Against Women Unconstant*
A Ballad
Madame, in your love of novelty* you have banished many a servant* from grace. I take my leave of your lack of steadfastness, for well I know that as long as you live you cannot love for a full half-year in one place. Ever sharp is your appetite for new things; thus instead of blue you may wear nothing but green.
Just as no image can be fixed upon a mirror, but it passes as lightly as it comes, so too is your love, as your deeds bear witness. No fidelity can clasp your heart, but you fare like a weathercock which turns his face with every wind, and that is visible to all. Instead of blue you may wear nothing but green.
For your fickleness you should be put in a pillory, even more so than Delilah, Criseyde, or Candace;* for your only constancy is in changing. That vice nobody can root out of your heart. If you lose one lover, you can easily acquire two. All lightly clad for summer – you well know what I would say – instead of blue you may wear nothing but green.
Explicit.
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1 This poem and the following three poems are not fully accepted as authentically Chaucer’s own work.
2 Novelty. Chaucer’s word is “Newfanglenesse,” which is also the title given to the poem in some manuscripts.
3 Servant. A lover (a servant of love).
4 Blue . . .green. Blue is the color of faithfulness; green, unfaithfulness.
5 Delilah, Criseyde, or Candace. All unfaithful lovers: Delilah to Sampson, Criseyde to Troilus, and Candace to Alexander.
Translated and Edited by Gerard NeCastro
© Copyright, 2007, All Rights Reserved
Citation. Chaucer, Geoffrey. Against Women Unconstant. NeCastro, Gerard, ed. and trans. eChaucer: https://www.echaucer.com. [Site Visit Date.]
