Wher as he with his owen hond flow thee,
Succeding in thy regne and in thy rent.

The feld of fnow, with th' egle of blak therin,
Caught with the limerod, coloured as the glede,
He brewed this curfedneffe and all this finne; 14695
The wicked nefte was werker of this dede,

Not Charles Oliver, that toke ay hede

Of trouthe and honour, but of Armorike
Genilon Oliver, corrupt for mede,

Broughte this worthy king in fwiche a brike. 14700

V. 14697. Not Charles Oliver] Not the Oliver of Charles, [Charlemagne] but an Oliver of Armorica, a fecond Genelon or Ganelon. See ver. 13124, 15233. So this paffage is to be understood, which in ed. Urr. has been changed to-Not Charles ne Oliver. But who this Oliver of Bretagne was whom our Author charges as werker of the death of King Petro is not fo clear. According to Mariana, 1. xvii. C.J 3, such a charge might moft properly be brought againft Bertrand du Guesclin, a Breton, afterwards Conftable of France, as it was in confequence of a private treaty with him that Petro came to his tent, where he was killed by his brother Henry, and partly (as some said) con ayuda de Beltran. But how he thould come to be called Oliver I cannot guefs, unless perhaps Chaucer confounded him with Olivier de Cliffon, another famous Breton of those times, who was alfo Conftable of France after Bertrand. [Froiffartmentions an Olivier de Manny, nephew to Bertrand du Guefclin, as receiving large rewards from King Henry, vol. i. ch. 245.; but he does not reprefent him as particularly concerned in the death of Petro.]The perfon meant, whoever he was, must have been fufficiently pointed out at the time by his coat of arms, which is described in ver. 14693, 4. Th' egle of blak in a jeld of fnow is plain enough, but the reft of the blazonry I cannot pretend to decipher.

Petro King of Cypre.

O worthy Petro! King of Cypre alfo,
That Alexandrie wan by high maistrie,
Ful many an Hethen wroughteft thou ful wo,
Of which thin owen lieges had envie,

14705

And for nothing but for thy chivalrie
They in thy bed han flain thee by the morwe.
Thus can Fortune hire whele governie and gie,
And out of joye bringen men to forwe.
Barnabo Viscount.

Of Milane grete Barnabo Viscount,
God of delit, and scourge of Lumbardie,
Why fhuld I not thin infortune account,
Sith in eftat thou clomben were fo high?
Thy brothers fone, that was thy double allie,

14710

.14701. Petro King of Cypre] Conserning the taking of Alexandria by this prince, and his other exploits, fee the note on ver. 51, and the authors there cited. He was affaffinated in 1369, Acad. des Inf. t. xx. p. 439.

14709. Barnabo Vifcount] Bernabo Visconti, Duke of Milan, was depofed by his nephew, and thrown into prifon, where he died in 1385.- -I did not attend to this circumftance when I ftated the infurre&ion of Strawe in 1381 as the lateft hiftorical fact mentioned in these Tales, Discourse, &c. n. 6. The death of Bernabo was certainly later. Fortunately however this difference of four years has no other confequence than that it makes the fuppofed date of the pilgrimage in 1383, which was before very doubtful, still inore improbable. The Knight might as probably be upon a pilgrimage in 1387 as in 1383, accord ing to the precedent of Sir Mathew de Gourney. See note on ver. 43.

For he thy nevew was and fone in lawe,
Within his prifon made he thee to die,

But why ne how n'ot I that thou were flawe.

Hugelin of Pife.

Of the Erl Hugelin of Pife the langour

Ther may no tonge tellen for pitee.

But litel out of Pise stant a tour,

14715

In whiche tour in prifon yput was he,
And with him ben his litel children three,
The eldest scarfely five yere was of age:
Alas! Fortune, it was gret crueltee
Swiche briddes for to put in fwiche a cage.

Dampned was he to die in that prison,
For Roger which that Bishop was of Pife
Had on him made a falfe fuggeftion,

Thurgh which the peple gan upon him rise,
And put him in prifon in fwiche a wife

14720

14725

As ye han herd; and mete and drinke he had 14730

So fmale, that wel unnethe it may fuffife,
And therwithal it was ful poure and bad.

And on a day befell that in that houre
Whan that his mete wont was to be brought
The gailer fhette the dores of the toure;
He hored it wel, but he fpake right nought:
And in his herte anon ther fell a thought

14735

V. 14717. Hugelin of Pife] Chaucer himself has referred us to Dante for the original of this tragedy. See Inferno, c. xxxiii.

That they for hunger wolden do him dien:
Alas! quod he, alas that I was wrought!
Ther with the teres fellen fro his eyen.

14740

14745

His yonge fone, that three yere was of age,
Unto him said, Fader, why do ye wepe ?
Whan will the gailer bringen our potage?
Is ther no morfel bred that ye do kepe?
I am fo hungry that I may not slepe.
Now wolde God that I might flepen ever,
Than fhuld not hunger in my wombe crepe ;
Ther n'is no thing fauf bred that me were lever.
Thus day by day this childe began to crie,
Til in his fadres barme adoun it lay,

And faide, Farewel, fader, I mote die;
And kist his fader, and dide the fame day.
And whan the woful fader did it sey
For wo his armes two he gan to bite,

And faide, Alas! Fortune, and wala wa!
Thy false whele

my wo all

may I wite.

His children wenden that for hunger it was
That he his armes gnowe, and not for wo,
And fayden, Fader, do not fo, alas!
But rather ete the flesh upon us two:

14750

14755

14760

Our flesh thou yaf us, take our flesh us fro,
And ete ynough. Right thus they to him feide,
And after that, within a day or two,
They laide hem in his lappe adoun and deide.

Himself difpeired eke for hunger starf. Thus ended is this mighty Erl of Pise : From high eftat Fortune away him carf. Of this tragedie it ought ynough suffice; Who fo wol here it in a longer wife Redeth the grete poete of Itaille

That highte Dante, for he can it devise

14765

14770

Fro point to point; not o word wol he faille. 14772

. 14765,6.] 'These two verfes in the editt. have been trans pofed, to the confusion of the sense as well as of the metre.