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

220 POEMS OF GEOFFRE Y CHA UCER.
Helena, Cleopatra, Troilus, But waterfowl sat lowest in the dale,
Scylla,' and eke the mother of Romulus; 2 And fowls that live by seed sat on the green,
All these were painted on the other side, And that so many, that wonder was to see'n.
And all their love, and in what plight they died. m t r e
There might6 men the royal eagle find,
When I was come again into the place That with his sharpe look pierceth the Sun;
That I of spake, that was so sweet and green, And other eagles of a lower kind,
Forth walk'd I then, myself to solace: Of which that clerkes well devise con;
Then was I ware where there sat a queen, There was the tyrant with his feathers dun
That, as of light the summer Sunnd sheen And green, I mean the goshawk, that doth
Passeth the star, right so over measufre 3 pine 12
She fairer was than any creatfire. To birds, for his outrageous ravine.
And in a lawn, upon a hill of flowers,
And in a lawn, upon a hill of flowers, The gentle falcon, that with his feet disWas set this noble goddess of Natfire; traineth 13
Of branches were her halles and her bowers m iOf branches were her hals ad hr b s The king6's hand; the hardy sperhawk 14 eke,
Y-wrought, after her craft and her measfire; t
The quaile's foe; the merlion 15 that paineth
Nor was there fowl that comes of engendrure
Himself full oft the lark5 for to seek;
That there ne were prest,4 in her presence, Hr e
There was the dove. with her eyen meek;
To take her doom? and give her audience.
To o ad ge hr a. The jealous swan, againstl6his deaththatsingeth;
For this was on Saint Valentine's Day, The owl eke, that of death the bode 17 bringeth.
When ev'ry fowl cometh to choose her make,6
Of every kind that men thinken may; The crane, the giant, with his trumpet soun';
And then so huge a noise gan they make,' The thief the chough; and eke the chatt'ring pie;
That earth, and sea, and tree, and ev'ry lake, The scorning jay; the eels foe the heroin;
So full was, that unnethes 7 there was space The false lapwing, full of treachery; 19
For me to stand, so full was all the place. The starling, that the counsel can betray;
The tam6 ruddock,20 and the coward kite;
And right as Alain, in his Plaint of Kind, of thorps lite.
Devish 9 N f sucharray ad face The cock, that horologe is of thorp6s lite.2x
DIeviseth 9 Natfre of such array and face;
In such array men might6 her there find. The sparrow, Venus' son; 22 the nightingale,
This noble Emperess, full of all grace, That calleth forth the freshe leaves new; ~
Bade ev'ry fowle take her owen place, The swallow, murd'rer of the bees smale,
As they were wont alway, from year to year, That honey make of flowers fresh of hue;
On Saint Valentine's Day to stande there. The wedded turtle, with his hearte true;
That is to say, the fowls of ravine 10 The peacock, with his angel feathers bright;24
That is to say, the fowles of ravine lo
The pheasant, scorner of the cock by night; 25
Were highest set, and then the fowles smale,
That eaten as them Nature would incline; The waker goose; 26 the cuckoo ever unkind;27
As worme-fowl, of which I tell no tale; The popinjay, full of delicacy; 28
consented to join the Trojans; and, going without arms falcon-as if its high birth and breeding gave it a right
into Apollo's temple at Thymbra, he was there slain by to august society.
Paris. 14 The bold, pert, sparrow-hawk.
1 Love-stories are told of two maidens of this name; 15 Elsewhere in the same poem called "emerlon;"
one the daughter of Nisus, King of Megara, who, falling French, " emerillon;" the merlin, a small hawk carried
in love with Minos when he besieged the city, slew by ladies.
her father by pulling out the golden hair which grew 6 Before, in anticipation of.
on the top of his head, and on which his life and king- 17 Message, omen.
dom depended. Minos won the city, but rejected her 1I Scorning humbler birds, out of pride of his fine
love in horror. The other Scylla, from whom the rock plumage.
opposite to Charybdis was named, was a beautiful 19 Full of stratagemsandpretencesto divert approachmaiden, beloved by the sea-god Glaucus, but changed ing danger from the nest where her young ones are.
into a monster through the jealousy and enchant- 20 Robin-redbreast.
ments of Circe. 21 That is the clock of the little hamlets or villages.
2 Silvia, daughter and only living child of Numitor, 2 Because sacred to Venus.
whom her uncle Amulius made a vestal virgin, to pre- 23 Coming with the spring, the nightingale is charmclude the possibility that his brother's descendants ingly said to call forth the new leaves.
could wrest from him the kingdom of Alba Longa. 24 Many-coloured wings, like those of peacocks, were
But the maiden was violated by Mars as she went to often given to angels in paintings of the Middle Ages;
bring water from a fountain; she bore Romulus and and in accordance with this fashion Spenser represents
Remus; and she was drowned in the Anio, while the the Angel that guarded Sir Guyon (" Faerie Queen."
cradle with the children was carried down the stream book ii. canto vii. page 388) as having wings " decked
in safety to the Palatine Hill, where the she-wolf with diverse plumes, like painted jay's."
adopted them. 3 Out of all proportion. 25 The meaning of this passage is not very plain; it
4 Were not ready; French, "pret." has been supposed, however, to refer to the frequent
5 To receive her judgment or decision, breeding of pheasants at night with domestic poultry
6 Mate, companion. 7 Scarcely. in the farmyard-thus scorning the sway of the cock,
8 Alanus de Insulis, a Sicilian poet and orator of the its rightful monarch.
twelfth century, who wrote a book "De Planctu Na- 26 Chaucer evidently alludes to the passage in Ovid
ture'I-" The Complaint of Nature." describing the crow of Apollo, which rivalled the spot9 Describeth. less doves, "Nec servaturis vigili Capitolia voce Ce10 The birds of prey. deret anseribus "-" nor would it yield (in whiteness)
11 Which scholars well can describe. to the geese destined with wakeful or vigilant voice to
12 Causeth pain or woe. save the Capitol" (" Metam.," ii. 538) when about to
13 Grasps; compresses; the falcon was borne on the be surprised by the Gauls in a night attack.
hand by the highest personages, not merely in actual 1'7 The significance of this epithet is amply explained
sport, but to be oaressed and petted. even on occasions by the poem of " The Cuckoo and the Nightingale."
of ceremony. Hence also it is called the "gentle" 28 The parrot full of pleasingness.