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“This worthy Clerk when ended was his tale,
Our Hoste said, and swore by cocke’s bones
‘Me lever were than a barrel of ale
My wife at home had heard this legend once;
This is a gentle tale for the nonce;
As, to my purpose, wiste ye my will.
But thing that will not be, let it be still.'”

In other manuscripts of less authority the Host proceeds, in two similar stanzas, to impose a Tale on the Franklin; but Tyrwhitt is probably right in setting them aside as spurious, and in admitting the genuineness of the first only, if it be supposed that Chaucer forgot to cancel it when he had decided on another mode of connecting the Merchant’s with the Clerk’s Tale.

2. Saint Thomas of Ind: St. Thomas the Apostle, who was believed to have travelled in India.

THE TALE

 

 Whilom there was dwelling in Lombardy
 

 A worthy knight, that born was at Pavie,
 

 In which he liv'd in great prosperity;
 

 And forty years a wifeless man was he,
 

 And follow'd aye his bodily delight
 

 On women, where as was his appetite,
 

 As do these fooles that be seculeres.<2>
 

 And, when that he was passed sixty years,
 

 Were it for holiness, or for dotage,
 

 I cannot say, but such a great corage*          *inclination
 

 Hadde this knight to be a wedded man,
 

 That day and night he did all that he can
 

 To espy where that he might wedded be;
 

 Praying our Lord to grante him, that he
 

 Mighte once knowen of that blissful life
 

 That is betwixt a husband and his wife,
 

 And for to live under that holy bond
 

 With which God firste man and woman bond.
 

 "None other life," said he, "is worth a bean;
 

 For wedlock is so easy, and so clean,
 

 That in this world it is a paradise."
 

 Thus said this olde knight, that was so wise.
 

 And certainly, as sooth* as God is king,             *true
 

 To take a wife it is a glorious thing,
 

 And namely* when a man is old and hoar,          *especially
 

 Then is a wife the fruit of his treasor;
 

 Then should he take a young wife and a fair,
 

 On which he might engender him an heir,
 

 And lead his life in joy and in solace;*        *mirth, delight
 

 Whereas these bachelors singen "Alas!"
 

 When that they find any adversity
 

 In love, which is but childish vanity.
 

 And truely it sits* well to be so,           *becomes, befits
 

 That bachelors have often pain and woe:
 

 On brittle ground they build, and brittleness
 

 They finde when they *weene sickerness:*       *think that there
 

 They live but as a bird or as a beast,          is security*
 

 In liberty, and under no arrest;*           *check, control
 

 Whereas a wedded man in his estate
 

 Liveth a life blissful and ordinate,
 

 Under the yoke of marriage y-bound;
 

 Well may his heart in joy and bliss abound.
 

 For who can be so buxom* as a wife?            *obedient
 

 Who is so true, and eke so attentive
 

 To keep* him, sick and whole, as is his make?**    *care for **mate
 

 For weal or woe she will him not forsake:
 

 She is not weary him to love and serve,
 

 Though that he lie bedrid until he sterve.*            *die
 

 And yet some clerkes say it is not so;
 

 Of which he, Theophrast, is one of tho:*            *those
 

 *What force* though Theophrast list for to lie?    *what matter*