MEETING OF THE PILGRIMS.

EXTRACTS FROM THE PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY

TALES.

MEETING OF THE PILGRIMS.

Whanné that April with his1 showers sote2
The drought of March hath pierced to the root,
And bathéd every vein in swiche licòur3
Of which virtùe engendered is the flower
When Zephyrus eke, with his soté breath,
Inspiréd hath, in every holt and heath,
The tender croppés ; and the youngé sun
Hath in the Ram his halfé course yrun ;7
And smallé foulés maken❞ melody,
That sleepen allé night with open eye,
So pricketh them Nature in their couràges;10
Then longen folk to gon" on pilgrimages,
And palmers1 for to seeken strangé strands,13
To ferné halwes14 couthe15 in sundry lands;
And specially from every shire's end
Of Engleland to Canterbury they wend,16
The holy blissful martyr" for to seek

That them hath holpen when that they were sick.
Befell that in that season on a day,

In Southwark, at the Tabard18 as I lay
Ready to wenden on my pilgrimage
To Canterbury with full devout courage,
At night was come into that hostelrie
Full nine-and-twenty in a company
Of sundry folk, by aventure" yfallen
In fellowship, and pilgrims were they all

1 April is masculine by classical analogy; feminine in modern poetry.

3

2 Sote or swote, sweet; o and e are very frequently interchangeable in English

etymology, as break, broke; wear, wore; float, fleet.

3 Such moisture: swiche, swilk, analogous to which, whilk, etc.

4 A height covered with trees (Tooke); a grove.

The eor i of the plural in old poetry is always sounded when the verse requires it,
The spring equinoctial sign of the zodiac.

7 Y is the old English prefix of the past participle; Saxon and German ge.
8 Birds.
9 en, the plural, infinitive, and participial termination in old English.
10 Feelings; inclination; Fr. cœur.
11 Inf. for goen.

12 Pilgrims returned from the Holy Land, so called from bearing palm branches. 13 The old form of this and similar words is strond, hond, lond, etc. Spencer, in his imitation of the obsolete dialect, uses this form.

14 Far-off holies or shrines.

15 Known, celebrated; p. part. of cunnan (Sax.), to know, to be able; the cognate words are, can, could, cunning, con, ken, know. The ideas, knowledge, power, sight, are in languages often denoted by words of the same origin.

16 We retain the past tense went in the verb go.

18 Now the "Talbot;" tabard is a herald's coat.

17 St. Thomas à Becket.

19 Singular verbs were anciently often used with plural nominatives; "There is tears for his love."-Shaksp. Jul. Cæs.

20 Chance, Fr.

those springs

On chaliced flowers that lies.-Id. Cymbeline.

21 Met.

That toward Canterbury wolden ride.
The chambers and the stables weren wide,
And well we weren eased atté1 best.

THE KNIGHT AND THE SQUIRE.

A knight there was, and that a worthy man,
That, fro the timé that he first began
To riden out, he loved chivalry,

Truth, and honòur, freedom,3 and courtesy.
Full worthy was he in his lordés war,
And thereto had he ridden, no man farre,*
As well in Christendom as in Heatheness,
And ever honoured for his worthiness.

At Alisandre" he was when it was won ;
Full oftentime he had the board begun
Aboven allé natiöns, in Prusse."

In Lettowe had he reyséd, and in Russe,
Ne Christian man so oft of his degree.
In Gernade1o at the siege eke had he be
Of Algesir," and ridden in Belmarie.12
At Leyés was he and at Satalie,13

When they were won; and in the Greaté Sea1
At many a noble army had he be.

At mortal battles had he been fifteen,

And foughten for our faith at Tramicene,15,
In listes thries and aye slain his foe.
This ilke1? worthy Knight had been also
Sometimé with the Lord of Palatie
Agen another heathen in Turkèy;18
And evermore he had a sovereign prise."
And, though that he was worthy," he was wise,
And of his port as meek as is a maid.
He never yet no villany22 ne23 said,

1 At the. 2 From, retained in to and fro, and in froward.

A Fer, adv. (Sax.) far; comp. ferre, farther.

19

3 Liberality.

5 Alexandria was captured by Pierre de Lusignan, King of Cyprus, in 1365. Been set at the head of the table as the place of honour.

7 Service in Prussia with the Teutonic knights against the heathens of the Baltic countries formed a school of training for military men in these ages.

