GROUP I.
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HE PERSONES TALE. *212. A shadwe hath the lyknesse of the thing of whichit is shadwe, but shadwe is nat the same thing of which it is shadwe.--B.v. pr. 4. 45, 46. (Doubtful.) *471. Who-so prydeth him in the goodes of fortune, he is a ful greet fool;for som-tyme is a man a greet lord by the morwe, that is a caitif and awrecche er it be night.--B. ii. met. 3. 16-18. (I think this is doubtful,and mark it as such.) 472. Som-tyme the delyces of a man is cause of the grevous maladye thurghwhich he dyeth.--B. iii. pr. 7. 3-5. § 24. It is worth while to see what light is thrown upon the chronology ofthe Canterbury Tales by comparison with Boethius. In the first place, we may remark that, of the Tales mentioned above, thereis nothing to shew that The Seconde Nonnes Tale, the Clerkes Tale, or eventhe Tale of Melibeus, really refer to any passages in Boethius. They may,in fact, have been written _before_ that translation was made. In theinstance of the Second Nonnes Tale, this was certainly the case; and it isnot unlikely that the same is true with respect to the others. But the following Tales (_as revised_) seem to be later than 'Boece,' viz.The Knightes Tale, The Man of Lawes Tale, and The Monkes Tale; whilst it isquite certain that the following Tales were amongst the latest written,viz. the Nonne Preestes Tale, the three tales in Group D (Wyf, Frere,Somnour), the Marchantes Tale, the Squieres Tale, the Frankeleins Tale, theCanouns Yemannes Tale, and the Maunciples Tale; all of which are in theheroic couplet, and later than 1385. The case of the Knightes Tale is especially interesting; for the numerousreferences in it to Boece, and the verbal resemblances between it andTroilus shew that _either_ the original _Palamoun and Arcite_ was writtenjust after those works, _or else_ (which is more likely) it was revised,and became the Knight's Tale, nearly at that time. The connection betweenPalamon and Arcite, Anelida, and the Parlement of Foules, and theintroduction of three stanzas from the Teseide near the end of Troilus,render the former supposition unlikely; whilst at the same time we areconfirmed in the impression that the (revised) Knightes Tale succeededBoece and Troilus at no long interval, and was, in fact, the _first_ of theCanterbury Tales that was written _expressly for the purpose_ of beinginserted in that collection, viz. about 1385-6. § 25. THE MANUSCRIPTS. I have now to explain the sources of the present edition. 1. MS. C. = MS. Camb. Ii. 3. 21. This MS., in the Cambridge UniversityLibrary, is certainly the best; and has therefore been taken as the basisof the text. The English portion of it was printed by Dr. Furnivall for theChaucer Society in 1886; and I have usually relied upon this very usefuledition[40]. It is a fine folio MS., wholly occupied with Boethius (_DeConsolatione Philosophiae_), and comments upon it. It is divided into two distinct parts, which have been bound up together.The latter portion consists of a lengthy commentary upon Boethius, at theend of which we find the title, viz.--'Exposicio preclara quam IohannesTheutonicus prescripsit et finiuit Anno d_omi_ni M^oCCCvj viij ydus Iunii;'i.e. An Excellent Commentary, written by Johannes Teutonicus, and finishedJune 6, 1306. This vast commentary occupies 118 folios, in double columns. The former part of the volume concerns us more nearly. I take it to be, forall practical purposes, _the authentic copy_. For it presents the followingpeculiarities. It contains the whole of the Latin text, as well asChaucer's English version; and it is surprising to find that these arewritten in alternate chapters. Thus the volume begins with the Latin textof Metre 1, at the close of which there follows immediately, on the samepage, Chaucer's translation of Metre 1. Next comes Prose 1 in Latin,followed by Prose 1 in English; and so throughout. Again, if we examine the Latin text, there seems reason to suppose that itfairly represents the very recension which Chaucer used. It abounds withside-notes and glosses, all in Latin; and the glosses correspond to thosein Chaucer's version. Thus, to take an example, the following lines occurnear the end of Bk. iii. met. 11:-- 'Nam cur rogati sponte recte[41] censetisNi mersus alto uiueret fomes corde.' Over _rogati_ is written the gloss _i. interrogato_.
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