Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/177

Rh Every Pillere the Temple to sustene, Was tunne gret of Iryn bryght and schene. There saugh I ferst the derke Imagynynge Of Felonye, and all the Compassynge; The crewel Ire, red as ony glede The Pikepurse and eke the pale Drede; The smylere with the knyf under the Cloke; The scheppen brennyng with the blake smoke. The tresoun, and the murderinge in the bed; The open warre with woundis al bebled. Conteke with blody knyfe, and scharpe Menace; Al full of chyrkyng was that sory place. The Sleer of himself yits saugh I there, His Herte blod hath bathede al his here; The nayl ydreven in the scliode aryght; The colde Deth, with mouth gapynge upryght. In myddis of the Temple sat Myschaunce, With Discomfort and sory Countenaunce. Yit saugh I Wodeness laughing in his rage, Armid Compleynt, Outes, and fers Corage The Careyn in the bosch with Throte yeorve, A thousent sleyu and not of Qualm ystorve. The Tyraunt with the prey be Force yraft, The town destroyed, there was nothing laft. There saw I brent the Schepis Hyposterys; The Hunter stranglede with the wilde Berys; The Sowe fretyn the Child ryght in the Cradil, The Cook yscaldit for al his longe ladil. Nought was forgottin by the informe of Mart; The Carter over redyn with his Cart, Undir the Whel full low he lay adown."

There are some lines in the foregoing description of the very highest order of poetry; while on the other hand there are some which, if perused without that key to the allusions they contain, which it is the object of the present communication to furnish, seemed to Tyrwhitt so unworthy of the rest, that in spite of his prejudice in favour of Chaucer, he felt bound to confess their inferiority, and his own ignorance of their meaning. "The Pikepurse," he observes in one of the notes, "I am sorry to say is Chaucer's own." In another, he goes on to remark, "I know not what to think of the two following lines:

"Was Chaucer serious, or did he mean in this and some similar passages, to ridicule the minute and often incongruous