← Chaucer's Works, Volume 1 — Romaunt of the Rose; Minor Poems

Chapter 6

Chaucer's Works, Volume 1 — Romaunt of the Rose (part 6)

Exil al vice, and folow trewth alway.'

Observe how his first, third, and fourth lines answer to Chaucer's fifth, second, and fourth lines respectively.

5. 'Dignitees apertienen ... to vertu'; Boeth. iii. pr. 4, l. 25.

7. Al were he, albeit he may wear; i. e. although he may be a bishop, king, or emperor.

8. This firste stok, i. e. Christ. In l. 12, his heir means mankind in general.

Compare Le Rom. de la Rose, 18819:—

'Noblece vient de bon corage,

Car gentillece de lignage

N'est pas gentillece qui vaille,

Por quoi bonté de cuer i faille,

Por quoi doit estre en li parans [apparent]

La proece de ses parens

Qui la gentillece conquistrent

Par les travaux que grans i mistrent.

Et quant du siecle trespasserent,

Toutes lor vertus emporterent,

Et lessierent as hoirs l'avoir;

Que plus ne porent d'aus avoir.

L'avoir ont, plus riens n'i a lor,

Ne gentillece, ne valor,

Se tant ne font que gentil soient

Par sens ou par vertu qu'il aient.'

And cf. Dante, Purg. vii. 121-3, to which Ch. refers in his Wife of Bath's Tale (D 1128).

15. Vyc-e is dissyllabic; hence two MSS. turn it into Vices, and one even has Vicesse!

With this stanza compare part of the French quotation above, and compare Rom. Rose, 19064, &c.:—

'Mes il sunt mauvais, vilain nastre,

Et d'autrui noblece se vantent;

Il ne dient pas voir, ains mentent,

Et le non [name] de gentillece emblent,

Quant lor bons parens ne resemblent;' &c.

16. In MS. A. is this side-note, in a later hand:—

'Nam genus et proauos et quæ non fecimus ipsi

Vix ea nostra voco.'

20. This is a difficult line to obtain from the MSS. It is necessary to keep heir in the singular, because of he in l. 21. In MS. A., maþe clearly stands for makeþe, i. e. maketh, as in nearly all the MSS. This gives us—That maketh his heir him that wol [or can] him queme. The change from his heir him to the more natural order him his heir is such a gain to the metre that it is worth while to make it.

XV. Lak of Stedfastnesse.

In MS. Harl. 7333 is the following note, probably correct:—'This balade made Geffrey Chauuciers the Laureall Poete of Albion, and sent it to his souerain lorde kynge Rycharde the secounde, thane being in his Castell of Windesore.' In MS. T. is the heading:—'Balade Royal made by oure laureal poete of Albyon in hees laste yeeres'; and above l. 22 is:—'Lenvoye to Kyng Richard.' In MS. F. it is simply headed 'Balade.' For another allusion to King Richard at Windsor, see note to Lenvoy to Scogan, l. 43.

The general idea is taken from Boethius, bk. ii. met. 8, which Chaucer thus translates:—'That the world with stable feith varieth acordable chaunginges, that the contrarious qualitee of elements holden among hem-self aliaunce perdurable, ... al this acordaunce of thinges is bounden with love, that governeth erthe and see, and hath also commaundements to the hevenes. And yif this love slakede the brydeles, alle thinges that now loven hem to-gederes wolden maken a bataile continuely, and stryven to fordoon the fasoun of this worlde, the whiche they now leden in acordable feith by faire moevinges.... O weleful were mankinde, yif thilke love that governeth hevene governed youre corages!'

4. Word and deed; or read Word and werk, as in Harl. 7333 and T.

5. Lyk, alike; or read oon, one, as in Harl. and T. Up so doun is the old phrase, and common. Modern English has 'improved' it into upside down, where side has to mean 'top.'

10. Unable, not able, wanting in ability or strength.

21. Here the Bannatyne MS. inserts a spurious fourth stanza. It runs thus:—

'Falsheid, that sowld bene abhominable,

Now is regeing, but reformatioun,

Quha now gifis lergly ar maist dissavable,

For vycis are the grund of sustentatioun;

All wit is turnit to cavillatioun,

Lawtie expellit, and al gentilnes,

That all is loist for laik of steidfastnes.'

This is very poor stuff.

24, 25. Suffre ... don, suffer (to be) done; correct as being an old idiom. See my note to the Clerkes Tale, E 1098.

28. For wed, two MSS. have drive; a reading which one is glad to reject. It would be difficult to think of a more unfitting word.

XVI. Lenvoy a Scogan.

There are but three MSS., all much alike. As to Scogan, see the Introduction. MSS. F. and P. have the heading—'Lenvoy de Chaucer a Scogan'; Gg. has—'Litera directa de Scogon per G. C.'

1, 2. These two lines are quite Dantesque. Cf. Purg. i. 47, 76; Inf. iii. 8:—'Son le leggi ... cosi rotte'; 'gli editti eterni ... guasti'; 'io eterno duro.'

3. The 'seven bright gods' are the seven planets. The allusion is to some great floods of rain that had fallen. Chaucer says it is because the heavenly influences are no longer controlled; the seven planets are allowed to weep upon the earth. The year was probably 1393, with respect to which we find in Stowe's Annales, ed. 1605, p. 495:—'In September, lightnings and thunders, in many places of England did much hurt, but esp[e]cially in Cambridge-shire the same brent houses and corne near to Tolleworke, and in the Towne it brent terribly. Such abundance of water fell in October, that at Bury in Suffolke the church was full of water, and at Newmarket it bare downe walles of houses, so that men and women hardly escaped drowning.' Note the mention of Michaelmas in l. 19, shewing that the poem was written towards the close of the year.

7. Errour; among the senses given by Cotgrave for F. erreur we find 'ignorance, false opinion.' Owing to his ignorance, Chaucer is almost dead for fear; i. e. he wants to know the reason for it all.

9. Fifte cercle, fifth circle or sphere of the planets, reckoning from without; see note to Mars, l. 29. This fifth sphere is that of Venus.

14. This deluge of pestilence, this late pestilential flood. There were several great pestilences in the fourteenth century, notably in 1348-9, 1361-2, 1369, and 1375-6; cf. note to IV. 96. Chaucer seems to imply that the bad weather may cause another plague.

15. Goddes, goddess, Venus; here spoken of as the goddess of love.

16. Rakelnesse, rashness. The MSS. have rekelnesse, reklesnesse, reckelesnesse; the first is nearly right. Rakelnesse is Chaucer's word, Cant. Tales, 17232 (H 283); five lines above, Phœbus blames his rakel hond, because he had slain his wife.

17. Forbode is; rather a forced rime to goddes; see p. (note).

21. Erst, before. I accept Chaucer's clear evidence that his friend Scogan (probably Henry Scogan) was not the same person as the John (or Thomas) Scogan to whom various silly jests were afterwards attributed.

22. To record, by way of witness. Record, as Koch remarks, is here a sb., riming with lord; not the gerund record-e.

27. Of our figure, of our (portly) shape; see l. 31.

28. Him, i. e. Cupid. The Pepys MS. has hem, them, i. e. the arrows. Koch reads hem, and remarks that it makes the best sense. But it comes to much the same thing. Cf. Parl. of Foules, 217, where some of Cupid's arrows are said to slay, and some to wound. It was the spear of Achilles that could both wound and cure; see Squi. Tale, F 240, and the note. Perhaps, in some cases, the arrow of Cupid may be supposed to cure likewise; but it is simpler to ascribe the cure to Cupid himself. Observe the use of he in ll. 24 and 26, and of his in ll. 25 and 26. Thynne has hym.

29. I drede of, I fear for thy misfortune.

30. Wreche, vengeance; distinct from wrecche.

31. 'Gray-headed and round of shape'; i. e. like ourselves. Cf. what Chaucer says of his own shape; C. T. Group B, 1890.

35. 'See, the old gray-haired man is pleased to rime and amuse himself.' For ryme (as in the three MSS.), the old editions have renne. This would mean, 'See, the old gray horse is pleased to run about and play.' And possibly this is right; for the O. F. grisel properly means a gray horse, as shewn in Godefroy's O. F. Dict.

36. Mexcuse, for me excuse, excuse myself. Cf. mawreke, Compleint to Pite, 11.

43. For stremes, Gg. has wellis; but the whole expression stremes heed is equivalent to well, and we have which streme in l. 45 (Koch).

In the MSS., the words stremes heed are explained by Windesore (Windsor), and ende of whiche streme in l. 45 by Grenewich (Greenwich); explanations which are probably correct. Thus the stream is the Thames; Chaucer was living, in a solitary way, at Greenwich, whilst Scogan was with the court at Windsor, much nearer to the source of favour.

47. Tullius. Perhaps, says Koch, there is an allusion to Cicero's Epist. vi. ad Cæcinam. For myself, I think he alludes to his De Amicitia; see note to Rom. Rose, 5286.

