timbrel, timbestere, timbrel-player, 772, 769; tourette, turret, 4164; trashed, betrayed (betreyss, Barb.), 3231; trechour, cheat, 197; trepeget, 6282; truandise, truanding, 6666, 6723.

Vngodely, uncivil (ungod, Ormulum), 3741; unhide, 2168; urchon, hedgehog, 3135; vecke, old woman, 4286, 4495; vendable, 5807; verger, garden, 3618, 3831; vermeile, 3645; voluntee, 5279.

Welmeth, wells up, 1561; wirry, to worry, 6267; wodewale, 658; wyndre, 1020.

Youthede, youth, 4934.

The above list is certainly a remarkable one; and if any critic should succeed in discovering more than five per cent of the above words in Chaucer, I shall be much surprised.

When regard is had to all the tests above, when we find that, each and all, they establish a difference between the language of the translation and that of Chaucer, it is surely time to consider the question as settled. Henceforward, to attribute the translation to Chaucer may be left to those who have no sense of the force and significance of such arguments as philology readily supplies. I have no doubt whatever that the discovery of still greater discrepancies would reward more careful search.

It remains to state what the translation really is. It certainly belongs to the fourteenth century, and is perhaps as early as 1350 A.D., though the MS. (perhaps an East-Anglian one) is considerably later, and is not always correct. The original dialect was not Northumbrian, but a Midland dialect exhibiting Northumbrian tendencies; I hesitate to make a more explicit statement. The author, like so many other authors of the fourteenth century, is anonymous, and we do not know where to find more of his work.

LIST OF EDITIONS OF CHAUCER'S WORKS.

The Canterbury Tales were printed by Caxton (1475, 1481), Wynken de Worde (1495, 1498), and Pynson (1493, 1526); but no collection of his Works was made till 1532.

1. Edited by Wm. Thynne, London, 1532. Folio.

2. Reprinted with additional matter, London, 1542. Folio. (Here the Plowman's Tale first appears.)

3. Reprinted, with the matter re-arranged, London, no date, about 1551. Folio.

4. Reprinted, with large additions by John Stowe. London, 1561. Folio. (Here the Court of Love first appears; Lydgate's Siege of Thebes is also included.)

5. Reprinted, with additions and alterations by Thomas Speght, London, 1598. Folio.

6. Reprinted, with further additions and alterations by Thomas Speght, London, 1602. Folio.

7. Reprinted with slight additions, London, 1687. Folio.

8. Reprinted, with additions and great alterations in spelling, &c., by John Urry, 1721. Folio.

Later editions only contain the poems. Tyrwhitt's edition of the Canterbury Tales, with notes and a glossary, first appeared in 5 vols., 8vo., in 1775-8. There is a convenient reprint of Chaucer's Poetical Works in a single volume by Moxon, 1843, said to be edited by Tyrwhitt; but the statement only applies to the Canterbury Tales, the notes, and the glossary. The editions by Morris and Bell are well known. Wright's edition of the Canterbury Tales follows the Harleian MS., and is the best authority for the readings of that MS.

GROUP B. MAN OF LAW HEAD-LINK.

[Introduction to the Man of Law's Prologue.]

The wordes of the Hoost to the compaignye.

Our hoste sey wel that the bryghte sonne
The ark of his artificial day hath ronne

1

The fourthe part, and half an houre, and more;
And though he were not depe expert in lore,
He wiste it was the eightetethe2 day

Of April, that is messager to May;

And sey wel that the shadwe of euery tree
Was as in lengthe the same quantitee

That was the body erect that caused it.

5

And therfor by the shadwe he took his wit

That Phebus, which that shoon so clere and bryghte,
Degrees was fyue and fourty clombe on hyghte;
And for that day, as in that latitude,

3

It was ten of the clokke, he gan conclude,

And sodeynly he plyghte his hors aboute.

Lordinges,' quod he, 'I warne yow, al this route,

1 Cm. wanting; Cp. Pt. Ln. Hl. expert; E. Hn. ystert.

IO

15

2 Hn. xviijthe; Cp. xviije; Cm. Pt. Ln. xviij; E. eighte and twentithe; Hl. threttenthe.

3 Cm. Pt. Hl. of the; E. Hn. at the; Cp. atte; Ln. att.

The fourthe party of this day is goon;
Now, for the loue of god and of seint Iohn,
Leseth no tyme, as ferforth as ye may;
Lordinges, the tyme wasteth nyght and day,
And steleth from vs, what priuely slepinge,
And what thurgh necligence in our wakinge,
As dooth the streem, that turneth neuer agayn,
Descending fro the montaigne in-to playn.
Wel can Senec, and many a philosophre
Biwailen tyme, more than gold in cofre.
"For los of catel may recouered be,
But los of tyme shendeth vs," quod he.

Sir man of lawe,' quod he, 'so haue ye blis,
Tel vs a tale anon, as forward is;
Ye ben submitted thurgh your free assent
To stonde in this cas at my Iugement.
Acquiteth yow, and holdeth1 your biheste,
Than haue ye doon your deuoir atte leste".
Hoste,' quod he, depardieux ich assente,

20

25

33

35

To breke forward is not myn entente.
Biheste is dette, and I wol holde fayn
Al my biheste; I can no better seyn.

40

For swich lawe as man2 yeueth another wyghte,
He sholde him-seluen vsen it by ryghte;

Thus wol our text, but natheles certeyn

45

I can ryght now no thrifty tale seyn,

3

But Chaucer, though he can but lewedly

On metres and on ryming craftily,

1 HI. and holdeth; the rest of (badly).

2 Cm. man; the rest a man,

3 MS. Camb. Dd. 4. 24 has But; the rest That; see note.