9090 THE MARCHANTES PROLOGUE, I have a wif the werfte that may be, For though the fend to hire ycoupled were 9095 What fhulde I you reherfe in fpecial Hire high malice? fhe is a fhrew at al. Whatever may: be thought of the genuineness of thefe lines they can at beft, in my opinion, be confidered as a fragment of an unfinished prologue which Chaucer might once have intended to place at the end of The Clerkes Tale. When he determined to connect that Tale with The Marchant's in another manner, he may be fuppofed, notwithflanding, to have left this ftanza for the prefent uncancelled in his mf. He has made ufe of the thought, and some of the lines, in the Prologue which connects The Monkes Tale with Melibee, ver. 1 389513900-The two additional ftanzas, which were first printed in ed. Urr. from mf. F. [H. 1, in Urry's lift,] and which ferve to introduce The Frankelein's Tale next to The Clerkes, are evidently, I think, fpurious. They are not found, as I recollect, in any mf. except that cited by Mr. Urry, and mf. B. If thefe two mff. were of much greater age and authority than they really are they would weigh but little in oppofition to the number and character of thofe mil. in which thefe ftanzas are wanting, and in which The Marchant's Tale ftands next to The Clerkes.---Another proof of the spuriousness of these flanzas is, that they are almost entirely made up of lines taken from the Prologue which, in this edition, upon the authority of the beft mff. is prefixed to The Squieres Tale. See below, ver. 10301. Ther is a long and a large difference A, good Sire Hofte, I have ywedded be Thife monethes two, and more not parde; 9110 Wifles hath ben, though that men wolde him rife Into the herte, ne coude in no manere Tellen fo much forwe as I you here Coud teilen of my wives curfedneffe. 9115 Now, quod our Hofte, Marchant, so God you bleffe, Sin ye fo mochel knowen of that art Ful hertely I pray you tell us part. Gladly, quod he, but of min owen fore, THE MARCHANTES TALE. 9120 The Marchantes Tale] Old January marrieth young May, and for his unequal match receiveth a foul reward. Urry. In which he lived in gret profperitee; I cannot fain, but swiche a gret corage 9125 9130 9135 That is betwix an husbond and his wif, And for to live under that holy bond With which God firfte man and woman bond. Non other lif (faid he) is worth a bene; For wedlok is fo efy and fo clene 9140 That in this world it is a paradife. Thus faith this olde knight that was fo wife. To take a wif it is a glorious thing, And namely whan a man is old and hore, 9145 Than is a wif the fruit of his trefore; Than fhuld he take a yong wif and a faire, On which he might engendren him an heire, Wheras thife bachelers fingen alas! 9150 Whan that they finde any adverfitee In love, which n'is but childifh vanitée. That bachelers have often peine and wo: On brotel ground they bilde, and brotelneffe 9155 They finden whan they wenen fikerneffe: They live but as a bird or as a befte, In libertee and under non arette, Ther as a wedded man in his estat Liveth a lif blisful and ordinat, 9160 Under the yoke of mariage ybound; Wel may his herte in joye and bliffe abound: For who can be fo buxom as a wif? Who is fo trewe and eke fo ententif To kepe him, fike and hole, as is his make? 9165 For wele or wo fhe n'ill him not forfake; She n'is not wery him to love and ferve Ne take no wif, quod he, for husbondrie, 9170 .9172. Ne take no wif] What follows, to ver. 9180 incl. is taken from the Liber aureolus Theophrafti de nuptiis, as quoted by Hieronymus contra Jovinianum, and from thence by John of Salisbury, Polycrat. 1. viii. c. xi. ; " Quod fi propter difpen"fationem domus, et languoris folatia, et fugam folitudinis, “ducuntur uxores, multo melius dfpenfat fervus fidelis, &c. "Affidere autem ægrotanti magis poffunt amici et vernula As for to spare in houthold thy difpence: Thy good to kepe than doth thin owen wif, 9175 And if that thou be fike, fo God me fave, Wol kepe thee bet than fhe, that waiteth ay 9180 "beneficiis obligati quam illa, quæ nobis imputet lacrymas "fuas," &c. V.9180. many a day] After this verfe, in the common editt. are thefe two; And if thou take to thee a wife untrew Full oftentime it fhall thee fore rew. In mff. A. C. and B. a. they stand thus- Of on In mf. C. 1, HA. D. thus And if thou take a wif of heye lynage And if thou take a wif in thin age olde In mil. Ask. 1, 2, E. H. B. 6. N. c. and both Caxton's editt. they are entirely omitted, and fo I believe they should be. If any one of those couplets fhould be allowed to be from the hand of Chaucer, it can only be confidered as the opening of a new argument, which the Author for fome reafon or other immediately abandoned, and confequently would have cancelled if he had lived to publifh his Work. |