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learned, or (as Chaucer calls them) lewd, and fome are learned. Even the ribaldry of the low characters is different: the Reeve, the Miller, and the Cook, are feveral men, and distinguished from each other, as much as the mincing lady prioress, and the broadfpeaking gap-toothed wife of Bath. But enough of this: there is fuch a variety of game fpringing up before me, that I am diftracted in my choice, and know not which to follow. 'Tis fufficient to fay, according to the proverb, that here is God's plenty. We have our fore-fathers and great grand-dames all before us, as they were in Chaucer's days; their general characters are ftill remaining in mankind, and even in England, tho' they are called by other names than thofe of Monks and Friars, and Chanons, and lady Abbeffes, and Nuns: for mankind is ever the fame, and nothing loft out of nature, tho' every thing is altered. May I have leave to do myself the justice, (fince my enemies will do me none, and are fo far from granting me to be a good poet, that they will not allow me fo much as to be a Christian, or a moral man) may I have leave, I fay, to inform my reader, that I have confined my choice to fuch tales of Chaucer as favour nothing of immodefty. If I had defired more to please than to inftruct, the Reeve, the Miller, the Shipman, the Merchants, the Sumner, and, above all, the Wife of Bath, in the prologue to her tale, would have procured me as many friends and readers, as there are beaux and ladies of pleasure in the town. But I will no more offend against good manners: I am fenfible, as I ought to be, of the scandal I have given by my loose writings; and make what reparation I am able, by this public acknowledgment. If any thing of this nature, or of profaneness, be crept into these poems, I am so far from defending it, that

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I difown it. Totum hoc indictum volo. Chaucer makes another manner of apology for his broad-speaking, and Boccace makes the like; but I will follow neither of them. Our countryman, in the end of his characters, before the Canterbury tales, thus excufes the ribaldry, which is very grofs in many of his novels.

But first, I pray you of your courtesy,

That ye ne arrettee it nought my villany,
Though that I plainly speak in this mattere
To tellen you her words, and eke her chere:
Ne though I speak her words properly,
For this ye knowen as well as I,

Who fhall tellen a tale after a man,
He mote rehearse as nye, as ever he can:
Everich word of it been in his charge,
All speke he, never fo rudely, ne large.
Or else he mote tellen his tale untrue,
Or feine things, or find words new:
He may not spare, altho he were his brother,
He mote as well fay o word as another.
Christ spake himself full broad in holy writ,
And well I wote no villany is it,

Eke Plato faith, who fo can him rede,
The words mote been cousin to the dede.

Yet if a man should have inquired of Boccace or of Chaucer, what need they had of introducing fuch characters, where obfcene words were proper in their mouths, but very indecent to be heard; I know not what answer they could have made; for that reason, fuch tale shall be left untold by me. You have here a fpecimen of Chaucer's language, which is so obsolete, that his fenfe is fcarce to be understood; and you have likewife more than one example of his unequal numbers,

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bers, which were mentioned before. Yet many of his verses confift of ten fyllables, and the words not much behind our prefent English: as for example, these two lines, in the defcription of the carpenter's young wife:

Wincing she was, as is a jolly colt,

Long as a maft, and upright as a bolt.

I have almost done with Chaucer, when I have anfwered fome objections relating to my prefent work. I find fome people are offended that I have turned these tales into modern English; because they think them unworthy of my pains, and look on Chaucer as a dry, old-fashioned wit, not worth reviving. I have often heard the late earl of Leicefter fay, that Mr. Cowley himself was of that opinion; who having read him over at my lord's request, declared he had no tafte of him. I dare not advance my opinion against the judgment of fo great an author: but I think it fair, however, to leave the decifion to the public: Mr. Cowley was too modeft to fet up for a dictator; and being fhocked perhaps with his old ftile, never examined into the depth of his good fenfe. Chaucer, I confefs, is a rough diamond, and must first be polished, ere he shines, I deny not likewise, that, living in our early days of poetry, he writes not always of a piece: but fometimes mingles trivial things with thofe of greater moment. Sometimes alfo, though not often, he runs riot, like Ovid, and knows not when he has faid enough. But there are more great wits befides Chaucer, whofe fault is their excefs of conceits, and thofe ill forted. An author is not to write all he can, but only all he ought. Having obferved this redundancy in Chaucer, (as it is an eafy matter for a man

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of ordinary parts to find a fault in one of greater) I have not tied myself to a literal translation; but have often omitted what I judged unneceffary, or not of dignity enough to appear in the company of better thoughts. I have presumed farther, in fome places, and added fomewhat of my own where I thought my author was deficient, and had not given his thoughts their true luftre, for want of words in the beginning of our language. And to this I was the more emboldened, becaufe (if I may be permitted to fay it of myfelf) I found I had a foul congenial to his, and that I had been converfant in the fame ftudies. Another poet, in another age, may take the fame liberty with my writings; if at leaft they live long enough to deferve correction. It was alfo neceffary fometimes to restore the sense of Chaucer, which was loft or mangled in the errors of the prefs: let this example fuffice at prefent; in the story of Palamon and Arcite, where the temple of Diana is described, you find these verses, in all the editions of our author:

There faw I Danè turned into a tree,

I mean not the goddess Diane,

But Venus daughter, which that hight Danè:

Which after a little consideration I knew was to be reformed into this fenfe, that Daphne the daughter of Peneus was turned into a tree. I durft not make thus bold with Ovid, left fome future Milbourn should arife, and fay, I varied from my author, because I understood him not.

But there are other judges who think I ought not to have tranflated Chaucer into English, out of a quite contrary notion: they fuppofe there is a certain veneration due to his old language; and that it is a little

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lefs than profanation and facrilege to alter it. They are farther of opinion, that fomewhat of his good fense will fuffer in this transfufion, and much of the beauty of his thoughts will infallibly be loft, which appear with more grace in their old habit. Of this opinion was that excellent perfon, whom I mentioned, the late earl of Leicester, who valued Chaucer as much as Mr. Cowley defpifed him. My lord diffuaded me from this attempt, (for I was thinking of it fome years before his death) and his authority prevailed fo far with me, as to defer my undertaking while he lived, in deference to him: yet my reafon was not convinced with what he urged against it. If the first end of a writer be to be understood, then as his language grows obfolete, his thoughts must grow obfcure: multa renafcentur quæ nunc cecidere; cadentque, quæ nunc funt in honore vocabula, fi volet ufus, quem penes arbitrium eft & jus & norma loquendi. When an ancient word for its found and fignificancy deserves to be revived, I have that reasonable veneration for antiquity, to reftore it. All beyond this is fuperftition. Words are not like landmarks, fo facred as never to be removed; cuftoms are changed, and even statutes are filently repealed, when the reafon ceases for which they were enacted. As for the other part of the argument, that his thoughts will lofe of their original beauty, by the innovation of words; in the first place, not only their beauty, but their being is loft, where they are no longer understood, which is the prefent cafe. I grant that fomething must be loft in all transfufion, that is, in all tranflations; but the sense will remain, which would otherwife be loft, or at least be maimed, when it is fcarce intelligible; and that but to a few. How few are there who can read Chaucer, so as to underftand him perfectly? And if imperfectly, then with

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