All ful of joye and bliss is the paleis,
And ful of instruments and of vitaile,
And the most dayntyist of al Italie.

Before him stode soche instrumeuts of soune,
That Orpheus, ne of Thebis Amphioune
Ne madin nevir soche a melodie;
At everie cours cam the loud minstralcie,
That never Joab trompid1, for to here,
Neither Theodamas yet half so clere,
At Thebis, when the cite was in dout2.
Bacchus the wine them skinkith3 al about,
And Venus laugith blithe on everie wight,
For January was become her knight,
And wold in both assayin her corage
In liberty and eke in marriage,

And with her firebronde in her hond aboute
Dauncith before the bride and al the route.
And certeinly I dare say wel right this,
Hymeneus that god of wedding is
Saw never so mery a wedded man.
Hold thou thy peace, thou poet Marcian1,
That writist us that ilk wedding merry
Of Philology and of Mercury,

And of the songis that the Muses song;
Too small is both thy pen, and eke thy tong,
For to discrivin of his marriage,

When tendir Youth has married stooping age.-
MAY that sittin with so benign a chere

That her to behold it semed a feirie";

Quene Hester lokid ner with soch an eye
On Assuere, so meke a loke hath she:

I may you not devis al her bewte,
But thus much of her bewte tel I may
That she was like the bright morowe of May,
Fulfilled of all bewte and plesaunce.
Tho JANUARY is ravished in a trance
At everie time he lokid in her face,

But in his hert he gan her to menace, &c.

Dryden and Pope had modernised the two last mentioned poems. Dsyden the tale of the NONNES PRIEST, and Pope that of JANUARY and MAY: intending perhaps to give patterns of the best of Chaucer's

Paris, 'Priore prandente ad MAGNAM MENNSм quam DAIS vulgo appellamus.' In Vit. Abbat. S. Albani, p. 92. And again the same writer says, that a cup, with a foot, or stand, was not permitted in the hall of the monastery, Nisi tantum in MAJORI MENSA quam DAIS appellamus.' Additam. p. 148. There is an old French word, DAIS, which signifies a throne, or canopy, usually placed over the head of the principal person at a magnificent feast. Hence it was transferred to the table at which he sate. In the ancient French Roman de Garin;

Au plus haut DAIS sist roy Anseis.

Either at the first table, or, which is much the same thing, under the highest conopy. 2 Such as Joab never, &c. 4 See supr. p. 391.

2 Danger.
5 A phantasy, enchantment.

3 Fill, pour. 6 v. 1225. Urr.

280 THE MILLER'S TALE-THE WRITINGS OF BOCCACIO. Tales in the comic species. But I am of opinion that the MILLER'S TALE has more true humour than either. Not that I mean to palliate the levity of the story, which was most probably chosen by Chaucer in compliance with the prevailing manners of an unpolished age, and agreeable to ideas of festivity not always the most delicate and refined. Chaucer abounds in liberties of this kind, and this must be his apology. So does Boccacio, and perhaps much more, but from a different cause. The licentiousness of Boccacio's tales, which he composed per cacciar le malincolia delle femine, to amuse the ladies, is to be vindicated, at least accounted for, on other principles: it was not so much the consequence of popular incivility, as it was owing to a particular event of the writer's age. Just before Boccacio wrote, the plague at Florence had totally changed the customs and manners of the people. Only a few of the women had survived this fatal malady; who having lost their husbands, parents, or friends, gradually grew regardless of those constraints and customary formalities which before of course influenced their behaviour. For want of female attendants, they were obliged often to take men only into their service: and this circumstance greatly contributed to destroy their habits of delicacy, and gave an opening to various freedoms and indecencies unsuitable to the sex, and frequently productive of very serious consequences. As to the monasteries, it is not surprising that Boccacio should have made them the scenes of his most libertine stories. The plague had thrown open their gates. The monks and nuns wandered abroad, and partaking of the common liberties of life, and the levities of the world, forgot the rigour of their institutions, and the severity of their ecclesiastical characters. At the ceasing of the plague, when the religious were compelled to return to their cloisters, they could not forsake their attachment to these secular indulgences; they continued to practise the same free course of life, and would not submit to the disagreeable and unsocial injunctions of their respective orders. Cotemporary historians give a shocking representation of the unbounded debaucheries of the Florentines on this occasion: and ecclesiastical writers mention this period as the grand epoch of the relaxation of monastic discipline. Boccacio did not escape the censure of the church for these compositions. His conversion was a point much laboured; and in expiation of his follies, he was almost persuaded to renounce poetry and the heathen authors, and to turn Carthusian. But, to say the truth, Boccacio's life was almost as loose as his writings: till he was in great measure reclaimed by the powerful remonstrances of his master Petrarch, who talked much more to the purpose than his confessor. This Boccacio himself acknowledges in the fifth of his eclogues, which like those of Petrarch are enigmatical and obscure, entitled PHILOSOTROPHOS.

