Nor never of my body was untrue.
Unto the devil, rough and black of hue,
Give I thy body, and the pan to boot."

And when this devil heard her give the brute
Thus in his charge, he stooped into her ear,
And said, "Now, Mabily, my mother dear,
Is this your will in earnest that ye say?"
"The devil," quoth she, "so fetch him cleanaway,
Soul, pan, and all, unless that he repent."
"Repent!" the Sumner cried; "pay up your rent,
Old fool; and don't stand preaching here to me.
I would I had thy whole inventory,
The smock from off thy back, and every cloth."

"Now, brother," quoth the devil, "be not wroth;
Thy body and this pan be mine by right,
And thou shalt straight to hell with me to-night,
Where thou shalt know what sort of folk we be,
Better than Oxford university."

And with that word the fiend him swept below,
Body and soul. He went where Sumners go.



CHAUCER'S REVE'S TALE
MODERNISED BY R. H. HORNE.