$ 18. I fhall conclude this long and (I fear) tediis Efay with a grammatical and metrical analyfis the first eighteen lines of The Canterbury Tales. his will afford me an opportunity of illustrating at nce a confiderable part of that theory which I have entured to propofe in the preceding pages with reard to the Language and Verfification of Chaucer : he remainder 1 fhall take occafion to explain in a ew Notes upon particular paffages.

THE BEGINNING OF THE CANTERBURY TALES.'.

I. Whánne I that April with his foures 2 fóte 3 II. The droughte of March hath perced I to the rote, III. And bathed 1 évery véine in freiche 2 licoúr 3, IV. Of whiche vertúc I engendred is the flour;

accents to the pure iambick meafure. [Quadrio, L. ¡¡. Dist. iii, c. iv. parti.] Nor does the King of Navarre always difpofe his accents more agreeably to our prefent notions. It is probable, I think, that fome fundamental differences in the three languages may have led each of the three nations to prefer a different form of constructing the fame kind of verse.

I. 1. Whanne, Sax. Hpænne, is fo feldom used as a diffyllablę by Chaucer, that for fome time I had great doubts about the true reading of this line: I now believe that it is right as here printed, and that the fame word is to be pronounced as a diffyliable in ver. 703.

But with thefe relikes banne thai he fond

Tbanne, a word of the fame form, octurs more frequently as a diffyllable. See ver. 12260, 12506, 12721, 13924, 15282. -2. Sboures, dif. plural number. See above, p. 94.-3. Sote.

See ver. V.

II. 1. Perced, dif. participle of the past time. See above, p. 159-2. Rote, root.

III. 1. Bathed, dif. See II. 1.-2. Swiche, fuch, from fevilke, Sax.-3. licor, Fr. has the accent upon the laft fyllable, after the French mode.

IV. 1. Vertue, Fr. may be accented in the fame manner.

V. Whan Zephirús eke with his fote I brethe
VI. Enfpired 1 háth in évery hólt and héthe
VII. The tendre croppes I, and the yonge 2 fónne
VIII. Háth in the Ram his bálfe I cours yronne 2y
IX. And fmále I foules 2 máken 3 mélodie,

X. That flopen I alle 2 night with open eye,
XI. So priketh bem 1 Nature 2 in bír 3 coráges 4,

There is another way of preferving the harmony of this verfe, by making whiche (from whilke, Sax.) a diffyllable. See ver. 1014, 3921, 5488, 6537. Vertue may then be pronounced, as it is now, with the accent on the first, the fecond fyllable being incorporated with the firft of engendred.

V. 1. Sote, fwote, fuere, fweet, dif. See ver. 3219, 3699, 3724, 3765, 3790.

VI. 1. Enspired, trif. part. of paft time.

VII. 1. Croppes, dif. pl. n. as froures. 1. 2.-2. Yonge, dif. See ver. 213, 666, 1013, 3233, 73. It is ufed as a diffyllable in the Ormulum, col. 230;

That was god bifne fil i wfs till ure yünge génge.

Strange and longe are pronounced in the fame manner. See ver, 2375, 2640, 6, 3069, 3438, 3682.

VIII. 1. Halfe or halve, dif. The original word is halfen. So felve, from felfen, is a diffyllable, ver. 2862, 45 35.—2. Yronne, run, part. of the paft time, with the Saxon prepofitive par ticle ze, which in the mff. of Chaucer is univerfally expreffed by y or i. In this edition, for the fake of perfpecuity, y only is

ufed.

IX. 1. Smale, dif. See ver. 146, 2078, 6897, 10207.

2. Foules, dif. asfboures. 1. 2.—3. Maken, make,plural number of the prefent tenfe. See above, p. 119.,

X. I. 1. Slepen, as maken, IX. 3.—2, Alle, dif. See ver. 76, 348, 536, 1854, 2102.

XI. 1. Hem, them. It is conftantly used fo by Chaucer. 2. Nature thould perhaps be accented on the laft fyllable (or rather the last but one, fuppofing it a trifyllable) after the French manner, though in the prefent cafe the verfe will be fufficiently harmonious if it be accented on the firft. That Chaucer did

XII. Than longen 1 fólk to gón 2 on pilgrimages, XIII. And palmeres 1 fór to føken 2 ftrange 3 frondes, XIV. To ferve 1 háles 2 coûthe 3 in 1óndry londes; often accent it after the French manner appears from ver.8778, 9842, 11657, 11945, 12229. In the fame manner he accents Búre, ver 2037, 2045.; mesúre, ver. 8132, 8498.; afúre, Alatare, ver. $130, 3.; peinture, ver. 11967.; aventure, ver. 11SS, 1237.; creatúre, ver. 2397, 4884.; and any other words of the fame form, derived from the French language.

3. Hir, their, the poffeffive pronoun of the third perfon plural, is varioufly written, bir, bire, ber, and here, not only in different mi. but even in the fame page of good mil. There feems to be no reason for perpetuating varieties of this kind, which can only have taken their rife from the unfettled ftate of our orthography before the invention of printing, and which now contribute more than any real alteration of the language to obfcure the fenfe of our old authors. In this edition therefore bir is constantly put to fignify their, and hire to fignify ber, whether it be the oblique cafe of the personal pronoun fhe or the poffeffive of the fame pronoun.4. Coráges, Fr. is to be accented on the penultima. See before, p. 165, and also ver. 1947, 2215. To the other inftances quoted in 1 p. 165 add ávántáge, ver. 2449, 4566. ; brócáge, 3375; fcráge, ver. 3166. ; lináge, ver. 4270, 5419.; ferváge, ver. 1948, 4788.; coftage ver. 5831.; þaráge, ver. 5832.

