a pity it did not conclude the portrait, but for the good sense and sobriety of what follows, and the smutted state of the knight's doublet, caused by his coat of mail. This renders the conclusion still better, by showing the crowning point of his character, which is the preference of substance to show, and action before the glory of it. He is a man who would rather conclude with being a perfect knight, than with being called one. 5" With lockěs crull as they were laid in presse."-And perhaps the sly poet meant us to understand that they were; for manliness in youth is not always above the little arts of foppery. 6"And carf before his fader at the table."-A custom of the time, and a far more civilized one than that of assigning the office to old gentlemen and delicate ladies. 7" And all was conscience and tendre herte."-A lovely verse. 8" Amor vincit omnia."-Love conquers all things. We are to take this quotation from Ovid in a religious sense; whatever charitable thoughts towards others the good nun might combine with it. 9 “Preestes thre.”—The Prioress, for all her fine boarding-school breeding, fed heartily as well as nicely, and was in good buxom condition. We are not to suppose that the "Preestes thre" were less so, or fared ill at her table. One of them, indeed, who is called a "sweete Preest," and a "goodly F man," is described as having a "large breast," and looking like "a sparrow-hawk with his eyen." It is he that tells the pleasant fable of the Cock and the Fox. 10A Frere ther was, a wanton and a mery, A limitour, a ful solempně man." This audacity of style, making the Friar at once merry and solemn, is in the richest comic taste. He is a "ful solempně man;" that is to say, excessively and ultra solemn, while he is about it; so much so, that you see the lurking merriment in the excess. He shakes his head and cheeks, speaks hollow in the throat, and in a nasal tone of disapprobation. He particularly excels in deprecating what he approves. Next to money-getting, he would object to luxury. He had joined numbers of young women in marriage "at his own cost;" that is to say, for no better pay than being the merriest fellow at the wedding-dinner, and looking forward to every possible good thing in the household. If a widow had but a "shoe" left, he would get a farthing out of it. I have seen such jolly beggars in Italy. One of them, a fine handsome young man, who was having his panniers filled at a farmer's door (for he went about with a donkey), invited me to a pinch of snuff with all the unaffected grace of his country; and on my praising the beauty of the place (it was at Maiano, on the Fiesolan hills, looking towards Florence), he ac quiesced with a sort of deprecating admission of the fact, worthy of his brother in Chaucer; observing, while he piously turned up his eyes, that it was "good enough for this world." 11 “Litel gold in cofre."- A hit at the philosopher's stone; or, by inference, at the poverty of philosophy in general. all. Povera e nuda vai, Filosofia. Petrarch. Naked and poor goest thou, Philosophy. But the twenty books at the bed's head pay for 12" And gladly wold he lerne and gladly teche."-The consummation of a real unaffected lover of knowledge. Yet I cannot help being of opinion with Warton, that the three lines beginning "not a word spake he," are intended to imply a little innocent pedantry. Tyrwhitt supposes the credit of good letters to be concerned in our thinking otherwise. (Moxon's edition of Chaucer, p. 175.) But Chaucer thought that good letters could bear a little banter, without losing their credit. All purely serious scholars in those times had a tendency to pedantry and formality. Chaucer only escaped it himself by dint of the gayer part of his genius. 13 No wher so besy a man as he ther n'as; And yet he seměd besier than he was." One is never tired of repeating this exquisite couplet. So Lawyer Dowling, in Tom Jones, wishes he could cut himself into I forget how many pieces, in order that he might see to all the affairs which he had to settle. 14 “His barge yclepěd was the Magdelaine.”—This gentle penitential name has a curious effect in connection with a man who had no nicety of conscience. Was it meant to show the frequently irrelevant nature of the names of ships? or to imply that the rough seaman had a soft corner in his heart for penitents of the fair saint's description? The line about the tempest-shaken beard is an effusion of the finest poetry. It invests the homely man with a sudden grandeur; as though a storm itself had risen in the horizon, dignifying his rude vessel with danger. THE FRIAR'S TALE; OR, THE SUMMONER AND THE DEVIL. A Summoner finds himself riding in company with a Devil, and makes an agreement with him which turns out to be of an unexpected nature. A Summoner was a church officer, who cited offenders into the ecclesiastical court. The friars and the dignified clergy were at great variance in Chaucer's time; and therefore it is a friar who relates the following amusing and exquisitely complete story, in which I have omitted nothing but a superfluous exordium. -And so befell, that ones on a day This Sompnour, waiting ever on his prey, And happed, that he saw beforn him ride A bow he bare; and arwes bright and kene And hat upon his hed with frenges blake. Sire, quod the Sompnour, haile and wel atake. A summoner, who was ever on the watch for prey, rode forth one morning to cheat a poor old woman, against whom he pretended to have a complaint. His track lay by a forest-side; and it chanced, that he saw before him, under the trees, a yeoman on horseback, gaily equipped with a bow and arrows. The stranger was in a short green cloak; and he had a hat with a black fringe. "Good-morrow, sir," quoth the summoner, overtaking him. "The same to you," quoth the yeoman, "and to every other jolly companion. What road are you bound upon to-day through the green wood? Are you going far?" *Ribibe was a word for the musical instrument called also a rebec (a sort of guitar). Why it was applied to old women the commentators cannot say; Tyrwhitt thinks, perhaps on account of its sharp tone. |