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WHAN that Aprille with his schowres swoote 1
The drought of Marche hath perced to the roote,
And bathud every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertue engendred is the flour;-
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Enspirud hath in every holte and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours i-ronne,
And smale fowles maken melodie,
That slepen al the night with open yhe,
So priketh hem nature in here
corages:
Thanne longen folk to gon on pilgrimages,
And palmers for to seeken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kouthe in sondry londes;
And specially, from every schires ende

:

22

Of Engelond, to Canturbury they wende,
The holy blisful martir for to seeke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
Byfel that, in that sesoun on a day,
In Southwerk at the Tabbard as I lay,
6 Redy to wenden on my pilgrimage
To Canturbury with ful devout corage,
At night was come into that hostelrie
Wel nyne and twenty in a companye,
Of sondry folk, by aventure i-falle
In felaschipe, and pilgryms were thei alle,
That toward Canturbury wolden ryde.
The chambres and the stables weren wyde,
And wel we weren esud atte beste.
And schortly, whan the sonne was to reste,
So hadde I spoken with hem everychon,
That I was of here felawschipe anon,
And made forward erly to aryse,
To take oure weye ther as I yow devyse..
But natheles, whiles I have tyme and space,
Or that I ferthere in this tale pace,
Me thinketh it acordant to resoun,
To telle yow alle the condicioun
Of eche of hem, so as it semed me,

14

8. the Ram. Tyrwhitt thinks that Chaucer has made a mistake, and that it ought to be the Bull, because, the showers of April having pierced the drouth of March to the root, the sun must have passed through the sign of the Ram and entered that of the Bull.

14. ferne. Nearly all the Mss. I have examined, and certainly the best, agree in this reading. Tyrwhitt has adopted the reading serve, which probably originated in mistaking "ferne" for "ferue,"-ferne halwes means distant saints.

29

38

In hope to stonden in his lady grace.
Embrowdid was he, as it were a mede
Al ful of fresshe floures, white and reede.
Syngynge he was, or flowtynge, al the day; 91
He was as fressh as is the moneth of May.
Schort was his goune, with sleeves long and wyde.
46 Wel cowde he sitte on hors, and faire ryde.
He cowde songes wel make and endite,
Justne and eek daunce, and wel purtray and write.
So hote he lovede, that by nightertale
He sleep nomore than doth a nightyngale.
Curteys he was, lowly, and servysable,
52 And carf byforn his fadur at the table.

And which they weren, and of what degré ;
And eek in what array that they were inne :
And at a knight than wol I first bygynne.
A KNIGHT ther was, and that a worthy man,
That from the tyme that he ferst bigan
To ryden out, he lovede chyvalrye,
Trouthe and honour, fredom and curtesie.
Ful worthi was he in his lordes werre,
And thereto hadde he riden, noman ferre,
As wel in Cristendom as in hethenesse,
And evere honoured for his worthinesse.
At Alisandre he was whan it was wonne.
Ful ofte tyme he hadde the bord bygonne
Aboven alle naciouns in Pruce.

In Lettowe hadde reyced and in Ruce,
No cristen man so ofte of his degré.
In Gernade atte siege hadde he be
Of Algesir, and riden in Belmarie,
At Lieys was he, and at Satalie,

Whan they were wonne; and in the Greete see
At many a noble arive hadde he be.

At mortal batailles hadde he ben fiftene,
And foughten for our feith at Tramassene
In lystes thries, and ay slayn his foo.
This ilke worthi knight hadde ben also
Somtyme with the lord of Palatye,

Ageyn another hethene in Turkye:

And everemore he hadde a sovereyn prys.

61

A YEMAN had he, and servantes nomoo At that tyme, for him lust ryde soo; And he was clad in coote and hood of grene. A shef of pocok arwes bright and kene Under his belte he bar full thriftily. Wel cowde he dresse his takel yomanly; His arwes drowpud nought with fetheres lowe. And in his hond he bar a mighty bowe. A not-heed hadde he, with a broun visage. Of woode-craft cowde he wel al the usage.

Upon his arme he bar a gay bracer,

And by his side a swerd and a bokeler,
And on that other side a gay daggere,

99

108

Harneysed wel, and scharp as poynt of spere;

A Cristofre on his brest of silver schene.

And though that he was worthy he was wys, 68 An horn he bar, the bawdrik was of grene; 116

He never yit no vilonye ne sayde

And of his port as meke as is a mayde.

