THE BEGINNING OF THE CANTERBURY TALES.

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I. Whanne1 that Ápril with his shoúres2 sóte3 II. The droughte of Márch hath pérced' to the róte,2 III. And bathed1 évery véine in swiche 2 licoúr 3, IV. Of whiche vertúe1 engéndred ís the floúr; V. Whan Zéphirús eke with his sóte1 bréthe VI. Enspired' háth in évery hólt and héthe

I. 1. Whanne, SAX. Hpænne, is so seldom used as a Dissyllable by Chaucer, that for some time I had great doubts about the true reading of this line. I now believe that it is right, as here printed, and that the same word is to be pronounced as a Dissyllable in ver. 703.

But with these relikes whanne that he fond

Thanne, a word of the same form, occurs more frequently as a Dissyllable. See ver. 12260. 12506. 12721. 13924. 15282. 2. Shoures, Dis. Plural number. See above, p. cxl.-3. Sote. See ver. 5.

II. 1. Perced, Dis. Participle of the Past Time. See above, p. cxl.-2. Rote; root.

III. 1. Bathed, Dis. See II. 1.-2. Swiche, such; from Swilke, SAX.-3. licoúr, FR. has the accent upon the last syllable, after the French mode.

IV. 1. Vertue, FR. may be accented in the same manner. There is another way of preserving the harmony of this verse, by making whiche (from whilke, SAX.) a Dissyllable. See ver. 1014. 3921. 5488. 6537. Vertue may then be pronounced, as it is now, with the accent on the first; the second syllable being incorporated with the first of engendred.

V. 1. Sote, swote, swete; sweet, Dis. See ver. 3219. 3699. 3724. 3765. 3790.

VI. 1. Enspired, Tris. Part. of Past Time.

VII. The tendre cróppes', and the yonge3 sónne, VIII. Háth in the Rám his hálfe1 cours yrónne,' IX. And smále1 foúles2 máken3 mélodíe,

X. That slépen1 álle' níght with open éye, XI. So príketh hém1 natúre2 in hir3 coráges1;

VII. 1. Croppes, Dis. Pl. N. as shoures. I. 2.-2. Yonge, Dis. See ver. 213. 666. 1013. 3233, 73. It is used as a Dissyllable in the Ormulum. Col. 230.

That was god bísne fúl i wís till úre yúnge génge. Stronge and Longe are pronounced in the same manner. ver. 2375. 2640, 6. 3069. 3438. 3682.

See

VIII. 1. Halfe, or Halve, Dis. The original word is Halfen. So Selve, from Selfen, is a Dissyllable, ver. 2862. 4535.

2. Yronne; Run. Part. of the Past Time, with the Saxon prepositive particle ge, which in the Mss. of Chaucer is universally expressed by y, or i. In this Edition, for the sake of perspicuity, y only is used.

IX. 1. Smale, Dis. See ver. 146. 2078. 6897. 10207.-2. Foules, Dis. as Shoures. I. 2.-3. Maken; make. Plural Number of the Present Tense. See above, p. xci.

X. 1. Slepen, as Maken. IX. 3.-2. Alle, Dis. See ver. 76. 348. 536. 1854. 2102.

XI. 1. Hem; Them. It is constantly used so by Chaucer. 2. Nature should perhaps be accented on the last syllable (or rather the last but one, supposing it a trisyllable), after the French manner, though in the present case the verse will be sufficiently harmonious if it be accented on the first. That Chaucer did often accent it after the French manner appears from ver. 8778. 9842. 11657. 11945. 12229. In the same manner he accents Figure, ver. 2037. 2045. Mesure, ver. 8132. 8498. Asúre, Statúre, ver. 8130, 3. Peinture, ver. 11967. Aventúre, ver. 1188. 1237. Creatúre, ver. 2397. 4884. and many other words of the same form, derived from the French language.-3. Hir; Their. The

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XII. Than lóngen' fólk to gon' on pilgrimages, XIII. And pálmer'es fór to séken' stránge3 stróndes,

XIV. To sérve' hálwes' coûthe3 in sóndry lóndes ;

Possessive Pronoun of the third Person Plural is variously written, Hir, Hire, Her, and Here; not only in different Mss. but even in the same page of good Mss. There seems to be no reason for perpetuating varieties of this kind, which can only have taken their rise from the unsettled state of our Orthography before the invention of Printing, and which now contribute more than any real alteration of the language to obscure the sense of our old Authors. In this edition therefore, Hir is constantly put to signify Their; and Hire to signify Her, whether it be the Oblique case of the Personal Pronoun She, or the Possessive of the same Pronoun.-4. Coráges, FR. is to be accented on the Penultima. See before, p. cxlvii. and also ver. 1947. 2215. To the other instances quoted in p. cxlvii. add, Avantage, ver. 2449. 4566. Brocage, 3375. Forage, ver. 3166. Lináge, ver. 4270. 5419. Serváge, ver. 1948. 4788. Costáge, ver. 5831. Paráge, ver. 5832.

