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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2021 with funding from Duke University Libraries https://archive.org/details/englishversebetw01hamm 7 Pes ; po ¥ net: , ae | s 1 Zs , a fi. 195 itt nf a he 7 z 4 fs4 7 7 i f 7 5 p | ly fod ‘ mau wa, neuer { laa h ‘| Dither at Nay bk ory PUR LICATION S ENGLISH VERSE BETWEEN CHAUCER AND SURREY English Verse between Chaucer and Surrey Being Examples of Conventional Secular Poetry, exclusive of Romance, Ballad, Lyric, and Drama, in the Period from Henry the Fourth to Henry the Eighth EDITED WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES BY ELEANOR PRESCOTT HAMMOND, Ph.D. To know, Rather consists in opening out a way, Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape, Than in effecting entry for a light Supposed to be without. — Browning, Paracelsus i: 733-37 76210 DURHAM : NORTH CAROLINA DUKESUNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1927, COPYRIGHT 192'7 DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS THE SEEMAN PRESS DURHAM, N.C. To ARTHUR SAMPSON NAPIER Late Merton Professor of the English Language and Literature in the University of Oxford ¢ SCHOLAR « MASTER ¢ FRIEND e G&EQID ¥ 2), 208 ri/t ¢/>7 =a Denwer 6.2 5 ut. PREFACE This volume is intended primarily for the advanced student of English literary history ; and such intention has influenced both its plan and its mode of presenta- tion. No single volume can fully represent the productivity of the century-and-a- half between the death of Chaucer and the birth of Spenser, and can also offer the necessary comment upon the published texts. For barren as is the period in one sense, it is nevertheless enormously prolific, and the aspects of its expres- sion too varied for treatment in any compact anthology. The ballad and the religious drama, both of which lie partly within this tract of time, have been abun- dantly studied ; investigation of non-dramatic religious poetry is well under way; the romances have their share of attention; but the field of what I may call for convenience “formal” verse, the mass of secular production partly narrative, partly didactic, partly satiric, partly amatory, partly descriptive, verse adhering anxiously to standardized forms and stylistic devices, is still nearly untouched. It is in this field that the soil of English literature most obviously becomes ex- hausted during the fifteenth century; and the study of these works may seem to the casual observer a thankless task. Yet without such a study the survey of English literary history is arbitrarily scanted; and every worker who views litera- ture not as belles-lettres but as the expression of the national mind realizes that the functioning of that mind, like the movements of the racehorse or the boxer, is most clearly to be observed when the film is slowed. Elton has said that “the passage from older themes and styles into newer is best seen in the writers of mid- dle rank and mixed performance” ; and in this “Transition,” of all periods in our literature, that possibility of analysis is present. The rockbottom qualities which affect the currents of literature are visible not at triumphant flood but at ebb- tide. The “Transition” has much to teach the student as to the working of psychic factors and the influence of the social environment on poetic expression; more- over, principles drawn thence are valid even among the greatest. After observing the excess of standardization in Lydgate or in Hawes, we regard the lessening in Spenser, the still more marked lessening in Shakespeare, not so much as a miracle but rather as a return to the balance long prevented by formalism. Even with this limitation, it is impossible in a single volume to cover the field. In making a choice, the editor has endeavored to illustrate the different degrees of conservatism, the admixture now of satire, now of description, now of autobiography or of the personal, in the progress towards free treatment of the individual. A mass of verse at the close of the period is excluded because of its non-formal character. Copland’s two poems, Cocke Lorel’s Bote, Colyn Blowbole’s Testament, etc., would greatly enlarge our picture of the national mind, but they are outside the scope of this volume. Much has also been omitted from considerations of expense; the Flower and the Leaf should be here, as representing a motif highly favored by the courtly poetry of the time, but it is accessible in a modern text, and has accordingly been withdrawn from this anthol- [ vii ] Vill ENGLISH VERSE ogy. Gower is untouched here for the same reason. But a good deal of the con- tents of this volume is unobtainable by the student. Walton’s Boethius, Lydgate’s Dance Macabre; the translations of Orléans, Nevill, the Visions of Cavendish, and other poems, are accessible only in expensive editions if at all. And not only these poems, but most or all of those here printed are selected as illus- trating dominant motifs of the time:—the anxious curiosity about death, the Fortune-formula, the laments over extravagance, the eagerness about trade and travel, the paraded encyclopedic knowledge, the bourgeois contempt for women and the cavalier deference for women, the rising interest in the scamp, the sub- servience to patrons, the lip-respect for Chaucer. In several poems either the in- fluence of Chaucer is visible or a passage of Chaucer is illuminated, as in Bycorne and Chichevache, Canace’s letter, Walton’s Boethius, etc. Wherever possible, the texts are printed as wholes or as portions complete in themselves. We might do as did Charles Lamb for the Elizabethan drama- tists,—select passages showing the pictorial and emotional powers of their writ- ers; but if in displaying the versifier’s control over situation we conceal his ability, or inability, to get from situation to situation, we disguise facts neces- sary for the student, and cast a false light upon our period. It is incumbent upon the literary historian or editor to lay before workers proof how didactic was the fifteenth century at the emotional moment, how clumsy in managing tran- sition, how crude in motiving action, how unable to release the subject in hand. Only from such a body of facts can we observe the irregular growth of English constructive power ; and only long continuous excerpts, if not wholes, can provide a basis for observation. Even carelessly edited texts, like those put forth by Ritson and by Halliwell, retain their place with scholars just because they make wholes available for study. But it has been impossible, however desirable, to place the whole of each of these texts before the student. Lydgate’s Dance Macabre can be, and is, re- produced complete; the 36,000 lines of his Fall of Princes must necessarily be illustrated by extracts; nor can we refuse to make such excerpts, because a theme so important in West-European literature, a work so influential on the Continent and in England, cannot be omitted from our survey. The Garland of Laurell is printed entire; but portions only are possible of Hawes’ Pastime, of Cavendish’s Visions, of Barclay’s Ship of Fools. Yet in all these cases the editor has en- deavored to give chapters in full, to illustrate the mode of connecting chapters, to show the movement of the author’s mind among his material. The great amount of space given to Lydgate may provoke question; but since it is our problem to study the formal expression of the age, no apology is needed. For in this one man are represented so many of the aspects of such verse in the first half of the century that its standardized expression can al- most be studied from him alone. Criticism will also be aroused by my refusal to treat most of this verse as rhythmical composition. The work of Lydgate, for instance, has been taken very seriously by specialists; and only the inaccessibility of texts has prevented more of the verse of the period from receiving careful analysis on the model PREFACE ix set up by German scholars. To such treatment I am for two reasons opposed. First, because the method is itself inadequate, a handling of verse line by line only and according to the number of syllables; secondly, because analysis is wasted upon a large portion of this verse, which is, e.g. in the Libel of English Policy, in Ripley’s Compend, in Hawes’ Pastime, sheer doggerel, guiltless of rhythm and con- scious only of an approaching rime. This latter condition does not arise because of the badness of texts, for in the cases of both Hardyng and Cavendish we have the author’s own manuscript, and yet the rhythm is as awkward as any of the period We can indeed study the attempts of Lydgate and Hoccleve to use Chaucer’s pen- tameter line-flow, and we can recognize with pleasure the rhythmic command of the Orléans or of the Palladius-translator and of the writer of the Lover’s Mass. But in most of this transitional work we have to note that a failure of sense-per- ception, a stale formality of simile and of phrase, accompanies this rhythmic pov- erty as its shadow,—or its substance. The cramping of the spirit by an environ- ment which it cannot conquer through observation is at the basis of the Transition’s failure to express, or indeed of a similar failure in any age. Given a partially- educated and insensitive group, obedient to external conditions, eager for moral and intellectual credit, and if it attempts expression, be it in the twentieth cen- tury or in the fifteenth, there will appear the same respect for the didactic, the same penchant for allegory, the same imitativeness and use of formulae, and the same failure to feel rhythm. The textual presentation is academic. The original manuscript or printed copy is followed without deviation except in a few cases where the student might be led astray; in such cases the inserted or altered word is bracketed and the actual reading given at the foot of the page. All other changes, now sug- gested or made by previous editors, are relegated to the Notes. Modern punc- tuation has not been introduced; the markings of the original are scrupulously retained. For while the page may thus lose in clarity for the general reader, it gains greatly for the student, who is then given his proper share in the editorial problem of following the medieval mind. And when examining sentence-structure thus, the worker learns far more than when accepting uncritically the conclusions of an editor. Not only can an editor, even the best of editors, hypnotize his readers into false notions of the author’s meaning, but the whole subject of Early English punctuation has been slighted and obscured because of such ac- ceptance, continued century after century. We have made it impossible to obtain information on medieval theories of pointing by refusing to print texts with their pointing undisturbed; and the reasons for our refusal are the same as those once considered valid against the reproduction of the early spelling——a matter long since settled. On all these accounts, the present editor has declined to impose modern punctuation here. It will also be noted that the texts are not “critical”. The establishment of a critical text, deduced from comparison of all existing copies of the work, suffers, and must always suffer, under two limitations. The surviving copies may be far indeed from the fittest; and in any case, the text constructed from them, though presumably antedating them, is not conclusively the original. It x ENGLISH VERSE is “X”; but the identity of X with Chaucer or with Lydgate or with another cannot be asserted. Hence the labor of constructing such an hypothetical “Ur- text”, although an admirable exercise in acumen, arrives nowhither unless the number of copies be large and clearly grouped, unless moreover they be for the most part honestly executed. The present editor feels that the principle of critical text-construction is not something to be invoked “semper, ubique, et ab omnibus”, but is to be applied according to mass and character of material. Some of the texts here assembled exist in but a single copy; of some we have a copy in the author’s own hand; several are poorly preserved; and the few which survive in a number of copies, like Walton’s Boethius, have received a treatment uniform with the others; that is, one text is printed verbatim et literatim, with mention of variants in the Notes. In nearly every case the copies have been made by the editor. For the Palladius-text the photograph of the Wentworth Wodehouse MS was used by a Bodleian copyist; the Hoccleve texts have been revised by the Keeper of Manu- scripts at the Henry E. Huntington Library, California, where the codices formerly Phillipps 8151 and Ashburnham Appendix cxxxiii now are. In this latter case errors in the Early English Text Society’s edition have thus been removed. The number of authors here represented has made it impossible to approach each text as would a specialist in that subject. No one of these introductions is, or attempts to be, exhaustive; no biography is fully given, no debatable point re- argued. The separate bibliographies are more complete, although the titles are condensed, and minor points left to the Dictionary of National Biography or to monumental editions like that of Skelton by Dyce. Similarly, in the glossary, it is assumed that the student has the New English Dictionary at hand, is fa- miliar with Chaucer, and has a working knowledge of Early English otherwise. Etymologies are not given, nor dialectal peculiarities discussed. I am indebted to the Press of Duke University, and especially to its editor-in- chief, Dr. Paull F. Baum, for the care and patience, the interested craftsmanship and scholarship, which they have devoted to this volume. E. Pst TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE GENERAL INTRODUCTION The Two Periods of the “Transition’—The Struggle for Equilibrium in Each— The State of the West European Nations at the Close of the Fourteenth Century— The Rise of the Bourgeoisie—Chaucer and the Contending Forces—English Libra- ries and English Education at the Opening of the Fifteenth Century—Translation and Patronage—Song—The Sense of Rhythm—Rhythm in Chaucer and the English Chaucerians—Verse-Forms—The Scottish Chaucerians—Vocabulary—Narrative- Forms: Fabliau, Saint’s Legend, Allegory, Romance—Sensuous Perception— Prose—The Approach of Equilibrium Joun Watton: his Life and Work. The translation of Boethius’ De Consolatione Philosophiae A. Preface, Prologue, metre 1, prose 1 2 5 B. Book ii, metre 5, The Former aoe C. Book ii, metre 7 D. Book iii, metre 12, Orpheus j E. Preface to books iv and v; book iv, prose ‘t metre 1 Tuomas Hoccteve: his Life and Work La Male Régle . To Somer To Carpenter . Three Roundels The Dialogue with a Biriend: eae In Praise of Chaucer, from The Regement of Bringes To Bedford Joun Lypcate: his Life and Work The Churl and the Bird Horns Away Bycorne and Ghieherscies j Prologue to the Siege of Thebes . The Dance Macabre : ; The French text Epithalamium for Gloucester Letter to Gloucester : ‘ The Fall of Princes: Introduction . General Prologue . Letter of Canace to Macarets, front book i Rome, Remember, final envoy to book ii Thanks to Gloucester, from prologue to book iii . The Tragedy of Caesar, book vi Octavian’s Revenge, book vi The Tragedy of Cicero, book vi . The Tragedy of Boethius, book viii . Extract from the Epilogue, book ix ADO OO > [ xi] vii 102 110 113 118 124 426 142 149 150 157 164 169 174 176 179 180 185 186 xii CONTENTS BENEDICT BURGH Letter to John Lydgate . JoHN SHIRLEY Two Verse Tables of Contents ANONYMOUS A Reproof to Lydgate ANONYMOUS A translation of Palladius on Husbandry The Prologue . : : : ; A, B, C, D, Epilogue-Stanzas ANONYMOUS The Lover’s Mass ANONYMOUS Translations from Charles d’Orléans, with the French Joun HarpyNnc From the Chronicle: Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt ANONYMOUS London Lickpenny . ANONYMOUS The Libel of English Policy, lines 1-563 GEORGE RIPLEY The Compend of Alchemy: Preface and Prohibicio ANONYMOUS The Court of Sapience: extracts and summary STEPHEN Hawes The Pastime of Pleasure: extracts and summary Wittram NEvILL AND Ropert COPLAND Dialogue between Nevill and Copland The Castell of Pleasure: extracts and summary ALEXANDER BARCLAY The Ship of Fools: extracts . 3 The Prologue to the Eclogues ; Eclogue i iv JoHN SKELTON The Garland of Laurell GEORGE CAVENDISH The Metrical Visions: extracts Henry, Lorp Morey Translation of Petrarch’s Triumph of Love, book i A “Sonnet” on the Psalms ; ‘ : : NorTES List OF ABBREVIATIONS: SELECT REFERENCE LIstT SELECT GLOSSARY AND FINDING List 188 191 198 202 206 207 214 233 237 240 252 258 268 287 289 298 312 342 368 383 391 392 540 553 Page 51. Page 67. Page 75. Page 101, Page 154, Page 209, Page 216, Page 260. Page 398. Page 399. Page 400. Page 412. Page 421. Page 423. Page 451, Page 461, Page 543, Page 561, Page 585, ENGLISH VERSE BETWEEN CHAUCER AND SURREY ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS Line 105 belongs with preceding stanza. The first footnote belongs with line 8 of To Carpenter. In note on 2093, read lyf instead of lwf. line 5 from bottom, for Peachan read Peacham. line 7, for arblastic read arblastis. line 14 from bottom, for 1371 read 1372. line 19, for was run read was to run. Above text insert [Prologue to Book 1]. Delete the note on line 24. To note on lines 3-5 add: as in the Oxford 1911 edition. In note on line 22, for odde read odre. To note on line 28 add: or of Castalia on Parnassus. In the fourth line of note on 17-22, for later read earlier. In second line of note on 262, for To walk ungirt read To say that she walks ungirt. To note on line 427 add: See Curry’s Chaucer and Mediaeval Science, Oxford 1926, pp. 20 ff. line 3, for sulleness read sullenness. to line 4 below heading of Reproof to Lydgate add: see reproduction by Brusendorff facing p. 264. To matter of second paragraph ibid. add: The Chance of the Dice was pubd. by me in EnglStud. vol. 59. add: ExamVirtue. Hawes’ poem The Example of Virtue, for which see p. 271 here. under dede add asterisk to Thebes 58. under syngler add asterisk to FaPrin A 409. GENERAL INTRODUCTION The hundred and fifty years of the English “Transition” may fairly be treated in two periods, divided politically at the battle of Bosworth Field and intellectually at the establishment of printing. In the former of these periods, from 1400 to 1485, the Crown was long in dispute, the feudal nobility absorbed in foreign and in dynastic wars, the Church weakened by its dependence on the Crown, the commonalty engaged in using its first chance at accumulation of money. A shift of class-balance was in progress as result of the divisions and weakening of the landholders, of the economic power gained by the bourgeoisie ; and English society was profoundly unsettled because of this readjustment. In the latter period, from 1485 on, the Tudor despotism established itself above a crippled aristocracy and Church, with the tacit consent of a commonalty not yet politically coherent and conscious. The education of the bourgeoisie pro- ceeded slowly, taking at first a limited and pedagogic form, while courtly ex- pression retained in large part the formulae of an earlier age. Through the former period, ecclesiastical and chivalric standards of taste were still in force. Polite literature was formal, imitative, didactic; drama and the romance both submitted to pressure, and the traces of secular folk- expression outside the ballad are small. The numerous class of ecclesiastically- trained writers show the repressive, inhibiting power of the Church on letters; the Church contemned, as always, the human senses, contemned direct observation of any sort; it favored the symbol rather than the fact, and approved the didactic without any criticism of its quality. Its contribution to English literature was that of Christianity as a whole,—the idea of the struggle of vicious and virtuous impulses in the human heart,—an idea alien to the antique world. The Teutonic races obtained part of their intellectual discipline through the self-examination required by the Church; but the Church’s opinion of the human senses acted as an inhibition to any real study of man by man; it created as sharp a cleavage in the possible whole of mental development as existed between the adoration of the Virgin Mother and the monastic horror of woman. The medieval synthesis, both ecclesiastical and political, held firm while ' the Western world was still politically and linguistically a unit; it relaxed as the integration of separate nations and tongues progressed, a relaxation doubtless due in part to the difficulty of intercommunication over Western Europe. Upon this slow process another factor, the economic, acted as accelerant; with the use of coined money and the rise of an international banking system, democratic de- vices furthered by the aristocratic Crusades, the anti-synthetic particularistic tendency increased. As English commerce became more important, as the trad- ing towns grew, as the dealers in wool accumulated wealth, the English bour- geoisie rose in power. Human ambition and human self-assertiveness, long denied expression to the “demos” by the rigid frame of feudalism, found opportunity ; and during the Transition, especially during the second of its two periods, the [3] + ENGLISH VERSE bourgeoisie, vigorous, pushing, unscrupulous, with little education but with wide and widening human experience, comes more and more to the center of the stage. Like all natures of high animalism, no education, and unformulated ideas, the bourgeois was iconoclastic, insensitive, and greedy of emphasis; violent emotion- alism, coarse jest, attack on all forms of the established order, appealed to him as they appeal to the new “proletariat” public today. Even at his worst, however, he was undulled by machine-service and by machine-made noise; his nature at its best is seen in the work of his hands and in his impulse to song. As this confusion of tendencies, this strife between the overborne older order and the aggressive middle class, slowly worked to a height, it met incoming Hu- manism. A new cohesive force replaced the dissolving medieval theory. Every aspect of Humanism made for stability; a clarified expression, a standard of taste, a faith in man, were offered to a public sorely in need of them; and the concentration of interest upon the individual which characterized the Renaissance sweetened for the bourgeoisie the gift of Humanism which the Renaissance brought. It required time to train the new reading class; but as a small group of dramatic poets matured on the combined bourgeois and humanistic stimuli, the London public received the benefit in the theater, which taught through the emotions and the ear as well as the eye. To that conflict of good and evil in the human heart which was fundamental in Christian teaching, and to the human experience which the average man had acquired in the street and in the market- place there was now added the Renaissance feeling for form, the Renaissance conception of the humane and the beautiful. Ideals are again revered; and men’s imaginations, raised by such full faith in man as that of Spenser, are led to a newer and greater Romantic synthesis in Shakespeare, to a fusion not merely of human relations in a system, but of the seer with the thing seen. But in the years between Chaucer’s death and the Elizabethan florescence, before the middle class had taken form or received education, English literature was in the hands of the conservatives. Conservatism is as fundamental a force in literature and in character as is individualism, and as necessary. The greatest moments of artistic expression, whether in peoples or in the single workman, have been those of equipoise be- tween these two forces. Such moments are brief and rare; there is usually a predominance of one element, a predominance determined often by conditions other than literary. The rigidity of the structure of feudalism, denying expres- sion to all of lower rank, maintained the force of conservatism in literature for centuries. Had the English bourgeoisie obtained the upper hand in letters as well as in life, the chaos following on the shift might have been greater.. But the incoming power of Humanism, almost coincident with the definite emergence of the bourgeoisie, equalized the thrust of individualism; and we have in the Elizabethan age one of the world’s great moments of equipoise between the two contending forces. That it manifests itself in drama and in lyric is not sur- prising; for the agreement in spirit between the citizen community of Athens and the citizen community of Elizabethan London favored in both environments that drama which in each case had germinated within the limits of the established GENERAL INTRODUCTION 5 religion. In the outburst of individualism of our own day, accompanying the emergence of a new social class, we have an excess uncontrolled as yet by any conservative or humanistic force; and the unsettlement today of language and of morality, alongside the unsettlement and exaggeration of literary expression, are markedly parallel to the phenomena of the Transition. Each of these social reconstructions, reconstructions which are but attempts to reach a balance, is confronted by the problem of educating a public new to power, untrained and indocile. And the psychology of human beings in the mass, of the “crowd-mind,” is in each case an additional element in the struggle towards adjustment. The crowd-mind is self-assertive, but it is also self-pro- tective, an impulse which is evident especially in the tendency to imitation, to the preservation of a standard once accepted. No matter how strong the indi- vidualistic assertion may be, it has no sooner obtained a hearing than it hardens into a creed. A process of stereotyping, insisted upon by the group, follows close upon revolt, close upon each attainment of balance; and how long its pat- tern endures will depend in great part upon external conditions. If an ecclesi- astical and feudal framework is imposed upon society, as was the case all through the Middle Ages, literature will be standardized and held rigid by that framework. Should the inhibition be less heavy, as in fourteenth-century Eng- land, there may be here and there an attainment of balance, as in Chaucer, who represents in his isolated self the adjustment between group and individual, between book-education and human experience, between what George Eliot calls “separateness” and “communication.” It is rare indeed to find a piece of literature which has not been influenced by social pressures and inhibitions, but the effect of this potent factor on the course of a nation’s expression has not yet been studied. A view of English poetry which should regard it less as an evolu- tion than as a constant struggle of the spirit against successive group-inhibitions would be of interest; nowhere would there be more material than in the period at which we are looking. The society in which stereotypes prevail is one carefully and successfully guarded against change. It is not by chance that the two great modern social readjustments have each coincided with an expansion of the world in men’s minds. The period of sailing out upon the oceans, in the late fifteenth century, is matched in the late nineteenth by immensely increased facilities for land travel, and by the conquest of undersea and upper air yet later. Such extensions of the ordinary man’s horizon have incalculable consequences. They mean, of course, more human as well as more geographical knowledge; they mean increase of travel and commerce, exchange of ideas, enlargement of sympathies. But they bring difficulties as well as advantages. It is not that the laws of human nature, in- cluding the urge to imitate and to standardize, undergo any modification; but the speed and variability of their functioning increase enormously. In our own time the demolition of space-barriers which puts every variety of stimulus sim- ultaneously before the people, and the articulate assertiveness of all classes in a democratic society, have tangled the threads of tendency to a degree hitherto unimagined. The necessity for swift and constantly repeated adaptation, in a 6 ENGLISH VERSE society thus exposed to multifarious stimuli, is as disintegrating to personality as to literary standards. Beside the conditions of literature today, those of the fifteenth century are simplicity itself. In that last hour before the advent of printing and before the voyage of Columbus, the forces of established con- servatism could offer to a new type, literary or religious, a resistance denser and more general than any novelty today will encounter. Looking over the history of our literature, we see that what we call periods were much longer before the invention of printing, that they shortened as commercial intercourse was facili- tated, and that with cheap newspapers, steam, and the radio, the weakening of resistance to change has reached the danger point. The physical cause of this weakening is the immensely enhanced facility of human intercourse, which not only permits but compels a choice of stimuli at every moment, weakens the power of attention, and divides the individual against himself. The reduction in personality is as marked, in a hurried huddled age, as is the confusion of standards. The Transition, defended yet awhile by the forces of feudalism against an uneducated, even if rising, middle class, is, as I have said, a simple problem compared to that of our own day. The two Transition publics and the two modes of expression, with the hybrids between them, can be traced with comparative ease. One body of production, the conservative and stereotyped, perpetuates earlier themes and forms; it draws its support from the privileged classes and accepts the dictation of a patronage which knows only traditional types of ex- pression. As the years pass, the control of this patronage weakens, the force of imitation loses strength to resist increeping bourgeois qualities, and hybrids appear, as well as clumsy satire, jest, and description. This attempted description is for the most part of human or low-life figures, exaggerated often and often as overdone in another way as were the earlier stock-pattern figures. But poor and violent though the portraiture may be, it reaches out after real life; it at- tempts to use the senses, to redress the balance so long weighed towards the stereotype. And when this excess is in its turn reduced and steadied by Hu- manism, there is a brilliant though brief period of poise. It is with the first of these three phases, the formal literature of the Tran- sition, that we are concerned. The popular expression of the early sixteenth century is beyond our purview, as is the Renaissance. Yet though we em- phasize the stereotyping society of the earlier Transition as principal cause of its failure in literary vitality, we have not thus given all the reasons for that failure. Even though we add the isolation of England during the Hundred Years’ War, we have not fully explained her intellectual weakness then. The war indeed made itself felt on letters in the barrier which it set up between England and her nearest neighbors, in its denial of human intercommunication. If Mr. Belloc can say of Roman England that her separation from the Continent by barbarian Roman soldiers “lowered the general process of civilization in the eastern and starved into a still lower standard the isolated western part,” this was equally true of the sundering force of the French war in the fifteenth century. But neither that war nor the contest of the Roses is the sole cause of English literary GENERAL INTRODUCTION 7 conditions at the time. The tightening of inhibitions by the small arrogant litera- ture-producing class has its effect in weakening English poetry; the break-down of the aristocracy through war, the rise of the bourgeoisie through increase of fluid wealth, account for the unsettlement of standards and the coarsening of taste; the enforced separation from the Continent delays education. But none of these, nor all taken together, tell the full story of the English Transition. The “content” of any literary period varies in reality and power with the weight of conviction and enthusiasm behind it. Carlyle, discussing the age of Louis XV, remarked that “when the general life-element became so unspeakably phantasmal, it was difficult for any man to be real.” Morley says of Voltaire’s Henriade: “To form a long narrative of heroic adventure in animated, picturesque, above all in sincere verse, is an achievement reserved for men with a steadier glow, a firmer, simpler, more exuberant and more natural poetic feeling than was possible in that time of mean shifts, purposeless public action, and pitiful sacrifice of private self-respect.” And Santayana may also be quoted: “When chaos has penetrated into the moral being of nations, they can hardly be ex- pected to produce great men.” The new public of England was as uneducated morally and ethically as it was mentally. It brought to secular literature no high purpose, no faith in man, no sincerity; its narrow bourgeois greed, its measure- ment of life in terms of power and money, debarred it from giving out as a people any real inspiration. And the men to whom England had to look as her spokesmen were equally devoid of real inspiration; they were trained indeed to some extent, but Church-trained, set firmly in the clerical mould, and as scanted of liberal education as their public. Such writers had not either element of literature; neither they nor their readers felt high purpose, and they themselves possessed no craftsmanship. Milton’s “various style” and “holy rapture” were both lacking. There have been times in English literature when one of these elements has alone sufficed to keep a body of poetry stable. In the spiritually mea- ger age of Queen Anne, brilliancy of manipulation compensated in part for a lack of sincerity, and Pope stamped an alloy of mean intrinsic value to pass current for generations. But Lydgate, for example, had no such ability. And though without the one basis, spiritual or intellectual, a body of literature may stand, it cannot when devoid of both vital sincerity and technical excellence. The weakness of the fifteenth century is no marvel; what were marvellous were the growth of anything beautiful in verse under such conditions. We do not endeavor, as appears from the foregoing, to explain the fifteenth century as the outcome of the fourteenth. The doctrine of “continuous entity” has value, but a mass of people moves not on the lines of the physical organ- ism. The fifteenth century is not solely a degeneration nor an inheritance from the years before it; it is not solely a period of gestation for a coming birth. The Elizabethan Renaissance is less truly an upleap than an attainment of equilib- rium after long effort at balance, an equilibrium at last made possible by the break in social inhibitions, the advance in the new public’s education, the enlarged view of the world, and a more generous ideal of life. These are all conditions 8 ENGLISH VERSE external, in a sense, to literature; and it is now our problem to observe in more detail how such conditions formed in later medieval England. During the ten centuries before the discovery of America the slowly in- tegrating countries of Western Europe had developed on varying economic and political lines. The long sea-coasts of Italy and Britain, with their Oriental and Dutch frontages, had stimulated sea-borne trade. In Italy the growth of the tex- tile industry was closely connected with the rise of that trade, and the two fos- tered each other. England did little weaving until the mid-fourteenth century ; with her, minerals, and above all raw wool, were the export staples. This con- dition favored a large rural and a smaller trading class; and the habit of mind which is developed by artisan-skill was of late awakening in Britain. Her turn in the world’s manufacturing economy came with the utilization of her iron and her coal, when Italy’s primacy in textile work passed from her because of her lack of the minerals so abundant farther north. The political development of the two countries was also very different. Italy’s position on the Mediterranean Sea, the heart of ancient civilization, the seat of the Roman Empire and later of the Roman Church in her peninsula, the number and immediacy of her political contacts, the continuity of her intellectual life, made her widely different from insular, remote, untutored Britain. England’s political and mental history hardly began until she was drawn, by the Norman Conquest, into the circle of the growing nations. There she found Italy, France, and the Low Countries her far more experienced and matured sisters. Her mer- chant trade built up slowly, and for generations her intellectual dependence was directly or indirectly on France, her conqueror and teacher. It had been the great task of France to preserve the Latin tongue and to discipline the expression of Western Europe through her schools of philosophy and dialectic. Politically her position in the fourteenth century was midway between that of Italy and that of England. She was not split, as was Italy, into a half-hundred of jealous and contentious statelets, each torn also by local party strife; but her noble class was more numerous, compared with her bour- geoisie, than in England, owing to the social system which made every French younger son of aristocratic family also noble and privileged. The untaxed wealth of the Roman Church was much greater in France than in England; and after the division of territory among the sons of King John, the quarrels among the princes thus aggrandized and the Crown became violent. So far as letters and art were concerned, the rivalry between Burgundy, Anjou, Orléans, Berri, and the Ile de France stimulated the work of chroniclers, translators, painters, carvers, and scribes, even as was the case in the Italian peninsula among the rival despots. But the mass of the French people was heavily taxed, more so than in other countries, and lacked the political consciousness so swiftly developed in smaller and less agricultural states like Athens or Florence or Flanders. There was no check upon the dominant classes, and these continued in a round of imitation, so far as literature was concerned. Where the people could receive education, as in the handicrafts, art was vital; the architecture, the glass and metal work, the tapestry of the later Middle Ages, all bear wit- GENERAL INTRODUCTION 9 ness to this. But the exclusively aristocratic literature of France suffered from the sterility of the aristocracy and the Church. Communal development advanced faster in the small states north of France. The territory we now know as Holland and Belgium was in the fourteenth cen- tury divided into a group of thriving counties and duchies,—Brabant, Flanders, Hainault, Seeland, Holland, etc. The coast state of Flanders, in especial, was almost independent of the Empire, and her busy cities had grown rich by the manufacture of England’s wool. During the latter fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries the French dukes of Burgundy came into possession, by marriage or by usurpation, of most of these little territories; and the marriage of Mary of Burgundy, sole heir of Charles the Bold, with Maximilian of Austria, carried the whole great Burgundian power to her grandson, the Emperor Charles the Fifth. The long years’ struggle of the gallant little states of the North with Charles’ son, Philip of Spain, is, however, no part of our history; at the period we are considering they were opulent manufacturing communities, famous for their glass, metal, and textile work, for their painters in oil, for their wealth, their growing political confidence and impatience of despotic control. Whatever their artificial dynastic bonds with France or with the Empire, the whole economic life of the Low Countries depended on England, from which they drew the wool for their weaving. And the connection of the two shores was other than commercial; the marriage of Edward III of England to Philippa of Hainault, and the constant intercourse between the English and the Burgundian courts in the next century, while Burgundy was supporting England against France, had almost as much influence on the arts and letters, the book-collecting and trans- lating of England, as the similarity in trade-interests had on the bourgeoisie of the two countries. It was from the French-speaking court of the Burgundian dukes that much of England’s fifteenth-century “culture” came; and it was from the court of a Burgundian duke and his English duchess that Caxton returned to London, carrying the Low-Country art of printing. England’s insular freedom from European political problems had left her, during the years since her royal house had become thoroughly English, in a position to grow more evenly and healthily than any Continental country. At the middle of the fourteenth century all signs were promising. In political, in literary, in social expression, she was full of vitality. The progress of Parliament towards control of government, the assertion of the nation against the Papacy in the statutes of Provisors and Premunire, the growing prosperity of English traders, the freer intercourse with the world, seemed to mean an awakened and intelligent group-consciousness. At that moment the Biblical drama, the bal- lads, the revival of the native verse, the rise of reforming feeling and of mystical thought, the technical power of Chaucer, all gave promise of a genuine literary florescence. Just then, it may be, if political class-agreements had continued the loosening of medieval inhibitions, if intercourse with the South of Europe had left the road open for intellectual growth, we might have had a noble na- tional expression. Instead, everything conspired to check the development which seemed so certain, and to set the stage for a very different drama. 10 ENGLISH VERSE First in the sequence of untoward events was the Black Death. How large a proportion of England’s population died in the series of epidemics which swept West Europe at intervals from 1348 on, we do not know; but it is clear that she lost so heavily from her working class that there was a sudden and a permanent shortage of labor, reflected by a rise in wages and in prices. The landowners, who largely constituted Parliament, refused to recognize the in- evitable; and that energy which had been expended by them on control of king and nobles was diverted to a class-struggle with labor. Ten years before the first great wave of the plague, also, the disastrous Hundred Years’ War with France had begun. ” A strong and ambitious sovereign might have turned this rupture between landholders and commonalty to his own advantage. But the later years of Edward III were weak; the folly of Richard II brought him to ruin; and affairs weltered in chaos while peasants and Lollards were contending with landlords and Church. In the early fifteenth century we find England with her throne occupied by the keen and determined Lancastrians, her Church freed from Lol- lard criticism and sunk into apathy, her peasantry beaten into sullen dejection, the inhibiting feudal framework clamped again upon her literary expression, and all trace of her intellectual vigor gone with the barring of the Channel, the death of Chaucer, the death of religious freedom, the death of national unity. All unknown to king and noblesse, however, there was building up with their sanction a power which should undermine their rule more completely than the labor unrest. Where public and private obligations could be reckoned and col- lected in money, the country availing itself of that convenience was moving towards a time when political relations would cease to depend upon tenure of land; in other words, the feudal system was about to fall before the power of the bourgeoisie. There was no protest in this case from landholders or from Church, for that payment in coin which became the basis of trading prosperity was a convenience recognized alike by crusading nobles, absentee landholders, and the tax-collectors of the Roman Church. On this new material foundation arose the bourgeoisie, in all its impulses antagonistic to the social order which had endeavored to hold it in check,—anti- feudal, anti-chivalric, anti-clerical, impatient, iconoclastic, ribald. Whatever the shortcomings of the falling order, it had nominally professed ideals,—loyalty to God, to the sovereign, to the beloved lady. But the rising bourgeoisie, during the long ensuing struggle with moribund feudalism, served no ideals; it had no apparent motive except self-aggrandizement. There was nothing in it of the respect for the past as a Golden Age, which chivalry had felt, nothing of the modern devotion to the future of the race, to the betterment of generations yet unborn. Its deficiency in enthusiasms, in convictions, in devotions, left it unen- dowed with literary force, as it was also undisciplined by training. The renewal of the Hundred Years’ War under Henry V was no struggle against a Persian invader, a Spanish invader. Its motive was frankly lust of dominion. In speaking of the effect of the Persian war on Greece, Bury has said that in that war was illustrated “the operation of a general law which governs human so- GENERAL INTRODUCTION 11 cieties. Pressure from without tends to produce unity within.” Fifteenth- century England, however, was not rising to defend herself; she was not even venturing, as did Tudor England, into undiscovered countries and uncharted seas. She was seeking to aggrandize herself at the expense of an equal, a neigh- bor, a sister. Whatever Henry V’s arguments of hereditary right, before his in- vasion of France in 1415, he appealed as much to the baser passions of the nation as did Bismarck. And the penalty which England paid was a spiritual one; she paid in the impoverishment of her literature, the deterioration of her Church, the delay of her emancipation and of her education. All that forming literary impulse which was just ready for the discipline of Humanism was stifled for many years. For not only did England’s intellectual resources, still limited be- cause of her belated admission to the European storehouse of thought, receive little or no food during most of the fifteenth century, but there was from decade to decade a steady loss in intellect and taste, caused by the ceaseless imitation, the starved inbreeding, of a race of ill-nurtured clerics. England in the fifteenth century, to quote Carlyle’s phrase, saw life as “a thing whereby to do day-labor and earn wages”; she saw literature as a means of “eschewing idleness”, in the current monkish phrase. And neither view ever inspired a soul to real utterance. Both fundamental elements of a national literature were thus lacking in fifteenth-century England, the pressure of generous popular feeling and the presence of the technical artist. The previous century had felt the stirrings of high emotions, and had uttered them, often awkwardly enough, through the bal- ladists, the mystics, Wyclif, Langland. One supreme artist, one man of both genius and technique, that century had possessed in Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer had certain essentials of artistic mastery as completely in his grasp as had the Greeks from whom he differed so widely. He knew the superiority of balance over symmetry; he understood and practiced restraint in expression; he studied contrast as no man but Shakespeare, in England, has studied it; he recognized the power of the selected detail; his senses were alert and keen. But neither these essentials nor his amazing technical mastery of his material could be com- municated, and his touch was too light and shrewd to guide his followers. In that technical mastery no comparison with his English predecessors is possible. His management of verse-flow, the vigor of his imagination, his per- fect acquaintanceship with the creatures of his art and his power of bringing his readers into their presence, his understanding of his audience, have no proto- type in England. We term such qualities “modern”; yet medieval Chaucer is as well. He used unhesitatingly and naturally many themes and forms which seem to us absurd; but by using this familiar material he kept himself understanded of the many, as Shakespeare did. In both of them was the “communication” with their fellows, and in both of them the “separateness” of genius. And in yet another way Chaucer was a composite. He worked often with an eye on the aristocratic patron, used often aristocratic themes; but more and more, as he grows older, is the power released in him bourgeois. His kinship is with Boccaccio, with the French fabliau-makers, with Chrétien de Troyes or Jean de Meun. Like them his perceptions are quick, shrewd, amused; like them 12 ENGLISH VERSE his study is by preference of human situation. Like them he excels in the smaller structural qualities; like them he makes little or no attempt to raise the pitch of life, as romance and allegory do, and as the bourgeois spirit never does. Yet simply and solely bourgeois, of the bourgeois ignorance of letters, the bourgeois-Philistine contempt for whatever it fails to understand, Chaucer was not. Always he is the composite, bourgeois enough to meet the bourgeoisie, courtly enough to meet the courtier, of genius sufficing to understand and to fuse both and to carry both into permanent literature. Bookman by taste and business man by profession; not deeply read but passionately addicted to reading; neither philosopher nor thinker, yet observer of everything human, interested in every- thing human, tolerant of everything human, without desire to teach or to preach; pliant to the literary customs of his time, yet understanding how to comply and to surpass with the same gesture,—Chaucer, like Shakespeare, struck a balance between individual assertion and conservative acceptance. The century after his death saw the bourgeois and the aristocratic tenden- cies, which he had united, fall apart. Of the two publics into which England then split, publics more clearly defined after the establishment of printing, it was the aristocratic and formal which paid Chaucer deference and strove to imitate him. The group of his acknowledged followers had before them the same material, human and literary, which had lain before him; but their handling of books and of life is entirely different from his. No English “Chaucerian” looks at the written page as Chaucer had looked at it; there is only one man in the next age who is steeped in a book as was Chaucer,—Henryson in his Fables. Henryson, in his capacity of schoolmaster, must have taught and retaught Aesop until the Fox and the Wolf and the Cadger rose before him in their habit as they lived. But Lydgate, to take the most prolific of Chaucer’s English admirers, has only a superficial contact with books, even with those he translates; he does not remember obvious facts about the Canterbury Tales, great as is the admira- tion he professes for it. His eye slides off the written page, slides off the human face; his senses are not alert, his interest not alive. No evidence is before us, and none may ever be obtainable, as to the actual condition of the human senses in any poetic period. But the appeal to them in “Romantic” periods is as marked as the lack of appeal to them when literature is held in stereotyped forms. It may be a fundamental fact in the Transition that its writers were so generally without visual and auditory sensitiveness. Description is abundant, but it moves in formulae; words are abundant, but the pregnant epithet, the revealing phrase, is not there. Chaucer was not one of the word-sensitive, as was Shakespeare or Keats; he cannot speak of “ardent marigolds” or of “warmed jewels”, but nevertheless his senses are not prisoners to formula. Whether it was Lydgate’s ecclesiastical habit of mind, or the pressure on him of translation done to order, or his own temperamental sluggishness, which dulled him, we do not know; but his attention, his perception, his expression, are always blunted and diffused. He had, however, more than many writers of his time, the access to books. The age was one of book-accumulation in England, as in Burgundy and in GENERAL INTRODUCTION 13 France. Henry VI laid the foundations of the immense Royal collection of man- uscripts now in the British Museum, and his uncle Humphrey of Gloucester presented his books to the University of Oxford. Balliol College, Oxford, re- ceived from her son William Grey, bishop of Ely, about two hundred volumes he had! collected, three-quarters of which are still there. John Tiptoft Earl of Worcester, also a Balliol man, purchased so many books south of the Alps that he was said to have despoiled Italy in order to enrich England. He too gave books to Oxford. And at Oxford, until the dissolution of the monasteries, was the great library formed by Richard de Bury, bishop of Durham (died in 1345), an ardent amateur of books, as his friend Petrarch describes him, and ?author of the Philobiblon. Outside Oxford, too, was ample book-supply, especially in the Benedictine monasteries; and no one of these was better stocked than Lydgate’s own house of Bury St. Edmunds. Nor were royalty and the monastic houses the only book-lovers in Eng- land. We have still to decipher and arrange the evidence afforded by coats of arms painted in the books of their owners, which may reconstruct in part for us the collections of the Percies, the Stanleys, the Sinclairs, etc. And from the bequests in wills we can sometimes trace the passing of precious volumes from Sir John Morton to the Countess of Westmoreland, sometimes the bequest of the Canterbury Tales or of “Bochas” by one plain English citizen to another. The fifteenth century in England was not poor in the number of books from which sustenance could be drawn. The vibrating body and the transmitting medium were there, as they had been in the fourteenth century; the difference was in the receiving ear. To the very verge of the age of Elizabeth there were English- men full of enthusiasm for study, full of enthusiasm for travel, acquiring books, translating ; but their efforts to express themselves can be classed as poetry only because of the accident of rime. Not all of Lord Morley’s interest in Petrarch can make his translations endurable; the five years which Osbern Bokenam spent in Italy in no wise mitigated the clumsiness of his utterance; and neither Agin- court nor his Italian travels inspired John Hardyng to one rhythmical or readable line. What Cardinal Newman called “a haziness of intellectual vision” came, in the fifteenth century, from the same cause which Newman specified for his own time,—the lack of a really good education. It was the speaker’s failure to see, to hear, to make fresh and independent comparisons, which deprived him of the power to understand or to express, which doomed his style to» weakness and muddlement. Any form of education which quickened the perceptions of the English patron and the English clerk, or which could refine the taste of the bourgeois, would have served late medieval England, and did ultimately reach it in the form of drama; but from the inherited routine of study no stimulus came. Higher education, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, was obtainable in England at the monastic schools and universities and at the Inns of Court. Something more like a “finishing-school” training was to be found in great houses like that of John of Gaunt; a youth taken as page in such a household would become a complete courtier, able to speak and write French and a little Latin, 14 ENGLISH VERSE to touch the lute, and to gather as much more knowledge as he could draw from the foreign-born physician or astrologer or Latin secretary who was so frequently to be found in the entourage of a great noble. The university man was definitely a logician or theologian, trained to the shaping of rhetorical periods or to scholastic argument in Latin; he often divided his later years between the penning of Latin letters for diplomats and a Church post given him as reward for secretarial duty. The lawyer received a more humane education, and may have lived a fuller life. Sir John Fortescue’s classic account, although not particularized, tells us that in 1468-70, when he wrote, the training given by the Inns of Court included not only law and sacred and profane history, but singing, dancing, “and such other accomplishments as are usually practiced at Court.” If Chaucer were a member of the Inner Temple, as now seems possible, his education was neither that of the desultory courtier nor of the secretarial monk; he must have learned how to mix with men as well as how to read many books. No match for him in per- sonality came out of the Inns of Court in the fifteenth century; but whatever the determining power of Chaucer’s own genius on his growth, some part of the difference between him and Lydgate, for example, may be due to the sharpening and clarifying of the one mind, the dulling and relaxing of the other, by the mental discipline received in young manhood. The breaking-down of the difference between the two English publics, the beginnings of Humanism, are apparent first in the spread of secondary schools; and to this educational advance the new art of printing made early response. Caxton, with his strong personal interest in romantic narrative and his own ac- tivity as a translator, allied himself by preference with aristocratic patrons, with men of wealth. Only by such alliance, indeed, could he have published his am- bitious folios. He tells us in one of his invaluable prefaces (to the Golden Legend) that the Earl of Arundel, when ordering the work, had promised him a buck and a doe each year, and to take a “reasonable number of copies.” His issuance of Cicero’s De Senectute was at Sir John Fastolfe’s command; the Mirror of the World was printed for Hugh Brice, afterward Lord Mayor of London; and his earliest enterprise, the Recuyell of the Histories of Troy, undertaken while he was yet in Flanders, was at the command of Margaret duchess of Burgundy. The French versions used by Caxton for this last and for the Cicero had themselves been executed for ducal patrons; no man, indeed, could devote himself to such undertakings without assurance of support; and much of the formal large-scale literary production of the fifteenth century depended upon the taste of wealthy men. Caxton’s successor, de Worde, was a more practical and less intellectual man than his master; under him and Richard Pynson the character of the London press changes, and reflects the state of the open market, the spread of education, the taste of the smaller customer. Gordon Duff states that of the ca.640 books printed by de Worde between 1500 and ?1535, over two hundred were school books. De Worde’s hundred and fifty or so of poems and romances, beside this textbook production, shows how definitely a new sort of patron had appeared. GENERAL INTRODUCTION 15 But whatever increase took place in the number of schools and of school- books, in the second half of our period, the mass of the English people was still little affected by education. It was not by book-experience that they learned, but by life-experience, by enlarged discourse and enlarged intercourse among men. For this the growth of trade, of travel, and of the towns was responsible. Not that there was any marked increase in the number of pilgrims to foreign shrines, or any clear effect on English culture caused by the travel of English gentlemen and scholars to Italy. It was the many smaller and less obvious factors which counted; not the spectacular arrival of Erasmus in 1497, not the sojourn of Poggio, so much as e.g. the settlement near Winchester of Italian workers in metal and plaster. It was not so much the presence in every great house of foreign secretaries, nor even the necessity for dealing with Flemish woolbuyers and Genoese moneylenders, as it was the extending of every citizen’s horizon by enlarged buying power, repeated journeys near home, safer roads, wider acquaintance, aroused curiosity. The freer circulation of money and the increase of trade as compared with agriculture pushed the key of bourgeois life nearer to that of the privileged classes, just as the Ford car and the highway system are pushing the change today. That change proceeded very slowly. Everything during the first half of our period combined to delay it; the distraction of England by class-quarrels, religious quarrels, dynastic quarrels, her cultural isolation by the French war, the lowering of her morale by that selfish and disastrous undertaking. With the founding of the Tudor despotism and the establishment of printing, the confusion nominally ends; but it is long indeed before the bourgeoisie becomes able either to express itself or to make itself felt in national affairs. And in the absence of any fresh creative impulse, the earlier formulae continue to endure. Long after the introduction of printing, the expression of the people is still scarcely heard; the upperclass code, with its didactics, its allegories, its translations, its verbal stereotypes, persists. However broken the aristocratic public politically, their taste regulates literary production. Of this aristocratic literature, translation forms a large part. At the open- ing of the century John Trevisa, the protégé of Lord Berkeley, made for his pa- tron prose translations of Bartholomaeus De Proprietatibus Rerum, of Higden’s Polychronicon, and of delle Colonne’s De Regimine Principum. The Polychroni- con was printed by Caxton in 1482, emended by the editor-printer because of its “rude and old Englysshe, that is to wete certayn wordes which in these dayes be neither vsyd ne understanden.”’ The De Regimine was one of Hoccleve’s sources for his verse Regement of Princes, dedicated to Henry V while Prince of Wales; and another of his sources, the Secreta Secretorum, so widely popular in the Middle Ages, was turned into English prose by James Young for the Earl of Ormonde about 1420, and into verse by Lydgate and a pupil a generation later. It was about 1410 that John Walton made his stanzaic translation of Boethius’ De Consolatione at the command of Lord Berkeley’s daughter. Another didactic work, de Guilleville’s three-part Pilgrimage, was turned into English several times before 1500, one verse-rendering of its second part being by Lydgate to the Earl 16 ENGLISH VERSE of Salisbury’s order. Much of Lydgate’s activity, indeed, was as translator. He went over into the romantic-epic field at the bidding of Henry V, with his Troy Book ; he may have pleasured himself with his Siege of Thebes, his Churl and Bird, his Dance Macabre; but his principal business was that of a large-scale didactic translator, from the saints’ lives done for Henry V and for Henry VI, for the Countess of March, for the Abbot of St. Albans, to his heaviest undertaking, the 36,000 lines of the Fall of Princes, executed for Humphrey of Gloucester. Didactics mingled with narrative we find in the saints’ legends of Bokenam, Bradshaw, Capgrave, in the Assembly of Gods, the Court of Sapience, the book of La Tour Landry printed by Caxton, and so on; and didactics were abundant unmixed, as in Cato, in Peter Idle’s Instructions to his son, in Ashby’s Activa Pollecia Principis, in Barclay’s Mirror of Good Manners, in the whole group of Regements and Secrees on the one hand, of books of nurture on the other. The purpose of Hawes and of Barclay, later, is equally tutorial. Skelton translated Diodorus Siculus, Barclay translated Sallust; but into his freer work each of these men brought an air of contemporary life which we do not find in Hawes. Far more is this the case with Skelton; and beyond him, outside the limits of “formal” verse, there appears a mass of loudmouthed roughly written satire and foolery in which he too has a hand, though keeping his hold on standard subjects. Between the two extremes, hybrid forms exist; a poem like “How a Lover Praiseth his Lady” attempts to use stereotyped material, but constantly betrays a freer tone and spirit. Interest in everyday and low-class character shows itself, although the lists of beggars and knaves and drunkards are as definitely lists as was the Fall of Princes; and as far back as Hoccleve and Bokenam, in our period, the individual was talking about himself at the same time that he was writing correct and lifeless matter for publication. But all along with the increase of bourgeois feeling and with the hybrids ran the persistent stereotype. The Temple of Glass, the Black Knight, the Flower and Leaf, the Assembly of Ladies, the Court of Love, the Isle of Ladies, La Belle Dame, the Cuckoo and Nightingale,— all court poems of the Chaucerian school, are except the last, of the standard court- narrative model, conforming to French tradition. Most of the court-lyric, such as the translations of Charles d’Orléans and the anonymous love-poems of Fairfax 16, also follows copy. Features of interest, even of beauty, are presented by many of these poems; the grace of the Cuckoo and Nightingale or of the Lover’s Mass, and the superiority of verse-flow in the Orléans translations as compared e.g. with Lydgate’s work, are very marked. When the share of aristocratic writers in literary production increases, with the growing power of Humanism, the courtly lyric takes on new tones. But Wyatt and Surrey have already in their English blood a quality which they retain in the presence of the new material, and separate from it; they can most sweetly and clearly sing. . Neither in the narrative ballad nor in the form of pure song had lyric ever failed England. In the alehouse, the harvest field, the banqueting hall, the em- brasure where ladies plied their needles, there had always been the group of singers or the solo lutist. During the fifteenth century we become aware that the individual aristocrat is writing and singing his own poems, a custom derived GENERAL INTRODUCTION 17 perhaps from Provence and France. The Earl of Warwick, the Earl of Suffolk, later Sir Thomas Wyatt, the Earl of Surrey, Henry VIII himself, all try their hands at composition. And we recognize also the power of Church music in England, not only what the Latin hymns must have meant for the writing of English religious verse, but what choral music meant for the carols, for the quality of pure song. In the reigns of the Lancastrians the early music of England was in its bloom. Little or nothing remains of the earliest English musical compositon; but the fifteenth century saw the development of what is known as “the second English school”, of which the most eminent master was John of Dunstable. It was the first great age of counterpoint; in solo singers and in composers England outdistanced France and Flanders. Henry V, with his more military spirit, seems to have favored instrumental music; but Henry VI’s taste was for vocal, especially for religious song. His choir was famous, and compositions by the king himself are still extant. Martin le Franc, writing his Champion de Dames in 1436-44, describes the envy of Continental musicians as they listened to the English at the Court of Burgundy and despaired of rivalling such melodies. In 1442 the Privy Council! ordered Nicholas Sturgeon to “go and choose six singers of England such as the messenger that is come from the Emperor will desire for to go to the Emperor.” As far back as the beginning of the century, a Frenchman had celebrated the musicians of England,? and for gen- erations she held her power. But the beauty of song, whether on the lips of aristocrat, of cleric, or of the wandering harpist, is not paralleled in other fifteenth-century verse by a truly rhythmic sense. Words which the medieval Englishman linked to tune often seem to have been born in a tune; but the words which he employed to carry lesson or story, which he intended to reach the intellect, have frequently no kinship with rhythm. Of the many difficult problems in fifteenth-century verse criticism, the most persistent, are the method of analysis to be adopted and the determination of a text to be analyzed. The uncertainty which still surrounds the latter question renders inconclusive all the results which any method can at present yield. No satisfactory argument can be based on a text such as Professor Skeat offers for Chaucer; and should we turn instead to the Canterbury Tales material offered by the Chaucer Society, we have but eight, of the many MSS, from which to gen- -eralize. Of Chaucer’s minor poems we have indeed all the texts, but no estimate has yet been formed of the different scribal personalities and their modes of in- terference with a copy. For Lydgate and other fifteenth-century writers our position is far worse; we have in many cases only a single published text of each poem, giving us even less basis from which to argue. Every statement here made is therefore only a suggestion. Hitherto the method of analysis used on e.g. Lydgatian texts has been line- by-line. This method has perhaps some basis in the classical and the early Teu- tonic line-conception of verse, a conception which the establishment of rime has * Proceedings of the Privy Council, ed. Nicolas, v :218. * Bibl. de l’Ecole des Chartes 62:716-19. 