284 CLERK ABSOLON AND HIS LOVE OF GALLANTRY. 1 Quavering. He singith broking as a nightingale. He sent her piment2, methe, and spicid ale, Again, When that the firste cok hath crow anon, And him arrayith gay at point devise, 2 Explained above. 3 The coals. The oven. 4 See RIME OF SIR THOPAS, v. 3357. p. 146. Urr. Mr. Walpole has mentioned some curious particulars concerning the liquors which anciently prevailed in England. Anecd. Paint. i. p. 11. I will add, that cyder was very early a common liquor among our ancestors. In the year, 1295, an. 23 Edw. I. the king orders the sheriff of Southamptonshire to provide with all speed four hundred quarters of wheat, to be collected in parts of his bailiwick nearest the sea, and to convey the same, being well winnowed, in good ships from Portsmouth to Winchelsea. Also to put on board the said ships, at the same time, two hundred tons of cyder. Test. R. apud Canterbury. The cost to be paid immediately from the king's wardrobe. The precept is in old French. Registr. Joh. Pontissar. Episc. Winton. fol. 172. It is remarkable that Wickliffe translates, Luc. i. 21. 'He schal not drinke wyn ne sydyr.' This translation was made about A.D. 1380. At a visitation of St. Swithin's priory at Winchester, by the said bishop, it appears that the monks claimed to have, among other articles of luxury, on many festivals, "Vinum, tam album quam rubeum, claretum, medonem, burgarastrum, &c.' This was so early as the 1285. Registr. Priorat. S Swith. Winton. MSS. supr. citat. quatern. 5. It appears also, that the Hordarius and Camerarius claimed every year of the prior ten dolia vini, or twenty pounds in money, A.D. 1337. Ibid. quatern, 5. A benefactor grants to the said convent on the day of his anniversary. 'unam pipam vini pret. xxs.' for their refection, A.D. 1286. Ibid. quatern. 1o. Before the year 1200, 'Vina et medones' are mentioned as not uncommon in the abbey of Evesham in Worcestershire. Stevens Monast. Append. p. 138. The use of mead, medo, seems to have been very ancient in England. See Mon." Angl. i. 26. Thorne, Chron. sub. ann. 1114. It is not my intention to enter into the controversy concerning the cultivation of vines, for making wine, in England. I shall only bring to light the following remarkable passage on that subject from an old English writer on gardening and farming. We might have a reasonable good wine growyng in many places of this realme: 'as undoubtedly wee had immediately after the Conquest; tyll partly by slouthfulnesse, not likely any thing long that is painefull, partly by civill discord long continuying, it was left and so with tyme lost, as appeareth by a number of places in this realm that keepe still the name of Vineyardes: and uppon many cliffes and hilles, are yet to be seene the rootes and olde remaynes of Vines There is besides Nottingham, an auncient house called Chilwell, in which house remayneth yet, as an auncient monument, in a great Wyndowe of Glasse, the 'whole Order of planting, pruyning, [pruning,] stamping and pressing of vines. Beside, 'there [at that place] is yet also growing an old vine, that yields a grape sufficient to make a 'right good wine, as was lately proved.-There hath, moreover, good experience of late yeears been made, by two noble and honourable barons of this realme, the lorde Cobham and the lorde Wylliams of Tame, who had both growyng about their houses, as good wines as are in many parts of Fraunce, &c.' Barnabie Googe's FOURE BOOKES OF HUSBANDRY, &c. Lond. 1578. 4to. TO THE READER. 5 Speght explains this 'feats of activity, furious parts in a play.' Gloss. Ch. Urr. Perhaps the character of HEROD in a MYSTERY. 6 Greyns, or grains, of Paris, or Paradise, occurs in the ROMANT OF THE Rose. v. 1369. A rent of herring pies is an old payment from the city of Norwich to the king, seasoned among other spices with half an ounce of grains of Paradise. Blomf. Norf. ii. 264. 'It is entitled BURNELLUS, sive Speculum stultorum, and was written about the year 1190. Leyser. POET. MED. ÆVI. p. 752. It is a common manuscript. Burnell is a nick-name for Balaam's ass in the Chester WHITSUN PLAYS. MSS. HARL. 2013. 