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In a summer season , when softe was the sun |
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I shaped me in-to a shroud , as I a sheep were; |
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In habit as an hermit, unholy of works , |
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I went wide in this world , wonders to hear . |
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| 5 |
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But on a May morning on Malvern hills |
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Me befell a ferly, of fairy me thought. |
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I was weary forwandered and went me to rest |
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Under a broad bank be a burn's side ; |
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And as I lay and leaned and looked on the waters , |
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| 10 |
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I slumbered in a sleeping, it swayed so merry. |
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Thanne began I mete a marvelous sweven , |
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That I was in a wilderness , wist I never where; |
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Ac as I beheld the east , on high to the sun , |
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I saw a tower on a toft , truly ; |
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| 15 |
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A deep dale beneath , a dungeon there in , |
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With deep dikes and dark, and dreadful of sight . |
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A fair field full of folk found I there between , |
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Of all manner of men, the mean and the rich, |
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Working and wandering , as the world asks . |
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| 20 |
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Some put them to the plow , and played full seldom, |
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In setting and sowing swonke full hard |
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That many of these wasters with gluttony destroy . |
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And some put them to pride, apparelled them there after , |
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In countenance of clothing come disguised . |
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| 25 |
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In prayers and penance put them many , |
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All for love of our Lord lived full strait , |
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In hope for to have heaven-reich bliss , |
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As anchorites and hermits that hold them in their cells , |
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Covet not in country to carry about, |
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| 30 |
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For no lecherous livelihood their likam to please. |
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And some chose chaffare, they achieve the better , |
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As it seems to our sight that such men thrive . |
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And some mirths to make, as minstrels can , |
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And get gold with their glee, sinless, I trowe. |
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| 35 |
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Ac japers and janglers , Judas children , |
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Found them fantasies and fools them make , |
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And have wit at will to work if them list . |
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That Paul preaches of them I dare not prove it here: |
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Qui loquitur turpiloquium is Lucifer's hyne. |
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| 40 |
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Bidders and beggars fast about yede, |
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Till their bellies and their bags were bretful crammed ; |
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Fayteden for their food, fought at the ale; |
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In gluttony , God wot, go they to bed, |
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And rise up with ribaldry , those robber's knaves ; |
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| 45 |
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Sleep and sloth sues them ever. |
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Pilgrims and palmers plight them together |
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For to seek Saint James and saints at Rome; |
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Went forth in their way with many wise tales , |
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And had leave to lie all their life after . |
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| 50 |
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Hermits on an heap with hooked staves |
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Went to Walsingham, and their wenches after . |
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Great lubbers and long, that loath were to swink, |
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Clothed them in copes to be known from others; |
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Shaped them hermits, their ease to have. |
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| 55 |
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I found there friars , all the four orders , |
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Preaching the people for profit of their womb , |
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Glossed the gospel as them good liked , |
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| 60 |
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For coveting coveting of copes construed it as they would. |
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Many of these masters may clothe them at liking , |
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For their money and their merchandise meet together . |
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Since charity has been chapman, and chief to shrive lords, |
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Many ferlis have fallen in a few years ; |
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| 65 |
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But holy church and they hold better together , |
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The most mischief on mould is mounting up fast. |
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There preached a pardoner, as he a priest were, |
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Brought forth a bull with bishop's seals , |
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And said that him self might absolve absolve them all |
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| 70 |
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Of falseness of fasting and of vows broken . |
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Lewd men believed him well, and liked his speech, |
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Came up kneeling to kiss his bull ; |
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He bonked them with his brevet, and bleared their eyes , |
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And reached with his rageman rings and brooches . |
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| 75 |
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Thus ye give your gold gluttons to help , |
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And leave it losels that lechery haunt! |
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But were the bishop blessed and worth both his ears , |
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His seal should not be sent to deceive the people. |
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It is not all by the bishop that the boy preaches ; |
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| 80 |
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But the parish priest and the pardoner part the silver |
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That the poor people of the parish should have they not were. |
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Parsons and parish priests complained them to their bishop , |
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That their parish were poor since the pestilence time, |
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To have a licence and leave at London to dwell, |
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| 85 |
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To sing there for simony, for silver is sweet. |
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There houide an hundred in houvis of silk , |
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Sergeants , it seemed , that served at the bar; |
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Plead for pennies and pounds the law, |
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And nought for love of our Lord unloose their lips once. |
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| 90 |
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You might better mete the mist on Malvern hills |
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Than get a mum of their till money were showed . |
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I saw bishops bolde and bachelors of divine |
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Become clerks of accounts , the king for to serve ; |
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Archdeacons and deans , that dignity have |
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| 95 |
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To preach the people and poor men to feed, |
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Been loped to London , by leave of their bishops , |
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And be clerks of the king's bench, the country to shende . |
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Barons and burghers , and bondsmen also , |
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I saw in that assembly , as you shall hear after , |
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| 100 |
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Bakers and butchers , and brewers many , |
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Woolen websters , and weavers of linen , |
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Tailors and tuckers , and tollers both, |
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Masons and miners , and many other crafts , |
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As dikers and delvers , that do their deeds ill , |
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| 105 |
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And drive forth the long day with "Dieu save , dame Emme ." |
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Cooks and their knaves cry , "Hot pies, hot! |
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Good geese and gris , go dine, go !" |
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Taverners to them told the same, |
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With white wine of Alsace , and wine of Gascony, |
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| 110 |
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Of the Rhine and of the La Rochelle, the roast to defy . |
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All this I saw sleeping , and seven sithes more. |