1. In the older editions, the verses here given as the prologue
were prefixed to the Merchant’s Tale, and put into his mouth.
Tyrwhitt was abundantly justified, by the internal evidence
afforded by the lines themselves, in transferring them to their
present place.
2. The “Breton Lays” were an important and curious element in
the literature of the Middle Ages; they were originally
composed in the Armorican language, and the chief collection
of them extant was translated into French verse by a poetess
calling herself “Marie,” about the middle of the thirteenth
century. But though this collection was the most famous, and
had doubtless been read by Chaucer, there were other British or
Breton lays, and from one of those the Franklin’s Tale is taken.
Boccaccio has dealt with the same story in the “Decameron”
and the “Philocopo,” altering the circumstances to suit the
removal of its scene to a southern clime.