Chapter XXVIII: Appendix (7)

The form adopted by these authors is the following. First come three lines, rimed _abb_; next two more, rimed _ab_, and then the first refrain; then three more lines, rimed _abb_, followed by the second refrain. Now the first refrain consists of either one, or two, or three lines, being the first line of the poem, or the first two, or the first three; and the second refrain likewise consists of either one, or two, or three lines, being the same lines as before, but not necessarily the same number of them. Thus the whole poem consists of eight unlike lines, three on one rime, and five on another, with refrains of from two to six lines. Sometimes one of the refrains is actually omitted, but this may be the scribe's fault. However, the least possible number of lines is thus reduced to nine; and the greatest number is fourteen. For example, Deschamps (ed. Tarbé) has roundels of nine lines--second refrain omitted--(p. 125); of ten lines (p. 36); of eleven lines (p. 38); of twelve lines (p. 3); and of fourteen lines (pp. 39, 43). But the prettiest example is that by Machault (ed. Tarbé, p. 52), which has thirteen lines, the first refrain being of _two_, and the second of _three_ lines. And, as thirteen lines came to be considered as the normal length, I here follow this as a model, both here and in 'Merciless Beaute'; merely warning the reader that he may make either of his refrains of a different length, if he pleases.

There is a slight art in writing a roundel, viz. in distributing the pauses. There _must_ be a full stop at the end of the third and fifth lines; but the skilful poet takes care that complete sense can be made by the first line taken alone, and also by the first _two_ lines taken alone. Chaucer has done this.

Todd, in his Illustrations of Chaucer, p. 372, gives a capital example of a roundel by Occleve; this is of _full_ length, both refrains being of three lines, so that the whole poem is of fourteen lines. This is quite sufficient to shew that the definition of a roundel in Johnson's Dictionary (which is copied from the Dict. de Trevoux, and relates to the latter _rondeau_ of _thirteen_ lines) is quite useless as applied to roundels written in Middle English.

677. _The note_, i. e. the tune. Chaucer adapts his words to a known French tune. The words _Qui bien aime, a tard[290] oublie_ (he who loves well is slow to forget) probably refer to this tune; though it is not quite clear to me how lines of five accents (normally) go to a tune beginning with a line of four accents. In Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 55, we find:--'Of the _rondeau_ of which the first line is cited in the Fairfax MS., &c., M. Sandras found the music and the words in a MS. of Machault in the National Library, no. 7612, leaf 187. The verses form the opening lines of one of two pieces entitled _Le Lay de plour_:--

'Qui bieu aime, a tart oublie,
Et cuers, qui oublie a tart,
Ressemble le feu qui art,' &c.

M. Sandras also says (Étude, p. 72) that Eustache Deschamps composed, on this burden slightly modified, a pretty ballad, inedited till M. Sandras printed it at p. 287 of his Étude; and that, a long time before Machault, Moniot de Paris began, by this same line, a hymn to the Virgin that one can read in the Arsenal Library at Paris, in the copy of a Vatican MS., B. L. no. 63, fol. 283:--

'Ki bien aime a tart oublie;
Mais ne le puis oublier
La douce vierge Marie.'

In MS. Gg. 4. 27 (Cambridge), there is a poem in 15 8-line stanzas. The latter half of st. 14 ends with:--'_Qui bien ayme, tard oublye._'

In fact, the phrase seems to have been a common proverb; see Le Roux de Lincy, ii. 383, 496. It occurs again in Tristan, ed. Michel, ii. 123, l. 700; in Gower, Balade 25 (ed. Stengel, p. 10); in MS. Digby 53, fol. 15, back; MS. Corp. Chr. Camb. 450, p. 258, &c.

683. See note above, to l. 309.

693. This last stanza is imitated at the end of the Court of Love, and of Dunbar's Thrissill and Rois.

VI. A COMPLEINT TO HIS LADY.

In the two MSS., this poem is written as if it were a continuation of the Compleint unto Pity. The printed edition of 1651 has this heading--'These verses next folowing were compiled by Geffray Chauser, and in the writen copies foloweth at the ende of the complainte of petee.' This implies that Stowe had seen more than one MS. containing these lines.

However, the poem has nothing to do with the Complaint of Pity; for which reason the lines are here numbered separately, and the title 'A Compleint to his Lady' is supplied, for want of a better.

The poem is so badly spelt in Shirley's MS. (Harl. 78) as quite to obscure its diction, which is that of the fourteenth century. I have therefore re-spelt it throughout, so as to shew the right pronunciation. The Phillipps MS. is merely a copy of the other, but preserves the last stanza.

The printed copy resembles Shirley's MS. so closely, that both seem to have been derived from a common source. But there is a strange and unaccountable variation in l. 100. The MS. here has--'For I am sette on yowe in suche manere'; whilst ed. 1561 has--'For I am set so hy vpon your whele.' The latter reading does not suit the right order of the rimes; but it points to a lost MS.

The poem evidently consists of several fragments, all upon the same subject, of hopeless, but true love.

It should be compared with the Complaint of Pity, the first forty lines of the Book of the Duchess, the Parliament of Foules (ll. 416-441), and the Complaint of Anelida. Indeed, the last of these is more or less founded upon it, and some of the expressions (including one complete line) occur there again.

1. MSS. _nightes_. This will not scan, nor does it make good sense. Read _night_; cf. l. 8, and Book of the Duchess, l. 22.

3. Cf. Compl. Pite, 81--'Allas! what herte may hit longe endure?'

7. _Desespaired_, full of despair. This, and not _dispaired_ (as in ed. 1561), is the right form. Cf. _desespeir_, in Troil. i. 605.

8, 9. Cf. Anelida, 333, 334.

14, 15. I repeat this line, because we require a rime to _fulfille_, l. 17; whilst at the same time l. 14 evidently ends a stanza.

16. I omit _that_, and insert _eek_, in order to make sense.

17. I supply _he_, meaning _Love_. Love is masculine in l. 42, precisely as in the Parl. of Foules, l. 5.

19. I alter _and yit_ to _and fro_, to make sense; the verb to _arace_ absolutely requires _from_ or _fro_; see Clerkes Tale, E 1103, and particularly l. 18 of sect. XXI, where we find the very phrase 'fro your herte arace.' Cf. Troilus, v. 954.

24. I supply this line from Compl. Mars, 189, to rime with l. 22.

If Fragments II and III were ever joined together, we must suppose that at least _five_ lines have been lost, as I have already shewn in the note to Dr. Furnivall's Trial Forewords, p. 96.

