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THE MONKES TALE.

I Wol bewaile in manere of tragedie

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The harm of hem that flode in high degree,
And fellen fo that ther n'as no remedie
To bring hem out of hir adverfitee;
For certain whan that Fortune lift to flee
Ther may no man of hire the cours withholde:
Let no man truft on blinde profperitee;

Beth ware by thife enfamples trewe and olde.

Lucifer.

At Lucifer, though he an angel were
And not a man, at him I wol beginne;
For though Fortune may non angel dere,
From high degree yet fell he for his finne
Doun into helle, wheras he yet is inne.
O Lucifer! brightest of angels alle,

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Now art thou Sathanas, that maist not twinne

Out of miferie in which that thou art falle.

Adam.

Lo! Adam in the feld of Damafcene

With Goddes owen finger wrought was he,
And not begeten of mannes sperme unclene, 14015

The Monkes Tale] A tragical discourse of many who have failen from high eftate to extreme mifery. Urry.

V. 14013. in the feld of Damafcene] So Lydgate, from Boccace, fpeaks of Adam and Eve, Trag. b. i. c. 1.;

Of flime of the erth in Damafcene the felde

God made them above ech creature.

Boccace is much longer in relating their ftory, which is thoArit of his tragedies.

And welte all Paradis faving o tree.
Had never worldly man fo high degree
As Adam, til he for misgovernance

Was driven out of his profperitee

To labour, and to helle, and to mefchance.

Sampfon.

Lo! Sampfon, which that was annunciat By the angel long or his nativitee,

And was to God Almighty confecrat,

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And ftode in nobleffe while he mighte fee:

Was never fwiche another as was he,

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To fpeke of ftrength and therto hardineffe;
But to his wives tolde he his fecree,

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Thurgh which he flow himself for wretchedneffe.
Sampfon, this noble and mighty champion,
Withouten wepen fave his handes twey
He flow and all to-rente the leon,
Toward his wedding walking by the wey.
His falfe wif coude him so plefe and pray
Til fhe his confeil knewe, and fhe untrewe
Unto his foos his confeil gan bewray,
And him forfoke, and toke another newe.

Three hundred foxes toke Sampfon for ire,

And all hir tayles he togeder bond,
And fet the foxes tayles all on fire,

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. 14021. Sampfon] His tragedy is also in Boccace, b. i. c. 19, but our Author feems rather to have followed the original, Fudges xiv, xv, xvi.

Volume IV.

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For he in every tayl had knit a brond,

And they brent all the cornes in that lond,
And all hir oliveres and vines eke.

A thousand men he flow eke with his hond,
And had no wepen but an affes cheke.

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Whan they were flain fo thursted him that he Was wel nie lorne, for which he gan to preye 14046 That God wold on his peine han som pitee,

And fend him drinke, or elles mofte he deye;
And of this affes cheke that was fo dreye

Out of a wang toth sprang anon a welle,
Of which he drank ynough, shortly to seye.
Thus halp him God, as Judicum can telle.

By veray force at Gasa on a night,
Maugre the Philiftins of that citee,
The gates of the toun he hath up plight,
And on his bak ycaried hem hath he
High on an hill, wher as men might hem fe.
O noble mighty Sampfon, lefe and dere!
Haddeft thou not told to women thy fecree
In all this world ne had ther ben thy pere.
This Sampfon never fider drank ne wine,
Ne on his hed came rasour non ne shere,
By precept of the meffager divine,
For all his frengthes in his heres were:
And fully twenty winter yere by yere
He hadde of Ifrael the governance;
But fone fhal he wepen many a tere,
For women fhuin him bringen to mefchance.

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Unto his lemman Dalida he told

'That in his heres all his ftrengthe lay,
And falfely to his fomen fhe him fold;
And fleping in hire barme upon a day
She made to clip or fhere his here away,
And made his fomen al his craft espien;
And whan that they him fond in this array
They bond him faft, and putten out his eyen.

But or his here was clipped or yfhave

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Ther was no bond with which men might him bind, But now is he in prifon in a cave,

Wheras they made him at the querne grinde. 14080 O noble Sampson, strongest of mankind,

O whilom juge in glory and richesse!

Now mayest thou wepen with thin eyen blind
Sith thou fro wele art falle in wretchedneffe.

The ende of this caitif was as I fhal feye: 14085

His fomen made a fefte upon a day,

And made him as hir fool before hem pleye,
And this was in a temple of gret array:

But at the last he made a foule affray,

For he two pillers shoke and made hem falle, 1409o
And doun fell temple and all, and ther it lay,
And flow himself, and eke his fomen alle.

This is to fayn, the princes everich on,

And eke three thousand bodies, were ther flain
With falling of the gret temple of ston.

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.14080. the querne] The mill; kuerna, mola, Island.

Of Sampfon now wol I no more fain:
Beth ware by this ensample old and plain
That no men tell hir confeil to hir wives
Offwiche thing as they wold han fecree fain,
If that it touch hir limmes or hir lives.

Hercules.

Of Hercules the foveraine conquerour
Singen his werkes laude, and high renoun,
For in his time of strength he was the flour.
He flow and raft the skinne of the leon;
He of Centaures laid the bost adoun;
He Harpies flow, the cruel briddes felle;
He golden apples raft fro the dragon ;
He drow out Cerberus, the hound of helle.

He flow the cruel tirant Bufirus,

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And made his hors to fret him flesh and bon; 1411

He flow the firy ferpent venemous;

Of Achelous two hornes brake he on;
And he flow Cacus in a cave of fton;
He flow the geaunt Anteus the strong;
He flow the grifely bore, and that anon;
And bare the hevene on his nekke long.

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. 14101. Hercules] In this account of the labours of Her cules Chaucer has evidently copied Boethius, 1. iv. met.7. Many of the expreffions he had ufed before in his profe translation of that author.

ỳ. 14115, the bevene on his nekke long] This is the reading of the beft mff. and is agreeable to Boethius, loc. cit. thus tranflated by Chaucer; "And the laft of his labors was, that he fufeined the beven upon his necke unbowed," 'The margin of "mf. C. 1. explains long to mean diu.-The editt. read,

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And bare his bed upon his fpere long.

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