My jealousy. Yet you should pardon it;
For you that wear St. Chastity’s safe veil
Can never know how blind St. Cupid plagues
The eyes of worldlings.
PRIORESS
No?
SQUIRE
Love, you forgive me?
[Reënter Chaucer.]
JOHANNA
Forgive you? By my heart—I’ll think about it.
Here comes our fool. Come hither, What’s-your-name.
CHAUCER
[Coming forward with the love-knot.]
Your Grace’s secret-monger.
JOHANNA
Tut! tut!
[Embarrassed, motions him to put it away.]
Rhymester,
If thou wilt come to court, I’ll have thee made
Court-fool.
SQUIRE
[Aside.]
O mistress, hush!
JOHANNA
A cask of thy
Diameter should keep King Richard drunk
With laughter for a twelvemonth. Cask, I swear it,
Thou shalt be made court-fool.
SQUIRE
[Aside to Chaucer.]
She doth not mean it.
PRIORESS
[Aside to Squire.]
Nephew, I cannot quite approve your choice.
JOHANNA
Nay, keep my knot; my favour is renewed.
I’ll sue the king myself at Canterbury
To swaddle thee in motley.
[Chaucer laughs aside.]
—Well, no thanks?
CHAUCER
Lady, pray God I live to see that day.
JOHANNA
Amen. Now, Aubrey, where’s your father? Let’s
Make merry all together.
PRIORESS
True, my brother;
Went he to chapel?
SQUIRE
Ladies, I am ’shamed
To make confession of my selfishness:
To-day, all day, in the sweet day and night
Of my own thoughts I have been wandering.
I have not seen my father since this morning.
I’ll go and seek him now.
CHAUCER
Nay, boy, remain.
Doubtless he’s gone to chapel. I will find him
And bring him to you here. First, though, let me
Anticipate my fool’s prerogative
And play the father to another’s bairns,
This vixen girl and boy.
[With an affectionate smile he draws Johanna and Aubreytogether and kisses them.]
God bless ’em both!
PRIORESS
[Aside.]
St. Loy! No more?
JOHANNA
Dear fool, thou’rt not so old.
Come now, how old?
CHAUCER
Ah, lass, my crop is rowen.
When grey hairs creep like yarrow into clover,
Farewell, green June! Thy growing days be over.
[Aside.]
Bewitching Eglantine!
[Exit left.]
PRIORESS
[At the casement, aside.]
Some other star!
[Aloud.]
Nephew!
[The Squire and Johanna stand absorbed in their own whisperings.]
Nephew!
SQUIRE
Madame!
PRIORESS
I pray you, tell
Your father, when he comes, I am retired
A moment to my room.
SQUIRE
I will, Madame.
[Exit Prioress, right.]
My lady, we’re alone.
JOHANNA
Alas, then come,
Sit and be sad.
[She sits in the niche by the fireplace.]
SQUIRE
Sad? Must I wear a mask, then?
Mistress! Mistress, masks fall away from love
Like husks from buds in April. By love’s light
Lovers can look through mountains to their joy
As through these black beams I see heaven. Nay,
Hear me! When I have won my spurs—
FRIAR
[Sings within.]
What, ho! What, ho!
Dan Cupido!
A spurless knight usurps thy halls.—
JOHANNA
What’s that?
SQUIRE
The friar! ’Tis his voice.
FRIAR
[Sings within.]
Thy fortress falls,
And all her rosèd charms—
JOHANNA
Is’t in the cellar?
SQUIRE
Or the wall?
[They look up the chimney.]
FRIAR
[Sings within.]
To arms, Dan Cupido! To arms,Dan Cupido!
[With a rush of soot, he falls into the fireplace.]
Bon soir!
JOHANNA
’Od’s fiends!
SQUIRE
[Seizing Friar, drags him forth.]
Sneak thief, at last I have thee—What!
A chimney-sweep?
FRIAR
Did scare the ladykin?
SQUIRE
Was’t thou that sung?
FRIAR
Sung-la?
JOHANNA
[Brushing herself off.]
My taffeta!
SQUIRE
Sing! Didst thou sing?
FRIAR
Oh, sing! You mean the friar, sir.
SQUIRE
[Peremptorily.]
Where?
FRIAR
In the cellar. He’s a-hiding, sir.
SQUIRE
I warrant him. Here—
[Gives Friar a coin.]
Come, show me the scoundrel.
FRIAR
[Examining coin.]
A noble!
[Sings.]
Oh, rareSweet miller,Lady-killer,Not there, not there!
Oh, rareSweet miller,Lady-killer,Not there, not there!