XVII. Lenvoy a Bukton.

1. Bukton. Most old editions have the queer reading:—'My mayster. &c. whan of Christ our kyng.' Tyrwhitt was the first to correct this, and added:—'It has always been printed at the end of the Book of the Duchesse, with an &c. in the first line instead of the name of Bukton; and in Mr. Urry's edition the following most unaccountable note is prefixed to it—"This seems an Envoy to the Duke of Lancaster after his loss of Blanch." From the reference to the Wife of Bathe, l. 29, I should suppose this to have been one of our author's later compositions, and I find that there was a Peter de Buketon, the King's Escheator for the County of York, in 1397 (Pat. 20 R. II. p. 2, m. 3, ap. Rymer) to whom this poem, from the familiar style of it, is much more likely to have been addressed than to the Duke of Lancaster.' Julian Notary's edition is the only one that retains Bukton's name.

My maister Bukton is in the vocative case.

2. 'What is truth?' See John xviii. 38.

5. Highte, promised; by confusion with heet (A.S. hēht).

8. Eft, again, a second time. This seems to assert that Chaucer was at this time a widower. Cf. C. T. 9103 (E 1227).

9. 'Mariage est maus liens,' marriage is an evil tie; Rom. de la Rose, 8871. And again, with respect to marriage—'Quel forsenerie [witlessness] te maine A cest torment, a ceste paine?' R. Rose, 8783; with much more to the same effect. Cf. Cant. Tales, Marchauntes Prologue (throughout); and Barbour's Bruce, i. 267.

18. Cf. 1 Cor. vii. 9, 28. And see Wife of Bath's Prol. D 154-160.

23. 'That it would be more pleasant for you to be taken prisoner in Friesland.' This seems to point to a period when such a mishap was not uncommon. In fact, some Englishmen were present in an expedition against Friesland which took place in the autumn of 1396. See the whole account in Froissart, Chron. bk. iv. cc. 77, 78. He tells us that the Frieslanders would not ransom the prisoners taken by their enemies; consequently, they could not exchange prisoners, and at last they put their prisoners to death. Thus the peculiar peril of being taken prisoner in Friesland is fully explained.

25. Proverbes, set of proverbs. Koch remarks—'Proverbes is rather curious, referring to a singular, but seems to be right, as proverbe would lose its last syllable, standing before a vowel.' Perhaps we should read or proverbe.

27. This answers to the modern proverb—'Let well alone.'

28. I. e. learn to know when you are well off. 'Half a loaf is better than no bread.' 'Better sit still than rise and fall' (Heywood). 'Better some of a pudding than none of pie' (Ray). In the Fairfax MS., the following rimed proverb is quoted at the end of the poem:—

'Better is to suffre, and fortune abyde,

Than hastely to clymbe, and sodeynly to slyde.'

The same occurs (says Hazlitt) at the end of Caxton's edition of Lydgate's Stans Puer ad Mensam; but does not belong to that poem.

29. The reference is to the Wife of Bathes Prologue, which curiously enough, is again referred to by Chaucer in the Marchauntes Tale, C. T. 9559 (E 1685). This reference shews that the present poem was written quite late in life, as the whole tone of it shews; and the same remark applies to the Marchauntes Tale also. We may suspect that Chaucer was rather proud of his Prologue to the Wife of Bathes Tale. Unquestionably, he took a great deal of pains about it.

XVIII. Compleynt of Venus.

This poem has frequently been printed as if it formed a part of The Compleynt of Mars; but it is a separate poem, and belongs to a later period.

The Compleynt of Mars is an original poem; but the present poem is a translation, being partly adapted, and partly translated from three Balades by Sir Otes de Graunson (l. 82). The original Balades have been lately recovered by Dr. Piaget, and are printed below the text. See the Introduction.

It consists of three Ballads and an Envoy, and bears a strong resemblance, in metrical form, to the poem on Fortune, each Ballad having three stanzas of eight lines each, with a refrain. It differs from 'Fortune' only in the arrangement of the rimes, which occur in the order a b a b b c c b, instead of (as in Fortune) in the order a b a b b c b c. One rime (in -aunce) occurs in the second Ballad as well as in the first; but this is quite an accidental detail, of no importance. It must be remembered that the metre was not chosen by Chaucer, but by Graunson. The Envoy, which alone is original, consists of ten lines, rimed a a b a a b b a a b. This arrangement is very unusual. See further in the note to l. 82.

In the MSS. T. and A. we have notes of some importance, written by Shirley. T. has:—'The Compleynt of Venus. And filowing begynnethe a balade translated out of frenshe in-to englisshe by Chaucier, Geffrey; the frenshe made sir Otes de Grauntsome, knight Savosyen.' A. has:—'Here begynnethe a balade made by that worthy Knight of Savoye in frenshe, calde sir Otes Graunson; translated by Chauciers.' At the end of the copy in T. is:—'Hit is sayde that Graunsome made this last balade for Venus, resembled to my lady of york; aunswering the complaynt of Mars.' We certainly find that Chaucer has materially altered the first of the three Balades; so perhaps he wished to please his patron. But the title (probably not Chaucer's) is a bad one. See the Introduction. Cf. note to l. 73.

1. We must suppose Venus, i. e. the lady, to be the speaker. Hence the subject of the first Ballad is the worthiness of the lover of Venus, in another word, of Mars; indeed, in Julian Notary's edition, the poem is headed 'The Compleint of Venus for Mars.' But Mars is merely to be taken as a general type of true knighthood.

I have written the general subject of each Ballad at the head of each, merely for convenience. The subjects are:—(1) The Lover's worthiness; (2) Disquietude caused by Jealousy; (3) Satisfaction in Constancy. We thus have three movements, expressive of Admiration, Passing Doubt, and Reassurance.

The lady here expresses, when in a pensive mood, the comfort she finds in the feeling that her lover is worthy; for every one praises his excellence.

9. This portrait of a worthy knight should be placed side by side with that of a worthy lady, viz. Constance. See Man of Law's Tale, B 162-8.

11. Wold, willed. The later E. would is dead, as a past participle, and only survives as a past tense. It is scarce even in Middle English, but occurs in P. Plowman, B. xv. 258—'if God hadde wolde [better wold] hym-selue.' See also Leg. Good Women, 1209, and note.

22. Aventure, luck; in this case, good luck.

23. Here is certainly a false rime; Chaucer nowhere else rimes -oure with -ure. But the conditions under which the poem was written were quite exceptional (see note to l. 79); so that this is no proof that the poem is spurious. There is a false rime in Sir Topas, Group B, l. 2092 (see my note).

25. In this second Ballad or Movement, an element of disturbance is introduced; jealous suspicions arise, but are put aside. Like the third Ballad, it is addressed to Love, which occurs, in the vocative case, in ll. 25, 49, and 57.

The lady says it is but suitable that lovers should have to pay dearly for 'the noble thing,' i. e. for the valuable treasure of having a worthy lover. They pay for it by various feelings and expressions of disquietude.

26. Men, one; the impersonal pronoun; quite as applicable to a woman as to a man. Cf. F. on.

31. The French text shews that we must read Pleyne, not Pleye; besides, it makes better sense. This correction is due to Mr. Paget Toynbee; see his Specimens of Old French, p. 492.

33. 'May Jealousy be hanged, for she is so inquisitive that she would like to know everything. She suspects everything, however innocent.' Such is the general sense.

37. The final e in lov-e is sounded, being preserved from elision by the cæsura. The sense is—'so dearly is love purchased in (return for) what he gives; he often gives inordinately, but bestows more sorrow than pleasure.'

46. Nouncerteyn, uncertainty; as in Troilus, i. 337. A parallel formation to nounpower, impotence, which occurs in Chaucer's tr. of Boethius, bk. iii. pr. 5, l. 14.

49. In this third Ballad, Venus says she is glad to continue in her love, and contemns jealousy. She is thankful for her good fortune, and will never repent her choice.

50. Lace, snare, entanglement. Chaucer speaks of the lace of love, and the lace of Venus; Kn. Tale, 959, 1093 (A 1817, 1951).

52. To lete of, to leave off, desist.

56. All the MSS. read never; yet I believe it should be nat (not).

62. 'Let the jealous (i. e. Jealousy) put it to the test, (and so prove) that I will never, for any woe, change my mind.'

69. Wey, highroad. Wente, footpath.

70. The reading ye, for I, is out of the question; for herte is addressed as thou. So in l. 66, we must needs read thee, not you.

73. Princess. As the MSS. vary between Princesse and Princes, it is difficult to know whether the Envoy is addressed to a princess or to princes. It is true that Fortune seems to be addressed to three princes collectively, but this is unusual, and due to the peculiar form of that Envoy, which is supposed to be spoken by Fortune, not by the author. Moreover, the MSS. of Fortune have only the readings Princes and Princis; not one of them has Princesse.

The present case seems different. Chaucer would naturally address his Envoy, in the usual manner, to a single person. The use of your and ye is merely the complimentary way of addressing a person of rank. The singular number seems implied by the use of the word benignitee; 'receive this complaint, addressed to your benignity in accordance with my small skill.' Your benignity seems to be used here much as we say your grace, your highness, your majesty. The plural would (if this be so) be your benignitees; cf. Troil. v. 1859. There is no hint at all of the plural number.

But if the right reading be princess, we see that Shirley's statement (see p. , l. 6) should rather have referred to Chaucer, who may have produced this adaptation at the request of 'my lady of York.' Princesses are usually scarce, but 'my lady of York' had the best of claims to the title, as she was daughter to no less a person than Pedro, king of Spain. She died in 1394 (Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 154; Stowe's Annales, 1605, p. 496); and this Envoy may have been written in 1393.

