The Canterbury Tales

intermixed; though this peculiarity of style, noticeable in any case only in the first 150 or 200 lines, has necessarily all but disappeared by the changes of spelling made in the modern editions. The Editor’s purpose being to present to the public not The Canterbury Tales merely, but “The Poems of Chaucer,” so far as may be consistent with the limits of this volume, he has condensed the long reasonings and learned quotations of Dame Prudence into a mere outline, connecting those portions of the Tale wherein lies so much of story as it actually possesses, and the general reader will probably not regret the sacrifice, made in the view of retaining so far as possible the completeness of the Tales, while lessening the intrusion of prose into a volume or poems. The good wife of Meliboeus literally overflows with quotations from David, Solomon, Jesus the Son of Sirach, the Apostles, Ovid, Cicero, Seneca, Cassiodorus, Cato, Petrus Alphonsus⁠—the converted Spanish Jew, of the twelfth century, who wrote the “Disciplina Clericalis”⁠—and other authorities; and in some passages, especially where husband and wife debate the merits or demerits of women, and where Prudence dilates on the evils of poverty, Chaucer only reproduces much that had been said already in the tales that preceded⁠—such as the “Merchant’s” and the “Man of Law’s.” ↩

Notwhithstanding. ↩

“Quis matrem, nisi mentis inops, in funere nati
Flere vetet? non hoc illa monenda loco.
Cum dederit lacrymas, animumque expleverit aegrum,
Ille dolor verbis emoderandus erit.”

Ovid, “Remedia Amoris,” 127⁠–⁠131.

↩

Cease. ↩

Be healed. ↩

Although. ↩

Moderate. ↩

Forbidden. ↩

Moderation should be kept or observed. ↩

Doctrine. ↩

Lost. ↩

Lost. ↩

Advantage, remedy. ↩

Do injury. ↩

Also. ↩

Opinion. ↩

Caused to be summoned. ↩

Employed, retained. ↩

To take sides in a quarrel. ↩

Healing. ↩

Made worse and aggravated the matter. ↩

Business. ↩

Opinion. ↩

Observation, looking out. ↩

Determine. ↩

Nevertheless. ↩

Subject for reproach. ↩

A sign, gesture. ↩

Easily. ↩

Die. ↩

Thought, intended. ↩

Troublesome. ↩

Besides, further. ↩

Agreed. ↩

Opinion, judgement. ↩

See the conversation between Pluto and Proserpine, ante, pp. 113 and 114. ↩

“Thy name,” she says, “is Meliboeus; that is to say, a man that drinketh honey.” ↩

Distress, trouble. ↩

Affair, emergency. ↩

Knowledge. ↩

The ill-natured or angry. ↩

Gentle, courteous. ↩

Penalty. ↩

Consideration. ↩

Forbiddeth. ↩

Nature. ↩

Prepare. ↩

Sureties. ↩

Incurred guilt. ↩

Courtesy, gentleness. ↩

Merciful. ↩

Wickedly. ↩

Incurred guilt. ↩

Sureties. ↩

Inquired. ↩

Easily. ↩

Honour. ↩

Further. ↩

Reputation; from the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon, hlisan, to celebrate. Compare Latin, laus. ↩

Moderation. ↩

If I assume. ↩

Decide. ↩

Endeavour, devise a way. ↩

Easily. ↩

Arguments, reasons. ↩

Ignorance. ↩

Misbehaved. ↩

Done injury. ↩

Merciful. ↩

The body of St. Maternus, of Treves. ↩

Rather. ↩

Dear. ↩

Bow. ↩

Bold enough to offend her. ↩

Leaps, springs. ↩

Avenge. ↩

Destined. ↩

Overborne, imposed upon. ↩

Unless. ↩

Betake myself. ↩

Make. ↩

Take to flight. ↩

That does or says anything to displease her. ↩

One doing penance. ↩

In my judgement; for doom. ↩

Sinews. ↩

A cock. ↩

An ecclesiastcal vestment covering all the body like a cloak. ↩

It. ↩

Crown; though he were shorn full high upon his pan: though he were tonsured, as the clergy are. ↩

Undone, ruined. ↩

Lay, unlettered. ↩

Puny, contemptible creatures. ↩

Shoots, branches; from Anglo-Saxon, impian, German, impfen, to implant, ingraft. The word is now used in a very restricted sense, to signify the progeny, children, of the devil. ↩

Base or counterfeit coins; so called because struck at Luxembourg. A great importation of them took place during the reigns of the earlier Edwards, and they caused much annoyance and complaint, till in 1351 it was declared treason to bring them into the country. ↩

Is in harmony with good manners. ↩

Means. ↩

According to the dates at which they lived. ↩

The “Monk’s Tale” is founded in its main features on Bocccacio’s work, De Casibus Virorum Illustrium; but Chaucer has taken the separate stories of