Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968). rn The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.

Complaint to My Empty Purse

Chaucer, Geoffrey

Geoffrey Chaucer

(Early English poet, c.1340–1400)

TO you, my purse, and to none other wight

Complain I, for ye be my lady dear!

I am so sorry, now that ye be light;

For certès, but ye make me heavy cheer,

Me were as lief be laid upon my bier;

For which unto your mercy thus I cry:

Be heavy again, or elles might I die!

Now voucheth safe this day, or it be night,

That I of you the blissful sound may hear,

Or see your colour like the sun bright

That of yellowness had never a peer.

Ye be my life, ye be my hertes stere,

Queen of comfort and of good company:

Be heavy again, or elles might I die!