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

THE SQUIRE'S TALE. 117
Your excellente daughter that is here. Nature nor art ne could him not amend
The virtue of this ring, if ye will hear, In no degree, as all the people wend.13
Is this, that if her list it for to wear But evermore their most5 wonder was
Upon her thumb, or in her purse it bear, How that it coulde go, and was of brass;
There is no fowl that flyeth under heaven, It was of Faerie, as the people seem'd.
That she shall not well understand his steven,1 Diverse folk diversely they deem'd;
And know his meaning openly and plain, As many heads, as many wittes been.
And answer him in his language again: They murmured, as doth a swarm of been,l4
And every grass that groweth upon root And madi skills 15 after their fantasies,
She shall eke know, to whom it will do boot,2 Rehearsing of the olde poetries,
All be his woundes ne'er so deep and wide. And said that it was like the Pegase,16
This naked sword, that hangeth by my side, The horse that hadde winges for to flee;
Such virtue hath, that what man that it smite, Or else it was the Greeke's horse Sinon,l7
Throughout his armour it will carve and bite, That broughte Troye to destruction,
Were it as thick as is a branched oak: As men may in the olde gestes s read.
And what man is y-wounded with the stroke "Mine heart," quoth one, "is evermore in dread;
Shall ne'er be whole, till that you list, of grace, I trow some men of armes be therein,
To stroke him with the flat in thilke 3 place That shape them'9 this city for to win:
Where he is hurt; this is as much to sayn, It were right good that all such thing were
Ye musts with the flatte sword again know."
Stroke him upon the wound, and it will close. Another rowned 2 to his fellow low,
This is the very sooth, withoute glose; 4 And said, "He lies; for it is rather like
It faileth not, while it is in your hold." An apparenci made by some magic,
And when this knight had thus his tale told, As jugglers playen at these feastes great."
He rode out of the hall, and down he light. Of sundry doubts they jangle thus and treat.
His steedS, which that shone as sunne bright, As lewSd2l people deemS commonly
Stood in the court as still as any stone. Of thinges that be made more subtilly
The knight is to his chamber led anon, Than they can in their lew'dness comprehend;
And is unarmed, and to meat y-set.5 They deemS gladly to the badder end.22
These presents be full richely y-fet, — And some of them wonder'd on the mirrofir,
This is to say, the sword and the mirrofr,- That borne was up into the master tow'r,23
And borne anon into the highe tow'r, How men might in it suche thinges see.
With certain officers ordain'd therefor; Another answ6r'd and said, it might well be
And unto Canac6 the ring is bore Naturally by compositions
Solemnely, where she sat at the table; Of angles, and of sly reflecti6ns;
But sickerly, withouten any fable, And saide that in Rome was such a one.
The horse of brass, that may not be remued.7 They speak of Alhazen and Vitellon,24
It stood as it were to the ground y-glued; And Aristotle, that wrote in their lives
There may no man out of the place it drive Of quainte 25 mirrors, and of pr6spectives,
For no engine of windlass or polive; 8 As knowS they that have their bookis heard.
And causB why, for they can not the craft; 9 And other folk have wonder'd on the swerd,
And therefore in the place they have it laft, That woulde pierce throughout every thing;
Till that the knight hath taught them the And fell in speech of Telephus the king,
mannere And of Achilles for his quainte spear,
To voidS 10 him, as ye shall after hear. For he could with it bothe heal and dere,26
Great was the press, that swarmed to and fro Right in such wise as men may with the swerd
To gauren 1 on this horse that stoode so: Of which right now ye have yourselves heard.
For it so high was, and so broad and long, They spake of sundry hard'ning of metal,
So well proportioned for to be strong, And spake of medicines therewithal,
Right as it were a steed of Lombardy; And how, and when, it shoulde harden'd be,
Therewith so horsely, and so quick of eye, Which is unknowen algate 27 unto me.
As it a gentle Poileis 12 courser were: Then spake they of Canac6s's ring,
For certes, from his tail unto his ear And saiden all, that such a wondrous thing
1 Speech, sound. 2 Remedy. 3 The same. street is called the "master street." See note 6,
4 Deceit. 5 Seated at table. 6 Fetched. page 45.
7 Removed; French, "remuer," to stir. 24 Two writers on optics, the first supposed to have
8 Pulley. lived about 1100; the other about 1270. Tyrwhitt says
9 Know not the cunning of the mechanism. that their works were printed at Basle in 1572, under
10 Remove. 11 Gaze. the title "Alhazeni et Vitellonis Opticae."
12 Apulian. The horses of Apulia-in old French 25 Curious.
"Poille," in Italian "Puglia"-were held in high 26 Wound. Telephus, a son of Hercules, reigned
value. 13 Weened, thought. over Mysia when the Greeks came to besiege Troy, and
14 Bees. 15 Reasons. 16 Pegasus. he sought to prevent their landing. But, by the art of
17 The wooden horse of the Greek Sinon, introduced Dionysus, he was made to stumble over a vine, and
into Troy by the stratagem of its maker. Achilles wounded him with his spear. The oracle
18 Narratives of exploits and adventures, informed Telephus that the hurt could be healed only
19 Design, prepare. 20 Whispered. by him, or by the weapon, that inflicted it; and the
21 Ignorant. 22 Are ready to think the worst, king, seeking the Grecian camp, was healed by Achilles
23 Chief tower; as, in the Knight's Tale, the principal with the rust of the charmed spear. 27 However.