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That Canace and all hire women made;

They n'iften how they might the faucon glade:
But Canace home bereth hire in hire lap,

And foftely in plaftres gan hire wrap

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Ther as the with hire bek had hurt hirefelve.
Now cannot Canace but herbes delve
Out of the ground, and maken falves newe
Of herbes precious and fine of hewe

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To helen with this hauk: fro day to night
She doth hire befineffe and all hire might.
And by hire beddes hed she made a mew,
And covered it with velouettes blew,
In figne of trouth that is in woman fene,
And all without the mew is peinted grene, 10960
In which were peinted all thife falfe foules,
As ben thise tidifes, tercelettes, and owles,
And pies, on hem for to cry and chide,
Right for defpit were peinted hem befide.

. 10958. velouettes blew] Velvets, from the Fr. velou, velouette. See Du Cange, in v. Villofa, Velluetum.-I will juft add, that as blew was the colour of truth, [See C. L. 248,] fo green belonged to inconftancy: hence in a ballade upon an inconftant lady [among Stowe's additions to Chaucer's Works, p. 551, ed. Urr.] the burther is

Inftede of blew thus may ye were al grene.

. 10962. thife tidifes]] The tidife is mentioned as an inconftant bird in The Leg. of G. W. ver. 154;

As doth the tidif for newefangelneffe.

Skinner fuppofes it to be the titmoufe; but he produces no authority for his supposition, nor have I any to oppose to it.

.10963, 4.] Are tranfpofed from the order in which they ftand in all the editt. and mff, that I have feen. Some of the beft

Thus lete I Canace hire hauk keping: I wol no more as now fpeke of hire ring, Til it come eft to purpos for to fain, How that this faucon gat hire love again Repentant, as the story telleth us,

By mediation of Camballus,

The kinges fone, of which that I you told;
But hennesforth I wol my proceffe hold
To fpeke of aventures and of batailles,
That yet was never herd fo gret mervailles.
First wol I tellen you of a Cambufcan,
That in his time many a citee wan;
And after wol I fpeke of Algarfif,
How that he wan Theodora to his wif,
For whom ful oft in gret peril he was,

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Ne had he ben holpen by the hors of bras;

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And after wol I fpeke of Camballo,

That fought in liftes with the brethren two

mff. however read-Andpies—which rather countenances the tranfpofition. My only excufe for fuch a liberty muft be, that I cannot make any good fenfe of them in the common order. . 10977, 8.] Are also transposed, but upon the authority of mff. A. C. 1, and I believe fome others, though being fatisfied of the certainty of the emendation I have omitted to take a note of their concurrence. Ed. Ca. 2, agrees with those mff. According to the common arrangement old Cambuscan is to win Theodora to his wife, and we are not told what is to be the object of Algarfif's adventures.

V. 10981. of Cambal's] Ms. A. reads Cabalo: but that is not my only reason for suspecting a mistake in this name. It feems

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For Canace, er that he might hire winne,
And ther I left I wol again beginne.

*

10984

clear from the context that the perfon here intended is (not a brother but) a lover of Canace;

Who fought in liftcs with the brethren two

For Canace, or that he might hire winne.

The brethren two are obviously the two brethern of Canace, who have been mentioned above, Algarsif and Camballo. In mff. Afk. 1, 2, it is-bir brethren tuo, which would put the matter out of all doubt. Camballo could not fight with himfelf. —Again, if this Camballo be fuppofed to be the brother of Canace, and to fight in defence of her with fome two brethren who might be fuitors to her, (according to Spenfer's fic tion) he could not properly be faid to winne his fifter, when he only prevented others from winning her.-The outline therefore of the unfinished part of this Tale, according to my idea, is nearly this; the conclufion of the ftory of the faucon,

By mediation of Camballus,

with the help of the ring, the conquefts of Cambufcan, the winning of Theodora by Algarfif, with the affiftance of the horfe of brass, and the marriage of Canace to fome knight, who was first obliged to fight for her with her two brethren, a method of courtship very confonant to the spirit of ancient chivalry.

. 10984. And ther I left] After this verfe, in mf. C. 1, and others, is the following note; "Here endeth The Squieres Tale "as meche as Chaucer made." The two lines which in the editt. and fome mff. are made to begin a third part are wanting in all the best mff.;

Apollo whirleth up his chare fo hie

Til that the god Mercurius houfe the file.

They certainly have not the leaft appearance of belonging to this place. I fhould guess that they were originally scribbled by some vacant reader in the blank space which is commonly left at the end of this Tale, and afterwards tranfcribed as Chaucer's by fome copift of more diligence than fagacity.

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ThePORTS of GREAT BRITAIN

CHAUCER YOUR

Tolleth your grafoleft that he come down
And battell you, and goth away anon

Swdhart del:

London Printed for John Bell British Library Jan. 311783.

Heath scul

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