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The text is based on the 1865 EETS edition of Thynne’s
Animadversions. Two purely typographic features have been
adopted from the 1876 Chaucer Society re-edition of the same MS.
Passages printed in [brackets] in 1865 have been changed to 1876’s
(parentheses); conversely, words or letters supplied by the editor are
shown in [brackets], reserving italics for expanded
abbreviations. Other differences, and ways of marking them, are
explained at the end of the e-text.
Page numbers are shown in the left margin. Italicized numbers in the
right margin are from the 1876 edition (main text only).
Chaucer.
ANIMADUERSIONS
uppon the Annotacions and corrections of some
imperfections of impressiones
of Chaucer’s workes (sett
downe before tyme and
nowe) reprinted in the
yere of our lorde
1598
Sett downe by
FRANCIS THYNNE.
“Sortee pur bien ou ne sortee rien.”
NOW NEWLY EDITED FROM THE MS. IN THE
BRIDGEWATER LIBRARY
BY
G. H. KINGSLEY, M.D., F.L.S.
LONDON:
PUBLISHED FOR THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY,
BY N. TRÜBNER & CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCLXV.
JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.
PREFACE.
Although only the grandson of the
first of his name, the author of the following interesting specimen of
16th-century criticism came of a family of great antiquity, of so great
an antiquity, indeed, as to preclude our tracing it back to its origin.
This family was originally known as the “De Botfelds,” but in the 15th
century one branch adopted the more humble name of “Thynne,” or “of the
Inne.” Why the latter name was first assumed has never been
satisfactorily explained. It can hardly be supposed that “John de
la Inne de Botfelde,” as he signed himself, kept a veritable hostelry
and sold ale and provender to the travellers between Ludlow and
Shrewsbury, and most probably the term Inn was used in the sense which
has given us “Lincoln’s Inn,” “Gray’s Inn,” or “Furnivall’s Inn,” merely
meaning a place of residence of the higher class, though in this case
inverted, the Inn giving its name to its owner.
However obtained, the name has been borne by the most successful
branch of the De Botfelds down to the present Marquess of Bath, who now
represents it. Much interesting matter connected with the family was
collected by a late descendant of the older branch, Beriah Botfeld, and
published by him in his “Stemmata Botvilliana.”
The first “John of the Inn” married one Jane Bowdler, by whom he had
a son Ralph, who married Anne Hygons, and their son William became clerk
of the kitchen, and according to some, master of the household to Henry
VIII. He
iv
married in the first place a lady who, however she may have advanced her
husband’s prospects at court, behaved in a manner which must have
considerably marred his satisfaction at her success. Those who wish to
study the matrimonial sorrows of “Thynnus Aulicus,” as he calls him, may
consult Erasmus in his Epistolæ, lib. xv. Epist. xiv.
His second marriage to Anne Bond, daughter of William Bond, clerk of
green cloth and master of the household to Henry VIII., was more
fortunate, and by her he had daughters and one son, our Francis
Thynne.
Though his son gives him no higher position in the court of Henry
VIII. than the apparently humble one of clerk of the kitchen, he is
careful to let us know that the post was in reality no mean one, and
that “there were those of good worship both at court and country” who
had at one time been well pleased to be his father’s clerks. That he was
a man of superior mind there is no question, and we have a pleasant hint
in the following tract of his intimacy with his king, and of their
mutual fondness for literature. To William Thynne, indeed, all who read
the English language are deeply indebted, for to his industry and love
for his author we owe much of what we now possess of Chaucer. Another
curious bit of literary gossip to be gleaned from this tract is that
William Thynne was a patron and supporter of John Skelton, who was an
inmate of his house at Erith, whilst composing that most masterly bit of
bitter truth, his “Colin Clout,” a satire perhaps unsurpassed in
our language.
William Thynne rests beside his second wife, in the church of
Allhallows, Barking, near the Tower of London, where there are two
handsome brasses to their memory. That of William Thynne represents him
in full armour with a tremendous dudgeon dagger and broadsword, most
warlike guize for a clerk of the kitchen and editor of Chaucer. The
dress of his wife is quite refreshing in its graceful comeliness
v
in these days of revived “farthingales and hoops.” These brasses were
restored by the late Marquess of Bath. Would that the same good feeling
for things old had prevented the owners of the “church property” from
casing the old tower with a hideous warehouse.
The Sir John Thynne mentioned in the “Animadversions” was most
probably a cousin of Francis. He married the daughter of Sir Thomas
Gresham, the builder of the Royal Exchange, part of whose wealth was
devoted by his son-in-law to the building of the beautiful family seat
of Long Leat, in Wiltshire, in which work he was doubtless aided
indirectly by the Reformation, for, says the old couplet,
“Portman, Horner, Popham, and Thynne,
When the monks went out they came in.”
Francis Thynne was born in Kent, probably at his father’s house at
Erith, about 1550. He was educated at Tunbridge school under learned
Master Proctor, thence to Magdalen College, Oxford, and then, as the
manner was, to the Inns of Court, where he lay at Lincoln’s Inn for a
while. Some men are born antiquarians as others are born poets, and we
may be pretty certain that it was at Thynne’s own desire that his court
influence was used to procure him the post of “Blanch Lyon pursuivant,”
a position which would enable him to pursue studies, the results of
which, however valuable in themselves, but seldom prove capable of being
converted into the vulgar necessities of food and raiment. Poor John
Stowe, with his license to beg, as the reward of the labour of his life,
is a terrible proof of how utterly unmarketable a valuable commodity may
become.
Leading a calm and quiet life in the pleasant villages of Poplar and
Clerkenwell, in “sweet and studious idleness,” as he himself calls it,
the old herald was enabled to accumulate rich stores of matter, much of
which has come down to
vi
us, principally in manuscript, scattered through various great
libraries, which prove him to have deserved Camden’s estimate of him as
“an antiquary of great judgment and diligence.” It would seem that he
had entertained the idea of following in his father’s footsteps, and of
becoming an editor of Chaucer, and that he had even made some
collections towards that end. The appearance of Speight’s edition
probably prevented this idea being carried out, and the evident soreness
exhibited in this little tract very probably arose from a feeling that
his friend had rather unfairly stolen a march upon him. However the
wound was not deep, and Speight made use of Thynne’s corrections, and
Thynne assisted Speight, in new editions, with all friendship and
sympathy.1 I suspect him of dabbling in alchemy and the occult
sciences. He shows himself well acquainted with the terms peculiar to
those mysteries, and hints that Chaucer only “enveyed” against the
“sophisticall abuse,” not the honest use of the Arcana. Moreover in the
British Museum (MS. add. 11,388) there is a volume containing much
curious matter collected by him on these subjects, and not only
collected
vii
but illustrated by him with most gorgeous colours and wondrous drawing,
worthy of the blazonry of a Lancaster Herald. The costumes however are
carefully correct, and give us useful hints as to the fashion of the
raiment of our ancestors. From the peculiar piety and earnestness (most
important elements in the search for the philosopher’s stone), of the
small “signs” and prayers appended to these papers, it is, I think,
clear, that he was working in all good faith and belief. Possibly the
following lines, which seem to have been his favourite motto, may have
been inspired by the disappointment and dyspepsia produced by his
smoky studies and their ill success,
“My strange and froward fate
Shall turn her whele anew
To better or to payre my fate,
Which envy dothe pursue.”
On the 22nd of April, 1602, he was with great ceremony advanced to
the honour of Lancaster Herald. He never surrendered his patent, and as
his successor entered on that post in November, 1608, he is supposed to
have died about that date, though some postpone his death till 1611. He
married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas de la Rivers of
Bransbe, but left no issue.
There are many points of interest to be picked out of the following
honest and straightforward bit of criticism, if we examine it
closely: and, firstly, as to its author? Is there not something very
characteristic in its general tone, something dimly sketching a
shadowy outline of a kindly, fussy, busy, querulous old man, much given
to tiny minutiæ, a careful copier with a clean pen, indefatiguable in
collecting “contributions” to minor history; one jealous of all
appearance of slight to his office, even to being moved to wrath with
Master Speight for printing “Harolds” instead of “Harlotts,” and letting
him know how mightily a “Harold” like himself
viii
would be offended at being holden of the condition of so base a thing as
False Semblance? Perhaps the more so from a half-consciousness that the
glory of the office was declining, and that if the smallest opening were
given, a ribald wit might create terrible havock amongst his darling idols. How
delicately he snubs Master Speight for not calling on him at Clerkenwell
Green (How would Speight have travelled the distance in 1598? It was a
long uphill walk for an antiquarian, and the fields by no means safe
from long-staff sixpenny strikers); and how modestly he hints that he
would have derived no “disparagement” from so doing; showing all the
devotion to little matters of etiquette of an amiable but irritable old
gentleman of our own day.
But mark this old gentleman’s description of his father’s collection
of Chaucer’s MS.! Had ever a Bibliophile a more delightful commission
than that one of William Thynne’s, empowering him to rout and to rummage
amongst all the monasteries and libraries of England in search of the
precious fragments? And had ever a Bibliophile a greater reward for his
pleasant toils? “Fully furnished with a multitude of books, emongst
which one coppye of some part of his works subscribed in various places
‘Examinatur Chaucer’!” Where is this invaluable MS. now? It is worth the
tracing, if it be possible, even to its intermediate history. Was it one
of those stolen from Francis Thynne’s house at Poplar by that
bibliomaniacal burglar? or was it one of those which in a fit of
generosity, worthy of those heroic times, he gave to Stephen Batemann,
that most fortunate parson of Newington? Is this commission to be
regarded as some slight proof that the spoliation of the monasteries was
not carried on with the reckless Vandalism usually attributed to the
reformers?
We learn from this tract that William Thynne left no less than
twenty-five copies of Chaucerian MS. to his son, doubtless but a small
tything of the entire number extant, showing that
ix
there were men amongst the monks who could enjoy wit and humour even
when directed against themselves, and that there must have been some
considerable liberality if not laxness of rule amongst the orders of the
day. It would, I fancy, be difficult to find amongst the monkeries
of our own time (except possibly those belonging to that very cheery
order the Capuchines) an abbot inclined to permit his monks to read,
much less to copy, so heretical a work as the Canterbury Tales, however
freely he winked at the introduction of French nouvellettes.
But though some may have enjoyed Chaucer in all good faith, there
were others who saw how trenchant were the blows he dealt against the
churchmen of his time, and what deadly mischief to their pre-eminence
lurked under his seeming bonhommie. Wolsey thought it worth his
while to exert his influence against him so strongly as to oblige
William Thynne to alter his plan of publication, though backed by the
promised protection of Henry VIII. And the curious action of the
Parliament noticed in the tract (p. 7) was
doubtless owing to the same influence:2 an assumption of the right of censure by
the Parliament which seems to have gone near to deprive us of Chaucer
altogether. The Parliament men were right in regarding the works of
Chaucer as mere fables, but they forgot that fables have “morals,” and
that these morals were directed to the decision of the great question of
whether the “spiritual” or the “temporal” man was to rule the world,
a question unhappily not quite settled even in our own time.
The notice of that other sturdy reformer, John Skelton
x
(p. 7) is also very interesting, and gives
us a hint of the existence of a “protesting” feeling in the Court of
Henry VIII. before there was any reason for attributing it to mere
private or political motives. From the way in which it is mentioned
here, I suspect that the more general satire “Colin Clout” preceded
the more directly personal one of “Why come ye nat to court?” which
lashes Wolsey himself with a heartily outspoken virulence which would
hardly have been tolerated by him when in the zenith of his power. It
was not improbably written whilst its author was safe in sanctuary under
Bishop Islip. William Thynne, court favourite though he was, could never
have kept Skelton’s head on his shoulders after so terrible a
provocation.
Wherever he may be placed, John Skelton stands alone amongst
satirists, there is no one like him: possibly from a feeling that he was
writing on the winning side, and sure of sympathy and protection, he
scorns to hide his pearls under a dunghill like Rabelais, and utters
fearlessly and openly what he has to say. Even in our own time,
“Though his rime be ragged
Tattered and iagged
Rudely rain-beaten
Rusty and moth-eaten
If ye talke well therewyth
Yt hath in it some pith.”
Thynne’s note on the family of Gower (p. 14)
is of value as agreeing with later theories, which deny that Gower the
poet was of the Gowers of Stittenham, the ancestors of the present
houses of Sutherland and Ellesmere. The question is not, however,
finally decided, and we have reason to believe that all the Gowers of
Great Britain are descended from the same family of Guers still
flourishing in Brittany. Early coat-armours are not much to be depended
on, and Thynne as a Herald may lean a little too much towards them. The
xi
question is, however, in good hands, and I hope that before long some
fresh light may be thrown upon it.
The old story of Chaucer’s having been fined for beating a Franciscan
friar in Fleet Street is doubted by Thynne, though hardly, I think,
on sufficient grounds. Tradition (when it agrees with our own views) is
not lightly to be disturbed, and remembering with what more than
feminine powers of invective “spiritual” men seem to be not unfrequently
endowed, and also how atrociously insolent a Franciscan friar would be
likely to be (of course from the best motives) to a man like
Chaucer, who had burnt into the very soul of monasticism with the
caustic of his wit, I shall continue to believe the legend for the
present. If the mediæval Italians are to be believed, the cudgelling of
a friar was occasionally thought necessary even by the most faithful,
and I see no reason why hale Dan Chaucer should not have lost his temper
on sufficient provocation. Old men have hot blood sometimes, and Dickens
does not outrage probability when he makes Martin Chuzzelwit the elder,
fell Mr Pecksniff to the ground.
Much of the tract is taken up by corrections of etymologies, and the
explanation of obscure and obsolete words. It is a little curious that
the word “orfrayes,” which had gone so far out of date as to be
unintelligible to Master Speight, should, thanks to the new rage
for church and clergy decoration, have become reasonably common again.
The note on the “Vernacle” is another bit of close and accurate
antiquarian knowledge worth noting. It is most tantalizing that after
all he says about that mysterious question of “The Lords son of
Windsor,” a question as mysterious as that demanding why Falstalf likened
Prince Henry’s father to a “singing man” of the same place, we should be
left as wise as we were before. We have here and there, too, hints as to
what we have lost from Thynne’s great
xii
storehouse of information; how valuable would have been “that long and
no common discourse” which he tells us he might have composed on that
most curious form of judicial knavery, the ordeal; and possibly much
more so is that of his “collections” for his edition of Chaucer! This
last may, however, be still recovered by some fortunate literary
mole.
The notice, by no means clear, but certainly not complimentary, of
“the second editione to one inferior personne, than my father’s editione
was,” may refer to any of the editions of Chaucer which, according to
Lowndes, were printed more or less from William Thynne’s edition in
1542, 1546, and 1555; but from another passage hinting that Speight
followed “a late English corrector whom I forbear to name,”
I suspect that the “inferior personne” was poor John Stowe, and the
edition to have been that edited by him in 1561, the nearest in point of
date to that of Speight.
The manuscript from which this tract is reprinted is, like most of
the treasures of the Bridgewater Library, wonderfully clean and in good
order. It is entirely in the Autograph of Francis Thynne, and was
evidently written purposely for the great Lord Chancellor Egerton, and
bears his arms emblazoned on the title-page. Master Speight most
probably got his copy of Animadversions in a more humble
form.
In conclusion may I remark that, as usual, the green silk ribands,
originally attached to the vellum and gold cover, are closely cut away,
probably for the purpose of being converted into shoe-ties, which Robert
Green informs us was the usual destination of those appended to
presentation copies, hinting at the same time that they were generally
the only solid advantage gained by the dedicatee from the honour done
him.
1.
“To the readers. After this booke was last printed, I understand
that M. Francis Thynn had a purpose, as indeed he hath when the
time shall serve, to set out Chaucer with a coment in our tongue, as the
Italians have Petrarke and others in their language. Whereupon I
purposed not to meddle any further in this work, although some promise
made to the contrarie, but to referre all to him; being a gentleman for
that purpose inferior to none, both in regard to his own skill, as also
of those helps left to him by his father. Yet notwithstanding,
Chaucer now being printed againe I was willing not only to helpe some
imperfections, but also to add some things whereunto he did not only
persuade me, but most kindly lent me his helpe and direction. By this
means most of his old words are restored: proverbes and sentences
marked: such Notes as were collected, drawne into better order and the
text by olde copies corrected.” Speight’s Chaucer, 1602.
2.
Urry, in his Ed. of Chaucer, says that the Canterbury Tales were exempt
from the prohibition of the Act of 34 Henry VIII. “For the advancement
of true religion.” I find no notice of this in the Act in the
“Statutes at large,” 1763. He also refers to Foxe’s Acts and Monuments,
which is also merely negative on the subject.
LIST OF THYNNE’S WORKS
1. The perfect Ambassador, treating of the Antiquity, Privileges, and
Behaviour of men belonging to that Function. 12mo, 1651 & 1652.
(This was first published in 1651 under the title “The
application of certain histories concerning Ambassadors and their
functions.” The title-page only is new. MS. note by Bliss. British
Museum, 8005—a.)
2. Annals of Scotland, in some part continued from the time in which
Ra. Holinshead left, being an. 1571 unto the year 1586. London, 1586.
fol.
3. “There are also the catalogues of the Protectors, Governors, or
Regents of Scotland during the King’s minority, or the minority of
several kings, or their insufficiency of government. There are also the
catalogues of all Dukes of Scotland by creation or descent, of the
Chancellors of Scotland; Archbishops of St Andrews and divers writers of
Scotland.” A. a’ Wood.
4. Catalogue of English Cardinals set down in R. Holinshed’s
Chronicle at the end of Q. Mary.
