And ellés certeyn weren thei to blame.
It is right fair for to be clept madame,
And gon to vigilies al byfore,
And han a mantel rially i-bore.

THE COOK. (From the Ellesmere MS.)

8

But of his craft to rekne wel the tydes,
His stremés and his dangers him bisides,
His herbergh and his mone, his lodemenage,
Ther was non such from Hullé to Cartage.
Hardy he was, and wys to undertake;
With many a tempest had his berd ben shake,
He knew wel alle the havenes, as thei were,
From Scotlond to the cape of Fynestere,
And every cryke in Bretayne and in Spayne;
His barge y-cleped 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 grounded in astronomye.
He kepte his paciént a ful grete dele
In hourés by his magik naturel."
Wel coude he fortuné the ascendént

Of his ymages for his paciént.

He knew the cause of every maladye,

410

Were it of hot or cold, or moyst or drye,

420

And where thei engendred, and of what humóur;

He was a verray parfit practisóur.

The cause i-knowe, and of his harm the roote,

Anon he yaf the syké man his boote.10

Ful redy hadde he his apotecaries,

To sende him drugges, and his letuaries, For eche of hem made other for to wynne; Hir frendshipe nas not newé to begynne. Wel knew he the olde Esculapius,

A Cook thei haddé with hem for the nones, To boyle the chiknes with the mary bones, And poudre marchaunt tart and galyngale.2 Wel coude he knowe a draught of Londone ale. He coudé roste and sethé, broille and frie, Maken mortereus,3 and wel bake a pye. But gret harm was it, as it thoughté me, That on his shyne a mormal' hadde he; For blankmanger that made he with the beste.

5

A SHIPMAN was ther, wonyng fer by weste:
For ought I woot, he was of Dertémouthe.

He rood upon a rouncy," as he couthe,
In a gowne of faldyngé 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 i-drawe
From Burdeux-ward, whil that the chapman sleep.
Of nycé consciénce took he no keep.

If that he foughte, and hadde the heigher hand,
By water he sente hem hoom to every land.

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1 Rially i-bore, royally carried. That is to say, the well-to-do wives were attended by a servant to carry the mantle that was put on and taken off as weather prompted.

Poudre marchaunt tart and galyngale. Powder here is a verb; the cook is to boil chickens and to powder spices. The root of galangal was a stomachic once common as ginger, and so popular, that in Germany it was usual for patients to chew it during venesection. "Merchant tart" is some corrupted form of the name of another spice, possibly moschata nut, moschaut nut, which is nutmeg.

3 Morterous. Mortress was fish, flesh, or fowl of any kind pounded in a mortar, and eaten in pulp as a meat soup flavoured with eggs, saffron, &c. Bread, pepper, and ale were ingredients in a mortress of fish. The blanc-mange afterwards mentioned was made with white meat as well as milk.

• Mormal, mort-mal, the sore leg, to which, from the much standing and the unhealthy nature of their calling, men who work in bakehouses are still liable.

5 Wonyng, dwelling.

Rouncy, French "roncin," a hack. Faldynge, coarse frieze. 7 Laas (Latin "laqueus "), lace.

8 Lodemenage, pilotage.

By his magik naturel. So in Chaucer's "House of Fame": "And clerkes eke which conne wel

Al this magike naturel,

That craftily doon her ententes
To make in certeyn ascendentes
Images, lo, through which magike
To make a man ben hool or sike."

10 His boote, First-English "bót," remedy.

11 Esculapius, fabulous god of medicine, son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis, and taught physic by the centaur Chiron. Dioscorides, a famous physician of Cilicia, lived in the reign of Nero, turned from arms to medicine, and wrote a great treatise upon Simples, which remains. Rufus, a physician of Ephesus, who lived in the time of Trajan, and left several works. Ypocras, Hippocrates, the most famous of the physicians of antiquity, born at Cos about 460 B.C. He published a body of writings that remained text-books of the physicians for many centuries. Galen was the other chief authority from ancient times. He practised in Rome in the second century. Haly, an Arabian of the eleventh century, was a commentater upon Galen Serapion was another of the Arabian physicians, of whom the most famous was Avicenna, who died A.D. 1036. Averroes, born at Cordova of an Arab family, translated Aristotle into Arabic, and wrote upon the theory of medicine. He died A.D. 1206. Gatisden taught physic at Oxford in Chaucer's earlier days. Bernard was a contemporary professor at Montpellier. Gilbertyn, Gilbertus Anglicus, wrote in the thirteenth century.