8 Lithuania.

Travelled, (German, reise, a journey).

10 Grenada.

11 Algeciras, in Andalusia, west of Gibraltar, taken from the Moorish king of Grenada in 1344. 12 Supposed to be in Africa.

13 Layas in Armenia, and Satalia (ancient Attalia) in Caramania, were captured, the former in 1367, the latter 1352, by Pierre de Lusignan of Cyprus.

14 The Mediterranean.

15 Or Tlemecen, the western province of Algiers: its chief town of the same name was formerly a great city, the capital of an independent kingdom. It is said to contain many Roman remains.

16 The enclosure for tournaments and judicial combats.

17 Same; retained in the Scottish dialect.

18 In Anatolia among the ruins of Miletus.

19 Praise.

22

:0 As well as.

21 Of esteem in arms.

'Anything unbecoming a gentleman."-(Tyrwhitt.) Villain, a peasant, a Double negatives form a common idiom in old English.

feudal serf.

THE KNIGHT AND THE SQUIRE.

In all his life, unto no manner wight.
He was a very perfect gentle1 Knight.

*

*

*

*

With him there was his son, a youngé Squire,
A lover and a lusty bacholer,

With lockés crull, as they were laid in press.
Of twenty year of age he was I guess.
Of his stature he was of even length,

And wonderly deliver3 and great of strength;
And he had been some time in chevachie
In Flandres, in Artois, and in Picardy,
And borne him well, as of so little space,
In hope to standen in his lady's grace.

Embroidered was he, as it were a mead
All full of freshé flowers white and red.
Singing he was or fluting all the day:
He was as fresh as is the month of May.

Short was his gown, with sleevés long and wide;
Well could he sit on horse, and fairé3 ride.

He couldé songés well make, and indite,“

Joust, and eke dance, and well pourtray and write.
So hot he loved, that by nightertale

He slept no more than doth the nightingale.
Courteous he was, lowly and serviceable,
And carved before his father at the table."

THE FRANKLIN.

A Frankélin1 was in this company.
White was his beard as is the dayésie."
Of his complexiön he was sanguine.

Well loved he by the morrow a sop in wine.
To liven in delight was ever his wone,

For he was Epicurus' owén son,12

1 High born.

2 Curled.

5

3 Active, nimble. (Fr.) ↑ Military service; (Fr. cheval, a horse): chevauchée signifies in French judges' circuit.

Elegantly: fair in its modern application implies mediocrity.

Indite, to write ("what the muse or mind may dictate"); to dictate. The form indict seems now restricted to legal accusation. (Lat. indicium, accusation.) For the origin and application of indiction see Gibbon, Roman Empire, chap. xvii.

To tilt in the tournament: some connect the term with the word justle; some with the Latin preposition juxta; others with justa, the Roman funeral rites, because combats formed a part of the ceremony. (Fr. jouster; Ital. giostrare.)

Nightime: the termination tale seems to be the German word theil, a part, a deal. This was part of the duty of a squire, who fulfilled for his master many of the offices now reckoned menial, as well as equipping him for the field, and rendering him assistance there or in the tournament. "There is exquisite beauty in offices like these, not the growth of servitude, not rendered with unwillingness or constraint, but the spontaneous acts of reverence and affection, performed by a servant of mind not less noble and free than that of his honoured and illustrious master."—Godwin, Life of Chaucer.

10 From frank, free; a proprietor who held his lands free of feudal services or payments. 11 The daisy. Day's eye is the alleged etymology. 12 Comp. Horace, Epist. i. 4, 16.

Who held opinion that plain delight
Was verily felicity parfite.1

An householder, and that a great was he:
St. Julian he was in his countree.

His bread, his ale, was always after one ;3
A better envined' man was no where none.
Withouten bake meat never was his house,
Of fish and flesh, and that so plenteous,
It snowed in his house of meat and drink:
Of allé dainties that men could of think,
After the sundry seasons of the year,
So changed he his meat and his soupére.
Full many a fat partridge had he in mew,
And many a bream, and many a luce in stew.
Wo was his cook, but if his saucé were
Poignant and sharp, and ready all his gear.
His table dormant in his hall alway
Stood ready covered all the longé day.

