Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Just this:

Thou seyst, men may nat kepe a castel-wal;
It may so longe assailled been over-al.

-Chaucer
Oh wife of Bath, you are a silly and terrible lady.



We wommen han, if that I shal nat lye,
In this matere a quentye fantasye;
Wayte what thing we may nat lightly have,
Ther-after wol we crye al-day and crave.
Forbede us thing, and that desyren we;
Prees on us faste, and thanne wol we flee.


--


Allas! allas! that ever love was sinne!
I folwed ay myn inclinacioun
By vertu of my constellacioun;
That made me I coude nought withdrawe
My chambre of Venus from a good felawe.
Yet have I Martes mark up-on my face,
And also in another privee place.
For, god so wis be my savacioun,
I ne loved never by no discrecioun,
But ever folwede myn appetyt,
Al were he short or long, or black or whyt:
I took no kepe, so that he lkyed me,
How pore he was, ne eek of what degree.



-Chaucer