The Voyages of Marco Polo. Марко Поло
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to him that they want help against Godfrey of Bouillon. The Viex says he does not give a bouton for Godfrey; he will send one of his Hauts-Assis straight to his tent, and give him a great knife of steel between fie et poumon!
After dinner they go out and witness the feat of devotion which we have quoted elsewhere.[23] They then see the Paradise and the lovely Ivorine, with whose beauty Bauduin is struck dumb. The lady had never smiled before; now she declares that he for whom she had long waited was come. Bauduin exclaims:
"'Madame, fu-jou chou qui sui le vous soubgis?'
Quant la puchelle l'ot, lors li geta. j. ris;
Et li dist: 'Bauduins, vous estes mes amis!'" Pp. 362–363.
The Old One is vexed, but speaks pleasantly to his daughter, who replies with frightfully bad language, and declares herself to be a Christian. The father calls out to the Caliph to kill her. The Caliph pulls out a big knife and gives him a blow that nearly cuts him in two. The amiable Ivorine says she will go with Bauduin:
"'Sé mes pères est mors, n'en donne. j. paresis!'" P. 364.
We need not follow the story further, as I did not trace beyond this point any distinct derivation from our Traveller, with the exception of that allusion to the incombustible covering of the napkin of St. Veronica, which I have quoted at p. 216 of this volume. But including this, here are at least seven different themes borrowed from Marco Polo's book, on which to be sure his poetical contemporary plays the most extraordinary variations.
[Sidenote: Chaucer and Marco Polo.]
[78 bis.—In the third volume of The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, Oxford, 1894, the Rev. Walter W. Skeat gives (pp. 372 seqq.) an Account of the Sources of the Canterbury Tales. Regarding The Squieres Tales, he says that one of his sources was the Travels of Marco; Mr. Keighley in his Tales and Popular Fictions, published in 1834, at p. 76, distinctly derives Chaucer's Tale from the travels of Marco Polo. (Skeat, l. c., p. 463, note.) I cannot quote all the arguments given by the Rev. W. W. Skeat to support his theory, pp. 463–477.
Regarding the opinion of Professor Skeat of Chaucer's indebtedness to Marco Polo, cf. Marco Polo and the Squire's Tale, by Professor John Matthews Manly, vol. xi. of the Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 1896, pp. 349–362. Mr. Manly says (p. 360): "It seems clear, upon reviewing the whole problem, that if Chaucer used Marco Polo's narrative, he either carelessly or intentionally confused all the features of the setting that could possibly be confused, and retained not a single really characteristic trait of any person, place or event. It is only by twisting everything that any part of Chaucer's story can be brought into relation with any part of Polo's. To do this might be allowable, if any rational explanation could be given for Chaucer's supposed treatment of his 'author,' or if there were any scarcity of sources from which Chaucer might have obtained as much information about Tartary as he seems really to have possessed; but such an explanation would be difficult to devise, and there is no such scarcity. Any one of half a dozen accessible accounts could be distorted into almost if not quite as great resemblance to the Squire's Tale as Marco Polo's can."
Mr. A. W. Pollard, in his edition of The Squire's Tale (Lond., 1899) writes: "A very able paper, by Prof. J. M. Manly, demonstrates the needlessness of Prof. Skeat's theory, which has introduced fresh complications into an already complicated story. My own belief is that, though we may illustrate the Squire's Tale from these old accounts of Tartary, and especially from Marco Polo, because he has been so well edited by Colonel Yule, there is very little probability that Chaucer consulted any of them. It is much more likely that he found these details where he found more important parts of his story, i.e. in some lost romance. But if we must suppose that he provided his own local colour, we have no right to pin him down to using Marco Polo to the exclusion of other accessible authorities." Mr. Pollard adds in a note (p. xiii.): "There are some features in these narratives, e.g. the account of the gorgeous dresses worn at the Kaan's feast, which Chaucer with his love of colour could hardly have helped reproducing if he had known them."—H. C.]
