Sauf of his brother, which that was a clerk:
He knew of all this wo and all this werk;
For to non other creature certain.
Of this matere he dorfte no word fain:
Under his brest he bare it more fecree
Than ever did Pamphilus for Galathee.
His breft was hole withouten for to seen,
But in his herte ay was the arwe-kene,
And wel ye knowe that of a furfanure
In furgerie is perilous the cure,

11420

11425

But men might touch the arwe or come therby.
His brother wepeth and waileth prively,

Til at the laft him fell in remembrance
That while he was at Orleaunce in France,
As yonge clerkes that ben likerous

To reden artes that ben curious

11430

. 11422. Pamphilus for Galathee] Mr. Urry, mifled by his elaffical learning, has altered this moft licentiously

Than Polyphemus did for Galathee.

But the allution is plainly to the firft lines of a Latin poem which was very popular in the time of Chaucer, in which one Pamphilus gives a hiftory of his amour with Galatea.--The poem begins thus, mf. Cotton, Titus. A. xx. ;

Liber Pamphili.

Vulneror et claufum porto fub pectore telum,
Crefcit et affidue plaga dolorque mihi.

Et ferientis adhuc non audeo dicere nomen,
Nec finet afpectus plaga videre fuos.

This poem by the name of Pamphilus is quoted in our Author's Meiibeus. It is extant in mf. in many libraries, and it has alfo been printed more than once. 'Leyfer, Hift. Poet. Medii evi, p. 2071, (1171.) Catal. Gaignat. n, 2233, 2234.

Seken in every halke and every herne
Particuler fciences for to lerne,
He him remembred that upon a day
At Orleaunce in studie a book he say
Of magike naturel, which his felaw
That was that time a bacheler of law,
Al were he ther to lerne another craft,
Had prively upon his desk ylaft;
Which book fpake moche of operations
Touching the eight-and-twenty mansions
That longen to the mone, and fwiche folie
As in our dayes n'is not worth a flie;

11435

II440

By which men maken divers apparences
Swiche as thife fubtil tregetoures play;
For oft at feftes have I wel herd fay

.11453. tregetoures] The profeffion of a joculator or juggler was anciently very comprehensive, as appears from this paffage of the Breviari d' Amors. [See the Difcourfe,&c. n.25.] Altreffi peccan li joglar, Que fiabo cantar e balar, E ffabo tocar eftrumens, O fabon encantar las gens,

O ffar autra joglayria

In the time of Chaucer the perfons who exercifed the firft menționed branches of the art were called generally Minstrels, and

That tregetoures, within an halle large,
Have made come in a water and a barge,

11455

the name of Jogelour was, in a manner, appropriated to thofe who by fleight of hand and machines produced fuch illufions of the fenfes as are usually supposed to be effected by enchantment. [See above, ver. 7049.] This fpecies of jogelour is here called a tregetour. They are joined together in company with magicians, fl. of F. iii. 169;

Ther faw I playing jogelours,
Magiciens and tragetours,

And Phitoneffes, charmereffes

And clerkes eke, which conne wel

All this magike naturell.

See alfo the following ver. 187-191.

-If we compare the

feats of the tregetours, as defcribed in this passage, with those which are afterwards performed by the clerkes magike for the entertainment of his guefts, [ver.11501-11519,] we thall find them very fimilar, and they may both be illuftrated by the following account which Sir John Mandeville has given of the exhibitions before the Grete Chan; " And than comen jogulours "and enchantoures, that don many marvaylles; for they ma"ken to come in the ayr the fone and the mone, be feminge "to every mannes fight: and after they maken the nyght fo "derk that no man may see no thing: and aftre they maken "the day to come ayen fair and plefant with bright fonne to & every mannes fight: and than they bringen in daunces of the "faireft damyfelles of the world and richest arrayed: and aftre "they maken to comen in other damyfelles, bringinge coupes "of gold fulle of my!k of dyverse bestes, and yeven drynke to "lordes and to ladyes: and than they make knyghtes to jou"flen in armes fulle luftyly; and they rennen togidre a gret "randoum, and they fruffchen togidere fulle fiercely, and they "breken here fperes forudely that the tronchouns flen in fprotes "and peces alle aboute the halle: and than they make to come "in huntyng for the hert and for the boor, with houndes ren"ning with open mouthe. And many other thinges they don "be craft of hir enchauntementes, that it is marveyle for to "fee. And fuche playes of defport they make til the taking Volume IV.

