Read Ebook: Chaucer's Works Volume 6 — Introduction Glossary and Indexes by Chaucer Geoffrey Skeat Walter W Walter William Editor

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s. 12. As regards the Canterbury Tales, my debts are almost too numerous to recount. First and foremost, must be mentioned the honoured name of Thomas Tyrwhitt, whose diligence, sagacity, and discrimination have never been surpassed by any critic, and to whom are due nearly all the more important discoveries as to Chaucer's sources. See the admirably just remarks on this 'great scholar' in Lounsbury's Studies in Chaucer, vol. i. pp. 300-5. 'The sanest of English poets had the good fortune to meet with the sanest of editors.' And again--'It seems almost too much to hope that a combination of learning, of critical sagacity, of appreciation of poetry as poetry, will ever again meet in the person of another willing to assume and discharge the duties of an editor of Chaucer.'

I would add my humble testimony to Tyrwhitt's unfailing greatness; and it will readily be understood, that, whenever it becomes necessary, in consequence of recent linguistic discoveries, to point out that Tyrwhitt's knowledge of Middle-English grammar was naturally imperfect, certainly from no fault of his own, I never waver in my admiration of his great qualities. Even as regards linguistic knowledge, he was certainly in advance of his time; and it is remarkable to observe with what diligence he once edited the 'Rowley Poems' of Chatterton, merely as a piece of literary duty, although he was one of the very first to see that they were hopelessly the reverse of genuine.

A great deal of information has also been obtained from the notes in the editions by Thomas Wright and by Bell; from the various publications of the Chaucer Society, especially from the 'Essays on Chaucer,' by various authors, and from the 'Originals and Analogues'; from Thor Sundby's wonderful edition of Albertano of Brescia's Liber Consolationis et Consilii; from the Essay by Dr. Eilers on the Parson's Tale; and from various books, notes, and articles, by well-known German critics, especially Ten Brink, Koch, Klbing, Kppel, Zupitza, and others. Much encouragement and various useful hints have been received from Professor Hales. If I have anywhere failed to notice the true discoverer of any important suggestion, each in his due place, I trust it will be regarded as an oversight. The fact that some points, and even some rather important ones, were really discovered by myself, is somewhat embarrassing. I have no wish to claim as my own anything that can, with any shew of reason, be claimed by another; but would rather say, with Chaucer himself, that 'I nam but a lewd compilatour of the labour of' other men; 'and with this swerd shal I sleen envye.'

s. 13. PHONETICS. All the more important and somewhat recent discoveries as regards Middle-English grammar and rhythm are due to the increased attention paid to phonetics and rhythmical details. It is well known that this impulse came from America, and was due, as Dr. Ellis has justly said, to 'the wonderful industry, acuteness, and accuracy' of Prof. F. J. Child, of Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts. His celebrated 'Observations on the Language of Chaucer' were well followed up by others; notably by Dr. Alexander J. Ellis, in his work 'On Early English Pronunciation,' and by Dr. Sweet, in his 'History of English Sounds' and his First and Second Middle-English Primers. Also, by Ten Brink, in his admirable work on 'Chaucers Sprache und Verskunst.' The latest essays of this character are, like the first, from America, viz. the essay on 'The Language of the Legend of Good Women' by J. M. Manly, and the full and exhaustive essay on 'The Language of Chaucer's Troilus' by Prof. Kittredge.

s. 14. THE GLOSSARY. As regards the Glossary, I have much pleasure in recording my thanks to Miss Gunning and Miss Wilkinson, of Cambridge, who prepared the 'slips' recording the references, and, in most cases, the meanings also, throughout a large portion of the whole work, with praiseworthy carefulness and patience. My obligations to these two ladies began many years ago, as they undertook most of the glossarial work of my smaller edition of the Man of Law's Tale ; work which is now incorporated with the rest. It required some devotion to analyse the language of Boethius and the Romaunt, of Melibeus and the Parson's Tale, all of which they successfully undertook.

The glossaries to Chaucer by Tyrwhitt and Dr. Morris are both excellent; but we now require one on a larger scale.

s. 15. CRITICISM. A brief explanation may here suffice. The conspicuous avoidance, in this edition, of any approach to what has been called aesthetic criticism, has been intentional. Let it not be hence inferred that I fail to appreciate the easy charm of Chaucer's narrative, the delicious flow of his melodious verse, the saneness of his opinions, the artistic skill with which his characters are drawn, his gentle humour, and his broad sympathy. It is left to the professed critic to enlarge upon this theme; he can be trusted to do it thoroughly.

s. 16. THE DIALECT OF CHAUCER.

s. 17. KENTISH FORMS. It is, however, well worth notice that Chaucer was at one time resident at Greenwich, perhaps during the whole period between 1385 and 1399 ; and was even chosen a member of parliament for Kent. The effect of this upon his writings is rather plainly marked, and has been clearly shewn in my paper on this subject printed for the Chaucer Society, from which some examples are here extracted.

