Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/560

 464 ` NOTES AND QUERIES. rses. VI- mc. 15,1900- as to the sense of this word in the mind of any one who will merely take the trouble of reading my note on the passage, and of look- ing up the ten passages w ere the word occurs, and the two passages where the sb. recchelessnesse occurs ; for the references, see my ‘ Glossarial Index.’ The case stands precisely thus. The Elles- mere and Hengwrt MSS. give this reading, and are suplported by the three next best MSS., whic merely differ by spelling the word with one c. If this were all, there would be no diiiiculty whatever, beyond that which will always be raised by such as always desire to emend everythin _ The line is perfectly intelligible ° for reccielees is merely a variant of the modern English reckless, and means heedless, or regardless of duty. The general sense is quite clear, viz.:- “He paid no regard to the written statement which says that hunters are not holy men ; nor yet to that other written statement which says that a negligent monk is like a waterless fish; by which expression (of ne ligent monk) I mean a monk who is not resident inliis cloister or monastery.” Chaucer is, in fact, referring to two distinct assertions which he had found in his books. The former, as I show, is to be found in the legend of Nimrod, and the latter appears in many forms, several of which I quote. But there is somewhat more to be said. For the Harleian MS. has the reading cloisterlees, and scholars are at lasta reed as to what this MS. really is. It is a car§ess copy, with many absurd c erical errors, but must never be neglected ; for it can be proved (notabl as to its arrangement of the stories in the ‘ ltllonkes Tale ’) that the scribe who wrote it out had access to an “inspired ” source. It is some- times obviously right when all the rest are corru t. To take a simple case, it is the only MS. Iamon st the older ones) that has the correct reading half-e (dissyllabic) in 1.8 of the ‘Prologue ; the rest ave the mono- iyllabic' half, against grammar and scansion. ow when we know that Chaucer was referring to texts which contain the phrase “sine monasterio,” and to the queer passage in which Jean de Meun rimes cloistre with ofistre, we can fairly draw the following deduc- tion, viz., that Chaucer came at last to perceive that the word 'recchelees was, after all, rather vague, and that it would have been better if he had said cloisterlees at once, the sense of which is past all doubt. And we hence learn that 'recchelees stood in the original text, and that cloisterlees is either the author’s own variant reading, or is his gloss upon it. It now becomes very diflicult to know how to print it. I have put cloister- lees in the text and recclwlees in the foot-note, and Mr. Pollard has done the opposite, with the remark (with which I agree) t mat neither reading is satisfactory, owing, as is obvious enough, to the fact that the author did noi.; after all, succeed in finding the precise wo which he wanted. Both methods of rinting are therefore justifiable, thougeh tlhe best method would be to print 'rece lees in the text, and the word clozsterlees also in the text, just above it, in smaller type. It follows that all emendation is wholly out of lace. We have no business at all to pretend) that we know so much more about it than the author did himself. Emendations of Shakespeare are bad enough, but are `ustiIi- able on the ground that the text is really bad and unauthorized in many places; but the text of Chaucer is, generally, so excellent that there is but little room for a similar conten- tion. At any rate, we have a right to expect that, before emendations are proposed, the roposer of them should be at the pains to learn the grammar and the Pronunciation of Middle English. What wou d be said of any one who proposed to amend Dante before he had learnt how to pronounce Italian? WALTER W. Sxlwr. SHAKESPEARE’S BOOKS. (Continued from p. %4.) SCANDERBEG, referring to the combat between Paul Manessey and Caragusa (p. 122), says :- “If the glorious actes and deedes of armes, do anything move the courages of men who are valiant and hardie: I do thinke (my good soldiers) that every one of you is sufficiently animated by this excelent testimonie of vertue in a particular private person : and the rather for that it seemeth the heavens could not have afforded you a more notable example before your eies, nor have given you a better occasion to spurre and to provoke you, then this happie beginnifriig and these first rutes of victorie, which is su cient both to en- courage gou to a more brave and setled resolution, and to a ate and dismay the courage of our enemies. Go you to therefore and piasse on hardly in this path of honour, which hat bene troden out unto you : and by a commendable kind of emulation, do you immitate the act of your fellow in armes, whose hands you may see yet smoking with the blood of that infidel.” Ser. Doubtful it stood ; As two s nt swimmers, that do clin§1together And choir; their art. The merciless acdonwald- Worthy to be a rebel, for to that The multiplying villanies of nature Do swarm u(pon him-from the western isles Of kerns an gallowglasses is supplied ; And fortune, on his damned qgarrel smiling, Show’d like a rebel’s whore : ut all ’s too weak : For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name-