[ { "title": "The Canterbury Tales: The Squire's Tale", "author": "Geoffrey Chaucer", "lines": [ "THE PROLOGUE.", "", "\"HEY! Godde's mercy!\" said our Hoste tho,", "\"Now such a wife I pray God keep me fro'.", "Lo, suche sleightes and subtilities", "In women be; for aye as busy as bees", "Are they us silly men for to deceive,", "And from the soothe will they ever weive,", "As this Merchante's tale it proveth well.", "But natheless, as true as any steel,", "I have a wife, though that she poore be;", "But of her tongue a labbing shrew is she;", "And yet she hath a heap of vices mo'.", "Thereof no force; let all such thinges go.", "But wit ye what? in counsel be it said,", "Me rueth sore I am unto her tied;", "For, an' I shoulde reckon every vice", "Which that she hath, y-wis I were too nice;", "And cause why, it should reported be", "And told her by some of this company", "(By whom, it needeth not for to declare,", "Since women connen utter such chaffare ),", "And eke my wit sufficeth not thereto", "To tellen all; wherefore my tale is do.", "Squier, come near, if it your wille be,", "And say somewhat of love, for certes ye", "Conne thereon as much as any man.\"", "\"Nay, Sir,\" quoth he; \"but such thing as I can,", "With hearty will, -- for I will not rebel", "Against your lust, -- a tale will I tell.", "Have me excused if I speak amiss;", "My will is good; and lo, my tale is this.\"", "", "THE TALE.", "", "Pars Prima.", "", "At Sarra, in the land of Tartary,", "There dwelt a king that warrayed Russie,", "Through which there died many a doughty man;", "This noble king was called Cambuscan,", "Which in his time was of so great renown,", "That there was nowhere in no regioun", "So excellent a lord in alle thing:", "Him lacked nought that longeth to a king,", "As of the sect of which that he was born.", "He kept his law to which he was y-sworn,", "And thereto he was hardy, wise, and rich,", "And piteous and just, always y-lich;", "True of his word, benign and honourable;", "Of his corage as any centre stable;", "Young, fresh, and strong, in armes desirous", "As any bachelor of all his house.", "A fair person he was, and fortunate,", "And kept alway so well his royal estate,", "That there was nowhere such another man.", "This noble king, this Tartar Cambuscan,", "Hadde two sons by Elfeta his wife,", "Of which the eldest highte Algarsife,", "The other was y-called Camballo.", "A daughter had this worthy king also,", "That youngest was, and highte Canace:", "But for to telle you all her beauty,", "It lies not in my tongue, nor my conning;", "I dare not undertake so high a thing:", "Mine English eke is insufficient,", "It muste be a rhetor excellent,", "That couth his colours longing for that art,", "If he should her describen any part;", "I am none such, I must speak as I can.", "", "And so befell, that when this Cambuscan", "Had twenty winters borne his diadem,", "As he was wont from year to year, I deem,", "He let the feast of his nativity", "Do crye, throughout Sarra his city,", "The last Idus of March, after the year.", "Phoebus the sun full jolly was and clear,", "For he was nigh his exaltation", "In Marte's face, and in his mansion", "In Aries, the choleric hot sign:", "Full lusty was the weather and benign;", "For which the fowls against the sunne sheen,", "What for the season and the younge green,", "Full loude sange their affections:", "Them seemed to have got protections", "Against the sword of winter keen and cold.", "This Cambuscan, of which I have you told,", "In royal vesture, sat upon his dais,", "With diadem, full high in his palace;", "And held his feast so solemn and so rich,", "That in this worlde was there none it lich.", "Of which if I should tell all the array,", "Then would it occupy a summer's day;", "And eke it needeth not for to devise", "At every course the order of service.", "I will not tellen of their strange sewes,", "Nor of their swannes, nor their heronsews.", "Eke in that land, as telle knightes old,", "There is some meat that is full dainty hold,", "That in this land men reck of it full small:", "There is no man that may reporten all.", "I will not tarry you, for it is prime,", "And for it is no fruit, but loss of time;", "Unto my purpose I will have recourse.", "And so befell that, after the third course,", "While that this king sat thus in his nobley,", "Hearing his ministreles their thinges play", "Before him at his board deliciously,", "In at the halle door all suddenly", "There came a knight upon a steed of brass,", "And in his hand a broad mirror of glass;", "Upon his thumb he had of gold a ring,", "And by his side a naked sword hanging:", "And up he rode unto the highe board.", "In all the hall was there not spoke a word,", "For marvel of this knight; him to behold", "Full busily they waited, young and old.", "", "This strange knight, that came thus suddenly,", "All armed, save his head, full richely,", "Saluted king, and queen, and lordes all,", "By order as they satten in the hall,", "With so high reverence and observance,", "As well in speech as in his countenance,", "That Gawain with his olde courtesy,", "Though he were come again out of Faerie,", "Him coulde not amende with a word.", "And after this, before the highe board,", "He with a manly voice said his message,", "After the form used in his language,", "Withoute vice of syllable or letter.", "And, for his tale shoulde seem the better,", "Accordant to his worde's was his cheer,", "As teacheth art of speech them that it lear.", "Albeit that I cannot sound his style,", "Nor cannot climb over so high a stile,", "Yet say I this, as to commune intent,", "Thus much amounteth all that ever he meant,", "If it so be that I have it in mind.", "He said; \"The king of Araby and Ind,", "My liege lord, on this solemne day", "Saluteth you as he best can and may,", "And sendeth you, in honour of your feast,", "By me, that am all ready at your hest,", "This steed of brass, that easily and well", "Can in the space of one day naturel", "(This is to say, in four-and-twenty hours),", "Whereso you list, in drought or else in show'rs,", "Beare your body into every place", "To which your hearte willeth for to pace,", "Withoute wem of you, through foul or fair.", "Or if you list to fly as high in air", "As doth an eagle, when him list to soar,", "This same steed shall bear you evermore", "Withoute harm, till ye be where you lest", "(Though that ye sleepen on his back, or rest),", "And turn again, with writhing of a pin.", "He that it wrought, he coude many a gin;", "He waited in any a constellation,", "Ere he had done this operation,", "And