Chaucer, the Prologue, the Knightes Tale the Nonne Preestes Tale from the Canterbury Tales

THE KNIGHTES TALE.

It is only possible to give here a mere general idea of the way in which the Knightes Tale is related to the Teseide of Boccaccio. The following table gives a sketch of it, but includes very many lines wherein Chaucer is quite original. The reference to the Knightes Tale are to the lines; those to the Teseide are to the books and stanzas.

The MSS. quote a line and a half from Statius, Thebaid, xii. 519, 520, because Chaucer is referring to that passage in his introductory lines to this tale; see particularly ll. 9, 11, 12.

Lines 1-24 and 106-123 should be compared with Chaucer's Anelida and Arcite, 11. 22-46. Lines 24 and 114 are borrowed from that poem, with but slight alteration.

3. governour. It should be observed that Chaucer continually accents words in the Anglo-French manner, on the last syllable. Thus we have here governour; again in the next line, conqueróur; in 1. 7, chivalrýe; in 1. II, contrée ; in 1. 18, manére, &c. &c. The most remarkable examples are when the words end in -oun (11. 35, 77).

6. contree is here accented on the first syllable; in l. 11, on the last. This is a good example of the unsettled state of the accents of such words in Chaucer's time, which afforded him an opportunity of licence, which he freely uses. In fact, cóntree shews the English, and contrée the

French accent.

7. chivalrye, knightly exploits. In 1. 20, chivalrye-knights; Eng. chivalry. So also in l. 124.

8. regne of Femenye. The kingdom (Lat. regnum) of the Amazons. Femenye is from Lat. fæmina, a woman. Cf. Statius, Theb. xii. 578.

9. Cithea, Scythia. Cf. Scythica in the quotation from Statius; p. 31. 10. Ipolita, Shakespeare's Hippolyta, in Mids. Night's Dream. The name is in Statius, Theb. xii. 534, spelt Hippolyte.

27. as now, at present, at this time. as-sone, immediately.

Cf. the M.E. adverbs as-swithe,

31. I wol nat letten eek noon of this route, I desire not to hinder eke (also) none of all this company. desire; cf. I will have mercy,' &c.

Wol

43. creature is here a word of three syllables. In 1. 248 it has four syllables.

45. nolde, would not: ne wolde was no doubt pronounced nolde, would not; so ne hath, hath not, was pronounced nath.

stenten, stop. 'It stinted, and said aye.'-Romeo and Juliet, i. 3. 48. 50. that thus, i. e. ye that thus.

53. clothed thus (Elles.); clad thus al (Harl.).

54. alle is to be pronounced al-lè. Tyrwhitt inserts than, then, after alle, against the authority of the best MSS.

Statius (Theb. xii. 545) calls this lady Capaneia coniux; see 1. 74, below. He says all the ladies were from Argos, and their husbands were kings. 55. a deedly chere, a deathly countenance.

60. we biseken, we beseech, ask for. For such double forms as beseken and besechen, cf. mod. Eng. dike and ditch, kirk and chirch, sack and satchel, stick and stitch. In the Early Eng. period the harder forms with k were very frequently employed by Northern writers, who preferred them to the palatalised Southern forms (perhaps influenced by Anglo-French) with ch. Cf. M. E. brig and rigg with bridge and ridge.

68. This line means 'that ensureth no estate to be (always) good.' 70. Clemence, Clemency, Pity. Suggested by 'il tempio . . . di Clemenza,' Tes. ii. 17; which again is from ' mitis posuit Clementia sedem,' Theb. xii. 482.

74. Capaneus, one of the seven heroes who besieged Thebes: struck dead by lightning as he was scaling the walls of the city, because he had defied Zeus; Theb. x. 927. See note to 1. 54, above.

83. for despyt, out of vexation; mod. E. 'for spite.'

84. To do the dede bodyes vileinye, to treat the dead bodies shamefully. 90. withouten more respyt, without longer delay.

