Who-so schal telle a tale aftur a man, 725 He moste reherce, as neigh as ever he can, Every word, if it be in his charge, Al speke he never so rudely ne large; Or elles he moot telle his tale untrewe, Or feyne thing, or fynde wordes newe. 730 He may not spare, though he were his brothur; He moste as wel sey oo word as anothur. Crist spak himself ful broode in holy writ, And wel ye woot no vilanye is it. Eke Plato seith, who so that can him rede, 735 The wordes mot be cosyn to the dede. Al have I folk nat set in here degre 725-6. who-so schal telle he moste reherce; who-so originally an interrogative, gradually became an indefinite relative he who. Here the personal pronoun is also expressed. Later, when the relative was made emphatic, the antecedent was omitted as in Shakespere 'Who steals my purse, (he) steals trash,' 'Who was the thane, (he) lives yet.' 728. al speke he although he speke. large, adv. = largely, broadly. Cf. the phrases—' to talk big' and 'to speke broode,' 733. 729. elles, the Anglo-Saxon form of the word as in 377. he moot. Cf. moste 726, 732; may 731, and mot 736. 732.00 anothur, In its adjectival use, one is generally set in antithesis to another; as 'If one Sathan cast out anothur.' -Coverdale's translation. It Out of this has been produced the indefinite article. 735. who so that can if any one can; a very indefinite use of who-so. Cf. the accent with the word in lines 643 and 725. 738. al have I; see note on line 728. folk nat set; the six MSS. read not set folk. Here in this tale, as that thei schulde stonde; Greet cheere made oure ost us everichon, And served us with vitaille atte beste. Strong was the wyn, and wel to drynke us leste. For to han been a marchal in an halle; A large man was he with eyghen stepe, A fairere burgeys is ther noon in Chepe : Bold of his speche, and wys and wel i-taught, Eke therto he was right a mery man, And after soper playen he bygan, 740 745 750 LINES 741-762. 'Every grew out 741. us everichon. Cf. hem everychon, line 31. of the habit of strengthening clc by prefixing ofre, whence arose the composite pronoun cuer-olc or euer-elc, which means ever-each, and which occurs under a variety of orthographic forms in Layamon. It had become everych by Chaucer's time, and then it had attracted to itself another pronoun, namely one, and so we get the oftrecurring medieval form everychon.' 742. to the souper sette he us; 744. us leste it pleased us; to wish, or to please. with the dat. or acc. Cf. ost 817 and wost and gost. 745. ooste. -Earle's Philology, p. 459. 821. In other lines it rhymes with 748. fairere; the comparative degree is generally formed in Chaucer as in modern English by adding er, but the Saxon termination was re, and this is sometimes retained when the adjective ends in e. 750. man-hede ;--hede -hood is the A.S.-hod, faculty. right naught; Cf. 'right a mery' (751) 'right welcome' (756) and right now' 761. In these expressions, we have a use of right, as equivalent to just, very or precisely, frequent And spak of myrthe among othur thinges, 755 For by my trouthe, if that I schal not lye, 760 Ye goon to Caunturbury; God you speede, in our early writers, and still common in some dialects of the spoken tongue, though banished from written English. 755. Lo, in A.S. la, the sign of the respectful vocative as here. The most reverential form of address among the Saxons was La leof Lo, liege. lordynges formed from lord, after the manner of Athel-ing. The more modern termination ling had its origin in the large number of words ending in l, to which ing was added. 759. at oones, the es in oones is a relic of inflexion which is lost sight of in the modern spelling of the word. herbergh, as in line 405, also written herberw, and herberwh from A. S. hereberga. as is now explains the construction of the elliptical expressions as now, as nouthe, &c. 760. wiste I how if I knew how. 761. I am by-thought; the prefix by or be enters into the composition of a great number of verbs, sometimes adding an intensive force to transitive verbs as be-smear, be-daub, and sometimes rendering intransitive verbs transitive, as be-think, be-speak. LINES 763-781. 763. ye goon, 2nd plu. pres. Cf. ye gon 765, ye schapen 766, ye riden 774, and ye be 776. speede and quyte 764, verbs in the optative mood, the e being a remnant of the old termination. And wel I woot, as ye gon by the weye, To morwe, whan ye riden by the weye, 767. comfort, in line 770 is written confort. 765 770 775 770. erst, A.S. œr-est or œr-ost, the superlative of the adverb ær, before, formerly, already. 771. if you liketh = if it liketh you, liketh being impersonal. 772. for to standen at; In Anglo-Saxon eet was used before a large number of verbs: at-standen meant to stand to or to urge. 773. you seye: you is dative, and seye an infinitive. 774. to-morwe, A.S. to-morgen, to-morrow, as to-nihte = to-night. See note on a-morwe line 816. 775. fadres, gen. of fadur in line 100: that; its antecedent? 776. but unless; Cf. but-if in line 353. smyteth of myn heed; several MSS. read I wol yeve you myn heed; smyteth is 2nd plu. imperative. In Anglo-Saxon, the plural of the imperative ends in ath or iath when the pronoun is omitted, and in e when the pronoun follows. In Chaucer, the usual termination is eth as here, but in some instances the th and even the eth is dropped. Cf. herkeneth 782, and taketh 783. 777. hold; In Anglo-Saxon, the sing. of the imperative consists, as in Latin, of the root of the verb; for example, the imperative sing. of healdan to hold, is heald, and the plural healdath, healde. In Chaucer, the plural termination is so often dropped that this verb may be sing. or plural. 778. seche = seke in line 17. In Chaucer, ch often takes the Us thought it nas nat worth to make it wys, 780 And bad him seie his verdite, as him leste. 'Lordynges,' quoth he, 'now herkeneth for the beste; But taketh not, I pray you, in disdayn; This is the poynt, to speken schort and playn, That ech of yow to schorte with youre weie, 785 In this viage, schal telle tales tweye, To Caunturburi-ward, I mene it so, And hom-ward he schal tellen othur tuo, Of aventures that ther han bifalle. And which of yow that bereth him best of alle, 790 place of the Saxon c hard, even where the modern English word has the primitive sound. Cf. recche, reck; wirche, work; and thenche, think. On the other hand the compound beseech has the soft sound, while in Chaucer it is almost always written beseeke. 779. us thoughte it seemed to us. line 37. See note on methinketh in 781. as him leste. See note on line 744. LINES 782-815. 782. quoth he: quoth was originally used for cwath, the perfect of A.S. cwethe: in modern English it is present as well as perfect. 783. taketh is here intransitive. 785. to schorte with youre weie = to shorten your way with. 786. tweye. Cf. othur tuo 788. 787. to Caunturburi-ward; Cf. from Burdeux-ward in 399, and hom-ward 788. 790. which of you that; here which that is equivalent to the modern word whoever. See note on line 689. bereth and telleth 791. Note the 3rd sing. pres. ind. has the same termination as the imperative. best of alle. Cf. altherbest in line 704: alther in 793 is gen. plu. |