Periods 2,3, and 12: Brit Lit

For tomorrow (Friday), re-read the following sections of The Wife of Bath's Tale and be prepared to summarize each section:

      
300      "For of our parents nothing can we claim
            Save temporal things, and these may hurt and maim.
            “But everyone knows this as well as I;
310     For if gentility were implanted by
            The natural course of lineage down the line,
            Public or private, could it cease to shine
            In doing the fair work of gentle deed?
            No vice or villainy could then bear seed.

335     “Gentility is only the renown
            For bounty that your fathers handed down,
            Quite foreign to your person, not your own;
            Gentility must come from God alone.
            That we are gentle comes to us by grace
340     And by no means is it bequeathed with place.
           

                   

          “As for my poverty which you reprove,
            Almighty God Himself in whom we move,
355     Believe, and have our being, chose a life
            Of poverty, and every man or wife
            Nay, every child can see our Heavenly King
            Would never stoop to choose a shameful thing.
            No shame in poverty if the heart is gay,
360     As Seneca and all the learned say.
            He who accepts his poverty unhurt
            I’d say is rich although he lacked a shirt.
            But truly poor are they who whine and fret
            And covet what they cannot hope to get.
365     And he that, having nothing, covets not,
            Is rich, though you may think he is a sot.
            “True poverty can find a song to sing.
            Juvenal says a pleasant little thing:
            ‘The poor can dance and sing in the relief
370     Of having nothing that will tempt a thief.’
            Though it be hateful, poverty is good,
            A great incentive to a livelihood,
            And a great help to our capacity
            For wisdom, if accepted patiently.

375     "Poverty is, though wanting in estate,
            A kind of wealth that none calumniate.
            Poverty often, when the heart is lowly,
            Brings one to God and teaches what is holy,
            Gives knowledge of oneself and even lends
380     A glass by which to see one’s truest friends.
            And since it’s no offense, let me be plain;
            Do not rebuke my poverty again.

            “Lastly you taxed me, sir, with being old.
            Yet even if you never had been told
385     By ancient books, you gentlemen engage
            Yourselves in honor to respect old age.
            To call an old man ‘father’ shows good breeding,
            And this could be supported from my reading.
            “You say I’m old and fouler than a fen.
390      You need not fear to be a cuckold, then.
            Filth and old age, I’m sure you will agree,
            Are powerful wardens over chastity.
            Nevertheless, well knowing your delights,
            I shall fulfill your worldly appetites.