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The Collected Works of Geoffrey Chaucer
Table of Contents
THE CANTERBURY TALES And other Poems of GEOFFREY CHAUCER PREFACE.
D. LAING PURVES.
LIFE OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER.
THE CANTERBURY TALES.
THE PROLOGUE.
THE MILLER'S TALE.
THE PROLOGUE.
THE TALE.
THE REEVE'S TALE.
THE PROLOGUE.
THE COOK'S TALE.
THE PROLOGUE.
THE TALE.
THE MAN OF LAW'S TALE.
THE PROLOGUE.
THE WIFE OF BATH'S TALE.
THE FRIAR'S TALE.
THE TALE.
THE SOMPNOUR'S TALE.
THE PROLOGUE.
THE TALE.
THE CLERK'S TALE.
THE PROLOGUE.
THE MERCHANT'S TALE.
THE SQUIRE'S TALE.
THE PROLOGUE.
THE FRANKLIN'S TALE.
THE TALE.
THE DOCTOR'S TALE.
THE TALE.
THE PARDONER'S TALE.
THE PROLOGUE.
THE PROLOGUE
THE PRIORESS'S TALE.
THE PROLOGUE.
CHAUCER'S TALE OF SIR THOPAS.
CHAUCER'S TALE OF MELIBOEUS.
THE PROLOGUE.
THE MONK'S TALE.
THE PROLOGUE
THE NUN'S PRIEST'S TALE.
THE PROLOGUE.
THE PROLOGUE.
THE MANCIPLE'S TALE.
THE PROLOGUE.
THE PARSON'S TALE.
THE PROLOGUE.
THE END OF THE CANTERBURY TALES
THE COURT OF LOVE.
THE CUCKOO AND THE NIGHTINGALE.
THE ASSEMBLY OF FOWLS.
THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF
THE HOUSE OF FAME
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
THE FIRST BOOK.
THE SECOND BOOK.
THE THIRD BOOK.
THE FOURTH BOOK
THE FIFTH BOOK.
CHAUCER'S DREAM.
THE PROLOGUE TO THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
L.
M.
N.
O.
P.
Q.
R.
S.
T.
V.
X.
Z.
A BALLAD SENT TO KING RICHARD.
A BALLAD OF GENTLENESS.
THE COMPLAINT OF CHAUCER TO HIS PURSE.
CHAUCER'S WORDS TO HIS SCRIVENER.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION TO BOETHIUS.
INTRODUCTION TO TROILUS.
ERRATA AND ADDENDA.
BOETHIUS DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIE. BOOK I.
Metre I.
Prose I.
Metre II.
Prose II.
Metre III.
Prose III.
Metre IV.
Prose IV.
Metre V.
Prose V.
Metre VI.
Prose VI.
Metre VII.
BOOK II.
Prose I.
Metre I.
Prose II.
Metre II.
Prose III.
Metre III.
Prose IV.
Metre IV.
Prose V.
Metre V.
Prose VI.
Metre VI.
Prose VII.
Metre VII.
Prose VIII.
Metre VIII.
BOOK III.
Prose I.
Metre I.
Prose II.
Metre II.
Prose III.
Metre III.
Prose IV.
Metre IV.
Prose V.
Metre V.
Prose VI.
Metre VI.
Prose VII.
Metre VII.
Prose VIII.
Metre VIII.
Prose IX.
Metre IX.
Prose X.
Metre X.
Prose XI.
Metre XI.
Prose XII.
Metre XII.
BOOK IV.
Prose I.
Metre I.
Prose II.
Metre II.
Prose III.
Metre III.
Prose IV.
Metre IV.
Prose V.
Metre V.
Prose VI.
Metre VI.
Prose VII.
Metre VII.
BOOK V.
Prose I.
Metre I.
Prose II.
Metre II.
Prose III.
Metre III.
Prose IV.
Metre IV.
Prose V.
Metre V.
Prose VI.
TROILUS AND CRISEYDE.
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
BOOK IV.
BOOK V.
NOTES TO BOETHIUS.
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
BOOK IV.
BOOK V.
NOTES TO TROILUS.
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
BOOK IV.
