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Men fpeken of romaunces of pris,

Of Hornchild and of Ipotis,

Of Bevis and Sire Guy,

Of Sire Libeux and Pleindamour,

But Sire Thopas he bereth the flour
Of real chevalrie.

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His goode ftede he al bestrode, And forth upon his way he glode As fparcle out of bronde;

Upon his creft he bare a tour,
And therin ftiked a lily flour;

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God fhilde his corps fro fhonde!

Upon fecond thoughts I am more inclined to throw out love as a glofs for druerie, and to read thus ;

And of ladies druerie.

Druerie is ftrangely explained in Gloss. Urr. fobriety, modesty : it means courtship, gallantry.

v. 13828. Of Sire Libeux] His romance is in mf. Cott. Cal. ii. In the 12th ftanza we have his true name and the reason of it. King Arthur speaks;

Now clepeth him alle thus,

Ly Beau Defconus,

For the love of me,

Then may ye wete arowe,
The fayre unknore

Certes fo hatte he.

Ibid. Pleindamour] This is the reading of the mff. and I know not why we thould change it for Blandamour, as both names found equally well.

v. 13833. As fparcle] The fame fimile is in Isumbras, fol. 130, b.;

He fpronge forth, as fparke on (f. of 1 glede, Glode in the preceding verfe is probably for glowde, glowed, from the Sax. glowan, candere.

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PROLOGUE TO MELIBEUS.

No more of this for Goddes dignitee,

Qued our Hofte, for thou makest me

wery

So
That al fo willy God my foule bleffe

of thy veray lewedneffe,

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. 13844. Sire Percivell] The romance of Perceval le Galois, or de Galis, was composed in octosyllable French verfe by Chreftein de Troyes, one of the oldeft and beft French romancers before the year 1191. Fauchet, 1. ii. c. x. It confifted of above fixty thousand verses, [Bibl. des Rom. t. ii. p. 250.] fo that it would be fome trouble to find the fact which is probably here alluded to. The romance under the fame title in French profe, printed at Paris 15 30, fol. can be only an abridgement, I fuppofe, of the original poem.

. 13845. So worthy under wede] This phrafe occurs re peatedly in the romance of Emaré;

fol. 70. b. Than fayde that worthy unther wede.

74. b. The childe was worthy unther wede,

And fate upon a nobyl stede.

See alfo fol. 71, b. 73, 2.

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Min eres aken of thy drafty speche.

Now fwiche a rime the devil I beteche; wel be rime dogerel, quod he.

This

may

Why fo? quod I; why wolt thou letten me More of my Tale than an other man,

Sin that it is the befte rime I can ?

By God, quod he, for plainly at o word Thy drafty riming is not worth a tord: Thou doft nought elles but difpendest time. Sire, at o word thou shalt no lenger rime.

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Let fee wher thou canst tellen ought in gefte,
Or tellen in profe fomwhat at the lefte

. 13852. the devil 1 beteche] I betake (recommend or give) to the devil. See ver. 3748.;

My foule betake I unto Sathanas

and ver. 8037, 17256, where the prepofition is omitted as here. To take, in our old language, is also used for to take to, to give, See ver. 13334-;

He toke me certain gold, I wote it wel.

And compare ver. 13224, 13286.-The change of betake into beteche was not fo great a licenfe formerly as it would be now, aschandk feem once to have been pronounced in nearly the fame manner. See ver. 3307, 8, 11, 12, where werk is made to rhyme to cherche and clerk, It may be obferved too that the Saxons had but one verb, tæcan, to fignify capere and docere; and though our ancestors, even before Chaucer's time, had split that single verb into two, to take and to tecke, and had diftinguithed each from the other by a different mode of inflexion, yet the compound verb betake, which according to that mode of inflexion ought to have formed its paft time hetoke, formed it often, I believe, betaught, as if no fuch diftinction had been eftablithed. See K. R. ver. 4438.; Gamelyn, 666. The regular past time betoke occurs in ver. 16009.

In which ther be fom mirthe or fom doctrine.

Gladly, quod I; by Goddes fwete pine

I wol you tell a litel thing in profe
That oughte liken you, as I suppose,
Or elles certes ye be to dangerous.
It is a moral Tale vertuous,

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Al be it told fomtime in fondry wife
Of fondry folk, as I fhal you devise.

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As thus; ye wot that every evangelist

That telleth us the peine of Jefu Crist

Ne faith not alle thing as his felaw doth;

But natheles hir fentence is al foth,

And alle accorden as in hir fentence,

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Al be ther in hir telling difference;

For fom of hem fay more and fom fay leffe
Whan they his pitous paffion expreffe ;

I mene of Mark and Mathew, Luke and John,
But douteles hir fentence is all on.

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Therfore, Lordinges all, I you befeche,

If that ye thinke I vary in my speche,

As thus, though that I telle fom del more
Of proverbes than ye han herde before

Comprehended in this litel tretife here,
To enforcen with the effect of my matere,
And though I not the fame wordes fay
As ye han herde, yet to you alle I

pray

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13879. I mene of Mark and Mathew] The conjunction and has been added for the fake of the metre without autho rity, and perhaps without neceffity, as Mark was probably writ ten by Chaucer Marke, and pronounced as a diffyllable.

Blameth me not, for as in my sentence
Shul ye nowher finden no difference
Fro the sentence of thilke tretife lite
After the which this mery Tale I write;
And therfore herkeneth what I shal fay,

And let me tellen all my Tale I pray.

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THE TALE OF MELIBEUS.

A Yonge man called Melibeus, mighty and riche, begate upon his wif that called was Prudence a doughter which that called was Sophie.

Upon a day befell that he for his difport is went into the feldes him to playe. His wif and eke his doughter hath he left within his hous, of which the dores weren faft yfhette. Foure of his olde foos han it efpied, and fetten ladders to the walles of his hous, and by the windowes ben entred, and beten his wif, and wounded his doughter with five mortal woundes in five fondry places; this is to fay, in hire feet, in hire hondes, in hire eres, in hire nose, and in hire mouth, and leften hire for dede, and wenten away.

The Tale of Melibeus] Prudence, the difcreet wife of Melibeus, perfuadeth her husband to patience, and to receive his enemies to mercie and grace. ATale full of moralitie,wherein both high and low may learne to governe their affections. Speght.

The Tale of Melibeus] Mr.Thomas has obferved that this Tale seems to have been written in blank verse. [M, notes upon Ch. ed. Urr. in Brit. Muf.] It is certain that in the former part of it we find a number of blank verfes intermixed in a much greater proportion than in any of our Author's other profe writings, but this poetical style is not, I think, remarkable beyond the firft four or five pages.

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