Chaucer's phrase is "a litel clergeon," Wordsworth's, "a little scholar;" but "clergeon" is a chorister, not a scholar.—Ed.

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[Footnote D:]

"Chaucer's text is:

'Thus hath this widow her litel child i-taught
Our blissful lady, Criste's moder deere,
To worschip ay, and he forgat it nought;
For sely child wil alway soone leere.'

'For sely child wil alway soone leere,' i.e. for a happy child will always learn soon. Wordsworth renders:

'For simple infant hath a ready ear,'

and adds:

'Sweet is the holiness of youth,'

extending the stanza to receive this addition from seven to eight lines, with an altered rhyme-system."

'Thus hath this widow her litel child i-taught
Our blissful lady, Criste's moder deere,
To worschip ay, and he forgat it nought;
For sely child wil alway soone leere.'

'For simple infant hath a ready ear,'

'Sweet is the holiness of youth,'

(Professor Edward Dowden, in the Transactions of the Wordsworth Society, No. III.)—Ed.

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[Footnote E:]