Page:Tales from Chaucer.djvu/255

 in all Italy; and poor Janicola was furnished with an asylum at Court, where he lived near his daughter in peace and honour, till his spirit gently crept from his body, and returned to Him who gave it. The son succeeded to a peaceful government after his father had left his place. He was fortunate in his marriage, although he did not prove his wife in imitation of his father. The people of this world are not so strong as they were in days of yore; and my author makes this apology for his tale. 'This story,' he says, 'is not intended as a recommendation that wives should imitate Griselda in the plenitude of her humility (for that were utterly impossible), but that everyone should in his degree strive to be patient under reverses and sharp strokes of fortune: for as a woman was so patient to a mortal man, how much more steadfastly should we endure the trials that God may please to inflict upon us. He daily proves our constancy; and his government, however it may appear at the moment, ultimately tends to our advantage. Let us all, then, live in virtuous sufferance.