Thus, after l. 23, ending in _asterte_, we should require lines ending in _-ye_, _-erse_, _-ye_, _-erse_, and _-ede_ respectively, to fill the gap. However, I have kept fragments II and III apart, and it is then sufficient to supply _three_ lines. Lines 25 and 26 are from the Compl. of Pite, 22, 17, and from Anelida, 307.

32. I suspect some corruption; MS. Sh. has _The wyse eknytte_, Ph. has _The wise I-knyt_, and ed. 1561 has _The Wise, eknit_. As it stands, it means--'Her surname moreover is the Fair Ruthless one, (or) the Wise one, united with Good Fortune.' Fair Ruthless is a translation of the French phrase _La Belle Dame sans Merci_, which occurs as the title of a poem once attributed to Chaucer. The Wise one, &c., means that she is wise and fortunate, and will not impair her good fortune by bestowing any thought upon her lover. Shirley often writes _e_ for initial _y-_.

35. Almost identical with Anelida, 222--'More then myself, an hundred thousand sythe.'

36. Obviously corrupt; neither sound nor sense is good. Read:--'Than al this worldes richest (_or_ riche) creature.' _Creature_ may mean 'created thing.' Or scan by reading _world's richéss'_.

39. Cf. Kn. Tale, l. 380 (A 1238)--'Wel hath Fortune y-turned thee the dys.'

41. _My swete fo._ So in Anelida, l. 272; and cf. l. 64 below.

42, 43. Cf. Parl. of Foules, ll. 439, 440.

44. Ed. 1561 also reads _In_. Perhaps the original reading was _Inwith_. Moreover, the copies omit _eek_ in l. 45, which I supply.

47-49. This remarkable statement re-appears twice elsewhere; see Parl. Foules, 90, 91, and note; and Compl. of Pite, ll. 99-104.

50. Repeated in Anelida, 237.

51, 52. Cf. Anelida, 181, 182; Compl. Pite, 110; Parl. Foules, 7.

55. Cf. Anelida, 214--'That turned is to quaking al my daunce.'

56. Here a line is missing, as again at l. 59. This appears from the form of the stanza, in which the rimes are arranged in the order _a a b a a b c d d c_. I supply the lines from Anelida, 181, 182.

63. Cf. the use of _y-whet_ in Anelida, 212.

64, 65. Cf. Anelida, 272--'My swete fo, why do ye so for shame?'

73. For _leest_, ed. 1561 has _best_!

79. The MSS. have--'What so I wist that were to youre hyenesse'; where _youre hyenesse_ is absurdly repeated from l. 76. Ed. 1561 has the same error. It is obvious that the right final word is _distresse_, to be preceded by _yow_ or _your_; of which I prefer _yow_.

83. Ch. uses both _wille_ and _wil_; the latter is, e. g., in Cant. Ta. A 1104. We must here read _wil_.

86. _shal_, i. e. shall be. See also XXII. ll. 78, 87.

88. _leveth wel_, believe me wholly. MS. Ph. and ed. 1561 wrongly have _loveth_.

98. I read _nil_, as being simpler. The MSS. have _ne wil_, which would be read--'That I n'wil ay'; which comes to much the same thing.

100. _set_, fixed, bound. Ed. 1561 has--'For I am set so hy vpon your whele,' which disturbs the rimes.

102. MS. Sh. _beon euer als trewe_; ed. 1561 has--_bene euer as trewe_.

103. MS. Sh. 'As any man can er may on lyue'; ed. 1561 and MS. Ph. have--'As any man can or maye on liue.' It is clear that a final word has been dropped, because the scribe thought the line ought to rime with _fyve_ (l. 98). The dropped word is clearly _here_, which rimes with _manere_ in the Miller's Prologue, and elsewhere. After _here_ was dropped, _man_ was awkwardly inserted, to fill up the line. Ch. employs _here_ at the end of a line more than thirty times; cf. Kn. Tale, A 1260, 1670, 1711, 1819, &c.

107, 108. Cf. Anelida, 247, 248.

123. Cf. Anelida, 216. MS. Ph. alone preserves ll. 124-133.

124. _My lyf and deeth_ seems to be in the vocative case. Otherwise, _my_ is an error for _in_.

125. For _hoolly I_ perhaps we should read _I hoolly_.

126. The rime _by me, tyme_, is Chaucerian; see Cant. Ta. G 1204.

130. This resembles Cant. Tales, F 974 and A 2392.

133. _trouble_, troubled. A like use occurs in Boethius, bk. i. met. 7, l. 2. _Drope_, _hope_, rime in Troil. i. 939, and Gower, C. A., ii. 286.

VII. ANELIDA AND ARCITE.

This Poem consists of several distinct portions. It begins with a Proem, of three stanzas, followed by a part of the story, in twenty-seven stanzas, all in seven-line stanzas. Next follows the Complaint of Anelida, skilfully and artificially constructed; it consists of a Proem in a single stanza of nine lines; next, what may be called a Strophe, in six stanzas, of which the first four consist of nine lines, the fifth consists of sixteen lines (with only two rimes), and the sixth, of nine lines (with internal rimes). Next follows what may be called an Antistrophe, in six stanzas arranged precisely as before; wound up by a single concluding stanza corresponding to the Proem at the beginning of the Complaint. After this, the story begins again; but the poet had only written _one_ stanza when he suddenly broke off, and left the poem unfinished; see note to l. 357.

The name of Arcite naturally reminds us of the Knightes Tale; but the 'false Arcite' of the present poem has nothing beyond the name in common with the 'true Arcite' of the Tale. However, there are other connecting links, to be pointed out in their due places, which tend to shew that this poem was written _before_ the Knightes Tale, and was never finished; it is also probable that Chaucer actually wrote an earlier draught of the Knightes Tale, with the title of Palamon and Arcite, which he afterwards partially rejected; for he mentions 'The Love of Palamon and Arcite' in the prologue to the Legend of Good Women as if it were an independent work. However this may be, it is clear that, in constructing or rewriting the Knightes Tale, he did not lose sight of 'Anelida,' for he has used some of the lines over again; moreover, it is not a little remarkable that the very lines from Statius which are quoted at the beginning of the fourth stanza of Anelida are also quoted, in some of the MSS., at the beginning of the Knightes Tale.