5. “A Discourse of Arms,” dated “Clerkenwell Grene, 5th of Jan.,
1593.” MS. in the College of Arms.
6. “Catalogue of the Chancellors of England.” MS. in the Bridgewater
Library.
7. “Collections for the History of England.” MS. in Bridgewater
Library.
8. Animadversions on Speight’s Chaucer, MS. in Bridgewater
Library.
9. Several Collections of Antiquities. Notes concerning
xiv
Arms, monumental Antiquities, &c. MS. Cotton’s Lib. Cleopatra,
C. 3. p. 62.
10. A discourse of the duty and office of a Herald of Arms, ad. 1605.
MS. Bib. Ashmol. n. 835.
11. Missellanies of the Treasury. MS. 1599.
12. Matters concerning Heralds, and Tryal of Armes and the Court
Military. MS. Bib. Ashmol. 12 (printed in Hearne’s Collection of Curious
Discourses).
13. Names of the Earls Marshall of England, A.D. 1601. MS. Bib. Ashmol. 1374.
14. Epitaphia. Sive monumenta Sepulchrorum Anglici et Latini quam
gallice. MS.
“In the castrations to Hollingshed’s Chronicles are the four
following discourses by this Author, which were suppressed from
political motives, they have been added to the late quarto Edition.”
15. The Collection of the Earls of Leicester, compiled in 1585.
16. The lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, written in 1586.
17. Treatise of the Lord Cobham. (Is this the “Lives of the Lords
Cobham of Cobham, Randale and Harborough,” British Mus. MS. add. 12,514.
f. 56?)
18. The catalogue of the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports, and
constables of Dover Castle, as well in the time of King Edward surnamed
the Confessor, as since the reign of the conqueror. MS. 1585 (Was in
the library of More, Bishop of Eley, and now in the British Museum. MS.
add. 12,514).
19. Of Stirling Money.
20. Of what antiquity shires were in England.
21. Of the antiquity and etymology of terms and fines for
administration of justice in England.
22. Of the antiquity of the houses of Law.
23. Of Epitaphs.
24. On the antiquity, &c., of the high Steward of England.
25. The antiquity and office of Earl Marshall. (These last seven are
printed in “Hearne’s Curious Discourses.” 8vo, 1775.)
26. Discourse of bastards. Brit. Mus. MS. add. 4176, fol. 139.
27. The Plea between the advocate and the anti-advocate concerning
the Bath and Batchelor Knights. Brit. Mus. MS. add. 12,530.
28. Annals of England. Mus. Brit. MS. add. 926, 1017, 12,514.
29. The kinges book of all the border Knyghtes, Squiers, and
gentlemen of this realm of England, by Francis Thynne, 1601, MS. Mus.
Brit. MSS. add. 11,388.
(The same volume contains much curious matter collected and
illustrated by Thynne—principally bearing on the philosopher’s
stone. The principal paper is a rhyming Latin poem, “De Phenicæ sive de
Lapide Philosophico,” referred to in the tract.)
Collections out of Domus Regni Angliæ. Nomina Episcoporum in
Somerset. Nomina Saxonica de Donatoribus a Regibus Eadfrido, Eadgare et
Edwardo, Catalogus Episcoporum, Barton and Wells. A book of
collections and commentaries de historia et Rebus Britannicis.
Collections out of manuscript, Historians Registers of Abbies, Leger
books, and other antient manuscripts.
ANIMADVERSIONS.
To the righte Honorable his singular goode Lorde Sir Thomas Egertone
knighte lorde keper of the greate seale and Master of the Rooles of the Chancerye.
It was (Ryghte honorable and my verye good lorde) one annciente and
gretlye estemed custome emongste the Romans in the heigh[t]e of their
glorye, that eche one, accordinge to their abylytye or the desarte of
his frende, did in the begynnynge of the monthe of Januarye (consecrated
to the dooble faced godd Janus one the fyrste daye whereof they made
electione of their cheife officers and magystrates) presente somme gyfte unto his frende as
the noote and pledge of the contynued and encresed amytye betwene them,
a pollicye gretlye to be regarded, for the manye good effectes
whiche issue from so woorthye cause. This custome not restinge in the
lymyttes of Italye, but spredinge with the Romans (as did their
language and many other their usages and lawes) into euerye perticuler
Countrye where theyr powre and gouermente stretched. passed also ouer
the Oceane into the litle worlde of Brytannye, being neuer exiled from
thence, nor frome those, whome eyther honor, amytye, or dutye doth
combyne. ffor whiche cause lest I myghte offende in the breche of that
moste excellente and yet embraced
2
Custome, I thynke yt my parte to presente unto
2
your Lordship suche poore neweyeres gyfte as my weake
estate and the barrennesse of my feble skyll will permytte: Wherefore,
and because Cicero affirmethe, that he whiche hathe once ouer passed the
frontiers of modestye must for euer after be impudente, (a grounde
whiche I fynde fully veryfyed in my selfe, havinge once before
outgonne the boundes of shamefastnesse in presentinge to
your Lordshippe my confused collections and disordered
discourse of the Chauncelors)3 I ame nowe become utterlye impudente in not
blusshinge to salute you agayne (in the begynnynge of this newe
yere) with my petye animadversions, uppon the annotacions
and corrections delivered
by Master Thomas Speghte uppon the last editione of Chaucer’s
workes in the yere of oure redemptione 1598; thinges
(I confesse) not so answerable to your Lordshippes
iudgmente, and my desyre, as boothe your desarte and my dutye doo
challenge. But althoughe they doo not in all respectes satisfye youre
Lordshippes expectacione and my goode will, (accordinge as I
wyshe they sholde), yet I dobt not but your lordshippe (not
degeneratinge from youre former curtesye wontinge to accompanye all
youre actions) will accepte these trifles from your
lovinge well-willer, in suche sorte, as I shall acknowledge myselfe beholdinge and endebted to
your Lordshippe for the same. whiche I hoope your
Lordshippe will the rather doo (with pardonynge my presumptione) because
you haue, by the former good acceptance of my laste booke, emboldened me
to make tryall of the lyke acceptance of this pamfelette. Wherefore yf your Lordshippe
shall receve yt curteouslye (and so not to dischorage
3
3
mee in my sweete and
studiouse idlenesse) I will hereafter consecrate to your
lykinge some better labor of
moore momente and higher subiecte, answerable to the excellencye of
your iudgemente, and mete to declare the fulnesse of the dutyfull
mynde and service I beare and owe unto your Lordshippe, to whome in all
reuerence I commytte this simple treatyce. Thus (withe hartye prayer comendinge youre estate to the
Almightye (who send to your
Lordshippe manye happye
and helthfull yeres
and to me the
enlarged
contynuance of
youre honorable fauor)
I humblye take my leave.
Clerkenwell grene
the xx of
December
1599.
Your Lordshippes wholye to
dyspose,
Francis Thynne.
3.
“The names and Armes of the Chancellors collected into one Catologue
by ffrancis Thynn declaring the yeres of the reignes of the kinges and
the yere of our Lorde in whiche they possessed that office.”
—Folio MS. Bridgewater Library.
4
TO MASTER THOMAS SPEIGHTE ffrancis Thynn sendeth greeting.
The author is vexed that Master Speight did not consult him on his new
edition of Chaucer.
THE INDUSTRYE AND LOVE (MASTER SPEIGHT) whiche you haue used, and beare, uppon and to
oure famous poete Geffrye Chaucer, deseruethe bothe comendatione
and furtherance: the one to recompense your trauayle, the other
to accomplyshe the duetye, whiche we all beare (or at the least yf we reuerence lernynge or
regarde the honor of oure Countrye, sholde beare) to suche a singuler
ornamente of oure tonge, as the woorkes of Chaucer are: Yet since there
is nothinge so fullye perfected, by anye one,
4
whereine some
imperfectione maye not bee founde, (for as the prouerbe is
Bernardus, or as others
have Alanus, non videt omnia,) you must be contented to gyve me leave in
discharge of the duetye and love whiche I beare to Chaucer, (whome I
suppose I have as great intereste to adorne withe my smale skyll as anye
other hath, in regarde that the laborious care of my father made hym
most acceptable to the worlde in correctinge and augmentinge his
woorkes,) to enter into the examinatione of this newe
editione, and that the rather, because you
5
with Horace his verse “si quid novisti rectius istis, candidus
imperti,” have willed all others to further the same, and to accepte
your labors in good parte, whiche as I most willingly doo,
so meaninge but well to the worke, I ame to lett you
understande my conceyte thereof, whiche before this, yf you wolde have vouchesafed
my howse, or have thoughte me worthy to have byn acqueynted with these
matters, (whiche you might well have donne without anye
whatsoeuer dispargement to yourselfe,) you sholde haue understoode before the
impressione, althoughe this whiche I here write ys not nowe uppon selfe
will or fonnd conceyte to wrangle for one asses shadowe, or to seke
a knott in a rushe, but in frendlye sorte to bringe truthe to lighte,
a thinge whiche I wolde desire others to use towardes mee in
whatsoeuer shall fall oute of my penne. Wherefore I will here shewe such thinges as, in mye opynione,
may seme to be touched, not medlinge withe the seconde editione to one
inferior personne then my fathers editione was.
Also vexed at a side blow at his father’s edition, and justifies him as
editor.
Ffyrste in your forespeche to the reader,
you saye “secondly the texte by written copies corrected” by
whiche worde corrected, I maye seme to gather, that you
imagine greate imperfectione in my fathers editione, whiche
peraduenture maye move others to saye (as some unadvisedlye have
sayed) that my father had
5
wronged Chaucer: wherefore to stoppe that gappe, I will answere,
that Chaucers woorkes haue byn sithens printed twyce, yf not
thrice, and therfore by oure carelesse
6
(and for the most parte unlerned) printers of Englande, not so
well performed as yt ought to bee: so that of necessytye bothe in
matter, myter and meaninge, yt must needes gather corruptione,
passinge throughe so manye handes, as the water dothe the further yt
runnethe from the
pure founteyne. To enduce me and all others to iudge his editione
(whiche I thinke you neuer sawe wholye together, beinge fyrst
printed but in one coolume in a page, whereof I will speake hereafter)
was the perfectest: ys the ernest desire and love my father hadde
to have Chaucers woorkes rightlye to be publyshed. for the performance whereof, my
father not onlye used the helpe of that lerned and eloquent kn[i]ghte and antiquarye Sir Briane Tuke, but had also made
greate serche for copies to perfecte his woorkes, as apperethe in
the ende of the squiers tale, in his editione printed in the yere
1542;
His father’s collection of MS. Chaucers and their curiosity.
but further had comissione to serche all the liberaries of
Englande for Chaucers works, so that oute of all the Abbies of this Realme
(whiche reserved anye monumentes thereof) he was fully furnished
with multitude of Bookes. emongst whiche one coppye of some parte of his woorkes came to his
handes subscribed in diuers places withe “examinatur Chaucer.” By this
Booke, and conferringe manye of the other written copies together, he deliuered his
editione, fullye corrected, as the amendementes under his hande,
in the fyrst printed booke that euer was of his woorkes (beinge stamped
by the fyrste impressione that was in
7
Englande) will well declare, at what tyme he added manye thinges
whiche were not before printed, as you nowe haue donne soome, of
whiche I ame perswaded (and that not withoute reasone) the
originall
6
came from mee.
The Pilgrime’s Tale telling forth the evil lives of churchmen.
In whiche his editione, beinge printed but with one
coolume in a syde, there was the pilgrymes tale, a thinge moore
odious to the Clergye, then the speche of
8
the plowmanne; that pilgrimes tale begynnynge in this sorte;
“In Lincolneshyre fast by a fenne,
Standes a relligious howse who doth yt kenne,” &c.
9
In this tale did Chaucer most bitterlye enveye against the pride,
state, couetoussness,
and extorcione of the Bysshoppes, their officialls, archdeacons,
vicars generalls, comissaryes, and other officers of the spirituall
courte. The inventione and order whereof (as I have herde yt related by some nowe of good
worshippe bothe in courte and countrye but then my fathers clerkes,)
was, that one comynge into this relligious howse, walked upp and down
the churche, beholdinge goodlye pictures of Bysshoppes in the windowes,
at lengthe the manne contynuynge in that contemplatione, not
knowinge what Byshoppes
they were, a grave olde manne withe a longe white hedde and berde,
in a large blacke garment girded unto hym, came forthe and asked hym,
what he iudged of those pictures in the windowes, who sayed he knewe not
what to make of them, but that they looked lyke unto our mitred
Byshoppes; to whome the olde father replied, yt is true, they are like, but not the same, for oure
byshoppes are farr degenerate from them, and withe that, made a large
discourse of the Byshoppes
and of their courtes.
William Thynne in favour with Henry VIII., who promiseth to countenance
him.
This tale when kinge henrye the eighte had redde, he called my father
unto hym saying Williame Thynne I dobte this will not be allowed, for I
suspecte the Byshoppes will call the in questione for yt,
10
to whome my father, beinge in great fauore with his prince,
(as manye yet lyvinge canne testyfye,) sayed yf your grace
be not offended, I hoope to be protected by you, whereuppon
the kinge bydd hym goo his waye and feare not. All
7
whiche not withstandinge,
The promise broken through the power of Wolsey.
my father was called in questione by the Bysshoppes and heaved at
by cardinall Wolseye his olde enymye, for manye causes, but mostly for
that my father had furthered Skelton to publishe his Collen Cloute
againste the Cardinall,
The most part of Colin Clout written at William Thynne’s house at
Erith.
the moste parte of whiche Booke was compiled in my fathers howse
at Erithe in Kente. But for all my fathers frendes, the Cardinalls
perswadinge auctorytye was so greate withe the kinge, that
thoughe by the kinges favor
my father escaped bodelye daunger, yet the Cardinall caused the kinge so
muche to myslyke of that tale, that chaucer must be newe printed and
that discourse of the pilgrymes tale lefte oute, and so beinge printed
agayne, some thynges were forsed to be omitted, and the plowmans tale
(supposed, but untrulye, to be made by olde Sir Thomas Wyat, father to
hym which was executed in the firste yere of Quene Marye, and not by
Chaucer,) with muche ado permitted to passe with the reste,
Chaucer’s works like to be destroyed by parliament.
in suche sorte that in one open parliamente (as I have herde Sir Johne Thynne reporte, beinge then a member of the
howse,) when talke was had of Bookes to be forbidden, chaucer had there
for euer byn condempned, had yt not byn that his woorkes had byn counted
but fables.
Reasons why the Pilgrime’s Tale should be Chaucer’s.
Whereunto yf you will replye, that their colde not be any suche
pilgrymes tale,
11
because Chaucer in his prologues makethe not mentione of anye suche
persoune, whiche he wolde
haue doune yf yt had byn so: for after that he had recyted the knighte,
the squyer, the squiers yeomane, the prioresse, her noone, and her thre prests, the monke, the fryer, the marchant, the
clerke of Oxenforde, seriante at the lawe, franckleyne, haberdassher,
goldsmythe, webbe, dyer and tapyster, cooke, shypmane, Doctor of physecke, wyfe of Bathe, parsoune and
plowmane, he sayeth at the
end of the plowmans prologue,
There was also a Reue, and a Millere
A sumpneure, and a Pardoner
A manciple and my selfe there was no mo.
All whiche make xxx persons with Chaucer: wherefore yf there had byn
anye moore, he wolde also haue recyted them in those verses, whereunto I
answere, that in the prologes he lefte oute some of those whiche tolde their tales; as the
chanons yomane, because he came after that they were passed
out of theyre Inne, and did overtake them, as in lyke sorte this
pilgrime did or mighte doo, and so afterwardes be one of their companye,
as was that chanons yeomane, althoughe Chaucer talke no moore of
this pilgrime in his prologe then he doothe of the chanons
yeomane; whiche I dobte not
wolde fullye appere, yf the pilgrimes prologe and tale mighte be
restored to his former light they being nowe looste, as manye other of
Chaucers tales were before that, as I am induced to thinke by manye
reasons.
How William Thynne’s collection of Chaucer’s MS. was dispersed
abroad.
But to leave this, I must saye that in those many written Bookes of
Chaucer, whiche came to my fathers hands, there were manye false copyes, whiche Chaucer
shewethe in writinge of Adam Scriuener, (as you have noted) of whiche written copies there
came to me
12
after my fathers deathe some fyve and twentye; whereof some had moore
and some fewer tales, and some but two and some three. whiche
bookes beinge by me (as one nothinge dobting of this whiche is nowe
donne for Chaucer) partly dispersed aboute xxvj years agoo, and partlye
stoolen out of my howse at Popler: I gave divers of them to Stephen
Batemanne person of Newington, and to divers other, whiche beinge copies
unperfecte and some of them corrected by my fathers hande yt maye
happen soome of them to coome to some of your frendes handes, whiche I knowe yf I
see agayne: and yf by anye suche written copies you have
corrected Chaucer, you maye as well offende as
9
seme to do good. But I judge the beste, for in dobtes I will not resolve with a settled judgement, althoughe
you may iudge this tediouse discourse of my father a needlesse
thinge in setting forthe his diligence in breaking the yce, and givinge lighte to others, who
may moore easely
perfecte then begyne any thinge, for facilius est addere
quam Invenire, and so to other matters.
He differeth from Master Speight on Chaucer’s family.
