The prologue to the Canterbury tales, with notes by E.F. Willoughby

That hem hath hol¡ pen whan that they were seek | ě.

THE CANTERBURY TALES.

THE PROLOGUE.

WHAN that Aprille with his schowres swootě
The drougt of Marche hath perced to the rootě,
And bathed every veyne in swich licoùr,
Of which vertue engendred is the flour;-
Whan Zephirus eek with his swetě breethě
Enspired hath in every holte and heethe
The tendre croppěs, and the yongě sonně
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours i-ronně,

1. Swoote. Swot and swet (line 5) are the old forms of sweet; the final e is here the sign of the plural, in line 5 of the definite.

2. Perced pierced; the pronunciation long outlasted the spelling. Milton, L'Allegro, 137-8, makes pierce rime with verse.

3. Swich such, from swa = so, and lic = like.

4. Vertue. The Fr. equivalent of the Eng. might, power. Of, like the Fr. de, means from or by. The sense is "By which virtue or power, viz. the sunshine and showers of spring, the flowers are engendered or produced." Cf. old couplet:

5. Eek

"March winds and April showers

Bring forth May flowers.'

Cf. "Jesus knowing that virtue had gone out of him," Mark v. 30 and Luke vi. 19. Flour and flower are the same word; first the bloom of plants, next a product of sublimation (chemical term), as flowers of sulphur, then any fine powder, as meal, wheaten flour.

also, Ger. auch. Swete, see note, line 1.

6. Holte Holt, a wood or plantation; extant as a provincialism, and in several local names, as Knockholt in Kent.

7. Yonge sonne (yonge is the definite of yong).-Because he has as yet run through but one of the twelve signs of the zodiac.

8. Halfe cours.—' "The Man of Lawes" in the prologue to his tale tells us that it is the 18th of April: Chaucer in his Astrolabe always refers to the signs, not the constellations, and in his first figure places opposite the month of April the latter half of the Ram

And smalě fowles maken melodie,
That slepen al the night with open eye,
So priketh hem nature in here coràges :-
Thanne longen folk to gon on pilgrimages,
And palmers for to seeken straungě strondes,
To ferně halwes, kouthe in sondry londes;

and the first half of the Bull. The former of these was now just completed; the sun had run that half of the Ram which falls in April. I-ronne, i or y, the sign of the past. part., represents, doubtless too in sound, the O.E. ge-, retained in German.

9, 10. Maken and slepen are plurals, so is smale.

11. Priketh excites, urges, prompts.

11. Hem

them, obj. pl.; here, poss. pl. = their; the fem. poss. now her, is written by Chaucer hir, hire (see description of the Prioress, p. 49). In A.S. hira = their (all genders), hire her.

11. Corage.-Heart, from Lat.

cor, Fr. coeur, heart. The meaning

courage is secondary to this.

12. To gon to goen to go. Our perf. went is borrowed from another verb, to wend (see line 16), obsolete except in the phrase "to wend one's way." The Aryan root ga underlies nearly all the words implying motion in Sanscrit, Teutonic, and even Greek. Some derive the A.S. perf. eôde from the root i, found also in Latin eo, ire, but this is doubtful, for in O. H. German they seem to pass into one another.

13. Palmers.-A pilgrim was one who made a single or occasional journey to a shrine without any special conditions; a palmer, so called from the staff of a palm-tree which he carried as evidence of his having visited the Holy Land, professed poverty, and must pass his whole life in perpetual pilgrimages. Another badge of the palmer was some scallop-shells, as seen in the arms of families of the name of Palmer, presumed to have been gathered by him on the "straunge strondes" or foreign shores that he had visited. "Foreign" was the original meaning of strange, as still of the Fr. étranger.

13. For to seeken.—The gerundial obj., not the infin. One must understand longen after palmers and wenden before to ferne halwes. 14. Ferne halwes, kouthe distant saints known. Fern or ferren, from the adv. far, must be distinguished from foreign, Fr. forain, Low Lat. foraneus, from L. foras, out of doors, abroad. A 9 has been interpolated from a false analogy with reign = regnum. Others would explain this as meaning olden, ancient, A.S. fyrn.