7 v. 579. It is to be remarked, that in this tale the carpenter swears, with great propriety, by the patroness saint of Oxford, saint Frideswide, v. 340. This carpenter to blissin him began, And seide now helpin us saint Fridacwide. In the mean time the scholar, intent on accomplishing his intrigue, locks himself up in his chamber for the space of two days. The carpenter, alarmed at this long seclusion, and supposing that his guest might be sick or dead, tries to gain admittance, but in vain. He peeps through a crevice of the door, and at length discovers the scholar, who is conscious that he was seen, in an effected trance of abstracted meditation. On this our carpenter, reflecting on the danger of being wise, and exulting in the security of his own ignorance, exclaims, A man wott littil what shall him betide! He saw not that. But yet, by seint Thomas Me ruith sore on hende Nicholas : He shall be ratid for his studying. But the scholar has ample gratification for this ridicule. The carpenter is at length admitted; and the scholar continuing the farce, gravely acquaints the former that he has been all this while making a most important discovery by means of astrological calculations. He is soon persuaded to believe the prediction: and in the sequel, which cannot be repeated here, this humourous contrivance crowns the scholar's schemes with success, and proves the cause of the carpenter's disgrace. In this piece the reader observes that the humour of the characters is made subservient to the plot. I have before hinted, that Chaucer's obscenity is in great measure to be imputed to his age. We are apt to form romantic and exaggerated notions about the moral innocence of our ancestors. Ages of ignorance and simplicity are thought to be ages of purity. The direct contrary, I believe, is the case. Rude periods have that grossness of manners which is not less friendly to virtue than luxury itself. In the middle ages, not only the most flagrant violations of modesty were frequently practised and permitted, but the most infamous vices. Men are less ashamed as they are less polished. Great refinement multiplies criminal pleasures, but at the same time prevents the actual commission of many enormities: at least it preserves public decency, and suppresses public licentiousness. 1'Pry into the secrets of nature.' 3'Who knows only what he believes.' Or, his Creed. 2 Unlearned. 286 THE MILLER OF TROMPINGTON-SOMPNOUR'S TALE. The REVES TALE, or the MILLER of TROMPINGTON, is much in the same style, but with less humour1. This story was enlarged by Chaucer from Boccacio2. There is an old English poem on the same plan, entitled, A right pleasant and merye history of the Mylner of Abington, with his Wife and faire Daughter, and two poore Scholars of Cambridges. It begins with these lines. 'Faire lordinges, if you list to heere 'A mery jest your minds to cheere.' This piece is supposed by Wood to have been written by Andrew Borde, a physician, a wit, and a poet, in the reign of Henry VIII. It was at least evidently written after the time of Chaucer. It is the work of some tasteless imitator, who has sufficiently disguised his original, by retaining none of its spirit. I mention these circumstances, lest it should be thought that this frigid abridgment was the ground-work of Chaucer's poem on the same subject. In the class of humourous or satirical tales, the SOMPNOUR'S TALE, which exposes the tricks and extortions of the mendicant friars, has also distinguished merit. This piece has incidentally been mentioned above with the PLOWMAN'S TALE, and Pierce Plowman. Genuine humour, the concomitant of true taste, consists in discerning improprieties in books as well as characters. We therefore must remark under this class another tale of Chaucer, which till lately has 1 See also THE SHIPMAN'S TALE, which was originally taken from some comic French trobadour. But Chaucer had it from Boccacio. The story of Zenobia, in the MONKES TALE, if from Boccacio's Cas. Vir. Illustr. (Lydg. Boch. viii. 7.) That of Hugolin of Pisa in the same Tale, from Dante. That of Pedro of Spain, from archbishop Turpin, ibid. Of Julius Cesar, from Lucas, Suetonius, and Valerius Maximus, ibid. The idea of this TALE was suggested by Boccacio's book on the same subject. 