TWO FLEMISH PROYERBS IN CHAUCER'S CANTERBURY TALES
Chaucer has woven into his final masterpiece, The Cantefbury Taies, a certain number of proverbs which in most cases have been identified by subséquent editors of his works.
Two of these popular sayings are, according to Chaucer's own testimony, allusions to Flemish proverbs.
In his latest study on Chaucer (*), the R. R. Looten, devoting a whole chapter to Chaucer's relations to Flemish history and to the influence of the Flemish language on his work, points out again these two proverbs, without being able however to trace either of their Flemish prototypes.
The first of them is given in the Manciple's taie. This story turns on a crow's misadventure for telling a husband the truth about his wife's misdemeanour, and it ends on a series of ex-
(1) Chanoine Looten. Chaucer. Ses modèles, ses sources, sa religion. Lille, 1931. (Mémoires et travaux publiés par des professeurs des facultés catholiques de Lille. Fasc. XXXVIII). Cfr. Chap. VI. Chaucer et la ï'iandre.