12 Sangwyn and in pers, blood-red and dark blue. 13 Esy of dispence, "otiosus," slow in spending.

For gold in phisik is a cordial; Therfore he louedé gold in special.

THE WIFE OF BATH. (From the Ellesmere MS.)

A good WIF was ther of bysidé BATHE, But she was somdel deef, and that was scathe. Of cloth-makyng she haddé such an haunt, She passed hem of Ypris and of Gaunt. In al the parisshe wyf ne was ther noon That to the offryng byforn hire shulde goon, And if ther dide, certeýn so wroth was she, That she was out of allé charité.

Hire keverchefs ful fyne weren of grounde;

I dursté swere they weyeden ten pounde
That on a Sonday were upon hire heed.
Hir hosen weren of fyn scarlett reed,

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At Rome she hadde ben, and at Boloyne,

In Galice at seynt Jame, and at Coloyne.
She coudé moche of wandryng by the weye.
Gat-tothéd was she, sothly for to seye.
Upon an amblere esely she sat,
I-wympled wel, and on hire heed an hat
As brood as is a bocler or a targe;

A foot-mantel aboute hire hipes large,
And on hire feet a paire of spores sharpe.
In felawshipe wel coude she laughe and carpe.
Of remedyes of love she knew perchaunce,
For of that art she knew the oldé daunce.

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Several of the characters of Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims are further developed by incidents or talk upon the road, and by light touches associated with the introduction of their stories. In this way the sketch of Wife of Bath has been finished by addition of so many details that the whole sketch, put into prose, comes to be this:

1

Alisoun, a Wife of Bath, some part deaf, which was pity; a most skilful clothmaker (Bath was famous of old for its cloth trade), and wroth was she if any wife in the parish went before her to the offering at mass. The fine coverchiefs she wore on her head on Sunday weighed a pound, her scarlet hose were tied up tight, her shoes were new, bold was her face, and fair and red of hue. She thanked God that since she was twelve years old she had five husbands at the church door (where, in the old marriage service, the couple stood during the earlier part of the ceremony), had been faithful to each, was ready to welcome the sixth when her fifth should die, and, as a pilgrim, had been thrice to Jerusalem, to Rome, to Bologna, to the shrine of St. James at Compostella, and to that of the three kings-the Wife of Bath would hardly have set out for the shrine of the eleven thousand virgins at Cologne. She had prominent teeth, and that, she said, became her well; sat easily upon an ambler, well wimpled about the neck, with a hat broad as a buckler, a foot-mantle about her large hips, and a pair of sharp spurs on her feet. She could laugh well in fellowship, and tell, as an expert, of remedies of love. Saint Paul, she said, counselled virginity, but God bade man increase and multiply. Holy virginity is great perfection, but Christ, the fountain of perfection, bade not every one go sell all that he had. She chose another part. It was not for no reason that God made us male and female. Our Lord and many of the saints lived ever in perfect chastity. She honoured holy virgins : "Let hem be bred of puréd wheté seed, And let us wyvés eten barley breed. And yet with barly bred, men tellé can Oure Lord Jhesù refreisschide many a man."

Of her five husbands, the first three were good men, and rich and old, and she gossipped at length jestingly about the way she ruled them:

"But that I pray to al this companye,

If that I speke after my fantasie
As taketh nought agreef of that I say,

For myn entente is nought but for to play."

