And thus the joly prentys had his leve.
Now let hym ryot al the night or leve.
And for ther is no thef withowten a lowke,
"That helpeth him to wasten and to sowke
Of that he bribe can, or borwe may,
Anon he sent his bedde and his aray
Unto a compere of his owen sort,
That loved dis, and revel, and disport,

And had a wyf, that held for contenaunce

A schoppe, and swyved for hire sustenaunce."

Fye theron, it is so foule, I wil nowe telle no forther, For schame of the harlotrie that seweth after;

A velany it were thare of more to spelle,

Bot of a knyht and his sonnes my tale I wil forthe telle

THE COKES TALE OF GAMELYN.

[IN the Harleian and other good MSS., the tale of Gamelyn is inserted in this place; and it is retained in this edition as a curious specimen of aspecies of composition long popular among the Anglo-Saxon peasantry. In such rude ballads as this, it was their delight to celebrate the prowess of their outlawed countrymen, who, in the fastnesses of the extensive forests which then covered the northern parts of the island, set at nought the authority of their Norman conquerors, bid defiance to the odious forest laws, and wreaked their vengeance upon the Norman prelates who had been intruded into the sees and abbeys in the place of the rightful Saxon occupants. To this

1 The last seven lines are omitted in MS. Harl., but they are evidently genuine.-W.

2 As a blind to save appearances.

3 Here The Cokes Tale ends abruptly. It seems probable, as Tyrwhitt supposes, that Chaucer's more mature judgment convinced him that two such tales as the Miller's and the Reeve's were sufficient at a time; and that he intended to cancel the Coke's prologue and tale, and to proceed at once to The Man of Lawes Prologue

national feeling is to be attributed the extraordinary popu larity of Robin Hood, Adum Bell, Clym of the Clough, and other bold outlaws of the same stamp, among whom must be classed Gamelyn. Indeed, he is associated, under the name of 'young Gamwel,' with the heroic Earl of Huntingdon, in the ballad of Robin Hood and the Stranger, in Ritson's collection. In all these poems the grand merit of the hero is his daring contempt of the law, a trait by no means characteristic of the Saxons, but the result of their peculiar position as a brave and powerful, though conquered, people, governed by a foreign aristocracy.

The verse of this tale is that of the other spurious pieces which have been interpolated to supply deficiencies in The Canterbury Tales, and is never used by Chaucer. It is extremely irregular, but the rhythm or cadence resembles that of the verse much used by Surrey, and is obtained by employing an equal number of accented syllables in every line, while the unaccented ones are added or omitted, almost ad libitum; and by making an unvarying pause or casura at the middle of every verse.

Though possessed of great merit, and displaying much of the quaint humour so congenial to the English mind, this tale has none of the characteristics of Chaucer's manner; and the fact that when the host of the Tabard, in the prologue to The Manciple's Tale, calls upon the cook to perform his part of the agreement, he makes no reference to his having already told a tale, is decisive against its genuineness. If a conjecture may be hazarded, it seems not improbable that the poet had selected it to form the groundwork of a tale which he intended to put into the mouth of the yeoman or some other of his lower personages; and that, being found among his loose papers after his death, it was here introduced to fill a vacant space, by the person who arranged the tales in their present order. If this be so, it is a curious fact that Chau-r cer's great successor should have confirmed his judgment of its capabilities by selecting it as the foundation of the comedy of As you Like it.]

LITHETH, and lestneth, and herkneth aright,
And ye schul heere a talkyng of a doughty knight;
Sire Johan of Boundys was his right name,

He cowde of norture ynough and mochil of game,
Thre sones the knight had, that with his body he wan;
The eldest was a moche schrewe, and sone he bygan.'
His bretheren loved wel here fader, and of him were
[the last.
The eldest deserved his fadres curs, and had it at
The goode knight his fader lyvede so yore,

agast,

That deth was comen him to, and handled him ful sore.
The goode knight cared sore, sik ther he lay,
How his children scholde lyven after his day.
He hadde ben wyde wher, but non housbond he was,
Al the lond that he had, it was verre purchas.
Fayn he wold it were dressed amonges hem alle,
That ech of hem had his part, as it mighte falle.
Tho sent he into cuntre after wise knightes,

