For ther ben grete clerkes many oon, That destinee thorugh argumentes preve; And som men seyn that nedely ther is noon; 970 But that free chois is yeven us everichoon.
But he that parted is in every place 960 Is no-wher hool, as writen clerkes wyse; What wonder is, though swich oon have no grace?
Lo here, the forme of olde clerkes speche In poetrye, if ye hir bokes seche.
So worldly selinesse, Which clerkes callen fals felicitee, Y-medled is with many a bitternesse!
Criseyde, which that felte hir thus y-take, As writen clerkes in hir bokes olde, Right as an aspes leef she gan to quake, 1200 Whan she him felte hir in his armes folde.
So sleye arn clerkes olde, That I not whos opinion I may holde.
Wherfor I seye, that from eterne if he Hath wist biforn our thought eek as our dede, We have no free chois, as these clerkes rede.
This is no litel thing of for to seye, This passeth every wit for to devyse; For eche of hem gan otheres lust obeye; 1690 Felicitee, which that thise clerkes wyse Commenden so, ne may not here suffyse.
I wool wel clerkes wol seyn, as hem leste, 885 By arguments, that al is for the beste, Though I ne can the causes nat y-knowe.
I pose, that thou lovedest hir biforn; Wostow nat wel the olde clerkes sawe, That 'who shal yeve a lover any lawe?
This sely clerkes han ful faste y-ronne 4090 To-ward the fen, bothe Aleyn and eek Iohn.
Than were ther yonge povre clerkes two, That dwelten in this halle, of which I seye.
And yet somme clerkes seyn, it nis nat so, Of whiche he, Theofraste, is oon of tho.
He seyde, 'I trowe the clerkes were aferd; 4095 Yet can a miller make a clerkes berd For al his art; now lat hem goon hir weye.
Glad povert is an honest thing, certeyn; This wol Senek and othere clerkes seyn.
Soothly, as thise clerkes wryten, this is to seyn, that at every tyme that a man eteth or drinketh more than suffyseth to the sustenaunce of his body, in certein he dooth sinne.
A man could not be under the government of incompatible planetary powers, and since scholars served Mercury, Therefore no woman is of clerkes praised.
If women hadde written stories, As clerkes have within their oratories, They would have writ of men more wickedness, Than all the mark of Adam may redress.
Which clerkes callen fals felicitee, Y-medled is with many a bitternesse!
The profitable sciences were no lesse meete to be imported to the greater number of ciuill men for instruction of the people and increase of knowledge, then to be reserued and kept for clerkes and great men onely.
With that comen clerkes To conforten hire the same, And beden hire be blithe; "For we beth thyne owene, 1410 For to werche thi wille, The while thow myght laste.
Clerkes and othere kynnes men Carpen of God faste, And have hym muche in the mouth; Ac meene men in herte.
And thanne was Conscience called To come and appere Bifore the kyng and his conseil, As clerkes and othere.
By an emperour of Rome, That was an uncristene creature, As clerkes fyndeth in bokes.
For the heighe Holy Goost Hevene shal to-cleve, And love shall lepen out after Into the lowe erthe; And clennesse shal cacchen it, And clerkes shullen it fynde.
Though ye come bifore kynges And clerkes of the lawe, Beth noght abasshed, For I shal be in youre mouthes, And gyve yow wit and wille, 6510 And konnyng to conclude Hem alle that ayeins yow Of Cristendom disputen.
And thanne cam kynde wit, And clerkes he made, For to counseillen the kyng, And the commune save.
Which is the cofre of Cristes tresor, And clerkes kepe the keyes To unloken it at hir likyng, And to the lewed peple Gyve mercy for hire mysdedes, If men it wolde aske Buxomliche and benigneliche, And bidden it of Grace.
Here lyeth youre lore, Thise lordes gynneth dispute, Of that the clerkes us kenneth Of Crist by the Gospel: Filius non portabit iniquitatem patris, etc.
The use of this past participle after a perfect tense is a most remarkable idiom, but there is no doubt about its occurrence in the Clerkes Tale, Group E.
Thus as clerkes sayn (4028) should be as clerkes says; and sayth should again be says in l.
The true form is determined by the rime, as in the Clerkes Tale, E.
And clerkes eek, which conne wel Al this magyke naturel, That craftely don hir ententes To make, in certeyn ascendentes, Images, lo!
