9090

THE MARCHANTES PROLOGUE,
WEPING and wailing, care, and other forwe,
I have ynough on even and on morwe,
Quod the Marchant, and so have other mo
That wedded ben; I trowe that it be so,
For well wot it fareth fo by me.

I have a wif the werfte that may be,

For though the fend to hire ycoupled were
She wolde him overmatche I dare wel fwere.

9095

What fhulde I you reherfe in fpecial

Hire high malice? fhe is a fhrew at al.

Whatever may: be thought of the genuineness of thefe lines they can at beft, in my opinion, be confidered as a fragment of an unfinished prologue which Chaucer might once have intended to place at the end of The Clerkes Tale. When he determined to connect that Tale with The Marchant's in another manner, he may be fuppofed, notwithflanding, to have left this ftanza for the prefent uncancelled in his mf. He has made ufe of the thought, and some of the lines, in the Prologue which connects The Monkes Tale with Melibee, ver. 1 389513900-The two additional ftanzas, which were first printed in ed. Urr. from mf. F. [H. 1, in Urry's lift,] and which ferve to introduce The Frankelein's Tale next to The Clerkes, are evidently, I think, fpurious. They are not found, as I recollect, in any mf. except that cited by Mr. Urry, and mf. B. If thefe two mff. were of much greater age and authority than they really are they would weigh but little in oppofition to the number and character of thofe mil. in which thefe ftanzas are wanting, and in which The Marchant's Tale ftands next to The Clerkes.---Another proof of the spuriousness of these flanzas is, that they are almost entirely made up of lines taken from the Prologue which, in this edition, upon the authority of the beft mff. is prefixed to The Squieres Tale. See below, ver. 10301.

Ther is a long and a large difference
Betwix Grifildes grete patience
And of my wife the paffing crueltee.
Were I unbounden, all fo mote I the,
I wolde never eft comen in the fnare.
We wedded men live in forwe and care:
Affay it who fo wol, and he shal finde
That I fay foth, by Seint Thomas of Inde,
As for the more part, I fay not alle;
God fhilde that it fhulde fo befalle.

A, good Sire Hofte, I have ywedded be

Thife monethes two, and more not parde;
And yet I trowe that he that all his lif

9110

Wifles hath ben, though that men wolde him rife

Into the herte, ne coude in no manere

Tellen fo much forwe as I you here

Coud teilen of my wives curfedneffe.

9115

Now, quod our Hofte, Marchant, so God you bleffe,

Sin ye fo mochel knowen of that art

Ful hertely I pray you tell us part.

Gladly, quod he, but of min owen fore,
For fory herte I tellen may no more.

THE MARCHANTES TALE.
WHILOM ther was dwelling in Lumbardie
A worthy knight, that born was at Pavie,

9120

The Marchantes Tale] Old January marrieth young May, and for his unequal match receiveth a foul reward. Urry.

In which he lived in gret profperitee;
And fixty yere a wifles man was he,
And folwed ay his bodily delit
On women ther as was his appetit,
As don thise fooles that ben feculere.
And whan that he was paffed fixty yere,
Were it for holineffe or for dotage

I cannot fain, but swiche a gret corage
Hadde this knight to ben a wedded man,
That day and night he doth all that he can
To efpien wher that he might wedded be,
Praying our Lord to granten him that he
Mighte ones knowen of that blisful lif

9125

9130

9135

That is betwix an husbond and his wif,

And for to live under that holy bond

With which God firfte man and woman bond.

Non other lif (faid he) is worth a bene;

For wedlok is fo efy and fo clene

9140

That in this world it is a paradife.

Thus faith this olde knight that was fo wife.
And certainly, as foth as God is king,

To take a wif it is a glorious thing,

And namely whan a man is old and hore,

9145

Than is a wif the fruit of his trefore;

Than fhuld he take a yong wif and a faire,

On which he might engendren him an heire,
And lede his lif in joye and in folas,

Wheras thife bachelers fingen alas!

9150

Whan that they finde any adverfitee

In love, which n'is but childifh vanitée.
And trewely it fit wel to be fo

That bachelers have often peine and wo:

On brotel ground they bilde, and brotelneffe 9155 They finden whan they wenen fikerneffe:

They live but as a bird or as a befte,

In libertee and under non arette,

Ther as a wedded man in his estat

Liveth a lif blisful and ordinat,

9160

Under the yoke of mariage ybound;

Wel may his herte in joye and bliffe abound:

For who can be fo buxom as a wif?

Who is fo trewe and eke fo ententif

To kepe him, fike and hole, as is his make?

9165

For wele or wo fhe n'ill him not forfake;

She n'is not wery him to love and ferve
Though that he lie bedrede til that he sterve.
And yet fom clerkes fain it is not fo,
Of which he Theophraft is on of tho.
What force though Theophraft lift for to lie?

Ne take no wif, quod he, for husbondrie,

9170

.9172. Ne take no wif] What follows, to ver. 9180 incl. is taken from the Liber aureolus Theophrafti de nuptiis, as quoted by Hieronymus contra Jovinianum, and from thence by John of Salisbury, Polycrat. 1. viii. c. xi. ; " Quod fi propter difpen"fationem domus, et languoris folatia, et fugam folitudinis, “ducuntur uxores, multo melius dfpenfat fervus fidelis, &c. "Affidere autem ægrotanti magis poffunt amici et vernula

As for to spare in houthold thy difpence:
A trewe fervant doth more diligence

Thy good to kepe than doth thin owen wif, 9175
For fhe wol claimen half part al hire lif.

And if that thou be fike, fo God me fave,
Thy veray frendes or a trewe knave

Wol kepe thee bet than fhe, that waiteth ay
After thy good, and hath don many a day.
This fentence, and au hundred thinges werfe,
Writeth this man, ther God his bones curse.
But take no kepe of al fwiche vanitee;
Defieth Theophraft, and herkeneth me.

9180

"beneficiis obligati quam illa, quæ nobis imputet lacrymas "fuas," &c.

V.9180. many a day] After this verfe, in the common editt. are thefe two;

And if thou take to thee a wife untrew

Full oftentime it fhall thee fore rew.

In mff. A. C. and B. a. they stand thus-
And if thou take a wif be wel ywar

Of on
peril whiche I declare ne dar.
thing

In mf. C. 1, HA. D. thus

And if thou take a wif of heye lynage
She fhal be hauteyn and of gret coftage.
In mf. B. . thus

And if thou take a wif in thin age olde
Ful lightly mayfl thou be a cokewold.

In mil. Ask. 1, 2, E. H. B. 6. N. c. and both Caxton's editt. they are entirely omitted, and fo I believe they should be. If any one of those couplets fhould be allowed to be from the hand of Chaucer, it can only be confidered as the opening of a new argument, which the Author for fome reafon or other immediately abandoned, and confequently would have cancelled if he had lived to publifh his Work.