2 Decamer. Giom. ix. Nov. 6. 'But both Boccacio and Chaucer probably borrowed from an old CONTE, or FABLIEU, by an anonymous French rhymer, De Combert et des deux Clers. FABLIEUX et CONTES, Paris, 1756. tom. ii. p. 115.124. The SHIPMAN'S TALE, as I have hinted, originally came from some such French FABLEOR, through the medium of Boccacio. 3 A manifest mistake for Oxford, unless we read Trumpington for Abingdon, or retaining Abingdon we might read Oxford for Cambridge. There is, however, Abington, with a millstream, seven miles from Cambridge.' Imprint. at London by Rycharde Jones, 4to. Bl. Let. It is in Bibl. Bodl. Selden, C. 39. 4to. This book was probably given to that library, with many other petty black letter histories, in prose and verse, of a similar cast, by Robert Burton, author of the ANATOMY of MELANCHOLY, who was a great collector of such pieces. One of his books now in the Bodleian is the HISTORY OF TOM THUMB; whom a learned adtiquary, while he laments that ancient history has been much disguised by romantic narratives, pronounces to have been no less important a personage than king Edgar's dwarf. 4 Story. 5 Wood's Athen. Oxon. BORDE. And Hearne's Bened. Abb. i. Præfat. p. xl. lv. I am of opinion that Solere-Hall, in Cambridge, mentioned in this poem, was Aula Solarii. The hall, with the upper story, at that time a sufficient circumstance to distinguish and denominate one of the academical hospitia. Although Chaucer calls it, 'grete college.' v. 881. Thus in Oxford we had Chimney-hall, Aula cum lamino an almost parallel proof of the simplicity of their ancient houses of learning. Twyne also mentions Solere-hall, at Oxford. Also Aula Selarii, which I doubt not is properly Solarii. Compare Wood. Ant. Oxon. ii. 11. col. i. 13. col. i. 12. col. 2. Caius will have it to be Clarehall, Hist. Acad. p. 57. Those who read Scholars-hall (of Edw. iii.) may consult Wacht. V. SOLLER. In the mean time for the reasons assigned, one of these two halls or colleges at Cambridge, might at first have been commonly called Soler-hall. A hall near Brazen-nose college, Oxford, was called Glazen-hall, having glass windows, anciently not common. Twyne Miscel. quædam, &c. ad calc. Apol. Antiq. Acad. Oxon. been looked upon as a grave heroic narrative. I mean the RIME OF SIR THOPAS. Chaucer, at a period which almost realised the manners of romantic chivalry, discerned the leading absurdities of the old romances: and in this poem, which may be justly called a prelude to Don Quixote, has burlesqued them with exquisite ridicule. That this was the poet's aim, appears from many passages. But, to put the matter beyond a doubt, take the words of an ingenious critic. 'We 'are to observe, says he, that this was Chaucer's own Tale: and that, 'when in the progress of it, the good sense of the host is made to break ‘in upon him, and interrupt him, Chaucer approves his disgust, and 'changing his note, tells the simple instructive Tale of MELIBOEUS, a 'moral tale vertuous, as he terms it; to shew what sort of fictions were 'most expressive of real life, and most proper to be put into the hands ' of the people. It is further to be noted, that the Boke of The Giant 'Olyphant, and Chylde Thopas, was not a fiction of his own, but a story 'of antique fame, and very celebrated in the days of chivalry: so that 'nothing could better suit the poet's design of discrediting the old romances, than the choice of this venerable legend for the vehicle of 'his ridicule upon them'.' But it is to be remembered, that Chaucer's design was intended to ridicule the frivolous descriptions, and other tedious impertinencies, so common in the volumes of chivalry with which his age is overwhelmed, not to degrade in general or expose a mode of fabling, whose sublime extravagancies constitute the marvellous graces of his own CAMBUSCAN; a composition which at the same time abundantly demonstrates, that the manners of romance