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Or with a brotherhed to be withold:1
But dwelt at home and kepté well his fold,
So that the wolf ne made it not miscarry :
He was a shepherd and no mercenary.2
And though he holy were and virtuous,
He was to sinful men not dèspitous ;3
Ne of his speeche dangerous ne digne,
But in his teaching discreet and benign.
To drawen folk to heaven with fairness,
By good ensample, was his business.
But, it were any person obstinate
What so he were of high or low estate,
Him would he snibben? sharply for the nonés: 8
A better priest I trow that no where none is.
He waited after no pomp ne9 reverence,
Ne maked him no spicéd1o conscience,
But Christés lore, and his apostles twelve,
He taught, but first he followed it himselve."

THE THRACIAN TEMPLE OF MARS.

REPRESENTED IN PAINTING, ON THE WALLS OF THE "ORATORY" BUILT TO MARS BY THESEUS, IN THE KNIGHT'S TALE."

66

FIRST on the wall was painted a forèst,

In which there wonneth12 neither man ne beast;

With knotty, knarry,13 barren trees old,

Of stubbés sharp and hidöus15 to behold;

1 Withheld from his duties by other attachments.

3 Despiteful, angry to excess.

2 John x. 12.

This word has the sense of disdainful, proud, as well as worthy. (Lat. dignus.) 5 Were it.

Though, or granting.

7 Check, reprove, scold; snub, snap, sneap, are other forms; "an envious sneaking frost."-Shaks. Love's Labour Lost.

This word is written nonce, nones, nanes; corruptly, according to a well-known tendency in English to attach the n of the indefinite article to words beginning with a vowel, for once, ones, anes; for a (n) once, z. e., for a purpose or occasion; sometimes the initial has been detached from the word and attached to the article, as a nadder, a numpire, a nauger; written an adder, an umpire, an auger.

9 Nor or not.

10 Spices, disguise, corruption in food.

11 This beautiful picture of a good clergyman has been modernised and amplified by Dryden; but the simple colouring of Chaucer is more appropriate to the patriarchal character than the gorgeous hues of Dryden's versification. Compare also the clergyman in Goldsmith's "Deserted Village."

12 Dwelleth (won, to dwell, is familiar in Scotch); wont, habit, custom. (Ang. Sax. wunian. German, wonen.)

13 Rough; knarr or gnarr is a hard knot in a tree. sense of snarling, or chiding.

Chaucer has this word in the

14 Short thick stocks; stub is any thing stopped (sc. in growth); a remnant; to stub, to eradicate, to remove a stub; stubble, the diminutive, applied to corn shortened by cutting. The word and its cognates appear in many languages;-(Lat. stipula, stipes. Gr. σTUTOS, a stump.) "So the next parson stubbed and burnt it."-Swift.

15 Hidous, pitous, for hideous, piteous, etc.

THE THRACIAN TEMPLE OF MARS.

In which there ran a rumble and a sough,1
As though a storm should bresten2 every bough.
And downward from a hill under a bent,3
There stood the temple of Mars armipotent,*
Wrought all of burned steel, of which the entrée
Was long and straight and ghastly for to see;
And thereout came a rage and swiche a vise,"
That it made all the gates for to rise.
The northern light in at the door shone,
For window on the wall ne was there none,
Through which men mighten any light discern.
The door was all of athamant eterne,?
Yclenchéd overthwart and endélong,
With iron tough, and for to make it strong,
Every pillar, the temple to sustain,
Was tonné-great, of iron bright and sheen."
There saw I first the dark imagining
Of Felony, and all the compassing;10
The cruel Ire-as red as any glede;"
The Piképurse; and eke the palè Dread ;
The Smiler with the knife under the cloak;
The shepen brenning with the blacké smoke;
The Treason of the murdering in the bed;
The open War with woundés all be-bled;'
Conteke1 with bloody knife, and sharp Menàce;
All full of chirking15 was that sorry16 place!
The slayer of himself yet saw I there,

. 13

His hertè1 blood hath bathéd all his hair;

1 A sound, a noise; from

9

Ang. -Sax. swig-an, to be amazed, according to Tooke, who connects swoon with it. The word, as signifying a low deep sound, is still common in Scotland.