But to return to the MILLER'S TALE. The character of the Clerke of Oxford, who studied astrology, a science then in high repute, but

under the specious appearance of decorum, and the mask of the serious philosopher, carried on the intrigues, is painted with these lively circumstances.

This clerke yclepid was hend Nicholas',

Of derne2 love he couth and of solas:
And thereto was he slie, and right prive,
And like unto a maidin for to se.
A chambre had he in that hostelrie3
Alone, withoutin any company,

Full fetously ydight with herbis sote1;
And he himself as swete as in the rote
Of licoris, or any seduwall.

His almagist, and bokis grate and small,
His asterlagour longing for his art,
His augrim stonis lying feire apart,
On shelvis, al couchid at his beddis hede;
His presse1o ycoverid with a folding rede
And all above there lay a gay fautriell,
On which he made on nightis melodie
So swetely that at the chamber rung,
And Angelus ad Virginem he sung12

In the description of the young wife of our philosopher's host, there is great elegance with a mixture of burlesque allusions. Not to mention the curiosity of a female portrait, drawn with so much exactness at such a distance of time.

Faire was this yonge wife and therwithall
As a wesill1 her bodie gent and small,

2 Secret.

1 The gentle Nicholas. 3 Hospitium, one of the old hostels at Oxford, which were very numerous before the foundation of the colleges. This is one of the citizen's houses; a circumstance which gave rise to the story.

4 Sweet.

5 Root.

6 The herb Valerian.

7 A book of astronomy written by Ptolemy. It was in thirteen books. He wrote also four books of judicial astrology. He was an Egyptian astrologist, and flourished under Marcus Antoninus. He is mentioned in the Sompnour's Tale, v. 1025, and the Wife of Bath's Prologue, v. 324.

8 Asterlabore. An astrolabe.

9 Stones for computation. Augrim is Algorithm, the sum of the principal rules of common arithmetic. Chaucer was himself an adept in this sort of knowledge. The learned Selden is of opinion, that his Astrolabe was compiled from the Arabian astronomers and mathematicians. See his Pref. to Notes on Drayt. Polyolb. p. 4, where the word Dulcarnon, (Troil. Cr. iii, 933, 935,) is explained to be an Arabic term for a root in calculation. HiS CHANON YEMAN'S TALE, proves his intimate acquaintance with the Hermetic philosophy, then much in vogue. There is a statute of Henry V., against the transmutation of metals, in Statut. an. 4 Hen. V. cap. iv. viz. A.D. 1416. Chaucer, in the Astrolabe, refers to two famous mathematicians and astronomers of his time, John Some, and Nicholas Lynne, both Carmelite friars of Oxford, and perhaps his friends, whom he calls reverent clerkes.' Astrolabe, p. 440, col. i. Urr. They both wrote calendars, which, like Chaucer's Astrolabe, were constructed for the meridian of Oxford. Chaucer mentions Alcabucius, an astronomer, that is, Abdilazi Alchabitius, whose Isagoge in Astrologiam was printed at Venice, 1485, 4to. Ib. fol. 440, col. ii. Compare Herbelot. Bibl. Oriental. p. 963, b. V. KETAB. Aiasthorlab. p. 141, a. Nicholas Lynne above mentioned is said to have made several voyages to the most northerly parts of the world, charts of which he presented to Edward III. Perhaps to Iceland, and the coasts of Norway, for astronomical observations. These charts are lost. Hakluyt apud Anderson. Hist. Com. i. p. 191, sub. ann. 1360. (See Bakl. Voy. i, 121, seq. ed. 1598.) 11 Psaltery. An instrument like a harp. 13 Weasle.

10 Press.

19 v. 91, p. 24, Urr.

282 APPEARANCE AND ADORNMENTS OF THE YOUNG HOSTESS.

A seint she werid, barrid all with silk',
A barmecloth2 eke as white as morrow milk,
Upon her lendis, full of many a gore3
White was her smok, embroudid all bifore1,
And eke behind, on her colere about,
Of coleblak silk, within, and eke without.
The tapis" of her white volipere

Were of the same sute of her colere.
Her fillit brode of silke, and set ful hie,
And sikerly she had a licorous eie.
Full small ypullid10 wer her browis two,
And tho were bent'2 and blak as any slo.
And she was moch more blisfull for to se
Than is the newe perienet13 tre;

And softer than the wool is of a wether:
And by her girdil hong a purse of lether,
Tassid14 with silke, and parlid15 with latoun16.
In all this world to sekin up and down,
There nis no man so wise that couthe thence
So gay a popelete17 or so gay a wench.
Full brightir was the shining of her hewe
Than in the Towre the noble18 forgid newe.
But of her song she was so loud and yerne1,
As any swallow sitting on a berne.