knew full many a seal and many a bond", "This mirror eke, that I have in mine hond,", "Hath such a might, that men may in it see", "When there shall fall any adversity", "Unto your realm, or to yourself also,", "And openly who is your friend or foe.", "And over all this, if any lady bright", "Hath set her heart on any manner wight,", "If he be false, she shall his treason see,", "His newe love, and all his subtlety,", "So openly that there shall nothing hide.", "Wherefore, against this lusty summer-tide,", "This mirror, and this ring that ye may see,", "He hath sent to my lady Canace,", "Your excellente daughter that is here.", "The virtue of this ring, if ye will hear,", "Is this, that if her list it for to wear", "Upon her thumb, or in her purse it bear,", "There is no fowl that flyeth under heaven,", "That she shall not well understand his steven,", "And know his meaning openly and plain,", "And answer him in his language again:", "And every grass that groweth upon root", "She shall eke know, to whom it will do boot,", "All be his woundes ne'er so deep and wide.", "This naked sword, that hangeth by my side,", "Such virtue hath, that what man that it smite,", "Throughout his armour it will carve and bite,", "Were it as thick as is a branched oak:", "And what man is y-wounded with the stroke", "Shall ne'er be whole, till that you list, of grace,", "To stroke him with the flat in thilke place", "Where he is hurt; this is as much to sayn,", "Ye muste with the flatte sword again", "Stroke him upon the wound, and it will close.", "This is the very sooth, withoute glose;", "It faileth not, while it is in your hold.\"", "", "And when this knight had thus his tale told,", "He rode out of the hall, and down he light.", "His steede, which that shone as sunne bright,", "Stood in the court as still as any stone.", "The knight is to his chamber led anon,", "And is unarmed, and to meat y-set.", "These presents be full richely y-fet, --", "This is to say, the sword and the mirrour, --", "And borne anon into the highe tow'r,", "With certain officers ordain'd therefor;", "And unto Canace the ring is bore", "Solemnely, where she sat at the table;", "But sickerly, withouten any fable,", "The horse of brass, that may not be remued.", "It stood as it were to the ground y-glued;", "There may no man out of the place it drive", "For no engine of windlass or polive;", "And cause why, for they can not the craft;", "And therefore in the place they have it laft,", "Till that the knight hath taught them the mannere", "To voide him, as ye shall after hear.", "", "Great was the press, that swarmed to and fro", "To gauren on this horse that stoode so:", "For it so high was, and so broad and long,", "So well proportioned for to be strong,", "Right as it were a steed of Lombardy;", "Therewith so horsely, and so quick of eye,", "As it a gentle Poileis courser were:", "For certes, from his tail unto his ear", "Nature nor art ne could him not amend", "In no degree, as all the people wend.", "But evermore their moste wonder was", "How that it coulde go, and was of brass;", "It was of Faerie, as the people seem'd.", "Diverse folk diversely they deem'd;", "As many heads, as many wittes been.", "They murmured, as doth a swarm of been,", "And made skills after their fantasies,", "Rehearsing of the olde poetries,", "And said that it was like the Pegasee,", "The horse that hadde winges for to flee;", "Or else it was the Greeke's horse Sinon,", "That broughte Troye to destruction,", "As men may in the olde gestes read.", "Mine heart,\" quoth one, \"is evermore in dread;", "I trow some men of armes be therein,", "That shape them this city for to win:", "It were right good that all such thing were know.\"", "Another rowned to his fellow low,", "And said, \"He lies; for it is rather like", "An apparence made by some magic,", "As jugglers playen at these feastes great.\"", "Of sundry doubts they jangle thus and treat.", "As lewed people deeme commonly", "Of thinges that be made more subtilly", "Than they can in their lewdness comprehend;", "They deeme gladly to the badder end.", "And some of them wonder'd on the mirrour,", "That borne was up into the master tow'r,", "How men might in it suche thinges see.", "Another answer'd and said, it might well be", "Naturally by compositions", "Of angles, and of sly reflections;", "And saide that in Rome was such a one.", "They speak of Alhazen and Vitellon,", "And Aristotle, that wrote in their lives", "Of quainte mirrors, and of prospectives,", "As knowe they that have their bookes heard.", "And other folk have wonder'd on the swerd,", "That woulde pierce throughout every thing;", "And fell in speech of Telephus the king,", "And of Achilles for his quainte spear,", "For he could with it bothe heal and dere,", "Right in such wise as men may with the swerd", "Of which right now ye have yourselves heard.", "They spake of sundry hard'ning of metal,", "And spake of medicines therewithal,", "And how, and when, it shoulde harden'd be,", "Which is unknowen algate unto me.", "Then spake they of Canacee's ring,", "And saiden all, that such a wondrous thing", "Of craft of rings heard they never none,", "Save that he, Moses, and King Solomon,", "Hadden a name of conning in such art.", "Thus said the people, and drew them apart.", "Put natheless some saide that it was", "Wonder to maken of fern ashes glass,", "And yet is glass nought like ashes of fern;", "But for they have y-knowen it so ferne", "Therefore ceaseth their jangling and their wonder.", "As sore wonder some on cause of thunder,", "On ebb and flood, on gossamer and mist,", "And on all things, till that the cause is wist.", "Thus jangle they, and deemen and devise,", "Till that the king gan from his board arise.", "", "Phoebus had left the angle meridional,", "And yet ascending was the beast royal,", "The gentle Lion, with his Aldrian,", "When that this Tartar king, this Cambuscan,", "Rose from the board, there as he sat full high", "Before him went the loude minstrelsy,", "Till he came to his chamber of parements,", "There as they sounded diverse instruments,", "That it was like a heaven for to hear.", "Now danced lusty Venus' children dear:", "For in the Fish their lady sat full", "And looked on them with a friendly eye.", "This noble king is set upon his throne;", "This strange knight is fetched to him full sone,", "And on the dance he goes with Canace.", "Here is the revel and the jollity,", "That is not able a dull man to devise:", "He must have knowen love and his service,", "And been a feastly man, as fresh as May,", "That shoulde you devise such