And thought he wolde amenden all the jape, He fhulde kiffe his ers er that he scape; And up the window did he haftily, 3800 Over the buttok, to the hanche bon; And therwith fpake this clerk, this Abfolon, Speke fwete bird, I n'ot not wher thou art. As gret as it had been a thonder dint, 3805 That with the ftreke he was wel nie yblint; And he was redy with his yren hote, Off goth the finne an hondbrede al aboute. 3810 And Nicholas amid the ers he smote. The hote culter brenned fo his toute, 3815 3820 . 3809. an bondbrede al aboute] Al has been added for the fake of the metre, but I believe unneceffarily. The original phrafe was an bondes brede, an hands-breadth; fo that bondbrede (as it is written in some mi.) would naturally continue to be pronounced as a trifyllable. .3819 be fond neyther to felle] This is a Fr. phrafe. Fabliaux, t. ii. p. 282; Upon the flore, and ther afwoune he lay." For with the fall he broften hath his arm. 3815 3830 He had ybought him kneding tubbes three, And had hem honged in the roof above, - 1 3835 And that he praied hem for Goddes love The folk gan laughen at his fantafie. 3840 For everich clerk anon right held with other; 3845 They faid the man was wood, my leve brother; Ainc tant come il mift a defcendre Ne trouva point de pain a vendre. In the next verfe felle, for the fake ofthe rhyme, is put for filles Sax. fyl, Fr. fueil, Lat. folum. And every wight gan laughen at this ftrif. And Abfolon hath kit hire nether eye, 3850 And Nicholas is fcalded in the toute. This Tale is don, and God fave all the route. THE REVES PROLOGUE. WHAN folk han laughed at this nice cas Of Abfolon and Hendy Nicholas, Diverse folk diverfely they saide, 3855 But for the more part they lought and plaide; Ne at this Tale I saw no man him greve But it were only Ofewold the Reve: 3860 He gan to grutch and blamen it a lite. So the ik, quod he, ful wel coude I him quite With blering of a proude milleres eye, If that me list to speke of ribaudrie. .3853. Whan folk han laughed] The better mff. readlaughen, which therefore is probably right. Chaucer fometimes forms the participle of the past time in en, even in those verbs of which he alfo ufes the participle in ed. See ver. 3311, was Shen, 7354, faren; for washed and fared. V. 3862. So the ik] So the 1, fo may I the, or thrive. This ancient phrafe is terribly corrupted in most of the mff. and editt. It occurs again below, ver. 12881, 16397. .3863. With blering] With a trick put upon a proud miller: fo ver. 17201, blered is thyn eye; thouart cheated. And R. R. ver. 3912, almoft blered is mine eye; I am almoft cheated. But ik am olde; me lift not play for age; 3865 Gras time is don, my foddre is now forage: This white top writeth min olde yeres; Min herte is alfo mouled as min heres; 3870 ད ། ༈ ་ ་ We hoppe alway while that the world wol pipe; To have an hore hed and a grene tayl, As hath a leke; for though our might be gon For whan we may not don than wol we speken, Four glades han we which I fhal devise, 3875 3880 . 3877. As bath a leke] Eoccace has the fame allufion, Decam. Introd. to D. iv.; " Et quegli, che contra alla mia eta "parlando vanno, moftran male che conofcano, che per che "il porro habbi il capo bianco, che la coda fia verde." . 3880. Yet in our afhen] There is fo great a resemblance between this line and the following of The Churchyard Elegy, Dodley's Coll. vol. 4, Ev'n in our afbes live their wonted fires that I fhould certainly have confidered the latter as an imitation, if Mr. Gray himfelf had not referred us to the 169 (170) fonnet of Petrarch as his original; Ch'i' veggio nel penfier, &c. But will ne fhall not faillen that is fothe... As many a yere as it is paffed henne Sin that my tappe of lif began to renne: 3885 Deth drow the tappe of lif and let it gon; 3890 Of wretchedneffe that paffed is ful yore: 3895 Whan that our Hofte had herd this fermoning Or of a fouter a fhipman or a leche. Say forth thy Tale, and tary not the time; Lo Depeford, and it is half way prime: 3900 .3893. the chimbe] Kime, Teut. means the prominency of the ftaves beyond the head of the barrel. The imagery is very exact and beautiful. V. 3902. of a jouter a shipman or a leche] The proverbial expreffion, Ex futore medicus, was perhaps derived from the fable of Phædrus with that title, 1. i. fab. 14. The other, Ex futore naucleras, is alluded to by Pynfon the printer at the end of his edit. of Lyttelton's Tenures, 1525. [Ames, p. 488,] speaking of one Redman, another printer, he says----" Miror "profecto unde nunc tandem fe fateatur typographum, nifi "forte quum Diabolus futorem nauclerum, et illum calcogra phum fecit." .3904, it is halfway prime] In the Difcourfe, &c. § 14 |