Sithon, king of Thrace; but both Chaucer and Gower make her father's name
to be 'Ligurgus,' i.e. Lycurgus. This substitution may have been suggested
by Ovid, Her. ii. 111--'quae tibi subieci latissima regna _Lycurgi_.' He is
the same as the Lycurgus in Statius, Theb. iv. 386; in Ovid, Met. iv. 22,
and in Homer, vi. 130; and was king of the Edoni, a people of _Thrace_.
This accounts also for the introduction into the Knight's Tale of 'Ligurge
himself, the grete king of Thrace'; l. 1271 (A 2129). Prof. Lounsbury
(Studies in Chaucer, ii. 232) has usefully pointed out that the immediate
authority for making Lycurgus the _father_ of Phyllis was Boccaccio's De
Genealogia Deorum, lib. xi. c. 25, headed--'De Phyllidi Lycurgi filia.'
2425. _On to sene_, to look upon; cf. the parallel line, Kn. Ta., 177 (A
1035).
2427. _Is y-wonne_, is arrived. Cf. Æn. i. 173.
2434. _Chevisaunce_, borrowing; properly an agreement for borrowing money.
See C. T. 13259, 13277, 13321 (B 1519, 1537, 1581); P. Plowman, B. 5. 249,
and the note; and the Gloss. to Spenser.
2438. _Rodopeya_, the country near Rhodope, which was a mountain-range of
Thrace, now a part of the Hæmus range. See l. 2498.
2448. 'As Reynard the fox doth, so (doth) the fox's son.' The line is
incomplete, but the sense is clear. 'Reynard, which with us is a duplicate
for fox, while in the French _renard_ has quite excluded the older
_volpils_, was originally not the name of a kind, but the proper name of
the fox-hero, the vulpine Ulysses, in that famous beast-epic of the middle
ages, _Reineke Fuchs_; the immense popularity of which we gather from many
evidences, from none more clearly than this. _Chanticleer_ is in like
manner the name of the cock, and _Bruin_ of the bear in the same
poem.'--Trench, Eng. Past and Present. _Reynard_ is from M.H.G.
_ragin-hart_, strong in counsel; from _ragin_, counsel, and _hart_, strong.
2454. _Agroted_, surfeited, cloyed. A rare word; used also by Lydgate. See
the New E. Dict.
2456. This is a hint that Chaucer was already getting tired of his task.
2477. _In a month._ So in Ovid; see l. 2503.
2485. _With a corde_, i.e. by hanging. Cf. Ovid, Her. ii. 141:--
'Colla quoque, infidis quae se nectenda lacertis
praebuerant, laqueis implicuisse libet.'
2493. _Hir soules_, their souls; of Theseus and Demophoön.
2495. 'Although it be but a small part of the whole letter.' In fact,
Chaucer gives us ll. 1-8 of Ovid's second Epistle (in the Heroides); and,
from l. 2518 onward, sentences made up from ll. 26, 27, 43, 44, 49-52,
63-68, 73-78, and 134-137 of the same.
2496. Compare these lines with Ovid, Her. ii. 1-8:--
'Hospita, Demophoon, tua te Rhodopeïa Phyllis
ultra promissum tempus abesse queror.
Cornua quum Lunae pleno semel orbe coissent,
litoribus nostris ancora pacta tua est.
Luna quater latuit, toto quater orbe recrevit,
nec uehit Actæas Sithonis unda rates.
Tempora si numeres, bene quae numeramus amantes,
non uenit ante suum nostra querela diem.'
_Hostess-e_ is trisyllabic; MS. C. has--'Ostess-e thyn.'
2502. _Highte_, promised. But Chaucer seems to have mistaken the sense of
Ovid's fourth line (in the note to l. 2496).
2508. 'Sithonis unda'; see note to l. 2496. Here _Sithonis_ is an adj.
(gen. _Sithonidis_), and means 'Sithonian,' i.e. Thracian; because Sithon
or Sitho, her father, was king of Thrace. I substitute _Sitho_ for the MS.
spellings.
2518. See note to l. 2495 for references.
2521. _For_, because: 'quid feci, nisi non sapienter amaui?'
2529. _May_ occupies the first foot of the line.
2534. She prays that the glory of having betrayed her will be the greatest
glory he will ever attain to. 'Di faciant, laudis summa sit ista tuae!'
(66).
2551. _Mote ye_, may ye. 'Ad tua me fluctus proiectam littora portent';
(135).
2556. _And knew_, i.e. and _she_ knew.
2558. Read--'Such sórw' hath shé,' &c. Bell altered the second _she_ in
this line to _he_, without authority, and unnecessarily. The word _besette_
does not mean 'served' or 'treated,' as those who keep this reading have to
assert, but 'bestowed' or 'gave up,' and _her_ means 'herself.' The sense
is therefore--'Such sorrow hath she, because she so disposed of herself.'
See _Beset_ in the New E. Dict. § 7. Caxton has: 'Orgarus thought his
doughter shol wel be maryed, and wel _beset_ upon hym'; Chron. Eng. cxii.
2561. _Trusteth_, imp. pl. _As in love_, in the matter of love. This
playful line is in the same spirit as l. 2393 above.
IX. THE LEGEND OF HYPERMNESTRA.
The story is told in Ovid, Her. xiv. But Chaucer has taken some of the
details from Boccaccio, De Genealogia Deorum, lib. ii. c. 22. Cf. Hyginus,
Fab. 168. See the Introduction.
2563. _Danao_, Danaus. Danaus and Ægyptus were twin brothers. Ægyptus had
50 sons, and Danaus 50 daughters. Danaus had reason to fear his nephews,
and fled with his daughters to Argos. Thither he was followed by the sons
of Ægyptus, who demanded his daughters in marriage, and promised faithful
alliance. Danaus distributed his daughters amongst them, but to each of
them gave a dagger, with which they were to kill their husbands on the
bridal night. They all did so, except Hypermnestra, who saved her husband
Lynceus. Thus the attempt of Danaus failed, and he was slain by Lynceus, in
accordance with the destiny predicted for him.
It must be particularly noted that Chaucer makes Ægyptus and Danaus change
places. According to him, Ægyptus was the father of the _daughters_, and
consequently attempted the life of Lynceus; whilst Danaus was the father of
the _sons_, and therefore of Lynceus.
2569. _Lino_; by which perverted name Lynceus is meant; Boccaccio has
'_Lino_ seu _Linceo_' (dat. case).
2570. _Egiste_ represents Boccaccio's Ægistus, i.e. Ægyptus.
2574. 'And caused (men) to call her,' i.e. had her named.
2575. _Ypermistra_, i.e. Hypermestra, a corrupter form of Hypermnestra; see
the account in the Introduction. Note that the first syllable _Y-_ forms
the first foot in the line.
2576. _Of her nativitee_, by her horoscope; see l. 2584.
2577. _Thewes_, qualities. Craik has a long note on this word in his
edition of Julius Cæsar. It merely comes to this, that _thew_ must have
meant strength or some excellent _bodily_ quality in the first instance,
and some excellent _mental_ quality afterwards. Nevertheless it is
remarkable that (with one exception in Layamon, 6361) the usual _old_ sense
is the latter; and the usual _modern_ sense (notably in Jul. Cæs. i. 3. 81,
2 Hen. IV. iii. 2. 276) is the former. The A.S. form is _þéaw_. Craik's
notion that this word was confused with A.S. _þéoh_, the thigh, is entirely
out of the question, and gives no help.
2580. _Wirdes_, Fates; Lat. Parcæ; Gk. Moiræ. Corson shews that G. Douglas
translates the Lat. _fata_ by _werdes_ in Æn. i. 18, and _Parcæ_ by _werd
sisteris_ in the same, iii. 379. He also quotes from Holinshed's Hist. of
Scotland--'the _weird sisters_, that is, as ye would say, the goddesses of
destinie'; reproduced by Shakespeare in Macb. iv. 1. 136.
2582. The scansion suggests that _Pitous-e_, _sad-de_, are treated like
French adjectives, the final _e_ denoting the feminine gender. This is
natural in the case of _pitous-e_, fem. of _pitous_, just as we have
_dispitous-e_, Book of the Duch. 624; but the distinction is not often made
in M.E. Sweet's A.S. grammar gives _til-u_ as an occasional fem. form of
the nom. of the indef. adjective; so that _sæd-u_ might have been used.
_Wys-e_ is likewise dissyllabic, though the A.S. form was _wís_ even in the
feminine. But the _definite_ forms of the M.E. adj. were _sad-de_, _wys-e_;
and there may have been consequent confusion. In fact, Prof. Child gives a
list of adjectives of this kind, being monosyllabic in A.S., but
dissyllabic in Chaucer. He includes _wise_, but not _sad_, his examples
being taken from the Canterbury Tales only, and thence only in clear cases.
_Dispitous-e_ occurs as a vocative case, in Troil. ii. 435.
2584. Here comes in the old belief in astrology. Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and
Saturn, as here mentioned, are not the gods, but the planets; and each
planet had (it was thought) its peculiar influence, which was stronger or
weaker according to its position in the heavens at the time of birth of the
person whom it affected. The influences of Venus and Jupiter were for good
(see note to Troil. iii. 1417); whilst the influences of Mars and Saturn
were evil. See further below.
2585. _With_ is explained by Corson to mean 'by'; and such a sense is, of
course, usual and common. For all that, it may here mean 'with.' The sense
seems to me to be--'For, though the influence of the planet Venus gave her
great beauty, she was (also) so compounded with a share of Jupiter,' &c. It
does not make much difference, and the reader can choose.
2588. _Thoughte her_, it seemed to her.
2589. _Rede Mars_, red Mars, because the planet is reddish; see note to l.
533. Cf. Kn. Ta., 1111 (A 1969). As to the bad influence of Mars, compare
the following:--
'Allas! thou _felle_ Mars!' Kn. Ta. 701 (A 1559).
'Noght was foryeten by the _infortune_ of Marte'; id. 1163 (A 2021).
'By _manasyng_ of Mars'; id. 1177 (A 2035).
... 'that no _wykkid_ planete, as Saturne or Mars'
Treatise on the Astrolabe, ii. 4. 22 (p. 192, above).
2592. Venus was supposed to have much influence in repressing the evil
influence of Mars, on account of their connection in mythology. See the
Compleint of Mars. Moreover Mars is here said to be suppressed by 'the
oppression of houses'; i.e. by the fact that he was in a 'house' or
'mansion,' which had such effect. The terms 'house' and 'mansion' are
equivalent, and are names given to the signs of the zodiac. Every sign had
a planet assigned to it, and was called the 'house' of that planet. When a
planet was in its own house, its influence would be felt. The mansions of
Mars were Aries and Scorpio. Besides this, each planet had a sign called
its 'exaltation,' in which it had the greatest power of all. The
'exaltation' of Mars was Capricornus. Mars had also his positions of least
influence; two of these, called his 'fall,' were the signs opposite to his
mansions, viz. Libra and Taurus, and the third, called his 'depression,'
was the sign opposite his exaltation, viz. Cancer. We may conclude that, at
the period of taking Hypermnestra's horoscope, Mars was in Cancer, or else
in Taurus or in Libra. Both Taurus and Libra were mansions of Venus; and,
if Mars was in either of these, his evil influence would be kept under by
her.
2594. Probably the whole of Chaucer's astrological talk was intended to
shew _why_ Hypermnestra disliked handling a knife in malice. He has made
much of the weak influence of Mars, precisely because those who were born
under his influence were very ready with a knife. See the note to the Kn.
Ta., 1163 (A 2021), where the Compost of Ptolemeus is quoted to shew that a
man born under Mars is apt to be 'a maker of swordes and knyves, and a
sheder of mannes blode, ... and good to be a barboure and a blode-letter,
and to draw tethe, and is peryllous of his handes.'
2597. 'She had too evil aspects of Saturn, which caused her to die in
prison.' All the MSS. have _To_ (= too, excessively), except T., which has
_Ryght bad_. Thynne has _Two_, but there is no authority for this, nor does
it give any sense. The evil influence of Saturn is spoken of at length in
the Kn. Tale, 1596-1611 (A 2454-69). Note especially l. 1599, where Saturn
says:--
'Myn is the _prison_ in the derke cote,
Myn is the strangling and hanging by the throte.'
2600. Here _Egiste_ (see l. 2570) is turned into _Egistes_.
2602. 'For, at that time, no lineage was spared'; i.e. no consanguinity was
considered as being a bar to marriage.
2603. _Hem_ is in apposition with _Danao_ and _Egistes_; 'it pleased these
two.'
2604. Note the shifted accentuation--Ypérmistrá. Chaucer (except in l.
2660) entirely drops all mention of Hypermnestra's 49 sisters, and of
Lynceus' 49 brothers. This is extremely judicious, as it concentrates the
interest on the heroine.
2610. Chaucer is here thinking of Ovid, Her. xiv. 25:--
'Undique collucent praecinctae lampades auro.
Dantur in inuitos impia tura focos.
Uulgus "Hymen, Hymenaee" uocant.'
2624. 'He caused men to call his daughter'; he had his daughter called to
him.
2629. 'Ever since the day when my shirt was first shaped for me.' The sense
is--'ever since the day of my birth.' The _shirt_ here refers, as Tyrwhitt
remarks, to the linen in which a new-born babe is wrapped. See Kn. Ta., 708
(A 1566); and cf. Troil. iii. 733:--
'O fatal sustren, which, er any cloth
Me shapen was, my destenee me sponne.'
2630. Supply _I_ before _had_. Cf. note to l. 2580.
2634. _After thy wyser_, according to the advice of thy superior in
wisdom.' Cf. 'Thenne doth we as the wise'; O. English Miscellany, ed.
Morris, p. 79, l. 228. 'And gif yow list nocht wirk eftir the wise'; G.
Douglas, tr. of Vergil, Prol. to bk. vi. l. 15.
2637. Read _Ne I_ as _N'I_. 'Nor would I advise thee to thy harm.'
2640. 'And, at the same time, I make protestation in this manner, viz.
that, unless thou do as I shall direct thee.'
2653. 'I will not have any reservation.'
2655. _Y-sene_, visible; an adj., not a pp. See l. 1394; and Prol. to Cant.
Tales, 592.
2660. _Siker_, secure. The use of the word is precisely like that in the
well-known anecdote of Kirkpatrick of Closeburn. Meeting Bruce at the door
of the Greyfriars' Church in Dumfries, he asked what tidings. 'Bad
tidings,' answered Bruce, 'I doubt I have slain Comyn.' 'Doubtest thou?'
said Kirkpatrick; 'I make _sicker_.' With these words, he and Lindsay
rushed into the church and despatched the wounded Comyn. See Note K to
Scott's Lord of the Isles, c. 1. st. 27, c. 2. st. 13.
2661. _Biker_, quarrel, altercation; also a skirmish, encounter.
2662. 'By him that I have (already) sworn by.' See l. 2642.
2666. _Costrel_, a flask, a kind of bottle. '_Costred_, or _costrelle_,
grete botelle, _Onopherum_, _aristophorum_'; Prompt. Parv.; see Way's note.
'A _Costrelle_, oneferum, &c., vbi a flakett'; Cath. Angl. p. 77; see
Herrtage's note. See _costa_, _costarez_, _costarium_, _costrelli_, in
Ducange; and _coste_, _costeret_, _costerel_, in Godefroy. In the Craven
dialect, a _costril_ is the little wooden barrel carried by reapers.
2671. 'Lest that the time may seem long to him.' Ovid alludes to the
narcotic drink; Her. xiv. 42:--'quaeque tibi dederam uina, soporis erant.'
Cf. Kn. Tale, 614 (A 1472).
2676. The line is too short in most MSS. Unless _sone_ be supplied from MS.
T., we shall have to scan the line by putting _This_ (with a strong accent)
alone in the first foot. Cf. l. 2711, and slur over the _o_ in _Lino_
before _and_.
2680. Cf. Her. xiv. 44:--'Erigor, et capio tela tremente manu.'
2681. Accent _Zephírus_ on the _i_. From Her. xiv. 39:--
'Utque leui Zephyro graciles uibrantur aristae,
frigida populeas ut quatit aura comas.'
2682. From Her. xiv. 34:--'Securumque quies alta per Argos erat.'
2683. 'Sanguis abit; mentemque calor corpusque reliquit'; Her. xiv. 37.
