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

238 POEMS OF GEOFFRE Y CHA UCER.
For that he would envyen, lo! To make, in certain ascendents,15
To pipe better than Apoll6. Images, lo! through which magic
There saw I famous, old and young, To make a man be whole or sick.
Pipers of alle Dutchi tongue,' There saw I the queen Mede6,'6
To learne love-dances and springs, And Circes 7 eke, and Calyps.l8
Reyes,2 and these strange things. There saw I Hermes Bfllenus,19
Then saw I in another place, Limote,20 and eke Simon Magfis.21
Standing in a large space, There saw I, and knew by name,
Of them that make bloody soun',3 That by such art do men have fame.
In trumpet, beam,4 and clariofn; There saw I Colle Tregetour 20
For in fight and blood-sheddings Upon a table of sycamore
Is used gladly clarionings. Play an uncouth 22 thing to tell;
There heard I trumpe Messenfs,5 I saw him carry a windmell
Of whom speaketh Virgilius.6 Under a walnut shell.
There heard I Joab trump also,7 Why should I make longer tale
Theodamas,8 and other mo', Of all the people I there say,23
And all that used clarion From hence even to doomesday?
In Catalogne and Aragon, When I had all this folk behold,
That in their timSs famous were And found me loose, and not y-hold,24
To learnS, saw I trumpS there. And I had mused longS while
There saw I sit in other sees, Upon these walls of beryle,
Playing upon sundry glees, That shone lighter than any glass,
Whiche that I cannot neven,9 And made well more 25 than it was
More than starres be in heaven; To seemen ev'rything, y-wis,
Of which I Wvill not now rhyme, As kindly 26 thing of Fame it is;
For ease of you, and loss of time: I gan forth roam until I fand 27
For time lost, this knowS ye, The castle-gate on my right hand,
By no way may recover'd be. Which all so well y-carven was,
There saw I play jongelours, l That never such another n' as; 28
Magicians, and tregetours,l And yet it was by Adventure
And Pythonesses,l2 charmeresses, Y-wrought, and not by subtile cure.29
And old witches, and sorceresses, It needeth not you more to tell,
That use exorcisati6ns,3 To make you too longe dwell,
And eke subfumigati6ns; Of these gatSs' flourishings,
And clerkes 14 eke, which knowS well Nor of compasses,30 nor carvings,
All this magic naturel, Nor how they had in masonries,
That craftily do their intents As corbets,31 full of imageries.
challenged Apollo to a contest, the victor in which was 15 Under certain planetary influences. The next
to do with the vanquished as he pleased. Marsyas lines recall the alleged malpractices of witches, who
was beaten, and Apollo flayed him alive. tortured little images of wax, in the design of causing
1 The German (Deutsche) language, in Chaucer's the same torments to the person represented-or, vice
time, had not undergone that marked literary division versa, treated these images for the cure of hurts or
which was largely accomplished through the influence sickness.
of the works of Luther and the other Reformers. Even 16 Celebrated for her magical power, through which
now, the flute'is the favourite musical instrument of she restore to youth oEson, the father of Jason; and
the Fatherland; and the devotion of the Germans to caused the death of Jason's wife, Creusa, by sending
poetry and music has been celebrated since the days her a poisoned garment which consumed her to ashes.
of Tacitus. 17 The sorceress Circe, who changed the companions
2 A kind of dance, or song to be accompanied with of Ulysses into swine.
dancing. 18 Calypso, on whose island of Ogygia Ulysses was
3 Martial sound, accompanying sanguinary strife. wrecked. The goddess promised the hero immortality
4 Horn, trumpet; Anglo-Saxon, "bema." if he remained with her; but he refused, and, after a
5 Misenus, son of LEolus, the companion and trum- detention of seven years, she had to let him go.
peter of iEneas, was drowned near the Campanian 19 This is supposed to mean Hermes Trismegistus (of
headland called Misenum after his name. whom see note 23, page 185); but the explanation of
6 AEneid, vi. 162 et seqq. the word " Ballenus" is not quite obvious. The god
7 Joab's fame as a trumpeter is founded on two Hermes of the Greeks (Mercurius of the Romans)
verses in 2 Samuel (ii. 28, xx. 22), where we are told had the surname "Cyllenius," from the mountain
that he "blew a trumpet," which all the people of where he was born-Mount Cyllene, in Arcadia; and
Israel obeyed, in-the one case desisting from a pursuit, the alteration into "Ballenus" would-be quite within
in the other raising a siege. the range of a copyist's capabilities, while we find in the
8 Theodamas or Thiodamas, king of the Dryopes, mythological character of Hermes enough to warrant
who plays a prominent part in the tenth book of his being classed with jugglers and magicians.
Statius' "Thebaid." BothheandJoabarealsomentioned 20 Limote and Colle Tregetour seem to have been
as great trumpeters in The Merchant's Tale, page 109. famous sorcerers orjugglers, but nothing is now known
9 Name. 10 Jugglers; French, "jongleur." of either.
11 Fr explanation of this word, sengote 11, page 126. 21 Of whom we read in Acts viii. 9, et seqq.
12 TVfnen who, like the Pythia iA Apollo's temple at 22 Strange, rare. 23 Saw.
Delphi, were possessed with a spirit of divination or 24 At liberty and unrestrained. 25 Much greater.
prophecy. The barbarous Latin form of the word wa' 26 Natural; it is in the nature of Fame to exaggerate
"Pythonissa" or "Phitonissa." See note 10, page85. everything. 27 Found.'
13 A ceremony employed to drive away evil spirits 28 Was (with negative particle prefixed).
by burning incense; the practice of smoking cattle, 29 And yet it was fashioned by Chance, not by care.
corn, &c., has not died out in some country districts..30 Devices., r Scholars. 31 The corbels, or capitals whence the arches spring