And specially, from every schirěs endě

Of Engelond, to Canturbury they wendě,
The holy blisful martir for to seekě,

That hem hath holpen whan that they were seekě.
Byfel that, in that sesoun on a day,
In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay,
Redy to wenden on my pilgrimage
To Caunterbury with ful devout coragě,
At night was come into that hostelrie
Wel nyne and twenty in a compainye,
Of sondry folk, by aventùre i-fallě

In felaweschipe, and pilgryms were thei allě,

Halwes = holy ones, saints. All Hallows' is All Saints' day. Kouthe, pl. of kouth or couth, part. of cunnan, to know. Uncouth is unknown, strange, thence awkward. Outlandish, once foreign, has undergone the same change of meaning.

17. Holy blisful martir.-Thomas à Becket, called also St. Thomas of Canterbury.

18. Seeke. Pl. of seek, A.S. seoc= sick; in the previous line it is the verb to seek.

19. Byfel.-Verb impers., it befell or chanced.

20. Tabard.-Defined by Speght, in his Glossary to Chaucer, as a sleeveless jacket or coat, formerly worn by nobles in war, but now by heralds only. On it were emblazoned their arms, whence the expression "coat of arms." It was the sign of a well-known inn in Southwark, to which adjoined the house of the Abbot of Hyde, near Winchester.

20. Lay resided.

"When the court lay at Windsor."-Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2.

23. Was.-Collective singular. We should now say were. 23. Hostelrie.-O. Fr. hostellerie, Mod. Fr. hôtellerie, lengthened from hostel, hôtel, Eng. hotel. Our word host comes through the French from L. hospes, a guest, a host. Ostler, now the man in charge of the stables, is really hostellier, or the keeper of the inn. Host, an army, is from L. hostis, enemy; and the host or consecrated elements in the Roman Catholic Church from L. hostia, a sacrifice, first for victory over an enemy, then any sacrifice.

25. Aventure.-Fr. ; in Mod. E. adventure. Chaucer accentuates French words on the last syllable.

25. I-falle i-fallen = fallen, i.e. by adventure or chance.

That toward Caunterbury wolden rydě.
The chambres and the stables weren wydě,
And wel we weren esed attě bestě.

And schortly, whan the sonně was to restě,
So hadde I spoken with hem everychon,
That I was of here felaweschipe anon,
And made forward erly for to rysě,
To take our wey ther as I yow devysě.

But natheles, whiles I have tyme and space,
Or that I forther in this tale pacě,
Me thinketh it acordaunt to resoun,
To telle yow allě the condicioun
Of eche of hem, so as it semede me,

And whiche they weren, and of what degré;
And eek in what array that they were inně:
And at a knight than wol I first bygynně.

27. Wolden = would, past tense of will, which had not lost its primary signification of to wish, L. volo.

28. Weren were. A.S. waron.

29. Esed atte beste entertained in the best manner.

used as a law term for accommodation.

Easement is still

30. To reste at rest. To is used in the western counties and in the U. States for at, as zu in German.

31. Everychon ever each one, every one.

32. Anon immediately, probably on an (instant).

34. Ther as I you devyse where I tell you of.

Devise was to describe,

as advise to inform. Cf. trade term an advice.

35. Natheless.-Not the less, nevertheless.

35. Whiles, from while time; whiles whilst, a genitive form.

36. I forther in this tale pace = I

pass further in this tale.

37. Me thinketh.-Same as "It semede me," in line 39: the me is the dative case after the impers. verb it thinketh. In A.S. and O.E. thencan to think, and thyncan to seem. The Germans keep up the distinction, ich denke, es dünkt mir.

37. Acordaunt = according.

replaced the Fr. -ant.

The Eng. ending -ing had not yet

41. Inne, the adverb; in, the prep.

42. Wol.-Not found in the oldest Eng. or A.S.; a quasi regular

present suggested by the past wolde.

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