424 
given as a tranflatiin: of a paffage in the 
Mulieres Suppiices of Euripides; but 
quere if originally in Duport, or an earlier 
tranflation ot the Greek author? No one 
3s fo competent to this information as the 
accomplifhed icholar already mentioned in 
this letter. 
I wifh in my turn, Mr. Editor, to afk, 
where did the line ‘* Ad vifcum Druide, 
Druide cantare folebant,’ fir appear? 
It has been often, but erroneoufly, aicribed 
to Ovid. Your’s, &c. 
May 14, 1803. Si : D>, 
' : > ee . i 
For the Mouihly Magazine. 
CANTABRIGIANA. 
LV.—CHAUCER. 
RERE is little certainty as to the 
family and rank of Chaucer; and 
many other particulars relative to him are 
equally unaicertained. Itis, however, 
agreed, that he is to be reverenced hy all 
ages, as a profound scholar, no lefs than 
admired as an exquifite poet : 
Virtue flourifheth in Chaucer ftill, 
Tho’ Death of hym hath wrought his will. 
It is, alfo, generally admitted, that Cam- 
bridge had a fhare in his education. It 
cannot, therefore, be ill-placed to fay 
fomething here concerning the Father of 
Englith Poetry. : 
. The following obfervations apply not to 
his life, but to his writimgs ; and I follow 
the order, though not the language 
of a manu(cript-letter on the Life and 
Writings of Chaucer in the public library. 
Some poetical pieces of Geoffrey Chau- 
eer are among the firft edited works, aiter 
printing was known in this country. 
William Caxton was the collector as well 
as the printer of them. It feems, however, 
that he did not fend them forth in one col- 
lection. For,,though Stow obferves that 
Caxton was the firft who publithed the 
works of Chaucer, yet this obfervation 
-refpects, probably, fome poems, printed 
feparately,"net complete colleétions of his 
works, {uch as were made by fubfequent 
editors. 
The Canterbury Tales were firft made 
public by Richard Pynfon, from a copy 
prepared for the prefs by William Caxton : 
nor can it be colle€ted from aay ching faid 
by Pynfon, that the Canterbury Tales 
had-ever been ‘printed before. Caxton 
and Pynion fucceeding fo well, and giving 
fo much farisfa€tion, others were ep- 
couraged to proceed further, and feveral 
improved ~editions of Chaucer’s works 
Caniabrigiana. 
followed. 
{June 1 2 
William Borevil, alias Thinnes 
Efg. fucceeded Caxton and Pynfon. He 
procured many old copies of Chaucer’s 
works, correéted a great variety of errors, 
printed fome things not publifhed before, 
and fuperadded to the whole notes and 
expofitions. This edition was prefented 
to the public in 1540, in folio, by Thomas 
Bertholet, and dedicated to Henry VIII. 
In 1560, Stow, the antiquary, collated this 
edition with various MSS. fome of which 
had been colleéted by James Sherley, Efq. 
who died inthe year 1540. “Severalthings 
of Chaucer’s not publifhed before were 
here added by Stow, and two years after 
he joined to Chaucer’s Poems fome pieces 
of Lydgate’s. He then drew up an hifs 
torical Account of the Life, Preferment, 
Family, and Death of Chaucer, which he 
formed principally out of the records in 
the Tower. From thefe documents was 
compofed the Life of Chaucer, which ac 
companies the edition of his works, by 
Mr. Speght. Some time after this, 
Speght’s edition was corrected in numes 
rous places, by Frantis Thinne, Lancaf- 
ter Herald at Arms, a gentleman well 
read in Englifh antiquities, and defcended 
from the William ‘[hinne already men- 
tioned. Various notes were added to this 
cotreGted copy, and the whole was com- 
municated to Mr. Speght. From: thefe 
was formed the folio edition of Chaucer’s 
Works of 1602, the completelt yet mades 
that is, in May 28, 1709. ' 
The original letter* was written by 
Thomas Hearne, the learned Oxford 
antiquary, and juftly celebrated too, not- 
withftanding he was befmeared by Swift in 
the following wicked, witty lines: 
QOueth Time, Pox on you, Thomas Hearne ! 
“Whatever I forget, you learn: ~ 
Damme! quoth Thomas in a pet; 
All that I learn, you foon forget. 
Chaucer himlelf informs us, in his 
CourTe of Love, that he was a fcholar 
ot Cambridge; “Ppsy pear ee 
My name alas! my harte why 
Philogenet I cald am ferre and nere 
Of Cabridge, Clerke. Ae 
S:veral of his Poems, too, were written 
at Cambridge : add to this, that the learned 
editor of the Canterbury Tales, Mr. 
Tyrwhitt, brother of the gentleman of 
* Since writing the above article I find 
‘that Hearne’s letter has been printed. It 
makes the fourth number of the Appendix to 
Hearne’s edition of Robert of Gloucetter’s 
Chronicle, Oxford, 1724. ; 
that 
