Thurgh Edippus' his sone, and al that dede:
And here we styntyn at thes lettres rede,
How the bisshop, as the book gan telle,
Amphiorax, fil thurgh the ground to Helle.'

Quod Pandarus, 'Al this know I my selve,
And al the sege of Thebes, and the care,
For herof ther be made bokys twelve:3
But let be this, and telle me how ye fare,
Do wey your barbe,* and shew your face bare;
Do wey your book, rise up let us daunce,
And lete us do to May some observaunce.'

Eigh! God forbede!' quod she, 'be ye mad?
Is that a wydowis lyf, so God yow save?
Ye make me, by Jovis, sore adrad,

Latin spoken in the Roman provinces; was next appropriated to that spoken in the province of Gaul, or to French; and finally came to mean that species of composition, the metrical history or popular epic, in which it was chiefly used in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. If Chaucer by The Romance of Thebes means the Thebais, he is guilty of an anachronism; for Statius lived in the reign of Domitian. There is, however, a propriety in making the story of Thebes the subject of the romance read to Cryseyde, for the warriors who fought before Troy were, many of them, the descendants of those who had been engaged in the Theban war.

1 Edipus was the father of Polynices and Eteocles, whose contest for the throne of Thebes is the subject of the Thebais.

2 Amphiaraus was swallowed up by the earth with his chariot and horses in the siege of Thebes :

'Ut subitus vates pallentibus incidit umbris,
Letiferasque domos, orbisque arcana sepulti
Rupit, et armato turbavit funere manes,
Horror habet cunctos,' &c.-Thebaid, vii. 1.

He is called a bisshop because he was vates, or high priest of Apollo, just as in The Persones Tale, vol. ii. p. 323, the Jewish high priest is called a bishop.

3 This shows that Chaucer alludes to the Thebais, a regular epic in twelve books.

4 A kind of hood which covered the head and the lower part of the face.-DU CANGE. A remnant of this fashion may be observed in the peculiar manner in which the Irish peasant girl wears a shawl over her head, holding it tight across the mouth, so as to show only the eyes and nose.

Ye be so wyld hit semith as ye rave!
Hit sate me wel bet ay in a kave
To byd, and rede of holy seyntis lyvis:'
Lete maidenis go daunce, and yonge wyvis.'

'As ever thrive I,' quod Pandarus,

'Yet cowd I telle yow a thing to do yow pley:'
'Now uncle dere,' quod she, 'telle it us
For goddis love; is than the sege awey?
I am of the Grekis ferde, that I dey:'
'Nay nay,' quod he, 'as ever mote I thryve,
Hit is a thing wel bet than suche fyve.'

'Ye, holy God!' quod she, 'what thing is that?
What? bet than suche fyve? I leve it not ywis!
For al this world ne can I rede what
Hit shold be; some jape I trowe ywis,
And but your self telle us what it is,
My witte is for tarede hit to lene;

So holpe me God, I not nat what ye mene.'

'And I your borow, ne never shal, for me,
This thing be told to yow, so mote I thrive!'
'And why so, uncle myne? why so?' quod she;

1 It is, of course, an anachronism to represent a heathen widow as employing herself in reading lives of the saints; for though Chaucer no doubt means by saints those who were remarkable for their devotion to heathen gods, as in the Saints' Legende of Cupide, yet the idea itself of a woman cultivating sanctity by meditating on the lives of holy people, is evidently derived from Christianity. This, however, is one of the anachronisms which give an interest to the poem. The poet lays his scene, indeed, in Troy, but he draws his images and the details of his story from manners with which he himself was conversant; and thus imparts to the work a reality and spirit which would have been utterly wanting had he endeavoured to follow a classical model. Shakspeare, in his Julius Cæsar and Antony and Cleopatra, has adopted the same course, for which he has been censured by Voltaire.-See Introduction to Knightes Tale, vol. i. p. 113. 2 The Harl. MS., 3943, for tarede, reads carid, which is evidently a clerical error. Tarede, i. e., to arede, is adopted from Harl. MS. 1239, from which not in the next line is also taken.

'By God,' quod he, 'for that wole I telle as blyve;
For prudder woman is ther none on lyve,
And ye wist it, in al the toun of Troye;
I jape not, so ever have I joye.'