And, in the next line--'frigida facta.'
2686. 'Ter male sublato decidit ense manus'; 46.
2690. From Her. xiv. 55, &c.:--
'Femina sum et uirgo, natura mitis et annis.
Non faciunt molles ad fera tela manus....
Quid mihi cum ferro? Quo bellica tela puellae?'
2696. _And me beshende_, and bring myself to ruin, and perish. I know of
only one other example of this rare word, viz. the example given by Murray
from Cursor Mundi, l. 14838, where the Trinity MS. has: 'Allas! nu has he
[gh]u _bischent_'; alas! now has he ruined you. But it is a perfectly
legitimate compound from the M.E. _shenden_. All former editions give this
line wrongly; they omit _me_, and read 'and be shende,' explained by 'and
be destroyed.' Now, in the first place, this will not scan; and secondly,
the idea of adding a final _e_ to the pp. _beshend_ (more correctly
_beshent_) is a characteristic commentary on that ignorance of M.E. grammar
which is only too common. Yet the final _e_ must needs be added, for _ende_
(in l. 2697) is essentially dissyllabic. Hence it follows, irresistibly,
that _shende_ is not a past participle; and we are driven to see that
_beshende_ is the infinitive mood of a compound verb.
2697. _Nedes cost_, by condition of necessity, i.e. necessarily; see Kn.
Ta., 619 (A 1477), and the note.
2700. Supply _he_ before _hath_; cf. note to l. 2630.
2705. _Goter_, gutter, channel for water. This is an addition. The original
merely has (ll. 77, 78):--
'Quaerenti caussam, "Dum nox sinit, effuge," dixi;
"dum nox atra sinit, tu fugis, ipsa moror."'
2708. _Roggeth_, shaketh. '_Roggyn_, or mevyn, or scogghyn, rokkyn.
_Agito_'; Prompt. Parv. See P. Plowman, B. xvi. 78; and _ruggen_ in
Stratmann. Cf. Icel. _rugga_, to rock a cradle. Prof. Napier tells me that
the A.S. _roccan_, to rock, has been found in a gloss. Bell's edition has
the singular and unauthorised reading _jeggeth_ (_sic_).
2709. The rest of the story seems to be Chaucer's addition. Ovid merely has
(ll. 83, 84):--
'Abstrahor a patriis pedibus; raptamque capillis
(haec meruit pietas praemia) carcer habet.'
2710. _Doon him bote_, given him assistance.
2715. 'Her cruel father caused her to be seized,' lit. caused (men) to
seize her.
2723. 'This tale is told for the following reason.' And here the MSS. break
off, in the middle of the sentence.
NOTES TO THE TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE.
The title 'Tractatus de Conclusionibus Astrolabii' is suggested by the
wording of the colophon on p. 223. But a better title is, simply,
'Tractatus de Astrolabio,' or 'Treatise on the Astrolabe,' as the
'Conclusiones' only occupy the Second Part of the work; see p. 188. Indeed
MS. F. has 'Tractatus Astrolabii'; see p. 233. MSS. B. and E. have the
singular title--'Bred and mylk for childeren.'
PROLOGUE, l. 1. _Lowis_ was at this time (1391) ten years old (see l. 18);
he was therefore born in 1381, whence it is possible that his mother was
the Cecilia de Chaumpaigne who, on May 1, 1380, released the poet from all
liability _de raptu meo_. This is, of course, a mere conjecture. Probably
Lowis died young, as nothing more is known concerning him.
5. _philosofre_; possibly Cicero. 'Haec igitur prima lex amicitiae
sanciatur, ut ... amicorum causâ honesta faciamus'; Lælius, cap. xiii.
7. _suffisaunt_, sufficiently good. In the best instruments, the
Almicanteras, or circles of altitude, were drawn at distances of one degree
only; in less-carefully made instruments, they were drawn at distances of
two degrees. The one given to his son by Chaucer was one of the latter; see
Part I, sect. 18, l. 8.
10. _a certein_, i.e. a certain number; but the word _nombre_ need not be
repeated; cf. _a certein holes_, Pt. I. sect. 13, l. 2, and see the very
expression in the Milleres Tale, l. 7 (A 3193).
21. _suffyse_, let them suffice.
32. Repeated from Ho. Fame, 861-2, q.v.
62. 'Nicolaus de Lynna, i.e. of Lynn, in Norfolk, was a noted astrologer in
the reign of Edward III., and was himself a writer of a treatise on the
Astrolabe. See Bale--who mentions "Joannes Sombe" as the collaborateur of
Nicolaus--"Istos ob eruditionem multiplicem, non vulgaribus in suo
Astrolabio celebrat laudibus Galfridus Chaucer poeta lepidissimus;" BALE
(edit. 1548), p. 152.'--Note by Mr. Brae, p. 21 of his edition of the
Astrolabe.
Warton says that 'John Some and Nicholas Lynne' were both Carmelite friars,
and wrote calendars constructed for the meridian of Oxford. He adds that
Nicholas Lynne is said to have made several voyages to the most northerly
parts of the world, charts of which he presented to Edward III. These
charts are, however, lost. See Hakluyt's Voyages, i. 121, ed. 1598; Warton,
Hist. E. P. ii. 357; ed. 1871.
Tyrwhitt, in his Glossary to Chaucer, s.v. _Somer_, has the following. 'The
Kalendar of John Somer is extant in MS. Cotton, Vesp. E. vii. It is
calculated for 140 years from 1367, the year of the birth of Richard II.,
and is said, in the introduction, to have been published in 1380, at the
instance of Joan, mother to the king. The Kalendar of Nicholas Lenne, or
Lynne, was calculated for 76 years from 1387. Tanner in v. _Nicolans
Linensis_. The story there quoted from Hakluit of a voyage made by this
Nicholas in 1360 _ad insulas septentrionales antehac Europæis incognitas_,
and of a book written by him to describe these countries _a gradu .54.
usque ad polum_, is a mere fable: as appears from the very authorities
which Hakluit has produced in support of it.' It seems probable, therefore,
that the 'charts' which Warton says are 'lost' were never in existence at
all. The false spelling 'Some' no doubt arose from neglecting the curl of
contraction in Som_er_e.
PART I. § 5, l. 5. _the remenant_, &c. i.e. the rest of this line (drawn,
as I said,) from the foresaid cross to the border. This appears awkward,
and we should have expected 'fro the forseide _centre_,' as Mr. Brae
suggests; but there is no authority for making the alteration. As the
reading stands, we must put no comma after 'this lyne,' but read right on
without a pause.
8. _principals._ It it not unusual to find adjectives of French origin
retaining _s_ in the plural; only they commonly _follow_ their nouns when
thus spelt. Cf. _lettres capitals_, i. 16. 8; _sterres fixes_, i. 21. 4. On
the other hand, we find _principal cercles_, i. 17. 34.
§ 7. 4. _noumbres of augrim_; Arabic numerals. The degrees of the border
are said to contain 4 minutes _of time_, whilst the degrees of the signs
are divided into minutes and seconds of angular measurement, the degrees in
each case being the same. There is no confusion in practice between these,
because the former are used in measuring time, the latter in measuring
angles.
§ 8. 9. _Alkabucius_; i.e. (says Warton, Hist. E. P. ii. 357, ed. 1871)
Abdilazi Alchabitius, whose Introductiorium ad scientiam judicialem
astronomæ was printed in 1473, and afterwards. Mr. Brae quotes the very
passage to which Chaucer refers, which I here quote from the edition of
1482, as described in my note to l. 119 of The Compleint of Mars (see vol.
i. p. 500); viz. 'Unumquodque istorum signorum diuiditur in 30 partes
equales, que gradus vocantur. Et gradus diuiditur in 60 minuta; et minutum
in 60 secunda; et secundum in 60 tertia. Similiterque sequuntur quarta,
scilicet et quinta, ascendendo usque ad infinita'; Alchabitii Differentia
Prima.
These minute subdivisions were never used; it was a mere affectation of
accuracy, the like of which was never attained.
§ 10. 5. _in Arabiens_, amongst the Arabians. But he goes on to speak only
of the Roman names of the months. Yet I may observe that in MS. Ii. 3. 3,
at fol. 97, the Arabian, Syrian, and Egyptian names of the months are given
as well as the Roman.
§ 16. 12. _& every minut 60 secoundes_; i.e. every minute contains 60
seconds. The sentence, in fact, merely comes to this. 'Every degree of the
border contains four minutes (_of time_), and every minute (of time)
contains sixty seconds (of time).' This is consistent and intelligible. Mr.
Brae proposes to read '_four_ seconds'; this would mean that 'every degree
of the border contains four minutes (of time), and every minute (_of the
border_) contains four seconds (of time).' Both statements are true; but,
in the latter case, Chaucer should have repeated the words 'of the
bordure.' However this may be, the proposed emendation lacks authority,
although the reprint of Speght changed 'lx' into 'fourtie,' which comes
near to 'four.' But the reprint of Speght is of no value at all. See Mr.
Brae's preface, p. 4, for the defence of his proposed emendation, which is
entirely needless.
§ 17. 6. _Ptholome._ The St. John's MS. has _ptolomeys almagest_.
'_Almagest_, a name given by the Arabs to the [Greek: megalê syntaxis], or
_great collection_, the celebrated work of Ptolemy, the astronomer of
Alexandria [floruit A.D. 140-160]. It was translated into Arabic about the
year A.D. 827, under the patronage of the Caliph Al Mamun, by the Jew
Alhazen ben Joseph, and the Christian Sergius. The word is the Arabic
article _al_ prefixed to the Greek _megistus_, "greatest," a name probably
derived from the title of the work itself, or, as we may judge from the
superlative adjective, partly from the estimation in which it was
held.'--English Cyclopædia; Arts and Sciences, i. 223. The Almagest 'was in
thirteen books. Ptolemy wrote also four books of judicial astrology. He was
an Egyptian astrologist, and flourished under Marcus Antoninus. He is
mentioned in the Sompnour's Tale [D 2289], and the Wif of Bathes Prologue,
ll. 182, 324.'--Warton, Hist. E. P. ii. 356, ed. 1871. The word _almagest_
occurs in the Milleres Tale, near the beginning (A 3208), and twice in the
Wif of Bathes Prologue (D 183, 325).
Chaucer says the obliquity of the ecliptic, according to Ptolemy, was 23°
50'. The _exact_ value, according to Ptolemy, was 23° 51' 20"; _Almagest_,
lib. i. c. 13. But Chaucer did not care about the odd degree, and gives it
nearly enough. See note to ii. 25. 19.
8. _tropos_, a turning; Chaucer gives it the sense of _agaynward_, i.e. in
a returning direction.
14. The equinoctial was supposed to revolve, because it was the 'girdle' of
the _primum mobile_, and turned with it. See note below to l. 28.
14, 15. 'As I have shewed thee in the solid sphere.' This is interesting,
as shewing that Chaucer had already given his son some lessons on the
motions of the heavenly bodies, before writing this treatise.
27. _angulus._ We should rather have expected the word _spera_ or _sphera_;
cf. 'the sper solide' above, l. 15.
28. 'And observe, that this first moving (_primus motus_) is so called from
the first movable (_primum mobile_) of the eighth sphere, which moving or
motion is from East to West,' &c. There is an _apparent_ confusion in this,
because the _primum mobile_ was the _ninth_ sphere (see Plate V, fig. 10);
but it may be called the movable of the eighth, as _giving motion to it_.
An attempt was made to explain the movements of the heavenly bodies by
imagining the earth to be in the centre, surrounded by a series of
concentric spheres, or rather shells, like the coats of an onion. Of these
the seven innermost, all revolving with different velocities, each carried
with it a planet. Beyond these was an eighth sphere, which was at first
supposed to be divided into two parts, the inner part being the
_firmamentum_, and the outer part the _primum mobile_; hence the _primum
mobile_ might have been called 'the first moving of the eighth sphere,' as
accounting for the more important part of the motion of the said sphere. It
is simpler, however, to make these distinct, in which case the eighth
sphere is _firmamentum_ or _sphæra stellarum fixarum_, which was supposed
to have a very slow motion from West to East round the poles of the
_zodiac_ to account for the precession of the equinoxes, whilst the ninth
sphere, or _primum mobile_, whirled round from East to West once in 24
hours, carrying all the inner spheres with it, by which means the ancients
accounted for the diurnal revolution. This ninth sphere had for its poles
the north and south poles of the heavens, and its 'girdle' (or great circle
equidistant from the poles) was the equator itself. Hence the equator is
here called the 'girdle of the first moving.' As the planetary spheres
revolved _in an opposite direction_, thus accounting for the _forward_
motion of the sun and planets in the ecliptic or near it, the _primum
mobile_ was considered to revolve in a _backward_ or _unnatural_ direction,
and hence Chaucer's apostrophe to it (Man of Lawes Tale, B 295):--
'O firste moevyng cruel firmament,
With thy diurnal sweigh that crowdest ay
And hurlest all from Est til Occident,
That naturelly wolde holde another way.'
That is--'O thou _primum mobile_, thou cruel firmament, that with thy
diurnal revolution (or revolution once in 24 hours round the axis of the
equator) continually forcest along and whirlest all the celestial bodies
from East to West, which _naturally_ would wish to follow the course of the
sun in the zodiac from West to East.' This is well illustrated by a
sidenote in the Ellesmere MS. to the passage in question, to this
effect:--'Vnde Ptholomeus, libro i. cap. 8. Primi motus celi duo sunt,
quorum vnus est qui mouet totum semper ab Oriente in Occidentem vno modo
super orbes, &c. Item aliter vero motus est qui mouet orbem stellarum
currencium contra motum primum, videlicet, ab Occidente in Orientum super
alios duos polos[72].' That is, the two chief motions are that of the
_primum mobile_, which carries everything round from East to West, and that
of the fixed stars, which is a slow motion from West to East round the axis
of the zodiac, to account for precession. This exactly explains the
well-known passage in the Frankeleines Tale (C. T., F 1280):--
'And by his eighte spere in his werking,
He knew ful wel how fer Alnath was shove
Fro the heed of thilke fixe Aries above
That in the ninthe spere considered is.'
Here the eight spheres are the eight inner spheres which revolve round the
axis of the zodiac in an easterly direction, whilst the ninth sphere, or
_primum mobile_, contained both the theoretical or _fixed_ first point of
Aries from which measurements were made, and also the _signs_ of the zodiac
as distinct from the _constellations_. But Alnath, being an actual star,
viz, [alpha] Arietis[73], was in the _eighth_ sphere; and the distance
between its position and that of the first point of Aries at any time
afforded a measure of the amount of precession. Mr. Brae rightly remarks
that Tyrwhitt's readings in this passage are correct (except that _eighte
speres_ should be _eightespere_), and those of Mr. Wright and Dr. Morris
(from the Harleian MS.) are incorrect.
It may be as well to add that a later refinement was to insert a
crystalline sphere, to account for the precession; so that the order stood
thus: seven spheres of planets; the eighth, of fixed stars; the ninth, or
crystalline; the tenth, or _primum mobile_; and, beyond these, an empyræan
or theological heaven, so to speak, due to no astronomical wants, but used
to express the place of residence of celestial beings[74]. Hence the
passage in Milton, P. L. iii. 481:--
'They pass the planets seven, and pass the fix'd,
And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs
The trepidation talk'd, and that first mov'd.'
i.e. They pass the seven planetary spheres; then the sphere of fixed stars;
then the crystalline or transparent one, whose swaying motion or libration
measures the amount of the precession and nutation so often talked of; and
then, the sphere of the _primum mobile_ itself. But Milton clearly himself
believed in the Copernican system; see Paradise Lost, viii. 121-140, where
the _primum mobile_ is described in the lines--
'that swift
Nocturnal and diurnal rhomb supposed,
Invisible else above all stars, the wheel
Of day and night.'
§ 18. 8. _compowned by 2 & 2._ This means that in the _best_ astrolabes,
_every_ almicantarath for every degree of latitude was marked; as may be
seen in Metius. In others, including the one given by Chaucer to his son,
they were marked only for every other degree. See Part II. sect. 5, l. 2.
