Notes and Queries, Number 187, May 28, 1853 | Page 3

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 translacion Of a boke which called is Trophe, In
Lumbard tongue, as men may rede and se, And in our vulgar, long or
that he deyde Gave it the name of Troylous and Cresseyde."
Chaucer's translation is sometimes very close, sometimes rather free
and paraphrastic, as may be seen in the following examples:
"But right as floures through the cold of night Yclosed, stoupen in hir
stalkes lowe, Redressen hem ayen the Sunne bright, And spreaden in
hir kinde course by rowe." Troilus and Creseide, b. ii.
"Come fioretto dal notturno gelo Chinato e chiuso, poi che il Sol l'
imbianca, S'apre, e si leva dritto sopra il stelo." Boccaccio, Il
Filostrato, iii. st. 13.
"She was right soche to sene in her visage As is that wight that men on
bere ybinde." Troilus and Creseide, b. iv.
"Essa era tale, a guardarla nel viso, Qual donna morta alla fossa
portata." Il Filostrato, v. st. 83.
"As fresh as faucon coming out of mew." Troilus and Creseide, b. iii.

"Come falcon ch' uscisse dal cappello." Il Filostrato, iv. st. 83.
"The Song of Troilus," in the first book of Troilus and Creseide, is a
paraphrase from one of the Sonnets of Petrarca:
"S' Amor non è, che dunque è quel ch' i' sento? Ma s' egli è Amor, per
Dio che cosa, e quale? Se buona, ond' è l' effetto aspro mortale?"
Petrarca, Rime in Vita di Laura, Son. cii.
"If no love is, O God, what feele I so? And if love is, what thing and
which is he? If love be good, from whence cometh my wo?" Troilus
and Creseide, b. i.
Chaucer evidently had the following lines of the Paradiso in view
when writing the invocation to the Virgin in The Second Nonnes Tale:
"Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo Figlio, Umile e alta più che creatura,
Termine fisso d' eterno consiglio, Tu se' colei, che l' umana Natura,
Nobilitasti sì, che il suo Fattore Non disdegno di farsi sua fattura."
Paradiso, xxxiii, I.
"Thou maide and mother, doughter of thy Son, Thou well of mercy,
sinful soules cure, In whom that God of bountee chees to won; Thou
humble and high over every creature, Thou nobledest so fer forth our
nature, That no desdaine the maker had of kinde His Son in blood and
flesh to clothe and winde." The Second Nonnes Tale, 15,504.
Traces of Chaucer's proficiency in Italian are discoverable in almost all
his poems; but I shall conclude with two citations from The Assembly
of Foules:
"The day gan failen, and the darke night, That reveth beastes from hir
businesse, Berafte me my booke for lacke of light." The Assembly of
Foules, I. 85.
"Lo giorno se n'andava, e l'aer bruno Toglieva gli animai che sono in
terra Dalle fatiche loro."--Inf. ii. 1.

"With that my hand in his he toke anon, Of which I comfort caught, and
went in fast." The Assembly of Foules, I. 169.
"E poiche la sua mano alla mia pose Con lieto volto, ond' io mi
confortai." Inf. iii. 19.
By the way, Chaucer commences The Assembly of Foules with part of
the first aphorism of Hippocrates, "[Greek: Ho bios brachus hê de
technê makrê]" (but this, I suppose, had been noticed before):
"The lyfe so short, the craft so long to lerne."
Chaucer was forty years old, or upwards, in 1372, when he was sent as
an envoy to treat with the duke, citizens, and merchants of Genoa; and
if, as is probable, he had translated Troilus and Creseide out of the
"Lombarde tonge" in his youth (according to the testimony of Lydgate),
it is not unreasonable to infer that his knowledge of Italian may have
led to his being chosen to fill that office. But, however this may be,
abundant proof has been adduced that Chaucer was familiarly
acquainted with Italian.
I may briefly remark, in conclusion, that the dates and other
circumstances favour the supposed interview at Padua, between
Fraunceis Petrark the laureate poet, and Dan Chaucer,
"Floure of poets throughout all Bretaine."
J. M. B.
Tunbridge Wells.
* * * * *
THE REBELLION OF '45.--UNPUBLISHED LETTER.
Inverness, 16th Aprile, 1746.
Dear Sirs,

This day about twelve our army came up with the rebels, about a mile
above Lord President's house, in a muir called Drumrossie. They began
the engagement first, by firing from a battery of six guns they had
erected upon their right; but our cannon played so hott upon them, that
they were obliged