i. 302), after speaking of the collection of stories in the Gesta

Romanorum, tells us that 'rather before the year 1480, a Latin volume was printed in Germany, written by John Herolt, a Dominican friar of Basle, better known by the adopted and humble appellation of Discipulus, and who flourished about the year 1418.' The first part of this work consists of sermons. The second part is 'a Promptuary or ample repository of examples for composing sermons,' and contains 'a variety of little histories.' Among these is one analogous to Chaucer's Freres Tale.

The Latin story was first printed by Mr. T. Wright in the Archæologia, vol. xxxii., and again in Originals and Analogues, Chaucer Soc., 1872, p. 105, from MS. Cotton, Cleop. D. 8, leaf 110; and is as follows:--

NARRATIO DE QUODAM SENESCALLO SCELEROSO.

Erat uir quidam Senescallus et placitator, pauperum calumpniator, et bonorum huiusmodi spoliator. Qui die quadam forum iudiciale causa contencionis faciende et lucrandi adiuit. Cui quidam obuiauit in itinere dicens ei: 'Quo uadis, et quid habes officii?' Respondit primus: 'Uado lucrari.' Et ait secundus: 'Ego tui similis sum. Eamus simul.' Primo consenciente, dixit secundus ei: 'Quid est lucrum tuum?' Et ille: 'emolumentum pauperum, quamdiu aliquid habent, ut per lites, contenciones et uexationes, siue iuste siue iniuste. Modo dixi tibi lucrum meum, unde est. Die mihi, queso, unde est et tuum?' Respondit secundus dicens: 'Quicquid sub maledictione traditur diabolo, computo mihi pro lucro.' Risit primus, et derisit secundum, non intelligens quod esset diabolus.

Paulo post cum transirent per ciuitatem, audierunt quemdam pauperem maledicere cuidam uitulo quem duxit ad uendendum, quia indirecte ibat. Item audierunt consimilem de muliere fustigante puerum suum. Tunc ait primus ad secundum: 'Ecce potes lucrari, si uis. Tolle puerum et uitulum.' Respondit secundus: 'Non possum, quia non maledicunt ex corde.'

Cum uero paululum processissent, pauperes euntes versus iudicium, uidentes illium Senescallum, ceperunt omnes unanimiter maledictiones in ipsum ingerere. Et dixit secundus ad primum: 'Audis quid isti dicunt?' 'Audio,' inquit, 'sed nichil ad me.' Et dixit secundus: 'Isti maledicunt ex corde, et te tradunt diabolo; et ideo meus eris.' Qui statim ipsum arripiens, cum eo disparuit.

A similar story is printed in a Selection of Latin Stories, edited by Mr. T. Wright for the Percy Society, vol. viii. p. 70. It is entitled 'De Aduocato et Diabolo,' and was taken from the printed Promptuarium Exemplorum, compiled in the early part of the fifteenth century. It is reprinted in the Originals and Analogues, p. 106, and I here quote Dr. Furnivall's abstract of it.

'A grasping lawyer, out to gather prey, met the Devil in the form of a man, and could not get quit of him. A poor man, angry with his perverse pig, said: "Devil take you!" But as he did not say it from his heart, the Devil could not take the pig; nor could he a child, to which its mother said: "Devil take you!" When, however, some townsmen saw the lawyer coming, they all cried out: "May the Devil take you!" And, as they did it from the bottom of their hearts, the Devil carried the lawyer off; as his man bore witness.'

This Tale furnishes an admirable example of Chaucer's method; the mere outline of the story is little altered, but his mode of telling gives it a new spirit, and quiet touches of humour are abundant throughout.

A modernised version of this Tale, by Jeremiah Markland, was included in Ogle's 'Canterbury Tales of Chaucer modernized by several hands,' published by Tonson in 1741. Another such version, by Leigh Hunt, was included in Horne's 'Poems of Geoffrey Chaucer Modernized,' published in 1841. See Lounsbury's Studies in Chaucer, iii. 190, 217, 223.

§ 61. THE SOMNOUR'S PROLOGUE. The Freres Tale rouses the Somnour almost to fury; and he begins by retorting that Friars have a peculiar knowledge of hell, for obvious reasons; and emphasises his statement by a brief story, which was probably a current popular joke. He then proceeds with his Tale.

§ 62. THE SOMNOURS TALE. The analogous French story was first pointed out by M. Sandras, in his Étude sur Chaucer, 1859, p. 237. It is entitled Li Dis de la Vescie a Prestre, the Story of the Priest's Bladder, and was written by Jakes de Basiu, or Baisieux. It is printed in a collection entitled Fabliaux ou Contes, Fables et Romans du xii^e et du xiii^e Siècle, par Legrand D'Aussy; 1829; vol. iv. p. 18 of the Appendix. An analysis of the story, in modern French, is given at p. 177 of the same.

The _Dis_ is reprinted among the Originals and Analogues, Chaucer Society, 1875, p. 137. I subjoin a very brief outline of it.

A Priest, dwelling near Antwerp, a wise man and a rich, falls ill, and is about to die. He sends for his dean and his friends, to dispose of his property. Two Jacobin friars come to visit him and to beg. The Priest explains that all his property is settled. The friars insist on the merit of giving to them above all others, and are very importunate. At last, to quiet them, he tells them he will leave them a jewel for which he would not take a thousand marks; and their Prior must come next day, to learn where the jewel is kept.

Next day, five of the friars again visit the Priest, but leave the Prior at home. The Priest says he will only reveal the secret in the presence of the Sheriffs and the Mayor, who are duly sent for. On their arrival, the Priest explains all about the cupidity and importunity of the two friars, and how, in order to get rid of them, he promised to give them something which he valued very much. He then reveals the secret, that the jewel is his own bladder; and the Jacobins retire crest-fallen.

In the same volume of Fabliaux ou Contes, p. 184, M. Legrand d'Aussy says that a somewhat similar story used to be told of the poet Jean de Meun, who, it was said, left to the Jacobin friars some heavy coffers of treasure, which were not to be opened till they had duly said a mass for the repose of his soul. Of course the coffers were filled with pieces of slate.

It is interesting to notice how Chaucer localises the story. He transfers the scene from Antwerp to Holderness, just as, in the Reves Tale, he boldly transfers it to Trumpington. The friar satirised in the Tale is clearly an Englishman, and the whole is rendered definite and vivid.

In 1733, a Mr. Grosvenor wrote a sort of imitation of the Somnours Tale, under the title of The Whimsical Legacy, as a contribution to Eustace Budgell's periodical entitled The Bee. It is only a third of the length of the original. It was reprinted by Ogle, in his Canterbury Tales Modernized, in 1741. The poet Gay wrote another poor imitation, entitled An Answer to the Sompner's Prologue in Chaucer, printed anonymously in Lintot's Miscellany, entitled Poems on Several Occasions (1717), p. 147. See Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, iii. 125, 190, 192.

GROUP E.

§ 63. THE CLERK'S PROLOGUE. This begins a new Group of Tales. There is nothing to connect this Prologue with any of the rest of the Tales. It usually follows the Somnours Tale, as in most MSS. and in the early editions.

The Prologue, in the usual riming couplets, is evidently later than the Tale, and was supplied at the time of revision. It contains an interesting allusion to Petrarch, whose death took place in July, 1374; see remarks upon the Tale itself below. The latter part of the Prologue describes briefly the contents of the Latin Proem prefixed to Petrarch's tale.

§ 64. THE CLERKES TALE. Of this tale, the main part is a rather close translation from Petrarch's De obedientia et fide uxoriâ Mythologia, as explained in the Notes; and it must be added that Petrarch had it from Boccaccio. It is the very last tale--the tenth tale of the tenth day--in the Decamerone, written shortly after the year 1348. Whether Boccaccio invented it or not can hardly be determined; for an expression of Petrarch, to the effect that he had heard it 'many years' (multos annos) before 1373, is not at all decisive on this point, as he may easily have _heard_ it twenty years before then, even though he had never before _read_ the Decamerone, as he himself asserts. There has been some unnecessary mystification about the matter. Tyrwhitt wonders why Chaucer should have owned an obligation to Petrarch rather than to Boccaccio; but a very cursory examination shews the now undoubted fact, that Chaucer follows Petrarch almost word for word in many passages, though Petrarch by no means closely follows Boccaccio. In fact, ll. 41-55 settle the matter. The date of Petrarch's version, though a little uncertain, seems to have been 1373; and Chaucer himself tells us that he met Petrarch at Padua[134]. We may therefore readily adopt Dr. Furnivall's suggestion, that 'during his Italian embassy in 1373, Chaucer may have met Petrarch.' Only let us suppose for a moment that Chaucer himself knew best, that he is not intentionally and unnecessarily inventing his statements, and all difficulty vanishes. We know that Chaucer was absent from England on the king's business, visiting Florence and Genoa, from December 1, 1372, till some time before November 22, 1373. We know that Petrarch's letter to Boccaccio, really forming a preface to the tale of Griselda, and therefore written shortly _after_ he had made his version of it, is dated in some copies June 8, 1373, though in other copies no date appears. And we know that Petrarch, on his own shewing, was so pleased with the story of Griselda that he learnt it by heart as well as he could, _for the express purpose of repeating it to friends_, before the idea of turning it into Latin occurred to him. Whence we may conclude that Chaucer and Petrarch met at Padua early in 1373; that Petrarch told Chaucer the story by word of mouth, either in Italian or French[135]; and that Chaucer shortly after obtained a copy of Petrarch's Latin version, which he kept constantly before him whilst making his own translation[136]. At this rate, the main part of the Clerk's Tale was probably written in 1373 or early in 1374[137], and required but little revision to make it suitable for one of the tales of the Canterbury series. The test of metre likewise suggests that it was probably one of his early works. The closeness of the translation also proves the same point. Chaucer, in his revised version, adds the Prologue, containing an allusion to Petrarch's death (which took place in 1374), and eulogises the great Italian writer according to his desert. At the end of the translation, which terminates with l. 1162, he adds two new stanzas, and the Envoy. The lateness of this (undramatic) addition is proved at once by the whole tone of it, and, in particular, by the mention of the Wife of Bath in l. 1170. The Envoy is a marvel of rhythm, since, though it consists of thirty-six lines, it contains but three rime-endings, viz. _-ence_, _-aille_, and _-inde_. Besides this addition, there is yet one more, in the middle of the tale, viz. the two stanzas in ll. 995-1008, as pointed out in the Notes; they are conspicuous for their excellence.

The story of Griselda, as told by Boccaccio, together with Petrarch's Latin version of it, and the letter of Petrarch to Boccaccio concerning it, are all reprinted in the 'Originals and Analogues of some of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales,' Part II, published for the Chaucer Society, and dated (in advance) 1875. Were any additional proof needed that Chaucer had Petrarch's version before him, it is supplied by the fact that numerous quotations from that version are actually written in the margins of the pages of the Ellesmere and Hengwrt MSS., each in its proper place. All the passages that are made clearer by a comparison with the Latin text are duly considered in the Notes. Speaking of the story of Griselda, Warton remarks that it 'soon became so popular in France, that the comedians of Paris represented a mystery in French verse, entitled Le mystere de Griselidis Marquis[e] de Saluces, in the year 1393. Before, or in the same year, the French prose version in Le Ménagier de Paris was composed, and there is an entirely different version in the Imperial library. Lydgate, almost Chaucer's contemporary, in his poem entitled the Temple of Glass, among the celebrated lovers painted on the walls of the Temple, mentions Dido, Medea and Jason, Penelope, Alcestis, _Patient Griselda_[138], Belle Isoulde and Sir Tristram, Pyramus and Thisbe, Theseus, Lucretia, Canace, Palamon, and Emilia.' Elsewhere Warton remarks (Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, iv. 229, note 3) that 'the affecting story of _Patient Grisild_ seems to have long kept up its celebrity. In the books of the Stationers, in 1565, Owen Rogers has a licence to print "a Ballat intituled the Songe of Pacyent Gressell vnto hyr make" [husband]; Registr. A. fol. 132, b. Two ballads are entered in 1565, "to the tune of pacyente Gressell"; ibid. fol. 135, a. In the same year T. Colwell has licence to print The History of meke and pacyent Gresell; ibid. fol. 139, a. Instances occur much lower.' See also Hazlitt's Handbook of Early English Literature.

In Originals and Analogues, published by the Chaucer Society, 1887, p. 527, there is an article by Mr. Clouston giving an abstract of an Early French version of this story which was printed in Le Grand's Fabliaux ou Contes, du XIII^e et du XIIII^e siècle, ed. 1781, tome ii. 232-252. Mr. Clouston draws the conclusion that both the Latin version in Petrarch and the Italian version in Boccaccio were taken from a common source closely resembling this Early French _fabliau_. 'The differences,' he observes, 'between the French and Latin versions are few and immaterial. As Petrarch plainly states that he was familiar with the tale long before he had read it in the Decameron, we may, I think, safely conclude that he knew it from a _fabliau_, which was probably also the source of Boccaccio's novel.'

Similar tales are not common in Asiatic literature; but 'in the earlier literature of India,' says Mr. Clouston, 'before it could be affected by baleful Muslim notions regarding women, there occur several notable tales of faithful, virtuous, obedient wives.' One is the tale of a queen, as given in the Kathá Sárit Ságara (Tawney's translation, vol. i. p. 355); see the abstract by Mr. Clouston. Another faithful wife appears in Sitá, the spouse of Ráma, in the great Hindú epic, the Rámayana; and again, in Damayanti, wife of Nala, in the beautiful episode called the Tale of Nala, in the great poem entitled the Mahábhárata.

Two English versions of the Tale of Griselda are printed in vol. iii. of the Percy Society's publications. One is in prose, dated 1610, and is said to have been 'written first in French'; the other, in ballad form, is said to be 'translated out of Italian.'

There is a ballad called 'Patient Grissell,' in the Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, iii. 421; and there is one by Thomas Deloney in Professor Child's English and Scottish Ballads, vol. iv. Professor Child remarks that 'two plays upon the subject are known to have been written, one of which (by Dekker, Chettle, and Haughton) has been printed by the Shakespeare Society, while the other, an older production of the close of Henry VIII's reign, is lost.' Pepys refers to the 'puppet-play' of Patient Grizell in his Diary, Aug. 30, 1667. Butler, in his Hudibras (pt. i. c. 2. 772), couples Grizel with Job.

In Italy the story is so common that it is still often acted in marionette theatres; it is to be had, moreover, in common chap-books, and a series of cheap pictures representing various scenes in it may often be seen decorating cottage-walls. (Notes and Queries, 5th S. i. 105, 255). The same thing was done in England.

We in the country do not scorn Our walls with ballads to adorn Of patient Grissel and the Lord of Lorn.' Ritson's Ancient Songs, i. xcviii.

Several scenes of the tale are well exhibited in an excellent picture by Pinturicchio, in the National Gallery (London).

