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redundant phrase. In others it is effected by the substitution of a verb or noun of greater strength or picturesqueness, or in some slight additional circumstance that heightens the effect of the whole picture. In the fine comparison of the mortal earnestness and hate in the faces of the two brothers as they prepare in silence for the deadly conflict:

'Right as the honters in the regne of Trace,
That stondeth at the gappe with a spere,
Whan honted is the lyoun or the bere,
And hereth him come rushing in the greves,
And breketh bothe the bowes and the leves,
And thenketh, "Here cometh my mortel enemy,
Withoute faile, he mot be deed or I;
For eyther I mot slen him at the gappe,
Or he moot slee me, if it me mishappe;'
So ferden they, in chaungyng of here hew.'

The Harleian manuscript has in the fourth line coming instead of rushing, the more forcible reading in which all six texts agree. Again, when Theseus hunting with his Queen and royal company, discovers the two brothers fighting, the description of what follows has, in the six texts, some delicate touches that are wanting in the Harleian. At first, incensed at the outrage of his authority, Theseus condemns Palamon and Arcite to immediate death, but at the earnest intercession of the Queen, her sister Emily, and all the ladies of the company, he gradually relents, and with the finest art Chaucer lets us see the whole process of thought by which the change is effected. He muses with himself, and after a brief soliloquy in which he recalls the motives to compassion, his hard resolve melts, the frown of sudden anger passes away, and with lightened eyes he lifts up his head and utters a kind of apostrophe or invocation to the God of Love. The description of the change and its results is as follows:

And in his gentil hert he thought anoon,
And softely unto himself he seyde: "Fy
Upon a Lord that wol have no mercy,
But be a lyoun bothe in word and dede,
To hem that ben in repentaunce and drede,
As wel as to a proud dispitious man,
That wol maynteyne that he first bigan.
That lord hath litel of discrecioun,

That in such caas can no divisioun ;

But wayeth pride and humblenesse after oon,"
And schortly, whan his ire is thus agon,

He gan to loken up with eyen light,

And spak these same wordes al in hight,

"The god of love, a! benedicite,
How mighty and how gret a lord is he!
Agayns his might ther gayneth non obstacles,
He may be cleped a god for his miracles."'

This is the reading of the six manuscripts, and it differs in a number of minute particulars from that of the Harleian text. Two of these are, however, of special interest, as bearing directly on the cardinal poetical qualities of truth and vividness of description. In the second line instead of softely,' the Harleian manuscript reads 'sothly,' truly, which in this connexion is a mere expletive, adding nothing whatever to the description, while 'softely,' connected with the 'gentil heart' in the line above, and the remonstrance that follows, paints at once the melting of the wrathful mood, and the relenting soliloquy it produced. Again, in the twelfth line, instead of the reading loken up,' the Harleian text has loke on hem.' But from the line that follows, as well as from the whole context and circumstances of the case, it is clear that loken up' must be the true reading. After reasoning with himself against the obstinate endurance of wrath and pride, and on the strong motives to mercy in such a case, until the glow of anger had faded, Theseus at length, with enlarged heart and lighted countenance, looks up and breaks forth into an exclamation on the force of love which is a kind of indirect apostrophe to the higher powers. Such an apostrophe could not with propriety be addressed to the two youthful culprits awaiting his decision, especially as in the upward appeal he describes their case as an illustration of the power invoked. Then presently, towards the close of the appeal, he turns to them and

says

A man moot ben a fool or young or olde,
I woot it by myself ful yore agon:
For in my time a servant was I on.
And therefore syn I knowe of loves payne,
And wot how sore it can a man destroyne,
As he that hath ben caught oft in his lace,
I you forgeve holly this trespace,

At request of the queen that kneleth heere,
And eek of Emely, my suster decre.'

In these ten lines there are no fewer than five changes derived from the Society's texts, which are, in our judgment, improvements. We cannot pause to comment on them in detail, but in this as in other extracts they are printed in italics that Chaucer students may be able to compare them with the Harleian text for themselves.

We may, however, give a few more examples of perhaps the most numerous and important class of emendations-those which give an additional or a more expressive word or phrase that heightens the descriptive effect of the passage. The six last lines in the description of the Clerk of Oxenford are in Mr. Morris's text as follows:

'Of studie took he most cure and heede.

Not oo word spak he more than was neede;
All that he spak it was of heye prudence
And schort and quyk, and full of great sentence.
Souninge in moral manere was his speche,

And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche,'

The reading of the six manuscripts is :

'Of studie took he most cure and most heede.
Not oo word spak he more than was neede;
And that was seyd in form and reverence
And schort and quyk, and ful of high sentence.
Sounynge in moral vertu was his speche,

And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.'