array.", "Who coulde telle you the form of dances", "So uncouth, and so freshe countenances", "Such subtle lookings and dissimulances,", "For dread of jealous men's apperceivings?", "No man but Launcelot, and he is dead.", "Therefore I pass o'er all this lustihead", "I say no more, but in this jolliness", "I leave them, till to supper men them dress.", "The steward bids the spices for to hie", "And eke the wine, in all this melody;", "The ushers and the squiers be y-gone,", "The spices and the wine is come anon;", "They eat and drink, and when this hath an end,", "Unto the temple, as reason was, they wend;", "The service done, they suppen all by day", "What needeth you rehearse their array?", "Each man wot well, that at a kinge's feast", "Is plenty, to the most, and to the least,", "And dainties more than be in my knowing.", "", "At after supper went this noble king", "To see the horse of brass, with all a rout", "Of lordes and of ladies him about.", "Such wond'ring was there on this horse of brass,", "That, since the great siege of Troye was,", "There as men wonder'd on a horse also,", "Ne'er was there such a wond'ring as was tho.", "But finally the king asked the knight", "The virtue of this courser, and the might,", "And prayed him to tell his governance.", "The horse anon began to trip and dance,", "When that the knight laid hand upon his rein,", "And saide, \"Sir, there is no more to sayn,", "But when you list to riden anywhere,", "Ye muste trill a pin, stands in his ear,", "Which I shall telle you betwixt us two;", "Ye muste name him to what place also,", "Or to what country that you list to ride.", "And when ye come where you list abide,", "Bid him descend, and trill another pin", "(For therein lies th' effect of all the gin),", "And he will down descend and do your will,", "And in that place he will abide still;", "Though all the world had the contrary swore,", "He shall not thence be throwen nor be bore.", "Or, if you list to bid him thennes gon,", "Trill this pin, and he will vanish anon", "Out of the sight of every manner wight,", "And come again, be it by day or night,", "When that you list to clepe him again", "In such a guise, as I shall to you sayn", "Betwixte you and me, and that full soon.", "Ride when you list, there is no more to do'n.'", "Informed when the king was of the knight,", "And had conceived in his wit aright", "The manner and the form of all this thing,", "Full glad and blithe, this noble doughty king", "Repaired to his revel as beforn.", "The bridle is into the tower borne,", "And kept among his jewels lefe and dear;", "The horse vanish'd, I n'ot in what mannere,", "Out of their sight; ye get no more of me:", "But thus I leave in lust and jollity", "This Cambuscan his lordes feastying,", "Until well nigh the day began to spring.", "", "Pars Secunda.", "", "The norice of digestion, the sleep,", "Gan on them wink, and bade them take keep,", "That muche mirth and labour will have rest.", "And with a gaping mouth he all them kest,", "And said, that it was time to lie down,", "For blood was in his dominatioun:", "\"Cherish the blood, nature's friend,\" quoth he.", "They thanked him gaping, by two and three;", "And every wight gan draw him to his rest;", "As sleep them bade, they took it for the best.", "Their dreames shall not now be told for me;", "Full are their heades of fumosity,", "That caused dreams of which there is no charge:", "They slepte; till that, it was prime large,", "The moste part, but it was Canace;", "She was full measurable, as women be:", "For of her father had she ta'en her leave", "To go to rest, soon after it was eve;", "Her liste not appalled for to be;", "Nor on the morrow unfeastly for to see;", "And slept her firste sleep; and then awoke.", "For such a joy she in her hearte took", "Both of her quainte a ring and her mirrour,.", "That twenty times she changed her colour;", "And in her sleep, right for th' impression", "Of her mirror, she had a vision.", "Wherefore, ere that the sunne gan up glide,", "She call'd upon her mistress' her beside,", "And saide, that her liste for to rise.", "", "These olde women, that be gladly wise", "As are her mistresses answer'd anon,", "And said; \"Madame, whither will ye gon", "Thus early? for the folk be all in rest.\"", "\"I will,\" quoth she, \"arise; for me lest", "No longer for to sleep, and walk about.\"", "Her mistresses call'd women a great rout,", "And up they rose, well a ten or twelve;", "Up rose freshe Canace herselve,", "As ruddy and bright as is the yonnge sun", "That in the Ram is four degrees y-run;", "No higher was he, when she ready was;", "And forth she walked easily a pace,", "Array'd after the lusty season swoot,", "Lightely for to play, and walk on foot,", "Nought but with five or six of her meinie;", "And in a trench forth in the park went she.", "The vapour, which up from the earthe glode,", "Made the sun to seem ruddy and broad:", "But, natheless, it was so fair a sight", "That it made all their heartes for to light,", "What for the season and the morrowning,", "And for the fowles that she hearde sing.", "For right anon she wiste what they meant", "Right by their song, and knew all their intent.", "The knotte, why that every tale is told,", "If it be tarried till the list be cold", "Of them that have it hearken'd after yore,", "The savour passeth ever longer more;", "For fulsomness of the prolixity:", "And by that same reason thinketh me.", "I shoulde unto the knotte condescend,", "And maken of her walking soon an end.", "", "Amid a tree fordry, as white as chalk,", "There sat a falcon o'er her head full high,", "That with a piteous voice so gan to cry;", "That all the wood resounded of her cry,", "And beat she had herself so piteously", "With both her winges, till the redde blood", "Ran endelong the tree, there as she stood", "And ever-in-one alway she cried and shright;", "And with her beak herselfe she so pight,", "That there is no tiger, nor cruel beast,", "That dwelleth either in wood or in forest;", "But would have wept, if that he weepe could,", "For sorrow of her; she shriek'd alway so loud.", "For there was never yet no man alive,", "If that he could a falcon well descrive;", "That heard of such another of fairness", "As well of plumage, as of gentleness;", "Of shape, of all that mighte reckon'd be.", "A falcon peregrine seemed she,", "Of fremde land; and ever as she stood", "She swooned now and now for lack of blood;", "Till well-nigh is she fallen from the tree.", "", "This faire kinge's daughter Canace,", "That on her finger bare the quainte ring,", "Through which she understood well every thing", "That any fowl may in his leden sayn,", "And could him answer in his leden again;", "Hath understoode what this falcon said,", "And well-nigh for the ruth almost she died;.", "And to the tree she went, full hastily,", "And on this falcon looked piteously;", "And held her lap abroad; for well she wist", "The falcon muste falle from the twist", "When that she swooned next, for lack of blood.", "A longe while to waite her she stood;", "Till at the last she apake in this mannere", "Unto the hawk, as ye shall after hear:", "\"What is the cause, if it be for to tell,", "That ye be in this furial pain of hell?