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“Ah!” quoth the Yeoman, “here shall rise a game;* *some diversion
All that I can anon I will you tell,
Since he is gone; the foule fiend him quell!* *destroy
For ne’er hereafter will I with him meet,
For penny nor for pound, I you behete.* *promise
He that me broughte first unto that game,
Ere that he die, sorrow have he and shame.
For it is earnest* to me, by my faith; *a serious matter
That feel I well, what so any man saith;
And yet for all my smart, and all my grief,
For all my sorrow, labour, and mischief,* *trouble
I coulde never leave it in no wise.
Now would to God my witte might suffice
To tellen all that longeth to that art!
But natheless yet will I telle part;
Since that my lord is gone, I will not spare;
Such thing as that I know, I will declare.”

Notes to the Prologue to the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale

1. “The introduction,” says Tyrwhitt, “of the Canon’s Yeoman to tell a Tale at a time when so many of the original characters remain to be called upon, appears a little extraordinary. It should seem that some sudden resentment had determined Chaucer to interrupt the regular course of his work, in order to insert a satire against the alchemists. That their pretended science was much cultivated about this time, and produced its usual evils, may fairly be inferred from the Act, which was passed soon after, 5 H. IV. c. iv., to make it felony ‘to multiply gold or silver, or to use the art of multiplication.'” Tyrwhitt finds in the prologue some colour for the hypothesis that this Tale was intended by Chaucer to begin the return journey from Canterbury; but against this must be set the fact that the Yeoman himself expressly speaks of the distance to Canterbury yet to be ridden.

2. Fully five mile: From some place which the loss of the Second Nun’s Prologue does not enable us to identify.

3. Peytrel: the breast-plate of a horse’s harness; French, “poitrail.”

4. A maile twyfold: a double valise; a wallet hanging across the crupper on either side of the horse.

5. Multiply: transmute metals, in the attempt to multiply gold and silver by alchemy.

6. “Conscius ipse sibi de se putat omnia dici” (“The conspirator believes that everything spoken refers to himself”) — “De Moribus,” I. i. dist. 17.

THE TALE
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 With this Canon I dwelt have seven year,
 

 And of his science am I ne'er the near*     *nearer
 

 All that I had I have lost thereby,
 

 And, God wot, so have many more than I.
 

 Where I was wont to be right fresh and gay
 

 Of clothing, and of other good array
 

 Now may I wear an hose upon mine head;
 

 And where my colour was both fresh and red,
 

 Now is it wan, and of a leaden hue
 

 (Whoso it useth, sore shall he it rue);
 

 And of my swink* yet bleared is mine eye;    *labour
 

 Lo what advantage is to multiply!
 

 That sliding* science hath me made so bare,   *slippery, deceptive
 

 That I have no good,* where that ever I fare;  *property
 

 And yet I am indebted so thereby
 

 Of gold, that I have borrow'd truely,
 

 That, while I live, I shall it quite* never;  *repay
 

 Let every man beware by me for ever.
 

 What manner man that casteth* him thereto,   *betaketh
 

 If he continue, I hold *his thrift y-do;*    *prosperity at an end*
 

 So help me God, thereby shall he not win,
 

 But empty his purse, and make his wittes thin.
 

 And when he, through his madness and folly,
 

 Hath lost his owen good through jupartie,*   *hazard <2>
 

 Then he exciteth other men thereto,
 

 To lose their good as he himself hath do'.
 

 For unto shrewes* joy it is and ease      *wicked folk
 

 To have their fellows in pain and disease.*   *trouble
 

 Thus was I ones learned of a clerk;
 

 Of that no charge;* I will speak of our work. *matter