91. they fillen gruf, they fell flat with the face to the ground. In M.E. we find the phrase to fall grovelinges, or to fall groveling.

96. Him thoughte, it seemed to him ; cf. methinks, it seemed to me. In M. E. the verbs like, list, seem, rue (pity), are used impersonally, and take the dative case of the pronoun. Cf. the modern expression ‘if you please' if it be pleasing to you.

97. mat, dejected. 'Ententyfly, not feynt, wery ne mate.'-Hardyng, p. 129.

102. ferforthly, i. e. far-forth-like, to such an extent, as far as.

107. abood, delay, awaiting, abiding.

108. His baner he desplayeth, i. e. he summons his troops to assemble for military service.

IIO. No neer, no nearer.

112. lay, lodged for the night.

117. statue, the image, as depicted on the banner.

119. feeldes, field, is an heraldic term for the ground upon which the various charges, as they are called, are emblazoned. Some of this description was suggested by the Thebais, lib. xii. 665, &c.; but the resemblance is very slight.

120. penoun, pennon. y-bete, beaten; the gold being hammered out into a thin foil in the shape of the Minotaur; see Marco Polo, ed. Yule, i. 344. But, in the Thebais, the Minotaur is upon Theseus' shield.

130. In pleyn bataille, in open or fair fight.

135. obséquies (Elles., &c.); exéquies (Harl.); accented on the second syllable.

146. as him leste, as it pleased him.

147. tas, heap, collection. Some MSS. read cas (caas), which might =downfall, ruin, Lat. casus; but, as c and are constantly confused, this reading is really due to a mere blunder. Gower speaks of gathering a tasse of sticks; Conf. Amant. bk. v. ed. Pauli, ii. 293. Palsgrave has— 'On a heape, en ung tas;' p. 840. Hexham's Dutch Dict. (1658) has— een Tas, a Shock, a Pile, or a Heape.'

148. harneys. 'And arma be not taken onely for the instruments of al maner of crafts, but also for harneys and weapon; also standards and banners, and sometimes battels.'—Bossewell's Armorie, p. 1, ed. 1597. Cf. 1. 755.

152. Thurgh-girt, pierced through. This line occurs again in Troilus, iv. 599 [or 627]: Thorwgh-gyrt with many wyde and blody wounde.' 153. liggyng by and by, lying separately. In later English, by and by signifies presently, immediately, as 'the end is not by and by.'

154. in oon armes, in one (kind of) arms or armour, shewing that they belonged to the same house. Chaucer adapts ancient history to medieval times.

157. Nat fully quike, not wholly alive.

158. by her cote-armures, by their coat-armour, by the devices on the armour covering the breast. Cf. 1. 154.

by hir gere, by their gear, i. e. equipments.

160. they. Tyrwhitt reads tho, those; but the seven best MSS. have they.

165. Tathenes, to Athens; Harl. MS. Cf. tallegge, 1. 2142 (footnote). 166. he nolde no raunsoun, he would accept of no ransom.

171. Terme of his lyf, the remainder of his life. Cf. The end and

term of natural philosophy.'-Bacon's Advancement of Learning, Bk. ii.

p. 129, ed. Aldis Wright.

177. Cf. Leg. of Good Women, 2422, 2423.

180. strof hir hewe, strove her hue, i. e. her complexion contested the superiority with the rose's colour.

181. I noot, I know not; noot=ne wot.

189. May. 'Against Maie, every parishe, towne, and village, assembled themselves together, bothe men, women, and children, olde and yonge, even all indifferently, and either going all together or devidying themselves into companies, they goe, some to the woodes and groves, some to the hills and mountaines, some to one place, some to another, when they spend all the night in pastimes; in the morninge they return, bringing with them birche, bowes and branches of trees, to deck their assemblies withalle.'-Stubbs, Anatomy of Abuses, ed. 1585, leaf 94 (ed. Furnivall, p. 149). Cf. Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 1. 167:

To do observance to a morn of May.'

Books

Chaucer, the Prologue, the Knightes Tale the Nonne Preestes Tale from the ...