As, whan that Nero brente the cité

Of Rome, criden senatoures wyves,

550

For that here housbondes losten alle here lyves;
Withouten gult this Nero hath hem slayn.

Now wol I torne to my tale agayn:

This sely wydwe, and eek hire doughtres tuo,
Herden these hennes crie and maken wo,

And out at dores starten thay anoon,
And seyen the fox toward the grove goon,
And bar upon his bak the cok away;
They criden, 'Out! harrow and wayleway!
Ha, ha, the fox!' and after him thay ran,
And eek with staves many another man;

555

560

Ran Colle our dogge, and Talbot, and Garlond,
And Malkyn, with a distaf in hire hond;
Ran cow and calf, and eek the verray hogges
So were they fered for berkyng of the dogges
And schowtyng of the men and wymmen eke,
Thay ronne so hem thoughte here herte breke.
Thay yelleden as feendes doon in helle;

565

The dokes criden as men wolde hem quelle ;
The gees for fere flowen over the trees;
Out of the hyves cam the swarm of bees;
So hidous was the noyse, a benedicite!
Certes he Jakke Straw, and his meyné,
Ne maden never schoutes half so schrille,
Whan that thay wolden eny Flemyng kille,
As thilke day was maad upon the fox.
Of bras thay broughten beemes, and of box,
Of horn, of boon, in which thay blewe and powpede
And therwithal thay schrykede and thay howpede;
It semede as that heven schulde falle.

Now, goode men, I praye you herkneth alle;

570

575

580

Lo, how fortune torneth sodeinly

The hope and pride eek of hire enemy!
This cok that lay upon this foxes bak,

In al his drede, unto the fox he spak,

And saide, Sire, if that I were as ye,

Yet schulde I sayn (as wis God helpe me),
Turneth ayein, ye proude cherles alle!

A verray pestilens upon yow falle!

Now I am come unto this woodes syde,
Maugre youre heed, the cok schal heer abyde;
I wol him ete in faith, and that anoon,'
The fox answerde, 'In faith, it schal be doon.'
And as he spak that word, al sodeinly
This cok brak from his mouth delyverly,
And heigh upon a tree he fleigh anoon.
And whan the fox seigh that he was i-goon,
'Allas!' quod he, 'O Chaunteclere, allas!
I have to yow,' quod he, 'y-don trespas,
In-as-moche as I makede yow aferd,

585

590

595

600

Whan I yow hente, and broughte out of the yerd;
But, sire, I dede it in no wikke entente;

Com doun, and I schal telle yow what I mente.

I schal you seye soth, God help me so.'
'Nay than,' quod he, 'I schrewe us bothe tuo,
And first I schrewe myself, bothe blood and boones,
If thou bigile me any ofter than oones.
Thou schalt no more, thurgh thy flaterye,

Do me to synge and wynke with myn eye.

For he that wynketh, whan he scholde see,

Al wilfully, God let him never the!'

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 recheles, And necgligent, and truste on flaterie. But ye that holden this tale a folye,

As of a fox, or of a cok and hen,
Taketh the moralité therof, goode men.

615

For seint Poul saith, that al that writen is,
To oure doctrine it is i-write i-wys.
Taketh the fruyt, and let the chaf be stille.
Now, goode God, if that it be thy wille,
As saith my lord, so make us alle good men ;
And bringe us to his heighe blisse. Amen.

620

625

NOTES.

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. is the definite form of swet.

1. 4. vertue, power, corresponding to the O. E. miht, might.

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. Ram. There is a difference, in astronomy, between the sign Aries and the constellation Aries. In April the sun is, theoretically, in the sign Taurus, but visibly, in the Constellation Aries. Chaucer is generally supposed to have committed an error here, but it is not so. He was well aware of the effect of the precession of the equinoxes.

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.)

1. 14. ferne balwes, distant saints. ferne = O.E. ferrene, ferren, afar, from fer, far. balwes, saints; cp. Scotch Hallow-e'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, balp.

1. 20. Tabbard. 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-bus signifies an inn—another term was gest-bus; and bors-berdean inn-keeper.)

1. 24. wel is here used like our word full.

1. 25. by aventure i-falle, by adventure (chance) befallen.

1. 26. felawschipe, fellowship, from O.E. felaw, 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. at panat tan 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 frend = for friend.

1. 34. ther as I yow devyse, to that place that I tell you of (scil. Canterbury). ther in O.E. frequently signifies where; devyse to speak of, describe.

=

1. 35. whiles, whilst. Eng. while, time. O.E. hwilum, hwile, whilen, awhile. The form in -es is comparatively a modern adverbial form, and may be compared with O.E. bennes, 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. bethenesse, heathen lands, as distinguished from Christendom, Christian countries.

1. 51. Alisandre, in Egypt, was won, and immediately after abandoned, in 1365, by Pierre de Lusignan, King of Cyprus.

1. 52. be badde the bord bygonne. Some commentators think bord=board, table, so that the phrase signifies he had been placed at the head of the dais,