwell. He lived during that time at Nun Appleton
House, near York, where he continued to write poetry. One poem, Upon Appleton
House, To My Lord Fairfax, uses a description of the estate as a way of exploring
Fairfax's and Marvell's own situation in a time of war and political change. Probably
the best-known poem he wrote at this time was To His Coy Mistress. Marvell's poetic style Marvell’s poetry is often witty and full of elaborate conceits in the elegant style of the
metaphysical poets. Many poems were inspired by events of the time, public or
personal. Others were written in the pastoral style of the classical Roman authors.
Even here, Marvell tends to place a particular picture before us. In The Nymph
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Complaining for the Death of her Fawn, the nymph weeps for the little animal as it
dies, and tells us how it consoled her for her betrayal in love. His pastoral poems,
including Upon Appleton House achieve originality and a unique tone through his
reworking and subversion of the pastoral genre.
Further Reading:
An Horatian Ode
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To His Coy Mistress
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime
We would sit down and think which way
To walk and pass our long love's day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, Lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song: then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
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And into ashes all my lust:
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
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Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapt power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
Andrew Marvell
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John Milton
BISHOP JUSTUS A2 POETRY ANTHOLOGY
(9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674)
Poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the
Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell. He wrote at a time of religious
flux and political upheaval, and is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost.
Milton's poetry and prose reflect deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom
and self-determination, and the urgent issues and political turbulence of his day.
Writing in English, Latin, and Italian, he achieved international renown within his
lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica (written in condemnation of pre-publication
censorship) is among history's most influential and impassioned defenses of free
speech and freedom of the press.
William Hayley's 1796 biography called him the "greatest English author," and he
remains generally regarded "as one of the preeminent writers in the English
language,"[2] though critical reception has oscillated in the centuries since his death
(often on account of his republicanism). Samuel Johnson praised Paradise Lost as
"a poem which...with respect to design may claim the first place, and with respect to
performance, the second, among the productions of the human mind," though he (a
Tory and recipient of royal patronage) described Milton's politics as those of an
"acrimonious and surly republican".
Paradise Lost:
Milton's magnum opus, the blank-verse epic poem Paradise Lost, was
composed by the blind and impoverished Milton from 1658 to 1664 (dictating
every word of the twelve book epic poem) with small but significant revisions
published in 1674 (second edition). As a blind poet, Milton dictated his verse
to a series of aides in his employ. It has been argued that the poem reflects
his personal despair at the failure of the Revolution, yet affirms an ultimate
optimism in human potential. Some literary critics have argued that Milton
encoded many references to his unyielding support for the "Good Old
Cause".
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Paradise Lost Book 9 by John Milton
Satan embodied in the serpent, speaks to Eve alone in the Garden of Eden.
He intends to tempt her into eating from the forbidden tree, so disobeying
God. To reach this point he first uses the language of flattery and seduction.
With tract oblique
At first, as one who sought access but fear'd
To interrupt, sidelong he works his way.
As when a ship, by skilful steersman wrought
Nigh river's mouth or foreland, where the wind
Veers oft, as oft so steers and shifts her sail,
So varied he, and of his tortuous train
Curl'd many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve,
To lure her eye. She, busied, heard the sound
Of rustling leaves, but minded not, as us'd
To such disport before her through the field
From every beast, more duteous at her call
Than at Circean call the herd disguis'd.
He, bolder now, uncall'd before her stood,
But as in gaze admiring. Oft he bow'd
His turret crest and sleek enamell'd neck,
Fawning, and lick'd the ground whereon she trod.
His gentle dumb expression turn'd at length
The eye of Eve to mark his play; he, glad
Of her attention gain'd, with serpent-tongue
Organic, or impulse of vocal air,
His fraudulent temptation thus began:
"Wonder not, sovran mistress (if perhaps
Thou canst who art sole wonder), much less arm
Thy looks, the heav'n of mildness, with disdain,
Displeas'd that I approach thee thus and gaze
Insatiate, I thus single, nor have fear'd
Thy awful brow, more awful thus retir'd.
Fairest resemblance of thy Maker fair,
Thee all things living gaze on, all things thine
By gift, and thy celestial beauty adore,
With ravishment beheld—there best beheld
Where universally admir'd; but here,
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In this enclosure wild, these beasts among,
Beholders rude and shallow to discern
Half what in thee is fair, one man except
Who sees thee (and what is one?) who shouldst be seen
A Goddess among Gods, ador'd and serv'd
By Angels numberless, thy daily train?"
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Paradise Lost (Book XII)
The Angel Michael continues from the Flood to relate what shall succeed; then, in
the mention of Abraham, comes by degrees to explain, who that Seed of the
Woman shall be, which was promised Adam and Eve in the Fall; his Incarnation,
Death, Resurrection, and Ascention; the state of the Church till his second Coming.
