Long was the sobbyng and the bitter peyi.,
Or that here woful herte mighte cesse;
Gret was the pite for to here hem pleyne,
Thurgh whiche playntz gan here wo encresse.
I pray you alle my labour to relesse,
I may not telle al here woo unto morwe,
I am so wery for to speke of the sorwe.

But fynally, whan that the soth is wist,
That Alla gilteles was of hir woo,
I trowe an hundred tymes they ben kist,
And such a blys is ther bitwix hem tuo,
That, save the joye that lasteth everemo,
Ther is noon lyk, that eny creature
Hath seyn or schal, whil that the world

may

Tho prayde sche hir housbond meekely
In the relees of hir pytous pyne,
That he wold preye hir fader specially,
That of his majeste he wold enclyne
To vouchesauf som tyme with him to dyne.
Sche preyeth him eek, he schulde by no weye
Unto hir fader no word of hir seye.

Som men wold seye,' that hir child Maurice
Doth his message unto the emperour;
But, as I gesse, Alla was nat so nyce,
To him that is so soverayn of honour,
As he that is of Cristes folk the flour,
Sent
eny child; but it is best to deeme
He went himsilf, and so it may wel seme.
This emperour hath graunted gentilly
To come to dyner, as he him bysought;
And wel rede I, he loked besily

Upon the child, and on his doughter thought.
Alla goth to his in, and as him ought
Arrayed for this fest in every wyse,

As ferforth as his connyng may suffise.

dure.

1 Tyrwhitt supposes that this refers to Gower's version of the story; but it alludes, more probably, to some romance which was the common original of both.

2 Nyce is here used in the sens of niais, foolieb

The morwe cam, and Alla gan him dresse,
And eek his wyf, the emperour for to meete;
And forth they ryde in joye and in gladnesse,
And whan sche saugh hir fader in the streete,
Sche light adoun and falleth him to feete.
'Fader,' quod sche, 'your yonge child Constance
Is now ful clene out of your remembraunce.

'I am your doughter Custaunce,' quod sche,
'That whilom ye have sent unto Surrye;
It am I, fader, that in the salte see
Was put alloon, and dampned for to dye.
Now, goode fader, mercy I you crye,
Send me no more unto noon hethenesse,
But thanke my lord her of his kyndenesse.'
Who can the pytous joye telle al
Bitwix hem thre, sith they be thus i-mette?
But of my tale make an ende I schal;
The day goth fast, I wòl no lenger lette.
This glade folk to dyner they ben sette;
In joye and blys at mete I let hem dwelle,
A thousand fold wel more than I can telle.

This child Maurice was siththen emperour
I-maad by the pope, and lyved cristenly,
To Cristes chirche dede he gret honour.
But I let al his story passen by,
Of Custaunce is my tale specially;
In olde Romayn gestes men may fynd
Maurices lyf, I here it nought in mynde.

This kyng Alla whan he his tyme say,
With his Constaunce, his holy wyf so swete.
To Engelond they com the righte way.
Wher as they lyve in joye and in quyete.
But litel whil it last, I you biheete,
Joy of this world for tyme wol not abyde,
Fro day to night it chaungeth as the tyde.'

1 In margin of MS. C. i., 'A mane usque ad vesperam mutabitur tempus; tenent tympanum et gaudent ad sonum organi,' &c.

Who lyved ever in such delyt a day,'
'That Lim ne meved eyther his conscience,
Or ire, or talent, or som maner affray,
Envy, or pride, or passioun, or offence?
I ne say but for this ende this sentence,
That litel whil in joye or in plesaunce
Lasteth the blis of Alla with Custaunce.

For deth, that takth of heigh and low his rent, Whan passed was a yeere, as I gesse, Out of this worlde kyng Alla he hent, For whom Custauns hath ful gret hevynesse. Now let us pray that God his soule blesse! And dame Custaunce, fynally to say, Toward the toun of Rome goth hir way.

To Rome is come this nobil creature,
And fynt hir freendes ther bothe hool and sound;
Now is sche skaped al hir aventure.

