A Vade Mecum of Liberal Culture in a MS of Fleury FREDERICK MORGAN PADELFORD, The Poems of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (H. C.). TENNEY FRANK, An Economic History of Rome to the End of the Republic (J. S. Magnuson).-JOSEPH REINACH (POLYBE), Francia: Histoire Illustrée de la France (Gustave Lanson).-LOUISE POUND, Poetic Origins and the Bal- EMIL ERMATINGER, Die deutsche Lyrik in ihrer geschichtlichen Ent- wicklung von Herder bis zur Gegenwart (C. B. W.).-O. E. LESSING, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur in ihren Grund- zügen (C. B. W.).—FRANK L. SCHOELL, Charlemagne (The Dis- tracted Emperor) (E. N. S. Thompson).-T. MACIRONE, Practi- LEVIN L. SCHUECKING, Die Charakter-probleme bei Shakespeare: Eine Einführung in das Verständniss des Dramatikers (KARL YOUNG). --ADOLF LOERCHER, Wie, Wo, Wann, ist die Ilias entstanden? (JOHN A. SCOTT),-HERMANN FRAENKEL, Die homerischen Gleichnisse (JOHN A. SCOTT). EMIL ERMATINGER, Das dichter- ische Kunstwerk: Grundbegriffe der Urteilsbildung in der Lit- eratur-geschichte (C. B. W.).-L. LAURAND, Manuel des études grecques et latines (B. L. U.).-RUDOLF VON DELIUS, Paul Flem- ings Leben in seinen Gedichten (C. B. W.).-A. KLOTZ, C. Iuli Issued in January, April, July, and October. Subscription price, $2.00 a year; single copies, 60 cents postpaid. All communications are to be addressed to CHARLES BUNDY WILSON, Germanic Languages and Literatures BERTHOLD L. ULLMAN, Classical Languages and Literatures FREDERICK MORGAN PADELFORD, The Poems of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (H. C.).· TENNEY FRANK, An Economic History of Rome to the End of the Republic (J. S. Magnuson). — JOSEPH REINACH (POLYBE), Francia: Histoire Illustrée de la France (Gustave Lanson). - LOUISE POUND, Poetic Origins and the If humdrum business and gunpowder and the prosy lapse of centuries have dulled the rich and brilliant colors of Chaucer's knight, as Professor Manly showed a few years ago,1 no less have the revolutionary changes of five hundred years fretted away the web of associations which the poet's pregnant allusiveness stirred in the minds of his friends as he limned his other pilgrims. It is not my pleasant fortune, however, to reveal high adventure and mysterious romance and splintered lances on stricken fields. I shall, on the contrary, merely uncover the career of one whose secret history, when unveiled, discloses a labyrinth of devious practise and scandalous high finance. The passage of time has probably dimmed the sharpness of line and the depth of color of few other pilgrims so completely as it has those of the Merchant, who was, as we shall discover, a much more imposing personage in the eyes of his creator than in those of the modern commentators. As he rode, high on horse, into the scuttling inn-yard of the Tabard, as he mounted to his wide chamber, and again as the officious Harry Bailly, with the assurance of a marshal in a hall, ushered him to his place near the head of the board, we may be certain that the Merchant's anonymity did not prevent the folk of lesser degree from making way for such a solemn and imposing personage. The status of the Merchant in the social structure of his day can be understood only if we explore adequately the fruitful fields of documents which lie behind Hales' note on Middelburgh.2 In 1 Manly, “A Knight Ther Was,” Transactions of the American Philologicar Association, XXXVIII (1907), pp. 89-107. 2 Folia Literaria, p. 100; Athenaeum, April 8, 1893, p. 443. 1 this note, it will be remembered, Hales pointed out that Middelburgh was the continental staple for wool from 1384 to 1388, and that the Prologue was therefore probably composed between those two dates. The real importance of the allusion, however, is not in the implication of a date, but in the revelation of the Merchant's position in the national economy. For the significance of the reference to the wool-staple is contained rather in the first part than in the second part of the word. From the thirteenth to the fifteenth century England was the world's almost exclusive source of supply of the finest raw wool, and during these three hundred years wool, wool-fells, and hides constituted the principal, or staple,3 articles of export from England. It was estimated about 1340 that the annual production of wool amounted to 40,000 sacks of 364 pounds each, of which the exportable surplus was 30,000 sacks. Wool, hides, and wool-fells were exported in great quantities to the Baltic ports, to Spain, France, Italy, Brabant, Holland, and Zeeland, but principally to the cloth-manufacturing cities of Flanders, in one of which the Merchant had bought his beaver hat. As early as 1215 an export tax had been laid on wool. This, known as the Antiqua Custuma, had become definitely settled by 1275 as a half mark (6s. 8d.) per sack.5 In order to expedite the collection of this tax, nine English cities were designated in 1297 as the ports from which all wool must be exported. To these the wool, purchased by the merchants at fairs or markets or on manors, was carried in carts. In the home staple towns the wool or other merchandise, after being weighed or counted, was sealed with the cocket seal by the collectors of the custom, and the tax was paid. After 1313 the shipment usually had to be conveyed to a compulsory staple city beyond the sea, where, after it had again been weighed, and after the "letters of cocket" had been inspected as 3 The staple articles also comprised lead, tin, butter, cheese, tallow, honey, feathers, and cloth. See Rolls of Parliament, 3, 278; Gross, Gild Merchant, I, p. 140, note 2; Rymer's Foedera, V, vii, 116, 118. 4 Barnes, "The Taxation of Wool, 1327-1348," in Unwin, Finance and Trade under Edward III, p. 145, and p. 146, note 3. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce (5th ed., 1910), p. 314, and note 2, and p. 439. 5 Hall, A History of the Custom-Revenue in England, I, p. 66; Lipson, Economic History of England, I, p. 522. 6 Lipson, I, p. 472. |