For remarks upon the conduct of the tale and the character of the heroine, see Prof. Hales's criticisms in the Percy Folio MS., iii. 421, and in Originals and Analogues of Chaucer, Part II, pp. 173-176. There are also a few good remarks on it in Canterbury Tales from Chaucer, by J. Saunders, ed. 1889, p. 308, where the author points out that, as the Marquis was Griselda's feudal lord, she could but say 'yes' when asked to marry him, the asking being a mere form; and that the spirit of chivalry appears in her devotion of herself to his every wish.

§ 65. THE MERCHANT'S PROLOGUE. It seems to have been Chaucer's first intention to end the Clerkes Tale at l. 1163. He then began writing a new Prologue, but only finished one stanza of it. This stanza is given in the footnote at p. 424 of vol. iv.[139] He then changed his mind, rejected this stanza, and wrote (instead of it) the late addition to the Clerkes Tale given on pp. 424-5, lines 1163-1212. The last line (l. 1212) ends with--'care, and wepe, and wringe, and waille.' Then, with reference to this line, he makes the Merchant's Prologue begin with the words '_Weping_, and _wayling, care_,' &c. In this way, the Clerkes Tale and that of the Marchant are indissolubly connected, as in the Ellesmere MS. and most others. There is, however, one set of MSS. which _disconnects_ these Tales, as explained in the Introduction to vol. iv. p. xxiii. This is the set there marked D. Unfortunately, Thynne followed a MS. of this class, in which the worst arrangement of the Tales occurs. Hence in all the black-letter editions, the Tales are sadly out of order, and the Clerkes Tale is wrongly followed by that of the Frankeleyn. This causes a breaking up of Group F as well as of Group E, the Squieres Tale being followed by that of the Marchant, as noted in § 69 below.

The close connexion between this Prologue and the preceding Tale is further seen in the whole tenor of ll. 1213-39; note particularly the express mention of _Grisildis_ in l. 1224.

In consequence of their dislocation of the order of the Tales, the black-letter editions substitute the word _Marchant_ for _Frankeleyn_ in F 675 and 696, and even alter the ending of F 699, viz. 'quod the frankeleyn,' into 'quod the marchant certeyn,' a forced alteration which is obviously spurious. They then place F 673-708 before E 1213; which is an extremely clumsy arrangement. Tyrwhitt put this matter right in his edition, being here guided by the authority of the majority of the MSS.

§ 66. THE MARCHANTES TALE. This Tale is certainly a late addition. Dr. Köppel has shewn[140] that several lines in this Tale are imitated from Albertano of Brescia, so that it becomes clear that the Tale of Melibeus (which is little else than a translation from that author) had already been written before the Marchantes Tale was begun. This easily appears by comparing the following passages: (_a_) E 1362-1374 with B 2287-91, where Jacob, Judith, Abigail, and Hester are mentioned, in both passages, in the same order: (_b_) E 1483-6 with B 2193: (_c_) E 2246-8 with B 2247, and E 2250 with B 2249: (_d_) E 2277-81 and 2286-90 with B 2266-70: (_e_) E 2365 with B 2167. Moreover, in two instances at least, Chaucer follows the Latin text of Albertano even where there is no corresponding passage in the Tale of Melibeus. Thus, in E 1373, there is mention of _Mardochee_; but he is not named in B 2291. However, the Latin text has: 'Simili modo et Hester Iudaeos per suum bonum consilium simul cum _Mardochaeo_, in regno Assueri regis, sublimauit'; cap. v. (ed. T. Sundby, p. 17). Again, the lines E 1375-6 do not appear after B 2298 (their proper place), but only occur in the Latin text: 'Quartam uero rationem ad hoc inducit Seneca, commendans super omnia benignas coniuges; ait enim: Sicut nihil est superius benigna coniuge, ita nihil est crudelius infesta muliere'; (p. 18).

Dr. Köppel has further pointed out, in the same article, that Chaucer has also introduced into this Tale some quotations from another work by Albertano, entitled Liber de amore et dilectione Dei; for examples, see the Notes. Moreover, this Tale also exhibits quotations from Boethius, as, e.g. in E 2021-2, for which see Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 2. 55; and, in one passage, E 1582, we find a reminiscence both of Boethius, bk. v. met. 4. 8, and of Troilus, i. 365. But, beyond all this, there is the somewhat extraordinary reference to the Wife of Bath's Prologue in E 1685, where we are told that she had already discussed the question of marriage 'in litel space.' This shews at once, past all doubt, that the Marchantes Tale was not only written later than Melibeus, Boethius, and Troilus; but even later than the highly mature performance written in the Wife's name, as the result of her wide experience.

The Tale practically consists of three parts. The first part (E 1245-1688) is a discourse upon marriage, somewhat in the style of the Wife of Bath's Prologue, but treating it from a more favourable point of view, with the addition of some hints from Albertano of Brescia. The second part describes the wedding of January and May, and the love-languor of Damian (E 1689-2056). The third part describes how January became blind, and the means whereby he was restored to sight (E 2057-2418). The last part has several analogues, and is, in fact, founded on a story once widely current. For a full account of this story, see Originals and Analogues, Chaucer Society, pp. 177 and 341. Chaucer probably took the outline of his story from some French or Latin source. Tyrwhitt says:--'The scene of the Marchantes Tale is laid in Italy, but none of the names, except Damian and Justin, seem to be Italian, but rather made at pleasure; so that I doubt whether the story be really of Italian growth. The adventure of _the Pear-tree_ I find in a small collection of Latin fables, written by one Adolphus, in elegiac verses of his fashion, in the year 1315. The same story is inserted among the Fables of Alphonse, printed by Caxton in English, with those of Æsop, Avian, and Pogge, without date; but I do not find it in the original Latin of Alphonsus (MS. Bibl. Reg. 10 B xii), or in any of the French translations of his work that I have examined.'

Five 'Pear-tree' stories are printed in the Originals and Analogues. The first is the fable of Adolphus, above mentioned. It is the first fable in Adolphi Fabulae, printed in Polycarpi Leyseri Historia Poetarum et Poematum Medii Ævi: Halae Magdelburgiae, 1721, p. 2008. It consists of thirty-six elegiac lines, and tells how a blind man's wife ascended a pear-tree in which her lover was hidden; whereupon the blind man's sight was suddenly restored, and she explains that the cure was due to her contrivance. Another very similar story occurs in an Appendix to the Latin editions of Æsop's Fables printed in the fifteenth century, and was reprinted by Wright in his 'Latin Stories,' for the Percy Society, 1842, p. 78. This is the same story, or nearly so, as the fable of Alphonsus which Tyrwhitt failed to find, and is written in prose. The English version (as Tyrwhitt says) was printed by Caxton in 1483, in The Book of the subtyl hystoryes and Fables of Esope[141], at leaf 132. The title runs, 'The xii fable is of a blynd man and of hys wyf.'

A third Latin 'Pear-tree' story occurs in the Comoedia Lydiae, by Matthieu de Vendôme, and was printed from a MS. at Vienna, in Anecdota Poetica, &c.: Poésies Inédites du moyen áge; par Edélestand du Méril; 1854, p. 370. This is in seventy-two elegiac lines, and gives names to the personages mentioned. The husband and wife are Duke Decius and Lydia; her lover is Pyrrhus, and her maid is Lusca. Hence it is evidently the source of the similar story in Boccaccio's Decamerone, Day 7, Nov. 9, in which the husband and wife are Nicostratus and Lydia, and the lover is Pyrrhus, as before. In this third version of the story the husband is not blind, but the pear-tree is supposed to be enchanted, and to cause false illusions to appear.

In the same Originals and Analogues, at p. 343, Mr. Clouston has collected several Asiatic stories of a similar character, including one in the Bahár-i Dánush, or Spring of Knowledge; a Turkish Version in the romance of The Forty Vazírs, about an enchanted tree which is supposed to cause illusions; and an Arabian Version found in the Breslau printed text of the Arabian Nights, ed. Habicht and Fleischer, and printed in English in Tales from the Arabic, by John Payne (London, printed for the Villon Society, 1884), vol. i. p. 270. Of a similar type is the story of The Officious Father-in-Law, occurring in the Persian Sindibád Náma (second tale of the Fifth Vazír), in the Túti Náma (eighth night, story of the Fifth Vazír), and in the Sanskrit Suka Saptati (fifteenth night). A similar story to that in the Bahár-i Dánush is current in Ceylon; and a translation of it is given in the Orientalist, vol. ii. (1885), p. 148, reprinted by Mr. Clouston. Other examples are added, which, however, bear but a remote resemblance to the Tale in Chaucer.

I may add that I find a French variant of the story in the Poésies de Marie de France, ed. Roquefort, Paris, 1820; 2 vols. It is the fortieth Fable in that work, and is headed, 'Dou vileins qui vit un autre Hom od sa femme.' But this version omits the husband's blindness and the pear-tree, and merely says that a thing is not necessarily true because you _see_ it. In conclusion, Mr. Clouston says:--'The model of both Boccaccio's and Chaucer's tales seems to have been the version found in the Comoedia Lydiae, or one similar to it. The story may perhaps exist in some of the great medieval monkish collections of sermons, or of _exempla_ designed for the use of preachers, such as the Sermones of Jacques de Vitry; the Liber de Donis of Étienne de Bourbon; the Promptuarium Exemplorum of John Herolt; the Summa Praedicantium of John Bromyard. In the absence of any Eastern version representing the cuckolded husband as being blind and having his sight miraculously restored to discover himself dishonoured, we must conclude that this form of the story is of European invention. It is needless to add that Chaucer's tale of January and May is incomparably the best-told of all the versions, whether Asiatic or European.'

One peculiarity of this Tale requires further notice, viz. the mention of Pluto. As to this, Tyrwhitt well remarks--'The machinery of the Faeries, which Chaucer has used so happily, was probably added by himself; and indeed I cannot help thinking, that his _Pluto_ and _Proserpina_ were the true progenitors of _Oberon_ and _Titania_.... In the rest of his Faery system, Shakespeare seems to have followed the popular superstitions of his own time.'

GROUP F.

§ 67. THE SQUIRE'S PROLOGUE. Ten Brink assumes that Groups E and F constitute but _one_ Group; for which there is no certain evidence. Many MSS., including Pt., make the Wife's Tale follow the Marchantes Tale; and there is nothing in the text itself to shew that the Epilogue to the Marchantes Tale is inseparably connected with the Squire's Prologue. Nevertheless, many good MSS., including E., write that Epilogue and the Squire's Prologue _continuously_, and E. prefixes to the Epilogue a rubric--'The Prologe of the Squieres Tale'; see vol. iv. p. 460, footnote. The easiest way out of the difficulty is to adopt the arrangement in the Six-text edition, which separates Group E from Group F as to the numbering of the lines, but makes F follow E immediately.

The black-letter editions omit E 2419-2440 and F 1-8 altogether; so that Tyrwhitt was the first to print these lines. He says: 'The Prologue to the Squieres Tale [by which he means E 2419-40 and F 1-8] appears now for the first time in print. Why it has been omitted by all former editors I cannot guess, except, perhaps, because it did not suit with the place which, for reasons best known to themselves, they were determined to assign to the Squieres Tale, that is, after the Man of Lawes and before the Marchantes[142]. I have chosen rather to follow the MSS. of the best authority in placing the Squieres Tale after the Marchantes, and in connecting them together by this Prologue, agreeably, as I am persuaded, to Chaucer's intention. The lines which have been usually printed by way of Prologue to the Squieres Tale, as I believe them to have been really composed by Chaucer, though not intended for the Squieres Prologue, I have prefixed to the Shipmannes Tale, for reasons which I shall give when I come to speak of that Tale[143].'

In F 1, MSS. Hn. and Pt., and others, substitute _Sire Frankeleyn_ for _Squyer_. This is obviously wrong, because it increases the number of syllables in the line from ten syllables to twelve, and the number of accents from five to six. Cf. § 69.

§ 68. THE SQUIERES TALE. As to this Tale, Tyrwhitt remarks: 'I have never been able to discover the probable original of this Tale, and yet I should be very hardly brought to believe that the whole, or even any considerable part of it, was of Chaucer's invention.'

The general tone of it points to an Eastern, and especially to an Arabian origin. In this connection, it is worth remarking that there is at least one other case in which Chaucer is conected with an Arabian writer. I have shewn, in the Introduction to the Treatise on the Astrolabe, that a large part of it is immediately derived from a Latin version of a treatise written by Messahala, an Arabian astronomer, by religion a Jew, who flourished towards the end of the eighth century. So also in the case of The Squieres Tale, we may suspect that it was through some Latin medium that Chaucer made acquaintance with Arabian fiction. But I am fortunate in having found a more direct clue to some part, at least, of the poem. I shall shew presently that one of his sources was the Travels of Marco Polo[144].

Warton, in his History of English Poetry, took much pains to gather together some information on the subject, and his remarks are therefore quoted here, nearly at length, for the reader's convenience. I omit most of his references.

'The Canterbury Tales,' says Warton, 'are unequal, and of various merit. Few perhaps, if any, of the stories are the invention of Chaucer. I have already spoken at large of the Knight's Tale, one of our author's noblest compositions. That of the Canterbury Tales which deserves the next place, as written in the higher strain of poetry, and the poem by which Milton describes and characterises Chaucer, is the Squire's Tale. The imagination of this story consists in Arabian fiction engrafted on Gothic chivalry. Nor is this Arabian fiction purely the sport of arbitrary fancy: it is in great measure founded on Arabian learning. Cambuscan, a King of Tartary, celebrates his birthday festival in the hall of his palace at Sarra with the most royal magnificence. In the midst of the solemnity, the guests are alarmed by a miraculous and unexpected spectacle: the minstrels cease on a sudden, and all the assembly is hushed in silence, surprise, and suspense; see ll. 77-88.

'These presents were sent by the King of Arabia and India to Cambuscan, in honour of his feast. The Horse of Brass, on the skilful movement and management of certain secret springs, transported his rider into the most distant region of the world in the space of twenty-four hours; for, as the rider chose, he could fly in the air with the swiftness of an eagle: and again, as occasion required, he could stand motionless in opposition to the strongest force, vanish on a sudden at command, and return at his master's call. The Mirror of Glass was endued with the power of shewing any future disasters which might happen to Cambuscan's kingdom, and discovered the most hidden machinations of treason. The Naked Sword could pierce armour deemed impenetrable, "were it as thikke as is a branched ook" (l. 159); and he who was wounded with it could never be healed, unless its possessor could be entreated to stroke the wound with its edge. The Ring was intended for Canace, Cambuscan's daughter, and while she bore it in her purse, or wore it on her thumb, enabled her to understand the language of every species of birds, and the virtues of every plant.

'I have mentioned, in another place, the favourite philosophical studies of the Arabians. In this poem the nature of those studies is displayed, and their operations exemplified: and this consideration, added to the circumstances of Tartary being the scene of action, and Arabia the country from which these extraordinary presents are brought, induces me to believe this story to be identical with one which was current at a very ancient date among the Arabians[145]. At least it is formed on their principles. Their sciences were tinctured with the warmth of their imaginations, and consisted in wonderful discoveries and mysterious inventions.

