was to pay for all they spent upon the way. All agreed, and appointed the Host governor, judge, and reporter of the tales. Then wine was fetched, they drank, and went to bed. On the The Host roused them next morning when the day began to spring—at dawn. Are we to think, from the indications given in the prologues to some of the tales, that the sixty-four miles from Southwark to Canterbury were to be travelled before night? The length of the day from sunrise to sunset at the time of the pilgrimage is about fifteen hours. At easy pace, with sufficient halts for rest and food, perhaps taking fresh horses once upon the road, and recovering their own on the return journey, the riders could easily complete in a spring day their journey on a road so well kept and furnished as the route of pilgrims between London and St. Thomas à Becket's shrine. The time of Chaucer's pilgrimage is variously given in different MSS. of the prologue to the Man of Law's tale. In most of them it is the 18th of April, in one the 13th, in one the 28th ; * the opening lines of the prologue indicate, as we have seen, the middle of April; and the day was the 18th, certainly not the 28th. The difference of styles would bring the day of starting on the pilgrimage to a time when, within a few minutes more or less according to the date chosen, the sun rises at twenty minutes to five, and sets at a quarter past seven. There were practically fifteen hours of daylight for the travellers upon the best of the bad roads of old England. Horses of any pilgrims being left half-way, new horses hired could take them on to Canterbury. The Pilgrims could exchange these on return for the horses on which they had ridden out of London, and on which they would ride back. They would so, whether their * Professor Skeat rightly observes that xviii. was easily turned to xxviii. by careless addition of an x., and to xiii. by an omission of a v. own or hired, return them to the stables from which they were taken. A regulation for hackneymen has been quoted from a Patent Roll of the year 1396, providing against loss of hired horses, and fixing the charge for hire of a horse at twelve pence from Southwark to Rochester, twelve pence from Rochester to Canterbury, and sixpence from Canterbury to Dover.* It is to be remembered that old roads were no more than tracks over the soft earth, which usually went along hills to avoid the mud and the frequent flooding of the low ground. State policy made it important to maintain as good a road as possible from London to Dover, while it was Church policy to make the way of pilgrims smooth between London and Canterbury. Chaucer did not live to complete the shaping of his "Canterbury Tales," and it is probable that he had not made up his own mind as to the number of days that would be spent in travelling and story-telling. Some groups of stories have their sequence determined by the narrative that joins them, while there is nothing to connect with any certainty the first or the last tale in such a group with those that were to come before or after it. The connecting narrative includes a few indications of the time of day when a tale was told, and the place on the road to which the travellers had come. In that final revision and adjustment which the poet did not live to enter upon, some of these would probably have been changed, any discovered inconsistencies would have been got rid of, and the course of time during the journey would have been lightly but distinctly indicated. As the narrative stands, the Canon's Yeoman says to the pilgrims— * "Essays on Chaucer," published by the Chaucer Society, No. XV. Also in Longman's "Lectures on the History of England," vol. i., p. 334, as indicated in a note by Dr. Furnivall. and as this cannot have been meant of the Tabard, it might indicate, although not necessarily, the departure, after a night's lodging in it, from some inn upon the road. The Parson's tale, which regards Life as a Pilgrimage, was meant to close the series, and its prologue suggests that it was begun at four o'clock in the afternoon. According to Dr. Furnivall's suggestion, this would be the afternoon of a fourth day, the whole journey having been made at the pace of about fifteen miles a day, which was no more than the day's journey of a man on foot. Since Chaucer himself, if he could be asked, would probably reply that he had not in his own mind settled the question,—and had not thought of settling it till all the tales he meant to weld together were before him, and he was ready to close with the final supper and the last view of life arising out of Harry Bailly's exercises as a critic,-we must take the problem as one that cannot be precisely solved, only observing that the narrative by which the tales are imperfectly linked together leads us to believe that more than one day was to be spent on the pilgrims' journey between London and Canterbury. The party rose at dawn and rode slowly to "the watering of St. Thomas"-that is to say, of the Hospital of St. Thomas the Martyr, in Southwark, which may be called, in the series of Church