Geoffrey Chaucer

“ Said on a day betwixt them two right thus:
'A lord is lost, if he be vicious.
[An irous man is like a frantic beast,
In which there is of wisdom none arrest;]
And drunkenness is eke a foul record
Of any man, and namely of a lord.
There is full many an eye and many an ear
Awaiting on a lord, he knows not where.
For Godde's love, drink more attemperly:
Wine maketh man to lose wretchedly
His mind, and eke his limbes every one.'
'The reverse shalt thou see,' quoth he, 'anon,
And prove it by thine own experience,
That wine doth to folk no such offence. ”

“ Nor make thou thine acquaintance for to flee.'
And yet, Thomas, eftsoonee charge I thee,
Beware from ire that in thy bosom sleeps,
Ware from the serpent, that so slily creeps
Under the grass, and stingeth subtilly.
Beware, my son, and hearken patiently,
That twenty thousand men have lost their lives
For striving with their lemans and their wives.
Now since ye have so holy and meek a wife,
What needeth you, Thomas, to make strife?
There is, y-wis, no serpent so cruel,
When men tread on his tail nor half so fell,
As woman is, when she hath caught an ire ”

“ That women mighte wade it over all.
Lo, what said he, that so well teache can,
'Be thou no fellow to an irous man,
Nor with no wood man walke by the way,
Lest thee repent;' I will no farther say.
"Now, Thomas, leve brother, leave thine ire,
Thou shalt me find as just as is as squire;
Hold not the devil's knife aye at thine heaat;
Thine anger doth thee all too sore smart ”

“ To trentals, <1> and to give, for Godde's sake,
Wherewith men mighte holy houses make,
There as divine service is honour'd,
Not there as it is wasted and devour'd,
Nor where it needeth not for to be given,
As to possessioners, <2> that may liven,
Thanked be God, in wealth and abundance.
"Trentals," said he, "deliver from penance
Their friendes' soules, as well old as young,
Yea, when that they be hastily y-sung, --
Not for to hold a priest jolly and gay,
He singeth not but one mass in a day. ”

“ He served them with nifles and with fables. --
"Nay, there thou liest, thou Sompnour," quoth the Frere.
"Peace," quoth our Host, "for Christe's mother dear;
Tell forth thy tale, and spare it not at all."
"So thrive I," quoth this Sompnour, "so I shall." --
So long he went from house to house, till he
Came to a house, where he was wont to be
Refreshed more than in a hundred places
Sick lay the husband man, whose that the place is,
Bed-rid upon a couche low he lay:
"Deus hic," quoth he; "O Thomas friend, good day,"
Said this friar, all coureously and soft. ”

“ And in his heart he rolled up and down,
"How had this churl imaginatioun
To shewe such a problem to the frere.
Never ere now heard I of such mattere;
I trow the Devil put it in his mind.
In all arsmetrik shall there no man find,
Before this day, of such a question.
Who shoulde make a demonstration,
That every man should have alike his part
As of the sound and savour of a fart?
O nice proude churl, I shrew his face.
Lo, Sires," quoth the lord, "with harde grace,
Who ever heard of such a thing ere now?
To every man alike? tell me how.
It is impossible, it may not be. ”