'This idea of a Horse of Brass took its rise from their chemical knowledge and experiments in metals. The treatise of Jeber, a famous Arab chemist of the middle ages, called Lapis Philosophorum, contains many curious and useful processes concerning the nature of metals, their fusion, purification, and malleability, which still maintain a place in modern systems of that science. The poets of romance, who deal in Arabian ideas, describe the Trojan horse as made of brass. These sages pretended the power of giving life or speech to some of their compositions in metal. Bishop Grosseteste's speaking brazen head, sometimes attributed to Roger Bacon, has its foundation in Arabian philosophy. In the romance of Valentine and Orson, a brazen head fabricated by a necromancer in a magnificent chamber of the castle of Clerimond, declares to those two princes their royal parentage. We are told by William of Malmesbury that Pope Sylvester II, a profound mathematician who lived in the eleventh century, made a brazen head, which would speak when spoken to, and oracularly resolved many difficult questions. Albertus Magnus, who was also a profound adept in those sciences which were taught by the Arabian schools, is said to have framed a man of brass, which not only answered questions readily and truly, but was so loquacious, that Thomas Aquinas, while a pupil of Albertus Magnus, and afterwards an Angelic doctor, knocked it in pieces as the disturber of his abstruse speculations. This was about the year 1240. Much in the same manner, the notion of our knight's horse being moved by means of a concealed engine corresponds with their pretences of producing preternatural effects, and their love of surprising by geometrical powers. Exactly in this notion, Rocail, a giant in some of the Arabian romances, is said to have built a palace, together with his own sepulchre, of most magnificent architecture and with singular artifice: in both of these he placed a great number of gigantic statues or images, figured of different metals by talismanic skill, which in consequence of some occult machinery, performed actions of real life, and looked like living men. We must add that astronomy, which the Arabian philosophers studied with a singular enthusiasm, had no small share in the composition of this miraculous steed. For, says the poet,

"He that it wroughte coude ful many a gin; He wayted many a constellacioun, Er he had doon this operacioun." (ll. 128-130.)

'Thus the buckler of the Arabian giant Ben Gian, as famous among the Orientals as that of Achilles among the Greeks, was fabricated by the powers of astronomy; and Pope Sylvester's brazen head, just mentioned, was prepared under the influence of certain constellations.

'Natural magic, improperly so called, was likewise a favourite pursuit of the Arabians, by which they imposed false appearances on the spectator.... Chaucer, in the fiction before us, supposes that some of the guests in Cambuscan's hall believed the Trojan horse to be a temporary illusion, effected by the power of magic (l. 218)....

'Optics were likewise a branch of study which suited the natural genius of the Arabian philosophers, and which they pursued with incredible delight. This science was a part of the Aristotelic philosophy which, as I have before observed, they refined and filled with a thousand extravagances. Hence our strange knight's Mirror of Glass, prepared on the most profound principles of art, and endued with preternatural qualities (ll. 225-234, 132-141).

'Alcen, or Alhazen, mentioned in l. 232, an Arabic philosopher, wrote seven books of perspective, and flourished about the eleventh century. Vitellio, formed on the same school, was likewise an eminent mathematician of the middle ages, and wrote ten books on Perspective. The Roman Mirror here mentioned by Chaucer, as similar to this of the strange knight, is thus described by Gower:--

"Whan Rome stood in noble plite, Virgile, which was tho parfite, A mirrour made of his clergye [_by his skill_], And sette it in the townes ye [_eye_, _sight_] Of marbre on a piller withoute, That they, by thritty mile aboute, By day and eek also by nighte In that mirrour beholde mighte Her ennemies, if any were"; Conf. Amant. bk. v. (ii. 195).

'The Oriental writers relate that Giamschid, one of their kings, the Solomon of the Persians and their Alexander the Great, possessed among his inestimable treasures cups, globes, and mirrors, of metal, glass, and crystal, by means of which he and his people knew all natural as well as supernatural things. The title of an Arabian book translated from the Persian is--The Mirror which reflects the World. There is this passage in an ancient Turkish poet: "When I am purified by the light of heaven, my soul will become the mirror of the world, in which I shall discern all abstruse secrets." Monsieur Herbelot is of opinion that the Orientals took these notions from the patriarch Joseph's cup of divination and Nestor's cup in Homer, on which all nature was symbolically represented. Our great countryman Roger Bacon, in his Opus Majus, a work entirely formed on the Aristotelic and Arabian philosophy, describes a variety of _Specula_, and explains their construction and uses. This is the most curious and extraordinary part of Bacon's book, which was written about the year 1270. Bacon's optic tube, with which he pretended to see future events, was famous in his age, and long afterwards, and chiefly contributed to give him the name of a magician. This art, with others of the experimental kind, the philosophers of those times were fond of adapting to the purposes of thaumaturgy; and there is much occult and chimerical speculation in the discoveries which Bacon affects to have made from optical experiments. He asserts (and I am obliged to cite the passage in his own mysterious expressions) "omnia sciri per Perspectivam, quoniam omnes actiones rerum fiunt secundum specierum et virtutum multiplicationem ab agentibus hujus mundi in materias patientes," &c.[146] Spenser feigns that the magician Merlin made a glassy globe, and presented it to King Ryence, which showed the approach of enemies, and discovered treasons (F. Q. iii. 2. 21). This fiction, which exactly corresponds with Chaucer's Mirror, Spenser borrowed from some romance, perhaps of King Arthur, fraught with Oriental fancy. From the same sources came a like fiction of Camoens in the Lusiad (canto x), where a globe is shown to Vasco de Gama, representing the universal fabric or system of the world, in which he sees future kingdoms and future events. The Spanish historians report an American tradition, but more probably invented by themselves, and built on the Saracen fables in which they were so conversant. They pretended that some years before the Spaniards entered Mexico, the inhabitants caught a monstrous fowl, of unusual magnitude and shape, on the lake of Mexico. In the crown of the head of this wonderful bird there was a mirror or plate of glass, in which the Mexicans saw their future invaders the Spaniards, and all the disasters which afterwards happened to their kingdom. These superstitions remained, even in the doctrines of philosophers, long after the darker ages. Cornelius Agrippa, a learned physician of Cologne about the year 1520, and author of a famous book on the Vanity of the Sciences, mentions a species of mirror which exhibited the form of persons absent, at command. In one of these he is said to have shown to the poetical Earl of Surrey the image of his mistress, the beautiful Geraldine, sick and reposing on a couch. Nearly allied to this was the infatuation of seeing things in a beryl, which was very popular in the reign of James I, and is alluded to by Shakespeare....

'The Naked Sword, another of the gifts presented by the strange knight to Cambuscan, endued with medical virtues, and so hard as to pierce the most solid armour, is likewise an Arabian idea. It was suggested by their skill in medicine, by which they affected to communicate healing qualities to various substances, and by their knowledge of tempering iron and hardening all kinds of metal. It is the classical spear of Peleus, perhaps originally fabricated in the same regions of fancy; see ll. 236-246.

'The sword which Berni, in the Orlando Innamorato, gives to the hero Ruggiero, is tempered by much the same sort of magic:--

"Il brando con tal arte fabbricato, Che taglia incanto, ed ogni fatagione[147]"; Orl. Innamor. ii. 17, st. 5.

So also his continuator Ariosto:--

"Non vale incanto, ov'ella mette il taglio[148]"; Orl. Fur. xli. 83.

And the notion that this weapon could resist all incantations is like the fiction above mentioned of the buckler of the Arabian giant Ben Gian, which baffled the force of charms and enchantments made by giants or demons. Spenser has a sword endued with the same efficacy, the metal of which the magician Merlin mixed with the juice of meadow-wort, that it might be proof against enchantment; and afterwards, having forged the blade in the flames of Etna, he gave it hidden virtue by dipping it seven times in the bitter waters of Styx; F. Q. ii. 8. 20. From the same origin is also the golden lance of Berni, which Galafron, King of Cathaia, father of the beautiful Angelica and the invincible champion Argalia, procured for his son by the help of a magician. This lance was of such irresistible power, that it unhorsed a knight the instant he was touched with its point; Orl. Innamor. i. 1. 43. Britomart in Spenser is armed with the same enchanted spear, which was made by Bladud, an ancient British king skilled in magic; F. Q. iii. 3. 60; iv. 6. 6; iii. 1. 10.

'The Ring, a gift to the king's daughter Canace, which taught the language of birds, is also quite in the style of some others of the occult sciences of these inventive philosophers; and it is the fashion of the Oriental fabulists to give language to brutes in general. But to understand the language of birds was peculiarly one of the boasted sciences of the Arabians, who pretend that many of their countrymen have been skilled in the knowledge of the language of birds ever since the time of King Solomon. Their writers relate that Balkis, the Queen of Sheba or Saba, had a bird called _Hudhud_, that is, a lapwing, which she dispatched to King Solomon on various occasions, and that this trusty bird was the messenger of their amours. We are told that Solomon having been secretly informed by this winged confidant that Balkis intended to honour him with a grand embassy, enclosed a spacious square with a wall of gold and silver bricks, in which he ranged his numerous troops and attendants in order to receive the ambassadors, who were astonished at the suddenness of these splendid and unexpected preparations. Herbelot tells a curious story of an Arab feeding his camels in a solitary wilderness, who was accosted for a draught of water by Alhejaj, a famous Arabian commander, who had been separated from his retinue in hunting. While they were talking together, a bird flew over their heads, making at the same time an unusual sort of noise, which the camel-feeder hearing, looked steadfastly on Alhejaj, and demanded who he was. Alhejaj, not choosing to return him a direct answer, desired to know the meaning of that question. "Because," replied the camel-feeder, "this bird assures me that a company of people is coming this way, and that you are the chief of them." While he was speaking, Alhejaj's attendants arrived.

'This wonderful Ring also imparted to the wearer a knowledge of the qualities of plants, which formed an important part of the Arabian philosophy; see ll. 146-155.

'Every reader of taste and imagination must regret that, instead of our author's tedious detail of the quaint effects of Canace's ring, in which a falcon relates her amours, and talks familiarly of Troilus, Paris, and Jason, the notable achievements we may suppose to have been performed by the assistance of the horse of brass are either lost, or that this part of the story, by far the most interesting, was never written. After the strange knight has explained to Cambuscan the management of this magical courser, he vanishes on a sudden, and we hear no more of him; ll. 302-343.

'By such inventions we are willing to be deceived. These are triumphs of deception over truth:--

"Magnanima mensogna, hor quando è il vero Si bello, che si possa à te preporre?[149]"'

This learned and curious discourse is well worth perusal; but the reader will probably be led to remark, that Warton does not after all tell us whence Chaucer drew his materials, but only proves that he drew them from some Arabian source. That source may be indicated a little more distinctly; for, as will be shewn more fully below, nearly all the magical particulars are to be found in the collection now known as the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. For the rest, we may trace most of the descriptions to the travels of Marco Polo, with which Chaucer must have been acquainted to some extent, either immediately or through some channel not easily now pointed out. This suggestion occurred to me on reading a note by Colonel Yule on the name of Cambuscan; but in this I have been long anticipated by Mr. Keightley, as noted above (p. 463, note 2). The passage in Colonel Yule's edition of Marco Polo to which I refer, is as follows:--

'Before parting with Chingis [or Gengis Khan] let me point out what has not to my knowledge been suggested before, that the name of "_Cambuscan_ bold" in Chaucer's tale is only a corruption of the name of Chinghiz. The name of the conqueror appears in Friar Ricold as _Camiuscan_, from which the transition to Cambuscan presents no difficulty[150]. _Camius_ was, I suppose, a clerical corruption out of _Canjus_ or _Cianjus_.'--Marco Polo, ed. Yule, i. 218.

On applying to Professor Palmer for information as to the _meaning_ of the name, he kindly pointed out to me that, in the Dictionnaire Turk-Oriental by M. Pavet de Courteille (Paris, 1870), p. 289, the word _djenguiz_ (as M. de Courteille spells it) is explained to mean simply _great_. Thus Chinghiz Khan is no more than _Great Khan_; and Cambinskan merely represents the same title of Great Khan, which appears so repeatedly in Marco Polo's travels. The succession of supreme or Great Khans was as follows:--(1) Chinghiz; (2) Okkadai; (3) Kuyuk; (4) Mangku; (5) Kublai, &c. The first of these is always known by the simple _title_, though his real name was Temugin; the second was his son; and the third, fourth, and fifth were all his grandsons. The descriptions in Marco Polo refer to Kublai Khan, who died in 1294. Marco describes his person with some minuteness:--

'The personal appearance of the Great Kaan, Lord of Lords, whose name is Cublay, is such as I shall now tell you. He is of a good stature, neither tall nor short, but of a middle height. He has a becoming amount of flesh, and is very shapely in all his limbs. His complexion is white and red, the eyes black and fine, the nose well formed and well set on': ed. Yule, i. 318. A portrait of him, from a Chinese engraving, is given by Colonel Yule on the next page. Kublai was succeeded by his grandson Teimur, to the exclusion of his elder brothers _Kambala_ (who squinted) and Tarmah (who was of a weak constitution). Here we might perhaps think to see the original of Chaucer's _Camballo_, but I suspect the real interpretation to be very different. It is far more probable that the name _Camballo_ was caught, not from this obscure Kambala, but from the famous word _Cambaluc_, really the name (not of a person, but) of the celebrated capital which Kublai built and where he resided; so that the name may easily have suggested itself from this connexion[151]. For example, in the splendid Bodleian MS. No. 264, generally known as the 'Alexander MS.,' there is a copy of Marco Polo's Travels, with the colophon--_Explicit le Livre nommé du Grant Caan de la Graunt Cité de Cambaluc; Dieux ayde; Amen._ In fact, Cambaluc is but the old name of the city which is still the capital of China, but better known as _Pekin_; the etymology of the word being merely _Kaan-baligh_, i.e. the city of the Khan. All this may seem a little uncertain at first sight; but if the reader can turn to the second book of Marco Polo, he will soon see clearly enough that Chaucer's Cambinskan (though the name itself is formed from Chinghiz Khan) is practically identical with Marco's Kublai Khan, and that it is to Marco's description of him and his court that Chaucer is ultimately indebted for some of his details. This will be best illustrated by examples of correspondences.

'Of a surety he [Kublai Khan] hath good right to such a title [that of _Kaan_ or Emperor], for all men know for a certain truth that he is the most potent man, as regards forces and lands and treasure, that existeth in the world, or ever hath existed from the time of our first father Adam until this day'; Marco Polo, ed. Yule, i. 295. Cf. Sq. Ta. 14.

'The empire fell to him because of his ability and valour and great worth, as was right and reason'; id. i. 296. Cf. Sq. Ta. 16.

'He had often been to the wars, and had shown himself a gallant soldier and an excellent captain'; id. i. 296. Cf. Sq. Ta. 23.

In Book ii. ch. 4, is an account of his taking the field in person, and acting with astonishing vigour and rapidity, even at the age of seventy-three.

