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THE PROLOGE OF THE MYLLER.

WHAN

HAN that the Knight had thus his tale i-told
In al the route nas ther yong ne old,

That he ne seyde it was a noble story,

And worthi to be drawen to memory;
And namely the gentils everichoon.

Our Host tho lowh and swoor, 'So moot I goon,
This goth right wel; unbokeled is the male ;'
Let se now who schal telle another tale :
For trewely this game is wel bygonne.
Now telleth ye, sir Monk, if that ye konne
Som what, to quyte with the knightes tale.'
The Myller that for drunken was al pale,'
So that unnethe upon his hors he sat,
He wold avale nowther hood ne hat,
Ne abyde no man for his curtesye,
But in Pilates' voys he gan to crye,

1 Apparently a proverbial expression derived from the market, and meaning, literally, that the male, or bale of goods, is opened and the ware exposed for the customers' inspection; metaphorically, that the business is well begun.

All pale for drunkenness. It does not seem here the German particle vertrunken, but a preposition meaning à force de, for very drunkenness. There are several examples: see two, 'for old' and 'for blak,' ante, p. 158. Others occur elsewhere.

3 In the gruff, hoarse voice assumed by the actors who played the character of Pilate in the popular mysteries of the Passion. The 'mysteries' or 'miracles,' founded on Scripture, or the Lives of the Christian Martyrs, were often performed by ecclesiastics in churches, for the purpose of instructing the unlearned people in the substance of Scripture history, or exciting them to zeal by the force of example. So early as the time of William I., Matt. Paris relates that Geoffrey, a learned Norman, composed a play on the martyrdom of St. Catherine. Mr. Price, the learned editor of Warton, says, that the earliest miracle play extant in English is Our Saviour's Descent into Hell, in MS. of the time of Edward II. There is this curious passage in Lambarde's Topographical Dictionary, written about the year 1570. ‘In the dayes of ceremonial religion, they used at Wytney (in Oxfordshire) to set fourthe yearly, in manner of a shew or interlude, the Resurrection of our Lord, &c. The like to which I myselfe, being then a childe, once sawe in Poule's Churche in London, at a feast of Whitsuntide; wheare the comynge down of the Holy Gost was set forthe by a white pigeon, that was let to fly out of a hole that yet is to be sene in the mydst of the roofe of the greate ile,' &c. See also the serie

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And swor by armes and by blood and bones,
'I can a noble tale for the noones,

With which I wol now quyte the knightes tale.'
Oure Hoost saw wel how dronke he was of ale,
And seyde, 'Robyn, abyde, my leve brother,
Som bettre man schal telle first another;
Abyd, and let us worken thriftyly.'

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'By Goddes soule!' quod he, that wol nat 1,
For I wol speke, or elles go my way.'

Oure Host answerd, 'Tel on, a devel way!
Thou art a fool; thy witt is overcome.'

'Now herkneth,' quod this Myller, ‘al and some

But first I make a protestacioun,

That I am dronke, I knowe wel by my soun;
And therfore if that I mys-speke or seye,
Wyte it the ale of Southwerk, I you preye;
For I wol telle a legende and a lyf

Bothe of a carpenter and of his wyf,

How that the clerk hath set the wrightes cappe.'
The Reve answered and seyde, 'Stynt thi clappe.
Let be thy lewed drunken harlottrye.

It is a synne, and eek a greet folye
To apeyren eny man, or him defame,
And eek to brynge wyves in ylle name.
Thou mayst ynowgh of other thinges seyn.'
This dronken Miller spak ful sone ageyn,
And seyde, 'Leeve brother Osewold,
Who hath no wyf, he is no cokewold.

It

of plays exhibited at Chester, in 1327, at the expense of the different trading companies, of which an edition was edited by Mr. Wright for the Shakspeare Society; also The Towneley and Coventry Mysteries. appears from Strype's Grindal, p. 82, that this practice of acting plays in churches lingered even after the Reformation, except that profane stories had taken the place of religious. The celebrated ceremonies of the Holy Week in the Sistine Chapel, to which the English abroad always flock in such numbers, are something of the same character. The events of the Passion are read from one of the Evangelists in a simple but very touching chaunt, by different divisions of the choir, one division taking the words of our Lord, another of the Scribes and Pharisees, another of the people, and a fourth reading the narrative.

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But I seye not therfore that thou art oon,
Ther been ful goode wyves many oon.

And ever a thousand goode agayns oon badde;
That knowest thou wel thyself, but if thou madde.1
Why art thou angry with my tale now?

I have a wyf, pardé! as well as thow,
Yet nolde I, for the oxen in my plough,
Take upon me more than ynough;

Though that thou deme thiself that thou be oon,"
I wol bileeve wel that I am noon.
An housbond schal not be inquisityf
Of Goddes pryveté, ne of his wyf.

