0 yonge Hugh of Lincoln, slayn also With cursed Jewes, as it is notable For it nis but a lit el whyle ago.
So in his Prioresse's Tale Geoffrey Chaucer ended his version of one of the best-known stories of the Middle Ages. "In 1255," according to contemporary Chronicler Matthew Paris, "the Jews of Lincoln stole a boy called Hugh, who was about eight years old." After fattening him up, they were said to have staged a mock re-enactment of the Crucifixion, killing little Hugh to the accompaniment of fiendish tortures. "When the boy was dead," Paris concludes, "they took the body...