In Book ii. ch. 5, it is related that the enemy whom he then subdued had Christians in his army, some of whom bore standards on which the Cross was displayed. After the battle, the Christians were bitterly taunted with this, and were told that their Cross had not helped them. But Kublai reproved the scoffers, saying that the Cross had done its part well in not assisting the rebels. 'The Cross of your God did well in that it gave him [the rebel chief] no help against the right.' Cf. Sq. Ta. 16-21.

His rewards to his captains are described fully in chap. 7. He gave them silver plate, ornaments, 'fine jewels of gold and silver, and pearls and precious stones; insomuch that the amount that fell to each of them was something astonishing.' Cf. Sq. Ta. 26.

His palace, 'the greatest palace that ever was,' is described in chap. 10. It was situate 'in the capital city of Cathay, which is called _Cambaluc_.' The _hall_ of the palace 'could easily dine 6000 people.' The _parks_ within its enclosure were full of fine trees and 'beasts of sundry kinds, such as white stags and fallow deer, gazelles and roebucks,' &c. Cf. Sq. Ta. 60-62, 392.

'And when the great Kaan sits at table on any great court occasion, it is in this fashion. His table is elevated a good deal above the others, and he sits at the north end of the hall, looking towards the south, with his chief wife beside him on the left,' &c.; i. 338. Near the table is a golden butt, at each corner of which is one of smaller size holding a firkin, 'and from the former the wine or beverage flavoured with fine and costly spices is drawn off into the latter'; i. 339. 'And when the Emperor is going to drink, all the musical instruments, of which he has vast store of every kind, begin to play'; i. 340. 'I will say nought about the dishes, as you may easily conceive that there is a great plenty of every possible kind. And when all have dined and the tables have been removed, then come in a great number of players and jugglers, adepts at all sorts of wonderful feats,' &c.; i. 340. Cf. Sq. Ta. 59-68, 77-79, 266-271, 218, 219.

'You must know that the Tartars keep high festival yearly on their birthdays.... Now on his birthday, the Great Kaan dresses in the best of his robes, all wrought with beaten gold'; i. 343. 'On his birthday also, all the Tartars in the world, and all the countries and governments that owe allegiance to the Kaan, offer him great presents according to their several ability, and according as prescription or orders have fixed the amount'; i. 344. Cf. Sq. Ta. 44-47, 110-114.

The Kaan also holds a feast called the 'White Feast' on New-year's day, i.e. at the vernal equinox. 'On that day, I can assure you, among the customary presents there shall be offered to the Kaan from various quarters more than 100,000 white horses, beautiful animals and richly caparisoned'; i. 346.

When he goes on a hunting expedition, 'he takes with him fully 10,000 falconers, and some 500 gerfalcons besides _peregrines_, sakers, and other hawks in great number'; i. 358. He also has another 'grand park' at Chandu[152], 'where he keeps his gerfalcons in mew'; i. 365. At p. 260 he is described again as 'very fond of hawking.' At p. 237 the peregrine falcons are described particularly. At p. 220 we are told that the Tartars 'eat all kinds of flesh, including that of horses and dogs, and Pharaoh's rats.' Cf. Sq. Ta. 424-429, 69-71.

In the great city of Kinsay 'there is an eminence on which stands a tower.' This was used as an alarm-tower in case of fire; see vol. ii. p. 148. This may serve to illustrate Chaucer's 'maister tour.' Still more curious is the account of the city of Mien, with its two towers covered with plates of gold and silver, which 'form one of the finest sights in the world'; ii. 73. These towers were, however, part of a mausoleum. Cf. Sq. Ta. 176, 226.

The following note about the Tartar invasion of Russia is also worthy of attention:--

'Rosia [_Russia_] is a very great province, lying towards the north.... There are many strong defiles and passes in the country; and they pay tribute to nobody except to a certain Tartar king of the Ponent [i.e. _West_], whose name is Toctai; to him indeed they pay tribute, but only a trifle.'--Marco Polo, ed. Yule, ii. 417. On this passage Col. Yule has the note: 'Russia was overrun with fire and sword as far as Tver and Torshok by Batu Khan (123-38), some years before his invasion of Poland and Silesia. Tartar tax-gatherers were established in the Russian cities as far as Rostov and Jaroslawl, and for many years Russian princes as far as Novgorod paid homage to the Mongol Khans in their court at _Sarai_[153]. Their subjection to the Khans was not such a trifle as Polo seems to imply; and at least a dozen princes met their death at the hands of the Mongol executioner.'

Some of the Mongolian Tartars, known as the 'Golden Horde,' conquered a part of S. E. Russia in 1223; in 1242 they established the Empire of the Khan of Kaptschak (S. E. Russia), and exercised great influence there. In 1380 was another Tartar war; and in 1383 Moscow was burnt. The Tartar power in Russia was crushed by the general of Ivan III in 1481. See Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, under _Golden Horde_ and _Russia_.

The whole subject of magic is so vast that it is not easy to deal with it within a reasonable space. I must therefore content myself with pointing out a few references, &c., that seem most worthy of being here noted.

_The Magic Horse_ appears in the tale of Cleomades and Claremond; see Keightley's Tales and Popular Fictions. Cervantes has put him to memorable use in his Don Quixote, where he describes him as 'aquel mismo caballo de madera sobre quien llevo el valeroso Pierres robada á la linda Magalona'--'that very wooden horse upon which the valiant Peter of Provence carried off the fair Magalona[154]. This horse is governed by a pin he has in his forehead, which serves for a bridle,' &c.; see Jarvis's translation, vol. ii. chap, xl., ed. 1809. But the best story of the Enchanted Horse is in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, where he is said to have been presented by an Indian to the king of Persia on the New Day, i.e. on the first day of the solar year, at the vernal equinox. This horse is governed by a peg in his neck, which was turned round when it was necessary for him to fly: see the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, published by Nimmo, 1865, p. 483; or the excellent edition by Lane, vol. ii. p. 463, which varies considerably from the more popular editions.

The tale of Cleomades is alluded to, says Mr. Keightley, in Caxton's edition of Reynard the Foxe, printed in 1481, in the 32nd chapter[155]. He also cites a note by Sir F. Madden that a copy of the poem of Cleomades was purchased by Sir Thomas Phillipps at Mr. Lang's sale in 1828; that an undated edition of the Histoire Plaisante et Récréative du noble et excellent chevalier Clamades et de la belle Clermonde was printed at Troyes; and that Les Aventures de Clamades et Clarmonde appeared in Paris in 1733. Mr. Lane agrees with Mr. Keightley in considering the Tale of Cleomades identical with that of the Enchanted Horse in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, and in supposing that it was originally a Persian story. Mr. Lane thinks it is derived from the 'Hezár Afsaneh'; see his edition, ii. 491.

It is not out of place to observe that the town of Seville is frequently mentioned in Cleomades, and we have seen that Cervantes had heard of the story. Perhaps, then, we may suppose that the story, originally Persian, found its way into Arabic, and thence into Spain; it would then soon be written down in Latin, and thence be translated into French, and become generally known. This must have happened, too, at an early period; for the French romance of Cleomades, extending to some 19,000 octosyllabic lines, was written by a poet named Adenet surnamed le Roi, a native of Brabant, between the years 1275 and 1283; see Keightley's Tales, p. 40.

_The Magic Mirror_ is a common fiction, and we may connect it with the magic ivory tube, furnished with glass, which enabled the user of it to see whatever object he might wish to behold. This fancy occurs in the tale of the Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Pari Banou, as told in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments (Nimmo, 1865), p. 501. It is hardly worth while to pursue the subject further, as Warton's comments have already been cited, and Mr. Clouston's essay (mentioned below) can be consulted.

_The Magic Ring_ is to be referred to the story of the seal-ring made partly of brass and partly of iron, by which Solomon obtained power over the evil Jinn; see Lane's Arabian Nights, i. 31[156]. The ineffable name of Allah was engraved upon it, and gave it its virtue. The notion of its conferring upon the wearer the power of understanding the language of birds is connected with it, because this was one of the faculties which Solomon possessed; for we read in the Koran, as translated by Sale, that 'Solomon was David's heir; and he said, "O men, we have been taught the speech of birds";' ch. xxvii. A clever Arabic epigram of the thirteenth century, ascribing to King Solomon a knowledge of the language of birds and beasts, is cited in Professor Palmer's History of the Jewish Nation, at p. 93. Even Hudibras understood the language of birds; Hudib. pt. 1. c. 1. l. 547. See further, as to this subject, in the remarks below, upon the Manciples Tale (Group H); § 75.

With regard to _the Falcon_, Leigh Hunt has well observed, in his Essay on Wit and Humour, that this bird is evidently 'a human being, in a temporary state of metempsychosis, a circumstance very common in tales of the East.' This is probably true, as otherwise the circumstances of the story become poor and meaningless; it is something more than a mere fable like that of the Cock and Fox. If the story had been completed, shewing how the Falcon 'gat her love again,' we should have seen how she was restored to her first shape, by means, as Chaucer hints, of the magic ring. A talking bird appears in the Story of the Sisters who envied their Younger Sister, the last in some editions of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, but it is not transformed. On the other hand, in the story of Beder, Prince of Persia, in the same collection--which, by the way, mentions a magic ring--we find Prince Beder transformed into a white bird, and recovering his shape on being sprinkled with magic water; but he does not speak while so metamorphosed. The story of a boy who understands the language of birds occurs in the Seven Sages, ed. Wright, p. 106; and Mr. Wright shews, in his Introduction, that such oriental tales are of great antiquity, and known in Europe in the thirteenth century. He refers us to an Essai sur les Fables Indiennes, et sur leur Introduction en Europe, by M. Deslongchamps, published in 1838. Cf. Weber, Met. Rom. iii. 137.

The reader should not forget the hint in the Notes to the Minor Poems (vol. i. p. 534), that some expressions in the Squieres Tale are taken from the poem of Queen Anelida.

With respect to the ending of the Squieres Tale, two attempts at least have been made to complete it. Spenser, in his Faerie Queene (bk. iv. c. 2. 30-3. 52), accounts for the fighting for Canacee, but he omits all about Cambinskan and the Falcon. Another ending was written by John Lane[157] in 1630, and is contained in MSS. Douce 170 and Ashmole 53, in the Bodleian Library. Warton (Observations on the Fairy Queen, p. 214) justly calls it a weak performance.

Dr. Furnivall has printed the whole of this poem, in twelve tedious parts, for the Chaucer Society; and the result shews that Lane's work is bad almost beyond belief. It is the duty of every man who values his time to decline to read 237 pages of such stuff as this:--

Algarsif at his broother shooke his pike: Camballo stowtlie did att him the like; naie, quicklie, with a shock of pikes, chargd home, theare right to make his rendeuous first known: gainst whome Algarsif rann from thambuscado, to prove his ernest provd no French bravado.'

Since I wrote the preceding remarks, which were formerly printed in my edition of The Prioresses Tale, &c., for the Clarendon Press, Mr. Clouston has taken up the subject in a very exhaustive manner. I must therefore refer the reader to his essay 'On the Magical Elements in Chaucer's Squire's Tale, with Analogues,' printed for the Chaucer Society in 1889. He there deals fully with the subjects of Magic Horses, Chariots, &c., Magic Mirrors and Images, Magic Rings and Gems, the Language of Animals, and Magic Swords and Spears. He lays particular stress upon the Romance of Cléomadès and Claremonde above mentioned, to which Keightley had already drawn attention. 'The French prose version, called L'Histoire et Chronique du vaillant Chevallier Cléomadès et la belle Claremonde, appeared about the year 1480[158]; and of this work Count Tressan published an _extrait_ in the Bibliothèque des romans, April 1777, t. i. 169 ff.; see also Oeuvres du Conte de Tressan, Paris, 1822, t. iii. pp. 255-298. Of this abstract Keightley gives an English translation in his Tales and Popular Fictions, pp. 43-69.

'Keightley has remarked that the name of Claremonde occurs in the romance of Valentine and Orson, it being that of the lady beloved by the valiant hero, and also that a magic horse figures in the same work; but he has strangely overlooked a number of incidents which have evidently been adopted from the story of Cléomadès and Claremonde. The magic horse is described in the 21st chapter of a chap-book version of The Renown'd History of Valentine and Orson, the two Sons of the Emperor of Greece.

'I quite agree with M. Paris in considering that the origin of the French metrical romance was Morisco-Spanish, whether Adenès derived his materials from Blanche of Castile, or otherwise.'

With respect to the story of the Falcon, Mr. Clouston observes: 'The scene between Canacé and the Falcon is essentially Asiatic, and Warton's complaint that the bird is represented as talking of Troilus, Paris, and Jason, is utterly absurd. It is, in fact, an Indian fable, with a bird talking out of the Grecian classics instead of out of the Vedas and the Shastras. If the poet had any purpose in writing the story of the deserted Falcon, it could only have been that of any Asiatic fabler, namely, to convey certain moral lessons through the feigned speech of a bird. That Chaucer had before him, or in his memory, a model for his story of the Falcon is not only possible but highly probable. There exists a somewhat analogous ancient Indian tale of two birds--a male parrot and a hen-maina, a species of hill-starling--in which, however, it is the male bird who is distressed at the female's treachery, and is about to cast himself into the midst of a forest-fire, when he is rescued by a benevolent traveller, to whom he relates the story of his woes. This tale forms the third of the Twenty-five Tales of a Vampyre (Vetála panchavinsati), and may be found in Tawney's translation of the Kathá Sarit Ságara, vol. ii. pp. 245-250.'

It is necessary to mention here that Prof. Brandl, of Göttingen, in Englische Studien, xii. 161, actually propounded a theory that Cambinskan was intended to represent Edward III., and that Canacee does not mean 'the king's daughter,' as Chaucer (who might be supposed to know) expressly says, but his daughter-in-law Constance, second wife of John of Gaunt; with much more to the same effect, all purely gratuitous. Fortunately, his theory was promptly shewn to be untenable by Prof. Kittredge, of Harvard University, in a paper which also appeared in Englische Studien, xiii. 1; and we may dismiss this dream as being wholly unfounded. The Tale was written after Edward's death.

§ 69. WORDS OF THE FRANKELEYN. See F 673-708. In at least fifteen MSS. and in the black-letter editions, the Squieres Tale is followed by the Marchantes Tale. In order to suit this arrangement, the word _Frankeleyn_ in F 675 is altered to _Marchant_. So again, in ll. 696 and 699. In the last case, the rime is affected; and, to bring this right, the words _the frankeleyn_ are altered to _the marchant, certeyn_. Tyrwhitt well points out two grave objections to this arrangement. The former is, that, in this case, the Marchant is made (in F 682, 690) to say that he has a son who has learnt to play at dice, and only a few lines further on (in E 1233-4) that he has been married just two months, and _not more_! The latter is, that the sentiments attributed to the speaker, who laments his son's extravagance and praises 'gentillesse,' are suitable to the character of the honest and hospitable Frankeleyn, but not to that of the Marchant, if we may judge of his sentiments from the loose character of his Tale. In the same editions and in most of the MSS., the Frankeleyns Tale follows the Clerkes Tale, causing further trouble. The editions also transpose one of the stanzas in Chaucer's Envoy to the Clerkes Tale, so as to make E 1195-1200 come at the end. They then insert the (genuine) stanza printed in the footnote to vol. iv. p. 424, and afterwards pass on at once to F 709. The same arrangement occurs in MS. Harl. 7333. Other MSS. insert (after the Clerkes Tale) various scraps taken from E 2419-40, followed by lines corresponding to F 1-8, at the same time changing _Squyer_ (in F 1) to _Sire Frankeleyn_, which makes the line too long. Cf. § 67.

