Was complet, and y-passed were also, Syn March bygan, tway monthes and dayes tuo, His seven wyves walkyng by his syde, Herknith these blisful briddes how thay synge, 16680 But sodeinly him fel a sorwful caas; 16690 For ever the latter end of joye is wo. 16676-Syn March bygan, tway monthes and dayes tuo. This is the reading of the Harleian MS., and I see no reason to change it. Tyrwhitt reads Sithen March ended, thritty dayes and two, and observes, “I have ventured to depart from the MSS. and Edit. in this passage. They all read began instead of ended. At the same time MS. c. 1, has this note in the margin, 'i. 2o die Maii,' which plainly supposes that the thirty-two days are to be reckoned from the end of March. As the vernal equinox (according to our author's hypothesis, Discourse, &c., p. 163) happened on the 12th of March, the place of the sun (as described in ver. 15200, 1.) in 22o of Taurus agrees very nearly with his true place on the second of May, the fifty-third day incl. from the equinox. MS. C. reads thus,— "Syn March began tway monthes and dayes two; which brings us to the same day, but, I think, by a less probable correction of the faulty copies." 16685-Twenty degrees "The reading of the greatest part of the MSS. is fourty degrees. But this is evidently wrong; for Chaucer is speaking of the altitude of the sun at, or about, prime, i.e., six o'clock, A.M. See ver. 15203. When the sun is in 22o of Taurus, he is 21o high about three-quarters after six, A.M."-Tyrwhitt. God wot that worldly joye is soone ago; Now every wys man let him herkne me: The same nighte thurgh the hegge brast Fals dissimulour, o Greke Sinon, That broughtest Troye al utrely to sorwe! O Chauntecler, accursed be the morwe, That thou into the yerd flough fro the bemys! Thow were ful wel warned be thy dremys, 16700 16710 16712-lurckyng. The Lansd. MS. reads roukeing, and Tyrwhitt has rucking. That thilke day was perilous to the. But what that God forwot most needes be, To do that same thing, or to do it nought, But by necessité condicionel. I wol not have to do of such matiere; My tale is of a cok, as ye schal hiere, Ther as he was ful mery, and wel at ease. 16720 16730 16740 Red auctours, wher thay trete of such matiere, Faire in the sond, to bathe hir merily, How that thay syngen wel and merily. He was war of this fox that lay ful lowe. No thing ne list him thanne for to crowe, 16750 16760 16770 16757-Phisiologus. This was the title given to a popular metrical Latin treatise on the natures of animals, in the middle ages, and is frequently quoted by the early writers when alluding to subjects of natural history. The chapter de Sirenis begins thus, "Sirenæ sunt monstra maris resonantia magnis 16770-why wol ye goon? Tyrwhitt follows the reading of some of the other MSS., and prints it, what wol ye don? Certes, I were worse than eny feend, I am nought come your counsail to espye. 16780 And for to make his vois the more strong, 16790 He moste wynke, so lowde he wolde crien, And stonden on his typtoon therwithal, And streche forth his necke long and smal. That ther nas no man in no regioun That him in song or wisdom mighte passe. I have wel rad in daun Burnel thasse 16775. Two lines omitted here by accident in the Harl. MS. are supplied from the Lansd. MS. 16798-in daun Burnel. The reference, of course, is to the celebrated satirical poem of Nigellus Wireker, entitled, Burnellus. It was one of the most popular Latin poems of the middle ages. |