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Nonne (30.) However there can be no doubt that Chaucer meant to incorporate it into this collection of Canterbury Tales, as the Prologue of the Chanone's Yeman exprefsly refers to it.

$58.The introduction of The Ghanone's Yemen totell a Tale at a time when fo many of the original characters remain to be called upon appears a little extraordinary. It should feem that fome fudden refentment had determined Chaucer to interrupt the regular courfe of his Work in order to infert a fatire against the alchymifts. That their pretended fcience was much cultivated about this time (31,) and produced its usual

(30) The whole introdu&ion is in the style of a perfon writing, and not of one speaking. If we compare it with the introduction to The Prioreffe's Tale the difference will be very ftriking. See particularly ver. 15545;

Yet pray I you that reden that I write

and in ver. 15530 the relater, or rather writer, of the Tale, in all the mff. (except one of middling authority) is called Unworthy fon of Eve. Such little inaccuracies are strong proofs of an unfinished work. See before, p. 171.

(31) The first confiderable coinage of gold in this country was begun by Edward III in the year 1343, and according to Camden [in his Remains, art. Money," the alchymifts did af"firm (as an unwritten verity) that the rosenobles which were "coined foon after were made by projection or multiplication "alchymical of Raymond Lully in the Tower of London." In proof of this," befides the tradition of the rabbies in that fa"culty," they alledged "the infcription, Jefus autem tranfiens "permedium eorum ibat," which they profoundly expounded, as Jefus paffed invisible and in most fecret manner by the middef of Pharifees, fo that gold was made by invifible and fecret art nidft the ignorant. But others fay that text was the only amulet used in that credulous warfaring age to escape dangers in battles. Thus Camden. I rather believe it was an amulet or charm principally ufed againft thieves, upon the authority of the following paffage of Sir John Mandeville, c. x. p. 137; “ And Volume 1.

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evils, may fairly be inferred from the act which was paffed foon after, 5 Hen. IV. c. iv, to make it felony to multiply gold or filver, or to use the art of multiplication.

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$39. In the Prologue to The Manciples Tale the pilgrims are foppofed to be arrived at a little town called Bob-up-and-down, Under-the-Blee, in Canterbury→ way. I cannot find a town of that name in any map, but it must have lain between Boughton (the place <? an half myle fro Nazarethe is the lepe of oure Lord; for the "Jewes ladden him upon an highe roche for to make him lepe “down and have slayn him; but Jesu passed amonges hem, and "lepte upon another roche; and yit ben the fteppes of his feet fone in the roche where he allyghte. And therefore feyn fum "men whan thei dreden hem of thefes on ony weye, or of enemyes, Jefus autem tranfiens per medium illorum ibat; that is "to feyne, Jefus for fothe pafynge be the myddes of hem bewente; "in tokene and mynde that oure Lord paffed thorghe out the Jewes crueltee, and fcaped fafly fro hem ; fo furely mowe men pagen the perile of thefes." See alfo Catal. mf. Harl. n. 2966. It must be owned that a spell againft thieves was the most ferviceable if not the most elegant infcription that could be put upon gold coin.-Athmole, in his Theatrum Chemicum, p. 443, has repeated this vidiculous flory concerning Lully with additional circumstances, as if he really believed it, though Lully, by the best accounts, had been dead above twenty years before Edward II. began to coin gold.—The fame author (Mercuriophilus Anglicus, as he flyîes himself) has inferted among his Hermetique Myfteries, [p. 213,] an old Englith poem under the title of Hermes Bird, which (he fays in his Notes, p. 467,)" was thought to have been written originally by Raymund Lully, or at least made Englith by Cremer, [Abbot of Wefiminster, and fcholar to Lully, p. 465.] The truth is that the poem'is one of Lydgate's, and had been printed by Caxton under its true title, The Chorle and the Bird, and the fable on which it is built is related by Petrus Alphonfus [de Clericali Disciplinâ, mf. Reg. 10 B. xii,] who lived above two hundred years before Lully.

Last mentioned) and Canterbury. The fable of the Crow, which is the subject of The Manciple's Tate, has been related by fo many authors, from Ovid down to Gower, that it is impoffible to fay whom Chaucer principally followed. His skill in new-dreffing an old ftory was never perhaps more fuccefsfully exerted. i $40. After the Tale of the Manciple the common editions, fince 1542 (32,) place what is called The.