At sessions, there was he lord and sire,
Full often time he was knight of the shire."
An anlace,12 and a gipciere13 all of silk,
Hung at his girdle white as morrow milk.
A sheriff had he been and a countour;1
Was no where such a worthy vavasour.15

1 Fr. parfait; this is always the form in Chaucer.

2 St. Julian is the patron saint of travellers. The Franklin is so hospitable he may be called the St. Julian of his country.

3 Alike in excellence and abundance. At one, in agreement: to atone, to set at one; to reconcile: hence to compensate for faults.

4 Furnished with wine.

5 This form is still used in Scottish poetry. With, from Anglo-Saxon withan, to join, signifies concomitancy; with, from wyrthen, to be, implies cause, instrumentality: within (be in), and without or withouten (be out), are formed from the latter. Were has the same origin; and worth, essence, hence value; worth is used in its original sense as an interjection:

Wo worth the chace! wo worth the day! (Scott.)

With, a willow twig, used for uniting or binding (Judges xvi. 8);-Withers, the joints of a horse's shoulders.

According to.

7 A pike; from lupus (Lat.); the pike is the wolf of the waters. Horace, Sat. ii.

2, 31.

Unless. It is alleged that there should be two words, but and bot; the former a preposition, from the Anglo-Saxon verb be-utan (to be out), implying exception or privation; the latter a conjunction from the verb botan (to add, to supply), denoting addition; in Scottish poetry but is still used for without

Now thou'rt turned out for a' thy trouble

But house or hald. (Burns.)

In Wycliffe's version of the Scripture, but is used in many passages where the modern version uses and;-" But his disciples axiden him," etc., Luke viii. 9. But that, that fell among thorns," etc., Luke viii. 14.

9 "All sorts of instruments; of cookery, of war, of apparel."-(Tyrwhitt.) 10 Never moved, fixed. 11 Representative in parliament for the county. 12 A knife, usually worn at the girdle. 13 A purse. 14 Sometimes courtour. Warton takes this term to mean coroner; it is spelt also comptour (Fr. compteur), and may mean accountant or steward of the hundred to which he belonged. 15 Probably a middling landholder.

THE PARSON.

THE PARSON.

A good man there was of religiön
That was a pooré persone1 of a town;
But rich he was of holy thought and werk:
He was also a learned man-a clerk.2
That Christé's gospel truély would preach;
His parishens devoutly would he teach.
Benign he was and wonder3 diligent,
And in adversity full patient:

And such he was yproved often sithes.*
Full loth were him to cursen for his tythes;
But rather would he given out of doubt,
Unto his pooré parishens about,

Of his off'ring and eke of his substànce:
He could in little thing have suffisance.?
Wide was his parish-houses far asunder,
But he ne left nought for no rain ne thunder,
In sickness and in mischief to visite
The ferrest in his parish much and lite,
Upon his feet, and in his hand a staff.

This noble ensample to his sheep he yaf,—

That first he wrought and afterward he taught ;
Out of the gospel he the wordés caught,
And this figure he added yet thereto,-
That if gold rusté, what should iron do?
For if a priest be foul on whom we trust,
No wonder is a lewéd1o man to rust."
And shame it is, if that a priest take keep,12
To see a smutted shepherd and clean sheep.
Well ought a priest ensample for to give
By his cleanness, how that his sheep should live.
He setté not his benefice to hire,

And left his sheep accumbered in the mire,
And ran unto London unto St. Paul's

To seeken him a chanterie13 for souls,

7

1 "Skinner says from parischon, ecclesiastes; Barb. Lat. paræcianus, i. e., pastor of the parish. In low Latin it is persona, ecclesiæ rector, ruler or rector of the church. -persona, because by his person the church, which is an invisible body, is represented,' Blackstone." Richardson.

2 A scholar; the clergy being the only depositories of the arts of reading and writing in the dark ages. 3 Used adverbially.

Times; German, seit, modern English, tide; also sith, sithence, since. Would he have been: analogous to methinks, meseems, "him listeth," etc The construction might perhaps be analysed into "he were to himself." Of the revenue received at the "offertory" in the service of the mass.

7 Sufficiency (French).

8 The farthest or most distant of his parishioners, great and small.

9 Gave.

1 Low, ignorant, unlearned; hence having the qualities that naturally spring from that condition. Acts xvii. 5. Hearne says, "the laity, laymen, the illiterate." 11 To become morally and religiously worse.

12 Exercise care in his office.

13 "An endowment for the payment of a priest to sing mass, agreeably to the appointment of the founder; there were 35 of these in St. Paul's."