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been given to Mr. Thynne's edition on that account Accordingly it was feveral times reprinted as the "Works with one columbe on a fide, had a tale called The Pilgrim's Tale, which was more odious to the clergie than the fpeach of the Ploughman. The tale began thus, in Lincolne"five faft by a fenne-Standeth a religious house, who doth it kenne. The argument of which tale, as alfo the occafion "thereof, and the caufe why it was left out of Chaucer's "Works, fhall hereafter be fhewed, if God permit, in M. Fran. "Thynne's Comment upon Ch. and the tale itfelfe published, "if poffibly it can be found."-It must be allowed that this defeription of Mr. Thynne's first edition," with one columbe on a "fide, and a tale called The Pilgrim's Tale," does not fuit the edition printed by Godfray, which is in two columns, and has no Pilgrim's tale : but I obferve that Mr. Speght does not pretend to have feen this book; he even doubts whether the tale can be found. If therefore I thould be able to prove that the tale which he speaks of could not poffibly be in Mr. Thynne's first edition, I prefume no great ftrefs will be laid upon the other part of his evidence, in which he fuppofes that edition to have been printed with only one column on a fide.---It appears very frange at firft fight that The Ploughman's Tale (according to Leland) should have been fuppreffed in Mr.Thynne's edit. quia malos facerdotum mores vehementer increpavit, and that he should have inferted this Pilgrim's Tale, which as Mr. Speght tells us was ftill more odious to the clergie. A few years after, when the reformation was further advanced, in 1542, The Ploughman's Tale is inferted among Chaucer's Works and The Pilgrim's Tale is fuppreffed! But there is no occafion to infift upon these little improbabilities. Though Mr. Speght did not know where to find The Pilgrim's Tale, and the printer of the edit. in 1687 affures us that he had fearched for it "in the

publick libraries of both Universities," and alfo "in all pri"vate libraries that he could have accefs unto," I have had the good fortune to meet with a copy; it is entitled The Pylgrymfe Tale, and begins thus;

The copy of which I fpeak is in the black letter, and feems to have once made part of a volume of mifcellaneous poems in 8vo. The firft

standard edition of Chaucer's Works, without any material alteration, except the infertion of The PloughIn Lincolne hyr, faft by the fene,

Ther flant an hows, and you yt ken,
And callyd Sempynham of religion,
And is of an old foundation, &c.

There can be no doubt, I think, that this is the piece of which Mr. Speght had received fome confufed intelligence: it feems to have been mentioned by Bale among Chaucer's Works in in the following manner, Narrationes diverforum, lib. i. In comitatu Lincolnienfi fuit-Script. Brit. p. 526, edit. 1559. But it is impoffible that any one who had read it fhould ascribe it to Chaucer; he is quoted in it twice by name, fol. 33, and fol. 45, and in the latter place the reference feems to be made to a printed book. The reader fhall judge

He fayd he dura not it difclofe,

But bad me reyd The Romant of the Rofo,
The thred leafe juft from the end,
To the fecund page ther he did me fend,
He prayd me thes vi ftavis for to marke,
Whiche be Chaucer's awn hand warke.

Thus moche woll our boke fygnify
That while Peter hath maftery, &c.

[Then follow four more lines from Chaucer's R.R. v.7263-8, ed. Urr.] It is not ufual, at leaft, to cite mff, by the leafe and the paze. But if this citation was really made from a printed book The Pilgrim's Tale muft have been written after Mr. Thynne's edition, for Chaucer's tranflation of The Romant of the Rofe was first printed in that edition. Another paffage will fix the date of this compofition ftill more clearly. In fol. 39, 40, are the following lines;

leaf is numbered xxxi, and the laft xlv. The Pilgrim's Tale begins about the middle of fol. xxxi. and continues to the end of the fragment, where it breaks off imperfect. The first leaf has a running title

Venus The Court of-and contains the ten laft lines of one poem, and another whole poem of twenty lines, before The Pilgrim's Tale.-This curious fragment was purchafed at the auction of Mr. Weft's li brary, in a lot (No *1040) of fundry fragments of old black-letter vasks, by Mr. Herbert of Gulton's Square, who very obligingly permitted me to examine it.

man's Tale in 1542, of which I have spoken in the Difcourfe, &c. n. 32.

As my business here is folely with The Canterbury Tales, I fhall take no notice of the feveral mifcellaneous pieces by Chaucer and others which were added to them by Mr. Thynne in his edition, and afterwards by Stowe and Speght in the editions of 1561, 1597, and 1602. With refpect to The Canterbury Tales, I am under a neceffity of obferving that upon the whole they received no advantage from the edit. of 1532: its material variations from Caxton's fecond edition are all I think for the worfe: it confounds the order of The Squier's (f) and The Frankelein's (g) Tales, which Caxton in his fecond edition had fet right; it gives The Frankelein's Prologue to the Merchant, in addition to its own proper Prologue (b): it produces for the first time two Prologues, the one to The Doctour's, and the other to The Shipman's Tale, which are both evidently fpurious (i); and it brings back the lines of ribaldry (k) Perkin Werkek and Jak Straw,

And now of late our cobler the dawe.