XII. 1. Longen, as maken, IX. 3.---2. Gon, infinitive mode of go, terminated in n, according to the Saxon form. See above, p. 119.

XIII. 1. Palmeres, dif. the e of the termination being cut out by fyncope, as it generally is in plural nouns of three fyilables, accented upon the firft, and in the past tenfes and their participles of verbs, of the same description, ending in ed. The reafon feems to be, that wlicre the accent is placed fo early we cannot pronounce the final fyllables fully without laying more ftrefs upon them than they can properly bear.-2. Seken, as gon, XII. 2.---3. Strange, dif. Fr. See before, p. 161.

XIV. 1. Serve, dif. from ferven, then being thrown away before b. See above, p. 119 and 152.--2. Halves, Sax. palger. Volume I.

P

XV. And fpécially from every fires I ende XVI. Of Englelónd I to Canterbury they vende 2, XVII. The holy blifsful mártyr fór to feke XVIII. That bem 1 hath bólpen 2 whan that they were feke 3.

The Saxon is changed into tʊ, as in forwe, morwe, and fome others, though it generally paffes into y. The derivatives from this fame word afford us inftances of both forms; bolynefs, boly day, all balles-day.---3. Couthe, known, the participle of the past time from connen, to know. See before, n. 35.

XV. 1. Shires, dif. genitive cafe fing. See before, p. 159. XVI. 1. Englelond, trifyllable, from the Saxon Englalanda. 2. The laft foot confifts of three fyllables;

to Canterbury they wende.

See above, n. 66.

XVIII. Hem, them. See XI. 1. 2. Holpen, the participle of the paft time from the irregular verb help. See before, n. 34. ---3. Seke, fick. As Chaucer ufually writes this word sike, we may fuppofe that in this inftance he has altered the orthography in order to make the rhyme more exact, a liberty with which he fometimes indulges himself, though much more fparingly than his contemporary poets. The Saxon writers afford authorities to juftify either method of spelling, as they use both Seoca and S1oca.I have hitherto confidered thefe verfes as confifling of ten fyllables only; but it is impoffible not to obferve that, according to the rules of pronunciation eftablished above, all of them, except the third and fourth, confift really of eleven fyllables. This is evident at firft fight in ver. 13, 14, 15, 16, and might be thewn as clearly by authority or analogy in the others; but as the eleventh fyllable, in our Vertification, being unaccented, may always, I apprehend, be abfent or prefent without prejudice to the metre, there does not feem to be any neceflity for pointing it out in every particular in

ftance.

TO THE CANTERBURY TALES.

The Contents.

HIE dramatick form of novel writing invented by Boccace. The Decameron a fpecies of comedy, 1. The Canterbury Tales compofed in imitation of The Decameron. Defign of this Difcourfe to give, i. The general plan of them; and, ii. A review of the parts contained in this edition, 2. The general plan of The Canterbury Tales as originally defigned by Chaucer, 3. Parts of this plan not executed, 4. Review of the parts contained in this edition.-The Prologue. The time of the pilgrimage, 5. The number of the company, 6. Their agreement to tell Tales for their divertion upon their journey, 7. Tacir characters. Their fetting out. The Knight appointed by lot to tell the firft Tale, 8. The Knight's Tale copica from the Thefeida of Boccace. A fummary account of the Thefeida, 9. The Mork called upon to tell a Tale: interrupted by the Miller, IC. The Miller's Tale, 1. The Reve's Tale. The principal incidents taken from an old French Fabliau, 12. The Coke's Tale imperfect in all the mff. No foundation for afcribing The Story of Gamelyn to Chaucer, 13. The Prologue to The Man of Larve's Tale. The progrefs of the Pilgrims upon their journey. A reflection feemingly levelled at Gower, 14. The Man of Lawe's Tale taken from Gower, who was not the inventor of it. A fimilar story in a lay of Bretagne, 15. Reafons for placing The Wife of Bathe's Prologue next to The Man of Lare's Tale, § 16. The Wife of Batbe's Prologue, 17. The Wife of Batbe's Tale taken from the story of florent in Gower, or from fome older narrative. The fable much improved by Chaucer, 18. The Tales of the Frere and the Sompnour, 19. The Clerke's Tale faid by Chaucer to be horrowed from Petrarch, whofe work upon this fubject is a mere tranflation from Boccace, 20. Reafons for changing the order of the three laft flanzas of the Ballade at the end of The Clerke's Tale, and for placing The Prologue to The Marchant's Tale immediately after them, 21. The Marchant's Tale. The adventure of the Pear-tree in the Latin fable of Adolphus. The Pluto and Proferpine of Chaucer revived by Shakespeare under the names of Oberon and Titania, § 22. A nba Prologue to The Squier's Tale, now art printed) connecting it with The Marchant's Tale, 23. The Squler's Tale, probably never finished by Chaucer, ◊ 24. The Frankelein's Prologue attributed to the Marchant in the common editions. Reafons for reitoring it to the Frankelein, 25. The Frankelein's Tole taken from a lay of Bretagne. The fame flory twice told by Boccace, 26. Reafons for removing the Tales of The Nonne and Chacon'sTeman to the end of The Nonne's Preelle's Tale, 27. Doubts concerning the Prologue to The Doftour's Tale, 28. The Dour's Zul. The Rory of Virginia from