THE PROLOGE OF THE PERSONES TALE.

BY

Y that the Maunciple1 had his tale endid,
The sonne fro the south line is descendid
So lowe, that it nas nought to my sight
Degrees nyne and twenty as in hight.
Foure2 on the clokke it was, as I

gesse,
For enleven foote, or litil more or lesse,
My schadow was at thilke tyme of the yere,
Of which feet as my lengthe parted were
In sixe feet equal of proporcioun.
Therwith the mones exaltacioun,
In mena Libra, alway gan ascende,3
As we were entryng at a townes ende.

1 [In some MSS. the word 'Manciple' does not occur, a blank being left instead: it is therefore open to doubt whether the following tale was meant to come immediately after the Manciple's. Nevertheless, in the Scheme of the Order of the Canterbury Tales given below (pp. 352, 353) the two tales are set down as forming one group, chiefly because the above reading is found in the Harl. MS. text which is followed in this edition. And it is not unreasonable to suppose that the line was so written by Chaucer, the word having afterwards been omitted by some transcribers on account of the difficulty caused by the line in the next page, "Now lakketh us no moo tales than oon," whereas nine of the pilgrims enumerated in the General Prologue have no tales assigned to them. This mistake may have been Chaucer's own, and due to a want of revision, when probably some of the deficient tales would have been inserted. In the preface to the 'six text' edition of the Canterbury Tales published by the Chaucer Society these last two tales are set down as separate groups, but the question at issue does not affect their relative position. See below, p. 354, last par.]

2 Tyrwhitt's reading, supported by some MSS., is preferred to ten, that of the Harl. MS., because the time indicated by the length of the shadow would be about that hour. By this reckoning, as Tyrwhitt observes, there would be three hours till sunset, so that one does not well see with what propriety the Host admonishes the Persone to haste him, because the sonne wol adoun.'' But from the unfinished state of the poem, all the circumstances of time and place are in inextricable confusion. [Four o'clock is of course the right reading.-W. W. S.] 3 Tyrwhitt observes that this is an obscure passage. 'Exaltation,' he says, 'is not to be considered as a technical term, but as signifying simply rising; and the sense will be that the moon's rising in the middle of Libra was continually ascending,' &c. He suggests as the only reading which would be astronomically correct

"Ther with Saturnes exaltation,

I mene Libra, alway gan ascend.'

For which our Host, as he was wont to gye,
As in this caas, our joly compaignye,
Sayd in this wise: Lordynges, everichoon,
Now lakketh us no moo tales than oon,1
Fulfilled is my sentens and my decre;
I trowe that we han herd of ech degre.
Almost fulfilled is myn ordynaunce;

I pray to God so geve him right good chaunce,
That tellith to us his tale lustily.

Sir prest,' quod he, 'artow a vicory?
Or artow a persoun?" say soth, by thy fay.
Be what thou be, ne breke nought oure play;
For every man, save thou, hath told his tale.
Unbocle, and schew us what is in thy male,
For trewely me thinketh by thy chier,
Thou scholdist wel knyt up a gret matier.
Tel us a tale anoon, for cokkes boones!'

8

This Persoun him answerde al at oones:
'Thow getist fable noon i-told for me,
For Poul, that writes unto Timothe,
Repreveth hem that weyveth sothfastnesse,
And tellen fables, and such wrecchednesse.
Why schuld I sowen draf out of my fest,
Whan I may sowe whete, if that me lest?
For which I say, if that yow lust to hiere
Moralite and vertuous matiere,
And thanne that ye wil give me audience,
I wol ful fayn at Cristis reverence
Do yow plesaunce leful, as I can.

But trusteth wel, I am a suthern man,"

And yet the Webbe, the Dyer, the Tapicer, the Plowman, and the Knight's Yeman had none of them told a tale.

2 See vol. i. p. 97, note 5.

3 The Lansd. MS. reads fable, which is the reading adopted by Tyrwhitt, and it seems to be authorised by the Parson's reply.-W.

41 Tim. iv. 7.

5 Minstrelsy seems to have flourished chiefly in the northern parts of the island, and indeed in the north generally. In almost all our old ballads the harper or minstrel is represented as being of the

I can not geste, rum, raf, ruf, by letter,1
Ne, God wot, rym hold I but litel better.
And therfor, if yow lust, I wol not glose,
I wol yow telle a mery tale in prose,
To knyt up al this fest, and make an ende;
And Jhesu for his grace wit me sende
To schewe yow the way, in this viage,
Of thilke perfyt glorious pilgrimage
That hatte Jerusalem celestial."
And if ye vouchesauf, anoon I schal

' north countree.' Thus, in King Estmere, in Percy's collection, Adler says to the King—

'And you shall be a harper, brother,

Out of the north countree.'