Under the tytle of chaucers countaye,4 you seme to make yt probable that
Richarde Chaucer vinetener of Londone, was Geffrye Chaucers father, But
I holde
13
that no moore then that Johne Chaucer of Londone, was father to Richarde; of
whiche Johne I fynde in the
recordes in Dorso Rotulor. patent. memb. 24 de anno 30. Ed. 1. in the towre.
that kinge Edwarde the firste had herde the compleinte of Johne chaucer of London, who was beaten
and hurte, to the domage of one thousand pownde (that some amountinge at
this daye to thre thowsande pownde;) for whiche a comissione went forthe to enquire thereof.
wherbye yt semethe that he was of some Reconynge. But as I cannott saye that Johne was
father to Richarde, or hee to Geffroye: So yet this muche I will deliuer
in settinge downe the antiquytye of the name of chaucer, that his
anncesters (as you well coniecture) were strangers, as the etymon
of his name (beinge frenche in Englishe synyfyinge one who shueth or
hooseth a manne) dothe prove,
Chausier, one who hoseth or shueth a man.
for that dothe the Etymon of this worde chausier presente unto us, of
whiche name I have founde (besides the former recyted Johne) on Elias chauseryr lyvinge in the
tyme of Henrye the thirde and of Edwarde the firste, of whome the record
of pellis exitus in the receyte of the Exchequier in the firste yere of
Edwarde ye firste hathe thus
noted: “Edwardus dei gratia &c. Liberate de thesauro
Nostro Elie chauseryr decem
10
solidos super arreragia trium obulorum diurnorum quos ad
vitam suam per litteras domini. H. Regis patris nostri, percepit ad scaccarium
nostrum. datum per manum Walteri Merton
cancellarii nostri apud West minsterium 24 Julii anno
regni nostri primo.” with whiche carractres ys Geffry Chausyer written
in the Recordes in the tyme of Edwarde the thirde and Richarde the
seconde. So that yt was a name of office or occupatione, whiche
after came to be the surname
14
of a famelye, as did Smythe, Baker, Porter, Bruer, Skynner, Cooke,
Butler, and suche lyke, and that yt was a name of office apperethe in
the recordes of the towre, where yt is named Le Chaucer, beinge more
annciente then anye other of those recordes; for in Dorso clause of 10:
H. 3 ys this: Reginaldus mirifirs et alicia uxor eius
attornaverunt Radulfum le Chausier
contra Johannem Le furber et matildem uxorem eius de uno
messuagio in London. This chaucer lyvinge also in the time of kinge John. And thus this muche for the
Antiquytye and synificatione of Chaucer, whiche I canne
prove in the tyme of Edward the 4 to signyfye also, in oure Englishe
tonge, bootes or highe shoes to the calfe of the legge: for thus hathe
the Antique recordes of Domus Regni Anglie, ca. 53 for the messengers of
the kinges howse to doo the kings comanndementes: that they shalbe
allowed for their Chauses yerely iiijs viijd: But
what shall wee stande uppon the Antiquyte and gentry of Chaucer, when
the rolle of Battle Abbeye affirmeth hym to come in with the Conquerer.
Chaucer his arms injustly undervalued.
Under the title of Chaucers countrye, yow sett
15
downe that some Heraldes are of opyny-one that he did not discende of any
great howse; whiche they gather by his armes. This ys a slender
coniecture, for as honorable howses and of as greate Antiquytye haue
borne as meane armes as Chaucer, and yet Chaucers armes are not so meane
eyther for
11
coolor, chardge or
particione as some will make them. And where you saye, yt
semethe lykelye, Chaucers skill in Geometrye considered, that he tooke
the groundes and reasons of his armes oute of seuen twentye and eight
and twentye propositiones of Euclide’s first booke, that ys no
inference that his armes were newe or fyrst assumed by hym oute of
Geometricall proportions, because he was skyllfull in Geometrye: for so
you maye saye of all the auncient armes of England whiche consyste not of anymalls or
vegitalls. for all other armes whiche are not Anymalls and vegitalls, as
Cheuerons, pales, Bendes, Checkes, and suche lyke, stande uppon
geometricall proportiones. And therfore howe greate so
euer their skyll bee, which
attribute that choyce of armes to Chaucer [they] had no moore skyle in
armes then they needed.
Philippa of Henault came not over with Prince Edward.
In the same title also, you sett downe Quene
Isabell, &c. and her sonne prince Edwarde withe his newe maried
wyfe retourned oute of Henalte. In whiche are two unperfections. the first whereof
ys, that his wyfe came oute of Henalte with the prince, but that is not soo, for the
prince maryed her not before he came into England, since the prince was
onlye slenderly contracted and not maryed to her before his arryvall in
Englande, beinge two yeres and moore after that contracte, (betwene the
erle of henalt
16
and his mother,) about the
latter ende of the seconde yere of his reigne, thoughe others haue the
firste, the solempnytye of that mariage beinge donne at Yorke. besides
she came not ouer with Quene Isabell and the prince, but the prince sent
for her afterwardes, and so I suppose sayeth Hardinge in his cronicle, yf I do not mysconceve
yt, not havinge the historye now in my handes. But whether he saye so or
no, yt ys not materiall, because the recordes be playne, that he sent
for her into Henalte in the seconde yere of his reigne
12
in october, and she came to the kinge the 23 of Januarye followinge,
whiche was aboute one daye before he beganne the thirde yere of
his reigne, wherunto he entred the 25 of Januarye. and for prooffe of
the tyme when and whoome the Kinge sente, and what they were allowed
therefore, the pellis exitus of the Exchequier remayninge in master
warders office
17
hathe thus sett downe to the
forthe daye of februarye
Bartholomew de Burgersh sent for Philippa of Henault.
“Bartholomeo de Burgershe nuper misso ad partes Douor ad
obuiandum filiæ comitis Hannoniæ consorti ipsius Regis &c.” but this recorde followinge is most pleyne, shewing
bothe who went for her, the day when they tooke their yourneye towardes
henalte, with the daye when and where they presented her to the kinge after their
retorne into Englande, and the daye one whiche they wer payed their
charges, beinge the forthe of marche one whiche daye yt is thus
entred in the records of
pellis exitus, Michaell. 2. ed. 3. “Rogero couentry
&c Lichefeld episcopo nuper misso in nuntium domini
Regis ad partes Hannoniæ
pro matrimonio inter dominum Regem et filiam comitis Hannoniæ
contrahendo, ab octavo die
octobris proxime preterito, quo die reessit de Notingham ipso
domino Rege ibidem existente, arripiendo iter suum
predictum, versus partes predictas, usque vicesimum tertium diem
Januarii proxime
sequentem, quo die rediit ad ipsum Regem predictum
apud Eborum in
comitatiua filiæ comitis Hannoniæ predictæ utroque die computato pro cviij diebus
percipiendo per diem iij.li vj.s viij.d
pro expensis suis.” Thus muche the recorde, whiche confirmethe that
whiche I go aboute to prove, that she came not into Englande with prince Edwarde, and
that he was not maryed at that tyme, no, not contracted, but only by
agremente betwene the erle and his mother.
The conjecture that Chaucer’s ancestors were merchants, of no
valydytye.
Next you seme to implye by
a coniecturall argumente, that Chaucers auncesters sholde be merchants, for that in
13
place where they haue dwelled the armes of the marchantes of the staple
haue bin seene in the glasse windowes. This ys a mere coniecture, and of
no valydytye. For the marchantes of the staple had not any armes
granted to them (as I haue bin enformed) vntill longe after the
deathe of Chaucers parentes, whiche was
18
aboute the 10 or 12 of Edwarde the thirde; and those merchantes had no
armes before the tyme of Henrye the sixte, or muchewhat thereaboutes, as
I dobt not but wilbe well proued, yf I be not mysenformed. But admytte
the staplers had then armes, yt ys no argumente that chaucers
auncesters were
merchantes because those armes were in the wyndowes, as you shall well
perceave, yf you drawe yt into a syllogisme, and therefore
you did well to conclude, that yt was not materiall whether they
were merchants or
noo.
Master Speight misquoteth Gower.
In the title of Chaucer’s educatione, you saye that Gower
in his booke entituled confessio amantis termethe Chaucer a worthye
poet, and maketh hym as yt were the iudge of his woorkes; in
whiche Booke, to my knowledge, Gower dothe not terme hym a
worthye poet, (althoughe I confesse he well deserueth that name, and that the same may be gathered oute of Gower comendynge
hym,) nether doth he after a
sorte (for any thinge I canne yet see) make hym iudge of his workes,
(whereof I wolde be glad to be enformed,) since these be Gowers woordes,
vttered by Venus in that booke of confessio Amantis:
And grete well Chaucer when ye mete,
As my disciple and my poet:
for in the flowere of his youthe,
In sondrye wise, as he well couthe,
of dytyes and of songes glade
the whiche for my sake he made,
the laude fulfilled is
ouer all:
wherefore to hym in especiall
aboue all others I am most holde;
for thy nowe in his dayes olde,
thow shalt hym tell this message,
that he vppon his latter age
sett an ende of all his werke,
as he whiche is myne owne clerke
do make his testament of Love,
as thow hast done thy shrift ab[o]ue,
so that my Courte yt may recorde, &c.
19
Chaucer submitteth his works to Gower, not Gower to Chaucer.
These be all the verses whiche I knowe or yet canne fynde, in
whiche Gower in that booke mentioneth Chaucer, where he nether nameth hym worthye poet, nor after a
sorte submyttethe his workes to his iudgmente. But quite contrarye
Chaucer doth submytte the
correctione of his
woorks to Gower in these
playne woordes, in the latter ende of the fyfte booke of Troylus:
O Morall Gower, this booke I directe
To the, and the philosophicall stroode,
To vouchesafe where nede is to correcte
Of your benignityes and
zeales good.
But this error had in you byn pardoned, yf you had not sett yt
downe as your owne, but
warranted with the auctorytye of Bale in Scriptoribus Anglie, from
whence you haue swallowed yt.
Gower the poet was not of the Gowers (or Gores) of
Stittenham.
Then in a marginall note of this title you saye agayne oute of
Bale, that Gower was a Yorkshire manne; but you are not to be touched
therfore, because you discharge your selfe in vouching your auctor. Wherfore Bale hath muche mistaken
yt, as he hath donne infynyte thinges in that Booke de scriptoribus
Anglie, beinge for the most parte the collections of Lelande. For
in truth your armes
of this Sr Johne Gower beinge argent one a cheuerone azure,
three leopardes heddes or, do prove that he came of a contrarye howse to
the Gowers of Stytenham in Yorkeshyre, who bare barrulye of argent and
gules a crosse patye florye sable. Whiche difference
15
of armes semethe a difference of famelyes, vnlesse you canne
prove that, beinge of one howse, they altered their armes vppone some iuste occasione, as
that soome of the howse maryinge one heyre did leave his owne armes and
bare the armes of his moother; as was accustoomed in tymes paste. But
this difference
20
of Cootes for this cause, or anye other, (that I colde yet euer lerne,)
shall you not fynde in this famelye of Gower: and therefore seuerall
howses from the fyrst originall. Then the marginall note goeth further out of Bale, that Gower had
one his hedde a garlande of ivye and rooses, the one the ornamente of a
knyghte, the other of a poet.
Gower’s chaplette for knighthood not for poetry.
But Bale ys mystaken, for yt ys not a garlande, vnlest you will
metaphoricallye call euerye cyrcle of the hedde a garlande as
Crownes are sometymes called garlandes, from whence they had their
originall, nether ys yt of Ivye, as any manne whiche seethe-yt may well iudge, and
therefore not there sett for anye suche intente as an ensigne of his poetrye, but ys symplye a
chapplett of Roses, suche as the knyghtes in olde tyme vsed ether of
golde, or other embroderye, made after the fasshone of Roses, one of the peculier ornamentes of
a knighte, as well as his coller of SSS, his guilte swoorde, and
spurres.
The chaplette of roses a peculiar ornament of honour.
Whiche chaplett or cyrcle of Rooses was as well attributed to
knights, the lowest
degree of honor, as to the hygher degrees of Duke, Erle, &c.
beinge knyghtes, for so I haue seene Johne of Gaunte pictured in his
chaplett of Rooses; and
kinge Edwarde the thirde gaue his chaplett to Eustace Rybamonte, only
the difference was, that as they were of lower degree, so had the[y]
fewer Rooses placed on their
chaplett or cyrcle of golde, one ornament deduced frome the Dukes crowne
whiche had thee rooses vppon the toppe of the cyrcle, when the knighte
had them onlye vppon the cyrcle or garlande ytselfe. of whiche dukes crowne to be adorned with
little rooses,
16
The knighting of Erle Mortone of Normandye.
Mathewe Paris, speakinge of the
21
creatinge of Johne erle
Mortone, duke of Normandye, in the yere of Christe 1199, dothe saye,
Interim comes Johannes Rothomagum veniens in octavis pasche
gladio ducatus Normaniæ cinctus est, in matrice ecclesia, per
ministerium Waltheri
Rothomagensis Archiepiscopi, vbi Archiepiscopus
memoratus ante maius altare in capite eius posuit circulum
aureum habentem in summitate per gyrum
rosulas aureas artificialiter fabricatas, whiche chaplett of Rooses came in the ende to
be a bande aboute oure cappes, sette with golde Buttons, as may be
supposed.—In the same title you saye, yt semethe that
these lerned menne were of the Inner Temple;
Chaucer being a grave man unlikely to beat a Franciscan Fryer
but?
for that, manye yeres since, master Buckley did see a recorde in the
same howse, where Geffrye Chaucer was fined two shillinges for beatinge
a Franciscane Fryer in flete-streate. This is a hard collect[i]one to
prove Gower of the Inner Temple, althoughe he studyed the lawe. for thus
you frame your
argumente. Mr Buckley founde a recorde in the Temple, that Chaucer was
fyned for beatinge the fryer; ergo, Gower and Chaucer were of the
Temple. But for myne owne parte, yf I wolde stande vppon termes for
matter of Antiquytye and ransacke the originall of the lawiers fyrst
settlinge in the Temple, I dobte whether Chaucer were of the temple
or noe, vnless yt were
towardes his latter tyme, for he was an olde manne, as appereth by Gower in Confessione Amantis in the xvi yere of
R. 2: when Gower wroote that Booke.
The lawyers not in the temple till the latter part of Edward III.
And yt is most certeyne to be gathered by cyrcumstances of Recordes,
that the lawyers were not in the temple vntill towardes the latter parte
of the
22
reygne of kinge Edwarde the thirde; at whiche tyme Chaucer was a
grave manne, holden in greate credyt, and employed in embassye, so that
me thinkethe he sholde not be of that howse; and yet, yf he then were,
I sholde iudge yt strange that he sholde
17
violate the rules of peace and gravytye yn those yeares. But I will
passe over all those matters scito pede, and leave euerye
manne to his owne iudgemente therein for this tyme.
Speight knoweth not the name of Chaucer’s wife, nor doth Thynne.
In the title of Chawcer’s mariage
you saye, you cannotte fynde the name of the Gentlewomanne
whome he maryed. Trulye, yf I did followe the conceyte of others,
I sholde suppose her name was Elizabethe, a waytinge womanne
of Quene philippe, wyfe to Edwarde the thirde & daughter to William erle of
Henalte. but I favor not
their oppynyone, for, althoughe I fynde a recorde of the pellis exitus,
in the tyme of Edwarde the thirde, of a yerely stypende to Elizabethe
Chawcer, domicellæ reginæ Philippæ, whiche domicella dothe signyfye one of her
waytinge gentlewomen: yet I cannott for this tyme thinke this was his
wyfe, but rather his sister or kinswomanne, who after the deathe of her mystresse
Quene philippe did forsake the worlde, and became a nonne at Seinte
Heleins in london, accordinge as you haue touched one of that
professione in primo of kinge Richarde the seconde.
23
The children of John of Gaunt born pre-nupt, and legytymated by the Pope
and the Parliament.
In the Latyne stemme of Chawcer you saye, speakinge of Katherine
Swyneforde, Que postea nupta Johanni Gandauensi tertij Edwardi Regis filio, Lancastriæ duci, illi procreavit filios tres
et vnicam filiam. Wherbye we may inferre that Johne of Gaunte had these childrene by her
after the mariage. Whiche is not soo for he had all his children by her
longe before that mariage, so that they beinge all illegitimate were enforced afterwarde vppon
that maryage to be legytymated by the poope; & also by acte of
Parliamente, aboute the two & twentythe of kinge Richarde the
seconde; so that you cannott saye, que postea nupta procreavit
Lancastriæ duci tres filios, etc.
Chaucer’s children and their advauncement and of the Burgershes.
In the title of Chawcers children and their advauncemente, in a marginall noote you
vouche master
18
Campdene that Barthelmewe Burgershe, knyghte of the Garter, was he from
whome the Burgershes, whose daughter & heyre was maryed to Thomas
Chawcer, did descende. But that is also one error. for this Barthelmewe was of a-collaterall lyne to that Sr
Johne Burgershe the father of
Mawde wyfe to Thomas Chawcer; and therefore coulde not that Sr Johne Burghershe be descended of this Barthelmewe
Burgershe, though hee were of that howse.
Serlo de Burgo uncle and not brother to Eustace.
Then, in that title, you vouche oute of Mr. Campdene that Serlo de Burgo brother to
Eustachius de Vescye builte Knaresborowe Castle. but that ys not right for this Serlo beinge
called Serlo de Burgo siue de Pembroke was brother to Johne father to Eustace Vescye, as haue
the recordes of the towre, and so vncle and not brother to Eustace.