However, the best MSS., including E. and Dd., are here correct; and we have only to follow their guidance. In these, the Words of the Frankeleyn (F 673-708) are immediately followed by the true Prologue to the Frankeleyns Tale (F 709-728).

§ 70. THE FRANKLIN'S PROLOGUE. This Prologue is rightly placed before the Tale even in the black-letter editions and in the MSS. which assign lines 673-708 to the Marchant. In the old editions, it follows the (once final) stanza of the Clerkes Tale which is printed in the footnote to p. 424 (vol. iv).

§ 71. THE FRANKELEYNS TALE. We cannot doubt that Chaucer adapted this Tale, as he himself asserts, from a Breton lay; cf. note to F 709. Not only is the scene laid in Brittany (F 729), but we find special mention of Penmark (801) and of Kayrrud (808); see notes. The story itself turns upon the magical removal of rocks on the Breton coast (993). This is particularly worthy of notice, because (as will be seen below) Boccaccio altered this circumstance in order to render the story more congruous to an Italian location and scenery; a fact which shews at once that Chaucer did not adopt the story from the Italian, as some have inconsiderately assumed. It must be said once more, that Chaucer does not seem to have read the Decamerone.

The whole character of the story agrees well with that of the Breton lays versified by Marie de France; indeed, it is almost a wonder that her collection does not include the story now under consideration.

The ultimate source of the Tale is certainly Eastern, as shewn in Mr. Clouston's essay on the story of 'The Damsel's Rash Promise,' printed in Originals and Analogues (Chaucer Soc.), p. 291. I cannot do better than transcribe his remarks:--

'The oldest known form of Chaucer's well-told Tale of the chaste Dorigen is probably found in a group of Indian fictions entitled Vetála Panchavinsati, "Twenty-five Tales of a Vetála," or Vampyre, which are incorporated with the great Sanskrit collection, Kathá Sarit Ságara, "Ocean of the Rivers of Story"; but they still exist as a separate and distinct work, though considerably abridged, in most of the vernacular languages of India: in Tamil, Vedála Kadai; in Hindí, Bytál Pachísí, &c.... This is the Vetála story, from Prof. C. H. Tawney's translation of the Kathá Sarit Ságara, published at Calcutta, vol. ii. p. 278[159].

'THE STORY OF MADANASENÁ.

'There was an excellent King of the name of Vírabáhu, who imposed his orders on the heads of all kings. He had a splendid city named Anangapura, and in it there lived a rich merchant, named Arthadatta; that merchant-prince had for elder child a son called Dhanadatta, and his younger child was a pearl of maidens, named Madanasená.

'One day, as she was playing with her companions in her own garden, a young merchant, named Dharmadatta, a friend of her brother, saw her. When he saw that maiden ..., he was at once robbed of his senses by the arrows of love, that fell upon him in showers.... Then Madanasená entered her house, and grief at no longer beholding her entered the breast of Dharmadatta....

'In the meanwhile Dharmadatta went home, and thinking upon that fair one, he remained tossing to and fro upon his bed, smitten by the rays of the moon.... And in the morning he woke up, and went and saw her once more in that very garden, alone and in privacy. So he went up to her, longing to embrace her, and falling at her feet, he tried to coax her with words tender from affection. But she said to him with great earnestness: "I am a maiden, betrothed to another ... for my father has bestowed me on the merchant Samudradatta, and I am to be married in a few days."... But Dharmadatta said to her: "Happen what may, I cannot live without you." When the merchant's daughter heard this, she was afraid that he would use force to her, so she said to him: "Let my marriage first be celebrated here; let my father reap the long-desired fruit of bestowing a daughter in marriage; then will I certainly visit you, for your love has gained my heart." When he heard this, he said: "I love not a woman that has been embraced by another man."... She replied: "Then I will visit you as soon as I am married, and afterwards I will go to my husband." But though she made this promise, he would not let her go without further assurance; so she confirmed the truth of her promise with an oath. Then he let her go, and she entered the house in low spirits.

'And when the lucky day had arrived, and the auspicious ceremony of marriage had taken place, she went to her husband's house, and spent that day in merriment, and then retired with him. But she repelled her husband's caresses, and said slowly, with downcast face: "I love you more than my life, but hear what I have to say. Rise up cheerfully, and promise me immunity from punishment; take an oath to that effect, my husband, in order that I may tell you." [She then repeats the story.]

'Samudradatta ... being bound by the necessity of keeping his word ... gave her leave to go where she would; and she rose up, and left her husband's house....

'A certain thief saw Madanasená, as she was going along alone at night, and rushing upon her, seized her by the hem of her garment.... The helpless merchant's daughter told him her story, and entreated him as follows: "Excuse me for a moment that I may keep my word, and as soon as I have done that, I will quickly return to you, if you remain here. Believe me, my good man, I will never break this true promise of mine." When the thief heard that, he let her go.... She, for her part, went to the merchant Dharmadatta. And when he saw that she had come to that wood, he asked how it happened; and then, though he had longed for her, he said to her, "I am delighted at your faithfulness to your promise: What have I to do with you, the wife of another? So go back, as you came, before any one sees you."... [Then] she went to the thief, who was waiting for her in the road.... She told him how the merchant let her go. Then the thief said: "Since this is so, then I also will let you go, being pleased with your truthfulness: return home with your ornaments."

'So he, too, let her go, and ... [she] went delighted to her husband, and ... she told him the whole story. And Samudradatta, perceiving that his good wife had kept her word without losing her honour, ... welcomed her as a pure-minded woman, who had not disgraced her family, and lived happily with her ever afterwards.

'When the Vétála had told this story ... to king Trivikramasena, he went on to say to him: "So tell me, King, which was the really generous man of those three--the two merchants and the thief?"... The king said to him: "Of those three the thief was the only really generous man.... For of course her husband let her go ... how could a gentleman desire to keep a wife that was attached to another? And the other resigned her because his passion was dulled by time, and he was afraid that her husband, knowing the facts, would tell the king the next day. But the thief, a reckless evil-doer, working in the dark, was really generous to let go a lovely woman, ornaments and all."'

The resemblance of this to Chaucer's story is certainly striking. The chief variation is in changing the thief into a magician who performs wonders for a large sum of money.

Mr. Clouston subjoins many variants of the story. One, originally in Burmese, is from Captain Sparks' translation of the Decisions of Princess Thoodhamma Tsari. A Persian analogue is given from Sir John Malcolm's Sketches of Persia, chap. xx.; and another from the celebrated Persian collection, entitled Tútí Náma, or Parrot-Book. A somewhat different version follows, from the Bahár-i-Dánush, or Spring of Knowledge, a translation of which was given by Dr. Jonathan Scott in 1799. The story is also known to the Jews; and two Hebrew versions are given, both from a Parisian journal entitled Mélusine; 1885, tome ii. c. 542-6. A Siberian version follows, from Radloff's Proben der Volksliteratur der türkischen Stämme des Süd-Siberiens, vol. iii. s. 389; and next, a Turkish version, from Mr. Gibb's translation of the Forty Vazírs, London, 1886; p. 105. Curiously enough, a very similar version is found in Gaelic, and was probably introduced into the Highlands by the Norsemen; see Campbell's Popular Tales of West Highlands, vol. ii. p. 16. Mr. Clouston next discusses the European versions of the story. Of these, the most important is that in Boccaccio's Decamerone[160], Day 10. nov. 5, of which Professor Morley has the following epitome:--

'Dianora, the wife of the rich Gilberto, being immodestly affected by Messer Ansaldo, to free herself from his tedious importunity, she appointed him to perform, in her judgment, an act of impossibility--namely, to give her a garden as plentifully stored with fragrant flowers in January as in the flourishing month of May. Ansaldo, by means of a bond which he made to a magician, performed her request. Messer Gilberto, the lady's husband, gave consent that his wife should fulfil her promise made to Ansaldo; who hearing the bountiful mind of her husband released her of her promise, and the magician likewise discharged Ansaldo, without taking aught of him.'

We may be sure that Boccaccio and Chaucer drew their versions from very similar sources, as shewn by the introduction of the magician. At the same time, we not only notice how Boccaccio has given Italian names to his characters, but has even altered the chief circumstance on which the story depends, by substituting a flower-garden in January for the removal of the rocks. This notion he found ready to hand in the legend of St. Dorothea, familiar to all readers of Massinger and Dekker's Virgin Martyr.

Beaumont and Fletcher dramatised Chaucer's story in their one-act play called The Triumph of Honour, which forms one of the set entitled Four Plays in One. They preserve the name Dorigen, though the husband is Sophocles, duke of Athens, and the lover is Martius, a Roman general. They also retain the notion of the removal of the rocks; for Dorigen exclaims:--

'For here I vow unto the gods, these rocks, These rocks we see so fixed, shall be removed, Made champain field, ere I so impious prove To stain my lord's bed with adulterous love.'

The supposed miracle is achieved by Valerius, the brother of Martius, who had been trained 'in the mathematics' by an 'old Chaldean.'

Finally, 'part of the plot of a comedy, printed in 1620, entitled The Two Merry Milkmaids ... seems founded on Boccaccio's novel, yet the heroine's name [Dorigena] is that of the lady in Chaucer's version.'

Tyrwhitt bids us remark that 'the long list of virtuous women in Dorigen's soliloquy is plainly copied from Hieronymus contra Iouinianum.' Cf. Lounsbury, Studies in Chaucer, ii. 293.

GROUP G.

§ 72. THE SECONDE NONNES TALE. There is a peculiar interest about this Tale, because, as compared with the rest, it so clearly shews us Chaucer's mode of compilation; his advance from close translation to a more free handling of materials; and his change of rhythm, from stanzas to rimed couplets. The closeness of the translation and the rhythm alike point to early workmanship; and, most fortunately, we are not left to conjecture in this matter, since our author himself refers to this piece, by the Title of the Lyf of Seint Cecyle, in his Prologue to the Legend of Good Women, l. 426. It was probably written some time before the Legend. Dr. Furnivall assigns to it the conjectural date of 1373, which many critics have accepted[161]. The expression in l. 78, 'Yet preye I yow that _reden_ that I wryte,' clearly shews that it was neither originally written as a tale of the series, nor properly revised; and the expression in l. 62, 'And though that I, unworthy _sone_ of Eve,' cannot fail to strike the reader as a singular one to be put into the mouth of a _nun_. We possess, in fact, the Tale in its original shape, without either revision or introduction; though I fully suspect ll. 36-56, which are largely from Dante, was a later insertion[162]. What is called the 'Prologue' is, in fact, nothing of the sort; it is merely such an introduction as was suitable for the Legend at the time of translation. We have no description of the Second Nun, no introduction of her as a narrator, nor anything to connect the Tale with those that precede it. There is no authority, indeed, for attributing it to the Second Nun at all beyond the mere rubrics printed at pp. 509, 513, and 526 of vol. iv.

It is not even made quite clear to us who the Second Nun was. We may, however, conclude that, as the Prioresse was herself a Nun, i.e. the _first_ nun (see Prol. l. 118), the person intended is the 'Another Nonne' mentioned in the Prologue, l. 163, but mentioned nowhere else. The first line of the Canon's Yeoman's Prologue, G 554, merely mentions 'the lyf of Seint Cecyle,' without any hint as to the supposed narrator of it. The Prioress herself, on the other hand, is properly introduced to us, and her Tale is carefully inserted in its right place.

An analysis of the so-called Prologue to this Tale is given in the Notes, at the beginning; cf. note to l. 84. Tyrwhitt pointed out that the Tale itself is translated from the Life of St. Cecilia as given in the Legenda Aurea (or Golden Legend) of Jacobus Januensis, or Jacobus a Voragine, who was archbishop of Genoa at the close of the thirteenth century; compare the heading above, l. 85. But Dr. Kölbing has since shewn, in an able article which appeared in Englische Studien, i. 215, that Tyrwhitt's suggestion is only partially correct. As a matter of fact, Chaucer followed a Latin original which agreed rather closely with the account in the Legenda Aurea down to l. 348, or thereabouts. But _after_ this point (and in a few places even _before_ it) his translation better agrees with another Latin Life of St. Cecilia, derived from Simeon Metaphrastes. This account is quoted by Dr. Kölbing from the printed edition in Historiae Aloysii Lipomani de vitis sanctorum, pars II., Lovanii, 1571, p. 32; which he denotes by the symbol 'Lip.' Of this work, the only edition accessible to me is that entitled De Vitis Sanctorum, ab Aloysio Lipomano, episcopo Veronae, a F. L. Surio emendatis et auctis, Venetiis, 1581, p. 161; this I shall quote by the same symbol, as I suppose there is no material difference between the two editions.

The best text of the former Life of St. Cecilia (which I denote by 'LA') is that given in the second edition of the Legenda Aurea by Dr. Th. Grässe, published at Leipsic in 1850. Dr. Furnivall has printed it at length, from Grässe's first edition, 1846, in his Originals and Analogues, Pt. ii. pp. 192-205; side by side with the French version of La Legende Dorée, as translated by Jehan de Vignay, printed at Paris in 1513. The suggestion was made in 'Bell's' edition of Chaucer (really edited by Mr. Jephson), that Chaucer's original was not the Latin, but the French text. A very slight comparison shews at once that this idea is wrong (as Dr. Furnivall points out), and that Chaucer unquestionably followed one or more Latin versions. It is, however, probable that Chaucer may have seen the French version also, as he seems to have taken from it the idea of his first four stanzas, ll. 1-28. But he has taken thence merely the general idea, and no more; see notes to l. 1 and to l. 7. The Invocation to the Virgin bears some resemblance to the Prioresses Prologue; see note to l. 50. It contains, moreover, a passage (36-56) which is a free translation of one in Dante's Paradiso; see note to l. 36. I may add here that Dr. Furnivall has also reprinted two more lives of St. Cecilia, one from Caxton's Golden Legende, in English prose, ed. 1483, fol. ccclxxvij, back; the other in English verse, in a metre similar to that used by Robert of Gloucester, from MS. Ashmole 43, leaf 185, back, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Another copy of the latter, found in MS. Laud 108, is printed in the Early South-English Legendary, ed. C. Horstmann, p. 490 (Early Eng. Text Society). There is yet another Middle-English version, in short rimed lines, found in MS. Harl. 4196 and MS. Cott. Tib. E 7; it is printed (from the former MS.) in Englische Studien, i. 235. These do not throw much further light upon the matter; and, in fact, the chief texts worth consulting are the Latin one of Jacobus a Voragine (or 'LA'), and the somewhat different version due to Simeon Metaphrastes (or 'Lip.'). Of these Dunlop says, in his History of Fiction, 3rd ed. p. 286--'The grand repertory of pious fiction seems to have been the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine, a Genoese Dominican, a work entitled Golden from its popularity, on the same principle that this epithet was bestowed on the 'Ass' of Apuleius. A similar composition in Greek, by Simon Metaphrastes, written about the end of the tenth century, was the prototype of this work of the thirteenth century, which comprehends the lives of individual saints, whose history had already been written, or was current from tradition. The Golden Legend, however, does not consist solely of the lives of saints, but is said in the colophon to be interspersed with many other beautiful and strange relations, which were probably extracted from the Gesta Longobardorum, and other sources too obscure and voluminous to be easily traced; indeed, one of the original titles of the Legenda Aurea was Historia Lombardica. The work of [Jacobus a] Voragine was translated into French by Jean de Vignai, and was one of the three books from which Caxton's Golden Legend was compiled.'