But this is not all. For Dr. Koch has pointed out the close agreement between the opening stanzas of this poem, and those of Boccaccio's Teseide, which is the very work from which Palamon and Arcite was, of course, derived, as it is the chief source of the Knightes Tale also. Besides this, there are several stanzas from the Teseide in the Parliament of Foules; and even three near the end of Troilus, viz. the seventh, eighth, and ninth from the end of the last book. Hence we should be inclined to suppose that Chaucer originally translated the Teseide rather closely, substituting a seven-line stanza for the _ottava rima_ of the original; this formed the original Palamon and Arcite, a poem which he probably never finished (as his manner was). Not wishing, however, to abandon it altogether, he probably used some of the lines in this present poem, and introduced others into his Parliament of Foules. At a later period, he rewrote, in a complete form, the whole story in his own fashion, which has come down to us as The Knightes Tale. Whatever the right explanation may be, we are at any rate certain that the Teseide is the source of (1) sixteen stanzas in the Parliament of Foules; (2) of part of the first ten stanzas in the present poem; (3) of the original Palamon and Arcite; (4) of the Knightes Tale; and (5) of three stanzas near the end of Troilus, bk. v. 1807-27 (Tes. xi. 1-3).

1. In comparing the first three stanzas with the Teseide, we must reverse the order of the stanzas in the latter poem. Stanza 1 of Anelida answers to st. 3 of the Italian; stanza 2, to st. 2; and stanza 3 to st. 1. The first two lines of lib. 1. st. 3 (of the Italian) are:--

'_Siate presenti_, O _Marte rubicondo_,
Nelle tue _arme_ rigido e _feroce_.'

I. e. _Be present_, O _Mars the red_, strong and _fierce_ in thy _arms_ (battle-array). For the words _Be present_, see l. 6.

2. _Trace_, Thrace. Cf. Kn. Tale, 1114-6 (A 1972-4). Chaucer was here thinking of Statius, Theb. lib. vii. 40, who describes the temple of Mars on Mount Hæmus, in Thrace, which had a frosty climate. In bk. ii, l. 719, Pallas is invoked as being superior to Bellona. Chaucer seems to confuse them; so does Boccaccio, in his De Genealogia Deorum.

6, 7. Partly imitated from Tes. i. 3:--

'E sostenete la mano e la voce
Di me, che intendo i vostri effecti dire.'

8-10. Imitated from Tes. i. 2:--

'Chè m' è venuta voglia con _pietosa_
Rima di scriver _una storia antica_,
Tanto negli anni riposta e nascosa,
Che _latino_ autor non par ne dica,
Per quel ch' io senta, in libro alcuna cosa.'

Thus it appears that, when speaking of his finding an old story in Latin, he is actually translating from an Italian poem which treats of a story not found in Latin! That is, his words give no indication whatever of the source of his poem; but are merely used in a purely conventional manner. His 'old story' is really that of the siege of Thebes; and his _Latin_ is the Thebais of Statius. And neither of them speaks of Anelida!

15. Read _fávourábl'_. Imitated from Tes. i. 1:--

'O _sorelle_ Castalie, che nel monte
_Elicona contente_ dimorate
D' intorno al sacro gorgoneo fonte,
Sottesso _l' ombra delle frondi amate_
_Da Febo_, delle quali ancor la fronte
I' spero ornarmi sol che 'l concediate
Gli santi orecchi a' miei prieghi porgete,
E quegli udite come voi volete.'

_Polymnia_, Polyhymnia, also spelt Polymnia, Gk. [Greek: Polumnia] one of the nine Muses. Chaucer invokes the muse Clio in Troil. bk. ii, and Calliope in bk. iii. Cf. Ho. of Fame, 520-2. _Parnaso_, Parnassus, a mountain in Phocis sacred to Apollo and the Muses, at whose foot was Delphi and the Castalian spring. _Elicon_, mount Helicon in Boeotia; Chaucer seems to have been thinking rather of the Castalian spring, as he uses the prep. _by_, and supposes _Elicon_ to be near _Parnaso_. See the Italian, as quoted above; and note that, in the Ho. of Fame, 522, he says that Helicon is a _well_.

A similar confusion occurs in Troilus, iii. 1809:--

'Ye sustren nyne eek, that by Elicone
In hil Parnaso listen for tabyde.'

17. _Cirrea_, Cirra. Chaucer was thinking of the adj. _Cirræus_. Cirra was an ancient town near Delphi, under Parnassus. Dante mentions _Cirra_, Parad. i. 36; and _Parnaso_ just above, l. 16. Perhaps Chaucer took it from him.

20. A common simile. So Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 1, 42; and at the end of the Thebaid and the Teseide both.

21. _Stace_, Statius; i. e. the Thebaid; whence some of the next stanzas are more or less borrowed. Chaucer epitomises the general contents of the Thebaid in his Troilus; v. 1484, &c.

_Corinne_, not Corinna (as some have thought, for she has nothing to do with the matter), but Corinnus. Corinnus was a disciple of Palamedes, and is said to have written an account of the Trojan War, and of the war of the Trojan king Dardanus against the Paphlagonians, in the Dorian dialect. Suidas asserts that Homer made some use of his writings. See Zedler, Universal Lexicon; and Biog. Universelle. How Chaucer met with this name, is not known. Possibly, however, Chaucer was thinking of _Colonna_, i. e. Guido di Colonna, author of the medieval Bellum Trojanum. But this does not help us, and it is at least as likely that the name _Corinne_ was merely introduced by way of flourish; for no source has been discovered for the latter part of the poem, which may have been entirely of his own invention. For Palamedes, see Lydgate's Troy-book, bk. v. c. 36.

22. The verses from Statius, preserved in the MSS., are the three lines following; from Thebais, xii. 519:--

'Jamque domos patrias Scythicæ post aspera gentis
Prælia laurigero subeuntem Thesea curru,
Lætifici plausus missusque ad sidera vulgi,' &c.

The first line and half the second appear also in the MSS. of the Canterbury Tales, at the head of the Knightes Tale, which commences, so to speak, at the same point (l. 765 in Lewis's translation of the Thebaid). Comparing these lines of Statius with the lines in Chaucer, we at once see how he came by the word _aspre_ and the expression _With laurer crouned_. The whole of this stanza (ll. 22-28) is expanded from the three lines here quoted.

23. _Cithe_, Scythia; see last note. See Kn. Tale, 9 (A 867).

24. Cf. Kn. Tale, 169, 121 (A 1027, 979).

25. _Contre-houses_, houses of his country, homes (used of Theseus and his army). It exactly reproduces the Lat. _domos patrias_. See Kn. Tale, 11 (A 869).

29-35. Chaucer merely takes the general idea from Statius, and expands it in his own way. Lewis's translation of Statius has:--

'To swell the pomp, before the chief are borne
The spoils and trophies from the vanquish'd torn;'

but the Lat. text has--

'Ante ducem spolia et _duri Mauortis imago_,
Uirginei currus, cumulataque fercula cristis.'

And, just below, is a brief mention of Hippolyta, who had been wedded to Theseus.

30, 1. Cf. Kn. Tale, 117, 118 (A 975). See note above.

