Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/213

 no gentleman, duke or earl though he be; for deeds of villany constitute the base-born man. Gentility is but the renown of your ancestors on account of their signal goodness, and which is foreign to your individual self. Your gentility, like theirs, proceeds from God only. He is nobly born who performs noble deeds. Therefore, my beloved husband, I conclude that although my ancestors were rustic, yet, as I hope to live virtuously, then shall I become of gentle blood.

'And since you reprove me for my poverty, bear in mind that the Saviour of the world dwelt in wilful poverty; and the King of Heaven would not choose a vicious living. Cheerful poverty is doubtless an honest thing: and I hold him rich who considers himself repaid for his poverty in other gifts, although he have no shirt to his back: while the covetous man is really poor, for he would possess that which he cannot attain: but he who possesses nothing, yet covets nothing, is rich, although you esteem him but a knave.