And whanne sche her fader had i-founde,
Doun on hir knees falleth sche to grounde,
Wepyng for tendirnes in herte blithe

Sche heried God an hundred thousand sithe.
In vertu and in holy almes-dede

They lyven alle, and never asondre wende;

Til deth departe hem, this lyf they lede.
And far now wel, my tale is at an ende.
Now Jhesu Crist, that of his might may sende
Joy after wo, governe us in his grace,

And keep ous alle that ben in this place."

1 In margin of MS. C. i., Quis unquam unam diem totam in sua dilectione duxit jocundam? Quem in aliquâ parte diei reatus conscientiæ, vel impetus iræ, vel motus concupiscentiæ non turbavit,' &c. 2 In some of the MSS. The Marchaundes Tale follows that of The Man of Lawe. The Harl. MS. erroneously places the Prologe to the Ship. man's Tale before The Wut of Bathes Prologe; to which latter there are the following four introductory lines in the Lansd. MS.:

THE PROLOGE OF THE WYF OF BATHE.'

E

XPERIENS, though noon auctorite

Were in this world, it were ynough for me
To speke of wo that is in mariage;

For, lordyngs, syns I twelf yer was of age,
I thank it God that is eterne on lyve,
Housbondes atte chirch dore I have had fyve,'
For I so ofte might have weddid be,

And alle were worthy men in here degre.
But me was taught, nought longe tyme goon is,
That synnes Crist went never but onys
To weddyng, in the Cane of Galile,

That by the same ensampul taught he me
That I ne weddid schulde be but ones.

Lo, herken such a scharp word for the nones!
Biside a welle Jhesus, God and man,
Spak in reproof of the Samaritan:

Thou hast y-had fyve housbondes,' quod he;
'And that ilk-man, which that now hath the,
Is nought thin housbond; thus he sayd certayn;
What that he ment therby, I can not sayn.
But that I axe, why the fyfte man
Was nought housbond to the Samaritan?
How many might sche have in mariage?
Yit herd I never tellen in myn age

1 It appears that the W of Bathe's Prologe was a kind of compo sition often recited by the minstrels or contours. Erasmus, in his Ecclesiastes, speaking of such preachers as imitated the tone of beggare or mountebanks, says, Apud Anglos,' &c. 'Among the English is a kind of men like those called in Italy circulatores, who intrude themselves into the feasts of persons of rank, or into wine-shops, and recite some discourse which they have learned by heart, such as that death is supreme over all, or a praise of matrimony.' But though Chaucer has adopted a subject and mode of composition which were probably already popular, his treatment of it, for wit and humour, ease and knowledge of human nature, is to be equalled, only by the delineations of Shakespeare

See ante, p. 97, note L

Uppon this noumbre diffinicioun.

Men may divine and glosen up and doun;
But wel I wot, withouten eny lye,
God bad us for to wax and multiplie;
That gentil tixt can I wel understonde.
Ek wel I wot, he sayd, myn housebonde
Schuld lete fader and moder, and folwe nie;
But of no noumber mencioun made he,
Of bygamye or of octogamye;'

Why schuld men speken of that vilonye?
Lo hier the wise kyng daun Salonion,
I trow he hadde wifes mo than oon,
As wold God it were leful unto me
To be refreisshed half so oft as he!
Which gift of God had he for alle his wyyys!
No man hath such, that in the world on lyve is
God wot, this nobil king, as to my wit,
The firste night had many a mery fit
With ech of hem, so wel was him on lyve.
I-blessid be God that I have weddid fyve!
Welcome the sixte whan that ever he schal!
For sothe I nyl not kepe me chast in al;
Whan myn housbond is fro the world i-gon,
Som cristne man schal wedde me anoon,
For than thapostil' saith that I am fre
To wedde, a goddis haf, wher so it be.
He saith, that to be weddid is no synne;
Bet is to be weddid than to brynne.'

1 Bigamy, according to the canonists, consisted (not only in marrying two wives at a time, but) in marrying two spinsters successively. or a widow at all, and was supposed to argue passions so unrestrained as to incapacitate the bigamist for ever from receiving holy orders, in accordance with 1 Tim. iii. 2, as they understood it.

2 The second Camb. MS. collated by Mr. Wright, several MSS, quoted by Tyrwhitt, and the printed editions, after this verse, read :-Of whiche I have pyked out the beste,

Bothe of here nether purs and of here cheste.'

3 Rom. vii. 3.

41 Cor. vii. 9.