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

240 POEMS OF GEOFFRE Y CHA UCER.
Alexander, and Hercules, That bare of Thebes up the name
Tnat with a shirt his liflese.1 Upon his shoulders, and the fame
Thus found I sitting this goddess, Also of cruel Achilles.
In noble honour and rich6ss; And by him stood, without8 lease,l5
Of which I stint 2 a while now, Full wondrous high on a pillhre
Of other things to telli you. Of iron, he, the great Homere;
Then saw I stand on either side, And with him Dares and Dytus,16
Straight down unto the dooris wide, Before, and eke he, Lollius,l7
From the dais, many a pillere And Guido eke de Colempnis,l8
Of metal, that shone not full clear; And English Gaufrid 19 eke, y-wis.
But though they were of no richess, And each of these, as I have joy,
Yet were they made for great nobless, Was busy for to bear up Troy;
And in them greate sentence.3 So heavy thereof was the fame,
And folk of digne4 reverence, That for to bear it was no game.
Of which I will you telle fand,5 But yet I gan full well espy,
Upon the pillars saw I stand. Betwixt them was a little envy.
Altherfirst, lo! there I sigh 6 One said that Homer made lies,
Upon a pillar stand on high, Feigning in his poetries,
That was of lead and iron fine, And was to the Greeks favourable;
Him of the secte Saturnine,7 Therefore held he it but a fable.
The Hebrew J6sephus the old, Then saw I stand on a pillere
That of Jewes' gestes 8 told; That was of tinned iron clear,
And he bare on his shoulders high Him, the Latin poetjVirgile,
All the fame up of Jewry. That borne hath up a longi while
And by him stooden other seven, The fame of pious JEneas.
Full wise and worthy for to neven,9 And next him on a pillar was
To help him bearen up the charge,0 Of copper, Venus' clerk Ovide,
It was so heavy and so large. That hath y-sowen wondrous wide
And, for they writen of battailes, The greate god of Love's fame.
As well as other old marvailes, And there he bare up well his name
Therefore was, lo! this pillere, Upon this pillar all so high,
Of which that I you telle here, As I might see it with mine eye;
Of lead and iron both, y-wis; For why? this hall whereof I read
For iron Marte's metal is,l Was waxen in height, and length, and bread,20
Which that god is of battaile; Well more by a thousand deal 21
And eke the lead, withoute fail, Than it was erst, that saw I weel.
Is, lo! the metal of Satfirn, Then saw I on a pillar by,
That hath full large wheel 12 to turn. Of iron wrought full sternSly,
Then stoode forth, on either row, The greatS poet, Dan Lucan,
Of them which I coulde know, That on his shoulders bare up than,
Though I them not by order tell, As high as that I might it see,
To make you too longe dwell. The fame of Julius and Pompey;22
These, of the which I gin you read, And by him stood all those clerks
There saw I standen, out of dread, That write of Rome's mighty works,
Upon an iron pillar strong, That if I would their names tell,
That painted was all endelongl3 All too longe must I dwell.
With tiger's blood in ev'ry place, And next him on a pillar stood
The Tholosan that highte Stace,l4 Of sulphur, like as he were wood,3
1 Lost his life; with the poisoned shirt of Nessus, among them Dante, he was believed to have been a
sent to him by the jealous Dejanira. native of Tolosa, now Toulouse. He wrote the " The2 Refrain (from speaking). bais," in twelve books, and the "Achilleis," of which
3 Significance; that is, in the appropriateness of the only two were finished.
metal of which they are composed to the character of 15 Without leasing or falsehood; truly.
the author represented. 16 Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis were the
4 Worthy, lofty. names attached to histories of the Trojan War pre5 I will try to tell you. 6 Saw. tended to have been written immediately after the fall
7 Of the Saturnine school; so called because his of Troy.
history of the Jewish wars narrated many horrors, 17 The unrecognisable author whom Chaucer professes
cruelties, and sufferings, over which Saturn was the to follow in his " Troilus and Cressida," and who has
presiding deity. See note 5, page 41. been thought to mean Boccaccio. See page 248.
8 Feats, deeds of bravery. 18 Guido de Colonna, or de Colempnis, a native of
9 Name. 10 Burden. Messina, who lived about the end of the thirteenth
11 Compare the account of the "bodies seven" given century, and wrote in Latin prose a history including
by the Canon's Yeoman (p. 180): the war of Troy.
Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe; 19 Geoffrey of Monmouth, who drew from Troy the
Mars iron, Mercury quicksilver we clepe; original of the British race. See Spenser's "Faerie
Saturnus lead, and Jupiter is tin, 0 ueen k ii. canto x. pages 395-6.
And Venus copper, by my father's kin." Bet 2
22 In his " Pharsalia," a poem in ten books, recount12 Orbit. 13 From top to bottom; throughout. ing the Incidents of the war between Caesar and
14 Statius is called a " Tholosan," because bysome, Pompey. 23 Mad.