c.

It is an impoffible, it may not be :
Ey, nice cherl! God let him never the.
The rombling of a fart, and every foun,
N'is but of aire reverberatioun,
And ever it waiteth lite and lite away;
Ther n'is no man can demen, by my fay,
If that it were departed equally.

7815

What? lo my cherl, lo yet how fhrewedly

7820

Unto my confeffour to-day he fpake!

I hold him certain a demoniake.

Now ete your mete, and let the cherl go play;
Let him go honge himself a devil way.

Now stood the lordes fquier atte bord

7825

That carf his mete, and herde word by word

Of all this thing of which I have you fayd.

My Lord, quod he, be ye not evil apaid;

I coude telle for a goune-cloth

To you, Sire Frere, so that ye be not wroth,

7830

How that this fart fhuld even ydeled be

Amonge your covent, if it liked thee.

Tell, quod the lord, and thou shalt have anon

A goune-cloth, by God and by Seint John.

My Lord, quod he, whan that the weder is faire,

Withouten winde or pertourbing of aire,

Let bring a cart-whele here into this hall,
But loke that it have his fpokes all;

Twelf spokes hath a cart-whele communly;

7836

And bring me than twelf freres, wete ye why? 7840

Volume 111.

I

Than fhal this cherl, with bely ftif and tought

As any tabour, hider ben ybrought;

7850

And fet him on the whele right of this cart

Upon the nave, and make him let a fart,

And ye fhull feen, up peril of my lif,
By veray preef that is demonftratif,
That equally the foun of it wol wende,

And ekc the stinke, unto the spokes ende,

7855

Save that this worthy man, your confeffour, (Because he is a man of gret honour)

Shal han the firfte fruit, as refon is.

The noble ufage of freres yet it is

7860

The worthy men of hem shul first be served,

And certainly he hath it wel deserved;

He hath to-day taught us fo mochel good,

With preching in the pulpit ther he stood,

7865

That I may youchefauf, I fay for me,
He hadde the firfte fmel of fartes three,
And fo wold all his brethren hardely,
He bereth him fo faire and holyly.

The lord, the lady, and eche man, fave the frere,

Sayden that Jankin spake in this matere

As wel as Euclide or elles Ptholomee.

7870

Touching the cherl they fayden, Subtiltee
And highe wit made him speken as he spake;
He n'is no fool ne no demoniake.

And Jankin hath ywonne a newe goune.
My Tale is don, we ben almost at toune.

THE CLERKES PROLOGUE.
SIRE Clerk of Oxenforde, our Hofte faid,
Ye ride as ftille and coy as doth a maid
Were newe spoused, fitting at the bord;
This day ne herd I of your tonge a word.

7876

7880

I trow ye ftudie abouten fom fophime;

But Salomon faith that every thing hath time.
For Goddes fake as beth of better chere,

It is no time for to ftudien here.

Tell us fom mery Tale by your fay;

7885

For what man that is entred in a play
He nedes most unto the play affent.
But precheth not, as freres don in Lent,
To make us for our olde finnes wepe,

Ne that thy Tale make us not to fiepe.

7890

.7879. Were nerve spoufcd] It has been obferved in n. upon ver. 812, that Chaucer frequently omits the governing prðnoun before his verbs: the inftances there cited were of perfonal pronouns. In this line, and fome others which I thail point out here, the relatives who or which are omitted in the fame manner. See ver. 7411, 13035, 16049.

Tell us fom mery thing of aventures;
Your termes, your coloures, and your figures,
Kepe hem in ftore til so be ye endite

Hie ftile, as whan that men to kinges write.
Speketh fo plain at this time, I you pray,
That we may understonden what ye fay.
This worthy Clerk benignely anfwerde;
Hofte, quod he, I am under your yerde,
Ye have of us as now the
governance,
And therfore wolde I do you obeyfance,
As fer as refon afketh hardely:

I wol you tell a Tale which that I
Lerned at Padowe of a worthy clerk,
As preved by his wordes and his werk:
He is now ded and nailed in his chefte,
I pray to God fo yeve his foule refte.

Fraunceis Petrark, the Laureat poete,

Highte this clerk, whos rethorike fwete

Enlumined all Itaille of poetric,

As Lynyan did of philofophie

7895

7900

7905

7910

V. 7910. Lynyan] Or Linian. The perfon meant was an eminent lawyer, and made a great noise (as we say) in his time. His name of late has been fo little known that I believe nobody has been angry with the editt. for calling him Livian. There is fome account of him in Panzirolus, de Cl. Leg. Interpret. 1. iii. C. XXV.; "Joannes a Lignano, agri Mediolanentis vico, oriun

dus, et ob id Lignanus dictus," &c. One of his works, entitled Tractatus de Bello, is extant in mf. Reg. 13, B. ix. He compiled it at Bologna in the year 1 360.-He was not however a mere lawyer; Chaucer fpeaks of him as excelling alfo in philofophie; and fo does his epitaph, ap. Panzirol. I. c.;