Ful wel sche sang the servise devyne,
Entuned in hire nose ful semyly;
And Frensch sche spak ful faire and fetysly,
Aftur the scole of Stratford atte Bowe,
For Frensch of Parys was to hire unknowe.
At mete wel i-taught was sche withalle;
Sche leet no morsel from hire lippes falle,
Ne wette hire fyngres in hire sauce deepe.
Wel cowde sche carie a morsel, and wel keepe,

That no drope fil uppon hire brest.

In curtesie was sett al hire lest.

Hire overlippe wypud sche so clene,
That in hire cuppe was no ferthing sene

Of grees, whan sche dronken hadde hire draught.
Ful semely aftur hire mete sche raught.
And sikurly sche was of gret disport,
And ful plesant, and amyable of port,
And peyned hire to counterfete cheere
Of court, and ben estatlich of manere,
And to ben holden digne of reverence.
But for to speken of hire conscience,
Sche was so charitable and so pitous,

122

130

138

120.-St. Loy. Probably a corruption of St. Eloy, or St. Eligius. It is the reading of all the MSS., and Tyrwhitt ought not to have changed it. The same oath occurs in the Freres Tale, 1. 7143.

124.-Frensch. The French taught in England was the debased form of the old Anglo-Norman, somewhat similar to that used at a later period in the courts of law; and it was this at which Chaucer, and some of his contemporaries, sneered. The writer of the Visions of Pie Ploughman speaks of French of Norfolk, 1. 2949.

127. At mete. These remarks agree, almost literally, with the directions contained in the different medieval tracts written for the purpose of teaching manners at table.

Sche wolde weepe if that sche sawe a mous
Caught in a trappe, if it were deed or bledde.
Of smale houndes hadde sche, that sche fedde
With rostud fleissh and mylk and wastel breed.
But sore wepte sche if oon of hem were deed,
Or if men smot it with a yerde smerte:
And al was conscience and tendre herte.
Ful semely hire wymple i-pynched was ;
Hire nose streight; hire eyen grey as glas;
Hire mouth ful smal, and therto softe and reed;
But sikurly sche hadde a fair forheed.

It was almost a spanne brood, I trowe;
For hardily sche was not undurgrowe.
| Ful fetys was hire cloke, as I was waar.
Of smal coral aboute hire arme sche baar

A peire of bedes gaudid al with grene;
And theron heng a broch of gold ful schene,

With camoys nose, and eyghen gray as glas."

160. -a broch. In 1845 a brooch, of the form of an A, represented in the accompany. ing cut, was found in a field in Dorsetshire. It appears to be of the fourteenth century, and affords a curious illustration of this passage of Chaucer. The inscription on one side seems to be,

149-men smot. The word men, used in this phrase, appears here construed with a singular verb, as though it had been man (on frappa). So again below, 1. 169, men might. So in a poem in my Political Songs, p. 330,"Where shal men nu finde."

152.-eyen grey. This appears to have been the favourite colour of ladies' eyes in the time of Chaucer. The young girl, in the Reves

Tale, is described

66

"IO FAS AMER E DOZ DE AMER."

144

On which was first i-writen a crowned A,
And after that, Amor vincit omnia.
Anothur NONNE also with hire hadde sche,
That was hire chapelleyn, and PRESTES thre.
A MONK ther was, a fair for the maistrie,
An out-rydere, that loved venerye;

A manly man, to ben an abbot able.

Ful many a deynté hors hadde he in stable:
And whan he rood, men might his bridel heere
Gyngle in a whistlyng wynd so cleere,
And eek as lowde as doth the chapel belle,
Ther as the lord was keper of the selle.
The reule of seynt Maure or of seint Beneyt,
Bycause that it was old and somdel streyt,
This ilke monk leet olde thinges pace,

'Hys crouper heeng al ful of belles,

And his peytrel, and his arsoun,

Three myle myghte men hear the sown."

161

169

175

166.-loved venerye. The monks of the middle ages were extremely attached to hunting and field-sports, and this was a frequent subject of complaint with the more austere ecclesiastics, and of satire with the laity. 170. gyngle. It was a universal practice among riders who wished to be thought fashionable, to have their horses' bridles hung with bells. The Templars were blamed for this vanity, in the thirteenth century. In the romance of Richard Cœur de Lion, the sultan of Damas has a trusty mare, of which we are told,

66

Wycliffe, in his Triloge, inveighs against the priests of his time for their "fair hors, and joly and gay sadeles, and bridles ringing by the way." At a much later period, Spencer describes a lady's steed,"Her wanton palfrey all was overspread

With tinsel trappings, woven like a wave,

Whose bridle rung with golden bells and bosses brave."

173.-The reule. The rules of St. Maure and St. Benet were the oldest forms of monastic discipline in the Romish church.

175.-olde thinges. This is the reading of most of the MSS., and I have adopted it instead of that of the MS. Harl., for by hem, which appears to give no clear sense.

And helde aftur the newe world the space.
He gaf nat of that text a pulled hen,
That seith, that hunters been noon holy men;
Ne that a monk, whan he is cloysterles,

Is likned to a fissche that is watirles ;

176

This is to seyn, a monk out of his cloystre.
But thilke text hild he not worth an oystre.
And I seide his opinioun was good.

What schulde he studie, and make himselven wood,
Uppon a book in cloystre alway to powre,

Or swynke with his handes, and laboure,
As Austyn byt? How schal the world be served?
Lat Austyn have his swynk to him reserved.
Therfore he was a pricasour aright:

Greyhoundes he hadde as swifte as fowel in flight:
Of prikyng and of huntyng for the hare
Was al his lust, for no cost wolde he spare.
I saugh his sleves purfiled atte hond
With grys, and that the fynest of a lond.
And for to festne his hood undur his chyn
He hadde of gold y-wrought a curious pyn:
A love-knotte in the gretter ende ther was.
His heed was ballid, and schon as eny glas,
And eek his face, as he hadde be anoynt.
He was a lord ful fat and in good poynt.

185

192

200

179.-cloysterles. This is also the reading of a Cambridge MS. The passage is a literal translation of one from the Decretal of Gratian, as cited by Tyrwhitt,-" Sicut piscis sine aqua caret vita, ita sine monasterio monachus." The other readings, rekkeles, recheles, &c., found in most of the MSS., present considerable difficulties; and Tyrwhitt's explanation seems hardly admissible.

His eyen steep, and rollyng in his heed,
That stemed as a forneys of a leed.
His bootes souple, his hors in gret estat,
Now certeinly he was a fair prelat.
He was not pale as a for-pyned goost.
A fat swan loved he best of eny roost.
His palfray was as broun as eny berye.

A FRERE ther was, a wantoun and a merye,

A lymytour, a ful solempne man.

In alle the ordres foure is noon that can
So moche of daliaunce and fair langage.
He hadde i-made many a fair mariage
Of yonge wymmen, at his owne cost.
Unto his ordre he was a noble post.
Ful wel biloved, and famulier was he,
With frankeleyns over al in his cuntré,
And eek with worthi wommen of the toun :
For he hadde power of confessioun,
As seyde himself, more than a curat,
For of his ordre he was licenciat,
Ful sweetly herde he confessioun,
And plesaunt was his absolucioun ;
He was an esy man to geve penance,
Ther as he wiste to han a good pitance:
For unto a povre ordre for to geve

201

209

217

225

203.-souple. "This is part of the description of a smart abbot, by an anonymous writer of the thirteenth century: Ocreas habebat in cruribus, quasi innata essent, sine plica porrectas.'-MS. Bodl., James, 1. 6. p. 121."-Tyrwhitt.