Various
Notes and Queries, Number 79, May 3, 1851 / A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Notes
ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER NO. V
The Arke of Artificial Day.
Before proceeding, to point out the indelible marks by which Chaucer has, as it were, stereotyped the true date of the journey to Canterbury, I shall clear away another stumbling-block, still more insurmountable to Tyrwhitt than his first difficulty of the "halfe cours" in Aries, viz. the seeming inconsistency in statements (1.) and (2.) in the following lines of the prologue to the Man of Lawe's tale:
"The city of Amsterdamremarkable as being one of the chief metropoles of Europe, and as being in many respects the general market of whole the universe; justly celebrated forits large interior canals, on both of their sides enlivened and sheltered by ranges of large, thick, and beautiful trees, and presenting, on large broad and neatly kept, most regularly pav'd quays, long chains of sumptuous habitations, or rather palaces of the principal and weathy merchants; moreover remarkable by its Museum for the objects of the fine arts, &c., its numberless public edifices adapted either to the cultivation of arts, or to the exertions of trade, or to establishments charitable purposes, or of temples of all manners of divine worshipthe city of Amsterdam, we say," &c. It is dated "This 15the of Juin, 1829."
In page 14. the author gives us an account of his habits, &c.:
"I live in Amsterdam since some considerable time I drink no strong liquors, nor do I smoke tobacco and with all thisI have not been attacked by those agues and fevers wh frequently reign here from the month of Juin to the end of the autumn: and twenty foreigners whom I know, do follow the same system, and are still as healthy as I myself; while I have seen a great many of natives taking their drams and smoking their pipes ad libitem, and moreover chawing tobacco in a quite disgusting manner, who," &c.
An Amsterdam Sunday, p. 42.:
"On sundays and holydays the shops and warehouses, and, intra muros, those of public entertainment are close: the devotees go to church, and sanctify the sabbath. Others go to walk outside the towngates: after their walk, they hasten to fine public-play-gardens, where wine, thea, &c. is sold. Neither the mobility remains idle at these entertainments. Every one invites his damsel, and joyously they enter play-gardens of a little less brilliancy than the former. There, at the crying sound of an instrument that rents the ear, accompanied by the delightful handle-organs and the rustic triangle, their tributes are paid to Terpsichore; every where a similitude of talents: the dancing outdoes not the musician."