§ 19. 7. _cenith_, as here used, has a totally different meaning from that
of _senith_, in l. 1 above. The _senith_ in l. 1 is what we still call the
_zenith_; but the _cenith_ in l. 7 means the point of the horizon denoting
the sun's place in azimuth. Contrary to what one might expect, the _latter_
is the true original meaning, as the word _zenith_ is corrupted from the
root of the word which we now spell _azimuth_. The Arabic _as-sant_ is a
way or path; _al-samt_, a point of the horizon, and, secondly, an azimuthal
circle. The plural of _al-samt_ is _assum[=u]t_, whence _azimuth_. But
_zenith_ is a corruption of _semt_, from _samt al-r[=a]s_, the Arabic name
of the vertex of heaven (_r[=a]s_ meaning _a head_); and the qualifying
_al-r[=a]s_, the most important part of the phrase, has been improperly
dropped. So far from the reading _cenith_ being wrong here, it is most
entirely right, and may be found (better spelt _cenit_) in the same sense
in Messahala. See p. 213, second footnote. For _cenith_, some late copies
have _signet_, evidently taken from the Latin word _signum_. They make the
same mistake even in l. 12 of section 18.
§ 21. 4. _sterres fixes_, fixed stars; here the _s_ again appears in a
plural adjective of French derivation; see note above, to § 5. 8. In MSS.
Ii. 3. 3 and Ii. 1. 13 in the Cambridge University Library, is an
interesting list of the 49 stars most usually placed upon the Astrolabe.
The stars which are represented by the points of the tongues in Fig. 2 are
the same as those in the diagram from which Fig. 2 is copied, the original
of which is in MS. A. I have slightly altered the positions of the points
of the tongues, to make them somewhat more correct. The following is the
list of the stars there shewn; most of their names are written in the MS.
Cf. footnote on p. 186.
_Within the Zodiac._ In _Aries_, Mirach, or [beta] Andromedæ, shewn by a
short tongue above Aries; in _Taurus_, Algol, or [beta] Persei, as marked;
in _Libra_, Aliot or Alioth, i.e. [epsilon] Ursæ Majoris (the third horse,
next the cart, in Charles's Wain), as marked; also Alramech, Arcturus, or
[alpha] Boötis, shewn by the tongue projecting above Libra; in _Scorpio_,
Alpheta, Alphecca, or [alpha] Coronæ Borealis, as marked; in _Sagittarius_,
Raz Alhagus, or [alpha] Ophiuchi, near Alpheta; in _Capricornus_, Altair or
[alpha] Aquilæ and Vega or [alpha] Lyræ, as marked, whilst near Vega is the
unmarked Arided, or [alpha] Cygni; and in _Pisces_, Markab or [alpha]
Pegasi.
_Without the Zodiac._ In _Aries_, under _Oriens_, the slight projection
marks [beta] Ceti or Deneb Kaitos, the Whale's Tail, and the next curiously
shaped projection (with side-tongues probably referring to other stars)
means Batnkaitos, the Whale's Belly, apparently [zeta] Ceti; next come the
long tongue for Menkar or [alpha] Ceti, the Whale's Nose; the star
Aldebaran or Bull's Eye, [alpha] Tauri; Rigel or [beta] Orionis, Orion's
Foot; Alhabor or Sirius, the Dog-star, marked by a rude drawing of a dog's
head, the star itself being at the tip of his tongue; then Algomeisa,
Procyon, or [alpha] Canis Minoris, marked by a tongue pointing to the left,
whilst the long broad tongue pointing upwards is Regulus, Kalbalased, or
[alpha] Leonis; the small tongue above the letter I in the border is
Alphard or Cor Hydræ. Above _Occidens_, in _Libra_, the first tongue is
Algorab or [delta] Corvi, and the next Spica Virginis or Azimech; close to
the 8th degree of Scorpio is [alpha] Libræ, and close to the beginning of
Sagittarius is a small head, denoting the Scorpion, at the tip of the
tongue of which is the bright Kalbalacrab or Antares. The last, a
projection below the letter X, is Deneb Algebi or the Goat's Tail, i.e.
[delta] Capricorni.
7. That is, the little point at the end of each tongue of metal is
technically called the 'centre' of the star, and denotes its exact
position.
9. The stars of the North are those to the North of the _zodiac_, not of
the _equator_.
12. _Aldeberan_, &c.; the stars Aldebaran ([alpha] Tauri) and Algomeisa
([alpha] Canis Minoris) are called stars of the south, because they are to
the south of the ecliptic; but as they are meanwhile (see Fig. 2) also to
the north of the equator, they of course rise to the N. of the Eastern
point of the horizon. The longitude of stars was always measured along the
ecliptic, which is denoted in Fig. 2 by the outermost circle of the metal
ring on which the names of the signs are written.
In one of the tracts in MS. G (dated A.D. 1486), p. 30, we find 'Aldebaran,
in the first gre of ge_min_is (_sic_), of the nature of Mars and Venus';
and 'Algomeisa, canis minor, in the xvij gr_e_ of Canc_er_, of the nature
of Mars and M_er_cury.'
29. _Amiddes_, &c. Observe that the Ecliptic line _in the midst_ of the
_celestial_ zodiac, a belt 12° broad, is on the _outer edge_ of the zodiac
as shewn in the astrolabe, which is only 6° broad and shews only the
northern half of that belt. The 'way of the sun' is elsewhere used of the
sun's apparent _diurnal_ path (see Part ii. sect. 30); but it here refers,
as is more usual, to the _annual_ path.
34. _streitnes_, narrowness, closeness, smallness of size. In Fig. 2, I
have marked every degree in the southern half of the zodiac, but only every
_fifth_ degree in the northern, in order to avoid an appearance of crowding
in so small a figure. In Chaucer's own Astrolabe, every _other_ degree was
marked all round.
40. Here Chaucer gives at least three reasons for the name of 'zodiac.' The
true one is the second, 'for that the sterres that ben there fixed ben
disposed in signes of bestes, or shape like bestes.' But these imaginary
shapes are very absurd and arbitrary.
50. Not only the influences here assigned to the signs, but others due to
planets, may be found in 'Porphyrii Philosophi introductio in Claudii
Ptolomæi opus de affectibus astrorum,' fol. Basileæ, n.d. p. 198. I here
add a few extracts from the MS. in Trinity College, Cambridge (marked R.
15. 18), to shew the nature of the old astrology. I choose them with
especial reference to Aries. The other signs are spoken of in a similar
manner. 'It is principally to be considered that the signes of hevyn haue
their_e_ strenght and propre significaciou_n_ vpon the membris of eny man;
as, Aries hath respect to the hed, taurus to the neck, ge_min_is (_sic_)
the Armys, Cancer the brest, leo the hert, virgo the bowels, &c.; as it
shall shew in the Chapiters folowyng. Secundarily it is to be noted that
plotholomee (_sic_) saith, that to touche with instrument of yrou_n_ while
the mone is in the signe of the same membre, is for to be dred; let the
surgen beware, and the letter of blode, let hym be aferd to touche that
membre w_i_t_h_ yren_e_, in the which the mone shal be.'--MS. G; Trad C. p.
12.
'Thenne Aries hath respect to the hed; And this signe is hote and dry,
fiery & colerik. Saturne hath ij witnes in Ariete, a triplicitate and a
terme. Jubit_er_ also hath ij, a triplicitate and a term_e_. Mars hath iij
testimonials or iij fortitudis in Ariete, A hows, A face, and A terme. The
sonne hath iij fortitudis in Ariete, s_cilicet_, an exaltaciou_n_, a
triplicite, and a face. Venus hath ij testimonials, A terme and a face.
M_er_cury hath on_e_ testymony, that is to sey, a term_e_. And luna in
Ariete hath no testimoniall. For the which it is to know, that the influens
of the planet_is_ may be fortyfied v maner of wayes. And these v man_er_ be
called v fortitud_is_ of planet_is_, or testimonials, which be these:
_domus_, _exaltacio_, _triplicitas_, _terminus_, and _facies_. _Domus_
gevith to a planet v fortitud_is_; And a planet in his hows is lyke a kynge
in his hall, And in the high trone of his gl_or_ie. A planet in his
_exaltacioun_ is lyke a kynge when he is crowned. A planet in his
_triplicite_ is like a kynge in hono_ur_, Amonge his sencible people. A
planet in his _terme_ is As a man_n_ among_es_ his kynnesmen_n_ And
fryndis. _Facies_ gyvith to a planet that thyng the which rowme gyvith to a
maistre. Wherfore _facies_ gyvith only on fortitude, _Terminus_ ij,
_Triplicitas_ iij, _Exaltacio_ iiij, And _domus_ v. And for the more clere
declaraciou_n_, the dignytes of planet_is_ in signes be co_m_p_re_hendid in
this figure ensuynge, &c.[75]'--Same MS., Tract C. p. 13.
'The dygnytes of planet_is_ in the signes, most speciall they be to be
noted in iudicials. When the mone is _in Ariete_, it is not gode, but
vtterly to be exshewed, both for seke And disesid, for to shafe their_e_
hede or to boist in the eris or in the nek; nor loke þou let no blode in
the vayn of the hede. How-be-it, benyficiall it is to begynne eu_er_y worke
that þou woldest bryng aboute son_e_. But that thynge that is stabill ought
to be eschewed. In this signe it is necessary to dele with noble estat_is_
And rich men, And for to go in-to A bayn_e_ [_bath_][76].'--Same MS., Tract
C. p. 14.
54, 5. See Prologue, l. 73. As the zodiak is here called a part of the
eighth sphere, so we have been before told that the equinoctial is the
girdle of the ninth sphere; see note above to sect 17. l. 28.
57. _evene parties_, equal parts. That is, the equinoctial bisects the
zodiac. But the northern half _looks_ much smaller than the southern on the
Astrolabe, owing to the manner in which the zodiac is there represented,
viz. by projection on the plane of the equator.
PART II. § 1. Rubric, _hir cours_. The gender of the sun was feminine in
Anglo-Saxon, and that of the moon masculine; but in Chaucer's time, the
gender was very variable, owing to the influence of Latin and French.
§ 3. Between sections 2 and 3, a section is inserted in the late copies,
which merely repeats section 1, and is clearly spurious. It does not appear
at all in the best MSS.; though it is found in the black-letter editions. I
quote it here from MS. L.
'TO KNOWE THE DEGRE OF THYN SONNE IN THYN ZODIAK BY THE DAYS IN THE BAKSYDE
OFF THE ASTROLABYE.
'[T]hanne iff þou wylte wete thatt / rekyn & knowe / qwych is the day off
the monyth thatt thow arte yn_n_e, & ley thy rewle of thy astrolabye, that
is to sey, the allydatha, vpon þe day in the kalendr_e_ off the Astrolabye,
& he schall schewe the thy degree of the sonne.'
26, 7. After 'assendent,' the following additional paragraph occurs in MS.
Bodley 619; fol. 21. It is worthy of notice, because the original of it
appears in Messahala's treatise, with the title 'De noticia stellarum
incognitarum positarum in astrolabio.' The paragraph runs thus:--
'Nota. þat by þis conclusio_n_ þou may knowe also where ben at þat same
tyme all_e_ oþir sterres fixed þ_a_t ben sette in thin Astrelabie, and in
what place of þe firmament; And also her arising in thy orizonte, and how
longe þ_a_t thei wol ben aboue þe erthe wiþ þe Arke of þe nyght / And loke
eu_er_more hov many degrees þou fynde eny sterre at þat tyme sitting vpon
þin Almycant_er_as, and vp-on as many degrees sette þou þe reule vpon þe
altitude in þe border_e_; And by the mediaciou_n_ of þy eye through þe .2.
smale holes shalt thou se þe same sterre by the same altitude aforseid, And
so by this conclusiou_n_ may þou redely knowe whiche is oo sterre from
a-noþ_er_ in the firmament / for as many as ben in the Astrelabie. For by
þ_a_t same altitude shal thou se that same sterre, & non othir / for þ_er_e
ne woll_e_ non othir altitude accorde þerto.'
30. _Alhabor_; i.e. Sirius or the Dog-star, as is evident from the fact of
its being represented by a dog's head on the Astrolabe; see also the table
of stars marked on the Astrolabe (in MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. li. 3. 3, fol.
70, back), which gives the declination 15° S, the latitude 39° S, and
places the star in Cancer. It is also plainly described in the same table
as being 'in ore canis', so that it is difficult to resist the conclusion
of the identity of Alhabor and Sirius. Mr. Brae, following later copies
that have different readings of the numbers employed, identifies Alhabor
with Rigel or [beta] Orionis. This is impossible, from the fact that Rigel
and Alhabor _both_ occur in the diagrams and tables; see, for instance,
Fig. 2. It is true that Rigel was sometimes called _Algebar_, but _Alhabor_
stands rather for the Arabic _Al-'ab[=u]r_. The Arabic name for the
constellation Canis Major was _Al-kalb al-akbar_, 'greater dog,' as
distinguished from _Al-kalb al-asghar_, or 'lesser dog'; and the star
[alpha] Canis Majoris was called _Al-shi'ra al-'ab[=u]r_, the former of
which terms represented the Greek [Greek: seirios] (_Sirius_), whilst from
the latter (_al-'ab[=u]r_) we have our _Alhabor_. See Ideler, Über den
Ursprung und die Bedeutung der Sternnamen, pp. 237, 256.
§ 4. 'The houses [in astrology] have different powers. The strongest of all
these is the first, which contains the part of the heaven about to rise:
this is called the _ascendant_; and the point of the ecliptic which is just
rising is called the horoscope.'--English Encyclopædia; art. Astrology.
21. In the English Cyclopædia, art. Astrology, a quotation is given from an
astrological work, in reply to the question whether the 'querent' should
succeed as a cattle-dealer. It contains some words very similar to
Chaucer's. 'If the lord of the sixth be in quartile, or in opposition to
the dispositor of the part of Fortune, or the Moon, the querent cannot
thrive by dealing in small cattle. The same if the lord of the sixth be
afflicted either by Saturn, Mars, or the Dragon's Tail; or be found either
retrograde, combust, cadent, or peregrine. [See l. 33.] The Dragon's Tail
and Mars shew much loss therein by knaves and thieves, and ill bargains,
&c.; and Saturn denotes much damage by the rot or murrain.' The evil
influence of the Dragon's Tail is treated of in the last chapter of
'Hermetis Philosophi de revolutionibus nativitatum', fol. Basileæ; n.d.
32. 'May seen the ascendant.' Cf. 'Cum dominator ascendens viderit, res quæ
occulta est secundum ascendentis naturam erit; quod si non videt, illud
erit secundum naturam loci in quo ipse est dominator'; Cl. Ptolemæi
_Centiloquium_; sect. 90.
33. _combust_, said of a planet when its light is quenched by being too
near the sun. Tyrwhitt, in his Glossary, says that it is used when the
planet is not more than 8½ degrees distant from the sun. Cf. Troilus, iii.
717, and the note.
40. _Face._ See note to Part I. sect. 21. l. 50 (p. 359). The late copies
are very incorrect hereabouts.
§ 6. 9. Mr. Brae well calls attention here to the absurd errors in the
printed copies. Thynne has 'in the 320 signe,' and Speght 'in the xxiii
signe.' The signs of the zodiac are only twelve, and the one opposite to
the 1st is the 7th.
§ 8. I see no reason for supposing this proposition to be an interpolation,
as Mr. Brae suggests. Though similar to § 11, it is not identical with it.
Moreover, it occurs in Messahala.
§ 9. 2. _the chapitre beforn_, i.e. a previous chapter, viz. in sect. 6.
The expression supplies no argument for altering the order of the
'conclusions.'
4. _same manere_, i.e. a like manner. The 'vulgar night' clearly means that
the quantity of the 'crepuscules' must be _subtracted_ from the 'arch of
the night.'
§ 13. 5. _cours_, course; _heyest cours_, highest point of the path. Late
copies have _lyne_; for which Mr. Brae suggested _degre_.
§ 14. 6. _but 2 degrees_. Suppose the sun's midday altitude is 49°, in
latitude 52°. Then the co-latitude is 38°, and the sun's declination 11°
North. This corresponds nearly (roughly speaking) to the 1st degrees of
Taurus and Virgo. Which is right can 'lightly' be known by the time of
year, for the sun cannot be in Virgo if the month be April. Compare sect.
15.
