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