Dr. Kölbing further shews that Chaucer also took a few particulars from the Lives of Valerian and Tiburtius, as given in the Acta Sanctorum (April 14). For a curious example of this, see note to l. 369, on the word _corniculere_.

Dr. Kölbing's article should be consulted. I here subjoin only some of the more important points. The numbers refer to the lines of the Tale, in Group G.

85-348. Chiefly from LA. 189: 'for Ioye.' Cf. Lip.: [Urbanus] _magno gaudio_ est affectus, ... et manibus in caelum extensis. LA has: ille manus ad caelum expandens.

218, 9. Cf. Lip.: Inuenit Caeciliam orantem in cubiculo, et Angelum Domini _stantem prope eam_. LA has: Caeciliam cum angelo loquentem in cubiculo inuenit.

233. Lip.: _assensus es_; LA: credidisti.

265. Lip.: _Quomodo_ hoc cognouisti; LA: unde hoc nosti.

315. Lip.: et nos quoque cum eo puniemur, si inuenti fuerimus ad eum ambulantes; LA: et nos in illius flammis pariter inuoluemur.

349-357. Lip.: _Tunc Valerianus deduxit fratrem suum ad_ sanctissimum _Papam Vrbanum_. Cui postquam narrauit omnia ... benigno _Deo egit gratias_. _Acceptum_ autem _cum omni gaudio et exultatione_ Tiburtium, cum ... _baptizasset_, &c. Quae quidem cum _perfecta_ fuissent _eius doctrina_, post septem dies _Christi militem restituit_. Here LA merely has: Ductus igitur et purificatus. Whence we see the importance of here consulting the second Latin text. Many similar examples occur throughout the latter part of the Tale, for which I must refer the reader to Dr. Kölbing's article and to the Notes in vol. v.

The earliest English Life of St. Cecilia is the Anglo-Saxon version printed at p. 149 of Cockayne's 'Shrine,' of which I here offer a rather close translation:--

'On the 22nd day of this month [November] is the martyrdom of St. Cecilia, the holy woman. She was wedded in her youth to a noble man, who was a heathen; but she was a Christian. She was clothed with a hair-cloth upon her body; and above the hair-cloth she was clothed with garments enwoven with gold. And, on the night when she was led into the bride-chamber, she said to the bridegroom that she saw an angel from heaven, who would slay him with a sudden death if ever he touched her with unclean love. Then she instructed the bridegroom, so that he received baptism, and believed in God. When he was baptised, and entered the bride-chamber, then stood the angel beside her with shining wings; and he had in his hand two crowns, that sometimes glistened like rose-blossoms and sometimes like lily-blossoms; and he gave one of the crowns to the woman, and the other to the bridegroom, and said: "Keep ye these crowns by cleanly deeds, because I have brought them to you from God's paradise."

'This woman suffered martyrdom for Christ. The prefect [lit. reeve] of the city of Rome was named Almatheus, who strove to compel her to forsake Christ; to which when she would not consent, he commanded her to be enclosed in a boiling [lit. burning] bath, in which she remained, without sweating, for a day and a night. Then the executioner approached her with a sword, and struck her thrice therewith, but was unable to strike off her head. But she commended herself to the pope, who was named Urbanus; and then, in the pope's presence, distributed all that she had, and gave it him, and said: "For three days' space I have prayed to the Lord that I might give thee this, in order that thou mightest hallow my house for a church." And thereupon she gave up her spirit to God.'

The Life of St. Cecilia occurs also in Ælfric's Lives of the Saints, as given in MS. Julius E vii, a portion of which I have edited for the Early English Text Society, though this passage is not as yet in type. I do not find that this Life differs from that in the Aurea Legenda in any particular that deserves especial mention, except that it is somewhat briefer, and omits, as might be expected, the passage in Chaucer's Tale, ll. 270-283.

The chief interest of the Life of St. Cecilia in Caxton's Golden Legende is that, as Dr. Kölbing has shewn, his translation exhibits clear traces of the influence of Chaucer. A single example will perhaps suffice. In l. 432, Chaucer has: 'Of whennes comth thyn answering so rude?' And Caxton has: 'Fro whens cometh thy rude answer?' Yet neither of the Latin texts suggests this exact expression. LA has: 'Unde tibi tanta praesumtio respondendi?' Lip.: 'Undenam est tibi haec fiducia?'

In The Military and Religious Life in the Middle Ages, by Paul Lacroix, at p. 426, is the following brief account of Saint Cecilia: 'Under the reign of Alexander Severus, many illustrious martyrs were put to death: St. Cecilia, her husband, and her brother-in-law among the number. St. Cecilia was descended from a very ancient family which dated back to the time of Tarquin the Proud; she belonged to the same house as Metella, many of whose children were raised to the honours of triumph and of the consulate in the heyday of the Roman republic. Her parents gave her in marriage to a young Roman patrician, named Valerian. But Cecilia had dedicated her virginity to God, and her husband, converted to the faith by her arguments and entreaties, respected her vow, and himself converted his brother Tiburtius. They all three relieved their persecuted brethren, and this Christian charity betrayed them. In spite of their distinguished birth, their wealth and their connexions, they were arrested, and their refusal to sacrifice to the false gods led to their being condemned to death. We find a multitude of analogous occurrences in Gaul, and also in the most distant provinces of the East.' On the preceding page of the same book is figured a copy of a piece of mosaic work of the third or fourth century, which was taken from the cemetery of St. Sixtus, and is preserved in the church of St. Cecilia, at Rome. It represents St. Cecilia and St. Valerian, with roses and lilies in bloom at their feet, and having on each side of them a palm-tree laden with fruit, a symbol of their victories and of their meritorious martyrdom. Upon one of the palm-trees is a phoenix with a 'gloria' round its head, the ancient symbol of resurrection.

The following interesting account of the church and statue of St. Cecilia is extracted from Mrs. Jameson's beautiful work upon Sacred and Legendary Art:--

'According to her wish, the house of Cecilia was consecrated as a church, the chamber in which she suffered martyrdom being regarded as a spot of peculiar sanctity. There is mention of a council held in the church of St. Cecilia by Pope Symmachus, in the year 500. Afterwards, in the troubles and invasions of the barbarians, this ancient church fell into ruin, and was rebuilt by Pope Paschal I. in the ninth century. It is related that, while engaged in this work, Paschal had a dream, in which St. Cecilia appeared to him, and revealed the spot in which she lay buried; accordingly search was made, and her body was found in the cemetery of Calixtus, wrapt in a shroud of gold tissue, and round her feet a linen cloth dipt in her blood: near her were the remains of Valerian, Tibertius, and Maximus, which, together with hers, were deposited in the same church, now St. Cecilia-in-Trastevere. The little room, containing her bath, in which she was murdered or martyred, is now a chapel. The rich frescoes with which it was decorated are in a state of utter ruin from age and damp; but the machinery for heating the bath, the pipes, the stoves, yet remain. This church, having again fallen into ruin, was again repaired, and sumptuously embellished in the taste of the sixteenth century, by Cardinal Sfondrati. On this occasion the sarcophagus containing the body of St. Cecilia was opened with great solemnity in the presence of several cardinals and dignitaries of the Church, among others Cardinal Baronius, who has given us an exact description of the appearance of the body, which had been buried by Pope Paschal in 820, when exhumed in 1599[163]. "She was lying," says Baronius, "within a coffin of cypress wood, enclosed in a marble sarcophagus; not in the manner of one dead and buried, that is, on her back, but on her right side, as one asleep; and in a very modest attitude; covered with a simple stuff of taffety, having her head bound with cloth, and at her feet the remains of the cloth of gold and silk which Pope Paschal had found in her tomb." Clement VIII ordered that the relics should remain untouched, inviolate; and the cypress coffin was enclosed in a silver shrine, and replaced under the altar. This re-interment took place in presence of the pope and clergy, with great pomp and solemnity, and the people crowded in from the neighbouring towns to assist at the ceremony. Stefano Maderno, who was then in the employment of the Cardinal Sfondrati as sculptor and architect, and acted as his secretary, was not, we may suppose, absent on this occasion; by the order of the Cardinal he executed the beautiful and celebrated statue of "St. Cecilia lying dead," which was intended to commemorate the attitude in which she was found. It is thus described by Sir Charles Bell:--"The body lies on its side, the limbs a little drawn up; the hands are delicate and fine,--they are not locked, but crossed at the wrists: the arms are stretched out. The drapery is beautifully modelled, and modestly covers the limbs. The head is enveloped in linen, but the general form is seen, and the artist has contrived to convey by its position, though not offensively, that it is separated from the body. A gold circlet is round the neck, to conceal the place of decollation (?). It is the statue of a lady, perfect in form, and affecting from the resemblance to reality in the drapery of white marble, and the unspotted appearance of the statue altogether. It lies as no living body could lie, and yet correctly, as the dead when left to expire,--I mean in the gravitation of the limbs."

'It must be remembered that Cecilia did not suffer decollation; that her head was _not_ separated from the body; and the gold band is to conceal the wound in the neck; otherwise, this description of the statue agrees exactly with the description which Cardinal Baronius has given of the body of the saint when found in 1599.

'The ornaments round the shrine, of bronze and rare and precious marbles, are in the worst taste, and do not harmonize with the pathetic simplicity of the figure.

'At what period St. Cecilia came to be regarded as the patron saint of music, and accompanied by the musical attributes, I cannot decide. It is certain that in ancient devotional representations she is not so distinguished; nor in the old Italian series of subjects from her life have I found any in which she is figured as singing, or playing upon instruments[164].'

§ 73. THE CANON'S YEOMAN'S PROLOGUE, AND TALE. The Prologue, as well as the Tale itself, belongs to the very latest period of Chaucer's work. This is clear at once, from its originality, as well as from the metre, and the careless ease of the rhythm, which sometimes almost degenerates into slovenliness, as though our author had written some of it in hot haste, with the intention of revising it more carefully afterwards. Besides, the poet has boldly improved upon his plan of the pilgrims' stories as laid down in his Prologue. We have there no hint of the Canon nor of his Yeoman; they are two new pilgrims who join themselves to the rest upon the road. A dispute arising between the master and the man, the former is put out of countenance, and actually rides away for very sorrow and shame (l. 702); but the man remains, to denounce the cupidity of the alchemists and to expose their trickery. Tyrwhitt remarks:--'The introduction of the Chanouns Yeman to tell a tale, at a time when so many of the original characters remain to be called upon, appears a little extraordinary. It should seem, that some sudden resentment had determined Chaucer to interrupt the regular course of his work, in order to insert a satire against the alchemists. That their pretended science was much cultivated about this time, and produced its usual evils, may fairly be inferred from the Act, which was passed soon after, 5 Henry IV, cap. iv. to make it Felonie _to multiplie gold or siluer, or to vse the art of multiplication_.' He adds--'The first considerable coinage of gold in this country was begun by Edward III in the year 1343, and according to Camden (in his Remains, art. _Money_), "the Alchemists did affirm, as an unwritten verity, that the Rose-nobles, which were coined soon after, were made by projection or multiplication Alchemical of Raymund Lully in the Tower of London." Ashmole, in his Theatrum Chemicum, p. 443, has repeated this ridiculous story concerning Lully with additional circumstances, as if he really believed it; though Lully, by the best accounts, had been dead above twenty years before Edward III began to coin gold[165].'

The above-mentioned volume by Ashmole, entitled Theatrum Chemicum[166], is a very singular production. And, perhaps, not the least singular circumstance is that Ashmole actually gives 'The Tale of the Chanon's Yeman, written by our ancient and famous poet, Geoffry Chaucer,' Prologue and all, at full length (pp. 227-256), under the impression, apparently, that Chaucer was really a believer in the science! He says--'One reason why I selected out of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales that of the Chanon's Yeoman was, to let the world see what notorious cheating there has beene ever used, under pretence of this true (though injur'd) Science; Another is, to shew that Chaucer himselfe was a Master therein.' It is indeed true that Chaucer had examined into alchemy very closely; but it is perfectly clear that he had made up his mind, with his strong English common sense, that the whole matter was a delusion. Had he lived in the present century, he could hardly have spoken out in more assured terms. In a similar manner he had studied astrology, and was equally a disbeliever in all but the terms of it and a few of its most general and vague assertions. He says expressly, in his Treatise on the Astrolabe, pt. ii. sec. 4, l. 36:--'natheles, thise ben observauncez of iudicial matiere and rytes of payens [pagans], in which my spirit ne hath no feith, ne no knowing of hir _horoscopum_.' But it is evident that the believers in alchemy had to make the best use they could of Chaucer's language, by applying it as being directed only against notorious cheats; and accordingly, we find in The Ordinall of Alchimy, by Thomas Norton of Bristol, printed in Ashmole's collection, various passages imitated from Chaucer, such as, e.g. that at p. 17:--

'The fals man walketh from Towne to Towne, For the most parte in a threed-bare Gowne,' &c.

And again, George Ripley, in his Compound of Alchymie, dedicated to King Edward IV., printed in the same collection, says, at p. 153:--

'Their Clothes be bawdy and woryn threde-bare, Men may them smell for Multyplyers where they go,' &c.[167]

Ashmole's work contains several treatises which profess to explain alchemy, nearly all alike couched in mysterious, and often in ridiculous language. Such are Norton's Ordinall of Alchimy, Ripley's Compound of Alchymie, Liber Patris Sapientiae, Hermes Bird (really Lydgate's poem of The Churl and the Bird), Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale (!), Pearce the Blacke Monke upon the Elixir, Charnock's Breviary of Naturall Philosophy[168], Ripley's Mistery of Alchymists, an extract from Gower's Confessio Amantis, Aristotle's Secreta Secretorum, translated by Lydgate; and so on. On the whole, the book is equally curious and dull.

