My windowes were shette echone,
And thorugh the glas the sonne shone
Upon my bedde with bryghte bemys
With many glade, gilde stremys;
And eke the welken was so faire,
Blewe, brighte, clere was the ayre,
And ful attempre, for sothe, hyt was;
For nother to colde nor hoote hyt nas,
Ne in al the welkene was a cloude.

And as I lay thus, wondre lowde
Me thought I herde a hunte1 blowe,
Tassay hys horne, and for to know
Whether hyt were clere, or horse, of soune.
And I herde goynge, bothe up and doune,
Men, hors, houndes, and other thynge,
And alle men speke of huntynge,

How they wolde slee the hert with strengthe,
And how the hert had upon lengthe
So much enbosed, I not now what.
Anoon ryght whanne I herde that,
How that they wolde on huntynge goon,
I was ryght glad; and up anoon
Tooke my hors, and forthe I went
Oute of my chaumbre; I never stent,

Mediolan. Otho. This was by no means peculiar to Italy, as the following description of Westminster Abbey, quoted by Warton, Hist. Eng. Poet. sec. xxviii., from the Itinerary of Symeon, a friar minor, will show:- Eidem Monasterio quasi immediate conjungitur illud famosissimum palatium regium Anglorum, in quo illa vulgata camera, in cujus parietibus sunt omnes historiæ bellicæ totius Biblia ineffabiliter depicta, atque in Gallico completissime et perfectissime constanter conscriptæ,' &c. In the dwellings of medieval times the eye had always some original work of art, or some piece of poetry, or passage from Scripture, to rest upon-in our modern houses it meets with nothing but the eternal stucco egg-moulding of the caricaturist of classical art.

1 Hunte is the old form of hunter, from the Anglo-Saxon hunta. The tendency of the English language was to change all the AngloSaxon terminations into e, and then to drop them altogether; but in this case an r has, on the contrary, been added.

2 Enbosed is a technical term applied to a deer when so hard pressed as to foam at the mouth, and hang out the tongue.

Til I come to the felde withoute;
Ther overtoke I a grete route
Of huntes and eke of forresterys,
And many relayes and lymerys;
And hyed hem to the forest faste,
And I with hem. So atte last
I axed oon1 ladde a lymere,

'Say, felowe!' whoo shal hunte here?'
Quod I; and he answered ageyn,
'Sir, themperour Octavyen,"

Quod he, and ys here faste by.'

'A goddys halfe, in goode tyme!' quod I;
'Go we faste!' And gan to ryde.
Whanne we come to the forest syde,
Every man didde ryght anoon,
As to huntyng fille to doon.

The mayster hunte, anoon, fote hote,*
With a grete horne blewe thre mote,
At the uncoupylynge of hys houndys.
Withynne a while the herte founde ys,
Yhallowed, and rechased faste

4

Longe time; and so atte laste

This hart rused," and staale away

Fro alle the houndes a prevy way.

The houndes hadde overshotte hym alle,

And were upon a defaulte yfalle.
Therwyth the hunte, wondre faste,
Blewe a forleygne atte laste.

6

1 'I asked one who led a lymere,' a particular sort of dog.

2 This is probably the fabulous Emperor Octavian, whose life forms the subject of several mediæval romances. One of these was published by Wynkyn de Worde, with wood-cuts.

3 See vol. i. p. 283, note 1.

4 Yhallowed, means sighted, and hallooed; as we say the fox was tally-hoed. Though this stag was hallooed and rechased, or headed back, he yet contrived to steal away, and the dogs overshot the scent, and lost him.

5 The printed editions read rouzed; but the hart must have rouzed from his lair before he was hallooed and rechased. Rused means 'made use of a ruse or stratagem.'

