Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookPersones Tale was to have been the last, as the Knightes was the first. The best tale-teller, in the judgment of mine host, was to have a supper in his honour, at the expense of all the rest; but the prize was never awarded. Chaucer's description of his characters is dramatic and masterly; and nothing more need be said about them here, though some further particulars are given in the Notes[96]. His sketches are doubtless original, with the remarkable exception of certain lines in the descriptions of the Prioresse and the Wyf of Bathe, which are transcribed or imitated from Le Roman de la Rose. We even find in Marsh (Eng. Language, p. 419) the remark, that Chaucer was 'a dramatist before that which is technically known as the drama was invented.' § 18. THE KNIGHTES TALE. It is certain that this poem was rewritten, for the purpose of being placed at the head of the Tales. In its original form, it constituted the poem of 'Palemon and Arcite' as referred to in the Legend of Good Women; see the note to l. 420 of that poem, and the introductory remarks to Anelida and Arcite in vol. i. p. 529. We thus see (as was duly noted by Ten Brink[97]) that the original Palemon and Arcite was written in seven-line stanzas, and that some fragments that once belonged to it have found their way into other poems. The opening stanzas of Palemon and Arcite are preserved in the poem of Anelida, ll. 22-46; and we can easily see how they were rewritten so as to form ll. A 859-873 of the Knightes Tale. Above Anelida, l. 22, and again above A 859, the same quotation from Statius is still found in the MSS. Sixteen stanzas which probably belonged to Palemon and Arcite are preserved in the Parl. Foules, 183-294. These lines were entirely recast and condensed, with additions of Chaucer's own, and answer to Kn. Ta., A 1918-1935. The likeness is so slight that it is worth while to shew wherein it consists. I quote first from the Parl. Foules, and afterwards from the Knightes Tale, merely giving such lines as shew a faint likeness, and printing unchanged words in italics. (1) From the PARLIAMENT OF FOULES:-- 246. _Within the temple_ [sc. of Venus], of _syghes_ hote as _fyr_ I herde a swogh that ganne aboute renne; Which _syghes_ were engendred _with desyr_.... 218. Tho was I war of _Plesaunce_ anon-right, 225. I saw _Beautee_, withouten any atyr, _And Youthe_, ful of game and Iolitee _Fool-hardinesse_, _Flaterye_, and _Desyr_, Messagerye, and Mede, and othere three.... 261. Fond I Venus and her porter _Richesse_. 221. To doon by _force_ a wight to do folye. 252. ... the bitter goddesse _Ialousye_. 197. Of _instruments_ of strenges.... 232. Aboute the temple _daunceden_ alway.... 219. And of _Aray, and Lust_. (2) From the KNIGHTES TALE: A 1918, &c.:-- First _in the temple_ of Venus maystow see.... The broken slepes and the _sykes_ colde.... The _fyry_ strokes of _the desiring_.... _Plesaunce_ and hope, _desyr_, _fool-hardinesse_, _Beautee_ _and youthe_, bauderie, _richesse_, Charmes and _force_, lesinges, _flaterye_, Dispense, bisynesse, and _Ielousye_.... Festes, _instruments_, caroles, _daunces_, _Lust and array_. The above is an excellent example of the manner in which Chaucer was capable of absorbing ideas, and reproducing them in a form almost wholly his own. If we were not aware beforehand that both these passages are due to stanzas 53-64 of Book VII. of Boccaccio's Teseide, it would be easy to miss even their general resemblance. Lastly, we find that the lines in Troilus, v. 1807-27, are really imitated from the Teseide, xi. stt. 1-3, where they refer to the death of Arcite. In the Knightes Tale, all that answers to the same passage is a part of lines A 2809-15; and all the resemblance is in the following expressions. (1) From TROILUS, v. 1808, &c.:-- His lighte goost ful blisfully is went Up to the holownesse of the seventh spere.... And forth he wente, shortly for to telle, Theras Mercurie sorted him to dwelle. (2) From the KNIGHTES TALE; A 2809:-- His spirit chaunged hous, and wente ther, As I cam never, I can nat tellen wher.... ... wher they dwelle; Arcite is cold, ther Mars his soule gye. The change from _Mercury_, as the conductor of souls in general, to _Mars_, as the conductor of the martial soul of Arcite, is well worth notice. § 19. These specimens furnish good examples of Chaucer's method. Palemon and Arcite was, at first, a reasonably close imitation of Boccaccio's poem of the Teseide, which took its name from the hero Theseus. But in its second form, it was so much altered as to become, to all intents, a truly original poem. Thanks to the patient labour of Mr. Henry Ward, who collated the Teseide and the Knightes Tale throughout, line by line, we can now tell that 'out of 2250 of Chaucer's lines, he has only translated 270 (less than one-eighth); that only 374 more lines bear a general likeness to Boccaccio's, and only 132 more, a slight likeness; [so that] any talk of the Knightes Tale being a "translation only," or "taken bodily from the Teseide" (of 9054 lines), is of course absurd. Chaucer's work is an _adaptation_ of his original.'--F. J. Furnivall, A Temporary Preface of the Six-text Edition of the Canterbury Tales, p. 104. A table shewing the general resemblance between certain lines in the Knightes Tale and lines in the Teseide, is given in the Notes; to which I must refer the reader for further information. I will merely add here that Chaucer also consulted the Thebais of Statius, which was one of Boccaccio's authorities. § 20. In order to give a clear idea of the general contents of Boccaccio's poem, I here quote in full the analysis of it made by Tyrwhitt, and printed in his Introductory Discourse:-- 'The Teseide is distributed into twelve Books or Cantoes. 'Bk. i. Contains the war of Theseus with the Amazons, their submission to him, and his marriage with Hippolyta. 'Bk. ii. Theseus, having spent two years in Scythia, is reproached by Perithous in a vision, and immediately returns to Athens with Hippolyta and her sister Emilia. He enters the city in triumph; finds the Grecian ladies in the temple of Clemenzia; marches to Thebes; kills Creon, &c., and brings home Palemone and Arcita who are "Damnati--ad eterna presone." 'Bk. iii. Emilia, walking in a garden and singing, is heard and seen first by Arcita[98], who calls Palemone. They are both equally enamoured of her, but without any jealousy or rivalship. Emilia is supposed to see them at the window, and to be not displeased with their admiration. Arcita is released at the request of Perithous; takes his leave of Palemone, with embraces, &c. 'Bk. iv. Arcita, having changed his name to _Pentheo_, goes into the service of Menelaus at Mycenae, and afterwards of Peleus at Aegina. From thence he returns to Athens and becomes a *favourite servant of Theseus, being known to Emilia, though to nobody else; till after some time he is overheard making his complaint in a wood, t |