in the western ocean, but maybe on its far rim I shall indeed come to
Cipangu, for the world is round, and somewhere in those great seas
beyond the coast of Europe must lie Marco Polo's rich Cathay. I will
beseech the kings of England and of Spain for a ship and a ship's
company, and the silk and the spices and the wealth shall be theirs. I
will sail west,' said the Genoese sea captain, and he smote his thigh.
'I will sail west, west, west!' And this was the last of Messer Marco's
marvels; he discovered China in the thirteenth century, when he was
alive, and in the fifteenth, when he was dead, he discovered America!




CHAPTER IV

_Madame Eglentyne_

CHAUCER'S PRIORESS IN REAL LIFE

Ther was also a Nonne, a Prioresse,
That of her smyling was ful simple and coy;
Hir grettest ooth was ne but by sëynt Loy;
And she was cleped madame Eglentyne.
Ful wel she song the service divyne,
Entuned in hir nose ful semely;
And Frensh she spak ful faire and fetisly,
After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe,
For Frensh of Paris was to hir unknowe.
At mete wel y-taught was she with-alle;
She leet no morsel from hir lippes falle,