bable. The lay itself is either loft or buried (perhaps for ever) in one of those fepulchres of mff. which, by

The titles of the poems in this collection, to the number of twelve, are cited in the Harlein Catalogue; they are, in general, the names of the principal perfons in the feverai ftories, and are most of them evidently Armorican; and I think no one can read the ftories themfelves without being perfuaded that they were either really tranflated from the Armorican language, or at least composed by one who was well acquainted with that language and country.— -Though thefe poems of Marie have of late been fo little known as to have entirely escaped the researches of Fauchet and other French antiquaries, they were formerly in high estimation. Denis Piramus, a very tolerable verfifier of the Legend of St. Edmund the King [mf. Cotton, Dom. A. xi,] allows that Dame Marie (as he calls her) had great merit in the composition of her lays, though they are not all true

E fi en eft ele mult loee,

E la ryme par tut amee.

A translation of her lays (as it should seem) into one of the northern languages was among the books given by Gabriel de la Gardie to the univerfity of Upfal, under the title of Varie Britannorum Fabulæ. [See the defcript. of the book by Stephanius, in Cat. Lib. Septent. at the end of Hickes, Gr. A. S. ed. 1689, 4to, p. 180.] That Chaucer had read them I think extremely pro⚫ bable, not only from a paffage in his Dreme, [ver. 1820-1926,] which feems to have been copied from the lay of Elidus, but alfo from the manner in which he makes the Frankelein speak of the Bretons and their compofitions. [See the note on ver. 11021.] However, in Chaucer's time there were other British lays extant befide this collection by Marie. Einarè has been mentioned before, § 15. An old Enghth ballad of Sir Gowther [mj. Reg. 17 B. xliii,] is faid by the writer to have been taken out of one of the layes of Britanye: in another place he faysthe first lay of Britanye. The original of 'The Frankelein's Tale was probably a third. There were alfo lays which did not pretend to be British, as Le Lay d'Ariftote, Li Lais de l'Oifelet, [Fa

courtesy, are called Libraries; but there are two imi, tations of it extant by Boccace, the firft in the fifth bock of his Philocopo, and the fecond in The Decam. d. x. n. 5. They agree in every reípect with each other, except that the fcene and the names are different, and in the latter the narration is lefs prolix and the ftyle lefs flowery than in the former, which was a juvenile work (25.) The only material point in which Boc

bliaux.tom., Le Lai du Corn, by Robert Bikez, [mf. Bod. 1687,] is faid by him to have been invented by Garaduc, who accom plished the adventure in the ballad entitled The Boy and the Mantle, [Ane. Poet. v. iii. p. 1,] which I fufpect to have been made up out of this lay, and Le Court Mantel, the fuccesful knight, is called Cradock. Robert Bikez fays further, that the horn was ftill to be feen at Cirencester;

Q'fuft a Cirincetre

A une haute fefte,

La pureit il veer

Icef corn tout par veir.

Ceo dift Robert Bikez

In none of thefe lays do we find the qualities attributed to that fort of compofition by M. de la Ravaliere. According to thefe examples we thould rather define the lay to be a fpecies of ferious narrative poetry, of a moderate length, in a fmple ftyle and light metre. Serious is here oppofed (not to pleasant, but) to ludicrous, in order to diftinguith the lay from the conte or fabliqu; as on the other hand its moderate length diftinguithes it from the gefte, or common Rowan. All the days that I have feen are in light metre, not exceeding cight fylJables. See before, Afsay, &c. n. 60.

(25) I faw once an edition of the Philocopo, printed at Venice, 1563, fol. with a letter at the end of it, in which the publither, Hieronymo Squarzaficho, fays (if I do not mifremember) "that this work was written by Boccace at twenty years "of age (about 1333,) while he was at Naples in the house of "John Barrile," [Johannes Barrillus is called by Boccace [Ge

cace feems to have departed from his original is this, inftead of the removal of the rockes the lady defires a garden full of the flowers and fruits of May in the month of January; and fome fuch alteration was certainly neceffary when the fcene came to be removed from Bretagne to Spain and Italy, as it is in Boccace's novels (26.) I should guess that Chaucer has preferved pretty faithfully the principal incidents of the British Tale, tho' he has probably thrown in fome fmaller circumítances to embellish his narration. The long lift of virtuous women in Dorigene's foliloquy is plainly copied from Hieronymus contra Jovinianum.

