THE TALE

A prentice whilom dwelt in our city,

And of a craft of victuallers was he:

Galliard* he was, as goldfinch in the shaw**, *lively**grove

Brown as a berry, a proper short fellaw:

With lockes black, combed full fetisly.* *daintily

And dance he could so well and jollily,

That he was called Perkin Revellour.

He was as full of love and paramour,

As is the honeycomb of honey sweet;

Well was the wenche that with him might meet.

At every bridal would he sing and hop;

He better lov'd the tavern than the shop.

For when there any riding was in Cheap,^<1>

Out of the shoppe thither would he leap,

And, till that he had all the sight y-seen,

And danced well, he would not come again;

And gather'd him a meinie* of his sort, *company of fellows

To hop and sing, and make such disport:

And there they *sette steven* for to meet *made appointment*

To playen at the dice in such a street.

For in the towne was there no prentice

That fairer coulde cast a pair of dice

Than Perkin could; and thereto *he was free *he spent money liberally

Of his dispence, in place of privity.* where he would not be seen*

That found his master well in his chaffare,* *merchandise

For oftentime he found his box full bare.

For, soothely, a prentice revellour,

That haunteth dice, riot, and paramour,

His master shall it in his shop abie*, *suffer for

All* have he no part of the minstrelsy. *although

For theft and riot they be convertible,

All can they play on *gitern or ribible.* *guitar or rebeck*

Revel and truth, as in a low degree,

They be full wroth* all day, as men may see. *at variance

This jolly prentice with his master bode,

Till he was nigh out of his prenticehood,

All were he snubbed* both early and late, *rebuked

And sometimes led with revel to Newgate.

But at the last his master him bethought,

Upon a day when he his paper^<2> sought,

Of a proverb, that saith this same word;

Better is rotten apple out of hoard,

Than that it should rot all the remenant:

So fares it by a riotous servant;

It is well lesse harm to let him pace*, *pass, go

Than he shend* all the servants in the place. *corrupt

Therefore his master gave him a quittance,

And bade him go, with sorrow and mischance.

And thus this jolly prentice had his leve*: *desire

Now let him riot all the night, or leave*. *refrain

And, for there is no thief without a louke,^<3>

That helpeth him to wasten and to souk* *spend

Of that he bribe* can, or borrow may, *steal

Anon he sent his bed and his array

Unto a compere* of his owen sort, *comrade

That loved dice, and riot, and disport;

And had a wife, that held *for countenance* *for appearances*

A shop, and swived* for her sustenance. *prostituted herself

. . . . . . . ^<4>

NOTES:

1. Cheapside, where jousts were sometimes held, and which was the great scene of city revels and processions.

2. His paper: his certificate of completion of his apprenticeship.

3. Louke: The precise meaning of the word is unknown, but it is doubtless included in the cant term"pal".

4. The Cook's Tale is unfinished in all the manuscripts; but in some, of minor authority, the Cook is made to break off his tale, because "it is so foul," and to tell the story of Gamelyn, on which Shakespeare's "As You Like It" is founded. The story is not Chaucer's, and is different in metre, and inferior in composition to the Tales. It is supposed that Chaucer expunged the Cook's Tale for the same reason that made him on his death-bed lament that he had written so much "ribaldry."