§ 17. This conclusion, as pointed out in the footnote, is not correct in
theory, but can be made nearly so in practice, by taking the two altitudes
_very near_ the meridian. This is directly implied in the words 'passeth
any-thing the sowth westward,' i.e. passes _ever so little_ westward of the
south line; cf. note below to 38. 10. Consequently, the first observation
must also be taken very near the meridian.
25. _site_, situation. Late copies, _sight_. This proves that the word
_site_ is Chaucerian, and clears up the reading in Ho. Fame, 1114.
§ 18. Instead of reckoning a star's right ascension by referring it to the
equator, it was reckoned by observing the degree of the zodiac which
southed along with it. This is expressed in the first 'Table of fixed
stars' in MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. Ii. 3. 3 (fol. 70, back) by the phrase 'cum
gradibus, quibus celum mediant'; the other co-ordinate of position was the
star's declination from the equator, as in the modern method. The ancients
also used the co-ordinates of longitude and latitude of a star, the
longitude being reckoned along the ecliptic, and the latitude along great
circles through the poles of the ecliptic; as appears from the second Table
in the same MS.
§ 19. 6. _equinoxial._ This, as explained in the footnote, should be
'ecliptik'; but I can find no MS. authority for the alteration, though the
correction is practically made in l. 13.
§ 22. 13. _place._ Late copies and old editions, _planet_; absurdly.
Latitudes of several places are given in old Latin MSS. They are frequently
incorrect.
§ 23. 3. The star A is shewn by the numbers to be the Pole-star, and is
obviously the one to be observed in order to find the altitude of the Pole.
What the star F is, is of no consequence. The numbers used in other copies
are different, and much less satisfactory. That the star A is the Pole-star
or some star near the pole in this 'conclusion' is rendered probable also
by the wording of the next 'conclusion'; which extends the working of it to
the case of any other star, provided it be a star that never sets.
§ 25. 19. When Chaucer says that the latitude of Oxford is 'certain minutes
less,' he probably means no more than that the latitude of Oxford was 51
degrees and 50 minutes, as in the text. For I suspect the original reading
of the passage made the sun's altitude 38 degrees only, and the latitude 52
degrees; indeed, the passage stands so in MSS. C and P, both good
authorities. But he added the statement that the latitude of Oxford was
less than 52 degrees. It is probable that, on second thoughts, he put in
the number of _minutes_, and forgot to strike out the clause 'I sey nat
this,' &c., which was no longer necessary. Minutes were seldom reckoned
otherwise than by _tens_; 'a few minutes less than 50' (say 47) is a
refinement to which the ancients seldom attained. Hence the amount of 10
minutes is vaguely spoken of in l. 31 as 'odde Minutes.' Minutes were
clearly not much considered. In the present case, we are assisted by
Chaucer's express statement in sect. 22. l. 6. The true latitude of Oxford
is between 51° 45' and 51° 46'.
§ 26. 8-11. It is singular that this sentence, obviously wanted, should
appear only in one MS., and has, accordingly, been omitted in all previous
editions. There can be no doubt about the genuineness of it, as it so
exactly gives the right sense, and happily supplies the words 'right
orisonte' in l. 11; thus enabling the author to say, as in l. 21 he _does_
say--'this _forseid_ righte orisonte.'
16. _this figure._ Here occurs, in some of the MSS., a diagram representing
a circle, i.e, a disc of the astrolabe, with straight lines drawn across it
from left to right.
17. _assensiouns in the righte cercle._ This exactly answers to our modern
'right ascension.' We hence obtain the true origin of the phrase. 'Right
ascension' was, originally, the ascension of stars at places situate _on
the equator_, and was most conveniently measured along the equatorial
circle, by observation of the times of transit of the various stars across
the meridian. In other latitudes, the ascension of every degree of the
_zodiac_ could be easily tabulated by observing what degree of the equator
came to the meridian with the said degree of the zodiac; see l. 20. It
hence appears that, whilst persisting in using 'longitudes' and reckoning
along the zodiac, the ancients were obliged, in practice, to refer the
degrees of longitude to the equator. The modern method of recognizing this
necessity, and registering right ascensions as of more importance than
longitudes, is a great improvement. The ancients were restrained from it by
their unnecessary reverence for the zodiac. Cf. Ptolemy's Almagest, lib. i.
c. xiii.
§ 29. Chaucer omits to say that the experiment should be made when the sun
is very nearly on the meridian. Otherwise, the confusion of the azimuth
with the hour-angle might cause a considerable error.
§ 30. 3. That the phrase 'wey of the sonne' really means the sun's apparent
_diurnal_ course in this conclusion, may be further seen by consulting the
Latin of Messahala. Cf. the Critical Note on p. 236.
§ 31. In my footnote, I have used the expression 'it does not mean, _as it
should_, the zenith point.' I mean--'as, according to our modern ideas, it
should';--for the derivation of _zenith_ shews that the meaning used in
this proposition is the older meaning of the two. See note above to i. 19.
7 (p. 357).
6. _24 parties._ These 24 parts were suggested by the 24 hours of the day.
The '32 parts' used by 'shipmen' are due to the continual halving of
angles. Thus, the four cardinal points have points half-way between them,
making eight points; between which, we can insert eight more, making
sixteen; and between these, sixteen more, making thirty-two. Hence the 32
points of the compass.
§ 33. 5. We should probably insert _or south_ after the word _north_. Such
an insertion is authorised by MSS. B. and C.
§ 34. 3. That 'upon the mones syde' means nearly in the same azimuth as the
moon, is apparent from l. 11 below, where Chaucer says that some treatises
make no exception even if the star is _not_ quite in the same azimuth. This
was certainly a rough mode of observation.
§ 35. 9. _right side_, East side. See i. 6. 1 (p. 179).
18. _episicle_, epicycle. To account for the planetary motions, epicycles
were invented. The moon, for instance, was supposed to revolve round a
_moving_ centre, which centre itself moved round the earth in a perfect
circle. This came a little nearer to the true motion in some instances, but
was hopelessly wrong, and nothing could be made of it, even when a _second_
epicycle, revolving about a centre which moved in the _first_ epicycle, was
superadded. All that Chaucer says here is, that, whilst the centre of the
moon's epicycle had a direct motion, the moon's motion in the epicycle
itself was a reverse one, unlike that of the other planetary bodies. The
subject is hardly worth further discussion, so I merely refer the reader to
the Almagest, lib. iv. c. 5; and lib. ix. c. 5.
§ 36. The 'equations of houses' means the dividing of the sphere into
_equal_ portions, and the right numbering of those portions or houses. The
most important house was the first, or ascendent, just rising; the next in
importance was the tenth, which was just coming on the meridian; then come
the seventh or descendent, just about to set, and the fourth, just coming
to the line of midnight. The next in importance were the _succedents_, or
houses immediately following these, viz. the second, the eleventh, the
eighth, and the fifth. The least important were the third, twelfth, ninth,
and sixth. See Fig. 14.
§ 37. 18. _thise 3 howsez._ That is, the nadirs of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th
houses give the houses that 'follow,' i.e. the 8th, 9th, and 10th. The word
'follow' here seems to refer, not to position, but to the order in which
the houses may most conveniently be found. Chaucer omits to add that the
beginnings of the 5th and 6th houses can be found in a similar way, because
it is sufficiently evident. It is all from Messahala.
§ 38. 1. _for warping, the brodere the bettre._ This may mean, either (1)
to prevent warping, the thicker the better; or (2) to prevent the errors
arising from warping (for fear of warping), the larger the better. I
believe the latter to be the true interpretation; for it is better thus to
guard against possible errors than to make the plate very thick and, at the
same time, small. Besides which, the usual meaning of _brodere_ is _wider,
larger, more ample_. Indeed, we find the very expression 'non sit tamen
nimis parvus' in the 4th section of the Practica Chilindri of John Hoveden,
published by the Chaucer Society; which see.
8. _fro the centre_, i.e. sticking up above the centre, the length of the
wire being equal to a fourth of the diameter, or half the radius, of the
circle. This proportion would do for many days in the year; but in the
summer time, the pin would bear to be rather longer. Still, we need not
alter the text. Cf. the Critical Note on p. 237.
10. _any-thing_, i.e. ever so little; so _ony-thyng_ in l. 13; cf. § 17. 6.
§ 39. Though MS. A is rather corrupt here, there is little doubt about the
corrections to be made. See the Critical Notes, p. 237.
19. That is, the latitude, or breadth, of a climate, or belt, is measured
along a line which goes from North to South as far as the earth extends; so
that the latitude of the _first_ climate, for example, is measured from the
beginning of it to the end of the same, in a due northerly direction. Other
authors, he explains, reckoned the latitude of a climate always from the
equinoxial line, instead of from the parallel of latitude which terminated
the climate immediately to the south of it. Thus the latitude of the fourth
climate might mean, either the breadth of that belt _itself_, or the
_whole_ breadth from the equator to the Northern limit of that climate. The
MS. E. 2 in St. John's College, Cambridge, contains (besides Chaucer's
'Astrolabe') a Latin treatise entitled 'De septe_m_ climatib_us_
expositio.' We find mention of the 'climates' also in MS. Camb. Ii. 3. 3,
fol. 33 _b_, where a diagram appears representing a hemisphere, divided by
parallels of latitude into 9 climates or belts, which, beginning from the
equator, are as follows. 1. Inhabitabile propter Calorem. 2. Primum clima
dia Meroes. 3. Secundum clima dya cienes. 4. Tertium clima di' alexandrios.
5. Quartum clima dia rodos. 6. Quintum clima dia romes. 7. Sextum clima dia
boristenes. 8. Septimum clima dia rifeos. 9. Inhabitabile. This agrees with
the list in the footnote on p. 221.
There is a passage in Mandeville which well illustrates Chaucer; I quote
the part of it which more immediately relates to the Climates. 'For the
Superficialtee of the Erthe is departed in 7 parties, for the 7 Planetes;
and the parties ben clept Clymates. And oure parties be not of the 7
Clymates: for they ben descendynge toward the West. And also these yles of
Ynde, which beth evene a[gh]enst us, beth noght reckned in the Climates:
for thei ben a[gh]enst us, that ben in the lowe Contree. And the 7 Clymates
strecchen hem, envyrounynge the World,' &c. Mandeville's Voiage, ed.
Halliwell, p. 186. See also Ptolemy's Almagest, lib. ii.
As regards the longitudes of towns, it may be observed that in MS. F. 25 in
St. John's College, Cambridge, the longitudes of Rome, Cordova, London,
Paris, and Malta, are said to be 34° 24', 9° 30', 19°, 20°, and 38°
respectively. These do not well agree together, but they suggest a
reckoning from a meridian situated some 20° W. from that of Greenwich.
Chaucer says nothing as to what meridian was used for reckoning longitudes
from; and Messahala says, vaguely enough, that longitudes were reckoned 'a
meridiano circulo ultime regionis habitabilis in occidente,' i.e. from the
most westward habitable place, which possibly once meant Madeira.
§ 40. It is possible that this conclusion was really intended to belong to
the Fourth Part of the treatise, and was written by way of instalment. See
the Prologue, ll. 67-72. It is curious that in all the best MSS. (P.
excepted) the last sentence should be incomplete.
13. This sentence is very awkward. It seems to mean--'and then set I the
point of F upward in the same sign, because that the latitude was north,
upon the latitude of Venus; that is to say, (I set it upward) keeping it in
the 6th degree of Capricorn.' _Upward_ means inward, i.e. towards the
centre or towards the north; the opposite being expressed by southward, or
outward, or toward the border, as in l. 48 below. _Upon the latitude of
Venus_ means that the point F of the compass was set above the second
degree of latitude, so that the space between the legs of the compass
became equal to 2 degrees, as said in l. 16. Lastly, the words _that is to
seyn, in the 6 degree_, &c., are an explanation of the vaguer expression
_in the same signe_. The repetition of the words _that is to seyn_, &c.
(ll. 12 and 14), is intended to draw attention to the necessity of keeping
_both_ legs of the compass in the same degree of longitude (A on the
zodiac, and F to the north of it).
57. Possibly Chaucer left the sentence incomplete. The words 'thou shalt do
well enough' may easily have been added by another hand to bring the
sentence to an apparent, though not wholly satisfactory, conclusion. The
colophon is written (in a later hand) in MS. A. at the bottom of the page,
a part of which, after the words 'howre after howre,' is left blank.
41-43. I have mended the text as well as I could by inserting words, and
adopting different readings. Nearly all the emendations rest on authority;
see the Critical Notes. The text is not a good one, but I do not see why
these sections may not have been written by Chaucer. For a definition of
the terms 'Umbra Extensa' and 'Umbra Versa' see sections 5 and 6 of the
Practica Chilindri of John Hoveden, published by the Chaucer Society. The
_umbra extensa_ or _recta_ is the shadow cast on a plain by any perfectly
upright object; but the restriction is commonly introduced, that the
altitude of the sun shall exceed 45º. The _umbra versa_ is the shadow cast
_perpendicularly_ downwards along a wall by a style which projects from the
wall at right angles to it; the restriction is commonly introduced, that
the sun's altitude shall be less than 45°. The _umbra versa_ is the one
which appeared on the 'chylindre'; hence John de Hoveden explains how to
calculate the altitude of an object by it.
44. This article and the next may possibly be Chaucer's. It is well known
that he speaks of 'collect' and 'expans yeres' and 'rotes' in the
Frankeleines Tale; Cant. Ta., F 1275, 6, the note upon which in the
glossary to Urry's Chaucer may be found also in Tyrwhitt's Glossary, s.v.
_Expans_; but it is worth while to repeat it here. 'In this and the
following verses, the Poet describes the Alphonsine Astronomical Tables by
the several parts of them, wherein some technical terms occur, which were
used by the old astronomers, and continued by the compilers of those
tables. _Collect_ years are certain sums of years, with the motions of the
heavenly bodies corresponding to them, as of 20, 40, 60, &c., disposed into
tables; and _Expans_ years are the single years, with the motions of the
heavenly bodies answering to them, beginning at 1, and continued on to the
smallest _Collect_ sum, as 20. A _Root_, or _Radix_, is any certain time
taken at pleasure, from which, as an era, the celestial motions are to be
computed. By 'proporcionels convenientes' [C. T., F 1278] are meant the
Tables of Proportional parts.' To which Moxon adds, from Chamber's
Encyclopædia, with reference to C. T., F 1277, that '_Argument_ in
astronomy is an arc whereby we seek another unknown arc proportional to [or
rather, dependent upon] the first.'
Tables of mean motions of the Sun are given in Ptolemy's Almagest, lib.
iii. c. 2; of the Moon, lib. iv. c. 3; of the Planets, lib. viii. c. 3;
also in MS. Ii. 3. 3, fol. 88_b_, &c.
41_A_-42_B_. The fact that these articles are mere repetitions of sections
41-43 is almost conclusive against their genuineness. I do not suppose that
sect 46 (at p. 229) is Chaucer's either, but it is added for the sake of
completeness.
THE CANTERBURY TALES.
SOURCES OF THE CANTERBURY TALES.
CONTENTS.
§ 1. The series of Tales. § 2. The Prologues to Piers the Plowman and to
the Canterbury Tales compared. § 3. Date of the Tales; from 1386 onwards. §
4. Number of the Tales. § 5. Old and new material. § 6. Days of the month
for the various Groups. § 7. Arrangement of the Groups. § 8. Group A nearly
finished. § 9. The Tale of Gamelyn. § 10. The Plowman's Tale. § 11. Early
and late Tales. § 12. The test of rhythm. § 13. Origin of the heroic
couplet. § 14. Modification of Chaucer's original scheme. § 15. The Tale of
Beryn. § 16. Lydgate's Storie of Thebes. § 17. GROUP A. The Prologue. § 18.
The Knightes Tale: Palamon and Arcite. § 19. Boccaccio's Teseide. § 20.
Tyrwhitt's analysis of the Teseide. § 21. Resemblances to Troilus. § 22.
Later versions of the Knightes Tale. § 23. The Miller's Prologue. § 24. The
Milleres Tale. § 25. The Reeve's Prologue. § 26. The Reves Tale. § 27. The
Cook's Prologue. § 28. The Cokes Tale. §§ 29-34. The Tale of Gamelyn. § 35.