Jane of Navarre maryed to Henry IV., in the 5th year of his
reign.
for one other marginall noote in that tytle,
24
you saye, that Jane of Navarre was maryed to Henrye the forthe in
the fourthe yere of his reygne, wherein you followe a late englishe cronicler whome I forbeare to
name.5
But Walsingham bothe in his historye of Henry the fourthe, &
in his ypodigma, sayethe that she was maryed the 26 of Januarye in the yere of Christe 1403, whiche was in the fyfte
yere of the kinge, yf you begynne the yere of oure lorde at the
annuntiatione of the Virgine, as we nowe doo; but this is
no matter of great momente.
The de la Pools gained advancement by lending the King money, but
William was not the first that did so.
ffourthlye in that title you seme to attribute the advancemente
of the Pooles to Williame de la poole, merchante of Hull, that lente the
kinge a greate masse of moneye. But this Williame was not the fyrste
advancer of that howse because his father Richarde at Poole beinge a
cheife gouernor in hull, and serving the kings necessytye with money, was made pincerna Regis, one office of great
accompte; by the same gyvinge the fyrste advancemente to the succedynge
famelye. Whereof the Record
19
to prove Ric. de la
Poole pincerna Regis is founde in the pryvye seales of the eleventhe
yere of kinge Edwarde the thirde, in master wardoures office, the lorde
treasurers clerke. Where yt is in this manner: Edwardus dei gratia rex
Angliæ et dux Acquitaniæ, &c. Supplicavit nobis dilectus noster
Richardus de la Poole Pincerna noster, vt quum ipse de expensis officii
Pincernariæ ac omnibus aliis officium illud tangentibus, ad
dictum Scaccarium a festo sancti michaelis anno regni
25
nostri decimo, vsque ad idem festum proxime sequens plenarie computaverit, et
2090li: 13s: et 11d et vnus obulus sibi
per computum illud de claro debeatur: volumus ei
solutionem inde, seu aliàs satisfactionem sibi fieri
competentem: Nos eius supplicationi in hac parte, prout iustum
est, annuentes, vobis mandamus, etc. Datum apud
Westmonasterium 14 Decembris, anno regni nostri vndecimo. To
whose sonne this Williame de la Poole the older, and to his sonne
Michaell de la Poole (who was after Chauncelor) and to his heyres, the
kinge graunted fowre hundred markes by yere out of the custome of Hull,
as apperethe in the record of pellis exitus of 46 Ed. 3. the same
Michaell de la Poole recevinge the arrerages of that Annuytye. for thus
yt is entred in Michaelmas terme one the first of December of that yere:
Michaeli de la poole filio
et heredi Willielmi de la poole senioris per Talliam
levatam isto die continentem iijc lxxli
xviijs 1d ob. eidem michaeli liberat per compotum suum
factum ad Scaccarium computator virtute cuiusdam brevis de magno sigillo, Thesaurario et Baronibus
Scaccarii directum pro huius compoto faciendo, de quodam annuo
certo iiijc marc. per annum quas dominus rex Willielmo de la
Poole seniori defuncto, et michaeli filio suo et heredibus suis de
corpore suo exeuntibus, de Custumia in portis ville de kingeston super Hull per
litteras suas patentes concess: percipendum quamdiu
vijc xxxvli
20
xviijs id ob. eidem Michaeli per compotum
predictum sic debitum, etc. Dominus Rex
mandat vt ei satisfactionem vel assignationem competentem
(in locis vbi ei celeriter satisfieri poterit) fieret et haberet,
per breve de magno sigillo
inter mandata de termino Paschæ anno quadragesimo tercio, etc. So that Richarde, Michaell de la
Pooles grandfather, (a magistrate of greate welthe in
Hull,) was the fyrste that gaue advancemente to that howse: although
Williame,
26
father to this michaell, were of lyke estate and a knyghte. nether canne
I fynde (nor ys yt lyke) that michaell de la poole was a marchante,
(havinge two such welthy marchantes to his ancestors before hym,)
notwithstandinge that Walsingham
The clergy offended that the temporal men were found as wise as
themselves.
(moore offended than reasone,
as all the Clergye were against temporall menne who were nowe become
chief officers of the realme; and the spyrituall menne, till then
possessinge those offices, displaced, whiche bredd greate Sorseye
in the Church menne againste them); sayethe that michaell de la poole
fuerit à pueritia magis mercimoniis (vtpote Mercator Mercatoris filius)
quam militia occupatus.
A merchant by Attorney is no true merchant.
And yet yt may bee that he mighte have some factors in merchandise, and
deale by his attorneyes as many noble menne and great persons have
donne, whereuppon Walsingham (who wroote longe after) might seme to call hym merchante by reasone of others mens dealinge for hym, althoughe in troothe he was
neuer merchante in respecte of his owne persone, (for whiche they are
properly called merchantes,) as may be supposed.
Alice, the wife of Richard Neville, was daughter of Thomas
Montacute.
ffyftlye in the same title you saye, that Alice, wyfe of Williame
de la poole duke of Suffolke, had a daughter, by her seconde husbande
thomas montague erle of Sarisberye, named, after her mother, Alice,
maryed to Richarde Neville sonne to Raphe Neuill erle of Westmerlande,
by whome he had issue Richarde, Johne, and George. But this is nothinge so. for this
Alice, the wyfe of
21
Richarde Neville, (erle of
Sarisbery in the righte of the same Alice,) was daughter of Thomas Montacute erle of Salisburye
and of Alice his wyfe, daughter of Thomas Hollande erle of Kente; and
not of Alice daughter to Thomas Chawcer and widdowe to William de la Poole duke of Suffolke.
27
He correcteth Master Speight his dates and history of printing.
In the latter end of the title of
Chawcers deathe you saye, that printinge was brought oute of
Germanye in the yere 1471 being the 37. H. 6. into Englande, beinge
fyrst founde at Magunce by one Johne Cuthembergus, and broughte to Roome by Conradus one
Almayne. But the yere of Christe 1471 was not the 37. H. 6. but the
eleuenthe of kinge Edward the fourthe; and, [printinge,] as some have yt, was not fyrste founde at
Magonce or mentz but at Strasborowe, and perfected at Magonce.
David Chytreus in his historye sayethe, yt was fyrst founde in anno
1440, and brought to Rome by Henricus Han6 a Germane in the yere 1470;
whereof Antonius Campanus framed this excellente epigrame:
Anser Tarpeii custos Jovis, vnde, quòd alis
Constreperis, Gallus decidit; vltor adest
Vlricus Gallus, ne quem poscantur in vsum,
Edocuit pennis, nil opus esse tuis.
But others do suppose that yt was invented at Argenterote, as dothe
Mathewe Parker in the lyfe of Thomas Bourchier Archbyshoppe of
Canterburye; whiche for the incertentye thereof I leave at this tyme to
farther examinatione, not havinge nowe presente leysure
therefore.
The Romante of the Rose began by Guillm̄ de Loris, and finished by John
de la Meune.
In the title of the augmente to euerye tale and booke you write, that the
Romante of the Roose was made in frenche by Johne Clopinell alias Johne Moone; when in truthe the booke was not made by hym
alone:
22
for yt was begonne by Guillame de Loris, and fynished
28
fourtye yeres after the death of Loris, by Johne de Meune alias Johne Clopinell, as apperethe by Molinet, the frenche author of the moralytye vppon the
Romante of the Roose, ca. 50. fo. 57. and may further appere also in the
frenche Romante of the Roose in verse, which Chaucer with muche of that matter omytted, not
havinge translated halfe the frenche Romante, but ended aboute the
middle thereof. Againste whiche Booke Gersone compiled one other,
intituled La reprobatione de la Romante del
Roose; as affirmethe the sayed Molinett, in the 107 chapter of the sayed
moralizatione,
where he excusethe Clopinell and reprouethe Gersone for that Booke,
because Gersone soughte no further meanynge than what was conteyned in the outewarde
letter, this Clopinell begynnynge the Romante of the Rose, in these
verses of Chaucer:
Alas my wane hoope
nay, pardyee;
for I will neuer dispayred bee:
yf happe me fayle, then am I
vngratious and vnworthy, &c.
Why the dream of Chaucer cannot be the book of the Duchess.
Secondlye, under that title
you saye, the woorke, before this last editione of
Chaucer, termed the Dreame of Chaucer, is mystermed, and that yt is the
Booke of the Duches, or the Deathe of Blanche. wherein you bee greatlye
mysledde in my conceyte, for yt cannott bee the Booke of the Duches or
of the Deathe of Blanche, because Johne of Gaunt was then but fowre and twentye yere olde
when the same was made, as apperethe by that tretyse in these
verses:
29
Then founde I syttinge euen vprighte
A wonder well faringe knighte,
By the manner me thought so,
Of good mokell, and right yonge thereto,
Of the age of twentye fowre yere,
Vppon his bearde but little heare.
Then yf he were but fowre and twentye yeres of age, being born, as
hath Walsingham, in
the yere of Christ 1339
the 13. of kinge Edwarde the thirde; and that he was maryed to Blanche
the fourtene calendes of June 1359, the 33 of Ed: the thirde; he was at
this mariage but twentye yeres of age; who within fower yeres after
sholde make his lamentacion for Blanche the duchesse which must be then dedde.
But the duchesse Blanche dyed of the pestilence in the yere of xxe 1368, as hath Anonimus MS, or 1369, as hath Walsinghame whiche by the first
accompte was the ix. and by the last the x. yere after the
mariage, and sixe or at the least
five yeres after this lamentatione of Johne of Gaunte made in the fowre and twentye yere of his
age. Wherfor this cannott be the boke of the Duches because he colde not
lamente her deathe before she was deade. And yf you replye that yt
pleinlye
30
apperethe the same treatyce to be mente of the duches Blaunche, whiche
signyfyethe whyte, by which
name he often termethe his ladye there lamented, but especially in these
verses,
Her throte, as I haue memoyre,
semed as a round towre of yuoire,
of good gretnesse and not to greate,
and fayre white she hete,
that was my ladies name righte;
she was thereto fayre and
brighte,
she had not her name wronge,
right fayre sholders and body longe, &c.
I will answere, that there is no necessitye that yt must be of
Blanche the Duchesse because he sayeth her name was white; since there ys a famelye of
that denominatione,
and some female of that lyne myghte be both white in name, and fayre and white in
personne; and so had not her name wronge or in veyne, as Chaucer
sayeth. or yt mighte be some other louer
24
of his called Blanche,
John of Gaunt, his incontinency.
since he had many
paramours in his youthe, and was not verye contynente in
his age. Wherefore, to conclude, yt apperethe as before, that yt coulde not be mente of the
Duchesse Blanche his wyfe, whiche dyed long after that compleinte. for
whiche cause that Dreame of Chaucer in mye opynyone may well (naye
rather of righte sholde) contynewe his former title of The Dreame of Chaucer. for that, whiche you will haue the
Dreame of Chaucer, is his Temple of Glasse; as I haue seene the title
thereof noted, and the thinge yt selfe confirmethe.
31
Doubteth master Speight’s ability in the exposition of old words, but
commendeth his diligence and knowledge.
In the expositione of the olde wordes, as you shewe greate
diligence and knowledge, so yet in my opynione, unlesse a manne be a good saxoniste, french, and Italyane linguiste,
(from whence Chaucer hathe borowed manye woordes,) he cannott well
expounde the same to oure nowe vnderstandinges, and therefore (thoughe I
will not presume of much
knowledge in these tounges) yt semeth yet to mee, that in your expositione, soome
woordes are not so fullye and rightlye explaned as they mighte bee, althoughe peradventure
you haue framed them to make sence. Wherefore I haue collected
these fewe (from many others lefte for moore leysure) whiche seme to mee
not to be fully explaned in their proper nature, thoughe peradventure
you will seme to excuse them by a metaphoricall gloose.
Aketon or Slevelesse jacket of plate for the war.
Aketon or Haketone you expounde a jackett withoute sleves, without any further additione, that
beinge an indiffynyte speache,
and therefore may be entended a comone garmente daylye vsed, suche as we call a jerken or jackett withoute sleues: But haketon is a
slevelesse jackett of plate
for the warre, couered withe anye other stuffe; at this day also called
a jackett of plate, suche
aketon Walter Stapletone, Bishoppe of Excester and Custos or Wardene of
Londone, had vppon hym secretlye, when he was apprehended and
25
behedded in the twentyeth
yere of Edwarde the seconde.
A besant is a besant, and not a duckett.
Besante you expounde a duckett, But a duckett
32
ys farre from a besante, bothe for the tyme of the inventione,
and for the forme; and as I suppose for the valewe, not withstandinge
that Hollybande in his frenche-Englishe dictionarye make yt of the
valewe of a duckett, whiche duckett is for the most part eyther
venetiane or spanyshe, when the Besante ys mere Grekishe; a coyne
well knowen and vsed in Englande (and yet not therefore one auncient coyne of Englande, as
Hollybande sayethe yt was of france,) emongst the Saxons before, and the Normans after the
Conqueste; the forme whereof I will at other tyme describe, onlye nowe
settinge downe, that this besante (beinge the frenche name, and in
armorye rightlye accordinge to his nature, for a plate of golde,) was
called in Latine Byzantium, obteyninge that name because yt
was the coyne of Constantinople sometyme called Bizantium; and because you
shall not thinke this any fictione of myne owne, I will warrante the
same with Williame of Malmesberye in the fourthe booke De Regibus, who
hathe these wordes: Constantinopolis primum Bizantium dicta formam
antiqui vocabuli preferunt imperatorii nummi
Bizantium dicta; where one other coppye for nummi Bizantium hath Bizantini
nummi, and the frenche hath yt besante or Bezantine, makinge yt an olde coyne of france, (when he sholde
haue sayed one olde coyne in France and not of France,) of the valewe of
a duckette.
Fermentacione is fermentacione, and not dawbing even
metaphorically.
Fermentacione you expounde Dawbinge, whiche cannott
anye way be metaphoricallye so vsed in Chaucer, althoughe yt sholde
be improperlye or harsely applied.
33
For fermentacione ys a peculier terme of
Alchymye, deduced from the bakers fermente or levyne. And therefore the
Chimicall philosophers defyne the
26
fermente to bee anima, the
sowle or lyfe, of the philosophers stoone. Whereunto agreethe Clauiger
Bincing, one chimicall author, sayinge, ante viuificationem id est fermentacionem,
whiche is before tinctinge, or gyvinge tincture or cooler; that
beinge as muche to saye as gyvinge sowle or lyfe to the philosophers
stoone, wherby that may fermente or cooler or gyue lyfe to all other metaline bodyes.
Orfrayes not Goldsmith’s work, but frysed cloth of gold,
a manufacture peculiar to the English.
Orfrayes you expounde Goldsmythes worke, whiche ys as nere
to goldsmythes woorke as clothe of golde, for this worde orefrayes,
beinge compounded of the frenche worde (or) and (frays, or fryse,) the
Englishe is that whiche to this daye (beinge now made all of one
stuffe or substance) is called frised or perled cloothe of gold; in
Latyne, in tymes past, termed aurifrisium or aurifrixorium. A thinge well knowen to
the Saxons in Englande before, as to the Normans after, the Conqueste,
and therfore fullye to satisfye you thereof, I will produce twoo
auctorauctors of the weavinge and vse thereof before
the conquest and since, wherin you shall pleynely see what yt was, and
in what accompt yt was holden, beinge a worke peculier to the
Englishe. The lieger booke of Elye, speakinge of Ediswetha daughter to Brightnothus,
aldermanne, erle
34
or duke, of northumberlande before the Conquest sayethe; cui
tradita Coveneia, locus monasterio vicinus, vbi aurifrixorie et texturæ
secretiùs cum puellis vacabat; and a little after, Tunica Rubra
purpura per gyrum et ab humeris aurifri vndique
circumdatum. Then, after the conquest, mathew Paris speakethe
thereof aboute ornamentes to be sente to the Poope. but because I haue
not my mathewe Paris here, I will vouche one whose name hathe muche
affinytye with hym, and that is Mathewe Parker Archbyshoppe of Canterburye, who, in the
Lyfe of Bonifacius Archbishoppe of that see, hathe these wordes.
“Ao. Domini
27
1246, Romæ multi Anglicani aderant Clerici, qui capis vt aiunt
chorealibus, et infulis, ornamentisque ecclesiasticis, ex
Anglice tunc more gentis, ex lana tenuissima et auro artificiosè intexto
fabricatis, vterentur. Huius
modi ornamentorum aspectu et concupiscentia provocatus
Papa, rogavit cuiusmodi essent. Responsum est, aurifrisia
appellari, quia et eminens ex panno et lana quam Angli fryse
appellant, simul contexta sunt. Cui subridens et dulcedine captus Papa, Vere, inquit,” (for
these are the woordes of Mathewe Paris whiche lyved at that tyme,)
“Hortus noster delitiarum est Anglia, verus puteus est
inexhaustus, et vbi multa abundant, de multis multa sumere licet.
Itaque, concupiscentia illectus oculorum, litteras suas
Bullatas sacras misit ad Cistercienses in Anglia Abbates,
quorum orationibus se devotè commendabat, vt ipsi hec aurifrisia
speciosissima ad suum ornandum chorum compararent.
Hoc Londoniensibus placuit, quia ea tum venalia habebant,
tantique quanti placuit vendiderunt.”
35
In whiche discourse you not onlye see that orefryes was a weued clothe
of golde and not goldsmythe worke, and that Englande had before and since the
conqueste the arte to compose suche kynde of delicate Cloothe of golde
as Europe had not the lyke; for yf yt hadd, the poope wolde haue made
suche prouisione thereof in other places, and not from Englande.
