S

Of yeddinges he bare utterly the pris.—
Ther n'as no man no wher so vertuous;
He was the beste begger in all his hous'.-
Somewhat he lisped for his wantonnesse,
To make his English swete upon his tonge;
And in his harping, whan that he hadde songe,
His eyen twinkeled in his hed aright

As don the sterres in a frosty night."

u

With these unhallowed and untrue sons of the church is contrasted the PARSOUNE, or parish-priest: in describing whose sanctity, simplicity, sincerity, patience, industry, courage, and conscientious impartiality, Chaucer shews his good sense and good heart. Dryden imitated this character of the GOOD PARSON, and is said to have applied it to bishop Ken.

The character of the SQUIRE teaches us the education and requisite accomplishments of young gentlemen in the gallant reign of Edward the Third. But it is to be remembered, that our squire is the son of a knight, who has performed feats of chivalry in every part of the world; which the poet thus enumerates with great dignity and simplicity.

At Alisandre' he was whan it was wonne,
Ful often time he hadde the bord begonne ",
Aboven allè nations in Pruce*.

In Lettowe hadde he reysed and in Ruce: “
No cristen man so ofte of his degre

In Gernade, at the siege eke hadde he be

Of Algesir, and ridden in Belmarie 1.

At Leyes was he, and at Satalie",

Whan they were wonne: and in the gretè see:
At many a noble armee hadde he be:
At mortal batailles had he ben fiftene,
And foughten for our faith at Tramissene
In lystes thries, and ay slain his fo.
This ilke worthy Knight hadde ben also
Sometime with the lord of Palatief:
Agen another hethen in Turkie.

And evermore he hadde a sovereine pris,

And though that he was worthy he was wise."

The poet in some of these lines implies, that after the Christians were driven out of Palestine, the English knights of his days joined the knights of Livonia and Prussia, and attacked the pagans of Lithuania, and its adjacent territories. Lithu

a A city of Spain; perhaps Gibraltar. [Algesiras; a Spanish town on the opposite side of the bay of Gibraltar.EDIT.]

Speght supposes it to be that country
in Barbary which is called Benamarin.
It is mentioned again in the KNIGHT'S
TALE, v. 2632. p. 20. Urr.

Ne in Balmarie ther is no lion,
That huntid is, &c.

By which at least we may conjecture it
to be some country in Africa. Perhaps
a corruption for Barbarie. [Froissart
reckons it among the kingdoms of
Africa: Thunes, Bovgie, Maroch, Bel-
lemarine, Tremessen. The battle of Be-
namarin is said by a late author of Fiage
de Espanna, p. 73. n. 1. to have been so
called: "por haber quedallo en ella Al-
bohacen, Rey de Marruccos del linage
de Aben Marin." Perhaps therefore
the dominions of that family in Africa
might be called abusively Benamarin,
and by a further corruption Belmarie.
-T.]

Some suppose it to be Lavissa, a city on the continent, near Rhodes. Others Lybissa, a city of Bithynia.

A city in Anatolia, called Atalia. Many of these places are mentioned in the history of the Crusades.

[The gulf and castle of Satalia are mentioned by Benedictus Abbas, in the Crusade under the year 1191. Et cum rex Franciæ recessisset ab Antiochet, statim intravit gulfum SATHALIE.-SATHALLE Castellum est optimum, unde gulfus ille nomen accepit; et super gulfum illum sunt duo Castella et Villæ, et utrumque dicitur SATALIA. Sed unum illorum est desertum, et dicitur Vetus SATALIA quod pirata destruxerunt, et alterum Nova SATALIA dicitur, quod Manuel imperator Constantinopolis fir mavit." VIT. ET GEST. HENR. et Ric. ii. p. 680.

Afterwards he mentions Mare Græcum, p. 683. That is, the Mediterranean from Sicily to Cyprus. I am in. clined, in the second verse following, to read “Greke sea.' Leyis is the town of Layas in Armenia.-ADDITIONS.]

In the holy war at Thrasimene, a city in Barbary.

Palathia, a city in Anatolia. See Froissart, iii. 40.

& against.

hv. 51.

ania was not converted to christianity till towards the close of the fourteenth century. Prussian targets are mentioned, as we have before seen, in the KNIGHT'S TALE. Thomas duke

of Gloucester, youngest son of king Edward the Third, and Henry earl of Derby, afterwards king Henry the Fourth, travelled into Prussia: and in conjunction with the grand Masters and Knights of Prussia and Livonia, fought the infidels of Lithuania. Lord Derby was greatly instrumental in taking Vilna, the capital of that country, in the year 1390h. Here is a seeming compliment to some of these expeditions. This invincible and accomplished champion afterwards tells the heroic tale of PALAMON and ARCITE. His son the SQUIER, a youth of twenty years, is thus delineated.

