THE MAN OF LAWES PROLOGUE.

OUR Hofte faw wel that the brighte fonne
The ark of his artificial day had ronne
The fourthe part and half an houre and more;
And though he were not depe expert in lore
He wifte it was the eighte-and-twenty day
Of April, that is messager to May,

And faw wel that the shadow of every tree
Was as in lengthe of the same quantitee
That was the body erect that caused it,

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And therfore by the shadow he toke his wit

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That Phebus, which that shone so clere and bright,

Degrees was five-and-forty clombe on hight;

And for that day, as in that latitude,

It was ten of the cloks he gan conclude,

And fodenly he plight his hors aboute.

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Lordings, quod he, I warne you all this route

The fourthe partie of this day is gon;

Now for the love of God and of Seint John
Lefeth no time, as ferforth as ye may.

Lordings, the time it wasteth night and day, 4440
And steleth from us, what prively fleping,
And what thurgh negligence in our waking,
As doth the ftreme, that turneth never again,
Defcending fro the montagne into a plain.

4421. Our Hofte faw wel] Concerning the time of day meant to be pointed out in the following lines fee the Dijcourse,

c. 5.

Wel can Senek and many a philofophre
Bewailen time more than gold in coffre;
For loffe of catel may recovered be,
But loffe of time fhendeth us, quod he.
It wol not come again withouten drede,
No more than wol Malkins maidenhede
When the hath loft it in hire wantonneffe:
Let us not moulen thus in idelneffe.

Sire Man of Lawe, quod he, so have ye blis,
Tell us a Tale anon, as forword is.
Ye ben fubmitted thurgh your free affent
To ftonde in this cas at my jugement.
Acquiteth you now, and holdeth your beheft;'
Than have ye don your devoir at the left.
Hofte, quod he, de par dieux jeo affente,
To breken forword is not min entente."
Beheft is dette, and I wold hold it fayn
All my beheft, I can no better sayn.

For fwiche lawe as man yeveth another wight
He fhuld himfelven ufen it by right.

Thus wol our text; but natheles certain

I can right how no thrifty Tale fain,

But Chaucer (though he can but lewedly

On metres and on riming craftily)

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V. 4450. Malkins maidenbede] Acommon phrase. P. P. fol. vii. a. b.;

Ye have no more merit of maffe ne of houres

Than Malkin of hire maydenbood, that no man defireth.

.4467. But Chaucer] So mff. C. 1, Ask. 1, 2. In the editt,

it had been ftrangely corrupted into That.

Hath fayd hem in swiche English as he can
Of olde time, as knoweth many a man;
And if he have not fayd hem, leve brother,
In o book, he hath fayd hem in another :
For he hath told of lovers up and doun
Mo than Ovide made of mentioun

In his Epiftolis, that ben ful olde.

What fhuld I tellen hem fin they ben tolde?

In youthe he made of Ceys and Alcyon,

And fithen hath he spoke of everich on
Thife noble wives, and thise lovers eke,
Who fo that wol his large volume feke

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. 4477. In youtbe he made of Ceys] The ftory of Ceyx and Alcyone is related in the introduction to the poem which was for fome time called The Dreme of Chaucer, but which, in the mfl. Fairf. 16, and Bod.638, is more properly entitled The Booke of the Ducheffe. The following note, which has been prefixed to it in all the later editions, is in mf. Fairf. in the handwriting of John Stowe; "By the person of a mourning knight "fitting under an oke is meant John of Gaunt, Duke of Lan"cafter, greatly lamenting the death of one whom hee entirely "loved, fuppofed to be Bianche the Ducheffe." I believe John is very right in his conjecture. Chaucer himself, in his Leg. of G. W. 418, fays, that he made The Deth of Blaunche the Ducheffe; and in the poem now under confideration he plainly alludes to her name, ver. 948;

And faire white the hete;}

That was my ladys name right.

On the other hand the knight is reprefented, ver. 455, 6;

Of the age of foure-and-twenty yere,

Upon his berde but litel here.

whereas John of Gaunt, at the death of Blanche in 1369, was about nine-and-twenty years of age. But this perhaps was a defigned misreprefentation.I will just observe that the manner in which Chaucer fpeaks of his own age at the time of this compofition is a confirmation of what has been fuggefted in

Cleped The Seintes Legende of Cupide:
Ther may he fe the large woundes wide
Of Lucrece, and of Babylon Thisbe;
The fwerd of Dido for the falfe Enee;
The tree of Phillis for hire Demophon;
The plaint of Deianire and Hermion,
Of Adriane and Yfiphilee;

The barreine ile ftonding in the fee;
The dreint Leandre for his fayre Hero;
The teres of Heleine, and eke the wo
Of Brifeide and of Ladomia;

The crueltee of thee, Quene Medea,

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the Difcourfe, c. n. 3. that The Canterbury Tales were the work of his lateft years. When the Duchefs Blanch died he was one-and-forty, a time of life which, I believe, a man feldom calls his youth, till he is advanced at leaft twenty years be yond it.

.4481. The Seintes Legende of Cupide] In the editt. it is called The Legende of Good Women; in ms. Fairf. 16, The Legendis of ix Gode Women. According to Lydgate [Prol. to Boccace] the number was to have been nineteen, and perhaps the Legende itfelf affords fome ground for this notion; fee ver. 183. But this number was probably never completed, and the laft ftory of Hypermneftra is seemingly unfinished.————— In this paffage the Man of Lawe omits two ladies, viz. Cleopatra and Philomela, whofe hiftories are in The Legende, and he enumerates eight others of whom there are no hiftories in The Legende as we have it at prefent: are we to suppose that they have been loft?-With respect to the time of Chaucer's writing The Legende fee the Difcourfe, &c. n. 3.

. 4486. The plaint of Deianire] This reading is fupported by several mfl. of middling authority, but the better copies read Diane, and mf. A. Syane. There is a nymph Cyane in Ovid [Metam. 1. v,] who weeps herfelf into a fountain, but not for love.

Thy litel children hanging by the hals

For thy Jafon, that was of love fo fals:

O Hipermeftra, Penelope, Alcefte!

Your wifhood he commendeth with the beste.
But certainly no word ne writeth he
Of thilke wicke enfample of Canace,
That loved hire owen brother finfully;
(Of all swiche curfed flories I fay Fy)
Or elles of Tyrius Appolonious,
How that the curfed king Antiochus
Beraft his doughter of hire maidenhede,
'That is fo horrible a tale for to rede,

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Whan he hire threw upon the pavement.

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And therfore he of ful avifement

N'old never write in non of his fermons

Offwiche unkinde abhominations:

Ne I wol non reherfe, if that I may,

But of my Tale how shal I don this day?
Me were loth to be likened douteles

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To Mufes that men clepe Pierides, (Metamorphofees wote what I mene) But natheles i recche not a bene

Though I come after him with hawebake;

fpeke in profe, and let him rimes make.

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. 4512. To Mufes that men clepe Pierides] He rather means, I think, the daughters of Pierus, who contended with the Muses, and were changed into pies. Ovid. Metam. 1. v.

4515. with harvebake] So mf. A. The other readings are-base i bake, mų. Afk. 1, 2.—hawke bake, E. C.--berry Volume 11.

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