1 The foundation in 1390 of the magnificent Basilica of St. Petronius, the local saint, which was planned on a scale beyond that of St. Peter, must have caused in and after that year special effort to attract to Bologna the offerings of pilgrims, and the mention of that place of pilgrimage in connection with Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostella may, perhaps, be taken as a small indication of the fact, sufficiently established upon other grounds, that Chaucer wrote the Prologue and Introductions to "The Canterbury Tales" within the two or three years preceding his death in 1400, and hardly earlier than 1396.

2 "Gat-toothed was she." Tyrwhitt gave up this word, which has been read in so many ways that I am sorry to be obliged to add another. Mr. Wedgwood ("Etymological Dictionary," vol. ii.) believes "gat" to be allied to the N. "glisa," to shine through, and to mean open in texture, thinly scattered, so as to allow the light to shine through, and allies the word to G. "glatt," shining, and "gatter," a lattice. 66 'Geat," which in modern Dutch is "gat," was A.-S. for an opening; "gash-gabbit," where "gab" means mouth, is a northcountry phrase for having a projecting under-jaw ("Brown's Dictionary of the Scottish Language "); and "gat-toothed" meant, I believe, that the two rows of teeth did not meet when the mouth was closed, but left a "gat" or "gash" between, because one of the rows projected. Such a peculiarity, allied by Chaucer to the colt's tooth, that proverbially suggested fleshly appetite, has shrewd relation to the rest of the picture of the Wife of Bath, and, if not excessive, does seem to become some faces in which it occurs.

Her fourth husband was a reveller, who was unfaithful to her; and without loss of her own honesty, she made him fry in his own grease for wrath and very jealousy. He died when she came back from Jerusalem, and lies under the rood-beam. His tomb is not so curious as the sepulchre of Darius that Apelles wrought. It is but waste to bury them preciously. Her fifth husband was Jankin, a jolly clerk of Oxford, who lodged, in the lifetime of his predecessor, with her gossip Alisoun; and she told him, in some Lenten holiday time, that if she were a widow he should wed her. She liked, in holiday time, to see and be seen, wherefore she went to marriages, miracle-plays, and to these pilgrimages, and wore her scarlet gowns. Moth did not corrupt her raiment, and why? because it was well used. When her fourth husband was buried, she thought what a clean pair of legs Jankin had as he followed the bier. He was twenty, and she forty; but in a month she married him, and gave him all the land and fee left to her by the husbands that were gone. But he checked her gadding, and struck her with his fist because she tore a leaf out of his book, "that of that strok myn eeré wax al deef." So the Wife of Bath came by her deafness. The leaf she had torn out was from a book in which he had many works bound together, and out of which he amused his leisure in reading stories about wicked wives. Clerks in their oratories never can write well of women; but if the women had the writing of the books, the stories would be different. Jankin one night was reading by the fire how Eve began by bringing all mankind to wretchedness, how Samson was shorn, of Dejanira, Xantippe, and many others, and therewithal quoted proverbs against women. She chafed, till suddenly she tore three leaves out of the book, and took him with her fist upon his cheek, so that he fell backward in the fire. He started up like a wild lion, and struck her on the head. She lay as dead. He was aghast, and would have fled away. She woke from her swoon, complained, and asked to kiss her murderer before she died. When he put down his cheek, she bit him, and said, "Thief, thus much I am awreek." But after this battle a lasting peace was made. Jankin, the clerk, burnt his book, and gave the sovereignty to his own true wife:

Benigne he was, and wonder diligent,
And in adversitee ful pacient;
And such he was i-proved ofté sithes.1
Ful loth were him to cursen for his tithes,
But rather wolde he yeven out of dowte,
Unto his poré parisschens aboute,

Of his offrynge, and eek of his substaúnce.
He coude in litel thing han suffisance.
Wide was his parisshe, and houses fer asonder,
But he ne lafté not for reyne ne thonder,
In siknesse nor in meschief3 to visite
The ferrest in his parisshe, moche and lite,*
Upon his feet, and in his hond a staf.
This noble ensample to his sheep he yaf,
That first he wroughte, and after that he taughte,
Out of the gospel he tho wordés caughte,
And this figúre he added eek therto,
That if gold ruste, what shulde yren doo?
For if a preest be foul, on whom we truste,
No wonder is a lewéd man to ruste;
And shame it is, if a prest také kepe,
A shiten shepperd and a clené schepe;
Wel oughte a preest ensample for to yive,

