Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: The Clerk's Tale, Part Five (A Minimalist Translation) Poem by Forrest Hainline

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: The Clerk's Tale, Part Five (A Minimalist Translation)

Among all this, after his wicked usage,
This marquis, yet his wife to tempt more
To the utmost proof of her corage,
Fully to have experience and lore
If that she were as steadfast as before,
He on a day in open audience
Full boisterously hath said her this sentence:

"Certes, Griselda, I had enough pleasance
To have you to my wife for your goodness,
As for your truth and for your obeisance
Not for your lineage, nor for your riches;
But now know I in very soothfastness
That in great lordship, if I well avise,
There is great servitude in sundry wise.

"I may not do as every plowman may.
My people me constraineth for to take
Another wife, and cry out day by day;
And eek the pope, rancor for to slake,
Consenteth it -that dare I undertake-
And truly thus much I will you say:
My new wife is coming by the way.

"Be strong of heart, and void anon her place;
And that dower that you brought me,
Take it again; I grant it of my grace.
Returneth to your father's house, " said he;
"No one may always have prosperity.
With even heart I rede you to endure
The stroke of Fortune or of adventure."

And she again answered in patience:
"My lord, " said she, "I woot, and wist alway,
How betwixt your magnificence
And my poverty no wight can nor may
Make comparison; it is no nay.
I ne held me never digne in no manner
To be your wife, no, nor your chamberer.

"And in this house, there you me lady made -
The high God take I for my witness,
And also wisely he my soul glade-
I never held me lady nor mistress,
But humble servant to your worthiness,
And ever shall, while that my life may dure,
Above every worldly creature.

"That you so long of your benignity
Have held me in honor and nobility,
Whereas I was not worthy for to be,
That thank I God and you, to whom I pray
Foryelde it you; there is no more to say.
Unto my father gladly will I wend,
And with him dwell unto my life's end.

"Where I was fostered of a child full small,
Til I be dead my life there will I lead,
A widow clean in body, heart, and all.
For since I gave to you my maidenhead,
And am your true wife, there is no dread,
God shield such a lord's wife to take
Another man to husband or to make!

"And of your new wife God of his grace
So grant you weal and prosperity!
For I will gladly yield her my place,
In which that I was blissful wont to be.
For since it liketh you, my lord, " said she,
"That whilom were all my heart's rest,
That I shall go, I will go when you lest.

"But there as you me proffer such dower
As I first brought, it is well in my mind
It were my wretched clothes, nothing fair,
The which to me were hard now for to find.
O good God! How gentle and how kind
You seemed by your speech and your visage
The day that maked was our marriage!

"But sooth is said -algate I find it true,
For in fact it is proved is on me -
Love is not old as when that it is new.
But certes, lord, for no adversity,
To die in the case, it shall not be
That ever in word or work I shall repent
That I you gave my heart in whole intent.

"My lord, you woot that in my father's place
You did me stripped out of my poor weed,
And richly me clad, of your grace.
To you I brought naught else, out of dread,
But faith, and nakedness, and maidenhead;
And here again your clothing I restore,
And eek your wedding ring, for evermore.

"The remnant of your jewels ready be
Inwith your chamber, dare I safely say.
Naked out of my father's house, " said she,
"I came, and naked must I turn again.
All your pleasance will I follow fain;
But yet I hope it be not your intent
That I smockless out of your palace went.

"You could not do so dishonest a thing,
That that womb in which your children lay
Should before the people, in my walking,
Be seen all bare; wherefore I you pray,
Let me not like a worm go by the way.
Remember you, my own lord so dear,
I was your wife, though I unworthy were.

"Wherefore, in guerdon of my maidenhead,
Which that I brought, and naught again I bear,
As vouch safe to give me, to my meed,
But such a smock as I was wont to wear,
That I therewith may wreigh the womb of her
That was your wife. And here take I my leave
Of you, my own lord, lest I you grieve."

"The smock, " said he, "that thou hast on thy back,
Let it be still, and bear it forth with thee."
But well uneath that word he spak,
But went his way, for ruth and for pity.
Before the folk herself strips she,
And in her smock, with head and foot all bare,
Toward her father's house forth is she fare.

The folk her follow, weeping in their way,
And Fortune aye they curse as they go on;
But she from weeping kept her eyes dry,
Ne in this time word ne she spoke none..
Her father, that this tiding heard anon,
Curseth the day and time that Nature
Shaped him to be a live creature.

For out of doubt this old poor man
Was ever in suspect of her marriage;
For ever he deemed, since that it began,
That when the lord fulfilled had his corage,
Him would think it were a disparage
To his estate so low for to alight,
And void her as soon as ever he might.

Against his daughter hastily goes he,
For he by noise of folk knew her coming,
And with her old coat, as it might be
He covered her, full sorrowfully weeping.
But on her body might he it not bring,
For rude was the cloth, and more of age
By days fele than at her marriage.

Thus with her father for a certain space
Dwelleth this flower of wifely patience,
That neither by her words nor her face,
Before the folk, nor eek in their absence,
Nor showed she that her was done offence;
Nor of her high estate no remembrance
Nor had she, as by her countenance.

No wonder is, for in her great estate
Her ghost was ever in plain humility;
No tender mouth, no heart delicate,
No pomp, no semblance of royalty,
But full of patient benignity,
Discreet and pride, aye honorable,
And to her husband ever meek and stable.

Men speak of Job, and mostly for his humbleness,
As clerks, when they list, can well endite,
Namely of men, but in soothfastness,
Though clerks praise women but a lite,
There can no man in humbleness acquite
As woman can, nor can be half so true
As women be, but it be fall of new.

© 2020
Forrest Hainline