B. ii. c. vi. s. xliii.

Harrow now out, and weal-away, he cryde.

So Chaucer,

And gan to cry harrow and weal-away.

Haro is a form of exclamation anciently used in Normandy to call for help, or to raise the Hue and Cryf. We find it again in our author,

It occurs often in Chaucer, and is, I think, always used as an exclamation of grief; but there are some passages in an old Mystery

* Reve's Tale, 964. + Glossary to Ury's edit.

printed at Paris, 1541, where it is applied as a term of alarm, according to it's original

Viendrez vous point a mes cris, et aboys,

Haro, Haro, nul de vous je ne veoys?

And in another place, where he particularly

addresses Belial.

Haro, Haro, approche toy grand dyable,
Approche toy notayre mal fiable,

Fier Belial, &c.

It is observable, that the permission of the Clameur de Haro is to this day specified, among that of other officers, in the instrument of Licence prefixed to books printed in France.

B. iii. c. i. s. lxiv.

To stir up strife, and troublous conteck broche.

Spenser here, when he might have used contest, chuses rather Chaucer's obsolete term conteck.

Thus in the Knight's Tale.

Conteke with bloody knyves, and sharpe menace

Again,

Of conteke and of whelpis gret and light.

Our poet had used it before in September.

But kindle coales of contecke and ire,
Wherewith they sett all the world on fire.

So likewise,

That like a pined ghost he soon appears.

4. 7. 41.

We find forpyned ghost in Chaucer, which

is the same as pyned ghost.

He was not pale as a forpyned ghost *.

B. iii. c. vi. s. vi.

But wondrously they were begot and bred,
Through influence of th' heavens chearfull ray ;
As it in antique books is mentioned.

These introductions give authority to a fictitious story. Thus the tale of Canace is ushered in,

Whylom as antique stories tellen us.

4. 2. 32.

And, in another place, he refers to history

for a sanction to his invention,

As ye may else-where read that ruefull history.

3. 6. 53.

* Prolog. v. 205.

As old books us saine,

That all this storie tellen more plaine".

And afterwards,

As men may behold

In Stace of Thebes, and these bookes old †.

The Siege of Thebes, and the Destruction of Troy, were the two favourite classical stories of the dark ages. The characters and incidents of these they were mixing perpetually with their romances. Thus, in Chaucer's Palamon and Arcite, a turnament is celebrated before Theseus. Sir Palomydes, one of the knights of Arthur's round table,

*

Knight's Tale, v. 1466.

+ Ibid. v. 2295.