18,245 The sonne fro the south lyne was descended
So lowe that he ne nas nat to my sighte
Degrees nyne-and-twenty as in highte;
Foure of the clokke it was tho, as I gesse,
For ellevene foot, or litel moore or lesse,
My shadwe was at thilke tyme, as there
Of swiche feet as my lengthe parted were
In sixe feet equal of proporcioun.
Ther-with the moones exaltacioun,

I meene Libra, alwey gan ascende.

This passage shows that "four" was the hour, and not "ten," as some manuscripts have it, for at four in the afternoon of April 20th, the sun was twenty-nine degrees above the western horizon, and caused Chaucer's shadow to be in the proportion of eleven to six. In this case again Tyrwhitt was correct.

The expression "I meene Libra " is similar to "I mene Venus" (line 2216), but Libra is the exaltation of Saturn; though the first "face" of Libra was the face of the Moon, and we may well agree with Mr. Skeat that the poet here made a slip in the use of the arbitrary terms

of astrology.

When Phebus dothe his bryghte bemes sprede,

Ryght in the white Bool it so bytydde

As I shal synge,

-on Mayes day the thridde.1

The sun is in Taurus at the beginning of

May.

1 Troylus and Cryseyde, ii. 54.

BIBLICAL REFERENCES.

THE great number of Chaucer's allusions to and quotations from the Bible, and their familiarity, makes it inexpedient to indicate them. Living at the time when Wiclif, through his writings and his poor preachers, was making the people everywhere acquainted with the words and doctrines of the Bible, a complete version of which he gave them in their own tongue before Chaucer had reached his prime, and when, as has been said, every third man in the street was a Lollard, it would have been strange if the great poet had not derived the largest share of his allusions and illustrations from the revered book of the people.

Chaucer was familiar with the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, and made hundreds of references to the ancient historical books, to the poetry of Job, David, and Solomon, to the Apocryphal books, to the Gospels of the four Evangelists, to the Epistles of St. Paul, and to the apocalyptic vision of the Seer

of Patmos. He did this, too, not with the constrained and exact style of one who prepared himself for the occasion, but with the freedom of a man who was acquainted with the subject and who believed his readers to be possessed of the same general knowledge.

THE CANTERBURY TALES.

THE GENERAL PROLOGUE.

Here bygynneth the Book of the tales of Caunterbury.

WHAN that Aprille with hise shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich1licour Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram 2 his halfe cours yronne, And smale foweles maken melodye That slepen al the nyght with open eye, So priketh hem Nature in hir corages,3Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes i To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; And specially, from every shires ende Of Engelond, to Caunturbury they wende

---- ΙΟ

2 The sign of the Ram. 3 Their hearts. 4 Ancient

1 Such. saints, known.

VOL. I.

I

The hooly blisful martir1 for to seke

That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.

Bifil that in that seson on a day,
In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay,
Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage
To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,
At nyght were come in-to that hostelrye
Wel nyne-and-twenty in a compaignye,
Of sondry folk, by aventure y-falle

In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle,
That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde.
The chambres and the stables weren wyde
And wel we weren esed atte3 beste.
And shortly whan the sonne was to-reste,
So hadde I spoken with hem everychon
That I was of hir felaweshipe anon,
And made forward 5 erly for to ryse
To take oure wey, ther as I yow devyse.
But nathelees, whil I have tyme and space,
Er that I ferther in this tale pace,"
Me thynketh it acordaunt to resoun
To telle yow al the condicioun

Of ech of hem, so as it semed me,

20

30

And whiche they weren and of what degree 40 And eek in what array that they were inne;

And at a Knyght than wol I first bigynne.

1 Thomas à Becket. 2 Full. the. Each one. 5 Promise. 6 Where. 7 Pass.

Cf. 1. 15, 159.. 3 Accommodated at