Prologue 492-8, S-7-8 29 



and J)an is it g"ode sone for to scarifie J)e place ysmyten, and 

 drawe J)e blode J^ennez, and after put on enplastrez repressyng 

 akyng and bolnyng, ffor ofttymez ]3e mormale comejD of sich 

 t>ings.' 



IV. PROLOGUE 493-8, 527-8 



We are told of Chaucer's Parson that he would 



visite 

 The ferreste in his parisshe, muche and lyte, 

 Upon his feet, and in his hand a staf. 

 This noble ensample to his sheep he yaf, 

 That first he wroghte, and afterward he taughte — 

 Out of the gospel he tho wordes caughte. . . . 

 But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve, 

 He taughte, and first he folwed it himselve. 



In the Oxford Chaucer, published in 1894, Skeat has two notes 

 on the sources of these lines : '498. The allusion is to Matt. v. 

 19, as shewn by a parallel passage in P. Plowman, C. xvi. 

 127. . . . 528. Cf. Acts, i. I ; Gower, Conf. Amantis, ii. 188.' 



Alore than a dozen years earlier, Mayor and Lumby, in their 

 edition of Books 3 and 4 of Bede's Ecclesiastical History, had 

 brought the above lines into relation with Bede's account of 

 Aidan, in their notes on Eccl. Hist. 3. 5. Thus they quote: 'Non 

 aliter cjuam vivebat cum suis ipse docebat. . . . Discurrere 

 per cuncta et urbana et rustica loca non equorum dorso sed 

 pedum incessu vectus .... solebat' ; and to this they add 

 a number of parallels. Still other parallels may be found in 

 Plummer's edition (1896) of Bede, Opera Historica i. xxxvi. 

 To these we may add a line from the epitaph on Gregory the 

 Great {Eccl. Hist. 2. i) : 



Implebatque actu quicquid sermone docebat. 



'In his hand a staf scarcely demands a literary source; if it 

 did, the Bible would readily suggest the form: Gen. 33. 18; 

 Exod. 12. II ; I Sam. 17. 40; 2 Kings 4. 29; Zech. 3. 4. 



