May 28. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



519 



cer was a young man, as we are informed by Dan 

 John Lydgate in the Prologue to his Translation 

 of Boccaccio's Fall of Princes, where he speaks 

 of his "Maister Chaucer" as the "chefe poete of 

 Bretayne," and tells us that — 

 " In youthe he made a translacion 

 Of a boke which called is Trophe, 

 In Lumbard tongue, as men may rede and se, 

 And in our vulgar, long or that he deyde 

 Gave it the name of Troylous and Cresseyde." 



Chaucer's translation is sometimes very close, 

 sometimes rather free and paraphrastic, as may be 

 :seen in the following examples : 



" But right as floures through the cold of night 

 Yclosed, stoupen in hir stalkes lowe, 

 Redressen hem ayea the Sunne bright. 



And spreaden in hir kinde course by rowe," 

 Troilus (tnd Creseide, b. ii. 



" Come fioretto dal notturno gelo 



Chinato e chiuso, poi che il Sol V imbianca, 

 S'apre, e si leva dritto sopra il stelo." 



Boccaccio, // Filostrato, iii. st, 13. 



■" She was right soche to sene in her visage 

 As is that wight that men on here ybinde." 



Troilus and Creseide, b. iv. 



" Essa era tale, a guardarla nel visa. 

 Qua! donna morta alia fossa portata." 



II Filostrato, v. st. 83. 



*' As fresh as faucon coming out of mew." 



Troilus and Creseide, b. iii. 



" Come falcon ch' uscisse dal cappello." 



IL Filostrato, iv. st. 83. 



" The Song of Troilus," in the first book of 

 Troilus and Creseide, is a paraphrase from one of 

 the Sonnets of Petrarca : 



" jS" Amor nan e, che dunque e quel ch' «' sento ? 

 Ma s' egli i Amor, per Dio che cosa, e quale ? 

 Se huona, ond' i V effelto aspro mortale ? " 



Petrarca, Mime in Vita di Laura, Son. cii. 



" If no love is, O God, what feele I so ? 

 And if love is, what thing and which is he ? 

 If love be good, from whence cometh my wo?" 

 Troilus and Creseide, b. i. 



Chaucer evidently had the following lines of the 

 J*aradiso in view when writing the invocation to 

 ihe Virgin in The Second Nonnes Tale : 



" Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo Figlio, 

 Umile e alta piii che creatura, 

 Termine fisso d' eterno consiglio, 

 Tu se' colei, che 1' umana Natura, 

 Nobilitasti si, che il suo Fattore 

 Non disdegno di farsi sua fattura." 



Paradiso, xxxlii. 1. 

 ■*' Thou maide and mother, doughter of thy Son, 

 Thou well of mercy, sinful soules cure. 

 In whom that God of bountee chees to won ; 

 Thou humble and high over every creature. 

 Thou nohledest so fer forth our nature, 



That no desdaine the maker had of kinde 

 His Son in blood and flesh to clothe and winde." 

 The Second Nonnes Tale, 15, 504. 



Traces of Chaucer's proficiency in Italian are 

 discoverable in almost all his poems ; but I shall 

 conclude with two citations from The Assembly of 

 Foules : 



" The day gan failen, and the darke night, 

 That reveth beastes from hir businesse, 

 Berafte me my booke for lacke of light." 



The Assembly of Foules, 1. 85. 



" Lo giorno se n'andava, e Taer bruno 

 Toglieva gli animai che sono in terra 

 Dalle fatiche loro." ^ Inf. ii. 1. 



" With that my hand in his he toke anon, 

 Of which I comfort caught, and went in fast." 

 The Assembly of Foules, 1. 169. 



" F poiche la sua mano alia mia pose 

 Con lieto volto, ond' io mi confortai." 



Inf. iii. 19. 



By the way, Chaucer commences The Assembly of 

 Foxdes with part of the first aphorism of Hippo- 

 crates, " 'O ;8i'os $paxvs v Si rixvi) fJ-aKprj " (but this, 

 I suppose, had been noticed before) : 



" The lyfe so short, the craft so long to lerne." 



Chaucer was forty years old, or upwards, in 

 1372, when he was sent as an envoy to treat with 

 the duke, citizens, and merchants of Genoa ; and 

 if, as is probable, he had translated Troilus and 

 Creseide out of the " Lombarde tonge" in his 

 youth (according to the testimony of Lydgate), it 

 is not unreasonable to infer that his knowledge of 

 Italian may have led to his being chosen to fill 

 that office. But, however this may be, abundant 

 proof has been adduced that Chaucer was familiarly 

 acquainted with Italian. 



I may briefly remark, in conclusion, that the 

 dates and other circumstances favour the supposed 

 interview at Padua, between Fraunceis Petrark 

 the laureate poet, and Dan Chaucer, 



" Floure of poets throughout all Bretaine." 



J. M. B. 



Tunbridge Wells. 



THE EEBEIiLION OF '43. — UNPUBLISHED LETTER. 



Inverness, 16th Aprile, 1746, 

 Dear Sirs, 

 This day about twelve our army came up with 

 the rebels, about a mile above Lord President's 

 house, in a muir called Drumrossie. They began 

 the engagement first, by firing from a battery of 

 six guns they had erected upon their right ; but 

 our cannon played so hott upon them, that they 

 were obliged soon to fly, by which means we gote 

 possession of their artillery, and so drove them 

 before us for three miles of way. The cavalry 

 gave them closs chase to the town of Inverness : 