\"", "Quoth Canace unto this hawk above;", "\"Is this for sorrow of of death; or loss of love?", "For; as I trow, these be the causes two;", "That cause most a gentle hearte woe:", "Of other harm it needeth not to speak.", "For ye yourself upon yourself awreak;", "Which proveth well, that either ire or dread", "Must be occasion of your cruel deed,", "Since that I see none other wight you chase:", "For love of God, as do yourselfe grace;", "Or what may be your help? for, west nor east,", "I never saw ere now no bird nor beast", "That fared with himself so piteously", "Ye slay me with your sorrow verily;", "I have of you so great compassioun.", "For Godde's love come from the tree adown", "And, as I am a kinge's daughter true,", "If that I verily the causes knew", "Of your disease, if it lay in my might,", "I would amend it, ere that it were night,", "So wisly help me the great God of kind.", "And herbes shall I right enoughe find,", "To heale with your hurtes hastily.\"", "Then shriek'd this falcon yet more piteously", "Than ever she did, and fell to ground anon,", "And lay aswoon, as dead as lies a stone,", "Till Canace had in her lap her take,", "Unto that time she gan of swoon awake:", "And, after that she out of swoon abraid,", "Right in her hawke's leden thus she said:", "", "\"That pity runneth soon in gentle heart", "(Feeling his simil'tude in paines smart),", "Is proved every day, as men may see,", "As well by work as by authority;", "For gentle hearte kitheth gentleness.", "I see well, that ye have on my distress", "Compassion, my faire Canace,", "Of very womanly benignity", "That nature in your princples hath set.", "But for no hope for to fare the bet,", "But for t' obey unto your hearte free,", "And for to make others aware by me,", "As by the whelp chastis'd is the lion,", "Right for that cause and that conclusion,", "While that I have a leisure and a space,", "Mine harm I will confessen ere I pace.\"", "And ever while the one her sorrow told,", "The other wept, as she to water wo'ld,", "Till that the falcon bade her to be still,", "And with a sigh right thus she said her till:", "\"Where I was bred (alas that ilke day!)", "And foster'd in a rock of marble gray", "So tenderly, that nothing ailed me,", "I wiste not what was adversity,", "Till I could flee full high under the sky.", "Then dwell'd a tercelet me faste by,", "That seem'd a well of alle gentleness;", "All were he full of treason and falseness,", "It was so wrapped under humble cheer,", "And under hue of truth, in such mannere,", "Under pleasance, and under busy pain,", "That no wight weened that he coulde feign,", "So deep in grain he dyed his colours.", "Right as a serpent hides him under flow'rs,", "Till he may see his time for to bite,", "Right so this god of love's hypocrite", "Did so his ceremonies and obeisances,", "And kept in semblance all his observances,", "That sounden unto gentleness of love.", "As on a tomb is all the fair above,", "And under is the corpse, which that ye wet,", "Such was this hypocrite, both cold and hot;", "And in this wise he served his intent,", "That, save the fiend, none wiste what he meant:", "Till he so long had weeped and complain'd,", "And many a year his service to me feign'd,", "Till that mine heart, too piteous and too nice,", "All innocent of his crowned malice,", "Forfeared of his death, as thoughte me,", "Upon his oathes and his surety", "Granted him love, on this conditioun,", "That evermore mine honour and renown", "Were saved, bothe privy and apert;", "This is to say, that, after his desert,", "I gave him all my heart and all my thought", "(God wot, and he, that other wayes nought),", "And took his heart in change of mine for aye.", "But sooth is said, gone since many a day,", "A true wight and a thiefe think not one.", "And when he saw the thing so far y-gone,", "That I had granted him fully my love,", "In such a wise as I have said above,", "And given him my true heart as free", "As he swore that he gave his heart to me,", "Anon this tiger, full of doubleness,", "Fell on his knees with so great humbleness,", "With so high reverence, as by his cheer,", "So like a gentle lover in mannere,", "So ravish'd, as it seemed, for the joy,", "That never Jason, nor Paris of Troy, --", "Jason? certes, nor ever other man,", "Since Lamech was, that alderfirst began", "To love two, as write folk beforn,", "Nor ever since the firste man was born,", "Coulde no man, by twenty thousand", "Counterfeit the sophimes of his art;", "Where doubleness of feigning should approach,", "Nor worthy were t'unbuckle his galoche,", "Nor could so thank a wight, as he did me.", "His manner was a heaven for to see", "To any woman, were she ne'er so wise;", "So painted he and kempt, at point devise,", "As well his wordes as his countenance.", "And I so lov'd him for his obeisance,", "And for the truth I deemed in his heart,", "That, if so were that any thing him smart,", "All were it ne'er so lite, and I it wist,", "Methought I felt death at my hearte twist.", "And shortly, so farforth this thing is went,", "That my will was his wille's instrument;", "That is to say, my will obey'd his will", "In alle thing, as far as reason fill,", "Keeping the boundes of my worship ever;", "And never had I thing so lefe, or lever,", "As him, God wot, nor never shall no mo'.", "", "\"This lasted longer than a year or two,", "That I supposed of him naught but good.", "But finally, thus at the last it stood,", "That fortune woulde that he muste twin", "Out of that place which that I was in.", "Whe'er me was woe, it is no question;", "I cannot make of it description.", "For one thing dare I telle boldely,", "I know what is the pain of death thereby;", "Such harm I felt, for he might not byleve.", "So on a day of me he took his leave,", "So sorrowful eke, that I ween'd verily,", "That he had felt as muche harm as I,", "When that I heard him speak, and saw his hue.", "But natheless, I thought he was so true,", "And eke that he