i8 Prologue i-ii 



slepen al the night with open ye (lo). Cf. Sozvdone of Baby- 

 lone 41-6 (ed. Hausknecht) : 



Hit bifelle bytwyxte March and Maye, 

 Whan kynde corage begynneth to pryke, 

 Whan flfrith and felde waxen gaye, 

 And every wight desirith his like, 

 Whan lovers slepen with opyn yje, 

 As nightyngalis on grene tre. 



See also 963-978 (Wells, Manual, p. 84). The poem is 'of about 

 1400 or shortly thereafter.' 



So priketh hem nature [better. Nature] in her corages (11). 

 Apparently from Lucretius i. 12-3: 



Aerise primum volucres te, diva, tuumque 

 Significant initum perculsae corda tua vi.*" 



If we assume this to have been Chaucer's original, he can 

 hardly have read percuhcc (see Munro's definitions below), since 

 this would not correspond to any recognized meaning of priken, 

 which, along with such senses as 'spur,' has one that is illus- 

 trated by the following Chaucerian quotations, and which may 

 be represented by 'stab, pierce' (cf. Spenser, F. Q. 4. 10. 45. 7) : 



Rom. Rose 1058-9: 



They prike [MS. prile] and poynten 

 The folk right to the bare boon." 



A. B. C. 163-4: 



Longius his herte p[r]ighte. 

 And made his herte blood to renne adoun. 



Now as the meaning of prick with which we are familiar might 

 stand for Lat. pungere, so this other might well represent Lat. 

 percutere. In Cicero, Pro Milone 26. 65, we are told of a certain 



*" 'First the fowls of the air, O Lady, shew signs of thee and thy entering 

 in, thoroughly smitten in heart by thy power.' 



Munro comments : 'Pcrculscc is literally "knocked down, struck to the 

 ground" ; . . . hence often "stunned, smitten through all the frame" 

 by a strong passion, as here by love; . . . comp. Plaut. trin. 

 242, . . . where pcrcidsus is restored from the Ambrosian, the other 

 mss. having percussus, with which it is so often confused.' 



*' Les gens poignent 

 Par derriere dusques a I'os. 



