Friday, April 18, 2008

Pilgrimage Day: Chaucer and Cats


Today is, if I remember correctly, the 625th anniversary of the Chaucer pilgrimage. I will observe it by reading the following (from The Manciple's Tale) to James, as I’m sure he will appreciate it:

Lat take a cat, and fostre hym wel with milk
And tendre flessh, and make his couche of silk,
And lat hym seen a mous go by the wal,
Anon he weyveth milk and flessh and al,
And every deyntee that is in that hous,
Swich appetit hath he to ete a mous.


Roughly translated:

Take any cat and give him milk and tuna and a silk beddy-bye basket, and let him see a mouse go by the wall; right away, he’ll ignore all of that and anything else you can think of to give him (laced with catnip, yet), such appetite has he to eat a mouse.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's a similar parable in Hinduism. I forget exactly how it goes, but the gist of it is that a dying man on his deathbed will look past the priest- or even the Emperor- if a pretty girl walks into the room. :)

Snark said...

Interesting. Let me know if you think of where you got it.