For thou shalt for this synne dwelle "Mafay, thou liest falsly!" quod he.2 7580 "What? welcome, with myschaunce nowe ! Have I therfore i-herberd yowe To seye me shame, and eke reprove? Go, herber yow elles-where than heere, make? Two tregetours* art thou and he, "Thus seide I now, and have seid yore; I not 5 where he dide ony more. Why shulde men sey me such a thyng, I trowe I liede not of it, 7590 7600 1 The coarseness is English. Cf. Canterbury Tales, 1. 11,732 That is, Wikked-tonge. 3 Lodge. Tricksters. 5 Know not. And with my bemes 1 I wole blowe How he hath bothe comen and gone." 66 Tho spake Fals-semblant right anone, That men seyn in the towne aboute ; This knowe ye, sir, as wel as I, – 7610 That lovers gladly wole visiten The places there her loves habiten. 7620 "This man yow loveth and eke honoureth; This man to serve you laboureth ; Ye shulde hym sene so ofte, nede,3 1 Trumpets. Cf. Canterbury Tales, 1. 9010. 2 Coming. asarily. 7630 8 Nec That ye shulde take hym with the dede;1 "But trustith wel, I swere it yow, 8 Fulle soone were the rose hent, "And, sir, of o thing herkeneth me: Sith ye this man, that loveth yow, Han seid such harme and shame, now Ye may wel demen in youre wit, Or some man in some maner wise Or by hym-silf perceyven wele. For sith he myghte not come and gone He myght it sone wite and see; 7640 7650 7660 1 Legal term: "in the manner." 2 Pierced. 3 Suffereth for In spite of you. 5 Watch. FALSE-SEMBLANT SEEMETH GOOD. But now alle other wise wote he. 475 Thanne have ye, sir, al outerly Fals-semblant proveth so this thing, What counceil wole ye to me geven?" 7670 Ryght heere anoon thou shalt be shryven And sey thy synne withoute more; Of this shalt thou repente sore; "And, God wote, I have of thee 1 Inclination. 2 Power. 7680 7690 Ne half so lettred as am I. I am licenced boldely, In divinitie for to rede, And to confessen, out of drede. THE COURT OF LOVE.2 WITH tymeros hert and tremlyng hand of drede, Of cunning naked, bare of eloquence, 4 The blosmes fresshe of Tullius 3 garden soote Present them not, my matere for to borne : * Poemys of Virgile taken here no rote, Ne crafte of Galfride 5 may not here sojorne: ΙΟ 1 The version ends at line 12,563 of the French poem, leaving 9510 lines of the original untranslated. The scene above, cut short in the translation, ends thus in the original: Wikked-tunge kneels, Abstinence chokes him with a handkerchief twisted about his throat, causing his tongue to protrude, and this is immediately cut off by False-semblant. At the end of the poem the lover has obtained the Rose, for which he thanks Venus, Cupid, and all the barons who had helped him. Day then arrives, and the dreamer awakes from his sleep. 2 Mr. Skeat says that the original manuscript of this poem is now in the library of Trinity College, and that it was written at about 1500, the poem being more unlike Chaucer than any other attributed to him. 3 Cicero's. 4 Brighten. Geoffrey de Vinsauf, author of a work on poetry. |