76. Eld, old age. See a similar allusion in Lenvoy to Scogan, 35, 38.

79. Penaunce, great trouble. The great trouble was caused, not by Chaucer's having any difficulty in finding rimes (witness his other Ballads), but in having to find rimes, to translate somewhat closely, and yet to adapt the poem in a way acceptable to the 'princess,' all at once. See further in the Introduction.

Chaucer's translation of the A B C should be compared; for there, in every stanza, he begins by translating rather closely, but ends by deviating widely from the original in many instances, merely because he wanted to find rimes to words which he had already selected.

Moreover, the difficulty was much increased by the great number of lines ending with the same rime. There are but 8 different endings in the 72 lines of the poem, viz. 6 lines ending in -ure, -able, -yse, and -ay, and 12 in -aunce, -esse, -ing, and -ente. In the Envoy, Chaucer purposely limits himself to 2 endings, viz. -ee and -aunce, as a proof of his skill.

81. Curiositee, i. e. intricacy of metre. The line is too long. I would read To folwe in word the curiositee; and thus get rid of the puzzling phrase word by word, which looks like a gloss.

82. Graunson. He is here called the flower of the poets of France. He was, accordingly, not an Englishman. According to Shirley, he was a knight of Savoy, which is correct. Sir Oto de Graunson received an annuity of £126 13s. 4d. from Richard II., in November, 1393, for services rendered; see the mention of him in the Patent Rolls, 17 Rich. II., p. 1, no. 339, sixth skin; printed in Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 123. It is there expressly said that his sovereign seigneur was the Count of Savoy, but he had taken an oath of allegiance to the king of England. The same Graunson received a payment from Richard in 1372, and at other times. See the article by Dr. Piaget referred to in the Introduction.

XIX. The Compleint to his empty Purse.

The date of the Envoy to this Poem can be determined almost to a day. Henry IV. was received as king by the parliament, Sept. 30, 1399. Chaucer received his answer, in the shape of an additional grant of forty marks yearly, on Oct. 3 of the same year. Consequently, the date of the Envoy is Sept. 30 or Oct. 1 or 2 in that year. It is obvious that the poem itself had been written (perhaps some time) beforehand; see note to l. 17. As far as we know, the Envoy is Chaucer's last work.

A somewhat similar complaint was addressed to the French king John II. by G. de Machault in 1351-6; but it is in short rimed lines; see his works, ed. Tarbé, p. 78. But the real model which Chaucer had in view was, in my opinion, the Ballade by Eustache Deschamps, written in 1381, and printed in Tarbé's edition, at p. 55.

This Ballade is of a similar character, having three stanzas of eight lines each, with a somewhat similar refrain, viz. 'Mais de paier n'y sçay voie ne tour,' i. e. but how to pay I know therein no way nor method. It was written on a similar occasion, viz. after the death of Charles V. of France, and the accession of Charles VI., who had promised Deschamps a pension, but had not paid it. Hence the opening lines:—

'Dieux absoille le bon Roy trespassé!

Et Dieux consault cellui qui est en vie!

Il me donna rente le temps passé

A mon vivant; laquelle je n'ay mie.'

The Envoy has but six lines, though the stanzas have eight; similarly, Chaucer's Envoy has but five lines (rimed a a b b a), though the stanzas have seven. Chaucer's Envoy is in a very unusual metre, which was copied by the author of the Cuckoo and the Nightingale.

The Title, in MS. F. is—'The Complaynt of Chaucer to his Purse.' In Caxton's print, it is—'The compleint of Chaucer vnto his empty purse.' In MS. P.—'La Compleint de Chaucer a sa Bourse voide.' MS. Harl. has—'A supplicacion to Kyng Richard by chaucier.' The last of these, written by Shirley, is curious. If not a mere mistake, it seems to imply that the Complaint was first prepared before king Richard was deposed, though, by means of the Envoy, it was addressed to his successor. However, this copy of Shirley's gives the Envoy; so it may have been a mere mistake. Line 23 is decisive; see note below.

I remark here, for completeness' sake, that this poem has sometimes been ascribed to Hoccleve; but, apparently, without any reason.

4. Koch remarks, that the Additional MS. 22139, which alone has That, is here superior to the rest; and he may be right. Still, the reading For is quite intelligible.

8. This day. This hints at impatience; the poet did not contemplate having long to wait. But we must take it in connexion with l. 17; see note to that line.

10. Colour; with reference to golden coins. So also in the Phisiciens Tale (C. T. 11971, or C 37), the golden colour of Virginia's hair is expressed by—

'And Phebus dyed hath hir tresses grete

Lyk to the stremes of his burned hete.'

11. Four MSS., as well as the printed copies, read That of yelownesse, &c.; and this may very well be right. If so, the scansion is:—That of yél | ownés | se hád | de név | er pere. MS. Harl. 2251 has That of yowre Ielownesse, but the yowre is merely copied in from l. 10.

12. Stere, rudder; see Man of Lawes Tale, B 448, 833.

17. Out of this toune. This seems to mean—'help me to retire from London to some cheaper place.' At any rate, toune seems to refer to some large town, where prices were high. From the tone of this line, and that of l. 8, I should conclude that the poem was written on some occasion of special temporary difficulty, irrespectively of general poverty; and that the Envoy was hastily added afterwards, without revision of the poem itself. (I find that Ten Brink says the same.) Compare Thackeray's Carmen Lilliense.

19. 'That is, I am as bare of money as the tonsure of a friar is of hair'; Bell.

22. Brutes Albioun, the Albion of Brutus. Albion is the old name for England or Britain in the histories which follow Geoffrey of Monmouth and profess to give the ancient history of Britain before the coming of the Romans. See Layamon's Brut, l. 1243; Higden's Polychronicon, bk. i. c. 39; Fabyan's Chronicle, ed. Ellis, pp. 1, 2, 7. According to the same accounts, Albion was first reigned over by Brutus, in English spelling Brute, a descendant of Æneas of Troy, who arrived in Albion (says Fabyan) in the eighteenth year of Eli, judge of Israel. Layamon's poem is a translation from a poem by Wace, entitled Brut; and Wace borrowed from Geoffrey of Monmouth. See Brute (2) in the New E. Dict.

23. This line makes it certain that the king meant is Henry IV.; and indeed, the title conquerour in l. 21 proves the same thing sufficiently. 'In Henry IV's proclamation to the people of England he founds his title on conquest, hereditary right, and election; and from this inconsistent and absurd document Chaucer no doubt took his cue'; Bell.

XX. Proverbs.

The titles in the MSS. are: Ad. Prouerbe; F. Proverbe of Chaucer; Ha. Prouerbe of Chaucers.

Each proverb takes the form of a question or objection, in two lines, followed by an answer in two lines more.

There is a fair copy of them (but not well spelt) in the black-letter edition of 1561, fol. cccxl. They there appear without the addition of fourteen unconnected lines (not by Chaucer) which have been recklessly appended to them in modern editions. The title in ed. 1561 is—'A Prouerbe agaynst couitise and negligence.'

For the metre, compare the Envoy to a Ballad by Deschamps, ed. Tarbé, pp. 23, 24.

7. At the head of a Ballad by Deschamps, ed. Tarbé, i. 132, is the French proverb—'Qui trop embrasse, mal étreint.' Cotgrave, s.v. embrasser, has: Trop embrasser, et peu estraigner, to meddle with more business then he can wield; to have too many irons in the fire; to lose all by coveting all.'

But the most interesting point is the use of this proverb by Chaucer elsewhere, viz. in the Tale of Melibeus, Group B, 2405—'For the proverbe seith, he that to muche embraceth, distreyneth litel.' It is also quoted by Lydgate, in his description of the Merchant in the Dance of Machabre.

7. Embrace must be read as embrac', for the rime. Similarly, Chaucer puts gras for grac-e in Sir Thopas (Group B, l. 2021).

XXI. Balade against Women unconstant.

5. In a place, in one place. In the New E. Dictionary, the following is quoted from Caxton's print of Geoffroi de la Tour, leaf 4, back:—'They satte att dyner in a hall and the quene in another.'

7. From Machault, ed. Tarbé, p. 56 (see p. above):—'Qu'en lieu de bleu, Damë, vous vestez vert'; on which M. Tarbé has the following note:—'Bleu. Couleur exprimant la sincérité, la pureté, la constance; le vert, au contraire, exprimait les nouvelles amours, le changement, l'infidélité; au lieu de bleu se vêtir de vert, c'était avouer que l'on changeait d'ami.' Blue was the colour of constancy, and green of inconstancy; see Notes to Anelida, l. 330; and my note to the Squire's Tale, F 644.

In a poem called Le Remède de Fortune, Machault explains that pers, i. e. blue, means loyalty; red, ardent love; black, grief; white, joy; green, fickleness; yellow, falsehood.

8. Cf. James i. 23, 24; and see The Marchantes Tale (Group E, ll. 1582-5).

9. It, i. e. the transient image; relative to the word thing, which is implied in no-thing in l. 8.

10. Read far'th, ber'th; as usual in Chaucer. So turn'th in l. 12.

12. Cf. 'chaunging as a vane'; Clerkes Tale, E 996.

13. Sene, evident; A.S. ge-séne, ge-sýne, adj., evident, quite distinct from the pp. of the verb, which appears in Chaucer as seen or yseen. Other examples of the use of this adjective occur in ysene, C. T. Prol. 592; C. T. 11308 (Frank. Tale, F 996); sene, Compl. of Pite, 112; Merciless Beauty, 10.

