Upon the cop right of his nose he hade

A werte, and thereon stood a tuft of heres,
Reede as the berstles of a souwes eeres.
His nose-thurles blake were and wyde.
A swerd and a bocler baar he by his side,
His mouth as wyde was as a gret forneys.
He was a jangler, and a golyardeys,
And that was most of synne and harlotries
Wel cowde he stele corn, and tollen thries;
And yet he had a thombe of golde pardé.
A whit cote and a blewe hood wered he.
A baggepipe cowde he blowe and sowne,
And therwithal he brought us out of towne.

27. THE MAUNCIPLE.

A gentil MAUNCIPLE was ther of a temple,
Of which achatours mighten take exemple
For to be wys in beyying of vitaille.

For whethur that he payde, or took by taille,
Algate he waytede so in his acate,

555

560

565

570

554. right, adv. mod. upon the cop. hade usually hadde. 556. reede, plural of reed 552: souwes gen. of sowe, A.S. sugu, 552. 557. nose-thurl, A.S. nosu-thyrel nose-hole.

561. that = what, whatever.

Cf. Eschewe that wicked is.'-Gower.

564. wered, past of were wore.

Note that in these lines, there are only ten words of foreign origin; and that ten of the lines (548-557) are pure Saxon.

LINES 567-586.

568. of which from whom.

570. whether that: see note on line 1.

vitaille, taille: the French form is retained.

571. algate, now obsolete. It was sometimes written algates,

=

and occasionally, but seldom, algat always. Gate is still used in Scotland for a way, as in 'Jog on your gate.'

That he was ay biforn and in good state.
Now is not that of God a ful fair grace,
That such a lewed mannes wit schal pace
The wisdom of an heep of lernede men?
Of maystres hadde he moo than thries ten,
That were of lawe expert and curious;
Of which ther were a doseyn in an house
Worthi to be stiwardz of rente and lond
Of any lord that is in Engelond,

To make him lyve by his propre good,

In honour detteles, but-if he were wood,
Or lyve as scarsly as he can desire;
And able for to helpen al a schire

In any caas that mighte falle or happe;

575

580

585

And yit this maunciple sette here aller cappe.

28. THE REEVE.

The REEVE was a sklendre colerik man,

572. acate, a noun from the French, now obsolete. 574. mannes, as in A.S., the gen. of man, mann. pace: see note on line 175.

575. heap, which is now limited in its application to matter, in Chaucer, as in Anglo-Saxon, was applied to a legion, a crowd, or an assembly of men. Cf. thegna heap, an assembly of thanes, Hengestes heap, Hengist's troop.

578. doseyn, an abstract noun from douzaine, a tale of twelve ; the termination aine being added to the cardinal number to express the quantity of, as in huitaine, quarantaine, &c. 579. stiwardz: note the termination; also, the absence of the

article.

581. his propre good

his own property. Cf. Gen. xlv. 18. 582. dette-les; the affix les is the Saxon leas, denoting privation, and opposed to ful full.

but if nisi, unless wood, A.S. wod, mad.

586. here aller cappe: cappe is the same as in Anglo-Saxon and means the cap; aller is from ealra, the gen. plur. of eal, of alle; here is the gen. plur. of the 3rd of them.

all, and is thus

pers. pron. and =

His berd was schave as neigh as ever he can.

His heer was by his eres neighe i-schorn.

His top was dockud lyk a preest biforn.

590

Ful longe wern his leggus, and ful lene,

Al like a staff, ther was no calf y-sene.

Wel cowde he kepe a gerner and a bynne;
Ther was non auditour cowde on him wynne.

Wel wiste he by the drought, and by the reyn, 595
The yeeldyng of his seed, and of his greyn.
His lordes scheep, his nete, and his dayerie,

His swyn, his hors, his stoor, and his pultrie,
Was holly in this reeves governynge,
And by his covenaunt yaf the rekenynge,
Syn that his lord was twenti yeer of age;

600

LINES 587-622.

588. neigh; 589, neighe. Note the inflexion. In Old English, near is the comparative of nigh, and next its superlative.

590. biforn, adv. in n like abouen, abouten.

591. legg-us, plural termination in us.

