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FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 1328-1400.

(From the text of Tyrwhitt.)

WHANNE that April with his shoures sote
The droughte of March hath perced to the rote.

Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 1.

And smale foules maken melodie,
That slepen alle night with open eye,
So priketh hem nature in hir corages;
Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages.

And of his port as meke as is a mayde.

He was a veray parfit gentil knight.

Line 9.

Line 69.

Line 72.

Line 95.

He coude songes make, and wel endite.

Ful wel she sange the service devine,
Entuned in hire nose ful swetely;

And Frenche she spake ful fayre and fetisly,
After the scole of Stratford atte bowe,
For Frenche of Paris was to hire unknowe.

A Clerk ther was of Oxenforde also.

For him was lever han at his beddes hed
A twenty bokes, clothed in black or red,
Of Aristotle, and his philosophie,
Than robes riche, or fidel, or sautrie.
But all be that he was a philosophre,
Yet hadde he but litel gold in cofre.

Line 122.

Line 287.

Line 295

And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.
Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 310.

Nowher so besy a man as he ther n' as,
And yet he semed besier than he was.

Line 323.

Line 440.

His studie was but litel on the Bible.

For gold in phisike is a cordial;
Therefore he loved gold in special.

Wide was his parish, and houses fer asonder.

Line 445.

Line 493.

This noble ensample to his shepe he yaf,-
That first he wrought, and afterwards he taught.

Line 498.

But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve,

He taught; but first he folwed it himselve.

Line 529.

And yet he had a thomb of gold parde.1

Line 565.

Who so shall telle a tale after a man,
He moste reherse, as neighe as ever he can,
Everich word, if it be in his charge,
All speke he never so rudely and so large;
Or elles he moste tellen his tale untrewe.
Or feinen thinges, or finden wordes newe.

For May wol have no slogardie a-night.
The seson priketh every gentil herte,
And maketh him out of his slepe to sterte.

Line 733.

The Knightes Tale. Line 1044.

That field hath eyen, and the wood hath ears.2
Up rose the sonne, and up rose Emelie.

--

Line 1524.

Line 2275.

- HEYWOOD: Proverbes,

1 In allusion to the proverb, "Every honest miller has a golden thumb." 2 Fieldes have eies and woodes have eares. part ii. chap. v.

Wode has erys, felde has sigt. — King Edward and the Shepherd, MS. Circa 1300.

Walls have ears. HAZLITT: English Proverbs, etc. (ed. 1869) p. 446.

Min be the travaille, and thia be the glorie.

Canterbury Tales. The Knightes Tale. Line 3408.

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1 Also in Troilus and Cresseide, line 1587.

To make a virtue of necessity. - SHAKESPEARE: Two Gentlemen of Verona, act iv. sc. 2. MATTHEW HENRY: Comm. on Ps. xxxvii. DRYDEN: Palamon and Arcite.

In the additions of Hadrianus Julius to the Adages of Erasmus, he remarks, under the head of Necessitatem edere, that a very familiar proverb was current among his countrymen, · -"Necessitatem in virtutem commutare" (To make necessity a virtue).

Laudem virtutis necessitati damus (We give to necessity the praise of virtue).-QUINTILIAN: Inst. Orat. i. 8. 14.

2 Haste makes waste. - HEYWOOD: Proverbs, part i. chap. ii.

Nothing can be done at once hastily and prudently. - PUBLIUS SYRUS: Maxim 357.

3 Ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beautv.- PLUTARCH: Life of Pericles.

* E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires. - GRAY: Elegy, Stanża 23. 5 Frieth in her own grease. HEYWOOD: Proverbs, part i. chap. xi. To see and to be seen.-BEN JONSON: Epithalamion, st. iii. line 4. GOLDSMITH: Citizen of the World, letter 71.

Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsa (They come to see ; they come that they themselves may be seen).-OVID: The Art of Love

i. 99.

I hold a mouses wit not worth a leke,

That hath but on hole for to sterten to.1

Canterbury Tales. The Wif of Bathes Prologue. Line 6154

Loke who that is most vertuous alway,
Prive and apert, and most entendeth ay
To do the gentil dedes that he can,
And take him for the gretest gentilman.

The Wif of Bathes Tale. Line 6695-
Line 6752.

That he is gentil that doth gentil dedis.2
This flour of wifly patience.

The Clerkes Tale. Part v.

Line 8797

They demen gladly to the badder end.

The Squieres Tale. Line 10538

Therefore behoveth him a ful long spone,
That shall eat with a fend.3

Line 10916.

Fie on possession,

But if a man be vertuous withal.

The Frankeleines Prologue. Line 10998.

Truth is the highest thing that man may keep.

The Frankeleines Tale. Line 11789.

Full wise is he that can himselven knowe.1

The Monkes Tale. Line 1449.

1 Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts his life to one hole only. - PLAUTUS: Truculentus, act iv. sc. 4.

The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole

Can never be a mouse of any soul.

POPE: Paraphrase of the Prologue, line 298. 2 Handsome is that handsome does. - GOLDSMITH: Vicar of Wakefield, chap. i.

3 Hee must have a long spoon, shall eat with the devill. - HEYWOOD: Proverbes, part ii. chap. v.

He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil. SPEARE Comedy of Errors, act iv. sc. 3.

- SHAKE

4 Thales was asked what was very difficult; he said, "To know one's DIOGENES LAERTIUS: Thales, ix.

self."

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;

The proper study of mankind is man.

POPE: Epistle ii. line 1.

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