And he hadde be somtime in chevachie i
In Flandres, in Artois, and in Picardie:
And borne him wel, as of SO litel space,
In hope to stonden in his ladies grace.
Embrouded was he as it were a mede
Alle ful of freshe floures white and rede.
Singing he was or floytyng alle the day,
He was as freshe as is the moneth of May.
Short was his goune with sleves long and wide,

Wel coude he sitte on hors, and fayre ride.

He coude songes make, and wel endite,

Juste, and eke dance, and well pourtraie, and write. k

To this young man the poet, with great observance of decorum, gives the tale of Cambuscan, the next in knightly dignity to that of Palamon and Arcite. He is attended by a yeoman, whose figure revives the ideas of the forest laws.

And he was cladde in cote and hode of grene:
A sheff of peacocke arwes bright and kene.'

See Hakluyt's Voyages, i. 122. seq. edit. 1598. See also Hakluyt's account of the conquest of Prussia by the Dutch Knights Hospitalaries of Jerusalem, ibid.

i Chivalry, riding, exercises of horsemanship, Compl. Mar. Ven. v. 144.

Ciclinius riding in his chivauchie From Venus. k v. 85.

Comp. Gul. Waynflete, episc. Winton. an. 1471. (supr. citat.) Among the stores of the bishop's castle of Farnham,

Under his belt he bare ful thriftily:
Wel coude he dresse his takel yemanly:
His arwes drouped not with fetheres lowe;
And in his hond he bare a mighty bowe.
Upon his arm he bare a gaie bracerTM,
And by his side a swerd and a bokeler.—
A Cristofre" on his brest of silver shene :

A horne he bare, the baudrik was of grene.°

The character of the REEVE, an officer of much greater trust and authority during the feudal constitution than at present, is happily pictured. His attention to the care and custody of the manors, the produce of which was then kept in hand for furnishing his lord's table, perpetually employs his time, preys upon his thoughts, and makes him lean and choleric. He is the terror of bailiffs and hinds: and is remarkable for his circumspection, vigilance, and subtlety. He is never in arrears, and no auditor is able to over-reach or detect him in his accounts: yet he makes more commodious purchases for himself than for his master, without forfeiting the good will or bounty of the latter. Amidst these strokes of satire, Chaucer's genius for descriptive painting breaks forth in this simple and beautiful description of the REEVE'S rural habitation.

His wonning" was ful fayre upon an heth, With grene trees yshadewed was his place." In the CLERKE OF OXENFORDE our author glances at the

Arcus cum chordis. Et red. comp. de xxiv. arcubus cum xxiv. chordis de remanentia.-Sagittæ magnæ. Et de cxliv. sagittis magnis barbatis cum pennis pavonum. In a Computus of bishop Gervays, episc. Winton. an. 1266. (supr. citat.) among the stores of the bishop's castle of Taunton, one of the heads or styles is, Cauda pavonum, which I suppose were used for feathering arrows. In the articles of Arma, which are part of the episcopal stores of the said castle, I find enumerated one thousand four hundred and twenty-one great arrows for cross-bows, remaining over and above three hundred and seventy-one delivered

inattention paid to literature, and the unprofitableness of philosophy. He is emaciated with study, clad in a thread-bare cloak, and rides a steed lean as a rake.

For he hadde geten him yet no benefice,
Ne was nought worldly to have an office:
For him was lever han at his beddes hed
A twenty bokes, clothed in black or red,
Of Aristotle and his philosophie,

Then robes riche, or fidels, or sautrie :
But allbe that he was a philosophre,
Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre. '

His unwearied attention to logic had tinctured his conversation with much pedantic formality, and taught him to speak on all subjects in a precise and sententious style. * Yet his conversation was instructive: and he was no less willing to submit than to communicate his opinion to others.

Souning in moral vertue was his speche,

And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche."

The perpetual importance of the SERJEANT OF LAWE, who by habit or by affectation has the faculty of appearing busy when he has nothing to do, is sketched with the spirit and conciseness of Horace.

r rather.

No wher so besy a man as he ther n'as,
And he semed besier than he was. W
yet

these lines: "In forme and reverence:" with propriety and modesty. In the next line, "ful of high sentence" means only, I apprehend, full of high or excellent sense. Mr. Warton will excuse me for suggesting these explanations of this passage in lieu of those which he has given. The credit of good letters is

concerned that Chaucer should not be supposed to have made a pedantic forall subjects the characteristics of a schomality and a precise sententious style on lar.-TYRWHITT.]

W

u

v. 300.

v. 323. He is said to have "oftin yben at the parvise," v. 312. It is not