book of _Troilus and
Creseide_, where "the thridde" has not only "observaunce to May" again
attributed to it, but also apparently some peculiar virtue in dreams. No
sooner does Creseide behold Pandarus on the morning of the third of May,
than "_by the hond on hie, she tooke him fast_," and tells him that she had
thrice dreamed of him that night. Pandarus replies in what appears to have
been a set form of words suitable to the occasion--

"Yea, nece, ye shall faren well the bet,
If God wull, all this yeare."

Now unless the third of May were supposed to possess some unusual virtue,
the dreaming on that morning could scarcely confer a whole year's welfare.
But, be that as it may, there can at least be no doubt that Chaucer
designedly associated _some_ celebration of the advent of May with the
morning of the third of that month.

Without absolutely asserting that my explanation is the true one, I may
nevertheless suggest it until some better may be offered. It is, that the
association may have originated in the invocation of the goddess Flora, by
Ovid, on that day (_Fasti_, v.), in order that she might inspire him with
an explanation of the Floralia, or Floral games, which were celebrated in
Rome from the 28th of April to the _third_ of May.

These games, if transferred by Chaucer to Athens, would at once explain the
"gret feste" and the "lusty seson of that May."

Supposing, then, that Chaucer, in the _Knight's Tale_, meant, as I think he
meant, to place the great combat on the anniversary of the fourth of
May--that being the day on which Theseus had intercepted the duel,--then
the entry into Athens of the rival companies would take place on {203}
(Sunday) the second, and the sacrifices and feasting on the _third of May_,
the last of the Floralia.

A. E. B.

Leeds, March 4, 1851.

[Footnote 1: [Of which there can be no doubt. See further p. 205. of our
present Number.--ED.]]

* * * * *

INEDITED POETRY, NO. II.

CHORUS.

(Harleian MSS., No. 367. fo. 154.)

"Is, is there nothing cann withstand
The hand
Of Time: but that it must
Be shaken into dust?
Then poore, poore Israelites are wee
Who see,
But cannot shunn the Graue's captivitie.

"Alas, good Browne! that Nature hath
No bath,
Or virtuous herbes to strayne,
To boyle[2] thee yong againe;
Yet could she (kind) but back command
Thy brand,