By his clennesse, how that his sheep shulde lyve.
He setté not his benefice to hyre,

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And lefte his sheep encombred in the myre,
And ran to London, unto seynté Poules,
To seken him a chaunterie for soules,
Or with a bretherhede to be withholde;
But dwelte at home, and kepté wel his folde,
So that the wolf ne made it not myscarye.
He was a shepherde and no mercenarie;
And though he holy were, and vertuous,
He was to senful man nought dispitous,
Ne of his speché daungerous ne digne,
But in his teching discret and benigne.
To drawen folk to heven by clennesse,
By good ensample, was his busynesse :
But it were any persone obstinat,
What-so he were of high or lowe estat,
Him wolde he snybbé, sharply for the nones.
A bettre preest I trowe ther nowher non is.
He wayted after? no pompe ne reverence,
No maked him a spicéd conscience,
But Cristés lore, and his apostles twelve,
He taught, but first he folwed it himselve.
With him ther was a PLOUGHMAN, was his brother,
That hadde i-lad of dong ful many a fother.s
A trewé swynker' and a good was hee,
Lyvynge in pees and parfit charitee.

1 Ofte sithes, many times.

2 Yeven, give.

3 Meschief, misfortune.

+ Moche and lite, great and small.

530

5 Daungerous, difficult of approach; digne, assuming dignity. Snybbe, reprove sharply. The modern form snub is not used in serious writing, but in the Northumbrian Psalter the passage of the eighteenth Psalm now translated "The foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils," was rendered.

"Groundes of ertheli worlde unhiled are
For thi snibbing, Lauerd myne.

For one sprute of gast of wreth thine."

7 Wayted after, looked for. The "ed" coming after a final "t" in the root of a verb was not sounded.

8 Fother, a cart-load.

9 Swynker, labourer. First-English "swine," labour. Milton, in 'Comus," speaks of "the swinked hedger."

"And the swinked hedger at his supper sat."

God loved he best with al his hoolé herte
At allé tymés, though him gamed or smerte,
And thanne his neighébour right as himselve.
He woldé threisshe, and therto dyke and delve,
For Cristés sake, with every poré wight,
Withouten hire, if it laye in his might.
His tythés payede he ful faire and wel,
Bathe of his owné swynk and his catel.
In a tabbard he rood upon a mere.

Ther was also a reeve and a millere,

A sompnour and a pardoner also,

A maunciple, and my-self, ther were na mo.

THE MILLER. (From the Ellesmere MS.)

The MILLERE was a stout carl for the nones, Ful big he was of braun, and eek of boones; That provéd wel, for ouer al ther he cam, At wrastlynge he wolde have alwey the ram. He was short shuldred, broode, a thikké knarre, There nas no dore that he nolde heve of harre,3 Or breke it with a rennyng with his heed. His berd as any sowe or fox was reed, And therto brood, as though it were a spade. Upon the cope right of his nose he hade A werte, and theron stood a tuft of heres, Reede as the bristles of a souwés eeres. His nose-thirlés blaké were and wyde. A swerd and a bocler baar he by his side, His mouth as wyde was as a gret forneys. He was a jangler and a golyardeys," And that was most of synne and harlotries. Wel cowde he stelen corn, and tollen thries: And yet he hadde a thombe of gold pardé. A white cote and a blew hood weréd he.

1 Though him gamed or smerte, whether he had sport or pain,

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2 The Ploughman wears the sleeveless coat of the labourer, the tabard, after which the inn was named from which the pilgrims were supposed to start.

3 Of harre, off its hinge. First-English "heorra," a hinge.

♦ Nose-thirles, nostrils. First-English "thirlian," to drill or pierce. "Theril," a hole.

5 A jangler and a golyardeys, a lying jester and a sensual buffoon.

A baggépipe wel cowde he blowe and sowne, And therwithal he brought us out of towne.

