Lectures on the English Poets - Delivered at the Surrey Institution by William Hazlitt
page 36 of 257 (14%)
page 36 of 257 (14%)
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Hire mouth ful smale; and therto soft and red;
But sickerly she hadde a fayre forehed. It was almost a spanne brode, I trowe." "A Monk there was, a fayre for the maistrie, An out-rider, that loved venerie: A manly man, to ben an abbot able. Ful many a deinte hors hadde he in stable: And whan he rode, men mighte his bridel here, Gingeling in a whistling wind as clere, And eke as loude, as doth the chapell belle, Ther as this lord was keper of the celle. The reule of Seint Maure and of Seint Beneit, Because that it was olde and somdele streit, This ilke monk lette olde thinges pace, And held after the newe world the trace. [*] He yave not of the text a pulled hen, That saith, that hunters ben not holy men;-- Therfore he was a prickasoure a right: Greihoundes he hadde as swift as foul of flight: Of pricking and of hunting for the hare Was all his lust, for no cost wolde he spare. I saw his sleves purfiled at the hond With gris, and that the finest of the lond. And for to fasten his hood under his chinne, He had of gold ywrought a curious pinne: A love-knotte in the greter end ther was. His hed was balled, and shone as any glas, And eke his face, as it hadde ben anoint. He was a lord ful fat and in good point. |
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