#christian amor ━ visage
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newrcgime · 2 days ago
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grimoiresontape · 6 years ago
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Collyries: Cosmetics and Magical Gazing
This is a blog post about 'collyries', which I don't feel terribly bad about referring to as early modern magical cosmetics. I have frequent misgivings when Cool-Trying Historians attempt to excite interest in their topic by drawing clunky comparisons to some modern phenomenon ("hey fellow kids did you know books were, like, the iPads of medieval monastries?!") but, the thing is, these sorcerous 'confections' are fully designed to adorn the visage and literally empower and amplify the magic which comes out of faces. Gazing. Ensorcelling words. Enchanting breath. The evil eye. The look of love.
"Magical make-up" seems especially fair when we consider the mythic origins of cosmetics. In the Apocryphal Enochic materials, a particular fallen angel of the Grigori – the Watchers – is named as the explicit teacher of the violent and deceptive secrets of both weapons and cosmetics.
"And Azazel taught men to make swords and knives and shields and breastplates; and made known to them the metals [of the earth] and the art of working them; and bracelets and ornaments; and the use of antimony and the beautifying of the eyelids; and all kinds of costly stones and all colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray and became corrupt in all their ways." [Book of Enoch 8:1–3a]
This tutelary patron, Azazel, is blamed fairly extensively by the Enochic God: ‘The whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin.’ [Book of Enoch 2:8] Quite the reference for a curriculum vitae there.
So, 'collyries': a word describing magical preparations applied to the face, most typically the eyes. Thus, when Renaissance occult philosopher Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa warns of the power of sorcerous 'bindings', he offers some initial context for how these salves, pastes, and powders were considered:
'Now there are such kind of bindings as these made by Sorceries, Collyries, Unguents, love potions, by binding to, and hanging up of things, by rings, by charmes, by strong imaginations, and passions, by images, and characters, by inchantments, and imprecations, by lights, by sound, by numbers, by words, and names, invocations, sacrifices, by swearing, conjuring, consecrations, devotions, and by divers superstitions, and observations, and such like.'
Practically speaking, these collyries could come in the form of salves or washes. I am going to draw a line - however arbitrary - between the magic of beautifying or buffing oneself with compounds, and using these specialised magical preparations to imbue a 'magical expression' with greater potency. The former are employed to enchant oneself, whereas the latter I would argue enchant what one is throwing out, from evil side-eye to come hither glances. For instance, beyond this disclaimer, we will not consider the use of belladonna eye-drops - to widen the pupils and thus beautify the 'good lady' using them - despite these arguably being collyries, because they do not help with the "launching outwards" of a particular magical working, as much as they do glamour oneself. Likewise, the term 'collyrium' is sometimes used in medical herbalism to denote health-giving eye-washes and salves. I would also qualify these uses as internal 'buffs' like beautifying cosmetics. Now, this internal/external definitional divine falls apart in practice, I accept. If one is intending to stir the passions of lust in someone at a bar, we have two modes of looking: what we look like and how we look at them. For now though, if only for an artificial simplicity's sake (and brevity), I am going to concentrate on the latter. To reiterate for the herbalists: collyries can of course be employed to bolster health or affect one's physickal constituency, but for now we will content ourselves to consider those used to affect magical expression, especially gazing.
So how did such sorcerous eyeshadows and lipsticks work? In order to answer this we need to take a foray into understanding one of the underlying medical, occult, and cosmological models of the pre-modern magic: humoural theory.
But What Even Are A Humourals Theory Humoural theory formed the central operative European medical model for (at least) one and a half millennia, surviving from ancient Greece well into the early modern period. It was simply one of the most historically embedded, best regarded and most widely used medical models in the early modern period. It charted typologies of personality and behavioural proclivities of emotional expression, and indeed emotional experience. As Nogah Arikha puts it, ‘humoural theory explained most things about a person’s character, psychology, medical history, tastes, appearance, and behaviour.’ [Nogah Arikha, Passions and Tempers: A History of the Humours (New York: Harper Collins, 2007), xvii] It is proper to consider humoural theory as a magical principle concerning the organisation of the organic naturally magical cosmos, for the humours were considered the biological corollaries of the four classical elements.
Humoural theory posited substances (literally, ‘moistures’) that ‘controlled the whole existence and behaviour of mankind, and, according to the manner in which they were combined, determined the character of the individual.’ [Raymond Klibansky, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy: Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy, Religion, and Art (Nendeln: Kraus reprint, 1979), p. 3] Moreover, they linked humans and their environment in that they ‘corresponded, it was held, to the cosmic elements and to the divisions of time’. [Klibansky, Panofsky, and Saxl, p. 3] These cosmic elements, these 'originall grounds of all corporeall things' are of course understood by an occult natural philosophy of what Agrippa calls 'elementated world'. [Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy (London, 1651), 8] These classical four elements were corresponded to the humours: choleric Fire, sanguine Air, phlegmatic Water, and melancholy Earth.
As a brief but important note, the sanguine humour was often called 'blood', but the term could be used to refer to the actual sanguine humour, to the gross carrier liquid of all humours (which is why phlebotomy was thought to void all deleterious humours not just the sanguine ones). Sanguinity could even on occasion refer to 'subtle' sanguine vapours or aerial spirits in the body. Crucially also 'seed' (both male and female) and breastmilk were considered forms of rarified blood. Semen, especially, ‘as Galen had explained, was concocted out of blood’’[ Arikha, p. 164-5. For more on seed and blood, see Lesel Dawson, Lovesickness and Gender in Early Modern English Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 25-6, 85-6, 165-6, 209] This resulted in a further level of association ‘that those that are of a sanguine Complexion, are generally very Amorous’. [James Ferrand, Erotomania or A Treatise Discoursing of the Essence, Causes, Symptomes, Prognosticks, and Cure of Love or Erotique Melancholy (Oxford, 1640), p. 141] There is a rule-of-thumb that dictates that, in a way, prior to the wider acceptance and application of Paracelsian ideas about the organs, that all medical pathology was the study of malfunctioning or 'wounded' blood.
Humoural theory worked with connections between physiological and psychological affectivity in an incorporated and ensouled mind-body subject. It offered discourses for the distempers of the passions to be just as important to physical as to mental health. After all, at least potentially, ‘passions distemper the body, loose the spirits, ingender the humors, and produce diseases’ - moreover, ‘inordinate passion, is [itself] a most sharpe and violent disease: always dangerous and deadly…’ [M.I. Abernethy, A Christian and Heavenly Treatise: containing Physicke for the Soule (London, 1622), p. 264] This was no mere complaint about hysteria:  'the idea that heightened passion causes diseases and even death was common wisdom.’ [Michael MacDonald, Mystical Bedlam: Madness, Anxiety, and Healing in Seventeenth Century England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), p. 181.]
The elements and their humours were apprehended by occult philosophers and astrologers (when those even were distinct personages!) through the elemental 'Triplicities': the four elementally-based groupings of the twelve signs of the zodiac, as when we refer to Aries, Leo and Sagittarius as 'Fire signs'. This created a greater degree of specificity of the elements and humours as apprehended in time, as when the Sun passed through these as the belt of zodiac revolved over the course of a year. What was time after all, mused Proclus (and, crucially, quoted Agrippa), but the movement of the celestial bodies? The wandering stars of the seven classical planets were also afforded elemental and humoural identities and associations, adding to the nuance of astrological diagnosis of humoural imbalances, and indeed to the range of astrological magical interventions, to either down- or up-regulate the humours of oneself or others, to balance or imbalance.