In al his lyf, unto no maner wight.

He was a verray perfight gentil knight.

But for to telle you of his aray,

[blocks in formation]

His hors was good, but he ne was nought gay.

And wente for to doon his pilgrimage.

With him ther was his sone, a yong SQUYER, A lovyer, and a lusty bacheler,

83

With lokkes crulle as they were layde in presse.
Of twenty yeer he was of age I gesse.
Of his stature he was of evene lengthe,
And wondurly delyver, and gret of strengthe.
And he hadde ben somtyme in chivachie,
In Flaundres, in Artoys, and in Picardie,
And born him wel, as in so litel space,

43. A knight. It was a common thing, in this age, for knights to seek employment in foreign countries which were at war. Tyrwhitt cites from Leland the epitaph of a knight of this period, Matthew de Gournay, who "en sa vie fi à la bataille de Benamarin, et ala après à la siege d'Algezire sur les Sarazines, et aussi à les batailles de L'Escluse, de Cressy, de Deyngenesse, de Peyteres, de Nazare, d'Ozrey, et à pulsours autres batailles et asseyes."

51. Alisandre. Alexandria, in Egypt, was taken by Pierre de Lusignan, king of Cyprus, in 1365, but immediately afterwards abandoned.

53. Pruce. The knights of the Teutonic order in Prussia were engaged in continual warfare with their Pagan neighbours in Lithuania (Lettowe), Russia, &c.

56. Gernade. The city of Algezir was taken from the Moorish king of Grenada in 1344. Belmarie appears to have been one of the Moorish States in Africa. Layas (Lieys), in Armenia, was taken from the Turks by Pierre de Lusignan, about 1367. Satalie was taken by the same prince soon after 1352 Tremessen was one of the Moorish states in Africa. Palathia, in Anatolia, was one of the lordships held by Christian knights after the Turkish conquests.

85. chivachie. Every reader of the contemporary histories of Edward III's wars in France knows the pride which the knights took in shewing their courage in the continual chevachies, or little excursions, into the enemy's country

A forster was he sothely, as I gesse.

Ther was also a Nonne, a PRIORESSE,

122

That of hire smylyng was ful symple and coy;
Hire grettest ooth nas but by seynt Loy;
And sche was clept madame Englentyne.
Ful wel sche sang the servise devyne,
Entuned in hire nose ful semyly;
And Frensch sche spak ful faire and fetysly,
Aftur the scole of Stratford atte Bowe,
For Frensch of Parys was to hire unknowe.
At mete wel i-taught was sche withalle;
Sche leet no morsel from hire lippes falle,
Ne wette hire fyngres in hire sauce deepe.
Wel cowde sche carie a morsel, and wel keepe, 130
That no drope fil uppon hire brest.
In curtesie was sett al hire lest.

94. faire. I have substituted this reading from other MSS., in place of wel cowde he, given by the Harl. Ms., which appears to be a mere blundering repetition.

104. pocok arwes. Arrows fledged with peacock's feathers. They appear to have been larger than the common arrows. In a compotus of the Bishop of Winchester, in 1471 (cited by Warton, Hist. E. P. ii. p. 211), we have one head.-"Sagittæ magnæ. Et de cxliv. sagittis magnis barbatis cum pennis pavonum."

115. A Cristofre. A figure of St. Christopher used as a brooch On the use of these brooches, or signs, see an interesting paper, by Mr. C. Roach Smith, in the Journal of the British Archæological Association, vol. i. p. 200. The figure of St. Christopher was looked upon with particular reverence among the middle and lower classes; and was supposed to possess the power of shielding the person who looked on it from hidden dangers.

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

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

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

The reule of seynt Maure or of seint Beneyt,
Bycause that it was old and somdel streyt,
This ilke monk leet olde thinges pace,
And helde aftur the newe world the space.
He gaf nat of that text a pulled hen,