are better calculated to answer the purposes of pure poetry, to captivate the imagination, and to produce surprise, than the fictions of classical antiquity. SECTION XVII. BUT Chaucer's vein of humour, although conspicuous in the CANTERBURY TALES, is chiefly displayed in the Characters with which they are introduced. In these his knowledge of the world availed him in a peculiar degree, and enabled him to give such an accurate picture of ancient manners, as no cotemporary nation has transmitted to posterity. It is here that we view the pursuits and employments, the customs and diversions, of our ancestors, copied from the life, and represented with equal truth and spirit, by a judge of mankind, whose penetration qualified him to discern their foibles or discriminating peculiarities: 1 Dr. Hurd's LETTERS on Chivalry and RomanCE. Dialogues, &c. iii. 218. edit. 1765. 288 CHARACTER AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE PRIORESSE. and by an artist, who understood that proper selection of circumstances, and those predominant characteristics, which form a finished portrait. We are surprised to find, in so gross and ignorant an age, such talents for satire, and for observation on life; qualities which usually exert themselves at more civilised periods, when the improved state of society, by substituting our speculations, and establishing uniform modes of behaviour, disposes mankind to study themselves, and render deviations of conduct, and singularities of character, more immediately and necessarily the objects of censure and ridicule. These curious and valuable remains are specimens of Chaucer's native genius, unassisted and unalloyed. The figures are all British, and bear no suspicious signatures of classical, Italian, or French imitation. The characters of Theophrastus are not so lively, particular and appropriated. A few traites from this celebrated part of our author, yet too little tasted and understood, may be sufficient to prove and illustrate what is here advanced. The character of the PRIORESSE is chiefly distinguished by an excess of delicacy and decorum, and an affectation of courtly accomplishments. But we are informed, that she was educated at the school of Stratford at Bow near London, perhaps a fashionable seminary for breeding nuns. There was also a nonne a Prioresse That of her smiling was simble and coy; 1 Seynte Loy, i. e. Saint Lewis. The same oath occurs in the FREER'S TALE, v. 300. p. $8. Urr. 2 Dinner. "The Prioresse's exact behaviour at table, is copied from Roм. Rose, 14178.— To speak French is mentioned above, among her accomplishments. There is a letter in old French from queen Philppa, and her daughter Isabell, to the Priour of Saint Swithin's at Winchester, to admit one Agnes Patshull into an eleemosynary sisterhood belonging to his convent. The Priour is requested to grant her, 'Une Lyvere en votre Maison dieu de Wyn'cestere et estre un des soers,' for her life. Written at Windesor, Apr. 25. The year must have been about 1350. REGISTR. Priorat. MSS. supr. citat. Quartern. xix. fol. 4. do not se much cite this instance to prove that the Priour must be supposed to understand French, as to shew that it was now the court language, and even on a matter of business. There was at least a great propriety, that the queen and princess should write in this language, although to an ecclesiastic of dignity. In the same Register, there is a letter in old French from the queen Dowager Isabell to the Priour and Convent of Winchester; to shew, that it was at her request, that king Edward III. her son had granted a church in Winchester diocese, to the monastry of Leedes in Yorkshire, for their better support, 'a trouver sis chagnoignes chantans 'tous les jours en la chapele du Chastel de Ledes, pour laime madame Alianore reyne d'Angleterre, &c.' A.D. 1341. Quatern vi. The Prioresse's greatest oath is by Saint Ely. I will here most remarkable oaths in the Canterbury Tales. The Host, Urr. p. 7. 783. Sir Thopas, by ale and breade. p. 146. 3377. throw together some of the swears by my father's soule. Arcite by my pan, i.e. head. |