Tuesday, May 29, 2007
(reading) from Geoffrey Chaucer * :
. . . Some saiden wommen loven best richesse; Some saide honour, some saide jolinesse; Some riche array, some saiden lust abedde, And ofte time to be widwe and wedde. Some saide that oure herte is most esed Whan that we been yflatered and yplesed-- He gooth ful neigh the soothe, I wol nat lie: A man shal winne us best with flaterye, And with attendance and with bisinesse Been we ylimed, bothe more and lesse.
And some sayen that we loven best For to be free, and do right as us lest, ANd that no man repreve us of oure vice, But saye that we be wise and no thing nice. For trewely, there is noon of us alle, If any wight wol clawe us on the galle, That we nil kike for he saith us sooth; Assaye and he shal finde it that so dooth. For be we nevere so vicious withinne, We wol be holden wise and clene of sinne. . . .
* The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, in _The Norton Anthology of Poetry_, eds Margaret Ferguson et al (New York, 2005) 60-61.
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