The Prologue of the Summoner’s Tale
The Summoner stood up high in his stirrups. His heart was so maddened against this Friar that he quaked with wrath like an aspen leaf.
“Gentle people, I ask just one thing,” he said. “I ask you for your courtesy, since you have heard this false Friar lie, to allow me to tell my tale!
This Friar boasts that he knows about hell, and it is a small wonder, God knows. Friars and fiends are only a little apart. For you have often heard, by God, how a friar’s spirit was once carried off to hell in a vision, and as an angel led him about to show him all the pains there, he did not see a friar in the entire place; he saw plenty of other people in woe.
Then the friar spoke to this angel, “Now, sir,” he said, “do friars such grace that none of them shall,come to this place?”
“Yes, many millions!” said this angel, and led him down to Satan.
“Now, Satan,” he said, “has a tail broader than the sail of a barge. Rise up, Satan,” he cried, “let the friar see where the nest of friars is in this place!”
And before a person could walk half a furlong, just as bees swarm out of a hive, so there drove from out of the Devil’s arse twenty thousand friars all in a mob, and swarmed about throughout hell, and came back again as fast as they could, and every one crept into his arse; and he clapped his tail down again and lay still.
When this friar had looked his fill on the torments of this sorry domain, God of his mercy restored his spirit into his body, and he awoke; but nevertheless he still quaked for fear, as the Devil’s lair was always in his mind as his natural heritage. God save you all - save this cursed friar! Thus I end my prologue.”
Here ends the Prologue of the Summoner’s Tale.
