tife or reden it, that if ther be any thing in it that liketh hem that therof they thanken our Lord Jefu Crist, any fatisfactory account of it.---I must first take notice that this paffage in mf. Afk. 1, is introduced by these words

Here taketh the maker bis leve

and is concluded by thefe

Here endeth The Perfonnys Tale.

In mf. Afk. 2, there is a fimilar introduction and conclufion in Latin: at the beginning-" Hic capit auctor licentiam"-and at the end---" Explicit narratio Rectoris, et ultima inter nar"rationes hujus libri de quibus compofuit Chaucer, cujus a"nime propicietur Deus. Amen."---These two mff, therefore, may be confidered as agreeing in fubitance with thofe mff. mentioned in the Discourse, &c. § 42, in which this passage makes part of The Perfones Tale. One of them is defcribed by Hearne in his letter to Bagford, App. to R. G. p. 661, 2.----In ed. Ca. 2, as quoted by Ames, p. 56, it is clearly separated from The Perfones Tale, and entitled---The Prayer.---In the mff. in which it is alfo feparated from The Perfones Tale I do not remember to have seen it diftinguished by any title either of Prayer, or Revocation, or Retractation, as it is called in the Preface to ed. Urr. If we believe what is faid in p. 225, 1. 4, Chaucer had written a diftin& piece entitled his Retractions, in which he had revoked his blameable compofitions.-The juft inference from thefe variations in the mfl. is perhaps, that none of them are to be at all relied on, that different copiits have given this paffage the title that pleased them best, and have attributed it to the Perfone or to Chaucer, as the matter feemed to them to be moft fuitable to the one or the other.Mr. Hearne, whose greateft weakness was not his incredulity, has declared his fufpicion "that the Revocation (meaning this "whole passage) is not genuine, but that it was made by the "monks." [App. to R. G. p. 603.] I cannot go quite fo far: I think if the monks had fet about making a Revocation for Chaucer, to be annexed to The Canterbury Tales, they would have made one more in form. The fame objection lies to the fuppofal that it was made by himself.The moft probable hypothetis which has occurred to me for the folution of thefe difficulties is to fuppofe that the beginning of this paffage (except the words or redenit, above, 1. 1,) and the end make together the

of whom procedeth all witte and all godeneffe; and if ther be any thing that displeseth hem, I preye hem alfo that they arrette it to the defaute of myn unkonning, and not to my wille, that wold fayn have seyde better if I hadde had konning; for oure boke feyth, All that is writen is writen for oure doctrine, and that is myn entente: wherfore I befeke you mekely, for genuine conclufion of The Perfones Tale, and that the middle part, which I have enclofed between hooks, is an interpolation.

It must be allowed, I think, (as I have obferved before in the Difcourfe, &c. § 42,] that the appellation of litel tretife fuits better with The Perfones Tale taken fingly than with the whole work. The doubt expreffed above, 1. 2, "if there be any "thing that difplefeth," &c. is very agreeable to the manner in which the Perfone fpeaks in his Prologue, ver. 17 366. [See the note on p. 208.] 'The mention of" verray penance, con"feffion, and fatisfaction,” in p. 227, l. 11, feems to refer pointedly to the fubject of the speaker's preceding difcourfe; and the title given to Chrift, in p. 228,1.1, Prefte of alle preftes, seems peculiarly proper in the mouth of a prieft.---So much for those parts which may be fuppofed to have originally belonged to the Perfone. With respect to the middle part, I think it not improbable that Chaucer might be perfuaded, by the religious who attended him in his laft illness to revoke or retract certain of his Works, or at least that they might give out that he had made fuch retractions as they thought proper. In either cafe it is poflible that the fame zeal might think it expedient to join the fubftance of these retractions to The Canterbury Tales, the antidote to the poison, and might accordingly procure the prefent interpolation to be made in the Epilogue to The Perfones Tale, taking care at the fame time, by the infertion of the words or reden it, in p. 223, l. 1, to convert that Epilogue from an addrefs of the Perfone to his bearers into an addrefs of Chaucer to his readers.But leaving these very uncertain fpeculations I will fay a few words upon those enditinges of worldly vanitees which are here fuppofed to have fitten heavy on our Author's confcience.

the mercie of God, that ye preye for me that Crist have mercie of me and foryeve me my giltes, [and namely of myn Translations and enditinges of worldly vanitees, the which I revoke in my Retractions; as The Boke of Troilus *, The Boke alfo of Fame †, The Boke of The Five-and-twenty Ladies ‡, The Boke of The

The Boke of Troilus] It has been said in the Fay, c.n.62, that the Troilus is borrowed from the Filoftrato of Boccace. This is evident not only from the fable and characters, which are the fame in both poems, but also from a number of passages in the English which are literally tranflated from the Italian : at the fame time there are feveral long paffages and even epifodes in the Troilus of which there are no traces in the Filoftrato; of these therefore it may be doubted whether Chaucer has added them out of his own invention, or taken them either from fome completer copy of Boccace's poem than what we have in print, or from fome copy interpolated by another hand. He speaks of himself as a translator out of Latin, b. ii. 14, and in two paffages he quotes his author by the name of Lollius, b. i. 394---421, and b. v. 1652. The latter paffage is in the Filoftrato, but the former (in which the 102d fonnet of Petrarch is introduced) is not. What he fays of having translated out of Latin need not make any difficulty, as the Italian language was commonly called Latino volgare; [fee the quota tion from the Thefeida, Difcourfe, c. n. 9,] and Lydgate [Prol. to Boccace] exprefsly tells us that Chaucer tranflatedA boke which called is Trophe,

In Lombard tonge, as men may rede and fee.