175

138 That seith, that hunters been noon holy men;
Ne that a monk, whan he is cloysterles,
Is likned to a fissche that is watirles;
This is to seyn, a monk out of his cloystre.
But thilke text hild he not worth an oystre.
And I seide his opinioun was good. [wood,
What schulde he studie, and make himselven
Uppon a book in cloystre alway to powre, 185
Or swynke with his handes, and laboure,
As Austyn byt? How schal the world be served?
Lat Austyn have his swynk to him reserved.
Therfore he was a pricasour aright;
Greyhoundes he hadde as swifte as fowel in flight;
Of prikyng and of huntyng for the hare
Was al his lust, for no cost wolde he spare. 192
I saugh his sleves purfiled atte hond
With grys, and that the fynest of a lond.
And for to festne his hood undur his chyn
He hadde of gold y-wrought a curious pyn:
A love-knotte in the gretter ende ther was.
His heed was ballid, and schon as eny glas,
And eek his face as he hadde be anoynt.
160 He was a lord ful fat and in good poynt;
His eyen steep, and rollyng in his heed,
That stemed as a forneys of a leed;
His bootes souple, his hors in gret estat.
Now certeinly he was a fair prelat;
He was not pale as a for-pyned goost.
A fat swan loved he best of eny roost.
His palfray was as broun as eny berye.

Hire overlippe wypud sche so clene,
That in hire cuppe was no ferthing sene
Of grees, whan sche dronken hadde hire draught.
Ful semely aftur hire mete sche raught.
And sikurly sche was of gret disport,
And ful plesant, and amyable of port,
And peyned hire to counterfete cheere
Of court, and ben estatlich of manere,
And to ben holden digne of reverence.
But for to speken of hire conscience,
Sche was so charitable and so pitous,
Sche wolde weepe if that sche sawe a mous 144
Caught in a trappe, if it were deed or bledde.
Of smale houndes hadde sche, that sche fedde
With rostud fleissh and mylk and wastel breed.
But sore wepte sche if oon of hem were deed,
Or if men smot it with a yerde smerte :
And al was conscience and tendre herte.
Ful semely hire wymple i-pynched was ;
Hire nose streight; hire eyen grey as glas; 152
Hire mouth ful smal, and therto softe and reed;
But sikurly sche hadde a fair forheed.
It was almost a spanne brood, I trowe;
For hardily sche was not undurgrowe.
Ful fetys was hire cloke, as I was waar.
Of smal coral aboute hire arme sche baar
A peire of bedes gaudid al with grene;
And theron heng a broch of gold ful schene,
On which was first i-writen a crowned A,
And after that, Amor vincit omnia.
Anothur NONNE also with hire hadde sche,
That was hire chapelleyn, and PRESTES thre.
A MONK ther was, a fair for the maistrie,
An out-rydere, that loved venerye;
A manly man, to ben an abbot able.
Full many a deynté hors hadde he in stable:
And whan he rood, men might his bridel heere 169
Gyngle in a whistlyng wynd so cleere,
And eek as lowde as doth the chapel belle,
Ther as the lord was keper of the selle.

149. men smot. The word men, used in this phrase, ap

pears here construed with a singular verb, as though it had been man (on frappa). So again, below, 1. 169, men might. So in a poem in my Political Songs, p. 330. 152. eyen grey. This appears to have been the favourite colour of ladies' eyes in the time of Chaucer. The young girl, in the Reves Tale, is described

"Where shal men nu finde."

With camoys nose, and eyghen gray as glas. 160. a broch. In 1845 a brooch, of the form of an A, was found in a field in Dorsetshire. It appeared to be of the fourteenth century, and affords a curious illustration of this passage of Chaucer. The inscription on one side seems to be,

IO FAS AMER E DOZ DE AMER.

166. loved venerye. The monks of the middle ages were extremely attached to hunting and field-sports; and this was a frequent subject of complaint with the more austere ecclesiastics, and of satire with the laity.

170. gyngle It was a universal practice among riders who wished to be thought fashionable, to have their horses' bridles hung with bells. The Templars were blamed for this vanity in the thirteenth century. In the romance of Richard Coeur de Lion, the Sultan of Damas has a trusty mare, of which we are told,

Hys crouper heeng al ful of belles,
And his peytrel, and his arsoun,
Three myle myghte men hear the sown.
Wycliffe, in his Triloge, inveighs against the priests of
his time for their "fair hors, and joly and gay sadeles,
and bridles ringing by the way." At a much later period,
Spencer describes a lady's steed,-

Her wanton palfrey all was overspread
With tinsel trappings, woven like a wave,
Whose bridle rung with golden bells and bosses brave.

200

A FRERE ther was, a wantoun and a merye,
A lymytour, a ful solempne man.

