this caution however, that I have not made ufe of any one of his references without having first verified it by actual inspection, a caution which every compiler ought to take in all cases, and which in the present cafe was indifpenfably neceffary on account of the numerous and grofs errours in the text of that edition * to which Mr.Thomas' glossary was adapted.

For the further prevention of uncertainty and confufion care has been taken to mark the part of speech to which each word belongs, and to distribute all homonymous words into feparate articles +. The numbers, cafes, modes, times, and other inflections of the declinable parts of speech, are alfo marked, whenever they are expreffed in a manner differing from modern ufage.

Etymology is fo clearly not a neceffary branch of the duty of a gloffarift, that I trust I fhall be easily excufed for not having troubled the reader with longer or more frequent digreffions of that fort: in general I have thought it fufficient to mark shortly the origi nal language from which each word is probably to be derived, according to the hypothesis which has been more fully explained in the Effay, c. part the fecond, that the Norman-Saxon dialect, in which Chaucer

See App. to the Preface, (A.) vol. i. p. 81.

+ The neglect of this precaution and of that juft mentioned has made Mr. Hearne's gloffaries to Robert of Gloucefter and Robert of Brunne of very little ufe. Who would place any confidence in fuch interpretations as the following?-R. G. Ar, as, after, before, ero, till. Bet, better, bid, bad, de fired, prayed, be,are.-P. L. Ame, aim, efteem, love, defire, reckon'd, aim'd, fathom, tell. Bidene, biting, abiding,tarrying,bidding, praying, bidden, being bidden, being desired, continually, commanded, judged, adjudged, readily,

wrote, was almost entirely compofed of words derived from the Saxon and French languages*.

As every author must be allowed to be the best expofitor of his own meaning, I have always endeavoured to establish the true import of any doubtful word or phrafe by the ufage of Chaucer himself in some other fimilar paffage; where it has been neceffary to call in foreign affistance recourfe has been chiefly had to such authors as wrote before him, or at least were contemporary with him in fome part of his life t.

* A few words are marked as having been taken immedi. ately from the Latin language; the number has increased very confiderably fince the time of Chaucer. It is obfervable that the verbs of this fort are generally formed from the participle paft, whereas those which have come to us through France are as generally formed from the infinitive mode.In referring words to the other two great claffes a precife accuracy has not been attempted. The small remains of the genuine Anglo-Saxon language which our lexicographers have been able to collect do not furnith authorities for a multitude of words, which however may be fairly derived from that fource, because they are to be found with little variation in the other collateral languages defcended from the Gothick; the term Saxon therefore is here ufed with fuch a latitude as to include the Gothick and all its branches. At the fame time as the Francick part of the French language had a common original with the AngloSaxon, it happens that fome words may be denominated either French or Saxon with almoft equal probability. In all fuch cafes the final judgment is left to those who have leisure and inclination (according to our Author's phrase, ver. 15246,) to boult the matter to the bren.

+ Some ofthese authors have been pointed out in the Fay,c. § 8. n. 24. ; of the others the moft confiderable are the author of The Vifions of Pierce Ploughman, Gower, Occleve, and Lydgate. In the Essay, c. n. 57. a circumftance is mentioned which thews that The Vifions of Pierce Ploughman were writ ten after 1350; I have fince taken notice of a paffage which

The proper names of perfons and places as they occur in Chaucer are often either fo obfcure in themfelves or fo difguifed by a vitious orthography that they ftand in as much need of an interpreter as the most obfolete appellative: fome other proper names, particularly of authors quoted, though fufficiently known and clear, have been inferted in this Gloffary, in order to make it in that refpect answer the purpofes of an index.

As there are feveral passages of which after all my refearches I am unable to give any probable explanation, I fhall follow the laudable example of the learned editor of Ancient Scottish Poems, from the mf. of George Bannatyne, Edin. 1770, by subjoining a list of fuch words and phrafes as I profefs not to understand; I only wish the reader may not find occafion to think that I ought to have made a confiderable addition to the number.