[1] See Ferrazzi, Manuele Dantesca, Bassano, 1865, p. 729.
[2] In Quaritch's catalogue for Nov. 1870 there is only one old edition of Polo; there are nine of Maundevile. In 1839 there were nineteen MSS. of the latter author catalogued in the British Museum Library. There are now only six of Marco Polo. At least twenty-five editions of Maundevile and only five of Polo were printed in the 15th century.
[3] I have made personal enquiry at the National Libraries of Naples and Palermo, at the Communal Library in the latter city, and at the Benedictine Libraries of Monte Cassino, Monreale, S. Martino, and Catania.
In the 15th century, when Polo's book had become more generally diffused we find three copies of it in the Catalogue of the Library of Charles VI. of France, made at the Louvre in 1423, by order of the Duke of Bedford.
The estimates of value are curious. They are in sols parisis, which we shall not estimate very wrongly at a shilling each:—
"No. 295. Item. Marcus Paulus; en ung cahier escript de lettre formée en françois, à deux coulombes. Commt. ou ii'e fo. 'deux frères prescheurs,' et ou derrenier 'que sa arrières.' X. s. p.
"No. 334. Item. Marcus Paulus. Couvert de drap d'or, bien escript & enluminé, de lettre de forme en françois, à deux coulombes. Commt. ou ii'e fol.; 'il fut Roys,' & ou derrenier 'propremen,' à deux fermouers de laton. XV. s. p.
"No. 336. Item. Marcus Paulus; non enluminé, escript en françois, de lettre de forme. Commt. ou ii'e fo. 'vocata moult grant,' & ou derrenier 'ilec dist il.' Couvert de cuir blanc, à deux fermouers de laton. XII. s. p."
(Inventaire de la Bibliothèque du Roi Charles VI., etc. Paris, Société des Bibliophiles, 1867.)
[4] See Del Reggimento e de' Costumi delle donne di Messer Francesco da Barberino, Roma, 1815, pp. 166 and 271. The latter passage runs thus, on Slavery:—
"E fu indutta prima da Noé,
E fu cagion lo vin, perchè si egge:
Ch' egli è un paese, dove
Son molti servi in parte di Cathay:
Che per questa cagione
Hanno a nimico il vino,
E non ne beon, nè voglion vedere."
The author was born the year before Dante (1264), and though he lived to 1348 it is probable that the poems in question were written in his earlier years. Cathay was no doubt known by dim repute long before the final return of the Polos, both through the original journey of Nicolo and Maffeo, and by information gathered by the Missionary Friars. Indeed, in 1278 Pope Nicolas III., in consequence of information said to have come from Abaka Khan of Persia, that Kúblái was a baptised Christian, sent a party of Franciscans with a long letter to the Kaan Quobley, as he is termed. They never seem to have reached their destination. And in 1289 Nicolas IV. entrusted a similar mission to Friar John of Monte Corvino, which eventually led to very tangible results. Neither of the Papal letters, however, mentions Cathay. (See Mosheim, App. pp. 76 and 94.)
[5] See Muratori, IX. 583, seqq.; Bianconi, Mem. I. p. 37.
[6] This Friar makes a strange hotch-potch of what he had read, e.g.: "The Tartars, when they came out of the mountains, made them a king, viz., the son of Prester John, who is thus vulgarly termed Vetulus de la Montagna!" (Mon. Hist. Patr. Script. III. 1557.)
[7] G. Villani died in the great plague of 1348. But his book was begun soon after Marco's was written, for he states that it was the sight of the memorials of greatness which he witnessed at Rome, during the Jubilee of 1300, that put it into his head to write the history of the rising glories of Florence, and that he began the work after his return home. (Bk. VIII. ch. 36.)
[8] Book V. ch. 29.
[9] Petri Aponensis Medici ac Philosophi Celeberrimi, Conciliator, Venice,