BOOK V.
ADDITIONAL NOTE TO BOOK III. 674.
Notes.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION TO THE HOUSE OF FAME
INTRODUCTION TO THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN.
INTRODUCTION TO A TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE.
THE HOUS OF FAME.
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN.
I. THE LEGEND OF CLEOPATRA.
II. THE LEGEND OF THISBE OF BABYLON.
III. THE LEGEND OF DIDO, QUEEN OF CARTHAGE.
IV. THE LEGEND OF HYPSIPYLE AND MEDEA.
V. THE LEGEND OF LUCRETIA.
VI. THE LEGEND OF ARIADNE.
VII. THE LEGEND OF PHILOMELA.
VIII. THE LEGEND OF PHYLLIS.
IX. THE LEGEND OF HYPERMNESTRA.
A TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE.
PROLOGUE.
PART I.
PART II.
SUPPLEMENTARY PROPOSITIONS.
COMMENTARY ("FOOTNOTES").
CRITICAL NOTES.
NOTES TO THE HOUSE OF FAME.
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
NOTES TO THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN.
NOTES TO THE PROLOGUE.
I. THE LEGEND OF CLEOPATRA.
II. THE LEGEND OF THISBE.
III. THE LEGEND OF DIDO.
IV. (Part I.) THE LEGEND OF HYPSIPYLE.
Part II. THE LEGEND OF MEDEA.
V. THE LEGEND OF LUCRETIA.
VI. THE LEGEND OF ARIADNE.
VII. THE LEGEND OF PHILOMELA.
VIII. THE LEGEND OF PHYLLIS.
IX. THE LEGEND OF HYPERMNESTRA.
NOTES TO THE TREATISE ON THE ASTROLABE.
SOURCES OF THE CANTERBURY TALES.
FOOTNOTES. THE COMPLETE WORKS
EDITED, FROM NUMEROUS MANUSCRIPTS
Rev. WALTER W. SKEAT, M.A.
THE CANTERBURY TALES: TEXT
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
ERRATA
ADDITIONS
'THE MINOR POEMS' IN VOL. I.
XXIV. WOMANLY NOBLESSE.
XXV. COMPLAINT TO MY MORTAL FOE.
XXVI. COMPLAINT TO MY LODE-STERRE.
NOTES TO THE PRECEDING POEMS.
THE CANTERBURY TALES.
THE KNIGHTES TALE.
THE MILLER'S PROLOGUE.
THE MILLERES TALE.
THE REEVE'S PROLOGUE
THE REVES TALE.
THE COOK'S PROLOGUE.
THE COKES TALE.
INTRODUCTION TO THE MAN OF LAW'S PROLOGUE.
THE TALE OF THE MAN OF LAWE.
THE SHIPMAN'S PROLOGUE.
THE SHIPMANNES TALE.
THE PRIORESS'S PROLOGUE
THE PRIORESSES TALE.
PROLOGUE TO SIR THOPAS.
SIR THOPAS.
PROLOGUE TO MELIBEUS.
THE TALE OF MELIBEUS.
THE MONK'S PROLOGUE.
THE MONKES TALE.
THE PROLOGUE OF THE NONNE PRESTES TALE.
THE NONNE PREESTES TALE.
EPILOGUE TO THE NONNE PREESTES TALE.
THE PHISICIENS TALE.
WORDS OF THE HOST.
THE PROLOGUE OF THE PARDONERS TALE.
THE PARDONERS TALE.
THE WIFE OF BATH'S PROLOGUE.
THE TALE OF THE WYF OF BATHE.
THE FRIAR'S PROLOGUE.
THE FRERES TALE.
THE SOMNOUR'S PROLOGUE
THE SOMNOURS TALE.
THE CLERK'S PROLOGUE.
THE CLERKES TALE.
THE MERCHANT'S PROLOGUE.
THE MARCHANTES TALE.
EPILOGUE TO THE MARCHANTES TALE.
THE SQUIERES TALE.
THE FRANKLIN'S PROLOGUE.
THE FRANKELEYNS TALE.
THE SECONDE NONNES TALE.