36, 7. Cf. Kn. Tale, 23, 24 (A 881, 2); observe the order of words.

38. Repeated in Kn. Tale, 114 (A 972); changing _With_ to _And_.

_Emelye_ is not mentioned in Statius. She is the _Emilia_ of the Teseide; see lib. ii. st. 22 of that poem.

43-6. Cf. Kn. Tale, 14, 15, 169 (A 872-3, 1027).

47. Here we are told that the story is really to begin. Chaucer now returns from Statius (whom he has nearly done with) to the Teseide, and the next three stanzas, ll. 50-70, are more or less imitated from that poem, lib. ii. st. 10-12.

50-6. Boccaccio is giving a sort of summary of the result of the war described in the Thebaid. His words are:--

'Fra tanto Marte i popoli lernei
Con furioso corso avie commossi
Sopro i Tebani, e miseri trofei
Donati avea de' Principi percossi
Più volte già, e de' greci plebei
Ritenuti tal volta, e tal riscossi
Con asta sanguinosa fieramente,
Trista avea fatta l' una e l' altra gente.'

57-63. Imitated from Tes. ii. 11:--

'Perciò che dopo Anfiarao, Tideo
Stato era ucciso, e 'l buon Ippomedone,
E similmente il bel Partenopeo,
E più Teban, de' qua' non fo menzione,
Dinanzi e dopo al fiero Capaneo,
E dietro a tutti in doloroso agone,
Eteocle e Polinice, ed ispedito
Il solo Adrastro ad Argo era fuggito.'

See also Troilus, v. 1499-1510.

57. _Amphiorax_; so in Troilus, ii. 105, v. 1500; Cant. Tales, 6323 (D 741); and in Lydgate's Siege of Thebes. Amphiaraus is meant; he accompanied Polynices, and was swallowed up by the earth during the siege of Thebes; Statius, Thebais, lib. vii. (at the end); Dante, Inf. xx. 34. Tydeus and Polynices married the two daughters of Adrastus. The heroic acts of Tydeus are recorded in the Thebaid. See Lydgate, Siege of Thebes; or the extract from it in my Specimens of English.

58. _Ipomedon_, Hippomedon; one of the seven chiefs who engaged in the war against Thebes. _Parthonopee_, Parthenopæus, son of Meleager and Atalanta; another of the seven chiefs. For the account of their deaths, see the Thebaid, lib. ix.

59. _Campaneus_; spelt _Cappaneus_, _Capaneus_ in Kn. Tale, 74 (A 932); Troil. v. 1504. Thynne, in his Animadversions on Speght's Chaucer (ed. Furnivall, p. 43), defends the spelling _Campaneus_ on the ground that it was the usual medieval spelling; and refers us to Gower and Lydgate. In Pauli's edition of Gower, i. 108, it is _Capaneus_. Lydgate has _Campaneus_; Siege of Thebes, pt. iii. near the beginning. Capaneus is the right Latin form; he was one of the seven chiefs, and was struck with lightning by Jupiter whilst scaling the walls of Thebes; Statius, Theb. lib. x (at the end). Cf. Dante, Inf. xiv. 63. As to the form _Campaneus_, cf. Ital. _Campidoglio_ with Lat. _Capitolium_.

60. 'The Theban wretches, the two brothers;' i. e. Eteocles and Polynices, who caused the war. Cf. Troil. v. 1507.

61. _Adrastus_, king of Argos, who assisted his son-in-law Polynices, and survived the war; Theb. lib. xi. 441.

63. 'That no man knew of any remedy for his (own) misery.' _Care_, anxiety, misery. At this line Chaucer begins upon st. 12 of the second book of the Teseide, which runs thus:--

'Onde il misero gente era rimaso
Vôto[291] di gente, e pien d'ogni dolore;
Ma a picciol tempo da Creonte invaso
Fu, che di quello si fe' re e signore,
Con tristo augurio, in doloroso caso
Recò insieme il regno suo e l'onore,
Per fiera crudeltà da lui usata,
Mai da null'altro davanti pensata.

Cf. Knightes Tale, 80-4 (A 938).

71. From this point onward, Chaucer's work is, as far as we know at present, original. He seems to be intending to draw a portrait of a queen of Armenia who is neglected by her lover, in distinct contrast to Emilia, sister of the queen of Scythia, who had a pair of lovers devoted to her service.

72. _Ermony_, Armenia; the usual M. E. form.

78. _Of twenty yeer of elde_, of twenty years of age; so in MSS. F., Tn., and Harl. 372. See note to l. 80.

80. _Behelde_; so in MSS. Harl., F.; and Harl. 372 has _beheelde_. I should hesitate to accept this form instead of the usual _beholde_, but for its occurrence in Gower, Conf. Amant., ed. Pauli, iii. 147:--

'The wine can make a creple sterte
And a deliver man unwelde;
It maketh a blind man to _behelde_.

So also in the Moral Ode, l. 288, the Trinity MS. has the infin. _behealde_, and the Lambeth MS. has _bihelde_. It appears to be a Southern form, adopted here for the rime, like _ken_ for _kin_ in Book of the Duch. 438.

There is further authority; for we actually find _helde_ for _holde_ in five MSS. out of seven, riming with _welde_ (_wolde_); C. T., Group D, l. 272.

82. Penelope and Lucretia are favourite examples of constancy; see C. T., Group B, 63, 75; Book Duch. 1081-2; Leg. Good Women, 252, 257. Read Penélop', not Pénelóp', as in B. D. 1081.

84. _Amended._ Compare what is said of Zenobia; C. T., B 3444.

85. I have supplied _Arcite_, which the MSS. strangely omit. It is necessary to _name_ him here, to introduce him; and the line is else too short. Chaucer frequently shifts the accent upon this name, so that there is nothing wrong about either _Arcíte_ here, or _Árcite_ in l. 92. See Kn. Tale, 173, 344, 361, &c. on the one hand; and lines 1297, 1885 on the other. And see l. 140 below.

91. Read _trust_, the contracted form of _trusteth_.

98. 'As, indeed, it is needless for men to learn such craftiness.'

105. A proverbial expression; see Squi. Tale, F 537. The character of Arcite is precisely that of the false tercelet in Part II. of the Squieres Tale; and Anelida is like the falcon in the same. Both here and in the Squieres Tale we find the allusions to Lamech, and to blue as the colour of constancy; see notes to ll. 146, 150, 161-9 below.

119. Cf. Squi. Tale, F 569.

128. 'That all his will, it seemed to her,' &c. A common idiom. Koch would omit _hit_, for the sake of the metre; but it makes no difference at all, the _e_ in _thoghte_ being elided.