Thereto she couthe skip, and make a game,
As any kid or calfe foll'wing her dame.
Hir mouth was swete as brackit20 or the methe,
Or hord of applis layd in hay or heth.
Winsing she was as is a jolly colt,
Long as a mast, and upright as a bolt21.
A broche22 she bare upon her low collere
As brode as is the bosse of a bokelere23.

Her shoe were lacid on her leggis hie, &c24.

Nicholas, as we may suppose, was not proof against the charms of this blooming hostess. He has frequent opportunities of conversing with her for her husband is the carpenter of Oseney Abbey near Oxford, and often absent in the woods belonging to the monastery25. His

1'A girdle edged with silk.' Bnt we have no exact idea of what is here meant by barrid. See supr. p. 377. The DOCTOR OF PHISICKE is 'girt with a seint of silk with barris smale.' Prol. v. 138 I once conjectured barded. See Hollingsh. Chron. iii. 84, col. ii. 850, col. i, &c., &c.

2 Apron.

5 Tapes. Strings.

8 Knot. Top-knot.

3 Plait. Fold.

6 Head-dress.

10 Made small or narrow, by plucking." 12 Arched.

14 Tasseled. Fringed.

4 Edged. Adorned.
7 Collar.
9 Certainly.
11 They.

13 A young pear-tree. Fr. poir jeunet.
15 I would read purfild.
17So pretty a puppet.'

16 Latoun, or chekelaton, is cloth of gold.

18 A piece of money.

20 Bragget. A drink made of honey, spices, &c. 22 A jewel.

25 See v. 557.

23 Buckler.

I throw that he bewent For he is wont for timber for to go,

19 Shrill.

21 Straight as an arrow.'
24 v. 125, Urr.

For timber, there our abbot hath him sent:
And dwellin at the grange a day or two.

rival is Absalom a parish-clerk, the gaiest of his calling, who being amorously inclined, very naturally avails himself of a circumstance belonging to his profession: on holidays it was his business to carry the censer about the church, and he takes this opportunity of casting unlawful glances on the handsomest dames of the parish. His gallantry, agility, affectation of dress and personal elegance, skill in shaving and surgery, smattering in the law, taste for music, and many other accomplishments, are thus inimitably represented by Chaucer, who must have much relished so ridiculous a character.

Now was ther of the chirch a parish clerke,
The which that was yclepid Absalon,
Crull was his heere, and as the gold it shone,
And stroutid as a fanne longe and brode,
Ful straight and even lay his jolly shode1,
His rude was redde, his eyin gray as gose
With Poulis windows carvin on his shose3.
In hosin red he went ful fetously:
Yclad he was ful smale and propirly
Al in a kirtil1 of a light watchet,
Ful fayre, and thicke be the pointis set:
And thereuppon he hadde a gaie surplice
As white as is the blosome on the rice
A merie child he was, so god me save,

Well couth he lettin blode, and clip, and shave.
Or make a chartre of land or acquittaunce:
In twentie manir couth he trip and daunce,

After the schole of Oxenforde tho,

And with his leggis castin to and fro.

And pleyin songis on a smale ribible",

Thereto he song sometime a loud quinible'.

His manner of making love must not be omitted. He serenades her with his guitar.

1 Hair.

He wakith al the night, and al the day,

He kembith his lockes brode, and made him gay.
He woith her by menis and brocages,

And swore that he would ben her owne page

2 Complexion.

3 See p. 379, supr. Calce fenestrasti occur in ancient Injunctions to the clergy. In Eton-college statutes, given in 1446, the fellows are forbidden to wear, sotularia rostrata, as also caliga, white, red, or green, CAP. xix. In a chantry, or chapel, founded at Winchester in the year 1318, within the cemetery of the Nuns of the Blessed Virgin by Roger Inkpenne, the members, that is, a warden, chaplain and clerk, are ordered to go in meris caligis, et sotularibus non rostratis, nisi forsitan botis uti voluerunt.' And it is added, 'Vestes deferant non fibulatas, sed desuper clausas, vel brevitate non notandas.' REGISTR. Priorat. S. Swithini Winton. MSS. supr. citat. Quatern. 6. Compare Wilkins's CONCIL. iii. 670. ii. 4. 4 Jacket. 5 Hawthorn. 6 v. 224. A species of guitar. Lydgate, MSS. Bibl. Bodl. Fairf. 16. In a poem never printed, called Reason and Sensuallite, compyled by John Lydgate. Lutys, rubibis, (1. ribibles) and geternes,

More for estatys than tavernes.

7 Treble.

8 By offering money; or a settlement.