18 ENGLISH VERSE necessarily changed ; but a stronger reason is the coercive power of the couplet- idea so marked in English. The writer who uses complex stanzas made up of unequal lines may earn from the critic a treatment stanza-by-stanza; but the man who writes in equal lines is assumed to have thought and worked line-by-line. One reason for the long popularity of the closed couplet was its adaptation to the metrical grasp of the average Englishman. He could see rime and rhythm in its small compactness, while its usual content of wit and wisdom was within his comprehension, and just enough above his power of expression to com-— mand his admiration. There was no uncomfortable tax on his knowledge, no “threat of loveliness” to chill him. The line-by-line method will be used here only with limitations. Were it our sole mode of analysis, it would disguise the inadequacies of Chaucer’s followers by fencing their work and his into small spaces where his power of phrase- manoeuvre cannot be seen. The way in which he surpassed the couplet-form his disciples did not recognize, nor do we if we treat him solely by line-types. The short phrase following the long breath-sweep of two lines and more, the line with less than five heavy syllables followed by the line of extra weight, the compounding of a twenty-line paragraph out of a half-dozen different sorts of line-movement adroitly interwoven, the running-over of one rime followed by pause and emphasis on the next, and the story proceeding all the while with per- fect clarity and ease, its high points exactly met by the special stresses of the verse,—here is rooted the student’s delight in Chaucer’s line-management. Of course we seek in Chaucer nothing like the emotional contrasts of phrase-length as in Shelley. Shelley may write, in the Epipsychidion,— an antelope In the suspended impulse of its lightness 85 Were less ethereally light; the brightness Of her divinest presence trembles through Her limbs, as underneath a cloud of dew Embodied in the windless heaven of June Amid the splendor-winged stars, the Moon Burns, inextinguishably beautiful. But although there is here, as in Chaucer, the long breath-run followed by a short phrase, although there is a light swift line such as Chaucer could on occasion write, there are things impossible to Chaucer,—the iteration of long i-sounds standing out of narrow vowels in the opening sentence, and the slow close of the passage on lingering polysyllables, after the isolated emphatic word Burns, This management of vowel-color and of tempo, like the choice of simile and of epithet and the exalted passion of the poet, are too sophisticated, too subtle for Chaucer. We can find alliteration in Chaucer, but no such subtlety as Keats’ The dreary melody of bedded reeds, (Endymion I, 239) with its long and short e’s and its half-submerged d’s. We can find skilful phrase-handling in Chaucer, but not such as Shelley’s. Nor do we expect it. Chaucer is a master of the larger speech-unit which his narrative key requires, GENERAL INTRODUCTION 19 and no man working in his key has ever done better. Indeed, his immediate successors failed most conspicuously in that particular. Lydgate is the striking example of this failure, just because Lydgate brought to a study of Chaucer the uneducated and timid mind moving line by line. He picked out from his master the kinds of line which might be written, and pro- ceeded to use them without any of Chaucer’s feeling for variety, for the pattern of the whole. He was by nature repetitive to excess, as his style shows, and the poverty of ideas which he joined to an unfortunate glibness resulted in an end- less and ill-organized stream of words whenever he was commanded to speak. The verse in which he arranges those words has no structural quality outside the line; it escapes analysis as a long series of huts connected by passages escapes being called architecture. We may apply to him the five types used by Professor Schick for the classification of his verses; but it must be with the proviso that such a treatment accords only with the mind of Lydgate, and in no wise with the mind of Chaucer, that it has no validity for real poetry. One of the many like- nesses between the fifteenth century and the eighteenth is the possibility of using on the verse of both periods the ruler five feet long. But for times of freer, larger feeling that ruler does not apply. It has been said above that Chaucer understood the shift of weight from line to line,—a phrase which must be made clearer before we can proceed. Eng- lish speech throws its major stresses upon the root-element of substantives, ad- jectives, and verbs; the iambic pentameter line has in theory five such stresses or heavy elements and five light or less important syllables, arranged alternately. In practice, an exact following of this pattern is not demanded; not only may the fall of verse-stress upon secondary syllables reduce the amount of grammatical stress in the line, and the appearance of important monosyllables in unaccented position change the balance of the line, but in all good verse this variation of the ripple, this shift of weight within the line, is sought by the artist. As Coventry Patmore says, the vital thing in English verse is “the perpetual conflict between the law of verse and the freedom of the language; each is incessantly though insignificantly violated for the purpose of giving effect to the other.” Or, as Charlton M. Lewis has said, “the actual movement of the verse does not exactly correspond with the ideal rhythmical scheme deep down in our minds; it plays about—but never wholly forsakes it.” An outward sign of a triumph of language over verse is the frequent appearance of a “‘trochee” among iambs, even of a spondee, or double heavy syllable, should the movement of thought require it; and this latter will make the line heavier just as the use of two syntactically un- important words to make up a foot will reduce the total weight of the line. When Chaucer writes But trewely to tellen atte laste, he has but three grammatically important syllables in a five-beat line; the verse is definitely underweighted ; and this underweighting is well adapted to the merely connective function of the line. Being a narrator by trade, Chaucer does not use the heavy line as often for a variant as he uses the light. The addition of stress to normal means, as we 20 ENGLISH VERSE have noted, the presence in the text of pictorial or motor-words. The descrip-~ tive writer thus naturally makes more use of the full-weighted or the heavy line, while the forward-pressing narrator tends to reduce the stress-value of his total. Speaking a language in which the inflexional -e was still a separate element, Chaucer could conform his narrative to iambic rhythm, more simply than can the modern poet; and in a full-stressed line he moves with a lighter tread. He has, normally, a high percentage of regular iambic lines, about fifty per cent of his work in each case; and heavy lines are not common. Underweighted lines which he introduces into his pentameter are not necessarily those carrying a notion of speed, such as “Or breke it at a renning with his heed,” nor are they reduced in weight because of their small value in the narrative, like the line cited in our Jast paragraph above. They most often appear because there must be variety in any verse-flow, and because the lighter line is the natural variant for a story- teller. In this respect there is a noticeable difference between Chaucer and William Morris, for instance. Comparing two passages of similar function, the opening of the Squire’s Tale and the opening of the tale of Cupid and Psyche, from the Earthly Paradise, we shall find that Chaucer has thirty normal iambic lines to Morris’ eighteen, six heavy in one foot to Morris’ fourteen; and that while Morris has a dozen or so of verses showing interior balance or compensation, i.e. a heavy and a light foot in the same line, Chaucer seeks this variant not at all. The Victorian’s love of sense-appeal is reflected in his richer heavier rhythm. It may be objected that the two passages are not strictly parallel in content. But the characteristic difference between the two poets is that Chaucer opens a ro- mantic tale and sets his stage with fewer properties; Morris produces at once his color, his draperies, and his emotions. It is the nature of the two poets which differentiates their modes of beginning, both in imagery and in rhythm. Every poet of artistic sensibility steers a little east or west of regularity. A course in the direction of reduced line-weights gives a less obtrusive result ; free use of the heavier line, or of the line with marked rhythmic divergence, challenges attention. If the words thus made conspicuous are important words, the variant is justified. When Chaucer puts into the four-beat movement of the Book of the Duchesse the line Blew, bright, clere was the air, he writes a headless line, he places the adjective bright in unstressed position, and he uses two strong pauses to throw his descriptive epithets into prominence. Thus he heightens his effect both by rhythmic flow, by conflict of rhythm and language, and by marked catches in the breath-lengths. Nor does he dull the emphasis by using such an eccentric combination repeatedly or without purpose. Eccentric lines may diverge from normal either in the grouping of their stressed syllables or in the total number of their syllables. The former variant is briefly mentioned above; as regards the latter, lines may vary by excess or by deficiency. If by excess, the line may have disyllabic or “feminine” rime, it may have an extra syllable at the opening (disyllabic upbeat), and it may have an extra syllable before the verse-pause, or “epic caesura.’’ With these variants, the five-beat line may run to twelve syllables; the extra syllable elsewhere than at GENERAL INTRODUCTION 21 the line-opening (resolved arsis) is not proven for Chaucer. If the line varies not by excess but by deficiency of syllable, this happens either at the opening of the line or at the verse-pause, and results in either the “headless” or the “broken- backed” line. An unaccented syllable is lacking in such case. Students recognize the occurrence of the first of these line-forms in Chaucer, frequently in his four-beat work, less in his pentameter as time goes on. The headless line may occur in groups in the four-beat Hous of Fame, but the small number of such cases in the Canterbury Tales seem to serve a special purpose, to be used for cataloguing or for emphasis. As for the brokenbacked line, its sanction by Chaucer is still doubtful. The four-beat work of Chaucer and that of his contemporary Gower differ markedly as regards these variants in syllable-count. Gower does not write head- less lines. The ten per cent of them in the Hous of Fame, book 1, the approxi- mately fourteen per cent of them in book 11, have no parallel in the Confessio Amantis. Gower also represses the natural lightenings and reversals of freely flowing speech; and the amount of rhythmic variety in his long poem is so rela- tively small that an effect of monotony results, an effect which closely cor- responds to the mental tone of the Confessio. But Lydgate shows in his work far more headless lines than Chaucer permitted in his pentameter; and he adds to his large number of lines short at their beginning an equal and some- times larger number of lines short an unaccented syllable at the verse-pause,— brokenbacked. For example :— And mony a tre,mo then I can telle Black Knight 81 Theffect of which,was as ye shal here ibid. 217 As his basis of full pentameter lines is frequently below the fifty per cent usual in Chaucer, Lydgate has, instead of Gower’s excess of normal over variant, an excess of variant over normal. And while Gower’s substance and style are con- firmed by his rhythm, Lydgate’s are in discord with it; they have none of the qualities which can justify such persistent emphasis. Now, if the thing said does not warrant the use of forceful variants, if the attention is summoned sharply to words not worth special emphasis, the effect on the listener is irritating. Lyd- gate’s heavy demands on the rhythmic ear are not justified by his matter. These divergences, these headless and brokenbacked lines, also occur repeatedly and in close proximity, so that the reader has the threefold tax of an emphatic variant unsupported by a content deserving emphasis, and aggressively recurrent. The mechanical excess and the aesthetic or intellectual deficiency in Lydgate’s verse so react upon one another that the result is more than doubly displeasing. Beside Lydgate, Hoccleve leads the list of English Chaucerians. The person- ality of this partly pious, partly dissipated government clerk, who knew Chaucer and felt real affection for his master, this writer of begging-letters, railer at himself, translator, miracle-monger, wouldbe scamp, and wooden versifier, is far more interesting than that of Lydgate. The amount of Hoccleve’s work is small as compared with that of Lydgate, and it includes no such proportion of com- missioned verse. Alongside the decorous hack-translation of the De Regimine be ENGLISH VERSE Principum done for Henry V, alongside a number of religious poems and a righteously indignant tongue-lashing of the heretic Oldcastle, are not a few compositions definitely autobiographical. Hoccleve’s work is all stanzaic, in penta- meter, and quite different as regards line-management from that of Lydgate. Here, as with Lydgate, there is uncertainty about the text; but so far as we can now see, Hoccleve writes very few of the lines scanted half a foot which are so common in Lydgate. His metrical characteristic is, that while holding steadily to the full ten syllables, he is not sensitive to the correspondence of syllables with verse-stress. He can write :— And with him hir seruant to the ship wente,— and many another such line syllable-filled and rhythm-empty. He and Lydgate had each a code; but while Lydgate erects Chaucer’s variants into types and over-uses them, Hoccleve watches the number of his syllables and hears no rhythm. As Hoccleve’s EETS editor points out, he “thwarts the run of his verse” at every turn by the prosaic arrangement of his syllables. Lydgate, on the other hand, is quite willing to write lines of less than ten syllables; but having adopted such variant-forms, his repetitive tendency overworks them to the injury of his whole. The tendencies of later pentameter-writers in the century were determined neither by Hoccleve nor by Lydgate. Even men showing Lydgate’s influence, like Metham, or Hawes or Cavendish in the sixteenth century, do not imitate his shortbreathed line-movement; and no one has a syllable-counting tendency. In most later cases there is no visible code on which verse is constructed. Perhaps because of the bewilderment caused by the loss of inflexional -e in pronunciation while it was still irregularly written, perhaps because of the cramping and inbreed- ing which weakened the intellectual fibre of the educated further with every dec- ade, the rhythmic sense of most English writers slid to the level of doggerel. In the Libel of English Policy, an earnest plea to government for “high tariff,” in the versified handbook of alchemy by George Ripley, in the romances of Love- lich, the awkward syllable-counting of Hoccleve and the awkward over-use of emphatic line-forms by Lydgate change to a reaching-after the rime-word without regard to the number or the placing of syllables in the line. This is doggerel; it becomes in the Libel a mere slither of words; and though there is less of a collapse of rhythm in Lovelich and in Hawes, their matter is so invertebrate that it disturbs the reader more than do the Libel’s purposeful, if clumsy lines. The codeless weakness of such degeneracy and the obstinately uncomprehend- ing codes of Lydgate and Hoccleve are the more marked because of a few striking examples of rhythmic sensitiveness. Conspicuous among these is the translation of Palladius’ De re rustica executed for Humphrey of Gloucester by an unnamed protégé at much the same time when Lydgate was beginning his Fall of Princes translation for the duke. I have elsewhere! commented on the re- markable smoothness and accuracy of the existing texts of this translation, and pointed out that in its first 1800 lines there are no cases of clipped lines, almost *Modern Philology XXIII, 148. GENERAL INTRODUCTION ' 23 no error in the scribe’s treatment of inflexional -e, and every sign of a competent user of language and rhythm. The matter of the poem is unpoetical enough, with its instructions as to bee-keeping, poultry-management, the choice of soils, the times of planting, etc.; but there is no monotony and no clumsiness in the handling of the verse. The prologue and the connectives between books have much about Gloucester, and display adroit manipulation of rhetorical devices, as the passages included in this anthology will show. And there is clever workman- ship in the stanza-variations of the Lover’s Mass. When these pieces of work were done, and when the anonymous translations of Charles d’Orléans were executed, or earlier in the Boethius of Walton, some men were still sensitive to . the relation between language and verse. But throughout the period, the incompe- tents are in the majority ; and the further we go from Chaucer the feebler the gen- eral sense of rhythm. The incapacity of Hawes, the stiffness of Barclay, the mix- ture of lowclass slapstick and upperclass stereotype in Skelton, give place to the doggerel of Morley, the puerility of Nevill, and the curious double movement of Wyatt and of Surrey. Neither of these first masters of the sonnet walks very securely in the long line. Wyatt is much given to the wrenching of accent for rhythm’s sake, a preciosity we can see in Walter’s Guiscard and Sigismonda be- fore him and in Swinburne or Rossetti after him; and Surrey’s blank verse is tentative. But both they and Skelton can sing with perfect ease and sweetness. When they sing, they turn from older and from newer formal] line-groupings and from pentameter, to shorter verses not equal in length; they find their full release by a variant other than the rhythmic, as the writer of the Lover’s Mass had found it. But generally throughout the Transition the stereotype of form is as heavy as is that of style and subject. It was de rigueur to write pentameter, and espe- cially to write it in rime royal. The amount of seven-line stanza in the period is enormous, from Walton’s translation of Boethius (part only) through Lyd- gate’s Fall of Princes and Ripley’s Compend of Alchemy to Hawes’ Pastime of Pleasure and to Cavendish and Sackville. The romances had their own inherited strophes; but the religious, the didactic, and the occasional verse of the Transi- tion preferred the seven-line stanza. The couplet, either four-beat or five-beat, was not apparently favored even by Chaucer’s immediate followers to any such extent as was rime royal. How far this preference was the poets’ own is uncertain. For although the great bulk of the Fall of Princes, the almost 6,000 lines of the Life of Our Lady, and the 3,700 lines of St. Edmund, raise the count of Lydgate’s seven-line stanzas high over that of his eights, these are com- missioned works, the Fall of Princes and the Palladius-translation both done to Gloucester’s order at the same time in the same strophe-form. And Lydgate’s eight-line stanza, constructed as a double quatrain, carries a large number of short poems, often religious, which may have been put into that form by his own choice. Hoccleve also uses the eight-line (and nine-line) stanza in his oc- casional poems, where he speaks more independently than in the Regement of Princes or in his narrative verse. But the later writers of the century preferred rime royal. Perhaps the taste of earlier patrons, imposed on the translations 24 ENGLISH VERSE which they ordered, took effect on subsequent versifiers; certainly both Cavendish and Sackville had the Fall of Princes in mind when writing their seven-line stanzas. Occasionally there is variation of form within the one work. Lydgate’s Temple of Glass uses five-beat couplets and stanzas; Hawes changes from rime royal to couplet when he introduces the Godfrey Gobelive episodes into his Pas- time; Barclay’s insertion of a stanzaic Complaint into his pentameter-couplet Fourth Eclogue doubtless seemed to him very effective. But the narrow range of this variation, as compared with Chaucer in the Anelida, or with the Lover’s Mass, or with Skelton in his Garland of Laurel, shows the timidity of the English Transition code. When the Humanistic change came it came at first in form more than in subject or in style; the sonnet and blank verse are more definitely novelties in form than was Barclay’s introduction of the eclogue, and were ad- dressed to a public more in need of new verse-moulds than was the public which enjoyed Skelton’s tumbling verse. A road having been broken in one direction, the bourgeois subjects which were struggling into notice could push further for- ward. Sometimes they stumbled in the couplet, sometimes in the stanza, as either the political doggerel against Suffolk or the Hye Way to the Spyttelhous may show. And the disappearance of fourteenth-century stanzas derived from jongleur or from Latin hymns, of the complexities of strophe as in the Miracle Plays, is as marked as is the sixteenth-century appearance of humanistic forms and development of song. Outside the stanza and couplet there is little verse-form in the Transition upon which to comment. Skeat assigns the partly terza rima Complaint to his Lady to Chaucer ; the Anelida contains a rhetorical exercise in medial rime and in echo which we find again in the Lover’s Mass and in Palladius; Skelton plays with short lines; and there are a few roundels in the period, from that at the close of the Parlement of Foules to those translated from Orléans. Some undated manuscripts contain free lyric verse which, if of the mid-sixteenth cen- tury, arrives when expected, and if of the fifteenth, is still more interesting. The Cambridge University codex Ff i, 6 is such a volume. But in general, there is less variety of verse-form, as of verse-tone, in the English post-Chaucerian period than in the Scottish. The difference in social growth between England and Scotland in the fif- teenth century may in part account for the fact that Chaucer’s Scottish followers do not by any means suffer the rhythmic and intellectual disorder so marked in the Southern writers. English Chaucerians did over again, and botched, a work already done to admiration; but the master’s influence was really felt by Scotsmen. When the spirit of Scottish nationality asserted itself, in the four- teenth century, the Bruce of John Barbour gave it enthusiastic expression, and the tide of national poetry began to rise. It continued throughout the fifteenth century, in the popular ballads and in the popular epic of Blind Harry’s Wallace. Alongside this stream of genuine national expression, borne on the same tide of rising vitality, runs the more intellectual and formal poetry of King James the First, of Robert Henryson, of William Dunbar, and of Gavin Douglas, to alJ GENERAL INTRODUCTION 25 of whom, except perhaps to Dunbar, Chaucer is master and model. This more lettered aspect of the Scottish florescence shows itself first in King James (died 1437), and then in Henryson, the “Schoolmaster of Dunfermline,” who died about 1506. In them and in Dunbar, who died in 1520, we find, looking at the technical side alone, a control of line and of stanza, a definiteness of purpose, and an assured ease of movement, which neither Lydgate nor Hoccleve ever at- tained. King James’s one poem, the Kingis Quair, is somewhat hampered by its allegorical machinery, but James, like Henryson, has his verse under control. Henryson, though claiming for his Fables a “morale sweit sentence” which he considers it the duty of the poet to provide, keeps his moral from encroach- ing on his narrative,—a restraint impossible to Lydgate; and in his Testament of Cresseid he goes far from the shrewd and simple humor of the Fables to strike a note of passionate pity loftier than anything written by his more versatile and vigorous compatriot Dunbar, whom criticism generally terms the greatest of the group. Dunbar, rich in a begging friar’s experience of life, is a professional poet of the stock of Skelton and the tribe of Rabelais. He tried his hand at many meters and managed all easily; he can praise the Virgin, abuse his fel- lowpoets, lash the vices of the time, and shudder at death, with equal fluency and force. And in quieter moods he can sound a note of solemn dignity in the Lament for the Makaris, and write the neat allegorical compliment of the Thrissill and the Rois. But his widemouthed boisterous vigor, the graceful sentiment of King James, and the quiet amused penetration of Henryson, all take something of their form and pressure from Chaucer; and all these poets are competent workmen. Gavin Douglas, bishop of Dunkeld (died ca.1522), is a different personality. If Dunbar is akin to Skelton, Douglas is akin to Lydgate and to Hawes, though a much larger man than they. Certain of the conventions obeyed by them he has; his Palice of Honour is as heavily allegorical as the Court of Sapience or the Flower and Leaf; and in much of his work there is a straining for “‘aureat language” which, as in Hawes, speaks the rhetorician rather than the poet. This connects Douglas with such Frenchmen as St. Gelais and Molinet; indeed, his likeness to Octovien de St. Gelais, also bishop, rhetorician, and translator of Virgil, is marked. But wholly a pedant Douglas was not. The interesting escapes of personal expression and of nature-feeling in his prologues to the Aeneid, and his harsh but not systematically harsh treatment of the five-beat line, give him advantage over Lydgate, even over the nature-bits of the Troy Book. According to Professor Saintsbury, Douglas makes some use of the brokenbacked line; but until the relation of his verse to St. Gelais’ Aeneid-translation, made in French pentameter couplet, can be worked out, there can be no full discussion of the technique of Douglas. Verse-modeling and style develop parallel in all these writers. With the establishment of rime in late Latin and in the West European languages, the medieval system of “colores rhetorici” received additional floriations. To the accepted modes of literary amplification, to the “digressio,” “descriptio,” and “ex- clamatio” which we see used e.g. in Chaucer’s more academic narratives, to the management of interpretation, of comparisons, and of word-play, there were added 26 ENGLISH VERSE the effects obtainable by rime-combination. All varieties of stanza, all possi- bilities of medial rime, echo, interlace, etc., were worked by the French poet- rhetoricians, but were less favored in England. There the feeling for rime as a mode of stress might lead to its over-use by restless-minded men, but with the more sluggish-minded it led to the phrase-tag. The difference in its handling marks the difference between Skelton and Lydgate, just as its use now for empha- sis, now in formula, now partially blurred by enjambement, marks the Chaucerian control of technique. A study of rime in Chaucer or in Lydgate is scarcely begun when its purity or impurity has been noted; the subjugation of rime to poetic purpose is the root of the matter, with its various aspects of phrase lengthened over the rime, phrase-formula used for rime’s sake, shift of emphasis from rime-word to mid-line and back, etc. The second of these subjects, so far as Chaucer and Lygate are concerned, is discussed in the introductory essay on Lydgate here; but the two other aspects mentioned require far more comment than this book can give. So with the question of vocabulary and word-usage in the Transition; the rigor mortis which held rhythm and held narrative-power pressed heavily on the treatment of the word. Something of this may be ascribed to the great amount of commanded translation in the period; but in passing the responsibility from poet to patron we do not remove it from the group. The late medieval versifier or reader had no notion of the metaphors latent but vital in words, of the power resident in the “fringe” of a verb or adjective and evocable by slightly shifting the angle of vision. There is a strong etymological interest in words, and there is abundance of abstract terminology new in English; but there is little or no development in meaning. Chaucer’s “smoky rain,’ Lydgate’s “restless stone” of Sisyphus, are rarities in Early English. Although Chaucer’s senses were far more alert, his perceptual power far higher than those of his English followers, he is no specialist in word or phrase. The characteristic action which he sees so truly he presents in lines or in brief scenes. Concentration is not a quality of the Middle Ages. And as the Middle Ages yielded to the impact of Humanism, two general tendencies become marked in the use of words by English writers. There is the riotous extravagance of Skelton, in whose texts we find the inexplicable word as well as the inexplicable local allusion; such a word is obviously either a bit of showman’s lingo or a boisterous coinage on Skelton’s part. In Hawes and Nevill is the other tendency. Their pedantry strives for “aureat language’; Hawes loads his verse with terms like depure, facundious, solacious, oblocucioun, pulchritude, etc.; but both he and Nevill also use words, especially verbs, so vaguely and insecurely that we find no mean- ing in them.1. We often do not know what Hawes intends to say by his use of exemplify or inspect or ratify; and his failure to pass on meaning is doubtless due to his own vagueness on the point. St. Gelais and the later rhétoriqueurs in France, Lyly or the seventeenth-century Latinists in England, show the same tendency, which is less a matter of chronology than of social and educational maladjustments. This attitude to language Hawes does not derive from his “master Lydgate”; Lydgate muddles his syntax badly, and employs the dead See note on the Pastime of Pleasure, line 78. GENERAL INTRODUCTION Ze phrase for rime, but he rarely wanders from the essential meaning of a Latin word. His very large contribution to the English vocabulary? does not deepen or intensify language; it has no procreative power. He does not even carry it easily, as Hoccleve had carried his limited human common-sense vocabulary ; but he does provide English with a mass of useful abstract terms which he manages with accuracy, but which the pedants of the later Transition blurred. Chaucer attained his rhythmical and critical poise in an imperfectly devel- oped and ill-adjusted age. He could not bequeath it. The power to control material can be received only by those mentally capable of receiving it; and the resettlement of the stereotype on English society just after his death, the increas- ing lack of educational opportunity of the early fifteenth century in England, smothered the growth of any such mentality. Pattern can be a relentless thing; if it encroaches on the imaginative field, the imagination either submits, or escapes only to extravagance and disordered unsymmetry. Not merely in Transitional rhythmic work and Transitional use of the formula or of the rhetorical code, does this appear, but in Transitional narrative. At the opening of the fifteenth century the English narrator had before him as narrative-types the fabliau, the saint’s legend, the allegory, and the romance. The first was frankly bourgeois, as the second was religious; both were small- scale. Allegory and romance are oftenest large-scale narratives, and the former has at its best a sense of causality working in human affairs which makes it an important factor in the development of structural feeling. Both it and the romance are also of moment in narrative-shaping because of their mass, because the mere handling of a great quantity of material urges a workman towards structure. For several of these story-forms the work of Chaucer offered examples. He had brought the fabliau, especially, to a high state of finish as regards econ- omy, dexterity, and single-figure portrayal; but in the eyes of his followers such tales were permissible only because their tellers were at the moment specially privileged; the presentation of such material would not only be impossible to the hand of Hoccleve or of Lydgate, but to their code. The “tragedy,” as in the Monk’s tale, or the saint’s legend, as in those of Prioress and Second Nun, seemed, however, a very fit subject to the Transition workman, who probably saw no difference in the sincerity of Chaucer’s attitude to the one and the other. The saint’s legend ran out, as a productive vein, by the close of the fifteenth century. It was hampered by its religious character. Its protagonist possessed no human failings, and the various antagonists no redeeming features; the two great opportunities of narrative, the dilemma and the error, were rarely permitted in the legend. Suspense, except in an elementary repetitive form, and complica- tion, are absent. Visualization is infrequent; the stage is rarely set; and dia- logue, used mainly for conversion or for miracle-working, shows no conflict of motive within the individual. Capgrave’s St. Katherine endeavors to explain action and prepare for event; and in the lengthy discourses of the princess and her ministers regarding her marriage there is evident the author’s sober legal * See the Introd. to Lydgate, pp. 87 ff. below. 28 ENGLISH VERSE pleasure in weighing and stating a case. There is spirit in the speeches with which the proposals of the steward are rejected, in Bradshaw’s St. Werburge; but generally the legends lack the mundane vigor of utterance which had been pres- ent in the miracle-plays, and are lacking also in the dignity and the pathos which their circumstances permit. Nor does management of detail show a strong hand. Capgrave sometimes notes facial expression, or uses a fortunate homely simile; and in Bokenam there is another kind of leaning towards actuality in the author’s frank and even playful comment. But in the most prolific of all the legend-writers of the period, John Lydgate, the personal or pictorial is at the minimum, and the weak repetitive method is burdened by masses of didactic di- gression in which the narrative current almost disappears. Fifteenth-century legend-writers brought narrative no nearer to the object of study. So far as plot was concerned, the workmen striving after magnitude sought it on the method of piling like details atop of one another; the notion of bringing the figure closer to the eye, instead of increasing the size of the canvas, is outside the comprehension of most medieval narrators. Was a narrative to be more im- pressive or more heroic, it had more tortures or more combats added to it. But still more did the failure of the legend to quicken human feeling inhere in the rigidity of its conception of human character. Its attempt to raise the pitch of life was unsuccessful, while that of romance succeeded, because of its tenuous contact with reality; its structure was often feebly repetitive; and the greatest study in life, personality, could receive no furtherance from its refusal to see aught but white and black. The two great dangers of English literary expression, formlessness and didacticism, were thus encouraged by legend-writing; and they were not com- bated by another medieval narrative type, the allegory. Allegory resembles the legend, and differs from fabliau and romance, in the rigidity of its material and in its attempt to instruct. There is little or nothing in allegory of the amused bourgeois temper which appears in the fable or the fabliau, and rarely an interest in humanity. Some advance there is over the saints’ legends in the larger plan and in the insistence upon causality; to this extent the hand of narrative is strengthened, although clumsily and impersonally. The type is Eastern in its origin and Christian in its development; in Christian literatures it is a hybrid between the narrative and the homily. It became weak or restricted in the Tran- sition; and we may query if this were not in a measure due to the new method of treating the Biblical text, if the new exegesis did not affect the popularity of the method. The necessity for an interpretation of Biblical language other than the literal or surface had been maintained especially by the great Church father Origen, followed by the greater St. Augustine in the fourth century. Such Biblical exegesis, starting from belief in verbal inspiration and determined to press the obstinate letter into harmony with Christian desire, dominated the Middle Ages, and its method extended to creative narrative. It felt in the word or in the narrative not those connotations for senses and for memory, not those recognitions of human experience, which had been pagan and which were over- borne by the Christian Church, but a set of moral and ethical precepts. The en- GENERAL INTRODUCTION 29 cyclopedists, like Isidor or Fulgentius, give allegoric etymologies for terms and names; the treatment of pagan poets such as Virgil, Ovid, and Homer, is one of the curiosities of criticism; and the impulse goes over also into the creative field. Churchmen like Alanus de Insulis and Martianus Capella composed ex- tensive allegorical narrative, peopled by personified abstractions; Dante himself lives in spite of, not because of, the method with which he is saturated; Petrarch, and even the bourgeois Boccaccio, viewed poetry, with Dante, as “concealing truth under the beauteous veil of the fable.’ Lydgate and Hawes accept this as the function of poetry; for them fable, or story, is a “covert” for truth, is a “cloak- ing colour.” Hawes, however, implies, and later writers confirm, a growing indifference to allegorical narrative on the part of the uncultivated public. He himself, in his Pastime of Pleasure, mixes his allegory with romantic combat and amour, with pseudo-learning, and with the farcical episode of Godfrey Gobelive,—per- haps to assure himself of a hearing with his royal patrons. In the bourgeois public, with its taste for the actual, loss of popularity for the allegory was bound to come; while from the best-educated, for another reason, there also came a limiting of the scope of allegory. The Augustinian doctrine of verbal inspiration, with its consequent desire to wrench and press the word, yielded, so far as the strongest minds were concerned, to the doctrine of historic inter- pretation held by St. Jerome, and championed in the early days of Humanism by Tyndale, by Colet, and by Erasmus. Nevertheless, the tendency to personification, the interest in a double mean- ing or a concealment, were not eradicated by the Renaissance. Under disguise of chevalier or of censor the allegorical method persisted; Ariosto, Tasso, Spenser, use the one cloak, Skelton, Dryden, Swift, the other. Pure didactic allegory had its last great treatment in Bunyan and in Comus, but the method is not dead, nor will it die. As Lipprhann has said, the will to find an implied meaning beneath an obvious is “the deepest of all stereotypes.” Our class- shift today has brought not only popular interest in riddle and puzzle, but in Shaw, in Barrie, in Capek. And although we have nominally accepted the “higher criticism,’ in thousands of pulpits the method of allegory lives on defiant. Rigid itself, allegory links readily with those devices for expression which are rigid. The largest form in which it moves is the Pilgrimage or Quest; smaller and more static forms are the Procession or ‘“Defile,” and the Parlia- ment. The Nuptials and Battles of the more pompous Latin were never popu- lar in France or in England, although the “estrif,” as a sort of midway-type be- tween the contest and the Parliament, was favored in legally-minded France and Provence. The Pilgrimage-motive probably owed some of its popularity to its connection with reality, with that religious or chivalric taking of the road which meant so much to the medieval mind, and which, as a traveling toward the unknown, will always have fascination for humanity. These two could be forced into combination, as in the Anticlaudianus of Alanus, in Chaucer’s Hous of Fame, in Christine de Pisan’s Chemin de long Estude. And there was in 30 ENGLISH VERSE them some chance for character-interplay, for episode, which the Procession had not. The mere line of figures “passing a given point,” and all guided by a common feeling, as in Boccaccio’s De Casibus or the Dance Macabre or the Ship of Fools, meets allegory only in so far as it uses personification, like Petrarch’s Trionfi. It was such a list, when real persons were summoned, as by Cavendish or by Sackville, that contributed solid material to the Tudor drama; and from a list of actual people, be it of Chaucer’s Prologue, or of the Ship of Fools, or of the seventeenth-century “characters,” or of Henley’s Hospital Sketches, or of the Spoon River Anthology, interest never dies out. It was this intrusion of the real person, whether coming from past history or from contemporary life, into narrative, which most surely undermined the credit of Personification, as applied to abstractions or to qualities. After a long period of attempt to modify life, men began more correctly to report it; and any increase of human perception is in the line of human development. Conduct in narrative began to be determined not by precept but by human prob- ability or by recorded fact; that is, it underwent just the same change that had been made in Biblical interpretation. The Tudor dramatic narrative, when tragic, insisted on that Causality which allegory had helped it to realize; and it attempted something which neither fabliau nor satire ever had, but which alle- gory and romance consciously sought,—a raising of the pitch of life. Such a raising of life above the everyday was theoretically the business of romance as well as of allegory; but many romances, both English and French, are nearly as conventional in their central figures as if they were allegories. The hero is really Courage or Loyalty or Love, whatever his appellation. It is the event which is “romantic,” the succession of ordeals to which the hero is sub- jected. In the degenerate romances the canvas is overloaded with such ordeals, with perils, deceptions, combats, even as the saint’s legend was overloaded with tortures or miracles. In both, the repetitive method, the lack of purpose and of humanity, drive the type to exhaustion. But to this summary generalization there are three great West European exceptions,—Chrétien de Troyes in the twelfth century, Jean de Meun in the thirteenth, and Sir Thomas Malory in the late fifteenth century. The work of de Meun, despite its allegorical disguise and romantic plan, belongs rather among satires than among romances; this was clearly perceived by Christine de Pisan and her group, and by an indignant Church. Chaucer rec- ognized his intellectual kinsman, and was as well able as de Meun to use the double method, as well able as the Cock of his own Nun’s Priest. But the fif- teenth and early sixteenth centuries knew little or nothing of innuendo in satire; they used not the rapier but the bludgeon for criticism. The popularity of de Meun waned as the popularity of romantic allegory waned, not because of impa- tience with de Meun’s real intention, but because men failed to see that inten- tion through the outmoded stereotype. Chrétien and Malory approach romantic material very differently from de Meun, and each possesses a characteristic not usually displayed in the romance- type. Malory has to a remarkable extent that sense of causality working in GENERAL INTRODUCTION 31 human experience which is to appear more powerfully in Shakespearian tragedy. And Chrétien, while handling romantic material, does it on occasion in a spirit as bourgeois as Chaucer’s own, with as shrewdly amused a sense of human pre’ences and inconsistencies. Neither of these great qualities, the bourgeois understanding of average human nature or the tragic sense of the ills of life as self-caused, was possessed by the fifteenth century generally; but in Chaucer’s age the former was there in full and the latter in an undeveloped form. Both, for instance, are in Boccaccio, in his Decameron and in his De Casibus. Knowledge of Chrétien on Chaucer’s part has not been demonstrated; but no student of literature can read the dialogues between Troilus and Pandarus without turning again to Chrétien’s Yvain and pondering the conversations be- tween the hesitating widow and her sprightly maid. Nor can a student refrain from drawing the spiritual comparison, whether contact between the two writers be proved or not. For if a nation’s political and social conditions are of any effect upon her writers, then similarities in those respects between two Occidental countries may produce similar results without direct borrowing. Let a narrative outline come into the hands of two keen observers of human nature, each living in a period of strong political vitality, of rising bourgeois aspirations, and of a more clearly personal view of woman than heretofore, and those writers’ handling of a human situation may well be similar. Chaucer may not have known the Decameron, he may not have read Chrétien; but he lived in a fer- ment of social conditions very like that around the Italian and the Frenchman, and towards that ferment his attitude was, as theirs, the ironic smile of the observer. The mass of English romances is of the fourteenth century. Much of it came from France by translation, and to the student of narrative the handling of the French original by the English workman is especially interesting. The principal romances of the late Middle*Ages which allow us to compare the ex- isting French with the existing English are Partonopeus de Blois, William of Palerne, the Launfal stories, Li Biaus Desconus, and Chrétien de Troyes’ Yvain—in English as Ywain and Gawain. The treatment of these stories by English translators varies from William of Palerne, which is a free paraphrase, to a somewhat close rendering as in Partonope of Blois. Of course, any medieval adapter felt himself at liberty to expand or alter plot; it is the English treatment of character, of background, which particularly interests us. It often happens, in the better romances, that real traits of character ap- pear. The romance is not so rigid as the saint’s legend; its protagonist may make mistakes, and may even be depicted in a ridiculous situation, as in Par- tonope of Blois and in Li Biaus Desconus. The background was often ample, and with many moving figures; though the effect might be that of the shallow crowding of tapestry, though ‘“‘as in a faded tapestry, the brilliance of the dresses might outlast the flesh-color,” yet the eye of the romancer could and did move frcm one focus to another. The romance had a freer hand than the legend to develop not only character but structure ; its manoeuvring-ground was larger than that of the fable or fabliau, 32 ENGLISH VERSE giving room not only for the delineation of character by dialogue but for antici- pation, surprise, suspense, retard, for the management of transition. Chaucer’s strength had lain in the single scene, the Friar entering the cottage of the sick churl, the conversation between the Cock and the Fox; and in some of the ro- mances we can find larger-scale character-management. In Chrétien’s Yvain, for example, the hero is concealed by a pitying waiting-maid in the castle of a seigneur whom he has pursued and slain on the castle’s threshold, only to be trapped by the fall of the portcullis behind him. From an upper window Yvain watches the obsequies of the seigneur, and falls deeply in love with the widow. He must and will wed her ; and the waiting woman sets about the task of persuading her mistress. The scenes in which this is accomplished, the picture of the widow’s abating anger and growing coquetry, and of the embarrassed first meeting of the two lovers, are of extraordinary interest to students of narrative. This transfer of interest from the physical combat or the intellectual disputation to the conflict of human emotions is Chrétien’s principal service to storytelling. He is not alone in his occupation with it; many biblical narratives and much of Ovid before him, Boccaccio’s Filostrato and the sonnets of Petrarch after him, focussed attention upon the ebb and flow of feeling. But where Chrétien, like Boccaccio, excelled, was in his sense of time, his recognition of the need to make the change of emo- tional front gradual, of avoiding the leap from one narrative position to another. Both he and Renaud, the author of Li Biaus Desconus, were aware of the effec- tiveness of hesitation. Renaud represents his hero as sitting on the side of his bed and debating whether or not he shall go to his lady’s room; he says :— Trai-je, ou ci remanrai? Ma dame le m’a desfendu, Et par sanblant ai je veu Ele veut bien que je i aille. At last he ventures. But the lady is a fairy, and as he is about to cross her thresh- old, a spell falls on him; he finds himself hanging in the air over a raging torrent. He shouts for help; but when the servants rush in with torches, the torrent dis- appears, and he seems the victim of a nightmare, to his great chagrin. Were this magical episode presented without the hero’s musing, we should treat it as mere fantasy ; but the stamp of reality is given it by the preceding very human hesitation and by the comedy-discovery. One of the few noteworthy structural or psycho- logical moments in Lydgate’s mass of narrative, we may note, is the study, in the Fall of Princes i: 4943 ff., of Althea’s hesitation over the fatal brand. Here the monk turns aside from his usual source, where the matter is dealt with in one sentence, to follow Ovid’s study of the mother’s contending feelings; and inade- quate though the English be, the choice of technique is a point in Lydgate’s favor. Another noteworthy feature of the better romances is the attention to ad- ministrative (say) as well as to psychological transition. In the two French ro- mances just mentioned there is obvious care in the fitting of joints. And in Eger and Grine, an English story of which no French parallel is known, the knight Grine passes a lady’s castle on his way to avenge his comrade Eger; she implores him to abandon the adventure, but he is obdurate and goes on. On his GENERAL INTRODUCTION 33 return, successful, he knocks on the door of the room where the lady is sitting in anxiety for him; and her waitingwoman, opening it cries out, ‘““O madam, now is come that knight That went hence when the day was bright.” The inferior romances would have jumped this detail, would have seen the story intermittently, would have recorded merely that the knight returned and that the lady was re- joiced. It is in this spacing-out and continued visualization of story between major events that mastery of structure is most needed. A lyrical or emotional writer may depict situation with power, but the great narrative writer must possess also the ability to get from situation to situation without loss of power. Immature or degenerate narrative betrays its weakness in lack of transitional management quite as much as in failure at the emotional nodus. Even in a man so close to Shakespeare as was Marlowe the difficulty of making transitions is evident; the poet who wrote the death-scene of Edward II wrote also the clumsy shift of the king from one favorite to another, in the same play. This power is at bottom the power of continuing to visualize while the figures move. With such visualizing power goes often a clear view of the background. In Li Biaus Desconus is a feeling for light and darkness comparable to that of Mrs. Radcliffe or of Coleridge, to scenes in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. When the knight sits on his charger in the enchanted castle of the thousand windows and the thousand lights, with the thousand musicians clashing their instruments at him in one moment, and the whole brilliant scene plunged into utter darkness and silence at the next, the fantastic scene is made convincing to us by our own sense of the threat of darkness as a concealer. Renaud also understood, as Mrs. Radcliffe understood and as Hawthorne or Stevenson understood, the alarming and puzzling effect of sound without accompanying sight. The cries from the distance in the wood, which cause the Bel Inconnu to hurry to the rescue, throw his train into terror. Renaud never fails, either, to note the lighting of his scene; and this imparts reality even to the fantastic, as we have said. The coming-in of candles or torches is always mentioned by him, as it is in the Merchant of Venice; and moonlight is not omitted from his descriptions. It is sensitiveness in the writer which brings the background into the story ; it is sensitiveness which works against the earlier medieval “contempt of interval,” to borrow a phrase from Leigh Hunt. And it is a failure of sensitiveness, an oppression by the stereotype, which deprives Transition narrators of the power to see and to develop motives, to see behind their characters, and even to see those characters distinctly, whether in life or in another man’s pages. The Transi- tion writer saw a list of personages, but saw not the method of portrayal; he saw a sumptuous array of trappings, for instance in the Knight’s Tale, and be- lieved, like the youthful Keats gazing into the clouds, that high romance was em- bodied in those symbols. Such poems as the Flower and the Leaf, the Assembly of Ladies, the Belle Dame sans Merci (translated), are episodes rather than nar- ratives, and are handled like tapestry. The garden, the bridge, the pavilion, the mounted knight, the coiffed and jewelled ladies, the stiffly marshalled or conven- tionally dancing courtiers, are all seen in the same focus. But even when the foreground is more fully treated, as in the Churl and the Bird or the much longer 34 ENGLISH VERSE Troy Book, there is small gain in character-presentation. Nearest reality is the Medea of the Troy Book, a creature whom no ineptitude can wither or stale; but both there and in the Brunhilde of the Fall of Princes we must reckon with an earlier source. And we observe that when Lydgate goes outside courtly models for his material, as in the prologue to Thebes, in his Fables, in his Mumming at Hertford, we find no release of ability to draw character, not so much as in the clumsy prologue to the tale of Beryn. Nor do we find it in Hawes, when he shifts from his pedantic-romantic plot to introduce Godfrey Gobelive. And when the bourgeois spirit gets expression in character-portrayal, it has no better vision; it changes material but hardly method. Its list is of rapscallions instead of the illustrious unfortunate, the Hye Way to the Spyttelhous instead of the Fall of Princes ; but the list remains, and the lack of vision remains. The latter comes, however, from a different source, from the insensitiveness of ignorance instead of from the insensitiveness caused by a paralyzing stereotype. When the ignorance is remedied, vision is attained; a sympathy for the human being, a consciousness of his surrounding life, are felt and expressed, and not till then. There is no more sense of snow and wind in the Hye Way to the Spyttelhous than there is of salt air in the Ship of Fools, and no more intention of recognizing it. Lydgate’s rain- storms and sunrises in the Troy Book (for which we do not know his original) © and Douglas’ prefaces to the separate books of his Aeneid-translation are the best example in formal Transition verse of a natural background to narrative; but a mere touch during the course of the story, such as Nevill’s unexpected picture of evening or Henryson’s opening of the Testament of Cresseid, is of more value than set pieces. But in the very midst of the Transition muddling of structure and blurring of vision, the Transition’s blindness to the method of Chrétien or of Renaud or of Chaucer, a greater than Henryson, in England, laid his hand upon the already stiffened mass of romantic narrative, and raised the Arthurian story to permanent life. Malory’s imagination was of far larger calibre than that possessed by Henryson; and to his sense-perception, his power of seeing, hearing, and feeling his personages, the way in which his eye holds the picture while his figures move, Malory adds a strong sense of structure. Perhaps the huge com- pilations of the latter Middle Ages brought gain to narrative in the sense of Causality which was pressed out of event by the sheer weight of material. Malory’s greatest service to English narrative is here, a greater even than his character-portrayal, than his prose. He bound the Arthurian stories together by a sense for causality, for the unescapable consequences of human conduct ; through the juxtaposed mass of separate narratives he drew the twisted thread of the three great Loyalties, to sovereign, to the beloved lady, to God; and by the shat- tering of the Round Table he showed that no man held those three in equal reverence, that no man served the Ideal, that punishment for such failure came here upon earth. Malory works toward tragedy, as Henryson toward comedy. The actual drama of the period gains now an inch here, now an inch there, as it struggles with allegory, with biblical fact, with history. From each of its sources, ex- GENERAL INTRODUCTION 35 cept perhaps from the saint’s legend, it received some advantage; allegory gave training in plot, the Bible-story stimulated to character-portrayal ; and when the actual historical personage appeared among the abstractions of the Morality, the step to the chronicle-play was short. But in the earlier plays of the great period which succeeded, power over character and over scene is still much more evident than power over structure; even of Marlowe this is true. The lesson of structure was slowly learned by England; not until the long period of externalized morality was past, and the moral struggle restored to its natural arena, the human heart and our present life, could the growth of drama or of narrative proceed. All through the Transition, the courtly maker and the cleric were controlled by the stereotypes of their class. That those stereotypes held so firm was due to the limitation of education and to the power of patronage. Their dominance in verse, especially, followed from the theory that the poet must write with a moral purpose, must use the cloak of fable in order to teach. The prose workman, not so restricted, might be sup- posed to move more freely; yet this freedom was not sought. From the argu- mentation of Wyclif and from the Boethius-translation of Chaucer down to Lord Berners’ translation of Froissart, the major prose works are the encyclo- pedias of Trevisa, the travels of “Mandeville,” the treatises of Pecock and of Fortescue, the translated romances and original prefaces of Caxton, and the Arthurian compilation of Malory. Briefer things, themselves longer than Cax- ton’s prefaces, also exist, of which one of the most interesting is the Serpent of Division, presumably by Lydgate, with which may be compared the addition to the Brut, or prose chronicle of England, ascribed to him; or Bokenam’s Mappula Anglie, the Paston correspondence, the Gesta Romanorum, the Master of Game, etc. The proportion of narrative is small, and of independently-handled narra- tive even smaller. What strikes us in most of these men is the freer stronger use of language and the partial release both of the mind and of the senses, as compared with con- temporary work in verse. Much less, too, is heard of a moral purpose,—a fact perhaps allied; and we constantly feel, even with the translator Trevisa at the opening of the century, that a personality is speaking. Already with him the Eng- lish is vigorous and racy, despite some pedantries; and “Mandeville” surpasses him. In those fantastic Travels, moreover, there is narrative movement; the story marches as no tale by Lydgate knows how to step. Pecock’s subject is of no such fascination as are the Oriental wanderings of Mandeville, and although his reason- ing interests us, as showing both his mental quality and his command of English, neither he nor Fortescue exerted such influence as did the narrators, preéminent among whom are Caxton and Malory. Caxton is far the more medieval; he is constantly conventional in choice of subject, in sentence movement, and in phrase. Like Trevisa and like Lord Berners, he favors paired terms and rhetorical pleo- nasms, and labors with involved sentences. But either his subject or his fidelity to ornate correctness pleased his public; the more medieval his work, the more editions it apparently received. His Golden Legend was a better seller than his Malory. 36 ENGLISH VERSE Malory stands by himself in this list of prose writers, as he does among romancers. He and Mandeville are both, as narrators, concerned frankly with their story; but he alone creates an atmosphere. Mandeville can and does obtain credence as well as interest; he knows as well as Swift the value for the human mind of the trivial as proof of the tremendous. But we remain outside Mande- ville’s narrative, absorbed and delighted observers, but independent, detached. Malory removes our world and substitutes his. The integrity of his conviction, his feeling, his imagination, is such that we return from him with difficulty to that smaller and meaner life which we have called normal. There is the same integrity in Malory’s use of English; his speech, his phras- ing, are as dignified as those of an epic, but entirely simple and sincere. He was not surpassed or equalled in English until, in 1549, the gravely simple diction and noble rhythms of the first Prayer Book were composed. Between him and it the tale of English writing, verse or prose, is a sorry one. There is no suavity, no simplicity, and no dignity in Hawes; he is hopelessly muscle-bound. There is no freedom in Barclay; although he has the wit to reach for novel forms, his touches of reality and independence are clamped down among didactic phrases. Skelton is but half free, medieval rather than humanistic, a lampooner and rebel more because he is unsuccessful than because he has ideas. George Cavendish too is but half free; with him, however, the division is between verse and prose, the former stiffly imitative, the latter honest, vigorous, alive—a real story told with a real voice. His life of his master Wolsey is almost the first of English biogra- phies, antedated only by More’s unfinished life of Richard III; and it has had few superiors in the four centuries since it was written. But while Cavendish was writ- ing it, in the group of versifying courtiers around Henry the Eighth the “mode” was supreme, whether in song or in translation. Wyatt, Surrey, Nevill, Morley, obey it, each in his own way; and although the two last-named are more woodenly subservient to pattern, the two greater men are fortunate partly because their pat- terns are fortunately chosen. In pure song, indeed, they are truly English, and truly poets. But no man rises above an original, above a standardized pattern, as Malory had, until Cavendish creates biography, until the Prayer Book is written, and until with Spenser, Shakespeare, and the King James version of the Bible, the freedom of English utterance is attained. Removal of the pressure of the stereotype does not restore at once the long- atrophied vision; from a hundred and fifty years’ denial of perceptual power, from protracted over-assimilation of a few facts, from the exhausting effect of overworked motives and words, a national literature does not recover at a bound. With the appearance of a foreign-bred Humanism among English scholars and in a small class of aristocratic poets, the Renaissance gets under way in Eng- land. As society settles, as education spreads, as intercourse grows freer, the new modes of expression find more favor. But earlier themes and tendencies last over; and it takes a long time for Englishmen to obtain control of rhythm and of structure, two lessons which Humanism could not teach them. Yet, slow as was the process of social readjustment and education, slow as was the assimilative power of the new public, England’s attainment of balance, in the GENERAL INTRODUCTION Sa Elizabethan age, was on all the higher level because the sequence of events which brought her there had been just what it had been. The defeat of the Armada was a spectacular success indeed, a poweiful stimulus to English patriotic pride and to the sense of national unity. But it came after a long series of lesser in- conspicuous successes in the economic field, after a definite rise in the average of English comfort and security in private life, after the assertion of English re- ligious self-control. The sense of unity and confidence derived from resistance to an invader had a more ample national basis on which to rest, because of pre- vious partial adjustments. _ The Armada success did not, like Agincourt, en- gender forces hostile to regular growth; it was a definite and healthy phase in England’s attainment of self-poise, partly because of the social and religious resettlement which preceded it. And so with literature. The various elements of the English change passed slowly and firmly into relation with one another. That challenge of the moral basis of life which follows on a change in social structure, that challenge of the social basis of life which accompanies a new view of morality, took effect each upon the other, and were expressed in new moulds of form. The English Renaissance is far more socially penetrative, more deeply felt on literature, more earnest and ethical than that of the Continent, because in England a bour- geois self-assertion which might, with the break-up of feudal inhibitions, have assumed a more arrogant and illiterate form, was reined in by both Humanism and the Protestant Reformation. It persisted, but it was modified. A politically homogeneous and articulate people and a national sense of conduct were growing alongside that revival of perception, that increase of experiencing power, which permitted a revival of expression. It is not surprising that the dominant literary form of this fusion and interaction should be the drama; for no other utter- ance is so definitely social, and none admits of such a variety of tones. Every vulgarity, every pedantry, every vice, every upleap of vigor, every dignity of Englishmen is poured into the alembic of Shakespeare. 38 ENGLISH VERSE SELECT REFERENCE LIST I The student will derive profit from Green’s Short History of the English People and from G. M. Trevelyan’s History of England, 1926; from H. W. C. Davis’ edition, Oxford, 1924, of Medieval England; from G. C. Coulton’s Chaucer’s England, and from Trevelyan’s England in the Age of Wycliffe; from H. S. Bennett’s The Pastons and their England, Cambridge, 1922; from Eileen Power’s Medieval English Nun- neries; from E. Male’s L’art réligieux de la fin du moyen-age en France, Paris, 1908, and from Male’s other work; from Ramsay’s Lancaster and York, Wylie’s Henry IV, and Cora L. Scofield’s Edward IV; from Vickers’ England in the Later Middle Ages, London, 1914; from Huizinga, Herbst des Mittelalters, Munich, 1924 (transl. London, 1924 as The Waning of the Middle Ages); from the Legacy of the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1926. G. Le Bon, The Crowd, a Study of the Popular Mind, transl. London, 1896, from the French. Many reéditions. Th. Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class, N. Y., 1899, G. Tarde, The Laws of Imitation, transl N. Y., 1903, from second French ed. G. Tarde, L’Opinion et la Foule, third ed., Paris, 1910. W. Trotter, Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War, N. Y., 1916. W. Lippmann, Public Opinion, N. Y., 1922. The Complaint to his Lady is printed in Skeat’s Oxford Chaucer, i :360. The Black Knight, see ed. by Skeat in vol. vii of the Oxford Chaucer. Walter’s Guiscard and Sigismonde, see Zupitza in Vierteljahrschrift fiir Kultur u. Litteratur der Renaissance, i:63-102 (1886). See diss. by Clarence Sherwood, Berlin, 1892. “How a Lover Praiseth his Lady,” see ModPhil 21 :379-395. The Flower and Leaf, the Assembly of Ladies, the Court of Love, La Belle Dame sans Merci, are included in Skeat vii as above. The Isle of Ladies, see diss. by Jane Sherzer, Berlin 1905. Hye Way to the Spyttelhous, by Robert Copland, is printed in Hazlitt’s Early Popular Poetry, 1866, vol. iv. Travel and Travellers of the Middle Ages, ed. A. P. Newton, N. Y., 1926. Dawn of Modern Geography, C. R. Beazley, London, 3 vols., 1897, 1906. Mandeville’s Travels are ed. for EETS by Paul Hamelius, 2 vols., 1919, 1923. See also Sir George Warner’s ed. for the Roxburghe Club, 1889. Le Morte Darthur of Sir Thomas Malory, Vida D. Scudder, London and N, Y., 1917. For Lydgate’s addition to the Brut, see Robinson in Harvard Studies v. Bokenam’s Mappula Anglie is printed by Horstmann in EnglStud 10. The Master of Game, by Edward duke of York, is ed. Baillie-Grohman, 1904 and 1909. Standard but special reference-works, such as Thorndike’s History of Magic or Kings- ford’s studies in the English Chronicles, will be found in the separate refer- ence lists of this volume. JOHN WALTON’S BOETEIUS-TRANSLATION The poem here discussed is in most of the manuscripts marked as by “Johannes Capellanus,” in one manuscript at least (the Phillipps) as by ‘“Ca- pellanus Johannes Tebaud alias Watyrbeche.” In the early and carefully- written volume belonging to Balliol College (A), the author’s name is given as “John Walton nuper canonicus de Oseneye”; and in the 1525 print of the poem an acrostic at the close not only names “Johannes Waltwnem” as author but states that his patroness was Elizabeth Berkeley. Nothing more is known of John Walton except that his work is definitely dated 1410 by a number of the MS-colophons; Elizabeth Berkeley was probably daughter to that Thomas lord Berkeley who employed Trevisa to translate various encyclopedic works, and wife to Richard earl of Warwick, himself the reputed author of a little courtly verse, and Lydgate’s patron for the Pedigree of Henry the Sixth. In such case, it was their daughter the countess of Shrewsbury who commanded of Lydgate his Guy of Warwick; and the family, with its protégés Trevisa, Walton, and Lydgate, make one of the literary “groups” of the fifteenth century. Elizabeth countess of Warwick married before May, 1399, and died in 1423. See pp. 459-60 here. Already Thomas Warton, in his History of English Poetry (see ed. by Hazlitt iii:39-40) had identified Walton as the translator of this work; but the vagueness of “Johannes Capellanus” led various students to attribute it to John Lydgate. Such is the statement of Casley’s 1734 catalogue of the Royal MSS and of the 1838 catalogue of the Durham Cathedral MSS; also of Peiper in his 1871 ed. of Boethius’ Consolation, and of Manitius in his 1911 history of medieval Latin literature included in the Handbuch der klassischen Altertums- kunde, ix, 2. The impossibility of Lydgate’s authorship is clear, however, to any student of the matter; the direct definite advance of the translator’s mind, the absence of digression and of rime tags, the comparative freedom of the verse from eccentric lines, are completely non-Lydgatian. Indeed, although Warton dismissed our versifier summarily as “contributing no degree of improvement to our poetry or our phraseology,” this Boethius-translation deserves more at- tention and credit than it has received. It was of course a mistake on Walton’s part, as ten Brink remarked, to force the whole work into verse,—a greater tactical error than Chaucer’s reduction of the whole to prose. For thereby is lost the element of variety, the change of key from reflective to lyrical, so defi- nitely sought by Boethius; and the use of verse for the whole imposes on the major portion of the work a key more appropriate to the minor portion. A some- what similar ill-judgment may be seen in the French translation of Boccaccio’s Fall of Princes, cf. p. 151 below. The work which Walton here translates is one of the most potent of the Middle Ages. It exerted upon. West-European letters an influence comparable only with that of the Roman de la Rose seven centuries later. Its author, An- icius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius, was born about 480 A.D., and was executed by the emperor Theodoric in 525. Of good family, he was raised to the consular dignity in 510, and was holding important government office when his remonstrances against the imperial policy brought upon him the suspicion and [39] 40 JOHN WALTON’S wrath of Theodoric. He was thrown into prison, and there put to death. During a life of great political activity and responsibility, he had found time to translate several texts of Aristotle, with commentaries, which were the main source of later medieval knowledge of Aristotle; he also wrote on logic, and drew up manuals of arithmetic, music, geometry, etc., which were the standard for cen- turies. But the best-known and most influential of Boethius’ writings was his last, the De Consolatione Philosophiae, written while he lay in prison, and in the knowledge of approaching death. It is an interview, in Latin prose inter- spersed with verse, between the prisoner and Philosophy, who appears to him as a marvellous female figure, and discusses with him the secrets of the universe. The Consolatio not only made a profound impression on the medieval mind, but has remained interesting to modern students, as the many translations of it show. For the French versions, etc., see Stewart as below; English renditions are still more numerous. The earliest of these is by King Alfred, latest edition by Sedgefield, Oxford, 1899; to this is appended the alliterating Old Eng. ver- sion of the metres of Boethius. Chaucer’s translation is entirely in prose, but there is a stanzaic rendering by him of one metre, the “Former Age.” Of his first book there is a reshaping which exists in one MS (see note on A 26 of our text) and which may have been known to Walton when he speaks of “diverse men’? who had preceded him. Later than Walton are:—George Colvile in 1556, ed. Bax, London, 1897; Queen Elizabeth in 1593, ed. EETS 1899, with appendix containing nine metres translated by Sir Thomas Challoner ?1563; transl. by John Bracegirdle, 1603-09, in hexameter etc., specimen printed by Fliigel in Anglia, 14:499; by “I. T.” in 1609, prose and verse, printed in the Loeb Library Boethius, 1918; the metres of books i and ii by Henry Vaughan in his Olor Tscanus, 1651; by “S. E. M.”, London, 1654; by H. Conningesby, verse, 1695; by anon., prose and verse, Oxford, 1674; by Richard lord Preston, prose and verse, 1695; by William Causton, prose and verse, London 1730; by Philip Rid- path, prose and verse, London, 1785; by R. Duncan, Edinburgh, 1789; an anon. transl. of the metres, London, 1792; by H. R. James, prose and verse, London, 1897, 1906; by W. V. Cooper, prose, London, 1902. Walton’s notion of a translator’s duty, as stated in his preface, is more than the usual patristic one of keeping the sense, whatever may happen to the word. He attempts to be true to the word also, so far as metrical exigencies permit; and although his “liftings” from Chaucer are frequent, he is often fortunate in his phrasing, and quite as likely to render the Latin correctly as was his great predecessor. His work, despite its borrowings, has vigor and honesty. And the handling of English rhythm by Walton is so much better than by either Hoc- cleve or Lydgate that he, with the translator of Palladius and the translator of Charles d’Orléans, deserves especial attention from students of the English metre written in this bewildered period. He is frequently driven by his verse-form to pad, but avoids the barren formulae to which Lydgate is so prone. He can be dignified without being floridly rhetorical; his most deliberate ornament is allit- eration, which he employs e.g. in the first metre of the first book. The care and intelligence with which he worked can be well seen in the difficult discussion of “‘prescience” in book v, prose 4. Chaucer’s cautious progress through this material was successful, but Walton’s restatement of it in verse was a real BOETHIUS-TRANSLATION 41 task, even with the Chaucerian text before his eyes. The mentality which could acconiplish this is of an order quite other than the mentality of Hoccleve or of Lydgate; and we may note the scanty use of Boethius by Lydgate (see p. 185 below). Whether or not Walton knew the versifying of Boethius in Troilus’ soliloquy, Book iv of Chaucer’s poem, is a point as yet uninvestigated. Walton’s translation runs to more than 7,500 lines, in eight-line stanzas to the close of book iii, and thereafter in sevens, with a special prologue of Walton’s own composition marking the change. Four stanzas at the close return to the original construction. Manuscripts containing the work are fairly numerous. Schtimmer as below lists fourteen, viz.:—In the British Museum, Royal 18 A xiii, Harley 43, Harley 44, and Sloane 554; in the Bodleian, Rawlinson poetry 151 and Bodley e Museo 53; in Oxford colleges, Balliol 316 A and 316 B, New College 319, and Trinity College 21; in Cambridge, Gg iv, 18 of the University Library. Other MSS in Schiimmer’s list are Lincoln Cathedral A 4, 11, Durham Cathedral v ii, 15, and the MS formerly Phillipps 1099, now (1927) in the hands of Dr. Rosenbach, the New York collector and dealer. To this list Prof. Carleton Brown, in his Register of Middle English Religious Verse, adds five MSS :—the former Chet- wode MS, now McClean 184 of the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge; the So- ciety of Antiquaries 134; Christ Church Oxford 151; Bodl. Douce 100; and St. John’s College Cambridge 196. A Copenhagen MS is mentioned by J. H. Wylie in Athen. 