L’Envoy of Chaucer
“Griseld’ is dead, and eke her patience,And both at once are buried in Itale:For which I cry in open audience,No wedded man so hardy be t’ assailHis wife’s patience, in trust to findGriselda’s, for in certain he shall fail.
“O noble wives, full of high prudence,Let no humility your tongues nail:Nor let no clerk have cause or diligenceTo write of you a story of such marvail,As of Griselda patient and kind,Lest Chichevache you swallow in her entrail.
“Follow Echo, that holdeth no silence,But ever answereth at the countertail;Be not bedaffed for your innocence,But sharply take on you the governail;Imprinte well this lesson in your mind,For common profit, since it may avail.
“Ye archiwives, stand aye at defence,Since ye be strong as is a great camail,Nor suffer not that men do you offence.And slender wives, feeble in battail,Be eager as a tiger yond in Ind;Aye clapping as a mill, I you counsail.
“Nor dread them not, nor do them reverence;For though thine husband armed be in mail,The arrows of thy crabbed eloquenceShall pierce his breast, and eke his aventail;In jealousy I rede eke thou him bind,And thou shalt make him couch as doth a quail.
“If thou be fair, where folk be in presenceShew thou thy visage and thine apparail:If thou be foul, be free of thy dispence;To get thee friendes aye do thy travail:Be aye of cheer as light as leaf on lind,And let him care, and weep, and wring, and wail.”
Words in this poem 17
- wedded a.
- Joined in wedlock; married.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- clerk n.
- A clergyman or ecclesiastic. [Either OF. clerc, fr. L. clericus a priest, or AS. clerc, cleric, clerk, priest, fr. L. clericus, fr. Gr. Clergy.]
- chichevache n.
- A fabulous cow of enormous size, whose food was patient wives, and which was therefore in very lean condition. [F. chiche lean + vache cow.]
- entrail v. t.
- To interweave; to intertwine. [Pref. en- + OF. treiller to grate, lattice, F. treille vine, arbor. See Trellis.]
- governail n.
- Management; mastery. Chaucer. [Cf. F. gouvernail helm, rudder, L. gubernaculum.]
- defence n.
- The act of defending, or the state of being defended; protection, as from violence or danger. [F. défense, OF. defense, fem., defens, masc., fr. L. defensa (cf. Fence.]
- camail n.
- A neck guard of chain mall, hanging from the bascinet or other headpiece. [F. camail (cf. It. camaglio), fr. L. caput head + source of E. mail.]
- offence n.
- The act of offending in any sense; esp., a crime or a sin, an affront or an injury. [F., fr. L. offensa. See Offend.]
- yond a.
- Furious; mad; angry; fierce. [Cf. AS. anda, onda, anger, andian to be angry.]
- aventail n.
- The movable front to a helmet; the ventail. [OF. esventail. Cf. Ventail.]
- rede v. t.
- To advise or counsel. [See Read, v. t.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- shew n.
- Show. [Obs. except in shewbread.]
- visage n.
- The face, countenance, or look of a person or an animal; -- chiefly applied to the human face. [F. visage, from L. visus a seeing, a look, fr. videre, visum, to see. See Vision.]
- lind n.
- The linden. See Linden.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
L’Envoy of Chaucer is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Canterbury Tales, Project Gutenberg ebook #2383; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Geoffrey Chaucer, L’Envoy of Chaucer, in The Canterbury Tales (1400), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2383, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/canterbury-tales/l-envoy-of-chaucer.html, id L15855.
Form and metre
L’Envoy of Chaucer is 36 lines in 6 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables. 11 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ---A-A patience · itale · audience · assailA · find · failA
- 2 -A-A-A prudence · nailA · diligence · marvailA · kind · entrailA
- 3 -A-A-A silence · countertailA · innocence · governailA · mind · availA
- 4 ABAB-B defenceA · camailB · offenceA · battailB · ind · counsailB
- 5 -A-A-A reverence · mailA · eloquence · aventailA · bind · quailA
- 6 ABAB-B presenceA · apparailB · dispenceA · travailB · lind · wailB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| “Griseld’ is dead, and eke her patience, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And both at once are buried in Itale: | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| For which I cry in open audience, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| No wedded man so hardy be t’ assail | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··˘/ |
| His wife’s patience, in trust to find | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Griselda’s, for in certain he shall fail. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| “O noble wives, full of high prudence, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Let no humility your tongues nail: | 9 | ··˘/˘˘··· |
| Nor let no clerk have cause or diligence | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| To write of you a story of such marvail, | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| As of Griselda patient and kind, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Lest Chichevache you swallow in her entrail. | 10 | ·/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| “Follow Echo, that holdeth no silence, | 10 | /˘/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| But ever answereth at the countertail; | 10 | ·//˘˘····· |
| Be not bedaffed for your innocence, | 10 | ····˘··/˘˘ |
| But sharply take on you the governail; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Imprinte well this lesson in your mind, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| For common profit, since it may avail. | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| “Ye archiwives, stand aye at defence, | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| Since ye be strong as is a great camail, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Nor suffer not that men do you offence. | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| And slender wives, feeble in battail, | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| Be eager as a tiger yond in Ind; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Aye clapping as a mill, I you counsail. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| “Nor dread them not, nor do them reverence; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| For though thine husband armed be in mail, | 10 | ···/˘·˘··· |
| The arrows of thy crabbed eloquence | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘˘ |
| Shall pierce his breast, and eke his aventail; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| In jealousy I rede eke thou him bind, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| And thou shalt make him couch as doth a quail. | 10 | ·········· |
| “If thou be fair, where folk be in presence | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Shew thou thy visage and thine apparail: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| If thou be foul, be free of thy dispence; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| To get thee friendes aye do thy travail: | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| Be aye of cheer as light as leaf on lind, | 10 | ·········· |
| And let him care, and weep, and wring, and wail.” | 10 | ·········· |
Notes from the edition 4
Glosses from the Purves edition of 1870, printed beside the lines (Project Gutenberg #2383).
- Stanza 3 counter-tally · befooled · helm
- Stanza 4 wives of rank · camel
- Stanza 5 advise · submit, shrink
- Stanza 6 linden, lime-tree
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.