42. _Southren._ Nearly all alliterative poems are in the Northern or
West-Midland dialect, as opposed to the East-Midland dialect of Chaucer,
which approaches the Southern dialect. Still, it is the Parson _himself_,
not Chaucer, who says he is a Southerner; though [446] perhaps the poet
meant, naturally enough, to tell us that he was himself resident in Kent
(probably at Greenwich). The dialect of Kent was Southern. Many Southern
forms occur in Gower.
43. _rum, ram, ruf_ are of course nonsense words, chosen to represent
alliteration, because they all alike begin with _r_. In most alliterative
poetry, the number of words in a line beginning with a common letter is, as
Chaucer suggests, _three_.
The word _geste_ here means no more than 'tell a story,' without reference
to the form of the story. It is, however, worth noting that one very long
alliterative poem on the siege of Troy, edited by Panton and Donaldson
(Early English Text Society), bears the title of '_Gest_ Hystoriale.' The
number of distinctively Northern words in it is very considerable.
I think that this line has been forced by some out of its true meaning, and
made to convey a sneer against alliterative poetry which was by no means
intended. Neither Chaucer himself nor his amiable parson would have spoken
slightingly of other men's labours. The introduction of the words _rum,
ram, ruf_ conveys no more than a perfectly good-humoured allusion. That
this is the true view is clear from the very next line, where the Parson
declares that 'he holds rime but little better.'
The most interesting question is--why should Chaucer allude to alliterative
poetry _at all_? The answer is, in my view, that he distinctly wished to
recognise the curious work of his contemporary William, whose Vision of
Piers the Plowman had, by this time, passed, as it were, into a second
edition, having been extremely popular in London, and especially amongst
the lower classes. The author was _not_ a Southerner, but his poem had come
to London, together with himself, before A. D. 1377.
In his play entitled The Old Wives' Tale, Peele introduces a character
named Huanebango who imitates the spluttering hexameters used by Stanyhurst
in his translation of a part of Vergil's Æneid, and afterwards says:--'I'll
now set my countenance, and to her _in prose_; it may be, this
_rim-ram-ruf_ is too rude an encounter.' He evidently borrowed the
expression from Chaucer.
I may further observe that Chaucer did not _invent_ these nonsense words
himself; he probably borrowed them from some French source. For, in
Sigart's Walloon Dictionary, we find these entries following.
'_Rim ni ram (ça n'a ni)_, cela n'a ni rime ni raison.
_Rim-ram_, protocole, formulaire: _C'est toudi l'même rim-ram_, c'est
toujours la même chanson.'
Again, in the Dispute between the Soul and the Body (Vernon MS.), printed
in Wright's edition of Walter Mapes, p. 340, col. 2, we find:--
'For to bere thi word so wyde,
And maken of the _rym and raf_.'
51. Alluding to Rev. xxi. 2. There is also here a direct reference to the
opening sentences of the Persones Tale; see I. 79, 80. [447]
57. _textuel_, literally exact in giving the text. The next line means 'I
only gather (and give you) the general meaning.' Most quotations at this
period were very inexact, and Chaucer was no more exact than others.
67. _hadde the wordes._ Tyrwhitt says--'This is a French phrase. It is
applied to the Speaker of the Commons in Rot. Parl. 51 Edw. III. n. 87:
"Mons. Thomas de Hungerford, Chivaler, qi _avoit les paroles_ pur les
Communes d'Angleterre en cest Parlement," &c.' It means--was the spokesman.