Chapter LXV: Book III (9)

[19] Richard Ros, born March 8, 1428-9; Nichols, Hist. of Leicestershire, vol. ii. p. 37.

[20] There is _no_ copy in MS. Harl. 7333, as said by error in vol. i. p. 39.

[21] There is no authority, except Thynne, for the title The Cuckoo and the Nightingale. It has been repeated in all the printed editions, but does not appear in any MS.

[22] 'In Hereford and the far West, not Oldcastle alone, but the Actons, Cheynes, Clanvowes, Greindors, and many great gentlemen of birth, had begun to mell of Lollardy and drink the gall of heresy.'--Wylie, Hist. of Henry IV, vol. iii. p. 296. Sir T. Clanvowe was alive in 1404 (Test. Vetusta).

[23] The MSS. have _ran_ in C. T., B 661. _Man_ rimes with _can_ in Parl. Foules, 479, and with _began_ in the same, 563.

[24] Perhaps, more strictly, a dedication, the true envoy consisting of the last six lines only. But it is no great matter.

[25] Hence F. 148, 'As gret-e perl-es, round and orient,' reappears in A. 528 without the final _-e_, in the form: 'With gret' perlés, _ful_ fyne and orient.'

[26] The examples of _trewly_ in Book Duch. 1111, 1151, are doubtful. It is a slippery poem to scan. Elsewhere, we find _trew-e-ly_.

[27] F. and L. 134-138.

[28] F. and L. 151-158, 333.

[29] F. and L. 148, 224.

[30] F. and L. 192, 193.

[31] Cf. F. and L. 358-364.

[32] See the English translation in Bohn's Library, i. 214.

[33] A piece entitled 'De Duodecim Abusivis' is one of three pieces appended to Ælfric's Lives of the Saints in MS. Julius E. 7.

[34] No. 61 is The Storie of Thebes, which he of course knew to be Lydgate's; he adds it _after_ the note--'Thus endeth the workes of Geffray Chaucer.'

[35] At the same time he struck out no. 56 (p. 34), as being by Lydgate.

[36] In Moxon's Chaucer, which professed to accept Tyrwhitt's canon, this piece was omitted; but it was revived once more by Bell.

[37] See The Athenæum, Nov. 4, 1876; The Academy, June 3, 1878; Aug. 3, 1878.

[38] My remark upon the Trinity MS. in vol. i. p. 56, that 'most of the pieces are in a handwriting of a later date [than 1463], not far from 1500,' does not apply to The Court of Love. This poem, together with two poems by Lydgate, fills part of a quire of twenty-four leaves _near the end_ of the MS., of which the seventeenth has been cut out and the last three are blank; and this quire is quite distinct from the rest as regards the date of the writing, which is considerably later than 1500, and exhibits a marked change. There are two _lacunæ_ in the poem, one after l. 1022, and another after l. 1316; probably six stanzas are lost in each case, owing to the loss of the two corresponding leaves in the original from which the existing copy was made.

[39] I doubt if speculation as to the possible meaning of these names will really help us.

[40] Which looks as if the author had written _grewen_ for _greven_, like a Scotchman.

[41] A very bad mistake occurs in l. 1045, viz. _thou wot_ instead of _thou wost_, as if one should say in Latin _tu scio_. It rimes with _dote_, which, in Chaucer, is dissyllabic.

[42] There are many more; _fon-ne_ becomes _fon_, to rime with _on_, 458; _tell-e_ is cut down to _tell_, 518; _behold-e_, to _behold_, 652; _accord-e_, to _accord_, 746; &c. The reader can find out more for himself; see ll. 771, 844, 862, 896, 1032, 1334, 1389, &c. In ll. 1063-4, we have _opinion_ riming with _begon_, the Chaucerian forms being _opinioun_ and _bigonne_ or _bigunne_!

[43] See vol. vi. p. xlv.

[44] The MS. has:--'Than is is lande'--by mistake.

[45] It is clear that The Plowmans Tale and Jack Upland were inserted by Thynne and Speght respectively on religious grounds.

[46] We may safely assign to Lydgate the pieces numbered XXII and XXIII, as well as those numbered VIII to XV.

* * * * *

Corrections made to the printed original.

P. lx. "Of sek-e folk ful hol-e" corrected from "seke-e".

P. 142. Line 93. "come; read com" corrected from "com; read come".

P. 297. Line B 7. "I supply eek" corrected from "suppy".

P. 346. "Th. Thynne, ed. 1532" corrected from "Thyme".

P. 358. Line 267 "Th. chyde; T. chide" - "T." corrected from "Th.".

P. 522. Line 97 "her father Calchas" corrected from "Chalcas".

P. 537. Line 477. "meaning not only chalcedony" corrected from "chaledony".

P. 556. s.v. Alegge. "XIX. 26." corrected from "XVIII. 26."