Notes and Queries, Number 187, May 28, 1853 | Page 2

familiar with Latin and French. So that it is not necessary to endow Chaucer "with all human attainments as proof of his having spoken Italian."
Chaucer's own writings, however, afford the strongest evidence against the opinion entertained by Sir Harris Nicolas, and such evidence as cannot be controverted.
Chaucer loves to refer to Dante, and often translates passages from the Divine Comedy. The following lines are very closely rendered from the Paradiso, xiv. 28.:--
"Thou one, two, and thre, eterne on live, That raignest aie in thre, two, and one, Uncircumscript, and all maist circumscrive." Last stanza of Troilus and Creseide.
"Quell' uno e due e tre che sempre vive, E regna sempre in tre e due ed uno, Non circonscritto, e tutto circonscrive." Dante, Il Paradiso, xiv. 28.
"Wel can the wise poet of Florence, That highte Dant, speken of this sentence: Lo, in swiche maner rime is Dantes tale. Ful selde up riseth by his branches smale Prowesse of man, for God of his goodnesse Wol that we claime of him our gentillesse." Wif of Bathes Tale, 6707.
"Rade volte risurge per li rami L' umana probità: e questo vuole Quei che la dà, perchè da lui si chiami." Purgatorio, vii. 121.
After relating the dread story of the Conte Ugolino, Chaucer refers to Dante, from whom perhaps he derived it. (Conf. Inferno, xxxiii.)
"Who so wol here it in a longer wise, Redeth the grete poete of Itaille, That highte Dante, for he can it devise Fro point to point, not o word wol he faille." The Monkes Tale, 14,769.
"Bet than Vergile, while he was on live, Or Dant also."--The Freres Tale, 7101.
The following lines refer to the Inferno, xiii. 64.:
"Envie is lavender of the court alway, For she ne parteth neither night ne day, Out of the house of Cesar, thus saith Dant." Prologue to the Legend of Good Women, 359.
"Dant that it tellen can" is mentioned in the House of Fame, book i.; and Chaucer is indebted to him for some lines in that fine poem, as in the description of the "egle, that with feathers shone all of gold" = un' aquila nel ciel con penne d'oro; and the following line:
"O thought, that wrote all that I met." House of Fame, ii. 18.
"O mente, che scrivesti ciò ch' io vidi." Inferno, ii. 8.
The Knightes Tale exhibits numerous passages, lines, and expressions verbally translated from the Teseide of Boccaccio, upon which it is founded; such as Idio armipotente = Mars armipotent; Eterno admante = Athamant eterne; Paura palida = pale drede; Le ire rosse come focho = the cruel ire red as any glede. Boccaccio describes the wood in which "Mars hath his sovereine mansion" as--
"Una selva sterile de robusti Cerri, Nodosi aspri e rigidi e vetusti. Vi si sentia grandissimo romore, Ne vera bestia anchora ne pastore." Teseide, book vii.
There is a purposed grisly ruggedness in the corresponding passage of the Knightes Tale, which heightens the horrors of "thilke colde and frosty region:"
"First on the wall was peinted a forest, In which ther wonneth neyther man ne best, With knotty knarry barrein trees old Of stubbes sharpe and hidous to behold; In which ther ran a romble and a swough, As though a storme shuld bresten every bough." The Knightes Tale, 1977.
The death of Arcite is thus related by Boccaccio:
"La morte in ciascun membro era venuta Da piedi in su, venendo verso il petto, Ed ancor nelle braccia era perduta La vital forza; sol nello intelletto E nel cuore era ancora sostenuta La poca vita, ma già si ristretto Eragli 'l tristo cor del mortal gelo Che agli occhi fe' subitamente velo.
"Ma po' ch' egli ebbe perduto il vedere, Con seco cominciò a mormorare, Ognor mancando più del suo podere: Nè troppo fece in ciò lungo durare; Ma il mormorare trasportato in vere Parole, con assai basso parlare Addio Emilia; e più oltre non disse, Chè l' anima convenne si partisse." Teseide, book x. 112.
Chaucer loses nothing of this description in his condensed translation:
"For from his feet up to his brest was come The cold of deth, that had him overnome. And yet moreover in his armes two The vital strength is lost, and all ago. Only the intellect, withouten more, That dwelled in his herte sike and sore, Gan feillen, when the herte felte deth; Dusked his eyen two, and failled his breth. But on his ladie yet cast he his eye; His laste word was; Mercy, Emelie!" The Knightes Tale, 2301.
Troilus and Creseide seems to have been translated from the Filostrato of Boccaccio, when {519} Chaucer was a young man, as we are informed by Dan John Lydgate in the Prologue to his Translation of Boccaccio's Fall of Princes, where he speaks of his "Maister Chaucer" as the "chefe poete of Bretayne," and tells us that--
"In youthe he made a