Page:The Canterbury Tales and Faerie Queene.djvu/171

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THE MONK'S TALE.
157
And is y-fallen out of high degree In misery, and endeth wretchedly. And they be versifiëd commonly Of six feet, which men call heximetron; In prose eke be indited many a one, And eke in metre, in many a sundry wise, Lo, this declaring ought enough suffice. Now hearken, if ye like for to hear. But first I you beseech in this mattere. Though I by order telle not these things, Be it of popes, emperors, or kings, After their ages,[1] as men written find, But tell them some before and some behind, As it now Cometh to my remembrance, Have me excused of mine ignorance."
THE TALE.[2]
I will bewail, in manner of tragedy, The harm of them that stood in high degree, And fellë so, that there was no reme'dy To bring them out of their adversity. For, certain, when that Fortune list to flee. There may no man the course of her wheel hold: Let no man trust in blind prosperity; Beware by these examples true and old.
At Lucifer, though he an angel were. And not a man, at him I will begin. For though Fortflne may no angel dere,[3]From high degree yet fell he for his sin Down into hell, where as he yet is in. O Lucifer! brightest of angels all, Now art thou Satanas, that may'st not twin[4]Out of the misery in which thou art fall.
Lo Adam, in the field of Damascene[5]With Godde's owen finger wrought was he. And not begotten of man's sperm unclean; And welt[6] all Paradise saving one tree: Had never worldly man so high degree As Adam, till he for misgovemance[7]Was driven out of his prosperity To labour, and to hell, and to mischance.
Lo Sampson, which that was annunciate By the angel, long ere his nativity[8]And was to God Almighty consecrate. And stood in nobless while that he might see; Was never such another as was he, To speak of strength, and thereto hardiness;[9]But to his wives told he his secré. Through which he slew himself for wretchedness. Sampson, this noble and mighty champifin, Withouté weapon, save his handës tway. He slew and all to-rentë[10] the lión,
Toward his wedding walking by the way. His falsë wife could him so please, and pray, Till she his counsel knew; and she, untrue, Unto his foes his counsel gan bewray, And him forsook, and took another new.  Three hundred foxes Sampson took for ire. And all their tailes he together band. And set the foxes' tailës all on fire, For he in every tail had knit a brand, And they burnt all the corn{subst:e:

s of that land.

And all their olivéres [11] and vines eke. A thousand men he slew eke with his hand. And had no weapon but an ass's cheek.

When they were slain, so thirsted him, that he

Was well-nigh lorn,[12] for which he gan to pray That God would on his pain have some pity. And send him drink, or elles must he die; And of this ass's cheek, that was so dry. Out of a wang-tooth[13] sprang anon a weU, Of which he drank enough, shortly to say. Thus help'd him God, as Judicum[14] can tell.

By very force, at Gaza, on a night,

Maugré the Philistines of that city, The gates of the town he hath up plight,[15] And on his back y-carried them hath he High on an hill, where as men might them see. O noble mighty Sampson, lese[16] and dear, Hadst thou not told to women thy secré, In all this world there had not been thy peer.

This Sampson never cider drank nor wine,

Nor on his head came razor none nor shear, By precept of the messenger divine; For all his strengths in his halves were; And fully twenty winters, year by year, He had of Israel the governance; But soone shall he weepë many a tear, For women shall him bringe to mischance.

Unto his leman[17] Dalila[18] he told.

That in his haires all his strengths lay; And falsely to his f oemen she him sold. And sleeping in her barme[19] upon a day She made to clip or shear his hair away, And made his foemen all his craft espien. And when they founde him in this array, They bound him fast, and put out both his eyen.

But, ere his hair was clipped or y-shave,

There was no bond with which men might him bind; But now is he in prison in a cave. Where as they made him at the querne[20] grind. noble Sampson, strongest of mankind! O whiom judge in glory and richess! Now may'st thou weepe with thine eyen blind. Since thou from weal art fall'n to wretchedness. }}

  1. ↑ According to the dates at which they lived.
  2. ↑ The Monk's Tale is founded in its main features on Boccaccio's work, "De Casibus Vironim Illustrium;" but Chaucer has taken the separate stories of which it is composed from different authors, and dealt with them after his own fashion.
  3. ↑ Hurt.
  4. ↑ Depart.
  5. ↑ Boccaccio opens his book with Adam, whose story is told at much greater length than here. Lydgate, in his translation from Boccaccio, speaks of Adam and Eve as made "of slime of the erth in Damascene the felde."
  6. ↑ Wielded, had at his command.
  7. ↑ Misbehaviour.
  8. ↑ Judges xiii. 3. Boccaccio also tells the story of Samson; but Chaucer seems, by his quotation a few lines below, to have taken his version direct from the sacred book.
  9. ↑ Courage.
  10. ↑ Tore all to pieces. .
  11. ↑ Olive trees; French, "oliviers."
  12. ↑ Was near to perishing,
  13. ↑ Cheek-tooth.
  14. ↑ "Liber Judicum," the Book of Judges ; chap. xv.
  15. ↑ Plucked, wrenched.
  16. ↑ Loved.
  17. ↑ Mistress.
  18. ↑ Chaucer writes it "Dalida."
  19. ↑ Lap.
  20. ↑ Mill J from Anglo-Saxon, " cyrran," to turn, " cworn," a mill.
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