2 Brest, burst: bren, burn; thurg, through; this analogy is very frequent. 3 Declivity. Eneid, ii. 425; an epithet also of Minerva :-and of warriors. Burnished; (Fr. brunir, to polish); having the brightness of burning flame. Apparently war and impetuosity; vise is supposed to be a corruption.

7 "Eternal adamant composed his throne."-Pope. The diamond; applied to any hard rock, to steel (from Greek a, a, privative, and daμáw, damao, I subdue). Pliny assigns its indestructibility as originating this derivation.-Plin. xxxvi. 4 The properties of the magnet were attributed to the diamond,-Chaucer, Assembly of Fowls, stanza 22. "Adamantine rock."-Milton, Par. Lost, ii, 646. "Mail, adamantean proof."-Id. Sams. Agon. 134. 8 Of the circumference of a tun. "sheening far."-(Childe Harold.)

Adj. and noun. Byron uses it as a verb; The adj. is also sheeny; same with shine, shiny. 10 Treacherous circumvention or contrivance. The medieval Latin word compas sum, a pair of compasses, is said by Menage to be compounded of the prep. con, and passus, a step. From this word the verb in the modern languages signifies sometimes to distribute, or proportion; to measure, to enclose; sometimes to reach, to accomplish, to circumvent. In Chaucer and others, it seems equivalent to contrive."-(Tyrwhitt From association with some of these ideas, the term may have been applied to the card and the magnetic needle.

11 A coal; gleid (Scotch), a small fire on the hearth; that which has glowed, from Ang. Sax. gleowan, to glow.

12 Sheep burning. 13 Be is often an intensive prefix.

14 Contention.

15 Chirk, to chirp as a sparrow. It also signifies to crash, to creak, corresponding to the Latin stridere (Ang.-Sax. cearcian).

16 Sorry, woeful; compare, "This is a sorry sight."-Shakesp., Macbeth. Sorry and wretched are both used as implying contemptible qualities.

17 Heart.

The nail ydriven in the shode1 on height,"
The cold death-with mouth gaping upright.
Amiddés of the temple sate Mischance,
With discomfort and sorry countenance.
Yet saw I Woodness, laughing in his rage,
Armed complaint, Outhies, and fierce Outrage;
The carrion in the bush with throat ycorven ;5
A thousand slain, and not of qualm ystorven ;6
The tyrant with the prey by force yraft,?
The town destroyed there was nothing left.

LYCURGUS OF THRACE.

THERE may'st thou see, coming with Palamon,
Lycurge himself, the greaté King of Thrace:
Black was his beard, and manly was his face;
The circles of his eyën in his head

They gloweden betwixten yellow and red;
And like a griffon' lookèd he about;

With kempéd1o herés on his browés stout,

His limmés great, his brawnes" hard and strong,
His shoulders broad, his armés round and long.
And as the guise12 was in his countrée,
Full high upon a car of gold stood he;
With fouré whité bullés in the trais.13
Instead of coat armoùr,14 on his harnais,
With nailés yellow and bright as any gold,
He had a bearés skin, coal-black for old.

1 Bush of hair; the head. "Skinner thinks it may be from Ang. Sax. scade, a grove, ie., nemus capillorum." "Schede, line of division of the hair;" Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary.

2 Above.

4 Outcries.

Madness, from Ang.-Sax. wedan, to be mad (wud, mad; Scotch). 5 Carved, cut.

6 Dead of sickness; qualm; Ang. Sax. cwellan, to quell, to quail; ystorven, dead, starved; Ang. -Sax. steorfan; Germ. sterben, to die.

7 Reft.

8 This passage is an instance of the allegorical style of the age of Chaucer, so fully developed by the Italian poets. "This group is the effort of a strong imagination unacquainted with the selection and arrangement of images."-Warton.