GROUP B. The Words of the Host to the Company. § 36. The Man of Law's
Prologue. § 37. The Man of Lawes Tale. § 38. The same Tale, as told by
Gower. § 39. The Shipman's Prologue. § 40. The Shipmannes Tale. § 41. The
Prioress's Prologue. § 42. The Prioresses Tale. § 43. Prologue to Sir
Thopas. § 44. Sir Thopas. § 45. Prologue to Melibeus. § 46. The Tale of
Melibeus. § 47. The Monk's Prologue. § 48. The Monkes Tale. § 49. The
Prologue of the Nonne Preestes Tale. § 50. The Nonne Preestes Tale. § 51.
Epilogue to the Nonne Preestes Tale. § 52. GROUP C. The Spurious Prologues
to the Phisiciens Tale. § 53. The Phisiciens Tale. § 54. Words of the Host
to the Phisicien and the Pardoner. § 55. Prologue of the Pardoneres Tale. §
56. The Pardoneres Tale. § 57. GROUP D. The Wife of Bath's Prologue. § 58.
The Wyf of Bathes Tale. § 59. The Friar's Prologue. § 60. The Freres Tale.
§ 61. The Somnour's Prologue. § 62. The Somnours Tale. § 63. GROUP E. The
Clerk's Prologue. § 64. The Clerkes Tale. § 65. The Merchant's Prologue. §
66. The Marchantes Tale. § 67. GROUP F. The Squire's Prologue. § 68. The
Squieres Tale. § 69. Words of the Frankeleyn. § 70. The Franklin's
Prologue. § 71. The Frankeleyns Tale. § 72. GROUP G. The Seconde Nonnes
Tale. § 73. The Canon's Yeoman's Prologue and Tale. § 74. GROUP H. The
Manciple's Prologue. § 75. The Manciples Tale. § 76. GROUP I. The Parson's
Prologue. § 77. The Persones Tale.
ACCOUNT OF THE SOURCES OF THE CANTERBURY TALES.
THE NINE GROUPS.
§ 1. The idea of joining together a series of Tales by means of fitting
them into a common frame-work is a very old one, and doubtless originated
in the East. There is an English collection of this character known as 'The
Seven Sages,' of which various versions have come down to us. The earliest
of these, as published in the second volume of Weber's Metrical Romances,
has been dated about 1320; and is, at any rate, older than any of Chaucer's
poems. Another collection, of a similar character, and likewise of Eastern
origin, is a Latin work by Petrus Alphonsus, a converted Spanish Jew,
entitled De Clericali Disciplina. See Dunlop's History of Fiction, chap.
vii. From one of these Chaucer may have taken the general idea of arranging
his tales in a connected series; and we must not forget that his Legend of
Good Women, which was the immediate forerunner of his greater work, is
likewise, practically, a collection of Tales, though sadly lacking in
variety, as he discovered for himself in the course of writing it. It is
highly improbable that he was indebted for the idea to Boccaccio's
Decamerone, as has been sometimes hastily suggested; since we might, in
that case, have expected that he would also have drawn from that collection
the plot of some one of his tales; which is not found to be the case. The
Clerk's Tale occurs, indeed, in the Decamerone; but we know it to have been
borrowed from Petrarch's Latin version of it. The Franklin's Tale has some
resemblance to another tale in the same collection, but was evidently not
taken from it directly, and the same is true in other cases; so that we are
quite justified in supposing that Chaucer was wholly unacquainted, at first
hand, with Boccaccio's work.
§ 2. It was suggested by Professor Seeley that we may profitably compare
the form of Chaucer's Prologue with that of the somewhat similar Prologue
to William's Vision concerning Piers the Plowman, a work which was very
popular in England just at the same time. William introduces us to a
Vision, in which he first of all beholds a Field full of Folk, and
describes, in succession, the various sets of folk of which the company
consisted; such as ploughmen, anchorites, hermits, chapmen, minstrels,
beggars, pilgrims, palmers, friars, a pardoner, parish-priests, bishops,
lawyers, and stewards. Chaucer seized upon the happy idea of limiting each
class to a single individual, and the still happier idea of combining them
into a company with a common object which allowed them to associate
together on nearly equal terms. And having thus chosen his representative
of each class, he employed his wonderful dramatic power in producing an
exact description of each; so that, to quote the words of Dryden, 'he has
taken into the compass of his Canterbury Tales the various manners and
humours (as we now call them) of the whole English nation, in his age.'
§ 3. As to the date when this idea of forming a continuous series of tales
was first entertained, we can hardly be wrong in dating it from 1386 or
1387 onwards. As it was left in an incomplete state, it was most likely in
hand up to the time of his death, though he probably neglected it towards
the last. The year 1385 is, almost certainly, the date of his Prologue to
the Legend of Good Women, and of his first attempt to write in heroic
couplets[77]. He was then full of the idea of writing a series of stories
concerning 'Good Women,' and himself tells us that he intended to write
stories of nineteen Women, to be followed by the Legend of Alcestis; but we
find him suddenly desisting from his task without completing his ninth
Legend, that of Hypermnestra. For this we may reasonably assign two causes;
he was probably already somewhat weary of his self-imposed task, and he
also began to see his way to a still grander collection, on a larger scale.
It is important to observe that Chaucer was, throughout life, haunted by
great ideas; and especially, by the desire to leave behind him at least
some one great work which would attract general attention. Thus it was that
he attempted a translation of the huge French poem of Le Roman de La Rose,
which he probably never finished, though we do not know how far he
proceeded. He planned the poem of Troilus and Criseyde, which terminates
rather suddenly, but not until it had extended to the great length of more
than eight thousand lines. Next he planned the House of Fame, which was to
be largely a work of imagination; but here once more he was dissatisfied,
and abandoned it whilst still incomplete. Almost at once he took up the
Legend of Good Women, with its Prologue and twenty stories, but again
abandoned it for a larger scheme. It is also tolerably clear that the
Monkes Tale originally took its rise from a similar desire to write a
succession of lives of illustrious men; and that the first conception of
this idea preceded that of the Canterbury Tales. We thus see our author
constantly striving after the endeavour to produce some great original
work; and the Canterbury Tales was, in fact, the result of the latest and
greatest of these endeavours.
To assign any exact date for the Man of Lawes Prologue, which mentions
April 18, is difficult. Yet we must exclude 1389, when that day was Easter
Sunday, a day unsuitable for travelling and telling tales; as well as 1390,
when April 17 was Sunday, which would have prevented the pilgrims, at any
rate, from making an early start (Prol. 822-5).
The year 1391 is certainly too late; so that only 1386, 1387, and 1388 are
left for consideration. But in 1386, Easter-day fell on April 22, and Good
Friday on April 20; and we cannot suppose that the pilgrimage could have
taken place in Passion-week, when the Parson and others would be much in
request for the duties which the season imposed upon them.
In 1387 and 1388, however, Easter fell early, and left the pilgrims free to
take a holiday. In 1388, April 18 was a Saturday, so that the pilgrims must
have travelled on Sunday, since they certainly stopped _one_ night on the
road at Ospringe, and probably also stopped elsewhere; and surely, if
Sunday travelling had been intended, something would have been said about
the hearing of mass[78]. But in 1387, everything comes right; they
assembled at the Tabard on Tuesday, April 16, and had four clear days
before them. And when we consider how particular our author is as to dates,
we shall do well to consider the probability that this result is correct.
We should remember, at the same time, that this date is, for other reasons,
more likely than any other. The fact that the Legend of Good Women, begun
in 1385, terminates so suddenly, points to the inception of a still greater
work, probably in 1386; and this leads up to 1387 as the date when the
supposed times assigned to the various Tales were being arranged. And I
still think that we ought to attach _some_ significance to the fact
(pointed out by me in 1868) that the year 1387 suits the scheme of days
mentioned in the Knightes Tale. See note to A 1850, in vol. v.
§ 4. Chaucer tells us, in his Prologue, ll. 791-795, that it was his
intention to make each of the pilgrims tell four tales, two on the way to
Canterbury[79] and two on the return-journey. But so far from fulfilling
his proposed plan, he did not even complete so much as a quarter of it,
since the number of tales do not even suffice to go _once_ round, much less
four times. No pilgrim tells two stories, though the poet represents
himself as being interrupted in his Rime of Sir Thopas, and telling the
tale of Melibeus in its stead; and we have no story from the Yeoman, the
Haberdasher, the Carpenter, the Weaver, the Dyer, the Tapiser, or the
Ploughman[80]. The series being thus incomplete, it only remains to
investigate to what degree of completeness the author succeeded in
attaining.
§ 5. It is easy to see that Chaucer may have had a good deal of material in
hand before the idea of writing a connected series of tales occurred to
him. The Prologue, answering somewhat to a preface, is one of his very
latest works, and in his best manner; and before writing it, he had in some
measure arranged a part of his materials. His design was to make a
collection of tales which he had previously written, to write more new
tales to go with these, and to unite them all into a series by means of
connecting links[81], which should account for the change from one narrator
to the next in order. In doing this, he did not work continuously, but
inserted the connecting links as they occurred to him, being probably well
aware that this was the best way of avoiding an appearance of
artificiality. The result is that some links are perfectly supplied, and
others not written at all, thus affording a series of fragments or
_Groups_, complete in themselves, but having gaps between them. A full
account of these Groups, showing which tales are inseparably linked
together, and which are not joined at all, is given in Dr. Furnivall's
Temporary Preface to the Six-text Edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales,
published for the Chaucer Society in 1868. The resulting Groups are _nine_.
Between these are distinct gaps, and it is by no means clear that the order
of the Groups relatively to each other was finally determined upon. This
relative order is, however, settled to some extent by occasional references
to places passed on the road, and to times of the day. We are also
perfectly certain that the Knight was to tell the first tale, and the
Parson the last of the whole or partial series, thus leaving us only seven
Groups to arrange. Another question at once arises, however, which must be
settled before we can proceed, viz. whether the pilgrimage was intended to
be performed all in one day, or in two, or three, or more. Any one who
knows what travelling was in the olden time must be well aware that the
notion of performing the whole distance in one day is out of the question,
especially as the pilgrims were out more for a holiday than for business,
that some of them were but poorly mounted (Prol. 287, 541), and some of
them but poor riders (Prol. 390, 469, 622)[82]. In fact, such an idea is
purely modern, adopted from thoughtlessness almost as a matter of course by
many modern readers, but certainly not founded upon truth. Fortunately,
too, the matter is put beyond argument by some incidental remarks. In the
first Group, or Group A (l. 3906), occurs the line--
'Lo Depeford, and it is _half-way pryme_'--
i.e. it is now half-past seven o'clock. After which the Reve is made to
tell a story, and the Cook also, bringing the time of day to about nine
o'clock at the least. But in Group F, l. 73, the Squire remarks that 'it is
pryme,' it is nine o'clock, which can only mean that hour of _another_ day,
not of the same one. Still clearer is the allusion, in the Canon's Yeoman's
Prologue (G 588), to the pilgrims having passed the night in a hostelry, as
I understand the passage. This once perceived, it is not of much
consequence whether we allow the pilgrims two days, or three, or four; but
the most convenient arrangement is that proposed by Mr. Furnivall, viz. to
suppose four days (or three and a half) to have been occupied; the more so,
as this supposition disposes of another extremely awkward allusion to time,
viz. the mention of ten o'clock in the morning in Group B, l. 14, which
must refer to yet a _third_ morning, in order not to clash with the two
notes of time already alluded to; whilst the passage in the Canon's
Yeoman's Prologue absolutely requires a _fourth_ morning, because of the
pilgrims having passed the night at a hostelry. The references to places on
the road can cause no trouble; on the contrary, these allusions afford much
help, for we cannot rest satisfied with the arrangement in Tyrwhitt's
edition, which makes the pilgrims come to Sittingbourne before arriving at
Rochester.
§ 6. But the data are not yet all disposed of: for we can fix the very days
of the month on which the pilgrims travelled. This is discussed in the note
to B 5[83], where the day recognised by the Host is shown to have been the
18th of April, and not the 28th, as in some editions; which agrees with the
expression in the Prologue, l. 8[84].
Putting all the results together, we get the following convenient scheme
for the Groups of tales. It is copied from Dr. Furnivall's Preface, with
the mere addition of the dates.
_April 16._ The guests arrive at the Tabard, late in the evening (Prol. 20,
23).
_April 17._ GROUP A. General Prologue; Knight's Tale; Miller's Prologue and
Tale; Reeve's Prologue and Tale; Cook's Prologue and Tale (the last
unfinished). _Gap._
_Notes of time and place._ In the Miller's Prologue, he tells the company
to lay the blame on the ale of Southwark if his tale is not to their
liking; he had hardly yet recovered from its effects.
In the Reeve's Prologue, A 3906, 3907, are the lines--
'Lo Depeford, and it is half-way pryme;
Lo Grenewich, ther many a shrewe is inne.'
That is, they are in sight of Deptford and Greenwich at about half-past 7
o'clock in the morning.
This Group is incomplete; I shall give my reasons presently for supposing
that the Yeoman's Tale was to have formed a part of it. Probably the
pilgrims reached Dartford that night, and halted there, at a distance of
fifteen miles from London.
_April 18._ GROUP B. Man-of-Law Head-link, his Prologue, and Tale (1-1162);
Shipman's Prologue and Tale (1163-1624); Shipman End-link (1625-1642);
Prioress's Tale (1643-1880); Prioress End-link (1881-1901); Sir Thopas
(1902-2156); Tale of Melibeus (2157-3078); Monk's Prologue and Tale
(3079-3956); Nun's Priest's Prologue and Tale (3957-4636); End-link
(4637-4652). _Gap._
_Notes of time and place._ In the Man-of-Law Head-link, we learn that it
was 10 o'clock (l. 14), and that it was the 18th of April (l. 5). In the
Monk's Prologue, l. 3116, we find that the pilgrims were soon coming to
Rochester. This Group is probably incomplete, rather at the beginning than
at the end. Something is wanted to bring the time to 10 o'clock, whilst the
travellers would hardly have cared to pass Rochester that night. Suppose
them to have halted there, at thirty miles from London.
_April 19._ GROUP C. Doctor's Tale (1-286); Words of the Host to the Doctor
and the Pardoner (287-328); Pardoner's Preamble, Prologue, and Tale
(329-968). _Gap._
GROUP D. Wife of Bath's Preamble (1-856); Wife's Tale (857-1264); Friar's
Prologue and Tale (1265-1664); Sompnour's Prologue and Tale (1665-2294).
_Gap._
GROUP E. Clerk's Prologue and Tale (1-1212); Merchant's Prologue and Tale
(1213-2418); Merchant End-link (2419-2440). _Gap; but the break is less
marked than usual._
_Notes of place, &c._ At the end of the Wife of Bath's Preamble is narrated
a verbal quarrel between the Sompnour and the Friar, in which the former
promises to tell some strange tales about friars before the company shall
arrive at Sittingbourne. Again, at the end of his Tale, he says--
'My tale is doon, we been almost at toune.'--D 2294.
After which, we may suppose the company to have halted awhile at
Sittingbourne, forty miles from London.
It must also be noted that there are at least two allusions to the Wife of
Bath's Preamble in the course of Group E; namely, in the Clerk's Tale, l.
1170, and in the Merchant's Tale, E 1685; and probably a third allusion in
the Merchant End-link, E 2438. These prove that Group D should precede
Group E, and suggest that it should precede it _immediately_.
_April 20._ GROUP F. Squire's Tale (1-672); Squire-Franklin Link (673-708);
Franklin's Tale (709-1624). _Gap._
GROUP G. Second Nun's Tale (1-553); Canon's Yeoman's Tale (554-1481).
_Gap._
GROUP H. Manciple's Prologue and Tale (1-362). _Gap._
GROUP I. Parson's Prologue and Tale.
_Notes of time and place._ In the Squire's Tale, F 73, the narrator remarks
that he will not delay the hearers, 'for it is prime,' i.e. 9 a.m.
In the Canon's Yeoman's Prologue (G 588) is a most explicit statement,
which is certainly most easily understood as having reference to a halt for
the night on the road, at a place (probably Ospringe) five miles short of
Boughton-under-Blee (G 555). The Canon's Yeoman says plainly that he had
seen the pilgrims ride out of their hostelry in the morrow-tide. In the
Manciple's Prologue (H 2) there is mention of a little town called
Bob-up-and-down, 'under the Blee, in Canterbury way'; and the Cook is taken
to task for sleeping on the road in the morning (H 16), which cannot, in
any case, be the morning of the day on which they started from Southwark.
