THE MONKES TALE. I Wol bewaile in manere of tragedie 14000 The harm of hem that flode in high degree, Beth ware by thife enfamples trewe and olde. Lucifer. At Lucifer, though he an angel were 14005 14010 Now art thou Sathanas, that maist not twinne Out of miferie in which that thou art falle. Adam. Lo! Adam in the feld of Damafcene With Goddes owen finger wrought was he, The Monkes Tale] A tragical discourse of many who have failen from high eftate to extreme mifery. Urry. V. 14013. in the feld of Damafcene] So Lydgate, from Boccace, fpeaks of Adam and Eve, Trag. b. i. c. 1.; Of flime of the erth in Damafcene the felde God made them above ech creature. Boccace is much longer in relating their ftory, which is thoArit of his tragedies. And welte all Paradis faving o tree. Was driven out of his profperitee To labour, and to helle, and to mefchance. Sampfon. Lo! Sampfon, which that was annunciat By the angel long or his nativitee, And was to God Almighty confecrat, 14C 20 And ftode in nobleffe while he mighte fee: Was never fwiche another as was he, 14025 To fpeke of ftrength and therto hardineffe; 14030 Thurgh which he flow himself for wretchedneffe. Three hundred foxes toke Sampfon for ire, And all hir tayles he togeder bond, 14C35 . 14021. Sampfon] His tragedy is also in Boccace, b. i. c. 19, but our Author feems rather to have followed the original, Fudges xiv, xv, xvi. Volume IV. S For he in every tayl had knit a brond, And they brent all the cornes in that lond, A thousand men he flow eke with his hond, 14040 Whan they were flain fo thursted him that he Was wel nie lorne, for which he gan to preye 14046 That God wold on his peine han som pitee, And fend him drinke, or elles mofte he deye; Out of a wang toth sprang anon a welle, By veray force at Gasa on a night, 14050 14055 14060 14065 Unto his lemman Dalida he told 'That in his heres all his ftrengthe lay, But or his here was clipped or yfhave 14070 14075 Ther was no bond with which men might him bind, But now is he in prifon in a cave, Wheras they made him at the querne grinde. 14080 O noble Sampson, strongest of mankind, O whilom juge in glory and richesse! Now mayest thou wepen with thin eyen blind The ende of this caitif was as I fhal feye: 14085 His fomen made a fefte upon a day, And made him as hir fool before hem pleye, But at the last he made a foule affray, For he two pillers shoke and made hem falle, 1409o This is to fayn, the princes everich on, And eke three thousand bodies, were ther flain 14095 .14080. the querne] The mill; kuerna, mola, Island. Of Sampfon now wol I no more fain: Hercules. Of Hercules the foveraine conquerour He flow the cruel tirant Bufirus, 14100 14105 And made his hors to fret him flesh and bon; 1411 He flow the firy ferpent venemous; Of Achelous two hornes brake he on; 14115 . 14101. Hercules] In this account of the labours of Her cules Chaucer has evidently copied Boethius, 1. iv. met.7. Many of the expreffions he had ufed before in his profe translation of that author. ỳ. 14115, the bevene on his nekke long] This is the reading of the beft mff. and is agreeable to Boethius, loc. cit. thus tranflated by Chaucer; "And the laft of his labors was, that he fufeined the beven upon his necke unbowed," 'The margin of "mf. C. 1. explains long to mean diu.-The editt. read, And bare his bed upon his fpere long. |