• [This term is from the old French forloigné, gone away.-W. W. S.]

walked fro my tree,'

And as I went, there came by mee
A whelpe, that fawned me as I stoode,
That hadde yfolowed, and koude no goode.
Hyt come and crepte to me as lowe,
Ryght as hyt hadde me yknowe;

Hylde downe hys hede, and joyned hys erys,
And leyde al smoothe downe hys herys.
I wolde han kaughte hyt; and anoon
Hyt fledde, and was fro me goon.
And I hym folwed, and hyt forthe went
Downe by a floury grene went

Ful thikke of gras, ful softe and swete,
With flourys fele, faire under fete,
And litel used, hyt semed thus;*
For both Flora, and Zephirus,
They two, that make floures growe,
Had made her dwellynge ther I trowe.
For hit was on to beholde,

As though therthe envye wolde

To be gayer than the heven;

To have moo floures swiche seven,
As in the welkene sterris be.
Hyt had forgete the poverte

That wynter, thorugh hys colde morwes
Had made hyt suffre; and his sorwes
Alle was foryeten, and that was sele;
For al the wood was waxen grene;
Swetenesse of dewe had made hyt waxe.
Hyt ys no nede eke for to axe
Wher ther were many grene greves,
Or thikke of trees, so ful of leves;
And every tree stoode by hymselve
Fro other, wele tenne fete or twelve.

1 Chaucer had been stationed at a particular tree, as his tryst, or watching place, from whence he might see the deer if he should break cover in that direction.

2 This resembles the description of the path in The Flower and the Leaf [the authoress of which perhaps imitated it]. See vol. iv. p. 351.

So grete trees, so huge of strengthe,
Of fourty, fifty fedme lengthe,
Clene, withoute bowgh or stikke,
With croppes brode, and eke as thikke,
They were not an ynche asonder,
That hit was shadewe over al under.
And many an herte and many an hynde
Was both before me and behynde.

Of fawnes, sowres, bukkes, does,
Was ful the woode, and many roes,
And many sqwireles, that sete
Ful high upon the trees and ete,
And in hir maner made festys.
Shortly, hyt was so ful of bestys,
That though Argus, the noble counter1
Sete to reken in hys counter,

And rekene with his figuris tenne,
For by tho figures mowe alle kenne,
Yf they be crafty, rekene and nombre,
And telle of every thinge the noumbre,
Yet shulde he fayle to rekene even
The wondres me mette in my swevene.
But forthe they romed ryght wondre faste
Downe the woode; so atte laste

I was war of a man in blak,”

That sate, and had yturned his bak

1 This Argus is otherwise called Algus, or Algous, and is said to have been the inventor of the abacus, here called hys counter. His figuris tenne are the Arabic numerals, supposed by Sir David Brewster (Edin. Encyc., Art. Arithmetic) to have been introduced into Europe in the eighth century by the Arabs. Mr. Wright, however, in an article on this subject in the Journal of the Arch. Assoc., has shown very clearly that they are only an improvement on the signs of the abacus. It must have been a matter of extreme difficulty to perform complicated arithmetical operations with the old Roman numerals. The celebrated Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester II., exerted himself to procure the general acceptance of the improved numerical figures; but the earliest example of their use in England dates no earlier than the year 1445.

* John of Gaunt, in mourning for his Duchess, Blanche.

To an ooke, an huge tree.

'Lorde!' thought I, 'who may that be?
What ayleth hym to sitten here?'
Anoone ryghte I wente nere.

Than founde I sitte, evene upryghte,
A wondre welfarynge knyghte,
(By the maner me thoughte soo)
Of goode mochel, and ryght yonge therto,
Of the age of foure and twenty yere,1
Upon hys berde but lytel here,
And he was clothed al in blake.
I stalked' even unto hys bake,
And ther I-stoode as stille as oughte.
The sothe to saye, he saugh me nought;
For why he henge hys hede adowne,
And with a dedely sorweful sowne,
He made of ryme tenne vers or twelve,
Of a compleynte to hymselve,
The moste pitee, the moste routhe
That ever I herde; for by my trouthe
Hit was gret wondre that Nature
Myghte suffre any creature

To have suche sorwe, and he not dede.
Ful petuose pale, and nothynge rede,
He sayede a lay, a maner songe,
Withoute noote, withoute songe;
And was thys, for ful wel I kan
Reherse hyt; ryght thus hyt began:-
'I have of sorwe so grete wone,

That joye get I never none,

Now that I see my lady bryghte,

Which I have loved with al my myghte,

1 John of Gaunt was born in 1340. At the age of nineteen he married his cousin, Blanche of Lancaster, who died in 1369: and he must, therefore, have been twenty-nine at the time of her death. Foure is probably a mistake of the copyist.

2 To stalk is to approach stealthily and slowly, generally applied to stealing in upon game so as to obtain a shot at them.