As brood as is a bocler or a targe;

A foot-mantel aboute hire hupes large,

And on hire feet a paire of spores scharpe.

In felawschipe wel cowde sche lawghe and carpe.

Of remedyes of love sche knew perchaunce,

For of that art sche knew the olde daunce.

24. THE PERSOUN.

475

A good man was ther of religioun,
And was a pore PERSOUN of a toun;

480

But riche he was of holy thought and werk.
He was also a lerned man, a clerk

That Cristes gospel gladly wolde preche;

His parischens devoutly wold he teche.

Benigne he was, and wondur diligent,
And in adversité ful pacient;

485

And such he was i-proved ofte sithes.

Ful loth were him to curse for his tythes,
But rather wolde he yeven out of dowte,

LINES 479-528.

480. and for and he who, a relative not in use when Chaucer wrote. 481. riche of thought = rich as regards thought.

483. Cristës. The genitive singular of a masculine noun, formed by adding es.

that,

he teche-two relative clauses. The old relative that is often used with he, as in lines 43-5; and that he : who. Sometimes when there are two clauses as here, that forms the subject of the one, and he the subject of the other. wolde. Cf. wold in the next line, where the e is dropped. 488. loth were him. The use of him for he is common in Shakespere. Here it is the old dative. See line 295, and Cf.

'If genial brands and bed me lothed not.'-Surrey.

489. rather, comp. of rathe, A.S. hrad, hrathra, hrathost, early, earlier, earliest; or ready, readier, readiest.

Cf. And made the rathe and timely primrose grow.'
'The rather lambs ben starved with cold.'

'He came rathest, and abode lengest.'

Unto his pore parisschens aboute,

Of his offrynge, and eek of his substaunce.
He cowde in litel thing han suffisance.

Wyd was his parisch, and houses fer asondur,
But he ne lafte not for reyne ne thondur,

490

In siknesse ne in meschief to visite

495

The ferrest in his parissche, moche and lite,

Uppon his feet, and in his hond a staf.

This noble ensample unto his scheep he yaf,

That ferst he wroughte, and after that he taughte,
Out of the gospel he tho wordes caughte,

And this figure he addide yit thereto,

That if gold ruste, what schulde yren doo?

489-91. yeven

500

of his offrynge = give out of his offering. 493. houses fer asondur. Note the absence of the article and of the verb.

494. he ne lafte not—lafte is 3rd pers. sing. of the pret. = he did not leave off, he ceased not.

496. ferrest, superlative degree of far farthest.

A.S. feor, fyrra, fyrrest, O.E. fer, ferre (48) ferrer, ferrest. The insertion of th in our form of the word is a mistake, which arose most likely from its being confounded with forth-m-est, the superlative of forth.

moche and lite are contracted forms of the old English words for much (A.S. mycel, micel) and little (A.S. lytel). The common old English forms are michel, muchel, mochil, moche, and litel, lyt. The phrase is = great and small. 497. in his hond a staf, a contracted phrase, which has been still further contracted to staff in hand.

499. ferst, A.S. fyrst or fyrrest. the superlative of fore.

wroughte; worked is of recent introduction.

after that afterwards. After is a comparative preposition formed from of.

500. tho, the plural of the demonstrative the and that, which began by Chaucer's time to drop case inflexions.

Cf. Alle tho' that were on my partye.'-Skelton.

caughte. The spelling is made like taughte. Layamon has cahte, caht. It is probable that the spelling of many words was transformed in the same way.

For if a prest be foul, on whom we truste,
No wondur is a lewid man to ruste;

*

Wel oughte a prest ensample for to yive,

505

By his clennesse, how that his scheep schulde lyve.
He sette not his benefice to huyre,

And lefte his scheep encombred in the myre,

And ran to Londone, unto seynte Poules,

To seeken him a chaunterie for soules,

510

Or with a brethurhede be withholde;

But dwelte at hoom, and kepte wel his folde,

So that the wolf ne made it not myscarye.