141. _New-fangelnesse_; see p. 409, l. 1, and Squi. Tale, F 610.

145. _In her hewe_, in her colours: he wore the colours which she affected. This was a common method of shewing devotion to a lady.

146. Observe the satire in this line. Arcite is supposed to have worn _white_, _red_, or _green_; but he did not wear _blue_, for that was the colour of _constancy_. Cf. Squi. Tale, F 644, and the note; and see l. 330 below; also p. 409, l. 7.

150. Cf. Squi. Tale, F 550. I have elsewhere drawn attention to the resemblance between this poem and the Squieres Tale, in my note to l. 548 of that Tale. Cf. also Cant. Tales, 5636 (D 54). The reference is to Gen. iv. 19--'And Lamech took unto him two wives.' In l. 154, Chaucer curiously confounds him with Jabal, Lamech's _son_, who was 'the father of such as dwell in tents'; Gen. iv. 20.

155. _Arcít-e_; trisyllabic, as frequently in Kn. Tale.

157. 'Like a wicked horse, which generally shrieks when it bites'; Bell. This explanation is clearly wrong. The line is repeated, with the slight change of _pleyne_ to _whyne_, in C. T. 5968 (D 386). To _pleyne_ or to _whyne_ means to utter a plaintive cry, or to whinny; and the sense is--'Like a horse, (of doubtful temper), which can either bite or whinny (as if wanting a caress).'

161. _Theef_, false wretch; cf. Squi. Tale, F 537.

162. Cf. Squi. Tale, F 462, 632.

166. Cf. Squi. Tale, F 448.

169. Cf. Squi. Tale, F 412, 417, 430, 631.

171. _Al crampissheth_, she draws all together, contracts convulsively; formed from _cramp_. I know of but four other examples of the use of this word.

In Lydgate's Flour of Curtesie, st. 7, printed in Chaucer's Works, ed. 1561, fol. 248, we have the lines:--

'I gan complayne min inwarde deedly smert
That aye so sore _crampeshe at_ min herte.'

As this gives no sense, it is clear that _crampeshe at_ is an error for _crampisheth_ or _crampished_, which Lydgate probably adopted from the present passage.

Again, in Lydgate's Life of St. Edmund, in MS. Harl. 2278, fol. 101 (ed. Horstmann, p. 430, l. 930), are the lines:--

'By pouert spoiled, which made hem sore smerte,
Which, as they thouhte, _craumpysshed_ at here herte.'

Skelton has _encraumpysshed_, Garland of Laurell, 16; and Dyce's note gives an example of _craumpishing_ from Lydgate's Wars of Troy, bk. iv. c. 33, sig. Xv. col. 4, ed. 1555.

Once more, Lydgate, in his Fall of Princes, bk. i. c. 9 (pr. by Wayland, leaf 18, col. 2), has the line--

'Deth _crampishing_ into their hert gan crepe.'

175. In Kn. Tale, 1950 (A 2808), it is Arcite who says '_mercy!_'

176. Read _endur'th_. Mate, exhausted.

177. Read _n'hath_. _Sustene_, support herself; cf. C. T. 11173 (F 861).

178. _Forth_ is here equivalent to 'continues'; _is_ or _dwelleth_ is understood. Read _languísshing_.

180. _Grene_, fresh; probably with a reference to _green_ as being the colour of inconstancy.

182. Nearly repeated in Kn. Tale, 1539 (A 2397); cf. Comp. unto Pity, 110. Cf. Compl. to his Lady, 52.

183. If _up_ is to be retained before _so_, change _holdeth_ into _halt_. 'His new lady reins him in by the bridle so tightly (harnessed as he is) at the end of the shaft (of her car), that he fears every word like an arrow.' The image is that of a horse, tightly fastened to the ends of the shafts of a car, and then so hardly reined in that he fears every word of the driver; he expects a cut with the whip, and he cannot get away.

193. _Fee or shipe_, fee or reward. The scarce word _shipe_ being misunderstood, many MSS. give corrupt readings. But it occurs in the Persones Tale, Group I, 568, where Chaucer explains it by 'hyre'; and in the Ayenbite of Inwit, p. 33. It is the A. S. _scipe_. '_Stipendium_, scipe'; Wright's Vocabularies, 114. 34.

194. _Sent_, short for _sendeth_; cf. _serveth_ above. Cf. Book of Duch. 1024.

202. _Also_, as; 'as may God save me.'

206. _Hir ne gat no geyn_, she obtained for herself no advantage.

211. The metre now becomes extremely artificial. The first stanza is introductory. Its nine lines are rimed _a a b a a b b a b_, with only two rimes. I set back lines 3, 6, 7, 9, to show the arrangement more clearly. The next four stanzas are in the same metre. The construction is obscure, but is cleared up by l. 350, which is its echo, and again by ll. 270-1. _Swerd_ is the nom. case, and _thirleth_ is its verb; 'the sword of sorrow, whetted with false complaisance, so pierces my heart, (now) bare of bliss and black in hue, with the (keen) point of (tender) recollection.' Chaucer's 'with ... remembrance' is precisely Dante's 'Per la puntura della rimembranza'; Purg. xii. 20.

214. Cf. The Compleint to his Lady, 1. 55.

215. _Awhaped_, amazed, stupified. To the examples in the New E. Dict. add--'Sole by himself, _awhaped_ and amate'; Compl. of the Black Knight, 168.

216. Cf. the Compleint to his Lady, l. 123.

218. _That_, who: relative to _hir_ above.

220. Observe how the stanza, which I here number as 1, is echoed by the stanza below, ll. 281-289; and so of the rest.

222. Nearly repeated in the Compl. to his Lady, l. 35.

237. Repeated from the Compl. to his Lady, l. 50.

241. _Founde_, seek after; A. S. _fundian_. For _founde_, all the MSS. have _be founde_, but the _be_ is merely copied in from _be more_ in l. 240. If we retain _be_, then _befounde_ must be a compound verb, with the same sense as before; but there is no known example of this verb, though the related strong verb _befinden_ is not uncommon. But see l. 47 above. With l. 242 cf. Rom. Rose, 966 (p. 134).

247. Cf. Compl. to his Lady, ll. 107, 108.

256-71. This stanza is in the same metre as that marked 5 below, ll. 317-332. It is very complex, consisting of 16 lines of varying length. The lines which I have set back have but _four_ accents; the rest have _five_. The rimes in the first eight lines are arranged in the order _a a a b a a a b_; in the last eight lines this order is precisely reversed, giving _b b b a b b b a_; so that the whole forms a _virelay_.

260. _Namely_, especially, in particular.

