Page:The Canterbury tales of Geoffrey Chaucer.djvu/216

 till the falcon bade her to be still, and with a sigh thus she said her say:

"Where I was bred (alas! wretched time!) and fostered in a rock of grey marble so tenderly that nothing ailed me, I knew not what adversity was till I could soar far aloft under the sky. Then dwelt a tercelet hard by me that seemed the well of all gentleness. Although he was full of treason and falsehood, it was wrapped in such manner under humble looks, show of truth, courtesy and busy tokens of regard, that no wight would have weened that he could dissemble, so deep in grain he dyed his colours. Even as a serpent hideth him under blossoms till he may see his time to sting, even so doth this god of love, this hypocrite, perform his ceremonies and dutiful attentions and in semblance doth all the observances that accord unto love's gentleness. As in a tomb all the fairness is outward and underneath is the corpse in such guise as ye know, even such was this hypocrite, both cold and hot, and in this wise he served his purpose, so that (save the fiend) none knew what was his mind; till he had wept and lamented so long, and so many a year feigned his service to me, that my heart—too pitiful and too foolish—all innocent of his sovereign malice, and fearful as methought of his death, upon his oath and pledge, granted him love upon this condition, that evermore mine honor and fame should be spared, both privily and openly; that is to say, I gave him, after his deserving, all my heart and all my thought—God knoweth, and he, that I would not on other terms—and took his heart for aye in exchange for mine. But the sooth was said this many a day ago, 'A true wight and a thief think not alike.' And when he saw the thing gone so far that I had granted him my love fully in such wise as I have said, and given