"By this gaude have I wonne, yeer by yeer, An hundred mark sith I was Pardoner. I stonde lyk a clerk in my pulpet, And whan the lewed 1 peple is doun yset, Of avarice and of swich cursednesse To 8 geven hir pens, and namely un-to me ; For myn entente is nat but for to wynne, And no thyng for correccioun of synne. I rekke nevere whan that they been beryed, Though that hir soules 'goon a blakeberyed ;' For certes many a predicacioun Comth ofte tyme of yvel entencioun ; Som for plesaunce of folk and flaterye, To been avaunced by ypocrisye ; 9481 And som for veyne glorie, and som for hate, For whan I dar noon oother weyes debate, Thanne wol I stynge hym with my tonge smerte In prechyng, so that he shal nat asterte 5 1 Lay, ignorant. 2 Briskly. 3 Especially. For construction, cf. l. 10,396, 16,356. Escape 4 Where it may be "THOUGH MY-SELF BE GILTY." 399 Hath trespased to my bretheren or to me ; Thus kan I preche agayn that same vice 9501 Of olde stories longe tyme agoon, 9510 For lewed peple loven tales olde, holde. What! trowe ye the whiles I may preche, 1 Requite, pay. 2 Separate. 9520 I wol nat do no labour with myne handes, "Youre likyng is that I shal telle a tale. Heere bigynneth The Pardoners Tale. In Flaundres whilom was a compaignye Of yonge folk, that haunteden folye, 4 As riot, hasard, stywes and tavernes, 1 As Egyptian monks once did. 2 Die. 3 Three stories similar that of the Pardoner were reprinted by the Chaucer Society in 1875: Christ and his Disciples, from the Cento Novelle Antiche The Hermit, Death, and the Robbers, from another edition of the same; and The Treasure in the Tiber, from Morlinus. ⚫nented. 5 Guitars. 4 Fre THEY LAUGHED AT SIN. 401 They daunce and pleyen at dees,1 bothe day and nyght, 9541 And eten also, and drynken over hir myght, Thurgh which they doon the devel sacrifise With-inne that develes temple, in cursed wise, By superfluytee abhomynable. (12,405 T.) Hir othes been so grete and so dampnable That it is grisly 2 for to heere hem swere; Oure blissed Lordes body 3 they to-tere; 8 Hem thoughte that Jewes rente hym noght ynough, And ech of hem at otheres synne lough; 955° And right anon thanne comen tombesteres * 5 Fetys and smale, and yonge frutesteres, Syngeres with harpes, baudes, wafereres," 9 1 Dice. 2 Frightful. 8 For such oaths, cf. Il 9725, 9728, and 18,835. Women tumblers. Women selling fruit. 7 Women selling wafers. Knew not. 10 Command. 6047, 9362, 9388, Nice, graceful. • Unnaturally. Seneca seith a good word, doutelees;1 cause first of oure confusioun ; O original of oure darpnacioun ; 9570 Til Crist hadde boght us with his blood agayn! Aboght was thilke cursed vileynye; He was in Paradys, and whan that he Of his diete, sittynge at his table! 9580 9590 Allas! the shorte throte, the tendre mouth, Maketh that est and west, and north and south, In erthe, in eir, in water, man to swynke 1 In faith. 2 Atoned for. 8 Without doubt. sontra Jovinianum (St Jerome). Forbidden. 6 In Hieronymus d Work. |