262. 'Offended you, as surely as (I hope that) He who knows everything may free my soul from woe.'

265. This refers to ll. 113-5 above.

267. Read _sav-e_, _mek-e_; or the line will be too short.

270. Refers to ll. 211-3 above.

272. This stanza answers to that marked 6 below, ll. 333-341. It is the most complex of all, as the lines contain internal rimes. The lines are of the normal length, and arranged with the end-rimes _a a b a a b b a b_, as in the stanzas marked 1 to 4 above. Every line has an internal rime, viz. at the second and fourth accents. In ll. 274, 280, this internal rime is a feminine one, which leaves but _one_ syllable (viz. _nay_, _may_) to complete these lines.

The expression 'swete fo' occurs again in the Compleint to his Lady, l. 41 (cf. ll. 64, 65); also in Troil. v. 228.

279. 'And then shall this, which is now wrong, (turn) into a jest; and all (shall be) forgiven, whilst I may live.'

281. The stanza here marked 1 answers to the stanza so marked above; and so of the rest. The metre has already been explained.

286. 'There are no other fresh intermediate ways.'

299. 'And must I pray (to you), and so cast aside womanhood?' It is not for the woman to sue to the man. Compare l. 332.

301. _N[=e]d-e_, with long close _e_, rimes with _b[=e]de_, _m[=e]de_, _h[=e]de_.

302. 'And if I lament as to what life I lead.'

306. 'Your demeanour may be said to flower, but it bears no seed.' There is much promise, but no performance.

309. _Holde_, keep back. The spelling _Averyll_ (or _Auerill_) occurs in MS. Harl. 7333, MS. Addit. 16165, and MSS. T. and P. It is much better than the _Aprill_ or _Aprille_ in the rest. I would also read _Averill_ or _Aperil_ in Troil. i. 156.

313. _Who that_, whosoever. _Fast_, trustworthy.

315. _Tame_, properly tamed. From Rom. Rose, 9945:--

'N'est donc bien privée tel beste
Qui de foir est toute preste.'

320. _Chaunte-pleure._ Godefroy says that there was a celebrated poem of the 13th century named _Chantepleure_ or _Pleurechante_; and that it was addressed to those who sing in this world and will weep in the next. Hence also the word was particularly used to signify any complaint or lament, or a chant at the burial-service. One of his quotations is:--'Heu brevis honor qui vix duravit per diem, sed longus dolor qui usque ad mortem, gallicè _la chantepleure_'; J. de Aluet, _Serm._, Richel. l. 14961, fol. 195, verso. And again:--

'Car le juge de vérité
Pugnira nostre iniquité
Par la balance d'équité
Qui où val de la _chantepleure_
Nous boute en grant adversité
Sanz fin à perpétuité,
Et y parsevere et demeure.'
J. de Meung, Le Tresor, l. 1350; ed. Méon.

Tyrwhitt says:--'A sort of proverbial expression for _singing and weeping_ successively [rather, little singing followed by much weeping]. See Lydgate, Trag. [i. e. Fall of Princes] st. the last; where he says that his book is 'Lyke _Chantepleure_, now singing now weping.' In MS. Harl. 4333 is a Ballad which turns upon this expression. It begins: 'Moult vaut mieux _pleure-chante_ que ne fait _chante-pleure_.' Clearly the last expression means, that short grief followed by long joy is better than brief joy followed by long grief. The fitness of the application in the present instance is obvious.

Another example occurs in Lydgate's Fall of Princes, bk. i. c. 7, _lenvoy_:--

'It is like to the _chaunte-pleure_,
Beginning with ioy, ending in wretchednes.'

So also in Lydgate's Siege of Troye, bk. ii. c. 11; ed. 1555, Fol. F 6, back, col. 2.

328. _A furlong-wey_ meant the time during which one can walk a furlong, at three miles an hour. A _mile-way_ is twenty minutes; a _furlong-wey_ is two minutes and a half; and the double of it is five minutes. But the strict sense need not be insisted on here.

330. _Asure_, true blue; the colour of _constancy_; see l. 332.

'Her habyte was of manyfolde colours,
Watchet-_blewe_, of fayned _stedfastnesse_,
Her golde allayed like son in watry showres,
Meynt with _grene_, for _chaunge and doublenesse_.'
Lydgate's Fall of Princes, bk. vi. c. 1. st. 7.

So in Troil. iii. 885--'bereth him this _blewe_ ring.' And see Sect. XXI. l. 7 (p. 409), and the note.

332. 'And to pray to me for mercy.' Cf. ll. 299, 300.

338. _They_, i. e. your ruth and your truth.

341. 'My wit cannot reach, it is so weak.'

342. Here follows the concluding stanza of the Complaint.

344. Read--_For I shal ne'er_ (or _nev'r_) _eft pútten_.

346. See note to Parl. of Foules, 342.

350. This line re-echoes l. 211.

357. The reason why the Poem ends here is sufficiently obvious. Here must have followed the description of the temple of Mars, _written in seven-line stanzas_. But it was all _rewritten_ in a new metre, and is preserved to us, for all time, in the famous passage in the Knightes Tale; ll. 1109-1192 (A 1967).

VIII. CHAUCERS WORDES UNTO ADAM.

Only extant in MS. T., written by Shirley, and in Stowe's edition of 1561. Dr. Koch says--'It seems that Stowe has taken his text from Shirley, with a few modifications in spelling, and altered Shirley's _Scriveyn_ into _scrivener_, apparently because that word was out of use in his time. _Scriveyn_ is O. Fr. _escrivain_, F. _écrivain_. Lines 3 and 4 are too long [in MS. T. and Stowe], but _long_ and _more_ are unnecessary for the sense, wherfore I have omitted them.' Dr. Sweet omits _long_, but retains _more_, though it sadly clogs the line. Again, in l. 2, we find _for to_, where _for_ is superfluous.

2. _Boece_, Chaucer's translation of Boethius. _Troilus_, Chaucer's poem of Troilus and Creseyde; in 5 books, all in seven-line stanzas. See vol. II.

3. 'Thou oughtest to have an attack of the scab under thy locks, unless thou write exactly in accordance with my composition.'

IX. THE FORMER AGE.

'The former Age' is a title taken from l. 2 of the poem. In MS. Hh., at the end, are the words--'Finit Etas prima: Chaucers.'

Both MSS. are poor, and omit a whole line (l. 56), which has to be supplied by conjecture; as we have no other authority. The spelling requires more emendation than usual.

The poem is partly a verse translation of Boethius, De Consolatione Philosophiæ, lib. ii. met. 5. We possess a prose translation by Chaucer of the entire work (see vol. II. p. 40). This therefore contains the same passage in prose; and the prose translation is, of course, a much closer rendering of the original. Indeed there is nothing in the original which corresponds to the last four stanzas of the present poem, excepting a hint for l. 62.