One would not expect to find any mention of Perkin Warbeck in a work attributed to Chaucer; but paffing that over, I think it is plain that our cobler, in the fecond line, means the leader of the Lincolnshire rebels in 1535, who, as Hollinthed tells us, page 941, "called himself Captaine Cobler, but was indeed a monk named Doctor Mackarell." The Pilgrim's Tale therefore was not written till after 1536, and confequently could not poffibly be in Mr. Thynne's firft edit. which, as has been thewn above, was printed at latest in 1532.

(f) See the Difcourfe, &c. 23, and note on ver. 10293. (8) Ibid. 25, and note on ver. 10985.

(b) See the fame fection and note.

(i) See them in all the edit. fince 1532.

(k) See the note on ver. 10227. The lines themfelves are in all the common editions,

in The Merchant's Tale which Caxton in his fecond edition had rejected upon the authority of his good manufcript.

However, this edition of 1532, with all its imper. fections, had the luck, as I have faid, to be confidered as the standard edition, and to be copied not only by the bookfellers in their feveral edits. (1) of 1542, 1546, 1555, and 1561, but also by Mr. Speght (the first editor in form after Mr. Thynne who fet his name to his work) in 1597 and 1602. In the Dedicat. to Sir Robert Cecil, prefixed to this last edition, he fpeaks indeed of having "reformed the whole work,

both by sold written copies and by. Ma. William "Thynne's praiseworthy labours;" but I cannot find that he has departed in any material point from thofe editions which have fuppofed to be derived from Mr. Thynne's; in the very material points abovementioned, in which those edits. vary from Caxton's fecond, he has followed them: nor have I obferved any fuch verbal varieties as would induce one to believe that he had confulted any good mf. They who have read his Preface will probably not regret that he did not do more towards correcting the text of Chaucer.

In this flate The Canterbury Tales remained ()

(/) There are some other editions mentioned by Ames without date, but it is probable that upon infpection they would appear to be one or other of the editions whofe dates are here given. It seems to have been usual to print books in partnership, and for each partner to print his own name to his thare of the impreffion. See Ames, p. 252. A Bible is faid to be printed in 1551 by Nicholas Hill" at the cost and charges of certayne honeft menne of the occupacyon, whofe names be upon "their bakes."

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(m) It may be proper just to take notice that Mr. Speght's edit. was reprinted in 1687, with an advertisement at the end,

ON THE LANGUAGE AND VERSIFICAT, OF CHAUCER.

The Contents.

Introduction. The different judgments of the Language and Verfifica tion of Chaucer itated. Plan of this Effay in three parts. I. To vindi cate Chaucer from the charge of having corrupted the English Lan guage by too great a mixture of French with it. 2. To make fome obfervations upon the real ftate of our Language in his time. 3. To apply thofe obfervations and others towards illuftrating the real nature of his Verfification.

Part the firft. The French Language introduced into England before the conqueft, 1.; confirmed and propagated by the new eftablishments at the conqueft, 2.; was the ordinary Language of the court, § 3. ; was carried into the provinces by the great barons and military commanders, 4. and efpecially by the clergy, 5.; who both fecular and regular were chiefly foreigners, 6.; the French Language con tinued to be much ufed as late as the reign of Edward III. § 7. ; conclufion, that the mixture of French in Chaucer's writings was not ewing to any affectation of his, but to the caufes above-mentioned, which in his time had generally introduced the Norman-Saxon inftead of the Saxon dialect, the fame mixture being obfervable in other contemporary authors, 8.

Part the fecond. The propofed obfervations upon the English Language confined to the actual state of it in the time of Chaucer, I.; and divided fo as to confider feparately the Saxon and Norman parts of it, 2.3 the Saxon part confidered in grammatical order: I. The prepofitive article. 2. Nouns fubflantive and adjective. 3. Pronouns. 4. Verbs and participles. 5. The indeclinable parts of fpeech, 3. The Norman part confidered generally, 4; and more particularly with respect to nouns fubftantive and adjective, verbs and participles, 5.; additional caufes of the introduction of a great number of French terms in the English Language, 6.

Part the third. Preliminary obfervations upon English poetry. The form of English poetry probably borrowed from the Normans, there being no traces of rhyme or metre among the Saxons before the conque The metres and rhyme of modern poetry derived from the Latin,.; progrefs of English poetry to the reign of Henry II.; early attempts at rhyming,$2. Few English poets known between the reign of Henry II. and that of Henry III. 3. The Ormulum written in verfes of fifteen fyllables without rhyme, 14. The number of rhymers increased between the laft mentioned period and the time when Chaucer began to write, 5 5. State of our poetry at that time, 6. Account of the metres then in ufe, 7.; of thofe ufed by Chaucer, 8. The heroick metre probably introduced by him either from France er

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