15. Brotelnesse, fickleness. Cf. 'On brotel ground they bilde, and brotelnesse They finde, whan they wene sikernesse,' with precisely the same rime, Merch. Tale, 35 (E 1279).

16. Dalýda, Delilah. It is Dálida in the Monkes Tale, Group B, 3253; but see Book of the Duchesse, 738.

Creseide, the heroine of Chaucer's Troilus.

Candáce, hardly for Canace; see note to Parl. of Foules, 288. Rather, it is the queen Candace who tricked Alexander; see Wars of Alexander, ed. Skeat, p. 264; Gower, Conf. Amant, ii. 180.

18. Tache, defect; cf. P. Plowman, B. ix. 146. This is the word which best expresses the sense of touch (which Schmidt explains by trait) in the famous passage—'One touch of nature makes the whole world kin'; Shak. Troil. iii. 3. 175. I do not assert that touch is an error for tache, though even that is likely; but I say that the context shews that it is used in just the sense of tache. The same context also entirely condemns the forced sense of the passage, as commonly misapplied. It is somewhat curious that touchwood is corrupted from a different tache, which had the sense of dried fuel or tinder.

Arace, eradicate; precisely as in VI. 20, q. v.

19. Compare the modern proverb—'She has two strings to her bow.'

20. Al light for somer; this phrase begins l. 15 of the Canon's Yeoman's Prologue, Group G, 568; and the phrase wot what I mene occurs again in C. T., Group B, 93. This allusion to the wearing of light summer garments seems here to imply wantonness or fickleness. Canacee in the Squi. Tale was arrayed lightly (F 389, 390); but she was taking a walk in her own park, attended by her ladies. Skelton has, 'he wente so all for somer lyghte'; Bowge of Courte, 355; and again, in Philip Sparowe, 719, he tells us that Pandarus won nothing by his help of Troilus but 'lyght-for-somer grene.' It would seem that green was a favourite colour for summer garments.

XXII. An Amorous Compleint (Compleint Damours).

There are three MS. copies of this poem, viz. in MSS. F., B., and Harl. 7333. See remarks upon these in the Introduction, p. .

1. In Troil. iv. 516, the parallel line is—'Of me, that am the wofulleste wight'; where wofullest-e has four syllables. Chaucer constantly employs sorwe or sorw so as to occupy the time of a monosyllable; hence the right reading in this case is sorw'fullest-e, with final -e. See also Troil. ii. 450—'So as she was the ferfulleste wight.' And 'Bicomen is the sorwefulleste man'; Cant. Tales, E 2098.

3. Recoverer, recovery, cure; answering to O.F. recovrier, sb. succour, aid, cure, recovery; see examples in La Langue et la Littérature Française, by Bartsch and Horning, 1887. Gower uses recoverir in a like sense; ed. Pauli, i. 265. In Specimens of English, ed. Morris and Skeat, pt. ii. p. 156, l. 394, recouerer may likewise mean 'succour'; and the whole line may mean, 'they each of them cried for succour (to be obtained) from the Creator.'

6. Cf. Sect. VI. l. 53:—'So litel rewthe hath she upon my peyne.'

7. Cf. Sect. VI. l. 33:—'That, for I love hir, sleeth me giltelees.' So also Frank. Ta. F 1322:—'Er ye me sleen bycause that I yow love.'

12. Spitous, hateful. The word in Chaucer is usually despitous; see Prol. 516, Cant. Ta. A 1596, D 761, Troil. ii. 435, v. 199; but spitously occurs in the Cant. Tales, D 223. Trevisa translates ignominiosa seruitute by 'in a dispitous bondage'; Higden's Polychron. v. 87. The sense is—'You have banished me to that hateful island whence no man may escape alive.' The allusion is to the isle of Naxos, here used as a synonym for a state of hopeless despair. It was the island in which Ariadne was left, when deserted by Theseus; and Chaucer alludes to it at least thrice in a similar way: see C. T. Group B, 68, Ho. of Fame, 416, Legend of Good Women, 2163.

14. This have I, such is my reward. For, because.

16. Another reading is—'If that it were a thing possible to do.' In that case, we must read possíbl', with the accent on i.

17. Cf. Sect. VI. l. 94:—'For ye be oon the worthiest on-lyve.'

19. Cf. Sect. VI. l. 93:—'I am so litel worthy.'

24, 25. Cf. X. 7, and the note (p. ).

28. Perhaps corrupt; it seems to mean—'All these things caused me, in that (very state of despair), to love you dearly.'

31. The insertion of to is justified by the parallel line—'And I my deeth to yow wol al forgive'; VI. 119.

36, 37. Perhaps read—'And sithen I am of my sorwe the cause, And sithen I have this,' &c.; as in MSS. F. and B.

43. Perhaps read—'So that, algates, she is verray rote'; as in F. B.

45. Cf. C. T. 11287 (F 975):—'For with a word ye may me sleen or save.'

52. As to my dome, in my judgment, as in V. 480; and see Troil. iv. 386, 387.

54. Cf. 'whyl the world may dure'; V, 616.

55. Bihynde, in the rear, far away; cf. VI. 5.

57. The idea is the same as in the Compl. of Mars, ll. 264-270.

62. See l. 10 above.

70, 71. Cf. C. T. 11625 (F 1313)—'And lothest wer of al this world displese.'

72. Compare the description of Dorigen, C. T. 11255-66 (F 943-54). We have similar expressions in Troil. iii. 1501:—'As wisly verray God my soule save'; and in Legend of Good Women, 1806:—'As wisly Iupiter my soule save.' And see XXIII. 4.

76. Chaucer has both pleyne unto and pleyne on; see C. T., Cler. Tale, Group E, 97; and Pard. Tale, Group C, 512.

77. Cf. Troil. iii. 1183, and v. 1344:—'Foryeve it me, myn owne swete herte.'

79. Cf. Troil. iii. 141—'And I to ben your verray humble trewe.'

81. 'Sun of the bright and clear star'; i. e. source of light to the planet Venus. The 'star' can hardly be other than this bright planet, which was supposed to be auspicious to lovers. Cf. Troil. v. 638:—'O sterre, of which I lost have al the light.' Observe that MSS. F. and B. read over for of; this will not scan, but it suggests the sense intended.

82. In oon, in one state, ever constant; C. T., E 602. Cf. also Troil. iii. 143:—'And ever-mo desire freshly newe To serven.'

83. So in Troil. iii. 1512:—'For I am thyn, by god and by my trouthe'; cf. Troil. iii. 120.

85. See Parl. of Foules, 309, 310, whence I supply the word ther. These lines in the Parl. of Foules may have been borrowed from the present passage, i. e. if the 'Amorous Compleint' is the older poem of the two, as is probable. In any case, the connexion is obvious. Cf. also Parl. Foules, 386.

87. Cf. Parl. Foules, 419:—'Whos I am al, and ever wol her serve.'

Shal, shall be; as in l. 78 above, and in Troil. iii. 103; cf. Kn. Tale, 286 (A 1144), and note to VI. 86.

90, 91. Cf. Kn. Tale, 285, 286 (A 1143, 1144); Parl. Foules, 419, 420. All three passages are much alike.

XXIII. A Balade of Compleynt.

1. Cf. Troil. iii. 104:—'And thogh I dar ne can unto yow pleyne.'

4. See note to XXII. 72, and l. 8 below.

13, 14. Cf. VI. 110, 111.

16. Dyt-e, ditty (dissyllabic); see Ho. of Fame, 622. It here rimes with despyte and plyte. In the Cant. Tales the usual forms are despyt and plyt-e respectively, but despyt-e may here be taken as a dative case.

20. Hertes lady; see VI. 60. Dere is the best reading, being thus commonly used by Chaucer as a vocative. If we retain the MS. reading here, we must insert a comma after lady, and explain I yow beseche ... here by 'I beseech you to hear.'

* For Errata and Addenda, see p. lxiv.

NOTES.

See Rot. Claus. 3 Edw. I., and Kirkpatrick's History of Religious Orders in Norwich, pp. 109, 113. (The Athenæum, Nov. 25, 1876; p. 688.)

Rolls of Parliament, i. 234, 448.

For authorities, see Riley's Memorials of London, pp. xxxiii, xxxiv.

See The Athenæum, Nov. 19, 1893, p. 704.

Life-Records of Chaucer (Chaucer Soc.), p. 128; The Athenæum, Jan. 29, 1881, p.165. From membrane 17 of the Fine Roll, 4 Edw. II.; Parliamentary Writs, vol. ii. pt. 2. p. 30.

The same, p. 126; from mem. 13 of the Coram Rege Roll of Hilary, 19 Edw. II. (1326).

Riley, Mem. London, p. xxxiii.

From Richard Chaucer's will (below); see p. xiv.

Inferred from law-proceedings (below); and cf. note 5, above. Thomas Stace was appointed collector of customs on wine at Ipswich in 1310; Parl. Writs, vol. ii. pt. 2.