Such planetary humouralism and humoural planetary magic survives fossilised in idiomatic and figurative language to this day: we speak of people as saturnine, or mercurial, or having a sunny disposition, or even of lunacy itself. Such humoural theory did not simply set stringent "personality types", it articulated proclivities to particular experience and expression of passions. As one seventeenth-century passion theorist phrased the relationship, 'Passions ingender Humors, and Humors breed Passions'. [Thomas Wright, The Passions of the Minde in Generall (London, 1601), p. 64.] Such was the passional-humoural feedback loop of expression and habituation: a hot-headed angry Martial person not only lived in an angry world, but made themselves more likely to become angrier more easily. As we shall see, by the porous or "leaky" early modern self, such a choleric feedback might even extend its influence through and beyond the body, breath and speech of the angry person to begin to innervate and galvanise the natural choler of 'elementated world' around them. The angry person makes their world angrier. A stray furious look here, a bitter word there. Ripples in the imaginal fields of affect and contagion.
Express Your Bad Self The power of the humours - like other occult virtues - could be stirred, gathered, directed and deployed through words and signifying representational images, even images conjured and fixated in the imagination. This was most easily performed with humours and passions by being somewhat predicated on concepts of plethora (excess): from ‘the common Proverbe, ex adundantia cordis os loquitur, from the abundance of the heart, the tongue speaketh’. [Wright, Passions, p. 78-79] One could not help venting humours and passions when one expressed oneself. This welling tide of humours motivates us to speak up or pull a face at all. Indeed, the ex-pressive as well as behavioural affectivity of the passions was founded on the notion of the impassioned ensouled mind-body complex producing and being subject to inordinate unbalancing excesses. Impassioned and passionate, one simply had to get the words out.
Facial expressions, and especially the eyes, were some of the primary means to read and diagnose impassioned states. Yet this very readability also made them an excellent means of transferring passions. The seductive glance conveys a magical image as potentially powerful as any Venusian talisman of a maid holding a comb and mirror. Not only was this because ‘the countenance is the Image of the same’ passion prompting and enacted by it, but due to the origins of affections in the soul; for ‘by the eyes as by a window, you may looke euen into the secret corners of the Soule: so that it was well sayde of Alexander that the eyes are the mirror or Looking-glasse of the Soule.’ [Helkiah Crooke, Mikrocosmographia: A Description of the Body of Man Together with the Controversies Thereto Belonging (London, 1615), p. 8-9] The eyes did not merely convey meaning, but affectivity: the signifier was also the signified. An angry look carried an affective seed of anger itself. Thus a magnifying glass could also be a mirror, and this sense of reflection has a deep occult significance, as the ‘Looking-glasse’ looked both ways. As ‘the Eyes wonder at a thing, they loue it, they desire it; they are the bewrayers of loue, anger, rage, mercie, reuenge: in a worde; The eyes are fitted and composed to all the affections of the minde; expressing the very Image thereof in such a manner’. [Crooke, Mikrocosmographia, p. 9. Emphasis added.] Again, “expression” was a literal as well as figurative term. To think of expressions in both behavioural and idiomatic light, malefic choleric expressions and their dangerous martial qualities are preserved in much modern idiom: the sharp tongue, bitter words, cutting remarks, seeing red, staring daggers.
Gaze Amplifiers A particular expression while gazing was not the only way to augment magically affective ‘overlooking’. The clearest example is that of ‘Collyries', magical salves to smear upon the eyes to magnify the effects of fascination. Here is Heinrich Agrippa on their potencies:
‘Collyries, and Unguents conveying the vertues of things Naturall, and Celestiall to our spirit, can multiply, transmute, transfigure and transform it accordingly, as also transpose those vertues which are in them into it, that so it cannot act only upon its own body, but also upon that which is neer it, and affect that by visible rayes charmes, and by touching it, with some like quality. For because our spirit is the subtile, pure lucid, airy, and unctuous vapour of the blood; it is therefore fit to make Collyries of the like vapours, which are more sutable to our spirit in substance, for then by reason of their likeness, they do the more stir up, attract, and transform the spirit. The like virtues have certain ointments and other confections.’ [Agrippa, Three Books of the Occult Philosophy, trans. 'JF' (London, 1651), p. 90]
Such 'Collyries' would be made from ‘the gall of a man’, which was the main depository of yellow bile, and thus powerful for strengthening choleric gazes. Consider the very phrase "having the gall": filling with fiery boldness. Such collyries could also be compounded from animal ingredients, such as ‘the blood of a lapwing, of a bat, and of a goat’. [Agrippa, Three Books, p. 134] These animal components were considered sources of appropriate occult virtue. One reason for this consideration was the idea that humours and passions were regulated by the rational faculties of the human soul, faculties that animals lacked. So the beasts of the earth were considered to express and even, in their use as spell components, enmatter unadulterated humours and passions. Raw feelings, to be marshalled and manipulated. Wolf parts were choleric, as their howling indicated. Cats were melancholy... as their howling also indicated. For more on this fascinating dimension to Shakespearean witches' brews, see Gail Kern Paster's 'Melancholy Cats, Lugged Bears, and Early Modern Cosmology: Reading Shakespeare's Psychological Materialism Across the Species Barrier', in Reading the Early Modern Emotions, edited by Paster, Katherine Rowe, and Mary Floyd-Wilson.
Now, I hope I do not need to state the importance of knowing the chemical and biological as well as magical affectivity of any materials you might chose to use in this manner. I do not wish to speak down to anyone by stating "do not rub random blood into your peepers". But, yknow, maybe don't. There are a wealth of herbs and other ingredients that contain the appropriate occult virtues to work as collyries that won't cause other problems. Consider adapting planetary correspondences for plant allies you already work: choleric humours respond to Solar and Martial virtues; phlegmatic humours to those of Venus and the Moon; jovial Jupiter is considered especially sanguine; and Saturn is well known as the ruler of melancholy. Again, to disclaim, I must strongly advice that if you are pregnant or might be pregnant, do not attempt any working, magical or medicinal, where you are taking herbs or other substances internally or through a mucous membrane like the eyes.
By these means of compounding humourally and passionally-charged materia, the humours expelled through the eyes and the passions expressed, vivified, and received were empowered and amplified by the virtues of these salves and eye-washes: for ‘such like passions also can magical confections induce, by suffumigations, by collyries, by unguents, by potions, by poisons, by lamps and lights, by looking-glasses, by images, enchantments, charms, sounds and music’. [Agrippa, Three Books, p. 135] Such magical eye-washes were not some half-baked tacked-on gimmick; they were as core a part of magical tool use as lamps, images, and incantations.
Yet amplifying the ejection of a sort of astral poison out of one's eyes was not the only use of such preparations. Agrippa goes onto to foreground the importance of sight and vision in terms of the all-too-real magic of the imagination:
'Now the sight, because it perceives more purely and clearly than the other senses, and fastening in us the marks of things more acutely and deeply, doth most of all and before others, agree with the phantastic spirit, as is apparent in dreams, when things seen do more often present themselves to us than things heard, or any thing coming under the other senses. Therefore, when collyries or eye-waters transform visual spirits, that spirit doth easily affect the imagination, which indeed being affected with divers species and forms, transmits the same by the spirit unto the outward sense of sight; by which occasion there is caused in it a perception of such species and forms in that manner, as if it were moved by external objects, that there seem to be seen terrible images and spirits and such like. So there are made collyries, making us forthwith to see the images of spirits in the air or elsewhere...' [Agrippa, Three Books, p. 134]
There is also a strong dimension by which collyries affected the imagination. For ‘when collyries transform visual spirits, that spirit doth easily affect the imagination’ either of oneself – in order to ‘make invocated spirits to be seen’ – or of others, in order to manipulate their senses and passions. (Those interested in magical preparations for seeing spirits might find this blog post compiling grimoiric instructions for such material useful.) These perceptual distortions of the magical gaze upon the overlooked’s imaginations could induce targets to ‘hear horrid, or delectable sounds’ making them ‘angry, and contend, nobody being present, and fear where there is no fear’. [Agrippa, Three Books, p. 134-5] Here occult passion manipulation is working directly on the imagination, through the inducement of impassioned hallucinatory states.