He was a schepperde and no mercenarie;
And though he holy were, and vertuous,
He was to senful man nought dispitous,
Ne of his speche daungerous ne digne,
But in his teching discret and benigne.
To drawe folk to heven by fairnesse,
By good ensample, was his busynesse :
But it were eny persone obstinat,

515

520

506. how that, &c.

See note on line 1.

507. He sette not.

508-9. and nor.

Here the negative is not doubled.

511. with here signifies juxtaposition, along with or together with. 521. But it were, A.S. bute = nisi. But is made up of two prepositions, by and out, and is thus formed in the same way as with-out. Cf. Ex-cept or ex-cepted and the old Eng. out-take. The original meaning of but is the same as these words and unless. Later, it got its adversative meaning on the other hand, still, nevertheless, notwithstanding.' But meaning unless, is followed by the subjunctive, as

What so he were of high or lowe estat,
Him wolde he snybbe scharply for the nones.
A bettre preest I trowe ther nowher non is.

He waytud after no pompe ne reverence,
Ne maked him a spiced conscience,
But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve,

He taught, and ferst he followed it himselve.

25. THE PLOUGHMAN.

525

With him ther was a PLOUGHMAN, his brothur,

That hadde i-lad of dong ful many a fothur.

530

A trewe swynker and a good was hee,
Lyvynge in pees and perfight charitee.
God loved he best with al his trewe herte
At alle tymes, though him gamed or smerte,
And thanne his neighbour right as himselve.
He wolde threisshe, and therto dyke and delve,

535

522. what so, an indefinite relative. So is a conjunctional affix used to give the interrogative what a relative power, as also in who-so, when-so, and where-so. When the so began to lose its relative force, ever was added, hence the more modern words, what-so-ever, who-so-ever, &c.

524. bettre, comp. of good, A.S. god, betera, betest or betst. 525. waytud after: watched for.

=

526. maked him. In A.S. the past of mace was macode. Him is =for himself.

=

527. apostles, gov. by of.

twelve, A.S. twa and lif; lif like tig, is ten.

528. himselve, nom. in apposition with he, he himself.

LINES 529-544.

529. his brothur. Five out of the six MSS. insert was before his, and the sixth reads that was hese.

530. i-lad, past part. of lead, lad or led, y-lad or led.

531. trewe and good, two adjectives frequently used together. 533-4. al and alle. Note that al is sing. and alle plural.

though him gamed or smerte, though him gamed, or though him smerte, = though it pleasured him or pained him, gamed and smerte being impersonal verbs.

For Cristes sake, with every pore wight,
Withouten huyre, if it laye in his might.
His tythes payede he ful faire and wel,
Bathe of his owne swynk and his catel.
In a tabbard he rood upon a mere.

Ther was also a reeve and a mellere,
A sompnour and a pardoner also,

A maunciple, and my self, ther was no mo.

26. THE MELLERE.

540

The MELLERE was a stout carl for the nones, 545
Ful big he was of braun, and eek of boones;
That prevede wel, for overal ther he cam,

At wrastlynge he wolde bere awey the ram.

He was schort schuldred, broode, a thikke knarre,
There nas no dore that he nolde heve of harre, 550

Or breke it at a rennyng with his heed.

His berd as ony sowe or fox was reed,

And therto brood, as though it were a spade.

See

537. with. Some MSS. read for. The preposition with is from the Anglo-Saxon withan to join, and means along with. this use of the word also, in lines 65 and 108;

Cf. With thee she talks, with thee she moans,

and

With thee she sighs, with thee she groans.'-Surrey. 540. bathe, A.S. batwa: in Layamon, we have bathe as well as

bothe.

LINES 545-566.

545. for the nones for the once. See note on line 381.

547. that prevede wel that was well proven.

cam, 3rd sing., past: see the past part. in lines 77 and 682.

550. nas no was no : nolde would not.

of, a prepositional adverb from A.S., of, of = from, off.

551. breke it at a rennyng. Cf. at a run,' 'at a bound,' 'at a glance,' &c.; and note that the phrase is equal to breke by rennyng at it.