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THE PROLOGUE.

 

 "No more of this, for Godde's dignity!"
 

 Quoth oure Hoste; "for thou makest me
 

 So weary of thy very lewedness,*      *stupidity, ignorance <1>
 

 That, all so wisly* God my soule bless,       *surely
 

 Mine eares ache for thy drafty* speech.      *worthless <2>
 

 Now such a rhyme the devil I beteche:*        *commend to
 

 This may well be rhyme doggerel," quoth he.
 

 "Why so?" quoth I; "why wilt thou lette* me     *prevent
 

 More of my tale than any other man,
 

 Since that it is the best rhyme that I can?"*    *know
 

 "By God!" quoth he, "for, plainly at one word,
 

 Thy drafty rhyming is not worth a tord:
 

 Thou dost naught elles but dispendest* time.    *wastest
 

 Sir, at one word, thou shalt no longer rhyme.
 

 Let see whether thou canst tellen aught *in gest,*  *by way of
 

 Or tell in prose somewhat, at the least,       narrative*
 

 In which there be some mirth or some doctrine."
 

 "Gladly," quoth I, "by Godde's sweete pine,*     *suffering
 

 I will you tell a little thing in prose,
 

 That oughte like* you, as I suppose,         *please
 

 Or else certes ye be too dangerous.*         *fastidious
 

 It is a moral tale virtuous,
 

 *All be it* told sometimes in sundry wise      *although it be*
 

 By sundry folk, as I shall you devise.
 

 As thus, ye wot that ev'ry Evangelist,
 

 That telleth us the pain* of Jesus Christ,      *passion
 

 He saith not all thing as his fellow doth;
 

 But natheless their sentence is all soth,*      *true
 

 And all accorden as in their sentence,*       *meaning
 

 All be there in their telling difference;
 

 For some of them say more, and some say less,
 

 When they his piteous passion express;
 

 I mean of Mark and Matthew, Luke and John;
 

 But doubteless their sentence is all one.
 

 Therefore, lordinges all, I you beseech,
 

 If that ye think I vary in my speech,
 

 As thus, though that I telle somedeal more
 

 Of proverbes, than ye have heard before
 

 Comprehended in this little treatise here,
 

 *T'enforce with* the effect of my mattere,      *with which to
 

 And though I not the same wordes say         enforce*
 

 As ye have heard, yet to you all I pray
 

 Blame me not; for as in my sentence
 

 Shall ye nowhere finde no difference
 

 From the sentence of thilke* treatise lite,**    *this **little
 

 After the which this merry tale I write.
 

 And therefore hearken to what I shall say,
 

 And let me tellen all my tale, I pray."