To helpe delen his londes and dressen hem to rightes.
He sent hem word by lettres they schulden hye blyve,
Yf they wolde speke with him whil he was on lyve.
Tho the knyghtes herden sik ther he lay,
Hadde they no reste nother night ne day,
Til they comen to him ther he lay stille
On his deth bedde, to abyde Goddes wille.
Than seyde the goode knight, syk ther he lay,
'Lordes, I you warne for soth, withoute nay,
I may no lengere lyven heer in this stounde;
For thurgh Goddes wille deth draweth me to grounde.'
Ther nas non of hem alle that herd him aright,
That they hadden reuthe of that ilke knight,

1 Soon he began to show it.

2 This appears to mean, that the knight had himself acquired his land, and held it in fee simple (verre purchas), not entailed nor settled; and that, consequently, he had a right to divide it among his children as he pleased. The housbond in this case means a man who was kept at home looking after his domestic business and his estates, and who could not be wyde wher.'

Aud seyde, Sir, for Goddes love, ne dismay you nought;

God may do bote of bale' that is now i-wrought.'
Than spak the goode knight, sik ther he lay,
'Boote of bale God may sende, I wot it is no nay;
But I byseke you, knightes, for the love of me,
Goth and dresseth my lond among my sones thre.
And, sires, for the love of God, deleth hem nat amys,
And forgetith nat Gamelyn, my yonge sone that is.
Taketh heed to that on, as wel as to that other;
Selde ye see ony eyr helpen his brother.'

Tho leete they the knight lyen that was nought in hele,

And wenten in to counseil his londes for to dele;
For to delen hem alle to oon, that was her thought,
And for Gamelyn was yongest, he should have nought.
Al the lond that ther was they dalten it in two,
And leeten Gamelyn the yonge withoute lond go,
And ech of hem seyde to other ful lowde, [cowde.
His bretheren might geve him lond whan he good
Whan they hadde deled the lond at here wille,
They come agein to the knight ther he lay fulstille,
And tolden him anon right how they hadden wrought;
And the knight there he lay liked it right nought.
Than seyde the knight, I sware by seynt Martyn,"
For al that ye have y-doon yit is the lond myn;

1 God may bring good out of evil. This is a very usual expression in the ballads of the school of Robin Hood. Thus, in Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, when Little John's bow breaks, as he is about to shoot at the Sheriff of Nottingham, he exclaims:

• Woe worth, woe worth thee, wicked wood,

That ever thou grew on a tree!
For now this day thou art my bale,
My boote when thou shold be.'

• When he should be of age to know what was right.

3 Saint Martin was a Hungarian by birth, and served in the army under Constantius and Julian. He is represented in pictures as a Roman knight on horseback, with his sword dividing his cloak into two pieces, one of which he gives to a beggar. He was a strenuous opponent of the Arians, and died at Tours, where his relics were preerved and honoured.

VOL. L

R

For Goddes love, neyhebours, stondeth alle stille,
And I wil dele my lond after my wille.

Johan, myn eldeste sone, shall have plowes' fyve,
That was my fadres heritage whil he was on lyve;
And my myddeleste sone fyf plowes of lond,
That I halp for to gete with my right hond;
And al myn other purchas of londes and leedes
That I byquethe Gamelyn, and alle my goode steedes.
And I byseke yow, goode men, that lawe conne of
londe,

For Gamely nes love, that my queste stonde.'
Thus dalte the knight his lond by his day,
Right on his deth bed sik ther he lay;

And sone aftirward he lay stoon stille,

And deyde whan tyme com, as it was Cristes wille.
And anon as he was deed, and under gras i-grave,
Sone the elder brother gyled the yonge knave,
He took into his hond his lond and his leede,
And Gamelyn himselfe to clothen and to feede.
He clothed him and fed him yvel and eek wrothe,
And leet his londes for-fare and his houses bothe,
His parkes and his woodes, and dede nothing wel,
And seththen he it abought on his faire fel."
So longe was Gamelyn in his brotheres halle,
For the strengest of good wil they doutiden him alle;
Ther was non therinne nowther yong ne olde
That wolde wraththe Gamelyn, were he never so bolde.
Gamelyn stood on a day in his brotheres yerde,
And bygan with his hond to handlen his berde ;*
He thought on his londes that layen unsawe,
And his faire okes that doun were i-drawe;
His parkes were i-broken, and his deer byreeved;
Of alle his goode steedes noon was him byleved;

Meaning a plou-land, a common mode of measurement down to the reigns of Elizabeth and James the First.

2 German, knabe, boy.

3 He paid or suffered for it on his own head.

4 His growing beard reminded him that he was come to man's estate, and suggested the thoughts which follow.