It would hardly be possible to give much idea of alchemy in a brief space, and it would certainly be unprofitable. The curious will find an excellent article upon it (entitled 'Alchemy') in the new edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica; and a history of it, by no means uninteresting, in the first volume of Thomson's History of Chemistry. In Whewell's History of the Inductive Sciences, 2nd edition, 1847, vol. i. p. 320, the following notice of it occurs, which I quote for the reader's convenience:--'Like other kinds of Mysticism, Alchemy seems to have grown out of the notions of moral, personal, and mythological qualities, which men associated with terms, of which the primary application was to physical properties. This is the form in which the subject is presented to us in the earliest writings which we possess on the subject of chemistry, those of Geber of Seville, who is supposed to have lived in the eighth or ninth century. The very titles of Geber's works show the notions on which this pretended science proceeds. They are, "Of the Search of Perfection;" "Of the Sum of Perfection or of the Perfect Magistery;" "Of the Invention of Verity, of Perfection." The basis of this phraseology is the distinction of metals into more or less _perfect_; gold being the most perfect, as being the most valuable, most beautiful, most pure, most durable; silver the next; and so on. The "Search of Perfection" was, therefore, the attempt to convert other metals into gold; and doctrines were adopted which represented the metals as all compounded of the same elements, so that this was theoretically possible. But the mystical trains of association were pursued much further than this; gold and silver were held to be the most noble of metals; gold was their King, and silver their Queen. Mythological associations were called in aid of these fancies, as had been done in astrology. Gold was Sol, the sun; silver was Luna, the moon; copper, iron, tin, lead, were assigned to Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. The processes of mixture and heat were spoken of as personal actions and relations, struggles and victories. Some elements were conquerors, some conquered; there existed preparations which possessed the power of changing the whole of a body into a substance of another kind: these were called _magisteries_[169]. When gold and quicksilver are combined, the king and the queen are married, to produce children of their own kind. It will easily be conceived, that when chemical operations were described in phraseology of this sort, the enthusiasm of the fancy would be added to that of the hopes, and observation would not be permitted to correct the delusion, or to suggest sounder and more rational views.

'The exaggeration of the vague notion of perfection and power in the object of the alchemist's search was carried further still. The same preparation which possessed the faculty of turning baser metals into gold, was imagined to be also a universal medicine, to have the gift of curing or preventing diseases, prolonging life, producing bodily strength and beauty: the _philosopher's stone_ was finally invested with every desirable efficacy which the fancy of the "philosophers" could devise.'

See also Dr. Whewell's account of the doctrine of 'the four elements' in the same work; vol. iii. p. 121.

The history of the rise and growth of the ideas involved in alchemy is ably treated of in the article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica already referred to; it is of some interest to note how some of the more important notions were developed. From ancient Persia came the idea of a correspondence between the heavenly bodies and parts of the human frame, alluded to in Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe, and in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, i. 3. 148[170]. From ancient India came the idea of a peregrination of sinful souls through the animal, vegetable, and even the mineral world, till they were absorbed into Deity. Hence was further evolved the notion of a transmutation of elements. The Greeks held that different deities had under their protection and guidance different types of men; an idea still preserved in our words _mercurial_, _jovial_, and _saturnine_. The school of Hippocrates held the doctrine of the four elements, or primary substances of which all others were made, an idea first mentioned (it is said) by Empedocles; to which Aristotle added a fifth element, that of ether (Arist. de Caelo, i. 2). But this idea is probably older; for we find five _bhútas_, or elements, enumerated in Sanskrit, viz. earth, water, fire, air, and ether; see Benfey's Skt. Dict. s.v. _bhú_, p. 658. Another very ancient notion is that male and female principles existed in all three worlds alike, animal, vegetable, and mineral; from which it followed that the union of two metals could produce a third. It was argued that 'monstrosities are the productions of diseased metals (really alloys), which, if properly treated, may be cured, and will turn to gold, or at least silver. The second stage in this imitation of nature is to obtain, by tincture or projection, solid or liquid gold, the cure of all evils'; Encycl. Brit. i. 463, col. 2. This notion is still preserved in the word _arsenic_ (Gk. [Greek: arsenikon], male). It was universally believed that nature produced changes in the substance of various metals by slow degrees, and the great object of alchemy was to produce the same changes quickly. The chief names in connexion with the progress of alchemy are Geber, a Sabaean, who flourished about A.D. 800; Avicenna, a native of Shiraz, born A.D. 980, died June, 1037; Albertus Magnus, born about 1193, died Nov. 15, 1280, who uses much more intelligible language than alchemists usually indulge in; Raymund Lully, born at Majorca in 1235, a scholar of Roger Bacon, who was himself deeply imbued with the mystery of alchemy; Arnoldus de Villa Nova (mentioned by Chaucer), so named because born at Villeneuve, in Provence, in 1240; and others. Paracelsus[171], a Swiss physician (born in 1493, died 1541) was somewhat better than a mere alchemist. He did something towards destroying the notion of the necessity of consulting astrological influences, and prepared the way for the discoveries of Van Helmont (born at Brussels in 1577, died 1644), with whom the history of modern chemistry may be said to begin. Van Helmont was the inventor of two new terms, _gas_[172] and _blas_, the former of which remains in common use, though the latter is wholly forgotten.

The great storehouse of treatises upon alchemy is the Latin collection, in five volumes, called Theatrum Chemicum. I have made considerable use of the edition of this work published in 1660, which I have frequently quoted in the Notes. We hence gather that most of the authors upon the subject wished men to believe that the true secrets of the science were known to _themselves only_; yet they all learnt more or less of a certain jargon which they continually repeated, attributing their empirical rules to Hermes, or Geber, or other supposed masters. The same ideas, alleged results, and supposed principles continually recur; and the brief statement of a few of these will at once shew what the reader of an alchemical treatise may expect to find. Much depended on the supposed powers of certain numbers. Thus, there were _three_ primary colours, black, white, and red[173], from which all others were produced by combination; Theat. Chem. iv. 536. According to Gower, there were really _three_ kinds of the philosopher's stone, viz. animal, vegetable, and mineral. Some said it was composed of _three_ parts; body, spirit, and soul--_corpus_, _spiritus_, and _anima_; Ashmole's Th. Ch. p. 382. Again, there were _four_ elements; _four_ complexions of nature or temperaments; _four_ colours (said some), viz. white, black, citrine (i.e. gold-coloured, with a purple tinge), and red; _four_ savours, insipid, acid, sweet, and bitter; _four_ odours, sweet, fetid, intense, and slight (_remissus_); Theat. Chem. iii. 82. In particular, there were _four_ spirits, sulphur, sal ammoniac, quicksilver, and arsenic; see note to line 778; also _four_ states or conditions, hot, cold, wet, and dry; Theat. Chem. iv. 537. There were _seven_ planets; and _because_ there were seven planets, it followed that every planet had a corresponding note in the musical scale of _seven_ notes. Every planet had its proper colour; and, in this view, there were _seven_ colours, sable, vert, gules, or, argent, sanguine, and umber; Batman upon Bartholome, lib. 19, c. 37. Every planet had its proper metal; there were therefore _seven_ metals; see the extract from Gower, in the note to l. 820. Now, as all substances are made of the same four elements, it follows that if a substance can be decomposed, and reunited in different proportions, its nature may be so changed that it shall become another substance. Many substances, if subjected to heat, are destroyed; but metals are not so, and therefore became the favourite subject for experiments. It was laid down that one metal could be transmuted into another, but only after having been first reduced into its primary elements; Theat. Chem. iv. 531. Ere long, it was accepted as an axiom that all baser metals could be transmuted either into gold (or _sol_), typified by the sun, or into silver (or _luna_), typified by the moon; these being the two extremes between which the other five metals were ranged. It was agreed that the chief agents in producing this transmutation were quicksilver and sulphur, and of these quicksilver was the more important; so much so, that the mention of quicksilver meets us everywhere, and no alchemist could work without it[174]. It was also agreed that certain processes must be gone through in a due order, generally ten or twelve in number; and if _any one_ of them failed, the whole work had to be begun afresh. They are commonly described as (1) calcination, (2) solution, (3) separation of the elements, (4) conjunction, (5) putrefaction, (6) coagulation, (7) cibation, (8) sublimation, (9) fermentation, (10) exaltation, (11) augmentation or multiplication; and (12) projection; Theat. Chem. ii. 175, and Ripley's Compound of Alchemy. By insisting on the necessity of all these processes, alchemists sufficiently guarded against all chances of an unfavourable result, viz. by securing that a result could not very well be arrived at.

The moment that we attempt to analyse their processes more closely, we are met by two difficulties that are simply insuperable: the first, that the same name is clearly used to denote quite different substances; and the second, that the same substance is called by many different names. Hence also arose endless evasions, and arrogant claims to pretended secrets; it was often said that the quicksilver of the alchemists was a substance only known to adepts, and that those who used only ordinary quicksilver knew nothing of the matter. The master could thus always mystify his pupils, and make it appear that he alone, and no one else, knew what he was talking about.

Yet it was frequently alleged that the experiments _did_ succeed. The easiest explanation of this matter is, that the hopes of the alchemists were doubtless buoyed up by the fact that every now and then the experiments _appeared_ to succeed; and it is easy to shew how. The close affinity of quicksilver for gold is well known. I copy the following from a book on experiments, which really suffices to explain the whole matter. 'If a sovereign be rubbed with mercury, it will lose its usual appearance, and appear as if silvered over[175]; the attraction of the gold for the mercury being sufficient to cause a coating of it to remain. When it is wished to remove the silvery appearance, dip the sovereign in a dilute solution of nitric acid, which will entirely take it off.' Now the alchemists tell us that quicksilver must always be used in all experiments; and they constantly recommend the introduction into the substances experimented on of a _small_ quantity of gold, which they thought would be increased. The experiments constantly failed; and whenever they failed, the pieces of molten metal were carefully saved, to be used over and over again. The frequent introduction of small quantities of gold caused that metal to accumulate; and if, by any favourable process, the quicksilver was separated from the mass, a considerable quantity of gold would now and then actually appear. This account is so much in accordance with all that we read, that we may confidently accept the conclusion of Dr. Thomson, the author of the History of Chemistry, that the vaunted philosopher's stone was certainly an _amalgam of gold_; which, 'if projected into melted lead or tin, and afterwards cupellated, would leave a portion of gold; all the gold, of course, that existed previously in the amalgam.' He adds that 'the alchemists who prepared the amalgam could not be ignorant that it contained gold'; a statement which I am inclined to modify by suggesting that it may very easily have contained _more gold than they supposed it did_. In a word, we may conclude that some deceived themselves, and others were conscious cheats.

GROUP H.

§ 74. THE MANCIPLE'S PROLOGUE. In the black-letter editions, this Prologue begins with the 16 lines printed at p. 289 (vol. iv) as the Epilogue to the Nonne Prestes Tale; because, in them, that Tale precedes. See remarks on § 51 above (p. 433).

The Prologue is self-explanatory; we see how the responsibility passed from the Cook to the Manciple. It is curious that the Cook is addressed as if he had told no Tale hitherto; see, as to this, the remarks on § 28 above (p. 399).

§ 75. THE MAUNCIPLES TALE. With respect to this story, Tyrwhitt briefly remarks that 'The Fable of the Crow has been related by so many authors, from Ovid down to Gower, that it is impossible to say whom Chaucer principally followed. His skill in new dressing an old story was never, perhaps, more successfully exerted.'

Chaucer was so familiar with Ovid, and, in particular, with the Metamorphoses, that we may fairly suppose that this was the real source of his Tale; see Metam. ii. 534-632. The last line of his story (H 308), excluding the moral, closely agrees in sense with the last line in Ovid's tale--'Inter aues albas uetuit considere coruum.'

Gower's story is in his Confessio Amantis, bk. iii, ed. Pauli, i. 305-6; but it is so briefly sketched, in 35 lines, that Chaucer could have derived nothing from it, even if he had wished to do so.

Another Middle-English analogue, much more important than Gower's, is the story of the Magpie, being the 10th Tale in the collection known as The Seven Sages, printed in Weber's Metrical Romances, iii. 86. It is much the same as the story of the Popinjay in Wright's edition of the Seven Sages, p. 73. The version in the Seven Sages clearly points to an Eastern origin for the story. See Mr. Clouston's essay on The Tell-tale Bird, in Originals and Analogues (Chaucer Soc.), p. 437; to which I refer the reader for further information.

Dr. Köppel[176] has shewn that several passages in the moral advice with which the Tale concludes (including nearly the whole of lines H 325-358), are taken from a work by Albertano of Brescia, entitled De Arte Loquendi et Tacendi, written in 1245, and newly edited by Thor Sundby in the second Appendix to his work called Brunetto Latinos levnet og skrifter (Life and Writings of Brunetto Latino), Copenhagen, 1869. See further in my Notes.

GROUP I.

§ 76. THE PARSON'S PROLOGUE. Most copies place this after the Manciples Tale, and insert the word _maunciple_ in the first line. The black-letter edition of 1542 added the spurious Plowman's Tale _after_ the Parson's, i.e. at the end of all. But all the later editions in black-letter inserted this spurious Tale _before_ the Parson's, and hence the editors had to alter the word _maunciple_ (above) into _Plowman_; which they did.

The Persones Tale was clearly meant to come last (I 47), and there is an allusion to the hour of 4 P. M. (I 5, and note). The Maunciples Tale well precedes it, because the Prologue to that Tale says they were approaching Canterbury (H 2, 3). But there is a great difficulty in the mention of the early morning (H 16); and this is why Group I has to be taken as a separate Fragment.

The reading _Foure_, in l. 5, is explained and justified in the Notes.

Some German commentators have endeavoured to discover the date of the Tales from lines 10, 11, by giving these lines a wholly gratuitous and impossible interpretation, as if they were meant to express that the moon's position was in Libra! But Chaucer says nothing of the sort; he is speaking of the moon's exaltation, and adds, parenthetically, 'I mean (to say) Libra.' Unluckily, he happens to go wrong; for Libra was the exaltation of Saturn: but this does not alter the fact, that _exaltation_ never denotes position, but was a common astrological term. It invariably refers to _a sign of the Zodiac_; and although Chaucer, for the moment, forgot to which planet Libra caused an exaltation or increase of strength, he really _did_ know the meaning of one of the commonest terms in all astrology. It is much to be regretted that theories should be founded on such gross misconceptions.

§ 77. THE PERSONES TALE. It is now known that this Tale is little else than an adaptation (with alterations, omissions, and additions, as usual with Chaucer) of a French treatise by Frère Lorens, entitled La Somme des Vices et des Vertus, written in 1279. The English work by Dan Michel of Northgate, usually known by the title of The Ayenbite of Inwyt, or Remorse of Conscience, is a much more literal and closer translation of the same treatise, and thus affords a good guide for comparison between Chaucer and the French original. The French treatise has never been printed, but exists in two MSS. in the British Museum[177], viz. Cleop. A v, and Royal 19 C ii.

An excellent dissertation on this Tale, in which a close comparison with its original is duly made, was written in German by Dr. W. Eilers in 1882, and has been rendered more accessible to Chaucer students by an English translation made in 1884, and printed in Essays on Chaucer (Chaucer Soc.), p. 501. Of this Essay I have made much use in the Notes, to which I refer the reader for further information.