A gentil MAUNCIPLE was ther of a temple, Of which achatours? mighten take exemple For to be wys in beyyng of vitaille.

For whether that he payde, or took by taille,s
Algate he wayted so in his acate,

That he was ay biforn and in good state.
Now is not that of God a ful fair grace,
That such a lewéd mannés wit shal pace
The wisdom of an heep of lerned men ?
Of maystres hadde he moo than thriés ten,
That were of lawe expert and curious;
Of which ther were a doseyn in an hous
Worthi to ben stiwards of rente and lond
Of any lord that is in Engelond,
To maken him lyve by his propre good,

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In honour detteles, but if he were wood,10

Or lyve as scarsly as him list desire;

And able for to helpen al a shire

In any caas that mighté falle or happe;
And yit this maunciple sette here aller cappe."1
The REEVE 12 was a sclendre colerik man,
His berd was shave as neigh as euer he can,
His heer was by his eres ful rownd i-shorn.
His top was dockéd lyk a preest biforn.
Ful longé were his leggés, and ful lene,
Y-like a staff ther was no calf y-sene.
Wel coude he kepe a gerner and a bynne;
Ther was non auditour coude on him wynne.
Wel wiste he, by the drought and by the reyn,
The yeeldyng of his seed and of his greyn.
His lordes sheep, his neet, his dayérie,
His swyn, his hors, his stoor, and his pultrie,
Was holly in this reevés governynge,
And by his covenaunt yaf the rekenynge,
Syn that his lord was twenti yeer of age;
Ther coude noman bringe him in arrerage.
Ther nas baillif, ne herde, ne other hyne, 13
That he ne knewe his sleight and his covyne;
They were adrad of him, as of the deth.
His wonyng was ful fair upon an heth,
With grené trees i-shadewed was his place.
He coudé bettre than his lord purchace.
Ful riche he was a stored prively,
His lord wel coude he plesen subtilly,
To yeve and lene him of his owné good,
And have a thank, a cote, and eek an hood.
In youthe he lernéd hadde a good mester;
He was a wel good wright, a carpenter.
This reevé sat upon a ful good stot,
That was a pomely gray,16 and highte Scot.
A long surcote of pers 17
he hadde,
And by his side he bar a rusty bladde.

uppon

15

14

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6 Maunciple, Latin "manceps," was the purchaser or taker in hand

of victual for an inn of court or college.

7 Achatours, buyers. French "acheter."

8 By taille, by tally, or running up a score.

9 Pace, pass.

10 But if he were wood, unless he were mad.

11 Sette here aller cappe, set the cap of all of them. Cheated them all,

12 Reeve, steward or bailiff. First-English "gerefa."

13 Hyne, hind, servant. First-English "hina."

14 Covyne, a fraudulent compact. Latin "convenire."

15 Mester, trade. French "mêtier," Latin "ministerium." Whence "mystery" applied to a trade; a word of wholly different origin from mystery meaning a secret, which is from the Greek μvew, to shut the eyes.

Of Northfolk was this reeve of which I telle,
Byside a toun men clepen Baldeswelle.1
Tukkéd he was, as is a frere, aboute,
And euer he rood the hynderest of our route.

A SOMPNOUR 2 was ther with us in that place,
That hadde a fyr-reed cherubynés face,
For sawcéflem 3 he was, with eyghen narwe.
As hoot he was, and lecherous, as a sparwe,
With skalled browés blak, and piled berd;
Of his visagé children were aferd.
Ther nas quyksilver, litarge, ne bremstone,
Boras, ceruce, ne oille of tartre noon,
Ne oynément that woldé clense and byte,
That him might helpen of his whelkes white,
Ne of the knobbés sittyng on his cheekes.
Wel loved he garleek, oynouns, and ek leekes,
And for to drinken strong wyn reed as blood.
Thanne wolde he speke, and crye as he were wood.
And whan that he wel dronken hadde the wyn,
Than wolde he speké no word but Latyn.

