SG: Pilgrim Quotes

plowman

plowman

“. . . and he would help the poor for the love of Christ and never take a penny. He paid in tithes in full when they were due On what he owned, and on his earnings too.”

host

“Bold in his speech, yet wise and full of tact.

There was no manly attribute he lacked.

What’s more, he was a merry-hearted man.”

doctor

“Yet he was rather close as to expenses And kept the gold he won in pestilences.”

reeve

“And he was under contract to present The accounts, right from his master’s earliest years. No one ever caught him in arrears.”

miller

“A wrangler and buffoon. he had a store Of tavern stories. Filthy in the main. He was a master-hand at stealing grain.”

summoner

“Garlic he loved, and onions too, and leeks. And drinking strong wine till he was hazy. Then he would shout and jabber as if crazy, And wouldn’t speak a word except in Latin.”

skipper

“As for his skill in reckoning in tides, Currents and many other risk besides. Moons, harbours, pilots, he had such dispatch That from Hull to Carthage none was his match.”

franklin

“His house was never short of bake-meat pies, Of fish and flesh, and these in such supplies It positively snowed with meat and drink,”

oxford student

“. . . his horse was thinner than a rake And he was not too fat, I undertake, But had a hollow look, a sober stare: The thread upon his overcoat was bare.”

sergeant at law

“He knew of every Judgement. case and crime Recorded since King William’s time.”

friar

“He knew the taverns well in every town And every innkeeper and barmaid too Better than lepers, beggars and that crew.”

merchant

“. . . so (he) had set His wits to work, none knew he was in debt. He was so stately in negotiation. Loan, bargain, and commercial obligation.”

the guildsmen

“Their wisdom would have justified a plan To make each one an alderman: They had capital and revenue. Besides their wives declared It was their due.”

parson

“He stayed at home and watched over his fold So that no wolf should make the sheep miscarry. He was a shepherd and no mercenary.”

pardoner

“He’d sewed a holy relic in his cap: His wallet lay before him on his lap. Brimful of pardons come from Rome all hot. He had the same small voice as a goat has got.”

wife of bath

“In company she liked to laugh and chat And knew the remedies of love's mischances. An art in which she knew the oldest dances.”

manciple

“He was never rash Whether he bought on credit or paid cash. He used to watch the market most precisely And got in first, and so he did quite nicely.”

cook

“But what a pity—so it seemed to me, That he should have an ulcer on his knee. As for blancmange, he made it with the best.”

Yeoman

“And in his hand he bore a mighty how. His head was like a nut, his face was brown. He knew the whole of woodcraft up and down.”

prioress

“Her forehead, certainly, was fair of spread. Almost a span across the brow. I own: She was by no means undergrown.”

monk

“He liked a fat swan best, and roasted whole. His palfrey was as brown as is a berry.”

the squire

“Singing he was, or fluting all the day: He was as fresh as is the month of May.”

the knight

“. . a most distinguished man. Who from the day on which he first began To ride abroad had followed chivalry.”