§ 36. The Man of Law's Prologue. This Prologue has a peculiar and special interest, from the fact that, in the first three stanzas and part of the fourth (as well as in some stanzas of the Tale), the poet has preserved for us a portion of one of his early works. In ll. 414-5 of the older Prologue to the Legend of Good Women, Chaucer tells us that he not only translated Boece in prose, but also (the piece called) 'Of the Wreched Engendring of Mankinde, As man may in Pope Innocent y-finde'; i.e. the treatise by Innocent, afterwards Pope Innocent III., entitled De Contemptu Mundi sive de Miseria Conditionis Humanae. In the present passage (B 99-111), we have a portion of this same treatise in a verse form, as becomes evident upon comparison. This interesting discovery was first made by Prof. Lounsbury, and announced in the 'Nation' (an American journal) for July, 1889; and soon after (quite independently, as I have reason to know, and as Prof. Lounsbury very properly acknowledges) by Dr. E. Köppel, in an article contributed to the 'Archiv für das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Litteraturen,' vol. 84, (1890), p. 405. See Lounsbury's Studies in Chaucer, ii. 333. Neither does the present passage exhaust this source; for there are yet four more stanzas inserted in the Tale itself, which really belong to the same treatise. These passages being all of high interest, owing to the peculiar use made of them by Chaucer, the original Latin is here given.
(a) B 99-121. The original is from De Cont. Mundi, lib. 1. cap. 16. 'Pauperes enim premuntur inedia, cruciantur aerumna, fame, siti, frigore, nuditate: uilescunt, tabescunt, spernuntur, et confunduntur. O miserabilis mendicantis condicio; et si petit, pudore confunditur; et si non petit, egestate consumitur, sed ut mendicet, necessitate compellitur.
(106) Deum causatur iniquum, quod non recte diuidat; proximum criminatur malignum, quod non plene subueniat. Indignatur, murmurat, imprecatur.
(113) Aduerte super hoc sententiam Sapientis: Melius est, inquit, mori quam indigere [Ecclus. xl. 28]. Etiam proximo suo pauper odiosus erit [Prov. xiv. 20]. Omnes dies pauperis mali, [Prov. xv. 15]—
(120) fratres hominis pauperis oderunt eum. Insuper et amici procul recesserunt ab eo' [Prov. xix. 7.]
(b) B 421-427. From De Cont. Mundi, lib. i. cap. 23; headed De Inopinato Dolore. 'Semper enim mundanae laetitiae tristitia repentina succedit. Et quod incipit a gaudio, desinit in moerore. Mundana quippe felicitas multis amaritudinibus est respersa. Nouerat hoc qui dixerat: Risus dolore miscebitur, et extrema gaudii luctus occupat [Prov. xiv. 13].... Attende salubre consilium: In die bonorum, non immemor sis malorum' [cf. Eccles. vii. 14; xi. 8].
(c) B 771-7. From De Cont. Mundi, lib. ii. c. 19; De Ebrietate. 'Quid turpius ebrioso? cui fetor in ore, tremor in corpore, qui promittit multa, promit occulta, cui mens alienatur, facies transformatur? Nullum enim secretum ubi regnat ebrietas' [Prov. xxxi. 4; in the Vulgate].
(d) B 925-931. From De Cont. Mundi, lib. ii. c. 21. 'O extrema libidinis turpitudo, quae non solum mentem effeminat, sed etiam corpus eneruat; non solum maculat animam, sed foedat personam.'
(e) B 1134-1141. From De Cont. Mundi, lib. i. c. 22; De Breui Laetitia Hominis. 'A mane usque ad uesperam mutabitur tempus [Ecclus. xviii. 26].... Quis unquam uel unicum diem totum duxit in sua delectatione iucundum, quem in aliqua parte diei reatus conscientiae, uel impetus irae, uel motus concupiscentiae non turbauerit? Quem liuor inuidiae uel ardor auaritiae, uel tumor superbiae non uexauerit? Quem aliqua iactura, uel offensa, uel passio non commouerit?'
It thus becomes evident that this Prologue is closely related to the inserted stanzas in B 421-7, 771-7, 925-31, and 1135-41. All of these insertions are, in fact, digressions, and have nothing to do with the story. I conclude that the Prologue and the four inserted stanzas were placed where they now are at the time of the revision of what was once an independent tale, written at an earlier period, viz. before 1385, and probably about 1380. The poem 'Of the Wrecched Engendring of Mankinde' was in existence still earlier. Observe further, that lines 131-3 may be taken to mean, in plain English, that 'I, the poet, should be in want of a Tale to insert here, and should have to write one for the occasion, only I happen, by good fortune, to have one by me which will do very well.' Thus the obliging 'Merchant' who 'taught' Chaucer the Man of Lawes Tale was his industrious younger self. The word 'Merchant' clearly refers to the chapmen or merchants mentioned in B 135, 148, 153, who are supposed to have picked up the story, as has been already said (§ 35).