Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookit is abundantly clear that this play of Shakespeare's is founded upon Lodge's novel, and that Lodge's novel is a re-cast of the Tale of Gamelyn. I must not omit to add that I am under considerable obligation to an excellent article on Gamelyn by Prof. Zupitza, which appeared in the Jahrbuch der deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, vol. xxi. p. 69 (Weimar, 1886). GROUP B. § 35. THE WORDS OF THE HOST TO THE COMPANY. Group A terminates abruptly, and is wholly unconnected with all that follows. Group B introduces us to a new Fragment, longer and more complete than any other in the Series. The Man of Lawe, the Shipman, the Prioresse, the Poet himself, the Monk, and the Nun's Priest, follow each other in unbroken succession; the only hitch being in the connexion between the Man of Lawe and the Shipman, which is explained in its due place. The Group is incomplete, rather at the beginning than at the end; see above. The opening passage (B 1-98) is of considerable importance, as it contains the line (l. 5) which gives the date, viz. April 18, of one of the days of the pilgrimage, and the statement, that on that day the sun's altitude was 45 degrees at 10 A.M. (B 12-14); and further, because it gives a list of the Tales which Chaucer meant to include in his Legend of Good Women, in order to complete it, though this, after all, was left undone. These points are discussed in the Notes to B 3 and B 61, which see. In ll. 78 and 81, it has usually been supposed (and probably with justice) that Chaucer is referring to Gower's Confessio Amantis, inasmuch as Gower actually gives the stories of Canacee and Apollonius. As this is a point of some difficulty (for it cannot be settled without carefully considering the dates at which Chaucer's Man of Lawes Tale and Gower's long poem were, respectively, written), it is again considered below, in the remarks upon the Tale itself. The reference (in B 61) to the Legend of Good Women shews that these 'Wordes of the Host' were written after 1385, but before the idea of continuing the Legend had been definitely abandoned, as, in course of time, was certainly the case. This will suit very well with the supposed date of 1387, which, from other considerations, is probably the correct one; see § 3, above, p. 374. The reference in l. 96--'I speke in prose'--looks, at the first glance, as if Chaucer had originally intended to assign a prose Tale to the Man of Lawe; and indeed, the Tale of Melibeus would have suited him well enough, for Albertano of Brescia, its real author, was actually bred up to the law. As it stands, I take it to mean that _speke_ is here used in a technical sense--i.e. I am accustomed, in the law-courts, to speak in prose[106], whereas riming is Chaucer's business; if then, I tell a tale in my ordinary manner, it will, as compared with _his_ manner, seem like 'baked haws' as compared with excellent fare. We may even suppose it to be feigned that the Man of Lawe did really, _at the time_, relate the story in prose, on the understanding that Chaucer might versify it afterwards: 'lat him rymes make,' i.e. let him make verse of it. This is a natural interpretation to put upon the matter; moreover, it left Chaucer free, after all, to tell the story after _his own_ fashion, and even to insert, as we shall soon see, a portion of one of his own early translations into various parts both of the Prologue and of the Tale. We may also observe the great skill with which Chaucer evades the difficulty of assigning to the Man of Law a Tale which is not particularly suited for him. The speaker says below (B 131) that it is not a tale of his own, but was 'taught' him by 'a marchaunt.' Accordingly, in B 135, we learn that the Tale came originally from some Syrian 'chapmen,' who learnt it when sojourning in Rome (148). It thus becomes, as it were, a merchant's Tale. The apostrophe addressed to Poverty, in ll. 99-121 (really taken from one of Chaucer's own poems, as shewn in § 36), is by no means out of place; for it leads up to the mention of the 'rich merchants' in l. 122, who toil to avoid it. And it is to one of these that the Tale is supposed to be due. § 36. THE MAN OF LAW'S PROLOGUE. This Prologue has a peculiar and special interest, from the fact that, in the first three stanzas and part of the fourth (as well as in some stanzas of the Tale), the poet has preserved for us a portion of one of his early works. In ll. 414-5 of the older Prologue to the Legend of Good Women, Chaucer tells us that he not only translated Boece in prose, but also (the piece called) 'Of the Wreched Engendring of Mankinde, As man may in Pope Innocent y-finde'; i.e. the treatise by Innocent, afterwards Pope Innocent III., entitled De Contemptu Mundi sive de Miseria Conditionis Humanae. In the present passage (B 99-111), we have a portion of this same treatise in a verse form, as becomes evident upon comparison. This interesting discovery was first made by Prof. Lounsbury, and announced in the 'Nation' (an American journal) for July, 1889; and soon after (quite independently, as I have reason to know, and as Prof. Lounsbury very properly acknowledges) by Dr. E. Köppel, in an article contributed to the 'Archiv für das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Litteraturen,' vol. 84, (1890), p. 405. See Lounsbury's Studies in Chaucer, ii. 333. Neither does the present passage exhaust this source; for there are yet four more stanzas inserted in the Tale itself, which really belong to the same treatise. These passages being all of high interest, owing to the peculiar use made of them by Chaucer, the original Latin is here given. (_a_) B 99-121. The original is from De Cont. Mundi, lib. 1. cap. 16. 'Pauperes enim premuntur inedia, cruciantur aerumna, fame, siti, frigore, nuditate: uilescunt, tabescunt, spernuntur, et confunduntur. O miserabilis mendicantis condicio; et si petit, pudore confunditur; et si non petit, egestate consumitur, sed ut mendicet, necessitate compellitur. (106) Deum causatur iniquum, quod non recte diuidat; proximum criminatur malignum, quod non plene subueniat. Indignatur, murmurat, imprecatur. (113) Aduerte super hoc sententiam Sapientis: Melius est, inquit, mori quam indigere [Ecclus. xl. 28]. Etiam proximo suo pauper odiosus erit [Prov. xiv. 20]. Omnes dies pauperis mali, [Prov. xv. 15]-- (120) fratres hominis pauperis oderunt eum. Insuper et amici procul recesserunt ab eo' [Prov. xix. 7.] (_b_) B 421-427. From De Cont. Mundi, lib. i. cap. 23; headed De Inopinato Dolore. 'Semper enim mundanae laetitiae tristitia repentina succedit. Et quod incipit a gaudio, desinit in moerore. Mundana quippe felicitas multis amaritudinibus est respersa. Nouerat hoc qui dixerat: Risus dolore miscebitur, et extrema gaudii luctus occupat [Prov. xiv. 13].... Attende salubre consilium: In die bonorum, non immemor sis malorum' [cf. Eccles. vii. 14; xi. 8]. (_c_) B 771-7. From De Cont. Mundi, lib. ii. c. 19; De Ebrietate. 'Quid turpius ebrioso? cui fetor in ore, t |