The Canterbury tales and Faerie queene &c., &c., &c., ed. for popular perusal with current illustrations and explanatory notes, by D. Laing Purves.

70o THE CANTERB&RY TALES.
And eke he was of such discretion, Then would I shew you how that I could plain
That there was no man, in no regi6n, For Chanticleere's dread, and for his pain.
That him in song or wisdom mightd pass. Certes such cry nor lamentati6n
I have well read in Dan Burnel the Ass,1 Was ne'er of ladies made, -when Ili6n
Among his verse, how that there was a cock Was won, and Pyrrhus13 with his straighti
That, for 2 a priestS's son gave him a knock swerd,
Upon his leg, while he was young and nice,3 When he had hent king Priam by the beard,
He made him for to lose his benefice. And slain him (as saith us Eneidos),
But certain there is no comparis6n As maden all the hennes in the close,l4
Betwixt the wisdom and discreti6n When they had seen of Chanticleer the sight.
Of yourS father, and his subtilty. But sov'reignly 15 Dame Partelotd shright,16
Nz6w singS, Sir, for saintS charity, Full louder than did Hasdrubale's wife,
Let see, can ye your father counterfeit?" When that her husband haddd lost his life,
This Chanticleer his wings began to beat, And that the Romans had y-burnt Carthage;
As man that could not his treas6n espy, She was so full of torment and of rage,
So was he ravish'd with his flattery. That wilfully into the fire she start,
Alas! ye lordes, many a false flattour4 And burnt herselfe with a steadfast heart.
Is in your court, and many a losengeour,5 0 woeful henns! right so cried ye,
That please you well more, by my faith, As, when that Nero burned the city
Than he that soothfastness 6 unto you saith. Of Rome, cried the senatores' wives,
Read in Ecclesiast of flattery; For that their husbands losten all their lives;
Beware, ye lordes, of their treachery. Withoute guilt this Nero hath them slain.
This Chanticleer stood high upon his toes, Now will I turn unto my tale again;
Stretching his neck, and held his eyen close, The sely 17 widow, and her daughters two,
And gan to crowS loude for the nonce: 7 Hearde these hennes cry and make woe,
And Dan Russel the fox start up at once, And at the doors out started they anon,
And by the gargat hente 9 Chanticleer, And saw the fox toward the wood is gone,
And on his back toward the wood him bare. And bare upon his back the cock away:
For yet was there no man that him pursu'd. They cried, " Out! harow! and well-away!
O destiny, that may'st not be eschew'd! 10 Aha! the fox! " and after him they ran,
Alas, that Chanticleer flew from the beams! And eke with staves many another man;
Alas, his wife raughte 1 nought of dreams! Ran Coll our dog, and Talbot, and Garland;
And on a Friday fell all this mischance. And Malkin, with her distaff in her hand;
O Venus, that art goddess of pleasance, Ran cow and calf, and eke the very hogges,
Since that thy servant was this Chanticleer, So fear'd they were for barking of the dogges,
And in thy service did all his powere, And shouting of the men and women eke.
More for delight, than the world to multiply, They rannd'so, them thought their hearts would
Why wilt thou suffer him on thy day to die? break.
O Gaufrid, deare master sovereign, They yelled as the fiendes do in hell;
That, when thy worthy king Richard was slain'2 The duckes criSd as men would them quell; 18
With shot, complainedest his death so sore, The geese for fearS flewen o'er the trees,
Why n' had I now thy sentence and thy Out of the hive came the swarm of bees,
lore, So hideous was the noise, ben'dicite!
The Friday for to chiden, as did ye? Certes he, Jacke Straw,19 and his meinie,20
(For on a Friday, soothly, slain was he), Ne made never shoutSs half so shrill,
1 "Nigellus Wireker," says Urry's Glossary, "a is probably connected with "leasing," falsehood, which
monk and precentor of Canterbury, wrote a Latin has been derived from Anglo-Saxon "hlisan," to celepoem intituled'Speculum Speculorum,' dedicated to brate-as if it meant the spreading of a false renown.
William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, and Lord Chan- 6 Truth. 7 Occasion.
cellor; wherein, under the fable of an Ass (which he 8 Master Russet; a name given to the fox, from his
calls' Burnellus') that desired a longer tail, is repre- reddish colour.
sented the folly of such as are not content with their 9 Seized him by the throat.
own condition. There is introduced a tale of a cock, 1o Escaped. 11 Recked, regarded.
who having his leg broke by a priest's son (called 12 Geoffrey de Vinsauf was the author of a well-known
Gundulfus) watched an opportunity to be revenged; mediaeval treatise on composition in various poetical
which at last presented itself on this'occasion: A day styles, of which he gave examples. Chaucer's, irony is
was appointed for Gundulfus's being admitted into here directed against some grandiose and affected lines
holy orders at a place remote from his father's habita- on the death of Richard I., intended to illustrate the
tion; he therefore orders the servants to call him at pathetic style, in which Friday is addressed as "0
first cock-crowing, which the cock overhearing did not Veneris lachrymosa dies! "
crow at all that morning. So Gundulfus overslept 13 i [Priamum] altaria ad ipsa trementem
himself, and was thereby disappointed of his ordina- Traxit, et in multo lapsantem sanguine nati;
tion; the office being quite finished before he came to Implicuitque comam laev&, dextraque coruscum
the place." Wireker's satire was among the most cele- Extulit, ac lateri capulo tenus abdidit ensem.
brated and popular Latin poems of the Middle Ages. Haec finis Priami fatorum."
The Ass was probably, as Tyrwhitt suggests, called -VIRGILA, Eneid. ii. 550.
"Burnel," or "Brunel," from his brown colour; as, a 14 Yard, enclosure. 15 Above all others.
little below, the reddish fox is called " Russel." 16 Shrieked. 17 Simple, honest.
2 Because. 3 Foolish. 18 Kill, destroy.
4 Flatterer; French, "fiatteur." 19 The leader of a Kentish rising, in the reign of
5 Deceiver, cozener; the word had analogues in the Richard II., in 1381, by which the Flemish merchants
French "losengier," and the Spanish "lisongero." It in London were great sufferers. S Followers.