1892, i: 600. Walton’s poem was printed in 1525 at Tavistock Monastery in Devonshire (where was situate the second press established in England) by Thomas Rychard, at the request of Master Robert Langdon; the book is exceedingly rare. Brief extracts from the translation are given by Todd in his Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer p. xxxii (2 stanzas only); by Blades in his Caxton, ii:68; by Wiilker in his Altenglisches Lesebuch, 11 :56-59; by Stewart as below; by Skeat in his Oxford Chaucer, ii:xvi-xviii; by Fligel, Neuengl. Lesebuch, p. 99. Cos- sack and Schiimmer, as below, print much larger portions of the text. On Wal- ton see Warton’s HistEngPoetry, iii:39-40 of Hazlitt’s edition. For my text I have used the MS Royal 18 A xiii of the British Museum, a volume used also by Wilker, by Skeat, and by Schtimmer; some variant read- ings are given as stated, usually from the MS Balliol College 316 A. The Royal volume is on vellum, of 114 leaves, 914 by 614 inches, in a very neat square conventional hand, with careful capitals to stanzas, and marginal markings of metres and proses, etc. There is no other work in the volume. The Balliol MS contains, besides Walton, two short hymns; it also is on vellum, of 108 folios, with a colophon giving Walton’s name and ecclesiastical status,—whereas the Royal’s colophon has the usual “per Capellanum Johannem.” These and other MSS are described by Schiimmer as below. SELECT REFERENCE LIST II Doyle, Official Baronage of England, 3 vols., London, 1886. Warwick, Richard de Beauchamp earl of; for a virelay by him see PMLA 22:597. Moore, Samuel, Patrons of Letters in Norfolk and Suffolk ca. 1450, ibid. 27 :188-207, 28 :79-105. 42 JOHN WALTON’S Stewart, H. F., Boethius, an Essay, London, 1871. Cossack, H., Ueber die altenglische metrische Bearbeitung von Boethius, de Conso- latione Philosophiae. Leipzig diss., 1889, pp. 69. Cossack uses the 1525 print for his analysis, which is of book i only; he proves the use of Chaucer by Walton. Fehlauer, Fr., Die englischen Uebersetzungen von Boethius’ de Consolatione Phil- osophiae, Berlin, 1909. Part pubd. as diss., K6nigsberg, 1908. Schiimmer, K., John Waltons metrische Uebersetzung der Consolatio Philosophiae. Un- tersuchung des handschriftlichen Verhaltnisses und Probe eines kritischen Textes, Bonner Studien 1914. Part pubd. as diss., 1912. Schiimmer’s “textproben” are book i entire, the first three sections of book iii and a selection from its latter half, the prologue to books iv and v, and part of book v. All in all, he gives over a third of the work. His apparatus of variants is printed below each stanza, and in his introd. he constructs a genealogical tree of MSS. Hittmair, R., Das Zeitwort “do” in Chaucers Prosa, Leipzig, 1923, diss., has a com- parison of the Boece with Alfred, Walton, Colville, and Queen Elizabeth. The Bodleian MS Auct. F 3, 5, which contains a prose transl. of book i of the Consolatio, is now marked Bodley 2684; see the Summary Catalogue i:492, and Liddell in Academy 1896 1:199. Recent studies on Chaucer’s translation are by B. L. Jefferson, Princeton, diss., 1917, and by Koch in Anglia, 46:1-51. [PREFACE anp PROLOGUE: METRE 1, PROSE 1] Insuffishaunce of cunnyng & of wyt Defaut of langage & of eloquence Pis work fro me schuld haue wibholden Zit Bot pat yowre hest hab done me violence Pat nedis most I do my diligence 5 In thing bat passith myn abilite Beseching to youre noble excellence Pat be your help it may amended be - a This subtile matire of boecius Heere in this book of consolacion I0 So hye it is so hard and curius fful (fer) abouen myn estimacion Pat it be noght be my translacion Defouled ne corrupt to god I praye So help me wib his inspiracion 15 Pat is of wisdom bothe lok & keye 3 As fro be text bat I ne vary noght But kepe be sentence in his trewe entent And wordes eke als neigh as may be broght Where lawe of metir is noght resistent 20 This mater whiche pat is so excellent 12. Royal reads fair; Balliol 316 A, fer. 24. Insertion from Balliol A And passeth both my cunnyng & my myght So saue it lord in bi gouernement Pat kannest reforme all bing (vn) to right 4 I haue herd spek & sumwhat haue y seyne 25 Of diuerse men bat woundir subtyllye In metir sum & sum in prose pleyne This book translated haue full suffishaunt- lye In to englissh tonge word for word wel neye Bot I most vse be wittes pat I haue 30 Pogh y may noght do so yit noght for thye With helpe of god pe sentence schale I saue 5 To chaucer pat is floure of rethoryk In englisshe tong & excellent poete This wot I wel no bing may I do lyk 35 Pogh so bat I of makynge entyrmete And gower bat so craitily dop trete 33. Balliol reads was flour, etc. BOETHIUS-TRANSLATION: A 43 As in his book of moralite Pogh I to peym in makyng am vnmete 3it most I schewe it forth pat is in me 40 6 Noght lyketh me to labowr ne to muse Vppon bese olde poysees derk ffor crystes feith suche ping schuld refuse Witnes vppon Ierom pe holy clerk Hit schold not ben a _ cristenmannes werk 45 Tho fals goddes names to renewe ffor he pat hab reseyued cristes merk If he do so to crist he is vntrewe 7 Of bo pat crist in heuene blis schall Suche manere werkes schold ben set on side 50 ffor certaynly it nedeb noght at all To (whette) now be dartes of cupide. Ne for to bidde bat Venus be oure gide So bat we may oure foule lustes wynne On aunter lest be same on vs betide As dede be same venus for hyre synne And certayn I haue tasted wonder lyte As of be welles of calliope No wonder bough I sympilly endite Yet will I not vnto tessiphone 60 Ne to allecto ne to megare Besechin after craft of eloquence But pray pat god of his benignyte My spirit enspire wip his influence 9 So bat in schenschip & confusion 65 Of all this foule worldly wrecchidnesse He help me in this occupacion In honour of pat suffrayn blisfulnesse And eke in reuerence of youre worthi- nesse This simple work as for an obseruance I schall begynne after my sympelnesse In wil to do your seruice & plesance EXPLECIT PREFACIO TRANSLATORIS INCIPIT PROLOGUS EIUSDEM SUPER LIBRUM BOECII 10 The while bat Rome was reignyng in hir floures And of be world held all pe monarchie Sche was gouerned penne be emper- oures 75 49. Balliol A, blisse. 52. Royal wete, Balliol whette. And was renounned wondir nobelye Til pride had set baire hertes vppon hye Penne gan thei to vsen cruelte And regne by rigour & by tyrannye In sore oppressioun of be commynalte 11 For right as pouert causeth sobirnesse And febilnesse enforseth continence Right so prosperite & sikernesse Pe moder (is) of vice & necligence And pouer also causeth insolence 85 And often honour changep goode pewes Pere is none mo parelouse pestilence Pan hyhe estates gyffen vnto schrewes WZ Of which was nero oon pe principall Pat suche manere of tyrannye began 90 pough he bare dyademe imperiall Yit was hym selfe a verry cursed man So cruelly he began to reigne ban He slowh his modir & his maistir both And myche he dide pat tellen I ne can Who so hab hit rede he (knowyth) well pe sothe 96 13 The cheef of holychirche he slowh also Seynt Paule & petir both vppon a day And after beym full many ober mo And of hym self it is I dar wel say 100 pat paule writeth pus it is no nay And seith now is be forme of wickednesse And figure right of Antechristus lay In whom schall been all manere cursed- nesse 14 For pei bat trwly techeth cristes lore 105 To maken men forletten of peire vice Antecrist will pursue peym perfore And all bis prechyng setten at no prise So was he gifen to lustes & delice In what desire bat comen to his poght He wolde it done wip outen more avise ffor no bing hereof spare wolde he noght 15 And he bat wolde agayn his vices speke Conseilyng hym his lustes to refreyne Wip outen more anon he wolde be wreke 115 78. Balliol for to wvsen, etc. Beside stanza 11, in margin, is Nota per exemplum, 84. Royal omits is; inserted from Balliol A. 93. began; Balliol gan. 96. Balliol as here; Royal knowt. 110. Balliol bt what desire pt come unto, etc. 44 JOHN WALTON’S He wolde him put in torment & in peyne And he bat wolde his lustes out wip seyne He was but dede if pat he wolde appere ffor suche a cause Boecius was slayn Of whom this processe techeb after heere 120 16 The yeere of crist fyue hondred & fiftene Whan anastasius was Emperour Boecius be same of whom I mene In Rome he was a nobie senatour Bot bo in manere of a conque(r)our 125 Theodoricus regned in ytayle And rome he held as heed & gouernour He hadde it wonne by conquest & bataile 17 For anastasius was noght ilyke Ne noght so strong of meyne atte lest He was consentant pat theodorik Scholde regne in Rome & holde it atte hest And he wolde holde hym seluen in be este He seide it was accordant to his hele And for his ese in sothe he chese it meste 135 ffor romayns ben ful perelus wt to dele 18 This kyng of rome pan theodorik Was full of malice & of cursidnesse And for causa he was an heretyk Pe cristen peple gan he sore to oppresse 140 Boecius wib his besynesse Wibstode hym euere sparing none offence And hym presente ful often tyme expresse Reuersed (his) vnlawefull iuggementis 19 He spared noght be helbe of his estate But euer he spake ayayn his tyrannye Wherfor be kyng hym hadde sore in hate And hym exciled in to Lumbardie To prison in pe citee of Pavie Where ynne he was for a recreacion 150 Be twyne hym selphe & philosophie He wrote bis book of consolacion 117 out; Balliol ought. 125. So Balliol; Royal in a manere. 132. Balliol at his heste. 141. MS Phillipps reads with all his, etc. 144. So Balliol; Royal is. 150. The MSS read was or he was; the print reads as. 20 In prose & metre enterchaungyngly Wib wordes set in colour wonder wele Of rethoryk endited craftily 155 And schewyng bat bis welbis temporele As not to be desired noght a dele Ne worldly meschief noping for to drede Enforsyng vs be resoun naturale To vertu fully for to taken hede 160 21 When anastasius had made his fyne As tyme of age in to his deth him drewe Pan after hym was emperour Iustyne A noble knyght a feithful & a trewe ffor cristes lawes wonder wel he knewe 165 And keped hem as a verry crysten man And heretikes faste he gan pursewe Pat arrians were cleped than 22 His letters in to Rome pan he sent fforto destroyen all pat heresye 170 And fully gaf hym in comaundement Pat bei schulde putte hem out of com panye Theodoricus took bis wonder hyhe for he hym self was oonly oon of tho This message he repelled vtterlye 175 And made a vow it schold not stande so 23 And swore but if be arrians moste Have fully pees & graunted hem ageyn He nold not leuen oon in all pe coste Of cristen feith bat he ne scholde be slayn 180 And pus he bade pe messangers sayn Pat if he wold wt arrians stryve Seie to be Emperour in wordes playn Of cristen wil I leue noon on lyue 24 To constantinopill he sent anone 185 Of senatowres whiche bat hym self leste And so among(es) ober pope Ione And bad paim laboren for baire avne beste 157. Balliol beim ought to be, etc.; Harley 44 Areen, etc. 171. Balliol yaf hem. 174. Cambr. and New Coll. read holly oon. 175. One 1 of repelled is inserted with caret; Balliol repeled. 178. MS New Coll. pes ygraunted. 187. So Balliol; Royal among. 188. Balliol, owne beste. BOETHIUS-TRANSLATION: A 45 And rufullyche bei maden pbaire requeste Pat lIustyne schold pis maundement relees 190 ffor cristen might noght be in reste But if he graunted arrians pees 25 The emperour his malice vnderstode Benyngly he graunted hap hur bone And wel he boghte pat (pis) was as gode 195 Pat mater for to cessen til efte sone And beter mighte it afterward be done Be good avise of wyser ordinaunce Pe arriens so he lete alone To vsen forth baire olde gouernaunce 26 These messagers to pe kynges pay Retourned noght so hastely ageyn As he desired at assigned day Wherfor in hert he had gret dysdeyne And Boece pat lay in prisoun & in peyne 205 Exiled in be citee of Pavie In myleyne ban he made him to be sleyne In Pavie been his bones sikerlye 27 And whan these messagers at be laste Returned were in hert he gan to brenne 210 And pope Ioone in prison ban he caste All fer in to be citee of Ravenne And made him closid in a narwe denne Where he ne mighte torne him selfe ne wende 214 And sothe to seyn he went neuer benne Bot of his lyfe right bere he made an ende 28 Also be worthi noble semachus Pat was a man full grounded all in grace Pat as in vertu was heroycus Pere left not suche an oper as he was 220 Wib outen cause surfete or trespace At Ravenne eke he slowe hym cruellye And afterward in bat same place De next yere he deyde sodeynlye 29 And as seynt Gregor doth hym self write 225 As his diologe makeb mencioun Pere was pat tyme an holy heremyte 191. Balliol, be cristene. 195. Insertion from Balliol. 203. Royal assigned a day; cp. line 125. As he was in his contemplacioun He sawe theodorik in visioun By twine Symachus an(d) pope Iohn Right as a beef to his dampnacioun How he was led and after pt anon 30 In be yle of vicane was he casten benne Pat full is of a fury flaumbe of hell Per in alwey in peynes forto brenne 235 And wt pe foule fendes forto dwell ffor tyrantes pat so fers been & fell Suche reward is arayed for paire mede I saye yow but as olde bookes tell Nowe to my purpose tyme is pat I spede 240 31 And euery lord or lady what (ye) be Or clerk pat likep for to rede pis Beseching lowly wib humylite Support where I haue seyde amys Correcte only bere bat nedeful is 245 If worde & sentence be noght as hit scholde My self I am vnsuffishaunt Iwys ffor if I couthe haue beter done I wolde EXPLICIT PROLOGUS INCIPIT LIBER BOECII DE CONSOLACIONE PHILOSOPHIE: METRUM PRIMUM Carmina qui quondam studio florente peregi Flebiles heu mestos . cogor inire modos Allas I wrecche bat whilon was in welthe And lusty songes vsid for to write 250 Nowe am y set (in) sorowes & vnselthe Wt mornyng nowe my myrbe I most respite Lo redyng muses techep me to endite (5) Of wo wt wepyng wetep bai my face Thus hath disese distryed all my delite And broght my blis & my bonechife all bace 33 And (pbogh) pat I (with) myschef nowe be mete Pat false fortune lourith bus on me (10) No drede fro me ne myghte bese muses lete Me for to sewe in myn aduersite 260 My ioyes pei were all in my iolite 241. Royal he; most MSS ye. 246. Balliol or sentence. 251. Balliol in; Royal omits. 253. redyng; see Notes. 257. Royal writes poght, witht. 46 JOHN WALTON’S Of youthe that was so gladsom & so grene Nowe bai solacen my drery destine (15) And in myn age my confort nowe bei bene 34 Unwarly age cometh on me hast(e)ly Hyeng on me for harme pat | haue had And sorow his eld hap hoten to be ney Hore heris on myn hede to rathe ben sprad (20) All toome of blode my body waxep bad Myn ampty skyn begynneth to tremble & quake 270 I knowe no cause wher of I scholde be glade But socourlese pus am I all forsake 35 A deth of men a blisful bing it were (25) If he wolde spare beym in baire lusty- nesse And (com) to bem pat ben of heuy chere 275 When pai him call to slaken paire dis- tresse But out allas howe dull & deef is he Wryeng awey fro wrecches when bei clepe (30) And werneth penne wt wonder cruelnesse Pe eyen forto close bat waile & wepe 36 Bot while fortune vnfeithfull & vntrewe Of lusty lyf was to me fauorabill (34) ffull sodainly myn hede down he drewe Pe carefull oure of deth vnmerciabill But nowe pat sche so chaunging & vnstable 285 Hath turned vnto me hire cloudi face This wrecchid lyf pat is vnconfortable Wyll drawe along & tarieth nowe allas 37 Wher to (ye) frendes made ye your awaunt (41) So often tymes of my felicite 290 This worldly welthe is noght perseueraunt Ne neuere abidyng in stabilite ffor he bat fallip out of his degre Ye knowen wel pat stable was he noght Ne he stood neuer in full prosperite Pat in to meschef is so lowe Ibroght 265, 275, 278. Royal writes hastly, cometh, wryng. 285. Royal sche is so, etc. 289. Royal and Balliol be. 38 [Prose 1] In mornyng bus I made my complaynt And for to write my fyngres gan I folde ffor drerynesse I wax all febill & feynt Pat of my lyf almost noping I tolde 300 But vpward atte laste I gan beholde In sothe y seie so faier a creature I couthe hire noght discriuen bogh I wolde So semely was hire schap & hir feture 39 Sche was so wonder reuerent of hiere chere 305 Hire colour eke so lyuely and so bright Hire eyen brend semyng as for clere (11) Passing full fer abouen mamis sight As bogh sche were full fresshe & clene of might As sche had ben full yongly of corage Yit semed (she) to euery worldly wyght Pat she was ouerpassid mamis age 40 ’ Hire stature was of doutful Iugement Somtyme bus of comune mannes meet And somtyme was hire stature so (extent) 315 Pat wt hire heed sche semed heuenes beet And ober while so hihe hire heed sche geet (21) Sche persed heuene & might no more be seyne So pat we muste be sight of hire forlete And all oure lokyng after was in veyne 41 Hire clothis wroght were of bredes smale But subtile craft of mater perdurable And wip hire hondes by hire awne tale Sche had hem wroght I trowe it be no fable Pe beaute of hem was full commend- able 325 But dusk pei were forleten as for elde As ymages bat in smook had stonden stable (31) Pat ben not wasche ne wyped not but selde 309. Balliol And pauh, etc. 311. Balliol she, Royal he. 314. Royal inserts ly after comune, with caret; the ink is different. 315. See Notes. 322. Several MSS read By subtile, etc. BOETHIUS-TRANSLATION: A 47 42 And in (be) hem bynepben made sche had So as I couthe it knowe a grekysshe - P - And in be bordure al abouen I rad = 331 And pere also sche had made a -T- And so by twyne pe lettres might I see Like a laddire what pat evire it mende Wher on men myght all wey fro gre to gre Se ffro bare byneben vpward evire ascende 43 Neuerpeles sum men by violence (41) Had kyt pis cloth & pecis born awey Suche as bei mighte wt outen reuerence And dide bere wt as was vnto theier pay This creature of whom I gan yov say 341 In hire right hond smale bookes were A septir also of full riche araye In certeyn in hire oper hand sche bere 44 And when (pis) womman sawe bese muses bere 345 Vnto my beddes side approchen neye (50) Enditing wordes to my wepyng chere She gan to loke vppon hem feruentlye Who hab sche seide let in pis companye Pus wt hire song bis seek man _ to plese 350 Pat noping helpeth hym of his maladie But rather doth hym greuaunce & disese 45 Lo pese it been sche seide pat folkes feden Wt swete venim of corrupcioun And tendre hertes maken forto bleden Wibe thornes of beire full affeccioun Pei sleyn be worpi fruytes of resoun (61) And only bryngen siknesse in vsage This is be kynde of beire condicioun And not at all be seknesse to aswage 360 46 Yif ye sche seide wt youre daliaunce Had fro me drawe sum foole vnprofitable 345. Balliol pis, Royal bese. ffull lesse it wolde haue done me dis- plesaunce I myght haue sustened pat as sufferable ffor whi & suche a foole pat is vnable 365 Mai not be harmed of my bysenesse (70) Bot beie pat euer in studie hath stonden stable Schuld not be founden wip youre foly- nesse 47 Bot goo ye filthes out of my presence Youre swetnesse wolde hym bryng at an ende 370 I schall him saue wt salue of my science Pat schall be more confort to his kynde And bus bis companye away gan wende And bitterly abasched of beire blame Schewyng in sothe pe abyt of beire mynde Hangyng doon to grounde paire heed for schame 376 48 I than pat neigh for teres sawh right noght (81) Merueiled myche what myght bis wom- man be I wondred also gretely in my boght Pat so imperviall of a(u)ctorite 380 Sche made pat meigne smertly for to flee I was abasched and heng myn hede to grounde What sche wold done or after seie to me Pan I abood & held me still a stound 49 Unto my bed ban gan sche me neighe nere 385 And on be corner doun hire self sche sette (90) And sadly gan byholde vppon my chere Pat so was wt teres al bywette And right bus sche bygan wip oute lette Compleynyng on my perturbacioun 390 ffor cause of meschef wher wib I was mette Of me sche made pis lamentacioun 385. Balliol has not me. 48 JOHN WALTON’S [BOOK II METRE 5: THE FORMER AGE] Full wonder blisseful was bat raber age When mortal men couthe holde hymself payed To fede beym self wt oute suche outer- age Wib mete pat trewe feeldes haue arrayed Wipb acorne paire hunger was alayed 5 And so bei couthe sese paire talent Thei had yit no queynt craft assayed As clarry for to make ne pyment 2 To deen purpure couthe bei noght bebynke The white flees wyp venym tyryen 10 Pe rennyng ryuer yaf hem lusty drynke And holsom sleep bei took vpon be grene The pynes pat so full of braunches been Pat was baire hous to kepe vnder schade The see to kerue no schippes were bere seen 15 Per was no man pat marchaundise made 3 Thay liked not to sailen vp & doun But kepe hem self where bei weren bred Tho was ful huscht be cruel clarioun ffor eger hate per was no blood Isched 20 Ne ber wt was non armour yit bebled ffor in bat tyme who durst haue be so wood Suche bitter woundes bat he nold haue dred Wip outen reward forto lese his blood 4 I wold oure tyme myght lerne certanly 25 And pise maneres alwey wt vs dwelle But loue of hauyng brennep feruently More fersere ban be verray fuyre of helle Allas who was pat man bat wold him melle This gold & gemmes pat were keuered pus 30 Pat first began to myne I can not telle Bot bat he fond a parelous precious [BOOK II METRE 7] Who bat supposen will vnwyttyly In renoun soueren ioyes for to be And late hym look vp in to be heuene on hye And so be holde vpon pat large cuntre And after lat hym to berpe see So narwe it is bat soore it schal hym schame Pat in so litell space of quantite He may it not fulfille wt his fame 2 Allas what aylen fierce men & proute To leften vp paire nekkes so in vayn 10 This mortal yok whiche bat ye bere aboute Schal payse it downe vnto be grounde agayn Thogh pat youre resoun passe many a playn And so be spred aboute be many tung Pat of your lynage hyhe & souereyn 15 In grete honour be fame of yow be sprung 2. Balliol hemselfe. 25. Balliol turne certeynly. 3 Yit deth depayseth all youre hyhe renoun Neiber greet ne lytell wil he none knowe Bot bothe in lyke he layth hire hedes doun And euene he makyth be hyhe wt be lowe 20 Lo where ben nowe pe bones as we trowe Of brutus & fabricious be trewe Of sterne Catoun be fame is ouerblowe And maked now in lettres bot a fewe 4 And yit po men we (knoweth) not at all 25 Thogh pat we knowe peyre fayre names so ffor pei be deth as euery ober schall Out of be sight be passed & agoo ffor wib bis lyf when pat ye passe fro ffor to be knowen pen ye ben vnable 30 Youre worpi fame may no more doo But fleyen aboute veyne & variable 25. Royal reads knowt; see ante, A 96. BOETHIUS-TRANSLATION: D 49 5 And if ye wene to drawe your lyf on long As be a lytell wynde of worldly fame As fooles ben ye done yow seluen wrong 35 ffor when o cruell deth yow schall atame Al your renoum schal turnen in to grame Whiche pat ye han purchased so wt pride ffor after bat be styntyng of your fame Ye must ben another deth abyde 40 [BOOK III METRE 12] Full blisfull is pat man pt may behold pe bright welle of verray blisiulnesse And well is hym pt may hym self vnfolde ffro bondes of bis worldly wrecchidnesse The poet Orpheus wip heuynesse 5 His wyfes deth hap (weiled) wepyngly And wip his songes full of drerynesse Made wodes for to renne wonderly 2 He made stremis stonden & abyde Pe hynde fered not of houndes fell 10 Sche lete be lyon lien by here syde The hare also ne dred noght a dell To see be hound hit lyked hym so well To here be songes bat so lusty were And boldly thei dorste to gidres dwell Pat nevire a best had of ober feere 3 And when pe loue gan brennen in his brest Of erudice moste hote & feruently His song bat had so many a wylde best So meke made to lyuen comynly 20 They myghte hym not conforten vtterly Of hyhe goddes gan he to compleyn And seide bei deden wt hym cruelly That bei sent hym noght his wyf ageyn 4 He went ban to houses infernall 25 And faste his strenges bere dressed he And sowned out be swete songes all Pat he had tasted of be welles thre While bat his modres dere Calliope Pat is goddesse & chief of eloquence 30 To wordes pat moste piteous myght be As sorowe had taght hym be experience 5 And loue also pat doubleth heuynesse To helle began he his compleynt to make Askyng mercy bere wip lawnesse 35 6. Royal veiled, Balliol wayled. 9. Royal strennis. At pilke lordes of be schades blake And cerberus pat woned was to wake Wib hedes thre & helle yates kepe So hadden hym pese newe songes take The swetnesse made hym forto falle on slepe 40 6 The fuyres pat ben vengoures of synne And surfetoures smyteb so wt feere ffor heuynesse pt pis man was ynne They gan to mourne & weped many a tere Ne bo be swift wheele had no powere 45 To torne about be heed of (Yxion) Ne tantalus for thrist all bogh he were fforpyned longe watire wolde he none 7 The gryp pat ete be mawe of tycius And tyred on hit longe tyme be fore 50 This song to hym was so delicius He left it of & tyred it no more And when bat orpheus had mourned sore Than seide be Iuge of helle peynes strong Pyte me hap quyt I will restore 55 This man (his) wyf bus wonnen wt his song. Bot with a lawe pis gift will I restreyne Pat vnto he this bondes haue forsake If he beholde vpon his wyf ageyne His wyf fro hym eft sone will we take 60 Bot who to louers may a lawe make ffor loue is rathir to hym self a lawe When he was neygh out of be bondes blake He turned hym & erudice he sawe 9 Allas he lost & left his wif be hynde This fable lo to yow perteyneth right ffor ye bat wolde lyften vp your mynde In to be hye blisfull souereyn light 41. fuyres; so Balliol. Read furyes. 46. Royal and Balliol, yaon, 56. Royal writes is. 50 JOHN WALTON’S If ye eftsone turne doun youre sight In to pis foule wrecchid erthly dell 70 Lo all bat evire your labour hab you dight Ye loose it when ye loken in to hell EXPLICIT LIBER TERCIUS BOECII DE CONSOLACIONE PHILOSOPHIE PREFACIO TRANSLATORIS IN LIBRUM QUARTUM & QUINTUM [Walton here inserts a preface, nine stanzas of seven lines, lyrical] O hye & riche tresour of science And wisdom whiche in god eternally Conteyned is so pat his iugementes Ne mowe not be enserched certanly Neither be wey be knowen vtterly 5 Be whiche pis wonder worldes gouer- naunce He kepith in suche a certayn ordy- naunce Who wist his wit when he pis world began Or who was he pt was his conseillour When no thyng was who was pt gaf hym pan 10 To whom he is in daunger as dettour Of hym is all for he is creatour Be him it is bat all bing Is susteyned In hym is all bing kyndly conteyned 3 Lo of so hye a matre for to trete 15 As after bis myn auctowr doth pursue This wote I well my wyttes ben vnmete The sentence forto saue (in) metre trewe And not forthi I may it not eschewe Ye ben be cause why I mote don pus 20 And schewe my seluen here presumptu- ous 4 Of hap of fortune & of destine Pat marred hap full many a mannes mynde Supposyng bat oure kyndely liberte Thus to & fro must all wey turne & wende 25 So pt oure werkes to a certan ende Constreyned ben wher pt we will or noght So pat none ober wise bei may be wroght 5 To speken of divine purveaunce Pt all bing knowith or it be bygonne 30 No worldly wight may haue pat suff- saunce With all be wit & clergie pat bei konne 18, 36. Balliol &c. have in, we; Royal omits. No more pan perce the myddes of be sonne As wip be litell vigour of baire sight 34 Wel myche more it passeth mannes myght 6 And bat (we) stonden in oure arbitrye As fully set in verray liberte So bat we mowe chesen wilfully Bothe goode & euel bothe wel & wo to be And yit pat god in his eternyte 40 So knoweth all pt evire schall betide Who can pis two compownen & devide It is not elles bot pat oure desire Wolde kyndely bat conseyt comprehende Right as we seen a litel flaumb of fuyre 45 How scharp it makeb it seluen to ascende And not forpi it failleb of his ende And is full fer from theder pat it scholde So may we penken or tell(en) what we wolde 8 Bot fuyre right of movynge of nature 50 Behold how scharp it makep it & light And all so ferforth as it may endure How it enforceth forto stye vp right Bot we wolde haue not elles but a sight And knowe pe height of goddes priuete And will oure self all wey in erthe be 9 To be pat art the welle of sapience Almyghti lord this labour I commyt Thogh I be fer fro craft of eloquence Enforce pou my connyng & my wit 60 This mater forto treten so pat it Be to bi honour & to pi plesaunce So take it lord into thi gouernaunce INCIPIT LIBER QUARTUS [Prose 1] And when (my) maistresse philosophie Kepyng all wey hire sobirnesse & hire chere 65 64. Royal omits my; supplied from Balliol. BOETHIUS-TRANSLATION: E Bl This song had songen wonder lustilye So pat full sad all wey hire wordes were I gan to speke & seide in pis manere Noght all forgeten myn oppressioun I made hire make an interrupcioun 70 O souereigne gidoresse of verrey light Youre resouns ben so myghti & so fyne Anon to pis & open to my sight As in baire (speculacioun) devine Whiche as ye seide for angir & for pyne 75 fforgeten was (& falle) out of my poght Bot yit beforn (byknowen) were pei not Bot pis is most my cause of heuynesse So good a gouernour as hauen we How bere may be so myche wikked- nesse 80 And suffred so vnponysched to be How wonderful is pis now deme ye And this wel more encresep my doloures Pat wickednesse regnep in his floures And now not onely vertu wanteb mede Bot felons han defouled it & schent 86 And in be stede of synne & coursidhede Now vertu bereth peyne & (ponysche- ment ) Bot in be rewme of god omnipotent Pat seeth all bis & onely good he will I may compleyne & wonder wel be skyll Than seide sche bus a wonder ping it were Abhomynable & verry menstruouse If as bou feynest & supposest here In a so well disposed lordes house 95 If vesselles bat ben riche & preciouse Schuld so despised & defouled be And foule vessell be made in preciouste Bot sikerly sche seide it is noght so ffor if tho thynges stondeth formely 100 That we before bis haue consented to Now be be help of souereyn god on hye Of whom here he speketh (ententifly) Thow schalt here after fully knowe & seen Pat good folkes all wey myghti ben —_105 And wicked folkes vnmyghti bere ageyne Ne mede may fro vertu noght disseucre 74, 88, 103. Royal writes spectaculacioun, poyn- yschement, entiflye. 76. Royal writes was for & all out, etc.; 77, it writes we knowen. Readings from Balliol. And pat bere is no vice wipouten peyne And good folke of welbe faillen nevire And wicked folk ben infortunat euere And myche pyng pat to byn hertes ese Availen schall and pi compleynt (appese) Now here beforn I haue be schewed expresse As pou hast herd & seen it plenerly Whiche is be forme of verrey blisful- nesse 115 And where pou schalt it fynde verrayly Lo all bis ouerpassen now will I Whiche pat we moste over passe nede And to my purpose faste I schall me spede Unto thi home I schall pe schewe a wey 120 And pennes schall I pycche into pi mynde Pat it arisen into height may Al heuynesse left & put behynde My path I will pe lede be be hand And cariage my self I schal be fynde 125 Al hole & sound into byn owne land [iv, Metre 1] Full swyft been my fetheres in paire flight Pat stieng into hyhe heuene ariseth And when pei be into a mynde Ipight Pe erthe ben it hatep & despiseth 130 And settep all at (noght) as he deviseth De speere of eyre he passeth all aboue Behynde his bak he seeth be cloudes houe That mynde also be spere of fuyre trans- cendeth That is so hoot be movynge of be heuene 135 And to pe sterred places he ascendep Thurgh out be speres of planetes seuene And wt be sonne his wey he ioyneb euene So at be laste he meteb wt be old Saturnus whos effectes ben so cold 140 So is pis sotill mynde made a knyght Of god pat is be souereyn sterre clere And (so) be cercle of be sterres bright Pe whiche ye may behold on nyghtes here Wt his recours he passeth all in fere 145 And in theire speres be holden wele Pe manere of beire movynge euery dele 112, 131. Royal reads aplese, not. 143. Royal omits so. 52 JOHN WALTON And well he wot bat goddes ben bai not Pe hyest heuen he leueth hym behynde Till bat he haue araysed vp his poght 150 Anone to hym pat auctour is of kynde This worpi lyght he putteb in his mynde Pat of bis round world is lord & kyng Pat kepeth & gouerne} all ping The swyft cours of sterres meveth he Iuge of binges bright & souereyn Hym self stedfaste evire in oo degre If bis wey may reduce be ageyn Vnto pi place pou schalt pi self seyn Lo here it is pat I so longe haue soght 160 My cuntre & til now I knewe it noght Fro hennes I come & in pis place right I thynke to (abyden) & to dwell And if pe list to cast a doun pi sight Into pis foule derk erthly selle 165 Be holden myght bou bere tyrantes felle Whiche bat of wrecches ben Idrede full wyde Out of this lond exiled for bere pryde 163. Royal writes byden. 166. Royal be halden, ete. THOMAS HOCCLEVE Of the English followers of Chaucer, Thomas Hoccleve and John Lyd- gate are best known to modern students. Both were grown men at the time of Chaucer’s death in 1400, and Hoccleve at least knew his master personally ; but there is no evidence that they knew of each other’s work or of each other’s existence. Their lives ran in different grooves. The country-born Lydgate entered a monastery while still a boy, and so far as we know spent his life thus. Hoccleve was a Londoner by adoption if not by birth, became a clerk in the Privy Seal office when he was about twenty, and there apparently remained. From his many autobiographical allusions it seems that he was a tavern-haunter and a waster of money, that after being disappointed of a clerical post in the Church he drifted into marriage, that he suffered under a long period of mental illness or madness, and that he turned, verses in hand, from one noble patron or government official to another in the hope of money- reward to eke out the irregular payments of the Crown. He was probably born about 1368; for he gives his age as fifty-three in a poem which terms Gloucester the Lieutenant of the realm; this was in 1421-22, while Henry V was still in France. He dates his translation of the De Regimine Principum, or Regement of Princes, made for Henry V, in 1411-12, and there says that he had been for twenty-four years at his Privy Seal desk; he must accordingly have entered the office when about twenty. An allusion to Prince Edward’s tutor, in a poem addressed to Edward’s father the Duke of York, may date that poem 1446-48, when the prince was four to six years old. Thereafter we know no more of Hoc- cleve, nor have we any record of pension-payments to him for many years pre- ceding. An entry in the Close Rolls, pointed out by Professor Hulbert, shows that Richard II granted a corrody, or maintenance chargeable on a church, to Hoccleve in 1395; this the poet transferred in the first year of Henry the Fourth. The earliest of his poems to which we can assign a date is the Letter of Cupid, translated from the French in 1402, as the writer tells us. In 1406, probably, he wrote La Male Régle, a series of self-reproaches for his irregular life, ending with a petition to the lord treasurer to pay him his overdue pension ; this annuity had been granted him by Henry IV soon after accession. In 1411-12 Hoccleve compiled the Regement of Princes, from several sources; and in 1415 he wrote a severely pious reprimand to the heretic Oldcastle. Perhaps ten years later, in the Complaint and the Dialogue with a Friend, he talks of an inter- vening illness, says he is fifty-three years old, and mentions the return of Glou- cester from France (1421). For the duke’s pleasure Hoccleve then translates and appends to the Dialogue the Gesta Romanorum story of the Innocent Persecuted Wife,—Jereslaus’ wife. His translation of the tractate Learn to Die, from Suso’s Horologium Sapientiae, also (probably) planned for Gloucester, and a second Gesta-story similarly appended, are later work. Both pairs of poems, and the Complaint which serves as introduction to the earlier, were transcribed in a sequence and sent to the Countess of Westmoreland in a copy which still exists at Durham. If this Countess was the widowed daughter of John of Gaunt, then living at the same castle of Sheriff Hutton which was later the scene of Skelton’s Garland of Laurel, she was the woman to whom Sir Thomas Morton in 1431 be- [53] 54. THOMAS HOCCLEVE queathed a copy of Gower’s English poem, and the same woman who after her nephew Henry V’s death applied to the Council for the return of books she had lent him. Other poems by Hoccleve are brief, and are either devotional,—including the Mother of God so long ascribed to Chaucer,—or occasional verse often of the begging-letter type. All in all, he has left about 13,000 lines of verse, written in stanzas of seven or eight and a few of nine lines, and including four roundels. Neither this amount of productivity nor Chaucer’s 34,000 lines of verse (ex- clusive of the Romaunt-translation), looms very large beside Lydgate’s ca.140,000 lines ; but, it is needless to say, there are various factors to be considered in making a comparison. Both Hoccleve’s production and his range of production are very much smaller than those of Lydgate. There are in his work no long romantic-epic narratives, no lives of saints, no allegories, no tapestry or fresco-poems, no courtly love-addresses, no beast-fables, no mummings. The religious-didactic is Hoc- cleve’s theme whenever he is not autobiographic; but his constant tendency to the autobiographical is the most interesting of his qualities. La Male Régle is a deliberate and frank self-confession, used as lengthy prelude to a begging- letter. The two-long tasks undertaken for Henry V and for Gloucester are each preluded by a lively piece of dialogue in explanation of their origin. In the one case it is a friend, in the other a wise old beggar, who receives Hoccleve’s laments over his muddled life and counsels him how to proceed. Where Lydgate would compose a prologue in imitation of Chaucer or in praise of the original he was translating, Hoccleve plunges awkwardly but vitally in another method. His dialogue is real dialogue, not alternating set speeches. He is limited enough in his handling; there is no setting for his two speakers, such as Chaucer or Henryson would have painted in; the voices, though lively in tone, are bodiless. And as soon as they cease, and the business of Jereslaus’ Wife or the Regement of Princes begins, Hoccleve drops into the stereotype of his period. In the prolonged didactics of the Regement of Princes there are several moments, how- ever, where the name of Chaucer breaks that spell of somnolence. Hoccleve goes out of his way to allude to his beloved master; and in one of these three short but deeply-feeling passages he says that he has had Chaucer’s likeness inserted, in order that men may not lose remembrance of him. A portrait of Chaucer does indeed appear at that point in a few MSS of the Regement, and is, with the Host’s teasing chaff in the headlink to Sir Thopas, our only real clue to Chaucer’s personal appearance. These mentions of Chaucer, the requests to a patron or superior for money, and the religious character of many of the shorter poems, are the lines on which Hoccleve and Lydgate can be compared as regards theme. And the student who puts Hoccleve’s begging-letters beside Lydgate’s pleas to Gloucester, Hoccleve’s language about Chaucer beside Lydgate’s far more numerous allusions, Hoccleve’s autobiographical disclosures beside Lydgate’s Testament, Hoccleve’s religious lyric beside Lydgate’s, will perceive two very different men. The trappings of convention lie much more heavily on Lydgate, who has no such restless urge to . talk of himself, no such human directness of approach to other human beings, as Hoccleve had. MHoccleve is always livelier and simpler than Lydgate; and when he speaks of Chaucer it is with a true affection and regret that have sweet- ened his own memory for the after-world. He has lived more really than has THOMAS HOCCLEVE 55 Lydgate, and the mixture in him of piety and cheap raffishness makes him a more genuine creature. Saintsbury calls him a “crimeless Villon”; and it might repay a student to follow out the likenesses and differences between the Englishman and the Frenchman. In their piety the difference is very marked; for Hoccleve is as sincerely pious as is the monk Lydgate. He cannot indeed rise to as true a passion of love for Christ crucified as Lydgate sometimes can; but on the other hand, there are in the small bulk of Hoccleve’s verse no such depths of wordy inanity as too often occur in Lydgate’s religious poetry. We may plead for Lydgate the compulsion under which he worked, a compulsion from which Hoc- cleve was free. But the vacuity remains. On the technical side of the two men’s work there is also a marked difference. Both men were followers of Chaucer; and Hoccleve, who knew his master per- sonally, says that Chaucer “fayn wolde han me taght, But I was dul and lerned lite or naght.’’ His verse shows, indeed, less of Chaucer metrically than does the verse of Lydgate. Hoccleve manages pentameter badly, and is insensitive to the -weave of stressed and unstressed syllables, so long as their number is constant at ten. Very many lines run as do these: Pat me yeuest any othir than thee Of thy soule meekly to him confesse We sholde no meryt of our feith haue And as that the preest hir soules norice 215/212 To the taast of your detestable errour 217 /293 i:5/165 i i i i Of the myghty Prince of famous honour 1:49 /3 i i i i i 711/94 713/142 Ageyn thorsday next & it nat delaye :66 /56 And shoop me him to offende no more :67 /16 Yit thy deeth gat of the feend the maistrie 268 /52 On the crois was thy skin in to blood died :69 /68 Pat our soules pat the feend waytith ay :71/126 Lydgate, on the contrary, is aware of certain rhythmic variants in Chaucer, adopts them, and abuses them. The headless line and the line brokenbacked, or short an unaccented syllable at the verse-pause, are a staple with him. He could find the former at least in Chaucer, and may have built the latter by analogy: but their occurrence is infrequent in Hoccleve, so far as we can yet say. The repetition of a single line-type by Lydgate is as marked as is Hoccleve’s un- awareness of line-type. Neither man understood Chaucer’s rhythm, but they mis- understand very differently. They differ also in their management of the English language; and here the advantage is so much with Hoccleve that we can surmise why Chaucer should have attempted to teach him. Hoccleve has nothing of Lydgate’s uncontrollable verbosity. He does not jumble finite verbs and participles; he does not overwork the ablative absolute ; he does not leave long sequences of clauses wandering with- out a principal verb; he does not repeat himself; he uses the minimum of padding and of rime-formulae; he sees where he is going, in narrative, and goes there. _ His syntax-control and his feeling for dialogue show that he had some story- telling faculty; and probably Chaucer recognized it. Hoccleve can toss dialogue back and forth through a stanza in swift exchange, breaking the line or over- running it as he chooses; he does not move in monotonous half-lines or dilute into entire stanzas as does Lydgate. 56 THOMAS HOCCLEVE But with this advantage over Lydgate in the normal movement of speech, in the more competent use of English for expression, there goes, in Hoccleve, a lack of the “high spots” that we can find in Lydgate. Despite Lydgate’s ver- bosity and tedium, there are more than a few strong lines in his work; see p. 81 here. But from Hoccleve it is not possible to glean such. He does say of his reckless habits that for many years ““Excesse at borde hath leyd his knyf with me,” and that “Ther never yet stood wys man on my feet.” His lament for Chaucer is moving. But his sense-perceptions, his feeling for nature, his imagi- nation, are not developed even as much as are those of Lydgate. The few strik- ing bits that we can cite are autobiographical and personal. Nor does Hoccleve echo Chaucerian phrase to anything like the extent seen in Lydgate. This is partly, of course, because of his relative lack of the narration and description so definitely the business of Chaucer and of Lydgate. He alludes to the Wife of Bath in his Dialogue, line 694; and in a few passages he may de- rive from Chaucer rather than from Chaucer’s original; see the remark on a prudent workman’s method in Dialogue 638 ff., and cf. Troilus i:1065 ff.; or see the dictum in Dialogue 764-5, or the phrasing of the Regement of Princes 629. But there is no such evidence of Chaucer’s power over Hoccleve’s memory as is clear for Lydgate, despite Hoccleve’s strong personal feeling for his master. This may be in some measure due to the resistance of a lively egoist, which Hoc- cleve undoubtedly was; for his citations of any sort are a separate element in his work. He follows copy and cites copy, in his translations, but it is distinct from his own trend of thought; and although the religious emotion of many of his independent poems is deep, he turns more naturally toward himself than toward literature. His choice of works to translate also shows a mind less literary than prac- tical and moralistic; and he had no body of patrons whose larger curiosity about books sent him afield in letters. His connection with Humphrey of Gloucester was slighter than was that of Lydgate. That some of Hoccleve’s work was popular we might argue from the number of copies of the Regement of Princes; but we must recollect that the subject was popular, by whomsoever treated, and that Hoccleve is not mentioned with Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate, by following generations. William Browne, in the seventeenth century, did indeed say of him :—‘‘There are few such swaines as he Now a dayes for harmony,’—but this critical judgment has not been endorsed by readers before or since. What recommends Hoccleve to us is his deep and genuine respect for Chaucer, the candid, even if contrite, relish with which he talks about himself, and his direct commonsense handling of his work. He has no “aureate language,” no rhetorical colors; he is too honest to delay his advance about his business by playing with words, and too clearheaded not to see the way to state that business. If Chaucer tried to teach Hoccleve to write, it was because Chaucer saw in Hoccleve the pos- sibilities which are still to be seen. In studying him we study some one who was very little of a writer, but a good deal of a man. THOMAS HOCCLEVE 57 SELECT REFERENCE LIST AND BIBLIOGRAPHY III Manuscripts Of the Shorter Poems en masse: HM 111 of the Huntington Library, California, formerly Phillipps 8151. Described by L. Toulmin Smith in Anglia 5:20, and by G. Mason in his ed. of six poems from it in 1796. Contents printed EETS edition, vol. i, 1892. HM 744 of the same library, formerly Ashburnham Appendix cxxxiii. Contents, except Learn to Die, are printed EETS ed., ii, 1925. Its copy of the Legend of the Virgin was ed. for the Chaucer Soc. in 1902; see my Manual, p. 444. Durham Cathedral V iii,9. Texts printed EETS ed., vol. i. Egerton 615 of the Brit. Mus. Texts printed EETS ed., iii, 1897. Of Single Shorter Poems: The Letter of Cupid. Fairfax 16, Bodley 638, Tanner 346, Digby 181, Selden B 24, all of the Bodleian Library. In Univ. Libr. Cambr., Ff. i,6. In Durham Cathedral V ii, 13, a Troilus MS; this text is unpubd., uncollated, and unmentioned either by Skeat, vii: 217, or in my Manual, p. 434. In HM 744. A late copy is in the Bannatyne MS. The poem was once in Longleat 258; see my Manual, p. 434, and p. 103 here. The Mother of God. Selden B 24 of the Bodleian; HM 111 as above; Advocates Libr., Edin- burgh, 18, 2, 8. To Henry V, for money. Fairfax 16. Text of Phillipps 8151 is printed EETS i: 62. Of the “Series” of Linked Poems, i.e., Complaint, Dialogue, two Gesta Romanorum stories, Learn to Die. Bodley 221, of the Bodleian, has the Series, Lydgate’s Dance Macabre, and the Regement of Princes. Laud 735, of the same library, has the same poems. Selden supra 53, same library, has the Regement (impf.), Series, and Dance Macabre. The lost Coventry School MS (see my Manual, p. 354) contained the Regement, the Series, the Dance Macabre, etc. Digby 185, of the Bodl. Libr. has the Regement and the two tales from the Series. Royal 17 D vi, Brit. Mus., has the Regement and part of the Series. Bodl. Eng. poet. d 4 has fragments of the two Tales of the Series. The MS formerly Phillipps 8267 (present owner unknown) has fragments of the Complaint. Of the Regement of Princes (see also under “Series” above). Alone in the codex. Brit. Mus. Arundel 38, Harley 4866, Royal 17 C xiv, Royal 17 D xviii, Royal 17 D xix, Sloane 1212, Sloane 1825.—Univ. Libr. Cambr. Gg vi, 17, Hh iv, 11, Kk i, 3; Corp. Christi Coll. 496, Queen’s Coll. 12, St. John’s Coll. 223; McClean 185.—Bodl. Ashmole 40, Douce 158, Dugdale 45, Rawlinson poe- try 10; Rawl. poetry 168—Advocates Libr., Edinb., 19, 1, 11, and Edinburgh Univ. D. b. vi. 7—Lord Amherst’s MS, now owned by Wilfrid Merton of London. The Ashburnham (paper) MS, now owned by Quaritch. 58 THOMAS HOCCLEVE With various other works, not by Hoccleve. 3rit. Mus. Adds, 18632, Arundel 59, Phillipps 1099 (in hands of Rosenbach), Phillipps 8980, Trin. Coll. Cambr. R 3, 22. With various other works, not by Hoccleve. Brit. Mus. Harley 116, Harley 372, Harley 4826, Harley 7333 (dialogue only). Ellesmere 26 A 13, now Huntington (See JEGPh 9: 225 and MLNotes 25: 126). Soc. Antiquaries 134, McClean 182. In the Harvard University Library, MS Eng. 532 F, is the transcript made from Harley 4866 (and Royal 17 D xix) by W. H. Black in 1843, in preparation for his projected Percy Society edition of the Regement, never carried out. A page of Brit. Mus. Adds 18622 is reprod. in Garnett and Gosse’s English Literature i, to face p. 190, and is wrongly marked as from the Siege of Thebes, in the same MS. It is from the Regement of Princes. A page of HM 744 (then Ashburnham MS) is reprod. EETS ed. i, to face page xxviii. A page of Durham V iii, 9 is reprod. EETS ed. i, to face p. 242. Jbid., p. xlix, Fur- nivall decides against either the Ashburnham, the Durham, or the Phillips as an Hoccleve autograph. See also Kern’s Verslagen as below, p. 372. A page of Durham V ii, 13 is reprod. by Root, The Manuscripts of Chaucer’s Troilus Chaucer Soc. 1914, to face p. 12; description on p. 11. The Troilus is however in a hand different from that of the Hoccleve poem. Brit. Mus. Adds. 24062, a collection of Privy Seal documents, is in Hoccleve’s hand. Editions The standard edition of Hoccleve is pubd. by the EETS in 3 vols., i (1892), ii (1925), iii (1897). Vol. iii, ed. by Gollancz, is of 40 pages, and gives most of the con- tents of the then Ashburnham-Gollancz MS, now HM 744, including the 3 roundels already printed by Gollancz in Academy 1892 i: 542; the third of these is also printed EETS ed. i, page xxxviii foot. This vol. excludes the “Ash- burnham” copy of Learn to Die, because ‘fa good text” from the Durham MS is in 11:178. George Mason pubd. in 1796 a volume entitled “Poems by Thomas Hoccleve, never before printed.” These poems, six in number, were taken from the Askew- Phillipps MS, now Huntington 111, then in Mason’s possession. Mason’s texts were used by Morley and by Wiilker as below. The Letter of Cupid was printed with Chaucer’s works from 1532 to 1721; see my Manual p. 434. Urry’s 1721 text is repr. in Arber’s Engl. Garner iv: 54, in re- ed., iv: 13-31. The Fairfax MS text of the poem is printed EETS i:72 and Skeat vii: 217; the text of HM 744 is printed EETS ii: 20. The Mother of God was printed with Chaucer’s works from 1532 to 1866; see my Manual, p. 438. In EETS ed. it is printed 1:52, from the then Phillipps MS. The poem To the King—and the Knights of the Garter was printed with Chaucer’s works from 1532 to 1721; see my Manual, p. 459. It is printed EETS i: 41 and Skeat vii: 233 from HM 111, the former Phillipps MS. The tale of Jonathas, forming part of the “Series”, as above, was incorporated by William Browne into one of his Eclogues, and printed with his Shepheard’s Pipe in 1614, repr. in Hazlitt’s ed. of Browne, 1869. Browne in a note says that all Hoccleve’s works are “perfect in my hands.” He once owned MSS Durham THOMAS HOCCLEVE 59 V ii, 15 and 16 (Lydgate), Durham V iii, 9 (Hoccleve), Ashmole 40 (the Rege- ment of Princes), Ashmole 46 (Lydgate), Brit. Mus. Adds. 34360, Lansdowne 699, Stowe 952. The Regement of Princes, or De Regimine Principum, was printed by Thomas Wright, London, 1860, from Brit. Mus. Royal 17 D vi. It is in the EETS ed., vol. iii, from Harley 4866. An extract from the Laud text of the poem, stanzas 58-73, is printed by Furnivall in Queen Elizabeth’s Achademy, etc., EETS, pp. 105-8. The poem to the heretic Oldcastle, copied by R. James from an earlier text, was ed. by Grosart with James’ poems in 1880. It was printed from the then Phillips MS by L. Toulmin Smith in Anglia. 5:9-43; Furnivall in EETS ed: i, page xliii, notes four errors in her text. The poem is in EETS i:8, from HM 111. The story of the Virgin and her Sleeveless Garment was printed by the Chaucer Soc. 1902; see my Manual, p. 444. The poem is printed EETS ii:15, divided by the editor into two parts. In JEGPh 8:260 MacCracken prints, from MS Univ. Libr. Cambr. Kk i, 6, a religious poem in ten eight-line stanzas for which he suggests Hoccleve’s authorship. Extracts from Hoccleve are in:— Ward’s English Poets, i:124-28.—Skeat’s Specimens of English Lit. 1394-1579, pp. 13-22—Wiilker’s Altengl. Lesbuch, ii: 47-56—Morley’s Shorter Engl. Poems, pp. 57-64.—Manly’s Engl. Poetry 1170-1892, p. 47.—Neilson and Webster’s Chief British Poets, 199-207. Studies Aster, Das verhaltnis des altengl. gedichtes De Regimine Principum von Th. Hoccleve zu seinen Quellen. Leipzig diss., 1888. Buchtenkirch, Der syntaktische gebrauch des infinitivs in Occleve’s De Regimine Principum. Jena diss., 1889. Vollmer, Sprache und Reime des Londoners Hoccleve, in Anglia 21: 201 (1898). Bock, Studien zu Th. Hoccleve’s Werken. Munich diss., 1900, pp. 68. Haecker, Stiluntersuchungen zu Th. Hoccleve’s poetischen Werken. Marburg diss., 1914, pp. 104. J. H. Kern, Een en ander over Th. Hoccleve en zijn werken, Amsterdam, 1915; pp. 365- 390 of Verslagen en Mededelingen der Koninkl. Akad. vy. Wetenschappen, reeks 5, vol. i. ——Zum texte einiger dichtungen Th. Hoccleve, in Anglia 39: 389-494 (1910). Hoccleve’s Verszeile, in Anglia 40: 367-9. ——Date of Hoccleve’s Dialog, ibid., 370-73. Der Schreiber Offorde, ibid., 374. B. P. Kurtz, The Source of Hoccleve’s Lerne to Dye, in ModLangNotes 38 :337 (1923). ——The Prose of Hoccleve’s Lerne to Dye, ibid., 39: 56. —The Relation of Hoccleve’s Lerne to Dye to its Source, in PMLA 40: 252-75. Hoccleve is discussed:—Warton-Hazlitt, Hist. Eng. Poetry, iii: 42-7—Morley’s Engl. Writers, vi, chap. 5—ten Brink’s Hist. Eng. Lit., ii: 212-220.—Jusserand’s Lit. Hist. Eng. People, i: 501-3—Courthope’s Hist. Eng. Poetry, i: 333-40—Cambr. Hist. Eng. Lit., ii, chap. 8—Garnett and Gosse’s Engl. Lit., i:192-94.—Saints- bury’s Eng. Prosody, i: 231-4. 60 THOMAS HOCCLEVE To the comment upon Hoccleve’s verse in the EETS introd. add my paper in ModPhil 23:129 ff., on the Nine-Syllabled Pentameter Line in some Post-Chaucerian Manuscripts. Notes on Hoccleve’s Reg. Princes text are in MLReview 4: 235. The MS Huntington 111, formerly Phillipps 8151, was described by Lucy Toulmin Smith, Anglia 5:20-21, as a small octavo of 8% by 6% inches, containing 47 vellum leaves and bound in old dark leather stamped with the royal arms of England. It is said to have belonged to Prince Henry, son of James the First; since then, to Askew, G. Mason, Bishop Heber, and Sir Thomas Phillipps. It is a plain MS, with only two small colored initials, in a fifteenth-century hand but with headings in another and larger hand, probably contemporary. It contains 16 complete poems and a Complaint of the Virgin wrongly thrust in between two leaves of another poem; Tyrwhitt, whose letter to Mason is fastened inside the cover, suggests that this transfer was perhaps made to conceal the fact that the Complaint, once the first poem of the MS, is im- perfect at beginning. The codex is of careful and consistent orthography, and has some marks of punc- tuation which may be noted. These are of three sorts: the inverted semicolon, used apparently as a comma; the mark of interrogation, which is like ours but reversed; and a sign somewhat similar, but with a flattened curve and tipped very much down to the right. The first sign appears in Male Régle, end of line 17, in 319 after why; in 367 after stele; in To Carpenter, line 26, after is, and in To Bedford 14, 18, after | colours, mis. The second sign is in Male Régle 37, in To Somer 22. The third is in Male Régle 265 after A; Mason here printed Ah, Furnivall As. It is also in To Carpenter, end of line 24. For revision of the EETS texts of these poems with the MS I am indebted t the kindness of Capt. R. B. Haselden, Keeper of the Manuscripts in the Huntington Library, California. HOCCLEVE’S MALE REGLE [MS Huntington 111, fol. 16 verso] CY ENSUYT LA MALE REGLE DE T. HOCCLEUE 1 Of ioie / and ful of seekly heuynesse 15 O precious tresor inconparable Al poore of ese / & ryche of euel fare O ground & roote of prosperitee 3 O excellent richesse commendable porien alk, Peiecane be If bt thy fauour twynne from a wight Smal is his ese / & greet is his greuance Who may susteene thyn aduersitee 5 : What wight may him avante of worldly aaa / is lyf / thyn hate sleeth doum welthe Who may compleyne thy disseuerance 20 Bettre than I pt of myn ignorance Vn to seeknesse am knyt / thy mortel fo 2 Now can I knowe feeste fro penaunce And whil I was wt thee / kowde I nat so But if he fully stande in grace of thee Eerthely god / piler of lyf / thow helthe Whil thy power / and excellent vigour As was plesant vn to thy worthynesse Regned in me / & was my gouernour Than was I wel / tho felte I no duresse Tho farsid was I with hertes gladnesse And now my body empty is & bare 4 My grief and bisy smert cotidian 25 So me labouren & tormenten sore Pt what thow art now / wel remembre I can MALE REGLE 61 And what fruyt is in keepynge of thy lore Had I thy power knowen or this yore As now thy fo conpellith me to knowe 30 Nat sholde his lym han cleued to my gore For al his aart / ne han me broght thus lowe : But I haue herd men seye longe ago Prosperitee is blynd / & see ne may And verifie I can wel / it is so For I my self put haue it in assay Whan I was weel / kowde I considere it? nay But what / me longed aftir nouelrie As yeeres yonge yernen day by day And now my smert accusith my folie 40 6 Myn vnwar yowthe kneew nat what it wroghte This woot I wel / whan fro thee twynned shee But of hir ignorance hir self shee soghte And kneew nat bt shee dwellyng was wt thee For to a wight were it greet nycetee 45 His lord or freend wityngly for toffende Lest pt the weighte of his aduersitee The fool oppresse / & make of him an ende ; From hennes foorth wole I do reuerence Vn to thy name / & holde of thee in cheef 50 And werre make & sharp resistence Ageyn thy fo & myn pt cruel theef Pt vndir foote / me halt in mescheef So thow me to thy grace reconcyle O now thyn help / thy socour and releef 55 And I for ay / mis reule wole exyle 8 But thy mercy excede myn offense The keene assautes of thyn aduersarie Me wole oppresse with hir violence No wondir / thogh thow be to me con- trarie 60 My lustes blynde han causid thee to varie Fro me / thurgh my folie & inprudence Wherfore / I wrecche / curse may & warie The seed and fruyt of chyldly sapience 9 As for the more paart / youthe is rebel Vn to reson / & hatith hir doctryne Regnynge which /it may nat stande wel With yowthe / as fer as wit can ymagyne O yowthe / allas / why wilt thow nat enclyne And vn to reuled resoun bowe thee 70 Syn resoun is the verray streighte lyne Pt ledith folk / vn to felicitee 10 Ful seelde is seen / pt yowthe takith heede Of perils pt been likly for to fall For haue he take a purpos / bt moot neede 75 Been execut / no conseil wole he call His owne wit he deemeth best of all And foorth ther with / he renneth bry- dillees As he pt nat betwixt hony and gall Can iuge / ne the werre fro the pees 80 11 All othir mennes wittes he despisith They answeren no thyng to his entente His rakil wit only to him souffysith His hy presumpcioun nat list consente To doon as pt Salomon wroot & mente 85 Pt redde men by conseil for to werke Now youthe now / thow sore shalt repente Thy lightlees wittes dull of reson derke 12 My freendes seiden vn to me ful ofte My mis reule me cause wolde a fit 90 And redden me in esy wyse & softe A lyte and lyte to withdrawen it But pt nat mighte synke in to my wit So was the lust y rootid in myn herte And now I am so rype vn to my pit Pt scarsely I may it nat asterte 13 Who so cleer yen hath & can nat see Ful smal of ye auaillith the office / 4 Right so / syn reson youen is to me For to discerne a vertu from a vice 100 If I nat can with resoun me cheuice But wilfully fro reson me withdrawe Thogh I of hire haue no benefice No wondir / ne no fauour in hir lawe 14 Reson me bad / & redde as for the beste To ete and drynke in tyme attemprely But wilful youthe nat obeie leste Vn to pt reed / ne sette nat ther by I take haue of hem bothe outrageously 62 THOMAS HOCCLEVE And out of tyme / nat two yeer or three LTO But xxti wyntir past continuelly Excesse at borde hath leyd his knyf wt me 15 The custume of my repleet abstinence My greedy mowth Receite of swich out- rage And hondes two / as woot my negli- gence 115 Thus han me gyded / & broght in seruage Of hire pt werreieth eucry age Seeknesse y meene riotoures whippe Habundantly bt paieth me my wage So bt me neithir daunce list ne skippe 16 The outward signe of Bachus & his lure Pt at his dore hangith day by day / Excitith folk / to taaste of his moisture So often / pt man can nat wel seyn nay For me I seye / I was enclyned ay 125 With outen daunger thidir for to hye me But if swich charge / vp on my bak lay That I moot it forbere / as for a tyme 17 Or but I were nakidly bystad By force of the penylees maladie 130 For thanne in herte kowde I nat be glad Ne lust had noon to Bachus hows to hie Fy lak of coyn / departith conpaignie And heuy purs with herte liberal Quenchith the thristy hete of hertes drie 135 Wher chynchy herte / hath ther of but smal 18 I dar nat telle / how pt the fressh repeir Of venus femel lusty children deere Pt so goodly / so shaply were & feir And so plesant of port & of maneere 740 And feede cowden al a world wt cheere And of atyr passyngly wel byseye At Poules heed me maden ofte appeere To talke of mirthe / & to disporte & pleye 19 Ther was sweet wyn ynow thurgh out the hous 145 And wafres thikke / for this conpaignie pt I spak of / been sumwhat likerous Where as they mowe a draght of wyn espie Sweete / and in wirkynge hoot for the maistrie To warme a stomak wt / ther of they dranke 150 To suffre hem paie had been no courtesie That charge I took / to wynne loue & thanke 20 Of loues aart / yit touchid I no deel I cowde nat / & eek it was no neede Had I a kus / I was content ful weel Bettre than I wolde han be wt the deede Ther on can I but smal it is no dreede Whan pt men speke of it in my presence For shame I wexe as reed as is the gleede Now wole I torne ageyn to my sen- tence 160 21 Of him pt hauntith tauerne of custume At shorte wordes / the profyt is this In double wyse / his bagge it shal con- sume And make his tonge speke of folk amis For in the cuppe / seelden fownden is 165 pt any wight his neigheburgh com- mendith Beholde & see / what auantage is his Pt god / his freend / & eek him self offendith 22 But oon auantage / in this cas I haue I was so ferd / with any man to fighte 170 Cloos kepte I me / no man durste I depraue But rownyngly / I spak no thyng on highte And yit my wil was good / if pt I mighte For lettynge of my manly cowardyse Pt ay of strokes impressid the wighte 17 So pt I durste medlen in no wyse 23 Wher was a gretter maister eek than y Or bet aqweyntid at Westmynstre yate Among the taverneres namely And Cookes / whan I cam / eerly or late 180 I pynchid nat at hem in myn acate But paied hem / as pt they axe wolde Wherfore I was the welcomere algate And for a verray gentil man y holde MALE REGLE 63 24 And if it happid on the Someres day Pt I thus at the tauerne hadde be Whan I departe sholde / & go my way Hoom to the priuee seel / so wowed me Hete & vnlust and superfluitee To walke vn to the brigge / & take a boot 190 Pt nat durste I contrarie hem all three But dide as pt they stired me / god woot 25 And in the wyntir / for the way was deep Vn to the brigge I dressid me also And ther the bootmen took vp on me keep 195 For they my riot kneewen fern ago Wt hem I was | tugged to and fro So wel was him / pt I wt wolde fare For riot paieth largely / eueremo He styntith neuere / til his purs be bare 200 26 Othir than maistir / callid was I neuere Among this meynee in myn audience Me thoghte / I was y maad a man for euere So tikelid me pt nyce reuerence Pt it me made larger of despense 205 Than pt I thoghte han been / o flaterie The guyse of thy traiterous diligence Is folk to mescheef haasten / & to hie 27 Al be it bt my yeeres be but yonge , Yit haue I seen in folk of hy degree How pt the venym of faueles tonge Hath mortified hir prosperitee And broght hem in so sharp aduersitee Pt it hir lyf hath also throwe a doun And yit ther can no man in this con- tree 215 Vnnethe eschue this confusioun 28 Many a seruant / yn to his lord seith Pt al the world spekith of him honour Whan the contrarie of bt / is sooth in feith And lightly leeued is this losengeour 220 His hony wordes / wrappid in errour Blyndly conceyued been / the more harm is O thow fauele of lesynges Auctour Causist al day / thy lord to fare amis / 29 Tho combreworldes clept been enchan- tours 22 In bookes / as pt I haue or this red That is to seye sotil deceyuou(r)s By whom the peple is mis gyed & led And with plesance so fostred and fed Pt they forgete hem self & can nat feele 230 The soothe of the condicion in hem bred No more / than hir wit were in hire heele 30 Who so pt list in the booke of nature Of beestes rede / ther in he may see If he take heede vn to the scripture Where it spekth of meermaides in the See How pt so inly mirie syngith shee Pt the shipman ther with fallith a sleepe And by hire aftir deuoured is he From al swich song is good men hem to keepe 240 31 Right so the feyned wordes of plesance Annoyen aftir / thogh they plese a tyme To hem pt been vnwyse of gouernance Lordes beeth waar / Let nat fauel yow lyme If pt yee been enuolupid in cryme 245 Yee may nat deeme / men speke of yow weel Thogh fauel peynte hir tale in prose or ryme Ful holsum is it / truste hire nat a deel 32 Holcote seith vp on the booke also Of sapience / as it can testifie 250 Whan pt Vlixes saillid to and fro By meermaides / this was his policie All eres of men of his compaignie With wex he stoppe leet / for pt they noght Hir song sholde heere / lest the armonye Hem mighte vn to swich deedly sleep han broght 33 And bond him self / vn to the shippes mast Lo thus hem all saued his prudence The wys man is of peril sore agast O flaterie o lurkyng pestilence 260 If sum man dide his cure & diligence To stoppe his eres fro thy poesie 64 THOMAS HOCCLEVE And nat wolde herkne a word of thy sentence Vn to his greef it were a remedie 34 A nay / al thogh thy tonge were ago Yit canst thow glose in contenance & cheere Thow supportist with lookes eueremo Thy lordes wordes in eche mateere Al thogh pt they a myte be to deere And thus thy gyse is priuee and ap- pert 270 With word and look / among our lordes heere Preferred be / thogh ther be no dissert 35 But whan the sobre / treewe & weel auysid Wt sad visage his lord enfourmeth pleyn How pt his gouernance is despysid Among the peple / & seith him as they seyn As man treewe oghte vn to his souereyn Conseillynge him amende his gouernance The lordes herte swellith for desdeyn And bit him voide blyue with mes- chaunce 280 36 Men setten nat by trouthe now adayes Men loue it nat / men wole it nat cherice And yit is trouthe best at all assayes Whan pt fals fauel soustenour of vice Nat wite shal how hire to cheuyce 285 Ful boldely shal trouthe hir heed vp bere Lordes lest fauel / yow fro wele tryce No lenger souffre hire nestlen in your ere Oo”, {Be as be may / no more of this as now But to my mis reule wole I refeere Wher as I was at ese weel ynow Or excesse vn to me leef was & deere And or I kneew his ernestful maneere My purs of coyn had resonable wone But now ther in can ther but scant ap- peere 295 Excesse hath ny exyled hem echone 38 The feend and excesse been conuertible As enditith to me my fantasie This is my skile / if it be admittible Excesse of mete & drynke is glotonye 300 Glotonye awakith malencolie Malencolie engendrith werre & stryf Stryf causith mortel hurt thurgh hir folie Thus may excesse reue a soule hir lyf 39 {No force of al this / go we now to wacche 305 By nightirtale / out of al mesure For as in pt / fynde kowde I no macche In al the priuee seel with me to endure And to the cuppe ay took I heede & cure For pt the drynke appall sholde noght But whan the pot emptid was of moisture To wake aftirward/cam nat in my thoght 40 But whan the cuppe had thus my neede sped And sumdel more than necessitee With repleet spirit wente I to my bed 315 And bathid ther in superfluitee But on the morn / was wight of no degree So looth as I / to twynne fro my cowche By aght I woot / abyde / let me see Of two / as looth / I am seur kowde I towche 320 41 I dar nat seyn Prentys and Arondel Me countrefete & in swich wach go ny me But often they hir bed louen so wel Pt of the day / it drawith ny the pryme Or they ryse vp / nat tell I can the tyme 325 Whan they to bedde goon / it is so late O helthe lord / thow seest hem in pt cryme And yit thee looth is / wt hem to debate 42 And why I not / it sit nat vn to me Pt mirour am of riot & excesse 330 To knowen of a goddes pryuetee But thus I imagyne / and thus I gesse Thow meeued art of tendre gentillesse Hem to forbere / and wilt hem nat chas- tyse For they in mirthe and vertuous glad- nesse 335 Lordes reconforten in sundry wyse 43 But to my purpos / syn bt my seeknesse As wel of purs as body hath refreyned Me fro Tauerne / & othir wantonnesse MALE REGLE 65 Among an heep / my name is now des- teyned 340 My greuous hurt ful litil is conpleyned But they the lak compleyne of my des- pense Allas bt euere knyt I was and cheyned To excesse / or him dide obedience 44 Despenses large enhaunce a mannes loos 345 Whil they endure / & whan they be for- bore His name is deed / men keepe hir mowthes cloos As nat a peny had he spent tofore My thank is qweynt / my purs his stuf hath lore And my Carkeis repleet with heuy- nesse 350 Be waar Hoccleue / I rede thee therfore And to a mene reule/thow thee dresse 45 Who so passynge mesure desyrith As pt witnessen olde Clerkes wyse Him self encombrith often sythe & myrith 355 And for thy let the mene thee souffyse If swich a conceit in thyn herte ryse As thy profyt may hyndre or thy renoun If it were execut in any wyse With manly resoun thriste thow it doun 46 Thy rentes annuel / as thow wel woost To scarse been greet costes to susteene And in thy cofre pardee is cold roost And of thy manuel labour as I weene Thy lucre is swich / pt it vnnethe is seene 365 Ne felt / of yiftes seye I eek the same And stele for the guerdoun is so keene Ne. darst thow nat / ne begge also for shame 47 Than wolde it seeme / bt thow borwid haast Mochil of bt bt thow haast thus de- spent 370 In outrage & excesse and verray waast Auyse thee / for what thyng pt is lent Of verray right / moot hoom ageyn be sent Thow ther in haast no perpetuitee Thy dettes paie / lest pt thow be shent And or pt thow ther to compellid be 48 Sum folk in this cas dreeden more offense Of man / for wyly wrenches of the lawe Than he dooth eithir god or conscience For by hem two he settith nat (an) hawe 380 If thy conceit be swich / thow it with- drawe I rede / and voide it clene out of thyn herte And first of god and syn of man haue awe Lest bt they bothe / make thee to smerte 49 Now lat this smert warnynge to thee be 385 And if thow maist heere aftir be releeued Of body and purs / so thow gye thee By wit / bt thow / no more thus be greeued What riot is / thow taasted haast and preeued The fyr / men seyn / he dreedith pt is brent 390 And if thow so do / thow art wel ymeeued Be now no lenger fool / by myn assent 50 Ey / what is me / pt to my self thus longe Clappid haue I / I trowe pt I raue A / nay / my poore purs / and peynes stronge 395 Han artid me speke as I spoken haue Who so him shapith mercy for to craue His lesson moot recorde in sundry wyse And whil my breeth may in my body waue To recorde it / vnnethe I may souffyse 51 §O god o helthe vn to thyn ordenance Weleful lord / meekly submitte I me I am contryt / & of ful repentance Pt euere I swymmed in swich nycetee As was displesaunt to thy deitee 405 Now kythe on me thy mercy & thy grace It sit a god been of his grace free Foryeue / & neuere wole I eft trespace 66 THOMAS HOCCLEVE 52 My body and purs been at ones seeke And for hem bothe / I to thyn hy noblesse As humblely as pt I can byseeke Wt herte vnfeyned / reewe on our dis- tresse Pitee haue of myn harmful heuynesse Releeue the repentant in disese Despende on me a drope of thy largesse 415 Right in this wyse/if it thee lyke & plese 53 ‘Lo lat my lord the Fourneval I preye My noble lord / bt now is tresoreer From thyn Hynesse haue a tokne or tweye To paie me pt due is for this yeer 420 Of my yeerly .x.li. in theschequeer Nat but for Michel terme bt was last I dar nat speke a word of ferneyeer So is my spirit symple and sore agast 54 I kepte nat to be seen inportune 425 In my pursuyte / I am ther to ful looth And yit bt gyse / ryf is and commune Among the peple now withouten ooth As the shamelees crauowr wole / it gooth For estaat real / can nat al day werne But poore shamefast man ofte is wroth Wherfore for to craue moot I lerne 55 ‘The prouerbe is / the doumb man no lond getith Who so nat spekith / & with neede is bete And thurgh arghnesse / his owne self forgetith 435 No wondir / thogh an othir him forgete Neede hath no lawe / as bt the Clerkes trete And thus to craue / artith me my neede And right wole eek pt I me entremete For pt I axe is due / as god me speede 440 56 And pt that due is / thy magnificence Shameth to werne / as pt I byleeue As I seide / reewe on myn impotence Dt likly am to sterue yit or eeue But if thow in this wyse me releeue 445 By coyn I gete may swich medecyne As may myn hurtes all pt me greeue Exyle cleene / & voide me of pyne [TO SOMER] [From the same MS, fol. 38 verso] CESTES BALADE & CHANCEON ENSUYANTES FEURENT FAITES A MON MEISTRE .H. SOMER QUANT IL ESTOIT SOU3TRESORER The Sonne wt his bemes of brightnesse To man so kyndly is & norisshynge Pt lakkyng it / day nere but dirknesse To day he yeueth his enlumynynge And causith al fruyt for to wexe & sprynge 5 Now syn pt sonne may so moche auaill And moost with Somer is his soiournynge That sesoun bou(n)teuous we wole assaill 2 Glad cheerid Somer / to your gouernaill And grace / we submitte al our willynge To whom yee freendly been / he may nat faill But he shall haue his resonable axynge Aftir your good lust be the sesonynge 421. Marginal gloss: annus ille fuit annus restric- tions annuitatium. Of our fruytes / this laste Mighelmesse The tyme of yeer was of our seed ynnynge I5 The lak of which / is our greet heuynesse 3 We truste vp on your freendly gentillesse Yee wole vs helpe / and been our sup- poaill Now yeue vs cause ageyn this cristemesse For to be glad / o lord / whethir our taill 20 Shal soone make vs with our shippes saill To port salut? if yow list / we may synge And elles moot vs bothe mourne & waill Til your fauour vs sende releeuynge 4 We your seruantes Hoccleue & Baillay 25 Hethe & Offorde yow beseeche & preye TO CARPENTER 67 Haasteth our heruest / as soone as yee may For fere of stormes / our wit is aweye Were our seed Inned / wel we mighten pleye And vs desporte / & synge / & make game And yit this rowndel shul we synge & seye In trust of yow / & honour of your name Somer pt rypest mannes sustenance With holsum hete of the Sonnes warm- nesse Al kynde of man thee holden is to blesse Ay thankid be thy freendly gouernance And thy fressh looke of mirthe & of gladnesse Somer &c. To heuy folke / of thee the remem- braunce Is salue & oynement to hir seeknesse For why we thus shul synge in Christe- messe Somer &c. [TO CARPENTER] [From the same MS, fol. 41] See heer my maister Carpenter I yow preye How many chalenges ageyn me be And I may nat deliure hem by no weye So me werreyeth coynes scarsetee That ny Cousin is to necessitee 5 For why vn to yow seeke I for refut Which pt of comfort am ny destitut 2 Tho men / whos names I aboue expresse Fayn wolden pt they and I euene were And so wolde I / god take I to wit- nesse 0 I woot wel I moot heere / or elles where Rekne of my dettes / & of hem answere Myn herte for the dreede of god & awe Fayn wolde it qwyte / & for constreynt of lawe Just above is, in margin, A de B & C de D, &c. See Notes. 