The work of Boethius, in Latin, consists of five books. Each book contains several sections, written in prose and verse alternately. Hence it is usual to refer to bk. ii. prose 5 (liber ii. prosa 5); bk. ii. metre 5 (liber ii. metrum 5); and the like. These divisions are very useful in finding one's place.

Chaucer was also indebted to Ovid, Metam. i. 89-112, for part of this description of the Golden Age; of which see Dryden's fine translation. See also Le Roman de la Rose, ll. 8395-8492: and compare the Complaint of Scotland, ed. Murray, p. 144; and Dante, Purg. xxii. 148. For further remarks, see the Introduction.

1. 'Decaearchus ... refert sub Saturno, id est, in aureo saeculo, cum omnia humus funderet, nullum comedisse carnes: sed uniuersos uixisse frugibus et pomis, quae sponte terra gignebat'; Hieron. c. Iouin. lib. ii.

2. _The former age_; Lat. prior etas.

3. _Payed of_, satisfied with; Lat. contenta.

4. _By usage_, ordinarily; i. e. without being tilled.

5. _Forpampred_, exceedingly pampered; Lat. perdita. _With outrage_, beyond all measure.

6. _Quern_, a hand-mill for grinding corn. _Melle_, mill.

7. Dr. Sweet reads _hawes, mast_ instead of _mast, hawes_. This sounds better, but is not necessary. _Haw-es_ is dissyllabic. _Pounage_, mod. E. _pannage_, mast, or food given to swine in the woods; see the Glossary. Better spelt _pannage_ or _paunage_ (Manwood has _pawnage_), as cited in Blount's Nomolexicon. Koch wrongly refers us to O.F. _poün_, _poön_, a sickle (Burguy), but mast and haws were never reaped. Cf. Dante, Purg. xxii. 149.

11. 'Which they rubbed in their hands, and ate of sparingly.' _Gnodded_ is the pt. t. of _gnodden_ or _gnudden_, to rub, examples of which are scarce. See Ancren Riwle, pp. 238, 260 (footnotes), and _gnide_ in Halliwell's Dictionary. But the right reading is obviously _gniden_ or _gnide_ (with short _i_), the pt. t. pl. of the strong verb _gniden_, to rub. This restores the melody of the line. In the Ancren Riwle, p. 260, there is a reference to Luke vi. 1, saying that Jesus' disciples '_gniden_ the cornes ut bitweonen hore honden'; where another MS. has _gnuddeden_. The Northern form _gnade_ (2 p. sing.) occurs in the O.E. Psalter, Ps. lxxxviii. 45. Dr. Sweet reads _gnodde_, but the pt. t. of _gnodden_ was _gnodded_. _Nat half_, not half of the crop; some was wasted.

16. 'No one as yet ground spices in a mortar, to put into _clarrè_ or galantine-sauce.' As to _clarre_, see Knightes Tale, 613 (A 1471); R. Rose, 6027; and the Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 204, and Index.

In the Liber Cure Cocorum, ed. Morris, p. 30, is the following recipe for _Galentyne_:--

'Take crust of brede and grynde hit smalle,
Take powder of galingale, and temper with-alle;
Powder of gyngere and salt also;
Tempre hit with venegur er þou more do;
Draw[gh]e hit þurughe a streynour þenne,
And messe hit forth before good menne.'

'_Galendyne_ is a sauce for any kind of roast Fowl, made of Grated Bread, beaten Cinnamon and Ginger, Sugar, Claret-wine, and Vinegar, made as thick as Grewell'; Randell Holme, bk. iii. ch. iii. p. 82, col. 2 (quoted in Babees Book, ed. Furnivall, p. 216). Roquefort gives O.F. _galatine_, _galantine_, _galentine_, explained by 'gelée, daube, sauce, ragoût fort épicé; en bas Latin, _galatina_.' Beyond doubt, Chaucer found the word in the Roman de la Rose, l. 21823--'En friture et en _galentine_.' See _Galantine_ in Littré, and see note to Sect. XII. l. 17. Cf. Rom. de la Rose, 8418:--

'Et de l'iaue simple bevoient
Sans querre piment ne clare,' &c.

17. 'No dyer knew anything about madder, weld, or woad.' All three are plants used in dyeing. Madder is _Rubia tinctoria_, the roots of which yield a dye. I once fancied _weld_ was an error for _welled_ (i. e. flowed out); and Dr. Sweet explains _welde_ by 'strong.' Both of these fancies are erroneous. _Weld_ is the _Reseda Luteola_ of Linnæus, and grows wild in waste places; I have seen it growing near Beachey Head. It is better known as Dyer's Rocket. In Johns' Flowers of the Field, we duly find--'_Reseda Luteola_, Dyer's Rocket, weed, or Weld.' Also called Ash of Jerusalem, Dyer's Weed, &c.; see Eng. Plant-names, by Britten and Holland. It appears in mod. G. as _Wau_ (Du. _wouw_), older spelling _Waude_. Its antiquity as a Teut. word is vouched for by the derivatives in the Romance languages, such as Span. _gualda_, Port. _gualde_, F. _gaude_; see _Gualda_ in Diez. _Weld_ is a totally distinct word from _woad_, but most dictionaries confound them. Florio, most impartially, coins a new form by mixing the two words together (after the fashion adopted in Alice through the Looking-glass). He gives us Ital. _gualdo_, 'a weede to die yellow with, called _woald_.' The true _woad_ is the _Isatis tinctoria_, used for dyeing blue before indigo was known; the name is sometimes given to _Genista tinctoria_, but the dye from this is of a yellow colour. Pliny mentions the dye from madder (Nat. Hist. xix. 3); and says the British women used _glastum_, i. e. woad (xxii. 1).

18. _Flees_, fleece; Lat. 'uellera.'

20. 'No one had yet learnt how to distinguish false coins from true ones.'

27-9. Cf. Ovid, Metam. i. 138-140.

30. _Ri-ver-es_; three syllables. Dr. Sweet suggests putting _after_ in place of _first_.

33. 'These tyrants did not gladly venture into battle to win a wilderness or a few bushes where poverty (alone) dwells--as Diogenes says--or where victuals are so scarce and poor that only mast or apples are found there; but, wherever there are money-bags,' &c. This is taken either from Jerome, in his Epistle against Jovinian, lib. ii. (Epist. Basil. 1524, ii. 73), or from John of Salisbury's Policraticus, lib. viii. c. 6. Jerome has: 'Diogenes _tyrannos_ et subuersiones urbium, bellaque uel hostilia, uel ciuilia, non pro simplici uictu holerum pomorumque, sed pro carnibus et epularum deliciis asserit excitari.' John of Salisbury copies this, with _subuersores_ for _subuersiones_, which seems better. Gower relates how Diogenes reproved Alexander for his lust of conquest; Conf. Amantis, ed. Pauli, i. 322.

