the machinery of the fairies, which Chaucer has used so happily,
was probably added by himself; and, indeed, I cannot help
thinking that his Pluto and Proserpina were the true progenitors
of Oberon and Titania; or rather, that they themselves have,
once at least, deigned to revisit our poetical system under the
latter names."

2. Seculeres: of the laity; but perhaps, since the word is of two-
fold meaning, Chaucer intends a hit at the secular clergy, who,
unlike the regular orders, did not live separate from the world,
but shared in all its interests and pleasures -- all the more easily
and freely, that they had not the civil restraint of marriage.

3. This and the next eight lines are taken from the "Liber
aureolus Theophrasti de nuptiis," ("Theophrastus's Golden
Book of Marriage") quoted by Hieronymus, "Contra
Jovinianum," ("Against Jovinian") and thence again by John of
Salisbury.

4. Mebles: movables, furniture, &c.; French, "meubles."

5. "Wade's boat" was called Guingelot; and in it, according to
the old romance, the owner underwent a long series of wild
adventures, and performed many strange exploits. The romance
is lost, and therefore the exact force of the phrase in the text is
uncertain; but Mr Wright seems to be warranted in supposing
that Wade's adventures were cited as examples of craft and
cunning -- that the hero, in fact, was a kind of Northern
Ulysses, It is possible that to the same source we may trace the
proverbial phrase, found in Chaucer's "Remedy of Love," to