Griffin or gryphon, from Greek Tpvy, gryps, a fabulous animal, having the form of a lion and an eagle: Esch. Prom. Vinct. 804; Milton, Par. Lost, ii. 943. The animal plays a conspicuous part in romances and heraldry; but the idea is not one derived from northern mythology. Gripe, in old English, an eagle-(“ as it were a gripe's eye," Gower) is derived from Ang.-Sax. gripan, to gripe, to clutch; gryps is from YOUπos, grypos, crooked.

10 Combed. "Chaucer uses it generally as equivalent to decked;" of uncertain etymology. Comb or coomb is also a hollow enclosed valley; hence applied to beehives. Both words have been by some connected with the Greek каμяw, kampo, I bend.

11 Muscles. Baren or bawren was the ancient adjective; bar or bawr, a bear or boar. By the common transposition of the r (vid. note, 2, p. 9) it became brawen, brawn, so that the term means boar's flesh), alluding to the large muscles of that animal. Tooke. Bran, in Scotch, is the calf of the leg.

12 Manner. Ang.-Sax. wise. We retain this form in likewise, otherwise, coast wise, etc. 13 Traces of the car. (Lat. Traho, I draw.)

14 "A coat worn over the armour, on which the armorial ensigns of the wearer were embroidered." Harness; military equipment.

EMETRIUS, KING OF INDIA.

His longé hair was kempt behind his back,
As any raven's feather it shone for black.
A wreath of gold arm-great,1 of hugé weight,
Upon his head sat full of stonés bright,
Of fine rubins, and of diamants.2
About his car there wenten whité alauns,3
Twenty and mo', as great as any steer,
To hunten at the lion or the deer,

And followed him with muzzle fast ybound,
Collared with gold, and torrets filed round.
A hundred lordés had he in his route,6
Arméd full well, with hertes stern and stout.

EMETRIUS, KING OF INDIA.

WITH Arcita, in stories as men find,?
The great Emetrius, the King of Inde,
Upon a stedé bay, trapped in steel,
Covered with cloth of gold, diapred9 wele,
Came riding like the God of Armés, Mars.
His coat-armoùr was of a cloth of Tars,10
Couchéd" with pearls white, and round, and great;
His saddle was of brent12 gold, new ybete ;13

1 Of the circumference of an arm.

2 French forms of the words.

A species of hound much esteemed in the middle ages.

II

For

4 More; from Ang. -Sax. mae; retained in Scotch, with the superl. maist. an account of these words, see Tooke's Diversions of Purley; Richardson's English Dictionary; Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary.

$ Polished rings (for fastening the collars). Torrets "are often mentioned in the 'Inventory' of furniture in the palaces of Henry VIII."-Warton. Probably from French, tort, twisted; Latin, torqueo, I twist; torques, a collar, a wreath. 6 A company. The word has various forms and applications in the modern languages. For its origin, etymologists are divided between the Latin ruptus (burst), and rota (a wheel). Except in its application to the line of a journey, we now throw away the final e. Rout, a fashionable assembly-a disorderly defeat-a riotous rabble. "Riot is undoubtedly the same word with rout."-Richardson. Row, a low word for an uproar.

7 For the origin of the fable of the "Knight's Tale," see Warton's History of English Poetry, section 12.

Clad, from French drap, cloth (?)—having generally the idea of ornament. "Trappors (trappings) of their steeds."-Chauc. Flower and Leaf, stanza 35.

Diversified with lines and flourishes. The Flemish towns were the great seats of manufactures; hence this word has been derived from Ypres in Flanders, the original form being d'ipre. Other examples are, arras and cambric, from Arras and Cambray in France; worsted, from Worstead in Norfolk; calico, from Calicut. Instances of the same kind are very numerous.

10 Abbreviation for Tartarium.

"A broad banner

Of fine tartarium."-Chauc. Flower and Leaf, stanza 31.