THE CANON'S YEOMAN'S PROLOGUE
THE CHANOUNS YEMANNES TALE.
THE MANCIPLE'S PROLOGUE.
THE MAUNCIPLES TALE.
THE PARSON'S PROLOGUE.
THE PERSONES TALE.
THE TALE OF GAMELYN.
NOTES
TROILUS AND CRISEYDE
Contents
BOOK I. Incipit Liber Primus
BOOK II. Incipit Prohemium Secundi Libri.
BOOK III. Incipit prohemium tercii libri.
BOOK IV. Incipit Prohemium Liber Quartus.
BOOK V. Incipit Liber Quintus.
CHAUCER FOR CHILDREN
CONTENTS
FOREWORDS TO THE SECOND EDITION.
FOREWORDS.
CHAUCER THE TALE-TELLER.
CHAUCER’S PILGRIMS.
Chaucer’s Prologue.
The Knight.
The Squire.
The Yeoman.
The Prioress.
The Monk.
The Friar.
The Merchant.
The Clerk.
Serjeant-of-Law.
The Franklin.
The Wife of Bath.
The Parson.
The Ploughman.
The Summoner.
The Pardoner.
The Knight’s Tale.
The Friar’s Tale.
The Clerk’s Tale.
The Franklin’s Tale.
The Pardoner’s Tale.
MINOR POEMS.
NOTES ON THE PICTURES.
PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES CONSULTED IN THIS BOOK.
DRYDEN'S PALAMON AND ARCITE
PREFACE.
INTRODUCTION.
THE BACKGROUND.
LIFE OF DRYDEN.
PALAMON AND ARCITE
DRYDEN'S PLACE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE.
REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
TO HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF ORMOND,
WITH THE FOLLOWING POEM OF PALAMON AND ARCITE.
MADAM,
PALAMON AND ARCITE;
OR, THE KNIGHT'S TALE.
FROM CHAUCER.
BOOK I.
BOOK II.
BOOK III.
THE CANTERBURY TALES And other Poems of GEOFFREY CHAUCER
Edited for Popular Perusal
by
D. Laing Purves
PREFACE.
THE object of this volume is to place before the general reader our two early poetic masterpieces — The Canterbury Tales and The Faerie Queen; to do so in a way that will render their "popular perusal" easy in a time of little leisure and unbounded temptations to intellectual languor; and, on the same conditions, to present a liberal and fairly representative selection from the less important and familiar poems of Chaucer and Spenser. There is, it may be said at the outset, peculiar advantage and propriety in placing the two poets side by side in the manner now attempted for the first time. Although two centuries divide them, yet Spenser is the direct and really the immediate successor to the poetical inheritance of Chaucer. Those two hundred years, eventful as they were, produced no poet at all worthy to take up the mantle that fell from Chaucer's shoulders; and Spenser does not need his affected archaisms, nor his frequent and reverent appeals to "Dan Geffrey," to vindicate for himself a place very close to his great predecessor in the literary history of England. If Chaucer is the "Well of English undefiled," Spenser is the broad and stately river that yet holds the tenure of its very life from the fountain far away in other and ruder scenes.
The Canterbury Tales, so far as they are in verse, have been printed without any abridgement or designed change in the sense. But the two Tales in prose — Chaucer's Tale of Meliboeus, and the Parson's long Sermon on Penitence — have been contracted, so as to exclude thirty pages of unattractive prose, and to admit the same amount of interesting and characteristic poetry. The gaps thus made in the prose Tales, however, are supplied by careful outlines of the omitted matter, so that the reader need be at no loss to comprehend the whole scope and sequence of the original. With The Faerie Queen a bolder course has been pursued. The great obstacle to the popularity of Spencer's splendid work has lain less in its language than in its length. If we add together the three great poems of antiquity — the twenty-four books of the Iliad, the twenty-four books of the Odyssey, and the twelve books of the Aeneid — we get at the dimensions of only one-half of The Faerie Queen. The six books, and the fragment of a seventh, which alone exist of the author's contemplated twelve, number about 35,000 verses; the sixty books of Homer and Virgil number no more than 37,000. The mere bulk of the poem, then, has opposed a formidable barrier to its popularity; to say nothing of the distracting effect produced by the numberless episodes, the tedious narrations, and the constant repetitions, which have largely swelled that bulk. In this volume the poem is compressed into two-thirds of its original space, through the expedient of representing the less interesting and more mechanical passages by a condensed prose outline, in which it has been sought as far as possible to preserve the very words of the poet. While deprecating a too critical judgement on the bare and constrained precis standing in such trying juxtaposition, it is hoped that the labour bestowed in saving the reader the trouble of wading through much that is not essential for the enjoyment of Spencer's marvellous allegory, will not be unappreciated.