In alle the ordres foure is noon that can
So moche of daliaunce and fair langage.
He hadde i-made many a fair mariage
Of

209

yonge wymmen, at his owne cost.
Unto his ordre he was a noble post.
Ful wel biloved and famulier was he
With frankeleyns over al in his cuntré,
And eek with worthi wommen of the toun: 217
For he hadde power of confessioun,
As seyde himself, more than a curat,
For of his ordre he was licenciat.
Ful sweetly herde he confessioun,
And plesaunt was his absolucioun;
He was an esy man to geve penance
Ther as he wiste to han a good pitance;
For unto a povre ordre for to geve
Is signe that a man is wel i-schreve.
For if he gaf, he dorste make avaunt,

225

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

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

The

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

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

He wiste that a man was repentaunt.
For many a man so hard is of his herte,
He may not wepe though him sore smerte.
Therfore in stede of wepyng and prayeres,
Men mooten given silver to the pore freres.
His typet was ay farsud ful of knyfes
And pynnes, for to give faire wyfes.
And certayn he hadde a mery noote.
Wel couthe he synge and pleye on a rote.
Of yeddynges he bar utturly the prys.
His nekke whit was as the flour-de-lys.
Therto he strong was as a champioun.
He knew wel the tavernes in every toun,
And every ostiller or gay tapstere,
Bet than a lazer, or a beggere,
For unto such a worthi man as he'
Acorded not, as by his faculté,

To have with sike lazars aqueyntaunce.
It is not honest, it may not avaunce,
For to delen with such poraile,

234

289

But soth to say, I not what men him calle.
A CLERK ther was of Oxenford also,
That unto logik hadde longe i-go.
Al so lene was his hors as is a rake,
And he was not right fat, I undertake;
But lokede holwe, and therto soburly.
Ful thredbare was his overest courtepy,
For he hadde nought geten him yit a benefice,
Ne was not worthy to haven an office.
For him was lever have at his beddes heed
Twenty bookes, clothed in blak and reed,
Of Aristotil, and of his philosophie,
Then robus riche, or fithul, or sawtrie.
But al though he were a philosophre,
242 Yet hadde he but litul gold in cofre;

297

302

But al that he might of his frendes hente,
On bookes and his lernyng he it spente,
And busily gan for the soules pray
Of hem that gaf him wherwith to scolay.
Of studie tooke he most cure and heede.
Not oo word spak he more than was neede;
Al that he spak it was of heye prudence,
And schort and quyk, and ful of gret sentence.
Sownynge in moral manere was his speche,
252 And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche. 310
A SERGEANT OF LAWE, war and wys,
That often hadde ben atte parvys,
Ther was also, ful riche of excellence.
Discret he was, and of gret reverence:
He semed such, his wordes were so wise,
Justice he was ful often in assise,
By patent, and by pleyn commissioun;
For his science, and for his heih renoun,
Of fees and robes had he many oon.

But al with riche and sellers of vitaille.
And over al, ther eny profyt schulde arise,
Curteys he was, and lowe of servyse.
Ther was no man nowher so vertuous.
He was the beste begger in al his hous,
For though a widewe hadde but oo schoo,
So plesaunt was his In principio,
Yet wolde he have a ferthing or he wente.
His purchace was bettur than his rente.
And rage he couthe and pleye as a whelpe,
In love-dayes ther couthe he mochil helpe.
For ther was he not like a cloysterer,
With a thredbare cope, as a pore scoler,
But he was like a maister or a pope.
Of double worstede was his semy-cope,
That rounded was as a belle out of presse.
Somwhat he lipsede, for wantounesse,
To make his Englissch swete upon his tunge;
And in his harpyng, whan that he hadde sunge,
His eyghen twynkeled in his heed aright,
As don the sterres in the frosty night.
This worthi lymytour was called Huberd.

261

269

A MARCHAUNT was ther with a forked berd,

273

In motteleye, and high on horse he sat,
Uppon his heed a Flaundrisch bever hat;
His botus clapsud faire and fetously.
His resons he spak ful solempnely,
Sownynge alway the encres of his wynnyng.
He wolde the see were kepud for eny thinge
Betwixe Middulburgh and Orewelle.
Wel couthe he in eschange scheeldes selle.
This worthi man ful wel his witte bisette;
Ther wiste no man that he was in dette,
So estately was he of governaunce,
With his bargayns, and with his chevysaunce.
For sothe he was a worthi man withalle,

237. yeddynges. Ms. C. 2, reads weddinges.

318

[pecte.

