Lo, how fortune torneth sodeinly The hope and pride eek of hire enemy! This cok that lay upon the foxes bak, In al his drede, unto the fox he spak, And saide,' Sire, if that I were as ye, 585 Yet schulde I sayn (as wis God helpe me), A verray pestilens upon yow falle! Whan I yow hente, and broughte out of the yerd; Com doun, and I schal telle yow what I mente. I schal seye soth to you, God help me so.' And first I schrewe myself, bothe blood and boones, Do me to synge and wynke with myn eye. For he that wynketh, whan he scholde see, Al wilfully, God let him never the!' 590 595 600 605 610 Nay,' quod the fox, but God yive him meschaunce, That is so undiscret of governaunce, That jangleth whan he scholde holde his pees.' Lo, such it is for to be reccheles, And necgligent, and truste on flaterie. But ye that holden this tale a folye, As of a fox, or of a cok and hen, For seint Poul saith, that al that writen is, Amen. 615 620 625 THE PROLOGUE. 1. 1. Aprille. It appears that Chaucer's Prologue refers to the 17th of April. See Man of Lawes Prol. ll. 1-6. swoote, pl. of swot. swete in 1. 5 is the definite form of swet. 1. 4. vertue, power, corresponding to the O. E. miht, might. 11. 4-6. Hawes seems to have had Chaucer's opening lines in view in the first and second stanzas, chap. i, of his Pastime of Pleasure : 'When that Aurora did well appeare In the depured ayre and cruddy firmament, Of Zepherus breath, whiche that every floure 1. 7. yonge sonne. The sun is here said to be young because it has not long entered upon his annual course through the signs of the zodiac. 1. 8. the Ram. The difficulty here really resides in the expression "his halfe cours," which means what it says, viz. "his half-course," and not, as Tyrwhitt unfortunately supposed, "half his course." The results of the two explanations are quite different. Taking Chaucer's own expression as it stands, he tells us that, a little past the middle of April," the young sun has run his half-course in the Ram." Turning to Fig. 1 (in The Astrolabe, ed. Skeat) we see that, against the month "Aprilis" there appears in the circle of zodiacal signs, the latter half (roughly speaking) of Aries, and the former half of Taurus. Thus the sun in April runs a half-course in the Ram and a half course in the Bull. "The former of these was completed," says the poet; which is as much as to say, that it was past the eleventh of April. The sun had, in fact, only just completed his course through the first of the twelve signs, as the said course was supposed to begin at the vernal equinox. This is why it may well be called "the yonge sonne," an expression which Chaucer repeats under similar circumstances in the Squyeres Tale, Part ii. 1. 39. (Chaucer's Astrolabe, ed. Skeat, p. xlvii.) Mr. Brae, in his edition of Chaucer's Astrolabe, shews that Chaucer never refers to the constellations, but always to the signs. Also twelve monbes ben in the 3ere, and everiche monbe be sonne entrep into a signe as it falleb for be monbe. And so in March þey entrep into pe weber; in Aueril in to pe Boole.' (Trevisa's transl. of Higden's Polychronicon, ii. 203.) 1. 10. open eye. Hit bifelle bytwyxte Marche and Maye, As nightingales on grene tre.' (The Sowdone of Babyloyne, pp. 2-3.) 11. 12, 13. Professor Ten Brink thinks that a colon should be placed after pilgrimages, and wenden understood after palmers. According to ordinary English construction the verb longen must be supplied after palmers and seeken before To ferne halwes. 6 1. 13. palmer originally one who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and brought home a palm-branch as a token. Chaucer, says Tyrwhitt, seems to consider all pilgrims to foreign parts as palmers. The essential difference between the two classes of persons here mentioned, the palmer and the pilgrim, was, that the latter had one dwelling-place, a palmer had none; the pilgrim travelled to some certain place, the palmer to all, and not to any one in particular; the pilgrim must go at his own charge, the palmer must profess wilful poverty; the pilgrim might give over his profession, the palmer must be constant.' (Saunders.) 'But a prest that a palmer was A palme in his hand he had And in a slaveyn he was clad.' (Tundal's Poems, p. 14.) 1. 14. ferne halwes, ancient, old saints. ferne = O.E. fyrn, ancient, old; cp. gefyrn, long ago. Sometimes O. E. ferne ferrene = distant, foreign; cp. ' prie kinges...come fram verrene londes.' O. E. Miscel. p. 27. halwes, saints; cp. Scotch Hallowe'en, the eve of All Hallows, or All Saints. 