In the Parson's Prologue (I 5) there is mention of the hour of 4 p.m., and
the Parson undertakes to tell the last tale before the end of the journey.
§ 7. The above account is useful as shewing the exact extent to which
Chaucer had carried out his intention; and at the same time shews what is,
on the whole, the best arrangement of the Tales. This arrangement is not
much affected by the question of the number of days occupied by the
pilgrims on the journey. It possesses, moreover, the great advantage of
stamping upon the whole work its incomplete and fragmentary character. The
arrangement of the Tales in the various MSS. varies considerably, and hence
Tyrwhitt found it necessary in his edition to consider the question of
order, and to do his best to make a satisfactory arrangement. The order
which he finally adopted is easily expressed by using the names already
given to the Groups, only Group B must be subdivided into two parts (_a_)
and (_b_), the first of these containing the Man of Law's Prologue and Tale
only, and the second all the rest of the Tales, &c. in the Group. This
premised, his result is as follows: viz. Groups A, B (_a_), D, E, F, C, B
(_b_), G, H, I. The only two variations between the two lists are easily
explained. In the first place, Group C is entirely independent of all the
rest, and contains no note of time or place, so that it may be placed
anywhere between A and G; in this case therefore the variation is of no
importance[85]. In the other case, however, Tyrwhitt omitted to see that
the parts of Group B are really bound together by the expressions which
occur in them. For, whereas the Man of Law declares in l. 46, Group B--
'I can right now no _thrifty tale_ seyn,'
the Host, at the beginning of the Shipman's Prologue, l. 1165, is pleased
to give his verdict thus--
'This _was_ a _thrifty tale_ for the nones,'
and proceeds to ask the Parson for a tale, declaring that 'ye lerned men in
lore,' i.e. the Man of Law and the Parson, know much that is good: whence
it is evident that B (_b_) must be advanced so as to follow B (_a_)
immediately; and the more so, as there is authority for this in MS. Arch.
Seld. B 14 in the Bodleian Library; while many MSS. suggest a similar
arrangement (§ 39). The correctness of this emendation is proved by the
fact that it is necessary for the mention of Rochester in B (_b_) to
precede that of Sittingbourne in D.
It deserves to be mentioned further, that, of the four days supposed to be
consumed on the way, some of them are inadequately provided for. This
furnishes no real objection, because the unwritten tales of the Yeoman,
Haberdasher, Carpenter, Weaver, Dyer, Tapiser, and Ploughman, would have
helped in some degree to fill up the gaps which have been noticed above.
§ 8. The whole of Group A is so admirably fitted together, and its details
so well worked out, that it may fairly be looked upon as having been
finally revised, as far as it goes; and I am disposed accordingly to look
upon the incomplete Cook's Tale as almost the last portion of his great
work which the poet ever revised in its intended final form. There is, in
this Group A, only one flaw, one that has often been noted, viz. the
mention of _three_ Priests in the Prologue (l. 164), whereas we know that
there was but _one_ Nun's Priest, his name being Sir John. At the same
place there is a notable omission of the character of the Nun, and the two
things together point to the possibility that Chaucer may have drawn her
character in too strong strokes, and have then suddenly determined to
withdraw it, and to substitute a new character at some future time[86]. If
we suppose him to have left the line 'That was hir chapeleyne' unfinished,
it is easy to see how another hand would have put in the words 'and
preestes three' for the mere sake of the rime, without having regard to
reason. We ought to reject those three words as spurious.
§ 9. That Chaucer's work did receive, in some small degree, some
touching-up, is rendered yet more probable by observing how Group A ends.
For here, in several of the MSS., we come upon an additional fragment
which, on the face of it, is not Chaucer's at all, but a work belonging to
a slightly earlier period; I mean the Tale of Gamelyn. Some have supposed,
with great reason, that this tale occurs amongst the rest because it is one
which Chaucer intended to recast, although, as a fact, he did not live to
rewrite a single line of it. This is the more likely because the tale is a
capital one in itself, well worthy of being rewritten even by so great a
poet; indeed, it is well known that the plot of the favourite play known to
us all by the title of As You Like It, was derived from it at second-hand.
But I cannot but protest against the stupidity of the botcher whose hand
wrote above it 'The Cokes Tale of Gamelyn.' That was done because it
happened to be found _next after_ the Cook's Tale, which, instead of being
about Gamelyn, is about Perkin the reveller, an idle apprentice.
The fitness of things ought to shew at once that this Tale of Gamelyn, a
tale of the woods, in the true Robin-Hood style, could only have been
placed in the mouth of him 'who bare a mighty bow,' and who knew all the
usage of woodcraft; in one word, of the Yeoman. (_Gandelyn_ is the name of
_an archer_ in Ritson's Ancient Songs, i. 82). And we get hence the
additional hint, that the Yeoman's Tale was to have followed the Cook's
Tale, a tale of fresh country-life succeeding one of the close back-streets
of the city. No better place can be found for it.
§ 10. There is yet one more Tale, found only in the edition of 1542 and
some later printed editions, but in none of the MSS., viz. the Ploughman's
Tale. This is admittedly spurious, in the sense that it is not Chaucer's;
but it is a remarkable poem in its way. The author never intended it for an
imitation of Chaucer, nor pretended any disguise about it; on the contrary,
he says plainly that he was the author of the well-known poem in
alliterative verse commonly known as Pierce the Ploughman's Crede. It can
only have been inserted by inadvertence, but we need not blame the editor
for doing this, since otherwise the poem would not have been preserved at
all, no MS. of it being now in existence.
§ 11. The next question that presents itself is this--Have we any means of
telling which of the Tales are of early, and which of late workmanship? In
reply to this, we may note, in the first place, the following facts and
probabilities.
The Knight's Tale was certainly re-written from beginning to end. In its
original form, Chaucer took a good deal of it from Boccaccio's Teseide, and
gave it the name of 'Palamon and Arcite'; see Prologue to Legend of Good
Women, l. 420; this he would naturally do not long before writing his
Troilus, in which he follows the same author. Moreover, this original
'Palamon' was written in the seven-line stanza; see notes to Anelida.
It must next be noted that Dr. Furnivall, who has drawn up, tentatively, a
list of Chaucer's works in their supposed order, puts down amongst the
works of the 'Second Period,' i.e. prior to the Canterbury Tales, that Tale
which is now known as the Second Nun's, though formerly called by Chaucer
himself the Life of Saint Cecile. Of this result there has never been a
doubt; Tyrwhitt says expressly, 'The Tale of the Nonne is almost literally
translated from the Life of St. Cecilia in the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus
Januensis. It is mentioned by Chaucer as a separate work in his Legend of
Good Women, l. 426, under the title of the Life of Seint Cecile, and it
still retains evident marks that it was not originally composed in the form
of a Tale to be spoken by the Nonne[87].' It is, then, little more than a
translation, and it is in seven-line stanzas.
Dr. Furnivall assigns to the Second Nun's Tale the conjectural date of
1373, being the very year when Chaucer perhaps met Petrarch at Padua (see
note to E 27), and learnt from him the tale of Griseldis, now known as the
Clerk's Tale. This tale is likewise, for the most part, a translation, and
in seven-line stanzas.
The Prioress's Tale is a short one. Although written in seven-line stanzas,
it is probably later than others in the same metre.
The Man of Law's Tale will be considered hereafter; and it will be shewn
that it was written independently of other Tales.
The Monk's Tale is in a very peculiar metre, which appears nowhere else in
Chaucer, except in the unoriginal poem called the ABC (probably written
before A.D. 1369), and in some other of Chaucer's minor poems, such as the
Former Age, Fortune, the Envoy to Bukton, &c.; so that, considered with
reference to metre, this Tale may be of any date. The main part of it shews
very little originality, and is clearly rather early than late.
§ 12. Having premised these considerations, it is easy to see that the
metrical form suggests, to a useful extent, a possible distinction between
the earlier and the later Tales. Nearly all of Chaucer's tales that are in
stanzas are early, whilst all that are in decasyllabic couplets are late.
We have seen that this is known to be true in the case of the Second Nun's
Tale, that it is highly probable in the case of the Clerk's Tale (of which
more hereafter), and there is nothing against it in the case of the Monk's
Tale, written in the same metre as a poem which was probably his very
first, or nearly so, if there be any truth in the statement that it was
written for the use of the Duchess Blanche, who died in 1369. At the same
time, it can be shewn that 'Palamon and Arcite' was written in stanzas, so
that the present metre of the Knight's Tale presents no difficulty. Of
course it will be understood that there is, in these stanza-tales, some of
Chaucer's latest work, but I shall presently shew that this late work is
easily picked out. I have already pointed out that the Prioress's Tale (of
unusual brevity) is an exception to the general rule.
§ 13. The above distinction was suggested to me by the simple _fact_, that
Chaucer cannot be proved to have used his couplets till he was well
advanced in composition. Indeed, it has always been remarked that no
English poet before him ever dreamt of such a metre, and it has been a
source of wonder, for hundreds of years, whence he derived it. To say that
it was derived from the French ten-syllable verse is not a complete
solution of the mystery; for nearly all such verse is commonly either _in
stanzas_, or else _a great number_ of successive lines are rimed together.
We have to discover a specimen of French ten-syllable verse in which _only
two_ successive lines are rimed together; and these, I believe, are very
scarce. After some search I have, however, fortunately lighted upon a very
interesting specimen, among the poems of Guillaume de Machault, a French
writer whom Chaucer is known to have imitated[88], and who died in 1377. In
the edition of Machault's poems edited by Tarbé, Reims and Paris, 1849, p.
89, there is a poem of exactly this character, of no great length, and
fortunately dated; for its title is--'Complainte écrite après la bataille
de Poitiers et avant le siège de Reims par les Anglais' (1356-1358). The
first four lines run thus:--
'A toy, Henry, dous amis, me complain,
Pour ce que ne cueur ne mont ne plein[89];
Car a piet suy, sans cheval et sans selle,
Et si n'ay mais esmeraude, ne belle.'
The last couplet (the second line of which has two examples of the
fully-sounded final _e_) is as follows:--
'Et que jamais ne feray chant ne lay,
Adieu te di: car toutë joië lay.'
As some of Machault's poems seem to have been lost, he may have written
several more poems in the same metre. In any case, we know that Chaucer was
well acquainted with his works, and it is also almost certain that the
earliest attempt to use this metre in English was made by Chaucer, in his
Legend of Good Women, commenced, according to Professor Ten Brink, in the
year 1385 (Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 111). Surely this date is one of
considerable importance; for we at once derive from it the probability that
all of the Canterbury Tales written in this metre were written after 1385,
whilst those not in this metre _may_ have been earlier, though one of them
and a part of some others appear to be later.
§ 14. It appears that the original scheme, whereby each pilgrim was to tell
two Tales on the way to Canterbury, and two on his return, was modified, at
the time of writing the Parson's Prologue, to a less ambitious scheme
whereby each pilgrim was to tell but one Tale apiece. Indeed, the
expressions--'Almost fulfild is _al_ myn ordinaunce' in the Parson's
Prologue (I 19), and again--'To knitte up al this feeste, and make an ende'
in the same (I 47), clearly indicate that the author would, by that time,
have been content with the far humbler task of providing but one Tale
apiece for the outward journey _only_. This would have reduced the original
scheme to only a quarter of what had been intended; but even thus far the
work was never completed. All that finally appeared consists of nine
separate fragments; yet they amount to more than 17,000 lines, besides two
Tales in prose. It would have been well if the latest scheme, i.e. the
quarter of the first scheme, could have been thoroughly carried out; but we
must be thankful for what we have.
§ 15. Two attempts were made by subsequent authors to continue the
Canterbury Tales; it may be worth while to give here a brief notice of
them.
The Tale of Beryn, by an anonymous author, belongs to the early part of the
fifteenth century. It has been printed for the Chaucer Society from the
Duke of Northumberland's MS. no. 55, where it occurs at leaf 180, after the
Canon's Yeoman's Tale. This Tale is supposed to have been the first one
told after leaving Canterbury on the return journey, and is put into the
mouth of the Merchant, who volunteers to tell it without troubling the host
to go through the process of casting lots. It is preceded by a Prologue,
which accounts for the manner in which the time was passed in Canterbury. A
considerable portion of it is taken up by an account of an amour of the
Pardoner; but we also learn several particulars which are of interest, as
they refer to the pilgrimage of the characters imagined by Chaucer, and
serve to fill in the general idea.
Following this guide, we learn that, on arriving at Canterbury, the
Pilgrims lodged at an inn called 'The Cheker of the Hope,' or Chequer of
the Hoop; and as soon as they had taken up their quarters there, proceeded
to the cathedral, headed by the Knight, to make their offerings at the
shrine, of silver brooches and the like. On arriving at the door, the
question of precedence arose, as to which should first enter; but this was
settled by the Knight, who gave way to 'the prelatis, the person and his
fere[90].' Hereupon a monk appears, who sprinkles the company with holy
water; and we find that the Friar was very anxious to be allowed to perform
this duty for him--'so longid his holy conscience to se the Nonnys face.'
The Knight and others repair to the shrine, but the Pardoner and the
Miller, with others of like mind, chiefly occupy themselves with wandering
about the cathedral, poring upon the stained glass in the windows, and
discussing the coats-of-arms there displayed, as well as the chief subjects
there depicted. However, the Host goes after them, and persuades them to
visit the shrine, and pay their offerings. After kneeling down before the
shrine, and kissing the various relics, they stay to hear the service, and
afterwards repair to the inn to dinner, as it is now near noon.
On their way, they buy, according to custom, some pilgrims' 'signs' or
tokens; on which occasion the Miller and Pardoner obtain several
'Canterbury brooches' by the cheap process of stealing them. They
afterwards display the signs, as usual, by wearing them stuck in their
hats.
On returning to the inn, they wash and sit down to dinner, and are soon in
loud talk, greatly enjoying themselves. The Host then formally thanks the
company for having, each of them, told 'a tale' according to the original
compact[91]. All that is now required, he says, is 'that wee must so,
homward, eche man tel anothir.' The Friar reminds the Host that they were
all to sup with him on their return to Southwark (Prol. 799, 815). The Host
says he is ready to do his part, and the company disperse for a time. They
again meet at supper; and afterwards go to bed for the night.
The next morning, the Knight and his son the Squire each 'cast on a
fressher gown,' an example followed by several others, and all sally out to
see the town. The Knight and Squire are particularly interested in the
town-walls and the fortifications, which they examine critically, though
the Squire's mind is occasionally distracted by irrepressible thoughts of
his lady-love. The Clerk of Oxford harangues the Sompnour, and tells him
that he ought not to be angry with the Friar for knowing so much about
evil-doings, and for telling a Tale about a false Sompnour; for it is well
to have some knowledge both of good and evil, and it is admitted that there
must always be some evil members of every calling; of which doctrine the
Knight approves. The Monk takes the Parson and the Grey Friar[92] to call
on a friend of his; and we are told that they did not drink water together
on this occasion; 'for spycys and eke wyne Went round aboute.' The Wife of
Bath and the Prioress repair to the garden behind the inn, which they
greatly admire; whilst the Merchant, the Manciple, the Miller, the Reeve,
and others roam about the town. In the evening, all the pilgrims meet at
supper-time, after which the steadier members of the company go early to
bed, whilst the Miller and the Cook sit up drinking. Here follows, at
considerable length, the adventure of the Pardoner. Next morning, the whole
company leave Canterbury early, in splendid weather, and are all in
excellent spirits. The tale-telling commences, and the Merchant undertakes
to tell the Tale of Beryn.
§ 16. The other projected continuation of the Canterbury Tales is Lydgate's
poem called the Storie of Thebes, first printed as an appendix to the Tales
in Stowe's edition of 1561[93]. It is preceded by a Prologue in which
Lydgate, with some humour, makes the Host remark that the poet's bridle has
neither boss nor bell, and that the poet himself is pale, and 'all deuoide
of blood', and wears upon his head 'a wonder thredbare hood', being
moreover 'Well araied for to ride late'; which I take to mean that, if his
late riding caused him to fall among thieves, there was not much spoil to
be obtained from him.