592. al-like (A.S. al = quite), so al-brent =

=

quite burnt; al-heled quite concealed, al-by-smoterud (76), al ful (90). 594. non, A.S. nân, afterwards non. No is formed from non by the falling away of the n. Cf. mine, my; thine, thy; an, a, where the more recent forms have arisen in the same way.

597-8. lord-es, gen. of lord.

scheep (A.S. sceâp), nete (A.S. neat), swyn (A.S. swîn),
hors (A.S. hors), are neuter nouns in Anglo-Saxon, and
have the same form for the plural as the singular. Heer
in line 589, and yeer in 601, also belong to this class.
stoor is the A.S. steor masc., also flexionless in the plural,
and pultrie being a substantive, used collectively, is treated
as a plural, and has no plural sign.

599. was, a singular verb, with at least six plural nominatives joined by and. All are taken collectively as one charge. 601. Syn, since, still the Scotch form of the word.

Syn that. That is in apposition with the phrase under the syn.

Ther couthe noman bringe him in arrerage.
Ther nas ballif, ne herde, ne other hyne,

That they ne knewe his sleight and his covyne;
They were adrad of him, as of the dethe.

605

His wonyng was ful fair upon an hethe,

With grene trees i-schadewed was his place.
He cowde bettre than his lord purchace.
Ful riche he was i-stored prively,
His lord wel couthe he plese subtilly,

610

Το yeve and lene him of his owne good,

And have a thank, a cote, and eek an hood.

In youthe he lerned hadde a good mester;
He was a wel good wright, a carpenter.
This reeve sat upon a wel good stot,

615

That was a pomely gray, and highte Scot.

A long surcote of pers uppon he hadde,

And by his side he bar a rusty bladde.

Of Northfolk was this reeve of which I telle,

Byside a toun men callen Baldeswelle.

620

Tukkud he was, as is a frere, aboute,

And ever he rood the hynderest of the route.

604. That they; the relative that with the personal pronoun they = who.

605. a-drad in dread.

611. good, now goods, A.S. gód pl. gód. Cf. line 581. See note on scheep, &c.

612. a thank = one thank (A.S. thanc, a thought, a kind thought, a favour, or acknowledgment).

Cf. And yet gette hir a thank beside.'—Gower.

Thanks were so cheap that they came to be bestowed by the thousand, and the singular is no longer used.

617. uppon =on. Cf. upon in line 615.

620. Byside a toun. Cf. line 447.

622. hynderest (= hinder-most or hind-most); the superlative of

29. THE SOMPNOUR.

A SOMPNOUR was ther with us in that place,
That hadde a fyr-reed cherubynes face,

For sawceflem he was, with eyghen narwe.

*

625

630

With skalled browes blak, and piled berd;
Of his visage children weren sore aferd.
Ther nas quyksilver, litarge, ne bremstone,
Boras, ceruce, ne oille of tartre noon,
Ne oynement that wolde clense and byte,
That him might helpen of his whelkes white,
Ne of the knobbes sittyng on his cheekes.
Wel loved he garleek, oynouns, and ek leekes,
And for to drinke strong wyn reed as blood.
Thanne wolde he speke, and crye as he were wood.
And whan that he wel dronken hadde the wyn, 636
Than wolde he speke no word but Latyn.

A.S. hindu or hinde, of which the superlative was hindu-ma or hinde-ma. The suffix most is not the word most, but a double superlative compounded of ma and est. In like manner inner-m-ost, upper-m-ost, utter-m-ost, &c., which in Old English are written inner-est, upper-est, utter-est, &c., are double superlatives, the m representing one form, the ost for est the other.

LINES 623-663.

623. Sompnour: see note on solempne 209. 624. fyr-reed fire-red; red-whot

=

red-hot is used by Spenser.

625. eyghen. Cf. yhe in line 10, and eyen in line 201.

626. browes, plur. of browe, A.S. breaw.

627. aferd; the prefix a is a corruption of the old intensive of,

sometimes for.

633. ek. Cf. eek in lines 5, 41, 96, &c., A. S. eac.

636. dronken, past part. of drinke. Cf. Luke xvii. 8.

636-7. whan-than as in lines 1 and 12.