My fone, thy tonge fhuldest thou reftreine Is to reftreine and kepen wel thy tonge; Thus leren children whan that they be yonge: 17280 17285 Cometh mochel harme: thus was me told and taught, tonge cutteth frendship all atwo: A jangler is to God abhominable. Rede Salomon, fo wife and honourable, Rede David in his Pfalmes, rede Senek. 17290 My fone, speke not but with thyn hed thou beck; The Fleming fayth, and lerne if that thee left, .17278. My fone, thy tonge] In the Rom. de la R. ver. 7399, this precept is quoted from Ptolomée; Au commencer de l'Almagefte. See the note on ver. 5764. . 17281. The firfte vertue] This precept is also quoted in the Rom. de la R. ver. 7415, from Cato; it is extant l. i. dift. 3.; Virtutem primam cffe puta compefcere linguam, My fone, if thou no wicked word haft faid 17300 Though him repent, or be him never fo loth, 17305 A tale of which he is now evil apaid. Of tidings whether they ben falfe or trewe: THE PERSONES PROLOGUE. The fonne fro the fouth line was defcended 17315 .17308. be non auctour newe] This feems to be from Cate 1. i. dift. 12.; Rumores fuge, ne incipias novus auctor haberi. It looks as if Chaucer read Rumoris fuge ne incipias novus auctor haberi. .17316. Foure of the clok] See the Difcourfe, e. § 41. n fix feet equal of proportion; Therwith the mones exaltation, In mene Libra, alway gan afcende As we were entring at the thorpes ende; 17320 For which our Hofte, as he was wont to gie 17325 17321.Theraith the mones exaltation--- In mene Libra, alway gan afcende] This is a very obfcure paffage. Some of the mff. read-1 mene Libra. According to the reading which I have followed exaltation is not to be confidered as a technical term, but as fignifying fimply rifing, and the fenfe will be, that the moon's rifing, in the middle of Libra, was continually af cending, &c.-If exaltation be taken in its technical meaning, as explained in the note on ver. 6284, it will be impoffible to make any fenfe of either of the readings, for the exaltation of the moon was not in Libra, but in Taurus. Kalendrier des Bergiers, fign. I. ult. Mr. Speght, I fuppose, being aware of this, altered Libra into Taurus; but he did not confider that the fun, which has just been said to be defcending, was at that time in Taurus, and that confequently Taurus muft alfo have been defcending-Libra, therefore, thould by no means be parted with. Being in that part of the zodiack which is neatly oppofite to Taurus, (the place of the sun) it is very properly reprefented as afcending above the horizon toward the time of the fun's fetting. If any alteration wete to be admitted I thould be for reading Therwith Saturnes exaltation, I mene Libra, alway gan afcende. The exaltation of Saturn was in Libra, Kalendrier des Bergiars, fign. Ki. Volume V. K Almoft fulfilled is myn ordinance; I pray to God fo yeve him right good chance That telleth us this Tale luftily. Sire Preeft, quod he, art thou a vicary, Or art thou a perfon? fay foth by thy fay. 17330 Be what thou be ne breke thou not our play, 17335 This Perfon him anfwered al at ones; 17340 And tellen fables and fwiche wretchedneffe. 17345 Why fhuld I fowen draf out of my fift Whan I may fowen whete if that me lift? For which I fay, if that you lift to here And than that ye wol yeve me audience, I wold ful fain at Criftes reverence Don you plefance leful, as i can; But truftech wel I am a fotherne man; I cannot gefle, rom, ram, ruf, by my letter, 17350 .17354. Icannot geffe, rom, ram, ruf] 'This is plainly a contemptuous manner of defcribing alliterative poetry; and the Ferfon's prefatory declaration that "he is a fotherne man," would lead one to imagine that compofitions in that ity le were at this time chiefly confined to the northern provinces. It was obferved long ago by William of Malmesbury, 1. iii. Pontif. Angl. that the language of the north of England was fo harth and un And, God wote, rime hold I but litel better: 17355 And therfore if you lift, I wol not glose, "Qued polished as to be scarce intelligible to a fouthern man. 68 propter vinciniam barbararum gentium, et propter remotio"nem regum quondam Anglorum modo Normanorum con“tigit, qui magis ad Auftrum quam ad Aquilonem diverfati "nofcuntur." From the fame caufes we may prefume that it was often long before the improvements in the poetical art which from time to time were made in the fouth could find their way into the north, fo that there the hobbling alliterative verfe might fill be in the higheft requcft even after Chaucer had established the use of the heroick metre in this part of the ifland. Dr. Percy has quoted an alliterative poem by a Chethire man on the battle of Flodden in 1513, and he has remarked "that all fuch poets as used this kind of metre retained along "with it many peculiar Saxon idioms.” Essay on Metre of P.P. This may perhaps have been owing to their being generally inhabitants of the northern counties, where the old Saxon idiom underwent much fewer and flower alterations than it did in the neighbourhood of the capital.----To gefte here is to relate jests. In ver. 13861 he has called it to telle in gefte. Both paffages feem to imply that gefles were chiefly written in allitera. tive verse, but the latter paffage more ftrongly than this. After the Hoft has told Chaucer that he thall no longer rime he goes on Let fee wher thou canst tellen ought in gefe, Or tellen in proje fom what at the lefte.MENT Gefle there feems to be put for a species of compofition which was neither rhyme nor profe, and what that could be except alliterative metre I cannot guefs. At the fame time I must own that I know no other paffage which authorizes the interpretation of gete in this confined fenfe. In the H. of F. ii. 114, Chaucer fpeaks of himself as making bokes, fonges, ditecs, In rime, or elles in cadence where cadence, I think, muft mean a fpecies of poetical compofition diftinct from rhyming verfes. The name might be pro |