iller's Wife for
while had left her husband's side; but Mr Horne is intolerant of the
indelicate, and thus elegantly paraphrases the one original word--

"The wife her routing ceased soon after that:
And woke and left her bed; _for she was pained_
_With nightmare dreams of skies that madly rained._
_Eastern astrologers and clerks, I wis,
In time of Apis tell of storms like this_."

Such is modern refinement!

In Chaucer, the blind encounter between the Miller and one of the
Cantabs, who, mistaking him for his comrade, had whispered into his ear
what had happened during the night to his daughter, is thus comically
described--

"Ye false harlot, quod the miller, hast?
A false traitour, false clerk, (quod he)
Thou shalt be deaf by Goddes dignitee,
Who dorste be so bold to disparage
My daughter, that is come of swiche lineage.
And by the throte-bolle he caught Alein,
And he him hente despiteously again,
And on the nose he smote him with his fist;
Down ran the bloody streme upon his brest;
And on the flore with nose and mouth to-broke,
They walwe, as don two pigges in a poke.
And up they gon, and down again anon,
Till that the miller spurned at a stone,
And down he fell backward upon his wif,
That wiste nothing of this nice strif,
For she was falle aslepe, a litel wight
with John the clerk," and ...

Here comes Mr Horne in his strength.

"Thou slanderous ribald! quoth the miller, hast!
A traitor false, false lying clerk, quoth he,
Thou shalt be slain by heaven's dignity
Who rudely dar'st disparage with foul lie
My daughter, that is come of lineage high!
And by the throat he Allan grasp'd amain,
And caught him, yet more furiously again,
And on his nose he smote him with his fist!
Down ran the bloody stream upon his breast,
And on the floor they tumble heel and crown,
And shake the house, it seem'd all coming down.
And up they rise, and down again they roll:
Till that the Miller, stumbling o'er a coal,
Went plunging headlong like a bull at bait,
And met his wife, and both fell flat as slate."

Mr Horne cannot read Chaucer. The Miller does not, as he makes him do,
accuse the Cantab of falsely slandering his daughter's virtue. He does
not doubt the truth of the unluckily blabbed secret; false harlot, false
traitor, false clerk, are all words that tell his belief; but Mr Horne,
not understanding "disparage," as it is here used by Chaucer