And in the halle rowen up and doun;

Somtime hath femed come a grim leoun,

86 up of the boordes.” Mand. Trav. p. 285, 6. See also p. 261; "And wher it be by craft or by nygromancye I wot nere.”— The Glossary derives tregetour from the barb. Lat. tricator; but the derivatives of that family are tricheur, tricherie, trick, Ic. Nor can I find the word tregetour in any language but our own. It seems clearly to be formed from treget, which is frequently ufed by Chaucer for deceit, imposture, R.R.6267, 6312, 6825; and fo is tregetry, ibid. 6374, 6382. From whence treget itself may have been derived is more difficult to say, but I observe that trebuchet (the French name for a military engine) is called by Chaucer trepeget, R. R. 6279, and by Knighton, 2672, trep, get; and that this fame word trebuchet, in French, fignified alfo a machine for catching birds. Du Cange, in v. Trepget; "Finc appellatio manfit apud nos inftrumentis, aut machinuEs, fufpenfis et lapfilibus, ad captandas aviculas. Has enim "etiamnum trebuchets appellamus." Muratori, in his Antiq. Med . Dig. xxvi. p. 473, informs us that trabocchello or trabocchetto, in Italian, (which he explains to be the fame as trebushet in French) fignified also another inftrument of fraud, which he defcribes thus ; "Sæculis Italiæ turbatiffimis-in ufu "fuere teterrima infidiarum loca, id eft, in cubiculis pavimen"tum perforatum, ac ligneâ tabulâ (Ribalta appellabant) ita

caute coopertum, ut qui improvide alteram tabulæ partem "pedibus premeret, cedente ipfà in ima rueret." This was clearly a fpecies of trapdoor.—The reader will judge whe ther the tregetour may not poffibly have been so called from his frequent use of thefe infidious machines in his operations. That a great deal of machinery was requifite to produce the apparences or illufions enumerated by Chaucer in this paffage is very certain; but not long after the art of a tregetour feems to have been reduced to that of a modern juggler, mere fleight of hand. In Lydgate's tranflation of The Dance of Macabre, mf. Harl. 116, he has introduced a tregetour speaking thus ;

What may availe mankynde [f. magike] naturale.

Or any crafte fhewed by apparence,

Or courfe of ferres above celestiale,

Or of hech all the influence,

And fomtime floures fpring as in a mede,
Somtime a vine, and grapes white and rede, 11460
Somtime a caftel al of lime and flon,

And whan hem liketh voideth it anon:
Thus femeth it to every mannes fight.

Now than conclude I thus; if that I might
At Orleaunce fom olde felaw find

That hath thise mones mansions in mind,

Or other magike naturel above,

He shuld wel make my brother have his love;
For with an apparence a clerk may make,

To mannes fight, that all the rockes blake
Of Bretaigne were yvoided everich on,
And shippes by the brinke comen and gon,
And in swiche forme endure a day or two:
Than were my brother warished of his wo,
Than must she nedes holden hire behest,
Or elles he fhal shame hire at the left.

11465

11470

11475

What shuld I make a lenger Tale of this? Unto his brothers bed he comen is,

Ayenft deth to and at defence?

Lygarde de mayne now helpith me right nought.
Farewell my craft and all fuch fapience,

For Deth hath more mairies than I have wrought.

He has alto the following fpeech of Death to a famous tregetour; Maifter John Rykell, fomtime tregitour

Of noble Henri Kinge of Engielond,

And of France the mighty conquerour,

For all the fleightes and turnyng of thyne honde
Thou must come nere this dance to underitonde:
Nought may avail all thy conclufions,

For Deth fhortly, nother on fee nor londe,

Is not dyfceyved by noon illufions.