The Canterbury Tales · The Clerk’s Tale · The Tale 2435 · L’Envoy of Chaucer

“Griseld’ is dead, and eke her patience,

And both at once are buried in Itále:

For which I cry in open audience,

No wedded man so hardy be t’ assail

His wifë’s patience, in trust to find

Griselda’s, for in certain he shall fail.

“O noble wivës, full of high prudence,

Let no humility your tonguës nail:

Nor let no clerk have cause or diligence

To write of you a story of such marvail,

As of Griselda patient and kind,

Lest Chichëvache2728 you swallow in her entrail.

“Follow Echo, that holdeth no silence,

But ever answereth at the countertail;2729

Be not bedaffed2730 for your innocence,

But sharply take on you the governail;2731

Imprintë well this lesson in your mind,

For common profit, since it may avail.

“Ye archiwivës,2732 stand aye at defence,

Since ye be strong as is a great camail,2733

Nor suffer not that men do you offence.

And slender wivës, feeble in battail,

Be eager as a tiger yond in Ind;

Aye clapping as a mill, I you counsail.

“Nor dread them not, nor do them reverence;

For though thine husband armed be in mail,

The arrows of thy crabbed eloquence

Shall pierce his breast, and eke his aventail;2734

In jealousy I rede2735 eke thou him bind,

And thou shalt make him couch2736 as doth a quail.

“If thou be fair, where folk be in presénce

Shew thou thy visage and thine apparail:

If thou be foul, be free of thy dispence;

To get thee friendës aye do thy travail:

Be aye of cheer as light as leaf on lind,2737

And let him care, and weep, and wring, and wail.”