such a monster. She seizes his bridle and demands his part of the bargain, and he would fain flee if he could. As a sick man takes bitter drugs with spice and sugar, Florent drinks his draught. But, as a true knight, he must keep his troth, for the honour of womanhood; and so he speaks to her as gently as he can, and sets her before him on his horse, sighing as he rides along. Like an owl, he hides during the day and journeys at night, till he comes to his own castle, and smuggles in the loathly lady. Then he consults his confidants how to wed her. The tire-women take off her rags, bathe and clothe her, but she wouldn’t let them comb her hair. She looked more foul in her fine clothes. They were wedded that night. She begins to fondle him, calls him her husband, invites him to bed, and offers him a kiss. He was in torment, but he must bed with her. He lies awake, turning his face from the foul sight. She clips him, and prays him to turn towards her, but he lies still. At last he takes her hand, and, looking on her, sees a damsel of eighteen, the fairest in the world. She bids him choose whether he would have her so by night or by day. He is at a loss to decide, and leaves it with herself: “My love, I will be ruled by thee, for I cannot choose.” Quoth she: “Since you give me sovereignty, I shall, night and day, be as you now see me. I am the King of Sicily’s daughter, and was changed into a foul shape by my stepmother, until a good knight should give me his love and the mastery.” Now all was joy, and they lived long and happily.
“And clerkes that this chaunce herde,
Thei writen it in evidence,
To teche how that obedience
May wel fortune a man to love,
And sette him in his lust a-bove,
As it be-fell un-to this knyght.
For-thi,[1] my sone, if thou do ryht,
Thou shalt unto thi love obeie,
And folwe her will, be alle weie.”
Chaucer’s “Wife of Bath’s Tale”, though on the same “lines” as Gower’s Florent, differs from it in several of the details, and there does not seem any reason to suppose
- ↑ Therefore.