nea!. Deor. 1. xiv. c. 19,] magni fpiritus homo. He was fent by King Robert to attend Petrarch to his coronation at Rome, and is introduced by the latter in his fecond eclogue under the name of Idæus; "ab Idâ, monte Cretenfi, unde et ipfe oriundus fuit." Intentiones eclogarum Franc. Petrarchæ, mf. Bod. 558.] Not knowing at prefent where to find that edition, I am obliged to rely upon my memory only for this ftory, which I think highly probable, though it is not mentioned (as I reco!lect) by any of the other biographers of Boccace. A good life of Boccace is fill much wanted.--The adventures of Florio and Biancofiore (which make the principal fubject of the Philocopo) were famous long before Boccace, as he himself informs us, l. i. p. 6. edit. 1723. Floris and Blancaflor are mentioned as illuftrious lovers by Matfres Eymengau de Bezers, a Languedocian poet, in his Breviari d'amor, dated in the year 1288, mf. Reg. 19 C. i. fol. 199. It is probable however that the story was enlarged by Boccace, and particularly, I thould fuppofe that the Love-queflions in l. v, (the fourth of which queftions contains the novel referred to in the text) were added by him.

(26) The Conte Boiardo (the precurfor and model of Ariosto) in his Orlan. Inamorato, l. i. ca. 12, has inferted a tale upon the plan of Boccace's two novels, but with confiderable alterations, which have carried the ftory, I apprehend, ftill further from its British original.

$27. Thus far I flatter myself I have been not uns fuccessful in refloring the true order and connection with each other of The Clerke's, The Marchante's, The Squiere's, and The Frankeleine's Tales; but. with regard to the next step which I have taken b muft own myself more dubious. In all the editions the Tales of The Nonne and The Channone's Yeman precede The Doctoure's, but the best mfl. agree in remo¬ ving thofe Tales to the end of 'The Nonne's Preefte's, and I have not fcrupled to adopt this arrangement, which is, I think, indifputably cftablished by the following confideration; when the Monk is called upon for his Tale the pilgrims were near Rochester, [ver. 13932, but when the Chanon overtakes them they were advanced to Boughton-under-Blee, [ver. 16024,] twenty miles beyond Rochefter, fo that the 'Tale of The Chanone's Yeman, and that of 'The Nonne to which it is annexed, cannot with any propriety be admitted till after The Monke's Tale, and confequently not till after The Nonne's Preefte's, which is infeparably linked to that of The Monk.

$28. These two Tales therefore of The Nonne and The Chancne's Yeman being removed out of the way The Doctoure's comes clearly next to The Frankeleine's; but how they are to be connected toge, ther, and whether at all, is a matter of doubt. What I have printed by way of Prologue to The Doctoure's Tale I found in one of the beft mff. but only in one; in the others it has no Prologue. The first line applies fo naturally and fmartly to the Frankeleine's conclufion, that I am ftrongly inclined to believe it from the hand of Chaucer, but I cannot fay fo much for the five following; I would therefore only with these lines to be received for the prefent (according to the law-phrafe) de bene effe, till they fhall either be more

authentically established or fuperfeded by the difcovery of the genuine Prologue.

$ 29. In The Doctoure's Tale befide Livy (who is quoted) Chaucer may poffibly have followed Gower in fome particulars, who has alfo related the ftory of Virginia, Conf. Amant. b. vii, but he has not been a fervile copilt of either of them.

$30. The Pardonere's Tale has a Prologue which connects it with The Doctoure's. There is alto a pretty long preamble, which may either make part of the Prologue or of the Tale. The mil. differ in this point. I have chosen to throw it into the Tale, and to confine the Prologue to what I fuppofe to be its proper ufe, the introduction of the new fpeaker. When he is once in complete poffeffion of his office of entertaining the company his preface or digreffions fhould all, I think, be equally confidered as parts of his Tale.

The mere outline of The Pardonere's Tale is to be found in the Genio Novelle Antiche. Nov. lxxxii.

$31. The Tale of the Shipman in the best mil. has no Prologue: what has been printed as fuch in the common editions is evidently fpurious. To fupply this defect I have ventured, upon the authority of one mf. (and I confefs not one of the beft) to prefix to this Tale the Prologue which has ufually been prefixed to the Tale of the Squier. As this Prologue was undoubtedly compofed by Chaucer it must have had a place fomewhere in this edition, and if I cannot prove that it was really intended by him for this place, I think the reader will allow that it fills the vacancy extremely well. The Pardonere's Tale may very properly be called a thrifty tale, and he himself a lerned man, [ver. 12905-8,1 and all the latter part, though highly improper in the mouth of the curteis Squier, is perfectly fuited to the character of the Shipman.