323

So gret a purchasour was ther nowher noon.
Al was fee symple to him in effecte,
His purchasyng might nought ben to him sus-
Nowher so besy a man as he ther nas,
And yit he semed besier than he was.
In termes hadde caas and domes alle,
That fro the tyme of kyng Will were falle.
Therto he couthe endite, and make a thing,
Ther couthe no man pynche at his writyng.
And every statute couthe he pleyn by roote.
He rood but hoomly in a medled coote,
Gird with a seynt of silk, with barres smale; 331
Of his array telle I no lenger tale.

A FRANKELEYN ther was in his companye;
Whit was his berde, as the dayesye.
Of his complexioun he was sangwyn.
Wel loved he in the morn a sop of wyn.
281 To lyve in delite was al his wone,
For he was Epicurius owne sone,
That heeld opynyoun that pleyn delyt
Was verraily felicité perfyt.
An househaldere, and that a gret, was he;
Seynt Julian he was in his countré.

252. After this line, the two following are added in Tyrwhitt:-

And gave a certaine ferme for the grant,

Non of his bretheren came in his haunt. They are wanting in all the MSS. I have consulted; a circumstance of which Tyrwhitt takes no notice, though they are an evident interpolation. He seems to have taken them from the old printed editions.

258. purchase. This sentiment, or proverb, is taken literally from a line in the Romance of the Rose:

Mieux vault mon pourchas que ma rente. 278. forked berd. In Shottesbrooke church, Berks, there

is a brass of a Franklin of the time of Edward III., in which he is represented with such a forked beard, which seems to have been the fashionable mode of dressing the beard among the bourgeoisie. The Anglo-Saxons wore forked beards.

339

301. might of his frendes hente. This is the reading of most of the Mss., and appears to be the right one. The Ms. Harl. reads, might gete and his frendes sende.

304. gaf him. An allusion to the common practice, at this period, of poor scholars in the Universities, who wandered about the country, begging, to raise money to support them in their studies. See Piers Ploughman,1.4525,and note.

before a church. The parvis at London, supposed to be
312. parvys. This is generally explained as a portico
that of St. Paul's, was anciently frequented by sergeants-
c. 51-"Post meridiem curiæ non tenentur; sed placitantes
tibus ad legem et aliis consiliariis suis." See also Warton's
tunc se divertunt ad pervisum et alibi, consulentes cum servien-
Hist of Eng. Poetry, edit. of 1840, vol. ii. p. 212.
342. St. Julian was the patron of hospitality.

at-law, as we learn from Fortescue, de Laud. leg. Angl.

His breed, his ale, was alway after oon;
A bettre envyned man was nowher noon.
Withoute bake mete was never his hous,
Of fleissch and fissch, and that so plenty vous,
It snewed in his hous of mete and drynk,
Of alle deyntees that men cowde thynke.
Aftur the sondry sesouns of the yeer,
He chaunged hem at mete and at soper.
Ful many a fat partrich had he in mewe,
And many a brem and many a luce in stewe.
Woo was his cook, but if his sauce were
Poynant and scharp, and redy al his gere.
His table dormant in his halle alway
Stood redy covered al the longe day.
At sessions ther was he lord and sire.
Ful ofte tyme he was knight of the schire.
An anlas and a gipser al of silk
Heng at his gerdul, whit as morne mylk.
A schirreve hadde he ben, and a counter;
Was nowher such a worthi vavaser.

An HABURDASSHER and a CARPENTER,
A WEBBE, a DEYER, and a TAPICER,
Weren with us eeke, clothed in oo lyveré,
Of a solempne and gret fraternité.

Ful freissh and newe here gere piked was;
Here knyfes were i-chapud nat with bras,
But al with silver wrought ful clene and wel,
Here gurdles and here pouches every del.
Wel semed eche of hem a fair burgeys,
To sitten in a geldehalle on the deys.
Every man for the wisdom that he can,
Was schaply for to ben an aldurman.
For catel hadde they inough and rente,
And eek here wyfes wolde it wel assente;
And elles certeyn hadde thei ben to blame.
It is right fair for to be clept madame,
And for to go to vigilies al byfore,
And han a mantel rially i-bore.

350

360

370

380

A Cook thei hadde with hem for the nones,
To boyle chiknes and the mary bones,
And poudre marchant, tart, and galyngale.
Wel cowde he knowę a draught of Londone ale.
He cowde roste, sethe, broille, and frie,
Make mortreux, and wel bake a pye.
But gret harm was it, as it semede me,
That on his schyne a mormal hadde he;
For blankmanger he made with the beste.

