It is an impoffible, it may not be : 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; 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, 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, 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, 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 Jankin hath ywonne a newe goune. THE CLERKES PROLOGUE. 7876 7880 I trow ye ftudie abouten fom fophime; But Salomon faith that every thing hath time. 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 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; Hie ftile, as whan that men to kinges write. I wol you tell a Tale which that I 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.; |