41. This stanza seems more or less imitated from Le Rom. de la Rose, 8437:--

'Et quant par nuit dormir voloient,
En leu de coites [_quilts_] aportoient
En lor casiaus monceaus de gerbes,
De foilles, ou de mousse, ou d'erbes;....
Sor tex couches cum ge devise,
Sans rapine et sans convoitise,
S'entr'acoloient et baisoient....
Les simples gens asséurées,
De toutes cures escurées.'

47. 'Their hearts were all united, without the gall (of envy).' Curiously enough, Chaucer has here made an oversight. He ends the line with _galles_, riming with _halles_ and _walles_; whereas the line should end with a word riming to _shete_, as, e.g. 'Hir hertes knewen nat to counterfete.'

49. Here again cf. Rom. de la Rose, 8483:--

'N'encor n'avoit fet roi ne prince
Meffais qui l'autrui tolt et pince.
Trestuit pareil estre soloient,
Ne riens propre avoir ne voloient.

55, 6. 'Humility and peace, (and) good faith (who is) the empress (of all), filled the earth full of ancient courtesy.' Line 56 I have supplied; Dr. Koch supplies the line--'Yit hadden in this worlde the maistrie.' Either of these suggestions fills up the sense intended.

57. Jupiter is mentioned in Ovid's Metamorphoses immediately after the description of the golden, silver, brazen, and iron ages. At l. 568 of the same book begins the story of the love of Jupiter for Io.

59. _Nembrot_, Nimrod; so that _his toures hye_ refers to the tower of Babel. In Gen. x, xi, the sole connection of Nimrod with Babel is in ch. x. 10--'And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel.' But the usual medieval account is that he built the tower. Thus, in the Cursor Mundi, l. 2223:--

'Nembrot than said on this wise, ... "I rede we bigin a laboure, And do we wel and make a toure,"' &c.

So also in Sir D. Lyndsay, Buke of the Monarché, bk. ii. l. 1625.

62-4. These last lines are partly imitated from Boethius; lines 33-61 are independent of him.

X. FORTUNE.

This poem consists of _three_ Ballads and an Envoy. Each Ballad contains three stanzas of eight lines, with the rimes _a b a b b c b c_, and the rimes of the second and third stanzas are precisely the same as those of the first. Thus the rime _a_ recurs six times, the rime _b_ twelve times, and the rime _c_ likewise six times. Moreover, each stanza ends with the same line, recurring as a refrain. Hence the metrical difficulties are very great, and afford a convincing proof of Chaucer's skill. The Envoy is of seven lines, rimed _a b a b b a b_.

The three ballads are called, collectively, Balades de visage sanz peinture, a title which is correctly given in MS. I., with the unlucky exception that _visage_ has been turned into _vilage_. This curious blunder occurs in all the MSS. and old editions, and evidently arose from mistaking a long _s_ for an _l_. _Vilage_, of course, makes no sense; and we are enabled to correct it by help of Chaucer's translation of Boethius, bk. ii. pr. 1; l. 39. 'Right swich was she [Fortune] whan she flatered thee, and deceived thee with unleveful lykinges of fals welefulnesse. Thou hast now knowen and ataynt the doutous or double _visage_ of thilke blinde goddesse _Fortune_. She, that yit _covereth_ hir and _wimpleth_ hir to other folk, hath shewed hir everydel to thee.' Or the Ballads may refer to the unmasking of false friends: '_Fortune_ hath departed and uncovered to thee bothe the _certein visages_ and eek the doutous _visages_ of thy felawes'; id. bk. ii. pr. 8; l. 25. The whole poem is more or less founded on the descriptions of Fortune in Boethius; and we thus see that the visage meant is the _face of Fortune_, or else the _face of a supposed friend_, which is clearly revealed to the man of experience, in the day of adversity, without any covering or wimpling, and even without any painting or false colouring.

In MS. T. we are told that 'here filoweþe [_followeth_] a balade made by Chaucier of þe louer and of Dame Fortune.' In MS. A. we are told that 'here foloweþe nowe a compleynte of þe Pleintyff agenst fortune translated oute of Frenshe into Englisshe by þat famous Rethorissyen Geffrey Chaucier.' This hint, that it is translated out of French, can scarcely be right, unless Shirley (whose note this is) means that it partially resembles passages in Le Roman de la Rose; for Chaucer's work seems to contain some reminiscences of that poem as well as of the treatise of Boethius, though of course Le Roman is indebted to Boethius also.

_Le Pleintif_ is the complainant, the man who brings a charge against Fortune, or rather, who exclaims against her as false, and defies her power. The first Ballad, then, consists of this complaint and defiance.

The close connection between this poem and Boethius is shewn by the fact that (like the preceding poem called The Former Age) it occurs in an excellent MS. of Chaucer's translation of Boethius, viz. MS. I. (Ii. 3. 21, in the Cambridge University Library). I may also remark here, that there is a somewhat similar dialogue between Nobilitas and Fortuna in the Anticlaudianus of Alanus de Insulis, lib. viii. c. 2; see Anglo-Latin Satirists, ed. T. Wright, ii. 401.

In Morley's English Writers, ii. 283, is the following description. 'The argument of the _first_ part [or Ballad] is: I have learnt by adversity to know who are my true friends; and he can defy Fortune who is master of himself. The argument of the _next_ part [second Ballad], that Fortune speaks, is: Man makes his own wretchedness. What may come you know not; you were born under my rule of change; your anchor holds. Of the _third_ part of the poem [third Ballad], in which the Poet and Fortune each speak, the sum of the argument is, that what blind men call fortune is the righteous will of God. Heaven is firm, this world is mutable. The piece closes with Fortune's call upon the Princes to relieve this man of his pain, or pray his best friend "of his noblesse" that he may attain to some better estate.'

The real foundation of these three Ballads is (1) Boethius, bk. ii. proses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and met. 1; and (2) a long passage in Le Roman de la Rose, ll. 4853-4994 (Eng. version, 5403-5584). More particular references are given below.

1. The beginning somewhat resembles Boethius, bk. ii. met. 1, l, 5;--'She, cruel Fortune, casteth adoun kinges that whylom weren y-drad; and she, deceivable, enhaunseth up the humble chere of him that is discomfited.' Cf. Rom. Rose (E. version), ll. 5479-83.