Lest this talk of imagination sound "too psychologising", we should bear in mind Agrippa is also clear that 'by divers rites, observations, ceremonies, religions and superstitions; all which shall be handled in their places. And not only by these kind of arts are passions, apparitions and images induced, but also things themselves, which are really changed and transfigured into divers forms...' The field-like qualities of the pre-modern magical imagination did not mean "it's all in your head". Rather, that something moving through your head (and heart!) - the tides of choleric boldness and anger, phlegmatic fear and hope, sanguine love and lust, and melancholy cogitation - flowed through us, into and out of the world, reminding and reanimating 'elementated' components of the responsive interconnected cosmos of their own natural magic. Nature itself could also be charmed, in this continually unfolding dance of attraction and rebuffing; the inhale and exhale of sympathia and antipathy expressing itself through the actions of a dancefloor or cast shade, variously as majestic and cutting as the turning celestial orbs spinning to the music of the spheres.
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zachwinthrop · 7 years ago
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@alexandraburton-x
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       an interminable spell had lapsed before alexandra had achieved her coveted look for the evening. she lauded her S O N S I E likeness in the mirror, sweeping pin – straight, auburn tresses over her shoulder regarding they way the pleated down the center of her back. light wash, threadbare denim swathed her curves, a simple ivory tank top, & ( i m p r e s s i v e ) leopard printed christian louboutins that reared her dainty stature by several inches. alexandra’s shoulders plucked gently, her reluctance to relegate the ensemble overwhelming her. with an hour now effete, she wandered through the deserted suite, pinching dregs of glass beneath the C R I M S O N soles of her swank pumps. she was unable to recollect the last time she’d been on an authentic date with him – or ever for that matter. had they truly been that secluded and detached from reality? thousands of miles from the comforts of a presumptuous los angeles, three years too late – their first amorous tryst. alex made note of the consideration, certain to plague him with it when necessary. she departed her F O R S A K E N suite, quietly entering the hall to be greeted by his handsome visage. ❝ oh my god, zach winthrop is that you? ❞ she taunted, quirking her fingers into the soft cotton material of his sweatshirt. ❝ where to mari? if alcohol isn’t a part of this plan, I’m going to petition for divorce. ❞
       zach lounged upon the elevated chassis, iphone 8 ILLUMINATING his august countenance. he thumbed his own name into a search engine and watched as his screen became ( l i t t e r e d ) with a plethora of images situating him upon the steps of his private jet. he sucked his cheeks between is teeth, skim - reading speculations about where he could be headed. one article suggested he may be flying somewhere to record his fifth studio album. auric tinctures rolled. he hadn’t spent nearly enough time with alex yet to pen an entire albums worth of lyrics. he smirked, locking the phone. maybe their most recent exploits would earn him his first GRAMMY win. she was certainly the right type of cataclysmic muse that spurred critically acclaimed works. once close to an hour had passed, he emerged again before her hotel room, and she slipped out of the door. he dipped his head, a curt laugh burbling from his lips. ❝ stop speaking in french or we’ll never make it out the fucking hotel, ❞ he mewled, drawing her in for a brief lip - lock. the couple ( if you could label them such a thing ) advanced toward the elevator. he ushered her inside by the small of her back. ❝ oh, you wanna drink now? we haven’t even stepped foot outside yet. can’t take you anywhere. ❞
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aikipoet-blog · 6 years ago
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THE CANTERBURY TALES
A MINIMALIST TRANSLATION
Forrest Hainline
GENERAL PROLOGUE
1          When that April with his shower’s sweet
2          The drought of March has pierced to the root,
3          And bathed every vein in such liquor
4          Of which virtue engendered is the flower;
5          When Zephirus too with his sweet breath
6          Inspired has in every holt and heath
7         The tender crops, and the young sun
8          Has in the Ram his half course run,
9          And small fowls making melody,
10        That sleep all the night with open eye
11        (So pricks them Nature in their courage) :
