190 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



At the uncouplynge of hys houndys. 

 Withynne a while the herte founde ys 

 I — hallowed, and rechased faste 

 Longe time ; and so at the laste 

 This hart rused, and staale away 

 Fro alle the houndes a prevy way. 

 The houndes hadde overshotte hym alle, 

 And were upon a defaulte yfalle. 

 Therwyth the hunte, wonder faste, 

 Blewe a forleygne at the laste. 



Here we have a description of the chase in the time of 

 Chaucer, up to what we should term the first check, or perhaps, 

 more probably, that the lymiers and tufters, having done their 

 work, the hart managed, by taking soil, so to beat them as to 

 break covert unviewed and unhunted. Whichever the poet may 

 have intended, the fault to which the hounds are brought gives 

 him the opportunity to break off the chase, and commence a 

 fresh adventure, and, as he says in the next page, " I was go 

 ■walked from my tree," it is probable that he was in ambush to 

 take a pot shot at the hart, should he pass within range. How- 

 ever, here we distinctly find the month of May named as one in 

 which the hart was hunted, and that by an emperor with all 

 pomp and ceremony. And I cannot think that such a keen 

 man of the world as Dan Chaucer, and one who so noted men 

 and manners, as he has plainly showed us he did, in the 

 " Canterbury Tales," would have fallen into error in this respect, 

 and have made his emperor hunt a hart out of season. 



Again, if we come dovvn to a later date, we find Ben Jonson, 

 in the " Forest," says of Sir Robert Worth, — 



Or if thou list the night in watch to break, 



A-bed canst hear the loud stag speak, 



In spring oft roused for thy master's sport 



Who for it makes thy house his court ; 



Or with thy friends, the heart of all the year 



Divid'st upon the lesser deer. 



This is a clear intimation that, in the reign of James the 



