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Let him his rhymes prepare." And thereupon, with sober face and cheer, He told his tale, as you shall read it here. HERE ENDS THE INTRODUCTION THE LAWYER'S PROLOGUE O Hateful evil! State of Poverty! With thirst, with cold, with hunger so confounded! To ask help shameth thy heart's delicacy; If none thou ask, by need thou art so wounded That need itself uncovereth all the wound hid! The Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales 93Spite of thy will thou must, for indigence, Go steal, or beg, or borrow thine expense. Thou blamest Christ, and thou say'st bitterly, He misdistributes riches temporal; Thy neighbour dost thou censure, sinfully, Saying thou hast too little and he hath all. "My faith," sayest thou, "sometime the reckoning shall Come on him, when his tail shall burn for greed, Not having helped the needy in their need." Hear now what is the judgment of the wise: "Better to die than live in indigence;" "Thy very pauper neighbours thee despise." If thou be poor, farewell thy reverence! Still of the wise man take this full sentence: "The days of the afflicted are all sin." Beware, therefore, that thou come not therein! "If thou be poor, thy brother hateth thee, And all thy friends will flee from thee, alas!" O wealthy merchants, full of weal ye be, O noble, prudent folk in happier case! Your dicebox doth not tumble out ambsace, But with sixcinq ye throw against your chance; And so, at Christmas, merrily may ye dance! Ye search all land and sea for your winnings, And, as wise folk, ye know well the estate Of all realms; ye are sires of happenings And tales of peace and tales of war's debate. But I were now of tales all desolate, Were 't not a merchant, gone this many a year, Taught me the story which you now shall hear. HERE ENDS THE LAWYER'S PROLOGUE THE LAWYER'S TALE In Syria, once, there dwelt a company Of traders rich, all sober men and true, That far abroad did send their spicery, And cloth of gold, and satins rich in hue; Their wares were all so excellent and new That everyone was eager to exchange With them, and sell them divers things and strange, It came to pass, the masters of this sort Decided that to Rome they all would wend, Were it for business or for only sport; No other message would they thither send, But went themselves to Rome; this is the end. The Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales 94And there they found an inn and took their rest As seemed to their advantage suited best. Sojourned have now these merchants in that town A certain time, as fell to their pleasance. And so it happened that the high renown Of th' emperor's daughter, called the fair Constance. Reported was, with every circumstance, Unto these Syrian merchants, in such wise, From day to day, as I will now apprise. This was the common voice of every man: "Our emperor of Rome, God save and see, A daughter has that since the world began. To reckon as well her goodness as beauty, Was never such another as is she; I pray that God her fame will keep, serene, And would she were of all Europe the queen. "In her is beauty high, and without pride; Youth, without crudity or levity; In an endeavours, virtue is her guide; Meekness in her has humbled tyranny; She is the mirror of all courtesy; Her heart's a very shrine of holiness; Her hand is freedom's agent for largess." And all this voice said truth, as God is true. But to our story let us turn again. These merchants all have freighted ships anew, And when they'd seen the lovely maid, they fain Would seek their Syrian homes with all their train, To do their business as they'd done yore, And live in weal; I cannot tell you more. Now so it was, these merchants stood in grace Of Syria's sultan; and so wise was he That when they came from any foreign place He would, of his benignant courtesy, Make them good cheer, inquiring earnestly For news of sundry realms, to learn, by word, The wonders that they might have seen and heard. Among some other things, especially These merchants told him tales of fair Constance; From such nobility, told of earnestly, This sultan caught a dream of great pleasance, And she so figured in his remembrance That all his wish and all his busy care Were, throughout life, to love that lady fair. Now peradventure, in that mighty book Which men call heaven, it had come to pass, In stars, when first a living breath he took, That he for love should get his death, alas! For in the stars, far dearer than is glass, Is written, God knows, read it he who can, And truth it is the death of every man. The Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales 95In stars, full many a winter overworn, Was written the death of Hector, Achilles, Of Pompey, Julius, long ere they were born; The strife at Thebes; and of great Hercules, Of Samson, of Turnus, of Socrates, The death to each; but men's wits are so dull There is no man may read this to the full. This sultan for his privycouncil sent, And, but to tell it briefly in this place, He did to them declare his whole intent, And said that, surely, save he might have grace To gain Constance within a little space, He was but dead; and charged them, speedily To find out, for his life, some remedy. By divers men, then, divers things were said; They reasoned, and they argued up and down; Full much with subtle logic there they sped; They spoke of spells, of treachery in Rome town; But finally, as to an end foreknown, They were agreed that nothing should gainsay A marriage, for there was no other way. Then saw they therein so much difficulty, When reasoning of it, (to make all plain, Because such conflict and diversity Between the laws of both lands long had lain) They held: "No Christian emperor were fain To have his child wed under our sweet laws, Given us by Mahomet for God's cause." But he replied: "Nay, rather then than lose The Lady Constance, I'll be christened, yes! I must be hers, I can no other choose. I pray you let be no rebelliousness; Save me my life, and do not be careless In getting her who thus alone may cure The woe whereof I cannot long endure." What needs a copious dilation now? I say: By treaties and by embassy, And the pope's mediation, high and low, And all the Church and all the chivalry, That, to destruction of Mahometry And to augmenting Christian faith so dear, They were agreed, at last, as you shall hear. The sultan and his entire baronage And all his vassals, they must christened be, And he shall have Constance in true marriage, And gold (I know not in what quantity), For which was found enough security; This, being agreed, was sworn by either side.