There was also a Nun, a PRIORESS,
That of her smiling was full simple and coy;
Her greatest oath was but by Saint Loy;
And she was cleped[53] Madame Eglentine.
Full well she sang the service divine,
Entuned[54] in her nose full seemely;
And French she spake full fair and fetisly[55]
After the school of Stratford-at-the-Bow,
For French of Paris was to her unknowe.
At meate well ytaught was she withal;
She let no morsel from her lippes fall,
Ne wet her fingers in her sauce deep.
Well could she carry a morsel, and well keep,
That no drope ne fell upon her breast.
In courtesy was set full much her lest.[56]
Her over-lippe wiped she so clean,
That in her cup there was no farthing[57] seen
Of grease, when she drunken had her draught;
Full seemely after her meat she raught[58]:
And sickerly[59] she was of great disport,
And full pleasant and amiable of port,
And pained[60] her to counterfeiten[61] cheer
Of court, and to be stately of manere,
And to be holden digne[62] of reverence.
But for to speaken of her conscience,[63]
She was so charitable and so pitous,
She woulde weep if that she saw a mouse
Caught in a trap, if it were dead or bled;
Of smalle houndes had she, that she fed
With roasted flesh, or milk and wastel-bread[64];
But sore wept sh' if one of hem were dead,[65]
Or if men[66] smote it with a yarde[67] smarte[68]:
And all was conscience and tender heart.
Full seemely her wimple[69] pinched[70] was;
Her nose tretys, her eyen gray as glass,
Her mouth full small and thereto soft and red;
But sickerly[71] she had a fair forehead;
It was almost a spanne broad, I trow;
For hardily[72] she was not undergrowe.[73]
Full fetis[74] was her cloak, as I was ware.
Of small coral about her arm she bare
A pair[75] of beades gauded all with green[76];
And thereon hung a brooch of gold full sheen,
On which ther was first writ a crowned A,
And after, _Amor vincit omnia_.
Another Nunne with her hadde she,
That was her chapelain,[77] and Priestes three.