389

A SCHIPMAN was ther, wonyng fer by weste:
For ought I woot, he was of Dertemouthe.
He rood upon a rouncy, as he couthe,
In a gowne of faldyng to the kne.
A dagger hangyng on a laas hadde he
Aboute his nekke under his arm adoun.
The hoote somer had maad his hew al broun;
And certeinly he was a good felawe.
Ful many a draught of wyn had he drawe [sleep.
From Burdeux-ward, whil that the chapman
Of nyce conscience took he no keep.

If that he foughte, and hadde the heigher hand,
By water he sente hem hoom to every land.
But of his craft to rikne wel the tydes,
His stremes and his dangers him bisides,
His herbergh and his mone, his lodemenage,
Ther was non such from Hulle to Cartage.
Hardy he was, and wys to undertake;
With many a tempest hadde his berd ben schake.
He knew wel alle the havenes, as thei were,
From Scotlond to the cape of Fynestere,
And every cryk in Bretayne and in Spayne;
His barge y-clepud was the Magdelayne.

Ther was also a DOCTOUR OF PHISIK,
In al this world ne was ther non him lyk
To speke of phisik and of surgerye;
For he was groundud in astronomye.
He kepte his pacient a ful gret del
In houres by his magik naturel.
Wel cowde he fortune the ascendent

Of his ymages for his pacient.

410

420

He knew the cause of every maladye,
Were it of cold, or hete, or moyst, or drye,
And where thei engendrid, and of what humour;

He was a verrey parfight practisour.

The cause i-knowe, and of his harm the roote,
Anon he gaf the syke man his boote.

Ful redy hadde he his apotecaries,

To sende him dragges, and his letuaries,
For eche of hem made othur for to wynne;

Here friendschipe nas not newe to begynne. 430
Wel knew he the olde Esculapius,

And Deiscorides, and ecke Rufus;
Old Ypocras, Haly, and Galien;
Serapyon, Razis, and Avycen;
Averrois, Damascen, and Constantyn;
Bernard, and Gatisden, and Gilbertyn.
Of his diete mesurable was he,
For it was of no superfluité,

But of gret norisching and digestible.
His studie was but litel on the Bible.
In sangwin and in pers he clad was al,
Lyned with taffata and with sendal.
And yit he was but esy in dispence;
He kepte that he wan in pestilence.

440

410. Scotlond. Most of the мss. have Gotland, the reading adopted by Tyrwhitt, and possibly the correct one. 416. Astronomye. A great portion of the medical science of the middle ages depended on astrological and other superstitious observances.

417. a ful gret del. This is the reading of most of the MSS.; the Ms. Harl. has wondurly wel.

431. Wel knew he. The authors mentioned here were the chief medical text-books of the middle ages. Rufus was a Greek physician of Ephesus, of the age of Trajan; Haly, Serapion, and Avicen, were Arabian physicians and astronomers of the eleventh century; Rhasis was a Spanish Arab, of the tenth century; and Averroes was a Moorish scholar, who flourished in Morocco in the twelfth century; Johannes Damascenus was also an Arabian physician, but of a much earlier date; Constantius Afer, a native of Carthage, and afterwards a monk of Monte Cassino, was one of the founders of the school of Salerno--he 352. in stewe; i.e. in a fish-pond. The great consump-lived at the end of the eleventh century; Bernardus Gortion of fish under the Romish régime rendered a fish-pond a necessary accessory to every gentleman's house. 355. table dormant. Probably the fixed table at the end

of the hall.

400

384. Londone ale. Tyrwhitt has cited a passage of an old writer, which shews that London ale was prized above that of other parts of the country.

396. the hoote somer. Perhaps this is a reference to the summer of the year 1351, which was long remembered as the dry and hot summer. Other allusions in this general prologue seem to shew that Chaucer intended to lay the plot of his Canterbury pilgrimage soon after this date.

C

donius, professor of medicine at Montpellier, appears to have been Chaucer's contemporary; John Gatisden was a distinguished physician of Oxford, in the earlier half of the fourteenth century; Gilbertyn is supposed by Warton to be the celebrated Gilbertus Anglicus. The other names mentioned here are too well known to need further observation. The names of Hippocrates and Galen were, in the middle ages, always (or nearly always) spelt Ypocras and Galienus.

444. pestilence. An allusion, probably, to the great pestilences which devastated Europe in the middle of the fourteenth century, and to which we owe the two cele

VOL. II.

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