Lydgate had, he tells us, just recovered from a sickness, and went on a
pilgrimage to Canterbury on his own account. By good fortune, he went to
the same inn as Chaucer's pilgrims, and found there the whole company. The
Host invites him to supper, offering him a great pudding or a round haggis,
and prescribing for him, after supper, some red fennel, anise, cummin, or
coriander-seed. The pilgrims are to leave Canterbury next morning at
daybreak, and Lydgate agrees to accompany them.
Accordingly, on the morrow, they make an early start, designing to reach
Ospringe by dinner-time, i.e. by about ten o'clock in the forenoon. They
had only just left the precincts of the town, when the Host calls upon
Lydgate to tell the first Tale of the day; whereupon he commences the long
'Storie of Thebes', in three parts. He succeeded in finishing the first
part just at nine o'clock, as they 'passed the thrope[94] of Broughton on
the Blee'. Near the end of the third part there is an interesting allusion
to the opening lines of the Knightes Tale, where the mourning ladies await
the coming of Theseus--
'And, as my master Chaucer list to endite,
All clad in blacke with hir wimples white'--
take up their position 'in the temple of the goddesse Clemence.' When
Theseus comes, they beseech him to redress their harms:--
'But if ye list to see the gentillesse
Of Theseus, and how he hath him borne,
If ye remember, ye[95] have heard to-forne
Well rehearsed, at Depeford in the vale,
In the beginning of the Knightes tale.'
It should be particularly noted that, like the author of the Tale of Beryn,
Lydgate assumes that each pilgrim tells _one_ Tale only on the journey to
Canterbury, and _one_ on the way home. The Host explains to him that it is
'the custome of this companie' for each member of it 'To tell a tale,' and
that they 'will homeward the same custome vse.' It is clear that Chaucer's
theory about the scheme of his Tales was entirely lost sight of, and that
only his practice was regarded, which implied that half the number would
suffice. Tyrwhitt's proposal, to alter the text of the Prologue so as to
make it square better with the facts, contradicts all that we know about
Chaucer. To formulate larger schemes than he could carry out was his
constant habit.
GROUP A.
§ 17. The Prologue is chiefly occupied with the description of the company.
As to their number, there is a little difficulty. In l. 24, we are told
that it was 'wel nyne and twenty,' i.e. about 29. The question as to
whether this number includes Chaucer himself seems to be settled by l. 29,
where he employs the word 'we'; and we shall find that to include the poet
among the 29 suits best with all that is said about them; cf. l. 544.
Nevertheless, the actual number described (if we include Chaucer) is 31,
owing to the mention of 'the preestes three' in l. 164. This has been
commented on in § 8; and, as we have the authority of Chaucer himself for
supposing that one of the tellers of Tales is the Nonnes Preest, which
presupposes but _one_ Preest, we are justified in looking upon these three
words as having been interpolated. We might even suppose that Chaucer
himself made such an alteration himself at a later time, forgetting the
inconsistency which was thus introduced. I shall now assume the truth of
this correction, and give the list of the 29. At the same time, I print _in
italics_ the names of those who are tellers of Tales, and we thus see the
result at a glance.
1. _The Knight._ 2. _The Squyer._ 3. The Yeman. 4. _The Prioresse._ 5. _The
Second Nonne._ 6. _The Nonnes Preest._ 7. _The Monk._ 8. _The Frere._ 9.
_The Marchaunt._ 10. _The Clerk._ 11. _The Sergeant of the Lawe,_ or _Man
of Lawe._ 12. _The Frankeleyn._ 13. The Haberdasher. 14. The Carpenter. 15.
The Webbe. 16. The Dyere. 17. The Tapicer. 18. _The Cook._ 19. _The
Shipman._ 20. _The Doctour_, or _Phisicien._ 21. _The Wyf of Bathe._ 22.
_The Persoun._ 23. The Plowman. 24. _The Miller._ 25. _The Manciple._ 26.
_The Reve._ 27. _The Somnour._ 28. _The Pardoner._ 29. _Chaucer._ Besides
these, we find (ll. 803, 4) that mine Host of the Tabard, by name Harry
Bailly (A 4358), volunteered to accompany and guide the pilgrims, thus
bringing their total number up to _thirty_. To which it is very necessary
to add, that the number of pilgrims was increased, during the journey, by
the accession of the _Chanouns Yeman_ (G 703).
The Host proposes that each pilgrim shall tell two Tales on the outward,
and two on the homeward journey; a proposal which afterwards dwindled down,
as explained above, to _one_ only, on the outward journey alone. Even this
scheme was not fulfilled, nor did the pilgrims ever arrive at their
destination. We only know that the Persones Tale was to have been the last,
as the Knightes was the first. The best tale-teller, in the judgment of
mine host, was to have a supper in his honour, at the expense of all the
rest; but the prize was never awarded.
Chaucer's description of his characters is dramatic and masterly; and
nothing more need be said about them here, though some further particulars
are given in the Notes[96]. His sketches are doubtless original, with the
remarkable exception of certain lines in the descriptions of the Prioresse
and the Wyf of Bathe, which are transcribed or imitated from Le Roman de la
Rose. We even find in Marsh (Eng. Language, p. 419) the remark, that
Chaucer was 'a dramatist before that which is technically known as the
drama was invented.'
§ 18. THE KNIGHTES TALE. It is certain that this poem was rewritten, for
the purpose of being placed at the head of the Tales. In its original form,
it constituted the poem of 'Palemon and Arcite' as referred to in the
Legend of Good Women; see the note to l. 420 of that poem, and the
introductory remarks to Anelida and Arcite in vol. i. p. 529. We thus see
(as was duly noted by Ten Brink[97]) that the original Palemon and Arcite
was written in seven-line stanzas, and that some fragments that once
belonged to it have found their way into other poems. The opening stanzas
of Palemon and Arcite are preserved in the poem of Anelida, ll. 22-46; and
we can easily see how they were rewritten so as to form ll. A 859-873 of
the Knightes Tale. Above Anelida, l. 22, and again above A 859, the same
quotation from Statius is still found in the MSS.
Sixteen stanzas which probably belonged to Palemon and Arcite are preserved
in the Parl. Foules, 183-294. These lines were entirely recast and
condensed, with additions of Chaucer's own, and answer to Kn. Ta., A
1918-1935. The likeness is so slight that it is worth while to shew wherein
it consists. I quote first from the Parl. Foules, and afterwards from the
Knightes Tale, merely giving such lines as shew a faint likeness, and
printing unchanged words in italics.
(1) From the PARLIAMENT OF FOULES:--
246. _Within the temple_ [sc. of Venus], of _syghes_ hote as _fyr_
I herde a swogh that ganne aboute renne;
Which _syghes_ were engendred _with desyr_....
218. Tho was I war of _Plesaunce_ anon-right,
225. I saw _Beautee_, withouten any atyr,
_And Youthe_, ful of game and Iolitee
_Fool-hardinesse_, _Flaterye_, and _Desyr_,
Messagerye, and Mede, and othere three....
261. Fond I Venus and her porter _Richesse_.
221. To doon by _force_ a wight to do folye.
252. ... the bitter goddesse _Ialousye_.
197. Of _instruments_ of strenges....
232. Aboute the temple _daunceden_ alway....
219. And of _Aray, and Lust_.
(2) From the KNIGHTES TALE: A 1918, &c.:--
First _in the temple_ of Venus maystow see....
The broken slepes and the _sykes_ colde....
The _fyry_ strokes of _the desiring_....
_Plesaunce_ and hope, _desyr_, _fool-hardinesse_,
_Beautee_ _and youthe_, bauderie, _richesse_,
Charmes and _force_, lesinges, _flaterye_,
Dispense, bisynesse, and _Ielousye_....
Festes, _instruments_, caroles, _daunces_,
_Lust and array_.
The above is an excellent example of the manner in which Chaucer was
capable of absorbing ideas, and reproducing them in a form almost wholly
his own. If we were not aware beforehand that both these passages are due
to stanzas 53-64 of Book VII. of Boccaccio's Teseide, it would be easy to
miss even their general resemblance.
Lastly, we find that the lines in Troilus, v. 1807-27, are really imitated
from the Teseide, xi. stt. 1-3, where they refer to the death of Arcite. In
the Knightes Tale, all that answers to the same passage is a part of lines
A 2809-15; and all the resemblance is in the following expressions.
(1) From TROILUS, v. 1808, &c.:--
His lighte goost ful blisfully is went
Up to the holownesse of the seventh spere....
And forth he wente, shortly for to telle,
Theras Mercurie sorted him to dwelle.
(2) From the KNIGHTES TALE; A 2809:--
His spirit chaunged hous, and wente ther,
As I cam never, I can nat tellen wher....
... wher they dwelle;
Arcite is cold, ther Mars his soule gye.
The change from _Mercury_, as the conductor of souls in general, to _Mars_,
as the conductor of the martial soul of Arcite, is well worth notice.
§ 19. These specimens furnish good examples of Chaucer's method. Palemon
and Arcite was, at first, a reasonably close imitation of Boccaccio's poem
of the Teseide, which took its name from the hero Theseus. But in its
second form, it was so much altered as to become, to all intents, a truly
original poem. Thanks to the patient labour of Mr. Henry Ward, who collated
the Teseide and the Knightes Tale throughout, line by line, we can now tell
that 'out of 2250 of Chaucer's lines, he has only translated 270 (less than
one-eighth); that only 374 more lines bear a general likeness to
Boccaccio's, and only 132 more, a slight likeness; [so that] any talk of
the Knightes Tale being a "translation only," or "taken bodily from the
Teseide" (of 9054 lines), is of course absurd. Chaucer's work is an
_adaptation_ of his original.'--F. J. Furnivall, A Temporary Preface of the
Six-text Edition of the Canterbury Tales, p. 104.
A table shewing the general resemblance between certain lines in the
Knightes Tale and lines in the Teseide, is given in the Notes; to which I
must refer the reader for further information. I will merely add here that
Chaucer also consulted the Thebais of Statius, which was one of Boccaccio's
authorities.
§ 20. In order to give a clear idea of the general contents of Boccaccio's
poem, I here quote in full the analysis of it made by Tyrwhitt, and printed
in his Introductory Discourse:--
'The Teseide is distributed into twelve Books or Cantoes.
'Bk. i. Contains the war of Theseus with the Amazons, their submission to
him, and his marriage with Hippolyta.
'Bk. ii. Theseus, having spent two years in Scythia, is reproached by
Perithous in a vision, and immediately returns to Athens with Hippolyta and
her sister Emilia. He enters the city in triumph; finds the Grecian ladies
in the temple of Clemenzia; marches to Thebes; kills Creon, &c., and brings
home Palemone and Arcita who are "Damnati--ad eterna presone."
'Bk. iii. Emilia, walking in a garden and singing, is heard and seen first
by Arcita[98], who calls Palemone. They are both equally enamoured of her,
but without any jealousy or rivalship. Emilia is supposed to see them at
the window, and to be not displeased with their admiration. Arcita is
released at the request of Perithous; takes his leave of Palemone, with
embraces, &c.
'Bk. iv. Arcita, having changed his name to _Pentheo_, goes into the
service of Menelaus at Mycenae, and afterwards of Peleus at Aegina. From
thence he returns to Athens and becomes a *favourite servant of Theseus,
being known to Emilia, though to nobody else; till after some time he is
overheard making his complaint in a wood, to which he usually resorted for
that purpose, by Pamphilo, a servant of Palemone.
'Bk. v. Upon the report of Pamphilo, Palemone _begins_ to be jealous of
Arcita, and is desirous to get out of prison in order to fight with him.
This he accomplishes with the assistance of Pamphilo, by changing clothes
with Alimeto, a physician. He goes armed to the wood in quest of Arcita,
whom he finds sleeping. At first, they are very civil and friendly to each
other. Then Palemone calls upon Arcita to renounce his pretensions to
Emilia, or to fight with him. After many long expostulations on the part of
Arcita, they fight, and are discovered first by Emilia, who sends for
Theseus. When he finds who they are, and the cause of their difference, he
forgives them, and proposes the method of deciding their claim to Emilia by
a combat of a hundred on each side, to which they gladly agree.
'Bk. vi. Palemone and Arcita live splendidly at Athens, and send out
messengers to summon their friends, who arrive; and the principal of them
are severally described, viz. Lycurgus, Peleus, Phocus, Telamon, &c.;
Agamemnon, Menelaus, Castor and Pollux, &c.; Nestor, Evander, Perithous,
Ulysses, Diomedes, &c.; with a great display of ancient history and
mythology.
'Bk. vii. Theseus declares the laws of the combat, and the two parties of a
hundred on each side are formed. The day before the combat, Arcita, after
having visited the temples of all the gods, makes a formal prayer to Mars.
The prayer, _being personified_, is said to go and find Mars in his temple
in Thrace, which is described; and Mars, upon understanding the message,
causes favourable signs to be given to Arcita. In the same manner Palemone
closes his religious observances with a prayer to Venus. His prayer, _being
also personified_, sets out for the temple of Venus on Mount Citherone,
which is also described; and the petition is granted. Then the sacrifice of
Emilia to Diana is described, her prayer, the appearance of the goddess,
and the signs of the two fires. In the morning they proceed to the theatre
with their respective troops and prepare for the action. Arcita puts up a
private prayer to Emilia, and harangues his troop publickly; and Palemone
does the same.
'Bk. viii. Contains a description of the battle, in which Palemone is taken
prisoner.
'Bk. ix. The horse of Arcita, being frighted by a Fury, sent from Hell at
the desire of Venus, throws him. However, he is carried to Athens in a
triumphal chariot with Emilia by his side; is put to bed dangerously ill;
and there by his own desire espouses Emilia.
'Bk. x. The funeral of the persons killed in the combat. Arcita, being
given over by his physicians, makes his will, in discourse with Theseus,
and desires that Palemone may inherit all his possessions and also Emilia.
He then takes leave of Palemone and Emilia, to whom he repeats the same
request. Their lamentations. Arcita orders a sacrifice to Mercury, which
Palemone performs for him, and dies.
'Bk. xi. Opens with the passage of Arcita's soul to heaven, imitated from
the Ninth Book of Lucan. The funeral of Arcita. Description of the wood
felled takes up six stanzas. Palemone builds a temple in honour of him, in
which his whole history is painted. The description of this painting is an
abridgement of the preceding part of the Poem.
'Bk. xii. Theseus proposes to carry into execution Arcita's will by the
marriage of Palemone and Emilia. This they both decline for some time in
formal speeches, but at last are persuaded and married. The kings, &c. take
their leave, and Palemone remains--in gioia e in diporto con la sua dona
nobile e cortese.'
§ 21. It is remarkable how many expressions that occur in the Knightes Tale
are repeated from Troilus. Examples are: A 925, from Tr. iv. 2; A 1010,
from Tr. iv. 627; A 1101, from Tr. i. 425; 1133, cf. Tr. i. 674; 1155, cf.
Tr. v. 332; 1163, cf. Tr. iv. 618; 1401, from Tr. iv. 865; 1500, from Tr.
ii. 112; 1509, from Tr. ii. 920; 1566, from Tr. iii. 733; 1838, from Tr. v.
1433; 2449, from Tr. iv. 1456. Besides this, l. 301 of the Prologue is from
Tr. iv. 1174. This tends to shew that the Knightes Tale (rather than the
original Palamon and Arcite) was written not very long after Troilus;
rather in 1386 or 1387 than in 1388.
I also note that ll. 1035-6, 1196, and 1502, are echoes of ll. 2425-6,
2282, and 1204, of the Legend of Good Women.
§ 22. An early play called 'Palamon and Arcite,' by Richard Edwards, was
produced at Oxford in 1566 before Queen Elizabeth; and Henslowe mentions a
play with the same name in 1594. Hence also the play of 'The Two Noble
Kinsmen,' printed in 1634, with a title-page in which it was attributed to
Shakespeare and Fletcher; see my edition, published for the Cambridge
University Press in 1875. Dryden's fine poem of Palamon and Arcite is well
known; we need not compare it with Chaucer's work very closely. Though
inferior to the original, it has a certain excellence of its own. A
modernisation of the Knightes Tale by Lord Thurlow appeared in 1822;
concerning which nothing need be said. For further remarks on this Tale,
consult Warton, History of Eng. Poetry, sect. xii, who, by the way,
characterises the description of Lycurgus as being 'very great in the
gothic style of painting'; where it is charitable to suppose that by
'gothic' he meant 'English,' but lacked the courage to use the word. And
see Morley, Eng. Writers, v. 312; Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer; an essay
by Dr. J. Koch, in Essays on Chaucer, p. 359 (Chaucer Society); and remarks
by Ten Brink, in his Chaucer Studien, p. 62, and Geschichte der englischen
Litteratur, book v.
