HKB
till so be ye indite High style, as when that men to kinges write. Speake so plain at this time, I you pray, That we may understande what ye say.”
This worthy Clerk benignely answer’d; “Hoste,” quoth he, “I am under your yerd,* rod <1> Ye have of us as now the governance, And therefore would I do you obeisance, As far as reason asketh, hardily: boldly, truly I will you tell a tale, which that I Learn’d at Padova of a worthy clerk, As proved by his wordes and his werk. He is now dead, and nailed in his chest, I pray to God to give his soul good rest. Francis Petrarc’, the laureate poet,<2> Highte this clerk, whose rhetoric so sweet *was called Illumin’d all Itale of poetry, As Linian <3> did of philosophy, Or law, or other art particulere: But death, that will not suffer us dwell here But as it were a twinkling of an eye, Them both hath slain, and alle we shall die.
“But forth to tellen of this worthy man, That taughte me this tale, as I began, I say that first he with high style inditeth (Ere he the body of his tale writeth) A proem, in the which describeth he Piedmont, and of Saluces <4> the country, And speaketh of the Pennine hilles high, That be the bounds of all West Lombardy: And of Mount Vesulus in special, Where as the Po out of a welle small Taketh his firste springing and his source, That eastward aye increaseth in his course T’Emilia-ward, <5> to Ferraro, and Venice, The which a long thing were to devise.* narrate And truely, as to my judgement, Me thinketh it a thing impertinent, *irrelevant Save that he would conveye his mattere: But this is the tale, which that ye shall hear.”
Notes to the Prologue to the Clerk’s Tale
Under your yerd: under your rod; as the emblem of government or direction.
Francesco Petrarca, born 1304, died 1374; for his Latin epic poem on the carer of Scipio, called “Africa,” he was solemnly crowned with the poetic laurel in the Capitol of Rome, on Easter-day of 1341.
Linian: An eminent jurist and philosopher, now almost forgotten, who died four or five years after Petrarch.
Saluces: Saluzzo, a district of Savoy; its marquises were celebrated during the Middle Ages.
Emilia: The region called Aemilia, across which ran the Via Aemilia — made by M. Aemilius Lepidus, who was consul at Rome B.C. 187. It continued the Flaminian Way from Ariminum (Rimini) across the Po at Placentia (Piacenza) to Mediolanum (Milan), traversing Cisalpine Gaul.
THE TALE.<1>
Pars Prima. First Part
There is, right at the west side of Itale, Down at the root of Vesulus<2> the cold, A lusty* plain, abundant of vitaille;* *pleasant **victuals There many a town and tow’r thou may’st behold, That founded were in time of fathers old, And many another delectable sight; And Saluces this noble country hight.
A marquis whilom lord was of that land, As were his worthy elders* him before, ancestors And obedient, aye ready to his hand, Were all his lieges, bothe less and more: Thus in delight he liv’d, and had done yore, long Belov’d and drad, through favour of fortune, held in reverence Both of his lordes and of his commune. *commonalty
Therewith he was, to speak of lineage, The gentilest y-born of Lombardy, A fair person, and strong, and young of age, And full of honour and of courtesy: Discreet enough his country for to gie,* *guide, rule Saving in some things that he was to blame; And Walter was this younge lordes name.
I blame him thus, that he consider’d not In time coming what might him betide, But on his present lust* was all his thought, *pleasure And for to hawk and hunt on every side; Well nigh all other cares let he slide, And eke he would (that was the worst of all) Wedde no wife for aught that might befall.