Geoffrey Chaucer

“ And hardily they durste lay their neck,
The miller should not steal them half a peck
Of corn by sleight, nor them by force bereave
And at the last the warden give them leave:
John hight the one, and Alein hight the other,
Of one town were they born, that highte Strother,
Far in the North, I cannot tell you where. ”

“ For all his art: yea, let them go their way!
Lo where they go! yea, let the children play:
They get him not so lightly, by my crown."
These silly clerkes runnen up and down
With "Keep, keep; stand, stand; jossa, warderere.
Go whistle thou, and I shall keep him here."
But shortly, till that it was very night
They coulde not, though they did all their might,
Their capel catch, he ran alway so fast:
Till in a ditch they caught him at the last.
Weary and wet, as beastes in the rain,
Comes silly John, and with him comes Alein.
"Alas," quoth John, "the day that I was born! ”

“ The greatest clerks are not the wisest men,
As whilom to the wolf thus spake the mare:
Of all their art ne count I not a tare."
Out at the door he went full privily,
When that he saw his time, softely.
He looked up and down, until he found
The clerkes' horse, there as he stood y-bound
Behind the mill, under a levesell:
And to the horse he went him fair and well,
And stripped off the bridle right anon.
And when the horse was loose, he gan to gon
Toward the fen, where wilde mares run,
Forth, with "Wehee!" through thick and eke through thin. ”

“ Lo here is Deptford, and 'tis half past prime:
Lo Greenwich, where many a shrew is in.
It were high time thy tale to begin."
"Now, sirs," quoth then this Osewold the Reeve,
I pray you all that none of you do grieve,
Though I answer, and somewhat set his hove,
For lawful is force off with force to shove. ”

“ And therefore is I come, and eke Alein,
To grind our corn and carry it home again:
I pray you speed us hence as well ye may."
"It shall be done," quoth Simkin, "by my fay.
What will ye do while that it is in hand?"
"By God, right by the hopper will I stand,"
Quoth John, "and see how that the corn goes in.
Yet saw I never, by my father's kin,
How that the hopper wagges to and fro."
Alein answered, "John, and wilt thou so? ”

“ She said; "Alas! your horse went to the fen
With wilde mares, as fast as he could go.
Unthank come on his hand that bound him so
And his that better should have knit the rein."
"Alas!" quoth John, "Alein, for Christes pain
Lay down thy sword, and I shall mine also.
I is full wight, God wate, as is a roe.
By Godde's soul he shall not scape us bathe.
Why n' had thou put the capel* in the lathe?
Ill hail, Alein, by God thou is a fonne."
These silly clerkes have full fast y-run
Toward the fen, both Alein and eke John ”

“ But did his note, and with these clerkes play'd,
Till that their corn was fair and well y-ground.
And when the meal was sacked and y-bound,
Then John went out, and found his horse away,
And gan to cry, "Harow, and well-away!
Our horse is lost: Alein, for Godde's bones,
Step on thy feet; come off, man, all at once:
Alas! our warden has his palfrey lorn."
This Alein all forgot, both meal and corn ”

“ Saving a child that was of half year age,
In cradle it lay, and was a proper page.
This wenche thick and well y-growen was,
With camuse nose, and eyen gray as glass;
With buttocks broad, and breastes round and high ”

“ With wheat and malt, of all the land about;
And namely* there was a great college
Men call the Soler Hall at Cantebrege,
There was their wheat and eke their malt y-ground.
And on a day it happed in a stound,
Sick lay the manciple* of a malady,
Men weened wisly that he shoulde die. ”