I will just add, for the fake of those who may be difpofed to make use of this Gloffary in reading the Works of Chaucer not contained in this edition, that it will be found to be almoft equally well adapted to every edition of thofe Works except Mr. Urry's: Mr. Urry's edition fhould never be opened by any one for the purpose of reading Chaucer.

T. TYRWHITT.

will prove, I think, that they were written after 1362. The great ftorm of wind alluded to in fol. 20, b. l. 14. ;

And the fouthwesterne winde on Satterdaic at even, &c. is probably the ftorm recorded by Thorn,inter X Script. c. 2122, Walfingham, p. 178, and most particularly by the continuator of Adam Murimuth, p. 115—“ A. D. 1 362—15 die Januarii, "circa horam vefperarum, ventus vehemens notus Auftralis "Africus tantâ rabie erupit," &c.—The 15th of January in the year 1362, N. S. was a Saturday.

An Account of the Works of Chaucer to which this Gloffary is adapted, and of thofe other pieces which have been im properly intermixed with his in the editions:

Or The Canterbury Tales, the greatest work of Chaucer, it is needless to repeat what has been faid in dif→ ferent parts of this edition, particularly in the App. to the Preface,(A.) and in the Introductory Difcourfe, vol. I. One of the carlieft of his other Works was probably,

I. The Romaunt of the Rofe. He speaks of it himself in L. W. 329 and 441.; it is professedly a translation of the French Roman de la Rofe, and many grofs blunders in the printed text may be corrected by comparing it with the original. Dr. Hunter was fo obliging as to lend me a mí. of this poem, (the only one that I have ever heard of) which has occafionally been confulted to good advantage, but it does not fupply any of the most material defects of the printed editions.

II. Troilus and Crefeide, in five books. This poem is alfo mentioned by our Author in L.W. 332 and 441.; it is for the moft part a tranflation of the Filoftrato of Boccace, but with many variations, and fuch large additions, that it contains above 2700 lines more than its original. See the Effay, &c. n. 62.-There are feveral mif. of this poem in the Bodleian library and in the Museum which have been occafionally confulted.

III. The Court of Love was firft printed among the additions made to Chaucer's Works by John Stowe in the edition of 1561. One might reasonably have expected to find it mentioned in L. W. loc. cit. but notwithstanding the want of that teftimony in its favour I am induced by the internal evidence to consider it as one of Chaucer's genuine productions. I have never heard of any mf. of this poem.

IV. The Complaint of Pitee. So this poem is entitled

in mf. Harl. 78. ; it is extant alfo in mf. Bodl. Fairf. 16. The fubject is alluded to in The Court of Love, ver. 700, feq.

V. Of Quene Annelida and falfe Arcite, with The Complaint of Annelida. The story of this poem is said, in ver. Io, to have been originally in Latin, and in ver. 21 Chaucer names the authors whom he profeffes to follow;

Firft folwe I Stace, and after him Corinne.

As the opening only is taken from Statius, [l. iv. ver. 519,] we must fuppofe that Corinne furnished the remainder; but who Corinne was is not easy to guess. -One can hardly suppose that Chaucer had met with that poem of the ancient Corinna, the contemporary of Pindar, which was entitled 'Exla ex Onlαis, [Fragm. ex Apollonio Dyfcolo,ap. Maittair.de Diale&l. p. 429, 1.4,] nor do I know that any fictitious work upon the war of Thebes has ever been fet forth under her name. She is mentioned by Propertius, [II. el. iii. v. 21,] and by Statius, [Sylv. V. carm. iii. v. 158,] but neither of them takes notice of her having written on the affairs of Thebes.It should be obferved that the Arcite, whofe infidelity is here complained of is quite a different perfon from the Arcite of The Knightes Tale; from which circumftance we may perhaps be allowed to infer that this poem was written before Chaucer had met with The Thefeida.-It is extant in mil. Harl. 372, and Bodl. Fairf. 16.

VI.The Affemblee of Foules is mentioned by Chaucer himfelf in L. W. 419, under the title of The Parlement of Foules. In mf. Bodl. Fairf. 16, it is entitled The Parlement of Briddes.-The opening of this poem is built upon the Somnum Scipionis of Cicero, as it appears at the head of Macrobius' Commentary. The defcrip