[16]
And as well could he play on a gitern.[17]
In all the town was brewhouse nor tavern
That he not visited with his solas,[18]
There as that any gaillard tapstere[19] was.
This Absolon, that jolly was and gay
Went with a censor on the holy day,
Censing the wives of the parish fast:
And many a lovely look he on them cast,
* * * * *
Sometimes to show his lightness and mast'ry
He playeth Herod on a scaffold high."
[Footnote 6: Called.]
[Footnote 7: Stretched.]
[Footnote 8: Head of hair.]
[Footnote 9: Complexion.]
[Footnote 10: His shoes were decked with an ornament like a rose-window
in old St. Paul's.]
[Footnote 11: Daintily.]
[Footnote 12: A kind of cloth.]
[Footnote 13: A bush.]
[Footnote 14: The Oxford school of dancing is satirised by the poet.]
[Footnote 15: A kind of fiddle.]
[Footnote 16: Treble.]
[Footnote 17: Guitar.]
[Footnote 18: Sport, mirth.]
[Footnote 19: Tavern-wench.]
I fear me Master Absolon was a somewhat frivolous clerk, or his memory
has been traduced by the poet's pen, which lacked not satire and a
caustic but good-humoured wit. Here was a parish clerk who could sing
well, though he did not confine his melodies to "Psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs.
Pages:
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50