1. 16. wende, go; pret. wente, Eng. went. The old preterite of go (A. S. gangan) was ging, which gave place to eode, zede, or yode, from the root i (cp. Lat. i-re) of the weak conjugation. Spenser uses yeed (or yode) not only as a past tense but also as an infinitive. 1. 17. The holy blisful martir, Thomas à Becket. 1. 18. holpen, pp. of helpen. The older preterites of this verb are heolp, help, halp. 1. 20. Tabard. Of this word Speght gives the following account in his Glossary to Chaucer :- Tabard—a jaquet or slevelesse coate, worne in times past by noblemen in the warres, but now only by heraults (heralds), and is called theyre "coate of armes in servise." It is the signe of an inne in Southwarke by London, within the which was the lodging of the Abbot of Hyde by Winchester. This is the hostelry where Chaucer and the other Pilgrims mett together, and, with Henry Baily their hoste, accorded about the manner of their journey to Canterbury. And whereas through time it hath bin much decayed, it is now by Master J. Preston, with the Abbot's house thereto adgoyned, newly repaired, and with convenient rooms much encreased, for the receipt of many guests.' The Taberdars of Queen's College, Oxford, were scholars supposed originally to have worn the tabard, since called, by mistake, the Talbot. 1. 23. hostelrie, a lodging, inn, house, residence. Hostler properly signifies the keeper of an inn, and not, as now, the servant of an inn who looks after the horses. (The O. E. hors-hus signifies an inn-another term was gest-hus ; and hors-herde = an inn-keeper.) 1. 24. wel is here used like our word full. 1. 25. by aventure i-falle, by adventure (chance) befallen. 1. 26. felaweschipe, fellowship, from O. E. felawe, companion, fellow. 1. 29. esed atte beste, accommodated or entertained in the best manner. Easement is still used as a law term, signifying accommodation. atte=O. E. atpan=attan or atten, A. S. at tham. In the older stages of the language we find atte used only before masc. and neuter nouns beginning with a consonant; the corresponding feminine form is atter, which is not used by Chaucer. 1. 30. to reste at rest. Spenser has to friend = for friend. 1. 34. ther as I yow devyse, to that place that I tell you of (sc. Canterbury). ther in O. E. frequently signifies where; devyseto speak of, describe. 1. 35. whil, whilst. Eng. while, time. Cp. O. E. hwilum, hwile, whilen, awhile. The form in -es (whiles, the reading of some MSS.) is comparatively a modern adverbial form, and may be compared with O.E. hennes, thennes, hence, thence; ones, twies, thries, once, twice, thrice, of which older forms are found in -ene and -e. 1. 37. It seemeth to me it is reasonable. Me thinketh me thinks, where me is the dative before the impersonal vb. thinke, to appear, seem; cp. me liketh, me list, it pleases me. So the phrase if you please if it please you, you being the dative and not the nominative case. semede me, it seemed to me, occurs in 1. 39. 1. 41. inne. = In O. E. in is the preposition, and inne the adverb. 1. 43. Knight. It was a common thing in this age for knights to seek employment in foreign countries which were at war. Tyrwhitt cites from Leland the epitaph of a knight of this period, Matthew de Gourney, who had been at the battle of Benamaryn, at the siege of Algezir, and at the battles of Crecy, Poitiers, &c. worthy, worthy, is here used in its literal signification of distinguished, honourable. See ll. 47, 50. 1. 45. chyvalrye, knighthood; also the manners, exercises, and exploits of a knight, 1. 48. ferre, the comp. of fer, far. Cp. O. E. derre, dearer, sarre, sorer, &c. 1. 49. hethenesse, heathen lands, as distinguished from Christendom, Christian countries. 1. 51. Alisaundre, in Egypt, was won, and immediately after abandoned, in 1365, by Pierre de Lusignan, King of Cyprus. 1. 52. he hadde the bord bygonne. Some commentators think bord=board, table, so that the phrase signifies he had been placed at the head of the dais, or table of state.' Mr. Marsh suggests that bord or bourd is the Low Germ. boort or buhurt, joust, tournament. 'Gaigner le hoult borst. To win the spurres, to carry away the best prize; also to take the highest place at a table.' (Cotgrave, 1611 A.D.) 11. 53, 54. Pruce. When our English knights wanted employment, it was usual for them to go and serve in Pruce, or Prussia, with the knights of the Teutonic order, who were in a state of constant warfare with their heathen neighbours in Lettow (Lithuania), Ruce (Russia), and elsewhere. (Tyrwhitt.) |