(32) In the edition of 1542, when 'The Plowman's Tale was firft printed, it was placed after The Perfon's Tale. The editor, whoever he was, had not affurance enough (it should feem) to thruff it into the body of the Work. In the fubfequent editions however, as it had probably been well received by the publick, upon account of its violent invectives against the church of Rome, it was advanced to a more honourable flation, next to The Manciple's Tale and before The Perfon's. The only account which we have of any mf. of this Tale is from Mr. Speght, who lays [Note prefixed to Plowman's Tale.] that he had "feene it in written hand in John Stowe's librarie in "a booke of fuch antiquitie as feeined to have been written

neare to Chaucer's time." He does not fay that it was among The Canterbury Tales, or that it had Chaucer's name to it. We can therefore only judge of it by the internal evidence, and upon that I have no feruple to declare my own opinion that it has not the leaft refemblance to Chaucer's manner either of

writing or thinking in his other Works. Though he and Boccace have laughed at fome of the abuses of religion and the diforders of ecclefiaftical perfons, it is quite incredible that elther of them, or even Wickliffe himfelf, would have railed at the whole government of the church in the style of this Plowman's Tale. If they had been difpided to fuch an attempt their times would not have borne it; but it is probable that Chaucer (though he has been preffed into the fervice of Proteflantiim by fome zealous writers) was as good a Catholick as men of hijs understanding and rank in life have generally been. The neceflity of auricular confeffion, one of the great fcandals of Papery, cannot be more ftrongly inculcated than it is in the fol

Plowman's Tale; but as I cannot understand that there is the least ground of evidence, either external or internal, for believing it be a work of Chaucer's, I have not admitted it into this edition.

$41. The Perfone's Prologue therefore is here placed next to The Manciple's Tale, agreeably to all the mff. which are known, and to every edition before 1542. In this Prologue, which introduces the last Tale upon the journey to Canterbury, Chaucer has again pointed out to us the time of the day, but the hour by the clock is very differently reprefented in the mff. In fome it is ten, in others two, in most of the best mff. foure, and in one five. According to the phænomena here mentioned, the fun being 290 high, and the length of the fhadow to the projecting body as 11 to 6, it was between four and five. As by this reckoning there were at leaft three hours left to funfet, one does not well fee with what propriety the Hoft admonishes the Perfon to bafte him, because the fonne rvol adoun, and to be fructuous in litel Space; and indeed the Perfon (know.lowing Tale of the Perfon. I will juft obferve that Spenfer fecins to fpeak of the author of The Plowman's Tale as a diftinct perfon from Chaucer, though (in compliance I suppose with the tafte of his age) he puts them both on the fame footing. In the epilogue to The Shepherd's Calendar he fays to his book

Dare not to match thy pipe with Tityrus his ftyle,

Nor with the Pilgrim that the Plowman play'd awhile.

I know that Mr. Warton [in his excellent Observations on Spenfer, v. i. p. 125,] fuppofes this paffage to refer to The Vifions of Pierce Plowman, but my reafon for differing from him is, that the author of the Vifions never, as I remember, speaks of himself in the character of a Ploughman.Of The Pilgrim's Tale, which has also, with as little foundation, been attributed to Chaucer, [Speght's Life of Chaucer,] I thall speak in another place. See Appendix to Preface, A. n. (c).

ing probably how much time he had good) feems to have paid not the least regard to his admonition, for his Tale (if it may be fo called) is twice as long as any of the others. It is entitled in fome mff. Tractatus de Pænitentia, pre Fabulâ, ut dicitur, Rectoris ; and I much fufpect that it is a tranflation of fome fuch treatife. I cannot recommend it as a very entertaining or edifying performance at this day; but the reader will be pleased to remember, in excufe both of Chaucer and his editor, that confidering the Canterbury Tales as a great picture of life and manners the piece would not have been complete if it had not included the religion of the time.

$42. What is commonly called The Retractation, at the end of The Perfon's Tale, in feveral mff, makes part of that Tale; and certainly the appellation of Litel Tretife fuits better with a fingle Tale than with fuch a voluminous work as the whole body of Canterbury 'Tales: but then, on the other hand, the recital which is made in one part of it of feveral compofitions of Chaucer could properly be made by nobody but himfelf. I have printed it as I found it in mf. Afk. i, with a few corrections from other mff, and in the Notes I fhall give the best account that I can of it.

Having thus gone through the feveral parts of The Canterbury Tales which are printed in this edition, it may not be improper in the conclufion of this Difcourfe to ftate fhortly the parts which are wanting to complete the journey to Canterbury; of the rest of Chaucer's intended plan (as has been faid before) we have nothing: fuppofing therefore the number of the pilgrims to have been twenty-nine, [fee before, $ 6,1 and allowing the Tale of the Chanone's Yeman to ftand in the place of that which we had a right to ex

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