12        Then long folk to go on pilgrimage
13        And palmers for to seek strange strands,
14        To foreign hallways, known in sundry lands;
15        And specially, from every shire's end
16        Of England, to Canterbury they wend,
17        The holy blissful martyr for to seek
18        That them has helped, when that they were sick.
19        Befell that in that season on a day,
20        In Southwerk at the Tabarad as I lay
21        Ready to go on my pilgrimage 22        To Canterbury with full devout courage,
23        At night was come into that hostelry
24        Well nine and twenty in a company 25        Of sundry folk, by adventure to fall
26        In fellowship, and pilgrims were they all,
27        That toward Canterbury would ride.
28        The chambers and the stables were wide,
29        And well we were eased at best.
30        And shortly, when the sun was to rest,
31        So had I spoken with them everyone,
32        That I was of their fellowship anon,
33        And made forward early for to rise,
34        To take our way there as I you devise.
35        But nonetheless, while I have time and space,
36        Ere that I further in this tale pace,
37        Me thinks it according to reason,
38        To tell you all the condition
39        Of each of them, so as it seemed me,
40        And which they were, and of what degree,
41        And eek in what array that they were in;
42        And at a knight then will I first begin.
43        A knight there was, and that a worthy man
44        That from the time that he first began
45        To ride out, he loved chivalry,
46        Truth and honor, freedom and courtesy,
47        Full worthy was he in his lord's war,
48        And thereto had he ridden, no man as far,
49        As well in Christendom as in heatheness,
50        And ever honored for his worthiness.
51        At Alexander he was when it was won;
52        Full oft time he had the board begun
53        Above all nations in Prussia;
54        In Lithuania had he raised and in Russia,
55        No Christian man so oft of his degree;
56        In Grenada at the siege too had he be
57        Of Algezir, and ridden in Belmarie;
58        At Ayas was he and at Attalie,   59        When they were won, and in the Great Sea
60        At many a noble army had he be.
61        At mortal battles had he been fifteen,
62        And fought for our faith at Tlemcen
63        In lists thrice, and aye slain his foe.
64        This same worthy knight had been also
65        Sometime with the lord of Paletey
66        Against another heathen in Turkey:
67        And evermore he had a sovereign prize.
68        And though that he were worthy, he was wise,
69        And of his port as meek as is a maid.
70        He never yet any villainy said
71        In all of his life, unto no manner wight.
72        He was a very perfect, gentle knight.
73        But for to tell you of his array,
74        His horse was good, but he was not gay.
75        Of fustian he wore a gipon
76        All bespattered with his habergeon;
77        For he was lately come from his voyage,
78        And went for to do his pilgrimage.
79        With him there was his son, a young Squire,
80        A lover, and a lusty bachelor,
81        With locks curly as they were laid in press,
82        Of twenty year of age he was, I guess.
83        Of his stature he was of even length,
84        And wondrously delivered, and of great strength.
85        And he had been sometime in cavalry,
86        In Flanders, in Artois, and Picardy,
87        And born him well, as of so little space,
88        In hope to stand in his lady's grace.
89        Embroidered was he, as it were a meadow
90        All full of fresh flowers, white and red.
91        Singing he was, or fluting, all the day;
92        He was as fresh as is the month of May.
93        Short was his gown, with sleeves long and wide.
94        Well could he sit on horse, and fair ride.
95        He could songs make and well endite,
96        Joust and dance too, and well portray and write.
97        So hot he loved that by nighter-tale
98        He sleeps no more than doth a nightingale.
99        Courteous he was, lowly, and serviceable,
100      And carved before his father at the table.
101      A Yeoman had he, and servants no more
102      At that time, for he pleased to ride so; 103      And he was clad in coat and hood of green;
104      A sheaf of peacock arrows bright and keen
105      Under his belt he bore full thriftily;
106      Well could he dress his tackle yeomanly:
107      His arrows drooped not with feathers low;
108      And in his hand he bore a mighty bow.
109      A knot-head had he, with a brown visage.
110      Of woodcraft well could he all the usage.
111      Upon his arm he bore a gay bracer,
112      And by his side a sword and a buckler,
113      And on that other side a gay dagger,
114      Harnessed well, and sharp as point of spear;
115      A Christopher on his breast of silver sheen;
116      A horn he bore, the baldric was of green.
117      A forester he was, truly as I guess.
118      There was also a Nun, a Prioress,
119      That of her smiling was full simple and coy.
120      Her greatest oath was but by Saint Loy;
121      And she was called Madame Eglantine.
122      Full well she sang the service divine,
123      Intoned in her nose full seemly;
124     And French she spoke full fair and fetisly,
125      After the school of Stratford at the Bowe,
126      For French of Paris was to her unknow.
127      At meat well taught was she withal;
128      She let no morsel from her lips fall,
129      Nor wet her fingers in her sauce deep.
130      Well could she carry a morsel, and well keep,
131      That no drop would fall upon her breast.
132      In courtesy was set full much her lest.
133      Her over-lip wiped she so clean
134      That in her cup there was no farthing seen
135      Of grease, when she drunk had her draft.
136      Full seemly after her meat she raft,
137      And certainly she was of great disport,
138      And full pleasant, and amiable of port,
139      And pained her to counterfeit cheer
140      Of court, and be stately of manner
141      And to be held worthy of reverence.
142      But for to speak of her conscience,
143      She was so charitable and so piteous
144      She would weep, if that she saw a mouse
145      Caught in a trap, if it were dead or bled.
146      Of small hounds had she, that she fed
147      With roasted flesh, or milk and wastel-bread.
148      But sore wept she if one of them were dead,
149      Or if men smote it with a yard smart:
150      And all was conscience and tender heart.
151      Full seemly her wimple pinched was;
152      Her nose tretis, her eyes gray as glass;
153      Her mouth full small, and thereto soft and red.
154      But certainly she had a fair forehead;
155      It was almost a span broad, I trow;
156      For hardily, she was not under grow.
157      Full fetis was her cloak, as I was ware.
158      Of small coral about her arm she bare
159      A pair of beads, gauded all with green,
160      And thereon hung a brooch of gold full sheen,
161      On which there was first writ a crowned A,
162      And after, amor vincit omnia.
163      Another nun with her had she,
164      That was her chaplain, and priests three.
165      A Monk there was, a fair for the mastery,
166      An outrider, that loved venery,
167      A manly man, to be an abbot able.
168      Full many a dainty horse had he in stable,
169      And when he rode, men might his bridle hear
170      Jingling in a whistling wind all clear
171      And too as loud as doth the chapel bell
172      There as this lord was keeper of the cell.
173      The rule of Saint Maure or of Saint Benedict -
174      Because that it was old and somewhat strict
175      This same monk let old things pass,
176      And held after the new world the space.
177      He gave not of that text a pulled hen,
178      That says that hunters be not holy men,
179      Nor that a monk, when he is reckless,
180      Is likened to a fish that is waterless -
181      This is to say, a monk out of his cloister.
182      But that text held he not worth an oyster;
183      And I said his opinion was good.
184      What should he study and make himself wood,
185      Upon a book in cloister always to pour,
186      Or swink with his hands, and labor,
187      As Austin bid?  How shall the world be served?
188      Let Austin have his swink to him reserved!
189      Therefore he was a pricasour aright:
190      Greyhounds he had as swift as fowl in flight;
191      Of pricking and of hunting the hare
192      Was all his lust, for no cost would he spare.
193      I saw his sleeves purfled at the hand
194      With gray, and that the finest of the land;
195      And for to fasten his hood under his chin,
196      He had of gold wrought a full curious pin;
197      A love knot in the greater end there was.
198      His head was bald, that shone as any glass,
199      And too his face, as he had been anoint.
200      He was a lord full fat and in good point;
201      His eyes steep, and rolling in his head,
202      That steamed as a furnace of lead;
203      His boots supple, his horse in great estate.
204      Now certainly he was a fair prelate;
205      He was not pale as a forpined ghost.
206      A fat swan he loved best of any roast.
207      His palfrey was as brown as is a berry.
208      A Friar there was, a wanton and a merry,
209      A limiter, a full solemn man.
210      In all the orders four there is none that can
211      So much of dalliance and fair language.
212      He had made full many a marriage
213      Of young women at his own cost.
214      Unto his order he was a noble post.
215      Full well beloved and familiar was he
216      With franklins over all in his country,
217      And too with worthy women of the town;
218      For he had power of confession,
219      As said himself, more than a curate,
220      For of his order he was licentiate.
221      Full sweetly heard he confession,
222      And pleasant was his absolution:
223      He was an easy man to give penance,
224      There as he knew to have a good pittance.
225      For unto a poor order for to give
226      Is sign that a man is well shrive;
227      For if he gave, he dared make avaunt,
228      He knew that a man was repentant;
229      For many a man so hard is of his heart,
230      He may not weep, although him sorely smart.
231      Therefore instead of weeping and prayers
232      Men must give silver to the poor friars.
233      His tippet was ay farsed full of knives
234      And pins, for to give young wives.
235      And certainly he had a merry note:
236      Well could he sing and play on a rote;
237      Of yeddings he bore utterly the prize.
238      His neck white was as the flour-de-lys;
239      Thereto he strong was as a champion.
240      He knew the taverns well in every town
241      And every hosteler and tappester,
242      Better than a lazar or a begster,
243      For unto such a worthy man as he
244      Accorded not, as by his faculty,
245      To have with sick lazars acquaintance.
246      It is not honest, it may not advance,
247      For to deal with no such porail,
248      But all with rich and sellers of victual.
249      And over all, there as profit should arise,
250      Courteous he was and lowly of service;
251      There’s no man nowhere so virtuous.
252      He was the best beggar in his house;
252a    [And gave a certain fee for the grant;    
252a    None of his brethren came there in his haunt;]
