CHAUCER. 199 



himself. Surely his ear could never have endured the sing-song 

 of such verses as 



I couth* teUV for a gown&amp;lt;?-cloth, 



or 



Than ye to me schuld brek? youre trouth*. 



Chaucer s measure is so uniform (making due allowances) that 

 words should be transposed or even omitted where the verse 

 manifestly demands it, and with copyists so long and dull of 

 ear this is often the case. Sometimes they leave out a needful 

 word : 



But er [the] thunder stynte, there cometh rain, 

 When [that] we ben yflattered and ypraised, 

 Tak [ye] him for the greatest gentleman. 



Sometimes they thrust in a word or words that hobble the verse : 



She trowed he were yfel in [some] maladie, 

 Ye faren like a man [that] had lost his wit, 

 Then have I got of you the maystrie, quod she, 

 (Then have I got the maystery, quod she,) 

 And quod the juge [also] thou must lose thy head. 



Sometimes they give a wrong word identical in meaning: 



And therwithal he knew [couthe] mo proverbes. 



Sometimes they change the true order of the words : 



Therefore no woman of clerkes is [is of clerkes] praised 



His felaw lo, here he stont [stont he] hool on live. 



He that coveteth is a pore wight 



For he wold have that is not in his might ; 



But he that nought hath ne coveteth nought to have. 



Here the but of the third verse belongs at the head of the 

 first, and we get rid of the anomaly of coveteth differently 

 accented within two lines. Nearly all the seemingly unmetrical 

 verses may be righted in this way. I find a good example of 

 this in the last stanza of Troilus and Creseide. As it stands, 

 we read, 



Thou one, two, and three, eterne on live 

 That raignast aie in three, two and one. 



It is plain that we should read one and two in the first verse, 

 and three and two in the second. Remembering, then, that 

 Chaucer was here translating Dante, I turned (after making the 

 correction) to the original, and found as I expected 



guell uno e due e tre che sempre vive, 

 regna sempre in tre e due ed uno. (Par. xiv. 28, 29.) 



In the stanza before this we have, 



To thee and to the philosophic^// strode, 



To vouchsafe [vouchesafe] there need is, to correct ; 



and further on, 



With all mine herte of mercy ever I pray 

 And to the Lord aright thus I speake and say, 