1 To geste means to recite gests or historical ballads. To rum, raf, ruf is intended as a burlesque upon that peculiar kind of poetry which was formed on the principle of alliteration. This alliteration was the principle of Anglo-Saxon poetry, and it was naturally adopted by those English writers who used the language of the lower orders, in which the Saxon element predominated. See vol. i. p. 46. The taste for alliteration observable in our ballad poetry down to, at least, the middle of the sixteenth century, may be traced to the lingering influence of the old usage; and examples of intentional alliteration are found even in Pope, of which we have an instance in the wellknown line:

'Up a high hill he heaved a huge round stone.' The following description of the theological treatises sometimes introduced at feasts, much in the manner of The Persones Tale, taken from The Vision of Piers Plowman, supposed to be written by Robert Langland, a priest, and Chaucer's contemporary, will give the reader an idea of this kind of poetry

'Ac if thei carpen of Christ,

Thise clarkis and thise lewid,
At the meat in myrthes, when
Mynstrelis ben stille,

Thanne telle thei of the Trinyte
A tale other tweye,

And bringen forth a balled reson,
And taken Bernard to witnesse,
And putten forth a presumption

To preve the sothe;

Thus they dryvelen at hire deys
The deyte to knowe,

And gnawen God wit the gorge,

Whanne hire guttes ben fulle.'

2 The allusion is to Gal. iv. 26, where by the heavenly Jerusalem is

Bygynne my tale, for which I yow pray
Telle your avis, I can no better say.
But natheles this meditacioun

I put it ay

under correccioun
Of clerkes,1 for I am not textuel;

I take but the sentens, trustith wel.
Therfor I make protestacioun,

That I wol stonde to correccioun.'

Upon this word we han assented soone.
For, as it semed, it was for to done,

geve him

To enden in som vertuous sentence,
And for to
space and audience;
And bad oure Host he schulde to him say,
That alle we to telle his tale him pray.
Our Host hadde the wordes for us alle;"
'Sir prest,' quod he, 'now faire yow bifalle;
Say what yow lust, and we wil gladly hiere.'
And with that word he said in this manere;
'Telleth,' quod he, 'your meditacioun;
But hasteth yow, the sonne wol adoun.3
Beth fructuous, and that in litel space,
And to do wel God sende yow his grace.'

understood the church triumphant in heaven, to which the Persone here desires to show the people the way.

1 The Persone here, and subsequently in his tale, disclaims any pretensions to learning. This description of himself is apparently inconsistent with the account given of him in the General Prologue as a 'lerned man, a clerk;' but the expression must be accepted in a comparative sense. Although he possessed sufficient knowledge to preach sensibly, to instruct his parishioners in the general principles of Christianity, and might, therefore, be fairly called 'lerned' in comparison with parsons who preached other people's sermons, and could read the Bible only in the vulgar tongue; yet, nevertheless, he might still be ignorant of scientific theology, the rules of critical exegesis, and the philosophy of Christian doctrine and morals. Thus, he says, 'I take the sentens' (sententia, the general meaning), but I am not 'textuel," that is, I cannot comment critically on the text.

2 Tyrwhitt observes that this is a French phrase, and quotes from the Rolls of Parliament, 51 Edward III., n. 87, Mons. Thomas de Hungerford, Chivaler, qi avoit les paroles per les communes d'Angleterre en cest Parlement,' that is, who was speaker, or mouthpiece.

8 See ante, p. 249, note 1.

THE PERSONES TALE.

[THIS tale, or rather Treatise on Penitence,1 is, probably, a translation of some Summa Theologiæ, commonly read in Chaucer's time, and here amplified and popularized after the peculiar manner of the writer. Although a theological tract of the time of Edward III. is not likely to become a favourite with the general reader, it is nevertheless highly interesting, to the student of English ecclesiastical history, as exhibiting the form in which Christian faith and morals were taught to the people in the Anglican church of the middle ages. The numerous references to Scripture (see vol. ii. p. 129) are, of course, translated from the Vulgate; but the application is sometimes so vague, and the translation so free, particularly when the Old Testament is quoted, that it has been a matter of considerable difficulty, and has in some few cases been found impossible, to refer the reader to the exact passage indicated in the text. The influence of the logic of Aristotle, with which the teaching of the schoolmen, and therefore all religious teaching, was imbued, will be observed in the scientific and technical method upon which theological terms, the virtues, and the vices, are classified and defined. This method of presenting the topics of a discourse, though it gives an air of stiffness to the composition, has the great advantage of assisting the memory; and may be traced, even at the present day, in the endless divisions of the sermons of the Presbyterian ministers both in Scotland and America. As a specimen of English prose in the fourteenth century, this treatise is of great value. It displays a force of language, a simplicity, dignity and conciseness, and at the same time a flowing rhythm, which will be looked for in vain in the succeeding ages, until the time of More, Bacon, and Hooker.

'As for the religion of our poet,' says Dryden, he seems to have some bias towards the opinions of Wickliffe, after

1 In some of the MSS. it is entitled Tractatus de Penitentiá, pro fabulá, ut dicitur, Personæ.