As regards the manner in which the text of the two great works, especially of The Canterbury Tales, is presented, the Editor is aware that some whose judgement is weighty will differ from him. This volume has been prepared "for popular perusal;" and its very raison d'etre would have failed, if the ancient orthography had been retained. It has often been affirmed by editors of Chaucer in the old forms of the language, that a little trouble at first would render the antiquated spelling and obsolete inflections a continual source, not of difficulty, but of actual delight, for the reader coming to the study of Chaucer without any preliminary acquaintance with the English of his day — or of his copyists' days. Despite this complacent assurance, the obvious fact is, that Chaucer in the old forms has not become popular, in the true sense of the word; he is not "understanded of the vulgar." In this volume, therefore, the text of Chaucer has been presented in nineteenth-century garb. But there has been not the slightest attempt to "modernise" Chaucer, in the wider meaning of the phrase; to replace his words by words which he did not use; or, following the example of some operators, to translate him into English of the modern spirit as well as the modern forms. So far from that, in every case where the old spelling or form seemed essential to metre, to rhyme, or meaning, no change has been attempted. But, wherever its preservation was not essential, the spelling of the monkish transcribers — for the most ardent purist must now despair of getting at the spelling of Chaucer himself — has been discarded for that of the reader's own day. It is a poor compliment to the Father of English Poetry, to say that by such treatment the bouquet and individuality of his works must be lost. If his masterpiece is valuable for one thing more than any other, it is the vivid distinctness with which English men and women of the fourteenth century are there painted, for the study of all the centuries to follow. But we wantonly balk the artist's own purpose, and discredit his labour, when we keep before his picture the screen of dust and cobwebs which, for the English people in these days, the crude forms of the infant language have practically become. Shakespeare has not suffered by similar changes; Spencer has not suffered; it would be surprising if Chaucer should suffer, when the loss of popular comprehension and favour in his case are necessarily all the greater for his remoteness from our day. In a much smaller degree — since previous labours in the same direction had left far less to do — the same work has been performed for the spelling of Spenser; and the whole endeavour in this department of the Editor's task has been, to present a text plain and easily intelligible to the modern reader, without any injustice to the old poet. It would be presumptuous to believe that in every case both ends have been achieved together; but the laudatores temporis acti - the students who may differ most from the plan pursued in this volume — will best appreciate the difficulty of the enterprise, and most leniently regard any failure in the details of its accomplishment.