A fewé termés hadde he, tuo or thre,
That he hadde lernéd out of som decree;
No wonder is, he herde it al the day;
And eek ye knowen wel, how that a jay
Can clepen Watte, as wel as can the pope.
But who-so wolde in other thing him grope,
Thanne hadde he spent al his philosophie,
Aye Questio: quid juris, wolde he crye.
He was a gentil harlot and a kynde;

A bettre felaw shuldé men noght fynde. He woldé suffre for a quart of wyn

A good felawe to han his concubyn

A twelve moneth, and excuse him atté fulle.
And pryvely a fynch eek coude he pulle.
And if he fond owher a good felawe,
He woldé teche him for to have non awe
In such a caas of the archdekenes curse,
But if a mannés soule were in his purse;
For in his purse he sholdé punyssched be.
"Purse is the ercedekenes helle," quod he.
But wel I woot he lyeth right in dede;
Of cursyng oghte ech gulty man to drede;
For curse wol slee right as assoillyng 7 saveth;
And also ware him of a significavit.8

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A Sompnour was the summoner of those charged with offences within jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical court.

3 Sawceflem, red and pimpled, from "sanguinis flegma" (Greek Aéyua, inflammation, heat), a burning of the blood. The first sense of "phlegm" was matter from suppuration.

Skalled, scabbed.

5 Piled, stripped of hair.

"Question: What says the law?"

7 Assoillyng, absolving.

A significavit was a writ, beginning with that word, for seizure and imprisonment of a man who had been excommunicated for the space of forty days and remained obstinate.

In daunger, within his power.

19 Was al hire reed, was the counseller of all of them.

11 An ale-stake. A large garland or bush at the end of a stake or pole was the sign of a house of public entertainment. Thus we still apply to the keeping of open house the phrase "hang out the broom."

THE PARDONER. (From the Ellesmere MS.)

With him ther rood a gentil PARDONERE
Of Rouncival, his frend and his compeer,
That streight was comen from the court of Rome.
Ful lowde he sang, Come hider, love, to me.
This sompnour bar to him a stif burdoun,
Was nevere trompe of half so gret a soun.
This pardoner hadde heer as yelwe as wex,
But smothe it heng, as doth a strike of flex;
By ounces hynge his lokkés that he hadde,
And therwith he his shuldres overspradde.
Ful thinne it lay, by culpons 12 on and oon,
But hood, for jolitee, weréd he noon,
For it was trusséd up in his walét.
Him thought he rood al of the newe jet,13
Dischevele, sauf his cappe, he rood al bare.
Suche glaryng eyghen hadde he as an hare.
A vernicle 14 hadde he sowed up on his cappe.
His walet lay byforn him in his lappe,
Bret-ful 15 of pardoun come from Rome al hoot.
A voys he hadde as smale as any goot.
No berd hadde he, ne never sholdé have,
As smothe it was as it ware late i-schave;

I trowe he were a geldyng or a mare.
But of his craft, fro Berwyk unto Ware,
Ne was ther such another pardonere.
For in his male 16 he hadde a pilwebere,17
Which, that he saide, was ouré lady veyl:
He seide, he hadde a gobet 18 of the seyl

12 Culpons, French " coupons," shreds, bundles. 13 Newe jet, new manner or fashion.

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14 Vernicle. A small piece of linen with a face on it, said to be copied from a miraculous transference of the features of Christ to the handkerchief of St. Veronica. Veronica, Beronica, or Berenice, was said to have been a niece of Herod's who lived 550 paces from the house of Pilate. As Christ passed, bearing the cross, she went out and gave him the kerchief from her head to wipe his face with. It was returned to her with the image of his face upon it. Some say that the mark of a blow from an armed hand was on the features. Veronica went, the legend adds, to Rome with Lazarus, Martha, and Magdalene. She gave the miraculous kerchief to St. Clement, and it is in Rome. As there is another in Spain, and another in Jerusalem, it is said that the miraculous image was, by folding, miraculously tripled. 15 Bret-ful, brimful.

16 Male, bag.

17 Pilwebere, pillow-case.

18 Gobat, morsel. Gaelic "gob," the mouth.