The Pardoner
|
|
![]() |
He and a gentle Pardoner rode together, |
690 | A bird from Charing Cross of the same feather, |
![]() |
Just back from visiting the Court of Rome. |
![]() |
He loudly sang “Come hither, love, come home!” |
![]() |
The Summoner sang deep seconds° to this song, |
![]() |
No trumpet ever sounded half so strong. |
695 | This Pardoner had hair as yellow as wax, |
![]() |
Hanging down smoothly like a hank of flax. |
![]() |
In driblets fell his locks behind his head |
![]() |
Down to his shoulders which they overspread; |
![]() |
Thinly they fell, like rat-tails, one by one. |
700 | He wore no hood upon his head, for fun; |
![]() |
The hood inside his wallet had been stowed, |
![]() |
He aimed at riding in the latest mode; |
![]() |
But for a little cap his head was bare |
![]() |
And he had bulging eye-balls, like a hare. |
705 | He’d sewed a holy relic° on his cap; |
![]() |
His wallet lay before him on his lap, |
![]() |
Brimful of pardons° come from Rome, all hot. |
![]() |
He had the same small voice a goat has got. |
![]() |
His chin no beard had harbored, nor would harbor, |
710 | Smoother than ever chin was left by barber. |
![]() |
I judge he was a gelding, or a mare. |
![]() |
As to his trade, from Berwick down to Ware |
![]() |
There was no pardoner of equal grace, |
![]() |
For in his trunk he had a pillow-case |
715 | Which he asserted was Our Lady’s veil. |
![]() |
He said he had a gobbet° of the sail |
![]() |
Saint Peter had the time when he made bold |
![]() |
To walk the waves, till Jesu Christ took hold. |
![]() |
He had a cross of metal set with stones |
720 | And, in a glass, a rubble of pigs’ bones. |
![]() |
And with these relics, any time he found |
![]() |
Some poor up-country parson to astound, |
![]() |
In one short day, in money down, he drew |
![]() |
More than the parson in a month or two, |
725 | And by his flatteries and prevarication° |
![]() |
Made monkeys of the priest and congregation. |
![]() |
But still to do him justice first and last |
![]() |
In church he was a noble ecclesiast.° |
![]() |
How well he read a lesson or told a story! |
730 | But best of all he sang an Offertory,° |
![]() |
For well he knew that when that song was sung |
![]() |
He’d have to preach and tune his honey-tongue |
![]() |
And (well he could) win silver from the crowd. |
![]() |
That’s why he sang so merrily and loud. |
735 | Now I have told you shortly, in a clause, |
![]() |
The rank, the array, the number, and the cause |
![]() |
Of our assembly in this company |
![]() |
In Southwark, at that high-class hostelry |
![]() |
Known as The Tabard, close beside The Bell. |
740 | And now the time has come for me to tell |
![]() |
How we behaved that evening; I’ll begin |
![]() |
After we had alighted at the Inn, |
![]() |
Then I’ll report our journey, stage by stage, |
![]() |
All the remainder of our pilgrimage. |
745 | But first I beg of you, in courtesy, |
![]() |
Not to condemn me as unmannerly |
![]() |
If I speak plainly and with no concealings |
![]() |
And give account of all their words and dealings, |
![]() |
Using their very phrases as they fell. |
750 | For certainly, as you all know so well, |
![]() |
He who repeats a tale after a man |
![]() |
Is bound to say, as nearly as he can, |
![]() |
Each single word, if he remembers it, |
![]() |
However rudely spoken or unfit, |
755 | Or else the tale he tells will be untrue, |
![]() |
The things pretended and the phrases new. |
![]() |
He may not flinch although it were his brother, |
![]() |
He may as well say one word as another. |
![]() |
And Christ Himself spoke broad in Holy Writ, |
760 | Yet there is no scurrility° in it, |
![]() |
And Plato says, for those with power to read, |
![]() |
“The word should be as cousin to the deed.” |
![]() |
Further I beg you to forgive it me |
![]() |
If I neglect the order and degree |
765 | And what is due to rank in what I’ve planned. |
![]() |
I’m short of wit as you will understand. |