stations, the London terminus of the line of pilgrimage to St. Thomas the Martyr's shrine at Canterbury. Here the Host reminded his companions of their undertaking; and all, at his bidding, including the Lady Prioress and the studious, bashful Clerk, drew slips by way of lot. Whoever had the shortest should begin. This wholesome device excluded all questions of precedence of rank among the fellow-pilgrims. The lot fell to the Knight, whereat all were glad; and, with the courtesy of prompt assent, he began The Knight's Tale of Palamo and Arcite. This is Chaucer's version, or a recasting by Chaucer of his version, of Boccaccio's "Teseide," which he had made before he wrote "The Legend of Good Women." Four lines are introduced near the beginning to connect it with the prologue. Chaucer had said that of Theseus wedded to Ipolita, and of his return to Athens with her and her young sister Emelie, and "how wonnen was the regne of Femenie," and such matter, he will not tell, because the rest of his tale is long enough. He interpolates, "I wol not lette eek non of al this route. Lat every felowe telle his tale aboute, The matter passed over by Chaucer occupies the first two books of the "Teseide," at the end of which Theseus brings home Palamon and Arcite, who had been found wounded almost to death upon the battlefield, after his victory at Thebes, and imprisons them for life in the palace, with an outlook on a magnificent garden. Imprisoned Arcite sees Emilia walking in the garden, and calls his friend Palamon. Both fall in love with her, and Emilia sees their admiration without displeasure. Arcite is released, through the friendship of Pirithous, but is immediately to quit the kingdom upon pain of death. After serving Menelaus and Peleus, he returns disguised, by the name of Pantheo, to serve Theseus, and becomes known to Emilia. Pamphilo, servant of Palamon, overhears his complaint of love, declared under a tree in a wood to the winds and birds, and reports it to Palamon, who becomes jealous, and therefore desires to leave his prison and fight with his friend. Having escaped by changing clothes with a Theban physician, he finds Arcite in the wood. The friends, after long talk, towards dawn begin to fight, and are discovered by Theseus and Emilia, who had come to the wood a-hunting. Theseus is astonished at the handsome fellows who have both forfeited their lives for love, one by return ing from banishment, the other by prison-breaking. He forgives them, and proposes a combat of a hundred to each side, the winner to marry Emilia. There is great sacrificing and preparation. Arcite prays to Mars, Palamon to Venus (it was on his way to the temple of Venus that he saw Cupid forging arrows by a well, in the passage we have already seen translated in the "Court of Love"), and Emilia to Diana. They fight, and Palamon is taken prisoner; but a fury sent by Venus causes Arcite to be thrown from his horse and wounded. Arcite marries Emilia on a sick-bed, makes his will, bequeaths Emilia to Palamon, dies, goes to heaven, receives solemn funeral rites, and, after decent hesitations, Palamon and Emilia marry. Boccaccio's "Teseide" is in 9,054 lines; Chaucer's " Knight's Tale" is in 2,250. Chaucer's condensation has improved the tale; and his refinement appears in touches of his own that clear a delicate story of the occasional light tarnish from a warm Italian hand. Thus Boccaccio makes his Emilia hear the "Oimè" of Palamon when he and Arcite first see her from their prison, makes her look up at the window, blush for shame, take in her flowers, think of that "Oimè,” have a pleasant notion of its meaning, and resolve to adorn her beauty more when she goes next into the garden.* Chaucer omits this, and leaves "this fresshe Emelie in purest innocence, unconscious of passion, as "In the gardyn at the sonne upriste Sche walketh up and doun wher as hire liste. And as an aungel hevenly sche song." Boccaccio had said even here, that "with angelic voice and light heart she sang beautiful verses always about love." Again, when Theseus and his company upon their hunt find Palamon and Arcite fighting in the wood, and Palamon has disclosed his name, Chaucer adds to the picture the pity and tears of the women : "The queen anon for verray wommanhode Gan for to wepe, and so dede Emelye, And alle the ladies in the companye.' He makes their pitying intercession move the heart of Theseus to mercy, and puts into the mouth of Theseus other humanising touches of his own, in a man of the world's kindly half-amused view of the conduct of the lovers. These practical touches, never absent, do not weaken, they give bone and sinew to the sentiment of Chaucer. Other changes were meant as improvements in the story. Palamon, not Arcite, is made the first to see and love Emilia, as it is he who finally possesses her; and the jealousy that is so essential a part of the story is made to spring with the love, instead of, as Boccaccio has it, arising suddenly in Palamon, because his servant has heard Arcite, in a wood, *E piu se ne tien bella e piu s'adorna Teseide, lib. iii. st. 19. |