And because you shall not thinke that yt was onlye vsed of the Clergye,
you shall fynde in a record
of the Towre that yt was also one ornamente of the kings garmente, since the Conqueste, for, in
Rotulo Patentium 6. Johannis in Dorso (in whiche the kinge comaunded the templers to deliuer suche
jewells, garmentes, and
ornamentes as they had of the kings in kepinge,) are these wordes: “Dalmaticam de
eodem samitto vrlatani de orfreyes et cum lapidibus.” Whiche is
to saye, the kings
Dalmaticall garmente of the same
28
samitte (spoken of before, whiche was crymsone,) vrled or bordrede (suche as we
nowe calle garded) withe orfreyes.
Oundye and Crispe meaneth wavy like water.
fforthlye Oundye and Crispe is by you expounded slyked and curled,
whiche sence althoughe yt may beare after some sorte; yet the proprytye
of the true sence of oundye (beinge an especiall terme appropriate
36
to the arte of Heraldye) dothe signifye wavinge or movinge, as the water
dothe; being called vndye, of Latyne vnda for water, for so her haire was oundye, that is, layed
in rooles vppone and downe, lyke waves of water when they are styrred with the winde, and
not slyked or playne, etc.
Resager is ratsbane or arsenic.
ffyftlye You expounde not Resager, beinge a terme of Alchymye; as
you leave manye of them vntouched. This worde sholde rather be
resalgar, wherefore I will shewe you what resalgar ys in that
abstruse science,
whiche Chawcer knewe full well, althoughe he enveye againste the
sophisticall abuse thereof in the chanons Yeomans Tale. This Resalgar is
that whiche by some is called Ratesbane, a kynde of poysone
named Arsenicke, which the
chimicall philosophers call their venome or poysone. Whereof I coulde produce infynyte examples;
but I will gyve you onlye these fewe for a taste. Aristotle, in
Rosario Philosophorum, sayethe, “nullum tingens venenum
generatur absque sole et eius vmbra, id est, uxore.” whiche
venome they call by all names presentinge or signifyinge poysone, as a
toode, a dragon, a Basilyske, a serpente, arsenicke, and
suche lyke; and by manye other names, as “in exercitacione ad turbam
philosophorum,” apperethe, wher aqua simplex is called venenum,
Argentum vivum,
Cinnabar, aqua permanens, gumma, acetum, urina, aqua maris, Draco, serpens,
etc. And of this poysone the treatyce de phenice,7 or the philosophers
29
stoone, written in Gothyshe
rymynge verse, dothe
saye;
Moribunda, corporis virus emanabat
quod maternam faciem candidam fœdabat.
37
Begyns are nuns, though it cometh to mean superstitious and hypocritical
women from their nature.
Begyn and Bigott you expounde supersticious hypocrites, whiche sence I knowe yt
maye somewhat beare, because yt sauorethe of the dispositione of
those begins, or Beguines, for that ys the true wrytinge. But this
woorde Begyn sholde in his owne nature rightlye haue ben expounded, supersticious
or hipocriticall wemenne, as appereth by chaucer himselfe, whiche nombrethe
them emongest the wemen in the
Romante of the Roose when he sayethe,
But empresses, & duchesses,
These queenes, & eke countesses
These abbasses, & eke Bigins,
These greate ladyes palasins.
And a little after, in the same Romante, he doth write,
That dame abstinence streyned
Tooke one a Robe of camelyne,
And ganne her gratche as a Bygin.
A large cover-cherfe of
Thredde
She wrapped all aboute her hedde.
These wemene the Frenche call Beguynes or nonnes; being in Latyne
called Bigrinæ or Biguinæ. Whose originall order, encrease, and
contynuance are sett downe by mathewe Paris and Mathewe
Westminster. But as I sayed, since I haue not my mathewe Paris at
hand, I will sett you downe the wordes of mathewe Westmynster (otherwise called “Flores Historiarum” or “Florilegus”) in this sorte. Sub
eisdem diebus (which was in the yere of Christe 1244, and aboute the 28 of kinge Henry
the thirde,) quidam in Almania precipuè se asserentes vitam et habitum
relligionis
30
elegisse, in utroque sexu, sed maximè in muliebri, continentiam,
cuius vitæ simplicitate profitentes, se voto priuato deo
obligarunt. Mulieresque, quas Bigrinas vulgaritèr vocamus, adeò multiplicatæ
sunt, quòd earum
38
numerus in vna ciuitate, scilicèt Colonia, ad plus quam mille asseritur ascendisse, etc. After whiche,
speakinge yn the yere of Christe 1250 of the encrease of relligious orders, he sayeth, Item
in Alemania et Francia mulieres, quas Biguinas nominant, etc.
Citrinatione or perfect digestion.
Citrinatione you do not expounde, beinge a terme of Alchymye.
Whiche Citrinatione is bothe a color and parte of the philosophers stoone. for, as hathe
Tractatus Avicennæ (yf yt be his and not liber suppositi[ti]us, as
manye of the Alchimicall woorkes are foysted in vnder the names of the
best lerned authors and philosophers, as Plato, Aristotle, Avicen, and
suche others,) in parte of
the 7 chapter. Citrinatio est que fit inter album et rubrum, et non dicitur
coolor perfectus, whiche Citrinatione, as sayethe Arnoldus de
Nova Villa, li. i. ca. 5. nihil aliud est quàm completa digestio. For the worke of the philosophers
stoone, following the worke of nature, hathe lyke color in the same
degree. for as the vrine of manne, being whityshe, sheweth imperfecte digestione: But when
he hathe well rested, and slepte after the same, and the digestione
perfected: the vrine becomethe citrine, or of a depe yellowe cooler: so ys yt in Alchymye.
whiche made Arnolde call this citrinatione perfect digestion, or the
cooler provinge the
philosophers stoone broughte almoste to the heigh[t]e of perfectione.
Forage is old and hard provision made for horses and cattle in
winter,
Forage in one place you expounde meate, and in other place fodder.
boothe whiche properly cannott stande in this place of chaucer in the
reves prologue, where he sayeth, “my fodder is forage.” for yf
39
forrage be fodder, then is the sence of that verse, “my fodder is
fodder.” But fodder beinge a generall name for
31
meate gyven to Cattle in winter, and of affynytie withe foode applied to
menne and beasts, dothe
onlye signyfye meate. And so the sence is, “my meate ys forage,” that
is, my meate is suche harde and olde provisione as ys made for
horses and Cattle in winter. for so doth this worde forragium in
latyne signyfye. and so dothe Chaucer meane. for the word next before dothe well shewe yt, when
the Reve sayeth,
I ame olde, me liste not play for age,
Grasse tyme is donne, my fodder is forrage.
or metaphorically, or to help out the ryme it may mean grass.
Yet metaphorically yt may be taken for other than drye horse meate, although improperlye; as
Chaucer hathe, in Sir Topas
Ryme, where he makethe yt grasse for his horse, and vseth the woorde rather to make vpp the ryme than to shewe the true nature thereof; sayinge,
That downe he layed hym in that place,
to make his steede some solace
and gyve hym good forage.
Heroner is a long-winged hawk for the heron.
Heroner you expounde a certeyne kynde of hawke, whiche is true,
for a gowshawke, sparrowe hawke, tassell, &c. be
kyndes of hawkes. But this heroner, is an especiall hawke (of anye
of the kyndes of longe winged hawkes) of moore accompte then other
hawkes are, because the flighte of the Herone ys moore daungerous than of other fowles, insomuch, that when she fyndeth her selfe in danger, she will
lye in the ayre vppon her backe, and turne vpp her bellye towardes the
hawke; and so defile her enymye with her excrementes, that eyther she
will blinde the hawke, or ells with her byll or talons pierce the hawkes brest yf she offer to
cease vppon her.
40
The Hyppe is the berye of the sweet bryer or eglantine.
The Hyppe is not simplye the redde berrye one the Bryer, vnlest
you adde this epithetone and saye, the redde Berrye one the swete
Bryer, (which is the Eglantyne,) to distinguyshe yt from the comone Bryer
or
32
Bramble beringe the blacke Berye, for that name Bryer ys comone to them
boothe; when the Hyppe is proper but to one, neither maye yt helpe
you that you saye the redd Berye, to distinguyshe yt from
the Blacke, for the blacke berye ys also redde for a tyme, and then may
be called the redde Berye of the Bryer for that tyme.
Nowell meaneth more than Christmas.
Nowell you expounde Christmasse, whiche ys that feaste and moore, for yt
is that tyme, whiche is properlye called the Advente together with Christmasse and Neweyeres tyde, wherefore the true etymologye of that worde
ys not Christmasse, or
the twelve dayes, but yt is
godd with us, or, oure Godde, expressinge to vs the comynge of Christe
in the fleshe, whiche peradventure after a sorte, by the figure
synecdoche, you
may seeme to excuse, placinge ther xþemasB (Christmasse) a parte
of this tyme of Nowell for all the tyme that Nowell conteynethe. for in
the same worde is conteyned sometyme xx, but for the most parte thirtye
dayes before Christmesse, aswell as the Christmesse yt selfe, that
woorde being deduced as hathe Willielmus Postellus in Alphabet. 12 Linguarum, from the
hebrue worde Noell: for thus he writethe: נאל noel, sonat deus noster
sive Deus nobis advenit, solitaque est hec vox cantari
a plebe ante xþi
(Christi) natalitia viginti aut triginta dies quodam
desiderio.
Porpherye is a peculiar marble, not marble in common.
Porpherye you expounde marble, whiche
41
marble ys genus, but porpherye is species, for as there is white and grey
marble, so ys there redde marbell, whiche is this porpherye,
a stone of reddish
purple coolor, distincte or enterlaced with white veynes as you
may see in the great pillars entringe into the royall exchange or burse
in Cornhill.
Sendale, a sylke stuffe.
Sendale you expounde a thynne stuffe lyke cypres. but yt was a thynne
stuffe lyke sarcenette, and of a rawe kynde of sylke or sarcenett, but
courser and narrower,
33
than the sarcenett nowe ys, as
my selfe canne remember.
The trepegett is not the battering-ram, but an engine to cast
stones.
Trepegett you expounde a ramme to batter walles. But the trepegete was the same
that the magonell; for
Chaucer calleth yt a trepegett or magonell; wherefore the trepegett and
magonell being all one, and
the magonell one instrumente to flynge or cast stones (as youreselfe expounde yt)
into a towne, or against a towne walles, (an engine not muche vnlyke to the catapulte, an
instrumente to cast forthe dartes, stones, or arrowes,) the trepeget
must nedes also be one instrumente to cast stones or such lyke against a wall or into a towne,
and not a Ramme to batter wales; since the Ramme was no engine to flinge anye thinge, but
by mens handes to be broughte and pusshed againste the walles;
a thinge farr different in forme from the magonell or catapulte, as
appereth by Vigetius and
Robertus Valturius de re militari.
Wiuer or Wyvern, a serpent like unto a dragon.
Wiuer you expounde not. Wherefore I will tell you, a wyuer
is a kynde of serpent of good Bulke, not vnlyke vnto a dragon, of whose
kinde he is, a thinge well knowen vnto the Heroldes, vsinge the
same for armes, and crestes, & supporters of manye gentle and
42
noble menne. As the erle of Kent beareth a wiuer for his creste and supporters, the erle
of Pembroke, a wiuer vert for his creste; the erle of Cumberlande,
a wiuer geules for his supporters.
Autenticke meaneth a thing of auctoritye, not of antiquitye.
Autenticke you expounde to be antiquytye. But howe you may
seme to force and racke the worde to Chaucers meaninge, I knowe
not; but sure I ame the proper signyficatione of autenticke is a
thinge of auctoritye or credit allowed by menne of auctoritye, or the
originall or fyrste archetypum of any thinge; whiche I muse that
you did not remember.
Abandone is not liberty though Hollyband sayeth so.
Abandone you expounde libertye; whiche in all Italiane, Frenche, and Spanishe, signifyeth
relinquere,
34
to forsake and leave a thinge; whiche methinkethe you most hardely stretche to
libertye, vnlest you will saye that, when one forsakethe a
thinge, he leaveth yt at
libertye; whiche ys but a streyned speche, although the frenche
Hollybande, not vnderstandinge the true energye of our tongue, hath
expounded yt libertye; whiche may be some warrante vnto you.
Vnder the title of youre Annotacions
and Corrections.
Of the Vernacle.
In youre Annotacions you describe, oute of the
43
prologues, the vernacle to be a broche or figure, wherein was sett the
instruments
wherewith Christe was crucyfyed, and withall a napkyn whereine was
the printe of his face. but the vernacle did not conteyne the
instrumentes of his deathe, but only the clothe wherein was the figure
of his face; as I conceve yt with others.
Master Thynne would read Campaneus for Capaneus, and giveth
reasons.
Fo: 1. pa: 2. For Campaneus you wolde reade Capaneus, wherunto I cannott
yelde. for althoughe Statius and other latine authors do call hym
Capaneus; yet all the writers of Englande in that age call him
campaneus; as Gower, in confessione amantis, and Lidgat in the historye
of Thebes taken out of
Statius, and Chaucer hym selfe in many other places. so that yt semethe
they made the pronuntiatione of Campaneus to be the dialecte of
our tongue for Capaneus. Besides chaucer is in this to be
pardoned, in that taking his knightes tale out of the Thesayde of Bocas, written in Italiane
(and of late translated into frenche,) doth there, after the Italiane manner, call him campaneus;
for so the Italians pronounce woordes beginninge with cap: with the interpositione
of the lettere m, pronouncinge yt camp: for, that whiche
the Latins call capitolium, the Italians call campidoglio; and
suche lyke. Wherefore since yt was vniversallye receued in that age, to call him
Campaneus: lett vs not nowe alter yt, but permytte yt to have
free passage accordinge to the
35
pronuntiatione and wrytinge of that age. since, in deducinge
woordes from one language to one other, there ys often additione and
substractione of letters, or of Sillabes, before, in the middle,
and in the
44
ende of those wordes. whereof infynyte examples mighte be produced,
whiche I nowe shonne for brevytye.
Liketh the reading of Eros, but preferreth that of Heros, and giveth
reasons.
Fo: 3. pa: 2. (“Noughte comelye lyke to lovers maladye of Hereos.”) for whiche woorde hereos you
reade eros, i. cupide, a very good and probable correctione,
well gathered out of Luciane. But (salua patientia vestra, and
reservinge to myselfe better iudgmente hereafter yf I nowe
mystake yt,) I wolde, for the printed hereos of Chaucer, read
heroes. whiche two woordes onlye differ in misplacinge of the letters;
a comone thinge for the printer to do, and the corrector to
overpasse. for Arcyte, in this furye of his love, did not shewe those
courses of gouer[n]mente, whiche the Heroes, or valiante
persons, in tymes past
vsed, for thoughe they loued, yet that passione did not generallye so
farre overrule them (althoughe yt mighte in some one particuler
personne) as that theye lefte to contynewe the valor, and heroicke actions, whiche they
45
before performed. for the Heroes sholde so love, as that they sholde not
forgett, what they were in
place, valor, or magnanymytye, whiche Arcite, in this passione,
did not observe “lyke to lovers malady of Heroes.” Whereof I coulde produce six hundred examples, (as the
proverbe ys,) were yt not that I avoyde tedious prolixytye.
Of florins and their name from the Florentines.
Fo: 6. pa: 2. (“Manye a florence.”) In whiche noote you expounde a florence to be
ijs frenche, and a gelder to be the same in dutche. Wherein
you mistake the valewe of the florens, suche as was vsed in Chaucers tyme, whiche taking his name
of the woorkemenne, beinge florentynes, (of the terrytorye of
florence in Italye,) were called Florens;
Sterling money taketh its name from the Esterlings.
as sterlinge money
36
tooke their name of Esterlinges, whiche refyned and coyned the silver in
the tyme of kinge Henry the seconde. for two shillinges frenche ys not
equall in valewe (as I nowe take yt) to two shillinges Englishe: and much lesse equall
to the florens in Chaucers tyme, whiche was of the valewe of thre shillings, fowre pence, or
halfe a noble, or, at the leaste, of two shillinges tenne pence
farthinge, as apperethe by recorde and historye: some of them being
called florens de scuto or of the valewe of the shelde or frenche crowne
and some of them called florens regall. Whereof you shall fynde,
in the recorde of pellis exitus in the exchequer in michelmas terme 41. Ed. 3. this note.
Bartholomeo de Burgershe militi in denariis sibi liberatis in parte
solutionis 8000 florenorum de scuto pretii petii iijs.
iiijd. sibi debitis de illis 30000 florenorum de scuto
in quibus Rex tenebatur eidem
46
Bartholomeo pro comite de Ventadoure, prisonario suo apud Bellum
de Poyters in guerra capto, et ab eodem Bartholomeo ad opus Regis
empto, vt patet per litteras Regis patentes, quas idem
Bartholomeus inde penes se habet. in Dors. de summa subscripta, per breve de magno sigillo,
inter mandata de Term.