This use of Kentish forms by Chaucer is of considerable interest. Of course, they occur still more freely in Gower, who was of a Kentish family.

s. 18. PRONUNCIATION.

s. 22. SYMBOLS. The following is a list of the sounds which the symbols denote.

The forms in thick type are the forms actually written and printed; the forms within parenthesis denote the spoken sounds.

R is always strongly trilled; never reduced to a vocal murmur, as frequently in modern English.

s. 25. RIMES ILLUSTRATING THE PRONUNCIATION OF LONG O AND LONG E.

It has been said that the values of the M.E. vowels are intermediate between those of the Anglo-Saxon and the modern vowels. The best and surest guide to them is afforded by the A.S. sounds, and it is worth while to illustrate this by special instances.

dhis-Troo.ilus. widhuu.ten rd. or-l.r, az-man. dhat-hath. iz-joi.ez aek. forl.r, waz-wei.tingg' on. iz-laa.di ev.erm.r, az-shee. dhat-waz. dh-sooth.fast krop. nd-m.r ov-al. iz-lust., or-joi.ez heer.toof.r. but-Troo.ilus., nuu-far.wel al. dhii-joi., for-shal.tuu nev.er seen.-ir eft. in-Troi..

s. 34. SUMMARY. As this investigation has run to some length, I here give a summary of all the above results.

The list is as follows.

s. 37. Of course, the rime-tests consist in this, that not one of the words in class A can possibly rime with one of those in class B, either in Troilus or in any genuine work of Chaucer.

The only apparent exceptions that I can find are two; and they are worth notice.

The lines run thus:--

s. 38. In the Minor Poems, the following passages are the only ones that I can find that present any difficulty.

It is interesting to apply the results to other Poems.

In the poem called A Compleint to his Lady, the final stanza of which, with Chaucer's name appended, was discovered by Dr. Furnivall after I had claimed it for Chaucer, every rime is entirely perfect, and many of them are highly characteristic of him, being used elsewhere very freely.

The following is THE KEY to the meaning of the lists.

CHAUCER'S USE. Words in rime with each other, but never rime with words in . Words in rime with each other, but never with words in . Words in rime with words both in and .

-ONGE.

The above lists are offered for what they are worth. I believe them to be fairly correct; but they may not be quite exhaustive. Nevertheless, they record ascertained facts; and the facts remain true and useful, even if the theories be wrong.

s. 42. SOME PECULIARITIES OF RIME.

s. 46. MISTAKES AS TO CHAUCER'S USES. Some of the facts concerning Chaucer's rimes have been misunderstood, even by so good a scholar as Prof. Lounsbury, in his Studies of Chaucer, vol. ii. It is therefore desirable to point out some of these errors.

He calls attention, among others, to the following false rimes:--

s. 48. In his Studies, vol. i. pp. 402-5, Prof. Lounsbury makes another attack upon the unfortunate poet's rimes. Many of his instances are wrong; so much so, that four of Chaucer's supposed errors and two of Gower's are admitted to be no errors in vol. iii. 453. It would have been well if all the rest of the charges had been withdrawn at the same time. I here draw attention to them accordingly.

s. 49. My position is, in short, that the attack upon Chaucer in this passage fails in every single instance. It is called 'a formidable' list; but is nothing of the kind. The attack against Gower also fails in every single instance. Omitting the two charges which the author himself withdraws, the passage runs thus:--

s. 50. ASSONANCES. I have drawn attention to the above passages because it affords an opportunity of illustrating Chaucer's habits. I have said that Prof. Lounsbury is very anxious to fasten upon Chaucer the charge of using mere assonances, i.e. syllables in which nothing rimes but the vowel-sound; for specimens of which see vol. i. p. 5. I doubt if the charge can be fairly proved. But it is well to examine the cases.

These three doubtful instances, being all that have been found in the whole of Chaucer's works, compare favourably, to say the least, with the six indubitable instances occurring in Fragment B of the Romaunt of the Rose; see vol. i. p. 5. In calculating in errors, we must observe the percentage.

