heartily, A 762; neděly, necessarily, D 968; semëly, seemly, A 123, 136. In noting this form, Dr. Skeat says: Some adverbs have an internal -e, which is not found in Anglo-Saxon.' It is better to say that this form of adverb is a cumulative form, having two adverbial endings, and -ly. When the significance of the final -e ceased, more or less, to be felt, the later suffix, -ly, was hitched on to the earlier form; -e or, by the genitival -es: nedes, needs, of necessity, B 4424, G 1199; bisides, G 1416; bitymes, G 1008; elles, A 375, G 1377; ones, once, A 765, B 861, G 748; twies, twice, B 4202; thries, thrice, A 463, 562; thennes, thence, B 1043; hir thankes, of their own will, willingly, A 1626. The form whilom, A 795, 4365, B 4175, C 463, is from the AngloSaxon dat. pl. form of adverb. The negative ne is often incorporated with the verb: nadde = ne hadde; nam = ne am; narette = ne arette; nas ne was; nis = ne is; noldene wolde; noot ne woot; nylne wyl; nylle = ne wylle; nys ne ys; nystene wyste; also nyn, for ne yn, i.e. nor in : It lyth nat in my tonge nyn my konnyng, F 35. See in Glossary under these several forms. Other features of Chaucer's grammar are sufficiently designated in the Glossary, and the student can note them in the course of his reading of the text. What is presented in this synopsis he should know in advance of his reading. Read V. VERSIFICATION With the exception of the Tale of Sir Thopas, all the (metrical) Canterbury Tales are in the so-called iambic pentameter verse (5 xa, as I designate such verse, in my Primer of English Verse, the x representing an unaccented, and the a, an accented, syllable); and all, with the exception of the Man of Law's Tale, the Prioress's Tale, the Monk's Tale, the Clerk's Tale, and the Second Nun's Tale, are in the rhyming couplet. The verse is generally hendecasyllabic, having an extra end-syllable (5 xa + x). The initial foot is often a so-called trochee (ax); and occasionally it consists of a single strong syllable, the verse being therefore called acephalous; in such case, if there is no extra end-syllable, the verse consists of but nine syllables. The final -e is a matter of prime consideration in the reading of Chaucer's verse, as it is in the study of his grammar, it being the common relic of the greater number of the earlier inflections. The general rule is, that final -e has a syllabic value in the verse, when followed by a consonant; when followed by a vowel, it is absorbed in the vocality of the latter; also, when followed by a few words beginning with h, which may have been generally dropped in their pronunciation: his, him, hem, hire, hath, hadde, have, how, her, heer. As the final -e is everywhere marked in the text, where it has a syllabic value (except at the end of the verse, where it is always sounded), the student will be able at once to read along without any hesitation as to whether it has a syllabic or non-syllabic value. When sounded, it should be as slight as the final unaccented -e in French verse, a very slight u in up. Chaucer continues to be one of the great masters of verse in the literature, Dryden's monstrous chatter about the progress of English verse to the contrary notwithstanding. 'We must be children,' he says, 'before we grow men. There was an Ennius, and in process of time a Lucilius, and a Lucretius, before Virgil and Horace; even after Chaucer there was a Spenser, a Harrington, a Fairfax, before Waller and Denham were in being; and our numbers were in their nonage till these last appeared? To one in these days acquainted with the secrets of Chaucer's rhythm, and susceptible to the subtleties of his melody, this is the merest rhetorical nonsense. Even in the use of the rhyming couplet, Chaucer surpasses immeasurably both Dryden and Pope. His thought is not so paddocked therein. In his hands, it is not the 'rocking horse,' as Keats characterizes it, which it is in the hands of Dryden and Pope. Of Waller, Dryden says that 'he first made writing easily an art, first showed us to conclude the sense most commonly in distichs,' etc. One great merit of Chaucer's use of the couplet is, that he does not conclude the sense most commonly in distichs. His sensitiveness as to melody did not allow him to run into a mechanical uniformity. The rhyme-schemes of the two tales in stanza, from which selections are given in this book, are the following, both of which, the appreciative reader will feel, are admirably adapted to the character of the Tales in which they are used: The Man of Law's Tale, ababbcc, The Monk's Tale, ababbcbc. It has been said again and again, by critics, that the Spenserian stanza is the Italian ottava rima, with the Alexandrine added. But the eight verses to which Spenser added the Alexandrine are not the ottava rima at all, for the reason that they are differently bound together by the rhyme-scheme, and that makes all the difference in the world. In the ottava rima there are but two rhymes in the first six lines, the rhyme-scheme of the stanza being: ab ab ab cc. If Spenser was indebted to any one for the eight lines of his stanza, he was indebted to his master Chaucer, who, in the Monk's Tale, uses an eight-line stanza with a rhyme-scheme identical with that of the eight heroic lines of the Spenserian stanza. See my Primer of English Verse, chiefly in its aesthetic and organic character, Chap. VII. The Spenserian Stanza. POSTSCRIPT This book being designed as an introduction to the study of Chaucer, it is not within its scope to treat of the originals or analogues of the tales represented, and of Chaucer's artistic use of them. The student should first know The Canterbury Tales in their absolute character, as the Plays of Shakespeare should first be known in their absolute character, before the sources of their plots, etc., are traced. The study of literary history of every kind should come after the masterpieces of literature are known, in the true sense of the word, known, that is, through a sympathetic assimilation, so far as any one's capacity in that direction extends. The Chaucer Society has published Originals and Analogues of some of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and to these and other publications of the society, especially A Temporary Preface to the Six-text Edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, by Dr. F. J. Furnivall, students are referred who are prematurely interested in outside matters pertaining to the poet's works. In A Temporary Preface, pp. 104, 105, are summed up the results of Mr. Henry Ward's careful and thorough noting of Chaucer's obligations, in the Knight's Tale, to the Teseide of Boccaccio,—of the lines directly translated by him therefrom, of those which bear a general likeness, and of those which bear a slight likeness. Altogether, the most important work for the student to read is Professor Lounsbury's admirable Studies in Chaucer, his Life and Writings. Chap. v. of Vol. II. pp. 167-426, on The Learning of Chaucer, presents as fully as may be Chaucer's obligations to other writers. THE PROLOGUE TO THE CANTER BURY TALES The season of the pilgrimage, and the assembling of the pilgrims at the Tabard Inn, described WHÁN that Aprille with hise shourės soote And specially, from every shires ende Of Engėlond, to Caunturbury they wende, The hooly blisful martir for to seke, That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke. Bifil that in that seson on a day, In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay, 5 10 15 20 |