Michaelis de anno 36 —xxli. To the valewe whereof
agreeth Hipodigma Neustriæ, pa. 127,
King John of France, his ransom of three millions of florens.
where setting downe the
ransome of the frenche kinge taken at Poyters to the valewe of thre
milliones of florens, he sayethe “of whiche florens duo valebant vjs.
viijd.” These florens the same Walsingham in another place callethe scutes or frenche crownes, pa. 170, sayinge: Rex
quidem Franciæ pro sua redemptione soluit regi Angliæ tres milliones
scutorum, quorum duo valent vnum nobile, videlicet,
sex solidos et octo denarios. Whiche scutes in lyke manner, in the tyme
of kinge Henry the sixte were of the same valewe, as apperethe in
Fortescues commentaries of the lawes of Englande. But as those
37
florens for the redemptione of the frenche kinge, were of the
valewe of half one noble: so at the tyme of that kings reigne there were also one other sorte of
florens, not of lyke valewe, but conteyned within the price of
ijs. xd.
called florene regales, as apperethe in this record, of Easter terme, of
Pellis exitus before sayed, where yt is thus entred one the sixte of
Julye: Guiscardo de Angles. Domino de pleyne martyne, In denariis sibi
liberatis per manus Walteri
Hewett militis in pretio 4000 florenorum regalium pretii
petii —ijs. xd.
de quibus florenis regalibus 7 computantur pro tribus nobilibus,
eidem Guiscardo debitis. Whereby you see the meanest of these
florens did exceed the valewe
of ijs. frenche, (although you sholde equall that with
iis. Englishe,)
as yt did also in other countryes. for in the lowe countryes at those
dayes yt was much aboute the
valewe of
47
iijs. iiijd. beinge halfe a pistolet Italiane or
Spanyshe. for so sayethe Heuterius Delphicus, (in the Historye of
Burgundye, in the lyfe of Philippe le hardye,) lyving at that tyme, and
sonne to the frenche kinge taken prisoner by the Inglishe. Heuterius’
woordes be these. Illustris viri aliorumque nobilium mors
adeò comitem commovit, vt relicta obsidione
exercitus ad commeatus ducendos in proxima loca distribuerit.
Decem millibus
florenorum (moneta Belgica est semipistoletum
Italicum pendens) pro Anglicani, aliorumque
nobilium cadaverum
redemptione solutis, &c.
Of the oken garland of Emelye.
Fo: 7. pa: 2. For unseriall you will vs to reade cerriall, for
cerrus8
is a kynde of tree lyke one oke, bearinge maste; and therefore by your
correctione yt sholde be a garland of grene oke cerriall: But for
the same reasone (because cerrus ys a kynde of oke as ys also the Ilex)
I judge yt sholde not be redde cerriall but unseriall, that ys,
(yf you will nedes have this
38
worde cerriall,)
a garlande of greene oke not cerriall, as who sholde saye, she had a Garlande of
Grene oke, but not of the oke Cerriall. and therefore a garlande of oke
unseriall, signifyinge a garlande that was freshe and Grene, and not of
dedd wannyshe Coolor as the oke Cerriall in some parte ys. for the
Cerrus, being the tree whiche we comonly call the holme oke,
(as Cooper also expoundeth the ilex to be that which wee call holme,) produceth two kyndes; whereof the one hathe
greater, and the other lesser
48
acornes, whose leaves beinge somewhat grene one the one syde, and of one ouerrussett and darkyshe Coolor on the
other syde, were not mete for this garland of Emelye, whiche sholde be
freshe and Grene one everye parte, as were her younge and grene yeres, lyke to the goddesse to
whome she sacryfyced, and therefore a garlande of Grene oke unseriall,
not beinge of oke cerriall,
for yf yt had byn oke serriall, yt wolde haue shewed duskyshe and as yt
were of dedishe leaves, and not freshe and orient as chaucer wolde haue
her garlande. And this for your e[x]positione of
unseriall, in some parte: for I wolde suppose that this worde unseriall
dothe not vnaptly signifye perfectione of coolor, so that She having a Garlande of Grene oke
unseriall, doth signyfye the
oke to be grene and unseriall, that is, (as some do expounde this
worde unseriall,) unsered, unsinged, unwithered, of freshe coolor, lyke
unto the oke Quercus whiche hath no sered nor withered cooloor in his leafes. And yt
was of necessytye that Emely (sacryfysinge to Diana) must haue a
garlande of the Grene oke Quercus, because that they whiche sacryfyced
vnto Diana, otherwise called Hecate, (which name is attribute to Diana, as natalis
Comes affirmethe with statius in his Acheleidos in his first Booke
sayinge,
Sic vbi virgineis Hecate lassata pharetris,
being Diana adorned with her bowe and arrowes,
39
called also Triuia because Luna, Diana, and Heccate, were all one,
whereof Virgil speaketh,
Tergeminamque Hecaten, tria virginis ora Dianæ,)
were adorned with a crowne of the grene oke Quercus, because
that Heccate was wont to be crowned therewith, as hath Pierius
Valerianus in his 51 booke of Hieroglyphes, sayinge, Heccate quoquè
Quercu coronari solita est. for although Quercus be consecrate to
Jupiter, because he gave his oracles in the same in
49
Sylva Dodonea, and therefore called Jupiter Dodoneus; yet Antiqutye adorned and crowned Diana
Heccate with the same crowne also. Wherefore I conclude, since she
(Emelye) had a garlande of Grene oke, (as Chaucer of purpose addeth that woorde Greene to
explane unseriall, whiche signyfyethe unsered, unparched, unwithered in every
parte, not lyke to the oke Serriall, whose leafe one the one syde is
duskyshe as though yt were
somewhat withered,) that the same word unseriall must stand unamended, as well (as I
sayed before) by youre owne correctione and the nature of the
worde; as for that Diana, called Heccate, was crowned with the oke
Quercus and not with the oke cerrus. But yf you obiecte to mee
that, in this place, yt must be a garlande of oke cerriall accordinge to
the woordes of Chaucer in one other place, because that he in the flower
and the leafe (newely printed by you) hath these woordes;
I sie come first all in theire clokes white
a companye that were for delight.
Chapletts freshe of
oke serriall
Newly spronge and Trompetts they were all;
I denye that therefore in the Knightes Tale yt must be oke serriall.
for yt may well bee, that such meane persons as trompettes might be
crowned with so base one oke as the serriall ys, whiche I call base in
respecte of
40
the oke Quercus (dedicate to the godd Jupiter) wherewithe Heccate was crowned, and whereof
Garlands were gyven to the Romans for their
nooble desarts in the
warres, as apperethe in the Quernall crowne gyven to those whiche had
saved a cytyzen. Wherefore Chaucer dothe rightly (and of purpose with
great iudgment in my conceyte) make a difference in the
chaplettes of the Trompettes and the garlands of
50
Emelye, in that the trompetts chapletts were of oke seriall newly
spronge; and not come to
perfectione, whiche yet yf they had byn perfecte wolde not
haue byn soo oryente and Greene one bothe sydes as ys the oke Quercus,
wherewithe he wolde haue this Emelye crowned, as was her goddesse
Heccate Diana (to whom she dyd sacryfyce) accustomed to bee. for so
in tymes past (as I sayed before) the sacryfycer sholde be adorned
with garlandes of suche
thinges, as were consecrate to the goddes to whome they sacryfyced. for
whiche cause also I ame not moved, thoughe Caxtone in his seconde
editione do call yt one oke serriall. for I knowe (notwithstandinge his fayre
prologe of printing that
by a true copye) there be manye imperfections in that Booke.
Eyther for euerye, an overnice correction.
Fo: 9. pa: 1. For euerye) you will us to reade eyther. But the
sence ys good, as well that they dyd ryde one euerye syde of hym, as of
eyther syde of him. for they boothe colde not ryde of euerye syde of
hym, no moore then they both colde ryde of eyther syde of him; and therefore they two ryding one
euerye side of hym, canne haue noone other constructione then
that the one did ryde of the one syde and the other one the other side,
aud therefore an ouernice
correctione, thoughe some coppies do warrant yt:
The intellect of Arcite had not wholly gone, or he would not have known
Emelye.
Fo: 10. pa: 1. for save only
the intellecte,) you wolde haue us to reade “and also
the intellecte.” But yf you well consider the woordes of Chaucer, (as 41
I have donne in all the written copyes whiche I haue yet seene,) his
meaninge ys not that the
intellecte was
51
wholye goonne, as yt wolde bee yf you sholde reade, “and also the
intellecte” for “save only the intellecte.” for Chaucers meanynge ys,
that all his streng[t]he and vitall Sprites aboute his
outewarde partes were gonne, save onlye the intellecte or vnderstandinge, whiche
remayned sounde and good, as apperethe after by the followinge woordes,
for when deathe approched, and that all outwarde senses fayled, he
(Arcite) yet cast eye vppon Emelye, remembringe her, thoughe the cheifest vitall sprite of his
harte and his streng[th]e were gonne from hym. but he colde not haue
cast his eye vppon Emelye, yf his intellecte had fayled hym. Yet yf you
liste to reade, “and also the intellecte,” for saue only the intellecte,
yt may after a sorte somewhat be borne withall, notwithstandinge that a pointe
at streng[t]he is looste; and a parenthesis includynge (Save
only the intellecte, without moore,) will make the sence good in this
sort as I have here pointed yt:
And yet mooreouer
from his armes two
the vital streng[t]he is lost; and all agoo
(save only the intellecte
without moore)
that dwelleth in his hart sicke and sore
gan faylen: When the hart felt death &c.
Straught, a better word than haughte.
Fo: 10. pa: 2. For armes straughte you wolde reade yt haughte, when
straughte is moore significant (and moore answerable to
Chaucers woordes whiche
followethe) than haughte ys.
for he speakethe of the Bredthe and spredinge of the boughes or armes or
branches of the tree, whiche this woorde straughte doth signyfye, and is moore aptlye sett downe for
stretched, then this woorde haughte, whiche signyfyethe catchinge holde,
or holdinge faste, or (yf 52
you will streyne yt againste his nature) stretching on heigh,
42
whiche agreethe not well
with Chaucers meanynge. for these be his words:
And twenty fadome of breedth, armes straughte;
That is to sayen, the Bowes were so broode, &c.
Visage for vassalage, an impertinent correction.
Fo: 11. pa: 1. For all forgotten in his vassalage, yow wolde haue vs
reade, “for all forgotten is then his visage;” a thinge mere
impertinente. for the forgettinge of his visage and personage is not
materiall, nor regarded of anye to haue his face forgotten, but yt is
muche materiall (and so ys Chaucers meanynge) that his vassalage, and
the good service donne in his youthe, shold be forgotten when he waxethe
olde. And therefore yt must bee “his vassalage forgotten;” as presently
after Chaucer sayeth, better for a manne to dye when he is yonge, and
his honor in price, than when
he is olde, and the service of his youthe forgotten; whiche I coulde dilate and prove by manye examples;
but I cannott stande longe vppon euerye pointe, as well for that I wolde
not be tedious vnto you, as for that leysure serveth me not thereunto.
Leefe for lothe, a nedeless correction.
Fo: 13. pa: 1. For lothe you bidde vs reade leefe, which annotacione neded
not to haue byn there sett downe, because the verye woorde in the texte
is lefe.
It is more likely that Absolon knocked than that he coughed at the
window.
Fo: 14. pa: 1. for knocked you reade coughed, but, the
circumstance considered, (althoughe they may both stande,) yt is moore
probable that he9 knocked at
53
her10
windowe, to make her the better to heare
than that he coughed. for although those woordes “with a
semely sownde” may haue relatione to the voyce, yet they may as well and with as much consonancye haue reference to a semely and
gentle kynde of knockinge at the windowe as to the voyce, and so his
meanynge was by that sounde to wake her, whiche wolde rather be by the
noyse of a knocke than of a
coughe. for so he determyned
43
before to knocke, as apperethe in these verses, when he sayed,
So mote I thryve, I shall at cockes crow
Full priuily knocke at his windowe:
And so apperethe by the tale afterwarde that he knocked, as he did
before, although he coughed also at the latter tyme, for he knocked
twyce.
Surrye or Russye, indifferent which.
Fo: 23. pa: 2. For Surrye you read Russye. true yt is, that some written
copies haue Russye, and some Surrye. And therefore indifferent after the
written copies, and some auncient printed copies before my fathers
editione. But yf I shall interpone my opynione, I wolde more
willingly (for this tyme) receve Surrey, because yt is most lykelye that
the tartarians whiche
dwelt at Sara (a place yet well knowen, and bordering vppon the lake Mare Caspium,) are nerer to Sorria or the countryes adioynynge called Syria, than to Russya. For as Hato the
Armeniane, in his Tartariane Historye, sayeth, The cyttye of Sara was
54
auncyently the famous cyttye of the countrye of Cumania; and the
Tartarians obteyned the kingdome of Syria in the yere 1240,
whiche must be in the tyme of the fyrst Tartariane emperor called
Caius canne,
Cambuscan is Caius canne.
beinge (as I suppose) he whome Chaucer namethe Cambiuscan, for so
ys the written copies, such
affynytye is there betwene those two names. And, as I gather, yt was
after that tyme that the Tartarians had warres in Russia. But I leave yt
indifferent at this tyme, as meanynge further to consider
of yt.
“That may not saye naye,” better than “there may no wighte say
naye.”
Fo: 31. pa: 2. for these woordes, “that may not saye naye,” you
reade “there may no wighte say naye.” bothe whiche are good, and boothe
founde in written coppyes; and yet the firste will better stande, in my
conceyte, because [the king of Faerie] there speakinge to his
wyfe, he urgethe her that she cannott denye yt; when he sayeth, my wyfe
that cannott say naye,
44
as who sholde saye you cannot denye yt because you knowe yt; and
experience teacheth yt,
so that these woordes, “that cannott say naye,” must be taken as spoken
of his wyfes knowledge, and so as good or rather better than “there may no wighte saye naye,” consideringe that these wordes
“that cannott saye naye,” dothe signyfye, “whoe cannott saye
55
naye,” in such sorte that
this relatyve (that) meanynge (whoe) must haue reference to his
antecedente, i. e. this worde wyfe.
Theophraste, not Paraphraste.
Fo: 35. pa: 2. For “He cleped yt valerye and theophraste,” you saye some
wolde haue vs reade “Valery and his Paraphraste.” But as you haue
left yt at libertee to the reader to iudge, so I thinke yt must nedes be
Theophraste; as the author [of] Policraticon in his eighte Booke, ca.
11.
The wife of Bath’s Prologue taken from the author of
Policraticon.
(from whome Chaucer borrowethe almost worde for worde a great parte of
the Wyfe of Bathes Prologe,) doth vouche yt, for the author of that
booke, Johannes
Sarisburiensis, lyvinge in the tyme of Henrye the seconde, sayethe,
Fertur authore Hieronimo Aureolus Theophrasti liber, de nuptiis, in quo
quæritur an vir sapiens
ducat vxorem, etc. And the
frenche molinet, moralizinge the Romant of the roose in frenche, and turnynge it oute of verse into proese, writeth, Ha
si i’eusse creu Theophraste, &c. Oh, yf I
had beleved Theophraste,
I had never maried womanne, for he doth not holde hym wise that marieth anye
womanne, be she fayre, foule,
poore, or riche; as he sayeth in his Booke Aureolle; whiche verye wordes
chaucer doth recyte.
56
Country, not Couentry.
Fo: 38. pa: 2. for this worde Countrye you will vs to reade Couentrye.
But in my writtene copies yt is, “in my Countrye,” whiche I holde the truer and for the sence as
good yf not better.
Maketh, not waketh.
Fo: 41. pa: 1. This woorde makethe is corrected by you, who for the same
do place wakethe; whiche cannott well stande, for Chaucers
woordes being, “this
45
maketh the fende,” dothe
signyfye (by a true conuersione after the dialecte of our
tonge, whiche with
beawtye vsethe suche transmutacione as I coulde gyve you manye pretye
instances,) that the sence thereof ys, “the fende makethe this,” for
whiche Chaucer vseth these
wordes by Transpositione, (accordinge to the rhethoricall figure
Hiperbatone) “This makethe the fende:” Whiche this? Anger: for that
comethe, ys made, or occasioned, by the deuell. But yf yt sholde be wakethe, then must the sence
bee, that this (whiche is
the anger he speakethe of before) wakethe the fende; whiche oure
offences cannot do, because he cannott be waked, in that he neyther slumbrethe nor slepethe, but
alwayes watcheth and
howrely seekethe occasione to destroye us, lyke a roringe lyone.
But yf you will nedes saye “this wakethe the fende,” that is, by
conuersione after this manner, “the fende waketh this,” whiche signyfyeth the fende waketh or styrreth this in manne, yt may, after a harde and
57
over-streyned sorte, beare some sence, whiche yet hath not that energye, sprite or
lyfe, whiche haue Chaucers woordes, “this maketh the fende.” Whiche woordes are
in my written copies, and in all written and auncient printed copies
whiche I have yet seene.
Hugh of Lincoln.
Fo: 96. pa: 2. vppon these woordes, “O hughe of Lincolne sleyne
also, &c.” You saye, that in the 29. H. 3. eightene Jewes were
broughte [to London] from Lincolne,
and hanged for crucyfyinge a childe of eight yeres olde. Whiche facte
was [in] the 39. H. 3. so that you mighte verye well
haue sayed, that the same childe of eighte yeres olde was the same hughe
of Lincolne; of whiche name there were twoe, viz. thys younger Seinte Hughe, and Seinte Hughe
bishoppe of Lincolne, whiche dyed in the yere 1200, long before this
litle seinte hughe. And to prove [that] this childe of eighte yeres olde
and that yonge hughe of Lincolne were but
46
one; I will sett downe two auctoryties out of Mathewe Paris and
Walsinghame, whereof the fyrste wryteth, that in the yere of Christe
1255, beinge the 39. of Henrye the 3, a childe called Hughe was
sleyne by the Jewes at Lyncolne, whose lamentable historye he delyvereth at large; and further,
in the yere 1256, being 40. Hen. 3, he sayeth, Dimissi sunt quieti 24 Judei à Turri London, qui
ibidem infames tenebantur compediti pro crucifixione sancti Hugonis
Lincolniæ: All whiche Thomas Walsingham, in Hypodigma Neustriæ, confirmeth; sayinge,
Ao. 1255. Puer quidam Christianus, nomine Hugo, à Judeis captus, in opprobrium
Christiani nominis crudelitèr est crucifixus.