How Boccace should have acquired the name of Lollius, and the Filoftrato the title of Trophe, are points which I confefs myself unable to explain.

+ The Boke of Fame] Chaucer mentions this among his Works in The Leg. of G. W. ver. 417. He wrote it while he was Comptroller of the Cuftom of Wools, &c. [fee b. ii. ver. 144--8,] and confequently after the year 1374. See App. to Pref. C. vol. I.

The Boke of The Five-and-twenty Ladies] This is the reading of all the mff.; if it be genuine it affords a ftrong proof that this enumeration of Chaucer's Works was not drawn up by himself,

Ducheffe*, The Boke of Seint Valentines Day † of the Parlement of Briddes, The Tales of Canterbury ‡, thilke that founen unto finne, The Bokeof The Leon ||, as there is no ground for believing that The Legende of Good Women ever contained, or was intended to contain, the hiftories of five-and-twenty ladies. See the note on ver. 4481. It is poflible however that xxv may have been put by mistake for xix.

The Boke of The Ducheffe] See the note on ver. 4467. One might have imagined that this poem, written upon a particular occafion, was in all probability an original composition; but upon comparing the portrait of a beautiful woman, which M. de la Ravaliere [Poef. du R. de N. Gloff. v. Belee] has cited from mf. Du Roi, N° 7612, with Chaucer's defcription of his heroine, [ver. 817, et feq.] I find that feveral lines in the latter are literally tranflated from the former; I thould not therefore be furprised if upon a further examination of that mf. it thould appear that our Author, according to his ufual practice, had borrowed a confiderable part of his work from fome French poet.

The Boke of Seint Valentines Day, c.] In the editt. The Affemblee of Foules. Chaucer himself, in The Leg. of G. W. ver. 419, calls it The Parlement of Foules. See the note on ver. 1920, and App. to Pref. C. note (e.) vol. I.

The Tales of Canterbury, &c.] If we fuppofe that this pasfage was written by Chaucer himself, to make part of the conclufion of his Canterbury Tales, it must appear rather extraordinary that he thould mention those Tales in this general manner, and in the midst of his other Works; it would have been more natural to have placed them either at the beginning or at the end of his catalogue.

The Boks of The Leon] This book is'alfo afcribed to Chaucer by Lydgate, [Prol. to Boccace,] but no mf. of it has hitherto been discovered. It may poffibly have been a translation of Le dit du Lion, a poem of Guillaume de Machaut, compofed in the year 1342. Acad. des Infc. t. xx. p. 379, 408. Some lines from this poem, as I apprehend, are quoted in the Glossary to Poef. du Roi de N. v. Arroufers Bacheler.-Whether we fuppofe this lift of Chaucer's exceptionable Works to have been

and many an other Bokes, if they were in my remembraunce, and many a Song and many a lecherous Lay, Crift of his grete mercie foryeve me the finne! but of The tranflation of Boes of Confolation, and other Bokes of Legendes of Seints, and of Omelies, and Moralite, and Devotion, that thanke I oure Lord Jefu Crift and his blisful mother, and alle the feintes in heven, befeking hem that they fro hensforth unto my lyves ende fende me grace to bewaile my giltes, and to ftodien to the favation of my foule,] and graunte me grace, of verray penance, confeffion and fatisfaction to don in this present lif, thorgh the benigne grace of him drawn up by himself or by any other person, it is unaccountable that his translation of the kom. de la Rofe thould be omitted. If he tranflated the whole of that very extraordinary compofition (as is moft probable) he could scarce avoid being guilty of a much greater licentioufnefs in fentiment as well as diction than we find in any of his other writings. His tranflation, as we have it, breaks off at ver. 5370 of the original, [ver. 5810, ed, Urr.] and beginning again at ver. 11253, ends imperfect at ver. 13105. In the latter part we have aftrong proofofthe negligence of the first editor, who did not perceive that two leaves in his mf, were mifplaced. The paffage from ver. 701.3 to ver, 7062 incl. and the paflage from ver. 7257 to ver. 7304 incl, should be inferted after ver. 7160. The later editors have all co pied this, as well as many other blunders of lefs confequence, which they muft have discovered if they had confulted the French original.—A bacheler who dances with Franchise is faid to refemble

R. R. ver. 1250.

The Lordes fonne of Wyndefore. This feems to be a compliment to the young princes in gene ral, rather than to any particular fon of Edward III. who is cer tainly meant by the Lord of Windfor. In the French it is Emply-fembloit efire filz de Roy.