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Here the third line in the Harleian adds little to the description, being virtually repeated immediately after, while the line that is substituted for it in the other manuscripts brings out a new and characteristic feature of the Clerk's style of speaking. While in the matter his speech is of lofty meaning, of high 'sentence,' conversant with such abstract themes as ethics and metaphysics, the form is marked by the scholastic brevity, precision, and reserve proper to a devoted student of Aristotle. In the short description of the Clerk, the associated texts agree in no fewer than nine changes, all of which appear to us amendments, and two, at least, beside those already noticed, very decided amendments, both in metre and sense. Examples of apt epithets introduced, or commonplace and redundant phrases exchanged for more descriptive ones, are numerous. In the description of Venus, for example, two instances occur within half a dozen lines.

'The statu of Venus, glorious for to see,
Was naked fletyng in the large see.

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A citole in hire right hand hadde sche,
And on her heed, ful semely on to see,
A rose garland fresh and well smellyng,
Above her head hir doves flikering.
Biforn hir stood hir sone Cupido,
Upon his schuldres winges hadde he two;
And blynd he, as it is often seene,

A bow he bar and arwes bright and kene,'

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In the seventh line of this extract, the Harleian text has a

new garland full sweet and well smelling,' where the epithets in italics are simply redundant, and in the description of Cupid's arrows, fair and greene' occurs instead of the more appropriate and vividly descriptive phrase, bright and keen.' The more minute changes derived from the associated texts are indicated by the italics. In another description of Venus (line 1528), the epithet 'young' is found in the associated texts, instead of a mere expletive phrase in the Harleian. Again, in the description of the tournament, at the outset the Harleian reads:

"The heraldz laften here prikyng up and doun;
Now ryngede the tromp and clarioun.'

Both the metre and expressiveness of the lines are much improved in the reading of the associated texts:—

'The heralds lafte here priking up and doun;

Now ringen trompes loud and clarioun.'

The same is true of a line in Theseus' speech at the close of the conflict:

'Arcyte of Thebes schal have Emelye

That by his fortune hath hire fair y wonne.'

Where the Harleian manuscript reads:

'That hath by his fortune hire i-wonne.'

Again, in the description of the temple of Venus :
'Furst in the temple of Venus mayst thou se,
Wrought in the wall ful piteous to byholde,
The broken slepes, and the sykes cold;
The sacred teers, and the waymentyng;
The fuyry strokes of the desiryng,
That loves servants in this lyf enduren,
The othes that her covenants assuren.
Plesance and hope, desyr, fool-hardynesse,
Beaute and youthe, baudery richesse,
Charmes and force, lesynges, flatery.'

The Harleian text spoils both the grammar and the metre of the first line by reading, thou may see,' and injures the discriminative fulness of the ninth by reading, 'charms and sorcery,' for sorcery works by charms, while passion, to secure its ends, employs force perhaps quite as often as flattery. Another example of the terse but significant touches afforded by the better reading of the Society texts occurs in Emily's early visit to the temple of Diana :

This Emelye with herte debonaire

Hir body wessch with water of a well;

But how sche dide her ryte I dar not telle,
But it bee eny thing in general.'

The phrase, her ryte,' indicates at once the religious nature of the act as a preparation for worship, and the sacredness attaching to virgin grace and purity. But the Harleian manu script slurs over the special meaning of the line by reading'But how sche dide I ne dar not telle.'

Again, a considerable number of different readings in the associated texts are obviously superior to the Harleian mainly because they correct the inaccuracies of the latter in small points of contemporary dress, manners, customs, knowledges, and beliefs, or because they supply improvements in the comparatively subordinate details of arrangement, emphasis, and effect. As an example of emphasis, compare the line in Palamon's desperate confession to Theseus,

'Two woful wrecches been we, two caytyves,'

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with the Harleian, which has simply and' instead of the reduplicative and emphatic two.' As examples of minor inaccuracies corrected, we have in line 1004, The lystes shall I maken in this place,' instead of the Harleian lyste,' which, though common enough in the sense of a boundary, is not, we believe, used in the singular as a technical term for the lines within which a tournament takes place. Again, in the description of the noble theatre which Theseus built for the vast crowd of spectators at the great assault of arms, we have the following account of the provision made for their reception :'The circuite a myle was about,

Walled of stoon, and dyched al withoute.
Round wos the schap, in manner of compass,
Ful of degrees, the height of sixty paces.
That when a man was set on o degré

He lettede nought his felaw for to se.'

6

That is to say, the whole colossal sweep from the central area was filled with steps or degrees, with expanded rows of benches, circular seats rising one above another like the stone gradations of the Coliseum. Here, however, as in the previous case, the Harleian manuscript reads, instead of degrees,' ' degree,' which is grammatically as well as descriptively inaccurate. Another example of faulty detail occurs in the splendid description of Lycurge, King of Thrace. He rides in a chair of state drawn by four white bulls,

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