“Where the sunne is in his ascensione,” a good reading.
Fo: 86. pa: 8. (Where the sunne is in his ascensione, &c.) You
will us to reade for the same,
Ware the soone in his ascensione
Ne fynde you not replete of humors hotte,
For yf yt doe,
&c.
58
But, savinge correctione, the former sence is good: for these
woordes: Where the sonne is in his ascensione, must haue relatione to the woordes
of the verse before,
Ye be righte colericke of complexione,
and then is the sence, that she [the fair Pertelote]
willed hym to purge, for that he was righte (that is, extremelye and in
the highest degree) collericke of complexione, where (whiche signyfyeth when)
the sonne is in his ascentione. Wherefore he must take heede,
that he did not fynde hym repleate (at that tyme of the sonnes
being in his ascentione) of hoote humors, for yf he did, he
sholde surelye haue one ague. And this will stand with the woordes Where
the sonne is in his ascentione, taking where for when, as yt is often vsed. But yf
you mislyke that gloosse, and will begyn one new sence, as yt is in some
written copyes, and saye, Ware the sonne in his ascentione
47
ne fynde you not repleate, &c. yet yt cannott bee that the other wordes, (for yf yt
doo,) canne answer the
same, because this pronoune relative (yt) cannot haue relatione to this
worde (you) which wente
before in this lyne, Ne fynde you not repleate of humors hotte.
So that yf you nowe will
nedes reade ware for where, yet the other parte of the followinge verse
must nedes be, “for yf you doe,” and not “for yf yt dooe;” vnleste you
will saye that this woorde (yt) must haue relatione to these
woordes, (the sonne in his ascentione,) whiche yt cannott have, those
woordes goinge two lynes before, and the pronowne (you)
59
interposed betwene the same and that his correlative (yt.) Wherefore these woordes, (for
yf yt doe,) must nedes stande as they did before, though you will
correcte “Where the sonne &c.” and saye “Ware the
sonne &c.” Whiche yf you will nedes haue, you must
correcte the rest in this sorte:
Ware the sonne in his ascentione
that yt fynde you not repleat of humors hotte,
for yf yt do, &c.
But this correctione (savinge, as I sayed, correctione)
semeth not so good as the
former texte.
Kenelm slain by Queen Drida.
Fol: 86. pa: 2. Vppon these woordes, (Lo, in the lyfe of Kenelme we
reade,) you saye that Kenelme was sleyne by his sister Quenda, whiche
sholde be Quendrida; as Williame of Malmsberye and Ingulphus have.
Whiche Quendrida dothe signyfye Quene Drida; as the author of the
Antiquyties of Seint Albons and of the Abbottes thereof (supposed to be
Mathewe Paris) dothe expounde yt. for that auctor, speakinge of the wyfe
of Offa the greate kinge of Mercia, (a wicked and proude womanne
because she was of the stocke of Charles the greate,) dothe saye, that
she was called Drida, and being the kings wyfe was termed Quendrida, id est, Regina
Drida.
Master Speight mistaketh his almanack.
Fo: 87. p: 1. Vppon these woordes of “Taurus was fortye degrees and
one,” you saye that this place ys misprinted, as well in not namynge of the sygne, as of the
misreckonynge of the degrees, that the two and twentye of Marche the
sunne is in Aries, and that but eleven degrees or thereaboutes, and
hathe in all but thirtye degrees. In whiche, in semynge to correcte the
former printe (whiche in truthe deseruethe amendement, but not in that
order,) you seme to mee to erre,
60
as farre as heauen and yerthe, in mistakinge Chaucers meanynge and his woordes, as well for the daye of the
monthe, as for the signe. for where you suppose that Chaucere
meanethe the two and twentithe daye of Marche, you mistake yt. for
although yt should be the 22
of the monthe, as the printed booke hathe; yet canne yt not be the 22
daye of Marche, but must of necessytye be the two and twentythe of
Aprille: and so the signe Taurus trulye named. But first I must saye,
the number of the dayes are
misprinted, for where yt
is twentye dayes and two, yt must be (and so are my written copies) thirtye dayes and two, whiche
must be the seconde of Maye, as you shall well see by the woordes
of Chaucer, for whether yowe recken thirtye two dayes, withe the truthe,
as hathe the written copye, or xxii dayes, withe the printe: yet must
you begynne to recken them from after the last of Marche. for so dothe Chaucer, sayinge
Marche was compleate, in these woordes:
When the month in whiche the worlde began,
That hight Marche, when God first made man,
Was complete, and passed were also
Since Marche byganne, &c.
Wherebye you see, that you must begynne to recken the
nomber of dayes from the tyme of marche complete; and then woulde the signe fall out to be in Taurus.
Yf you holde you to the printe (for the 22
49
daye after Marche,
which is the 22 daye of Aprill in which the sonne is aboute xi degrees in Taurus;) or to
the written copye of thirtye two dayes, (whiche is the seconde of
maye at what tyme the sonne ys also aboute some xxi degrees in Taurus;)
the signe is not misreckoned or misnamed, as you suppose. nether
canne these woordes, since Marche beganne, helpe you to recken them from
the begynnynge of Marche, (as you seme to
61
doo;) because they muste answere and be agreable to the former wordes of
Chaucer, whiche sayethe Marche was complete, and, for that
we shoulde not dobte
thereof, he addethe also farther, And passed were also since Marche
beganne; where the worde beganne ys mysprinted for begonne, that is, since marche be gonne, this
word begonne being put for is gonne, or gonne bye, or departed. so that
the genuyniell sence
hereof is, When march was
complete, and also were passed, since march is gonne, or gonne by, or
departed. for, in many olde inglishe woordes, this syllable (be) is sett before to
make yt moore signyficante and of force, as for moone we saye bemone,
for sprincled, besprincled; for dewed, bedewed, &c. as in this
case for gonne ys sett downe begonne. But although there be no misnaminge of the
The degrees of the signe are misreckoned, not the signe itself.
signe; yet yt is true the degrees of the signes are misreckoned, the error whereof grewe, because
the degree of the signe, is made equall with the degree of the sonne
ascended above the Horizon, beinge at that tyme xli degrees in heighte
from the Horizon. But to remedye all this, and to correcte yt accordinge
as Chaucer sett yt downe in myne and other written copies; and that yt
may stande with all mathematicall proportione, whiche
Chaucer knewe and observed
there, the print must be
corrected after those written copies (whiche I yet holde for sounde till
I maye disprove them) having these woordes:
when that the month in whiche the worlde beganne,
that hight Marche,
when god first made manne,
was complete, and passed were also
since marche begonne thirty dayes and two:
befell that Chanteclere in all his pride,
his seven wives walkinge
him beside,
cast vp his eyen to the
bright sonne,
that in the signe of Taurus had yronne
Twentye degrees and one and somewhat moore;
And knewe by kynde and by noone other loore
That yt was pryme, and crewe with blisful steven:
62
The sunne, quoth he,
is clomben vp on heaven
Fortye degrees and one, and moore, ywis, &c.
And that this shoulde be
mente xxxij dayes after Marche, and the seconde of Maye, there be manye
reasons, besides those that Chaucer nameth; which are, that the sonne was not farre from the middle
of his ascentione, and in the signe of Taurus. ffurther, since I am now in Chantecler’s discourse, I must speake of
one woorde in the same, deservinge correctione, whiche I
see you overslipped; and because I thinke you knewe not what to
make of yt, (as indede
by the printinge few menne canne vnderstande yt,) I will sett
downe the correctione of the same;
Mereturicke is a corruption of Merecenrycke, or the kingdom of
Mercia.
being the worde Mereturicke,
farr corrupted for Mercenricke, in saxonA Meþecenþÿke which is the kingdome of Mercia, for so
was Kenelme the sonne, and Kenulphus the father, both kinges of Mercia; the one reignynge 36 yeres,
and the other murdred by his sister Quendrida, as ys before noted. And
that yt is the kingdome of Mercia, the etymon of the woorde doth teache; for þÿk in the saxon tonge
signyfyethe a kingdome; meþcen signyfyethe markes or boundes or marches
of Countryes. So that Mercenricke is regnum Merciæ, or the
kingdome of Mercia, or of
63
the boundes so called, because almost all the other kingdoms of the saxons bounded vppon the same, and
that lykewise vppon them, since that
51
kingdome did lye in the middle of England, and conteyned most of the
shires thereof.
Pilloures of silver borne before Cardinalls.
Fo: 90. pa: 2. for pilloure you will vs to reade Pellure, signifyinge
furres. but althoughe the Clergye ware furres, and some of them had
their outwarde ornamentes
thereof when they came to their service, as the Chanons had their Grey
amises; yet in this place, to shewe the proude and stately ensignes of the Clergye, he there nameth the popes crowne, and the
Cardinalls pilloures, yf I be not deceved. for euery cardinall had, for parte of his
honorable ensignes borne before hym, certein silver pillers; as had Cardinall Wolsey,
in the tyme of kinge Henrye the eighte, and Cardinall Poole, in my
memory. So that pilloure in that place is better than pellure, because pilloures were a note of more pride and maiestye (againste whiche the Plowmanne dothe enveye in those
woordes,) than in the weringe of furres.
Liketh best the old reading of “change of many manner of meates.”
Fo: 90. pa: 2. for these wordes, with change of many manner of meates, you wolde have vs reade, They eate of many
manner of meates. Touchinge whiche, althoughe the sence stande well, yet
sure Chaucer followeth this matter in many staues
together with this prepositione (cum, with,) and this
64
coniunctione (et, and;)—as, “With pride misledd the poore,
and with money filled manye a
male, &c.” so he contynuethe yt still with that prepositione, “with change of many
meates;” whiche is
as good as the other, for euery one knoweth Chaucers meanynge to be that they eate of many
meates, when they haue change of many meates; for why sholde they haue change of meates, but for
varyetye to please the palates taste in eatynge.
And also the old reading of “myters” more than one or two for the sake
of the meter.
In the next staffe, (for myters moe then one or two) you teache vs to
reade, “myters they weare mo then one or two;” whiche, methinkethe, nedeth not.
For the wearinge of their myters is included in these woordes,
52
And myters more then one or
two. Whiche wordes are
curteyled for the verse his cause, that the same mighte kepe an equall proportione and decorum
in the verse, whiche would be
lengthened one foote or sillable moore than the other verses, yf your readinge shoulde stande. But yf you saye, that in this and
other thinges I am
overstreyghte laced and to obstinatlye bente to defende the former
printed editione, in that I woulde rather allowe one imperfecte sence, and suche as
must be vnderstoode, when yt ys not fully expressed, than a playne style, I will answere
withe a grounde of the lawe, quod frustra fit per plura quod fieri
potest per pauciora, and quod subintelligitur non deest. Wherefore
yt is nedelesse to make that playner by additione of woordes,
when yt maye be as well
conceyved in any reasonable mens vnderstandinge without such additione. But on these
65
and suche petit matters, I will not nowe longe insiste, (being things of no greate momente,)
vntill I haue further examyned more written copyes to trye, whether wee shall reade the
olde texte or your newe
correctione.
The lordes sonne of Windsore is in the French Romant of the rose, but is
there spelled Guindesores.
Fo: 122. pa: 2. The lordes sonne of Windsore.)
Vppon these woordes you saye, this maye seme strange bothe in respecte
that yt is not in the frenche, as also for that there was no lorde
Windsore at those dayes. But yt semeth to me moore strange that these woordes shoulde seme strange to you, not
to bee in the frenche, where you shall fynde them. For thus hathe
the frenche written Romante, as maye appere in the old frenche vsed at the tyme when the Romante was
composed, in this sorte:
Pris a Franchise lez alez
Ne sai coment est apelles,
Biaus est et genz, se il fust ores
Fuiz au seigneur de Guindesores:
Whiche is thus englished: Next to Franchise went a young bacheler,
I knowe not howe he was called, he was fayre and gentle, as yf he
had byn sonne to the lorde of
Windsore. Where in olde frenche this word fuiz (vsed here as in manye places of that Booke) is
placed for that whiche we wryte and pronounce at this daye for filz or
fitz, in Englishe sonne. and that it is here so mente, you shall see in the Romante of the
Roose turned into proese, moralized, by the french Molinet, and printed at Paris in the yere 1521,
who hathe the same verses in these woordes in proese. A Franchise
s’estoit prins vn ieune Bacheler de qui ne scay le nome, fors bell, en
son temps filz du seigneure de Guindesore. Whiche you mighte have
well seene, had you but remembered their orthographie, and that the
latyne, Italiane, frenche, and spanyshe have no doble w, as the Dutche,
the Englishe, and such as
66
haue affynytye with the Dutche, since they vse for doble w
(a letter comone to vs) these two letters Gu, as in Gulielmus,
which we wryte Willielmus;
in guerra, which we call and
writte warre, in Gualterus, which we write Walter; in guardeine, which we pronounce and write wardeyne; and
suche lyke; accordinge to whiche in the frenche yt is Guindesore for
Windesore.
Master Thynne knoweth not
clearly why the Baron should
be called of Windsor.
for your other coniectures,
whye that Chaucer sholde
inserte the loordes sonne of Windesore, they are of [no?] great momente, neque adhuc constat that Chaucer
translated the Romante, whene Windsore Castle was in buildinge. for then
I suppose that Chaucer was but yonge; whereof I will not stande at this tyme, no moore than I will that there was no lord Windsore
in those dayes; althoughe I suppose that sir William Windsore, being then a worthye knighte and of
great auctorytye in Englande and in the partes beyond the seas under the kinge of Englande,
mighte be lord Windsore, of whom the Frenche tooke notice, being in those partes, and by them called seigneure de
Windesore,
54
as euery gouernor was called seigneure emongst them. But whether he were a
Baron or no in Englande, I cannott yet saye, because I haue not my
booke of Somons of Barons to parliamente in my handes at this
instante.
The ordeal was not tryall by fier only, but also by water, nor for
chastity only, but for many other matters.
Fo: 171. pa: 2. by ordall, &c. Vppone whiche you write
thus. “Ordalia is a tryall of chastytye, throughe the fyre, as did Emma,
mother of the Confessor, or ells over hoote burnynge culters of yrone barefotte, as did
Cunegunde, &c.” But in this describinge definitione, you
have commytted manye imperfections. first, that ordell was
a tryall by fyre, whiche is but a species of the ordell; for
ordalium was a tryall by fyre and water: secondlye, that yt was a
tryall of Chastitye
whiche was but parcell thereof; for the
67
ordale was a tryall for manye other matters.
The fyery ordeal was by going on hote shares and cultors, not going
through the fyre. The mother of Edward confessor passed over nine
burnynge shares.
Thirdlye, you saye yt was by goinge throughe the fyre. when the fyery ordale was onlye by goinge one hoote shares or
cultores, or by holdinge a hoote pece of yrone in the hande, and not
going through the
fyre. fourthlye, that Emma,
mother to Edwarde the confessor, receued this tryall by goinge through
the fyre: But she passed not
through the fyre as you bringe
her for one example of your ordale but passed barefotte
vppone nyne burnynge shares, fowr for her selfe, and fyve for Alwyne Bishoppe of
Winchester, with whome she was suspected with incontynencye, whiche
historye you maye see at large in Ranulphus Higden, in his policronicone
li: 6. ca: 23, and in other auctors; of whiche ordale I colde make a
longe and no commone
discourse; of the manner of consecrating the fyre and water, how yt was vsed emongst the saxons before, and the normans since, the
Conqueste, and of many other
thinges belonging vnto yt. but I will passe them ouer, and only deliuer
to you a thinge knowen to fewe,
The ordeal taken away by the court of Rome, and after by Henry
III.
how this ordale was contynued
in Englande in the tyme of kinge Johne, as appereth in Claus. 17. Johīs, m. 25, vntill yt was taken awaye by the
courte of Rome;
55
and after that, in Englande, by the auctorytye of kinge Henrye the
thirde, whereof you shall fynde this recorde in the towre Patente. 3. H.
3. mem. 5, where yt speakethe of iudgmente and tryall by fyer and water
to be forbydden by the Churche of Roome, and that yt sholde not be vsed
here in Englande; as apperethe in the woordes of that record: Illis vero qui mediis criminibus vectati sunt,
et quibus competeret iudicium ignis vel aquæ si non esset
prohibitum, et de quibus si regnum nostrum abiurarent, nulla
fieret postea, maleficiendi suspitio, regnum nostrum
abiurent &c.
The stork bewrayeth not adultery but wreaketh the adultery of his owne
mate.
Fo: 246. pa: 1. speaking of the storke, you saye that Chaucers woordes
“wreaker of adulterye” shoulde
68
rather bee “bewrayer of Adulterye;” whiche in truth accordinge to one propryetye of his
nature may be as you saye, but according to another propryetye of his
nature, yt sholde be “the wreaker of Adulterye,” as Chaucer hathe; for
he ys a greater wreaker of the adulterye of his owne kynde and female
than the bewrayer of the
adulterye of one other kynde, and of his hostesse one the toppe of whose
howse he harborethe. for Aristotle sayeth & Bartholomeus
de proprietatibus rerum li: 12. cap. 8. with many other auctors, that yf the storke
by any meanes perceve that his
female hath brooked spousehedde, he will no more dwell with her, but stryketh and so cruelly beateth her, that he will not
surcease vntill he hathe killed her yf he maye, to wreake and revenge that adulterye.
