As faire as any man in Englelond, Which were me yeven by the Popes hond. If any of you wol of devotion Offren, and han min abfolution, Cometh forth anon, and kneleth here adoun, Or elles taketh pardon as ye wende, 12855 12860 Nobles or pens which that ben good and trewe. That ye moun have a fuffifant Pardonere. For aventures which that moun betide.. Paraventure ther may falle on or two 12865 Doun of his hors, and breke his necke atwo. 12870 Loke, which a feurtee is it to you alle That I am in your felawship yfalle, That may affoile you both more and laffe, 12875 Come forth, Sire Hofte, and offre firft anon, 12881 And fwere it were a relike of a feint, Though it were with thy foundement depeint : Let cut hem of, I wol thee help hem carie: 12886 12890 But right anon the worthy knight began, (Whan that he faw that all the peple lough) 12895 No more of this, for it is right ynough. Sire Pardoner, be mery and glad of chere; 12900 12885. Seint Heleine] Sir John Mandeville, c. vii. p. 93; "And nyghe that awtier is a place undre erthe, 42 degrees of depeneffe, where the holy croys was founden be the wytt of "Seynte Elyne, undir a roche, where the Jewes had hidde it; "and that was the veray croys affayed; for they founden 3 "croffes, on of oure Lord, and 2 of the 2 theves: and Seynte "Elyne proved hem on a ded body, that aros from dethe to "lyve, whan that it was leyd on it that oure Lord dyed on." See alfo c. ii. p. 15. THE SHIPMANNES PROLOGUE. OUR Hofte upon his stirrops stode anon, And faide, Good men, herkeneth everich on, 12905 Sire Parish Preeft, quod he, for Goddes bones I fee wel that ye lerned men in lore The Perfon him answerd, Benedicite! What eileth the man fo finfully to fwere? 12910 Now good men, quod our Hofte, herkneth to me; For we fhul han a predication: This Loller here wol prechen us fomwhat. 12915 12920 .12914. Ifmell a Loller] This is in character, as appears from a treatise of the time, Harl. Catal. n. 1666.; "Now in Enge lond it is a comun protectioun ayens perfecutioun—if a man is cuftomable to fwere nedeles, and fals, and unavised, by the "bones, nailes, and fides, and other membres of Crift.-And "to abfteyne fro othes nedeles and unleful-and repteve finne "by way of charite, is mater and caufe now why prelates " and fum lordes fclaundren men, and clepen hem Lollardes, "Eretikes," &c. . 12919. Sayde the Shipman] So mf. B. d. the one mf. (as I have said in the Discourse, &c. § 31,) which countenances the Volume IV. H We leven all in the gret God, quod he: Or fpringen cockle in our clene corne; And therfore Hofte, I warne thee beforne 12925 And I fhal clinken you fo mery a belle That I fhal waken all this compagnie ; Ne of phyfike, ne termes queinte of lawe: THE SHIPMANNES TALE. A Marchant whilom dwelled at Seint Denise That riche was, for which men held him wife: A wif he had of excellent beautee, And compaignable and revelous was she, 12930 giving of this Prologue to the Shipman. In mff. C. and D. this paffage is given to the Sompnour, but not by way of Prologue to his Tale. In C. it is followed by 'The Wife of Bathes Prologue, and in D. by the Prologue which in this edit. is prefixed to 'The Squieres Tale. When thefe diverfities are confidered, and alfo that the whole pafiage is wanting in the five beft mfl. it may perhaps appear not improbable that these twenty eight lines, though composed by Chaucer, had not been inserted by him in the body of his Work, that they were therefore omitted in the first copies, and were afterwards injudiciously prefixed to The Squieres Tale when the true Prologue of that Tale, as printed above, was become unfuitable, by reafonof the Tale it felf being removed out of its proper place. V. 12923. Springen cockle] This feems to allude to Loller as derived from lolium; but Du Cange, in v. Lollardus, rather fuppofes that Lollard was a word of German original, fignifying mufitator, a mumbler of prayers. See alfo Kilian, in v. Lolaerd. The Shipmannes Tale] A marchant of St. Denise is coufined Which is a thing that causeth more difpence 12935 That men hem don at feftes and at dances: Paffen as doth a fhadwe upon the wal; But wo is him that payen mote for all. 12940 The fely hufbond algate he mote pay, He mote us clothe and he mote us array. In which array we dancen jolily: 12945 This noble marchant held a worthy hous, 1295Q For which he had all day so gret repaire For his largeffe, and for his wif was faire, That ever in on was drawing to that place. This yonge monk, that was so faire of face, by his owne wife, and by a monke called Dan John. This Argument is taken out of Bochas and his Novels. Speght. .12942. He mote us clothe] In ed. Urr. it is them; but all the mff. that I have feen read us, which would lead one to fufpect that this Tale was originally intended for a female character. |