CHAUCER, _The Marchantes Tale_. This book, though spoken of as one and as the work of Solomon, is really divided into several sections, and was doubtless the work of different authors and the product of different times. All was finally collected into a single book, but there is absolutely no clue as to how much is the fruit of the wisdom of Solomon and how much sprang from the experience of others. Two other contributors are mentioned in the book, Lemuel and Agur, writers of whom nothing is elsewhere known. The first nine chapters are chiefly a description and commendation of wisdom, and these are followed by others that are largely made up of sentences very loosely strung together. The proverbs of Agur are much more artificial in style than the others, while the proverbs of King Lemuel are in commendation of chastity, temperance and justice, and the praise of the ideal wife.[29:A] In the year 1676 one Henry D'Anvers collated these proverbs, and arranged them in alphabetical sequence as an aid to the memory. He entitled it "A Presentation of the Proverbs of Solomon in English Dress." At the opening of the book the writer, as in the Biblical original, seeks wisdom. His search is at first fruitless:-- "Fare wel (said I), for yet it don't appear, That Wisdom (whom I seek for) dwelleth here. So I departed thence with speedy feet, When as I found that was not Wisdom's seat." At last, however, he seeks it in the Bible, and his perseverance is here rewarded:-- "She's glorious within, enlightened eyes Do see such beauty which they can't but prize. She hath one room all hung with Pearls (you'll see), King Solomon's Proverbs, full of dignity." This simile of the pearls is to the compiler a very attractive one, and we find it repeated more than once in the book, as, for instance:-- "Who searches oft in small things worth descries. A Pearl is small and yet of a great price: A Proverb is a Pearl then, rich though small, But Scriptural most precious is of all. King Solomon hath left Posterity A rich and everlasting Legacy: A cabinet of Pearls, which all may take Nor shall they yet their fellows poorer make; You may perhaps be owner of't, and yet I also may enjoy the Cabinet. Who will not then this Cab'net prize and keep? They're precious Pearls, although they're in a heap. You'l say, perhap, they're mixt together; well, Loke here, each Jewell hath its proper Cell; And as your use requires, you may repair To such a Cell, and have a Jewell there." This latter part refers to the alphabetical arrangement under such headings as honour, diligent, slothful. On the right-hand page all through his book he gives the same proverbs in Latin.