6. Marginal gloss: Ceste balade feust tendrement considere & bonement execute. 3 But by my trouthe / nat wole it betyde 15 And therfore as faire as I can & may With aspen herte / I preye hem abyde And me respyte / to sum lenger day Some of hem grante / and some of hem seyn nay And I so sore ay dreede an aftir clap 20 That it me reueth many a sleep & nap 4 If pt it lykid / vn to your goodnesse To be betwixt (hem) and me swich a mene As pt I mighte kept be fro duresse Myn heuy thoghtes wolde it voide clene 25 As your good plesance is this thyng demene How wel pt yee doon / & how soone also I suffre may in qwenchynge of my wo Cest tout 68 THOMAS HOCCLEVE [THREE ROUNDELS] [MS Huntington 744] CY ENSUENT TROIS CHAUNCEONS yi LUNE CONPLEYNANTE A LA DAME MONNOIE & LAUTRE LA RESPONSE DELE A CELLUI QUI SE CONPLEYNT & LA TIERCE i LA COMMENDACION DE MA DAME I [ Compleynt] Wel may I pleyne on yow lady moneye Pt in the prison of your sharp scantnesse Souffren me bathe in wo and heuynesse And deynen nat of socour me purueye Whan pt I baar of your prison the keye Kepte I yow streite Nay God to witnesse Well may I I leet yow out / O now of your noblesse Seeth vn to me / in your deffaute I deye Well may I Yee saillen al to fer retowrne I preye Conforteth me ageyn this Cristemesse Elles I moot in right a feynt gladnesse Synge of yow thus & yow accuse & seye Well may I Ii II [La Response] Hoccleue / I wole / it to thee knowen be I lady moneie/of the world goddesse Pt haue al thyng vndir my buxumnesse Nat sette by thy pleynte risshes three Myn hy might haddest thow in no cheertee Whyle I was in thy slipir sikirnesse Hoccleue At instance of thyn excessif largesse Becam I of my body delauee Hoccleue And syn pt lordis grete obeien me Sholde I me dreede / of thy poor sym- plesse My golden heed akith for thy lewdnesse Go poore wrecche / who settith aght by thee Hoccleue Cest tout [La Commendacion de ma Dame] Of my lady wel me reioise I may Hir golden forheed is ful narw & smal Hir browes been lyk to dym reed coral And as the Ieet / hir yen glistren ay Hir bowgy cheekes been as softe as clay Wth large lowes and substancial Of my lady Hir nose / a pentice is pt it ne shal Reyne in her mowth / bogh shee vp rightes lay Of Hir mowth is nothyng scant / wt lippes gray Hir chin vnnethe / may be seen at al Hir comly body / shape as a foot bal And shee syngith / ful lyk a papelay Of Cest tout DIALOGUE WITH A FRIEND 69 HOCCLEVE’S DIALOGUE WITH A FRIEND [EXTRACT | The partially-linked set of poems and prose moralizations by Hoccleve, which I for convenience call a “Series,” opens with a Complaint in soliloquy, of 413 lines rime royal; with it is connected a following Dialogue, of 826 lines in the same stanza, which introduces the tale of Jereslaus’ Wife, from the Gesta Romanorum, of 952 lines similarly grouped. On this follow four stanzas of dialogue, and the prose moralization of the Tale which Hoccleve’s friend therein demands. Earlier, in the Dialogue itself, the friend who is counseling Hoccleve learns from him that he is pledged to execute a piece of work for the duke of Gloucester, which is long overdue; the friend suggests something lighter than Hoccleve had had in mind, something to appease women, who have been angered by Hoccleve’s translation of the Letter of Cupid. An ‘Innocent Persecuted Wife” story is accordingly told by the poet, a story closely allied to Chaucer’s tale of Constance; but the rendition of “Learn to Die” which next follows (with- out connection) in the MSS of the “Series,” may be the work originally planned for Gloucester. It, and a prose comment, are bound by another bit of dialogue with the same friend to a second narrative translated from the Gesta Romanorum, also with appended moralization ; this closes the “Series.” Our extract is taken from the second link of the “Series,” the Dialogue: it opens with Hoccleve’s protest, in two stanzas, that he is quite capable of re- suming composition after his long illness, and has no intention of overworking himself as his friend fears. The friend has the next three stanzas and two lines more; Hoccleve replies, and not only stanzas but lines are occasionally divided between the two in the animated dialogue which follows. A similar dialogue- method of introducing his work is employed by Hoccleve as preface to the Rege- ment of Princes. The student will observe here the careful use of Thomas and of freend by the different speakers, for clearness. The MS from which I print, Selden supra 53 of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, is described p. 124 here. Freend I not medle of materis greete Ther to not strecche may myn intellecte I neuere yit was brent with studies hete 500 Let no man holde me therynne suspecte If I not ligtly / may cacche the effecte Of thing in wiche / laboure I me purpose A deu my studie / anoon my book I close By stirtis / whanne that a fresshe lust me taketh Wole I me bisie now and now a lite But whanne my lust dulleth & aslaketh I stinte wole / and no lenger write And parde frende / that may not hindre a mite As that it semeth to my symple avis 570 Iugeth youre silfe / ye bene prudent & wys Siker Thomas / if thou do in suche wise As thou seist / I am ful wel content That thou vppon the take that emprise Wiche that thou hast purposid and y ment Un to that ende geue I myn assent Goo thou ther to / in ihesu cristis name And as thou hast me seide/do thou the same I am sure that thi disposicioun Is suche / that thou maist more take on honde 520 Than I first wende in myn opinioun In many foold / thankid be geddis sonde Do forth in goddis name / and not ne wonde To make and write / what thing that thee list That I not er knewe / is nowe to me wist 70 THOMAS HOCCLEVE And of 00 thing / nowe wel I me remem- bre Whi thou purposist in this book trauaile I trowe that in the moneth of Septembre Nowe last or not fer from it / it is no faile No force of the time / it shal not auaile 530 To my matere / ne hindre or lette Thou seidest / of a book thou were in dette Vn to my lorde / that nowe is lieutenant Mi lorde of Gloucestre / was it not so Yis sothly freend / and as by couenant He shulde han had it many a day a go But seeknesse and vnlust / and othir mo Han bene the causis of impediment Thomas / thanne this book hast thou to him ment Siker freend ye ful trewe is youre demynge 540 ffor him it is / that I this book shal make As blyue as that I herde of his comynge ffro ffrance / I penne and ynke gan to take And my spirit I maade to a wake That longe lurkid hath in ydelnesse ffor any suche labour and besinesse But of some othir thing / fain trete I wolde Mi noble lordis herte / ther with to glade And therto deepe I bounden am and holde On suche mater / by him that me made 550 Wolde I bistowe many a balade Wiste I what / good freend / telle on what is best Me for to make / and folowe am I prest Next oure lege lorde oure kyng victori- ous In al this wide worlde / lorde is ther noone Vn to me so good ne so gracious And hath bene suche / yeeris ful manie oone God yelde it him / as sad as any stoone His herte is sette / and not chaunge can ffro me his humble seruant and his man 560 For him I thougte han _ translatid ( Vegece) Wiche tretith of the art of Chiualrie But I see his Knygthod so encresce That no thing my labour shulde edifie ffor he that art / wel can for the maistrie Bygonde he preued hath his worthinesse And amonge other / Chirburgh to wit- nesse This worthi Prince laie bifore that holde Wiche was ful stronge at sege many aday And thens for to departe hath he not wolde 570 But knygtly there abood / vppon his pray Til he by force it wan / it is no nay Duke herry that so worthy was and good ffolowith this Prince / as wel in dede as blood Or he to Chirborwe cam / in iourneiing Of Costantin he wan the cloos and yle ffor wich / laud and honour & bi preis- ing Rewarden him / and quiten him his wyle Thoug he biforn that had a worthi stile Yit of noble rennoun is that encrees 580 He is a famous Prince / and that is doute- lees For to reherce or telle in special Euery act that his swerde / in steel wroot there And many a nother place / I woot not al And thoug euery act come had to myn eere 585 To expresse hem / my spirit wolde han fere Lest I his thanke par chaunce migt abregge Thorug vnkunnynge / if I hem shulde alegge But this I seie / he called is Humfrey Conueniently as that it semeth me 590 ffor this conceit is in myn herte alweie Batallous Mars / in his natiuite Vn to that name / of verrey specialte Titlid him / makinge him ther by prom- esse That strecche he shulde un to hie prowesse DIALOGUE WITH A FRIEND 71 For humfrey / as vn to myn intellect Man make I shal / in englissh is to seie And that biheest / hath taken trewe effect As the comune fame / can biwreie Who so his worthi knygthod / can weie 600 Duely in hise conceitis balaunce Ynowe hath / whereof his rennoun en- haunce To cronicle hise actis / were a good dede ffor thei ensaumple migt and encorage fful many a man / for to taken hede How for to gouerne hem in the vsage Of armes / it is a greet auauntage A man bifore him / to haue a mirrour Therynne to see the path vn to honour O lorde / whanne he cam to the seege of Roon 610 ffro Chirborwe / whether fere or coward- ise So ny the wallis / made him for to goon Of the town / as he dide I not suffice To telle yow / in howe knygtly a wise He loggid him there / and how worthily He bar him / what / he is al knygt sothly Nowe good frende / shoue at the cart I yow preie What thing may I make vn to his plesaunce With outen youre reede / noot I what to seie O / no parde Thomas / 0 no ascaunce 620 No certein freend / as nowe no cheuis- aunce Can I youre counseil is to me holsum As I truste in yow ministrith me sum Wel Thomas / trowest thou his hie noblesse Not rekke / what mater that it be That thou shalt make of no freend as I gesse So that it be mater of honeste Thomas and thanne I wole avise me ffor who so reed and counseil geue shal May not on heed / forthe renne ther with al 630 And that to so noble a Prince namely So excellent / worthy and honourable Shal haue / nedith good a vise sothly That it may be plesaunt and agreable To his noblesse / it is not couenable To write to a prince so famous But it be good mater and vertuous \ Thow woost wel / who shal an hous edifie Gooth not ther to with oute avisement If he be wys for with his mental ye 640 first is it seen / purposid / cast and ment Howe it shal wrougt be / ellis al is shent Certis for defaute of good forsigte Mis tiden thingis / that wel bitiden migte This may be vn to thee / in thi makinge A good mirrour / thou wilt not haste I trowe Vn to thy penne / and ther with wirche heedlinge Or thou avised be wel / and wel knowe What thow shalt write / o Thomas / manie a throwe Smertith the fool / for lak of good a vis 650 But no wigt hath it smerted that is wys For wel is he ware / or he write or speke What is to do or leue / Who by prudence Rule him shal / no thing shal oute from him breke Hastily ne of rakel necligence 655 ffreend that is soth / o / nowe youre assistence And helpe / what I shal make I yow biseche In youre wys conceit / serche ye and seche He a long while in a studie stood And aftir warde thus he tolde his entente 660 Thomas saaf bettre avis I holde it good Sithin howe the hooly sesoun is of lente In wiche it sitt euery wigt him repente Of his offence / and of his wickidnesse / Be heuy of thi gilte / and thee confesse 72 THOMAS HOCCLEVE And satisfaccioun do thou for it Thou woost wel / on wymmen greet wite & lak Ofte hast thou putt / bi war / lest thou be quit Thy wordis fille wolde a quarter sak That thou in white / depeintid hast with blak 670 In her repreef mochel thing hast thou wrete Wiche thei not forgeue haue / ne forgete Sumwhat nowe write in honour & preis- ing Of hem / so maist thow do correccioun Somdel of thin offence and mys heering Thou art clene oute of hir affeccioun Nowe sithen it is in thin eleccioun Whether thee list / her loue a gein pur- chace Or stonde as thou dost / oute of loue and grace Be wys rede I / chese the bettir part 680 Triste wel this / wymen ben fel and wise Hem for to plese / lith greet craft and art Wher no fir made is / may no smoke arise But thou hast ofte / if thou the wel avise Made smoky brondis / and for al that gilt Yit maist thou stonde in grace / if thou wilt Bi buxum herte and bi submissiouz To her graces / yelding the coupable / Thou pardoun maist haue and remiscioum And do vn to hem plesaunce greable 690 To make partie / art thou no thing able Humble thi goost / be not sturdy of herte Bettir than thou art / han thei made to smerte The wyf of Bathe take I for auctrice That wymmen han no ioie ne deinte That men shulde vppon hem putte any vice I woot wel so / or like to that seith she By wordis writen / Thomas yelde the Euene as thou by scripture hast hem offendid Rigt so / lat it be by writyng amendid 700 Freend / thoug I do so / what lust or pleisir Shal my lorde therynne haue / noon / thinkith me Yis Thomas yis / his lust and his desir Is / as it wel sit / to his hie degre ffor his disporte / and mirthe in honeste With ladies / for to haue daliaunce And this booke / wole he hem shewen par chaunce And sithen he thi good lorde is / he be may ffor thee suche a meene / that the ligtlyere Shullen thei forgeue the / putte it in assay 710 My counseil / let see / not shal it thee dere So wolde I do / if in thi plite I were Leie hand on thi brest / if thou wilt so do Or leue / I can no more seie ther to But thoug to wymmen thou thin herte bowe Axinge her graces / with greet repen- tauce ffor thi giltees / thee wole I not alowe To take on thee suche rule and gouer- nauzce As thei thee reede wolde / for greuaunce So greet / ther folowe migt of it par cas 720 That thou repente it shuldist evcre Thomas Adam bigilid was thorug Eues reed And siker so was she by the Serpent To whom god seide / this womman thin heed Breke shal / for thorug thin enticement She hath y broke my comaundement O sithen womman had on the fende suche migt To breke a mannes heed / it semeth ligt For why let noon housbonde / thinke it shame Ne repreef vn to hym / ne vilenye 730 That his wijf dooth to him that selue same Hir resoun axith haue of men the mais- trie Thoug hooly writ witnesse it and testifie Man shulde of hem hane dominacioun It is the reuers in probacioun i aed DIALOGUE WITH A FRIEND 73 Hange vp his hachet / and sette him adoun ffor wonumen wole assente in no manere Vn to that pointe / ne that conclusioun Thomas / howe is it bitwixe the and thi fere Wel wel quod I / what list you ther of to here 740 My wyf mygt hoker haue and greet dis- dein If I shulde in suche caas / pleie a solein Nowe Thomas / if thou list to lyue in ese Prolle aftir wymmens beneuolence Thoug it be daungerous / good is hem plese ffor harde is / to renne in her offence What so thei seien / take al in pacience Bettir art thou not / than thi fadris bifore Han ben Thomas / be rigt wel ware therfore Freende harde it is / wymmen to greue I graunte 750 But what haue I a gilte / for him that dide Not haue I doon why / dar ye me auaunte Oute of wymmens gracis slippe or slide Yis Thomas yis / in the epistle of Cupide Thou hast of hem / so largely said That thei ben blak wrooth / and ful yuel apaid Freend / douteles sumwhat is ther in That sowneth but rigt smal to her honour But as to that / nowe for youre fadir kyn Considre / I was thereof noon auc- tour 760 I nas in that caas / but a reportour Of folkes tales / and that they seide / I wrote I not affermed it on hem / god it woote Who so that shal reherse a mannes sawe As that he seith / moot he seie & not varie ffor and he do / he dooth a gein the lawe Of trouthe / he may tho wordis not : contrarie ho so that seith I am her Aduersarie And dispreise her condiciouns and port ffor that I made of hem suche re- port / 770 He mis avisid is / and eke to blame Whanne I it spak / I spake conpleiningly I to hem thougte no repreef ne shame What worlde is this / howe vndirstande am I Loke in the same book / what stiketh by Who so loketh aright / therynne may thei see That they me ougte haue in greet chirtee And ellis / woot I not what is what The book concludith for hem / it is no nay Vertuously / my good frende / dooth it nat 780 Thomas I not / for yit I neuere it say No freend no Thomas / Wel trowe I in fay ffor had ye red it fully to the ende Ye wolde seie / it is not as ye wende Thomas / howe so it be / do as I seide Sithen it displesith hem / amendis make If that some of hem thee ther of vpbreide Thou shalt be besie y now I vndirtake Thi kut to kepe / and nowe | thee bitake To god / for I moot nedis fro the wende 790 The loue and thanke of wymmen / nowe god the sende Amonge I thenke thee for to visite Or that thi book fully finisshid be ffor looth me were / thou shuldist ougt write Wher thorug / thou migtest gete any mawgree And for that cause / I wole it ouer see And Thomas / nowe a dieu and fare weel Thou finde me shalt / steel al so trewe as Whane he was goon / I in myn herte dredde To stonde oute of wymmens beneuol- ence 800 And to fulfille that / that he me redde I shope me to do my peine and diligence To wynne hir loue by obedience Thoug I my wordis can not wel por- treie / 74 THOMAS HOCCLEVE Lo here the forme / howe I hem obeie My ladies alle / as wisly god me blesse Why that ye meued bene / can I not knowe My gilte cam neuere yit to his ripenesse Al thoug ye for youre foo / me deeme & trowe But I youre frende be / bite me the crowe 810 I am al othir to yow / than ye wene By my writing / hath it and shal be sene But netheles / I lowly me submitte To youre bountees / as fer as thei han place In yow / vn to me wrecche it may wel sitte To axe pardoun / thoug I not trespace Leuer is me / with pitous chere and face And meek spirit do so / than open werre Ye make me / and me putte at the werre A tale eke / wiche I in the Roman dedis 820 Nowe late sy / in honur & plesaunce Of yow my ladies / as I moot nedis Or take my way / for fere in to ffrance Thoug I not shapen be / to prike and praunce Wole I translate / and that my gilte I hope Shal pourge / as clene / as keuer- chiefs dooth sope [IN PRAISE OF CHAUCER] [Stanzas from the Regement of Princes, from the copy executed for Henry Prince of Wales, MS Arundel 38 of the British Museum. This volume has on fol. 37, at opening of the poem after the introduction, a miniature of the poet presenting his work to Henry. The leaf which probably carried the miniature of Chaucer, with lines 4990-5042, has been removed from the manuscript. | [MS Arundel 38, fol. 35b-36] Wyth hert as tremblyng as the leef of asp ffadir syn 3e me rede do so Of my simple conceyt wol I the clasp Vn do / And lat yt at his large go But welaway / so ys myn hert wo That the honour of englyssch tong is deed Of which / I wont was han consail & reed 1960 © mayster dere and fadir reuerent My mayster Chaucer flour of eloquence Mirrour of fructuous endendement © vniuersel fader in science Allas that thou thyn excellent prudence In thy bed mortel mightyst nort by quethe What eiled deth Allas why wolde he slethe Variants of Brit. Mus. Adds. 18632 (Ad) and Harley 4866 (H) are: 1954 herte tremblyng (Ad); 1955 rede to do so (HAd); 1957 and at his large lat hit goo (Ad); 1958 herte (HAd); 1959 tonge (HAd); 1963 entendement (HAd); 1964 of science (Ad); 1966 This MS errs: not (Ad), naght (H); 1967 sle the (HAd); 1971 His name . . . astertith (HAd); 1978 haast ment (H); 1980 no more seye (Ad). The MS formerly Phillipps 1099 reads in 1963 endytement, in 1980 no bettir seye. O deth thou dedyst nou3t harm synguleer In slaghtree of hym / but al ps land yt smertith But natheles 3yt hastow no power 1970 He name sle / hys hye vertu astertyth Vnslayn fro the / whych ay vs lyfly hertyth Wyth bokes of hys ornat endytyng That ys to al thys land enlumynyng. Hastow nou3t eeke my mayster Gower slayn Whos vertu I am in sufficient ffor to descryue. I woot wel in certayn ffor to sleen al thys world thou hast I ment But syn our lord cryst was obedient To the in feyth. I can no ferther seye 1980 Hys creatures mosten the obeye Symple as my goost and scars my let- terure 2073 Vn to 3our excellente for to write Myn inward loue / and 3it aventure Wil I me putte thogh I can but lyte My dere mayster god ys soul quyte And fadir Chaucer rayn wolde han me taght PRAISE OF CHAUCER 75 But I was dul . and lerned lyte or naght Alas my worthy mayster honorable 2080 Thys landes verray tresour and rychesse Deth by thy deth harme irriparable Vn to vs don. her vengeable duresse Despoyled hath this land of the swet- nesse Of rethorik / for vn to tullius Was neuer man so lyk a monges vs Also who was hier in philosophye To aristotle / in our tonge but bu The steppes of virgile in poesie Thow filwedist eek wot wel I now 2090 ‘That combre world pt pee my mayster slow Wolde I slayn were / deth was to hastyf To renne on the and reue the py (l)yf Deth hath but smal consideracion Vn to the vertuous I haue espyed / No more as schewyth the probacion Than to a vycyous mayster losel tried A mong an heep / every man ys mays- tried Wyth her as wel the poore as ys be ryche Leered and lewde eek standen al I leche 2100 Sche my3tte han taried hir vengeance a while Variants of Adds. 18632 and Harley 4866 are: 2073 Simple is (HAd); 2074 excellence (HAd); 2075 yit in auenture (HAd); 2077 soule (HAd); 2082 deth / hath harme (HAd); 2088 tonge ban thow (Ad)—note Ad’s understanding of hier, 2087, as “‘higher’’, not as “‘heir’’; 2090 men wite wel (Ad); 2093 first letter of Iwf is erased; 2104 MS reads brange; 2106 for the beste (Ad). The scribe has made several corrections during transcription. ‘The former Phillipps 1099 reads: 2073 scars is my; 2079 yong and lerne lyte; 2096 a scheweth probacton; 2099 as the riche; 2100 eek ben unto hyre lyche; 2104 lyke brynge forth to the; 2106 as for the beste. Til that sum man had egal to be be Nay lat be pat / she knewe wel pt bys Ile May neuere man forth bringe lyk to pe And hyre office nedes do moot sche God bad hire soo / I truste as for thi beste O maister maister / god py soule reste [MS Brit. Mus. Adds. 18632, fol. 93b] The firste foundere of oure faire lang- age 4978 hap seid in caas.semblable.and ober mo so hily wel. that hit is my dotage for to expresse . or touche ony of tho allas my fader. is fro be world go my worbi maister Chaucer. him I mene be pov aduoket for him . heuenes quene As bov wel knowest . o . blessed vir- gine 4985 wt louinge herte . and hie deuocioun in bin honour . he wrot ful many a lyne o . nov pin help . and thin promocioun to god pi sone . make a mocioun hov he pi seruaunt was. maiden marie and lat his loue . floure and fructifie Al bouh his lyf be quent. be resemblaunt of him hap in me .so fressh liflinesse that to putte other men. in remembraunce of his persone. I haue here his likinesse do make to this ende. in sothfastnesse that thei bt han of him lost bouht & mynde 4997 bi bis peinture may. agein him fynde Variant readings of Harley 4866 and of the remain- ing lines of Arundel 38 are: 4978 finder, fyndere (AdH); 4982 fro the world ys goo (AdH); 4991 queynt (H); 4992 resemblaunce (H); 4995 lyknesse (H); 4997 lest pought (H). The former MS Phillipps 1099 reads: 4978 of your faire; 4985 And thou; 4991 love; 4997 lost. 76 THOMAS HOCCLEVE [TO BEDFORD] [MS Huntington 111, fol. 37] CE FEUST MYS EN LE LIURE DE MONSR JOHAN LORS NOMEZ w ORE REGENT DE FRANCE & DUC DE BEDFORD Vn to the rial egles excellence I humble Clerc with al hertes hum- blesse This book presente / & of your reuerence Byseeche I pardon and foryeuenesse Pt of myn ignorance & lewdenesse 5 Nat haue I write it in so goodly wyse As pt me oght vn to your worthynesse Myn yen / hath custumed bysynesse So daswed / pt I may no bet souffyse 2 I dreede lest pt my maister Massy 10 Pt is of fructuous intelligence Whan he beholdith how vnconnyngly My book is metrid / how raw my sent- ence How feeble eek been my colours his prudence Shal sore encombrid been of my folie 75 But yit truste I / pt his beneuolence Compleyne wole myn insipience Secreetly / & what is mis rectifie 5 Thow book / by licence of my lordes grace To thee speke I / and this I to thee seye 20 I charge thee / to shewe thow thy face Beforn my seid Maister / & to him preye On my behalue / pt he peise and weye What myn entente is bt I speke in thee For rethorik hath hid fro me the keye 25 Of his tresor / nat deyneth hir nobleye Dele with noon so ignorant as me Cest tout JOHN LYDGATE John Lydgate, the “Monk of Bury,’ whose life was bounded by the years °1375 and 1448-9, is an apt example of that mutability of fortune which he and his contemporaries loved to dwell upon, of a reputation in his own day which has now faded as completely as has that of Cowley. He was born in the village of Lydgate, near the great Benedictine abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk; he became as a lad a novice within its walls, and passed on through subdiaconate and diaconate to the priesthood in 1397. In 1421 he was made prior of Hatfield Broadoak, Essex, but after eleven years he relinquished that office and, so far as we know, returned to Bury. The last we hear of him through official docu- ments is a receipt on his behalf for his semi-annual pension from the Crown, dated Sept. 1449; and in the 27th year of Henry VI, 1448-9, he is spoken of as dead by the versifier John Metham. The tradition set on foot by Bale, that Lydgate studied at both Universities and traveled extensively abroad, has never received any corroborative proof. He seems to have been in France when the translation of the Dance Macabre was suggested to him; and headings by Shirley to some of the shorter poems state that they were composed in Oxford or in London; but there is no evidence that he did the bulk of his verse-production elsewhere than in his monastery. And if the most of his years were passed at Bury, it was in no secluded back- water of life that he dwelt. The seat of the Abbey was one of the larger towns of England. In Lydgate’s lifetime and in that of Chaucer, London had between forty and fifty thousand inhabitants, while very few other towns numbered more than ten thousand; most of the English people dwelt in hamlets of three hundred or less. Bury, with its four thousand population, was an important place; and the frequent disputes of Town and Gown in the period show that it was by no means dominated by its great Benedictine House. Life there was not perhaps at the tension of life in London, but the town was no sleepy nook of silence ; and literature also had its vicarious experience to offer to a monk of Bury. The Abbey Library was one of England’s largest book-collections. John Boston of Bury, Lydgate’s contemporary and fellow-monk, travelled all over England in- vestigating and cataloguing monastic libraries; and none in his list was better stocked than that of Bury itself, with its two thousand or more volumes of both sacred and profane literature. Had Lydgate chosen, he could have studied there not only Cicero and Seneca, but Horace and Juvenal, Virgil, Statius, Plautus, and Terence. . Neither life nor letters, however, could yield to Lydgate quite the same opportunity as to Chaucer. The pressure of the monastic habit of thought, the monastic routine, lay heavy on a cloistered monk; and had Lydgate ever possessed the keen sensibilities with which Chaucer came to books, they must have been deadened by the amount of work which he did to order. He probably showed, in early manhood, a glibness with words and with rime which made him conspicu- ous in his monastery; one commission followed another, and his facile “eloquence” was soon in steady demand for any occasion requiring verses. A mumming by London merchants before the Lord Mayor, a “letter” to accompany Christmas gifts to the king, an explanation of the Mass for a pious Countess to keep in her chamber, a set of stanzas to serve up with the “subtlety” at a banquet, a com- [77 } 78 JOHN LYDGATE plaint for a lovesick squire to offer his lady, the “histories” to accompany figures in a fresco or in tapestry, either for a graveyard or for a wealthy mercer’s parlor, a colossal translation of Boccaccio’s “tragedies” for the Duke of Gloucester,— are examples of the monk’s varied commissions. He has left a good many thousand lines of brief poems, religious and secular ; but his larger pieces of work were the mainstay of his reputation for genera- tions; and most of these were translations done to order. For Henry V, while still Prince of Wales, Lydgate translated the Troy Book, a rewriting, in 30,000 pentameter couplet lines, of the Trojan story, drawn apparently from Guido delle Colonne. This was begun in 1412 and finished in 1420, according to its own statements; and it was probably preceded by another work for the same prince, the Life of Our Lady, 6,000 lines long, in sevens. The Earl of Salisbury com- missioned from Lydgate a translation of Deguilleville’s Pélerinage de la Vie Humaine, which Lydgate tells us was begun in 1426, and which runs to 25,000 lines, mainly short couplets. The poet’s Guy of Warwick was done at the request of Margaret Lady Talbot, daughter of thel Earl of Warwick; it is less ponder- ous,—of 592 lines only. Lady Talbot’s father, Richard de Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, while Lieutenant-General of France after the death of Henry V, or- dered of Lydgate, in 1426, a translation setting forth the hereditary right of Henry VI to the French crown,—329 lines in pentameter couplets. For presenta- tion to the youthful king, and at the command of Curteys, abbot of Bury, Lydgate wrote, in 1433, the Lives of SS. Edmund and Fremund, 3,700 lines rime royal. Later, in 1439, the abbot of St. Albans requested of Lydgate a life of SS. Albon and Amphabell, which runs to 4,700 lines, in sevens. And the heaviest of Lyd- gate’s undertakings, the 36,000 lines of the Fall of Princes, translated from Laurent de Premierfait’s second prose version of Boccaccio’s De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, was executed between 1431 and 1438 for Humphrey duke of Glou- cester, brother of Henry V, first founder of the library of the University of Ox- ford, and Maecenas of his time. Nor do these commissioned and datable poems exhaust the list of Lyd- gate’s longer works. A translation from the French, entitled Reason and Sen- suality, is dated conjecturally about 1408; it is of 7,000 lines in short couplets, unfinished. The Churl and the Bird, also from the French, may date even -earlier. The Dance Macabre, another translation from the French, must postdate the exe- cution of the wall-painting (1424) in Paris whence Lydgate says he took it; it is of almost 700 lines, in stanza. A tale supplementary to the Canterbury Tales, the Siege of Thebes, 4,700 lines in pentameter couplets, was perhaps written between 1420 and 1422. The poet’s Testament, written presumably late in life, is of 900 lines in stanza; and according to a note in the manuscripts, his death occurred while he was engaged upon a version of the so-called advice of Aristotle, to Alexander, the Secreta Secretorum, of which Lydgate did about 1,500 lines in sevens, his follower Burgh(?) continuing the work. To these ca.120,000 lines of well-authenticated verse we must add the mass of the shorter poems; and here we are on less certain ground. The list of Lydgate’s works drawn up by Ritson (see below p. 99) has been denounced by Schick and dissected by MacCracken; but from its fault of method, its tendency to add to the Lydgatian canon any piece of fifteenth-century verse didactic in content, accurate in rime, and jerkily ambling in rhythm, we are not yet free. The collection of the monk’s minor poems made by J. O. Halliwell in 1840 assigned to Lydgate work marked as his by any manuscript, or even appearing without JOHN LYDGATE 79 author’s name in a volume including some Lydgatian poems. No classification of MS-authorities according to their probable trustworthiness has yet been made, and no canon of Lydgate has been drawn up in which there is separation be- tween the poems claimed by Lydgate in his text, the poems mentioned as his by contemporaries, the poems assigned to him by trustworthy scribes, and the poems without any external evidence as to authorship. The list of his writings in the Dictionary of National Biography is entirely uncritical, and the canon as endorsed by MacCracken, in: his EETS edition of the Minor Poems, vol. i, is marred by the addition of a number of poems unmarked in any MS and accepted solely by Dr. MacCracken’s personal judgment. Relying first upon the few manuscripts written by Lydgate’s contempor- ary, John Shirley, manuscripts very fully marked with authors’ names—and upon one codex, Harley 2255 of the British Museum, which may have been com- piled for Lydgate’s own abbot, we can add to the canon of the monk’s works some 15,000 lines of minor poems.!_ In few cases is it possible to date them. The Departing of Chaucer is probably of 1417; the epithalamium to the Duke of Gloucester is of 1422; the Coronation address to Henry VI must be of 1429; and the two mummings in honor of Estfeld’s London mayoralty are of 1429 or 1437. But we can only conjecture as to the dates of the remaining mum- mings or of the tapestry poems, while for the prayers, the hymns, and the didac- tic verse we have no criterion other than internal, than the better or worse handling of rhythm and subject. : This standard is difficult of application to Lydgate. The student who had never read a line of his work might suspect, upon hearing of its enormous amount, that its quality was strained. It is indeed. And with Lydgate the period of life at which he writes has less to do with his power of expression than has his subject. The Testament may have been of his later years, but it contains fine stanzas of deep religious feeling, notably that praised by Churton Collins, in which Christ addresses the sinner thus: * John Shirley, several of whose commonplace-books remain to us (see p. 192 here), not only transcribed a mass of poems by Chaucer and by Lydgate, but wrote for many of his copies full “gossippy” headings, from which we draw some curious particulars. A Shirley volume in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge (R, 3, 20), has 60 entries; nine of these are by Chaucer and one by Hoccleve, five mention no author (although another Shirley MS ascribes two of them to Lydgate), nine are in Latin or French, eight are mere bits, such as proverbs or recipes, and 28 are marked as by Lydgate. This collection includes his six mummings, which are preserved nowhere else, two tapestry poems, two personal poems addressed to Gloucester, and the Coronation Address to Henry VI; the rest are religious and didactic,— 4500 lines in all. A Shirley codex in the British Museum, Adds. 16165, has 23 entries, of which eight are there assigned to Lydgate, including the Temple of Glass, the Black Knight, the Departing of Chaucer, and a New Year’s poem; the total is 2600 lines, or 3200 if we accept the complaint appended to the Temple of Glass, the genuineness of which is doubted by Prof. Schick, the EETS editor of the poem. Another Shirley volume, Bodl. Ashmole 59, besides reproducing ten of the entries made in the Cambridge and in the London codices, and copying as separate poems four extracts from longer works, adds to the above list 14 poems,— 1480 lines. Four of these latter are also contained in MS Harley 2255 of the British Museum. If the tiny coat of arms in its initial means that this codex was written for William Curteys, abbot of Bury during the last twenty years of Lydgate’s life (on which point see Anglia 28:24), then the authority of its ascriptions is high. The number of its entries marked as by Lydgate is 24, four of which are already in our list; among the others are the Fabula Duorum Mercatorum, the Letter to Gloucester, the legend of St. Austin at Compton, and the Testament. Most of its contents are religious, and the number of lines assigned to Lydgate is 5800. 80 JOHN LYDGATE Tarye no longer toward thyn herytage Hast on thy weye and be of ryght good chere Go eche day onward on thy pylgrymage Thynke howe short tyme thou shalt abyden here Thy place is byggyd aboue the sterres clere Noon erthly palys wrought in so statly wyse Kome on my frend my brother most entere For the I offred my blood in sacryfyce Yet other late verse by Lydgate, such as the Secrees, has no value; and other religious verse by him, when done to order, as St. Albon was done to order, can drop to a very low level, not so low as Guy of Warwick, but weakly mo- notonous. In Lydgate’s many and respectful allusions to Chaucer he pleases us; but when he attempts to imitate the Prologue he makes a lamentable failure. If the Flower of Courtesy be his (for which we have only the word of the editor of the 1561 Chaucer) he was capable of grace and sweetness of expression on a hackneyed subject; but his epithalamium to Gloucester is a wooden piece of work. His sunrises and spring settings were not unjustly praised by Warton: compare the picture of Spring in Reson and Sensuality 101 ff., and many pas- sages in the Troy Book (e. g. i: 1197 ff., 1271 ff., 3094 ff., 3907 ff. etc.), pic- tures much better and more detailed than the monk permits himself in the Fall of Princes (cf. v: 1506-11 there). In this respect, as in others, the Troy Book is the most successful of Lydgate’s longer works; in vivacity, in self-expression, in knowledge of life, it is much superior to the Siege of Thebes, although it be a commissioned task and a translation. If a religious emotion be absent, and if Lydgate lacks the restraint of a compact stanzaic original, such as he had for the Dance Macabre, he easily wanders; the slender substance of his meaning dries into the sands of his fluency, and he blunders among words, unable to advance to a goal which he does not clearly see. He spoils Canace’s lament by a tasteless allusion to Cupid as causer of the tragedy; he cannot let Paris relate his dream, in Priam’s family council, without a pedantic explanation of the attributes of Mercury. He can no more deny himself a digression, espe- cially a didactic one, than could Browning; but it is not Browning’s pressure of bounding vitality, like that of a dog quartering a new countryside, which drives Lydgate to utterance; it is a sort of “total recall,” the inability to stop until a whole series of familiar and related phrases have been not only reeled off, but ‘repeated. This verbosity, when joined to a lack of structural sense, is disas- trous; and Lydgate had little or no structural sense. He had no notion of the -value of brevity, of selection among details. Indeed, his proclaimed theory is to the contrary. He says, in the prologue to the Fall of Princes, lines 92, 93, that a story “constrained under wordes fewe’’ is no story; see page 158 here. But Chaucer’s view is the more truly psychological; cf. the Squire’s Tale lines 393 ff. :— The knotte, why that every tale is told, If it be taried til that lust be cold Of hem that han it after herkned yore, The savour passeth ever lenger the more, For fulsomenesse of his prolixitee. The remark of Gosse, that Lydgate appears better in selections than in wholes, means of course that the monk’s inability to conceive of structure, to treat any JOHN LYDGATE 81 part of his work with reference to any other part, or to get from one episode or mood to another, is disguised by the process of selection. No writer is at once ‘so slow and so breathless as Lydgate; his discourse advances at a crawl, with constant returns upon itself, but marks time with such volubility that the reader is bewildered. It is indeed possible to collect some handfuls of good verses from the many thousand lines which Lydgate has left, mainly from the Troy Book and the Fall of Princes. For instance :-— And saue be eye atwen was no message DuorMerc 54 is less striking. Solitarie in captiuite For many fader schal his sone se Hol in be morwe pat schal be slawe or eve Lat vs with swerde & nat with wordis fight Pe swerde of rancour may nat alwey bite —pbe fomy wawes wyde Pat to sight whelmen vp so grene And al be eyr with schot of arowis kene Ischadwed was pat Phebus bemys bright Vp on pe soille was dirked of his light Aforn his swerd Grekis go to wrak Cf. 11:7272, iii:1470-71 Of noyse of hors be erpe gan to tremble Or be heuene be clustred and depeynt With brighte sterris in be Euenynge See Chaucer’s Boece iv, metr. 1, 23-4. Liche as be goddis wolde haue take wrak And had of newe assentid ben in oon Pe londe to drenche of Deucalyon From the Latin of Guido. With swiche colour as men go to her graue See Troilus iv :862-3. Furiously walkynge vp and doun And alweye fix on hir he hadde his loke See Knight’s Tale 1949. And verray wery of his owne lyf See FaPrinces i:3774, iii:2825, Thebes 2518. When be hote mery somers day No dwery is but like a geant longe Nat Cleopatra goyng to her graue For euery wo by processe muste aswage See ii1:458, 4086, etc. Liche be sonne bat shynep in be reyn Pes in be face but in be herte werre Ther was al merthe ther was al melodie Al worldli welthe shal fadyn as a rose God hath a thousand handes to chastise (etc. ) From Laurent’s French. Troy Book ii :3718 Troy Book ii :3906 Troy Book ii :4204-5 Troy Book ii :4381 Troy Book ii :7028 Troy Book 11 :8036-7 Troy Book ii :8106-8 Troy Book i1 :8493 Troy Book iii :1562 Troy Book iii :2680-1 Troy Book iii :3294-6 Troy Book iii :4185 Troy Book iii :5143 Troy Book iv :608 Troy Book iv :2386 Troy Book iv :3390-1 Troy Book iv :3658 Troy Book iv :3702 Troy Book iv :5224 Troy Book iv :6132 FaPrinces i: :593 FaPrinces i :942 FaPrinces i :1331 ff 82 JOHN LYDGATE She may be troublid but ouercome neuere FaPrinces i:1366 On to the deth he felte his herte colde FaPrinces i :4480 Cf. Chaucer, MLTale 781, etc., Troy Book i:2050, iii :4546, v:3123, etc. Fame in her paleis hath trumpes mo than oon FaPrinces i:5111 Oon bet the bussh another hath the sparwe FaPrinces i:5127 The sterrid heuene is thi couerture FaPrinces i:6161 Go foorth my soule peur & inmortal FaPrinces ii :1310 From Coluccio’s Latin, see ModPhil 25:56. Now heer now ther as botis hom to londe FaPrinces iii :1321 Sum drope of pite lat in thyn herte fleete FaPrinces iii :2040 For comparisouns doon ofte gret greuaunce FaPrinces iii :2188 See HorseGooseSheep 526. The wise war the circumspect goddesse FaPrinces iii :4237 Vnder that dirked and cloudi orizonte FaPrinces iii :4345 Al for the werre & nothyng for the pees FaPrinces iv :1817 See Troy Book ii:3319. Than gaff he sentence & theron he abood FaPrinces v :455 Thi secre bosum is ful of stories FaPrinces vi :309 In Laurent, “ton giron qui est tresgarny des hystoires.” In Phebus presence sterris lese her liht FaPrinces vi :2983 See note on FaPrinces G 36 here. The faire day men do praise at eue FaPrinces ix :2024 See ModLangNotes 36:115-18. These are sufficiently striking. But it is to be remembered, first, that most rimesters can show a good line or two; John Hamilton Reynolds or Leigh Hunt has occasionally a verse or a bit of observation which reminds us that they were indeed contemporaries and friends of Keats. And secondly, these ex- tracts or twice their number make hardly a ripple in the ocean of Lydgate’s - 140,000 and more lines, lines not only thin in substance but clogged with formulae. We dredge up such a bit as Achilles’ plaint of his love for Polyxena, Troy Book iv: 707-8,— Or how shal I ben hardy to apere In the presence of hir eyen clere,— and it is an excellence. In the text, however, it immediately follows, For how shuld I be bold to haue repaire Or dorn, allas, comen in hir sight. That is, Lydgate’s habit of repetition is constant, his power of expression easily overborne; and the linking of the happier couplet to the weaker injures the effect of the whole. The monk’s habit of padding, too, is injurious. He has memory and appreciation enough to quote his great master; but when we find “For pitee renneth sone in gentil herte” appearing in the form For pite, who that kan aduerte, Renneth sone in gentyl herte,— ResonandSens 6915-6 JOHN LYDGATE 83 we recognize not only the merit of the attempt at citation, but the clumsiness of the formula which splits it.1 And similarly with the monk’s allusions to nature. They are often apparently fortunate; but we cannot with certainty praise, e.g., his feeling for the lark, and add to our list such a bit as —til the larke song With notes newe hegh vp in pe ayr, Thebes 2296-7 because in the Troy Book Lydgate so frequently uses the lark’s song mechanically, to date the beginning of a battle. We cannot tell, in his work, when his imagi- nation is perhaps, for a moment free and when he is using a formula which by accident shapes into a “sport.” And however interesting this list of detached lines, the sunrise and spring-descriptions of the Troy Book, the allusions to Chaucer, the feeling for little children, the monk’s real lyrical adoration of his crucified Master, these passages are constantly damaged by his bad stylistic habits, and lost in the flood of his uncontrollable verbiage. Neither in structural power, descriptive power, emotional power, nor metrical power, is there any real parallel between Lydgate and his great exemplar Chaucer. His verbosity and his habit of repetition are superficial faults, but none the less displeasing ; and deeper-seated than they are the monk’s lack of feeling for structure and proportion, his dulness of perception. Lydgate’s material overpowers him; he is the creature of routine phrase; and his deficiencies in sensitiveness, in control, in balance, are as evident in his versification as in his guidance of narrative. There also are the automatic repetition, the jerky hesitation, the failure to see the part in relation to the whole, which are stamped on his story-method. But Lydgate’s versification has been seriously and carefully discussed. Professor Schick, the first critical editor of a Lydgate-text, adopted for the pentameter line of the Temple of Glass (EETS 1891) five principal forms or types, which he differentiated according to the number of their syllables. His type 1 is regular, of five iambs; type 2 is like the preceding, but with an extra syllable at the verse-pause; type 3, the “Lydgate line,’ or brokenbacked line, lacks an unaccented syllable at the pause; type 4, the headless line, lacks the opening unaccented syllable; and type 5 has a trisyllabic first foot. This classification takes account only of the syllabic compass of the single verse; it makes no mention of variety in rhythmic flow within the line, of the lengthening or shortening of the poetic phrase around the line-unit, of the line as part of the poetic paragraph, or of the relation between line-and-paragraph rhythm and poetic content. By discussing minutely the number of syllables, it creates the impression that Lydgate’s versification has been analyzed; whereas every- thing important to rhythm has been passed over unnoticed. Professor Schick has no thought of rescuing Lydgate from censure by thus narrowing the scope of analysis; he speaks with emphasis of Lydgate’s metrical shortcomings. But later students, still limiting themselves to the single line, have attempted to con- done those shortcomings. In a monograph on the metric of the Chaucerian Tra- dition, published in 1910, Dr. Licklider treated the question more historically Chaucer often enough inserts a formula, for rime’s sake, into a couplet; cf. for example BoDuchess 1065, 1119, the prol. LGW 454, and especially Troilus v: 1040-41. But nearly always in Chaucer the vigor, the moving force of his matter, carries us over such bare patches; while in Lydgate there is not sufficient impetus in the context to prevent the dead halt. 84 JOHN LYDGATE than did Professor Schick, with the aim of justifying, e.g., Lydgate’s line-struc- ture by that of modern poets. Dr. Licklider assumes, to begin with, that the stresses of verse are fixed, that they invariably fall upon the syllables which schematically come under them, whether such syllables be verbs or indefinite ar- ticles. Should a preposition thus appear under ictus, it is raised in value by “pitch-accent,” and the effect of the line is heightened by this ennobling of its grammatically less dignified elements. In such a verse, for example, as Milton’s Deep malice to conceal, coucht with revenge, the italicized words are raised to higher power by their position under stress ; and any line in Lydgate, in the Transition, in later English poetry, which shows this “pitch accent on relational words” acquires value thereby. This view of English pentameter line-structure is not here accepted. It is obvious that the single line shows, in both modern and medieval English verse, a frequent coincidence of theoretic stress with unimportant syllable; but instead of explaining this coincidence, in any poet, as a heightening of word-value by the impact of immutable stress, I shall treat the line and the paragraph as plastic, subject at every moment to the shaping hand of the poet; I shall recognize, as already stated (p. 19), the “perpetual conflict” of the verse-norm and of language- freedom as the living foundation of English verse. The line from Milton, above cited, I explain by the poet’s shift of word-weight within the verse; a heavy first foot, a light second, a reversed fourth, challenge the reader’s ear by their di- vergence from standard as regards the massing of stress, while the total weight of the line remains standard. Chaucer, in his handling of rhythm, shows the same desire to vary it, now to reduce and now to increase line-weight, now to reduce and now to increase breath-length, to make up a paragraph out of slightly differing lines, that the greatest modern poets have shown. He has not their sub- tleties of ear, their developed sense of balance within the single verse; such com- pensation, or poise of the heavy against the light foot, as that of Milton just noted, is not Chaucerian. But the simpler variants of tetrameter and pentameter flow, underweighting and reversal, are very freely used by Chaucer, and with in- creasing skill as he grows older. He also made, at first, extensive use of the line short a syllable at opening, a variant frequent in his Hous of Fame. In that poem (using Skeat’s text) we find not only very many single headless lines, but such lines grouped in pairs, occasionally in threes, and once in a sequence of four. But in Chaucer’s pentameter, so far as we can now judge, this lavishly- employed license of the short couplet becomes a minor variant; Skeat’s text of the General Prologue has but nine acephalous lines, and the two pairs of such verses in the D-fragment, the two in the Knight’s Tale, serve for especial em- phasis or for enumeration. Chaucer’s treatment of the line in this respect was not understood by Lyd- gate, who not only wrote the acephalous verse very freely in pentameter, but made as much or more use of another truncated line-form, that lacking an unac- cented syllable just after the verse-pause.1 It looks as if the monk thought in half-lines, and, having accepted a line-form headless in the first half, saw no reason why the second half also should not be headless. The existence of this * How in manhod he was peréles FaPrinces iii :3617 (headless) Nor allé men may nat been iliche FaPrinces i:5120 (brokenbacked) JOHN LYDGATE 85 brokenbacked line in Chaucer is still questionable ; even the poorest Chaucer MSS show no drift to the type, and no evidence has yet been presented to prove that the dropping of inflexional -e would bring such a line into being oftener, e.g., than lines short in the fourth foot. Moreover, the mind which would lay hold of lines accidentally shortened at the cesura by the scribe and erect them into a type is a mind already thinking, as I have said, in half-lines. Lydgate’s dif- ference from other Transition versifiers in his use of these two truncated pen- tameter-forms is another reason for seeking their explanation in his individuality. The headless line was not written by Gower; it was not used by Hoccleve to any extent; it was not written by the scrupulous scribe of the Palladius; it is not common in later Transition verse. We can find it in late sixteenth-century prints, for instance in The Flower and the Leaf; but there the textual conditions have become too complicated to serve as evidence. So far as we yet see, the use of these two truncated line-forms centralizes in Lydgate, and in Chaucer there seems clear sanction for but one of them, the headless line. An explanation of Lydgate’s procedure has been variously but unsatisfac- torily sought. The fall of inflexional -e, as I have studied it in a small number of texts, produces lines clumsy in many ways, but not predominantly headless or brokenbacked; and there remain outside its influence a large number of truncated lines in Lydgate, and in Lydgate alone. If the influence of the Old English alliterative verse, with its sharp medial break, was strong enough to develop the brokenbacked line in Lydgate, why not in other poets? That Chau- cer’s truncated line-form should be taken up, and extended, by Lydgate and by Lydgate alone, of a group of versifiers using a common language and sharing a common history, argues some quality of difference in Lydgate himself. That quality I see most clearly not in his adoption of the truncated line but in his excessive use of it and in his extension of truncation to the second half-line. As regards the headless line which he could find in Chaucer, a man so prone to repetition as was Lydgate, so devoid of sensitiveness, of balance, and of feeling for variety as his narrative-wanderings and his continual formulae show him to have been, would not discriminate between Chaucer’s use of a variant and his own mass-manufacture of a staple. As regards the brokenbacked line, which is not Chaucer’s, the student who works through a quantity of Lydgate’s verse with an ear alert to its phrasing will recognize that the half-line is the fa- vored breath-length, and that the great number of padding phrases filling just half a line either supports or helps cause this tendency. If the monk felt his verse more in half-lines than in lines, the extent to which he uses the broken- backed line may be due to that limitation in him rather than to his transference of it as a whole line from any source, Latin or English. His excess of these truncated lines, his excess of padding phrases, find their explanation together in his lack of structural and aesthetic feeling. Some part of them may be due to the rate at which he was compelled to produce; but that it was natural to him to repeat himself is as obvious as that he thereby gave no offence to the taste of his contemporaries. Any man who carries repetition to the extent to which Lydgate carried it is a man in all respects insensitive, a man not quick nor clear of sight, not alive to the way character reveals itself in trivial action, dull of ear, deficient in taste, unaware of that “perpetual con- flict” between language and rhythm which, though not formulated by Chaucer in theory, is revealed in his practice. Such a man, because he lacks perceptual power, lacks therefore a plan; he repeats or dilutes himself because he is unclear 86 JOHN LYDGATE about his next step; he knows that his story has an ending and has certain high points, but how to get from one to another, or how to make those points stand out, he knows not; yet he keeps talking. Lydgate’s incompetences in rhythm, in style, in narrative-management, cannot be exemplified in a brief essay. The an- alysis of many passages parallel to Chaucer, will show us, so far as rhythm is concerned, that Lydgate habitually writes less than half his lines iambic-normal, Chaucer a full half or more; it will show Lydgate’s constant use of the truncated line and Chaucer’s decreasing use of it as time goes on; it will show that Lyd- gate treats Chaucer’s rhythmic “easements” as if they were “staples,” to borrow terms from Professor Saintsbury. The student of narrative can take the opening paragraph of the Siege of Thebes and compare it with Chaucer’s mode of starting the Canterbury Tales; he can parallelize Chaucer’s clear completion of his twice- repeated Whan by Than, his gradual narrowing of the reader’s interest to focus on Canterbury, with Lydgate’s helpless and verbless wanderings ; he can examine the same Chaucerian passage beside Troy Book i:1197-1221 as regards the ar- rangement of line-types in a paragraph. And he will find the same man, whether rhythm, style, or narrative management be the angle of observation; a man floating in a tide of material which he cannot guide, check, or see. Lists of parallel passages, lists of line-types, do not show the differences between Lydgate and his master; they cannot make clear, for example, that a variant line may be pleasing or unpleasing according to its context and content; that the final thing in judging rhythm is not the rhythm itself but the union of rhythm and contained meaning. Thus, in Chaucer’s description of his Knight there occurs, lines 75-6, the following: Of fustian he wered a gipoun Al bismotered with his habergeoun. Were this couplet analyzed rhythmically, the stressed a of the one line, the lack of upbeat to the other, would be rated as harsh, and the lines placed among aber- rant types. But in the masterful flow of the Prologue they are carried with no sense of the disagreeable. For there we come upon them after the narrator has proved his power. We may have been but partially conscious of the strong sweep of the opening paragraph; we may not have noticed the effect of lengthened breath and of reversal in That fro the tyme that he first began To ryden out, he loved chyvalrye, Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisye; but we have been influenced by them, and by the roll of sounding place-names, names as proudly and deliberately trumpeted as Milton’s or Moody’s similar sum- mons to the imagination. In such context, after such prelude, the single line of less rhythmical quality passes current. And_,as the context carries these, so does the content carry the third of the lines just quoted. There is an almost identical structure present in either of these verses :— ffourme and colour merite and beaute Palladius iv :808 Pees and quyete / concord and vnyte Thebes 4703 But Palladius’ enumeration of the points of a horse, Lydgate’s generalized and overlapping terms, have none of Chaucer’s stirring emphasis on the essential qualities of knighthood, an emphasis which for the moment raises the pitch of life. JOHN LYDGATE 87 Yet Lydgate has interest and value for the student. Historically, he sums up his age as definitely as did Pope or Dr. Johnson; technically his importance may be a negative one, but in his choice of verse-forms and subjects he is note- worthy ; and his vocabulary is his most permanent and positive contribution to Eng- lish. Among his verse-forms the pentameter seven-line stanza bulks largest, be- cause of the Fall of Princes, the Life of Our Lady, and St. Edmund, which to- gether run to over 45,000 of his ca.55,000 such lines. But the pentameter couplet. as in the Troy Book, Thebes, and three shorter poems, amounts te over 35,000 lines, the four-beat couplet to 32,000, for almost 25,000 of which the Pilgrimage accounts. The eight-line pentameter stanza is used for many of Lydgate’s short religious poems; and as he may have had a freer hand there than in his long commissioned works, the stanza) was perhaps more to his taste than it was to Chaucer’s. Other verse-forms are few in the monk’s work. One or two attempts at a roundel, a New Year’s poem in threes, and an occasional shift of form within a poem, represent Lydgate’s range. The Testament is in sevens and eights, the Temple of Glass in rime royal and couplet; the prologues to poems, as in St. Edmund, St. Albon, and the Pilgrimage, are sometimes in a form other than that of the poem itself. In all this we cannot trace any conscious adaptation of form to subject; the pentameter couplet is used for the Troy Book and also for the Mumming at Hertford, the seven-line stanza for both comedy and trag- edy ; the eight-line stanza, although apparently preferred for the shorter religious poems, is also used for the Letter to Gloucester and for Horns Away. In choice of theme Lydgate has done some service to English. He intro- duced, it seems, the first bit of that Fool-literature which was carried so much further by Barclay under Brant’s—or rather Locher’s—influence; he brought in the Dance of Death motive; he wrote a few clumsy mummings which are appar- ently the first of their type in our literature; he set moving in English a pageant of “tragedies” which endured until the time of Shakespeare. None of his inno- vations had in it the germ of long life, but they count for something in our literary history. It is Lydgate’s services to the language which are both noteworthy and per- manent. His is not the use of words at their full metaphorical power, which is one of the dangerous joys of the Romantic poet. No closepacked phrases, no epithets rich in imaginative thrill, have to be unfolded and tasted by the mind as we read him. His value is for the lexicographer. Although archaic and re- condite terms do appear in his pages,—amate, avale, blive, enose, fage, queme, suppowaile, ure-—and although he unsuccessfully endeavors to obtain currency for flaskisable and tarage, a very large number of useful words make their first appearance in English under his auspices. For example :'—abuse, adjacent, adol- escence, aggregate*, arable*, attempt*, auburn, avaricious*, capacity*, circum- spect, colic*, combine*, commodious, condign, confidence, conspirator, counter- mand, credulity*, criminal, debar, deception, delude*, depend*, detestable*, dial, disappear*, dislodge*, dismay*, duplicity, entitle*, equivalent*, excel, fallible, fraternal*, fraudulent, gallery*, gentlemanly, grandmother, humidity*, immutable, impregnable, incident, incredible, inexcusable*, infallible*, intermission*, inter- rupt, invincible, irrigate*, magnate, massive, musical, passionate*, paternal*, per- suade*, pirate, powerless*, pretence*, provoke, rural, solicitude*, tedious*, ter- * Words marked with an asterisk are used by Lydgate earlier than the first case recorded in the New English Dictionary; and the list could be much extended. 