Thomas Heyroun, by his will dated April 7, 1349, and proved in the Hustings Court of the City of London, appointed his brother [i. e. his half-brother], John Chaucer, as his executor. In July of the same year, John Chaucer, by the description of 'citizen and vintner, executor of the will of my brother Thomas Heyroun,' executed a deed relating to some lands. See Morris's Chaucer, i. 93, or Nicolas, Life of Chaucer, Note A; from the Records of the Hustings Court, 23 Edw. III.

In December, 1324, Richard and Mary Chaucer declared that they had 'remained in full and peaceful possession of the said wardship [of John Chaucer] for a long while, namely, for one year.' See Life-Records (as in note 5), p. 126.

Riley, Mem. London, p. xxxiii.

Placitorum Abbreviatio, temp. Ric. I.—Edw. II., 1811; p. 354, col. 2; The Athenæum, Jan. 29, 1881, p. 165.

I. e. Laurence, the man of Geoffrey Stace.

They did not really succeed in this; it was disproved.

As they were trying to make out a case, it is clear that John Chaucer was still just under twelve on Dec. 3, 1324, when they abducted him.

Rolls of Parliament, ii. 14. Mr. Rye prints 'nulson' in place of 'unkore.'

See the Calendar of Wills in the Hustings Court, by R.R. Sharpe, vol. i. p. 591.

Here Sir H. Nicolas inserts '13th of July,' which I do not understand. His own Chronology of History correctly tells us that the day of St. Thomas the Martyr is Dec. 29, which in 1349 fell on Tuesday. The Monday after it was Jan. 4, 1350; the 23rd year of Edw. III. ended Jan. 24, 1350.

Hustings Roll, Guildhall; see The Athenæum, Dec. 13, 1873, p. 772; The Academy, Oct. 13, 1877, p. 364. The joint names of John and Agnes Chaucer occur in 1354, and later, in 1363 and 1366.

See below, under the date 1381; and The Athenæum, Nov. 29, 1873, p. 698; Dec. 13, 1873, p. 772.

Timbs, Curiosities of London, p. 815.

See a document printed in full in The Academy, Oct. 13, 1877, p. 364.

Rymer's Fœdera, vol. ii. pt. iv. p. 23.

Original Writs of Privy Seal in the Rolls House (Nicolas).

Riley; Memorials of London, p. xxxiii.

See The Athenæum, Dec. 13, 1873, p. 772; Nov. 19, 1892, p. 704; and The Academy, Oct. 13, 1877, p. 364. Perhaps his father's death enabled Chaucer to marry; he was married in 1366, or earlier.

'Bartholomeus atte chapel, ciuis et vinitarius Londinie, et Agnes, uxor eius, ac uxor quondam Johannis Chaucer, nuper ciuis et vinitarii dicte ciuitatis.'—Communicated to The Academy (as in note 27) by W. D. Selby.

It is needless to multiply instances. Dante speaks of 35 years as being 'the middle of life's journey'; and Jean de Meun (Le Testament, ed. Méon, iv. 9) says that a man flourishes till he is 30 or 40 years old; after which he does nothing but languish (ne fait que langorir).

Life-Records of Chaucer, p. 97 (Chaucer Soc.); Fortnightly Review, Aug. 15, 1866.

Johnes, tr. of Froissart, bk. i. c. 206.

The same, c. 207.

Certainly not Retiers, near Rennes, in Brittany, more than 200 miles on the other side of Paris, as suggested by Sir H. Nicolas. Froissart mentions 'Rhetel' expressly. 'Detachments from the [English] army scoured the country.... Some of them went over the whole country of Rhetel;' bk. i. c. 208.

The Athenæum, Nov. 22, 1873; p. 663. From the Wardrobe Book, 63/9, in the Record Office.

He was lodging at Guillon, in Burgundy, from Ash-Wednesday (Feb. 18) until Mid-lent (March 12); Fr. bk. i. c. 210.

This is well worth notice; it shews that it took several days to travel to Canterbury, even for a king who was anxious to return to his own land. In Froissart, bk. iv. c. 118, is an account of two knights who stopped at the same places. See Temp. Preface to the Cant. Tales, by F. J. Furnivall, p. 129.

Johnes, tr. of Froissart, bk. i. c. 213.

Johnes, tr. of Froissart, bk. i. c. 213. The Wyf of Bathe (see Cant. Tales, Prol. 465) once went on a pilgrimage to Boulogne. Chaucer probably did the same, viz. in the last week of October, 1360.

Exchequer, Q. R. Wardrobe Accounts, 39/10; Life-Records, p. xvii.

Rot. Pat. 40 Edw. III. p. 2, membrane 30. The title 'domicella camerae' implies that she was married; N. and Q., 8 S., iii. 355.

Issue Rolls of the Exchequer, Mich., 42 Edw. III.; Nicolas, Note DD.

This exception is incorrect. In the Issue Roll of Thomas de Brantingham, (for 1370), p. 359, it is noted that Philippa Chaucer received 10 marks (i. e. for the whole year), on Nov. 7, 1370.

Here Nicolas inserts 'like herself'; this assumes her identity with 'Philippe Chausy,' which seems to be right; see p. xxi.

Issue Rolls of the Exchequer; Roll for Easter, 10 Ric. II.; Issue Roll, Mich., 44 Edw. III.; ed. Devon, 1835; p. 359.

Writ of Privy Seal, dated March 10, 43 Edw. III., 1369. It mentions Philippa Chaucer, 'damoiselle,' and Philippa Pykart, 'veilleresse.' See Nicolas, life of Chaucer, Note EE.

The Athenæum, Nov. 22, 1873; p. 663.

The same, vol. i. fol. 195b; N. and Q., 7 S., v. 289.

The same, fol. 90; N. and Q. (as above).

Issue Roll, Easter, 50 Edw. III.; N. and Q. (as in note 48).

Issue Roll, Mich., 8 Ric II., Sept. 20.

Rymer's Fœdera, new ed.; vol. iii. p. 829. (G.)

Issue Rolls of the Exchequer; Michaelmas, 42 Edw. III. (1367); Easter, 42 Edw. III. (1368); see Nicolas, Notes B and C. On Nov. 6, 1367, it is expressly noted that he received his pension himself (per manus proprias).

Issue Rolls; Michaelmas, 43 Edw. III. (Nicolas.)

Rymer's Fœdera; vol. iii. p. 845. The names of many of those who accompanied the Duke are printed in the same volume, pp. 842-4; but the name of Chaucer is not among them.

The Athenæum, Nov. 29, 1873; p. 698. Exch. L. T. R. Wardrobe, 43 Edw. III. Box A. no. 8. (Ch. Soc., Trial-Forewords, p. 129).

Exch. Q. R. Wardrobe, 64/3; leaf 16, back. See The Athenæum, Nov. 22, 1873, p. 663. A similar entry occurs in 1372; and again in 1373.

Exch. Q. R. Wardrobe, 40/9. (Ch. Soc., Trial-Forewords, p. 129).

Rot. Pat. 44 Edw. III. p. 2. m. 20. (G.)

Issue Rolls of Thomas de Brantingham, 44 Edw. III., ed. F. Devon, 1835; p. 289.

The same; p. 19.

Issue Rolls, 45-47 Edw. III.

The Athenæum, Nov. 22, 1873; p. 663.

Rot. Franc. 46 Edw. III. m. 8. (G.) See Rymer's Fœdera, new edition, vol. iii. p. 964.

Issue Roll, Michaelmas, 47 Edw. III., 1373. See Nicolas, Note D. In this document Chaucer is called 'armiger.'

Issue Roll, Michaelmas, 48 Edw. III., 1374. See Nicolas, Note E. The Foreign Accounts, 47 Edw. III. roll 3, include Chaucer's accounts for this journey from Dec. 1, 1372, to May 23, 1373.

The same.

Much of Sir H. Nicolas's argument against this reasonable supposition is founded on the assertion that Chaucer was 'not acquainted with Italian'; which is now known to be the reverse of the truth. He even urges that not a single Italian word occurs in Chaucer's writings, whereas it would have been absurd for him to use words which his readers could not understand. Nevertheless, we find mention of a 'ducat in Venyse'; Ho. Fame, 1348.

Rot. Pat., 48 Edw. III., p. i. m. 20. (G.) See Rymer's Fœdera, new ed. vol. iii. p. 1001.

Writ of Privy Seal (in French); 18 Apr. 1 Ric. II. (1378); see Nicolas, Note K.

Memorials of London, ed. Riley, p. 377. See § 26 below, p. xxxviii.

Rot. Pat., 48 Edw. III., p. 1. m. 7, in Turri Londinensi; see Fœdera, new ed. vol. iii. p. 1004. (G.)

Rot. Pat., 49 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 8.

Calendarium Inquisitionum post Mortem, 46 Edw. III. no. 58.

Rot. Claus., 1 Ric. II., m. 45. (G.) The petition, in French, is printed in full in Liber Custumarum, ed. Riley, ii. 466.

Rot. Pat. 49 Edw. III., p. 2. m. 4. (G.) Calend. Inquis. post Mortem, 49 Edw. III., part 2, no. 40. A solidate of land is supposed to be a quantity of land (Blount suggests 12 acres) yielding 1s. of yearly rent. Sole means 'a pond'; see Pegge's Kenticisms. Soles is the name of a manor in Bonnington, not far from Chillenden, about half-way between Canterbury and Deal.