253      For though a widow had not a shoe,
254      So pleasant was his “In principio, ”
255      Yet would he have a farthing, ere he went.
256      His purchase was well better than his rent.
257      And rage he could, as it were right a whelp.
258      In love days there could he much help,
259      For there he was not like a cloisterer
260      With a threadbare cope, as is a poor scholar,
261      But he was like a master or a pope.
262      Of double worsted was his semicope,
263      That rounded as a bell out of the press.
264      Somewhat he lisped, for his wantonness,
265      To make his English sweet upon his tongue;
266      And in his harping, when that he had sung,
267      His eyes twinkled in his head aright
268      As do the stars in the frosty night.
269      This worthy limiter was called Huberd.
270      A merchant was there with a forked beard,
271      In motley, and high on horse he sat;
272      Upon his head a Flanderish beaver hat,
273      His boots clasped fair and featously.
274      His reasons he spoke full solemnly,
275      Speaking always the increase of his winning.
276      He would the sea were kept for anything
277      Between Middleburgh and Orwell.
278      Well could he in exchange shields sell.
279      This worthy man full well his wit beset;
280      There knew no wight that he was in debt,
281      So stately was he of his governance
282      With his bargains and with his chevisance
283      For truth he was a worthy man withall,
284      But, truth to say, I know not how men him call.
285      A clerk there was of Oxford also,
286      That unto logic had long ago.
287      As lean was his horse as is a rake,
288      And he was not right fat, I undertake,
289      But looked hollow, and thereto soberly,
290      Full threadbare was his overest courtepy,
291      For he had gotten him yet no benefice,
292      Nor was so worldly for to have office.
293      For he was rather have at his bed’s head
294      Twenty books, clad in black or red,
295      Of Aristotle and his philosophy
296      Than robes rich, or fiddle, or gay psaltry.
297      But all be that he was a philosopher,
298      Yet had he but little gold in coffer;
299      But all that he might of his friends hent,
300      On books and on learning he it spent,
301      And busily gan for the soul’s prayer
302      Of them that gave him wherewith to scholar.
303      Of study took he most cure and most heed.
304      Not a word spoke he more than was need,
305      And that was said in form and reverence,
306      And short and quick and full of high sentence;
307      Sounding in moral virtue was his speech,
308      And gladly would he learn and gladly teach.
309      A Sergeant of the Law, aware and wise,
310      That often had been at the Parvise,
311      There was also, full rich of excellence.
312      Discreet he was and of great reverence –
313      He seemed such, his words were so wise.
314      Justice he was full often in assize,
315      By patent and by plain commission.
316      For his science and for his high renown,
317      Of fees and robes had he many a one.
318      So great a purchaser was nowhere none:
319      All was fee simple to him in effect;
320      His purchasing might not been infect.
321      Nowhere so busy a man as he there was,
322      And yet he seemed busier than he was.
323      In terms had he case and dooms all
324      That from the time of King William were fall.
325      Thereto he could endite and make a thing,
326      There could no wight pinch at his writing;
327      And every statute could he play by rote.
328      He rode but homely in a motley coat,
329      Girt with a seynt of silk, with bars small;
330      Of his array shall I no longer tell.
331      A Franklin was in his company.
332      White was his beard as is the daisy;
333      Of his complexion he was sanguine.
334      Well loved he by the morning a sup of wine;
335      To live in delight was ever his won,
336      For he was Epicurus’ own son,
337      That held opinion that plain delight
338      Was very felicity parfit.
339      A householder, and that a great, was he;
340      Saint Julian was he in his country.
341      His bread, his ale, was always after one;
342      A better envied man was nowhere known.
343      Without baked meat was never his house,
344      Of fish and flesh, and that so plenteous
345      It snowed in his house of meat and drink;
346      Of all dainties that men could think,
347      After the sundry seasons of the year,
348      So changed he his meat and his supper.
349      Full many a fat partridge had he in mew,
350      And many a bream and many a luce in stew.
351      Woe was his cook but if his sauce were
352      Poignant and sharp, and ready all his gear.
353      His table dormant in his hall alway
354      Stood ready covered all the long day.
355      At sessions there he was lord and sire;
356      Full oft time he was knight of the shire.
357      A dagger and a purse all of silk
358      Hung at his girdle, white as morning milk.
359      A sheriff had he been, an auditor.
360      Was nowhere such a worthy vavasour.
361      A Haberdasher and a Carpenter,
362      A Weaver, a Dyer, and a Tapisser –
363      And they were clothed all in a livery
364      Of a solemn and a great fraternity.
365      Full fresh and new their gear apiked was;
366      Their knives were mounted not with brass
367      But all with silver, wrought full clean and well,
368      Their girdles and their pouches everydell.
369      Well seemed each of them a fair burgess
370      To sit in a guildhall on a dais.
371      Each one, for the wisdom that he kan,
372      Was shapely for to be an alderman.
373      For cattle had they enough and rent,
374      And too their wives would it well assent
375      And else certain were they to blame.
376      It is full fair to have been called “madame, ”
377      And go to vigils all before,
378      And have a mantle royally bore.
379      A Cook they had with them for the nonce
380      To boil the chickens with the marrow bones,
381      And powdered marchant tart and galingale.
382      Well could he know a draft of London ale. 383      He could he roast, and seethe, and broil, and fry,
384      Makemortreux, and well bake a pie.
385      But great harm was it, as it thought me,
386      That on his shin, an ulcer had he.
387      For blancmanger, that made he with the best.
388      A Shipman was there, dwelling far by west;
389      For aught I know, he was of Dartmouth.
390      He rode upon a rouncy, as he couth,
391      In a gown of falding to the knee.
392      A dagger hanging on a laas had he
393      About his neck, under his arm adown.
394      The hot summer had made his hue all brown;
395      And certainly he was a good fellow.
396      Full many a draft of wine had he draw.
397      From Bordeaux-ward, while that the chapman sleep.
398      Of nice conscience took he no keep.
399      If that he fought and had the higher hand,
400      By water he sent them home to every land.
401      But of his craft to reckon well his tides,
402      His streams, and his dangers him besides,
403      His harbor, and his moon, his pilotage,
404      There was none such from Hull to Carthage.
405      Hardy he was and wise to undertake;
406      With many a tempest had his beard been shake.
407      He knew all the havens, as they were,
408      From Gotland to the cape of Finisterre,
409      And every creek in Brittany and in Spain.
410      His barge called was the Madelene.
411      With us there was A Doctor of Physic;
412      In all this world there was no one like him, 413      To speak of physic and of surgery,
414      For he was grounded in astronomy.
415      He kept his patient a full great deal
416      In hours, by his magic natural.
417      Well could he fortune the ascendant
418      Of his images for his patient.
419      He knew the cause of every malady,
420      Were it of hot, or cold, or moist, or dry,
421      And where they engendered, and of what humor.
422      He was a very, perfect practitioner:
423      The cause known, and of his harm the root,
424      Anon he gave the sick man his boot.
425      Full ready had he his apothecaries
426      To send him drugs and electuaries,
427      For each of them made other for to win –
428      Their friendship was not new to begin.
429      Well knew he the old Aesculapius,
430      And Dioscorides and too Rufus,
431      Old Hippocrates, Hali, and Galen,
432      Serapion, Rhazes, and Avicen,
433      Averroes, Damascene, and Constantine,
434      Bernard, and Gatisden, and Gilbertus.
435      Of his diet measurable was he,
436      For it was of no superfluity,
437      But of great nourishing and digestable.
438      His study was but little on the Bible.
439      In sanguine and in perse he clad was all,
440      Lined with taffeta and with sendal.
441      And yet he was but easy of dispense;
442      He kept that he won in pestilence.
443      For gold in physic is a cordial,
444      Therefore he loved gold in special.
445      A good Wife was there of beside Bath,
446      But she was somewhat deaf, and that was scathe.
447      Of cloth making she had such a haunt
448      She passed them of Ypres and of Ghent.
449      In all the parish wife was there none
450      That to the offering before her should go on;
451      And if they did, certain so wroth was she
452      That she was out of all charity.
453      Her coverchiefs full fine were of ground;
454      I dare swear they weighed ten pound
455      That on a Sunday were upon her head.
456      Her hose were of fine scarlet red,
457      Full straight tied, and shoes full moist and new.