88 JOHN LYDGATE rible*, timorous*, tolerance, transcend*, unoccupied*. Many of these are used repeatedly in the Troy Book and in the Fall of Princes, the -ble and -ent words often in rime. In a few cases we can see the word making the crossing from Laurent’s French, e.g., adolescence, magnate; and the word inexcusable, stand- ing at the head of the second chapter of Romans, may have caught Lydgate’s eye there; for he, like Isidore and many another medieval rhetorician, was very much aware of language in the dictionary-sense. As one works with the New English Dictionary, it is noticeable how often the three principal fifteenth-century trans- lators, Trevisa, Lydgate, and Caxton, are responsible for the introduction of abstract but useful terms, for the development of the power to express shades of thought. Lydgate not only brings into English these convenient polysyllables, he makes a word familiar by repetition, often by repetition in rime or in formula. His padding-formulae are one of the most characteristic features of his style, and therefore especially revelatory of the man. Their abuse by him is precisely parallel to his abuse of the headless line; he found both in Chaucer, and em- ployed neither in Chaucer’s manner. Chaucer used formulae all through his work, for the sake of rime; within about 400 lines of the Knight’s Tale (264-676) we find out of doute 283, I dar wel seyn 293, as olde bokes seyn 340, 605, sothly to telle 341, 676, pleynly for tendyte 351; these are all handy tools for Lydgate. We find also the halfline ther nis namor to seye (264) a filler used by Lydgate a score of times in the Troy Book ; we find in line 617 as faste as euere he may, which is worked by Lydgate, in the form in al the haste he may, another score of times in the same poem. All the lines and phrases of expedited narrative, so abundant in Lydgate, he could find in Chaucer; see this same KnTale passage, lines 330, 332, 343, 500, 522, 559. Chaucer uses as first half-line the phrase This al and som, cf. PoFoules 650, WBprol 91; Lydgate does the same thing ten or twelve times in the Troy Book. But the medium in which Chaucer’s padding formulae and expletives are carried is of so firm and flavored a quality that our attention is not diverted by them. They are not only less frequent than in Lydgate, but often seem formulae only when we have disengaged them from their context. Lydgate, however, does with these rime-tags as with his headless and brokenbacked lines; they are ag- gressive in number, aggressively defined against a slack and ineffective back- ground, and emphatic of a half-line movement of thought. That the monk turned consciously and continually to line-tags is shown by his use of padding in the first half-line as well as in the second; e.g., Withoute mor, Withoute abood,— which occur some fifty times in the Troy Book. The pages of that poem are also sprinkled with colorless expletives such at platly, pleynly, in soth, sothly, used in mid-line; and the emptiness of these words and phrases to Lydgate’s mind is shown by the way he redoubles them. He writes in al the haste he may:—with- oute mor delay, as consecutive riming half-lines, Troy Book i:3993-4, ii:7917-18, 8329-30; he repeats his meaning as shortly and make no delay ii:1918-19 (see iv:1888) ; he more than doubles on himself in ii:8556, Anon forthwith and make no delay. With this last we may compare his frequent repetitions such as :— That he constreyned right of verray nede Compelled was iustly to procede To han redres only by rigour. Troy Book ii:1773-5 JOHN LYDGATE 89 See also the same poem 1:3489-93, ii:2098-2100, 3761-3, iii:1231-36, 1541-3, 1677-78, 3538, iv:153-56, 258-59, 5051-55. Of the same character are his lengthened repetitions in the Fall of Princes, e.g., i:1898 ff. and 1905 ff., where Cadmus’ prayer to Apollo is twice given in two consecutive stanzas. Perhaps for this last Lydgate might see a precedent in passages like Chau- cer’s Clerk’s Tale 410 ff. or Franklin’s Tale 337-40. He might consider that his use of pleynly eke withal, Troy Book ii:949, or of ouermore platly eke (ibid. v :2475), was justified by Chaucer’s And eke also, e.g., HoFame 178;! certainly the pupil uses the last-named reduplication often enough,—ten or fifteen times in the Troy Book alone. But whether he was following Chaucer or following a general rhetorical license, Lydgate was by nature prone to repetition and insensi- tive to its effect. No man with a feeling for style would have written the number of ill-fitting rime-tags which we find in the Troy Book; cf. prol. 101-2, i :95-6, 669- 70, 3081-82 and iii:2757, ii:2155-56, 2785-86, 2789-90, 5179-80, 7809-10 and v:2101-2, etc. Probably neither Lydgate nor his readers saw any more incon- gruity in his Trojan heroes’ bidding each other farewell “with St. John to borrow,” Troy Book i:3082, iii:2757, than Lydgate saw in Chaucer’s use of the phrase, Compleynt of Mars, line 9. But other formulae of this brief selection are more obviously inappropriate. The appearance of Achilles’ name in rime, in line 96 of Troy Book i, calls out platly this no les as a balancing tag ; the use of wordes softe, ii:2786, drives Lydgate to lowe and nat alofte to fill his couplet. The eyen clere or eyen glade of Trojan women are used more than once in padding phrases, for which Chaucer’s Troilus iv :663 may have been authorization ; and the formula for sour or swete appears three times in the poem, for sote or sour twice, by south and not by east once. This last, v:2102, is an exception to Lydgate’s usual pro- cedure in couplet, which is to put his clumsy padding in the earlier of the two lines. In his stanza-work, especially in the Fall of Princes, the padding phrase occurs anywhere and everywhere; some stanzas have as many as three half-line formulae, while tags filling an entire line I have not attempted to catalogue. Schick said of Lydgate that “his rime is in general pure, and skilfully handled.” That the bulk of the monk’s work is accurately rimed no student denies; but correctness is not skill, and such pairs as multitude: platly to conclude, com- mendable: platly this no fable, such formulae as are above exemplified, are too frequent in Lydgate for us to term him “skilful” in rime-management. As all readers know, Chaucer made free use of rime-tags; and it is easy to believe that Lydgate imitated him in this respect as he did in the use of the acephalous line, exaggerating both, driven partly by the pressure of compulsory translation to abuse of both. But it is not clear that Lydgate found Chaucerian precedent for some of his licenses in rime, for his fairly frequent assonances and for his riming of Troye:weye (woye) fourteen times in the Troy Book. In that same poem alone there are fifteen cases of assonance, nearly all of them on -ape:-ake. The one definite case in Chaucer, Troilus ii :884-6, is on -yke:-yte > but this is surely insufficient to establish for Lydgate his right to a license which he uses from the Black Knight to the Secrees, all through his work. The great number of “Chaucerian” formulae adopted by Lydgate would in itself lead a student to argue Chaucer’s influence on the monk; but his imitations and borrowings of Chaucerian material and his frequent allusions to his “master” *Or by “And ferther over now ayenward yit”, Troilus iv: 1027, which represents Boethius’ “atque e converso rursus.” BO ie JOHN LYDGATE are proof positive. The detailed story of Lydgate’s dependence on Chaucer is still to be written; and in appraising the facts we have to bear in mind several aspects of medieval literature. The regulation tone of humility towards patron or master must be remembered; the tone of Lydgate towards Chaucer must be compared with that which he uses toward Guido or Boccaccio; the tone of Hoc- cleve, of the Palladius-translator, etc., must be paralleled with that of Lydgate. It is fairly easy to differentiate the three men’s attitude to Humphrey of Glou- cester, for instance. The slightness and formality of Hoccleve’s connection with him, the conventional pomposity of most of Lydgate’s allusions and the sudden warmth of his personal gratitude for money-gifts, the odd little glimpses of Humphrey in the Palladius-epilogues and the translator’s sycophantic address of his patron (i:1194) as— But God me semeth best thou mayst resemble ffor verite Iustice and mansuetude, are differences which mean degrees in the nearness of the three writers to the duke, and differences in their usage of stereotyped forms. In the attitude of Chaucer’s two pupils toward him there is much more resemblance in tone, although Hoccleve’s three allusions in the De Regimine—his only mentions of his master— have a warmth of personal affection and grief not to be found in Lydgate’s many passages of praise. It is to be noted, as regards the amount of allusion by the two pupils, that most of Lydgate’s are in long poems parallelizing work by Chau- cer, such as the Siege of Thebes, the Troy Book, and the Fall of Princes; that Hoccleve’s short religious and occasional compositions afforded no such oppor- tunity for mention of the elder poet as did his one long poem, the De Regimine, in which the allusions appear. Also we remark that both this poem and Lydgate’s Troy Book were executed for Henry the Fifth; since Hoccleve did not hesitate to insert a picture of Chaucer into his poem, is it not a fair surmise that Henry professed interest in Chaucer and favored allusion to him? The Siege of Thebes, written as it was to supplement the Canterbury Tales, is naturally dependent on Chaucer. The prologue is an inept imitation of Chau- cer’s; the story narrates in detail the events which Chaucer had summarized in a few lines of the Knight’s Tale. The poem entire is therefore a homage to the elder writer, and so far as we yet know a homage paid on the monk’s own initiative. That it was written with the Knight’s Tale near Lydgate’s hand is evident from the crowding of Chaucer-phrases between Thebes 4480 and 4540; but that the Canterbury Tales-prologue was not so consulted for the Thebes-prologue is arguable from the lack of such direct liftings and from Lydgate’s confusion of the Pardoner and the Summoner. With the Troy Book and the Fall of Princes, frequent as are allusions to Chaucer, we cannot be sure that Henry the Fifth and Gloucester, the monk’s patrons, are not as much in his mind. The passages about women, in both poems, are as obviously attuned to the patron’s ear as are the laudatory prologues and epilogues; the emphasis in the Troy Book on armor, on heraldic device, on methods of warfare and of encampment, is planned for the taste of King Henry just as the dissertations on literature in the Fall of Princes are adapted to Gloucester. For instance, in the latter work, Lydgate prefixes to its fourth book a long discourse in praise of writing and writers; he takes some of his generalities from John of Salisbury, but the particular cases, I would sug- JOHN LYDGATE 91 gest, are derived from Gloucester’s own library.!. For in the catalogue of books given by Humphrey to Oxford a few years later are included not only John of Salisbury’s Polycraticus and many of the Latin classics, but a Librum Dantes, a Commentaria Dantes, and many volumes of Petrarch; while in this prologue are discussed the Latin works of Petrarch and the writings of Virgil and of Cicero, with a meager but interesting allusion to Dante’s Commedia. I would think it possible that Lydgate was here aiming at his patron’s taste, perhaps obeying that patron’s command. In any case, the opinion of the patron has to be considered in estimating the allusions to Chaucer which are made by Hoccleve and by Lydgate. Some of the briefer mentions of Chaucer in the Fall of Princes arise from the context. Among the unfortunates in Boccaccio’s long procession are several included by Chaucer in the Legend of Good Women, the Monk’s Tale, and the Doctor’s Tale ;—Lucretia, Philomena, Dido, Virginia, Cleopatra, Caesar, Nero, Zenobia, Ugolino. Lydgate’s approach to these various tragedies differs. For Philomena (i:1786 ff.) and for Antony and Cleopatra (vi:3620 ff.) he declares that Thyng onys said be labour of Chauceer Wer presumpcioun me to make ageyn, and sends his readers to the “legende of martirs off Cupide.” For the story of Zenobia (viii:666 ff.) Lydgate says that because Chaucer has “compendiousli told al,” he will pass it over; he devotes, however, some sixty lines to her. When he is dealing with Caesar’s fall (vi:2815 ff.), with Nero (vii:600 ff.), with Dido (ii :1898 ff.), and with Virginia (i1:1345 ff.), we hear nothing of Chaucer. In his two introductions of Lucretia (1i:1002 ff., iii:960 ff.), the second only fol- lows Laurent’s French; the former, suggested by Laurent’s mention of Junius Brutus, in a list of high-couraged men, as Lucretia’s avenger on Tarquin, is ac- companied by Lydgate’s refusal to tell her story because Chaucer has already done so; but this refusal is set aside at Gloucester’s command, and we have 43 stanzas of Lucrece’s farewell speech, taken, as Lydgate states, from Collucius, i.e., from a “declamation” by Coluccio Salutati.2 The scanty five lines given to Ugolino (ix :2049 ff.), not only make no mention of Chaucer but close with the remark “no mor of him I fynde”’; and the elaborate treatment of the Canace-story condemned by Chaucer carries no explanation of Lydgate’s reason for so doing. This variation in Lydgate’s treatment of Chaucer is paralleled by variation in the monk’s method of quoting his “master.” There are clumsinesses enough in *This suggestion derives support from the allusion to Dante and to Petrarch found in book iii:3858-9, in a short begging-letter chapter not preserved by all MSS, and perhaps worked by scribes into the portion of the text with which it had been sent to Gloucester. Note also the two fragments of Greek, ii:1855 and iv:568, not in Laurent’s French, with the copy of “Verba Graeca et interpretationes linguae Latinae”’ given to Oxford in 1443 by Humphrey with the Dante and the Petrarch books above mentioned. See Anstey’s Munimenta Academica, pp. 768-772, and see note below on the Lucrece-tragedy. *Writyng causeth the chaplet to be greene Bothe of Esope and of Iuuenal Dantis labour it doth also meynteene By a report verray celestial Sunge amonge Lombardis in especial Whos thre bookis the grete wondres tell Of heuene aboue of purgatorie & hell. iv :134-140 * See my paper in Modern Philology 25 :49-57. O2 JOHN LYDGATE Lydgate on occasion; it might be said that a man who renders line 80 of the Venus— Sith ryme in English hath swich scarsitee in the two forms— Syth bat in ryme ynglysch hath skarsete Troy Book ii:168, Seyn how that Ynglyssh in ryme hath skarsete FaPrinces ix :3312, is too careless and too obtuse to be considered a true admirer of Chaucer; it might be said that a man who (in Horns Away) confuses Alanus’ description of Nature and Chaucer’s description of Venus is no reader of the Parlement of Foules. Nevertheless, there are elsewhere in Lydgate, especially in the Black Knight, very faithful echoes of the Parlement; and at any moment in Lydgate there appear such phrases as “woful Myrrha,” ‘“vois memoriall,” “hateful harm,” “peple vnsad and euer vntrewe,” “pres hath envie,” “thoroughfare of woo,”— which must mean that reminiscences of his master’s text came easily and naturally into Lydgate’s memory. Considering this, and considering longer passages such as FaPrinces iv :2955-56 or St. Albon iii:457 ff., we can hardly assert that Lyd- gate’s knowledge of Chaucer was superficial. We may find fault with Mr. Ches- terton for talking of the “rescue of Miss Lammle,’ and point out that he has confused poor futile little Georgiana Podsnap with the designing Lammle-couple who tried to entrap her; but we should not be justified in saying that Mr. Chester- ton has thus demonstrated his ignorance of Dickens. The present question re- solves itself into a weighing of quantity against quality; and so far as I can now see, the amount of Lydgate’s conscious and unconscious citation of Chaucer is great enough to prove his industrious reading of the elder poet. Classical authors have indeed exerted small influence on Lydgate’s text, with the noteworthy exception of Ovid,—the more noteworthy because the Bury St. Edmunds library, although rich for its time in classics, contained apparently no Ovid. Their influence, or that of any writer on Lydgate, may be considered under one of four categories:—his translation of an entire work, his insertion of a long borrowed passage, his adoption of details from a classic into a work derived mainly from other sources, the recurrence all through his productivity of phrasal echoes. It is this last, as we have just seen, which clearly proves the power of Chaucer over Lydgate; taken in conjunction with the continual use of Chaucerian rime-tags and the steady abuse of a specifically Chaucerian line-type, it shows the pressure of Chaucer on a mind imitative, repetitive, careless, but none the less honestly admiring. No classical writer exerts any such influence on Lydgate. : There is only one classical writer, indeed, who can be said to exert any in- fluence on Lydgate,—Ovid. Other writers of the ancient world are names or nearly names, especially the Greeks. Homer is for Lydgate, as for Chaucer, the honeymouthed father of song and the too-partial champion of Achilles; Plato holds the key “fof dyvyn Ideie”; Euripides and Demosthenes are mentioned in dependence on Laurent’s French; Aristotle, except in the pseudo-Aristotelian 1Lydgate’s statement, FaPrinces, i:6452, that Samson’s hair was cut by Dalila diverges from Judges xvi:17, where she “vocavit tonsorem,’ toward Chaucer’s indefinite phrase in MoTale 77 that she “made to clippe” the sleeper’s hair. Also note how the account of the Broche of Thebes, FaPrinces i:324-5, is influenced by Chaucer’s Mars 245-50. JOHN LYDGATE 93 letter to Alexander, is as much a name as is Homer. Of the Latins, Virgil is less poet and more sorcerer to Lydgate than to Chaucer; Horace is unknown, as he was to Chaucer; Livy and Juvenal are names, as is Persius; Statius is nominal authority for the Theban story, but was probably no more used at first hand than was Boccaccio for the Fall of Princes. The subjects of several of Seneca’s tragedies are known to Lydgate, and as moralist he is also often men- tioned, but not so often as is Cicero (“Tullius”), from whom, however, but one ( ?) passage is quoted. Ovid only, of the classics, has to any degree passed into the fabric of Lydgate’s work. He is frequently mentioned in the Fall of Princes, contrary to the practice of Lydgate’s French source; and not only are Laurent’s mythological narratives sometimes altered to follow the Metamorphoses, but Ovid’s lines are on occasion translated and interwoven with the English. It should be emphasized that all this happens in the Fall of Princes, and that the less conventional of Lydgate’s classical allusions are nearly all to be found there. Not only is the list of Chaucer’s work in that poem, but lists of the writ- ings of Virgil, Cicero, Petrarch, etc., and whatever Lydgate knows about Dante. The prologues and epilogues to other poems, e.g., St. Edmund, and one of Lyd- gate’s mummings, are liberally seasoned with a mixture of Helicon, Clio, Aurora, Polyphemus, Socrates, Tullius, Homer, and Atropos, but in an entirely lifeless and routine-fashion. The Fall of Princes allusions have some slender vitality in them, and for that vitality, I believe, Humphrey of Gloucester was largely re- sponsible. The heavy task which he assigned to his protégé did indeed crush Lydgate’s verse and style to worse than a dead level much of the time; but it was Gloucester who ordered Lydgate to read and use Coluccio Salutati, Gloucester who spurred Lydgate to talk about literature occasionally instead of about morality all the time, Gloucester for whom the attempts at humor were constructed, Glou- cester whose library included both Petrarch and Dante. The interpolations from Salutati and from John of Salisbury in the Fall of Princes, the prologue to book iv with its catalogues, are of no literary value; but they are of a better substance than is the interpolation about false gods, in Troy Book ii, from Isidor. Lydgate’s knowledge of Petrarch or of Dante was infinitesimal, but that a cloistered monk of his time should have that minute particle is of interest. We cannot, it is true, understand why Lydgate should know so little of Dante and of Boethius, when he found their names so clearly-cut in Chaucer. Occasion- ally we think we hear a Dante-echo in him; the lines Troy Book iv:3014 ff. run much as does the “Taccia Lucan omai” of Inferno 25:94 ff.; but the contact is with Chaucer’s MerchTale 488 ff. The most famous of all Dante-passages, para- phrased by Tennyson as “A sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier things,’ comes to mind when we find in FaPrinces i :645-6,— For thilke sorwe surmountith euery sorwe Which next folwith afftir felicite,— but Lydgate derives proximately from Chaucer’s Troilus 111:1625-28, ultimately from the De Consolatione ii, prose 4. Of his several repetitions of the thought, FaPrinces 1:3529-30, iii:722-24, iv:2308-10, only the second has the notion of remembrance as in Chaucer and in Dante; yet Lydgate’s direct dependence upon Boethius is less likely than inexactness of Chaucer-memory on his part. For his 94 JOHN LYDGATE knowledge of Boethius, except for one translated bit, is surprisingly small and colorless ; see p. 185 here. Other reading by Lydgate shows itself hardly more than in his following of a prescribed source, be it saint’s life, Dance of Death, or Guido delle Colonne’s Trojan story. There is one mention of Gower (FaPrinces ix:3410), but the allusion is only a citation from Chaucer; and although Macaulay has pointed out that the Glasgow MS of the Confessio Amantis is supposed to have come from the Bury library, the only hint of Lydgate’s Gower-knowledge is his telling of the Canace-story. Hampole has just a mention. We do not here discuss Lydgate’s Biblical knowledge, or his use of Josephus; but his reading of English writers outside Chaucer, or of. any classical writer outside Ovid, is not proved. The extent of his acquaintance with such medieval writers as Fulgentius, John of Salisbury, or Isidor of Seville, is, not yet investigated; his interpolation from Isidor into the Troy Book, and his other mentions of the Spanish encyclopedist, have especial interest when we recall the copy of Isidor’s Synonyma in the Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 233, on the last leaf of which is written “Sciant presentes ac futuri quod ego Iohannis Lydgate,” and on the first leaf ‘Liber monachorum sancti Edmundi.” The use which Lydgate makes of his reading is mechanical, and he is always the ecclesiastic. He censures the vices of his time as a Churchman censures, not with desire to cleanse society for society’s sake, but with desire that society shall submit to the Church. One thing of which he feels real personal horror is dissen- sion within the State; to that subject he returns again and again, throughout all his work; and if the prose Serpent of Division be his, to that subject he has devoted a special tractate. The quarrels of kinsmen are so often lamented by Lydgate, the recoil of a bloody deed on its perpetrator so often emphasized, that it is impossible not to connect his strong feeling in these respects with the state of his times. Yet his direct allusions to contemporary history are not many; ctf. for instance FaPrinces viii:2457. And although his general political ideas were doubtless ultra-conservative, he is too vague a thinker to grasp the full meaning of some passages which he quotes. Laurent, with similar insensitiveness, had translated for the duke of Berri, in his second book, all the vehement republicanism of Boccaccio against tyrants; and although Lydgate does indeed at this point sub- stitute a long digression on “the body politic’ from ?John of Salisbury, he later (FaPrinces ix :1443-46) says, quite in Boccaccio’s key, Philisophres and poetis eek deuise In ther sawes prudent and notable Blood of tirauntis is noble sacrefise To God aboue whan thei be vengable. There is enough of this language about tyrants in the churchman John of Salis- bury! to give the fifteenth-century mind, either aristocratic or ecclesiastical, a view of the denunciation as a formula. It assuredly never occurred either to Laurent or to Lydgate that he could arouse any indignant feeling in his patron by copying the quotation. Lydgate’s own idea of the poet’s duty is independently expressed in the Fall of Princes iii :3830-36 ; he says— Ther cheeff labour is vicis to repreue With a maner couert similitude 1See Emerton, Humanism and Tyranny, Cambridge, 1925. JOHN LYDGATE 95 And non estat with ther language greeve Bi no rebukyng of termys dul and rude What euer thei write on vertu ay conclude Appeire no man in no maner wise This thoffice of poetis that be wise. The same mixture of tone runs all through his work. He insists on the “poraile” as the support of monarchy more than once and more than twice, but his language about the instability of the commons is the same as that of Chaucer ; and his hor- ror of a churl in power is almost as great as his horror of civil dissension, al- though he praises natural “gentilesse” as Chaucer had praised it. Lydgate is, in fact, too little politician or satirist to have a consistent tone. In minor or more personal aspects, Lydgate has been praised for his ten- derness toward children, for his defence of women, for his strong nature-feeling ; we are told that he can be both deeply pathetic and admirably humorous, and that on occasion he can show “a stiller kind of majesty.” The first-named is indeed one of his most engaging qualities; he rarely mentions a child without dwelling on its smallness, its softness, its helplessness, even its smile. He may spoil his pictures by accompanying ineptitudes, as in the Canace-letter, but his feeling is real; and on such passages, or on, e.g., the (overlong) dying speech of Polyxena in Troy Book iv:6731 ff., rests much of his claim to command of pathos. His “humor” is almost entirely bound up with his language about women; and here the longer passages are a less trustworthy guide than the shorter. In the Troy Book he frequently bewails Guido’s wicked anti-feminist tongue, and follows a lengthy attack on women, translated from the Latin, by 2 lengthier defense and a hearty rating of his author. But more than a few touches elsewhere in the work, touches of mock courtesy or of michievous comment, show that the poet’s eye was on Henry the Fifth, and that he was alert to provide entertainment for his patron. Compare for instance the meeting of Jason and Medea or of Helen and Paris; and in the Fall of Princes the monkish jocularity over Orpheus’ loss of his wife, i:5825-31, or the jest as to the fewness of good women, 1:1805, 2849, etc., or the line closing the description of Candalus’ queen, saying that Nature, busy in augmenting her beauty, “hadde forget for to make hir trewe.” In these and other sex-gibes (cf. the Mumming at Hertford, also done as aristocratic amusement) is to be found the bulk of Lydgate’s attempts at humor; and these are precisely in the medieval tradition, as is the contradic- tion between them and the lavish praise of woman, e.g., in the Flower of Cour- tesy. The ecclesiastic who both worshipped the Virgin Mother and shrank from every woman as the daughter of mischief-making Eve saw no incongruity in his pictures of woman. Lydgate’s nature-pictures are also of a mixed character. They often have a sort of freshness, especially the many of the Troy Book; but they are nearly always drawn with the help of mythology and of astronomy, servants who can easily overpower a master not possessed of word-magic. Chaucer had been suc- cessful as he opened the Canterbury Tales, but Lydgate is only at times partially successful. Here, as always in his work, the edge of sensation is not keen enough to bring the blood of real expression. Very rarely do we find a happy epithet, as in “smooth rain” or the “restless stone” of Sisyphus. There are two lines in the Troy Book, iii:2746-48, which remind us of Keats’s “early sobbing of 96 JOHN LYDGATE the morn,” just as other passages seem to have given a hint to Shakespeare.' There is, very infrequently, a bit of real observation, such as the description of smoking lime, Troy Book iv :5927-28, or the several allusions to leaderless sheep; and the picture of convent-robbers in St. Edmund may owe its existence to actual experience. See also the (muddled) metaphor of harrowed soil in Fa- Princes ix :691-2, and best of all the line FaPrinces iii:252, where Lydgate says to the hated figure of Poverty, wandering from door to door, “And many a dogge hath on thi staff ignawe.” Laurent spoke only of “barking dogs.” Dulness of sense-perception on the one hand, the weight of stereotyped formula on the other, hold down Lydgate’s feeling for nature just as they hold down his nar- rative progress. Nearly all his work is lifeless. He did fairly well in beast-fables such as the Churl and the Bird, still better in the Horse, Goose, and Sheep, but failed completely in his Aesop stories. His religious narratives, except perhaps St. Margaret, are weakly done; St. Edmund is particularly wooden, although not so hopelessly bad as the Guy of Warwick. The longer romantic narratives, al- though unsteadily handled, and heavy with repetitions, have points of interest. In one channel only, the religious lyric, did the monk find occasionally free ut- terance; passages of the Testament, especially where Lydgate imagines his Savior as addressing him, have real sincerity and power. But it was upon his two long narrative poems that the fame of Lydgate rested in the century after his death. The influence of the Troy Book is marked on Metham’s Amoryus and Cleopes; Caxton not only professed himself un- worthy to bear Lydgate’s inkhorn, when taking up the tale of Troy, but echoed the monk’s phraseology in the proheme to his second edition of the Canterbury Tales and lavished praise on his “master” in his Book of Curtesye (see EETS ed., pp. 36-40). Lydgate was diligently read by Hawes, who is said to have known much of his verse by heart, and to have entertained Henry the Seventh therewith. The Fall of Princes was imitated by Cavendish, by the writers of A Mirror for Magistrates, and by Barclay; the reprint of it in 1554 and of the Troy Book in 1555 came close in time to the publication of Hardyng’s Chronicle, to the third edition of Fabyan’s Chronicle, and to the upgrowth of the English chronicle-play. In the seventeenth century Heywood rewrote the Troy Book as the Life and Death of Hector, and John Lane, the continuator of the Squire’s Tale, published a supposed rewriting of Lydgate’s Guy of Warwick, in which the monk appears as prologue and epilogue. Those functions, and that of Chorus, Lydgate had already filled in Tarlton’s lost play of the Seven Deadly Sins. He appears, with Gower and Chaucer, in Ben Jonson’s masque of the Golden Age Restored, and with them is cited by Jonson in his Grammar. The association of Lydgate’s name with Chaucer’s, or with those of Gower and Chaucer, was long the rule. The fifteenth century apparently marked no difference between them. Hoccleve mentions Gower with Chaucer, terming him also “master,” though with no such personal warmth as he gives to his language about Chaucer. Bokenam, in the prologue to his life of St. Agnes, makes * With Troy Book ii:8197, where the bloody battleground is described as “That first was grene turned into red,” or with the same phrasing i:4100-01, Thebes 2305-6, cp. Macbeth ii,2 :64, “Making the green one red.” With Troy Book iii :5662, “As he lyuede in his apparaile,” cp. Hamlet iii,4:134, “in his habit as he lived.” JOHN LYDGATE 97 Pallas say that her fresh flowers have all been gathered by Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate, the third of whom yet lives. Burgh, although he begins his ad- dress of homage to Lydgate with a line which is ultimately Chaucer’s, makes no mention of the elder poet in his list of famous rhetoricians, and terms Lydgate the flower and treasure of poetry. The unknown writer of the poem published p. 198 here calls Lydgate the fit successor of Chaucer; and the writer of How a Lover Praiseth His Lady, while commending Chaucer warmly, mentions Gower, Lydgate, Ovid, and Statius along with him. George Ashby wrote of ‘“Maisters Gower, Chaucer and Lydgate, Primier poetes of this nacion’”; and Forrest in the prologue to his Joseph names the three together. Hawes lavishes praise on Lydgate, and it is not until Skelton’s Philip Sparrow that we find a discrimi- nation among the three elder poets. From the 1558 edition of the Fall of Princes through the seventeenth cen- tury there are no reprints of Lydgate except those of his poems which are carried along under Chaucer’s name in the editions by Speght. But John Dart, modernizing the Black Knight in 1718, proclaimed Lydgate the greatest poet that England (or perhaps the world) had ever produced,—an opinion not shared by the candid Mrs. Cooper, editor of The Muses’ Library, who in 1737 remarked that she had “waded through” a large volume of his work without finding any of the supposed equality with Chaucer. In 1802 Ritson called Lydgate “a vol- uminous, prosaic, and drivelling monk”; but Gray, in his essay on Lydgate, written much earlier but printed 1814, attributes the “long processes” of the monk’s writing to the taste of his time, and praises him for his power of raising tender emotion and for a frequent “stiller kind of majesty” in expression. Lowell termed Lydgate’s verse “a barbarous jangle’; and both Gosse and Saintsbury, in their histories of English literature, have spoken of his intolerable prolixity and his deficient metrical ear, although Gosse, as already noted, adds that a selection could probably be made which would do him greater credit than does the whole mass. Gosse also mentions appreciatively the gentleness and sympathy for which Gray had praised Lydgate; but Churton Collins, in our own day, has far outdone Gray in the warmth of his commendation. He declares that Lydgate was a poet of fine genius, that his descriptions of nature almost rival Chaucer’s, that his powers of pathos are of a high order, that his style and verse are often of exquisite beauty, and that, at his best, he is one of the most musical of poets. Of such an estimate of Lydgate it can only be said that the perspective of English poetry must have disappeared from before the eyes of a man who applies to Lydgate words better applicable to Keats. If we turn from the opinions of single critics to the testimony of the press, we find that while about seventy MSS of the Canterbury Tales and sixteen of Troilus survive, there are forty of Hoccleve’s De Regimine Principum and thirty of Lydgate’s Fall of Princes, of Lydgate’s Troy Book about a score, still extant. Caxton, who printed the Canterbury Tales twice and Troilus once, issued Lyd- gate’s Horse, Goose, and Sheep thrice, the Churl and Bird twice, the Temple of Glass and the Life of Our Lady once each; also a few brief poems, perhaps as “fillers.” Wynkyn de Worde published the Canterbury Tales twice and the Troilus once, the Temple of Glass three times and the Churl and Bird, the Horse, Goose, and Sheep, the Black Knight, the Siege of Thebes, and the Virtues of the Mass, once each; he also put out a set of extracts from the Fall of Princes, from Chaucer, etc., as “The prouerbes of Lydgate.” It was Richard Pynson who 98 JOHN LYDGATE undertook Lydgate’s longer poems, printing both the Troy Book (1513) and two editions of the Fall of Princes, 1494 and 1527; he also reissued the Temple of Glass and the Churl and Bird, and printed the Testament. Minor printers issued, between 1515 and 1531, the Legend of St. Austin at Compton, the Life of St. Albon, and the Life of Our Lady. In the years between 1554 and 1558 there was a sudden “boom” in Lydgate’s longer poems, the Fall of Princes ap- pearing in 1554 and 1558, the Troy Book in 1555; but thereafter, for nearer three hundred than two hundred years, only a few of Lydgate’s shorter poems and the Siege of Thebes remained in print, carried along with Chaucer in the editions of 1561 and following. In 1818, 1822, the Roxburghe Club reprinted, as literary rarities, Lydgate’s Horse, Goose, and Sheep, his Churl and Bird, and his Black Knight; in 1827 Nicolas’ Chronicle of London, in 1859 Wright’s Political Poems, included several texts by Lydgate or ascribed to him; in 1840 the first collection of the monk’s shorter poems was edited by J. O. Halliwell for the Percy Society,— a task most indifferently performed. Since 1864, when the Early English Text Society began publishing, texts of Lydgate have been steadily appearing ; for them and for the poems edited by German doctorate-candidates, see the appended Select List of the monk’s works. Various collections of Middle English verse have also included work by Lydgate, e.g., Skeat’s Chaucerian and Other Pieces (vol. vii of the Oxford Chaucer), Horstmann’s Altenglische Le- genden, Neilson and Webster’s Chief British Poets of the Fourteen and Fifteenth Centuries. Criticism of Lydgate :— Thomas Gray’s essay, in Gosse’s ed. of Gray’s Works, vol. i. Warton’s Hist. Eng. Poetry, in Warton-Hazlitt ed., iii:53 ff. Morley’s English Writers, vol. vi. Ward’s English Poets vol. i; ten Brink’s Hist. Eng. Lit., vol. ii; Jusserand’s Literary Hist. of the Eng. People, i:498-501; brief treatments by Gosse and by Saintsbury in their short hists. of English literature; Courthope in his Hist. Eng. Poetry, vol. i; Saintsbury in Cambridge Hist. Eng. Lit., vol. ii, chap. on The English Chaucerians. Sidney Lee’s article in the DictNat- Biog. is compact, but needs revision, especially on the bibliographical side. The extravagant praise of Churton Collins in his Ephemera Critica, e.g., pp. 98, 115, 199, does not carry conviction to a careful student. Schick’s introd. to his EETS ed. of the Temple of Glass is still the best guide to knowledge of Lydgate. Koeppel’s monographs on the Fall of Princes (see p. 151 here, foot) and on the Siege of Thebes (p. 120) are of value; that by E. Gattinger on Die Lyrik Lydgates, Vienna, 1896, is unsound. Essays on Special Points :— F. Reuss, Das Naturgefiihl bei Lydgate, in Archiv 122 :269-300. Moorman, Interpretation of Nature in Eng. Poetry, Quellen u. Forschungen, vol. 95 (1905). See chap. 9. G. Reismiiller, Romanische Lehnworter bei Lydgate, Munich, 1909. R. Hingst, Die Sprache Lydgates aus seinen Reimen, Greifswald, 1908. A. H. Licklider, Chapters on the Metric of the Chaucerian Acar: Balti- more, 1910. H. Reger, Die epische Casur in der Chaucerschule, Bayreuth, 1910. JOHN LYDGATE 99 C. F. Babcock, The Metrical Use of Inflectional -e in Middle English, with par- ticular reference to Chaucer and Lydgate, in PMLA 29:50 ff. A. L. McCobb, The Loss of Unaccented -e in the Transition Period, in PMLA 29 :39-41. E. Hiittmann, Das partic. prasens bei Lydgate im Vergleich mit Chaucers Ge- brauch, Kiel diss., 1914. . Courmont, Studies on Lydgate’s Syntax in the Temple of Glass, Paris, 1912. . Hittmair, Das Zeitwort “do” in Chaucers Prosa, Leipzig, 1923. See pp. 85-91. P. Hammond, The Nine-Syllabled Pentameter Line in some Post-Chaucerian MSS, in ModPhil 23 :129-52. > THE CANON The larger part of the work attributed to Lydgate may with tolerable cer- tainty be treated as his; but a number of poems assigned to him, from the day of Hawes to our own, are doubtful or more than doubtful. Hawes, in his Pastime of Pleasure, stanzas 184-187, mentioned eight poems by the monk; for the passage see p. 281 here, and the Notes. More business-like bibliographies, so far as intention is considered, are to be found in :— John Bale, Scriptorum illustrium Maioris Brytannie ——Catalogus, 1557. See pp. 586-7. John Bale, Index Britanniae Scriptorum, ed. from the MS notebook of Bale by R. L. Poole and Mary Bateson, Oxford, 1902. See pp. 228-231. John Stow’s list of 112 works by Lydgate appended to the text of the Siege of Thebes in Speght’s 1598 Chaucer. Stow cited usually from MSS, and is better worth heeding than is the flimsiness of Bale. John Pits, Relationum Historicarum de Rebus Anglicis, tomus primus, Paris, 1619. See pp. 632-34. Based on Bale. Thomas Tanner, Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, ed. David Wilkins, 1748. See pp. 489-93 for long list of Eng. titles and MS-references. For discussion of the above, see H. N. MacCracken’s EETS ed. of the Minor Poems of Lydgate, vol. 1, 1911, xxxiv-xlii. Joseph Ritson, in his Bibliographia Anglo-Poetica, 1802, printed a list of 251 “works” supposedly by Lydgate; this list Schick, in his EETS ed. of the Temple of Glass, 1891, pp. cxlvili-cliii, justly denounces as an “Augean stable of disorder, glaring mistakes, and inextricable confusion.” Ritson was criticised and a new list prepared by MacCracken in an essay on the Lydgate Canon prefixed to his EETS volume above mentioned. This study I have elsewhere (Anglia Beiblatt 24:140- 145) reviewed as not sufficiently judicial; a number of poems are added to the canon on Dr. MacCracken’s opinion alone,—the subjective method for which we censure Stow’s treatment of Chaucer. The list of Lydgate’s works in the DictNatBiog., s.v. Lydgate suffers from lack of method, and has frequent inaccuracies. Notes contributory to the establishment of a Lydgate-canon will be found in Anglia 28 :1-28 (1905), Anglia 30:320-48 (1907). 100 JOHN LYDGATE SELECT LIST of Lydgate’s longer or more frequently mentioned poems; for the many short poems bearing no definite titles, and for the shorter religious poems, see MacCracken’s ed. of the Minor Poems, EETS vol. i; and see his prefixed essay on the canon. Aesop, Fables of, ed. Sauerstein, in Anglia 9:1-24 (1886) ; ed. Zupitza, in Archiv 85:1- 28. See Sauerstein, Ueber Lydgates Aesopusuebersetzung, Halle diss., 1885. Albon and Amphabell (Saints), ed. Horstmann, Berlin, 1882. Assembly of Gods (probably not by Lydgate), ed. Triggs, EETS, 1895. See Rudolph, Lydgate und die Assembly of Gods, Berlin, 1909. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 407. Austin, St. at Compton. In Halliwell, p. 135; in MacCracken, i:193. Black Knight, Complaint of the. For early eds. with Chaucer see my Manual, pp. 413-15. Poem ed. Skeat vii:245; ed. Krausser, in Anglia 19:211-290. Bycorne and Chichevache. In Dodsley’s Old Plays, 1780, vol. 12; in Halliwell, p. 129, repr. Neilson and Webster, p. 220; in this volume, p. 113. Churl and Bird. In Ashmole’s Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, 1652; repr. from Caxton for Roxburghe Club, 1818; in Halliwell, p. 179, repr. Neilson and Webster, p. 208; in this volume, p. 102. Corpus Christi, Procession of. In Halliwell, p. 95; in MacCracken, i:35. Court of Sapience. Probably not by Lydgate. See p. 258 here. Dance Macabre. In Bergen’s ed. of the Fall of Princes, p. 1025; in this volume, p. 124 Departing of Chaucer. In Notes and Queries 1872 i:381; in app. vi to Furnivall’s EETS ed. of Thynne’s Animadversions; in ModPhil 1:331, repr. by Ruud in his brochure on Thomas Chaucer, 1926, p. 119. Dietary. See the EETS Babees Book, p. 54; in Halliwell, p. 66; repr. Neilson and Web- ster, p. 221. See MacCracken’s essay on the canon. Edmund and Fremund (Saints). In Hortsmann’s Altenglische Legenden, Heilbronn, 1881, p. 376. Fall of Princes, ed. Bergen, Carnegie Instit. and EETS, 1923-27. See pp. 150 ff. here. Falls of Seven Princes. In EnglStudien 43:10. Fabula Duorum Mercatorum, ed. Zupitza-Schleich, Vienna, 1897. To MacCracken’s list of MSS add Cambridge Univ. Hh iv, 12. Flower of Courtesy, ed. Skeat vii: 266. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 424. George, Saint. In Engl. Studien 43:10; in MacCracken, i:145. Giles, Saint. In Horstmann, Altengl. Legenden, p. 371; in MacCracken, i:161. Gloucester, Complaint for My Lady of. In Anglia 27:381. By Lydgate? Gloucester, Epithalamium for. In Anglia 27 :385; in this volume, p. 142. Gloucester, Letter to. In Nicolas, Chron. of London, 1827; in Halliwell, p. 49; in this volume, p. 149. Guy of Warwick. Text of MS Laud 683 ed. Zupitza, Vienna, 1873; text of Harvard Univ. 530 F, in John Shirley’s hand, ed. F. N. Robinson, Harv. Studies v:197- 213 (1896). Bit in Zupitza’s Alt u. Mittelengl. Uebungsbuch, repr. Maclean’s Old and Middle Eng. Reader, 1898. Henry VI, Coronation Poem. In Wright, Polit. Poems, ii:141. Henry VI, Entry into London. In Ellis’ ed. of Fabyan’s Chronicle, 1811; in Nicolas’ Chron. of London, 1827; in Halliwell, p. 1; in Archiv 126:75; in Kingsford’s Chronicles of London, 1905. On the roundel of the poem see Archiv 96:191. Henry VI, Pedigree of. In Wright, Polit. Poems, ii:131. Horns Away. In this volume, p. 110, where see refs. Horse, Goose, and Sheep. The de Worde print is repr. Roxburghe Club, 1822. Poem ed. Degenhart, Leipzig, 1900. In EETS PolitReligLovePoems (1903), p. 15. Kings of England, Verses on. In Gairdner’s Histor. Collections, 1876; in Three Fif- teenth Cent. Chronicles, 1880. To MacCracken’s list of MSS add Trin. College Dublin 516, Hatfield 281, Lambeth 306. JOHN LYDGATE 101 Life of Our Lady. No modern ed. yet available. To MacCracken’s list of MSS add Durham V, ii, 16, Hunterian U, 3, 5 at Glasgow, a portion in Huntington 144 (formerly Huth), etc. London Lickpenny. Probably not by Lydgate. In this volume, p. 237, q. v. Margaret, Life of St. In Horstmann, Altengl. Legenden, p. 446; in MacCracken, ZS: Margaret, see Queen Margaret. Mass, The Lover’s. Probably not by Lydgate. See p. 207 here. Mass, Virtues of the. In Huth’s Fugitive Tracts, 1875; in MacCracken, i:87. Mumming at Hertford. In Anglia 22:364, repr. Neilson and Webster p. 223. The other mummings by Lydgate are in Brotanek’s Englische Maskenspiele, 1902. These clumsy but historically important poems were long supposed lost. Nightingale Poems, Two, ed. Glauning, EETS, 1900. See Anglia Beiblatt 16 :360. Order of Fools. In Halliwell, p. 164. In the EETS Booke of Precedence, p. 79. Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, EETS, 1899-1904. Prospect of Peace. In Wright, Polit. Poems, ii :209. Queen Margaret’s Entry into London. By Lydgate? Texts printed by Carleton Brown in MLReview 7 :225, by Robt. Withington in ModPhil 13:53. Reason and Sensuality, ed. Sieper, EETS, 1901. Secrees of Olde Philisoffres, ed. Steele, EETS, 1894. Corrections by Prosiegel, Book of the Governance of Kings, Munich diss., 1903. Stans Puer ad Mensam. In Reliquiae Antiquae, i:156; in EETS Babees Book, p. 26; in EETS Booke of Precedence, p. 56. Temple of Glass, ed. Schick, EETS, 1891. An extract from Schick is in Neilson and Webster, p. 213. See MacCracken in PMLA 23:129-40; see Courmont as p. 99 ante. Testament. In Halliwell, p. 232; in MacCracken, 1:329. Thebes, Siege of, or Story of, ed. Erdmann, EETS, 1911, text. Prologue in Wiilker’s Altengl. Lesebuch, ii:105 (from Stow of 1561); in Anglia 36:360; in Spurgeon’s Chaucer Allusion i:26-31; and p. 118 here. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 456. A selection from part ii is in Skeat’s Specimens Eng. Lit. 1394-1579. Troy Book, ed. Bergen, EETS, 1906-08, text. A bit is repr. by Neilson and Web- ster, p. 216. For Lydgate’s prose work, see MacCracken’s ed. of the Serpent of Division, Oxford, 1911, and note by same in MLReview 8:103. See, in the Harvard MS 530 F, a continuation of the prose Brut, or chronicle of England, which the copyist John Shirley in a long heading asserts to be the work of Lydgate. This heading is printed Harvard Studies v:185. Besides the Assembly of Gods, the Court of Sapience, the Lover’s Mass, London Lickpenny, etc., many other works have been falsely ascribed to Lydgate. Walton’s translation of Boethius was credited to Lydgate as noted on p. 39 here; Warton opined that the Coventry Corpus Christi Play was “very probably” by Lydgate, and Wright hinted his authorship of the Payne and Sorow of Euyll Maryage,—see p. 295 of Poems of Walter Mapes, Camden Soc., 1841. The prose transl. of the Pilgrimage of the Soul is frequently assigned to Lydgate, see Schick’s ed. of the Temple of Glass, p. ci; and this very dubious assignment is sanctioned by the New Eng. Dict. Other minor ascrip- tions are made by fifteenth-century scribes, and a major one by Henry Peachan, who in 1622 announced that Lydgate “wrote that bitter Satyre of Peirs Plowman”. Ritson’s pseudo-bibliography has been torn to pieces by Schick as cited, and the Canon-essay of MacCracken does not classify Lydgate’s works with regard to the quality of evidence for the monk’s authorship. THE CHURL AND THE BIRD The Churl and the Bird was one of the most popular of Lydgate’s shorter poems, and is among the eight works attributed to him by Hawes in his Pastime of Pleasure; see p. 281 here. It was printed by Caxton twice, by de Worde, by Copland, and by Pynson. Its exact source has not been identified; the French “paunflete” which Lydgate mentions in line 35 would hardly have been the long narrative compilation of Petrus Alfonsus’ Disciplina Clericalis in its French ren- dering Le Castoiement d’un Pére a son Fils, but some perhaps separate version of the single tale which it contains on this subject. The Castoiement’s recension of our story, which is nearer the English than is any other of the French ver- sions, mentions a peasant as owner of the garden, describes the song of the bird, its capture, and the dialogue leading to its release; it presents the three “wis- doms” as: 1) que tu ne creies pas A toz les diz que tu orras, 2) que tu avras Ce que toen ert ja ni faudras, 3) que ne deiz pas plorer Ne ne te deiz desconforter Se perdue as aucune rien—The churl’s despair is then described, the bird’s reproof given, and the bird departs. See the poem (156 lines) as printed in Labouderie’s ed. of the Disciplina, Paris, 1824, ii:130-36. This version, as ap- pears. is close to the English. Gaston Paris, in his Légendes du Moyen Age, essay on Le Lai d’Oiselet, prints and discusses a far fuller and more symmetrical French tale based on the same situation. In this version the garden depends for its existence upon the song of the bird, and although once the property of a chevalier, has now fallen into the hands of a “vilain”. The bird still sang in the garden her wonderful song, which was of duty to God, and that God and love are one, and that love is supported by loyalty, courtesy, and honor. As the bird sings she sees the listening churl, who is evil-minded and covetous; and therefore she pours out praises of her former hearers, the noble knights and ladies. This incenses the churl, who snares the bird. The story then continues as here, with the added detail that the churl scorns the bird’s three “wisdoms’’, and declares he is not so stupid as to need them. The rest of the narrative is as here, except that when the bird departs the beauty of the garden disappears, the streams and trees dry up, and the churl loses his all. This version may also be read in Barbazan and Méon’s Fabliaux, iii:114; although such a developed tale bears no relation to Lydgate’s source, it is interesting to note that when Elias Ashmole reprinted our poem in his Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum in 1652, he drew from it a “para- bolicall and allusive interpretation”—although an alchemical one. The date of the English rendering is uncertain. It has been suggested by Schick, page c of his edition of the Temple of Glass, that the translation was executed before the death of Chaucer, the allusion to “my maister” in line 380 being taken to mean Chaucer. But the argument is of doubtful validity. From the phrasing and movement of the poem we may, however, be inclined to place it early in Lydgate’s career; for it is much fresher and lighter than is, e.g., the fable of the Cock and Precious Stone, where the narrative is very poorly managed. Both this poem and Bycorne and Chichevache seem to us early just because of this (comparative) freshness of handling; or it may be that the choice of models in them is fortunate, for Lydgate and for us, since their con- [ 102 ] THE CHURL AND THE BIRD 103 nection with the Manciple’s tale or with the Clerk’s envoy stimulates the modern reader’s interest. My text is in the main from MS Longleat 258, of the Marquess of Bath’s library, for the use of which I am indebted to the present Lord Bath. Other copies are in Brit. Mus. Harley 116, Cotton Caligula A ii, Lansdowne 699; in Lansdowne’s partial sister Leyden Vossianus 9; in Hh iv, 12 and Kk i, 6 of the University Library Cambridge; in Trin. Coll. Cambridge R 3, 19; in Balliol College Oxford, and a fragment in Christ Church College Oxford 152; in Lincoln Cathedral C 5,4; in a Gurney MS, in the Cardigan MS of the Canterbury Tales ; and in a Huth MS, now No. 144 of the Huntington Library, California. Halliwell in his edition of the Minor Poems printed the Harley 116 text, reprinted in Neilson and Webster’s Chief British Poets, p. 209. The second Caxton was re- printed for the Roxburghe Club in 1818, and the first Caxton (unique) was facsimiled in 1906 by the Cambridge University Press. As the MS Longleat 258 is in private possession and difficult of access, I describe it in some detail. It is of 147 leaves 854 by 5% inches in size, mainly in eights, paper quires in vellum covers. It is written in one small legible cur- rent hand, evenly but not handsomely, three spaced stanzas to the page, without ornament. The titles of the poems are usually in colophons; a slovenly later hand has put in running titles. An inserted note by Henry Bradshaw discusses the loss of the fifth and sixth quires, with which went the whole of the Flower and Leaf and the first six stanzas of Chaucer’s Mars. A contemporary table of contents on the last verso shows that the volume also once contained, at the beginning, the Letter of Cupid and “Vnum Carmen”. This table is printed in Chaucer Soc. Odd Texts, p. 251, and also in ModLangNotes 20:77, where I de- scribed the MS. The contents are :— 1-32a, the Temple of Glass. Most of 32a was blank, and three stanzas were later written there, perhaps by Sir John Thynne, an early owner. These stanzas are printed, from MS B. M. Adds. 17942, by Fligel, Neuengl. Lesebuch 39. Fol. 32b is blank. See Schick’s ed. of the Temple of Glass, EETS 1891. (Two eights are missing) 49a-54b, Chaucer’s Mars, impf. at beginning. Printed Chaucer Soc. SPT, p. 141. 55a-57b, Chaucer’s Pity. Printed Chaucer Soc. Odd Texts, p. 251. 58a-75b, the Assembly of Ladies. This text not noted by Skeat, vii:380 ff. 76a-84a, Chaucer’s Anelida. Printed Chaucer Soc. SPT 37. Fol. 84b is blank. 85a-101a, Chaucer’s Parlement of Foules. Printed Chaucer Soc. SPT, p. 1. Fol. 101b is blank. 102a-119a, the Eye and the Heart. Printed Anglia 34:235-265. Most of 119a and all 119b are blank. 120a-136b, La Belle Dame sans Merci, by Ros. This text not noted by Skeat, vii: 299. See my Manual, pp. 432-33. 137a-147a, the Churl and the Bird. Text here printed. Fol. 145b and all of 146 are blank; the last stanza of the poem, on 147a, is written by the usual scribe, but the three stanzas on 145a, i.e., 46, 47, and 48, are in the later hand of the codex, while the last gathering of the MS has nine paper leaves instead of the usual six. Two stanzas, 49 and 50, are lacking to the poem, as also in the Balliol copy. It seems probable that the scribe had an imperfect copy before him, recognized it as such, and enlarged his final quire to permit addition later, putting his 104 JOHN LYDGATE last stanza after his estimated space to make it clear that more text was to come. Whatever copy the later scribe then found was short two stanzas, as is Balliol, Cf. p. 336 of my Manual for the procedure of the Fairfax and the Bodley MSS in the Book of the Duchesse under, similar conditions. Stanzas 49 and 50, missing from Longleat and from Balliol, are here sup- plied from MS Lincoln Cathedral C 5, 4. This MS, a damaged and somewhat mutilated volume of 86 paper leaves, contains but four entries, viz.: Lydgate’s St. Albon and St. Amphabell, impf. at beginning and at close; the Churl and Bird, lacking 8 stanzas at beginning; Lydgate’s St. Austin at Compton; and his Dance Macabre. These three latter poems appear in MS Lansdowne 699 in the same order and with the same headings; and the Dance Macabre text in both MSS is of the same recension, and closely similar. Could the codices be laid side by side, it might even appear that the writing was identical; so far as my visual memory served, the hands were not unlike. In the Longleat MS a hand other than the scribe’s has made some correc- tions; see lines 76, 225, 266, 280, 305, 306, in the footnotes. Special textual dif- ferences among the MSS are dealt with in the Notes; see lines 1, 51, 76, 115, 177, Zl0V227, 352, 300-7. Problemes of olde likenes and figures Whiche proued ben ful fructuous of sentence And han auctorite grounded on scriptures By resemblaunce of notable Apparence With moralite concluding on prudence 5 Like as the Bibyll rehersith by writyng Howe trees sumtyme chose heim self a king ffirst in thair chois they named the Olyve To reigne amonge heim Judicum doth ex- presse But he himself gan excusyn blyue 10 That he might not forsake his fatenesse Ner the ffigge tre his amerous swetnesse Ner the vyne his holsom fressh tarage Whiche yevith comfort vnto almaner age 3 And sembla(b)ly Poetes Laureate 15 By derke parables ful convenyent ffayn that birddes and bestes of estate As Roial Egles and lyons of assent Sent out writes to holde a perlament And made decrees brevely for to saye Summe to haue lordship and summe to obaye 2, 11. Only Longleat has ful, that. 4. Harl. and Kk have nobill inst. of notable. 17. Other MSS ffeyne, ffeynyn. 4 Egles in the eyre highest take hir flight Power of lyons on the grounde is sene Cedre amonge trees highest is of sight And the laurer of nature (is) ay grene 25 Of floures al flora goddes and quene Thus (of) al thinges there ben diver- sites Summe of estat and summe of low degres 5 Poites written wonderful liknesse And vnder couert kepe heim self ful cloos 30 They take bestes and foules to witnesse Of whois fe(y)nynges fables first aroos And here I cast vnto my purpose Oute of the frenssh a tale to translate Whiche in a paunflete I red and saw but late 35 6 This tale whiche I make of mencion In gros rehersith by writing thaire Thre proverbes paied for the raunson Of a faire brid that was take in a snare Wondre desirous to scape oute of hir care 40 Of myn auctorite folowing the processe So as it fil in ordre I shal expresse 22. Other MSS to take: note the infinitives of 20, 21 2a ih. Longleat omits is, of. 41. Other MSS auctor inst. of auctorite. THE CHURL AND THE BIRD 105 Whilom there was in a smal vilage As myn auctour maketh rehersayl A chorle whiche hade lust and gret corage 45 Within him self by deligent trauayl Taraye his gardyne with notable ap- perayl Of leng(t)h and brede elich square and longe Hegged and diched to make it sure and stronge Alle the aleys were made playne with sonde 50 The benches couerd with new turvys grene Swete herbes with condites at honde That welled vp ayenst the sonne shene Like siluer stremes as any cristal clene The burbly wawes (in ther) vp boyl- ling 55 Rounde as birall thair stremes out shew- ing 9 Amyd the gardyn stode a fressh laurere Thereon a birde synging day and nyght With sonnysh feders brighter then gold were Whiche with hir song made hevy hertes light 60 That to be holde it was an heuenly sight Howe towarde even and day dawynge She dud hir payne moost amorously to singe 10 Esperus enforced hir corage Towarde even whan Phebus gan to (w )est 65 Amonge the braunches to hir avauntage To singe hir complaynt and than to go to rest And at the rising of the quene Alcest To synge ayein as it was to hir dewe Erly on morowe the day sterre to sa- lewe 70 il It was a verrey hevenly melodye Evyn and morowe to here the briddes song 55. Other MSS have in ther before vp. Harl. has in. 62. Other MSS and in the dawnynge. 65. Longleat reads gan to rest. 67. Other MSS, except Hh, read complyn inst. of complaynt. And the swete sugred Armonye Of vncouth warbles and tewnes draw along That al the gardyn of the noys rong 75 (Tyl) on (a) morowe that Tytan shone ful clere The bride was trapped and taken in a pantere 12 The chorle was glad that he this bride had take Mery of chere of loke and of visage And in al hast he cast for to make 80 Within his hous a praty litel cage And with hir song to reioyse his corage Tyll at the last the cely bride abrayde And sobirly thus to the chorle she saiede 13 I am now take and stand vnder daun- gire 85 Holde straite that I may not flee A dewe my songe wt al my notes clere Nowe that I haue lost my liberte Now am I thral and summe tyme I was free And trust well while I stond in dis- tresse 90 ' I can not syng ner make noo gladnesse 14 And though my cage forged were of gold And the penacles of byral and cristal I remembre a proverbe said of olde Who lesith his fredome in faith he lesith al 95 ffor I had leuer vpon a branche smal Merely to singe amonge the wodes grene Thenne in a cage of siluer bright and shene 5 Songe and prison han noon accordaunce Trowest thou I wol synge in prisoun Songe procedith of Ioye and of pleas- aunce And prison causith deth and distruc- cioun Rynging of fetters make noo mery sou Howe shuld he be glad or Iocunde Ayeinst his wille that lithe in chaynes bounde 105 76. Longleat has been corrected; see Note. 90. while, Harl, Trin.; now, Linc, Lansd. Kk. 104. Other MSS read Or howe shuld, etc. 106 JOHN LYDGATE 16 What availith a lion to be kyng Of bestes al shet in a Tour of stoon Or an egle vnder streit kepyng Called also kyng of foules echoon ffye on lordship when liberte is goon 110 Answere hereto and lete it not asterte Who singith mery that singith not in herte 17 But if thou wilt rejoys of my singyng Lette me goo flee fre from al daunger And euery day in the mornyng II5 I wil repair vnto thy laurer And fresshely syng wt lusty notes cler Vndre thy chambre and afore thy halle Euery season whan thou list me calle 18 To be shitt vp and pynned vndre drede 120 Noo thing accordith vnto my nature Though I were fedde wt mylke & wastel brede And swete cruddes brought to my pasture Yet had I leuer to doo my besy cure Erly in the morowe to (shrape) in the vale 125 To fynde my dyner amonge the wormes smale 19 The labourer is gladder at the plough Erly on the morowe to fede him on bacoun Than som man is that hath tresour ynough And of al deyntes plente and foyson 130 And hath noo fredom with his posses- sion ‘To goo at large but as a bere at the stake ‘To passe his boundis but if he leve take 20 ‘Take this answere ful for conclusion ‘To synge in prison thou shalt me not constrayn I35 ‘Tyll I haue liberte in woddes vp and doon To fleen at large on bowghes rough & playn And of reason thou shuldest not disdayn 109, 112. Other MSS read euerichoon, of herte. 115. See Note. 125. sharpe has been emended to scrape; other { MSS. _shrape. 134. Trin, Harl. for ful; Linc, Lansd, Hh, for a full. Of my desires but laugh and haue good game But who is a chorle wold eche man were pe same 140 21 Welle quod the chorle / sith it wol not be That I desire / as by thyn talkynge Maugre thyn hede / thou shalt chese oon of thre Within a cage merely to synge Or to the kechyn I shal thy body brynge 145 Pul thy feders that ben so bright and clere And after rost the / or bake the to my dynere 22 Thenne quod the Bride to reason say not nay Toching my songe / a ful answere thou hast And when my feders pulled ben away 150 If I be rosted other bake in past Thou shalt haue of me a ful smal repast But if thou wilt werke be my counsaille Thou maist be me haue passing gret availle 23 If thou wilt vnto my rede assent 155 And suffre me goo / frely from prison Withoute raunsoun / or any other rent I shal the yeve / a notable gwerdoun Thre gret wisdomes according to reason More of value take hede what I prof- fre 160 Than al the gold / that shitt is in thy cofre 24 Trust me wel / I shal the not disceyue Welle quod the chorle telle on anoon lete se Nay quod the bride thou maist aforne conceyue Who that shal teche / of reason he must goo fre 165 It sitt a maistre / to haue his liberte And at large to teche his lessoun 147. Trin, Hh omit first the; Linc, Lansd, omit both. Harl reads—the rooste and baake, etc. 148. Longleat inserts I before say; Lansd and Calig insert IJ before nay. 152. Other MSS of me haue. 160. Other MSS I do profre. 164. Other MSS thou must afore, etc. THE CHURL AND THE BIRD 107 Haue me not suspecte I meane noo tresoun 25 Welle quod the chorle I holde me content I trust thy promyse / which thou hast made to me 170 The bride fligh forth the chorle was of assent And toke hi(r) flight vp to the laurer tre Then thought she thus / now that I stande fre With snares panters I cast not al my lyve Ner with noo lyme twigges any more to stryve 175 26 He is a foole that scaped is daungere Hath broken his (fetters) & fled is from prison That wol resort for brent childe dredith fere Eche man be ware of wisdome and rea- son Of Sugre strawed that hidith fals poi- son 180 There is noo more perlious venom of sharpnesse Than when it hath of treacle a likenesse 27 Who dredith noo perel in perell he shal falle Smothe waters ben ofte sithes depe The quayle pipe can moost falsly calle 185 Tylle the quayle vndre the net doth creepe A blere eyed fouler trust not though he wepe Eschewe his thombe of weping take noon hede That smale briddis can nype by the hede 28 And now that I suche daungier am as- kaped 190 I wol be ware and afore prouide That of noo fouler I wol no more be laped ffrom thaire lyme twigges I wol fle fer aside Where perel is / (gret) perel is to abide 172. Longleat his, altered by corrector. 177. Longleat feders; see Note. 194, 197, 202. Longleat omits gret, inserts thou, inserts second of. Come nere thou chorle take hede to my speche 195 Of thre wisdomes that I wol the teche 29 Yeue thou not of wisdome to haste cre- dence To euery tale ner to eche tything But considre of reason and prudence Amonge many tales / is many loude lesing 200 Hasty credence causith gret hinderyng Report of tales and tythinges brought vp of new Maketh many man to be holde vntrew 30 ffor oo party take this for my raunsoun Lerne the secunde grounded on scrip- ture 205 Desire thou not / by noo condicioun Thing that is impossible to recure Worldly desire stondith al in aventure And who desireth to clymbe to high on loft By souden turne he falleth oft vnsoft 31 The threde is this / be warre both evyn & morowe fforgete it not / but lerne this of me ffor tresour lost / make neuer to gret sorowe Whiche in noo wise / may recouerde be ffor who taketh sorow / for losse in that degre 215 Rekyn first his losse / and after rekyn his payne Of oo sorowe he maketh sorowes twayne 32 After this lessoun / the bride began a song Of hir eschape gretly reioysing 210 And she remembring also of the wrong Don by the chorle / first at hir taking Of hir affray / and of hir prisonyng Glad that she was at large and oute of drede Saide vnto him howyng aboue his hede 33 Thou were quod (she) a verrey natural foole_ . 225 200. Other MSS gret# inst. of loude. 201. Other MSS hath causid inst. of causith. 210, 227. See Notes. 221. Longleat reads Down by, etc. 225. The corrector of Longleat inserts she. 108 JOHN LYDGATE To suffre me depart / of thy lewdenesse Thou augtest of right complayne & to make dole And in thyn hert / haue gret heuynesse That thou hast lost so passing gret rychesse Whiche might haue sufficed by value of rekenyng 230 To pay the raunsoun of a mighty kyng 34 There is a stone whiche called is Iagounce Of olde engendred within myn entrayle Whiche of fyne gold peysith a gret vnce Citheryn of colour like garnettes of entayle 235 Whiche maketh men victorious in batayle And who so euer bere on him this stone Is fully assured ayeinst his mortal foone 35 Who hath this stone / in possessioun Shal suffre noo pouert / ner noon indi- gence 240 But of plente haue tresour and foysoun And euery man shal doo him reuerence And noon enemy shal doo him offence But fro thyn handes now that I am goon Playne if thou wilt (for) thy part is noon 245 36 It causith loue it maketh men gracious And fauourable in every man is sight It makith accorde betwix folke envyous Comfortith sorowful / and makith heuy hertes light Like Topasion of coloure sonnysh bright 250 I am a fole to telle alle at ones Or teche a chorle the prise cf precious stones 37, Men shulde not put a precious Marga- rete As Rubeis Sapheres / or other stones ynde Emeraudes ner rounde perles white 255 To forne rude swyne / that loue draff of kinde ffor a Sowe dili(ti)th as I fynde More in foule draff / hir pigges for to glade 245. Longleat omits for. 249. Harl, Hh, Calig, also have and; not in other texts. Then in al the perry / that cometh of garnade 38 Eche thing draweth to his semblable ffisshe in the see / bestes on the stronde The eyre for foules of nature is conven- able To a plough man for to till the lande And to a chorle a muke forke in his hande I lese my tyme any more to tary 265 To telle a boyuer of a lapidary 39 That thou haddest / thou getest nomore agayne Thy lyme twigges and panters I defye To lete me goo thou were foule ouer- sayne To lese thy richesse only of folye 270 I am now fre to sing / and for to flye Where that me list / and he is a fole at al That goth at large / and maketh him self thral 40 To here of wisdome thyn eres ben half defe Like an Asse that listith on an harpe 275 Thou maist goo pipe in an hyvye lefe Better is to me to sing / on thornes sharpe Than in a Cage with a Carle to carpe ffor it was saide of folkes yore agoon A Chorles (thralle) is alwey woo begoon 41 . The chorle felt his hert part on twayn ffor verrey sorowe / and a sondre ryve Alas quod he I may well wepe and playn As a wreche neuer like to thryve But forto endure in pouert al my lyve 285 ffor of foly / and of wilfulnesse I haue now loste al holy my richesse 42 I was a lord I crye oute on fortune Hade gret tresour late in my keping Whiche might haue made me long to (contune ) 290 259. Other MSS, except Lansd, have oute of garnade. 260. Harl, Linc, Lansd, Hh, wnto. 266. Lansd, Hh, Calig, read chorl inst. of boveer. and the corrector of Longleat has written chorl above boyuer. 280. The Lt. corrector writes thralle above chorle. Linc, Lansd, Harl, Trin, have cherl, wyfe. 290. Lt. writes contynue, other MSS contune. THE CHURL AND THE BIRD 109 With thilke stone to haue lyued like a kyng If that I hade sett it in a ryng Borne it vpon me I had hade good ynough I shulde no more haue goon ynto the plough 43 Whenne the Bride sawe the chorle thus morne 295 And how that he was heuy of his c(h)ere She toke hir flight / and gan ayein retorne Towarde him / and said as ye shal here O dulle Chorle wisdomes for to lere That I the taught al is left behinde 300 Raced awey / and clene oute of thy mynde 44 Taught I the not this wisdome in sen- tence To euery tale brought vp to the of newe Not to hastly to yeue therto credence Vnto tyme thou knew that (it) were trewe 305 Alle is not gold that (sheweth) goldissh hewe Ner stoones al by nature as I fynde Be not Saphers / that shewen colour ynde 45 In this doctryne I lost al my laboure To teche the suche prouerbes of sub- staunce 310 Now maist thou see thyn lewde blynde erroure ffor al my body peysed in balaunce Weyeth not an vnce rude is thy remem- braunce I to haue more peyce in myn entrayle Then al my body sett for countervayle 46 Alle my body wey(e)th not an vnce Howe might then I haue in me a stone That peyseth more than doith a gret Tagonce Thy brayne is dulle / thy witte is almost goone Of thre wisdomes thou hast forgoten oone 320 296. Lt reads clere inst. of chere. 305. The corrector inserts it. 306. The corrector writes sheweth over shyneth. 309. No other MS has al. 315. Other MSS countertayle. Thou shuldest not after my sentence To euery tale yeue hasty credence I bad also be warre (both) even and morowe ffor thing lost / of sodeyne aventure Thou shuldest neuer make to muche sorowe 325 When thou seist / thou maist not it recure Here thou failist / whiche doth thy besy cure In thy snare to cache me ayeine Thou art a fole thy labour is in vayne 48 In the threde thou doost also rave 330 I bad thou shuldest in noo manere wise Coueyt thing / whiche thou maist not haue In whiche thou hast forgote my enprise That I may sey plainly to deuise Thou hast of madenesse forgeten al thre 335 Notable wisdomes / that I taught the 49 It wer but foly / mor with the to carpe Or to preche / of wisdamys more or lasse I hold hym mad / that bryngeth forth his harpe Ther on to teche / a rude fordullid Asse 340 And mad is he / that syngeth a fool a masse And he most mad / that doth his besy- nesse To teche a cherl / termys of gentilesse 50 And semblably / in Aprill & in May When gentil briddis most make mello- dye 345 The cokkow syngen can but oo lay In othir tunys / she hath no, fantasye Thus euery thyng / as clerkis specefye ffrut on trees / & folk of euery age ffro whens thei cam / thei take a tarage 350 51 The Vynteneer tretith / of his holsom vynes 323. Longleat reads but, other MSS _ both. Stanzas 46, 47, 48, are in later hand; see introd. to this poem. Stanzas 49 and 50 are from the Lincoln Cathedral MS; see Introduction. 346. Harl and Trin read can than but, etc. 110 JOHN LYDGATE Off gentil frut / bostith eek the garden- eer The ffissher cast / his hookis & his lynes To cachche ffissh / in euery fressh ryveer Off tilthe of lond / tretith the boveer 355 The gentylman talkythe of genterye The cherl deliteth / to speke of ribaudye 52 All oon to the a facoun & a kite As good an owle / as a Popyngay A dongel doke / as deynte as a snyte 360 Who serueth a cherl / hath many a car- ful day Adieu sir cherl farweel I flye my way I cast me nevir / hen(s)forth my lyvyng Afforn a cherl / any mor to synge 53 Verba auctoris Ye folk that shal this fable seen & reede 365 Newe forgid talis / I counsell you to flee ffor los of good / takith nat to gret heede 352. Other MSS, except Linc and Hh, have not eek, 356-7. See Notes. Beeth nat to sorweful for noon aduersite Coueiteth nat thyng that may nat be And remembrith wher evir that ye gon 370 A cherlis thrale / is alway woo begon 54 Vnto purpos / this proverbe is ful riff Rad & reportid / bi old remembrance A childis bird / & a knavis wiff Haue ofte sith / gret sorwe & mys- chance 375 Who hath freedam / hath al suffisance Bett is freedam with litil in gladnesse Than to be thral in all wordly richesse 55 Lenvoye Goo litil quayeer & recomende me Vnto my maistir / with humble affec- cion 380 Beseche hym lowly / of mercy & pite Off thi rude makyng / to haue compas- sion And as touchyng / thi translacion Out of the frenssh / how euer the ynglissh be All thyng is seyd / vndir correccion 385 With supportacion of your benygnyte 366. Harl and Hh as here; Linc, Lansd, have concetleth inst. of I counsell. Explicit fabula de Aue & Rustico HORNS AWAY When Anne of Bohemia came to England in 1381 to marry Richard II, she brought with her, says Miss Strickland in her Queens of England, three fashions previously unfamiliar to Englishwomen. One was the use of pins, as we know them; another was the sidesaddle; the third was the high forked headdress or horned cap. “This cap,” continues Miss Strickland, “was at least two feet in height, and as many in width; its fabric was built of wire and pasteboard, like a very widespreading mitre, and over these horns was extended glittering tissue or gauze. Monstrous and outrageous were the horned caps that reared their heads in England directly the royal bride appeared in one.” It was an age of extravagance in dress, not only in the use of costly ma- terials, but in the cut and trimming of all garments. Richard II and his un- worthy favorites excited the anger and contempt of the people by the fanciful absurdity of their clothes. The anonymous play known as the Woodstock Play,! which praises “plain Thomas” duke of Gloucester, in contrast to the foolish prodigality of the king, has several scenes deriding the “wyld and antick habits” of the courtiers. Among the fashions held up to laughter are the high pointed * Printed in Jahrb. der deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft 35:3-121 (1899). HORNS AWAY 111 shoes, connected with the hose by chains, or as the play has it, “a kynd coherence twixt the tooe and knee”. There are also mentioned Italian cloaks and Spanish hats, their plumed tops “waving a cubit high above their wanton heads”. See the “hygh cappis wytlesse” and “long peked schone” mentioned in a ballad printed by Wright, Political Poems, ii:251; and cf. notes here on Barclay’s Ship of Fools, lines 456, 8479-85, where the English Acts of Apparel are cited. See also Hoc- cleve’s Regement of Princes, 421-546, and the description of the Lombard kings in the Fall of Princes, ix :838 ff. Women’s headgear was as extravagant as men’s. Chaucer’s Wife of Bath wore to church kerchiefs weighing ten pounds; Piers Plowman’s peasant is warned by Reason that he should not let his wife’s head cost half a mark.t When the horned headdress was succeeded by the steepleshaped, expenditure was in nowise decreased, for jewels and long silk veils were added. See the headdresses reproduced in Shaw’s Dresses and Decorations, ii, from MS Harley 6431, where Christine de Pisan presents a poem to Queen Isabella of France; and see ibid. from MS Royal 18 E ii (a Froissart MS) showing a masque before Charles VI of France; see also ibid., the portrait of Constance, wife of John of Gaunt, wearing the horned headdress. Fairholt in his Costume in England has many small outline cuts taken from manuscript; this poem is cited p. 148 of his 1860 edition. Horned headgear was also common, and derided, in France at an earlier date; see the Dit des Cornetes in Jubinal’s Jongleurs et Trouvéres, p. 87, re- produced by Fairholt in Satirical Songs, p. 29; see La Contenance des Femmes in Jubinal’s Nouveau Recueil, pp. 174-5; see the Roman de la Rose 13500-03, ed. Méon, i1:338. The fashion persisted long in England; see Elmham’s Liber Metricus, where the author remarks of the crowds assembled to see Henry V pass,— Quaeque fenestra nitet Vultibus ornatis, utinam sine cornubus! illic Erexit cornu nobis Deus ipse salutis: Hine confringantur cornua fulta malis. Lydgate mentions the horned caps several times; in Reason and Sens 6565 he says that good women “‘dedely haten highe crestys And to be hornyd lych as bestys.” In the Fall of Princes, ii:4231-2, he implies the same thing; in the golden world (tbid. iii:3158) “Women that age farsid were nor hornyd”; and again, vii:1206, “Of hornyd beestis no boost was then Iblowe.” This “high style’ changed in Henry VII’s time to a low flat cap, with the same suddenness and completeness as did the style of hair, of sleeves, and of shoes. Manuscripts of the poem are:—Bodl. Laud 683, printed Relig. Antiq. i:79, pr. by Halliwell, p. 46, by Fairholt in his Satirical Songs, 1849, p. 51—Univ. Libr. Cambridge Hh iv, 12, printed EETS PolitReligLovePoems, 1903, p. 45, collated with Harley 2255; this text is repr. by Neilson and Webster, Chief British Poets, p. 222, from the earlier EETS ed. of 1893.