FRANCIS THYNNE'S ANIMADVERSIONS.

-9

TO MASTER THOMAS SPEIGHTE

FFRANCIS THYNNE SENDETH GREETINGE.

The industrye and love (master Speighte) whiche you haue vsed, and beare, vppon and to oure famous poete Geffrye Chaucer, deseruethe bothe commendatōne and furtheraunce: the one to recompense your trauayle, the other to accomplyshe the duetye whiche we all beare (or at the leaste, yf we reuerence lernynge or regarde the honor of oure Countrye, sholde beare) to suche a singuler ornamente of oure tonge, as the Workes of Chaucer are. Yet since there is nothinge so fullye perfected by anye one, wherein some imperfectōne maye not bee founde, (for as the prouerbe is Barnardus, or as others have, Alanus non videt omnia,) you must be contented to gyve me leave in dyscharge of the duetye and love which I beare to Chaucer, (whome I suppose I have as great intereste to adorne withe my small skyll as anye other hath, in regarde that the laborious care of my father made hym most acceptable to the worlde in correctinge and augmentinge his Workes,) to enter into the examinatōne of this new editōne; and that the rather, because you, with Horace his verse Si quid novisti rectius istis candidus imperti, have willed all others to further the same, and to accepte your labors in good

parte; whiche as I most willingly doo, so meaninge but well to the worke, Iame to lett you vnderstande my conceyte thereof, whiche before this, yf you wolde have vouchesafed my howse or have thoughte me worthy to have byn acqueynted with these matters, (which you might, well have donne without anye whatsocuer dysparagement to yourselfe,) you shoulde have vnderstoode before the impressione, althoughe this whiche I here write ys not nowe vppon selfewill or fond conceyte to wrangle for an asses shadowe, or to seke a knott in a rushe; but in frendlye sorte to bringe truthe to lighte; a thinge, whiche I wolde desire others to vse towardes mee in whatsoeuer shall fall oute of my penne, Wherefore I will here shewe suche thinges as, in my opynione, may serue to be touched; not medlinge withe the seconde editione to an in

ferior personne than my fathers editione was.

Ffirste, IN YOUR FORESPECHE to the reader, you saye secondly the texte by written copies corrected. By whiche worde corrected I maye seme to gather, that you imagine greate imperfectione in my fathers editione, whiche peraduenture maye move others to saye (as some vnadvisedly have sayed) that my father had wronged Chaucer. Wherefore, to stoppe that gappe, I will answer, that Chaucers Works haue byn sithens printed twyce, yf not thrice; and therfore by oure carelesse (and for the most parte vnlearned) printers of Englande, not so well performed as yt ought

to bee: so that of necessytye bothe in matter, meter, and meaninge, yt must needes gather corruptōne, passinge through so manye handes; as the water dothe, the further yt runneth from the pure founteyne. To enduce me and all others to iudge his editione (whiche I thinke you neuer sawe wholye together, beinge fyrst printed but in one columne in a page, whereof I will speake hereafter,) was the perfectest, ys the ernest desire and love my father hadde to have Chaucers Workes rightlye to be publyshed. For the performance whereof, my father not onlye vsed the help of that lerned and eloquent knight and antiquarye S' Briane Tuke, but had also made greate serche for copies to perfecte his Workes, as appereth in the ende of the Squier's Tale, in his editione printed in the yere 1542; but further had commissione to serche all the libraries of England for Chaucers Works, so that oute of all the Abbies of this Realme (whiche reserved any monuments thereof) he was fully furnished with multitude of Bookes: emongst whiche, one coppye of some parte of his Works came to his handes subscribed in diuers places withe examinatur Chaucer. By this Booke, and conferringe manye of the other written copies together, he delivered his editione, fullye corrected, as the amendements vnder his hande, in the fyrst printed booke that euer was of his Works, (beinge stamped by the fyrste impressione that was in Englande,) will well declare; at what time he added manye thinges,

which were not before printed, as you nowe haue donne some, of which I ame perswaded (and that not withoute reasone) the originall came from mee. In whiche his editione, beinge printed but with one columne in a syde, there was the Pilgrymes Tale, a thinge moore odious to the Clergye then the speche of the Plowmanne; that Pilgrimes Tale begynnynge in this sorte:

In Lincolneshyre, fast by a fenne,

Standes a relligious howse who dothe yt kenne, &c.

In this Tale did Chaucer most bitterlye enveye against the pride, state, couetousnes, and extorcione of the byshoppes, their officialls, archdeacons, vicars generalls, commissaryes, and other officers of the spirituall courte. The inventione and order whereof (as I haue herde yt related by some nowe of good worshippe both in courte and countrye, but then my fathers clerkes,) was, that one comynge into this relligious howse walked vpp and downe the churche, beholdinge goodlye pictures of byshoppes in the windowes; at lengthe the manne contynuynge in that contemplatione, not knowinge what byshoppes they were; a grave olde manne with a long white hedde and berde, in a large blacke garment girded vnto hym, çame forthe and asked hym what he iudged of those pictures in the windowes; who sayed, he knewe not what to make of them, but that they looked lyke vnto our mitred bishoppes; to whome the olde