We may observe that Chaucer has evidently assigned the first place to the
Knightes Tale, as being, in his own opinion, the best. It was probably
intended that the Knight, the most worshipful person in the company, should
succeed in 'winning the supper.'
§ 23. THE MILLER'S PROLOGUE. The Knightes Tale ended, the Host calls upon
the Monk to tell the second Tale; but the drunken Miller, notwithstanding
the fact that he is perfectly aware of his condition, churlishly insists on
telling a Tale to the grave discredit of a Carpenter. This announcement is
resented, somewhat strangely, not by the Carpenter who is expressly named
as being among the pilgrims (Prol. 361), but by the Reeve, who had learnt a
carpenter's trade in his youth (Prol. 614). But remonstrance is vain, and
the Miller proceeds. Chaucer is careful to advise those who object to a
coarse story to 'turne over the leef; and he has good reason for giving the
hint.
§ 24. THE MILLERES TALE. 'When,' says Tyrwhitt, 'the Knight has finished
his Tale, the Host with great propriety calls upon the Monk, as the next in
rank among the men, to tell the next Tale; but as it seems to have been the
intention of Chaucer to avail himself of the variety of his characters, in
order to distribute alternate successions of serious and comic, in nearly
equal proportions, throughout his work, he has contrived that the _Hostes_
arrangement shall be set aside by the intrusion of the drunken Miller,
whose Tale is such as might be expected from his character and condition, a
complete contrast to the _Knightes_.'
No early Tale resembling this has yet been pointed out. Nevertheless, it is
not likely that the main details were of Chaucer's own invention, as clear
traces of the same story have been found in Germany. This was pointed out
by R. Köhler, of Weimar, in Anglia, vol. i. p. 38; who gives a summary of a
very similar story occurring in a book entitled Nachtbüchlein, by Valentin
Schumann, which appeared in 1559. At the beginning of the first Part of
this work is a tale entitled: 'Ein andere Hystoria von einem Kauffmann der
forcht sich vor dem Jüngsten Tage,' or the Tale of a Merchant who dreaded
the advent of the Last Day.
The latter part of the story, about Absolon and Nicholas, occurs (says
Köhler) in an Italian novel, viz. in novel no. 49 in the collection by
Massuccio di Salerno, who flourished about 1470; see chap. viii. of
Dunlop's Hist. of Fiction. It is also found, as he further tells us, in a
carnival-play by Hanz Folz (in Keller, i. 330).
Another German version similar to that in the Nachtbüchlein, is found in a
modern collection entitled 'Sagen, Märchen, und Lieder der Herzogtümer
Schleswig-Holstein und Lauenburg,' Kiel, 1845, p. 589 (Anglia, i. 186).
A third German version occurs in a book of the 17th century, entitled
'Lyrum Larum, seu Nugae Venales Ioco Seriae'; see Anglia, ii. 135.
Some have imagined a resemblance between this Tale and one in Boccaccio's
Decamerone, Day 3, Nov. 4; but it is a very remote one, so that the
reference is practically worthless.
Chaucer's story reappears in an English imitation of it, very briefly told
in prose, in a book entitled 'The Life and Death of the merry Deuill of
Edmonton, with the pleasaunt prancks of Smug the Smith, &c. By T[homas]
B[rewer]. Printed by T. P. for F. Faulkner; 1631.' The chapter is headed:
'How Smug was reuenged upon a Barber (his riuall) that made him kisse his
tayle.' The story is reprinted in full by L. Proescholdt, of Homburg, in
Anglia, vii. 117.
Lounsbury, in his Studies of Chaucer, iii. 89, mentions a worthless book by
Richard Braithwaite, dated 1665, called 'A Comment upon the Two Tales of
our ancient, renowned, and ever-living poet, Sir Jeffray Chaucer, Knight.'
The 'Two Tales' are those of the Miller and the Wife of Bath. From the same
work (iii. 188) we learn that Samuel Cobb published a modernised version of
the Tale in 1712, which adheres rather closely to the original, but is of
no value.
§ 25. THE REEVE'S PROLOGUE. Oswold, the Reeve, being by trade a carpenter,
is somewhat offended by the Miller's discourse; and, after a little moral
talk, which the Host speedily cuts short, undertakes to tell a similar Tale
to the discredit of a miller; and certainly succeeds in requiting him in
kind. Chaucer's former hint, to turn over the leaf (A 3183), may be applied
to this Tale also. But no such hint is given.
§ 26. THE REVES TALE. This story resembles one which occurs in Boccaccio's
Decamerone, Day 9, Nov. 6; but this only proves that both are derived from
a common source[99]. A closer resemblance to Chaucer's story, as pointed
out by Mr. T. Wright, occurs in a French Fabliau found in MS. Berne, no.
354, fol. 164, back. It was first printed in Wright's Anecdota Litteraria,
p. 15, and is reprinted in Originals and Analogues, p. 93 (Chaucer
Society). We find in it very similar incidents. Two clerks take a sack of
wheat to a mill to be ground. They throw down the sack on the mill-floor,
and turn their mare loose in a meadow. One of them stays to watch the sack,
whilst the other seeks the miller, who is in a neighbouring wood. The first
clerk grows tired of waiting, and goes after the other. Meanwhile, the
miller returns, and secretes the sack. The clerks, returning, can find
neither sack nor mare. At last they ask the miller to take them in for the
night. The story proceeds nearly as in Chaucer; and, in the sequel, the
clerks regain both wheat and mare, and take the wheat to be ground
elsewhere. Perhaps it is needless to add that Chaucer's Tale is none the
less original. His mode of telling it is such as to render it wholly his
own.
Another story, of a similar cast, occurs in another French Fabliau, by Jean
de Boves, entitled De Gombert et des Deux Clers. It is printed in Méon's
edition of Barbazan's Fabliaux et Contes, vol. iii. pp. 239-44, Paris,
1808; and is reprinted, from two MSS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale de
Paris (nos. 837, 2168), in Originals and Analogues, p. 87 (Chaucer
Society). This story is less complete, as it omits all the former part,
about taking the wheat to be ground. Two clerks seek lodging with a
_vilain_, named Gombert; one of them falls in love with Gombert's wife, and
the other, with his daughter. The rest of the story is much the same as
before.
A later version occurs in a black-letter quarto volume printed by Wynkyn de
Worde, entitled 'A mery Iest of the Mylner of Abyngton[100] with his Wyfe
and his Doughter, and the two poore scholers of Cambridge'; reprinted in
Hazlitt's Early Popular Poetry, iii. 98. I do not agree with Hazlitt's
opinion that this story has 'little or nothing in common' with the Reves
Tale; on the contrary, I should say that the author took his story from
Chaucer, as is tolerably obvious from the mention of Cambridge, but took
some pains to disguise its origin. Although he alters Trumpington to
Abington, many particulars are closely copied, as, e.g. the precise manner
in which the two clerks watch the grinding of the wheat, one from above,
and one from below. I equally dissent from Hazlitt's other opinion, that,
'in an artistic and constructive point of view, the "Mylner of Abyngton" is
superior to its predecessor.' The decisions of some critics are simply
inexplicable.
In the Preface to Dyce's edition of Skelton, vol. i. p. lxvi., there is a
'Merie Tale' of Skelton, entitled 'How Master Skeltons miller deceyued hym
manye times by playinge the theefe,' &c. It illustrates the tricks of
millers, but the story is different.
Besides these, two German versions of the story occur in MSS., and there is
a short Latin version of it in De Generibus Ebriosorum (1516). See an able
discussion of the whole matter in an excellent article by H. Varnhagen,
printed in Englische Studien, vol. ix. pp. 240-266. Varnhagen reprints the
French Fabliau given in Wright's Anecdota Litteraria, but from another MS.,
of the 13th century, found at Berlin. He also reprints the Milner of
Abington, with a better arrangement of the text, shewing its true metrical
form. He then investigates the relationship to one another of all the
various versions, exhibiting the result in a table printed at p. 266.
As to the connexion between Chaucer's Tale and the French Fabliau in the
Berne MS., Varnhagen points out some interesting resemblances, such as the
following:--
Diu povre clerc furent jadis.--1.
Than were ther yonge povre clerkes two.--A 4002.
Né d'une vile et d'un pais.--2.
Of o toun were they born.--A 4014.
Il a son conpaignon bouté.--190.
He poked Iohn.--A 4169.
Qant il oït lo coc chanter.--257.
Til that the thridde cok bigan to singe.--A 4233.
Tantost prant lo clerc par la gole.--288.
And by the throte-bolle he caughte Alayn.--A 4273.
§ 27. THE COOK'S PROLOGUE. The Cook heartily approves of the Reves Tale,
and informs the company that his name is Hogge (Hodge) of Ware; at the same
time volunteering a story. The Host approves the offer--
'Now telle on, Roger; loke that it be good'--
but accuses him of cheating his customers. The Cook replies
good-humouredly, calling the Host by his name, 'Herry Bailly,' and suggests
that he knows a tale not much to the credit of 'an hostileer.' However, he
will not tell that tale now.
§ 28. THE COKES TALE. This Tale, as found in all the MSS., is a mere
fragment, extending to only 58 lines; and this portion is insufficient to
shew the form which the Tale was meant to take. The portrait of Perkin
Revelour, the idle apprentice, is, however, clearly drawn.
It would seem as if this fragment was meant to be suppressed; for, in the
Manciple's Prologue, the Host calls upon the Cook to tell a tale, even if
it be worthless; but the Manciple intercedes, and the Host excuses him,
because he is so helplessly drunk (H 13, 29). This seems to presuppose that
the Cook had told no tale as yet; for, by this time, Chaucer had arrived at
his modified plan, which required only _one_ Tale from each pilgrim on the
outward journey (§ 14); and the Manciple is called upon to tell his own
Tale instead, as he had hitherto told none.
§ 29. THE TALE OF GAMELYN. This Tale is, of course, not Chaucer's, and is
never found in MSS. of the A-type (see Pref. to vol. iv). Perhaps we may
hence infer that MSS. of that type represent the text of the Tales as it
stood before Chaucer's death; whereas, after that event, 'Gamelyn' was
inserted amongst them by scribes or friends who found it amongst the
writings which he had left behind him. We cannot doubt that, if Chaucer had
rewritten this Tale, he would have placed it in the mouth of the Yeman. As,
however, it happens to have been inserted immediately after the Cook's
Tale, a late hand, in the Harl. MS. 7334, has scribbled above it--'The
Cokes Tale of Gamelyn'; whence the blunder arose of connecting it with the
Cook.
As the Tale is found in several of the MSS., I have printed it in the
Appendix to vol. iv., pp. 645-667, in smaller type. The text is mainly from
MS. Harl. 7334, collated with Harl. Cp., Ln., Pt., Rl., and Sl.; see
footnote on p. 645 of vol. iv., and the description of the MSS. in the
Introduction to that volume.
The Tale is evidently of some antiquity, and may be dated, approximately,
about 1340. One line which occurs in it twice over (see ll. 277, 764) is
quoted, almost exactly, from l. 475 of a Poem on the Evil Times of Edward
II., as printed by Mr. Wright for the Camden Society in 1839, the probable
date of which is about 1320.
The dialect is more northern than that of the Canterbury Tales, and
resembles that of Lincolnshire. The proportion of French words is much
smaller: see, e. g., ll. 5-7, 9-13, 16, 20-30, in which no French words
occur. The proportion of Scandinavian words is larger; we may notice _serk_
(Lowl. Sc. _sark_) in l. 259, _skeet_, quickly, in l. 187, which do not
occur in Chaucer. The very name of Gamelyn is of Scandinavian origin,
answering to a form _Gamel-[=i]n_, from the Norse word for 'old,' as seen
in Icel. _gamall_, Swed. _gammal_, Dan. _gammel_. It is perhaps the
original of _Gandeleyn_, which occurs in a ballad entitled 'Robyn and
Gandeleyn,' belonging to the cycle of the Robin Hood ballads (cf. p. 381).
The exploits of Gamelyn remind us somewhat of those of Havelok; in
particular, the marvellous way in which Gamelyn lays about him, at one time
with a 'pestle' (l. 128) and at another with a 'cart-staff' (l. 500),
recalls Havelok's feat in killing twenty men with the bar of a door; see
the Lay of Havelok the Dane, ed. Skeat, ll. 1794-1859. On the whole, we may
fairly connect this Tale with the neighbourhood of Sherwood Forest, to
which so many of the Robin Hood ballads belong; and its considerable
antiquity gives it a peculiar interest.
§ 30. The story evidently belongs to that highly popular class in which it
is the youngest of three brothers who is the successful hero[101]. I should
be inclined to believe that the Tale is not wholly due to the invention of
its author, but is derived, like the Lay of Havelok, from some Anglo-French
original; whilst there are, at the same time, some traces (as in that poem)
of Scandinavian influence. The name Sir Johan of Boundes is French; since
_Boundes_ is the pl. of _bound_, from the Old French _bonne_, a limit; the
equivalent English phrase for 'of Boundes' would be 'of the Marches.' The
name of his second son is Otes (l. 727) or Ote (l. 731), which is the nom.
case of the F. Otoun, from the Lat. Othonem, accusative of Otho (cf. G.
Otto). Otoun is the name of a French knight who was vanquished by Sir Guy
of Warwick.
§ 31. Some of the rimes in this poem are imperfect, as _wit_, _bet_, 111;
whilst _gat-e_, _scap-e_, 575, form a mere assonance. We also find mere
repetitions, such as _now_, _now_, 93; _thee_, _thee_, 399; _another_,
_other_, 445. The rime _thare_, _yare_, 793, is certainly Northern. So also
_ying_, _king_, 887; yet, at l. 169, we find _tonge_, _yonge_, shewing that
the author was not very particular.
The metre is not easy to follow, being very variable; it resembles that of
such popular nursery rimes as 'Sing a song of sixpence,' wherein two
_consecutive_ accents, as in 'And snápped óff her nose,' excite no surprise
or difficulty. Each verse is divided into two parts by a metrical pause,
denoted in this edition by a raised full stop (·). Each part is of variable
length, and may be considered separately. In the former part the chief
varieties conform to the following types, where 'A' denotes an accented
syllable, and 'b' an unaccented one.
(1) A b A b A b; as in l. 12:--
Hów his chíldren shóld-e.
So also ll. 15, 21, 22, 23, 26, 28, 49.
(2) b A b A b A; as in l. 71:--
He toók intó his hónd.
So also ll. 88, 93, 105, 143, 200, 287.
(3) b A b A b A b; as in l. 2:--
And yé schull' héer' a tálking.
So also ll. 9, 17, 19, 27, 29, 32, 42, 61, 64.
The above half-lines contain _three_ accents; but _four_ accents occur
also, chiefly in the following types.
(4) A b A b A b A; as in l. 120:--
Gámelýn was wár anón.
So also ll. 123, 135, 139, 252, 280, 282, 306. Also ll. 199, 207, where
_Good-e_ marks the vocative case.
(5) A b A b A b A b; as in l. 34:--
Bót' of bál-e gód may sénd-e.
So also ll. 118, 336.
(6) b A b A b A b A; as in l. 6:--
The éldest wás a móche schréw'.
So also ll. 55 (_neyh-e-bours_ having three syllables), 62, 80, 94, 96, 99,
100, 107, 109, 125, 136, 153.
(7) b A b A b A b A b; as in ll. 31, 58:--
And séyd-e, sír', for góddes lóv-e.
That wás my fádres héritág-e.
Most of the further variations are caused by the slurring of a slight
syllable which is practically superfluous; or, on the other hand, by the
omission of an unaccented syllable where we should expect to hear one. The
former of these processes is simple and common. Thus, in l. 18, we have:--
To hélp-e dél_en his_ lóndes,