—Harley 2255, printed in Nicolas’ Chronicle of London, 1827, p. 270, and here.—Jesus Coll. Cambr. 56.— Bodl. Rawl. C 86.—Trin.Coll.Cambr R 3, 19.—Bodl. Ashmole 59 is a corrupt and careless text.—Harley 2251 and Adds. 34360, sister texts, are of four stanzas eee cea inclusion of Leyden Vossianus 9 in the list I do not find justified. *B-text, passus v, line 31. 112 JOHN LYDGATE [MS Brit. Mus. Harley 2255, fol. 6] Off god and kynde / procedith al bewte Crafft may shewe / a foreyn apparence But nature ay must haue be souereynte Thyng countirfet / hath noon existence Twen gold and gossomer is gret differ- ence 5 Trewe metal / requerith noon allay Vnto purpoos / by cleer experyence Bewte wyl shewe / thouh hornes wer away Riche attires / of gold and perre Charbonclis rubies / of moost excel- lence 10 Shewe in dirknesse / liht wher so they be By ther natural / heuenly influence Doubletys of glas / yeve a gret evidence Thyng countirfet / wil faylen at assay On this mateer / concludyng in sen- tence 5 Bewte wyl shewe / thouh hornys wer away 3 Aleyn remembryth / his compleynt who lyst see In his book / of famous eloquence Clad al in floures / and blosmys of a tree He sawh nature / in hir moost excel- lence 20 Vpon hir hed a keuerchef of Valence Noon othir richesse / of countirfet array Texemplefye / by kyndly providence Bewte wil shewe / thouh hornys wer away 4 ffamous poetys of antiquyte 25 In Grece and Troye renoumyd of pru- dence Wroot of queen Heleyne / and Penelope Off Polyceene / with hir chaast Inno- cence ffor wyves trewe / calle Lucrece to pre- sence That they wer fayr / ther can no man sey nay 30 Kynde wrouht hem / with so gret dilli- gence On the MS see p. 79 ante note. This poem is a tour de force on three rimes; for Lydgate’s most extensive case of this “‘rhetorical color’ see Rome Remember, p. 169 below. Ther bewte couthe / hornys wer cast away 5 Clerkys recorde / by gret auctorite Hornys wer yove / to beestys for dif- fence A thyng contrary / to ffemynyte 35 To be maad sturdy / of resistence But arche wyves egre in ther violence ffers as Tygre for to make affray They haue despyt / and ageyn con- science Lyst nat of pryde / ther hornys cast away 40 6 Lenvoye Noble pryncessys / this litel shoort ditee Rewdly compiled / lat it be noon offence To your womanly / merciful pitee Thouh it be rad / in your audience Peysed ech thyng / in your iust aduer- tence 45 So it be no displeasaunce to your pay Vndir support / of your pacience Yeuyth example hornys to cast away 7 Grettest of vertues / is humylite As Salomon seith / sone of Sapience Moost was acceptyd / to the deite Takith heed heer of / yevyth to this woord credence How Maria / which hadde a premynence Above alle women / in bedleem whan she lay At cristes birthe / no cloth of gret dis- pence 35 She weryd a keverche / hornys wer cast away 8 Off birthe she was hihest of degre To whom alle aungelis / did obedience Of Dauidis lyne / which sprang out of iesse In whom alle vertues / by iust conven- ience 60 Maad stable in god / by goostly confi- dence This roose of Jerycho / ther greuh noon suych in May Poor in spirit / parfight in pacience In whoom alle hornys of pryde were put away BYCORNE AND CHICHEVACHE 113 9 Mooder of Ihesu / myrour of chastite 65 In woord nor thouht / that nevir did offence Trewe examplaire / of Virginitie Heedspryng and welle / of parfit conty- nence Was nevir clerk / by rethoryk nor science Kowde all hir vertues / reherse to this day 70 Noble Pryncessys / of meeke benyuo- lence Bexample of hir / your horns cast away Explicit BYCORNE AND CHICHEVACHE The immediate original of this poem, although not yet identified, was in all probability French. Texts of French poems on Bigorne and on Chicheface are printed by Montaiglon in his Recueil as below, ii:187 and xi:277; both are in nine-line stanzas, alternate speeches by beast and by victim. Neither of these texts is earlier than the mid-sixteenth century, nor are the closely similar French versions printed by Bolte in Archiv 114:80 ff. But Chicheface, the “beste maigre” who devours the meek-spirited, is alluded to in the French fifteenth-century Mys- tere de Ste. Genevieve, as if well-known; see Jubinal’s edition as below, i:248. In a note ibid. i:390 Jubinal prints a poem of 68 lines, in couplets, on “Chinche- fache,’ from a French manuscript of the fourteenth century; and Chaucer, in the envoy to his Clerk’s Tale, warns wives against patience, “Lest Chichevache yow swolwe in hir entraille.’” It was thus a current allusion before the fifteenth century, The two names were originally Bigorne and Chi(n)chefache; and their coupling and contrast is a late medieval arrangement. The former word has not yet been explained etymologically, and is rare. Chicheface or Chinchefache is much the commoner of the two; the compound means “niggard-face”, and chinche or chynchy appears in Middle English as well as in French to mean “stingy, tight”; see, e.g., Hoccleve’s Male Regle, line 136. The French term is used to signify something like “scarecrow” in Martin Le Franc’s Champion de Dames (ca. 1440), where the Adversary declares that woman, “celle Ciche- face’, was made out of the leavings after man had been carefully created, just as a potter fashions a queer “marmouset” out of his clay remnants when the pot has been finished. A little earlier, in Baudet Herenc’s Doctrinal de la séconde rhétorique of 1432, the “sotte amoureuse” is indignantly termed by the versifier “le laide cicheface”; and in the fourteenth-century Lamentations de Mathéolus, iii :3220 ff., the poet says he is “comme une chicheface, Maigre par dessoubs ma peaucelle.” These are all general terms. But in the fourteenth-century lines De la Chinchefache printed by Jubinal (as below), there is described a lean horrible monster, long-toothed and staring-eyed, whose function is to seize and devour such women as do not “talk back” to their lords. And in the Ste. Genevieve drama above mentioned, the angry bourgeois says to the saint, who is counselling patience, “Gardez vous de la chicheface ; el vous mordra s’el vous encontre.”” Both these texts write the name with an f, and the former says nothing of any re- semblance between the monster and a cow; nor do most of the sixteenth-century pictures so represent Chichevache. That at the Chateau de Villeneuve has the body and head of a wolf, with horse’s hoofs behind and claws in front; in her huge jaws she holds a struggling woman in bourgeois dress. Other cuts show 114 JOHN LYDGATE the creature horned, however, and Lydgate (see stanza 12) is explicit. Doubt- less as soon as the medial f was voiced enough to sound like vache, the legend responded. For Bycorne or Bigorne there is much less to be said. Perhaps the change of g to c, giving the word the apparent meaning of “two-horned”, followed the transmutation of Chichevache into a cow and the connection of the two beasts. There is a cow Bicorne in Nigel Wireker’s Speculum Stultorum, a twelfth- century Anglo-Latin satire; but she merely cuts off her tail in despair when it is frozen into the ice, and has no function as a peripatetic censor. Lydgate men- tions “Bycornys” in Troy Book ii:7702, with other woodland beings. The true French word bigorne meant either an iron-shod staff, or “argot”, according to Godefroy; the transference to signify a beast of folk-lore is not yet explained. At the Chateau de Villeneuve the creature is represented as shortlegged, scaly- backed, and with a human head, in the huge jaws of which a man has disappeared all but the arms. The use of verses to accompany tapestry or wall-paintings is an aspect of medieval art and letters not yet fully investigated. See Male’s L’art réligieux de la fin du moyen-age en France, Paris, 1908; see Jubinal, refs. of 1838 and 1840 in list below; see a few notes by me in Englische Studien 43 :10-26, prefacing prints of two tapestry-poems by Lydgate. See the text of “Dames illustres qui ont esté Roynes”, stanzas written to accompany tapestries of eighteen queens, presented to Catherine de Médicis by their author, and at her bidding copied for Elizabeth of England. The transcript made for Elizabeth exists in Brit. Mus. Royal 20 A xx; see the 1921 catalogue of the Royal MSS. To some of its stanzas are prefixed directions for representing the figures; cf. Lydgate’s pro- cedure here. Stanzas painted, with their pictures, in the cloister of SS. Inno- cents at Paris served as Lydgate’s original for the Dance Macabre; and he may have obtained the French of this poem in a similar way. There are some verbal resemblances between his lines and the surviving French poems on Bigorne and on Chinchefache; but structurally the English is quite different. In Lydgate the two monsters are represented, in the same poem, as husband and wife, and the text is arranged to suit a series of pictures. The patient wife, and also the ungovernable wife, were stock subjects of medieval bourgeois narrative. Chaucer handled the former traditional theme, pitched in aristocratic key, in his Clerk’s Tale of Griselda; but in the Clerk’s envoy, so liberally used by Lydgate here, he adopted the bourgeois key. His Constance story, assigned to the Man of Law, is aristocratic in tone, with a few sly touches. Gower in his Constance-story, and Hoccleve in his tale of Jeres- laus’ Wife, are steadily aristocratic. Lydgate refers to Griselda here; and he refers to the Wife of Bath, Chaucer’s full-length study of the ungovernable wife, both here and in his Mumming at Hertford. This latter, printed in Anglia 22 :364, and repr. by Neilson and Webster, p. 223, should be compared with this poem. Three texts of this poem are known to me. The first, in Trinity College Cam- bridge R 3, 20, is here reproduced; it was written by John Shirley, the contemporary of Lydgate and admirer of Chaucer,—see p. 192 here. Another copy is in Brit. Mus. Harley 2251, a codex which in this part of its contents is copied from the Trinity College volume, and which has therefore no independent value at this point. A third copy is in Trin. Coll. Cambridge R 3, 19. BYCORNE AND CHICHEVACHE LS The poem was printed, from Harley 2251, in vol. xii of Dodsley’s collection of old plays, eds. of 1780 and 1825-1827; and it was termed by Tyrwhitt, in his note on CantTales 9064, “a kind of pageant”. But in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1834 ii:43, Thomas Wright published a notice of the R 3, 20 copy, and called attention to the detailed heading by Shirley describing the poem as intended for wall-hangings. The text was accordingly not reprinted by Hazlitt in his 1874 reédition of Dodsley. It was again published from the Harley MS by Halliwell in his 1840 volume of Lydgate’s minor poems, p. 129; and that text was reprinted by Montaiglon in his Recueil xi :280-83. Montaiglon also printed, ibid. ii:193-6, a translation of Lydgate into French prose. The poem, from MS Harley but with spelling somewhat modernized, was included by Henry Morley in his Shorter English Poems (1876), pp. 54-56. Halliwell’s text was reprinted by Neilson and Webster, p. 220, with retention of Halliwell’s errors; see the notes on our text. SELECT REFERENCE LIST IV Montaiglon, Recueil de poésies frangoises des XVe et XVIe siécles, 13 vols., Paris, 1855-78. Jubinal, Mystéres inédits du XVe siécle, 2 vols., Paris, 1837. Jubinal, Les anciennes tapisseries historiées, Paris, 1838. Jubinal, Récherches sur l’usage et l’origine des tapisseries a personnages, Paris, 1840. Le Franc, see dissertation by A. Piaget, Lausanne, 1888. Le Champion de Dames is discussed pp. 100-127; see pp. 111-12. Wireker’s Speculum Stultorum is ed. Th. Wright, Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets of the XII Century, Rolls Series, 1872, 2 vols.; see i:3 ff. Les Lamentations de Mathéolus et la Livre de Léesce de Jehan le Févre, ed. with Latin original by A. G. van Hamel, 2 vols, Paris, 1892, 1905. Langlois, ed. Recueil d’arts de séconde rhétorique, Paris, 1902, includes Baudet Herenc. Neilson and Webster, Chief British Poets of the XIV and XV Centuries, Boston, 1916. [MS Trinity College Cambridge R. 3, 20, p. 10] LOO SIRS pE DEUISE OF A PEYNTED OR DESTEYNED CLOTHE FOR AN HALLE . A PARLOUR . OR A CHAUMBRE DEUYSED BY JOHAN LIDEGATE AT pre REQUEST OF A WORPY CITESEYN OF LONDOUN first ere shal O prudent folkes takebe heed stonde an ymage in And remembrebe in youre lyves poete wyse seying Howe pis story / dobe proceed bees thre balades ©f be housbandes / and of peyre wyves Of pbeyre acorde / and of peyre stryves 5 With lyf or deebe / which to derrain Is graunted / to bees beestis tweyn 2 Of Chichevache / and of Bycorne Tretebe hooly / bis matere Whos story habe taught us here toforne 10 Howe bees beestis bope in feere Haue peyre pasture / as yee shal here Of men and wymmen / in se(n)tence Thorugh soufferaunce or thoroughe inpacience Shirley’s running titles are: pe fourome of desguv- singes contreved by Daun Johan Lidegate.——pbe me of Straunge Desgysinges.—pe gyse of a Gnwke MS see p. 79 note. Italicized words here represent underscorings by Shirley. 116 And pene shalle peer be portrayed twoo beestis oon fatte anoper leene panne shall per be pourtrayhed a fatte beest called By- corne of the Cuny trey of Bycornoys and seyne bees thre balades filowing panne shal be pour- trayed a companye of men comyng to- wardes pis beest Bicorne and sey pees foure balades JOHN LYDGATE 3 ffor pis Bicorne of his nature Wil noon oper maner foode But pacient men in his pasture And Chichevache . etebe wymmen goode And boobe beos beestes by the Roode Be fatte or leene / hit may not fayle Lyke lak or plente / of beyre vitayle 4 Of Bycornoys / I am Bycorne fful fatte and rounde / here as I stonde And in maryage bonde and sworne To Chichevage as hir husbande Whiche wil not ete on see nor lande But pacyent wyves debonayre Which to hir husbandes. beon (not) contrayre fful scarce god wot / is hir vitayle Humble wyves she fyndebe so fewe ffor alweys. at be countretayle Peyre tunge clappebe and dobe hewe Suche meke wyves / I beshrewe Pat neyber cane at bedde ne boord Peyre husbandes nought forbere on worde But my foode and my cherisshing To telle pleynly / and not tarye Ys of suche folk / whiche per living Dar to beyre wyves / be not contrarye Ne frome peyre lustis / dar not varye Nor with hem holde / no chaumpartye Alle suche my stomake . wol defye 7 ffelawes takebe heede and yee may see Howe Bicorne . castebe him to deuoure Alle humble men / bobe you and me Per is no gayne vs may socour Wo be ber fore in halle and bour To alle bees husbandes . which peyre lyves Maken maystresses of beyre wyves 8 Who bat so doobe pis is be lawe Pat bis Bycorne wol him oppresse And devowren in his mawe Pat of his wyff makebe his maystresse Pis wol vs bring in gret distresse ffor we for oure humylytee Of Bycorne shal devowred be 9 We stonden pleynly in suche cas Pat bey to vs maystresses be We may wel sing and seyne allas 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 OD) BYCORNE AND CHICHEVACHE Pat we gaf hem be souereynte 60 ffor we be thralle / and pey beo fre Wher fore Bycorne pis cruell beste Wol vs devowren at pe leest 10 But who bat cane be souereyne And his wyf teeche and chastyse 65 Pat she dare nat a worde geyne seyne ‘Nor disobeye no maner wyse Of suche a man I cane devyse He stant vnder proteccioun ffrome Bycornes . jurisdiccyoun 70 11 O noble wyves / beobe wel ware Takebe ensaumple nowe by me Or ellys afferme . weel I dare Yee shall beo ded yee shal not flee Beobe crabbed . voydebe humylitee 75 Or Chychevache / ne wol not fayle You for to swolowe . in hir entrayle 12 Chychevache . pis is my name Hungry megre / sklendre and lene To shewe my body I haue gret shame 80 ffor hunger / I feele so gret teene On me no fattnesse wol beo seene By cause bat pasture I fynde noon Per fore I am but skyn and boon 13 ffor my feding in existence 85 Is of wymmen pat beon meeke And lyche Gresylde in pacyence Or more peyre bountee for to eeke But I ful longe may goon and seeke Or I cane fynde a gode repaaste 90 A morowe to breke with my faaste 14 I trowe ber beo a dere yeere Of pacyent wymmen nowe beos dayes Who greuebe hem / with worde or chere Let him be ware of suche assayes 95 ffor it is more pane thritty Mayes Pat I haue sought frome lande to londe But yit cane Gresylde neuer I fonde 15 I fonde but oone in al my lyve And she was deed . sith go ful yore I00 ffor more pasture . I wil not stryve 117 panne shal ber be a womman deuowred yportrayhed in pe moupe of Chiche- vache cryen to alle wyves & sey pis balade panne shal be ber purtrayhed a longe horned beest sklen- dre and lene with sharpe teethe ana on his body no thinge saue skyn and boone 118 panne shal pere be pourtrayhed affter Chichevache an olde man with a bastoun on his bakke manassing pe beest for be res- cowing of his wyff The Siege, or Story, of Thebes, 4716 lines in five-beat couplets, was written In his prologue he represents himself as arriving at the Canterbury inn on the eve of the pilgrims’ return to London, as invited by the Host to join the party, and as beginning his tale at the Host’s command when the riders are outside town the next morning. The ma- terial of his narrative is part of that which Chaucer passed over as he opened his Knight’s Tale; Lydgate, however, did not use Chaucer’s source, Boccaccio’s Teseide, nor the Latin of Statius, but, according to Koeppel, drew on some one of the French prose romances connected with the rimed French Roman de by Lydgate as a Thebes. JOHN LYDGATE Nor seeche for my foode no more Ne for vitayle me to enstore Wymmen beon wexen so prudent Pey wol no more beo pacyent 16 My wyff allas devowred is Moost pacyente and mooste peysyble Sheo neuer sayde to me amysse Whome habe nowe slayne pis beest horryble And for it is an Impossyble To fynde euer suche a wyff I wil lyve sool during my lyff 17 ffor nowe of nuwe for beyre prowe De wyves of ful hyegh prudence Haue of assent made beyre avowe ffor to exyle pacience And cryed wolffes heed . obedyence To make Chichevache fayle Of hem to fynde more vitayle 18 Nowe Chichevache may fast longe And dye for al hire cruweltee Wymmen haue made hem self so stronge ffor to outraye humylyte O cely housbandes woo beon yee Suche as cane haue no pacyence Ageyns youre wyves vyolence 19 Yif pat yee suffre yee beo but deed Dis Bicorne awaytebe yowe so soore Eeke of youre wyves yee stonde in dreed Yif yee geyne seye hem any more And pus yee stonde / and haue doone yoore Of lyff and deeth bytwix tweyne Lynkeld in a double cheyne supplementary Canterbury Tale. 105 IIo 115 I20 I25 130 PROLOGUE TO THE SIEGE OF THEBES PROLOGUE TO THE SIEGE OF THEBES 119 There is no evidence that the monk worked on commission, nor any external evidence as to the date of his translation. It appears possible not only that the Thebes was written soon after the Troy Book, as has been suggested, but also that it was written between the conclusion of the Troy Book (1420) and the composition of the Epithalamium for Gloucester, of latter 1421 or earlier 1422. The fact that Tydeus is brought in so unexpectedly and unusually as one of the great heroes with whom Gloucester is compared, and the fact that Calydon and Argos are mentioned in the Epithalamium to illustrate the union of countries by marriage, make it supposable that the Thebes-source, containing these de- tails, had been already used by Lydgate. There are also stylistic points in which the Troy Book, the Thebes, and the Epithalamium show similarity. Aside from the romantic-epic tone of the two narratives, a tone faintly heard in the marriage-poem, note the management of the embassy-speech in Thebes 2016 ff. and compare Troy Book ii:1538; note the Shakespearean phrasing of Thebes 2305-6 and of Troy Book i:4100-01, ii:8197; note the leaning towards nature- pictures in Thebes, though to much less extent than in the Troy Book; cf. the formulae of Oedipus’ wedding, Thebes 826 ff., with phrasings in the Epithala- mium; cf. the detail of Thebes 1669 with Troy Book 11:3547, 4181. Other posi- tive points might be adduced; and we may note the negative fact emphasized by Koeppel, that the death of Henry V (August 1422) is not mentioned in the Siege of Thebes,—also that Henry is still living when the Epithalamium is composed. Failing any evidence of this poem’s execution to order, it may be treated as a labor of love, an attempt on Lydgate’s part to link his name with that of Chaucer and his effort with the Canterbury Tales. Yet it is not appended to many MSS of the Tales,—to but four so far as I have noted—Adds. 5140 and Egerton 2864 of the British Museum, the privately owned Cardigan MS, and Christ Church College Oxford 152. Other copies of the poem are:—Brit. Mus. Arundel 119 (whence my text), Adds. 18632 (formerly the Denbigh MS), Adds. 29729, Cotton App. xxvii, and Royal 18 D ii; in the Bodleian Library are Bodley 776, Digby 230, Laud 416 and 557, and Rawlinson C 48; in the University Li- brary Cambridge is Adds. 3137; in Trinity College Cambridge are O 5, 2 and R 4, 20; in the archiepiscopal library is Lambeth 742; in Durham Cathedral Li- brary is Durham V ii, 14; in the library of Magdalen College Cambridge is Pepys 2011. Privately owned are a Gurney MS, Lord Bath’s Longleat 257, Prince Frederick Dhuleep Singh’s copy, formerly of the Tixall Library, and Lord Mostyn’s MS containing the poem, bought in 1920 by Mr. Abbot. To these twenty-four texts ‘actually in existence we may add the copy in the lost Coventry School MS, for which see my Chaucer Manual, p. 354; and the copy bequeathed by John Baret of Bury in 1463 to his priestly cousin John Cleye. MacCracken’s list erroneously includes Harley 262, which is a Turkish MS. The poem was printed by de Worde ca.1500. In 1561 John Stow included it in his edition of Chaucer’s Works, stating that it was by Lydgate; his own MS-copy exists in Brit. Mus. Adds. 29729. Subsequently collected eds. of Chaucer reprinted the poem, down to 1721, and it appears in Chalmers’ English Poets, vol.i. It was edited for the EETS by Erdmann in 1911, vol. i, the text. Wilker, in his Altengl. Lesebuch, ii:105 (1879), reprinted the 1561 text of the Prologue, 120 JOHN LYDGATE and was led by that into a few erroneous notes. The Arundel 119 text of the Prologue was printed by Miss Spurgeon in her EETS Chaucer Allusions i:26, and by me in Anglia 36 :360, with notes. The poem was modernized by Darton, London, 1904. Notes may be found in Gosse’s ed. of Gray, i:387 ff., in Warton-Hazlitt’s English Poetry, 1ii:74, and in ten Brink’s English Literature, i1:225. See E. Koeppel, Lydgate’s Story of Thebes, eine Quellenuntersuchung, Munich, 1884. A work executed as appendage to Chaucer would naturally show the elder poet’s influence. Ten Brink remarked that in this prologue Lydgate appeared almost as Chaucer’s ape, a dictum warmly disputed by Churton Collins in his Ephemera Critica, p. 199. It is recommended to the student to trace these hun- dred and seventy-six lines, idea by idea and phrase by phrase, to their sources in the Canterbury Tales; to note the attempt at swinging sentence-management, at description of character, and at humor, and to establish thus an independent opinion of Lydgate’s effort. There should also be read the prologue to Beryn, and perhaps Percy Mackaye’s Canterbury Pilgrims. Brit. Mus. Arundel 119, the manuscript here used, is dated by Ward, Cata- logue of Romances, i:87, about 1430. The volume, which contains only this work, bears the arms of William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, husband of Thomas Chaucer’s daughter Alice; he died in 1450. As Lydgate’s Virtues of the Mass was compiled for one of Suffolk’s three wives, and as the monk’s application, 1441, for renewed pension was supported by Suffolk, we recognize an associa- tional value to this codex. A few differences between the text of the prologue here printed and its EETS print have been verified by repeated collation. The Arundel MS has in the prologue one or two scribal slips; in 63 take is written for tale, in 110 fo is omitted, and in 131 the n of Canterbury was not indicated by the customary horizontal line over the vowel. [MS Brit. Mus. Arundel 119] Phebus in Ariete Whan bri3t Phebus / passed was be ram _ Myd of Aprille / & in to bole cam Saturnus in Vir- And Satourn old / wt his frosty face gine In virgyne / taken had his place Malencolik / & slowgh of mocioun 5 And was also / in thoposicioun Of lucina / the mone moyst and pale That many Shour / fro heuene made avale Whan Aurora / was in be morowe red Jubiter in capito And Iubiter / in the Crabbes Hed 10 cancri Hath take his paleys / and his mansioun The lusty tyme / and Ioly fressh Sesoun Whan that flora / the noble myghty quene The soyl hath clad / in newe tendre grene With her floures / craftyly ymeynt 15 Braunch & bough / wib red & white dopeynt ffletinge be bawme / on hillis & on valys The tyme in soth / whan Canterbury talys Complet and told / at many sondry stage Of estatis // in the pilgrimage 20 Euerich man / lik to his degre PROLOGUE TO THE SIEGE OF THEBES 121 Some of desport / somme of moralite Some of knyghthode / loue and gentillesse And some also of parfit holynesse And sommie also in soth / of ribaudye To make laughter / in be companye Ech admitted / for non wold other greve Lich as the Cook / be millere and the Reve Aquytte hem silf / shortly to conclude Boystously in her teermes Rude Whan pei hadde / wel dronken of the bolle And ek also / with his pylled nolle The pardowner beerdless al his Chyn Glasy Eyed / and face of Cherubyn Tellyng a tale / to angre with the frere As opynly // the storie kan 30w lere Word for word / with euery circumstaunce Echon ywrite / and put in remembraunce By hym pat was / 3if I shal not feyne ffoure of Poetes / thorghout al breteyne Which sothly hadde / most of excellence In rethorike / and in eloquence Rede his making / who list the trouth fynde Which neuer shal / appallen in my mynde But alwey fressh / ben in my memoyre To who be 3oue / pris honure & gloyre Of wel seyinge / first in oure language Chief Registrer / of pis pilgrimage Al pat was tolde / for3eting noght at al ffeyned talis / nor ping Historial With many prouerbe / diuers & vnkouth Be rehersaile / of his Sugrid mouth Of eche thyng / keping in substaunce The sentence hool / with oute variance Voyding the Chaf / sothly for to seyn Enlumynyng / be trewe piked greyn Be crafty writinge / of his sawes swete ffro the tyme / that thei ded mete first the pylgrimes / sothly euerichon At the Tabbard / assembled on be on And fro Suthwerk / shortly forto seye To Canterbury / ridyng on her weie Tellyng a ta(1)e / as I reherce can Lich as the hoste / assigned euery man None so hardy / his biddying disobeye And this whil / that the pilgrimes leye At Canterbury / wel lo(g)ged on and all I not in soth / what I may it call Hap / or fortune / in Conclusioun That me byfil / to entren into toun The holy seynt / pleynly to visite Aftere siknesse / my vowes to aquyte In a Cope of blak / & not of grene On a palfrey / slender / long / & lene Wipb rusty brydel / mad nat for pe sale My man to forn / with a voide male 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 The cook the Mil- lere and the reve Pardoner Chaucer At pe tabard in Suthwerk The hoste Discryving of the Monk 122 The wordes of be host to the Monk Lydgate Monk of Bery The wordes of pe host JOHN LYDGATE Which of ffortune / took myn Inne anon Wher be pylgrymes / were logged euerichon The same tyme / Her gouernour the host Stonding in hall . ful of wynde & bost 80 Lich to a man / wonder sterne & fers Which spak to me / and seide anon daun pers Daun Domynyk / Dan Godfrey / or Clement 3e be welcom / newly into Kent Thogh 3oure bridel / haue neiper boos ne belle 85 Besechinge 30u / pat 3e wil me telle first 3oure name / and of what contre With oute mor . shortely that 3e be That loke so pale / al deuoyde of blood Vpon 3oure hede / a wonder thred bar hood 90 Wel araied / forto ride late I answerde / my name was Lydgate Monk of Bery / ny3 fyfty 3ere of age Come to this toune / to do my pilgrimage As I haue hight / I ha ther of no shame 95 Dan Iohn quod he / wel broke 3e 3o0ure name Thogh 3e be soul / beth right glad & light Preiyng 30u / soupe with vs to nyght And 3e shal han / mad at 3o0ure devis A gret puddyng / or a rounde hagys 100 A ffranchmole / a tansey / or a froyse To ben a Monk / Sclender is 30ure koyse Se han be seke / I dar myn hede assure Or late fed/ in a feynt pasture Lift vp 3oure hed / be glad take no sorowe —105 And 3e shal hom ride with vs to morowe I seye whan 3e rested han 3our fille Aftere soper / Slepe wol do non ille Wrappe wel 3oure hede / clothes rounde aboute Strong notty ale / wol mak 30u (to) route IIo Tak a pylow / bat 3e lye not lowe Sif nede be / Spar not to blowe To holde wynde / be myn opynyoun Wil engendre / collis passioun And make men to greuen / on her roppys II5 Whan pei han filled / her mawes & her croppys But toward nyght / ete some fenel Rede Annys / Comyn / or coriandre sede And lik as I / pouer haue & myght I Charge 30w / rise not at Mydnyght 120 Thogh it so be / the moone shyne cler I wol my silf / be 30ure Orloger To morow erly / whan I se my tyme ffor we wol forp / parcel afore Pryme A company / parde / Shal do 30u good 125 What look vp Monk / for by kokkis blood Thow shalt be mery / who so pat sey nay ffor to morowe anoon / as it is day And that it gynne / in be Est to dawe Thow shalt be bound / to a newe lawe 130 Att goyng oute of Ca(n)terbury toune PROLOGUE TO THE SIEGE OF THEBES 123 And leyn aside / thy professioun Thow shalt not chese / nor pi silf withdrawe 3if eny myrth / be founden in thy mawe Lyk the custom / of this Compenye 135 ffor non so proude / that dar me denye Knyght nor knaue / Chanon / prest / ne nonne To telle a tale / pleynly as thei konne Whan I assigne / and se tyme opportune And for that we / our purpoos will contune 140 We wil homward / the same custome vse And thow shalt not / platly the excuse Be now wel war / Stody wel to nyght But for al this / be of herte 1i3t Thy wit shall be / be Sharper & the bet 145 And we anon / were to Soper set And serued wel / vnto oure plesaunce And sone after / be good gouernaunce Vnto bed goth euery maner wight And touarde morowe / anon as it was light 150 Euery Pilgryme / both bet & wors As bad oure hoste / toke anon his hors Whan the sonne / roos in the est ful clyere ffully in purpoos / to come to dynere Vnto Osspryng / and breke per oure faste 155 And whan we weren / from Canterbury paste Noght the space / of a bowe draught Our hoost in hast / hab my bridel raught And to me seide / as it were in game Come forth dan Iohn / be 30ur Cristene name 160 And lat vs make / some manere myrth or play Shet 3oure portoos / a twenty deuelway Is no disport / so to patere & seie It wol make 3oure lippes / wonder dreye Tel some tale / and make ther of (a) Iape 165 ffor be my Rouncy / thow shalt not eskape But prech not / of non holynesse Gynne some tale / of myrth or of gladnesse And nodde not / with thyn heuy bekke Tell vs somme thyng / that draweb to effekke 170 Only of Ioye / make no lenger lette And whan I saugh / it wolde be no bette I obeyde / vnto his biddynge So as the lawe / me bonde in al thinge And as I coude / with a pale cheere 175 My tale I gan / anon / as 3e shal here Explicit prologus 124 JOHN LYDGATE THE DANCE MACABRE There exist in English two somewhat different recensions of a poem known as the Dance Macabre,! Dance of Death, or Dance of Paul’s, a poem translated by John Lydgate from the French at the end of the first quarter of the fifteenth century. In this “dance” or procession, Death addresses in turn all classes of men, from Pope and Emperor to Laborer and Hermit, bidding them follow him; for each character who appears there is a stanza of summons by Death and a stanza of lamenting reply by the personage called. One of these two recensions, here termed A, is distinguished by five introductory stanzas in which Lydgate tells us that he had seen the French verses ‘‘depict upon a wall” at SS. Inno- cents’ church in Paris, by an envoy of two stanzas in which he makes the con- ventional apology for his “rude language’’ and gives his name, and by several characters added to the French, notably the “tregetour” or juggler of Henry the Fifth. There are 36 personages in this version; it runs quite close to a French text (here printed), of which it frequently retains the rime-words. The other recension (B), is without the introduction and envoy; it omits a half-score of characters present in A, notably the Usurer, Tregetour, and Par- son; and it adds a half-dozen to the earlier version. As it often gives its per- sonages? a name not coincident with that given in A, and as it several times rewrites the stanzas, we cannot always determine whether B is rewriting A or substituting a different character. But that B is based upon A rather than upon the French is evident, e.g., from its retaining three of the five characters added by Lydgate to the French; see also the notes on lines 64, 137, 297. Only a com- plete parallel-text edition can show the many differences and resemblances of the two recensions, and the divergences of B-MSS from each other as compared to the general agreement of A-texts. The texts of B however resemble one an- other in a colorlessness, a tendency to empty generalities, wherever the A-type is abandoned. A text of the earlier recension, that bearing Lydgate’s name, is here printed, from the manuscript Selden supra 53 of the Bodleian Library at Oxford.2 So *The word Macabre should be pronounced trisyllabic and with last syllable stressed,— Mac-a-bray. For its meaning see note on line 24. * Of the characters which the two recensions have in common, the arrangement is a little different. The order Pope-Emperor-Cardinal is the same in both, but in the sequence of the next nine characters B makes an interesting alteration. Lydgate had followed the French in putting King next to Cardinal, with Patriarch, Duke, Archbishop, Baron, Bishop, Squire, Abbot, in the order named. The B-reviser transposed the pairs King-Patriarch, Duke-Arch- bishop, etc., so as to give precedence to the spiritual dignitary in each case. The juxtaposition of two ecclesiastical lords, Cardinal and Patriarch, was avoided in B by the insertion of the Empress after the Cardinal. Similarly, the Emperor is not in B termed “hiest of noblesse”’, but is “surmountyng of noblesse”; and yet while A, in line 60, gives the Pope sovereignty over “the chirche and states temporal”, the B-version alters to “the chirche most in especial”. *Bodl. Selden supra 53 is on vellum, in eights, of 159 leaves 1014 by 714 inches, and is impf. at beginning. It is well written in one strong square neat professional hand, with numerous marginal rubrics and small red and blue capitals to stanzas. It contains :—Hoccleve’s Regement of Princes, impf. at beginning, ending 76 a.—Hoccleve’s Complaint, Dialogue, etc., ie. the group of his poems termed “the Series” p, 57 here-—The Dance Macabre, foll. 148 a— 158 b. No heading; in the margin, red, “Verba translatoris”. Colophon in red, leaf rubbed, —“Here e............ the Daunce of De........ ” Below, on 158 b, a different hand has written the two Empress-stanzas; cf. the B-recension. Leaf 159, a guard-leaf, darkened, carries a copy of “Earth upon earth”. THE DANCE MACABRE 125 far as I know, five other texts of that type exist, in Brit. Mus. Harley 116, in Bodley 221 and Laud 735 of the Bodleian, in Trinity College Cambridge R 3,21, and in a codex formerly belonging to the Earl of Ellesmere, now in the Hunt- ington Library, California.1 The lost manuscript of Coventry School, described by Bernard in his 1697 Catalogus as containing this poem, agreed in contents with Laud and Bodley. The B-recension appears in five manuscripts:—Bodley 686 of the Bodleian Library, Corpus Christi College Oxford 237, Lansdowne 699 of the Brit. Mus., and its partial sister Leyden Vossianus 9 of Leyden, Holland; this last I have not seen. It is also in the MS Lincoln Cathedral C 5,4; and a fragment exists in Brit. Mus. Cotton Vespasian A xxv. The miscellaneous Lydgate-codices Lansdowne (and Leyden?) show very free handling in all their texts, so free that in this poem they do not fairly represent the B-type. The A-version of the Dance Macabre was printed by Tottel with the 1554 Fall of Princes; this was reprinted by Dugdale in his History of St. Paul’s Cathedral, 1658, and in his Monasticon Anglicanum, 1673, vol. iii; the text may also be found in Francis Douce’s monograph on Holbein’s Dance of Death, London, 1790, and in Montaiglon’s edition of Holbein’s Alphabet of Death, Paris, 1846. With his edition of Lydgate’s Fall of Princes, 1923, vol. iii, Dr. Henry Bergen printed the Tottel text of the Dance, collated with Harley 116 and “in part with Lansdowne 699”. As Lydgate says in his stanzas of introduction and envoy, he found the original of his poem at Paris, “depict vppon a walle” at the Church of the Inno- cents; and being urged by French clerks, he undertook a translation and sent it home to England. That the monk was in Paris about 1426 is probable from his Pedigree of Henry VI, done in that year from the French at the request of the Earl of Warwick, who was then in France; it is further probable from the fact that the Dance-fresco had since 1424 been upon the walls of SS. Innocents, and had made a strong impression upon beholders. A similar use was made of Lydgate’s translation, or some modified form of it, in London. Stow in his Survey of London (ed. Kingsford, i: 327) says that about the cloister of St. Paul’s was “artificially and richly painted the dance of Machabray, or dance of death, commonly called the dance of Pauls: the like whereof was painted about S. Innocents cloyster at Paris in France: the meters or poesie of this dance were translated out of French into English by Iohn Lidgate Monke of Bury, the picture of death leading all estates, at the dispense of Ienken Carpenter, in the raigne of Henry the sixt.” As Kingsford points out, this painting was known to Sir Thomas More, who alludes to it as the Daunce of Death. The cloister was pulled down in 1549. No trace now remains of the few fifteenth or sixteenth-century English representations of the Dance Macabre. There was a tapestry of “Makaborne” in the collection of Henry VIII; there was a fresco in the archiepiscopal palace at Croydon, one in Salisbury Cathedral, and one in Wortley Hall, Gloucester- shire. Whether these, or any of these, were of the same processional character as the pictures of St. Paul’s, we do not know; nor do we know whether or not they had accompanying texts, except that the late and poor Cotton MS text of our Dance is said to be that of Wortley Hall. The verses of Lydgate were *Collations of the MS El 26 A 13 I owe to the kindness of Capt. R. B. Haselden, Keeper of MSS in the Huntington Library. 126 JOHN LYDGATE separately preserved, and there are a number of English poems on death which allude to the Dance of Paul’s or to some similar picture; for example, a clumsy poem transcribed in MS Brit. Mus. Adds. 37049, in which the tenth stanza be- gins,—‘‘Man remembyr of be dawnce of makabre”’; or in two poems printed with Lydgate’s by Halliwell, pp. 34, 77. Both as picture and as text, the Dance of Death, or Triumph of Death, is a West-European phenomenon. Sometimes restricted to the limits of an illumination in a missal, sometimes extended all along the arcades of a cloister or a bridge, or carved in the tympanum of a cathedral porch, the idea was wide- spread and powerfully effective. In Italy we have such graveyard monuments as the great fresco of the Campo Santo at Pisa, with a row of corpses stretched before the feet of an unwary party of gay riders; or the picture in the Church of the Disciplini at Clusone, depicting three huge skeletons standing upon an open tomb surrounded by imploring popes, kings, and ecclesiastics, while below passes the procession of humanity, each figure escorted by a skeleton. In France there were the pictures and texts of Paris and of Kermaria in Britanny, the pic- tures of La Chaise-Dieu in Auvergne, and the tapestries of Amiens Cathedral. In Germany and in Switzerland traces are numerous, although the texts once in Basel, Berlin, and Libeck are now largely illegible, and the later work of Holbein and the well-known pictures of the Muhlenbriicke at Lucerne are more famous than their prototypes. The ‘“Death-motif” which inspires the Dance also in- spired the representations of the Three Living and Three Dead (another branch of this subject) and inspired the many Triumphs of Death, of which latter Petrarch’s poem and its woodcut-illustrations are the most striking examples. In the pictures and texts of Northern Europe there is a tone quite different from the more formal Triumph as seen in Italy, a tone belonging to the later medieval, bourgeois society out of which these Northern dances grew. The Dance of Death has a number of elements. There is the figure of a guide or leader to the after-life, a motive of great antiquity; there is the processional motive, also very old; there is the dialogue-form; and there are two ideas of quite different date,—the feeling of Death’s malignant satisfaction in his work, and the in- sistence on a social classification of his victims. While the former of these ideas is by no means foreign to the Etruscan grave-frescoes, executed before the Christian era, the emphatic combination of the two, as in the Dance here dis- cussed, may indicate the condition of a society in which the Black Death was rampant and in which the feudal system was breaking up. The appearance of those summoned by Death in an ordered class-list is not so very late in the medieval period. A Latin poem of perhaps the twelfth cen- tury, the “Vado Mori”, introduces twelve figures, from Pope to pauper, each speaking two lines of farewell to life; and in a probably later development of this theme, the dialogue-structure appears, some interlocutor (not Death) speak- ing a companion couplet beginning “Vive Deo” each time. So far as I know, these are the earliest texts to make the classed arrangement; for although the Etruscan frescoes were so interpreted at first, recent investigation has rejected the possibility of any “class-idea” in the procession depicted, for instance, in the Grotto del Cardinale at Corneto. I subjoin a text of the Vado Mori, from MS Brit.Mus.Lansdowne 397. THE DANCE MACABRE 127 Dum mortem meditor crescit michi causa doloris Nam cuntis horis mors venit ecce citor Pauperis et regis communis lex moriendi Dat causam flendi si bene scripta legis Gustato pomo nullus transit sine morte Heu (misera) sorte labitur omnis homo Vado mori papa qui iussu regna subegi Mors michi régna tulit eccine vado mori Vado mori rex sum quid honor quid gloria regum Est via mors hominis regia vado mori Vado mori presul cleri popwlique lucerna Qui fueram validus langueo vado mori Vado mori miles victor certamine belli Mortem non didici vincere vado mori Vado mori monachus mundi moriturus amori Vt moriatur amor hic michi vado mori Vado mori legista fui defensor egenis Causidicus causas (desero) vado mori Vado mori logicus aliis concludere noui Conclusit breuiter mors michi vado mori Vado mori medicus medicamine non redimendus Quicquid agat medici pocio vado mori Vado mori sapiens michi nil sapiencia prodest Me reddit fatuum / mors fera vado mori Vado mori diues (ad) quid michi copia rerum i Dum mortem nequeat pellere vado mori Vado mori cultor collegi farris aceruos Quos ego pro vili computo vado mori Vado mori pauper quem (semper) Chris- tus amauit Hune sequar euitans ommia vado mori Bracketed words above are from the MS Brit. Mus. Adds. 38131. Similar texts are found in Brit. Mus. Adds. 24660 and Royal 5 E xxi, in a MS at Erfurt printed by Fehse in Zeitschr. f. deut. Philol. 42:277, and in two MSS mentioned by Storck ibid. 42:422. Versions expanded by additional characters are men- tioned by Storck, and are in Brit. Mus. Adds. 18347 and Royal 7 E vii. For the expanded or dialogue-version, see my article in Modern Philology, vol. 8. This “Vado Mori” idea and phrasing were popular as all Death-poetry was and is popular. Citations, or English versions of bits, appear in many MSS; thus, in Brit. Mus. Cotton Faustina B vi, and in Stowe 39, are rimed alliterative versions of a few stanzas, introducing the king, the knight, and a cleric,—e.g., “T wende to dede knight stithe in stoure Thurghe fyght in felde I wane be flour Na fightes me taght be dede to quell I weend to dede soth I yow tell.” And de- tached stanzas of the Latin are at the top of some pages of the 1490 French Danse des Hommes in Guyot Marchand’s edition. It seems obvious that these stanzas were intended to accompany either paint- ings or a mimetic presentation. Whether the repetition of Vado Mori at the end of each distich were an exit-phrase for the moving figure, or merely a rhetori- cal device, is uncertain; and in the expanded form of the text it is also uncer- tain who is the speaker of the “Vive Deo” distich. It may well have been not Death, but a homilist into whose sermon this pageant was inserted, and who from his pulpit commented on each passing figure. Such indeed is the view of Male, in his admirable work on late medieval religious art, p. 392, who suggests that the origin of the Death-dances is to be sought in the “illustrated’’ medieval sermon. While the preacher warned and exhorted, the costumed figures of king, soldier, laborer, etc., passed below his pulpit; and impressive as might be the oratorical warning each time repeated, the effect of the shrouded seizing Death-figure, later perhaps of the speaking Death-figure, must have been power- 128 JOHN LYDGATE ful indeed. On such a theory, the Dance Macabre, in its rudimentary or its de- veloped form, would have its fountain-head even where the medieval drama rose. Such a presentation, after it began to use the visible figure of Death which at first did not appear, could manage with one Death, who met and seized each personage as he entered from the “wings” and convoyed him across in front of the congregation. * But the treatment of the theme in a series of wall-paintings, broken into arcades as were the cloisters of SS. Innocents at Paris, compelled the painter to repeat each time the figure of Death, a device accepted by the onlookers with no more imaginative difficulty than Romans felt in viewing the column of Trajan with its ninety-times-repeated figure of the Emperor. The endeavor of some scholars to explain the numerous skeletons of the Dance Macabre paint- ings as the Dead escorting their living brethren, rather than as Death, is based upon a reading of modern ideas into medieval artistic conditions. The repetition of the skeleton puzzled no medieval understanding. The immense attraction of the theme for all humanity needs no comment. But the many visitations of the plague to West Europe between 1348 and 1450 must have especially affected the imagination and the art-expression of those years. When we consider that in the first month alone of the World War there were some 1500 cartoons of Death on the battle-field, it is easy to believe that the swiftness, the deadliness, and the impartiality of the Black Death assisted in raising the tide of Death-literature and Death-painting that flowed over Europe in the fifteenth century. Every third spade-thrust into manuscript- mould of that period brings up a farewell or an epitaph or a dialogue of Soul and Body or a lyric on this haunting theme, with occasionally a direct allusion to “stroke of pestilence”, such as Lydgate here makes. Some share the Black Death must have, had in giving this mass of grave-literature its frequent hard fierceness of tone. But not all the popularity of the motive in the fifteenth century is due to the especial sense then prevalent of the uncertain tenure of life. Elsewhere in this volume are pointed out similarities between the fifteenth and the eighteenth century; and this is another. An age lacking in enthusiasms and convictions, an age of dull sense-perceptions and low creative power, that is, an age of strong inhibitions, tends to the acceptance of authority, to formulae, and to the expression of those didactic and melancholic feelings which the torpid or the conventionalized mind considers “decorous”. The wide popularity of the “grave- yard school” of the eighteenth century, the mass of imitations of Gray’s Elegy, the welcome extended by Germany and by France to Young’s Night Thoughts (1742-44) and to Blair’s Grave (1743), the tomb-sculptures and the engravings of the period, all indicate, not the insecurity and terror of plague or war, but the reduction of creative power. The eighteenth-century pre-occupation with death is less harshly conspicuous than that of the fifteenth century because, in the three hundred and fifty years which had elapsed since Chaucer, England had laid down what we may call, in the combined phrase of Carlyle. Sainte-Beuve, and Fitzgerald, a “substratum of intellectual peat”, a soil which by 1750 had become so deep that no temporary drought could deprive it of its living forests. No poetic luxuriance obliterates the tendency to the didactic and the melancholic, which is especially marked in the Northern races; even in the greatest there is the horrified cry of Claudio, the musing of Jaques and the gloom of Hamlet, the farewell of Prospero. But with Shakespeare the figure of Death remains well THE DANCE MACABRE 129 beyond the crowded doorway of life. Not only the imminence of terror, but the absence of vigor, the dulling of perception, can make his figure assume dispro- portionate magnitude. And in the fifteenth century both elements, the physical fear and the lowered intellectual vitality, combined to spread the Death-fascina- tion. So far as the Dance Macabre is concerned, England took her text from France, through Lydgate. The French text is definitely literary as compared with the single existing Spanish Dance of Death and with a German text (Liibeck) which resembles the Spanish in addressing the eighth and last line of each Death-speech to the next victim. Such a peculiarity is neither pictorial nor literary; it implies representation by living beings. And however the pa- triotic dispute as to priority of Dance-text may be waged, the student perceives that one class of texts is of the dramatic-sermon type and another of the wall- fresco type. To the latter category belonged the poem translated by Lydgate. The pictures which accompanied his text, and its original, both perished in the sixteenth century by the destruction of St. Paul’s cloisters and of the Church of SS. Innocents in Paris; but both the French and English poems survive in transcripts,! and a French wall-picture at Kermaria, Brittany, is copied, in figures and in text, from the Paris Dance. (See Soleil as below.) The length of stanza in French and in English was no obstacle to the use of these poems in fresco or in tapestry. Stained-glass windows no larger than those of the little church of Our Lady at Grand Andelys, Normandy, carry four- line stanzas descriptive of the Clovis and Clotilde pictures they present ; Lydgate in his Bycorne and Chichevache, or Sir Thomas More in his poems written for tapestries in his father’s house,? used the seven-line stanza; the tapestry-verses written in French for Catherine de Médicis* ran in some cases to twenty lines for the “Dames illustres’” there represented; and much earlier, in the third cen- tury, Prudentius drew up a Diptychon or Dittochaeon of 49 hexametric four-line stanzas to serve as legends for sacred pictures. Lydgate’s translation of the French is, he says, “not word by word but following the substance”; it adheres much more closely to its original, how- ever, than is usual with him. The structure of the poem compelled him to fidel- ity and restrained his verbosity. The desire to retain the proverbial line with which each stanza of the French closes,—a literary device which appealed strongly to his taste,—also led him to take over much of the French rime-scheme. The proverbial line and its mate gave him but two of his eight lines and one of his three rimes; two more rime-sounds had to be found, one of which must serve for four lines; and his resort for this latter to words of Romance endings should be compared with the French. Occasionally, as in stanzas 21 and 48, none of the French rime-sounds is preserved; and in the stanzas added by Lydgate to the French he has a closing proverb only in the case of the Abbess. As the French line is of four beats and the Lydgatian of five, there is a small amount *The French text preserved in a MS of the Bibliothéque Communale at Lille, which is very close to Lydgate’s version, is printed in the Notes below. Whether this MS still exists or not, after the fire during the German occupation of Lille, I cannot say; I have no reply to inquiries. * These stanzas are reprinted by Fliigel, Neuengl. Lesebuch, pp. 40-42. _ *See the British Museum Catal. of Western MSS in the Old Royal and Kings’ Collec- tions, 1921, under Royal 20 A xx. 130 JOHN LYDGATE of padding in the English, increased somewhat by the exigencies of rime and by Lydgate’s natural tendency to set phrases such as:—as I reherce can, whoso takith hede, who prudently can se, if I shall nat tarie; etc. Such merit as the poem possesses is, of course, due to its French original; but even in the somewhat wooden translation of Lydgate the subject arouses interest. A study of Death, be it a wall-fresco of the fifteenth century or a sculpture such as the Paris Aux Morts of the twentieth, reaches the imagination of the man in the street. And the fifteenth-century Dance derived additional power from its satiric character. In it the rich, the mighty, the gifted, are as helpless as the laborer; all the artificial and ephemeral distinctions of life dis- appear. The bourgeois spectator of the Dance shared the harsh satisfaction of Death himself in levelling social differences. In such and similar insistences on the fragility of human prosperity the spirit of the time revelled; as Gaston Paris has said :—‘‘Deux themes revenaient sans cesse dans cette littérature; des con- sidérations sur la puissance et les vicissitudes de la fortune et des réflexions sur V'inéluctabilité de la mort.” SELECT REFERENCE LIST V Douce, The Dance of Death..... ascribed to Macaber and Hans Holbein, London, 1794?, 1833, etc. Langlois, Pottier, Baudry, Essai historique, philosophique, et pittoresque sur les dances des morts, 2 vols., Rouen, 1852. Soleil, Les heures gothiques et la littérature pieuse au xv¢ et xvif siécles, Paris, 1882 Seelmann, Die Totentanze des Mittelalters, Leipzig, 1893. Vigo, Le danze macabre in Italia, Bergamo, 2d ed., 1901. Fehse, Der Ursprung der Totentanze, Halle, 1907. Dimier, Les dances macabres et l’idée de la Mort dans 1’art chrétien, Paris, 1908. Male, L’art religieux de la fin du moyen-age en France, Paris, 1908. See also his art. in Revue de deux mondes 32:647-679 (1906). Kinstle, Die Legende der drei Lebenden und der drei Toten und der Totentanz, Frei- burg, 1908. See chap. v for survey and criticism of previous work. Fehse, Das Totentanzproblem, in Ztschr. f. deut. Philol. 42:261-286 (1910). Com- bating Kiinstle’s theory of the derivation of the Dance from the Legend. Storck, Die Legende von den drei Lebenden u. von den drei Toten, Tiibingen diss., 1910. Storck, Das “Vado Mori”, in Ztschr. f. deut. Philol. 42:422-28 (1910). Hammond, Latin Texts of the Dance of Death, in ModPhil 8 :399-410 (Jan. 1911). Durwachter, Die Totentanzforschung, in Festschrift f. G. von Hertling, i:390 ff., 1913. Glixelli, Les cinq poémes des Trois Morts et des Trois Vifs, Paris, 1914. Huet, Notes d’histoire littéraire: iii, La Danse Macabre, Paris, 1918. (On the word macabre.) Martha, J., L’art étrusque, Paris, 1889. See p. 393. Weege, F., Etruskische Malerei, Halle, 1921. See p. 77 for the Tomba del Cardinale. Poulsen, F., trans]. Andersen, Etruscan Tomb Painting, Oxford, 1922. See p. 58, and plate to face, for the Tomba del Cardinale. THE DANCE MACABRE 131 [MS Bodleian Selden supra 53, fol. 148a] Verba translatoris O 3ee folkes / harde hertid as a stone - Wich to pe worlde / haue al 3our aduer- tence Liche as it shulde / laste euere in oone- Where is 30ur witt / wher is 30ur pru- dence To se aforn / the sodeine violence: 5 Of cruel dethe / bat be so wis and sage - Wiche sleeth allas / by stroke of pesti- lence - Bobe 30ng and olde / of lowe & hy parage - 2 Deeth sparith not / lowe ne hy degre - Popes kynges ne worthy Emperours- 10 Whan pei shyne / most in felicite - He can abate / pe fresshnes of her flours - The bri3t sonne / clipsen with his shours - Make hem plunge / from her sees lowe - Magre be my3t / of alle these conquer- ours - 15 ffortune hath hem / from her whele ythrowe - 3 Considerith pis / 3e folkes that be wys- And it enprentith / in 30oure memorial - Like bensaumple / wiche pat at Parys- I fonde depict / oones in a wal - 20 fful notably / as I reherce shal - Ther of frensshe clerkis / takyng aquein- taunce - I toke on me / to translatyn al - Oute of be frensshe / machabres daunce - 4 By whos avys / and counceil atte pe leste - 25 Thoru3 her steryng / - and her mocioun - I obeide / vn to her requeste - Ther of to make / a playn translacioun - In englissh tonge / of entencioun - That proude folkes / wiche pat be stout & bold- 30 As in a mirrour / to for in her resoun- Her ougly fine / may cleerly ther bihold - 5 By exaumple / bat pei in her ententis - Amende her lif / in euery manere age - On the MS see p. 124 note. The wiche daunce / at seint Innocen- tis - 35 Portreied is / with al be surpluage- To shewe pis worlde / is but a pilgrim- age: 3ove vn to vs / our lyves to correcte - And to declare / the fyne of oure pas- sage: Ri3t anoon / my stile I wole directe+ 4o 6 Verba auctoris O creatures / 3e that be reasonable - The lyf : desiring / wiche is eternal - 3e may se here - doctrine ful notable - Soure lif to lede / wiche pat is mortal - Ther by to lerne / in especial - 45 Howe 3e shul trace / be daunce of Machabre - To man & womman / yliche natural - ffor deth ne spareth / hy ne lowe degre: i] In bis mirrour / euery wi3t may finde - That him bihoveth / to goo vpon pis daunce - 50 Who goth to forn / or who shal goo be hinde - Al dependith / in goddis ordinaunce - Wherfore eche man / lowly take his chaunce - Deeth spareth not / pore ne blood royal - Eche man pberfore / haue in remem- braunce - 55 Of o mater / god hath forged al- 8 Deeth to the Pope* _— O 3ee bat be set / most hie in dignite Of alle estatis / in erthe spiritual And like as Petir had be souereinte Overe be chirche / and statis temporal 60 Vpon pis daunce / 3e firste begyn shal As moste worthy lorde / and gouernour ffor al be worship / of 30ure astate papal And of lordship / to god is the honour 9 The Pope aunswerith First me bihoueth / pis daunce for to lede - 65 Wich sat in erbe / hiest in my see- 1This and other stanza-headings are in the margin of the MS 132 JOHN LYDGATE The state ful perillous / ho so takith hede - To occupie / Petris dignite - But al for that / deth I may not fle- On his daunce / with other for to trace - ffor wich / al honour / who prudently can se: Is litel worth / that dope so sone pace : 10 Deeth to the Emperour Sir Emperour / lorde of al the ground - Souerein prince / and hiest of noblesse - Se must forsake / of golde 30ur appil round : 75 Septre and swerd / and al 30ure hy prowesse - Behinde leve / 30ur tresour and ricch- esse - And with othir / to my daunce obeie - A3ein my my3t / is worth noon hardi- nesse - Adamis children / alle bei moste deie- 11 The Emperour answerith I note to whom / pat I may (me) apele- Touching deth / wiche doth me so con- streine - There is no gein / to helpe my querele - But spade / and pikois / my graue to ateyne - A simple shete / ther is no more to seyne - 85 To wrappe in my body / and visage - Ther vpon sore / I may compleine - That lordis grete / haue litel avauntage - 12 Deeth to pe cardinal Se be abaisshid / it semeth and in drede - Sir cardinal / it shewith by 3oure chere - But 3it for thy / 3e folowe shulle in dede - With opir folke / my daunce for to lere- Soure grete aray / al shal bileven here- Soure hatte of reed / 30ure vesture of grete cost- Alle these pbingis / rekenyd wele y fere - 95 In greet honour / good avis is lost - 81. Bracketed word from Harley 116. 13 The cardinal answerith - I haue grete cause / certis this is no faille - To bene abaisshid / and greetly drede me: Seth deeth is come / me sodeinly to as- saille - That I shal neuere / her aftir clothed be - I00 In grys ne ermyn / like to my degre - My hatte of reed / leue eke in distresse By wiche I haue / lyved wel and see - Howe pat al Joie / endith in heuynesse - 14 Deeth to the kyng- O noble kyng / moste worpi of renoun - Come forbe anone / for al 30ure worpi- nesse - That somtyme had / aboute 30w envir- oun: Greet rialte / and passing hy noblesse - But rizt anoone / (for) al 3oure grete hynes - Sool fro 3oure men / in hast 3e shul it lete - IIo Who moste aboundib / here in greet ricches - Shal bere with hym / but a sengle shete - 15 A The kyng answerip - I haue not lernyd / here a forn to daunce - No daunce in sooth / of footyng so sauage - Wherfore I see / by clere demon- straunce - 115 What pride is worth / force or hy lyn- age: Deeth al fordope / this is his vsage- Greet and smale / pat in pis worlde soiourne - Ho is most meke / I hold he is most sage - ffor he shal al to dede asshes tourne- 120 16 Deeth to pe Patriarke - Sir Patriarke / alle 3oure humble chere - Ne quite 30w not / ne 30ure humilite - Soure double crosse / of gold and stones clere - Soure power hoole / and al 3oure dignite - THE DANCE MACABRE 133 Some othir shal / of verrey equite- 125 Possede anoone / as I reherce can- Trustib neuere / that 3e shulle pope be- ffor foly hope / deceiveth many a man- 17 The Patriarke aunswerip - Worldly honour / greet tresour & rich- esse - Han me deceivid / sothfastly in dede - 730 Myn olde Ioies / be turned to tristesse - What vailith it / suche tresour to pos- sede - Hy clymbyng vp / a falle hath for his mede - Grete estates / folke wasten oute of noumbre - Who mountith hy / it is sure and no drede 135 Greet berthen / dope hym ofte encom- bre: 18 Deeth to pe constable - It is my ri3t / to reste and 30w con- streine - With vs to daunce / my maister sir Constable - ffor more strong / ban euere was Char- lemayne - Deeth hath aforced / and more wor- shipable - 140 ffor hardines / ne kny3thood / pis is no fable - Ne stronge armvre / of plates ne of mayle - What geyneth armes / of folkes moste notable - Whan cruel deeth / lest hem to assaille - 19 The constable answerip - My purpos was / and hool enten- cioun - 145 To assaille castelles / and mi3ty forter- esses - And bringe folke / vn to subieccioun - To seke honour & fame / and grete richesses - But I se wel / bat al worldly prowesses Deeth can abate / wich is a grete dis- pite - 150 To him al oone / sorwe and eke swet- nesses - ffor a3ein deeth / is founden no respite - 20 Deeth to pe Archebisshop - Sir Archebisshoppe / whi do 3e 30w withdrawe - So frowardly / as it were by disdeyn - Se muste aproche / to my mortel lawe- It to contrarie / it nere not but in veyn- ffor day by day / pere is noon othir geyn- Deeth at be hande / pursueth euery coost - Prest and dette / mote be 3olde a3ein- And at o day / men counten wip her oost - 160 21 The Archebisshoppe - answerith - Allas I woote not / what partie for to flee - ffor drede of dethe / I haue so grete distresse - To ascape his my3t / I can no refute se- That who so knewe / his constreint and duresse - He wolde take resoum to maistresse- 165 A dewe my tresour / my pompe and pride also - My peintid chaumbres / my port & my fresshnesse - ffor thing that bihoveth / nedes must be do- 22 Deth to pe Baroun - 3e pat amonge lordis / and barouns - Han had so longe / worship and re- noun - 170 fforz3ete 30ure trumpetis / and 3oure clariouns - This is no dreme / ne simulacioun - Somtime 3oure custome / and entencioun - Was with ladies / to daunce in be shade - But ofte it happith / in conclusioun - 175 That o man brekith / pat a nopir made - 23 The Baroun or the kny3t answerith -——~ Ful ofte sipe / I haue bene auctorised - To hie emprises / and binges of greet fame - Of hie and lowe / my thanke also deuised - Cherisshed wib ladies / and wymmen hie of name: 180 Ne neuere on me / was put no defame - In lordis court / wiche pat was notable - a 134 JOHN LYDGATE But deebis strook / hath made me so lame ; Cer Vndre heuene / in erpe / is no thing stable - 24 Deeth to pe lady of grete astate - Come forbe anone / my lady and Prin- cesse - 185 Se muste also / goo vp on this daunce - Not may availle / 3oure grete straunge- nesse - Nouber 30ure beute / ne 30ure greet plesaunce - Soure riche aray / ne 3oure daliaunce - That svmtyme / cowde so many holde an honde - 190 In loue for al / 30ure double variaunce Ye mote as nowe / pis footing vndir- stonde - 25 The lady answerith - Allas I see / ther is none othir boote - Deeth hath in erthe / no lady ne mais- tresse - And on his daunce / 3it muste (1) nedis foote - 195 ffor bere nys qwene contesse ne duchesse - ffouringe in bounte / ne in fairnesse - That she of deeth / mote debes trace sewe - ffor to (oure) bewte / and countirfeet fresshnesse - (Oure) rympled age / seith fare wele a dewe: 200 26 Deeth to pe Bisshoppe - My lorde sir Bisshoppe / with 3oure mytre & croos ffor al 3oure ricchesse / sothly I ensure - ffor al 3oure tresour / so longe kept in cloos - Soure worldly goodes / and goodes of nature - And of 30ure sheep / be dredly goostly cure: 205 With charge committid / to 3oure pre- lacie - ffor to acounte / 3e shulle be brou3te to lure - No wi3t is sure / pat clymbeth ouere hie - 27 The Bisshoppe answertp - My herte truly / is nouber glad ne myrie Of sodein tidinges / wiche pat 3e bring 210 My fest is turned / in to a simple ferye- That for discomfort / me list no bing syng - The worlde contrarie nowe / vn to me in workyng - That alle folkes / can so disherite - He pat al withhalt / allas at oure part- ing - 215 And al shal passe / saue only oure merite - 28 Deeth to pe Squier - Come forth sir Squier / riz3t fresshe of 3oure aray- That can of daunces / al be newe gise- Thou3 3e bare armes / fressh horsed 3isterday - With spere and shelde / at 3oure vnkoube deuise - 220 And toke on 30w / so many hy emprise Daunceth with vs / it wil no bettir be - Ther is no socour / in no manere wise: ffor no man may / fro debes stroke fle: 29 The Squier aunswerith - Sipen pat debe / me holdith in his lace - 225 Set shal y speke / o worde or y pase- A dieu al myrbe / a dieu nowe al solace - A dieu my ladies / somtime so fressh of face - A dieu beute / plesaunce and solace - Of debes chaunge / euery day is prime - 230 Thinkeb on 3oure soules / or bat deth manace - ffor al shal rote / and no man wote what tyme - 30 Deeth to pe Abbot - Come forth sir Abbot / wip 30ure brood hatte - Beeth not abaisshed / bou3 3e haue ri3t - Greet is 30ur hood / 3our bely large & fatte - 235 Se mote come daunce / pbou3 3e be no ping 1i3t - Leve vp 30ure abbey / to some othir wi3t - Soure eir is of age / 3o0ure state to occupie - THE DANCE MACABRE 135 Who pat is fattest / I haue hym behi3t - In his graue / shal sonnest putrefie - 240 31 The Abbot answerip: Of thi bretis / haue I noon envie- That I shal nowe / leve al gouernaunce - But pat I shal / as a cloistrer dye- This doth to me / passinge grete grev- aunce - 244 Mi liberte / nor my greet habondaunce - What may availe / in any manere wise- Sit axe I mercy / with hertly repen- taunce - Thou3 in diynge / to late men hem avise - 32 Deeth to the Abbesse - And 3e my lady / gentil dame Abbesse - Wipb 30ure mantels / furred large and wide - 250 Soure veile 30ure wymple / passinge of greet richesse- And beddis softe / 3e mote nowe leie a side - ffor to bis daunce / I shal be 3oure guyde - Thou3 3e be tendre / and born of gentil blood - While pat 3e lyve / for 3oure silfe prouide - 255 ffor aftir deeth / no man hath no good: 33 The Abbesse : answerith - Allas that deeth / hath bus for me or- deined - That in no wise / I may it not declyne Thou3 it so be / ful ofte I haue con- streyned - Brest and throte / my notes out to twyne- 260 My erickes round / vernysshed for to _ shyne: Vngirt ful ofte (to walke at be large - Thus cruell deth doth all estates fyne Who hath no chippe muste rowe in bote or barge) 244. The second half-line reads in the B-recen- sion somwhat the lesse grevaunce. 262-4. Inserted from Harley 116; Selden is blank after ofte, and Bodley 221, Laud, lack line 7 of the stanza. Trinity and Ellesmere agree with Harley, reading shyp, ship in line 264. 34 Deeth to pe Bally: Come forpe sir bailly / that knowen al pe gise- 265 By 3oure office / of troube and ri3twis- nes - 3e must come / to a newe assise- Extorciouns / and wronges to redres - 3e be somonyd / as lawe bit expres - To 3elde acountes / be luge wole 30w charge - 270 Wiche hath ordeyned / to exclude al falsnes - That euery man / shal bere his owne charge - 35 The Bayly - answerith - O pou lorde god / this is an hard iourne - To suche a fourme / I tooke but litel hede - Mi chaunge is turned / and bat for- thinkipb me- 275 Sumtyme wip Iuges / what me list to spede - Lay in my my3t / by fauour or for mede - But sithen bere is / no rescws by bataille - I holde hym wys / pat cowde see in dede - Ajein deeth / pat none apele may vaille - 280 36 Deeth to pe Astronomere - Come forpe maister / bat loken vp so ferre: With Instrumentis / of Astronomy - To take be grees / and hei3te of euery sterre - What may availe / al 3o0ure astrologie- Sethen Adam and / alle the Genola- gie- 285 Made ferst of god / to walke vppon pe grounde - Deeth dooth areste / bus seith The(o)lo- gie- And al shal die / for an appil round - 274. Harley reads, “To the which aforne,” etc. 275. Trinity, Harley, read chaunce; Ellesmere as Selden. 285. Harley and the B-recension read: “Sith of Adam all pe Genelogie”. 