repaire should again", "Within a little while, sooth to sayn,", "And reason would eke that he muste go", "For his honour, as often happ'neth so,", "That I made virtue of necessity,", "And took it well, since that it muste be.", "As I best might, I hid from him my sorrow,", "And took him by the hand, Saint John to borrow,", "And said him thus; 'Lo, I am youres all;", "Be such as I have been to you, and shall.'", "What he answer'd, it needs not to rehearse;", "Who can say bet than he, who can do worse?", "When he had all well said, then had he done.", "Therefore behoveth him a full long spoon,", "That shall eat with a fiend; thus heard I say.", "So at the last he muste forth his way,", "And forth he flew, till he came where him lest.", "When it came him to purpose for to rest,", "I trow that he had thilke text in mind,", "That alle thing repairing to his kind", "Gladdeth himself; thus say men, as I guess;", "Men love of [proper] kind newfangleness,", "As birdes do, that men in cages feed.", "For though thou night and day take of them heed,", "And strew their cage fair and soft as silk,", "And give them sugar, honey, bread, and milk,", "Yet, right anon as that his door is up,", "He with his feet will spurne down his cup,", "And to the wood he will, and wormes eat;", "So newefangle be they of their meat,", "And love novelties, of proper kind;", "No gentleness of bloode may them bind.", "So far'd this tercelet, alas the day!", "Though he were gentle born, and fresh, and gay,", "And goodly for to see, and humble, and free,", "He saw upon a time a kite flee,", "And suddenly he loved this kite so,", "That all his love is clean from me y-go:", "And hath his trothe falsed in this wise.", "Thus hath the kite my love in her service,", "And I am lorn withoute remedy.\"", "", "And with that word this falcon gan to cry,", "And swooned eft in Canacee's barme", "Great was the sorrow, for that hawke's harm,", "That Canace and all her women made;", "They wist not how they might the falcon glade.", "But Canace home bare her in her lap,", "And softely in plasters gan her wrap,", "There as she with her beak had hurt herselve.", "Now cannot Canace but herbes delve", "Out of the ground, and make salves new", "Of herbes precious and fine of hue,", "To heale with this hawk; from day to night", "She did her business, and all her might.", "And by her bedde's head she made a mew,", "And cover'd it with velouettes blue,", "In sign of truth that is in woman seen;", "And all without the mew is painted green,", "In which were painted all these false fowls,", "As be these tidifes, tercelets, and owls;", "And pies, on them for to cry and chide,", "Right for despite were painted them beside.", "", "Thus leave I Canace her hawk keeping.", "I will no more as now speak of her ring,", "Till it come eft to purpose for to sayn", "How that this falcon got her love again", "Repentant, as the story telleth us,", "By mediation of Camballus,", "The kinge's son of which that I you told.", "But henceforth I will my process hold", "To speak of aventures, and of battailes,", "That yet was never heard so great marvailles.", "First I will telle you of Cambuscan,", "That in his time many a city wan;", "And after will I speak of Algarsife,", "How he won Theodora to his wife,", "For whom full oft in great peril he was,", "N'had he been holpen by the horse of brass.", "And after will I speak of Camballo,", "That fought in listes with the brethren two", "For Canace, ere that he might her win;", "And where I left I will again begin." ], "linecount": "695" }, { "title": "Saul", "author": "Robert Browning", "lines": [ "Said Abner, \"At last thou art come! Ere I tell, ere thou speak.", "Kiss my cheek, wish me well!\" Then I wished it, and did kiss his cheek.", "And he, \"Since the King, O my friend, for thy countenance sent,", "Neither drunken nor eaten have we; nor until from his tent", "Thou return with the joyful assurance the King liveth yet,", "Shall our lip with the honey be bright, with the water be wet.", "For out of the black mid-tent's silence, a space of three days,", "Not a sound hath escaped to thy servants, of prayer nor of praise,", "To betoken that Saul and the Spirit have ended their strife,", "And that, faint in his triumph, the monarch sinks back upon life.", "", "\"Yet now my heart leaps, O beloved! God's child with his dew", "On thy gracious gold hair, and those lilies still living and blue", "Just broken to twine round thy harp-strings, as if no wild heat", "Were now raging to torture the desert!\"", "", " Then I, as was meet,", "Knelt down to the God of my fathers, and rose on my feet,", "And ran o'er the sand burnt to powder. The tent was unlooped;", "I pulled up the spear that obstructed, and under I stooped;", "Hands and knees on the slippery grass-patch, all withered and gone,", "That extends to the second enclosure. I groped my way on", "Till I felt where the foldskirts fly open. Then once more I prayed,", "And opened the foldskirts and entered, and was not afraid", "But spoke, \"Here is David, thy servant!\" And no voice replied.", "At the first I saw naught but the blackness; but soon I descried", "A something more black than the blackness--the vast, the upright", "Main prop which sustains the pavilion: and slow into sight", "Grew a figure against it, gigantic and blackest of all.", "Then a sunbeam, that burst thro' the tent roof, showed Saul.", "", "He stood erect as that tent-prop, both arms stretched out wide", "On the great cross-support in the centre, that goes to each side;", "He relaxed not a muscle, but hung there as, caught in his pangs", "And waiting his change, the king serpent all heavily hangs,", "Far away from his kind, in the pine, till deliverance come", "With the spring-time,--so agonized Saul, drear and stark, blind and dumb.", "", "Then I tuned my harp,--took off the lilies we twine round its chords", "Lest they snap 'neath the stress of the noontide--those sunbeams like swords!", "And I first played the tune all our sheep know, as, one after one,", "So docile they come to the pen-door till folding be done.", "They are white and untorn by the bushes, for lo, they have fed", "Where the long grasses stifle the water within the stream's bed;", "And now one after one seeks its lodging, as star follows star", "Into eve and the blue far above us,--so, blue and so far!", "", "--Then the tune, for which quails on the cornland will each leave his mate", "To fly after the player; then, what makes the crickets elate", "Till for boldness they fight one another: and then, what has weight", "To set the quick jerboa a-musing outside his sand house--", "There are none such as he for a wonder, half bird and half mouse!", "God made all the creatures and gave them our love and our fear,", "To give sign, we and they are his children, one family here.", "", "Then I played the help-tune of our reapers, their wine-song, when hand", "Grasps at hand, eye lights eye in good friendship, and great hearts expand", "And grow one in the sense of this world's life.