From The Legend of Good Women (Translation)
VIII. The Legend of Phyllis
Incipit Legenda Phillis.*
By experience as well as authority you may find, if you are willing, that wicked fruit comes from a wicked tree. But I say this now for this end: to tell you of false Demophon; never have I heard of anyone falser in love, unless it were his father Theseus. May God in His mercy keep us from such a one! Thus may those women pray who hear of Demophon. Now I turn to the substance of my tale. 2413
The city of Troy was destroyed. This Demophon came sailing over the sea to Athens, to his broad palace; with him came many ships and barges full of his people, of whom many were sorely wounded and sick and woebegone. And they had lain long at the siege. Behind him came a rain and a wind, and drove him so fiercely that his sails could not withstand it; more than all the world he wished he were ashore, so the tempest hunted him back and forth. It was so dark he could go nowhere, and his steering-gear had been broken by a wave. His ship was destroyed so far below, and in such a way, that no carpenter could mend it. By night the sea glowed wildly, as if it were a torch, and rolled him up and down, until Neptune had compassion on him, as well as Thetis, Thorus, Triton and all the deities of the sea, and let him come upon a shore of which Phyllis was lady and queen, the daughter of Lycurgus, fairer to see than the flower in the bright sunshine. Scarcely could Demophon make it to shore, weak and weary, and his company wasted by weariness and famine; he was nearly driven to his death. His wise men counseled him to seek help and aid from the queen, and to see what grace he might obtain, and to make a purchase of provisions in that land to keep him from woe and misfortune. For he was sick and nearly dead; scarcely could he speak or draw breath, and he lay near Rhodopeya to rest himself. When he could walk, he thought it would be best to seek aid at the court. 2440
Men knew him well, and did him honor; for at Athens he was duke and lord, as Theseus his father had been, who in his day was of great renown--no man so great in that entire region. And he was like his father in face and form, and false in love; it came to him by nature. Like Reynard the fox, the fox's son by nature knows his old father's ways without teaching, as a drake can swim when it is caught and carried to the water's edge. This honorable Phyllis, well pleased with his bearing and demeanor, treated him in a friendly manner. But because I am already oversupplied with writing about men false in love, and so that I may also hasten myself in my legend (may God grant me grace to finish it), therefore I pass on quickly this way. You have fully heard the scheme of Theseus in betraying fair Ariadne, who in pity had preserved him from death. In a few words, in exactly the same way Demophon trod the same path of his false father Theseus. For he swore to Phyllis to wed her, and pledged her his word, and picked from her all the goods he could, when he was whole and sound and had rested himself, and he did with Phyllis as he wished. And well could I, if I wished, describe all his doings back and forth. 2471
He said he must sail to his own country, for there he desired to prepare for her wedding, as fitted her honor and his also. And openly then he took his leave, and swore to her that he would not delay, but in a month would return. And in that land he ordered matters as if he were a true lord, and received men's obedience well and familiarly, and ordered his ships to be made ready, and went home as soon as he could. And he did not come again to Phyllis. So cruelly and sorely she suffered for that--alas as the stories remind us--that she caused her own death directly with a cord, when she saw that Demophon had betrayed her. 2486
But first she wrote to him and earnestly begged him to come and deliver her from her pains, as I shall retell in a word or two. I will not stoop to toil over him, or spend a penful of ink on him, for he was false in love, just as his father. May the Devil burn up both their souls! But I will write a word or two from the letter of Phyllis, though it may be but a small part. 2495
"O Demophon," she said, "your hostess of Rhodopeya, your Phyllis, so encompassed with woe, must complain upon you, that you are not keeping the covenant that you made, but are delaying over the length of time set between us. Your anchor which you did drop in our haven gave promise that you would truly come again before the moon once completed her circuit; but the moon has hid her face four times since that day you left from this land, and four times she has lighted the world again. But for all that, in very truth, the Thracian waves have not yet brought the ship from Athens; and still it does not come. And if you would only calculate the appointed time, as I or other true lovers should, you would see I am not making my complaint, God knows, before the day." 2512
But I cannot write all her letter, point by point, for it would be a burden to me; her letter was very long and broad. But here and there I have set it in rhyme, where it seems to me she has spoken well. 2517
She said, "Your sails do not return, nor truly is there any good faith in your words. But I know why you are not coming; it is because I was so generous in my love to you. And if the vengeance of the gods to whom you are forsworn should fall on you for that, you are not sufficient to bear the penalty. Too much I trusted, well may I complain, in your lineage and your fair tongue, and in your tears that were falsely wrung out. How could you weep thus by deceitfulness?" she said. "Can such tears be feigned? 2527
"Now surely, if you would only remember it, this ought to be but small glory to you, to have betrayed thus a simple maiden! I pray to God, and often have prayed, that this may be the greatest praise of all and the highest honor that ever shall come to you! And when your ancestors of old shall be depicted, so that men may see their worthiness, then I pray to God that you also may be depicted, so that people may read as they pass by, "Lo, this is he who betrayed with his flattery and basely wronged her who was his true love in thought and deed." And truly, one point more may they see, that in this you are like your father; for he deceived Ariadne, in truth, with such treachery and duplicity as you have in beguiling me. And in that point, and not a worthy one, you follow him and are his heir in very truth. But since you have beguiled me so sinfully, though you are harder than any stone, within a while, you may see my body floating in the very harbor of Athens without burial place and burial." 2554
And when this letter was sent forth, and she knew how fickle and false he was, soon in despair she destroyed herself, alas! Such sorrow she had, because she had so used herself up. Beware of your subtle foe, you women, since even this day examples may be seen; and trust, as in love, no man but me! 2561
Explicit Legenda Phillis.*
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55 Incipit Legenda Phillis. Here begins the Legend of Phyllis.
56 Explicit Legenda Phillis. Here Ends the Legend of Phyllis.
Translated and Edited by Gerard NeCastro
© Copyright, 2007, All Rights Reserved
Citation. Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Legend of Good Women. NeCastro, Gerard, ed. and trans. eChaucer: https://www.echaucer.com. [Site Visit Date.]