458      Bold was her face, and fair, and red of hew.
459      She was a worthy woman all her life:
460      Husbands at church door she had five,
461      Without them other company in youth -
462      But there's no need to speak as now.
463      And thrice had she been at Jerusalem;
464      She had passed many a strange stream;
465      At Rome she had been, and at Boulogne,
466      In Galicia at Saint Jame, and at Cologne.
467      She could much of wandering by the way.
468      Gap-toothed was she, truly for to say.
469      Upon an ambler easily she sat,
470      Wimpled well, and on her head a hat
471      As broad as is a buckler or a targe;
472      A foot-mantle about her hips large,
473      And on her feet a pair of spurs sharp.
474      In fellowship well could she laugh and carp.
475      Of remedies of love she knew per chance,
476      For she knew of that art the old dance.
477      A good man was there of religion,
478      And was a poor Parson of a town,
479      But rich he was of holy thought and work.
480      He was also a learned man, a clerk,
481      That Christ’s Gospel truly would preach;
482      His parishioners devoutly would he teach.
483      Benign he was and wonder diligent,
484      And in adversity full patient,
485      And such he was proved oft times.
486      Full loathe was he to curse for his tithes,
487      But rather would he give, out of doubt,
488      Unto his poor parishioners about
489      Of his offering and too of his substance.
490      He could in little things have sufficience.
491      Wide was his parish, and houses far asunder,
492      But he left not, for rain or thunder,
493      In sickness nor in mischief to visit
494      The farthest in his parish, much and light,
495      Upon his feet, and in his hand a stave.
496      This noble example to his sheep he gave,
497      That first he wrought, and afterward he taught.
498      Out of the Gospel he those words caught,
499      And this figure he added eek thereto,
500      That if gold rust, what shall iron do?
501      For if a priest be foul, on whom we trust,
502      No wonder is a lewd man to rust;
503      And shame it is if a priest take keep,
504      A shitten shepherd and a clean sheep.
505      Well ought a priest example for to give,
506      By his cleanness, how that his sheep should live.
507      He set not his benefice to hire
508      And let his sheep encumbered in the mire
509      And ran to London unto Saint Paul’s
510      To seek him a chantry for souls,
511      Or with a brotherhood to be withhold;
512      But dwelt at home, and kept well his fold,
513      So that the wolf not make it miscarry;
514      He was a shepherd and not a mercenary.
515      And though he holy were and virtuous,
516      He was to sinful men not despitous,
517      Nor of his speech dangerous nor digne,
518      But in his teaching discreet and benign.
519      To draw folk to heaven by fairness,
520      By good example, this was his business.
521      But it were any person obstinate,
522      What so he were of high or low estate,
523      Him would he snib him sharply for the nonce.
524      A better priest I trust that nowhere none is.
525      He waited after no pomp and reverence,
526      Nor maked him a spiced conscience,
527      But Christ’s lore and his apostles twelve
528      He taught; but first he followed it himself.
529      With him there was a Plowman, was his brother,
530      That had hauled of dung full many a fother;
531      A true swinker and a good was he,
532      Living in peace and perfect charity.
533      God loved he best with all his whole heart
534      At all times, though him gamed or smarte,
535      And then his neighbor right as himself.
536      He would thresh, and thereto dike and delve,
537      For Christ’s sake, for every poor wight,
538      Without hire, if it lay in his might.
539      His tithes paid he full fair and well,
540      Both of his proper swink and his chattel.
541      In a tabard he road upon a mare.
542      There was also a Reeve and a Miller,
543      A Summoner and a Pardoner also,
544      A Manciple, and myself, - there were no more.
545      The Miller was a stout carl for the nonce;
546      Full big he was of brawn, and too of bones.
547      That proved well, for over all there he came,
548      At wrestling he would have always the ram.
549      He was short-shouldered, broad, a thick knar;
550      There was no door that he could not heave off har,
551      Or break it at a running with his head.
552      His beard as any sow or fox was red,
553      And thereto broad as it were a spade.
554      Upon the top right of his nose he had
555      A wart, and thereon stood a tuft of hairs,
556      Red as the bristles of a sow’s ears;
557      His nostrils black were and wide.
558      A sword and a buckler bore he by his side.
559      His mouth as great was as a great furnace.
560      He was a jangler and a goliardeys,
561      And that was most of sin and harlotries.
562      Well could he steal corn toll threes;
563      And yet he had a thumb of gold, pardie.
564      A white cope and a blue hood wore he.
565      A bagpipe well could he blow and sound,
566      And therewithal he brought us out of town.
567      A gentle Manciple was there of a temple,
568      Of which achatours might take example
569      For to be wise in buying of victuals;
570      For whether that he paid or took by tally,
571      Always he waited so in his achate,
572      That he was ay before and in good state.
573      Now is not that of God a full fair grace
574      That such a lewd man’s wit shall pace
575      The wisdom of a heap of learned men?
576      Of masters had he more than thrice ten,
577      That were of law expert and curious,
578      Of which there were a dozen in that house
579      Worthy to be stewards of rent and land
580      Of any lord that is in England,
581      To make him live by his proper good
582      In honor debtless (but if he were wood) ,
583      Or live as scarcely as he might desire;
584      And able for to help all a shire
585      In any case that might fall or hap
586      And yet this Manciple set their all cap.
587      The Reeve was a slender choleric man.
588      His beard was shaved as nigh as ever he can;
589      His hair was by his ears full round shorn;
590      His top was docked like a priest before.
591      Full long were his legs and full leen,
592      Like a staff; there was no calf seen.
593      Well could he keep a garner and bin;
594      There was no auditor could on him win.
595      Well wist he by the drought and by the rain
596      The yielding of his seed and of his grain.
597      His lord’s sheep, his neet, his dairy,
598      His swine, his horse, his steer, and his poultry
599      Was wholly in this Reeve’s governing,
600      And by his covenant gave the reckoning,
601      Since that his lord was twenty year of age.
602      There could no man bring him in arrearage.
603      There’s no bailiff, no herder, no other hine,
604      That he not knew his sleight and his covine;
605      They were adread of him as of the death.
606      His dwelling was full fair upon the heath,
607      With green trees shaded was his place.
608      He could better than his lord purchase.
609      Full rich he was astored privily.
610      His lord well could he please subtlely,
611      To give and lend him of his own good,
612      And have a thank, and yet a coat and hood.
613      In youth he had learned a good mister:
614      He was a well good wright, a carpenter.
615      This Reeve sat upon a full good stot
616      That was all pomely grey, and called Scot.
617      A long surcoat of perse upon him hade,
618      And by his side he bore a rusty blade.
619      Of Norfolk was this Reeve of which I tell,
620      Beside a town men call Baldeswell.
621      Tucked he was as is a friar about,
622      And ever he rode the hindmost of our route.
623      A Summoner was there with us in that place
624      That had a fire-red cherubin’s face,
625      For sauceflemed he was, with eyes narrow.
626      As hot he was and lecherous as a sparrow,
627      With scaled brows black, and piled beard.
628      Of his visage children were afeard.
629      There’s no quick-silver, litharge, nor brimstone,
630      Borax, ceruse, nor oil of tarter none,
631      No ointment that would cleanse and bite,
632      That him might help of his whelks white,
633      Nor of the knobs sitting on his cheeks.
634      Well loved he garlic, onions, and eek leeks,
635      And for to drink strong wine, red as blood;
636      Then would he speak and cry as he were wood.
637      And when that he well drunk had the wine,
638      Then would he speak no word but Latin.
639      A few terms had he, two or three,
640      That he had learned out of some decree –
641      No wonder is, he heard it all the day;
642      And too you know well how that a jay
643      Can call out “Walter” as well as can the pope.
644      But whoso could in other things him grope,
645      Then had he spent all his philosophy;
646      Ay “Questio quid juris” would he cry.
647      He was a gentle harlot and a kind;
648      A better fellow should men not find.
649      He would suffer for a quart of wine
650      A good fellow to have his concubine
651      A twelve month, and excuse him at full;
652      Full privily a finch too could he pull.
653      And if he found anywhere a good fellow,
654      He would teach him to have no awe,
655      In such case of the archdeacon’s curse,
656      But if a man’s soul were in his purse;
657      For in his purse he should punished be.
658      “Purse is the archdeacon’s hell, ” said he.
