Whan that oure Host had herd this sermonyng, He gan to speke as lordly as a kyng, And seyde, What amounteth al this wit? 'Now, sires,' quod this Osewold the Reeve, 'I pray yow alle, that noon of you him greeve, Though I answere, and somwhat sette his how ve,* For leeful is with force force to showve. This dronken Myllere hath i-tolde us heer, How that bygiled was a carpenter, of the barrel. The imagery is very exact and beautiful.-T. This word is still used in Norfolk and Suffolk. 1 Probably an allusion to Phædrus, lib. i. fab. 14. Whence the proverb, ex sutore medicus. Ex sutore nauclerus is alluded to by Pynson, the printer, at the end of his edition of LITTLETON's Tenures, 1525. 2 The ecclesiastical day, which was also the civil in those ages when the Church was the fountain of knowledge and authority, was divided into portions, for each of which an office, consisting of psalms, metrical hymns, and prayers, was appointed to be said or sung. The first was matins, beginning at midnight; the next prime, at six in the morning; the next tierce, at nine; the next sext, at twelve; and the next none, at three; the next was vespers, or evensong, at six; and the last, before retiring to rest, was compline, or completorium. It would appear, however, from the fact that noon means twelve o'clock and not three, that time was usually counted by reckoning so much before each of these hours; as in the Roman Calendar, the days of the month are counted before the calends, ides, and nones, and are called pridie calendas, secunda calendas, meaning ante calendas. Thus, as soon as six o'clock, prime, was past, the time would be counted as so much before tierce; as soon as mid-day was past, it would be called none or noon. This is confirmed by the fact that in the Shepherd's Almanac noon is mid-day, high noon, three o'clock. For passed prime Tyrwhitt reads half-way prime, which is probably right; but he supposes it to mean half-way between prime and tierce, scil., half-past seven, whereas it means that the middle of the period between matins and prime had arrived; for, the squyer, long afterwards, says:-'I wol not tarien you, for it is-prime.' (This, however, probably applies to another day. See Scheme, vol. il DP. 351-354-] 3 Greenwich was apparently the Billingsgate of that time. • Set his hood, meaning the same as set his cap. See ante, p. 101. Peraventure in scorn, for I am oon; And by your leve, I schal him quyte anoon. But in his owne he can nought seen a balke." THE REEVES TALE. [FOB the subject of this tale Tyrwhitt supposes that Chaucer was indebted to a fabliau printed in Barbazan under the title of De Gombert et des Deux Clercs; but Mr. Wright has since discovered and pointed out to notice in his Anecdota Literaria another fabliau on the same subject, which is more likely to have been the original. The fable was a favourite in the middle ages, and forms the basis of the sixth novel of the ninth day in Boccaccio's Decameron; but Chaucer's version is much superior to Boccaccio's, which is more licentious, and at the same time so bald, as to appear like the mere argument or heading of a chapter. The Reeve, who is represented as a choleric man,' certainly takes ample vengeance for the Miller's reflections on his trade. The poetical justice of the catastrophe is well preserved; Deynous Symekyn is punished in every particular in which he exhibited an overweening pride. He was a bully, and he is well beaten. He boasted of stealing the corn belonging to the college, and even the toll to which he is entitled is taken from him. He was elated by the high extraction of his wife and daughter, and in both points he is humbled; while his cunning expe dient to overreach the two clerks, upon which he dwells with so much complacency, is the proximate cause of all his misfortunes. The sharpness of the clerks is characteristic of their country, the West Riding of canny Yorkshire.' It might at first be supposed that the fact of the miller's wife's being repre An allusion to Matt. vii. 3. sented as the daughter of a priest is an example, among many, of the hostility with which Chaucer regarded the clergy; but it seems more reasonable to suppose that he intended it to be understood that the priest was a widower, and that Simkin's wife was the issue of a marriage contracted before he took orders; otherwise the circumstances of her birth could hardly have been a subject of pride to her husband.] AT T Trompyngtoun, nat fer fro Cantebrigge, And of a swerd ful trenchaunt was the blade. Ther was no man for perel durst him touche. A theef he was for soth of corn and mele, 1 The Miller's skill in fishing and mending nets is characteristic both of his trade and place of residence. lete is still used in East Anglia for repair. 'Cups were of course made of wood with a lathe. To scheete (German, schiessen) means, of course, to shoot with the long-bow, the redoubted weapon of the English yeoman. 2 Disdainful Simon, of which Simkin is the diminutive. Tyrwhitt observes, that in the middle ages, and even to a comparatively late period, the lower orders had no surnames, the want of which was supplied by a name derived from some personal peculiarity. Hence the expression nullius filius, a man with no patronymic. The operatives The persoun' of the toun hir fader was For Symkyn wolde no wyf, as he sayde And sche was proud and pert as is a pye. and agricultural labourers in France are to this day known only by their baptismal names. When, after the late Revolution, the people elected one of their own number to sit in the National Assembly, having no surname, he was called simply Albert Ouvrier. It was usual to distinguish persons who had risen from a low origin, and consequently had no patronymic, by the place of their birth, as Matthew Paris, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas à Kempis. So, in the Monkes Prologue, the Host' had no idea of asking the Monk his surname : • Whether shall I calle you my lord dan Johan, Or daun Thomas, or elles dan Albon.' It might at first be thought that this was a little bit of scandal about the clergy, but see introduction to this tale. 2 To secure his standing in society as a yeoman. 3 In the opening Prologue, the wives of the haberdasher and the other citizens are described as being proud of this title. It is still applied by the common people in Norfolk to untitled ladies. 4 Tyrwhitt says the whole passage is obscure. 'As deyne as water in a dich,' seems to allude to some fable in which ditchwater showed unwarrantable pride, perhaps like the common one of the Pot and the Kettle. [The phrase 'deyne as dich-water' simply means disdainful (and As ful of hokir, and of bissemare. Hir thoughte ladyes oughten hir to spare,' yer age, This wenche thikke and wel i-growen was, Gret soken hath this meller, oute of doute, Men clepe it the Soler-halle' of Cantebregge, hence repellent) as ditch-water. It is a sort of joke; such water keeps folks at a distance, if very evil-smelling. See Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, ed. Skeat, 1. 375.-W. W. S.] 1 Ladies ought to treat her with consideration. Made it a matter of difficulty to obtain her in marriage. A satire on the clergy for enriching their families out of the ecclesiastical revenues. The hall with the soler. Before the students in the Universities were incorporated, they lived in lodging-houses, called inns, halls, and hostele, which were often distinguished by names taken from some peculiarity in their construction. One at Cambridge was called Tyled Ostle. And, at Oxford, Oriel College probably derives its name from large messuage, vulgarly known by the name of Le Oriele, upon the sitə of which it stands. An oriel or oriol was a porch, as a soler seems originally to have signified an open gallery at the top of the house, though latterly it has been used for any upper room. FROISSART, vol. 1, |