Issue Roll, Mich., 50 Edw. III.

Receiver's Accounts in the Office of the Duchy of Lancaster, from Mich. 1376 to Mich. 1377; see Nicolas, Note F.

Rot. Pat., 50 Edw. III., p. i. m. 5. (G.)

Issue Roll, Mich., 51 Edw. III.; see Nicolas, Note G.

Rot. Franc., 51 Edw. III., m. 7. (G.)

Issue Roll, Mich., 51 Edw. III.; see Nicolas, Note H.

Issue Roll, Easter, 51 Edw. III.; Nicolas, Note I; Trial-Forewords, p. 131.

Rymer's Fœdera, new ed., vol. iii. p. 1073 (in French).

The same, p. 1076 (in French).

Rot. Franc., 51 Edw III., m. 5. (G.)

Issue Roll, Easter, 51 Edw. III. 'Galfrido Chaucer armigero regis misso in nuncium in secretis negociis domini Regis versus partes Francie.' See Nicolas, Note I.

In 1377, Easter fell on March 29, Ash Wednesday on Feb. 11, and Shrove Tuesday on Feb. 10.

Wardrobe Accounts of 50 and 51 Edw. III. (Nicolas).

The same.

Rymer's Fœdera, vol. vii. p. 184.

Fine Roll, 1 Ric. II., pt. 2. m. 11; Athenæum, May 26, 1888, p. 661.

This appears from the Patent of May 1, 1388, by which Chaucer's pensions were assigned to John Scalby; see Rot. Pat., 11 Ric. II., pt. 2. m. 1.

Rot. Pat., 11 Ric. II., pt. 2. m. 1 (as in the last note); Writ of Privy Seal (in French), Apr. 18, 1 Ric. II. (see Nicolas, Note K); Issue Roll, Easter, 1 Ric. II. (May 14; see Nicolas, Note L).

Issue Roll, Easter, 1 Ric. II., (as above).

Rot. Franc., 1 Ric. II., pt. 2. m. 6.

The same; see Nicolas, Note M.

Issue Roll, Easter, 1 Ric. II.; Trial-Forewords, p. 131; Nicolas, Note L.

Issue Roll, Mich., 2 Ric. II.; see Nicolas, Note N.

Issue Roll, Easter, 2 Ric. II.; see Nicolas, Note O.

Issue Roll, Mich. 3 Ric. II.; see Nicolas, Note P.

The same; Easter, 3 Ric. II.; see the same, Note Q.

The same; 4 Ric. II.; see the same, Note R.

The Athenæum, Nov. 29, 1873, p. 698. From the Close Roll of 3 Ric. II. And see the whole matter discussed at length in Trial-Forewords, pp. 136-144 (Ch. Soc.).

Issue Roll, 4 Ric. II.; see Nicolas, Note R; Devon's Issues of the Exchequer, 1837, p. 315.

Godwin's Life of Chaucer, iv. 284.

Thynne's Animadversions, &c., ed. F. J. Furnivall, p. 12, note 2; cf. The Athenæum, Nov. 29, 1873, p. 698.

Issue Roll, Mich., 5 Ric. II.; see Notes and Queries, 3rd Ser. viii. 367.

Rot. Pat., 5 Ric. II., pt. 2. m. 15. (G.)

For these payments, see Issue Roll, Easter, 5 Ric. II.; in Notes and Queries, 3rd Ser. viii. 367.

Issue Rolls, Easter, 5 and 6 Ric. II.; see N. and Q. (as above).

Issue Roll, Mich., 7 Ric. II.; ib. It was usual to make up accounts at Michaelmas; which may explain 'the year late elapsed.'

Issue Roll, Easter, 7 Ric. II.; ib.

Rot. Claus., 8 Ric. II., m. 30. (G.)

Notes and Queries, 3 S. viii. 368; The Athenæum, Apr. 14, 1888; p. 468.

The Athenæum, Jan. 28, 1888; p. 116.

Rot. Pat., 8 Ric. II., p. 2. m. 31. (G.)

Issue Roll, Easter, 8 Ric. II.; see Notes and Queries, 3rd Ser. viii. 368.

'Ful ofte tyme he was knight of the shire'; Cant. Ta., A 356. It was usual, but not necessary, for such knights to reside within their county (Nicolas, Note S).

Rot. Claus., 10 Ric. II., m. 16 d.

See Annals of England, Oxford, 1876; p. 206. Sir Nicholas Brembre had been Lord Mayor of London for the three preceding years, 1383-5.

Printed in Godwin's Life of Chaucer; in The Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, ed. Nicolas, i. 178; and in Moxon's Chaucer, p. xiii.

An error for Rethel, near Rheims; see above, footnote 33.

Letter-book in the Guildhall, discovered by Prof. Hales; see The Academy, Dec. 6, 1879, p. 410, and Hales, Folia Litteraria, p. 87. In Riley's Memorials of London, p. 469, is recorded a resolution by the corporation to let no more houses situated over a city-gate.

Rot. Pat., 10 Ric. II., p. 1. m. 5 and m. 9. Perhaps this new Controller was a descendant of the Henry Gisors who was Sheriff of London in 1328.

It was once a fashion to ascribe his misfortunes to the part he was supposed to have taken with respect to a quarrel in 1384 between the court party and the citizens of London regarding John of Northampton, who had been Mayor in 1382. There is no evidence whatever to shew that Chaucer had anything to do with it, beyond an unauthorised and perhaps false interpretation of certain obscure passages in a piece called The Testament of Love, which (as is now known) he certainly did not write!

Issue Roll, Easter, 10 Ric. II.

Issue Rolls, Easter, 10 Ric. II.; Mich, and Easter, 11 Ric. II.

Rot. Pat., 11 Ric. II., p. 2. m. 1. (G.) Nicolas remarks that a John Scalby, of Scarborough in Yorkshire, was one of the persons of that town who were excepted from the king's pardon for insurrection in October, 1382; Rot. Parl. vol. iii. p. 136. (Scalby is the name of a village near Scarborough.)

Cf. 'at Eltham or at Shene'; Leg. Good Women, 497; but this passage is of an earlier date.

Rot. Pat., 13 Ric. II., p. 1. m. 30. (G.)

The Athenæum, Jan. 28, 1888; p. 116; Trial-Forewords, p. 133.

Originalia, 13 Ric. II, m. 30; Trial-Forewords, p. 133.

The Athenæum, Feb. 7, 1874; p. 196.

Collinson, Hist, of Somersetshire, iii. 54-74; The Athenæum, Nov. 20, 1886, p. 672; Life-Records (Chaucer Soc.), p. 117.

Rot. Pat., 14 Ric. II., m. 33; Issue Roll, Easter, 13 Ric. II. (G.); Trial-Forewords, p. 133.

The Athenæum, Feb. 7 and 14, 1874, pp. 196, 227; Life-Records (Ch. Soc.), p. 5.

Rot. Pat., 14 Ric. II., p. 2. m. 24: 'quem dilectus serviens noster Galfridus Chaucer clericus operationum nostrarum sub se deputavit'; &c. 'Clericus' is here literal; 'clerk' of the works.

Afterwards Sheriff of London, viz. in 1417-8 (Fabyan).

Archæologia, vol. xxxiv. 45.

Rot. Pat., 15 Ric. II., p. 1, m. 27; see Godwin, Life of Chaucer, iv. 67.

Issue Rolls, Mich. and Easter, 15 Ric. II.; and Easter, 16 Ric. II.

Rot. Pat., 17 Ric. II., pt. 2. m. 35; printed in full in Godwin's Life of Chaucer, and again in Furnivall's Trial-Forewords to the Minor Poems, p. 26.

Issue Roll, Mich., 18 Ric. II.; see Nicolas, Note U.

Issue Rolls, Mich. and Easter, 18 Ric. II., and Mich., 19 Ric. II.; see Nicolas, Notes U, V, and W.

Rot. Claus., 19 Ric. II. m. 8 d.

Issue Roll, Mich., 21 Ric. II. See Nicolas, Note X.

The Athenæum, Sept. 13, 1879; p. 338.

Rot. Pat., 21 Ric. II., p. 3. m. 26. (G.)

Issue Roll, Easter, 21 Ric. II. See Nicolas, Note Y.

The Athenæum, Jan. 28, 1888; p. 116.

Rot. Pat., 22 Ric. I., p. 1. m. 8. (G.)

Issue Roll, Mich., 22 Ric. II.; see Nicolas, Note Z.

Rot. Pat., 1 Hen. IV., p. 1. m. 18; and p. 5. m. 12. (G.)

See Issue Roll, Easter, 1 Hen. IV.; in Nicolas, Note BB.

Godwin, Life of Chaucer, iv. 365, where the document is printed; Hist. MSS. Commission, i. 95.

Issue Roll, Mich., 1 Hen IV.; see Nicolas, Note AA.

Issue Roll, Easter, 1 Hen. IV.; see Nicolas, Note BB.

Stowe's Survey of London, ed. Thoms, p. 171; Nicolas, Life of Chaucer.

Rot. Pat., 1 Hen. IV., p. 1. m. 10.

Rot. Pat., 4 Hen. IV., m. 19; Rot. Parl. iv. 178 b.

