244 CHAUCER. 



11 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.&quot; 



Sometimes they give a wrong word identical in meaning : 



&quot; And therwithal he knew [couthe] mo proverbes.&quot; 

 Sometimes they change the true order of the words : 



&quot; Therefore no woman of clerkes is [is of clerkes] praised 

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



&quot; 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.&quot; 



Here the &quot;but&quot; of the third verse belongs at the head of 

 the first, and we get rid of the anomaly of &quot; coveteth &quot; 

 differently accented within two lines. Nearly all the 

 seemingly unrnetrical verses may be righted in this way. 

 I find a good example of this in the last stanza of &quot; Troilus 

 and Creseide.&quot; As it stands, we read 



&quot; Thou one, two, and three, eterne on live 

 That raignast aie in three, two and one.&quot; 



It is plain that we should read &quot; one and two &quot; in the first 

 verse, and &quot; three and two &quot; 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 



&quot; Quell* uno e due e tre che sempre vive, 

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



In the stanza before this we have 



11 To thee and to the philosophical strode, 

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



and further on 



&quot; With all mine herte of mercy ever I pray 

 And to the Lord aright thus I speake and say, * 