--And then, the last song", "When the dead man is praised on his journey--\"Bear, bear him along", "With his few faults shut up like dead flowerets!\" Are balm-seeds not here", "To console us? The land has none left such as he on the bier.", "\"Oh, would we might keep thee, my brother!\"--And then, the glad chaunt", "Of the marriage,--first go the young maidens, next, she whom we vaunt", "As the beauty, the pride of our dwelling.--And then, the great march", "Wherein man runs to man to assist him and buttress an arch", "Naught can break; who shall harm them, our friends?--Then, the chorus intoned", "As the Levites go up to the altar in glory enthroned.", "But I stopped here: for here in the darkness Saul groaned.", "", "And I paused, held my breath in such silence, and listened apart;", "And the tent shook, for mighty Saul shuddered: and sparkles 'gan dart", "From the jewels that woke in his turban, at once with a start,", "All its lordly male-sapphires, and rubies courageous at heart.", "So the head: but the body still moved not, still hung there erect.", "And I bent once again to my playing, pursued it unchecked,", "As I sang,--", "", " \"Oh, our manhood's prime vigor! No spirit feels waste,", "Not a muscle is stopped in its playing nor sinew unbraced.", "Oh, the wild joys of living! the leaping from rock up to rock,", "The strong rending of boughs from the fir-tree, the cool silver shock", "Of the plunge in a pool's living water, the hunt of the bear,", "And the sultriness showing the lion is couched in his lair.", "And the meal, the rich dates yellowed over with gold-dust divine,", "And the locust-flesh steeped in the pitcher, the full draught of wine,", "And the sleep in the dried river-channel where bulrushes tell", "That the water was wont to go warbling so softly and well.", "How good is man's life, the mere living! how fit to employ", "All the heart and the soul and the senses for ever in joy!", "Hast thou loved the white locks of thy father, whose sword thou didst guard", "When he trusted thee forth with the armies, for glorious reward?", "Didst thou see the thin hands of thy mother, held up as men sung", "The low song of the nearly departed, and hear her faint tongue", "Joining in while it could to the witness, 'Let one more attest,", "I have lived, seen God's hand thro' a lifetime, and all was for best!'", "Then they sung thro' their tears in strong triumph, not much, but the rest.", "And thy brothers, the help and the contest, the working whence grew", "Such result as, from seething grape-bundles, the spirit strained true:", "And the friends of thy boyhood--that boyhood of wonder and hope,", "Present promise and wealth of the future beyond the eye's scope,--", "Till lo, thou art grown to a monarch; a people is thine:", "And all gifts which the world offers singly, on one head combine!", "On one head, all the beauty and strength, love and rage (like the throe", "That, a-work in the rock, helps its labour and lets the gold go),", "High ambition and deeds which surpass it, fame crowning them,--all", "Brought to blaze on the head of one creature--King Saul!\"", "", "And lo, with that leap of my spirit,--heart, hand, harp, and voice,", "Each lifting Saul's name out of sorrow, each bidding rejoice", "Saul's fame in the light it was made for----as when, dare I say,", "The Lord's army, in rapture of service, strains thro' its array,", "And upsoareth the cherubim-chariot--\"Saul!\" cried I, and stopped,", "And waited the thing that should follow. Then Saul, who hung propped", "By the tent's cross-support in the centre, was struck by his name.", "Have ye seen when Spring's arrowy summons goes right to the aim,", "And some mountain, the last to withstand her, that held (he alone,", "While the vale laughed in freedom and flowers) on a broad bust of stone", "A year's snow bound about for a breastplate,--leaves grasp of the sheet?", "Fold on fold all at once it crowds thunderously down to his feet,", "And there fronts you, stark, black, but alive yet, your mountain of old,", "With his rents, the successive bequeathings of ages untold:", "Yea, each harm got in fighting your battles, each furrow and scar", "Of his head thrust 'twixt you and the tempest--all hail, there they are!", "--Now again to be softened with verdure, again hold the nest", "Of the dove, tempt the goat and its young to the green on his crest", "For their food in the ardours of summer. One long shudder thrilled.", "All the tent till the very air tingled, then sank and was stilled", "At the King's self left standing before me, released and aware.", "What was gone, what remained? All to traverse 'twixt hope and despair.", "Death was past, life not come; so he waited. Awhile his right hand", "Held the brow, helped the eyes left too vacant, forthwith to remand", "To their place what new objects should enter: 'twas Saul as before.", "I looked up, and dared gaze at those eyes, nor was hurt any more", "Than by slow pallid sunsets in autumn, ye watch from the shore,", "At their sad level gaze o'er the ocean--a sun's slow decline", "Over hills which, resolved in stern silence, o'erlap and entwine", "Base with base to knit strength more intensely: so, arm folded arm", "O'er the chest whose slow heavings subsided.", "", " What spell or what charm,", "(For, awhile there was trouble within me) what next should I urge", "To sustain him where song had restored, him? Song filled to the verge", "His cup with the wine of this life, pressing all that it yields", "Of mere fruitage, the strength and the beauty: beyond, on what fields", "Glean a vintage more potent and perfect to brighten the eye,", "And bring blood to the lip, and commend them the cup they put by?", "He saith, \"It is good:\" still he drinks not: he lets me praise life,", "Gives assent, yet would die for his own part.", "", " Then fancies grew rife", "Which had come long ago on the pasture, when round me the sheep", "Fed in silence--above, the one eagle wheeled slow as in sleep;", "And I lay in my hollow and mused on the world that might lie", "'Neath his ken, tho' I saw but the strip 'twixt the hill and the sky:", "And I laughed--\"Since my days are ordained to be passed with my flocks,", "Let me people at least, with my fancies, the plains and the rocks,", "Dream the life I am never to mix with, and image the show", "Of mankind as they live in those fashions I hardly shall know!", "Schemes of life, its best rules and right uses, the courage that gains,", "And the prudence that keeps what men strive for!