Ther was hir whete and eke hir malte yground.

And on a day it happed in a ftound

3990

For which the wardein chidde and made fare,
But therof fet the miller not a tare;

He craked bost, and swore it n'as not so.

That dwelten in the halle of which I fay;
Testif they were, and lusty for to play,
And only for hir mirth and revelrie
Upon the wardein befily they crie
To yeve hem leve but a little ftound

4005

To gon to mille and feen hir corn yground;

And hardily they dorften lay hir necke
The miller fhuld not ftele hem half a pecke
Of corn by fleighte, ne by force hem reve.

And at the last the wardein yave hem leve. 4010 John highte that on, and Alein highte that other; Of o toun were they born that highte Strother,

"Les femmes de la ville monterent en leurs logis et en folliers." In the defcription of Cambridge above cited, p. 188, there is mentioned a garret-oftle.- Mr. Warton firongly confirms this reading, Hift. of Eng. Po. p. 432, note (n.)

. 4012. Strother] I cannot find any place of this name in Volume 11.

R.

Fer in the north, I cannot tellen where.
This Alein maketh redy all his gere,
And on a hors the fak he caft anon:
Forth goth Alein the clerk and also John,

With good fwerd and with bokeler by hir fide.
John knew the way, him neded not no guide,
And at the mille the sak adoun he laith.

4015

Alein fpake firft; All haile, Simond, in faith, 4020 How fares thy faire doughter and thy wif?

Alein, welcome, (quod Simkin) by my lif,

England; there is a Struthers or Strauther in the thire of Fife in Scotland.

V. 4021. How fares] It may be obferved that Chaucer has given his northern clerks a northern dialect. I will just point out a few particulars in which their language differs from that used in the reit of his Work.-1. They terminate the third perfon fingular and the whole plural number of their verbs in es inftead of eth or en; fo in the present inftance we have—fares, and in the lines immediately following-has, behoves, has, werkes, gas, wagges, falles.—2. They ufe a in a great num ber of words which Chaucer in other places writes with o, as fwa for fo, hame for home, fra for fro; ver. 4071, 2, banes and anes for bones and ones, &c. That this was the northern practice appears from the following note, Hift. Abbat. Pipewell, Monaf. Ang. v. i. p. 816, " Et fciendum quod Monachi borea"les feripferunt in cartis noftris Rabage pro Rohare.”

3. Many of their words are of the obfolete Sax. form, as ver. 4031, benen for bennes; ver. 4076, whilke for whiche; ver. 4083, aifa for alfo; ver. 4128, flike (from fwilke) instead of fwiche; ver. 4130, gar for make, or let, &c.-4. If I am not miftaken he has defignedly given them a vulgar ungrammatical phrafeology. I do not remember in any other part of his writings fuch a line as ver. 4043;

I is as ill a miller as is ye.

See alfo ver. 4034, I is; ver. 4087, thou is.

And John alfo. How now, what do ye here?'
By God, Simond, (quod John) nede has no pere; ·
Him behoves ferve himself that has na fwain, 4025
Or elles he is a fool, as clerkes fain.

Our manciple I hope he wol be ded,
Swa werkes ay the wanges in his hed;
And therfore is I come, and eke Alein,
To grind our corn and cary it hame agein;
I pray you spede us henen that ye may,*

4030

It fhal be don (quod Simkin) by my fay. What wol ye don while that it is in hand? By God, right by the hopper wol 1 stand, + (Quod John) and feen how that the corn gas in; 4035 Yet faw I never by my fader kin

How that the hopper wagges til and fra.

Alein answered, John, and wolt thou swa?
Than wol I be benethe by my croun,'
And fee how that the mele falles adoun

In til the trogh; that.fhal be my difport;
For, John, in faith I may ben of your fort:

4040,

v. 4027. I hope] I expect. It fignifies the mere expectation of a future event, whether good or evil, as ( Gr. and fpero Lat. often do. So in Shakespeare, Ant. and Cl.

canhot hope

Cæfar and Anthony hall well greet together.

. 4033. anfdiered] Sax. andfwarode is a compound word of and, contra, and fwaran, which in the Inlandick lignifies dicere. Barthol. Ant. Dan. p. 690, Thorbiorg fvarar, Thorbiorga dicit. This etymology accounts for its being accented upon. the middle fyllable-anfwired. See ver. 4126.

I is as ill a miller as is ye.

This miller fmiled at hir nicetee,

And thought all this n'is don but for a wile.

4C45

They wenen that no man may hem begile,

But by my thrift yet shal I blere hir eie
For all the fleighte in hir philofophie:
The more queinte knakkes that they make
The more wol I ftele whan that I take.
In flede of flour yet wol I yeve hem bren.
The greteft clerkes ben not the wisest men,
As whilom to the wolf thus fpake the mare:
Of all hir art ne count I not a tare.

4950

4053. to the wolf thus fpake the mare] The story alluded to is told of a mule in Cent. Nov. Ant. N. 91: the Mule pretends that his name is written upon the bottom of his hindfoot: the wolf attempting to read it the mule gives him a kick on the forehead and kills him; upon which the fox, who was prefent, obferves, " Ogni huomo, che fa lettera, non è sa. "vio." There is a fimilar ftory of a wolf and a mare in The moft delectable Hiftory of Reynard the Fox, edit. 1701, chap. xviii, but whether that story be in Caxton's edition, whether it be in the Dutch book from which Caxton tranflated, whether the Dutch book be an original compofition or a translation, when it was written, &c. are all points upon which I with to be informed by fome more knowing antiquary. I will just obferve that one of the fox's tricks, chap. xiv, feems to be alluded to by Richal de Berbeiffel [Richard de Berbezieux] a Provencal poet, who died in 1383. [Quadrio, t. ii. p. 144.] I will cite the paffage from mf. Crofts, fol. 191, though I do not understand the laft claufe;

Out at the dore he goth ful prively.
Whan that he saw his time foftely.

He loketh up and doun, til he hath found
The clerkes hors ther as he flood ybound
Behind the mille under a levefell,

And to the hors he goth him faire and well,
And stripeth of the bridel right anon.» «

4055

4060

And whan the hors was laus he gan to gon Toward the fen ther wilde mares renne, And forth with wehee thurgh thick and thinne. This miller goth again, no word he said, 4065 But doth his note, and with these clerkes plaid, Till that hir corn was faire and wel yground. And whan the mele is facked and ybound This John goth out and fint his hors away, And gan to crie Harow and wala wa! Our hors is loft: Alein, for Goddes bancs Step on thy feet; conie of, man, al at anes:

4070

Reynard here feems to have procured Ifegrim's fkin to be flript off to make him a hood and gloves. In the English he procures the wolf's fhoes to be pulled off and put upon his own feet.

.4059. a levefell] This word is plainly derived from the Sax. lefe, folium, and fetl, fedes. Metefel is a word of the fame form. Peter of Langt. p. 334, "It neghed nere metefel,” it was near the time of fitting down to dinner. A levefell therefore fignifies a leafy feat, an arbour. It may be understood in the fame fenfe in The Perfones Tale," right as the gay “levefell at the taverne is figne of the win that is in the celler." So that perhaps our old proverb, Good wine needs no buth, meant originally-no arbour to drink it in. Latterly however levefell was used for buth, as in this paffage of Roteley's Ellinoure and Juga, A. iv. 3,4,