beaux and ladies of pleasure in the town.

But I will

no more offend against good-manners: I am fenfible, as I ought to be, of the fcandal I have given by my loofe writings; and make what reparation I am able, by this public acknowledgment. If any thing of this nature, or of profanenefs, be crept into these poems, I am so far from defending it, that I difown it. "Totum hoc in

dictum volo." Chaucer makes another manner of apology for his broad-speaking, and Boccace makes the like; but I will follow neither of them. Our countryman, in the end of his characters, before the Canterbury tales, thus excufes the ribaldry, which is very grofs in many of his novels.

But first, I pray you of your courtesy,

That ye ne arrettee it nought my villany,
Though that I plainly speak in this mattere
To tellen you her words, and eke her chere:
Ne though I speak her words properly,
For this ye knowen as well as I,
Who fhall tellen a tale after a man,
He mote rehearse as nye, as ever he can :
Everich word of it been in his charge,
All speke he, never fo rudely, ne large.
Or else he mote tellen his tale untrue,
Or feine things, or find words new:

He may not spare, although he were his brother,
He mote as well fay o word as another.

Chrift fpake himself full broad in holy writ,
And well I wote no villany is it,

VOL. III.

D

Eke

Eke Plato faith, who fo can him rede,

The words mote been coufin to the dede.

Yet if a man fhould have inquired of Boccace or of Chaucer, what need they had of introducing fuch characters, where obscene words were proper in their mouths, but very indecent to be heard; I know not what anfwer they could have made: for that reafon, such tale hall be left untold by me. You have here a specimen of Chaucer's language, which is fo obfolete, that his fenfe is fcarce to be understood; and you have likewise more than one example of his unequal numbers, which were mentioned before. Yet many of his verses confift of ten fyllables, and the words not much behind our prefent English: as for example, these two lines, in the defcription of the carpenter's young wife :

Wincing fhe was, as is a jolly colt,

Long as a mast, and upright as a bolt.

I have almost done with Chaucer, when I have anfwered fome objections relating to my prefent work. I And fome people are offended that I have turned thefe tales into modern English; because they think them unworthy of my pains, and look on Chaucer as a dry, old-fashioned wit, not worth reviving. I have often heard the late earl of Leicefter fay, that Mr. Cowley himfelf was of that opinion; who, having read him over at my lord's requeft, declared he had no taste of him. I dare not advance my opinion against the judgment of fo great an author: but I think it fair, howeyes, to leave the decision to the public: Mr. Cowley

was

was too modest to set up for a dictator; and being fhocked perhaps with his old stile, never examined into the depth of his good fenfe. Chaucer, I confefs, is a rough diamond, and must first be polished, ere he shines. I deny not likewise, that, living in our early days of poetry, he writes not always of a piece: but fometimes mingles trivial things with thofe of greater moment. Sometimes alfo, though not often, he runs riot, likė Ovid, and knows not when he has faid enough. But there are more great wits befides Chaucer, whofe fault is their excefs of conceits, and thofe ill forted. An author is not to write all he can, but only all he ought. Having obferved this redundancy in Chaucer (as it is an easy matter for a man of ordinary parts to find a fault in one of greater), I have not tied myself to a literal translation; but have often omitted what I judged unneceffary, or not of dignity enough to appear in the company of better thoughts. I have prefumed farther, in fome places, and added somewhat of my own where I · thought my author was deficient, and had not given his thoughts their true luftre, for want of words in the beginning of our language. And to this I was the more emboldened, becaufe (if I may be permitted to fay it of myself) I found I had a foul congenial to his, and that I had been converfant in the fame ftudies. Another poet, in another age, may take the fame liberty with my writings; if at leaft they live long enough to deferve correction. It was alfo neceffary fometimes to restore the fenfe of Chaucer, which was loft or mangled in the errors of the prefs: let this example fuffice at prefent;

in the story of Palamon and Arcite, where the temple of Diana is defcribed, you find these verses, in all the editions of our author:

There faw I Danè turned into a tree,

I mean, not the goddess Diane,

But Venus daughter, which that hight Danè: Which after a little confideration I knew was to be reformed into this fenfe, that Daphne the daughter of Peneus was turned into a tree. I durft not make thus bold with Ovid, left fome future Milbourn fhould arife, and fay, I varied from my author, because I understood him not.

But there are other judges who think I ought not to have tranflated Chaucer into English, out of a quite contrary notion: they fuppofe there is a certain veneration due to his old language; and that it is little lefs than profanation and facrilege to alter it. They are farther of opinion, that fomewhat of his good sense will fuffer in this transfufion, and much of the beauty of his thoughts will infallibly be loft, which appear with more grace in their old habit. Of this opinion was that excellent perfon, whom I mentioned, the late earl of Leicester, who valued Chaucer as much as Mr.、 Cowley defpifed him. My lord diffuaded me from this attempt, (for I was thinking of it fome years before his death) and his authority prevailed fo far with me, as to defer my undertaking while he lived, in deference to him: yet my reafon was not convinced with what he urged against it. If the first end of a writer be

to be understood, then as his language grows obfolete, his thoughts must grow obscure :

"Multa renafcentur quæ jam cecidere; cadentque, "Quæ nunc funt in honore vocabula; fi volet ufus,

Quem penès arbitrium eft, & jus, & norma loquendi." When an ancient word for its found and fignificancy deferves to be revived, I have that reafonable veneration for antiquity, to restore it. All beyond this is superstition. Words are not like landmarks, fo facred as never to be removed; cuftoms are changed; and even ftatutes are filently repealed, when the reafon ceafes for which they were enacted. As for the other part of the argument, that his thoughts will lofe of their original beauty, by the inno vation of words; in the firft place, not only their beauty, but their being is loft, where they are no longer understood, which is the prefent cafe. I grant that fomething muft be loft in all transfufion, that is, in all tranflations; but the fenfe will remain, which would otherwife be loft, or at least be maimed, when it is scarce intelligible; and that but to a few. How few are there who can read Chaucer, so as to understand him perfectly! And if imperfectly, then with lefs profit and no pleasure. It is not for the ufe of fome old Saxon friends, that I have taken thefe pains with him: let them neglect my verfion, because they have no need of it. I made it for their fakes who understand fenfe and poetry as well as they, when that poetry and fenfe is put into words which they understand. I will go farther, and dare to add, that what beauties I lofe in fome places, I give to others which had them not originally but in this I

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may