Geoffrey Chaucer

A
Almighty and all-merciable Queen,
To whom all this world fleeth for succour,
To have release of sin, of sorrow, of teen

A
LE
EL   CaptivityI
1

This wrecched worldes transmutacioun,
As wele or wo, now povre and now honour,
Withouten ordre or wys
Governed is by Fortunes errour

My Master Bukton, when of Christ our
Was asked,
What is truth or soothfastness
He not a word answer'd to that asking,

What should these clothes thus manifold,
Lo
this hot summer's day
After great heate cometh cold;

Adam Scrivener, if ever it thee
Boece or Troilus for to write anew,
Under thy long locks thou may'st have the
But after my making thou write more true

Somtyme the world was so stedfast and
That mannes word was obligacioun,
And now it is so fals and
That word and deed, as in conclusioun,

HE
EM I have gret wonder, be this lighte, How that I live, for day ne nighte I may nat slepe wel nigh noght, I have so many an ydel thoght Purely for defaute of slepe That, by my trouthe,
I take no kepe Of no-thing, how hit cometh or got...

The firste stok, fader of gentilesse —What man that desireth gentil for to
Must folowe his trace, and alle his wittes
Vertu to love and vyces for to flee
For unto vertu longeth

The firste stock-father of gentleness,
What man desireth gentle for to be,
Must follow his trace, and all his wittes dress,
Virtue to love, and vices for to flee;

When priestes failen in their saws,
And lordes turne Godde's
Against the right;
And lechery is holden as privy solace,

Flee from the press, and dwell with soothfastness;
Suffice thee thy good, though it be small;
For hoard hath hate, and climbing tickleness,
Press hath envy, and weal is blent o'er all,