The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth Volume Ii Part 86

[Variant 2:

1837.

fairer ... 1815.]

[Variant 3:

1827.

His double-fronted head in higher clouds, 1815.

... among Atlantic clouds, MS.]

FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: See Spenser's translation of 'Virgil's Gnat', ll. 21-2:

'Or where on Mount Parna.s.se, the Muses brood.

Doth his broad forehead like two horns divide, And the sweet waves of sounding Castaly With liquid foot doth glide down easily.'

Ed.]

SELECTIONS FROM CHAUCER

MODERNISED

Wordsworth's modernisations of Chaucer were all written in 1801. Two of them were from the Canterbury Tales, but his version of one of these--'The Manciple's Tale'--has never been printed. Of the three poems which were published, the first--'The Prioress' Tale'--was included in the edition of 1820. The 'Troilus and Cressida' and 'The Cuckoo and the Nightingale' were included in the "Poems of Early and Late Years"

(1842); but they had been published the year before, in a small volume ent.i.tled 'The Poems of Geoffrey Chaucer Modernised' (London, 1841), a volume to which Elizabeth Barrett, Leigh Hunt, R. H. Home, Thomas Powell, and others contributed. Wordsworth wrote thus of the project to Mr. Powell, in an unpublished and undated letter, written probably in 1840:

"I am glad that you enter so warmly into the Chaucerian project, and that Mr. L. Hunt is disposed to give his valuable aid to it. For myself, I cannot do more than I offered, to place at your disposal 'The Prioress' Tale' already published, 'The Cuckoo and the Nightingale', 'The Manciple's Tale', and I rather think (but I cannot just now find it) a small portion of the 'Troilus and Cressida'. You ask my opinion about that poem. Speaking from a recollection only, of many years past, I should say it would be found too long and probably tedious. 'The Knight's Tale' is also very long; but, though Dryden has executed it, in his own way observe, with great spirit and harmony, he has suffered so much of the simplicity, and with that of the beauty and occasional pathos of the original to escape, that I should be pleased to hear that a new version was to be attempted upon my principle by some competent person. It would delight me to read every part of Chaucer over again--for I reverence and admire him above measure--with a view to your work; but my eyes will not permit me to do so. Who will undertake the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales? For your publication that is indispensable, and I fear it will prove very difficult. It is written, as you know, in the couplet measure; and therefore I have nothing to say upon its metre, but in respect to the poems in stanza, neither in 'The Prioress' Tale' nor in 'The Cuckoo and Nightingale' have I kept to the rule of the original as to the form, and number, and position of the rhymes; thinking it enough if I kept the same number of lines in each stanza; and this is, I think, all that is necessary, and all that can be done without sacrificing the substance of sense too often to the mere form of sound."

In a subsequent letter to Professor Henry Reed of Philadelphia, dated "Rydal Mount, January 13th, 1841," Wordsworth said:

"So great is my admiration of Chaucer's genius, and so profound my reverence for him as an instrument in the hands of Providence, for spreading the light of literature through his native land, that notwithstanding the defects and faults in this publication"

(referring, I presume, to the volume, 'The Poems of Geoffrey Chaucer Modernised'), "I am glad of it, as a means of making many acquainted with the original, who would otherwise be ignorant of everything about him but his name."

Ed.

THE PRIORESS' TALE

Translated 1801. [A]--Published 1820

"Call up him who left half told The story of Cambuscan bold." [B]

In the following Piece I have allowed myself no farther deviations from the original than were necessary for the fluent reading, and instant understanding, of the Author: so much however is the language altered since Chaucer's time, especially in p.r.o.nunciation, that much was to be removed, and its place supplied with as little incongruity as possible.

The ancient accent has been retained in a few conjunctions, such as _also_ and _alway_, from a conviction that such sprinklings of antiquity would be admitted, by persons of taste, to have a graceful accordance with the subject.--W. W. (1820).

The fierce bigotry of the Prioress forms a fine back ground for her tender-hearted sympathies with the Mother and Child; and the mode in which the story is told amply atones for the extravagance of the miracle.--W. W. (added in 1827).

In the editions of 1820 and 1827 'The Prioress' Tale' followed 'The White Doe of Rylstone'. In 1832 it followed the "Inscriptions"; and in 1836 it was included among the "Poems founded on the Affections." In 1845 it found its appropriate place in the "Selections from Chaucer modernised."--Ed.

I "O Lord, our Lord! how wondrously," (quoth she) "Thy name in this large world is spread abroad!

For not alone by men of dignity Thy worship is performed and precious laud; But by the mouths of children, gracious G.o.d! 5 Thy goodness is set forth; they when they lie Upon the breast thy name do glorify.

II "Wherefore in praise, the worthiest that I may, Jesu! of thee, and the white Lily-flower Which did thee bear, and is a Maid for aye, 10 To tell a story I will use my power; Not that I may increase her honour's dower, For she herself is honour, and the root Of goodness, next her Son, our soul's best boot.

III "O Mother Maid! O Maid and Mother free! 15 O bush unburnt! burning in Moses' sight!

That down didst ravish from the Deity, Through humbleness, the spirit that did alight Upon thy heart, whence, through that glory's might, Conceived was the Father's sapience, 20 Help me to tell it in thy reverence!

IV "Lady! thy goodness, thy magnificence, Thy virtue, and thy great humility, Surpa.s.s all science and all utterance; For sometimes, Lady! ere men pray to thee 25 Thou goest before in thy benignity, The light to us vouchsafing of thy prayer, To be our guide unto thy Son so dear.

V "My knowledge is so weak, O blissful Queen!

To tell abroad thy mighty worthiness, 30 That I the weight of it may not sustain; But as a child of twelvemonths old or less, That laboureth his language to express, Even so fare I; and therefore, I thee pray, Guide thou my song which I of thee shall say. 35

VI "There was in Asia, in a mighty town, 'Mong Christian folk, a street where Jews might be, a.s.signed to them and given them for their own By a great Lord, for gain and usury, Hateful to Christ and to his company; 40 And through this street who list might ride and wend; Free was it, and unbarred at either end.