For my twenty thousand crowns I trust
To every Breton maid."

CHORUS-Spin, spin, etc.

And he is not deceived, for we

Will never let him pine

In stranger towers beyond the sea,

Like a jewel in the mine.

No work but this shall be begun,-
We will not rest or dream,

Till twenty thousand crowns are spun

Du Guesclin to redeem.

CHORUS-Spin, spin, etc.

The bride shall grudge the marriage morn,

And feel her joy a crime;

The mother shall wean her eldest-born

A month before its time;

No festal day shall idle by,

No hour uncounted stand,

The grandame in her bed shall die
With the spindle in her hand.

CHORUS.

Spin, spin, women of Brittany,

Nor let your litany

Come to an end,

Before you have prayed

The Virgin to aid

Bertrand du Guesclin, our hero and friend.

LORD HOUGHTON.

THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS.

1386.

Geoffrey Chaucer, born in 1328, died in 1400, wrote in middle life a collection of tales in verse, which he puts into the mouths of a band of pilgrims to the shrine of Thomas-à-Becket, at Canterbury. Each of these pilgrims is so closely described as to form a valuable portrait of the class to which he belonged. Large extracts are here given, with the spelling modernized, where it is possible. Much is left out, but what is easy to understand is given. It should be noted that the infinitives and third persons plural of verbs then finished with en, past participles often began with y, and plurals, when convenient, might be formed with es. Accented è should be sounded.

INTRODUCTION.

When that April with his showers sweet
The drought of March hath pierced to the root,
And bathed every vein in such liquor

Of which virtue engendered is the flower;
When Zephyrus1 eke2 with his sweet breath
Inspired hath in every holt3 and heath
The tender crops, and the young sun
Hath in the Ram* his half-course run,
And small fowls maken melody
That sleepen all night with open eye ;
So pricketh them Nature in their courages,
That longen folk to go on pilgrimages.

1 The west wind.

2 Also.

8 Wood.

4 The Sun is half way across the zodiacal constellation of Aries,

the ram.

The word fowls is used for all kinds of birds, as in Genesis i.

And specially from every shire's end
Of England to Canterbury they wend,
The holy, blissful martyr for to seek,

That them hath holpen when that they were sick,1
Befell that in that season on a day

At Southwark, at the Tabard, as I lay,
Ready to wenden3 on my pilgrimage
To Canterbury with devout courage,
At night was come into that hostelry
Well nine and twenty in a company,
Of sundry folke, by adventure yfalle1
That toward Canterbury woulden ride ;
The chambers and the stables weren wide,
And well we weren cased at best:

And shortly when the sun was gone to rest
So had I spoken with them every one
That I was of their fellowship anon,"
And made forward early for to rise
To take our way there as I, you, devise ;

6

But natheless,' while I have time and space,
Or that I further in this tale pace,
Methinketh it accordant to reason
To tellen you all the condition

Of each of them, so as it seemed me,
And which they weren and of what degree,
And eke in what array that they were in,
And at a knight then will I first begin.

The intercession of St. Thomas was supposed to have helped them.

2 A noted inn at Southwark,

5 Now.

3 Go.

4 By chance it happened.

7 Nevertheless. 8 Ere or before.

THE KNIGHT.

A Knight there was, and that a worthy man,
That from the time that he first began
To riden out, he loved chivalry,

Truth and honour, freedom and courtesy.
Full worthy was he in his Lordès war,
And thereto had he ridden! no man far1
As well in Christendom as in Heatheness2
And ever honoured for his worthiness;
At Alisandre3 he was when it was won,
Full oft he had the board' begun,
Aboven all nations in Pruce ;5

In Lettow" had he reised' and in Ruce
No Christian man so oft of his degree
At many a noble army had he be;
At mortal battles had he been fifteen,
And foughten for our faith at Tramisene,"
And evermore he had a sovereign praise,

And though that he was worthy, he was wise,
And of his port as meek as is a maid;

1 Further.

2 Heathen lands.

3 Alexandria was conquered in 1365 by the King of Cyprus, as an attempt at a crusade.

+ The table. He had been placed at the head of the table as a mark of esteem.

Prussia, where there was a continued war on the Lithuanian border with the heathen Slavonian.

6 Lithuania.

7 Travelled.

• Trebizond, a port on the Black Sea.

8 Russia.

He never yet no villainy ne1 said

In all his life unto no manner wight,2

He was a very perfect gentle knight;
But for to letten you of his array,

His horse was good, but he ne was not gay;
Of fustian he weared a gipon3

All besmotred' with his habergeon,"

For he was lately come from his voyage
And went for to don his pilgrimage.'

THE SQUIRE.

With him was his son, a young squire,

A lover, and a lusty batchelor,

8

Whose locks crull' as they were laid in press,
Of twenty years of age he was, I guess,
And of his stature he was of even length,
And wonderly deliver1 and giant of strength,
And he had some time been in chivalry
In Flanders, in Artois, and in Picardy,
And borne him well, as of so little space
In hope to standen in his lady's grace.

1 Not.

3 A loose coat over the armour.

5 Coat of mail.

2 No sort of person.

+ Stained (by the rust of). 6 Do on, proceed with.

7 The Knight's beautiful character is that of the true Englishman in

every age.

8 A bachelor properly meant one at the beginning of his training. In French, bas chevalier, lower knight.

9 Curled.

10 Full and well made.