With all the works of Chaucer, outside The Canterbury Tales, it would have been absolutely impossible to deal within the scope of this volume. But nearly one hundred pages, have been devoted to his minor poems; and, by dint of careful selection and judicious abridgement — a connecting outline of the story in all such cases being given — the Editor ventures to hope that he has presented fair and acceptable specimens of Chaucer's workmanship in all styles. The preparation of this part of the volume has been a laborious task; no similar attempt on the same scale has been made; and, while here also the truth of the text in matters essential has been in nowise sacrificed to mere ease of perusal, the general reader will find opened up for him a new view of Chaucer and his works. Before a perusal of these hundred pages, will melt away for ever the lingering tradition or prejudice that Chaucer was only, or characteristically, a coarse buffoon, who pandered to a base and licentious appetite by painting and exaggerating the lowest vices of his time. In these selections — made without a thought of taking only what is to the poet's credit from a wide range of poems in which hardly a word is to his discredit — we behold Chaucer as he was; a courtier, a gallant, pure-hearted gentleman, a scholar, a philosopher, a poet of gay and vivid fancy, playing around themes of chivalric convention, of deep human interest, or broad-sighted satire. In The Canterbury Tales, we see, not Chaucer, but Chaucer's times and neighbours; the artist has lost himself in his work. To show him honestly and without disguise, as he lived his own life and sung his own songs at the brilliant Court of Edward III, is to do his memory a moral justice far more material than any wrong that can ever come out of spelling. As to the minor poems of Spenser, which follow The Faerie Queen, the choice has been governed by the desire to give at once the most interesting, and the most characteristic of the poet's several styles; and, save in the case of the Sonnets, the poems so selected are given entire. It is manifest that the endeavours to adapt this volume for popular use, have been already noticed, would imperfectly succeed without the aid of notes and glossary, to explain allusions that have become obsolete, or antiquated words which it was necessary to retain. An endeavour has been made to render each page self- explanatory, by placing on it all the glossarial and illustrative notes required for its elucidation, or — to avoid repetitions that would have occupied space — the references to the spot where information may be found. The great advantage of such a plan to the reader, is the measure of its difficulty for the editor. It permits much more flexibility in the choice of glossarial explanations or equivalents; it saves the distracting and time- consuming reference to the end or the beginning of the book; but, at the same time, it largely enhances the liability to error. The Editor is conscious that in the 12,000 or 13,000 notes, as well as in the innumerable minute points of spelling, accentuation, and rhythm, he must now and again be found tripping; he can only ask any reader who may detect all that he could himself point out as being amiss, to set off against inevitable mistakes and misjudgements, the conscientious labour bestowed on the book, and the broad consideration of its fitness for the object contemplated.
From books the Editor has derived valuable help; as from Mr Cowden Clarke's revised modern text of The Canterbury Tales, published in Mr Nimmo's Library Edition of the English Poets; from Mr Wright's scholarly edition of the same work; from the indispensable Tyrwhitt; from Mr Bell's edition of Chaucer's Poem; from Professor Craik's "Spenser and his Poetry," published twenty-five years ago by Charles Knight; and from many others. In the abridgement of the Faerie Queen, the plan may at first sight seem to be modelled on the lines of Mr Craik's painstaking condensation; but the coincidences are either inevitable or involuntary. Many of the notes, especially of those explaining classical references and those attached to the minor poems of Chaucer, have been prepared specially for this edition. The Editor leaves his task with the hope that his attempt to remove artificial obstacles to the popularity of England's earliest poets, will not altogether miscarry.
D. LAING PURVES.
LIFE OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER.
NOT in point of genius only, but even in point of time, Chaucer may claim the proud designation of "first" English poet. He wrote "The Court of Love" in 1345, and "The Romaunt of the Rose," if not also "Troilus and Cressida," probably within the next decade: the dates usually assigned to the poems of Laurence Minot extend from 1335 to 1355, while "The Vision of Piers Plowman" mentions events that occurred in 1360 and 1362 — before which date Chaucer had certainly written "The Assembly of Fowls" and his "Dream." But, though they were his contemporaries, neither Minot nor Langland (if Langland was the author of the Vision) at all approached Chaucer in the finish, the force, or the universal interest of their works and the poems of earlier writer; as Layamon and the author of the "Ormulum," are less English than Anglo-Saxon or Anglo- Norman. Those poems reflected the perplexed struggle for supremacy between the two grand elements of our language, which marked the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; a struggle intimately associated with the political relations between the conquering Normans and the subjugated Anglo-Saxons. Chaucer found two branches of the language; that spoken by the people, Teutonic in its genius and its forms; that spoken by the learned and the noble, based on the French Yet each branch had begun to borrow of the other — just as nobles and people had been taught to recognise that each needed the other in the wars and the social tasks of the time; and Chaucer, a scholar, a courtier, a man conversant with all orders of society, but accustomed to speak, think, and write in the words of the highest, by his comprehensive genius cast into the simmering mould a magical amalgamant which made the two half-hostile elements unite and interpenetrate each other. Before Chaucer wrote, there were two tongues in England, keeping alive the feuds and resentments of cruel centuries; when he laid down his pen, there was practically but one speech — there was, and ever since has been, but one people.