Rot. Pat., 12 Hen. IV., m. 34.

Rot. Norman., 5 Hen. V., m. 7; ed. 1835, p. 284.

Rot. Parl. vol. iv. p. 35.

Rot. Pat., 12 Hen. IV., m. 7.

It actually begins by quoting two lines from the Knightes Tale, A 1785-6; so it is later than 1386. There is at least one non-Chaucerian rime, viz. at l. 61, where gren-e (dissyllabic in Chaucer) rimes with the pp. been. See p. below.

The seal has lately been re-examined by experts, after application to the Record Office by Dr. Furnivall. See Archæologia, xxxiv. 42, where an engraving of the seal is (inexactly) given, and the deed is printed at length.

Collinson, Hist. of Somersetshire, iii. 54-74; Life-Records, p. 117.

MS. in Lincoln College, p. 377, quoted in Chalmers' English Poets, vol. i. p. x; Letter by Prof. Hales to the Athenæum, Mar. 31, 1888; Hales, Folia Litteraria, p. 109; Lounsbury, Studies, i. 108.

So says Nicolas; 'evidently' means that such is the most likely explanation. The O. F. roe (Lat. rota) means 'a wheel'; and roet is its diminutive.

She is described as 'the most renowned Lady Katherine de Roelt [error for Roet or Roett] deceased, late Duchess of Lancaster,' and as having had 'divers inheritances in the county of Hainault,' in Rot. Pat., 13 Hen. IV., p. 1. m. 35; see Rymer's Fœdera, viii. 704, and the Account of the Swynford family in the Excerpta Historica, p. 158. Nicolas, Note CC.

This seems to be the sole trace of Sir Payne Roet's existence.

The Testament of Love was greatly relied upon by Godwin and others. They thence inferred that Chaucer was mixed up with the dispute as to the appointment of John of Northampton to the mayoralty of London in 1382; that he was imprisoned; that he fled to Zealand; that he was in exile for two years; that, on his return, he was sent to the Tower for three years, and not released till 1389; with more rubbish of the same sort. However, it so happens that Chaucer did not write this piece (see p. , note 4). More than this, I have lately discovered that the initial letters of the chapters form an acrostic, which reads thus: Margaret of virtw, have merci on tsknvi. The last word may be an anagram for Kitsvn, i. e. Kitson; it is certainly not an anagram for Chaucer. See my letter in The Academy, Mar. 11, 1893, p. 222.

Sir H. Nicolas says that some have inferred that Chaucer was living near Oxford in 1391, and refers to Ast. prol. 7, which mentions 'oure orizonte.' We are not justified in drawing such an inference.

Prof. Lounsbury includes H. F. 995, where the poet declines to be taught astronomy (under the most uncomfortable circumstances) because he is 'too old.' Any man of thirty (or less) might have said the same; the passage tells us nothing at all.

Sir H. Nicolas says that, in L. G. W. 189, he alludes to his poem called The Flower and the Leaf. But that poem is not his, though its title was doubtless suggested by the expressions which Chaucer there uses.

Mr. Wright printed his text from MS. Reg. D. vi. Dr. Furnivall gives these passages from MS. Harl. 4866, in his edition of Hoccleve's Minor Poems, p. xxxi. I give a corrected text, due to a collation of these copies, with very slight alterations.

Or, and lerned lyte or naught (MS. Harl. 4866).

So Harl.; Reg. Of rethoryk fro vs; to Tullius.

Both MSS. have hyer (= higher); an obvious error for heyr (= heir).

I think not; it is too short. I take it to be a small pen-knife in a sheath; useful for making erasures. So Todd, Illustrations of Chaucer, s. v. Anelace; Fairholt, on Costume in England, s. v. Knives.

I see no reason for placing this after 1372; surely ll. 36-56 (from Dante) are a later insertion. Observe 'us wrecches' in G. 32, and 'Me wrecche' in G. 58. These parallel lines must (I think) have once been in closer proximity.

It is not very likely that he ever finished his translation, when we consider his frequent habit of leaving his works incomplete, and the enormous length of the French text (22074 lines in Méon's edition).

By the spelling malady(e), I mean that the word must be pronounced malady in the text, whereas the Chaucerian form is malady-ë in four syllables. And so in other cases.

Doubtless the author meant to employ the form quoynt or coint; but Chaucer has queynt, Cant. Ta. A 2333, G 752.

Courtepy rimes with sobrely; Cant. Ta. prol. 289.

As to awry (or awry-e?), we have little evidence beyond the present passage.

Enemy rimes with I, Cant. Ta. A 1643, royally, id. 1793; &c.

As it is the natural instinct of many critics to claim for themselves even small discoveries, I note that this paragraph was written in July, 1891, and that the curious, but not very important fact above announced, was first noticed by me some three months previously.

The calculation is as follows. A quire of 16 pages, at 24 lines a page, contains 384 lines. Three such quires contain about 1152 lines, which, added to 5810 (in A and B), bring us to l. 6962 (say, 6964). In the fourth quire, if A, B, C, &c., be successive pages, these pages contained the lines following. A, 6965-6988; B, 6989-7012; C, 7013-36; D, 7037-60; E, 7061-84; F, 7085-7108; G (25 lines), 7109-33; H (25 lines), 7134-7158; I (25 lines), 7159-7183; K (25 lines), 7184-7208; L, 7209-32; M, 7233-56; N, 7257-80; O, 7281-7304; P, 7305-28; Q, 7329-52.

I have been greatly assisted in this matter by D. Donaldson, Esq., who gave me some beautifully executed photographic copies of three pages of the MS., which I have shewn to many friends, including Mr. Bond and Mr. Thompson at the British Museum.

The allusion to prince Edward, 'son of the lord of Windsor' (see note to l. 1250), is not in all the copies; so it may have been added afterwards. Edward I. was not born till 1239.

Some copies are dated 1814; but I can detect no difference in them, except that the later copies have an additional frontispiece.

The Legend of Good Women is here meant: and 'xxv.' is certainly an error for 'xix.'

Printed separately in the present edition, in vol. iii.

Of course I mean that dy-e is the Chaucerian form; the author of the Lamentation pronounced it differently, viz. as dy.

See the excellent treatise by Dr. E. Köppel entitled 'Laurents de Premierfait und John Lydgates Bearbeitungen von Boccaccios De Casibus Virorum Illustrium'; München, 1885.

Not Ovid, but Statius; Lydgate makes a slip here; see note to IV. 245.

In Lydgate's Lyfe of St. Albon, ed. Hortsmann, l. 15, this line appears in the more melodious form—'The golden trumpet of the House of Fame.'

Hoccleve's poem entitled 'Moder of God' is erroneously attributed to Chaucer in two Scottish copies (Arch. Seld. B 24, and Edinb. 18. 2. 8). But it occurs among 16 poems, all by Hoccleve, in a MS. in the collection of the late Sir Thos. Phillipps, as already noted in § 1 above. A few of these poems (not including the 'Moder of God') were printed from this MS. in the edition of some of 'Occleve's Poems' by G. Mason, in 1796.

Printed 'Six couplets'; clearly a slip of the pen.

They are printed in full below, on p. .

i. e. the Parliament of Foules.

La Belle Dame sans Merci, a poem translated from the French originally written by 'Maister Aleyn,' chief secretary to the King of France. Certainly not by Chaucer; for Alain Chartier, the author of the original French poem, was only about four years old when Chaucer died. Moreover, it is now known that the author of the English poem was Sir Richard Ros. See p. , note 2.

All in Caxton's edition of the Minor Poems, described above, p. 27.

Both in the small quarto volume described above, p. 27.

Speght added three more pieces, but they are also found in ed. 1550 and ed. 1542, at the end of the Table of Contents; see below, p. 45, nos. 66-8.

Jack Upland is in prose, and in the form of a succession of questions directed against the friars.

I have often made use of a handy edition with the following titlepage: 'The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, with an Essay on his Language and Versification and an Introductory Discourse, together with Notes and a Glossary. By Thomas Tyrwhitt. London, Edward Moxon, Dover Street, 1855.' I cannot but think that this title-page may have misled others, as it for a long time misled myself. As a fact, Tyrwhitt never edited anything beyond the Canterbury Tales, though he has left us some useful notes upon the Minor Poems, and his Glossary covers the whole ground. The Minor Poems in this edition are merely reprinted from the black-letter editions.

Probably copies slightly differ. The book described by me is a copy in my own possession, somewhat torn at the beginning, and imperfect at the end. But the three missing leaves only refer to Lydgate's Storie of Thebes.

I print in italics the names of the pieces which I reject as spurious. In the case of The Romaunt of the Rose, the first 1705 lines are genuine; but the rest, which is spurious, is more than three-fourths of the whole. See p. above.

I. e. the folios are misnumbered. Piece 8 begins with fol. ccxliiii, which is followed by ccxlvj (sic), ccxli (sic), ccxli (repeated), ccxlii, and ccxliii; which brings us to 'ccxliiii' over again.

Marked Fol. cclxxvj by mistake.

Nos. 28-30 are in no previous edition.

Stowe did not observe that this had occurred already, in the midst of poem no. 33.

Miscalled Fol. cccxxxix. Also, the next folio is called cccxlviij., after which follows cccxlix., and so on.