"It is often mentioned in the wardrobe accounts for furnishing tournaments; a fine cloth manufactured in Tartary. Du Cange. Gloss. Tartarium."-Warton.

11 Laid or trimmed (Tyrwhitt). French, coucher; Ital. colcare, pro; Lat. collocare, to lay, to place; to couch a lance, to lay it in the rest.

12 Burnished, see notes 2 p. 9, and 11, p. 10. Brent also signifies high, straight, upright (Jamieson); brent rocks, steep rocks. "It is perhaps be-rent, i.e., riven, torn," Richardson. Scar, a cliff (as in Scarborough), rock, cliff, have the same idea.

13 Beaten, stamped, or imprinted.

A mantelet1 upon his shoulders' hanging,
Bretfull of rubies red as fire sparkling;
His crispé hair like ringés was yronne,5
And that was yellow, and glittered as the sun.
His nose was high, his eyën bright citrìn,"
His lippés round, his colour was sanguìne ;
A fewé fraknes' in his face ysprent,

8

Betwixen yellow and black, some dele9 ymeint,
And as a lion he his looking cast."
Of five and twenty years his age I cast.1?
His beard was well begunnen for to spring;
His voice was as a trumpet thundering.
Upon his head he weared, of laurer13 green,
A gerlond1 fresh and lusty15 for to sene.
Upon his hand he bare for his deduit1?
An eagle tame, as any lily white.

16

An hundred lordés had he with him there,
All armed, save their headés,18 in their gear.
About this King there ran on every part
Full many a tame lion and leopart.19

1 Diminutive of mantle. Etymologists go back for this word to Mandyas, a Persian cloak. It exists in all the European languages. Mantelet is also a covering for the protection of miners and besiegers. Mantel (of a chimney), that which protects from smoke and dust; to mantle (applied to a hawk), to spread out the wings. The word is applied to trees-"the mantling vine;" and to fermented liquors, from the covering of froth-" the mantling cup.'

2 The second syllable should be here sunk as much as possible in pronunciation, as in French words ending in re.

3 Quite full. The sense is much clearer than the etymology.

4 From Lat. crispus, curled.

6 Citron, lemon-coloured.

5 Run, close, twisted.

7 Freckles. Conjectured etymologies are, Latin, fricare, to rub; German, fleck, a spot; Ang. -Sax. fractan, to eat: freaks or freckles, therefore, spots eaten into the skin.

8 Forms of the participles of the Saxon verbs corresponding to sprinkle and mingle. Somedeal; somewhat. 11 Darted his glance.

10 Mingled. 12 I reckoned his age to be of, etc., from the phrase "to cast accounts;" alluding to the manner of reckoning with the abacus and calculi (counters). Shakspeare makes Iago call Cassio in derision a counter-caster."-Othello, Act i. Sc. 1. The word cast has an immense number of applications of great beauty and interest. See the Dictionaries.

13 The medieval poets and painters are by no means scrupulous about chronology or locality in their grouping of the parts of a picture. An Indian king wears a Greek laurel; and the chivalry, nay the religion and philosophy of the 14th century A.D. luxuriate in Thebes and Athens in the age of Theseus, almost as many centuries B.C. 14 Garland; written girlond always in Spencer. Some connect it with Lat. corolla; Greek yupos, a circle; Ang.-Sax. girdan, to gird.

15 Luxuriant. "How lush and lusty the grass looks; how green !"—Shakesp. Tempest, Act ii. Sc. 1.

"The sun hath

Twice clad the earth in lively lustiness."-Surrey.

The original idea of this word, will, has branched out in various languages into power, pleasure, luxuriance, love, etc (Greek, λaw.) 16 See.

17 Pleasure; (French, déduire; Lat. deducere, to lead from.) Deduit has the idea enjoyment, on the same principle that diversion and amusement have it. 18 For usages of chivalry illustrative of this, see Scott's "Ivanhoe."

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19 Of the pictures of Lycurgus and Emetrius, Hazlitt says, "What a deal of terrible beauty there is contained in this description! The imagination of the poet

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