Geoffrey Chaucer

“ Can keep a forest best of any man;
Now keep them well, for if ye will ye can.
Look well, that ye unto no vice assent,
Lest ye be damned for your wick' intent,
For whoso doth, a traitor is certain;
And take keep of that I shall you sayn;
Of alle treason, sov'reign pestilence
Is when a wight betrayeth innocence. ”

“ With alle temperance and patience,
With measure eke of bearing and array.
Discreet she was in answering alway,
Though she were wise as Pallas, dare I sayn;
Her faconde eke full womanly and plain,
No counterfeited termes hadde she
To seeme wise; but after her degree
She spake, and all her worde's more and less
Sounding in virtue and in gentleness.
Shamefast she was in maiden's shamefastness,
Constant in heart, and ever in business
To drive her out of idle sluggardy:
Bacchus had of her mouth right no mast'ry. ”

“ Do with your child your will, in Godde's name."
And with that word she prayed him full oft
That with his sword he woulde smite her soft;
And with that word, a-swoon again she fell.
Her father, with full sorrowful heart and fell,
Her head off smote, and by the top it hent,
And to the judge he went it to present,
As he sat yet in doom* in consistory.
And when the judge it saw, as saith the story,
He bade to take him, and to hang him fast.
But right anon a thousand people in thrast
To save the knight, for ruth and for pity
For knowen was the false iniquity. ”