136 JOHN LYDGATE 37 The Astronomere answerith For al my craft / kunnynge or science - I can not finde / no prouisioun - 290 Ne in the sterris / serche oute no de- fence - By domefiynge / ne calculacioun - Safe finally / in conclusioun - ffor to discrive / oure kunnynge euery- dele - Ther is no more / by sentence of re- soun - 295 Who lyueth ari3t / mote nedis dye wele - 38 Deeth to pe Burgeys: Sir burgeis / what do 3e lenger tarie- ffor al 30ure aver / and 3oure greet ricchesse : Thou3 3e be straunge / deynous & con- trarie - To this daunce / 3e mote 30w nedis dresse - 300 ffor 30ure tresour / plente and largesse - ffrom obere it cam / and shal vnto straungers - He is a fool / that in suche bysynes - Woot not for whom / he stuffith his garners - 39 The Burgeis - aunswerith - Certis to me / it is greet displesaunce - 305 To leve al this / and may it not assure: Houses rentes / tresour and substaunce - Deeth al fordobe / suche is his nature - Therfore / wys is no creature - That set his herte / on good bat moot disseuere - 310 The worlde it lente / and he mot it (recure) - And who most hath / lopest dieth euere - 40 Deeth to pe Chanoun - And 3e sir Chanoun / with many grete prebende - Se may no lenger / haue distribucioun - Of golde and siluer / largely to dis- pende - 315 ffor bere is nowe / no consolacioun - 311. Selden, Laud, Bodley 221, read recouere; Harley, Trinity, Ellesmere, read recure. But daunce with vs / for al 3oure hie renoun - ffor 3e of deeth / stonde vppon pe brink - Se may ther of / haue no dilacioun - Deeth comyth ay / whan men lest on him bink - 320 41 The Chanoun answerip - My benefices / with many personage - God wote ful lite / may me nowe com- forte - Deeth hath of me / so grete avauntage - Al my ricches / may me not disporte - Amys of grys / bei wole aj3ein re- sorte - 325 Vn to be worlde /surplys and prebende- Al is veinglorie / truly to reporte- To die wel / eche man shulde entende - 42 Deeth to pe Marchaunt - Se riche Marchaunt / 3e mote loke hider- warde - That passid haue / many diuers londe - 330 On hors on foot / hauynge moste re- ward - To lucre and wynnyng / as I vndirstond But nowe to daunce / 3e mote 3eue me 30ure honde - ffor al 3oure labour / ful litel availeth 30W - A dieu veinglorie / bope of free and bonde - 335 No more coueite pan pei pat haue ynow - 43 The Marchaunt answerip: By manie an hil / and many a straunge vale - I haue traueilid / with my marchandise - Ouere be see / do carie many a bale- To sundry Iles / mo ban I can deuise - 340 My herte Inwarde / ay fret with couet- ise: But al for nou3t / nowe deeth doip me constreine - By wiche I seie / by recorde of the wise - Who al embraceth / litel shal restreine - 44 Deeth to pe Chartereuz - Seue me 30ure hond / wib chekis dede & pale: 345 THE DANCE MACABRE 137 Causid of wacche / and longe abstinence - Sir chartereux / and 3oure silfe avale- Vn to this daunce / with humble pa- cience - To stryve a3ein / may be no resistence - Lenger to lyve / set not 30ure mem- orie: 350 Thou3 I be lothsom / as in apparence - Aboue alle men / deth hath be victorie- 45 The Chartereux aunswerith Unto be worlde / I was dede longe agone - By my ordre / and my professioun - Thou3 euery man / be he neuere so stronge- 355 Dredith to die / by kindly mocioun - Aftir his flesshly Inclinacioun - But plese it to god / my soule for to borowe - ffrom fendis my3t / and from dampna- cioun - Some bene to day / bat shulle not be to morwe - 360 46 Deeth to pe Seriaunt Come forbe sir Sergant / with 3oure statly mace- Make no defence / ne no rebellioun - Not may availe / to grucche in pis cace- Thou3 3e be deynous / of condicioun - ffor nouther pele / ne proteccioun- 365 May 30w fraunchise / to do nature wrong ffor bere is noone / so sturdy cham- pioun - Thou3 he be my3ty / anober is as stronge - 47 The Sergant answerith Howe dare pis debe / sette on me areste- That am pe kinges chosen officere- 370 Wiche 3isterday / bope west and este - Min office dide / ful surquidous of chere- But nowe pis day / I am arestid here- And may not flee / pbou3 I hadde it sworn - Eche man is lothe / to die ferre and nere- 375 That hath not lerned / for to die aforn 353. The rime is imperfect in the A-recension; the B-recension reads —dede ago ful longe. 48 Deeth to pe Monke Sir monke also / with 3oure blak habite - 3e may no lenger / holde here soiour - Ther is no bing / bat may 30w here respite - Aj3ein my my3t / 30w for to socour- 380 5e mote acounte / touching 3oure labour Howe 3e haue spent it / in dede worde & pboust - To erbe and asshes / turneth euery flour - The life of man / is but a bing of nou3t - 49 The monke answerith I hadde leuere / in pe cloistre be- 385 At my book / and studie my seruice- Wiche is a place / contemplatif to se- But I haue spent / my life in many vice- Liche as a fool / dissolut and nyce - God of his mercy / graunt me repent- aunce - 390 By chere outwarde / harde (is) to deuise - Alle be not mery / wich pat men se daunce - 50 Deeth to be vsurere- Thou vsurer / loke vp and biholde- Vn to wynnygne / pou settist al bi peine- Whos couetise / wexib neuere colde- 395 Thy gredy pbrust / so sore be doth con- streine - But pou shalt neuere / pi desire ateyne - Such an etik / thin herte frete shal - That but of pite / god his hande re- freine - O perillous strook / shal make be lese al - 400 a! The wsurere answerith Nowe me bihoueth / sodeinly to dey- Wiche is to me / grete peine & greet grevaunce - Socour to finde / I see no maner wey - Of golde ne siluer / by no chevesaunce - Deeth boru3 his haste / abit no pur- veaunce - 405 Of folkes blinde / pat can not look wel - 391. I insert ts from Bodley 221 and Laud; not in Selden, Harley, or Trinity. 402. Ellesmere is with Selden; Bodley 221, Har- ley, and Trinity read and grevaunce. if 138 fful ofte happith / by kinde or fatal chaunce - Some haue faire ey3en / bat see neuere a dele - 52 7 The pore man to pe vsurere Vsure to god / is ful grete offence - And in his si3t / a grete abusioun- 410 The pore borwith / par cas for indi- gence . fer tz The riche lent / by fals collucioun - Only for lucre in his entencioun - Deeth shal hem bope / to acountes fette - To make rekenynge by computacioun - No man is quit / pat is bihinde of dette 53 Deeth to pe ffisician Maister of phisik / wiche on 3oure vryne So loke and gase / and stare a3ein be sonne ffor al 3oure craft / and studie of medi- cine Al pe practyk / and sience bat 3e konne 420 Sour lyves cours / so ferforpe is Ironne A3ein my my3t / 3oure craft may not endure ffor al be golde / bat 3e ther by haue wonne Good leche is he / bat can him silfe re- cure 54 The ffisician answerith fful longe a goo / that I vn to phisik - 425 Sette my witt / and my dilligence - In speculatif / and also in practik- To gete a name / boru3 myn excellence - To finde oute / a3ens pestilence - Preseruatives / to staunche it and to fine - 430 But I dar seie / shortly in sentence - Ajens deeth / is worth no medicine - 55 Deeth to pe Amerous Squier Se bat be gentil / so fresshe and amer- ous - Of 3eres 30nge / flouringe in 30ure grene age - Lusty free / of herte eke desirous: 435 fful of devises / and chaunge in 3oure corage - JOHN LYDGATE Plesaunt of port / of look and of visage - But al shal turne / in to asshes dede - ffor al bewte / is but a feint ymage- Wiche stelib a weye / or folkes can take hede - 440 56 The Squier answerip Allas - allas / I can nowe no socour: | Aj3ens dethe / for my silfe provide - A dieu of 30upbe / pe lusty fresshe flour A dieu veinglorie / of bewte and of pride - A dieu al seruice / of be god Cupide- 44: A dieu my ladies / so fressh so wel be sein - ffor a3ein dethe / no ping may abide: And windes grete / goo doun with litil reyn: 57 Deeth to pe gentil womman amerous Come forbe maistresse / of 3eris 30nge and grene- Wiche holde 3oure silfe / of bewte souereyne - 450 As faire as 3ee / was somtyme Polycene - Penolope / and the quene Eleyne - dit on pis daunce / bei wente bobe tweine - And so shulle 3e / for al 30ure straunge- nesse - Thou3 daunger longe / in loue hab lad 30ure reine: 455 Arestid is / 3oure chaunge of doubil- nesse - 58 The gentil womman answerith O cruel deeth / bat sparest none estate To old and 3onge / bou art indifferent - To my bewte / pou hast yseide chek- mate - So hasty is / thi mortal Iugement 460 ffor in my 30upe / this was myn entent - To my seruice / many a man to haue lured - But she is a fool / shortly in sentement - That in hir bewte / is to moche assurid - 59 Deeth to the man of lawe Sir aduocate / short processe for to make - 465 3e mote come plete / afore be hize luge - Many a quarel / 3e haue vndirtake THE DANCE MACABRE 139 And for lucre / to do folke refuge - But my fraunchise / is so large & huge: That Counceile none / availe may but troube- 470 He skapib wisely / of deeth be greet deluge - To fore pe doom / who is not teint wip sloube - 60 The man of lawe answerith Of rizt and resoun / by naturis lawe- I can not putte / a3ein deeth no defence - Ne by no sleiz3te / me kepe ne wib- drawe - 475 ffor al my wit / and my greet prudence - To make apele / from this dredful sent- ence - No ping in erthe / may a man preserve: A3eins his my3t / to make resistence - God quite al men / like as pei de- serve: 480 61 Deeth to pe Iourrour Maister Iurrour / wiche bat at assise And atte Shires / questes doste embrace - Departist londe / like to pi deuise - And who most 3af / moste stode in pi grace: The pore man / lost londe and place - 485 ffor golde pou cowdest / folkes dis- herite - But nowe lete se / with pi teint face - To fore be Iuge / howe pou canst pe quite - 62 The Iourour answerith Somtyme I was clepid / in my cuntre- The belle wedir / and pat was nat a lite - 490 Nou3t loued / but drad / of lowe and hie degre- ffor whom me list / by craft I coude endite - And hange the trewe / and pe theef respite - Al be cuntre / by my worde was lad: But I dar sey / shortly for to write- 495 Of my dethe / many a man is glad- 63 Deeth to pe Minstral O thou mynstral / bat canst so note and pipe - Vnto folkes / for to do plesaunce- By pe ri3t honde / I shal anoone pe gripe - With these other / to goo vp on my daunce - 500 There is no scape / neiber avoidaunce - On no side / to contrarie my sentence - ffor in Musik / by craft and acordaunce - Who maister is / shewe his (science) - 64 The minstral answerip This newe daunce / is to me so straunge - 505 Wondir diuerse / and passingly contra- rie: The dredful fotyng / doth so ofte chaunge - And be mesures / so ofte sithes varie - Wiche nowe to me / is no ping neces- sarie - If it were so / bat I my3t asterte- 510 But many a man / if I shal not tarie- Ofte daunceth / but no thing of herte- 65 Deeth to pe Tregetour Maistir Iohn Rikele / some tyme Trege- tour - Of noble Harry / kyng of Engelond - And of ffraunce / be mi3ty conquer- our - 515 ffor alle be sleiztes / and turnyng of pin hond - Thou must come ner / this daunce to vndirstond - Nou3t may auaile / al thi conclusions - ffor deeth shortly / nouber on see ne lond - Is nou3t deceivid / by none illusions 520 66 The Tregetour answerith What may availe / magik natural - Or any craft / shewid by apparence - Or cours of sterres / aboue celestial - Or of be heuene / al the influence - A3eins deeth / to stonde at defence: 525 Legerdemeyn / nowe helpib me ri3t nou3t - 504. Selden, shewe his sentence; Ellesmere, Laud, Bodley 221, shew his science; Trinity, shewep his science; Harley, shall schew his science. 140 JOHN LYDGATE ffarewel my craft / and al suche sapi- ence - ffor deth moo maistris / 3it pan I hath wroust - 67 Deeth to / pe Persoun O sir curat / bat bene nowe here pre- sent - That had 3oure worldly Inclinacioun - 530 Soure herte entire / 3oure studie and en- tent Moste on 3oure tithes / and oblacioun - Wiche shulde haue bene / of conuersa- cioun - Mirrour vn to othir / li3t and exaum- plarie - Like 3oure desert / shal be 3oure guer- doun - 535 And to eche labour / dewe is pe salarie- 68 The Persoun answerith Maugre my wille / I must condiscende - ffor deeth assailib / euery lifly thing - Here in bis worlde / who can compre- hende - His sodein stroke / and his vynware com- yng: 540 ffarewele tithis / and farewel myn off- ryng - I mote goo counte / in ordre by and by- And for my shepe / make a iust rek- enyng - Whom he aquyteth / I holde he is happy - 69 Deeth to pe laborer: Thou laborer / wiche in sorwe and peine - Hast lad pi life / in ful greet trauaile - Thou moste eke daunce / and perfore not disdeyne - ffor if bou do / it may pee not auaile- And cause why / pat I pee assaile- Is oonly pis / from pee to disseuere- 550 The fals worlde / pat can so folke faile - He is a fool / bat weneth to lyne euere - 70 The laborer answerith I haue wisshed / aftir deeth ful ofte- Al be pat I wolde haue fled hym now - I had leuere / to haue leyn vnsofte- 555 In winde and reyn / & haue gone at plow - With spade & pikoys / and labourid for my prow: Dolve and diched / and at be carte goone - ffor I may seie / and telle pleinly howe: In pis worlde here / ther is reste none - 560 71 Deeth to pe frere menour Sir cordeler / to 30w myn hand is rau3t - To pis daunce / 30w to conveie and lede- Wiche in 3oure preching / haue ful ofte Itau3t - Howe pat I am / moste gastful for to drede - Al be pat folke / take berof noon hede- Sit is per noon / so stronge ne so hardy - But deth dare reste / and let for no mede - 567 ffor deeth eche hour / is present and redy - 72 The frere answerip What may pis be / bat in bis world no man - Here to abide / may haue no surete- 570 Strengpe ricchesse / ne what so pat he can - Worldly wisdom / al is but vanite - In grete astate / ne in pouerte Is no ping found / bat may fro debe defende - ffor wiche I seie / to hie and lowe degre - 575 Wys is bat synner / pat dooth his life amende - 73 Deeth to the childe Litel enfante / bat were but late yborn Shape in bis worlde / to haue no ples aunce - Thou must with other / bat goone here to forn- Be lad in haste / by fatal ordinaunce - Lerne of newe / to goo on my daunce- Ther may noon age / escape in soth berfroo: 582 Lete euery wi3t / haue pis in remem- braunce Who lengest lyveth / moost shal suffre woo: THE DANCE MACABRE 141 74 The childe answerip A-A-A-o worde I can not speke- 585 I am so 30nge / I was bore 3isterday - Deeth is so hasty / on me to be wreke- And list no lenger / to make no delay - I cam but nowe / and nowe I goo my way - Of me no more / no tale shal be told - 590 The wil of god / no man with stonde may - As sone dieth / a 3onge man as an old: 75 Deeth to the Clerke O 3e sir clerke / suppose 3e to be free: ffro my daunce / or 3o0ure selfe defende - That wende haue rysen / vn to hie degre - Of benefices / or some greet prebende- Who clymbeth hiest / some tyme shal dissende - 597 Lat no man grucche / a3ens his fortune - But take in gree / what euere god hym sende - Wiche ponissheth al / whan tyme is oportune - 600 76 The clerke aunswerith - Shal I pat am / so 30nge a clerke nowe deye - ffro my seruice / and haue no bettir guerdoun - Is ther no geyn / ne no bettir weye - No sure fraunchise / ne proteccioun - Deeth makith alweie / a short conclu- sioun - 605 To late ware / whan men bene on pe brinke - The worlde shal faile / and al posses- sioun - ffor moche faileth / of ping pat foles thinke - 77 Deeth to pe Hermyte Se pat haue lived / longe in wildernesse - And bere contynued longe in abstinence - At pe laste / 3et 3e mote 30w dresse- 617 Of my daunce / to haue experience - ffor bere a3ein / is no recistence Take nowe leue / of pin Ermytage- Wherfore eche man / aduerte this sent- ence - 615 That pis life here / is no sure heritage - 78 The Hermite answerip Life in desert / callid solitarie - May a3ein debe / haue no respite ne space - tl At vnset our / his comyng doth not tarie - And for my part / welcome be goddes grace: 620 Thonkyng hym / with humble chere and face: Of al his 3iftes / and greet habondaunce - ffynally / affermynge in this place - No man is riche / bat lackith suffisaunce - 5 “° 79 Deeth azein to pe Hermite That is wel seide / and bus shulde euery wi3t - 625 Thanke his god / and alle his wittis dresse - To loue and drede hym / with al his herte & my3t- Seth deeth to ascape / may be no siker- nesse - As men deserue / god quit of ri3twis- nesse - To riche and pore / vppon euery side - 630 A bettir lessoun / ber can no clerke ex- presse - Than til to morwe / is no man sure to abide - 80 The kyng ligging dede and eten of wormes 3e folke bat lokyn / vpon this portrature - Biholdyng here / alle the states daunce - Seeth what 3e bene / and what is 3oure nature - 635 Mete vn to wormes / not ellis in sub- staunce - And haue pis mirrour euere in remem- braunce - Howe (I) lie here / somtyme crownyd kyng - To alle estates a trewe resemblaunce - That wormes food / is fyne of oure lyuyng - 640 81 Machabre pe doctour Man is not ellis / platly for to thinke- But as a winde / wiche is transitorie - Passinge ay forbe / wheber he wake or winke - Stee y 142 JOHN LYDGATE Towarde bis daunce / haue pis in memo- rie: Remembringe ay / per is no bet vic- torie - 645 In pis life here / ban fle synne at pe leste - Than shul 3e regne / in paradys with glorie - Happy is he / bat maketh in heuene his feste - 82 Sit ther be folke / mo pan six or sevene Reckles of lyf / in many maner wise 650 Like as ber were / helle none nor heuene Suche false errour / lete euery man dis- pice ffor hooly seintis / and oolde clerkis wise Writen contrarie / her falsnes to deface To lyue wel / take this for best em- price 655 Is moche worth / whan men shul hens pace 83 Lenvoye de Translatour O 3e my lordis ,/ and maistres alle in fere Of auenture / bat shal bis daunce rede Lowly I preie / with al myn herte entere To correcte / where as 3e see nede 660 ffor nou3t ellis / I axe for my mede But goodly support / of this transla- cioun And with fauour / to sowponaile drede Benignely / in 30ure correccioun Out of be frensshe / I drewe it of en- tente 665 Not worde by worde / but folwynge be substaunce ; And fro Paris / to Engelonde it sente Oonly of purpos / 30w to do plesaunce Rude of langage / I was not born in fraunce Haue me excusid / my name is Iohn Lidgate 670 Of her tunge / I haue no suffisaunce Her corious metris / in englisshe to translate Here endith the daunce of Deeth EPITHALAMIUM FOR GLOUCESTER Humphrey duke of Gloucester, youngest of Henry the Fourth’s four sons, was born about 1390, some years before his father’s seizure of the English crown, He took no conspicuous part in English politics until the renewal of the French war by Henry the Fifth, and the absence of all his brothers in France, devolved on him the governance of England. Either his own temperament, or a shrewd perception of the future of the English middle class, then led him to championship of the bourgeoisie. He became in consequence the idol of the people, and also in consequence, a man suspect by his own class. With the death of Henry the Fifth (1422) and of Thomas duke of Clarence (1421) in France, the adminis- tration of the Anglo-French dominions was divided between John duke of Bed- ford, who remained abroad to prosecute the war, and Humphrey duke of Glou- cester, who was entrusted with the protectorate of England. In this duty, and in the guardianship of the infant Henry VI, there were associated with Glou- cester the Lords of Council, among whom the most powerful was Beaufort bishop of Winchester, illegitimate half-brother of Henry the Fourth, a man of great wealth and great ability, and strongly inimical to Gloucester. The remainder of Humphrey’s life, until his death under suspicion of poison in 1447, is, politically, a struggle between his party and that of Beaufort and Suffolk. Were this political fencing the whole of Gloucester’s activity, we should have to term him a factious schemer, and little more. But his life has other as- EPITHALAMIUM FOR GLOUCESTER 143 pects. Interesting, at least, are his relations with Jacqueline of Hainault, who became his wife in spite of political prudence; interesting also, in their own way, are his desertion of Jacqueline for Eleanor Cobham, the protest of English women to Parliament against his conduct, the later trial of Eleanor for sorcery, and that taper-bearing public penitence of the duchess through London streets, “hoodless save a kerchef”, which is so astonishing a fact in Humphrey’s life. There is much that is violent and ignoble in all this; Gloucester’s private life, indeed, was one of excess; but we can turn from such facts to a far finer side of Humphrey, his love of books and his patronage of men of letters. The man who first founded the library of the University of Oxford, the man who corresponded with Italian scholars and rewarded English writers, has a claim on the gratitude of students which outweighs many political errors. Humphrey after his elevation to power was reckless, selfish, unstable; he carried the soldier’s temperament into affairs where caution and diplomacy were needed. But the afterworld has forgotten the politician, and forgiven the patron of letters. Our admiration of his patronage of literature has, however, to be qualified by the sort of literature which he patronized. Humphrey had no Virgil to en- courage and reward, not even the Tasso of a Renaissance despot. Like an Este or a Medici, though, he dispensed his favors. There is, as Tout has said, “some- thing almost Italian about Gloucester, both in his literary and his political ca- reer.” His personal vices, his restless instability, his condottiere swagger, his real love of learning and generosity to learning, are those of Ferrara or Florence. It is, however, too much to say, as Vickers says (op. cit. below, p. 348), that “what Petrarch did for the world, Humphrey did for England.” The interest which Humphrey showed in the classics was indeed greater than that evinced by his royal brother; and Aeneas Sylvius commended the better Latin style which Gloucester’s zeal for polite learning had introduced into England. But the blend of classicism, medievalism, and the new lyric self-expression which is in Petrarch is very differently proportioned in Humphrey, with far more of the medieval, as his literary patronage shows. Among the works dedicated to him or executed for him are Capgrave’s commentary on Genesis, Gilbert Kymer’s Dietarium, Nicholas Upton’s De officio militari, Whethamstede’s Granarium, the anonymous translation of Palladius De re rustica, Lydgate’s translation of the De Casibus of Boccaccio, and Hoccleve’s rendition of a story from the Gesta Romanorum. An- other of Boccaccio’s works, the Italian poem I] Corbaccio,—an attack upon women,—has recently come to light, says Vickers, pp. 377-79, in an English version by one of Gloucester’s Latin secretaries. The duke’s “poet and orator” Titus Livius wrote at his bidding a Latin biography of Henry the Fifth; Livius, and other of Humphrey’s secretaries, were Italians, and Gloucester was in cor- respondence with Italian scholars. Aretino translated the Politics of Aristotle for him; Pier Candido Decembrio dedicated to him the Latin version of Plato’s Republic. Gloucester’s intellectual curiosity was keen, and he read both French and Latin. But his princely gift of manuscripts to the University of Oxford is the most truly humanistic act of his life. His taste, as revealed in his choice of books for translation into English, does not appear to us humanistic. His election of the Fall of Princes for Eng- lishing, was, however, quite in keeping with the preference of his age for large- scale didactics ; and as a landholder he may have been interested in the translation of Palladius, which he seems to have supervised himself. Both from that work 144 JOHN LYDGATE and from Lydgate’s translation we get a few glimpses of Gloucester personally, though for the most part beclouded with extravagant conventional laudation. But other occasional poems by Lydgate,—the Epithalamium and the appeal for money printed below, especially the curious composition bewailing Humphrey’s de- sertion of Jacqueline and endeavoring to explain it by witchcraft,—throw a little more light on the man. That Gloucester was reckless at Rouen we can read in the lines of John Page and of Hoccleve; that he was piously cruel to heretics we can read in the commendations of Lydgate and of the Palladius-translator ; that Lon- don citizens, despite their indignation at his treatment of Jacqueline, agreed with him against Beaufort in his narrowly militaristic policy, his opposition to the liberation of the duke of Orléans, we can find from the chronicles. He was faith- less to his unfortunate foreign wife; he was injudicious and selfish in matters political. But his generosity to scholars, his manner to the common citizen, have kept his memory green as “the good Duke Humphrey”. Jacqueline of Hainault, the princess to whom this poem is addressed, was the last of the Holland-Wittelsbach line to hold the throne of Holland and Seeland. She was only sixteen on accession, and but a part of her father’s dominions recog- nized her, Holland going over to her uncle, John the Pitiless. She determined to marry her cousin, John of Brabant, hoping thus to strengthen herself against her uncle; but when this hope failed, and her husband became personally odious to her, she fled to England in 1421 for protection and for support in her plea to the Pope for a divorce. Undoubtedly her dominions were a pawn in the political game, but Henry the Fifth moved cautiously, unwilling to antagonize the duke of Burgundy, who also had his eye on Jacqueline’s territories, and whose sup- port was earnestly desired by England against France. Gloucester, however, was influenced by no motives of international diplomacy. He and Jacqueline fell in love with each other; and as Henry the Fifth’s death soon left Gloucester unchecked, he married the now divorced Jacqueline, and in 1424 entered Holland with an English force to support her claims. Suddenly thereafter, perhaps be- cause of Burgundy’s suggestion of a personal duel to decide matters, perhaps for private reasons, Humphrey dropped the campaign and returned to England; the duke of Burgundy seized the deserted and helpless Jacqueline, who vainly implored her husband’s aid; and she survived her fall but a few years, recogniz- ing her marriage to Humphrey as void in 1428. Gloucester then married Eleanor Cobham, a former lady-in-waiting of Jacqueline, whom he had brought back from Holland with him, and for whom his passion had aroused general indigna- tion and disgust. His popularity with Londoners was seriously shaken by his conduct to his deserted wife; in 1428 a group of women entered Parliament and formally protested against his neglect of Jacqueline and connection with Eleanor. Also, there exists in contemporary manuscript a poem, marked as Lydgate’s, expressing strong sympathy for Jacqueline; in this it is interesting to observe the suggestion of sorcery as explanation of Gloucester’s errors, inasmuch as it was for witchcraft that Eleanor of Gloucester later suffered punishment. Its anxious attempt to excuse Humphrey is notable in view of the praise which Hoccleve and Lydgate lavish on him for his “stableness”,—a quality entirely foreign to Humphrey. The poem below is far more conventional, and its complacent ignorance of the actual political situation, of the danger to the Burgundian alliance and to the French war which Humphrey was courting, is truly monastic. Lydgate real- EPITHALAMIUM FOR GLOUCESTER 145 ized only that a compliment to his patron’s beloved would please his patron; and this huddle of extravagant encomiums and conventional formulae must have been presented to Jacqueline not only before her marriage to Humphrey in the autumn of 1422, but before the death of Henry V in August of that year, since he is spoken of as living, in line 48 here. As Jacqueline was in England by June 1421, the limits for composition of this poem are fairly narrow. It survives in three copies, Shirley's MS now Trin. Coll. Cambridge R 3,20 (whence my text), and two transcripts from Shirley in Brit. Mus. Harley 2251 and Adds. 29729; the latter is in the hand of John Stow the antiquary, who died in 1605. For notes on Stow and on Shirley see pp. 191-94 below; and on the MS here used see p. 79 n., above. SELECT REFERENCE LIST VI Vickers, K. H., Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, London, 1907. With extensive biblio- graphy. Anstey, Munimenta Academica, 1868. See pp. 758-772 for lists of books given by Humphrey to Oxford. Tout, T. F., art. on Gloucester in the DNB. Palladius, De re rustica, transl. See p. 202 here. Gloucester’s desertion of Jacqueline, poem by Lydgate?, printed by me in Anglia 27 :381. The Siege of Rouen, by John Page; see Gairdner’s Hist. Collections, Camden Society, 1876. The relief of Calais by a force under Gloucester is described in a Ballad against the Flemings, printed by MacCracken in Anglia 33:283 as Lydgate’s. For Humphrey’s protest against the liberation of Orléans see Speed’s Hist. of Great Britain (1611), p. 660; see Vickers, pp. 264-5. For the King’s reply see Stevenson, Letters and Papers, ii :451-460, Rolls Series, 1861-4. For the London women’s protest against Gloucester’s treatment of his wife see the Chronicon rerum gestarum in monasterio S. Albani, prefixed to the Rolls Series ed. of the Annales Sancti Albani, 1:20. For the public penance of Eleanor Cobham, duchess of Gloucester, see the ‘Lament of the Duchess of Gloucester”, pr. by Hardwick in the Cambridge Antiq. Soc. Communications, i:177 (1855), and from a shorter text by Wright, Polit. Poems, ii:205, by Fliigel in Anglia 26:177, by Dyboski, EETS vol. of Songs and Carols, 1908, p. 95. Gloucester and his duchess Eleanor both appear in A Mirror for Magistrates; see Hasle- wood’s 1815 ed., pp. 112, 128 of vol. ii. [MS Trinity College Cambridge R 3, 20, foll. 158-64] AND NOWE HERE BEGYNNEPE A COMENDABLE BALADE BY LYDEGATE DAUN JOHAN AT pE REUERENCE OF MY LADY OF HOLAND- AND OF MY LORD OF GLOUCESTRE: TO FORE pE DAY OF PEYRE MARYAGE IN bE DESYROUS TYME OF PEYRE TRUWE LOVYNG Thorugh gladde aspectis / of be god Cupyde And ful acorde of his moder deere fful offt sypes / list aforne provyde By cours eterne / of be sterres cleere Becized words are underscored by Shirley in the Hertis in loue / for to Joyne in feere 5 Thoroughe bonde of feyth perpetuelly tendure By influence of god / and of nature 2 Pe heven aboue / disposebe many thinges Which witt of man can not comprehende 146 JOHN LYDGATE Pe faatal ordre / of lordes and of kynges 10 To make somme / in honnour hye as- cende And somme al so ful lowe to descende / And in loue eeke / to lacen and con- streyne Hertes tenbrace / in Jubiters cheyne 3 Pus cam in first / pe knotte of ally- aunce 5 Betweene provynces / and worpy regy- ouns ffolkes to sette in pees / and acordaunce To beon alloone / in beyre affeccouns And to exclude / alle devysyouns Of contekk stryff of batayle and of werres 20 Pe first cause pourtreyed in pe sterres 4 ffor noman may pbordeynaunce eschuwe Thinges disposed / by cours celestyal Ner destenye / to voyde nor remuwe But oonly god / pat lordshipebe al 25 ffor thorughe his might moost Imperyal Peternal lord / moost discrete and saage He brought in first / bordre of maryage Ensaumple in bookes / ber beon moo pane oon Pinward pithth / whoo so list to charge 30 Executid is / of so yoore agoon Recorde I take / of Calydoyne and Arge Howe poo landes / so broode / so wyde / so large Were maked oon / pe story list not feyne By maryage / wheeche a fore were tweyne 35 6 And in cronycles autentyk and olde Many a story / of Antiquytee Vn to pis pourpoos / rehersed is and tolde Howe maryages / haue grounde and cause be Betwene landes / of pees and vnytee 40 And here to forne / as made is remem- braunce Pe werre stynt of England and of ffraunce 7 And as I hope of hert and menyng truwe Pe mortal werre / ceesse shal and fyne Betwene boo boobe / and pees ageyne renuwe 45 To make loue / with cleer beemys shyne By be meene of hir / bat heeght Kath- eryne Ioyned til oon / his deedis can you telle Henry be fyffte / of knighthoode sours and welle 8 And firperdovne / for to specefye 50 Pe dewe of grace / distille shal and reyne Pees and acorde / for to multeplye In be boundes here of oure brettaygne To fynde a wey / wherby we may at- teyne Pat Duchye of holand / by hool af- feccoun 55 May beo allyed / with Brutus Albyoun 9 Pat bey may beo / oon body and oon hert Rooted on feyth / devoyde of double- nesse And eeke to seen cleerly / and aduerte A nuwe sonne / to shynen of glad- nesse 60 In boobe londes / texcluden al derk- nesse Of oolde hatred and of al rancour Brought in by meene / of oon pat is be floure 10 Thoroughe oute pe worlde / called of wommanheed Truwe ensaumple and welle of al goode- nesse 6. Benyngne of poorte / roote of goodely- heed Soobefast myrrour of beaute and fayr- nesse I mene of holand / be goodely fresshe duchesse Called Jaques / whas birth for to termyne Is by descent / Imperyal of lyne 70 11 As Hester meeke / and as Judith saage fhouring in youpe / lyke to Polixseene Secree feythful / as Dydo of Cartage Constant of hert / lyche Ecuba be qweene EPITHALAMIUM FOR GLOUCESTER 147 And as Lucresse / in loue truwe and cleene 75 Of bountee fredame / and of gentylesse She may be called / wel lady and mays- tresse 12 ffeyre was Heleyne / liche as bookes tellebe And renommed as of seemlynesse But sheo in goodnesse / fer aboue ex- cellebe 80 To rekken hir trouthe and hir stedfast- nesse Hir gouuernaunce / and hir hye noblesse Pat if she shal shortly (beo) compre- hendid In hir is no thing bat might beon amend- ed 13 Per to she is descreete / and wonder sadde 85 In hir appoorte / who so list taake heede Right avysee / and wommanly eeke gladde And dame prudence / doope ay hir brydel leede ffortune and Grace and Raysoun eeke in deede In alle hir werkis / with hir beon al- lyed 90 Pat thoroughe be worlde / hir naame is magnefyed 14 To be poore she is / also ful mercyable fful of pytee / and of compassyoun And of nature / list not to beo vengeable Poughe hit so beo / sheo haue occasy- oun 95 Pat I suppose nowe in no regyoun Was neuer a better / at alle assayes founden So miche vertu / doope in hir habounden 15 A heven it is / to beon in hir presence Who list consydre / hir governaunce at al 100 Whas goodely looke / in verray ex- istence So aungellyk / and so celestyal So femynyne / and in especial Hir eyeghen sayne / who so looke weel fforyoven is oure wraththe euery deel 105 16 And hir colours / beon black whyte and rede Pe reed in trouthe / tookenebe stabul- nesse And pe black / whoo so takebe heede Signefyeth / parfyt soburnesse Pe whyte also / is tooken of clen- nesse TI0 And eeke hir word / is in verray soope Ce bien raysoun / al pat euer she doope 17 And sith she is / by discent of blood Pe grettest borne / oone of hem on lyve And per with al / moost vertuous and goode 115 Pe trouthe pleynly / yif I shal des- cryve Suche grace I hope / of nuwe shal ar- ryue With hir komyng / thoroughe al pis lande Pat ber shal beo a perpetuelle bande 18 Parfourmyng vp / by knott of mary- age 120 With helpe of god / betweene pis lady bright And oon pat is soopely of his aage Thoroughe al bis worlde / oon pe best knyght And best pourveyed / of manhood and of might In pees and werre / thoroughe his ex- cellence 125 And is also / of wisdam and prudence 19 Moost renommed / for to rekken al ffrome Eest to west / as of heghe prow- esse In daring doo / and deedes marcyal He passep alle / thorughe his worpy- nesse 130 Pat yif I shall / pe trouthe cleer ex- presse He habe deserved / thoroughe his knyghtly name To beo regystred / in pe hous of ffaame 20 Egally ye with be worpy nyen ffor with Parys he habe comlynesse 135 148 JOHN LYDGATE In trouth of loue / with Troyllus he doope shyne And with Hectour / he habe eeke hardy- nesse With Tedeus he habe fredam and gentyl- nesse Wal of Bretayne / by manly vyolence Ageyne hir foomen / to standen at de- fence I40 Zi Slouth eschuwing / he doobe his witt applye To reede in bookis /wheeche pat beon moral In hooly writt with be Allegorye He him delytebe / to looke in specyal In vnderstonding / is noone to him egal 145 Of his estate expert in poetrye With parfounde feeling of Phylosofye 22 With Salamoun habe he sapyence ffaame of knighthoode / with Cesar Julius Of rethoryk and / eeke of eloquence 150 Equypollent with Marcus Tulius With Hamibal he is victorious Lyche vn to Pompey / for his hyeghe renoun And to gouuerne / egale with Cypyoun 23 Pis Martys sone / and soobefastly his heyre 155 So wolde god of his eternal might He lIoyned were with hir bat is so feyre Pe fresshe duchesse / of whome I speek now right Sith he in hert is hir truwe knyght ffor whome he wrytepe / in goode aven- ture 160 Sanz plus vous belle perpetuelly tendure 24 Pane were pis lande in ful sikurnesse Ageyns passaute / of alle oure mortell foone ffarewell panne / al trouble and hevy- nesse 165 Yif so were pees landes / were alle oon And god I prey / it may beo doone anoon Of his might / so gracyously ordeyne Pat pees fynal / were sette betweene hem tweyne 25 And I dare weel afferme fynally Thorughe oute pis lande / of hye and lowe degree 170 Pat alle folkes / preyen ful specyally Pis thing in haast may executed be And pou pat art oon and twoo and thre Pis gracious werk dispoose for be best ffor to conclude pe fyne of beyre re- quest 175 26 And ymeneus / pow fortune pis matere Thoroughe helpe of Iuvo / nexst of pyne allye Maake a knotte feythful and entiere As whylome was betweene Phylogenye And Mercurye eeke / so hyegh a bove pe skye 180 Wher pat Clyo / and eeke Calyope Sange with hir sustren / in noumbre thryes three 27 And alle yee goddes beobe of oon acorde Pat haue youre dwelling / aboue be firmament And yee goddesses / devoyde of al des- corde 185 Beobe weel willy / and also dilygent And bowe fortune / bee also of assent Pis neodful thing / texecut yerne Thorugh youre power / which pt is eterne Lenvoye Pryncesse of bountee / of fredam Em- paresse 190 Pe verray loodsterre / of al goodelyhede Lowly I prey / vn to youre hyeghe noblesse Of my Rudenesse / not to taken heed And wher so it be / pis bille pat yee reed Habe mercy ay / on myn Ignoraunce Sith I it made / bitwix hope and dreed Of hoole entent / yowe for tyl do ple- saunce LETTER TO GLOUCESTER 149 LETTER TO GLOUCESTER These stanzas exist in four manuscripts, so far as I know.. The soundest and probably the oldest text is that here printed from Brit. Mus. Harley 2255, in which the poem is without heading. In Brit. Mus, Lansdowne 699 it is headed “Litera missura domini Johannis Lidgate ad ducem Gloucester”; and in the sister-volumes Brit. Mus. Harley 2251 and Adds. 34360 there is a colophon which adds to the description as in Lansdowne the words “in tempore trans- lacionis libri Bochasii pro Oportunitate pecunie.” These two MSS are in this part of their contents derived from a lost volume in the hand of Lydgate’s con- temporary Shirley, which gives their account of the poem some validity; more is derived from comparing this poem with the prologue to the Fall of Princes (liber Bochasius), book iii, in which Humphrey’s generosity is rapturously ac- knowledged, and in which there are some similarities of phrasing to the text below. We may conjecture that between the thanks of that prologue and this begging-letter there intervened a money-gift to Lydgate from his patron. Lydgate, like Hoccleve in his numerous pleas for money, is aware that he must catch and hold his superior’s attention. Gloucester’s tastes were doubtless known to his protégé, and the metaphors here worked so elaborately,—medical, nautical, monetary,—are well adapted to please Humphrey. The proverbs are popular literary stuff, as is the refrain; and the employment of a stanza-form slightly different from that of the Fall of Princes may be noted. The occurrence of another begging-letter in the Fall of Princes, book iti, lines 3837-3871, is a somewhat curious fact as coming so soon, in space at least, after acknowledg- ment of a gift in the prologue to that same book. For this begging-letter see Anglia 38 :133-34. The poem was printed from this MS by Nicolas in his Chronicle of London (1827), p. 268; it was printed from Harley 2251 by Halliwell in his MinPo, p. 49, with the colophon as heading; it was printed from this MS by me in Anglia 38:125-26. On our MS see p. 79 n., above; on Harley 2251, see Anglia 28 :24. [Brit. Mus. Harley 2255, fol. 45b] Riht myhty prynce / and it be your wille Condescende / leiser for to take To seen the content / of this litil bille Which whan I wrot / myn hand I felte quake Tokne of mornyng / weryd clothis blake 5 Cause my purs / was falle in gret rerage Lynyng outward / his guttys wer out shake Oonly for lak / of plate / and of coign- age 2 I souhte leechys / for a restoratiff In whom I fond / no consolacioun —_10 Appotecaryes / for a confortatiff Dragge nor dya / was noon in Bury toun Botme of his stomak / was tournyd vp so doun A laxatif / did hym so gret outrage Made him slendre / by a consump- cioun 15 Oonly for lak / of plate / and of coign- age 3 Ship was ther noon / nor seilis reed of hewe The wynd froward / to make hem ther to londe The flood was passyd / and sodeynly of newe A lowh ground ebbe / was faste by the stronde 20 No maryneer durste / take on honde To caste an ankir / for streihtnesse of passage 150 JOHN LYDGATE The custom skars / as folk may vndir- stonde Oonly for lak of plate / and of coignage 4 Ther was no tokne / sent doun from the Tour 25 As any gossomer / the countirpeys was liht A ffretyng Etyk / causyd his langour By a cotidian / which heeld hym day & nyht Sol and Luna / wer clypsyd of ther liht Ther was no cros / nor preent of no visage 30 His lynyng dirk / ther wer no platys briht Oonly for lak / and scarsete of coign- age 5 Harde to likke hony / out of a marbil stoon ffor ther is nouthir / licour nor mois- ture An ernest grote / whan it is dronke and goon 35 Bargeyn of marchauntys / stant in aven- ture My purs and I / be callyd to the lure Off indigence / our stuff / leyd in mor- gage But ye my lord / may al our soor recure With a receyt / of plate and of coign- age 40 6 Nat sugre plate / maad by thappotecarye Plate of briht metal / yevith a mery soun In boklers bury / is noon such letuary Gold is a cordial / gladdest confeccioun Ageyn Etiques / of oold consump- cioun 45 Aurum potabile / for folk ferre ronne in age In quynt essence / best restauracioun With siluer plate / enprentyd with coign- age 7 O seely bille / whi art thu nat ashamyd So malapertly / to shewe out thy con- streynt 50 But pouert hath / so nyh thy tonne at- tamyd That nichil habet / is cause of thy com- pleynt A drye tisyk / makith oold men ful feynt Reediest weye / to renewe ther corage Is a fressh dragge / of no spycis meynt 55 But of a briht plate / enpreented with coignage 8 Thu mayst afferme / as for thyn excus Thy bareyn soyl / is sool and solitarye Of cros nor pyl / ther is no reclus Preent nor Impressioun / in al thy seyn- tuarye 60 To conclude breefly / and nat tarye Ther is no noyse herd / in thyn hermyt- age God sende soone / a gladdere letuarye With a cleer soun / of plate / and of coignage Ext qd Lydgate THE FALE OF PRINCES (Extracts) Lydgate’s longest poem, the Fall of Princes, extending to more than 36,000 lines in rime royal,! was not translated direct from the Latin prose of Boccac- cio’s De Casibus Virorum Illustrium which is its ultimate original, but is a free - paraphrase, with many changes and additions, of a French prose version of Boc- 1 Stanzas of eight lines occasionally appear in envoys; see iv :3445 ff., v:1590 ff. and 1846 ff., 1x :2017 ff.; also ix:3239 ff.. 3541 to close. FALL-OF PRINCES 151 -caccio made by Laurent de Premierfait in 1409.1 Boccaccio is best known to the modern world by his Decameron, and he made his strongest impression on his contemporary Chaucer by the poems which Chaucer worked over into the Knight’s Tale and Troilus and Criseyde; but England and France generally, in the period before the full Renaissance, took more interest in Boccaccio’s Latin encyclo- pedic works, written during the latter half of his life——the De Casibus, the De Claris Mulieribus, the De Genealogia Deorum. In France, at the book-loving court of Charles V, where the king and the royal dukes of Anjou, Berri, and Bourbon encouraged translators and paid liberally to scribes and poets, as also at the brilliant rival court of the dukes of Burgundy, there flourished the earliest modern school of professional littérateurs. Possibly the most famous member of the group was Christine de Pisan, one of the first women to earn her living by her pen; but Laurent de Premierfait, translator and scribe, was not the least of the circle. He translated Cicero for the duke of Bourbon, Boccaccio for the duke of Berri; but though he laboriously manufactured a translation of the Decameron? through the intervention of a Latin prose rendering done by an Italian monk, it is his version of the De Casibus which has kept his name alive with modern students. The plan of the De Casibus is simple. A long procession of unfortunates, ‘from Adam and Eve to King John of France taken prisoner at Poitiers in 1356, passes lamenting before Boccaccio as he sits in his study recording the “tragedy” of each. The series of mournful narratives, for which Biblical and classical ‘history are both drawn upon, is varied in several ways: by disputes between For- ‘tune and Poverty, between Boccaccio and Brunhilda, Atreus and Thyestes, etc. ; or by digressions of author’s comment on the vices which cause these “tragedies” ; or by brief group-chapters headed “Conventus Dolentium’’, “Miseri Quidam”, “Pauci Flentes”, and so on, in which several or many persons are dismissed with a mere mention. The whole work is in the Latin divided into nine books, of nine to twenty-seven chapters each, usually of about twenty; and the first four books have brief prologues. Laurent twice translated the De Casibus; his first and more literal rendering “was made in 1400; the second, much amplified, was apparently the only French version known to Lydgate. The general plan of the second recension follows that of Boccaccio; thus, in the first book the division into nineteen chapters is preserved and the same figures appear. But all the personages who in Boccaccio -pass rapidly as members of a group are by Laurent treated in detail, the “Con- ventus” chapters thus becoming among the longest of the work, and the scheme ‘losing the effect of alternate expansion and contraction given it on Boccaccio’s plan. Laurent also diverges and amplifies wherever excuse for divergence offers ; the mention by Boccaccio of a place, a custom, a person, sends Laurent off on a *For Boccaccio’s Latin and the French see:—Hortis, Sulle opere latine del Boccaccio, Trieste, 1879; E. Koeppel, Laurents de Premierfait u. John Lydgates Bearbeitungen von Boccaccios De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, Munich, 1885; see Hauvette, De Laurentio Pri- mofato, Paris, 1903, also his paper in “Entre Camarades,” Paris, 1901, pp. 279-297. Liberal excerpts from the Latin and the French texts will be found in vol. iv of Bergen’s ed. of the Fall of Princes, 1927. * A copy of this rendering, and of Premierfait’s transl., are in Brit. Mus. Royal 19 E i. The French transl. is also in Brit. Mus. Adds. 34322-3; and Humphrey of Gloucester’s copy is in Paris, Bibl. nat. fonds frangais 12421. 152 JOHN LYDGATE detour. Brief though many of these additions are, they are so numerous and their character is often so much.that of footnotes that the narrative is clogged while it is extended. Laurent’s prose was rendered into English stanzaic verse by Lydgate at the command of Humphrey duke of Gloucester, brother of Henry the Fifth, an Englishman as royal in his patronage of letters and as turbulent in his meddling with politics as were his French compeers. The date at which the work was undertaken may be deduced from the opening prologue, in which Lydgate speaks of Gloucester as Lieutenant of England during Henry VI’s absence in France * (1430-Jan. 1432) and commends the duke for dealings with heretics which prob- ably refer to the Lollard executions of 1431. For the ending of the work we have only Lydgate’s remark, in the prologue to book viii, that he is over sixty years of age. As he had in the prologue to Thebes spoken of himself as nearly fifty, students are inclined to place Thebes and the Fall of Princes in the inter- vening years, and to assign to the longer work four-fifths of the time. In Lydgate’s hands the De Casibus was again expanded.1 He adds, of course, at will to the narratives, drawing both from classical writers like Ovid and from medieval encyclopedists and commentators; he sometimes cuts the stories, as with Theseus and with Agamemnon, and may send the reader either to Chaucer or to his own work; he alters and develops, as in the Orpheus and the ‘ Althaea narratives of book i; and he everywhere diverges into moralization. He has too much fact-material ready to his hand in Laurent to wander into a didactic morass as he does in his version of Aesop, where the slender narrative is engulfed in moral comment. And for a part of his moralizings here Lydgate has excuse; ‘Gloucester commanded him to follow up each tragedy by “a Lenvoy conveyed by reason’, which should point the lesson (see ii:145 ff.). These envoys con- *The usual recension of the Fall of Princes, from which so far as I know only Harley 1766 differs, runs as follows :— Book i:—Prologue, 67 stanzas. 23 chapters, Adam to Canace. Includes Nimrod, Saturn and the Golden Age, Cadmus, Jason, Oedipus, Atreus and Thyestes, Theseus, Althaea, Hercules, Orpheus, Priam, Samson, and a defence of women. Book ii:—Prologue, 23 stanzas. 31 chapters, Saul to Hostilius, with an envoy “Rome, Re- member.” Includes The Human Body and the Body Politic, Mucius Scaevola, Lucrece, Virginia, Jeroboam, Ahab, Dido (with a satirical envoy to widows), Cyrus, Midas, Belshazzar, Croesus, Romulus. Book iii:—Prologue, 23 stanzas. 27 chapters, opened by a dialogue between Fortune and Poy- erty and closing with Artaxerxes and Darius. Lucrece again, Coriolanus, the Golden Age, Alcibiades, Haman, Esther. Book iv :—Prologue on Poets and Writing, 30 stanzas, 26 chapters, Marcus Manlius to Arsinoé. Includes a discussion of Roman triumphs and crowns, Dionysius of Syracuse, Alexander, Agathocles the “crowned ass”, Brennus. Book v:—No prologue. 33 chapters, from a discourse against pride in beauty to Jugurtha. Includes Regulus, Scipio, Hannibal, the Gracchi. Book vi:—No prologue. 16 chapters, opening with a dialogue between Fortune and Boccaccio, and closing with Antony and Cleopatra. Includes Caius Marius, Julius Caesar, Cicero, a chapter against those who defame rhetoric, Pompey. Book vii:—No prologue. 9 chapters, from Antony the younger to the fall of Jerusalem. Includes Herod, Nero, and the dispute between Messalina, Caligula, and Tiberius. The Golden World is described,—see Book i also. Book viii:—Prologue, 29 stanzas. 27 chapters, from Domitian to Rosamond. Includes many emperors, Constantine, Julian, Arthur, Boethius. Book ix:—No prologue. 38 chapters, from Mauritius to John of France. Includes Brunhilde, Mohammed, Lombard emperors, Pope Boniface, Ugolino of Pisa. Envoy to Gloucester. FALL OF PRINCES 153 stitute a structural change as compared with Laurent’s work; and in some small measure they restore the narrative rhythm of Boccaccio’s group-chapters set among the detail-chapters. But for a good deal of the difference in size between the French and the English we may look to Lydgate’s rambling and ver- bose method of narration. When Laurent says that Nimrod “fut maistre des veneurs et eut entre eulx seigneurie”, this becomes in Lydgate— He was callid cheeff prynce of venerie Desirous euer for to han victorie Off beestis wilde to be put in memorie And haue a pris amongis these champiouns Tigres to daunte bores and leouns. Ther was no beeste in wodes so sauage That durste ageyn hym make resistence His furious ire so mortal was and rage The erthe quook for feer off his presence. 1:1060 ff. Again, in the inquiry of Cadmus at the oracle of Apollo, i:1898 ff., we find :-— To what parti that he myhte drawe He praied the god to wissyn him & reede Sum tokne shewe or sum maner lawe Onto what ile that he myhte hym speede Or that he wolde graciously hym leede Where as he myhte bilden a cite That were accordyng for hym & his meyne And to Apollo he dede sacrefise And maad to hym his oblacioun The god requeryng goodli to deuise To what lond or to what regeoun For his duellyng and habitacioun He sholde drawe withoute mor obstacle For hym and hise to make his habitacle. And yet a third stanza is required by Lydgate before he can relinquish the fact of Cadmus’ question to Apollo, and proceed to the answer. Not all of his expansions of Laurent are as unsuccessful as these. There is perhaps some narrative method, some attempt at dramatic delay, in the Althaea tragedy. Laurent says of Meleager’s slaying of his uncles that Althaea, hearing the news, fell senseless, “et apres pour la vengeance du delict que feist Meleager elle bouta au feu le tison que elle auoit garde iusques lors.” Lydgate makes eight stanzas out of the queen’s hesitation between filial love and the desire for re- venge, but sorely muddles his effect by allusions to the Fates and to Fortune. See i: 4943 ff. The repetitive tendency, whether of a narrative point, a moral lesson, a stylistic formula, or a line-mould, is, as already said, Lydgate’s most marked char- acteristic and his greatest failing. He can escape from it for an instant at a time, in a line or a pair of lines; see the examples above cited p. 81. Given a religious emotion and a good model, he can keep clear of his besetting sin for 154 JOHN LYDGATE several verses, as here in i:1331-4. Laurent wrote:—‘“Dieu a mil mains / dieu a mil iauelots / dieu a mil arcs et manieres de pugnir les peches et les pecheurs.” This becomes in the English :— God hath a thousand handis to chastise A thousand dartis off punycioun A thousand bowes maad in vnkouth wise A thousand arblastic bent in his dongoun It is of such passages as this, or of the prayer of Theodosius, that Gray thought when he praised Lydgate for a “stiller kind of majesty.” But the felicity of a small number of lines, the dignity of a smaller number of passages, in the Fall of Princes, is overborne by the narrative failure of the whole, by its unvarying drone of misery, and in Lydgate’s hands by its aggres- sive sermonizing and its faults of style. One may insist on the antiquarian value of his prologues, on the interest of his attempts at humor (usually against women), and plead the crushing size of his commanded task; but the fact remains that he did not do his work as well as did Boccaccio or Laurent. The monotony which ‘always threatens stories in a framework, a monotony so evident in Gower and ‘in the Monk’s Tale, is here doubled by weakness and monotony of style. The Monk’s Tale and the Legend of Good Women were, however, con- stantly in Lydgate’s mind as he worked at the Fall of Princes. It never oc- curred to him that Chaucer’s voice in the former was as deliberately affected . as was the falsetto of Sir Thopas, or that each piece of work betrays the author’s weariness of his subject. In Lydgate’s eyes Chaucer, like Seneca and Boccaccio and Petrarch, was a zealous writer of “tragedies”. There is much about Chaucer in the Fall of Princes; but, as already said (p. 91 here), Lydgate’s procedure - regarding his master varies; he praises him lavishly, he often fears to “auaunce the penne” in rivalry, but again he leaves him unmentioned where we expect a reference, as in the Virginia or the Ugolino story, and he tells the Canace-story condemned by Chaucer. Of phrase-echo of the elder writer there is little here, as compared with the Troy Book or the Siege of Thebes. Naturally the bulk of Lydgate’s material comes from his French original ; -and there is no clear trace of his use of Boccaccio’s Latin. His phrasing, how- ever, would make it seem that he had recourse directly to Boccaccio; for after the formal introduction of Laurent in the opening prologue, Lydgate constantly speaks of his authority as “Bochas” or “John Bochas”, i.e. Boccaccio. Laurent had not done this, but had spoken in Boccaccio’s person, using the pronoun of the first person singular. The general plan of Boccaccio’s work remains clear through the changes ‘and additions made by his translators; it was a plan and theme congenial to the age in which he lived. Though lacking utterly in the qualities which make Dante’s Inferno immortal, the De Casibus yet gropes among material not unlike that which ‘Dante transformed. The half-scholarly, half-monkish figure of Boccaccio seated in his study and visited by the shades of fallen greatness bewailing their lot; the monstrous figure of Fortune dominating the scene; the varying of the “tragedies” by denunciations of women, praise of poverty and of “rhetoric”, by occasional dialogue-episodes,—these gathered together into this one book many of the philo- sophico-literary elements dear to the medieval mind. The connection of the always interesting theme of the mutability of Fortune with a list of imposing THE FALL OF PRINCES 155 historical personages set a poetic fashion which persisted long. Chaucer dallied with it; the Burgundian Chastellain imitated it in his prose Temple de Bo- rcace; Laurent and Lydgate translated it ; it was followed later by Lodowick Lloyd’s -Pilgrimage of Princes, by Cavendish’s Visions, and by A Mirror for Magistrates ; ‘Barclay, in his Ship of Fools, refers to Lydgate’s work and shows acquaintance with it; and it ultimately exerted its influence upon the historical plays of the Tudor age. That age, however, discovered that for purposes of art, the part is greater than the whole, and that tragedy isolated is far more impressive than tragedy massed; it discovered also that tragic effect was enhanced by the inter- polation of a lighter or a varied element. This latter truth may have hovered before Boccaccio when he interspersed dialogue and group-scene among his single-figure studies ; and when we look at the composition of the B? fragment of the Canterbury Tales or at the variety of its framework as a whole, we feel strongly that it was the craving for structural variety which led Chaucer, the potential dramatist, to hold up his earlier-written Monk’s Tale to scorn, and to abandon the Legend of Good Women. Lydgate’s work was popular in its time. Thirty or more MSS remain, and -selections from it appear in many fifteenth-century commonplace-books. It was twice printed by Pynson, in 1494 and 1527, by Tottel in 1554, and by Wayland in 1558. Much of the opening prologue was printed by Miss Spurgeon in her EETS Chaucer Allusions i:37-40, from MS Harley 1766; and for Dr. Bergen’s edition see below. Manuscripts of the Fall of Princes at present (1927) known to me are:— At Oxford :— In the Bodleian Library— Bodley 263: used as basis of the edition by Bergen as below. Bodley e Musaeo 1 (formerly 215). Hatton 2 (formerly 105). Rawlinson C 448. Corpus Christi College 242. In London :— British Museum Harley 1245, 1766, 3486, 4197, 4203. Fragment in Harley 2202 Brit. Mus. Royal 18 B xxxi, Royal 18 D iv, Royal 18 D v. Brit. Mus. Sloane 4031. Eight leaves in Sloane 2452. Brit. Mus. Adds. 21410, impf. Brit. Mus. Adds. 39659, given by Baroness Zouche. Lambeth Palace Library 256. In Other Public Libraries. Rylands Eng. 2, formerly owned by the Earl of Jersey at Osterley Park. Hunterian S i. 5 at Glasgow University. In Private Possession. Rutland, or Belvoir Castle, owned by the Duke of Rutland. Longleat, owned by the Marquess of Bath. Mostyn, sold to Francis Edwards, 1920; now in the hands of Rosenbach, New York City. Wollaton Hall, Lord Middleton’s MS, sold in 1925 to Quaritch. Plimpton, owned by George A. Plimpton, New York City, formerly by F. W. Bourdillon. Phillipps 4254, in the hands of Rosenbach, New York City. 156 JOHN LYDGATE Phillipps 4255, in the hands of Quaritch. Phillipps 8117, owned by Robert Garrett of Baltimore; bought 1905. Phillipps 8118, owned by John Gribbel of Philadelphia. Morgan 124, formerly owned by the Lee family, and by Henry White, now in the Morgan Collection, New York. Huntington 268, the Ecton Hall copy, in the Huntington Library, California. Impf. Bought in 1924. Extracts from the poem are common in late fifteenth-century MSS. The longest col- lection of such extracts known to me is in Harley 2251 of the Brit. Mus.; see also Trin. Coll. Cambridge R 3, 19 and R 3, 20, Ashmole 59, McClean 182, etc., and the “Proverbs of Lydgate” printed by de Worde. Two MSS mentioned in the Bernard Catalogus of 1697, owned by Abram Seller and by the Earl of Peterborough, I have not identified. (The former was destroyed by fire in 1700; see Dr. Bergen’s Bibliographical Introduction, p. 3.) The MS Royal 18 D iv bears at the foot of its first written page the arms of Tiptoft Earl of Worcester, died 1470; as the complicated marshaling shows the arms of Beauchamp duke of Warwick, it was probably executed for Tiptoft after his marriage, in 1446, with Cecily, daughter to the Earl of Salisbury and widow of Warwick. The MS Royal 18 D v bears at close, set into the text, the arms of Percy Earl of Northumberland, gartered. This and several other MSS are occasionally muti- lated or confused in sewing; the Corpus MS is both, its twelve opening leaves belonging between books v and vi. But the agreement in contents among most MSS is so close as to make the case of Harley 1766 the more conspicuous. This volume, which is ornamented with clumsy and garish pictures, looking as if wafered on to the margins and coarsely executed, has been extensively cut and rearranged as regards text. Most of books iii, iv, v, and vi, classical material, is not present, and the grouping of the chapters into books is not the usual one. The opening prologue and the final epilogue to Gloucester are there, but not the prologue to book iii with the thanks to him for his munificence. The codex also lacks the five stanzas of appeal to Gloucester for money which follow chap- ter 18, book iii, as lines 3837-3871; but this trait it shares with other texts, e.g. Rawlinson C 448, Bodley e Musaeo, Royal 18 D iv and v, Phillipps 4254. The lines appear, so far as I have noted, in Bodley 263, Harley 4197 and 4203, Hatton, Royal 18 B xxxi, and Morgan 124. In Anglia 36:121-36 I suggested that this envoy was a letter, appended by Lydgate to sheets which he submitted for Glou- cester’s inspection, and which in some copies became incorporated with the text. The duke’s habit of examining the work of his translators while it was in pro- gress may be inferred from the words of the Palladius-translator here cited, p. 206. Full descriptions of all MSS and prints of the Fall of Princes will be found in vol. iv of Dr. Henry Bergen’s edition of the poem for the Carnegie Institution, 1927; text in vols. i-iii, 1923. I am indebted to Dr. Bergen for much friendly help as to the MSS. FALL OF PRINCES: A 157 THE GENERAL PROLOGUE [MS Brit. Mus. Royal 18 D iv.] He that whilom dede his diligence - The book of bochas in frensch to trans- late *Out of latyn / he callid was laurence The tyme trewli remembrid and the date Theere whan kynge iohn / thoruh his mortail fate 5 Was prisoner brouht / to this regiown Whan he first gan on this tra(n)slacioun 2 In his prologe affermynge off reson Artificeres / hauyng exercise Mai chaunge and turne bi good discre- cioun 10 Shappis formys and newli hem deuyse ‘Make and vnmake in many sondri wise As potteris which to that craft entende -Breke and renewe ther vesselis to amende 3 Thus men of craft may of due riht 15 - That ben inventiff and han experience ffantasien in ther inwarde siht Deuises newe thoruh ther excellence Expert maisters han ther to licence -ffro good to beter for to chaunge a thinge 20 And semblabli thes clerkis in writynge 4 Thynge that was maid of auctowrs hem beforn Thei may off newe finde and fantasie * Oute of olde chaff trie out ful clene corn - Mak it more fressh and lusti to the eie 25 Ther subtil wit and ther labour applie With ther colours agreable off hewe - Make olde thinges for to seeme newe 4 5 Afforn prouidyd that no presumpcion In ther chaungynge haue noon aucto- rite 30 - And that meeknesse haue domynacion ffals envie that she not present be But that ther grounde with parfit charite Conueied be to ther avauntage Treuly rootid amyd off ther corage 35 6 Thus laurence fro hym envie excludid Thouh toforn hym translatid was this book Withynne hym silff he fulli hath con- cludid Vpon that labour / whan he caste his look ‘He wolde ame(n)de it but first he for- sook. 40 Presumpcion / and took to hym meeknes In his prologe / as he doth expresse 7 In which processe lik as I am lerid He in his tyme off connyng dede excelle In ther langage therfore he was re- querid 45 Off estatis which can hym eek compelle Among hem holde of rethorik the welle To vnderfonge this Jabour thei hym preie And he ther request lowli dede obeie 8 *fful wel he felte the labour was not- able 50 The fall of nobles with euery circum- staunce ffrom ther lordshippis dreedful & vn- stable How that thei fill to putte in remem- braunce : Therin to shewe fortunes variaunce »That other myhte as in a myrovr see 55 ‘In worldli worshipe may be no surete 9 Bi exaumple as ther is no rose Spryngyng in gardyns but ther be sum thorn Nor fairer blossum than nature list dis- pose Than may ther beute as men ha seyn to forn 60 With bittir wyndis be fro ther braunchis born ‘Nor noon so hih in his estat contune ‘ffre fro thawaityng and daunger of for- tune 158 JOHN LYDGATE 10 ‘Wherfore bochas for a memoriall Considryng the grete dignytees 65 Off worldli pryncis in ther power royall Grete emperours estatis and degrees How fortune hath cast them fro ther sees Nameli such as kowde hem silff not knowe fful sodeynli to make hem lyn ful lowe 70 11 This seide auctour avise and riht sad ‘Hath gadred out / with rethoriques sueete ‘In diuerse bookes / which that he hath rad Off philisophers / & many an old poete . Besied hym / bothe in cold & heete 75 Out to compile / and writen as he fonde The fall of nobles in many dyuerse londe 12 Upon whos book in his translacion This seid laurence rehersyth in certeyn And holdith this in his opynyon 80 ‘Such language as opyn is & pleyn ‘Is more acceptid as it is offte seyn Than strange termys which be not vnder- stande ‘Namli to folkes / that duellen vp on lande 13 As he seith eek that his entencion 85 Is to amenden / correcten and declare Nat to condempne of no presumpcion ‘But to supporte / pleynli and to spare Thyng touched shortli off the stori bare Undir a stile breeff & compendious 90 Hem to prolonge / whan thei ben ver- tuous 14 ffor a stori / which is nat pleynli told But constreyned / vndir wordes fewe ffor lak off trouth / wher thei be newe or old Men be report / kan nat the mater shewe 95 Thes ookes grete be nat doune jhewe first at a strok / but bi longe processe Nor longe stories a woord may nat ex- presse 85. As he seith, etc. MS Bodley reads And he, Ctce 15 ffor which pleynli this noble translatour Cast off purpos / thes stories for to write 100 And for to doon / his diligent labour As thei fill / in ordre to endite That men aftir / myht hem silff delite Auentures so as thei fill in dede ‘Off sondri pryncis / to beholde & reede 105 16 And haue a maner contemplacion That thynges alle / where fortune may atteyne ‘Be transitori off condicion -ffor she off kynde / is hasti & sodeyne Contrarious hir cours for to re- st(r)eyne IIo ‘Off wilfulnesse she is so variable ' When men most trust / than is she most chaungeable 17 And for hir chaunge / & for hir doubil- nesse This bochas but that men sholde encline ‘Sette ther hertis / void off vnstabil- nesse 115 Upon thynges which that ben deuyne Wher as joie perpetueli doth shyne Withoute eclipsyng in that heuenli see Void off alle cloudis of mutabilite 18 Among this bochas / writith off swet- nesse 120 And off maters / that lusti ben & glade And sumwhile he writt / off wrechid- nesse And how fortune / kan floure & after fade Joie vnder cloude / prosperite in the shade Enterchaungyng / off euery manere thyng 125 Which that men feele / here in this world lyuyng 19 And in his processe / who so list be- holde Off alle estatis of hih and louh degre And off pryncis / bothe 3ong and old 114. but. So MS. Read bit, i.e. biddeth. PALL ‘OF PRINCES: A 159 ffro the begynnyng / which in this world ha be 130 Lyuynge in joie / or in aduersite ffro the first / he descendith doun Of ther fortune / bi pleyne descripciovn 20 “Off the most noble he spareth noon But settith hem in ordre ceriousli 135 ‘Gynnyth at adam / & endith at kyng John ‘Ther auentures / rehersyng bi and bi Off this kyng iohn / concludyng finali How that he was for (al) his gret puis- saunce ‘Off prince edward take prisoner in ffraunce 140 21 This seid bochas auctour of this book Which off stories had gret inteligence Summe he leffte summe also he took Such as he leffte was off no necligence Supposyng & demynge off credence 145 Alle the stories which that comoun be Other knew hem also wel as he Ze And that folk wold haue had disdeyn Thynges comoun / to put in memoire ‘Therfore bochas / thouhte it was but veyne 150 To his name / noon encres off gloire ‘To remembre no cronycle nor histoire But tho that wern / for ther merit not- able Auctorised famous and comendable 23 In his labour / hauyng a delite 155 That the mater gretly myhte auayle Do plesaunce to the comon profit Off noble stories / to make rehersaile “Shewynge a merour / how all the world shal faile And how fortune / for al ther hih re- novn 160 Hath upon princis iurediccion 24 The which thyng / in ful sobre wise He considred / in his inwarde entente In his resun gan to aduertise 134. Bodley 263 ...he ne spareth... 139. Our MS reads as; bracketed word from MS Bodley. See 160, 181. 148. Bodley 263 reads And lest that folk, etc. Seyng off princis / the blynd entende- ment 105 With worldi worshep how that thei be blent As thei sholde euer / her estatis keepe And as fortune were J . leid to sleepe 25 As thei hade of fortune the maistrie Her enchanted / with ther pociouns 170 Bi sum crafte / off newe sorcerie Or bi power off incantaciouns To make stable / ther domynaciouns With iren cheynys / for to laste longe Lokkid to rokkis off adimantis stronge 26 Supposyng in ther surquedie 176 Ther estatis / sholde be durable ‘But fortune kan frowardli denye -Pleynli proue / that thei be chaungable And to pryncis / for thei be nat stable 180 ffortune ful oft / for al ther gret estat Unwarli chaungeth / & seith to hem chekmat 27 ffor lordis summe / in ther magnificence Off roiall power / sette of god riht nouht Thei nat consider / his longe pa- cience 185 Nor auertise / his power in ther thouht But in ther hertis / 3iff it were wel souht How he is meke / & pacient to abide Thei wolde of reson / ther pompe leyn a side 28 But for ther taryeng / & ther necly- gence 190 That thei to hym wil nat resorte a geyn 3it of his mercy / & benyuolence With oute vengaunce / rigour or dis- deyn ‘As a meke fader / in alle his werkis pleyn Assaieth his 3erde of castigacion 195 So for to bringe hem / to correccion 29 -Summe he kan ful fadyrly chastise Where he loueth by punshyng of siknesse And of his mercy in many a nothir wise -Bi aduersite of sum worldli distresse 200 And he nat asketh / for (his) kyndenesse 201. Bracketed word from MS Bodley 263. 