view of this reading, and thought, perhaps, the MS. was right; and, at all events, the question was worth investigating.
Disappointed at finding that Brathwaite, in his Comment on The Miller's Tale (p. 31), had omitted the words of the charm, I made up my mind to collect the readings of it from as many MSS. as I could get access to; a resolution which I fear must have procured for me the character of a great bore, not only from some of my friends, but also from possessors of Chaucer MSS. to whom I was not known. Among the latter my thanks were especially due to the late Lord Ashburnham, to whose kindness and courtesy I was indebted for transcripts of "The Charm" from all his MSS.; while among the former I must gratefully remember the late Rev. John Wilson, of Trinity College, Oxford, who sent me similar transcripts from all the MSS. in the Bodleian, from one in his own college, and one at Corpus. I myself copied it from all the MSS. in the British Museum. For, while I was most anxious to clear up the meaning of the hitherto unnoticed "verray," I was also desirous to learn what I could about "the white Paternoster" and "St. Peter's Soster," indulging, like Mr. Micawber, in the hope "that something would turn up" which would furnish materials for a pleasant paper for the Society of Antiquaries.
When, on the formation of the Folk-Lore Society, I was invited to contribute to its publications, I remembered my old curiosity about Chaucer's Night Charm, and determined to look up my notes on the subject. But, alas! in the thirty years of a life (not altogether an idle one) which have passed since those notes were made, I regret to say, many of them have disappeared, and, of the numerous transcripts of the passage to which I have referred, I have only been able to recover the eight from the Oxford MSS., and two of those I copied from the British Museum; and some few references to passages in English and foreign books of folk-lore, more or less illustrative of the three allusions in the Charm, which appear to me at least very obscure, viz., "Nightes verray," "St. Peter's Soster," and "White Paternoster;" and I should now have hesitated to submit so fragmentary a paper to the Members of the Folk-Lore Society but for
