Unit 1: Part 3 Vocabulary

It extends 800 miles northwards, and is 200 in breadth, except where a number of promontories stretch farther, the coastline round which extends to 3,675 miles.

Britain is rich in grain and timber; it has good pasturage for cattle and draft animals, and vines are cultivated in various localities.

In old times, the country had twenty-eight noble cities, and innumerable castles, all of which were guarded by walls, towers, and barred gates.

As time went on, Britain received a third nation, that of the Scots, who migrated from Ireland under their chieftain Reuda, and by a combination of force and treaty, obtained from the Picts the settlements that they still hold.

As for her sympathies and tender feelings,
She was so charitably solicitous
She used to weep if she but saw a mouse
Caught in a trap, if it were dead or bleeding.

I saw his sleeves were garnished at the hand
With fine gray fur, the finest in the land

Sweetly he heard his penitents at shrift
With pleasant absolution, for a gift.

He often had been Justice of Assize
By letters patent, and in full commission.

A sanguine man, high-colored and benign,
He loved a morning sop of cake in wine.

On one short day, in money down, he drew
More than the parson in a month or two,
And by his flatteries and prevarication
Made monkeys of the priest and congregation.

She has refused her grace,
Whence comes the pallor of my withered face.

Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head
And honor it.

And on he ran, he had no thought to tarry,
Came to the town, found an apothecary

And on he ran, he had no thought to tarry,
Came to the town, found an apothecary

He withdrew
And deftly poured the poison into two.

And when this rioter, this devil’s clay,
Had filled his bottles up with wine, all three,
Back to rejoin his comrades sauntered he.

He was as good as dead
(It seems that then the statutes took that view)
But that the queen, and other ladies too,
implored the king to exercise his grace

Among some other little things, now stale,
Ovid relates that under his long hair
The unhappy Midas grew a splendid pair
Of ass’s ears

Are these the laws of good King Arthur’s house?
Are knights of his all so contemptuous?

Christ wills we take our gentleness from Him,
Not from a wealth of ancestry long dim,
Though they bequeath their whole establishment
By which we claim to be of high descent.

‘Seldom arises by these slender branches
prowess of men, for it is God, no less,
Wills us to claim of Him our gentleness.’

If you would be esteemed for the mere name
Of having been by birth a gentleman
And stemming from some virtuous, noble clan,
And do not live yourself by gentle deed
Or take your fathers’ noble code and creed,
You are no gentleman, though duke or earl.

And since it’s no offence, let me be plain;
Do not rebuke my poverty again.

He had a fine repertoire, including a tale he frequently told concerning a young Florentine called Federigo, the son of Messer Filippo Alberighi, who for his deeds of chivalry and courtly manners was more highly spoken of than any other squire in Tuscany.

In this way, spending far more than he could afford and deriving no profit in return, Federigo lost his entire fortune (as can easily happen) and reduced himself to poverty, being left with nothing other than a tiny little farm, which produced an income just sufficient for him to live very frugally, and one falcon of the finest breed in the whole world.

And together with Federigo, who waited on them with the utmost deference, they made a meal of the prize falcon without knowing what they were eating.

On leaving the table they engaged their host in pleasant conversation for a while, and when the lady thought it time to broach the subject she had gone there to discuss, she turned to Federigo and addressed him affably as follows...

I do not doubt for a moment, Federigo, that you will be astonished at my impertinence when you discover my principal reason for coming here, especially when you recall your former mode of living and my virtue, which you possibly mistook for harshness and cruelty.

But now that her hopes of obtaining the falcon had vanished she began to feel seriously concerned for the health of her son, and after thanking Federigo for his hospitality and good intentions, she took her leave of him, looking all despondent, and returned to the child.