659      But well I know he lied right indeed;
660      Of cursing ought each guilty man him dread,
661      For curse will slay right as absolving save it,
662      And also ware him of a Significavit.
663      In danger had he at his own guise
664      The young girls of the diocese,
665      And knew their counsel, and was all their rede.
666      A garland had he set upon his head,
667      As great as it were for an ale-stake.
668      A buckler had he made him of a cake.
669      With him there rode a gentle Pardoner
670      Of Rouncivale, his friend and his compeer,
671      That straight was come from the court of Rome.
672      Full loud he sang “Come hither, love, to me! ”
673      The Summoner barred to him a stiff burdoun;
674      Was never trumpet of half so great a sound.
675      This Pardoner had hair as yellow as wax,
676      But smooth it hung as does a strike of flax;
677      By ounces hung his locks that he had,
678      And therewith he his shoulders overspread;
679      But thin it lay, by culpons one and one.
680      But hood, for jollity, wore he none,
681      For it was trussed up in his wallet.
682      He thought he rode all of the new jet;
683      Disheveled, save his cap, he rode all bare.
684      Such glaring eyes had he as a hare.
685      A Vernicle had he sowed upon his cap;
686      His wallet, before him in his lap,
687      Bretfull of pardon come from Rome all hot.
688      A voice he had as small as has a goat.
689      No beard had he, nor ever should have;
690      As smooth it was as it were late shave.
691      I trow he were a gelding or a mare.
692      But of his craft, from Berwick into Ware
693      Nor was there such another pardoner.
694      For in his male he had a pillow-bier,
695      Which that he said was Our Lady’s veil;
696      He said he had a gobbet of the sail
697      That Saint Peter had, when that he went
698      Upon the sea, ‘til Jesus Christ him hent.
699      He had a cross of latten full of stones,
700      And in a glass he had pigs’ bones,
701      But with these relics, when that he found
702      A poor person dwelling upon land
703      Upon a day he got him more money
704      Then that the person got in months twey;
705      And thus, with feigned flattery and japes,
706      He made the person and the people his apes.
707      But truly to tell at the last,
708      He was in church a noble ecclesiast.
709      Well could he read a lesson or a story,
710      But all the best he sang an offertory;
711      For well he wist, when that song was sung,
712      He must preach and well affile his tongue
713      To win silver, as he full well could;
714      Therefore he sang the merrily and loud.
715      Now have I told you truly, in a clause,
716      The estate, the array, the number, and too the cause
717      Why that assembled was this company
718      In Southwerk at this gentle hostelry
719      Called the Tabard, fast by the Belle.
720      But now is time to you for to tell
721      How that we baren us that same night,
722      When we were in that hostelry allright;
723      And after will I tell of our voyage
724      And all the remnant of our pilgrimage.
725      But first I pray you, of your courtesy,
726      That you not ascribe it to my villainy,
727      Though that I plainly speak in this matter,
728      To tell you their words and their cheer.  
729      Nor though I speak their words properly.
730      For this you know also well as I:
731      Whoso shall tell a tale after a man,
732      He must rehearse as nigh as ever he can
733      Every word, if it be in his charge,
734      All speak he never so rudely or large,
735      Or else he must tell his tale untrue,
736      Or feign things, or find words new.
737      He may not spare, although he were his brother;
738      He might as well say one word as another.
739      Christ spoke himself full broad in holy writ,
740      And well you know no villainy is it.
741      Eek Plato said, whoso can him read,
742      The words must be cousin to the deed.
743      Also I pray you to forgive it me,
744      All have I not set folk in their degree
745      Here in this tale, as that they should stand.
746      My wit is short, you may well understand.
747      Great cheer made our Host us everyone,
748      And to the supper set he us anon.
749      He served us with victuals at the best;
750      Strong was the wine, and well to drink us lest.
751      A seemly man our host was withall
752      For he'd been a marshal in a hall.
753      A large man he was with even step -
754      A fairer burgess was there none in Chepe -
755      Bold of his speech, and wise, and well taught,
756      And of manhood he lacked right naught.
757      Eek thereto he was right a merry man;
758      And after supper playing he began,
759      And spoke of mirth among other things,
760      When that we had made our reckonings,
761      And said thus: "Now, lords, truly,
762      You've been to me right welcome, heartily;
763      For by my troth, if that I shall not lie,
764      I saw not this year so merry a company
765      At once in this herber as is now.
766      Fain would I do you mirth, knew I how.
767      And of a mirth I am right now bethought,
768      To do you ease, and it shall cost naught.
769      "You're going to Canterbury - God you speed,
770      The blissful martyr quit you your meed!
771      And well I know, as you go on by the way,
772      You'll shape you to tell and to play;
773      For truly, comfort nor mirth is none
774      To ride by the way dumb as a stone;
775      And therefore will I make you disport,
776      As I said erst, and do you some comfort.
777      And if you like all by one assent
778      For to stand at my judgment,
779      And for to work, as I shall you say,
780      Tomorrow, when you ride by the way,
781      Now by my father's soul that is dead,
782      But you be merry, I will give you my head!
783      Hold up your hands, without more speech."
784      Our counsel was not long for to seek.
785      We thought it was not worth to make it wise,
786      And granted him without more avise,
787      And bade him say his verdict as he lest.
788      "Lords," said he, "now hearken for the best;
789      But take it not, I pray you, in disdain.
790      This is the point, to speak short and plain,
791      That each of you, to short with our way,
792      In this voyage shall tell tales tway
793      To Canterbury-ward, I mean it so,
794      And homeward he shall tell another two,
795      Of adventures that awhile have befall.
796      And which of you that bears him best of all -
797      That is to say, that tells in this case
798      Tales of best sentence and most solace -
799      Shall have a supper at all our cost
800      Here in this place, sitting by this post,
801      When that we come again from Canterbury.
802      And for to make you the more merry,
803      I will myself goodly with you ride,
804      Right at my own cost, and be your guide;
805      And whoso will my judgment gainsay
806      Shall pay all that we spend by the way.
807      And if you vouchsafe that it be so,
808      Tell me anon, without words more,
809      And I will early shape me therefore."
810      This thing was granted, and our oaths swore
811      With full glad heart, and prayed him also
812      That he would vouchsafe for to do so,
813      And that he would be our governor,
814      And our tale’s judge and reporter,
815      And set a supper at a certain price,
816      And we will ruled be at his devise
817      In high and low; and thus by one assent
818      We were accorded to his judgment.
819      And thereupon the wine was fetched anon;
820      We drank, and to rest went each one,
821      Without any longer tarrying.
822      At morning, when that day began to spring,
823      Up rose our Host, and was all our cock,
824      And gathered us together all in a flock,
825      And forth we rode a little more than pace
826      Unto the watering of Saint Thomas;
827      And there our Host began his horse to rest
828      And said, "Lords, hearken, if you lest,
829      You know your forward, and I it you record.
830      If even-song and morning-song accord,
831      Let's see now who shall tell the first tale.
832      As ever must I drink wine or ale,
833      Whoso be rebel to my judgment
834      Shall pay for all that by the way is spent.
835      Now draw cut, er we further twin;
836      He which that has the shortest will begin.
837      "Sir Knight, " said he, "my master and my lord,
838      Now draw cut, for that is my accord.
839      "Come near, " said he, "my lady Prioress.
840      And you, sir Clerk, let be your shamefacedness,
841      Study it not; lay hand to, every man! "
842      Anon to draw every wight began,
843      And shortly for to tell it as it was,
844      Were it by adventure, or sort, or case,
845      The truth is this: the cut fell to the Knight,
846      Of which full blithe and glad was every wight,
847      And tell he must his tale, as was reason,
848      By forward and by composition,
849      As you have heard; what need words more?
850      And when this good man saw that it was so,
851      And he that wise was and obedient
852      To keep his forward by his free assent,
853      He said, "Since I shall begin the game,
854      What, welcome be the cut, by God's name!
855      Now let us ride, and hearken what I say."
856      And with that word we rode on forth our way,
857      And he began with right a merry cheer
858      His tale anon, and said as you may hear.
© 2008, 2012, 2019 Forrest Hainline
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asplendidbeginning · 7 years ago
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Concerning Mortis and the Symbology of the Force Part II — The Prophesy of the Chosen One
March 4, 2015
Adjua Adama
In Part I, the symbology behind Mortis — the world and the trinity of Overlords — was explored, where it was posited that Lucas, Supervising Director Dave Filoni, and writer Christian Taylor, continue the tradition of drawing from human mythological history as source inspiration for their Star Wars tales.
Between the griffin Daughter and the gargoyle Son stands the Chosen One, bound by prophesy, in a world made from the nature of the Force itself, capable of taming each of these creatures, as with the Mesopotamian “master of the griffins.”