In the Preface to Morris's Chaucer, p. x, we are told that the editor took his copy of this poem from Thynne's edition of 1532. This is an oversight; for it does not occur there; Stowe's edition is meant.

'Thomas Occleve mentions it himself, as one of his own compositions, in a Dialogue which follows his Complaint, MS. Bodley 1504.'—Tyrwhitt.

See Political, Religious, and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 52. Cf. Englische Studien, x. 206.

I have found the reference. It is Shirley who says so, in a poetical 'introduction'; see MS. Addit. 16165, fol. 3.

It runs thus:—'Quod loue, I shall tel thee, this lesson to learne, myne owne true seruaunte, the noble Philosophicall Poete in Englishe, which euermore hym busieth & trauaileth right sore, my name to encrease, wherefore all that willen me good, owe to doe him worship and reuerence both; truly his better ne his pere, in schole of my rules, coud I neuer finde: He, quod she, in a treatise that he made of my seruaunt Troilus, hath this matter touched, & at the full this question [of predestination] assoiled. Certainly his noble saiyngs can I not amend; in goodness of gentil manlich spech, without any maner of nicitie of starieres (sic) imaginacion, in wit and in good reason of sentence, he passeth al other makers'; ed. 1561. (Read storieres, story-writer's.)

Hoccleve appeals to St. Margaret, in his Letter of Cupid, st. 6 from the end. Lydgate wrote 'the Lyfe of St. Margarete.' I have a strong feeling that the poem is one of Lydgate's. Lines 24-26 seem to be imitated from Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, ll. 197-9.

I leave this sentence as I wrote it in 1888; shortly afterwards, the attribution of no. 57 to Chaucer received confirmation from a note in the Phillipps MS. See p. .

There is another copy of The Craft of Lovers in MS. Harl. 2251. It is there dated 1459.

I. e. Joan of Navarre, who was married to Henry IV in 1403.

A good French Virelai is one by Eustace Deschamps, ed. Tarbé, 1849; i. 25.

See remarks on this poem in The New English, by T. L. Kington Oliphant, i. 402.

It is much to be regretted that Prof. Morley, in his new edition of his English Writers, still clings to the notion of 'the Court of Love' being Chaucer's. It is sufficient to say that, after 1385, Chaucer's poems are of a far higher order, especially as regards correctness of idiom and rhythm. Our knowledge of the history of the English language has made some advance of late years, and it is no longer possible to ignore all the results of linguistic criticism.

A great peculiarity of this poem is the astonishing length, of the sentences. Many of them run to fifty lines or more. As to the MS., see Thynne's Animadversions, ed. Furnivall, 1875, p. 30. A second MS. is now in the British Museum (Addit. 10303), also written about 1550.

The authoress had an eye for colour, and some knowledge, one would think, of heraldry. There is a tinsel-like glitter about this poem which gives it a flashy attractiveness, in striking contrast to the easy grace of Chaucer's workmanship. In the same way, the authoress of 'The Assembly of Ladies' describes the colours of the dresses of the characters, and, like the authoress of 'The Flower and the Leaf,' quotes occasional scraps of French.

Plesir may be meant, but Chaucer does not use it; he says plesaunce.

It is so termed in a table of contents in MS. Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 3. 15, which (as noted on p. ) contains all three of the pieces here numbered 66, 67, and 68.

The copy of no. XXI. in MS. Fairfax 16 has not been printed. I made a transcript of it myself. There is another unprinted copy in MS. Harl. 7578. I also copied out nos. XII., XXII., XXIII.

Called 'Cm.' in the footnotes to vol. iv.

There are two copies in MS. P.; they may be called P 1 and P 2.

I make but little use of the copies in the second group.

Two copies; may be called T 1 and T 2.

Two copies; F 1 and F 2. The copy in P. is unprinted.

Two copies; P 1 and P 2.

Also a Balade, beginning 'Victorious kyng,' printed in G. Mason's edition of Occleve, 1796; as well as The Book of Cupid, which is another name for the Cuckoo and Nightingale.

Unless they were composed, as Shirley says, by one Halsham, and adopted by Lydgate as subjects for new poems; see pp. , .

i. e. in the ballad-measure, or 7-line stanzas.

One page of this, in Shirley's writing, has been reproduced in facsimile for the Chaucer Society.

This page has been reproduced, in facsimile, for the Chaucer Society.

It is also twice attributed to Chaucer in MS. P.

I follow the account in Morley's English Writers, 1867, ii. 204; the name is there given as de Guilevile; but M. Paul Meyer writes De Deguilleville.

Morley says 1330; a note in the Camb. MS. Ff. 6. 30 says 1331.

Edited by Mr. W. Aldis Wright for the Roxburghe Club in 1869; see p. 164 of that edition. And see a note in Warton's Hist. Eng. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, 1871, vol. iii. p. 67.

See Furnivall's Trial Forewords, pp. 13-15, and p. 100, for further information.

The initial E stands for et. See next note.

The initial C stands for cetera. It was usual to place &c. (= et cetera) at the end of the alphabet.

Chaucer speaks of writing compleintes; Cant. Ta. 11260 (F. 948).

Cf. 'this eight yere'; Book of the Duchesse, 37.

'Philippa Chaucer was a lady of the bedchamber, and therefore married, in 1366'; N. and Q. 7 S. v. 289.

But Ten Brink (Sprache und Verskunst, p. 174) dates it about 1370-1372.

'O ye Herines, nightes doughtren three'; Troilus, last stanza of the invocation in bk. iv.

Most of the passages which he quotes are not extant in the English version of the Romaunt. Where we can institute a comparison between that version and the Book of the Duchess, the passages are differently worded. Cf. B. Duch. 420, with R. Rose, 1393.

i. e. y-treted, treated.

See l. 647. The royal tercel eagle is, then, Richard II; and the formel eagle is Queen Anne; the other two tercel eagles were her other two suitors. See Froissart, bk. ii. c. 86.

Rather, 1382. Ch. could not have foretold a year's delay.

It is quite impossible that the poem can refer, as some say, to the marriage of John of Gaunt in 1359, or even to that of de Coucy in 1364; see Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 70. It is plainly much later than the Book of the Duchess, as the internal evidence incontestably shews.

I leave the remarks upon this poem as I first wrote them in 1888. Very soon afterwards, Dr. Furnivall actually found the ascription of the poem to Chaucer in MS. Phillipps 9053. I think this proves that I know how to estimate internal evidence aright. MS. Phillips 9053 also completes the poem, by contributing an additional stanza, which, in MS. Harl. 78, has been torn away.

mix.

fleeces.

hushed, silent.

rewards.

shed.

dug.

lumps.

See Todd, Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 116; and see above, pp. 55, 56.

The critics who brush aside such a statement as this should learn to look at MSS. for themselves. The make-up of this MS. shews that it is essentially a Chaucer-Lydgate MS.; and Merciless Beautee is not Lydgate's. To weigh the evidence of a MS., it must be personally inspected by such as have had some experience.

Middle-English roundels are very scarce. I know of one by Hoccleve, printed by Mason in 1796, and reprinted in Todd's Illustrations, p. 372; and there is a poor one by Lydgate, in Halliwell's edition of his Minor Poems, p. 10. Two more (one being by Lydgate) are given in Ritson, Anc. Songs, i. 128, 129.

I do not think, as some have guessed, that 'Tregentil Chaucer' means 'Tres gentil Chaucer.' Those who think so had better look at the MS. I see no sense in it; nor do I know why tres should be spelt tre.

A similar note was made in MS. Cotton, Otho. A. xviii., now destroyed. Todd printed the poem from this MS. in his Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 131; it belongs to the 'first group.'

high head.

admonishes.

weighed down.

The poem must have been written not many years before 1413, the date of the accession of Henry V. In 1405, the ages of the princes were 17, 16, 15, and 14 respectively. Shirley's title to the poem was evidently written after 1415, as John was not created Duke of Bedford until that year.

See Furnivall's edition of Borde's Introduction of Knowledge, E. E. T. S., 1870. At p. 31 of the Forewords, the editor says there is no evidence for attributing 'Scoggins Iests' to Borde.

Froissart, bk. iv. c. 105 (Johnes' translation).

See Johnes' translation of Froissart, 1839; ii. 612-7.

It would be decent, on the part of such critics as do not examine the MSS., to speak of my opinions in a less contemptuous tone.

Unless, which is more probable, the Parliament of Foules reproduces, nearly, two lines from the present poem.

Perhaps 'tofore' means 'for use in,' or 'to be presented in'; and 'November' was some special occasion.

As, e. g. in the curious satirical ballad 'Against the King of Almaigne,' printed in Percy's Ballads, Series II. Book I, and in Wright's 'Political Songs,' p. 69. Henry was also called Henry of Winchester, from the place of his birth.

The thief is the Ribauld; the ploughboy, the Labourer; the apothecary, the Physicien; the soldier, the Garde; the tailor, the Marchaunt; the tinker, the Smyth. Only two are changed.

Koch instances góddes in the Envoy to Scogan, 15, which he assumes was góddis. Not at all; it is like Chaucer's rime of clérkes, derk is; the -es being unaccented. This could never produce goddís, and still less goddísse.

In old French, a tard means 'slowly, late'; later French drops a, and uses tard only.

Voto, 'hollow, voide, empty'; Florio.

The MS. has And for Than (wrongly).