XII. 1. Longen, as Maken. IX. 3.-2. Gon, Infinitive Mode of Go, terminated in n according to the Saxon form. See above, p. xci.

XIII. 1. Pálmer'es, Dis. the e of the termination being cut out by Syncope, as it generally is in Plural Nouns of three Syllables, accented upon the first, and in the Past Tenses and their Participles of Verbs, of the same description, ending in ed. The reason seems to be, that, where the Accent is placed so early, we cannot pronounce the final syllables fully, without laying more stress upon them, than they can properly bear.-2. Seken, as Gon. XII. 2.-3. Strange, Dis. FR. See before, p. cxlii.

XIV. 1. Serve, Dis. from Serven, the n being thrown away before h. See above, p. xci. and cxliv.-2. Halwes, Sax. þalger. The Saxon is changed into w, as in sorwe, morwe, and some

XV. And spécially'' from every shíres' énde XVI. Of Englelónd' to Canterbury they wénde, XVII. The holy blísful mártyr fór to séke,

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XVIII. That hém1 hath hólpen, whán that they

were séke3.

others; though it generally passes into y. The derivatives from this same word afford us instances of both forms; Holyness, Holyday All-Hallows-day.-3. Couthe; known, The Participle of the Past Time from Connen, to know. See before, n. 35.

XV. 1. Shires, Dis. Genitive Case Sing. See before p. cxl. XVI. 1. Englelond, Trisyllable, from the Saxon Englalanda. -2. The last foot consists of three Syllables.

=to Cán | terbúr | y they wénde.

See above, n. 66.

XVIII. 1. Hem; Them. See XI. 1.-2. Holpen, the Participle of the Past Time from the Irregular Verb Help. See before, n. 34.-3. Seke; Sick. As Chaucer usually writes this word Sike, we may suppose that in this instance he has altered the Orthography in order to make the Rime more exact; a liberty, with which he sometimes indulges himself, though much more sparingly than his contemporary Poets. The Saxon writers afford authorities to justify either method of spelling, as they use both Seoca and S10ca.

I have hitherto considered these verses as consisting of ten syllables only; but it is impossible not to observe, that, according to the rules of pronunciation established above, all of them, except the 3d and 4th, consist really of eleven syllables. This is evident at first sight in ver. 11, 12, 13, 14, and might be shewn as clearly, by authority or analogy, in the others; but as the eleventh syllable, in our versification, being unaccented, may always, I apprehend, be absent or present without prejudice to the metre, there does not seem to be any necessity for pointing it out in every particular instance.

AN INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE TO THE

CANTERBURY TALES.

THE CONTENTS.

IV.

§ 1. THE Dramatic form of Novel-writing invented by Boccace. The Decameron a species of Comedy. § II. The Canterbury Tales composed in imitation of the Decameron. Design of this Discourse to give, 1. the general Plan of them, and, 2. a Review of the parts contained in this Edition. III. THE GENERAL PLAN of the Canterbury Tales, as originally designed by Chaucer. Parts of this Plan not executed. § V. Review of the parts contained in this Edition.-The PROLOGUE. The Time of the Pilgrimage. VI. The Number of the Company. § VII. Their Agreement to tell Tales for their diversion upon their journey. § VIII. Their Characters. Their setting out. The Knight appointed by lot to tell the first Tale. IX. THE KNIGHTES TALE copied from the Theseida of Boccace. A summary account of the Theseida. § X. The Monk called upon to tell a Tale; interrupted by the Miller. § XI. THE MILLER'S TALE. § XII. THE REVES TALE. The principal incidents taken from an old French Fabliau. § XIII. THE COKES TALE, imperfect in all the Mss. No foundation for ascribing the Story of Gamelyn to Chaucer. § XIV. THE PROLOGUE to the MAN OF LAWES Tale. The Progress of the Pilgrims upon their journey. A reflection seemingly leveled at Gower. § XV. The Man of LAWES TALE taken from Gower, who was not the inventor of it. A similar story in a Lay of Bretagne. § XVI. Reasons for placing the Wife of Bathes Prologue next to the Man of Lawes Tale. § XVII. THE WIFE OF BATHES PROLOGUE. XVIII. THE WIFE OF BATHES TALE taken from the story of Florent in Gower, or from some older narrative. The fable much improved by Chaucer. § XIX. THE TALES OF THE