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My fone, thy tonge fhuldest thou reftreine
At alle time, but whan thou doft thy peine
To speke of God in honour and prayere:
The firfte vertue, fone, if thou wolt lere,

Is to reftreine and kepen wel thy tonge;

Thus leren children whan that they be yonge:
My fone, of mochel speking evil avised,
Ther leffe fpeking had ynough suffised,

17280

17285

Cometh mochel harme: thus was me told and taught,
In mochel fpeche finne wanteth naught.
Woft thou wherof a rakel tonge serveth?
Right as a fwerd forcutteth and forkerveth
An arme atwo, my dere fone! right fo

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;
Diffimule as thou were defe if that thou here 17296
A janglour speke of perilous matere.

The Fleming fayth, and lerne if that thee left,
That litel jangling caufeth mochel rest.

.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
Thee thar not dreden for to be bewraid;
But he that hath miffayd, I dare wel fain,
He may by no way clepe his word again.
Thing that is fayd is fayd, and forth it goth;

17300

Though him repent, or be him never fo loth, 17305
He is his thral to whom that he hath fayd

A tale of which he is now evil apaid.
My fone, beware, and be non auctour newe

Of tidings whether they ben falfe or trewe:
Wher fo thou come, amonges high or lowe, 17310
Kepe wel thy tonge, and thinke upon the crowe.

THE PERSONES PROLOGUE.
By that the Manciple had his Tale ended

The fonne fro the fouth line was defcended
So lowe, that it ne was not to my fight
Degrees nine-and-twenty as of hight.
Foure of the clok it was tho, as I geffe,
For enleven foot, a litel more or leffe,
My fhadow was at thilke time as there,
Of fwiche feet as my lengthe parted were

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
As in this cas our jolly compagnie,
Said in this wife; Lordings everich on,
Now lacketh us no Tales mo than on :
Fulfilled is my fentence and my decree;
I trowe that we han herd of eche degree:

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
For every man fave thou hath told his Tale.
Unbokel, and fhew us what is in thy male;
For trewely me thinketh by thy chere
Thou fhuldest knitte up wel a gret matere.
Tell us a fable anon, for cockes bones.

This Perfon him anfwered al at ones;
Thou geteft fable non ytold for me,
For Foule, that writeth unto Timothe,
Repreveth hem that weiven fothfafineffe,

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
Moralitee and vertuous matere,

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

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