Tho gan she wondryn more than byfor
A thousand fold, and doun her eyen cast;
For never, sethe tyme that she was bor,
To know a thing desirid she so fast;
And with a sike she seyd at the last,
'Now uncle myn, I wole you not displese,
To aske more that may do yow disese.'

1

So aftir this, with meny wordis glade,
And frendly talis, and with mery chere,
Of this and that they pleyd, and gonnen wade
In meny an uncouthe glad and depe matere,
As frendis done, whan they be met yfere;
Til she gan aske hym how that Hector ferd,
That was the tounys wall, and Grekis yerd.'
Ful wele, I thonk it God,' quod Pandarus,
'Save in his arme he hath a lytil wound;
And eke his fressh brothir Troylus,
The wyse worthy Ector the secound,
In whom that every vertu lest abound,
In al trouthe and al gentilnes,

Wysdom, honour, fredom, and worthines.'

'In good faith, eme,' quod she, ‘it likith me,
They faryn wele, God save hem bothe two!
For truly I hold it grete deynte,

A kyngis sone in armys wele to do,
And to be of good condicions therto;
For grete power and moral vertu here
Is seldom sene yn o persone yfere.'

1 This is an admirable line. Hector is called the wall of Troy, as being its best defence; and the yerde, or scourge of the Greeks, as being the instrument of their punishment.

'In good faith, that is soth,' quod Pandarus; 'But, be myn heed, the kyng hath sonis twey, That is to mene Ector and Troylus, That certeynly, thogh that I shold dey, They be as voyd of vices, dare I sey, As eny man that lyvith undur the Sonne,

Her myght is wyde know, and what they konne.

'Of Ector nedith no thing for to telle;

In al this world ther nys a better knyght
As he, that is of worthynes welle,

And he wel more vertu hath than myght;

This knowith meny a wyse and worthy knyght: The same prys of Troylus I sey,

God help me so, I note not such twey.'

'By God,' quod she, 'of Ector that is sothe,
Of Troylus the same thing trow I;
For dredles, men telle that he dothe
In armys day by day so worthily,
And berith hym here so gentilly
To every wighte, that al pris hath he
Of hem that me were levest praisid be.'

'Ye sey right wele ywis,' quod Pandarus;
For yesterday, who so had with hym bene,
Might have wondrid upon Troylus,
For never yet so thik a swarm of bene
Ne flyen, as Grekis fro hym did flene;
And thurgh the feld in every wightis ere,
Ther nas no cry but, Lo, Troylus is here!

'Now here, now there, he huntyd hem so fast,
Ther nas but Grekys blood; and Troylus,
Now hym he hurt, and hym aldoun he cast,
Ay wher he went hit was arayed thus:
He was her dethe, and sheld of lyf for us,
That as that day ther durst none withstond,
Whil that he held his blody swerd in hond.

Therto he is the frendliest man

Of so grete astate, that ever I saw in my lyve:
And wher hym lyst, best felawship can
To such as hym thinkith able to thrive.'
And with that word tho Pandarus as blyve
He toke his leve, and seyd, 'I wyl go henne:'
'Nay, blame have I,' quod she, 'unkil, thenne.'
'What eylith yow to be thus werysom,
And namely of women? wil ye so?
Nay, sittith doun; by God, I have to done
With yow, to speke of wysdom or ye go.'
And every wight that was about hem tho,
That herd that, gan ferre awey to stond,
Whil that thei two had that hem lyst on hond.
Whan that her tale was broght to the ende,
Of her astate, and of her governaunce,
'Now,' quod Pandarus, 'tyme is it I wende,
But yet I sey, arise and lete us daunce,

And castith yowr wydowis habit to myschaunce:
What lyst yow thus your self to disfigure,
Seth yow is tyd so glad an aventure?'

'A! wele bythoght! for love of God,' quod she,
'Shal I now wytyn what ye mene of this?'
Nay, this thing askith leyser,' tho quod he;
'And eke me wold greve sore ywis,
If I it told and ye it toke amys:
Yet were it bet my tung for to stille,
Than sey a sothe that were ayen your wille.

'For, nece mine, by the goddesse Minerve,
And Jubiter, that makith the thundir ring,
And by the blesful Venus that I serve,
Ye be the woman that in this world lyving,
Without paramours,' to my wytyng,

That is, 'I love you best of any woman living, in the way of friendship.'