\" And now these old trains", "Of vague thought came again; I grew surer; so, once more the string", "Of my harp made response to my spirit, as thus--", "", " \"Yea, my King,\"", "I began--\"thou dost well in rejecting mere comforts that spring", "From the mere mortal life held in common by man and by brute:", "In our flesh grows the branch of this life, in our soul it bears fruit.", "Thou hast marked the slow rise of the tree,--how its stem trembled first", "Till it passed the kid's lip, the stag's antler; then safely outburst", "The fan-branches all round; and thou mindest when these too, in turn", "Broke a-bloom and the palm-tree seemed perfect: yet more was to learn,", "E'en the good that comes in with the palm-fruit. Our dates shall we slight,", "When their juice brings a cure for all sorrow? or care for the plight", "Of the palm's self whose slow growth produced them? Not so! stem and branch.", "Shall decay, nor be known in their place, while the palm-wine shall staunch", "Every wound of man's spirit in winter. I pour thee such wine.", "Leave the flesh to the fate it was fit for! the spirit be thine!", "By the spirit, when age shall o'ercome thee, thou still shalt enjoy", "More indeed, than at first when, inconscious, the life of a boy.", "Crush that life, and behold its wine running! Each deed thou hast done", "Dies, revives, goes to work in the world; until e'en as the sun", "Looking down on the earth, tho' clouds spoil him, tho' tempests efface,", "Can find nothing his own deed produced not, must everywhere trace", "The results of his past summer-prime,--so, each ray of thy will.", "Every flash of thy passion and prowess, long over, shall thrill", "Thy whole people, the countless, with ardour, till they too give forth", "A like cheer to their sons: who in turn, fill the South and the North", "With the radiance thy deed was the germ of. Carouse in the past!", "But the license of age has its limit; thou diest at last.", "As the lion, when age dims his eyeball, the rose at her height,", "So with man--so his power and his beauty forever take flight.", "No! Again a long draught of my soul-wine! Look forth o'er the years!", "Thou hast done now with eyes for the actual; begin with the seer's!", "Is Saul dead? In the depth of the vale make his tomb--bid arise", "A gray mountain of marble heaped four-square, till, built to the skies,", "Let it mark where the great First King slumbers: whose fame would ye know?", "Up above see the rock's naked face, where the record shall go", "In great characters cut by the scribe,--Such was Saul, so he did;", "With the sages directing the work, by the populace chid,--", "For not half, they'll affirm, is comprised there! Which fault to amend,", "In the grove with his kind grows the cedar, whereon they shall spend", "(See, in tablets 'tis level before them) their praise, and record", "With the gold of the graver, Saul's story,--the statesman's great word.", "Side by side with the poet's sweet comment. The river's a-wave", "With smooth paper-reeds grazing each other when prophet-winds rave;", "So the pen gives unborn generations their due and their part", "In thy being! Then, first of the mighty, thank God that thou art!\"", "", "And behold while I sang ... but O Thou who didst grant me that day,", "And before it not seldom had granted Thy help to essay.", "Carry on and complete an adventure,--my shield and my sword", "In that act where my soul was Thy servant, Thy word was my word,--", "Still be with me, who then at the summit of human endeavour", "And scaling the highest, man's thought could, gazed hopeless as ever", "On the new stretch of heaven above me--till, mighty to save,", "Just one lift of Thy hand cleared that distance--God's throne from man's grave!", "Let me tell out my tale to its ending--my voice to my heart", "Which can scarce dare believe in what marvels last night I took part,", "As this morning I gather the fragments, alone with my sheep,", "And still fear lest the terrible glory evanish like sleep!", "For I wake in the gray dewy covert, while Hebron, upheaves", "The dawn struggling with night on his shoulder, and Kidron retrieves", "Slow the damage of yesterday's sunshine.", "", " I say then,--my song", "While I sang thus, assuring the monarch, and, ever more strong,", "Made a proffer of good to console him--he slowly resumed.", "His old motions and habitudes kingly. The right hand replumed", "His black locks to their wonted composure, adjusted the swathes", "Of his turban, and see--the huge sweat that his countenance bathes,", "He wipes off with the robe; and he girds now his loins as of yore,", "And feels slow for the armlets of price, with the clasp set before,", "He is Saul, ye remember in glory,--ere error had bent", "The broad brow from the daily communion; and still, tho' much spent", "Be the life and bearing that front you, the same, God did choose,", "To receive what a man may waste, desecrate, never quite lose.", "So sank he along by the tent-prop, till, stayed by the pile", "Of his armour and war-cloak and garments, he leaned there awhile,", "And sat out my singing,--one arm round the tent-prop, to raise", "His bent head, and the other hung slack--till I touched on the praise", "I foresaw from all men in all time, to the man patient there;", "And thus ended, the harp falling forward. Then first I was 'ware", "That he sat, as I say, with my head just above his vast knees", "Which were thrust out each side around me, like oak roots which please", "To encircle a lamb when it slumbers. I looked up to know", "If the best I could do had brought solace: he spoke not, but slow", "Lifted up the hand slack at his side, till he laid it with care", "Soft and grave, but in mild settled will, on my brow: thro' my hair", "The large fingers were pushed, and he bent back my head, with kind power--", "All my face back, intent to peruse it, as men do a flower.", "Thus held he me there with his great eyes that scrutinized mine--", "And oh, all my heart how it loved him! but where was the sign?", "I yearned--\"Could I help thee, my father, inventing a bliss,", "I would add, to that life of the past, both the future and this;", "I would give thee new life altogether, as good, ages hence.", "As this moment,--had love but the warrant, love's heart to dispense!