These and suche lyke in my conceyte are worthye to be touched in your Annotacions, besides other matters whiche you
haue not handled; whereof (because tyme requirethe after all this tedious treatyce to drawe
to one ende) I will not now treate; but onlye speake a little moore of fyve
especiall thinges, woorthye the animadversione, of which the fyrste ys,
The plowman’s tale is wrong placed.
that you make the Plowmans tale to go next before the persons tale,
56
suffering the persons corrupted prologue to passe with this begynnynge, “By that the plowmanne had
his tale ended,” when all written
69
copies, (whiche I coulde yet
see,) and my fathers editione, haue yt, “By that the mancyple had his tale
ended.” And because my father colde not see by any Prologues of thee other tales, (whiche for the
most parte shewe the dependancye of one Tale vppone one other,) where to
place the plowmans tale, he putt yt after the persons tale, whiche, by
Chaucers owne woordes, was the laste tale; as apperethe by the persons
prologue, where the hooste sayethe, that “euery manne had tolde his Tale before.” So that the
plowmans tale must be sett in some other place before the manciple and
persons tale, and not as yt ys in the last editione.
Chaucer’s proper works should be distinguished from those adulterat and
not his.
One other thinge ys, that yt would be good that Chaucers proper woorkes were
distinguyshed from the adulterat and suche as were not his, as the
Testamente of Cressyde, the Letter of Cupide, and the ballade begynnynge
“I have a ladye whereso she bee,” &c.
whiche Chaucer never composed, as may sufficientlye be proved by the things themselves.
There were three editions of Chaucer before William Thynne dedicated his
to Henry VIII.
The thirde matter ys, that in youre epistle dedicatorye to Sir Roberte
Cecille, you saye, “This Booke
70
whene yt was first published in printe was dedicate to kinge Henrye the
eighte.” But that is not soo. for the firste dedicatione to that kinge
was by my father, when diverse of Chaucers woorkes had
byn thrise
71
printed before; whereof two editions were by William Caxtone, the
firste printer of Englande, who first printed Chaucers Tales in one columne in a ragged letter, and
after in one colume in a better order; and the thirde editione
was printed, as farre as I remember, by Winkin de Worde or Richarde Pynson, the seconde and thirde printers
of Englande, as I take them.11
57
The first editions being very corrupt, William Thynne augmented and
corrected them.
Whiche three edit[i]ons beinge verye unperfecte and corrupte occasioned my father (for the
love he oughte to Chaucers learnynge) to seeke the augmente and
correctione of Chaucers Woorkes, whiche he happily fynyshed;
the same being, since that
tyme, by often printinge much
corrupted. of this matter I sholde have spooken first of all, because yt is the first imperfectione of your paynfull and comendable labors: Yet
because the proverb ys
better late than never,
I hold yt better to
speake of yt here then not at all.
Master Speight hath omytted many auctors vouched by Chaucer.
The fourthe thinge ys, that, in the catalogue of the auctors, you haue
omytted many auctors vouched
by chaucer; and therefore
did rightlye intitle yt, moost,
and not all, of the auctors cited by Geffrye Chaucer.
It should be Harlottes, and not Haroldes.
The fyfte matter ys in the Romante of the Roose, fo. 144, that the worde
Haroldes in this verse,
My kinge of Haroltes shalte thou bee,
must, by a mathesis or transpositione of the letters, be Harlotes, and not Haroltes, and the verse
thus,
My kinge of Harlottes shalt thou bee
And so ys yt in the editione of Chaucer’s Works, printed in anno Domini 1542,
accordinge to the frenche moralizatione of Molinet, fo. 149. where he is
called “Roye des Ribauldez,”
The king of Ribalds or Harlottes, an officer of great accompt in times
past.
whiche is, the kinge of Ribaldes
72
or Harlottes or evill or
wicked persons; one officer of great accompte in tymes paste, and
yet vsed in the courte of France but by one other name, in some parte
beinge the office of the marshall of Englande. All whiche, because
you shall not thinke I dreame, (though yt may seme strange to the ignorant to have so greate one officer intituled of suche base
persons as to be called kinge or gouernor of Ribauldes,)
Johannes Tyllius maketh mention of a Rex Ribaldorum.
you shall here Johannes Tyllius (in his seconde booke de
rebus Gallicis vnder the title de Prefecto pretorio Regis) confirme in
these woordes: In domesticis regum
58
constitutionibus, quos proximo capite nominavimus, fit mentio Regis
Ribaldorum, officii domestici, quem semper oportet stare extra Portam
pretorii, &c. and a litle after the explanynge of their office,
he addeth; “sic autem appellantur, quia iam tum homines perditi Ribaldi,
et Ribaldæ mulieres puellæque perditæ vocantur. Regis nomen
superiori aut Iudici tribuitur, Quemadmodum magnus
Cubicularius dicitur Rex Mercatorum,” &c. Where he maketh the “Regem Ribaldorum” an
honorable officer for manye causes,
Also Vincentius Luparius maketh him an honourable officer.
as Vincentius Luparius in his fyrste booke of the Magistrates of france
doth also, vnder the title of
“Rex Ribaldorum et prouostus
Hospitii;” makinge the Iudex pretorianus and this rex ribaldorum or provostus hospitii to seme all
one, addinge further (after manye other honorable partes belonginge to
this office) that “meretricibus aulicis hospitia assignare solebat.” In
whiche pointe, bothe for orderinge and correctinge the harlottes and
evill persons followinge the Courte of Englande, (whiche is the duty of the marshall,) the frenche
and wee agree.
The Rex Ribaldorum was like unto our Marshall. The Marshalls duties and
his powers over Harlotts and lost men.
Wherefor, touching that
parte, you shall heare somewhat of the Marshalls office sett
downe and founde in the Customes, whiche Thomas of Brothertonne (sonne
to kinge Edwarde the fyrste) challenged to his office of Marshalcye;
where, emongst
73
other thinges, are these woordes: eorum (whiche was of the
marshalls deputyes executinge that he shoulde ells do hym selfe) interest virgatam à
meretricibus prohibere, et deliberare, et habet, ex consuetudine
mariscallus ex quâlibet meretrice com[m]uni infra metas hospitii inventa
iiijd. primo die. Quæ, si iterum inventa in Balliuâ suâ
inveniatur, capiatur; et coram seneschallo inhibeantur ei
hospitia Regis et Reginæ et liberorum suorum, ne iterum
ingrediatur, &c. And so afterwarde shewethe what shall be done to those women, yf they be founde agayne in the
Kinges courte, in suche sorte, that, as by Tillius, this
59
Rex Ribaldorum his auctorytye was over homines perditos, mulieres puellasque perditas.
And that yt was, by Lupanus, to assigne to Ribaldes lodginge out of the courte, (for so modestye willeth vs to vnderstande,
because they shoulde not
offende and infecte the courte with their sighte and manners,) so ys yt
our Marshalls office, to
banyshe those harlottes the courte, and bestowe them in some other
place, where they might be lesse annoyance.
Master Thynne being a herold liketh not that false semblance should be thought one.
Wherefore I conclude with the frenche, and the former
editione of Chaucer in the yere of Christe 1542, that False
Semblance was of righte to be made kinge of Harlottes, and not of
Haroldes, who wolde mightely be offended to haue them holden of the
conditions of false semblance. Nowe here be nugæ in the Romante of the
Roose,
74
I cannott (as the
proverb ys) take my
hand from the table, (fyndinge go manye oversightes in the two last editiones,) but must speake of one thing more,
deserving correctione, in these woordes of the Romante, fo. 116 of
the last impressione:
Amide saw I hate stonde,
That for wrathe and yre & onde
Semed to be a minoresse;
Hate was a Moueresse or stirrer of debate, not a minoresse.
Where this woorde Minoresse shoulde be Moueresse, signyfyinge a mover or styrrer to
debate, for these be the frenche verses in the oldest written copye that
euer was (to be founde in Englande, yf my coniecture fayle me not,)
by the age of the frenche wordes, which are these:
Enz euz le milieu vi hayne,
qui de courouz et datayn
Sembla bien estre moueresse,
et courouse et teucerresse.
Beinge thus englyshed, as of righte they oughte, accordinge to the
frenche:
Amyde sawe I hate stonde,
That of wrathe and yre & onde
Semed well to be mooveresse,
An angry wighte and chyderesse.
Molinet calleth Hate a Ducteress, or leader.
Whiche woord mooveresse the learned molinet, in his moralizatione
of that Romant, dothe turne into Ducteresse, a leader or leadresse,
so that they agree yt shoulde not be a minoresse, but a mooveresse or
leadresse of and to anger and yre; anye of whose woordes will as well
and rather better fytt the sence and verse of Chaucer, and better
answere the Frenche originall and meanynge, than the incerted woorde
Minoresse.
Thus hooping that
you will accepte in good and frendlye parte, these my whatsoever
conceytes vttered
75
vnto you, (to the ende Chawcers Woorkes by much conference and many iudgmentes mighte at leng[t]he obteyne their true perfectione and
glory, as I truste they
shall, yf yt please godde to lend me tyme and leysure to reprinte,
correcte, and comente the same after the manner of the Italians who have
largely comented
Petrarche;) I sett end to
these matters; comyttinge you to god, and me to your
curtesye.
Clerkenwell Greene,
the xvi of december 1599.
Your lovinge frende,
FRANCIS THYNNE.
4.
Error for family?
5.
Stowe.
6.
“Hahn,”—German, a cock. “Cognomine Latino Gallus,”
Maittaire Ann. Typ. i. 52.
7.
A copy of this curious poem in Thynne’s hand-writing, and marvellously
illustrated by him, is in the Brit. Mus., MSS. Add. No. 11,388.
8.
The Quercus cerris, the mossy cupped oak?
9.
[Absolon.]
10.
[The Carpenter’s wife’s.]
11.
Caxton, 1475–1481-2. Wynkyn de Word,
1495–1498.
INDEX.
Abandone, p. 33.
Absalom, whether he coughed or knocked, p.
42.
Aketon, a sleeveless jacket of plate for the war, p. 24.
Arcite, his intellect, p. 40.
Authentic, a thing of authority, p. 33.
Bath, Wife of, her Prologue, p. 44.
Begyns, superstitious women, p. 29.
Besant, a coin of Bizantium, p. 25.
Burgersh, Bartholomew de, sent into Henault for Philippa, p. 12.
Burgo, Serlo de, built Knaresborough Castle, p.
18.
Cambuscan, or Caius, Cause, p. 43.
Campaneus, reading of, p. 34.
Chaucer, MSS., collection made by William Thynne, p. 5.
Chaucer, MSS., dispersed by his son, p. 8.
Chaucer’s parentage, p. 9.
Chaucer and the Franciscan friar, p. 16.
Chaucer’s marriage, p. 17.
Chaucer’s coat-of-arms, p. 10.
Chaucer’s children, p. 17.
Chaucer, his education, p. 13.
Chaucer, his skyll in Geometrye, p. 11.
Chaucer, his ancestors, whether merchants of the staple or no,
pp. 12, 13.
Chaucer, the stemme of, p. 17.
Chaucer, his children and their advancement, p.
17.
Chaucer, Thomas, married to Maude, daughter of Sir John Burgersh,
p. 18.
Chaucer, his dream, not the book of the Duchess, pp. 22, 23.
Chaucer, early editions of, p. 56.
Chausier, one who hoseth or booteth a man, p.
9.
Citrination, a term of Alchemy, p. 30.
Colin Clout, written in William Thynne’s house at Erith, p. 7.
Drida, Queen, slayeth Kenelm, p. 47.
Fermentacione, a term of Alchemy, p. 25.
Florius, concerning, p. 35.
Forage, winter provision, p. 30.
Garland, oken of Emelye, p. 37.
Gaunt, John of, his children born pre-nupt, p.
17.
Gaunt, John of, his incontinency, p. 23.
Gaunt, John of, his marriage, p. 23.
Gower, query whether of the
Gowers of Stittenham, p. 14.
Gower, his greeting to Chaucer, p. 13.
Harlottes, King of, p. 57.
Heroner, a hawk for a heron, p. 31.
Hyppe, the berye of the eglantine, p. 31.
John of France, his ransome, p. 36.
Knaresborough Castle, built by Serlo de Burgo, p.
18.
Kenelm, slain by Queen Drida, p. 47.
Leefe, for lothe, p. 42.
Lincoln, Hugh of, p. 44.
Mortone, John, Earl of, the manner of his creation, p. 16.
Merecenrycke, p. 50.
Navarre, Joan of, married to Henry IV., p.
18.
Neville, Richard, Earl of Salisbury, his wife, p.
21.
Nowell, meaning of, p. 32.
Orfrayes, a sort of cloth of gold, p. 26.
Ordeal, the manner of, p. 54.
Oundye meaneth wavy, p. 28.
Philippa, of Henault, her marriage, p. 11.
Pilgrime’s Tale, setting forth the evil lives of churchmen, p. 6.
Plowman’s Tale, not made by Sir T. Wyat, p.
7.
Porpherye, a peculiar marble, p. 32.
Printing, notes on the history of, p. 21.
Pillars, silver, borne before Churchmen, p.
51.
Poole, William de la, Merchant of Hull, lendeth money to the King,
p. 18.
Poole, Richard de la, a chief governor of Hull and Pincerna Regis,
p. 18.
Poole, Michael de la, Chancellor, p. 19.
Resager, or Ratsbane, p. 28.
Ribalds, king of, p. 57.
Roses, chaplet of, for knighthood, not for poesy, p. 15.
Rose, Romant of, notes on, p. 21.
Sendale, a sylke stuffe, p. 32.
Staple, Merchants of the, had no arms till 10 or 11 Ed. III., p. 13.
Sterling money, p. 35.
Straught, a better word than haughte, p.
41.
Stork, the, wreaketh adultery, p. 55.
Surrye or Russye, p. 43.
Temple, lawyers not in the, till the latter part of Ed. III., p. 16.
Theophraste, not Paraphraste, p. 44.
Trepegett, an engine to cast stones, p.
33.
Thynne, Sir John, reports that the parliament was minded to forbid
Chaucer’s tales, p. 7.
Thynne, William, in favour with Henry VIII., p.
6.
Thynne, William, his collection of Chaucer’s MSS., p. 5.
Thynne, William, protecteth John Skelton, p.
7.
Vernacle, of the, p. 34.
Veseye, Eustace de, p. 18.
Visage for vassalage, p. 42.
Walsingham, offended at temporall men being preferred to office, p. 20.
Windsore, Lords son of, p. 52.
Wiuer or Wivern, a serpent like unto a dragon, p.
33.
Wolsey, his enmity to William Thynne, p.
7.
Wolsey, his great power with the King, p.
7.
Wyat, old Sir Thomas, did not make the Plowmans Tale, p. 7.
JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.
Transcriber’s Notes
Differences between 1865 and 1876 texts
Neither edition includes a facsimile of the original MS. Readers will
have to decide for themselves which differences reflect editorial
decisions and which ones are errors in one edition or the other.
Unless otherwise noted, words or letters shown in [brackets] were
italicized in the 1865 edition. Other changes are marked in
different shades of grey, with mouse-hover popups where appropriate.
Within popup text, italics are shown in {braces}, superscripts with
leading ^ (caret).
• clear error, almost always corrected from 1876 edition
• changed
spelling, including handling of expanded contractions and “&”
for “and”
• changed word,
including singular/plural alternation and bracketed letters
• added
word
• missing word
Not noted:
editorial and typographic differences such as punctuation and
capitalization, or the use of boldface type
decorative letterforms, especially final -ll printed with a connecting
line
differences that have no exceptions:
• initial v for both u and v (medial u/v is
variable)
• you replacing both you and
you (“your” is variable)
• prices shown inline as ijs. instead of
ijs.
• Sir for Sr
Common differences:
n for u: some readings were obvious errors and have been
marked as such
final e added:
which almost always written whiche or
whiche;
verb ending -eth usually spelled -ethe
emongst(e) spelled emongest(e)
than spelled then
could(e), would(e), should(e) spelled
cold(e), wold(e), shold(e)
initial J or j printed as capital I
in plurals or possessives of words ending in two consonants (other than
-ll-), where 1865 has simple -s, 1876 has italicized
–es
y for i, i for e, aw for au
(Chawcer)
The two occurrences of it in 1865 may be errors; 1876 has
yt, agreeing with all other occurrences of the word.
several occurrences of the word an are read as one
single o changed to oo: goo, moore,
woordes
some Latin quotations have final -e for -æ
words ending -or transcribed as -our
variable word divisions such as as( )well, my(
)selfe
Non-Roman Scripts
A.
In the 1865 text, thorn þ is used for Saxon r ꞃ:
in saxon Meþecenþÿke which is the kingdome of Mercia, for so was Kenelme
the sonne, and Kenulphus the father, both kinges of Mercia; the one
reignynge 36 yeres, and the other murdred by his sister Quendrida, as ys
before noted. And that yt is the kingdome of Mercia, the etymon of the
woorde doth teache; for þÿk in the saxon tonge signyfyethe a kingdome;
meþcen signyfyethe markes
The 1876 text uses the Saxon letterforms:
Meꞃecenꞃÿke, ꞃÿk, meꞃcen
At the time of preparation (June 2009), Saxon letters had been
assigned Unicode values, but font support was extremely limited. Your
browser will probably not be able to display the character.
B.
Similarly for Greek Χρ (Chi, rho):
placinge ther xþemas (Christmasse) a parte of this tyme of
Nowell …. ante xþi (Christi) natalitia viginti aut triginta
dies quodam desiderio.
The 1876 text gives only the expanded (Roman script) form of words in
Chr-.