So that he may fynde Goddes foysoun there,
Of the remenaunt needeth nought enquere.'
What schuld I seye, but that this proud Myllere
He nolde his wordes for no man forbere,
But tolde his cherlisch tale in his manere.
Me athinketh, that I schal reherce it heere;
And therfor every gentil wight I preye,
For Goddes love, as deme nat that I seye,
Of yvel entent, but for I moot reherse
Here wordes alle, al be they better or were,
Or elles falsen som of my mateere.'
And therfor who so list it nat to heere,
Turne over the leef, and cheese another tale;
For he schal fynde ynowe bothe gret and smale,
Of storial thing that toucheth gentilesse,

And eek moralité, and holynesse.*

Blameth nat me, if that

ye

cheese amys.

The Miller is a cherl, ye know wel this;

1 Madde is here a verb, meaning to be going mad. Tyrwhitt in his text omits these two lines, but gives them in his notes in a less correct form. The Miller probably meant this compliment ironically.

There is much humour in the Miller's taking it for granted that the reason Oswald objects to his tale, even before he has heard it, is because he thinks it must needs apply to his own case.

3 See ante, p. 107, note 2.

It may be mentioned, as a specimen of the errors with which even the best MSS. abound, that in the Harleian MS. this line is written

'And eek more ryalté and holinesse."

So was the Reeve, and othir many mo,
And harlotry they tolden bothe two.
Avyseth you, and put me out of blame;
And men schulde nat make ernest of game.

THE MILLERES TALE.

[THE origin of this story has not been ascertained. Mr. Wright thinks that it is probably founded upon a fabliau, current in Chaucer's time, but now either lost or buried among the MSS. of some public library; an opinion to which Tyrwhitt also inclines. For the licentiousness of this and some of the other tales, no valid excuse can be offered. The necessities of the plan, and the manners of the age, are sometimes urged in extenuation, and the plea may be allowed to some extent in mitigation of judgment; but even Chaucer himself felt that an apology was due, and has attempted one, X which, as has been shown before, is, in fact, no apology at all. In his treatment of the subject, the poet has introduced the various incidents and characters with great comic power and art. No circumstance is omitted which could add grotesqueness to the general effect. The contrast between Nicholas's outward manners and real pursuits; the incongruity between the hymn he chooses to sing and the plan he is concocting; his oracular mode of declaring his vision; the carpenter's excessive distress at the prospect of losing his Alison, who is all the time plotting against his honour: his complacency in the superiority of his own common sense over the clerk's book-learning; Absolon's devices to make himself agreeable; his preparations for the hoped-for accolade, and his sudden disgust for his former objects of pursuit, are all thrown in with the hand of a master in this kind of broad humour. The antiquarian and historical aspects of this tale are not without interest as illustrating the manners of the times. 'In the description of the young wife of our philosopher's host,' says Warton, there is great elegance, with a mixture of burlesque allusions; not to mention the curiosity of a

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female portrait drawn with so much exactness at such a distance of time.' Here, too, the poet exhibits that growing feeling of hostility to the clergy which prompted the writers of the latter part of the middle ages to rejoice in placing them and the service of the Church in a ludicrous point of view; for Absolon, being a parish clerk, was of course, in accordance with the custom of the primitive and mediæval churches, in minor orders.]

HILOM ther was dwellyng at Oxenford

A riche gnof,' that gestes heeld to boorde,
And of his craft he was a carpenter.
With him ther was dwellyng a pore scoler,
Had lerned art, but al his fantasye
Was torned for to lerne astrologye,
And cowde a certeyn of conclusiouns
To deme by interrogaciouns,

If that men axed him in certeyn houres,

Whan that men schuld han drought or elly's schoures,
Or if men axed him what schulde bifalle

Of everything, I may nought reken hem alle.
This clerk was cleped heende Nicholas;
Of derne love he cowde and of solas;
And therwith he was sleigh and ful privé,
And lik a mayden meke for to se.
A chambir had he in that hostillerye
Alone, withouten eny compaignye,
Ful fetisly i-dight with herbes soote,
And he himself as swete as is the roote
Of lokorys, or eny cetewale.

His almagest', and bookes gret and smale,

1 An example of the way in which the final n of the indefnite article is made the agent of changes in words; thus, a gnof becomes an oaf; a nedder, an adder; a nowch, an ouch; an eft, a newt; &c.

It appears from this passage that the re-established system of permitting students at the University to live in private lodgings was the ancient practice. The abuses to which it led, as exemplified in the tale, were probably the cause of its discontinuance.

The Harl. MS. reads in his hostillerye. It may be observed, that it was usual in the University for two or more students to have one room.-W.

The Arabs, from whom the Western nations derived a great part

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