[536] "Complete Works," vol. iv. p. 538. The canon and his man join the pilgrims during the fourth day's journey. Contrary to Chaucer's use, such a keen animosity appears in this satire of alchemists that it seems as if the poet, then rather hard up, had had himself a grudge against such quacks. [537] l. 1963. Compare the mendicant friar in Diderot, who drew him from nature, centuries later; it is the same sort of nature. Friar John "venait dans notre village demander des oeufs, de la laine, du chanvre, des fruits a chaque saison." Friar John "ne passait pas dans les rues que les peres, les meres et les enfants n'allassent a lui et ne lui criassent: Bonjour, frere Jean, comment vous portez vous, frere Jean? Il est sur que quand il entrait dans une maison, la benediction du ciel y entrait avec lui." "Jacques le Fataliste et son Maitre," ed. Asseline, p. 46. [538] "Complete Works," vol. iv. p. 285; on Geoffrey de Vinesauf and Richard, see above, p. 180. [539] See for example his description of a young lady gathering flowers at dawn in a garden, at the foot of a "dongeoun," Knight's Tale, l. 190, "Complete Works," iv. p. 31. [540] But very popular, derived from the "Liber Consolationis" of Albertano of Brescia, written ab. 1246, ed. Thor Sundby, Chaucer Society, 1873. It was translated into French (several times), Italian, German, Dutch. French text in MS. Reg. 19, C vii. in the British Museum: "Uns jouvenceauls appele Melibee, puissant et riches ot une femme nomme Prudence, et de celle femme ot une fille. Advint un jour...." "A young man," says Chaucer, whose tale is also in prose, "called Melibeus, mighty and riche, bigat up-on his wyf that called was Prudence, a doghter which that called was Sophie. Upon a day befel...." (iv. 119). [541] Unlike most of the tales, this one is written in stanzas, Chaucer's favourite seven-line stanza, rhyming _a b a b b c c_. [542] It is to be found in the "Menagier de Paris," ab. 1393, the author of which declares that he will "traire un exemple qui fut ja pieca translate par maistre Francois Petrarc qui a Romme fut couronne poete" ("Menagier," 1846, vol. i. p. 99). The same story finds place in "Melibeus," MS. Reg. 19 C vii. in the British Museum, fol. 140. Another French translation was printed ab. 1470: "La Patience Griselidis Marquise de Saluces." Under Louis XIV., Perrault wrote a metrical version of the same story: "La Marquise de Saluces ou la patience de Griselidis," Paris, 1691, 12mo. A number of ballads in all countries were dedicated to Griselda; the popularity of an English one is shown by the fact of other ballads being "to the tune of Patient Grissel." One of Miss Edgeworth's novels has for its title and subject: "The Modern Griselda."