attempted upon my
principle by some competent person. It would delight me to read every
part of Chaucer over again--for I reverence and admire him above
measure--with a view to your work; but my eyes will not permit me to
do so. Who will undertake the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales? For
your publication that is indispensable, and I fear it will prove very
difficult. It is written, as you know, in the couplet measure; and
therefore I have nothing to say upon its metre, but in respect to the
poems in stanza, neither in 'The Prioress' Tale' nor in 'The Cuckoo
and Nightingale' have I kept to the rule of the original as to the
form, and number, and position of the rhymes; thinking it enough if I
kept the same number of lines in each stanza; and this is, I think,
all that is necessary, and all that can be done without sacrificing
the substance of sense too often to the mere form of sound."

In a subsequent letter to Professor Henry Reed of Philadelphia, dated
"Rydal Mount, January 13th, 1841," Wordsworth said:

"So great is my admiration of Chaucer's genius, and so profound my
reverence for him as an instrument in the hands of Providence, for
spreading the light of literature through his native land, that
notwithstanding the defects and faults in this publication"
(referring, I presume, to the volume, 'The Poems of Geoffrey Chaucer
Modernised'), "I am glad of it, as a means of making many acquainted
with the original, who would otherwise be ignorant of everything about
him but his name."

Ed.

* * * * *

THE PRIORESS' TALE

Translated 1801. [A]--Published 1820

"Call up him who left half told
The story of Cambuscan bold." [B]

In the following Piece I have allowed myself no farther deviations from
the original than were necessary for the fluent reading, and instant
understanding, of the Author: so much however is the language altered
since Chaucer's time, especially in pronunciation, that much was to be
removed, and its place supplied with as little incongruity as possible.
The ancient accent has been retained in a few conjunctions, such as
_also_ and _alway_, from a conviction that such sprinklings of antiquity
would be admitted, by persons of taste, to have a graceful accordance
with the subject.--W. W. (1820).

The fierce bigotry of the Prioress forms a fine back ground for her
tender-hearted sympathies with the