Abstract
In his note to the passage in the Miller's Tale (p. 789), Robinson follows Haeckel3 and others in referring the reader to the lines in the Bible which read (EcclesiasticUs xxxii, 24): 'Fili, sine consilio nihil facias, et post factumn non poenitebis.'4 Though no one will doubt that this is the ultimate source of the present proverb, there are two points worth noting in regard to it. First of all, the Bible quotation occurs in a negative sense, whereas Chaucer each time uses a positive meaning; secondly, Ecclesiasticus is attributed not to Solomon but to Jesus, son of Sirach. Is, then, the Bible itself the immediate source for Chaucer or for the originals which he used? If, as is generally assumed to be the case, the Tale of MIelibee is earlier than the tales by the Miller and the Merchant,5 there is a ready explanation for this attribution of the three extracts, in any event in the case of Melibee. In his Liber consolationis et consilii, Albertano of Brescia wrote: 'Dixit enim Salomon: Omnia
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