Oh, rareSweet miller,Lady-killer,Not there, not there!
Oh, rare
Sweet miller,
Lady-killer,
Not there, not there!
SQUIRE
[Eyeing Friar with suspicion.]
What?
[The Miller slips stealthily from the cellar door and joins Alisoun in the cupboard.]
[The Miller slips stealthily from the cellar door and joins Alisoun in the cupboard.]
FRIAR
Was’t so he sung, sir?
SQUIRE
Yes.
JOHANNA
[Still brushing her gown.]
Ruined!
FRIAR
Sir, follow, sir. I know him well.
A begging friar?
SQUIRE
Yes.—One moment, Mistress.—
I’ll flay the beggar. Now!
FRIAR
[The Friar opens cellar door; Squire snatches his candleand precedes him.]
A sneaking friar—
A noble!—a swindling, skulking, lying friar.
[Aside to Bob Miller, who joins him from the cupboard.]
O rare Bob-up-and-down!
[Exeunt; Alisoun leaves the cupboard and exit stealthily atdoor, left front.]
JOHANNA
Stay; are they gone?
Mass! mass! I’m spotted worse than ink. And kneel
In Canterbury kirk in such a gown!
I’ll eat it first. Oh, Lord! Lord, now who comes?
[Enter, left back, the Canon’s Yeoman and the Carpenter;after whom the Wife of Bath, disguised.]
ALISOUN
Good fellow, you there, can you propagate
Unto my vision—a young prioress?
CANON’S YEOMAN
No, sir, I cannot.
ALISOUN
Or a marchioness?
[The pilgrims pass on.]
JOHANNA
[Aside.]
A marchioness!
ALISOUN
[Twirling her sword-scabbard.]
Hum! Hum!
CARPENTER
How went the sermon?
CANON’S YEOMAN
God’s blood! Old Wycliffe hammered the pope flat.
The pulpit rang like a hot anvil.
CARPENTER
Aye,
There’ll be skulls cracked yet.
[Exeunt right.]
ALISOUN
[To Johanna.]
Amorous Minerva!
JOHANNA
Signor!
[Aside.]
My left sleeve’s clean.
ALISOUN
I have a son,
Whose aunt—
JOHANNA
Are you the Knight of Algezir?
ALISOUN
I am—Dan Roderigo d’Algezir.
JOHANNA
My Aubrey’s father.
ALISOUN
Bones! Are you Johanna?
JOHANNA
[Aside.]
Bones!
ALISOUN
Corpus arms! it sticks me to the heart
To gaze on your sweet face, my dear.
JOHANNA
[Aside.]
My dear!
ALISOUN
Ah! the fat rogue! He said your face was worth
Unbuckling an off eye to pop it in;
But such a pretty finch!
JOHANNA
Finch! Sir, perhaps
You are deceived in me.—Who sent you here?
ALISOUN
Yon chum of that sweet spindle-shanks, my son—
Yon rhymester, Master Geoffrey.
JOHANNA
Yes; ’twas he.
[Aside.]
Saints! isthisAubrey’s father?
[Aloud.]
Doubtless, sir,
There’s no mistake. Your sister left you word—
ALISOUN
O villain! Aye, though I ha’ bred him! What
Though ’tis my own son—villain! God’s teeth!
JOHANNA
Sir!
ALISOUN
Your pardon, dainty dame. Before I speak
I do not rinse my mouth in oleander.
I am a blunt knight. Nay, I cannot sigh
A simoon hot with sonnets like my son.
I am a blunt knight who, on Satan’s heel,
Hath rode it and strode it, wenched it, wived it, and knived it,
Booted and footed ’t, till—by Venus’ shoestring,
I be a blunt and rough but honest soldier.
JOHANNA
Signore, I believe it.
ALISOUN
Blunt’s the word, then;
And here’s the blunt point. You’re deceived.
JOHANNA
By whom?
ALISOUN
By Aubrey.
JOHANNA
What!
ALISOUN
Aye, by my smiling son
Wi’ the pretty curls. Where is he now?
JOHANNA
Why, he—
He’s gone to find the friar.
ALISOUN
Aye.
JOHANNA
Good Heaven!
Can he have harmed him?
ALISOUN
Who—the friar? The friar’s
His pal—his pal; and so is Geoffrey; aye,
And that lascivious, Latin-singing nun—
JOHANNA
What! Eglantine?
ALISOUN
Yes, she; those four! Child, child,
Wouldst not believe it, how they’ve sneaked and schemed,
Plotted my life, aye, for my money. But
’Twas lust, lust egged him on. Oh God! my son!
And ’twas a cherub ’fore this Geoffrey warped him!