It is clear that this Tale was once an independent Treatise (see § 104, in vol. iv. p. 644), which people could either 'herkne or rede'; and it was probably written before 1380, at much the same time as the Tale of Melibeus, which it somewhat resembles in style. It was obvious that, if this treatise was to be inserted among the Canterbury Tales, it could only be assigned to the Parson, who is made, accordingly, to warn the company that he dislikes rime, and can only tell them 'a mery tale in prose'; see I 46. The word _mery_ sometimes meant what we should now call 'interesting'; and it probably interested a much larger number of people in those days than it can possibly do at the present time. Our ancestors, at times, certainly inclined to serious discourses, such as the present age has no relish for.

It is quite clear that a few paragraphs near the end (iv. 644, I 1084-90)--beginning with _and namely_, and ending with _my soule_--were inserted at a much later time, probably on one of the last occasions when the poet revised his work. This passage has sometimes been called his 'Retractation'; but this term is a bad one[178]. The phrase used is 'the whiche I revoke in my _retracciouns_,' i.e. among the things which I disclaim; and the word _revoke_, i.e. recall, means that he wishes to disclaim many of his works, as being deficient in such theological merit as would conduce to the salvation of his soul; a disclaimer which he at once follows up by thanking 'oure lord and his blisful moder and alle the seintes,' for such works as were of a moral and meritorious character. This I believe to be the real meaning, and to refer to the prevalent idea that many evil deeds and sayings could be out-balanced, even at the last moment, by an appeal to a few good actions; of which medieval literature affords us many examples. Perhaps it is fair to add that the poet had good cause to regret such Tales as those of the Miller, the Reeve, and the Merchant.

In Essays on Chaucer, p. 227, is printed an Essay on this Tale by H. Simon, of Schmalkalden. The object of the Essay is to prove that Chaucer was a Wycliffite; and, filled with this idea (the truth of which I am not particularly careful either to deny or assert), the author endeavours to shew that the Persones Tale is full of interpolations made by some designing and fraudulent person. He even goes so far as to give us what he considers to be 'the original Tale' (p. 283). The French text tends to upset at least some portions of this superfluous theory, and Dr. Köppel has written an excellent article[179] to shew--what to a plain person needs but little proof--that the Persones Tale is to be considered as wholly genuine, inasmuch as a considerable number of conspicuous passages reappear, in a slightly modified form, in other parts of the Canterbury Tales. If we are to go through the Tales, picking out, and setting aside as spurious, every passage which does not please us, the result can only be unsatisfactory. Different readers will eliminate different phrases and opinions, and the residuum will be valueless. I see no reason why we may not be content with the Tales in the form presented by the best MSS.

POSTSCRIPT.

P. 395.--In a small book by Professor G. Stephens, entitled Förteckning öfver de fornämsta Brittiska och Fransyska Handskrifterna i Stockholm (Stockholm, 1847), at p. 20, is a description of a MS. which contains a copy of Palamon and Arcite in French verse, and was written early in the fifteenth century. It is remarkable that the metre is the same as that of the Knightes Tale; from which, perhaps, it was borrowed.

In Anglia, XVI. 261, L. Fränkel, of Munich, reprints a Latin fable by Casparus Cropacius, which first appeared in 1581, in illustration of the Milleres Tale. This fable follows Chaucer closely in the principal details, but omits the humour of the original. I fail to see any merit in this form of the story, and therefore refrain from reproducing it.

P. 423. See Dr. Jessopp's article on 'William of Norwich' in The Nineteenth Century, May, 1893.

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THE VISION OF WILLIAM

CONCERNING

PIERS THE PLOWMAN

_IN THREE PARALLEL TEXTS_

TOGETHER WITH

RICHARD THE REDELESS

BY WILLIAM LANGLAND

(ABOUT 1362-1399 A.D.)

EDITED FROM NUMEROUS MANUSCRIPTS

_WITH PREFACE, NOTES, AND A GLOSSARY_

BY THE REV.

WALTER W. SKEAT, LITT.D., LL.D.

ELRINGTON AND BOSWORTH PROFESSOR OF ANGLO-SAXON AND FELLOW OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

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FOOTNOTES.

[1] It is also mentioned as 'the book of Fame' at the end of the Persones Tale, I 1086. I accept this passage as genuine.

[2] In Dante's Inferno, this invocation begins Canto II.; for Canto I. forms a general introduction to the whole.

[3] Where Chaucer says 'leet the reynes goon' (l. 951), and Dante has 'abbandonò li freni' (Inf. xvii. 107), we find in Ovid 'equi ... colla iugo eripiunt, abruptaque lora relinquunt' (Met. ii. 315). Chaucer's words seem closer to Dante than to the Latin original.

[4] On which Prof. Lounsbury remarks (Studies in Chaucer, ii. 243)--'More extreme indeed than that of any one else is the position of Professor Skeat. He asserts in all seriousness that the "House of Fame" is the translation to which reference is made by Lydgate, when he said that Chaucer wrote "Dante in English." Beyond this utterance it is hardly possible to go.' This is mere banter, and entirely misrepresents my view. Lydgate does not say that 'Dant in English' was a translation; this is a pure assumption, for a strategical purpose in argument. Lydgate was ignorant of Italian, and has used a stupid phrase, the correctness of which I by no means admit. But he certainly meant _something_; and the prominence which he gives to "Dant in English," when he comes to speak of Chaucer's Minor Poems, naturally suggests The House of Fame, which he otherwise omits! My challenge to 'some competent critic' to tell me what _other_ poem is here referred to, remains unanswered.

[5] When Chaucer consulted Dante, his thoughts were naturally directed to Vergil. We find, accordingly, that he begins by quoting (in ll. 143-8) the opening lines of the Æneid; and a large portion of Book I (ll. 143-467) is entirely taken up with a general sketch of the contents of that poem. It is clear that, at the time of writing, Vergil was, in the main, a new book to him, whilst Ovid was certainly an old acquaintance.

[6] By this, I only mean that Lydgate seems to have been indebted to Chaucer for the general idea of his poem, and even for the title of it (cf. Ho. Fame, 120). For a full account of all its sources, see the admirable edition of Lydgate's Temple of Glas by Dr. J. Schick, p. cxv. (Early Eng. Text Society).

[7] Misprinted 'bright,' as the final _e_ has 'dropped out' at press; of course it should be the adverbial form, with final _e_. In l. 507, the form is 'brighte' again, where it is the plural adjective. And, owing to this repetition, MSS. F. and B. actually omit lines 504-7.

[8] Morris has _rabewyures_, from MS. F.; but there is no such word in his Glossary. See the New E. Dictionary, s.v. _Baboon_.

[9] Morris has _Reues_; but his Glossary has: '_Reues_, or _reyes_, sb. a kind of dance.' Of course it is plural.

[10] Morris has _clywe_; and his Glossary has '_Clywe_, v. to turn or twist'; but no such verb is known. See _Claw_, v. § 3, in the New E. Dict.

[11] Morris has _frot_; but it does not appear in the Glossary.

[12] I do not here endorse all Ten Brink's dates. I give his scheme for what it is worth, as it is certainly deserving of consideration.

[13] It is the stanza next following the last one quoted in vol. i. p. 23. I quote it from the Aldine edition of Chaucer, ed. Morris, i. 80.

[14] Of course Lydgate knew the work was unfinished; so he offers a humorous excuse for its incompleteness. I may here note that Hoccleve refers to the Legend in his poem entitled the Letter of Cupid, where Cupid is made to speak of 'my Legende of Martres'; see Hoccleve's Works, ed. Furnivall, p. 85, l. 316.

[15] In December, 1384, Richard II. 'held his Christmas' at Eltham (Fabyan).

[16] I think lines 568, 569 (added in B.) are meant to refer directly to ll. 703, 704.

[17] The Knightes Tale is a clear exception. The original Palamon and Arcite was too good to be wholly lost; but it was entirely recast in a new metre, and so became quite a new work.

[18] It is amusing to see that Chaucer forgot, at the same time, to alter A. 422 (= B. 432), in which Alcestis actually tells her name. The oversight is obvious.

[19] Line A. 277 reappears in the Canterbury Tales in the improved form--'And ever a _thousand_ gode ageyn oon badde.' This is the 47th line in the Milleres Prologue, but is omitted in Tyrwhitt's edition, together with the line that follows it.

[20] I.e. with the exception of the stanzas which were transferred from that work to the Man of Lawes Prologue and Tale; see the 'Account of the Sources,' &c. p. 407, and the last note on p. 307 of the present volume.

[21] I omit 'Marcia Catoun'; like Esther, she is hardly to be ranked with the heroines of olden fables. Indeed, even Cleopatra comes in rather strangely.

[22] See De Claris Mulieribus:--Cleopatra, cap. 86. Thisbe, cap. 12. Dido, cap. 40. Hypsipyle and Medea, capp. 15, 16. Lucretia, cap. 46. Hypermnestra cap. 13. And see Morley's English Writers, v. 241 (1890).

[23] It will be seen below that Chaucer certainly made use of this work for the Legend of Hypermnestra; see p. xl.

[24] Court of Love (original edition, 1561), stanzas 15, 16. I substitute 'ninetene' for the 'xix' of the original.

[25] 'The Jesuit Rapin, in his Latin poem entitled "Horti" (Paris, 1666), tells how a Dalmatian virgin, persecuted by the amorous addresses of Vertumnus, prayed to the gods for protection, and was transformed into a tulip. In the same poem, he says that the Bellides (cf. _bellis_, a daisy), who were once nymphs, are now flowers. The story [here] quoted [from Henry Phillips] seems to have been fabricated out of these two passages.'--Athenæum, Sept. 28, 1889.

[26] M. Tarbé shews that the cult of the daisy arose from the frequent occurrence of the name Marguérite in the royal family of France, from the time of St. Louis downward. The wife of St. Louis was Marguérite de Provence, and the same king (as well as Philip III., Philip IV., and Philip V.) had a daughter so named.

[27] Chaucer nearly suffered the same fate himself; see Ho. Fame, 586.

[28] Dr. Köppel notes that the name also occurs in Boccaccio's Amorosa Visione (V. 50) in company with that of Claudian: 'Claudiano, Persio, ed _Agatone_.'--Anglia, xiv. 237.

[29] He should also have excepted Philomela.

[30] These numbers refer to the lines of the B-text of the Prologue.

[31] Cf. L. G. W. 2177, 2227.

[32] Cf. L. G. W. 1952-8.

[33] Gower is amusing when he turns Ovid's 'Ad uada Maeandri' (Her. vii. 2) into a reference to 'King Menander'!

[34] The unfamiliar form _Guido_ was read as _Ouide_, by changing _G_, _o_, into _O_, _e_.

[35] Lounsbury (Studies in Chaucer, ii. 259) objects that many scholars suppose that Valerius Flaccus was unknown previously to 1416. But, if so, how did Chaucer know that the title of his poem was 'Argonauticon Libri,' and not 'Argonautae,' as in Dares?

[36] In fact, St. Augustine tells the whole story; De Ciuitate Dei, lib. i. cap. xix. And it was copied from St. Augustine's version into the Gesta Romanorum, Tale 135.

[37] For lines 1896-8, Bech refers us to Godfrey of Viterbo's Speculum Regum; see the extract from it in Pertz, Monumenta Germanica, vol. xxii. p. 38, l. 159; which tells us that the teaching of philosophy and of the seven sciences at Athens was introduced there by Jupiter; see further, at p. lvi.

[38] We must remember that, in olden times, writers often had to trust to their memory for details not always at hand. Hence such a mistake as this was easily made.

[39] The reference seems to be to Paulus Orosius, Hist. i. 11; but Belus is not there mentioned. Yet Hyginus (Fab. 168) has: 'Danaus Beli filius ex pluribus coniugibus quinquaginta filias habuit.' See Anglia, v. 350.

[40] People were soon called 'old' in those days. Dante, at 35, was in the 'middle' of life; after which, all was downhill. Hoccleve was miserably old at 53; Works, ed. Furnivall, p. 119. Jean de Meun, in his Testament, ed. Méon, iv. 9, even goes so far as to say that man flourishes up to the age of 30 or 40, after which he 'ne fait que langorir.' Premature age seems to have been rather common in medieval times. Moreover, Gower is speaking _comparatively_, as of one no longer 'in the floures of his youthe.'

[41] Ten Brink, Chaucer's Sprache, &c., p. 174.

[42] The heroic couplet was practically unknown to us till Chaucer introduced it. The rare examples of it before his time are almost accidental. A lyrical poem printed in Böddeker's Altenglische Dichtungen, p. 232, from MS. Harl. 2253, ends with a fair specimen, and is older than Chaucer. The last two lines are:--

'For loue of vs his wonges waxeþ þunne, His herte-blod he [gh]ef for al mon-kunne.'

The oldest single line of this form is at the end of Sawles Warde (ab. A.D. 1210); see Spec. of English, pt. i. p. 95:--

'That ich mot iesu crist mi sawle [gh]elden.'

[43] Not 1491, as Bell says; he has mistaken the line.

[44] From _geten_ to _gayler_; Dr. Furnivall has not got this quite right.

[45] This excellent essay investigates Chaucer's sources, and is the best commentary upon the present poem. I had written most of my Notes independently, and had discovered most of his results for myself. This does not diminish my sense of the thoroughness of the essay, and I desire to express fully my acknowledgments to this careful student. I may remark here that Chaucer's obligations to Froissart were long ago pointed out by Tyrwhitt, and that the name Agatho was explained in Cary's Dante. There is very little else that Bech has missed. Perhaps I may put in some claim to the discovery of a sentence taken from Boethius; and to some other points of minor importance.

[46] I.e. haste, rapidity. Cf. 'Rydynge ful _rapely_;' Piers the Plowman, B. xvii. 49.

[47] See Part ii. sect. 1, l. 4; sect. 3, l. 11. 'Obviously, nobody putting a hypothetical case in that way to a child would go out of his way to name with a past verb [see the second case] a date still in the future.'--Morley's Eng. Writers, v. 270. Similarly, the expression 'I wolde knowe,' in the former case, precludes a date in the _past_; and hence we are driven to conclude that the date refers to time present. Curiously enough, there is an exactly parallel case. Blundevill's Description of Blagrave's Astralabe, printed at London by William Stansby, is undated. Turning to his Proposition VI, p. 615, we find--'As for example, I would know the Meridian Altitude of the Sun y^e first of July, 1592.' The same date, 1592, is again mentioned, at pp. 619, 620, 621, 636, and 639, which renders it probable that the book was printed in that year.

'Neither his _collect_, ne his _expans yeres_, Ne his _rotes_, ne his othere geres'; F 1275-6.

[49] Not wishing to enforce this view upon every reader, and in order to save trouble in reference, I have numbered these sections 44 and 45. But if they belong, as I suppose, to Part iv., they should have been named 'Part iv. Canon 1,' and 'Part iv. Canon 2' respectively.

[50] 'A smal instrument portatif aboute'; Prol. l. 52 (p. 177).

[51] 'The almikanteras in thyn Astrolabie been compouned by two and two.'