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excellent edition of the Canterbury Tales, by Mr. Tyrwhitt, who adhered to his author’s orthography with the most scrupulous fidelity.
In his Prologue, the old Bard, after describing the Knight, who was “besmotred with his habergeon,—
“For he was late come fro his viage,
And wente for to don his pilgrimage,—”
And wente for to don his pilgrimage,—”
thus graphically introduces the young gallant of those days:
“With him ther was his sone, a young squier,
A lover, and a lusty bacheler,
With lockes crull[1] as they were laide in presse;
Of twenty yere of age he was, I gesse.
Of his stature he was of even lengthe,
And wonderly deliver[2], and grete of strengthe.
And he hadde be[3] somtime in chevachie[4],
In Flaundres, in Artois, and in Picardie,
And borne him wel, as of so litel space,
In hope to stonden in his ladies grace.
Embrouded[5] was he, as it were a mede[6]
Alle ful of freshe floures, white and rede,
A lover, and a lusty bacheler,
With lockes crull[1] as they were laide in presse;
Of twenty yere of age he was, I gesse.
Of his stature he was of even lengthe,
And wonderly deliver[2], and grete of strengthe.
And he hadde be[3] somtime in chevachie[4],
In Flaundres, in Artois, and in Picardie,
And borne him wel, as of so litel space,
In hope to stonden in his ladies grace.
Embrouded[5] was he, as it were a mede[6]
Alle ful of freshe floures, white and rede,