Adam greatly satisfied and recomforted by these Relations and Promises descends
the Hill with Michael; wakens Eve, who all this while had slept, but with gentle
dreams compos'd to quietness of mind and submission. Michael in either hand leads
them out of Paradise, the fiery Sword waving behind them, and the Cherubim taking
thir Stations to guard the Place.
To whom thus also th' Angel last repli'd:
This having learnt, thou hast attained the summe
Of wisdom; hope no higher, though all the Starrs
Thou knewst by name, and all th' ethereal Powers,
All secrets of the deep, all Natures works,
Or works of God in Heav'n, Aire, Earth, or Sea,
And all the riches of this World enjoydst,
And all the rule, one Empire; onely add
Deeds to thy knowledge answerable, add Faith,
Add vertue, Patience, Temperance, add Love,
B
y name to come call'd Charitie, the soul
Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loath
To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess
A Paradise within thee, happier farr.
Let us descend now therefore from this top
Of Speculation; for the hour precise
Exacts our parting hence; and see the Guards,
By mee encampt on yonder Hill, expect
Thir motion, at whose Front a flaming Sword,
In signal of remove, waves fiercely round;
We may no longer stay: go, waken Eve;
Her also I with gentle Dreams have calm'd
Portending good, and all her spirits compos'd
To meek submission: thou at season fit
Let her with thee partake what thou hast heard,
Chiefly what may concern her Faith to know,
The great deliverance by her Seed to come
(For by the Womans Seed) on all Mankind.
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That ye may live, which will be many dayes,
Both in one Faith unanimous though sad,
With cause for evils past, yet much more cheer'd
With meditation on the happie end.
He ended, and they both descend the Hill;
Descended, Adam to the Bowre where Eve
Lay sleeping ran before, but found her wak't;
And thus with words not sad she him receav'd.
Whence thou returnst, and whither wentst, I know;
For God is also in sleep, and Dreams advise,
Which he hath sent propitious, some great good
Presaging, since with sorrow and hearts distress
Wearied I fell asleep: but now lead on;
In mee is no delay; with thee to goe,
Is to stay here; without thee here to stay,
Is to go hence unwilling; thou to mee
Art all things under Heav'n, all places thou,
Who for my wilful crime art banisht hence.
This further consolation yet secure
I carry hence; though all by mee is lost,
Such favour I unworthie am voutsaft,
By mee the Promis'd Seed shall all restore.
So spake our Mother Eve, and Adam heard
Well pleas'd, but answer'd not; for now too nigh
Th' Archangel stood, and from the other Hill
To thir fixt Station, all in bright array
The Cherubim descended; on the ground
Gliding meteorous, as Ev'ning Mist
Ris'n from a River o're the marish glides,
And gathers ground fast at the Labourers heel
Homeward returning. High in Front advanc't,
The brandisht Sword of God before them blaz'd
Fierce as a Comet; which with torrid heat,
And vapour as the Libyan Air adust,
Began to parch that temperate Clime; whereat
In either hand the hastning Angel caught
Our lingring Parents, and to th' Eastern Gate
Led them direct, and down the Cliff as fast
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To the subjected Plaine; then disappeer'd.
They looking back, all th' Eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late thir happie seat,
Wav'd over by that flaming Brand, the Gate
With dreadful Faces throng'd and fierie Armes:
Som natural tears they drop'd, but wip'd them soon;
The World was all before them, where to choose
Thir place of rest, and Providence thir guide:
They hand in hand with wandring steps and slow,
Through Eden took thir solitarie way.
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Christina Walsh 1750-1800
Christina Walsh lived in the 18th century. Very little is known about her,
except that she lived from 1750 to around 1800. A Woman To Her Lover is
her only known poem.
Although there were women writers in the 18th century, it is not very
surprising to discover one about whom nothing is known. Women were
beginning to have more choice about their lives, but from a legal point of
view, they belonged first of all to their father, and then to their husband.
There was certainly not the level of equality that the narrator of this poem
would like to have with her husband.
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A Woman to Her Lover
Do you come to me to bend me to your will
as conqueror to the vanquished
to make of me a bondslave
to bear you children, wearing out my life
in drudgery and silence
no servant will I be
if that be what you ask. O lover I refuse you!
Or if you think to wed with one from heaven sent
whose every deed and word and wish is golden
a wingless angel who can do no wrong
go! - I am no doll to dress and sit for feeble worship
if that be what you ask, fool, I refuse you!
Or if you think in me to find
a creature who will have no greater joy
than gratify your clamorous desire,
my skin soft only for your fond caresses
my body supple only for your sense delight.
Oh shame, and pity and abasement.
Not for you the hand of any wakened woman of our time.
But lover, if you ask of me
that I shall be your comrade, friend, and mate,
to live and work, to love and die with you,
that so together we may know the purity and height
of passion, and of joy and sorrow,
then o husband, I am yours forever
and our co-equal love will make the stars to laugh with
joy
and to its circling fugue pass, hand holding hand
until we reach the very heart of god.
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CHRISTINA WALSH
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