The expression 'as clerkes sayn' hints that it is a Latin one.
Compare the description of Griselda in the Clerkes Tale, E.
So Chaucer has 'as stille as stoon'; Clerkes Tale, E.
Chaucer uses the word again in the Clerkes Tale (E.
The personal verb is properly thenken, as in the Clerkes Tale, E.
Diuerse other were saued by their bookes, according vnto the order ofclerkes conuict, as Alexander Brid person of Hogeset, Iohn Rugham person of little Welnetham, Iohn Burton cordwainer, and diuerse other.
Ther mighte men the royal egle finde, 330 That with his sharpe look perceth the sonne; And other egles of a lower kinde, Of which that clerkes wel devysen conne.
I alter and yit to and fro, to make sense; the verb to arace absolutely requires from or fro; see Clerkes Tale, E 1103, and particularly l.
And in this boke were writen fables That clerkes hadde, in olde tyme, And other poets, put in ryme To rede, and for to be in minde 55 Whyl men loved the lawe of kinde.
Wherfore many noble clerkes haue endeuoyred them to wryte and compyle many notable werkys and historyes to the ende that it myght come to the knowlege and vnderstondyng of suche as ben ygnoraunt.
And ther was founde by clerkes full prudent Of the chesse the play most glorious.
Any husband having "selver among the clerkes to send" could rid himself of his wife by "bringing her to the constery" or consistory court, with two false witnesses to support his declarations.
Loud rattle the caps of the clerkes in aire, And the citizens many a sortie beare; And many a churchman fought his waye, Like a heroe in the bloodie fraye.
Illustration: page262] A true chronicle of ye bloodie fighte betweene the Clerkes of and Scholairs of Oxenforde, and the Townsmen of the Citie, who were crowdinge rounde the Easterne Gaite to see the Kinge enter in his progresse wostwarde.
Hence in all the black-letter editions, the Tales are sadly out of order, and the Clerkes Tale is wrongly followed by that of the Frankeleyn.
This knoweth god, and alle clerkes eke, *That usen swiche materes for to seke.
He ne hath nat doon so grevously amis +To translaten that olde clerkes wryten, 370 +As thogh that he of malice wolde endyten Despyt of love, and had him-self hit wroght.
In the old editions, it follows the (once final) stanza of the Clerkes Tale which is printed in the footnote to p.
He then changed his mind, rejected this stanza, and wrote (instead of it) the late addition to the Clerkes Tale given on pp.
In theClerkes Tale, E 163, it means 'weight,' nearly as here.
Yet can a miller make a clerkes berd'; (Reves Tale), C.
We redyn ofte and fynde ywryte, As clerkes don us to wyte, The layes that ben of harpyng Ben yfounde of frely thing.
Tormented by his thoughts and deprived of sleep, the poet has a book brought to him to while away the hours of night, one of those books that he loved all his life, where "clerkes hadde in olde tyme" rhymed stories of long ago.
This jolly life have these two clerkes had, Till that the thirde cock began to sing.
Him serve himself behoves that has no swain*, *servant Or else he is a fool, as clerkes sayn.
These silly clerkes have full fast y-run Toward the fen, both Alein and eke John; And when the miller saw that they were gone, He half a bushel of their flour did take, And bade his wife go knead it in a cake.
Of the tenement at Cornyshe Crosse called the clerkes howse by the yere vi s.
That ys for Ringing of the Bell vs for the quarter and the clerkes wayges by the howse[22].
As the title of the book shows, it contains "All that appertein to the clerkes to say or syng at the Ministracion of the Communion, and when there is no Communion.
Troylus and Cryseyde, The Assembly of Fowles, The Clerkes Tale) and in numerous other poems of his successors, e.
When the poem is of some length the envoi may consist of several stanzas; thus in Chaucer's Clerkes Tale (stanzas of seven lines) the envoi has six stanzas of six lines each.
I holde it right and reson Of my reve to take Al that myn auditour, Or ellis my styward, Counseilleth me bi hir acounte And my clerkes writyng.
Ac of curatours of cristen peple, As clerkes bereth witnesse, I shal tellen it, for truthes sake, Take hede who so liketh.
And han clerkesto kepen us therinne, {328} And hem that shul come after us.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "clerkes" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
