The fierce bigotry of the Prioress forms a fine back ground for her tender-hearted sympathies with the Mother and Child; and the mode in which the story is told amply atones for the extravagance of the miracle.—­W.  W. (added in 1827).

In the editions of 1820 and 1827 ‘The Prioress’ Tale’ followed ’The White Doe of Rylstone’.  In 1832 it followed the “Inscriptions”; and in 1836 it was included among the “Poems founded on the Affections.”  In 1845 it found its appropriate place in the “Selections from Chaucer modernised.”—­Ed.

  I “O Lord, our Lord! how wondrously,” (quoth she)
          “Thy name in this large world is spread abroad! 
          For not alone by men of dignity
          Thy worship is performed and precious laud;
          But by the mouths of children, gracious God! 5
          Thy goodness is set forth; they when they lie
          Upon the breast thy name do glorify.

  II “Wherefore in praise, the worthiest that I may,
          Jesu! of thee, and the white Lily-flower
          Which did thee bear, and is a Maid for aye, 10
          To tell a story I will use my power;
          Not that I may increase her honour’s dower,
          For she herself is honour, and the root
          Of goodness, next her Son, our soul’s best boot.

  III “O Mother Maid!  O Maid and Mother free! 15
          O bush unburnt! burning in Moses’ sight! 
          That down didst ravish from the Deity,
          Through humbleness, the spirit that did alight
          Upon thy heart, whence, through that glory’s might,
          Conceived was the Father’s sapience, 20
          Help me to tell it in thy reverence!

  IV “Lady! thy goodness, thy magnificence,
          Thy virtue, and thy great humility,
          Surpass all science and all utterance;
          For sometimes, Lady! ere men pray to thee 25
          Thou goest before in thy benignity,
          The light to us vouchsafing of thy prayer,
          To be our guide unto thy Son so dear.

  V “My knowledge is so weak, O blissful Queen! 
          To tell abroad thy mighty worthiness, 30
          That I the weight of it may not sustain;
          But as a child of twelvemonths old or less,
          That laboureth his language to express,
          Even so fare I; and therefore, I thee pray,
          Guide thou my song which I of thee shall say. 35

  VI “There was in Asia, in a mighty town,
          ’Mong Christian folk, a street where Jews might be,
          Assigned to them and given them for their own
          By a great Lord, for gain and usury,
          Hateful to Christ and to his company; 40
          And through this street who list might ride and wend;
          Free was it, and unbarred at either end.