(The Wife of Bath’s Tale)
In the old days, the days of King Arthur10,
He whom the Britons hold in great honour,
All of this land was full of magic then.
And with her joyous company the elf-queen
Danced many a time on many a green mead.
That was the old belief, as if have read:
I speak of many hundred years ago.
But now elves can be en by men no more,
For now the Christian charity and prayers
Of limiters11 and other saintly friars12
Who haunt each nook and corner, field and stream,
Thick as the motes of dust in a sunbeam,
Blessing the bedrooms, kitchens, halls, and bowers,自私的
Cities and towns, castles and high towers,
Villages, barns, cattle-sheds and dairies,
Have en to it that there are now no fairies.
Tho places where you once would e an elf
Are places where the limiter himlf
Walks in the afternoons and early mornings,
色彩归纳Singing his holy offices and martins,
While going on the rounds of his district.
Women may now go safely where they like:
In every bush, and under every tree,
They’ll find no other satyr13 there but he:
And he’ll do nothing wor than take their honour.
Now it so happened that this King Arthur
Had in his court a bold knight-bachelor
Who one day was hawking by the river,
And it so chanced, as he was riding home,
He met a maiden walking all alone,
And thereupon, though she fought long and hard,
The knight took by main force her maidenhood;
And this outrage occasioned a great stir,
So much petitioning of King Arthur,
That the knight was, in due cour of law,
Condemned to death, and would have lost his head
According to the law as it then stood,
父母对孩子的影响Had not the queen and many another lady
Importuned the king so long for mercy
That in the end he granted him his life
And gave him to the queen to dispo of:
Either to execute, or spare his life.
The queen gave the king thanks with all her heart,
And some time afterwards spoke to the knight
One day when she saw opportunity:
‘Your fate is in the balance still,’ said she,
‘You cannot yet be certain of your life,
But you shall live if you can answer me,
What is the thing that women most desire?
Your neck is forfeit to the axe—beware!
And if you cannot tell me here and now
I shall, however, give you leave to go
A twelvemonth and a day, to ek and find
An answer that will satisfy my mind.
And you must pledge, before you can depart,
Duly to yield yourlf up in this court.’
Sad was the knight; sorrowfully he sighed;
But there! It’s not as if he’d any choice.
And so at long last he made up his mind
To go, and to come back at the year’s end,
With whatever answer heaven might provide;
And so he took his leave, and off he rode.
He visited every hou, and every spot
Where he might have the luck to find out what
泰历
The thing is that we women most desire;
But could find in no country anywhere
商洽
Two people to agree with one another
Upon this subject.
Some said we love best
Riches and wealth; and others said, honour;
止痛药Some said it is the pleasures of the bed,
And to be often widowed, often wed.
And others said we’re happiest at heart
When complimented and well costed14.
Which is pretty near the truth, and that’s no lie.
A man can win us best by flattery;
And with attentiveness, assiduity15,
We’re ensnared, one and all.
Some say that we
Love best to have our own way and be free,
小黄人电影下载To have no one reprove us for our follies,
But say how wi we are, how far from foolish.
If someone touches on a tender spot,
There isn’t one of us—indeed there’s not—
Who won’t kick, just for being told the truth!
Just try it, and you’ll find out soon enough.
However faulty we may be within,
We want to be thought wi, and free from sin.
And others say that we take great delight
In being thought dependable and discreet,
Able to hold steadfastly to one purpo,
Never revealing what a person tells us.
As for that notion, it’s not worth a button,
Becau we women can keep nothing hidden.
Witness King Midas16—would you hear of him?
太敏感的人 Ovid17, among some other trifles, said
That under his long hair King Midas had
Two ass’ ears growing upon his head,
Which blemish he kept hid, as best he might,
Most artfully from everybody’s sight,