Indeed, Anakin’s destiny does stand above the Jedi and the Sith, as Lucas removes his character from the limited vestiges of flawed humanity, affording him the status of Force deity replete with virgin birth. As both Orders seek to utilize and manipulate his power, Anakin has a hand in eviscerating both — he is, in essence, Shiva the destroyer in Star Wars mythology, cultivating balance and reciprocity through an Old Testament, “fire and brimstone” approach. Apparently, the Father understands the wisdom of hiding his power from the galaxy’s population. He tells Anakin, “There are some who would like to exploit our power; the Sith are but one. Too much dark or light would be the undoing of life as you understand it.” This man engenders enough wisdom to understand that the Jedi would be just as guilty of exploiting their power to eradicate evil, as the Sith would be in cleansing the galaxy of good. Either tipping of the scale would spell doom for all who inhabit the world of Star Wars.
But is Anakin the “Chosen One,” as Qui-Gon deemed him in The Phantom Menace? This has actually been a heated topic of discussion among fans even before The Clone Wars series debuted. I’ve seen a number of discussions online, and via podcasts, in which people have hotly championed both Anakin and Luke for the sacred appellation; a discussion that has increased exponentially after the debut of “The Yoda Arc” from Season 6 of The Clone Wars (sometimes referred to as “Mortis Part II”). Those that advocate the belief that Luke Skywalker is the “Chosen One” refer to a line from the “Yoda Arc” by the mysterious Priestesses (who measure Yoda’s worthiness in understanding the mastery of life preservation post-mortem), when the “Serenity” Priestess declares: “He will teach one who is to save the galaxy from the great imbalance…” This has been interpreted to mean that Luke is the actual “chosen one,”  as Yoda does train Luke in the future (as exhibited by the deliberate phrasing, “He will…”), but he isn’t directly responsible for Anakin’s training as a Jedi — even initially opposing it. Ultimately, after a series of trials that Yoda successfully mitigates, including a number of significant encounters on the Sith home world of Moriband, the Priestesses repeat to Yoda the sage’s own words from Return of the Jedi: “There is another Skywalker.” At the time, this would mean nothing to Yoda, as he had no knowledge of Padme’s impending pregnancy, let alone young Anakin’s tacit marriage. On April 7th,  model and actress Jaime King, who voiced the Priestesses, engaged in a discussion of these issues with her husband, Star Wars superfan and director Kyle Newman; the actor who voiced the Son, Sam Witwer; Ralph McQuarrie preservation artist Paul Bateman; and Rebel Force Radio podcast hosts Jason Swank and Jimmy Mac. Jaime mentioned a number of times that Lucas and Filoni declared to her that, “Anakin is the Chosen One…” Later in the discussion, she presumably texted Filoni [she actually attributes this to, “…someone on very high authority…”], who replied, according to King: “There is another [Skywalker], and then Yoda sees off-screen his future, even older, self say, ‘There is another Skywalker.’ Right? As in Return of the Jediright before he dies. The Priestesses exist without time or space. They are a part of the cosmic and living force.” And as participants of the discussion outwardly wished the prophesy would be more clearly articulated in the mythology, Paul Bateman afforded the debate what I believe to be the missing link — that Lucas was a student not only of Joseph Campell’s “hero’s journey” universality, but also Peruvian American author Carlos Casteneda’s Tales of Power, which explores the mysticism of Native American spirit and vision quests, along with the role of tricksters in religious mythology.
Indeed, the Priestesses do play the trickster role in these sequences, often taking Yoda through vision quests to test his mettle, including taking the form of Sith rule of two progenitor Darth Bane.  Albert Arnold (1996), in Monsters, Tricksters, and Sacred Cows: Animal Tales and American Identities, speaks of the trickster as the amoral character who can be a hero, but because it is so inextricably tied to its own agenda, can also be an example of what not to do. In Nigeria, the Yoruba deity Eshu (also known as Elegba or Elegbara), according to William Bascom’s (1984) The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria, is the youngest and cleverest of the Yoruban deities, “…a trickster who delights in trouble making…” He survives the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in various iterations throughout Latin America, and in the U.S. as the character The Signifying Monkey, joining other African-based animal tricksters like Anansi, the Akan spider, and Br’er Rabbit, of the American South. While studying at Penn State, within the African-American history department, we often referred to Harvard professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates’ treatise concerning this subject, and how these characters informed the rebellious nature of slaves who simultaneously eschewed the wrath of severe punishment. John Wideman (1988) wrote a New York Times article covering the debut of Gates’ book The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism, explaining:
Signifying is verbal play — serious play that serves as instruction, entertainment, mental exercise, preparation for interacting with friend and foe in the social arena. In black vernacular, Signifying is a sign that words cannot be trusted, that even the most literal utterance allows room for interpretation, that language is both carnival and minefield.
As the Priestesses do not actually teach Yoda how to become a force ghost, but only serve to measure his virtuosity through a series of tricks he alone must navigate, one must question everything they say. If Anakin is the “Chosen One,” but they appear to hint at Luke serving that role, what possible motive does this serve? The controversial line in question does not mention that Yoda will train “the balancer,” or, “one who will bring the Force back into balance” — as many people mistakenly quote Serenity Priestess. The Force has destined Anakin to become Vader in order to destroy the corruption within both the Jedi Order and the Republic — the third chapter of Mortisdemonstrates this fact, as his path still leads to the Dark Lord’s visage while in the well of the Dark Side. But, in order to complete the cycle, prior to his descent into the proverbial valley, in an act of rebellion against Jedi dogma, Anakin creates a key to his own redemption: a son conceived of love, who will revive the former Self within his consciousness at the opportune moment in which the Sith must be destroyed. Yoda, of course, is the key to that fail-safe opportunity, as he is destined to train the instrument, “who will save the galaxy [not necessarily the Force] from the great imbalance.”
In Part III, I’ll explore the motive behind why Yoda would need to be tricked into thinking Anakin was not the Chosen One, and also the significance of Anakin’s virgin birth in the greater mythology of the hero’s journey.
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alexandraburton-x · 7 years ago
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@zachwinthrop​
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  he shrugs, ( t w i n i n g ) his arms either side of her face, fists hooking atop her halo - hair. zach chuckles softly, attempting to construct the image of the two of them being N O R M A L in his mind. he pictures her leaving the house in anything other than louboutins, him unloading a car of groceries. he shakes his head, amused. ❝ i don’t fucking know, alex. but we can give it a shot for a day. ❞ she slides his sunglasses down his nose, aureus glintspouring over her. he opens his mouth to respond, but instead a biting laugh surges from his throat. he falls onto his back, landing at her side. ❝ i should think so. it’s been three fucking years. ❞ he shoves her buoyantly until her spine erects and she shimmies from the mattress. he claps a wide palm against her rear and laughs again, beginning to grow BOYISHLY giddy. as she saunters to the door to leave, he continues to cackle, urging his hands into the mattress to sit up - right. ❝ go wash up, baby. always getting yourself into messes. ❞ he tuts.
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        an interminable spell had lapsed before alexandra had achieved her coveted look for the evening. she lauded her S O N S I E likeness in the mirror, sweeping pin – straight, auburn tresses over her shoulder regarding they way the pleated down the center of her back. light wash, threadbare denim swathed her curves, a simple ivory tank top, & ( i m p r e s s i v e ) leopard printed christian louboutins that reared her dainty stature by several inches. alexandra’s shoulders plucked gently, her reluctance to relegate the ensemble overwhelming her. with an hour now effete, she wandered through the deserted suite, pinching dregs of glass beneath the C R I M S O N soles of her swank pumps. she was unable to recollect the last time she’d been on an authentic date with him – or ever for that matter. had they truly been that secluded and detached from reality? thousands of miles from the comforts of a presumptuous los angeles, three years too late – their first amorous tryst. alex made note of the consideration, certain to plague him with it when necessary. she departed her F O R S A K E N suite, quietly entering the hall to be greeted by his handsome visage. ❝ oh my god, zach winthrop is that you? ❞ she taunted, quirking her fingers into the soft cotton material of his sweatshirt. ❝ where to mari? if alcohol isn’t a part of this plan, I’m going to petition for divorce. ❞
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newrcgime · 1 year ago
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tag drops pt. 2 (visage)
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