\"", "", "Then the truth came upon me. No harp more--no song more! outbroke--", "", "\"I have gone the whole round of creation: I saw and I spoke;", "I, a work of God's hand for that purpose, received in my brain", "And pronounced on the rest of his handwork--returned him again", "His creation's approval or censure: I spoke as I saw,", "Reported, as man may of God's work--all's love, yet all's law.", "Now I lay down the judgeship he lent me. Each faculty tasked", "To perceive him has gained an abyss, where a dewdrop was asked.", "Have I knowledge? confounded it shrivels at Wisdom laid bare.", "Have I forethought? how purblind, how blank, to the Infinite Care!", "Do I task any faculty highest, to image success?", "I but open my eyes,--and perfection, no more and no less,", "In the kind I imagined, full-fronts me, and God is seen God", "In the star, in the stone, in the flesh, in the soul and the clod.", "And thus looking within and around me, I ever renew", "(With that stoop of the soul which in bending upraises it too)", "The submission of man's nothing-perfect to God's all complete,", "As by each new obeisance in spirit, I climb to His feet.", "Yet with all this abounding experience, this deity known,", "I shall dare to discover some province, some gift of my own,", "There's a faculty pleasant to exercise, hard to hoodwink,", "I am fain to keep still in abeyance (I laugh as I think),", "Lest, insisting to claim and parade in it, wot ye, I worst", "E'en the Giver in one gift.--Behold, I could love if I durst!", "But I sink the pretension as fearing a man may o'ertake", "God's own speed in the one way of love; I abstain for love's sake.", "--What, my soul? see thus far and no farther? when doors great and small,", "Nine-and-ninety flew ope at our touch; should the hundredth appal?", "In the least things have faith, yet distrust in the greatest of all?", "Do I find love so full in my nature, God's ultimate gift,", "That I doubt His own love can compete with it? Here, the parts shift?", "Here, the creature surpass the creator,--the end, what began?", "Would I fain in my impotent yearning do all for this man,", "And dare doubt He alone shall not help him, who yet alone can?", "Would it ever have entered my mind, the bare will, much less power,", "To bestow on this Saul what I sang of, the marvellous dower", "Of the life he was gifted and filled with? to make such a soul,", "Such a body, and then such an earth for insphering the whole?", "And doth it not enter my mind (as my warm tears attest),", "These good things being given, to go on, and give one more, the best?", "Ay, to save and redeem and restore him, maintain at the height", "This perfection,--succeed with life's dayspring, death's minute of night?", "Interpose at the difficult minute, snatch Saul the mistake,", "Saul the failure, the ruin he seems now,--and bid him awake", "From the dream, the probation, the prelude, to find himself set", "Clear and safe in new light and new life,--a new harmony yet", "To be run and continued, and ended--who knows?--or endure!", "The man taught enough by life's dream, of the rest to make sure;", "By the pain-throb, triumphantly winning intensified bliss,", "And the next world's reward and repose, by the struggles in this.", "", "\"I believe it! 'Tis Thou, God, that givest, 'tis I who receive;", "In the first is the last, in Thy will is my power to believe.", "All's one gift: Thou canst grant it, moreover, as prompt to my prayer,", "As I breathe out this breath, as I open these arms to the air.", "From Thy will stream the worlds, life and nature, Thy dread Sabaoth:", "_I_ will?--the mere atoms despise me! Why am I not loath", "To look that, even that in the face too? Why is it I dare", "Think but lightly of such impuissance? What stops my despair?", "This;--'tis not what man Does which exalts him, but what man Would do!", "See the King--I would help him, but cannot, the wishes fall through.", "Could I wrestle to raise him from sorrow, grow poor to enrich,", "To fill up his life, starve my own out, I would--knowing which,", "I know that my service is perfect. Oh, speak thro' me now!", "Would I suffer for him that I love? So wouldst Thou--so wilt Thou!", "So shall crown Thee the topmost, ineffablest, uttermost crown--", "And Thy love fill infinitude wholly, nor leave up nor down", "One spot for the creature to stand in! It is by no breath,", "Turn of eye, wave of hand, that salvation joins issue with death!", "As Thy love is discovered almighty, almighty be proved", "Thy power, that exists with and for it, of being Beloved!", "He who did most, shall bear most; the strongest shall stand the most weak,", "'Tis the weakness in strength, that I cry for! my flesh, that I seek", "In the Godhead! I seek and I find it, O Saul, it shall be", "A Face like my face that receives thee: a Man like to me,", "Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever: a Hand like this hand", "Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee! See the Christ stand!\"", "", "I know not too well how I found my way home in the night.", "There were witnesses, cohorts about me, to left and to right,", "Angels, powers, the unuttered, unseen, the alive, the aware:", "I repressed, I got thro' them as hardly, as stragglingly there,", "As a runner beset by the populace famished for news--", "Life or death. The whole earth was awakened, hell loosed with her crews;", "And the stars of night beat with emotion, and tingled and shot", "Out in fire the strong pain of pent knowledge: but I fainted not,", "For the Hand still impelled me at once and supported, suppressed", "All the tumult, and quenched it with quiet, and holy behest,", "Till the rapture was shut in itself, and the earth sank to rest.", "Anon at the dawn, all that trouble had withered from earth--", "Not so much, but I saw it die out in the day's tender birth;", "In the gathered intensity brought to the gray of the hills;", "In the shuddering forests' held breath; in the sudden wind-thrills;", "In the startled wild beasts that bore off, each with eye sidling still", "Though averted with wonder and dread; in the birds stiff and chill", "That rose heavily, as I approached them, made stupid with awe:", "E'en the serpent that slid away silent--he felt the new law.", "The same stared in the white humid faces upturned by the flowers;", "The same worked in the heart of the cedar and moved the vine-bowers;", "And the little brooks witnessing murmured, persistent and low.", "With their obstinate, all but hushed voices--\"E'en so, it is so!\"" ], "linecount": "341" } ]