THE PROLOGUE
be not holy, nor that a monk cloisterless is likened to a fish waterless, that is to say a monk out of his convent; that text he held not worth an oyster; and I said to him his opinion was good. Why should he study and make himself mad poring alway upon a book in a cloister, or drudge and labour with his hands as Austin biddeth? How shall the world be served? Let Austin have his drudgery kept for himself. Therefore, in good sooth, he was a hard spurrer; he had greyhounds, as swift as fowl in flight ; and all his heart was set in spurring and hunting the hare ; for at no cost would he refrain. I saw his sleeves edged at the wrist with grey fur, and that the finest in the land ; and to fasten his hood at the throat he had a pin curiously wrought of gold, with a love-knot at the larger end. His head was bald and shone as a glass, and eke his face as if he had been anointed. He was in good trim, a full fat lord. His eyes glittered and rolled in his head, and glowed as the furnace beneath a cauldron. His boots were supple, his horses in fine case. Certainly he was a fair prelate; he was not pale as a purgatorial ghost; a fat swan he loved best of any flesh. His palfrey was as brown as a berry.
A Friar there was, jocund and wanton, a limiter, a self-important man. In all the four orders there is none that knoweth so much of dalliance and fair speech. He had made full many a marriage of young women at his own cost. He was a noble pillar unto his order, full well beloved and familiar with franklins everywhere in his country, and also with worthy women of the town. For he had power of confession, as himself said, more than a parson, for he was licentiate of his order. Full sweetly he heard confession, and pleasant was his absolution; he was a complaisant man to grant penance, whereso he wist he should get a good meal. For to give unto a poor order is a sign that a man is
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