When every mistake, or rather slight inaccuracy or licence, that can be found in Chaucer's works, has been reckoned to his discredit, it will still be found that he observes certain laws with rigid persistence; and it is possible to use these observed peculiarities as tests whereby to enable us to reject decisively such poems as have been attributed to him with more zeal than judgement. It is my deliberate opinion, for example, that Fragment B of the Romaunt of the Rose shews so many deviations from his known habits of riming as to render it impossible that he had anything to do with it.

s. 52. METRES AND FORMS OF VERSE.

s. 53. OLD VERSE-FORMS. Chaucer was but little indebted to the forms of English verse used by his predecessors. He doubtless adopted the line of four accents for his translation of The Romaunt of the Rose, because such was the metre of the original. Still, this metre was in use long before his time. It was employed by Wace and Gaimar, and we have an excellent specimen of it in English in the Lay of Havelok, written before A.D. 1300; as well as a long example in the Cursor Mundi. It is also the metre employed by Barbour in his 'Bruce,' and by Gower in his 'Confessio Amantis.' Chaucer employed it in his translation of the Romaunt; in his Ceys and Alcioun, portions of which survive in the Book of the Duchesse; in the Book of the Duchesse itself; and in the House of Fame. Very likely he employed it also in the lost Book of the Lion, as Machault's Dit du Lion is in this metre.

The ballad-metre which appears, in varying forms, in Sir Thopas, was also older than Chaucer's time; it is obvious that this poem is a burlesque.

The four-line stanza employed in the 'Proverbs' was also already known: see, for example, 'The Five Joys of the Virgin,' in An Old Eng. Miscellany, ed. Morris, p. 87.

s. 54. THE EIGHT-LINE STANZA. The poet's first attempt at naturalising a French metre in stanzas, as far as we know, was in his A B C; although the original of this poem is in a different metre. The metre must have been known to Machault, of whose poems only fragments appear in Tarb's edition; for good examples, see the works of Eustache Deschamps. The same metre is used in the Monkes Tale, the Former Age, and Lenvoy to Bukton; and, thrice repeated, with a refrain, in the Balade to Rosemounde, Fortune, and the Complaint of Venus. It was afterwards taken up by Hoccleve and Lydgate, and by G. Douglas, in his 'King Hart,' but is not a particularly favourite metre. However, with the addition of an Alexandrine line at the end, it became the famous Spenserian stanza of the Faerie Queene.

BALLADE: by GUILLAUME de MACHAULT .

Se pour ce muir qu'amours ay bien servi, Fait mauvais servir si fait signour; Ne je n'ay pas, ce croy, mort desservi Pour bien amer de trs loial amour. Mais je voy bien que finer faut un jour, Quant je congnois et voy tout en appert Qu'en lieu de bleu, Dame, vous vestez vert.

Hlas! Dame, je vous ay tant chieri En desirant de merci la doucour, Que je n'ay mais sens ne pooir en mi, Tant qu'ont min mi soupir et mi plour. Et m'esprance est morte sans retour, Quant souvenirs me monstre dcouvert Qu'en lieu de bleu, Dame, vous vestez vert.

Pour ce maudi les iex dont je vous vi, L'eure, le jour, et le trs cointe atour, Et la biaut qui ont mon cuer ravi, Et la plaisir enyvr de folour, Le dous regart qui me mist en errour; Et loyaut qui souffre et a souffert Qu'en lieu de bleu, Dame, vous vestez vert.

This metre is much used by our poet; it occurs in the Lyf of St. Cecile, the Clerkes Tale, the original Palamon and Arcite, the Compleint to his Lady, An Amorous Complaint, Complaint unto Pit, Anelida, Of the Wretched Engendring of Mankinde, the Man of Lawes Tale, the Compleint of Mars, Troilus, Words to Adam, Parliament of Foules, the Prioresses Tale, and Lenvoy to Scogan. It occurs thrice repeated, with a refrain, in Against Women Unconstant, Compleint to his Purs, Lak of Stedfastnesse, Gentilesse, and Truth; as well as in the Balade introduced into the Legend of Good Women, ll. 249-269.

The Envoy to 'Fortune' also consists of a seven-line stanza, but the arrangement of the rimes is different, there being only two rimes in place of the usual three.

This metre was much used by Hoccleve, Lydgate, King James I of Scotland, and others; but is now uncommon.

s. 57. TEN-LINE STANZA. A ten-line stanza occurs in the Compleint to his Lady. Perhaps it was an experiment; and perhaps it is somewhat of a failure. The Envoy to the Complaint of Venus also consists of 10 lines.

s. 59. OTHER STANZAS. A six-line stanza , repeated six times, forms the Envoy to the Clerkes Tale.

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