That of a somonour may no good be sayd.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Friar’s Prologue. In his Prologue the Friar says that no good can be said about a summoner – a runner up and down with summonses for fornication who is beaten in every town, he explains. This foreshadows the negative treatment the Summoner will get in the tale that the Friar is about to tell.