chambers till the fourth day, and he
repeats the fact here:

As custom is unto these nobles all,
A bride shall not eaten in the hall,
Till dayes four, or three days atte least
I-passed be; then let her go to the feast.
The fourthe day complete from noon to noon,
When that the highe masse was i-doon,
In halle sit this January and May,
As fresh as is the brighte summer's day.]

[Footnote 38: In the original January passes a warm panegyric upon the
excellent qualities of Damian, which is meant to display in broader
contrast the treachery and infamy of the squire. The merchant in his own
person denounces the villany of Damian's conduct, and prays that all
persons may be protected from the machinations of those deceitful
vipers, who, when fostered in a family, employ their opportunities to
injure their benefactors. Pope has omitted every allusion of the kind,
and has treated the baseness of the squire as if he regarded it in the
light of a joke.]

[Footnote 39: It was at first "speaking sigh," which was distinctive.
"Heaving" is the accompaniment of all sighs, and, as the sigh of Damian
was soft, did not mark his in an especial degree.]

[Footnote 40: There is not a word, as may be supposed, in Chaucer of the
squire asking for divine assistance in his wicked schemes.]

[Footnote 41: May, on her return from the visit which, at her husband's
desire, she paid to Damian in his chamber, that she might cheer him in
his illness, read the billet that he had given her covertly, and the
result is thus told by Chaucer in a passage which has not been versified
by Pope:

This gentle May fulfilled of pite,
Right of her hand a letter maked she;
In which she granteth him her very grace;
There lacked nought but only day and place.
And when she saw her time upon a day
To visite this Damian goeth May,
And subtilely this letter down she thrust
Under his pillow; read it if him lust.
She taketh him by the hand, and hard him twist
So secretly, that no wight of it wist,
And bade him be all whole; and forth she went
To January, when that he for her sent.
Up riseth Damian the nexte morrow;
All passed was his sickness and his sorrow.]

[Footnote 42: The Epicurean philosophers.]

[Footnote 43: Addison's Letter from Italy:

My humbler verse demands a softer theme,
A painted meadow, or a purling stream.]

[Footnote 44: Pope has here shown