Page:The Canterbury tales of Geoffrey Chaucer.djvu/175

 twinkling of an eye, hath slain both of them ; in like wise must he slay all of us.

"But to tell forth as I began of this worthy clerk that taught me this tale, I say that first ere he writeth the body of his tale he enditeth with high style a proem, in the which he describeth Pemond and the country of Saluces and speaketh of Apennine, the high hills that be the bounds of west Lombardy; and in special of Mount Vesulus, where from a small spring the Po taketh its rise and source, ever increasing in its flow eastward toward Emelia, Ferrare and Venice. All of which were a long thing to describe. And truly, in my judgment, methinketh it an impertinent thing, save that he wisheth to introduce his subject. But this is his tale, which ye may hear."