160 JOHN LYDGATE Off hih nor low / who so kan aduerte Noon othir tresor / but a mannys herte 30 And as myn auctour / list to compre- hende This john bochas / bi gret auctorite 205 It is almesse to correcten and amende The vicious folk / off euery comounte And bi exaumplis / which that notable be Off pryncis olde / that whilom dede fall The lowere poeple / from ther erroure call 210 31 Bi smale whelpis / as summe clerkys write Chastised is the myhti fers leon And whan the swerd off vengeaunce eek doth bite Upon pryncis / for ther transgression The comon poepil / in ther opynyoun 215 ‘ffor werrai dreed tremble doun and quake ‘And bi such mene / ther vices thei for- sake 32 And such also / as ha be defoulid In ther vices / bi long contynuance Or in ther synnys rustid & jmowled 220 Bi good exaumple may come to repent- aunce Who hym repentith the lord will hym auaunce And hym accepte in hih and louh estate The meek preserue punyssch the obsty- nat 33 This said mater / touchyng such thynges 225 Myn auctour bochas / heeraffter shal de- clare Be exeaumple of princis / & of myhti kynges What was ther fyne / & nat the trouth spare And theih my stile nakid be & bare In rethorik myn auctour for to sue 230 Sit fro the trouthe / shal I nat remue 34 But on the substaunce / bi good leiser abyd Affter myn auctour / lik as I may at- teyne 206. It is. Read did his, with MS Bodley 263. And for my part / sette eloquence aside And in this book / biwepen & com- pleyne 235 Thassaut off fortune froward & sodeyne How sche on pryncis / hath kid here variaunce And of her malice the dedli mortal chaunce 35 But o allas / who schal be my mvse Or vnto whom shal j for helpe calle 240 Calliope my callyng will refuse And on pernaso / here worthi sustren alle Thei will there sugre tempre with no galle ffor ther suetnesse / and lusti fressh syngyng fful ferre discordith / fro materis com- pley (ny) ng 245 36 Mi maistir chauncer / with his freissh comedies ‘Is deed alas / cheeffe poete of briteyne -That whilom made / ful pitous trage- dies The falle of pryncis / he dede also com- pleyne As he that was / of makyng souer- eyne 250 Whom al this land / shold of riht preferre Sith of oure language / he was the lode- sterre 37 Senek in Rome / thoruh his hih prudence Wrot tragedies of gret moralite And tullius / cheeff welle of elo- quence 255 Maade in his tyme / many fressh dite Franceis petrak / of florence the cite Maade a book / as I can reherce Of too fortunys / welful & peruerse 38 ‘And ageyn bothe / wrot the remedies 260 In bookis tweyne / made a deuysion Amonge rehersyng many freissh stories The first book / is thus conueied doun A dialoge twen gladnesse & resoun The secunde / can bere me weel wit- nesse 265 Maad atwen resoun / & worldli heuy- nesse 245. Bracketed letters from MS Bodley 263. FALL OF PRINCES: A 161 39 The matir / is wondirful delectable Thouh wo with joie / haue int(e)resse And john bochas / wrot mateers lament- able The fall off pryncis / where he doth ex- presse 270 How fro ther joie / thei fill in gret dis- tresse And alle thes writers / thoruh ther fam- ous renoun Gret worshipe dede vnto ther nacion 40 And semblabli as I ha told toforn ‘Mi maistir chauncer / dede his besy- nesse 275 And in his daies / hath so wel hym born Out off oure tunge / tawoiden al reud- nesse And to refourme it / with colours of suetnes Wherfore lat vs yiue hym laude & glory And put his name / with poetis in mem- ory 280 41 Off whos labour / to make mencion Wherthoruh of riht / he sholde com- mendid be -In 30uthe he made a translacion -Off a book which is callid trophe ‘In lumbard tunge / as men may reede & see 285 And in oure vulgar / longe or than he deide » Gaff it the name / of troilus & cresseide 42 Which for to reede / louers hem delite Thei ha therin / so gret deuocion And this poete / hymsilff also to quyte ZOD. * Off boeces book / the consolacion Maad in his tyme / (an) hool transla- cion ‘And to his sone / that callid was lowis He made a tretys / ful noble & of gret prisse 43 -Upon thastlabre / in ful notable fourme 295 Sett hem in ordre / with ther dyuysions Mennys wittis / tapplien and confourme 268. Bodley 263 reads have an interesse. To vndirstonde / bi ful experte resons Bi domefieng of sundri mansions The roote oute souht / at the ascen- dent 300 Toforn or he gaff / any iugement 44 He wrot also / ful many day agone Dante in inglissh / hym silff so doth ex- presse The pitous story / of ciex and alcione And the deth eek / of blaunche the duchesse 305 And notabli / dede his besynesse Bi gret auys / his wittis to dispose To translate / the romaunce of the rose 45 Thus in vertu / he sette all his entent Ydilnesse and vices for to flee 310 Off foulis also / he wrot the parlament Theryn remembryng / of roial eglis thre How in ther chois / thei felte aduersite Tofore nature / profred the batayle Ech for his parti / 3if it wolde availe 375 46 He dede also his diligence and peyne In oure vulgar / to translate & endite Origen vpon the maudeleyn And of the leoun / a book he dede write Off anneleida / & off falls arcite 320 He made a compleynt / doolful & pitous And of the broche / which that Vulcanus 47 At thebes wrouhte / ful dyuerse of na- ture Ouyde writeth / who ther off hade a siht ffor hih desir / he shold not endure 325 But he hit hadde / neuer be glad nor liht And 3if he hadde it / onys in his myht Lich as my maistir / seith & wrott in dede It to conserue / he sholde ay liue in dreede 48 This poete wrot at requeste of the quene 330 ‘A legende / of parfyt hoolines Off good wommen / to fynde out nyn- teen That dede excelle in bounte & fairnesse And for his laboure / and bisines 162 JOHN LYDGATE Was inportable / his wittis to en- combre 335 In al this world / to fynde so gret a nombre 49 He made the book off cantirbury talis Whan the pilgrimes rood on pilgrymage Thoruhout Kent by hillis & bi valis And alle the stories / told in ther pas- sage 340 Enditid hem ful wel in oure language Summe of knyhthod & summe off gentil- esse And summe off loue & summe of parfit- nesse 50 And summe also / off gret moralite Summe of disport encludyng gret sent- ence 345 In prose he wrot / the tale off Melibe And off his wiff / that callid was pru- dence And off Grisildis parfit pacience *And how the monk / of stories newe & olde Pitous tragedies / bi the weie tolde 350 5 This said poete / my maister in his daies Maad & compiled ful many a fressh dite Compleyntis / baladis / roundelis / vir- relaies fful delectable / to heeryn and to see ffor which men sholde off riht & equyte 355 Sith he of inglissh / in makyng was the beste Praie vnto god / to 3iue his soule reste 52 And thes poetis / J make off mencioun Were bi old tyme / had in gret deynte With kynges pryncis / in euery re- gioun 360 Gretli preferred / after ther degre ‘ffor lordis hadde / plesance for to see To studie among / & to caste ther lookis ‘At good leiser / vpon wise bookis 53 ffor in the tyme / off cesar Julius 365 Whan the triumphe / he wan in rome toune He entre wolde / the scoole off tullius And here his lecture / off gret affeccioun And not withstondyng / his conquest & renoun Vn to bookis / he gaff gret atten- daunce 370 And hadde in stories / yoie and gret plesaunce 54 ‘Eek in this lond / I dar afferme a thyng “Ther is a prince / fful myhty of puys- saunce ‘A kynges sone / vncle to the kynge Henry the sexte / which is now in fraunce 375 -And is lieftenant / & hath the gouern- aunce Off our breteyne thoruh whos discrecion He hath conserued / in this regioun 55 ’ Duryng his tyme off ful hih prudence “Pes and quiete / and sustened riht 380 Sit natwithstandyng / his noble prouy- dence He is in deede / prouyd a good knyht ~Eied as argus / with reson and forsiht Off hih lectrure / I dar eek off hym telle 384 And treuli deeme / that he doth excelle 56 « In vndirstondyng / all othir of his age ‘And hath gret joie / with clerkis to commune And no man is / mor expert off language Stable in studie alwei he doth contune Settyng a side / alle chaunges of fortune And wher he loueth / 3iff I schal nat tarie 39I Withoute cause / ful loth he is to varie 57 ‘Duc off Gloucestre / men this prince calle And natwithstandyng / his staat & dig- nyte ‘His corage neuer / doth appalle 395 .To studie in bookis / off antiquite Therin he hath so gret felicite Vertuousli / hym silff to ocupie Off vicious slouth / to haue the maistrie 58 And with his prudence & wit(h) his manheed 400 FALL, OF PRINCES: A 163 Trouthe to susteyne / he fauour set aside And hooli chirche meyntenyng in dede » That in this land / no lollard dar abide As verrai support / vpholdere & eek guyde ‘Spareth non / but maketh hym silff strong 405 ‘To punysshe alle tho / that do the chirch wrong 59 Thus is he both manly & eek wise Chose of god to be his owne knyht And off o thynge he hath a synglar price That heretik dar non comen in his siht In cristes feith / he stant so hool vpriht Off hooli chirche / defence and cham- pion 412 To chastise alle / that do therto treson 60 And to do plesance to our lord Ihesu He studieth euere / to haue intelligence Reedinge off bookis / bring(e)th in vertu 416 Vices excludyng / slouthe & necligence Maketh a prince / to haue experience To knowe hym silff / in many sundry wise Wher he trespaseth his errour to chastise 61 ‘And among bookis / pleynli this is the cas 421 -This said prynce / considred of resoun ‘The noble book off this John bochas Was accordyng in his opynyoun * Off gret nobles & reputacioun 425 ‘And vnto pryncis gretli necessarie ' To 3iue exaumple / how this world doth varie 62 And for this cause as in his entent To shewe thuntrust / of al worldli thyng ’ He gaffe to me / in comaundement 430 As hym sempte / it was riht wel sityng *That I sholde / after my cunynge “This book translate / hym to do ples- aunce To shewe the chaunge / of worldli vari- aunce 63 -And with support of his magnificence 435 ’Vnder the weengis of his correccion Thouh that I haue / lak of eloquence I schal procede / in this translacioun ffro me avoidyng / all presumpcioun ‘Lowli submyttyng / eueri hour & space ‘Mi rude language / to my lordis grace 64 And as I haue o thyng wel in mynde He bad me I scholde / in aspeciall ‘ffolowyng myn auctour / write as I fynde And for no fauoure / be nat parciall 445 Thus I mene to speke in generall And noon estat / sengulerli depraue ‘But the sentence / of myn auctour saue 65 Al this conseyued I gan my stile dresse Thouht I wolde / in my mater pro- ceede 450 And for the mater abraide on heuynesse Off freissh colours I took no manere heede But my processe / pleynly for to leede As me sempte it was to me most mette To sett a parte alle rethoriques sueete 455 66 Dites of murnyng & of compleynynge Nat appertene vnto Calliope Nor to the muses that on pernaso synge Which be remembrid in noumbre thries thre And vnto maters off aduersite 460 With ther sugred aureat licour Thei be nat willi for to don fauour 67 But off disdeyne / me settyng ferre abak To hynder me off that I wolde endite Hauyng no colours / but onli white & blak 465 ‘To the tragedies / which that I shal write And for I can my sylff no bet acquyte Vndir support / of alle that shal it reede Upon bochas / riht thus I will proceede 164 JOHN LYDGATE B THE LETTER OF CANACE TO MACAREUS Fall of Princes i: 6882-7049 At the end of the first book of the De Casibus, after the tragedy of Samson and a chapter “In Mulieres” apparently suggested by the perfidy of Delilah, Boc- caccio inserts one of his group-chapters, entitled ““Miseri Quidam”. In it he says that he had not yet written sufficient of the wickedness of women when he heard a clamour of lamentation headed by Pyrrhus, him who was slain by Orestes in the temple of Apollo with the fraudulent connivance of the priest Macareus. Boc- caccio gives no further detail regarding Macareus ; he says “‘sic et plurimi succede- bant”, and concludes Book I. Apparently Laurent, the French translator of Boccaccio, seeing the word ’ Macareus, thought of the story of Canace and her brother Macareus, to which he had already alluded in his twelfth chapter without any suggestion from Boccaccio. He therefore added at this point a dozen lines telling briefly the tragedy of the wretched children of Aeolus, in which he says that historians are silent as to Canace’s fate, although Macareus escaped and became priest of Apollo at Del- phos. Lydgate, in his turn, saw the allusion to Canace; but instead of adhering to the short inconclusive tale told by Laurent, he launched into a full portrayal of Canace’s anguish and death, giving at length her farewell letter to Macareus. His distribution of emphasis among the various parts of the story is quite different from that of Ovid or of Gower. Ovid dwells upon the physical details, and makes one or two tasteless word-plays; Canace says, according to him, that her father Aeolus has the savage temper of the winds which are his subjects, that she herself in the pangs of childbirth was a “soldier new” to such service, and that she will not long be called “or mother or bereaved”. In the Latin the narrative of preceding events and the lyric lament are both incorporated in the letter. Gower separates these elements in his treatment of the story, Confessio Amantis iii:143 ff. He disposes of all in less than 200 lines, eliminating most of Ovid’s physical detail, and compressing the letter into 28 lines, as follows:—(MS Bodl. Fairfax 3) O pou my sorwe and my gladnesse Let him be beried in my graue O bou myn hele and my siknesse 280 Beside me so schalt Pou haue O my wanhope and al my trust Vpon ous bobe remembrance O my desese and al my lust ffor bus it stant of my greuance O bou my wele o bou my wo Now at pis time as bou schalt wite O pou my frend o bou my fo Wibp teres and wib enke write O pou my loue o bou myn hate This lettre I haue in cares colde ffor bee mot I be ded algate In my riht hond my Penne I holde 300 Thilke ende may I noght asterte And in my left be swerd I kepe And 3it wip al myn hole herte And in my barm per lip to wepe Whil pat me lasteb eny brep Thi child and myn which sobbep faste I wol be loue into my dep 290 Now am I come vnto my laste Bot of o ping I schal pee preie ffare wel for I schal sone deie If bat my litel Sone deie And penk how I pi loue abeie The word-plays of Ovid are not here, but there is an attempt at “rhetorical color” in the use of lines beginning alike and in the balancing of “opposites”. Lit- tle material is actually retained from the Latin, and that little does not come from FALL OF PRINCES: B 165 the last part of the Epistle, the lines 111-120 which Ovid’s editor Palmer calls “the greatest achievement of the Heroides’. What Gower transfers is Canace’s request that she and her child be buried in one grave, and the picture of her with which the Epistle opens, a pen in her right hand, the sword in her left. To this Gower adds the child in its mother’s lap, falling from it as she stabs herself, and rolling in the blood; but according to Ovid the infant had already been carried away, to be abandoned in some solitary place. The Ovidian portrait of Canace, with pen and sword, was retained by Petrarch in his Trionfo d’Amore, IIa, 181-3; he there says, without using Canace’s name :— E quella che la penna da man destra, Come dogliosa e disperata scriva, E ’1 ferro ignudo tien dalla sinestra. Lydgate also is struck by the picture of Canace, which he presents in Gower’s, not in Ovid’s form, with the child in her lap. He dissolves Gower’s balanced “op- posites”, lines 279 ff., into his lines 4-18, and makes in 33-35 Canace’s request for the burial of her child with her, found in both Ovid and Gower. He greatly expands the mother’s wail of anguished tenderness over her child, evincing a feeling deeper than Ovid’s and much deeper than that of Gower. The twenty- three stanzas of this letter do not, however, get their length from the added pathos ; there is a deviation into ill-placed classicism in lines 99-126, and there is recurring blame of King Aeolus. Gower, indeed, uses the whole story as an example not so much of criminal love as of “malencolie’” or unbridled anger; in the Confessio it is the king-father who is the awful example rather than the un- happy victims of the God of Love. Gower speaks, in line 172, of “lawe positif”, the lex positiva of the Church, which had made incestuous unions wrong. He discusses the subject fully at the opening of Book viii of the Confessio, where he points out that in the early world marriages between brother and sister were usual, but that the Pope (line 144) had imposed restrictions. His tone on the matter is so calmly legal that there may be some relation between it and the condemnation which Chaucer strongly expresses in the Man of Law’s headlink, choosing this very story for especial censure and declaring it unfit material for narrative. Alanus de Insulis, in his Anticlaudianus I, 5:11-12, had already said, in general, that “Nec nitor argenti nec fulgure gratius aurum Excusare potest picturae crimen adultum.” Although Ovid had protested his horror, he had recounted at length the stories of Byblis and of Myrrha; and the Christian Boccaccio, in his Amorosa Visione xxv, gives fully the prayer of Byblis to her brother, in which she rejects “Gl superflue nomen di fratello” ; just preceding, there is brief mention of “Canace e Macareo dolenti”. Later writers, in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century England, include Byblis, Canace, Pasiphae, among the great tragic lovers of the world. So in Feylde’s Controversy between a Lover and a Jay; but as he there applies the epithet “so hynde” to Queen Tomyris, we may regard him with a little suspicion. And Skelton, making extraordinary comparisons between the Countess cf Surrey’s gentlewomen and some classical heroines,—see Garland of Laurel 910 and note,— is doubtfully sincere. Lydgate does not seem to have given the matter much moral consideration ; his remarks on incest, in the next book of the Fall of Princes (4068-71), are very brief. He either forgot or disregarded Chaucer’s censure of the Canace story as unfit for narrative; and once launched on it, he let his sympathy run away with 166 JOHN LYDGATE him. That sympathy is not all, however, for the unhappy lovers, it is for the child, a feeling so strong, in this cloistered and pedantic monk, that it occasionally breaks the crust of the inhibiting formula and leaps out in a flash of sincerity. All who have read the Fall of Princes have caught and welcomed this gleam; the passage was selected by Gray, and by Campbell for his 1819 Specimens of the British Poets; and part of it was included by Gilfillan (1860) in his Specimens of the Less-Known British Poets, i: 46-48. The letter is too long, just as the dying speech of Polyxena, Troy Book iv:6731 ff., is too long; but both passages have points of reality. It should be noted that Lydgate scans Canace as of three syllables; Gower treated it as a dissyllable. [MS Brit. Mus. Harley 1766] Out of hire swowh whan she did abrayde Knowyng no meene but deth in hire dystresse (6883 ) -To hire brothir / ful pitously she sayde Cause of my sorwe / roote of myn hevy- nesse That whylom were / cheeff sours of my gladnesse 5 Whan bothe our Ioyes / be wel so dys- posyd Vndir o keye / our hertys to be enclosyd 2 Whylom thou were / suppoort and syker- nesse Cheeff reioysshing of my _ worldly plesaunce (6890) But now thow art / the ground of my syknesse Io Welle of wanhope of my dedly penaunce Which haue of sorwe / grettest habun- daunce That euere yit hadde / ony creature Which mvt for love / the deth allas endure Thow were whylom / my blysse and al my trust I5 Sovereyn counfort / my sorwes to apese -Spryng and welle / of al myn hertys lust And now allas / cheef roote of my dysese But yiff my deth / myght do the ony ese (6900) O brothir myn / in remembraunce of tweyne 20 Deth shal to me / be plesaunce and no peyne 4 ’ My cruel ffadir / moost vnmercyable Ordeyned hath / it nedys mvt be so ' In his rygour he is so vntretable ' Al mercylees / he wyl that it be doo 25 That we algate / shal deye bothe twoo But I am glad / sith it may be noon othir Thow art escapyd / m(y) best belouyd brothir 5 This is myn ende I may it nat asterte (6910) O brothir myn / ther is no more to seye 30 Lowly besechyng with al myn hool herte ffor to remembre / specially I preye “Yiff it be falle / my litel sone deye ‘That thow mayst afftir / som mynde vpon vs have ‘Suffre vs bothe / to be buryed in o grave 2 35 ‘I holde hym streyghtly atwen myn armys tweyne Thow and nature / leyd on me this charge He gyltles / with me mvt suffre peyne And sith thow art at ffredom and at large (6920) Lat kyndenesse / our love not so dys- charge 40 But haue a mynde / wher euere that thow be Oonys a day / vpon my chyld and me 7 On the and me dependith the trespace Towchyng our gylt / and our greet offence FALL OF PRINCES: B 167 *But weylleway / moost aungelyk of fface 45 -Our yonge chyld / in his pure inno- cence Shal ageyn ryght / suffre dethys violence ~Tendre of lymes / god wot ful gyltles The goodly ffayre / which lith here spechelees (6930) 8 “A mouth he hath / but wordys hath he noone 50 -Can nat compleyne / allas for noon out- rage Nor gruccheth nat / but lyth here al aloone Stylle as a lamb / moost meke of his visage What Fore of steel / cowde doon to hym damage Or suffre hym deye / beholdyng the manere 55 And look benygne / of his tweyne eyen clere -O thow my ffadir / to cruel is the wreche Hardere of herte / than tygre or lyon ‘To slen a chyld / that lyth withoute speche (6940) Voyd of al mercy / and remyssyon 60 And on his modir / hast no compassyon His youthe considred / with lyppes soffte as sylk ‘Which at my breest / lyth stylle and soukith mylk 10 Is ony sorw remembryd be wrytyng Vn to my sorweful / syhes comparable 65 Or was ther euere / creature levyng That felt of dool / a thyng more lament- able ffor counfortlees / and vnrecuperable Ar thylke heepyd sorwes ful of rage (6950) Which han with woo / oppressyd my corage 70 11 Rekne al meschevys / in especial And on my myscheef / remembre and ha good mynde My lord my ffadir / is myn enmy mortal Experience Inough / thereof I ffynde ffor in his pursewt / he hath lefit be hynde 75 57. the wreche. Read thi wreche, as in Bergen’s edition. In destruccyon of the my Chyld / and me Routhe and al mercy / and ffadirly pite 12 And the my brothir avoyded from his syght Which in no wyse / his grace mayst attayne (6960) Allas that rygour / vengaunce and cruel ryght 80 Shulde above mercy / be lady souereyne But cruelte doth at me so dysdeyne That though my brothir / my chyld / and also I Shal deye exylled / allas from al mercy 13 ‘My ffadir whylom / by many sundry 85 signe ‘Was my socour / my supportacion To the and me / moost gracious and benygne Our worldly gladnesse / our consolacyon ‘But love and fortune / ha turnyd vp so don (6970) Our grace allas / our welffare and our ffame 90 Hard / to recure / so sclaundryd is our name 14 ‘Spot of dyffamyng / is hard to wasshe away Whan noyse and rumour / abrood do ffolk manace To hyndre a man / ther may be no delay ffor hatful ffame / fleth fferre in ful short space 95 ‘But of vs tweyne / ther is noon othir grace Save oonly deth / and afftir deth allas Eternal sclaundre / of vs thus stant the caas 15 Whom shal we blame / or whom shal we atwyte (6980) Our grete offence / sith we may it nat hyde 100 ffor oure exskus reportys to respyte » Meene is ther noon / except the god Cupyde And though that he / wolde for vs pro- vyde 83. though. So MS. Read thou, as in Bergen’s edition. 168 In this matere / to been our cheef reffuge Poetys seyn / he is blynd to been a Juge 105 16 He is depeynt / lych a blynd archere To marke aryght / fayllyng dyscrecyon Holdyng no mesour / nouthir ferre nor neer But lyk ffortunys / dysposicion (6990) Al vpon hap / voyde of al reson II0 As a blynd Archeer / with arwes sharpe grounde Off aventure / yiveth many a mortal wounde 17 ‘At the and me / he wrongly did marke ' ffelly to hyndre / our ffatal aventures As ferre as Phebus / shyneth in his arke 115 To make vs reffuce / to alle creatures Callyd / vs tweyne / vn to the wooful lures Off dyffame / which wyl departe neuere Be new repoort / the noyse encresyng euere id (7000) Odyous ffame / with swyfft wynges flleth 120 But al good ffame / envye doth re- streyne Ech man of othir / the dyffautys seth Yit on his owne / no man wyl com- pleyne But al the world / out cryeth on vs tweyne Whoos hatful yre / by vs may not be quemyd 125 ffor I mvt deye / my ffadir hath so demyd 19 Now farewel brothir / to me it doth suffyse To deye allone / for our bothes sake And in my moost / feythful humble wyse (7010) Vn to my deth ward / though I tremble and quake 130 ‘Off the for euere / now my leve I take And oonys a yeer / forget nat but take hede : My ffatal day / this lettre for to rede 20 ‘ So shalt thow han / on me som remem- braunce JOHN LYDGATE My name enprentyd / in thy calen- deer 135 Be rehersaylle / of my dedly grevaunce Were blak that day / and make a dool- ful cheer ~And whan thow comyst / and shalt - aproche neer ‘My sepulture / I pray the nat dys- deyne (7020) Vpon my grave / som teerys for to reyne 140 21 Wrytyng hire lettre / awhappyd and in drede ‘In hire ryght hand / hire penne gan to quake And a sharp swerd / to make hire herte blede -In hire lefft hand / hir ffadir hath hire take And moost hire sorwe / was for hire chyldes sake 145 Vpon whoos fface / in hire barm slep- yng fful many a teer / she wepte in compleyn- yng 22 Afftir al this / so as she stood and quook Hire chyld beholdyng / myd of hire peynes smerte (7030) Withoute abood / the sharpe swerd she took 150 And rooff hire sylff / evene to the herte ‘Hire chyld / ffyl don / which myght nat asterte ‘Havyng noon helpe / to socoure hym nor Save ‘But in hire blood the sylff / be gan to bathe 23 And thanne hire ffadir / moost cruel of entent 155 ‘Bad that the chyld / shulde anoon be take - Off cruel houndys / in haste for to be rent - And be devouryd / for his moder sake ' Off this tragedye / thus an ende I make (7040) Processe of which / as men may rede and se 160 Concludeth on myscheef / and ffuryous cruelte FALL OF PRINCES: C 169 C ROME, REMEMBER Fall of Princes, ii: 4460 ff. In this envoy, which closes the second book of the Fall of Princes, Lydgate _carries his usual procedure a step further. His envoys, added at Gloucester’s bidding as he says ii:145, have of course no parallel in the prose of Laurent, and are regularly constructed on three rimes for the whole, with a refrain-phrase or line; they are for the most part of three to five stanzas. Chaucer, in the envoy .to the Clerk’s Tale, had also used three rimes, but he there composed no more than thirty-six lines; Lydgate, like many another insensitive imitator, seems to have felt that emphasis and amplification of a device increase its effectiveness, and he here extends his scheme through 126 lines, on the three rimes -oun, -ing, and -ime. Similarly, in his poem with the refrain “So as the crabbe goth forward”, copied by Shirley in the MS R 3, 20 of Trinity College Cambridge, there are fifty-six lines on three rimes, while the original French, also transcribed by Shirley with a request to readers to make comparison, is of twenty-five lines. Compare Lydgate’s poem to St. Denis, printed by MacCracken 1:127-9, and running through nine octave stanzas on three rimes, with refrain; cf. also his Fall of Princes ix: 2371 ff., and the poem Horns Away, p. 110 ante. There i is in the Fall of Princes, book viii, lines 2528 ff., another lament over Rome’s wretchedness and vices, but this is far more interesting because of its use of the “Ubi Sunt” motive, a theme so popular in the Middle Ages that examples - of it might be multiplied indefinitely. Its most famous expression is in Villon’s Ballade des dames du temps jadis, with the refrain “Mais ot sont les neiges d’antan?” which Rossetti rendered “But where are the snows of yesteryear?” Villon, however, had many predecessors. The direct line of connection, in which the “Ubi Sunt” motive is combined with a list of personages, runs back of Villon -and Regnier to the Latin hymns of the eleventh-thirteenth centuries ; one of these, ascribed to Jacopone da Todi, begins: Dic, ubi Salomon, olim tam nobilis, Vel ubi Sampson est, dux invincibilis ? Vel pulcher Absalon, vultu mirabilis, Vel dulcis Jonathas, multum amabilis? Quo Caesar abiit, celsus imperio? Vel Xerxes splendidus, totus in prandio? Dic ubi Tullius, clarus eloquio? Vel Aristoteles, summus ingenio? Another hymn, Audi tellus, contains the passage: Transierunt rerum materies, Ut a sole liquescit glacies. Ubi Plato, ubi Porphyrius, Ubi Tullius aut Virgilius; Ubi Thales, ubi Empedocles, Aut egregius Aristoteles; Alexander ubi rex maximus; 170 JOHN LYDGATE Ubi Hector Troiae fortissimus; Ubi David rex doctissimus; Ubi Salamon prudentissimus ; Ubi Helena Parisque roseus— Ceciderunt in profundum ut lapides; Quis scit, an detur requies? The English Franciscan, Thomas de Sales, in his Luve Ron, of the thirteenth century, has: Hwer is Paris and heleyne Pat weren so bryht and feyre on bleo Amadas tristram and dideyne Yseude and alle beo Ector wip his scharpe meyne And cesar riche of wordes feo Heo beop iglyden ut of be reyne So be scheft is of pe cleo. Boccaccio’s third Canzone, see ed. Moutier xvi:115 ff., is a lament over Rome and her fallen great ; it contains a long passage beginning : Ove li duo gentil Scipioni, Ov’ é il tuo grande Cesare possente ? Ove Bruto valente? One of the chants-royaux of Deschamps (see his works iii:182), of fifty-six lines with the refrain “Tuit y mourront, et li fol et li saige,” has in its third stanza: Ou est Artus, Godefroy de Buillon, Judith, Hester, Penelope, Arrien Semiramis, le poissant roy Charlon, George, Denys, Christofle, Julien, Pierres et Pols, maint autre cretien, Et les martires? La mort a tous s’applique. A long passage of Olivier de la Marche’s Triumphe des Dames, stanzas 165-178 of the ed. by Kalbfleisch, 1901, opens each stanza with the words “Qui est devenu—” and bewails the power of Death on a long catalogue of noble dames. The monk Ryman, a contemporary of Lydgate (see Zupitza in Archiv 89:167 f£., esp. 256) wrote: Where is become king Salamon And Sampson of myght strong King Charles also and king Arthure With alle the worthies nyne Diues also with his richesse Contynued not longe Jehan Regnier’s Balade Morale que le Prisonnier fit (see ed. Lacroix 1867), has a stanza beginning : Ou est Artus, ou est Hector de Troye? PALUOP PRINCES: C 171 In the anonymous poem of MS Brit. Mus. Adds. 37049, cited p. 126 here as al- luding to the Dance Macabre, there is a passage of the same nature as Ryman’s, beginning “Wher is now Salamon with all his prudence” etc. Nevill in his Castell of Pleasure has the “Ubi Sunt” motive with list, see p. 293 here. The Lament for Edward IV, ascribed to Skelton, has an allusion to the motive, see Dyce i:4. Barclay in his Ship of Fools uses it; see Jamieson’s ed. 1:268-70. Sir Thomas More, in his Book of Fortune (see Anglia 26:142) introduces Fortune as saying: Ou est Dauid et Salamon Mathusale Josue Machabee Olofernes Alexandre et Sampson Julles Cesar Hector ausy Pompee Ou est Vlyxes et sa grant renommee Artur le roy Godefroy Charlemaine Daires le grant Hercules Tholomee Ilz sont tous mors ce monde est chose vaine. Feylde’s Controversy between a Lover and a Jay has a passage beginning : What is become Of Phylys and Demophon Alcumena and Alphytyon and continuing: ‘‘Where is Semele and Jocasta Cleopatre and Ixionya Semyrramys and Syluya So fayre of fauoure.” And at the end of The Disobedient Child, written about the middle of the sixteenth century, Thomas Ingelond added a song with the lines: Where is now Salamon, in wisdom so excellent ? Where is now Samson, in battle so strong? Where is now Absolon, in beauty resplendent? Where is now good Jonathas, hid so long? Where is now Caesar, in victory triumphing? Where is now Dives, in dishes so dainty? Discourses on death or on the mutability of Fortune naturally developed such * passages whenever the medieval writer’s taste turned to the use of the favorite medieval list. A more general treatment, with very brief list or none, bewailing _ either the transitoriness of human fame or the frailty of earthly joys, is found in all periods of literature. In Cicero, in Ovid (see Metam. xv :429-30), in Boethius’ De Consol. Philos. ii, metre vii, in the Old Eng. Wanderer, in a line of Petrarch’s Triumphus Mortis, in Henryson’s Cresseid, in Arnold’s Thyrsis, in James Flecker’s Donde Estan,—to take widely remote examples,— the theme appears. See J. L. Lowes’ Convention and Revolt in Poetry, chap. iii. This passage has been copied, as a separate extract, in the MSS Ashmole 59 and Harley 4011; it is transcribed, with many others from the Fall, in Harley 2251. 172 JOHN LYDGATE [MS Bodleian Rawlinson C 448] Rome remembre / of thi funda- cion (4460) And of what peeple / bu tok bi gynyng Thi beldyng / gan off fals discencioun Off slauhtre / moordre / & outrarious robbyng Yevyng to us / a maner knowlechyng 5 A fals begynnyng / autours determyne Shal bi processe / come on to ruyne 2 ‘Wher be thyn Emporours / most sover- eyn off renoun Kingis exilid / ffor outrarious levyng (Thi) senatours / with worthi Scip- ioun 10 Poetis olde / i triumphes_ reher- syng (4470) Thi laureat knyhtis / most staatly per rydyng Thyne aureat gloire / bi noblesse ten- lumyne ‘Is bi longe processe / brouht on to ruyne Wher is now Cesar / bat took posses- sioun 15 first of bempire / be triumphe usurpyng Or wher is Lucan / bat makith mencioun Off al his conquest / bi serious writyng Octavyan most solempnest regnyng Wher is be come / per lordschippe or per lyne 20 Processe off yeris / habe brouht it to ruyne (4480) 4 Wher is Tullius / cheef lanterne off pi toun In retorik / all opre surmountyng Morall Senek / (or) prudent sad Ca- toun (4490) Thi comoun profite / allewei proferryng Or rihtfull Traian / most (iust) in his deemyng 26 Which on no party / list nat to declyne Bot longe processe / hap brouht al to ruyne 5 Wher is the temple / off pi protec- cioun Made bi Virgile / moost corious off beeldyng 30 10, 24, 26. The MS reads thet, off, iustlt. Ymagis errect / for euery regioun Whan any land / was founde rebellyng Toward pat parte / a smal belle herde ryngynge To that prouynce / thymage dede en- clyne (4500) Which bi longe processe / was brouht on to ruyne 30) 6 Wher is also / the greet extorcioun Off counseilleris / & prefectis oppres- syng Off dictatours / the fals collucioun Off Decemvir / the ffroward deceyuyng And off Trybunys / be fraudelent werk- yng 40 Off all ecchoun / the odious rauyne Hath bi processe / the brouht on to ruyne 7 Wher is be come / thi domynacioun Thi gret tributis / thi tresours (en- richyng ) (4510) The world all hool / in thi-subieccioun 45 ‘Thi swerd off vengaunce / al peeplis manacyng Euer gredi / tencrese in thi getyng Nothyng / bi grace / which bat is devyne Which hath be / brouht / bi processe tc ruyne 8 In thi most hihest / exaltacioun 50 Thi proude tirauntis / prouyncis con- queryng To god contraire / bi longe rebellioun Goddis Goddessis / falsly obeieng Aboue the sterris / bi surquedous clymbyng (4520) Till vengaunce thi noblesse / dede ontwyne OF With newe compleyntis / to shewe pi ruyne 9 Ley doun thi pride / and thi presump- cioun ' Thi pompous boost / thi lordschippis encresyng Confesse pine outrage / & lei thi boost adoun Alle false goddis pleynly diffieing 60 Left vp pine herte / on to pat hevenli kyng FALL OF PRINCES: C 173 Which with his blood thi sorowis for to fyne Hath maad thi raunsoun to saue be ffrom ruyne 10 ffrom olde Satourne drauh pine affec- cioun (4530) His goldene world / ffulli disprisyng 65 And ffro Jubiter / make a digressioun His seluerene tyme / hertli dispreisyng ‘Resorte a geyne / with will and hool menyng To him pat is lord / off thordris nyne . Which meekli deide to saue pe fro ruyne 70 11 Thouh Mars be myhti in his assencioun Bi Influence victories disposyng And briht Phebus / yeueth consolacioun To wordli pryncis / her noblesse auaunsyng (4540) ‘ffor sake per rihtis / & thi fals offryng 75 And to bat lord / bowe doun pi chyne Which shadde his blood / to saue be fro ruyne 12 Wynged Mercurie / cheeff lord and patroun Off eloquence / and off fair spekyng »fforsak his seruise / in thyn opynyoun 80 And serue the lord / that gouerneth all thyng The sterrid heuene / the speeris eek meuyng Which for thi sake / was crownyd with a spyne His herte eek perced / to saue the fro ruyne (4550) 13 Cast vp off Venus / the fals derisioun 85 Hir firi brond / hir flatereris remevyng ‘Off Diana / the transmutacioun Now briht now pale / now cleer now dreepyng Off blynde Cupide / be ffraudelent mokkyng Off Juno Bachus / Proserpyna Lucyne 90 ffor noon but crist / may saue pe fro ruyne 14 ’ Voide off Circes the bestial poisoun Rawl. C 448 omits stanza 12, which I supply from Bodley 263. Off Cirenes / the furious chauntyng Lat nat Medusa / do pe no tresoun And ffro Gorgones / turne pi lokyng 95 And lat Synderesis ha be in kepyng That crist Jesu may be bi medicyne Geyn such raskaill / to saue pe fro ruyne (4564) 15 Off false Idolis / mak abiuracioun To symulacres do no worshippyng 100 Make thi resorte to cristis passioun Which may bi mercy / redresse pin erryng And bi his grace / repare thi fallyng So thou obeie / his vertuous discyplyne Truste bat he shal / restore thi ruyne 16 His mercy is surmountyng / off foi- soun (4573) Euer encresyth / withoute amenusyng Ay atte the fulle / ecche tyme & ecche sesoun And neuyr wanyth / bi noon eclipsyng Whan men list make / deuoutli ther rekenyng IIO To leue ber synne / & come to his doc- tryne He redi is / to keepe hem fro ruyne 17 *O Rome Rome / al olde abusyoun Off cerimonyes / falsli disusyng (4580) Lei hem a side / and in a conclusioun Cry god mercy / thi trespacis repentyng Truste he wil nat / refuse bine axyng The to resseyue / to laboure in his vyne Eternaly / to saue be ffro ruyne 18 O noble pryncis / off hih discrecioun 120 Seeth in this worlde / ber is noon abid- yng Peisith consiens / attwen will & resoun While ye haue leicer / of herte Imagyn- yng ‘Ye ber nat hens / but your deseruyng Lat this conseit / ay in your pouhtis myne (4591) Bexample off Rome / how al gobe to ruyne 126 174 JOHN LYDGATE D THANKS TO GLOUCESTER Fall of Princes, Prologue to Book iii As in the prologue to book i above, so here Lydgate follows more than one thread. In the earlier and general introduction he had given Laurent’s explana- tion of the purpose of his work; he had praised in detail his master Chaucer ; and he had eulogized his patron Gloucester. Here again he uses Laurent’s material, but he incorporates also in his translation a song of praise to Humphrey for his gracious reward of the effort thus far expended by the poet. There exist in several MSS copies of a letter addressed by Lydgate to the duke, asking for money, a letter which according to one pair of texts was com- posed “in tempore translacionis libri Bochasii”. This letter (here printed p. 149) shows enough similarity in phrasing to suggest that it was sent at this point in the work, after the completion of books i and ii. If such be the case, we have ‘here an outburst of gratitude from Lydgate for Humphrey’s gift of money, made in reply to a supplication still existing. There are many begging-letters yet pre- served in the manuscripts of this period, and many adulatory poems; but it would be hard to match this case of plea and thanks both remaining to us. The prologue divides into :—a stanza of simile, the poet comparing himself to a tired thirsty pilgrim; an explanation, in’ two more stanzas, of the simile; a disquisition on the pressure of age, incapacity, and poverty upon the poet; a paean of gratitude to “my lord” for relieving that poverty ; a return to the pilgrim-simile of the first stanza, this time followed, according to the French text, through stanzas 14-18; an introduction of Boccaccio’s name, and the arrival at Book iii. Of all this, only the pilgrim-simile comes from Laurent; the rest is either “original” with Lydgate or from John of Salisbury, some of whose phrases are borrowed. Stanzas 1-13 were printed by me, from this MS, in Anglia 38 :129-132. [Brit. Mus. Royal 18 D v, fol. 70b] Like a pilgrime which that gooth on foote And hath none hors to Releue his trau- aile- Hoote drie werie and finde mai no boote - Of welle colde whan thrust him doth as- saile - Wyne nor licoure that mai to him availe - *Riht so fare I which in my besinesse- 6 No socoure finde my reudenesse to re- dresse - I meene as thus I haue no fressh licoure Out of the conductis of Calliope Nor throuh Clio-in Rethorik no floure In my laboure - for to refressh me - II Nor of the sustren - in noumbre thries thre - Which with Cithera on Pernaso dwell Thei neuer me gaff drink oonis of ther well 3 Nor of ther springis cleere and cristal- line 15 That sprang bi touching of the Pegase- Ther fauour lakkith my making to en- lumine I finde ther bawme of so grete scarsete - To tame ther tunnys with som drope of plente - ffor poliphemus throuh his grete blynde- nesse - 20 Hath in me dirkid of Argus the briht- nesse - Our life here short of witte the grete dulnesse - FALL OF PRINCES: D 175 The heui soule troublid with trauail And of memoire the glacing brotilnesse - Dreede and vnkonning hath made a strong batail - 25 With werinesse my spirit to assail And with ther subtil creping in most queinte - ‘Hath made my spirit in making for to feinte ‘And ouermore the fereful frowardnesse - Of mi stepmodir callid obliuioun 30 Hath made a bastile of foryetilnesse To stoppe the passage and shadwe mi resoun That I myht haue no clere direccioun In translating of newe to quik me Stories to write of oolde antiquite: 35 Thus was I sette and stood in double were: At the meting of fereful weies twein The tone was this who euer list to lere- Where as god wil gan me constrein Bochas to accomplish for to do mi pein ‘Cam ignoraunce with a maas of dreede- - Mi penne to arest I durst nat proceede - 7 Thus bi my silff remembring on this booke - It to translate how I had vndirtake - fful pale of cheere astonid in my looke- Myne hand gan tremble my penne I felt quake - 46 ' That disespeirid I had almost forsake - .So grete a laboure dreedful & import- able - ‘It to parfourme I fond mi silff so on able 8 Twene the residewe of this grete iornee And litil part there of that was begunne I stood chek maate for feere whan I gan see - 52 In mi weie how litil I had runze- * Lik to a man that failid dai & sunne- And had no liht to accomplissh his viage - - So ferre I stood a bak in my passage - 56 ‘The nyht cam on dirkid with ignoraunce ’ Mi witte was dulle be cleernesse to dis- cern: In Rethorik for lak of suffisaunce - The torchis out & queint was the lantern - And in this case my stile to gouern 61 Me to forthre I fond non othir muse But hard as stone Pierides & Meduse 10 ~Supporte was none my dulnesse for to guie- ‘ Pouert approchid in stal crokid age: 65 Mercuri absent and Phil(ol)ogie Mi purs ai liht and void of al coignage Bachus ferre of to glade mi corage- An ebbe of plente scarcete atte full Which of an olde man makith the spirit dull 70 11 But hope and trust to put awei dispaire ‘In to my mynde of new gan hem dresse And cheef of all to make the wethir faire Mi lordis freedam and bounteuous lar- gesse In to mi hert brouht in such gladnesse 75 That throuh releuing of his beningne grace: ffals indigence list me no more manace- 12 A how it is an ertheli reioishing To serue a prince that list to aduertise - Of ther seruauntis the feithful iust meen- ing 80 And list considre to guerdone ther seruise And at a neede list (hem nat despise) - But from al daungere that shold hem noie to greue- Been euer redie to helpe hem and releue - 13 And thus releuid bi the goodliheede- 85 And throuh the noblesse of this moost knihtli man Al mistis clerid of dispeir and dreede - Trust hope and feith in to my hert Ran- And on my labour anon forth with I gan- ffor bi clere support of mi lordis grace- All forein letting fro me I did enchace- 14 ffolkis that use to make grete viagis Which vndirfong long trauaile and laboure Whan thei haue don grete part of ther passagis Of werinesse to asswagin the Rigoure 95 176 JOHN LYDGATE Agein feyntice to finde som fauoure Loke oft agein parcel to be releuid To seen hou moch there iourne is acheuid 15 Cause whi thei so ofte loke agein Bakward turne look & eeke visage: 100 Is oonli this that it mai be sein To them hou moch is don of there viage- Eke weri folk that gon on pilgrimage Rest hem som while a ful large space - Laborious soote to wipin from there face - 105 16 There heui ffardell among thei cast doun At certein boundis to do there bakkis ese At wellis coolde eke of entencioun Drink fressh watris there greuous thurst to apese- Or holsom winis ther appetite to plese 110 Rekning the milis bi computaciouns Which the(i) haue passid of castillis & tovnis 17 It doth hem ese the noumbre for to know - Sith thei began of mani grete iornees - Of hih mounteinis and of valis low- 175 And straunge sihtis passing bi contrees - The vncouth bilding of borowis & Citees - Counting the distaunce fro tovnis & the spacis This ther talking at ther resting placis - 18 The residew and the surplusage - 120 Thei rekne also of ther labour coming Think it is a maner vauntage - To haue and seen a cleere knowleching Of thingis passid & thingis eke folowing ffor to there hertis it doth ful grete plesaunce - 125 Whan all such thing is put in remem- braunce - 19 And semblabli Iohn Bochas as I fynde Gan turne his bak look and contenauns - And to remembre a poy(n)ting in his mynde - To the stories rehersid in substauns 130 In his two bookis of sorow and dis- plesauns - Him silf astonid merueling a grete dele The falle of princis fro fortunis whele [Four more stanzas complete the prologue to Book iii] E THE TRAGEDY OF CAESAR Fall of Princes vi: 2920 ff. In Boccaccio’s De Casibus Caesar appears only in the chapter devoted to Pompey and in the group-chapter between that and the story of Cicero, in which latter Caesar’s murder is again briefly mentioned. Laurent expands this treatment in the eleventh chapter of his sixth book, which is parallel to Boccaccio’s group- chapter ; but he mentions the murder of Caesar only to emphasize the ingratitude ‘of Brutus and Cassius. This he expressly states; he says that if any one wonders at his including the noble and victorious Caesar in this crowd of unfortunates, he replies that all he has said of great Caesar is by way of describing the wretched .fate of Brutus and Cassius; Caesar is not to be classed with those miserable ones whose own crimes flung them down from prosperity,— it was disloyal conspiracy which caused his fall. Lydgate makes no allusion to this explanation by Laurent. In his work the struggle of the tyrannicides against Octavian is not included: the remainder of Laurent’s chapter is not used, and the envoy, on the fate of Caesar, brings the story of Caesar into equal prominence with that of Pompey. Brutus and Cassius occupy a very minor position in the English treatment. FALL/OF PRINCES: E 177 One of Lydgate’s dominant notions about Caesar, taken from Lucan, is that he asked and was refused a triumph, before he seized power at Rome. In the fifteenth-century prose Serpent of Division, ascribed by one MS to Lydgate, and employing a vocabulary markedly Lydgatian, this refusal is very amply treated, and the struggle between Caesar and Pompey is made an “exemplum” of the evils of civil discord. The editor of the only modern text of the Serpent, Dr. MacCracken, conjecturally dates the work in 1422, when England was threatened with disorder by the sudden death of Henry V; and he suggests Gloucester as the patron of the translation —the exact source of which is not yet determined. Were these suggested circumstances, i.e. authorship, date, and patron, all proved fact, we might expect some allusion to the earlier work in Lydgate’s return here to the subject of Caesar and Pompey, even as he refers back to his Troy Book from i: 5946 of the Fall of Princes. No such mention is made, yet it appears to me very probable that the Serpent of Division is from Lydgate’s hand. True, that work and the Fall, or this part of the Fall, are shaped to teach different lessons, the one urging the horrors of civil dissension, the other em- phasizing the vanity and instability of earthly success. And there is in the Serpent a mass of material not used in the Fall at this point. But the agreements in vo- cabulary and in movement, still more the absence of differences on those points between the two works, are greater than between any two Middle English produc- tions by different authors known to me. Whoever wrote the Serpent not only admired and quoted—or rather misquoted—his master Chaucer, but uses easily a number of words frequent in Lydgate; for instance, ambiguity, contagious, disap- pear, contune, entrike, ratify, supprised, make mention, the metaphor of the ebb- tide, the phrase “whirlid up” for the chariot of the Sun, etc. There is the same sort of agreement in vocabulary between the Serpent and the Fall that exists between the Fall and the Troy Book; and the absence of padding phrase is to be expected when the constraint of rime is absent. Furthermore, there are one or two points of agreement between the Serpent and this part of Laurent’s version of Boccaccio; for instance, the list of portents before civil war in Rome, and the ingenuous comment by Laurent on Caesar’s refusal to read the letter of warning. It may be added that both the Serpent and the Fall give the bearer of this letter the name Tongilius (not in Laurent), and that they use an identical phrase in introducing him (see line 43 and note). But that the Serpent was translated in 1422, or antedated the Fall, is not proved by resemblances in vocabulary and phrasing. We do not assert that the writer of the Serpent used Laurent’s book, or that Lydgate knew nothing of Lau- rent until Gloucester entrusted him the volume for translation; but the date of the Serpent is not clearly of Henry VI’s accession, nor is Gloucester obviously its inspirer. A tolerably plausible argument could be constructed, indeed, for one of Gloucester’s opponents as the patron of the prose work, or for a date much nearer the Wars of the Roses; but the entire question is unsolved. The only point on which we may build is the probable identical authorship of the Fall and the prose treatise. As Dr. MacCracken says, the Serpent of Division is the earliest separate treat- ment in English of the life of Caesar; its existence, alongside the encyclopedia of tragedies, is a phenomenon worth noting. 178 JOHN LYDGATE [MS Brit. Mus. Harley 1245] Thus bi processe all holly pe kynrede Of Pompeyus for shorte conclusioun Bi Cesar wern & be his men in deede Wtout mercy brouht to destruccioun Thus gan encres be fame & be renoun Of Julyus conquest on se & eke on londe (2820) Whos mortall swerde ther myht noon wtstonde 2 first in Libye Spayn & eke Itaile Thexperience of his Roiall puyssaunce In Germany by many stronge bataile 10 His power previd in Germanye & in ffraunce Brouht all thes kyngdamys vndir tho- beisaunce Of be Romayns peisid (al) this thyng & seyn Touchyng his guerdoum his labour was in veyn Towarde Rome makyng his repaire Bi hym appesid Civile Dissenciouns Of throne Imperiall clymbyng on be stayre for be conquest of xiiine regiouns Of be triumphe requerid be guerdouns Which to (recure) his force he hath applied 20 Albe be senate his conquest hath denyed 4 And his name more to magnyfye To shew be glory of his hih noblesse To be Capitoile fast he gan hym hye As Emperour his Doomys ther to dresse Pat day began wt joy & gret glad- nesse (2840) Pe ‘eve no thyng accordyng wt pt morowe De entre glad be eende trouble & sorowe 5 Calapurnya which bt was his wiff Had a dreme be same nyht toforn 30 Toknes shewid of pe ffunerall striff How pt hir lorde was likly to be lorn By conspiracye compassid & sworn If he pt day wtout avisement In be Capitoile satt in Jugeme(n)t 35 6 She drempt allas as she lay & slept (2850) Pt hir lorde thoruhgirt wt many a wounde Lay in hir lapp & she be body kept Of womanheede like as she was bounde But oo Allas to soth hir Dreme was founde 40 Pe next morow no lengir made Delaye Of his Parody was be fatall Daye 7 A poor man callid Tongilyus Which secretly be tresoun did espye Lete write a lettre toke it Julyus 45 Pe caas declaryng of be conspiracye Which to rede Cesar list nat applye But oo Allas ambicious necligence Causid his moordre by unware violence 8 Cesar sittyng myd be consistorye 50 In his astate most Imperiall Afftir many conquest & victorye ffortune awaityng to yeve hym a fall Wt bodkyns percyng as an all He moordrid was wt many a mortall wounde 55 Lo how fals trust in worldely pompe is founde (2870) Lenuoye 9 Thoruh all this booke radde ech tragedye Afforn rehercid & put in remembraunce Is noon more woofull to my fantasye Pan is be fall of Cesar in substaunce 60 Which in his hihest Imperiall puyssaunce Was while he wende ha be most glorious Moordrid at Rome of Brutus Cassyus 10 This marciall Prince ridyng thoruh Lom- bardye Ech Contre yolde & brouht to obey- saunce 65 Passyng thallpies roode thoruh Ger- manye (2880) To subieccioun brouht be Rewme of ffraunce Gat Brutus Albioun bi long contynuaunce To lustris passid this manly Julyus Moordrid at Rome by Brutus Cassyus FALL OF PRINCES: F 179 11 Among pe Senate was be conspiracye All of assent & of oon accordaunce Whos Tryumphe thai proudly gan denye But maugre them was kept pe obseru- aunce His chaier of golde wt stedis of ples- aunce Ze Conveied thoruh Rome this prince most pompous Pe moordre folwyng by Brutus Cas- syus (2891) 12 Rekune his conquest rekune vp _ his chyualrye Wt a cowntirpeise of worldely vari- aunce ffortunys chaungis for his purpartye 80 Wey all togidre cast hem in ballaunce Sett to of Cesar be myschevous chaunce Wt his parody soden & envyous Moordrid at Rome bi Brutus Cassyus 13 Bookis all & cronyclis specifye 85 Bi Influence of hevenly purveiaunce Mars & Jubiter be(r)favour did applye Wt glad aspectis his noblesse to en- haunce Mars gaff hym knyhthoode Jubiter gov- ernaunce Amongis princis holde oon be most fam- ous 90 Moordrid at Rome bi Brutus Cassyus 14 Biholde of Alisaundre be gret monarchye Which al be worlde hadd vndir obeisaunce Prowesse of Ector medlid wt gentrye Of Achilles malencolik vengeaunce 95 Rekune of echon pe queveryng assur- aunce (2910) Among remembryng be fyne of Julyus Moordrid at Rome bi Brutus Cassyus 15 Pryncis considrith in marciall policye Is nouthir trust feith nor affaunce 100 All stant in chaunge wt twynkelyng of an eye Vp towarde heven sett your attendaunce Pe worlde vnsure & all worldely ples- aunce Lordshipp abitt nat Recorde on Julyus Moordrid at Rome bi Brutus Cassyus 105 OCTAVIAN’S REVENGE Fall of Princes vi: 2920 ff. [MS Brit. Mus. Royal 18 D v] Affter the moordre of this manli man (2920) This noble prince this famous emperour His worthi Nevewe callid Octouian To regne in Roome was next his succes- sour Which did his deueere bi dilligent labour 5 To punsshe al tho of nature as he ouhte Bi rihtful dome that the moordre wrouhte 2 ’ Cheeff conspiratour was Brutus Cassius Which of this moordre made al the orde- naunce Anothir Brute surnamid Decius 10 Was oone also conspiring the veni- aunce (2930) Wrouht on Cesare he affter slain in ffraunce Here men mai seene what costis pt men wende How moordre al wai requerith an evil eende 3 With in the space almoost of thre yere 75 Destroied wern al the conspiratours Bi sodein dethe and som _ stoode in daungere To be bansshid or exilid as tretours 180 JOHN LYDGATE And as it is croniclid bi auctours Space of thre yere reknid oone bi oone 20 Deied at myscheeff the moordereris euerychone To moordre a prince it is a_ pitous thing (2941) God of his riht wil take ther of veniaunce Nameli an emperour so famous in eche thing Which al the worlde had in gouern- aunce 25 Rekne his conquest digne of Remem- braunce Al peisid in oone bochas berith witnesse ‘In hih estate is litil sikirnesse G THE TRAGEDY OF CICERO Fall of Princes vi: 2948-3276 In this chapter Lydgate in general follows Laurent, although he adds the list of Cicero’s works, lines 215-227, from Vincent of Beauvais, and takes details of the dream and of Cicero’s death from Valerius Maximus. Cicero occupied in the imagination of medieval clerks a place with Homer and Aristotle, and was much better known than they. Allusions to him, citations from him, practices supported by his authority, are scattered all over medieval literature. Lydgate could find his name, and a citation, at every turn in gram- marians such as Priscian or Nonius Marcellus; he could read excerpts in John of Salisbury (“prudent Carnotence” to Lydgate) and in Isidor; he could find anecdotes of Cicero in Aulus Gellius, in the Polychronicon, and sheaves of se- lections in Vincent of Beauvais. Isidor and Valerius Maximus were, we know, in the great library of Lydgate’s own monastery; and the way in which he quotes Aulus Gellius (‘‘Agellius”) and Vincent shows that he had access to the texts, both of which were in the possession of Humphrey of Gloucester, as was an “Ex- positio super Valerium Maximum.” But citations from Cicero, or “Tullius”, as Lydgate always calls him, are not numerous in the monk’s work, and are of a sort that could derive from an Ars dictandi or a Florilegium. There is no proof of any such intimacy as was John of Salisbury’s, for instance. {MS Brit. Mus. Royal 18 D v] Myne auctour here writ no long processe The musis nyne me thouht as I toke Of Julius dethe compleining but a while heede (2960) To write of Tullie.in haste he gan him A croune of laurer set uppon his hede dresse (2950) Compendiousli his liff for to compile Bochas astonid gan of him silff con- Compleining first seith his barein stile 5 ide 15 Is insufficient to_write eee His looke abasshid dulle of his corage Of so notable a Rethoricien Thouht his termis & resouns were to rude That he lakkid konning & language Where bi he sholde to his auauntage Thouh he laborid writing al his lyue 20 Laumpe and lanterne of Romaine ora- : ahs Z Of Tullius the meritis to descryue tours Amonge hem callid prince of Eloquence + On Pernaso he gadrid up the flours 10 Wher of supprisid he kauht a fantasie This Rethoricien most of excellence With in hym silff remembring anone Whos meritis treuli to recompence riht (2970) FALL OF PRINCES: G 181 Thouh it so falle som tyme a cloudie skie Be chaacid with wynde affore the sonne briht 25 Yit in effecte it lassith nat his liht So bochas dempte that his dulle writing Eclipsid nat of Tullius the shining 5 ‘With rude language a man mai wele reporte The laude of triumphees and conquestis meruelous 30 Which thing remembring greteli gan com- forte The herte of bochas & to him silff spak thus Too colours sein that be contrari- ous (2980) As white and blak it mai be none othir Eche in his kinde shewith more for othir 35 -In phebus presence sterris lese there liht -Clere at myddaie apperith nat lucine ‘The fame of Tullie whilom shone so briht ‘Prince of fair speche fadir of that doc- trine ‘Whos briht beemys in to this houre do shine 40 Sotheli quod bochas of wham whan I endite -Myne hand I fele quaking while I write 7 But for to yeue folk occasioun (2990) Which in Rethorik haue more experiens Than haue I and more inspeccioun 45 In the colours and crafft of eloquens Them to excite to do there dilligens Vnto my writing whan thei mai attende Of compassioun my rudenesse to amende 8 ‘Vnto him silff hauing this language 50 ‘Bochas to write gan his penne dresse Vndir support afforcid his corage To remembre the excellent noblesse Of this Oratowr which with the suetnesse Of his ditees abroode as thei haue shined 55 Hath al this world most clereli enlumined -This Tullius this singulere famous man ‘ffrist to remembre of his natiuite ‘Born at Arpinas a Cite of Tuskan Of bloode Roial descendid who list se 60 Grekissh bookis of olde antiquite *Made of Rethorik and in there vulgare songe He translatid in to latine tonge 10 .In tendir youthe his contree he forsoke And fro Tuskan his passage he gan dresse 65 ‘Toward Rome the riht weie he toke Entring the Citee the renommed noblesse Hid in his persone shewid the brihtnesse Of diuers vertuis tyme while he abood That lik a sonne his fame sprad abrood 70 11 ffor his vertuis made a Citesein The good reporte of him shone so cleere Lik as he had be born a Romain (3020) In there fauoure his name was so enteere -Among hem chose for a consuleere 75 Agein the Cite tyme of his consulat ‘Whan Cataline was with hem at debat 12 Bi the prudence of this Tullius And his manhood reknid bothe Ifeere ‘Catalina most cruel & irous 80 ffroward of porte & froward of his cheere Besy euer to fynde out the manere How he myht bi any tokne or signe (3010) ‘Agein the Cite couertli maligne (3031) 13 Sixe hundrid yere foure score told and nyne 85 Reknid of rome fro the fundacioun This cruel tiraunt this proud Catalyne »Made with othre a coniuracioun »Agein ffraunchises and ffredam of the toun first discurid as bookis tel can 90 In the parties and boundis of Tuskan 14 The purpos holie of this Catalyne Ymaginid on fals couetice ‘Was to bring Rome on to Ruine And there uppon in many sondri wise 95 ffond out meenys weies gan devise To his entent bi dilligent laboure In the Citiee gan gete him grete fauoure 15 But finalli his coniuracioun Discurid was bi oone Quincius 100 (3040) 182 JOHN LYDGATE Which was afforne fals on to the toun Tolde al the caas vn to Tullius ‘Bi whose prudence and werking meruel- ous (3050) ‘Bi helpe of Antoyne that was his fellawe ‘The coniuracioun was broken & with drawe 105 16 ‘Bi witte of Tullie al the coniuratours ‘Espied werne and brouht on to mys- chaunce There namys rad to fore the Senatours Of there falsheede tolde al the gouer- nauns Manli ordeinid throuh his purueauns 170 With al his peeple as made is mencioun Catalyna departid from the toun 17 - With Antoyne the said Catalyne ‘Beside Pistoye had a grete batail Slayne in the ffeelde he myht nat de- clyne 115 ffor he aboode whan the feelde gan fail Powere of oone litil mai auail Nameli whan falsheed of malice and of pride Ageins trouth dare the bronte abide 18 Ther was anothir callid lentulus 120 Of his fellawis that namid was ffabyne The thridde of hem eeke callid Ceregus All assentid and sworne to Catalyne Stranglid in prisoune at myscheeff did fyne (3071) Cause Tullius did execucioun 125 Tulliane was callid the prisoun (3060) 19 Thus koude he punsshe tretours of the toun Outraie there enemies of manhod & prudence Callid of there Cite gouernour & patroun Sent from aboue to be there diffence 130 There champioun most digne of reuer- ence Chose of there goddis there Cite for to uy (3079) -Bi too prerogatiuis knyhthod & clergy 20 Lik a sonne he did hem enlumine Bi hih prowesse of knihtli excellens 135 And throuh the world his bemys did shine Of his Rethorik and his eloquens In which he had so grete experiens Bi circumstauncis that nothing did lakke He transcendid Policius & Gracce 140 21 Of Oratours it is put in memorie ‘This Tullius throuh his hih renoun Of al echone the honour and the glorie (3090) Was youe to him as made is mencioun Surmountid alle and in conclucioun 145 ‘The golden trumpe of the hous of fame ‘Throuh al the world bleuh abrode his name 22 ‘He kneuh secretis of philosophie Cam tathenis to scole for doctrine Where he profitid so greteli in clergi 150 ‘In al sciencis heuenli & divine (3098) “That he was callid as auctours determine ‘Amonge Romains of verrai dewe riht ' Of eloquence the lanterne & the liht 23 It is remembrid among Oratours 155 How Tullius pletid causis tweyn In the Romain courte affore the Sena- tours The cause diffending bi language sou- ereyn Of too accusid gein hem pt did plein On there diffautis them sauing fro mis- cheeff 160 The court escaping fro daunger & mys- cheeff 24 ‘Thes causis twein he pletid in latyn ‘With so excellent flouring fair lan- guage (3110) With such resouns concludid atte fyn That he be wisdam kauht the auaun- tage 165 In his mateeris with al the surplusage That myht auaile vnto his partie ‘What he said there coude no man denie 25 ‘Among Greekis at Athenis the Citee He was so grete of reputacioun 170 So famous holde of auctorite To be comparid bi there oppinioun ‘To the philosophre that callid was pla- ton (3120) To whos cradille bees did abraid And hony soote thei on his lippis laid 175 FALL OF PRINCES: G 183 26 A pronostik lik as bookis telle Plato shold bi famous excellens Of Rethorik be verrai sours & welle ffor his language meroure of eloquens ‘Yit the Greekis recordin in sentens 180 How Tullius in partie and in all ‘Was vnto Plato in Rethorik egall 27 Throuh his language this said Tul- lius (3130) ‘Reconsilid bi his soote Orisouns To the lordshippe and grace of Julius 185 ‘Princis kingis of diuers Regiouns ‘That suspecte stood bi accusaciouns Be cause thei did Julius disobeie Were enclyned with Romains to Pompeie 28 “He koude appese bi his prudent lan- guage 190 ‘ffolkis that stood at discencioun Bi crafft he had a special auauntage ffauour singulere in pronunciacioun In his demening grete prudence and resoun (3141) ffor the pronouncing of mateeris in sub- staunce 195 His thank receivith bi cheere & contin- aunce To a glad mateere longith a glad cheere Men trete of wisdam with woordis of sadnesse Pleyntis requeere affter the mateere Greuous or mortal a cheere of heui- nesse 200 Lik as the cause outhir the processe Yevith occasioun to hynderen or to speed The doctrine in Tullius men mai reed (3150) The name of Tullie was kouthe in mani place His elloquence in euery lond was riff His language made hym stonde in grace And be preferrid during al his liff ’Maried he was and had a riht fair wiff Childre many seruauntis yonge & oolde And as I fynde he heelde a good hous- oolde 210 31 - De officijs he wrote bokis thre - De amicicia I fynde how he wrote oone Of age anothir notable for to se (3160) Of moral vertu thei tretid euerychone ‘And as Vincent wrcte ful yore agone 215 In his meroure callid historiall -Noumbre of his bookis be there remem- brid all ae ‘He wrote also the dreme of Scipioun Of Rethorikes compilid bookis tweine And tweine he wrote of diuinacioun 220 Of cithe lond to write he did his peine A large booke of glorie that is veine ‘De Repuplica and as he seyth him selue (3170) ‘Of his Orisouns he wrote bookis twelue 33 ‘And of his dictes that callid be morall 225 Is remembrid notabli in deede In the said merourg historiall And yit this said Tullius as I reede Mid his worshippis stoode all wai in dreede Of ffortune for in conclucioun 230 He by envie was bansshid Rome toun 34 Beyng in exile this famous Tullius In campania at Ative the Cite Receivid he was of oone Plancius A man pt tyme of grete auctorite 235 And while that he aboode in that contre Sleping a nyht the booke makith men- cioun How that he had a wondir visioun (3180) 35 He thouht thus as he laie sleping In a deserte and a grete wildirnesse 240 ffynding no pathe but to & fro erring How he mette clad in grete richesse Gayus Marrius a prince of grete no- blesse (3190) Axing Tullie with sad contenaunce What was cheeff ground & cause of his greuaumce 245 36 Whan Tullius had him the cause toolde Of his desese and his mortal woo Marrius with his hand set on him hoolde To a seriaunt assignid him riht thoo And in all haste bad he shold goo 250 To conveie him doon his besi cure In al haste possible to his sepulture 184 JOHN LYDGATE 37 Wher he shold haue tidingis of ples- aunce (3200) Of his repair into Rome toun Been allegid of his olde greuaunce 255 This was the eende of his avisioun The next morowe as made is mencioun ‘There was hold to Tullius grete avail To fore Jubiter in Rome a grete counsail 38 Within the temple bilt bi marrius 260 The Senatours accordid were certein ‘To reconcile this prudent Tullius Out of his exile to calle him home agein (3210) Affter receivid as lord and souerein Of elloquence be assent of the Senat ' ffulli restorid vn to his frist estat 39 ‘This thing was done whan pt in Rome toun The striiff was grettist twene Cesare and Pompeie And for Tullius drouh him to Catoun With Pompeius Cesare to werreie 270 ‘And of lulius the partie disobeie ‘Out of Rome Tullius did him hih ‘fled with Pompeie in to Thessalie (3220) 40 ‘Cesare affter of his free mocioun -Whan that he stood hihest in his glori 275 -Hym reconciled agein to Rome toun Vppon Pompeie accomplisshid the vic- tori But Julius slain in the consistori Be sixti Senatours beyng of assent Tullius agein was into exile sent 280 41 And in a cite callid ffaryman Tullius his exile did endure (3229) ‘ffor Antonyus was to him enmy than Be cause that he par cas of auenture Compiled had an Inuentiff scripture 285 ‘Agein Antony rehersing al the caas Of his diffautis & of Cleopatraas 42 Thus of envie and of mortal hattereed His dethe compassid by Antonyus And affterward execut in deed 290 Bi procuring of oone Pompilius Gat a commissioun the storie telleth thus Of fals malice and foorthe anone went he (3240) In to Gayete of Compaigne a cite 43 And bi the vertu of his commissioun 295 Taking of Antoyne licence and liberte Cheeff Rethorician that euer was in the toun Among Romains to worship the cite ‘Was slain allas of hate and enmyte ‘Bi Pompilius roote of al falsheed 300 Profring him silff to smyten of his heed 44 Tullius afforn had ben his diffence ffro the Galwes and his dethe eke let (3250) Which had disseruid for his grete offence To haue ben hangid vppon an hih Gibet 305 Who saueth a theeff whan the Rope is knet About his neck as olde clerkis write With som fals turne the bribour wil him quite 45 Lo here the vice of ingratitude Be experience brouht fulli to a preeff 310 Who in his hert tresoun doth include Cast for good wille to doon a man repreeff What is the guerdoun for to saue a theeff (3260) Whan he is scapid looke ye shal fynde Of his nature euere to be vnkynde 315 46 This Pompilius tretour most odible To shewe him silff fals (cruel & venge- able) Toward Tullie did a thing horrible Whan he was deede this bribour most coupable Smet of his riht hand to heere abhomin- able 320 With which honde he leuing on him toke To write of vertuis mani a famous boke 47 The hand the heede of noble Tul- lius (3270) Which eueri man auhte of riht com- pleine Were take and brouht bi Popilius 325 Vppon a stake set up bothe tweine There to abide where it did shine or reine With wynde and wedir til thei were diffied In tokne al fauour was to him denied FALL OF PRINCES: H 185 H THE TRAGEDY OF BOETHIUS Fall of Princes viii :2626-2660 Laurent de Premierfait’s eighteenth chapter, which represents one of Boc- caccio’s group-chapters and very much expands it, mentions among other ill-fated sovereigns the Eastern Roman emperor Leo, the emperor Zeno who dethroned and succeeded Leo, the anxiety of Zeno at Odoacer’s seizure of Italy, the cam- paign of Theodoric, Zeno’s Ostrogothic general, against Odoacer, Theodoric’s assumption of the crown after Odoacer’s defeat, and the subsequent abuse of “Theodoric’s power by unworthy ministers, against whom Boethius protested. The ‘French writer warmly praises Boethius, going much more into detail than did ‘Boccaccio, who gave but a very brief account, with no mention of the cause of Boethius’ imprisonment, which Laurent discusses quite fully; Laurent says that among the accusations against Boethius was that “de auoir familiarite auec les mauuais esperitz”, because he, “comme vray philosophe”, had avoided the mul- ‘titude and preferred solitude. He calls Boethius not only “noble docteur de phil- osophie” but “homme catholicque’”, and denounces the cruelty of Theodoric, who even threw down the images on Boethius’ tomb after his death. His emphasis on Boethius’ wisdom and on the permanence of his influence is repeated several times. But nothing of Laurent’s sympathy appears in Lydgate, whose account is *cool and brief. The facts are from Laurent, but Laurent’s tone is not there, nor Chaucer’s respect, nor Walton’s knowledge and admiration. There are in Lyd- gate four other references at least to Boethius; he is mentioned in the list of Chaucer’s works, Fall of Princes i: 291-2 (see p. 161 here), and in Troy Book iv:3008-{1 his warning against trusting Fortune is cited. The same warning appears in the poem Thoroughfare of Woe, printed by Halliwell; p. 122; and in the Entry of Henry VI, ibid. p. 11, Boethius represents the art of music. Were these all the traces of Boethius in Lydgate, the monk’s neglect of a writer so beloved of Chaucer would seem marked indeed; but in the Fabula Duorum Mercatorum 743-46 I find a close and spirited translation of a bit from the opening metre of the Consolatio, a translation entirely independent of Chaucer. It runs: O deth, desyred in aduersite, Whan thu are callyd, why nylt thu wrecchys heere And art so redy in felicite To come to them that the nothyng desire. [MS Bodl. Rawl. C 448] The said Boys / oonly for his trouthe - Exilid was / allas it was gret routhe - (3632) Z Afftir thes mischeeuys / Symak gan him drawe - Toward bochas / with a ful pitous face - Boys cam with him / bt was his sone in lawe- ffor comon profite / he was vnto the Which amonge Romayns / gretly stood toun - in grace- In mateers / that groundid were on riht- But in this mateer / breeffly forth to Verray protectour / & stedfast cham- Dace - 5 pioun - 10 186 JOHN LYDGATE A geyn to tyrauntis / which off force & miht - Hadde in the poraill / oppressid many a wiht « Bi exacciouns & pillagis gonne off newe - Vppon the comons / ful fals & riht vntrewe - 3 Whan Theodorik / off Gothes lord & kyng - 15 Took vppon him / bi fals Intrusioun - To regne in Rome / the peeple oppres- syng - (2642) Bi his too prouostis / as maad is men- cioun - Dide in the Citee / gret oppressioun - Confederat / as brothir vnto brothir- 20 Coningaste & Trigwille was the tothir - Compendiously this mateer to declare - To saue his comon / Boys stood in dif- fence - ffor liff nor dethe / he list nat for to spare - To withstonde / off tyrauntis / the sen- tence - 25 Kyng Theodorik / off cruel vio- lence - (2652) Banschid him / bi hateful tyrannye - He & his fadre / tabide in Pauye- 2 Afftirward / Theodorik / off hatreede - Lik a fals Tyraunt / off malis & envie - 30 Yaff Jugement / that bothe too were dede - But touchyng / Boys / as bookis specefie - Wrotte dyuers bookis / off philosophie - Off the Trynyte / maters / pat were dyuyne - Martryd for crist / and callid Seueryne - K FROM THE EPILOGUE TO THE FALL OF PRINCES Book ix: 3387-3442 The portion of the Fall of Princes epilogue here cited is preceded by twelve stanzas addressed directly to Gloucester, describing the fears with which Lydgate undertook the assigned task, and his own shortcomings; Lydgate prays his lord to have compassion on his ignorant efforts. In the thirteenth stanza, at which point our extract begins, the monk turns to the general public; and the fourteen stanzas beyond line 3442 discuss the De Casibus as a book, and the mutability of ‘Fortune. Another six stanzas, with separate heading, are directed to Gloucester, and a final five dismiss the book to the world. It is the general apology to the .public which we have here, an apology with more literary flavor than other parts of the Epilogue. In it Lydgate protests his ignorance of Homer, of Seneca, of Virgil, of Ovid, of Dares Phrygius, of Chaucer; he mentions Gower, Strode, and the Hermit of Hampole as judges of these matters, and Chaucer as the peerless narrator. Chau- cer wrote tragedies, as did Petrarch and Boccaccio; but he, Lydgate, has ventured into that field only “by constreynt.” His inadequacy is hopeless; he was never favored of the Muses, and can only say that he has done his poor best. [MS Brit. Mus. Royal 18 B xxxi] To forthre my penne wt colours of But stoupe & halt / for lake of ello- cadence (3990) quence «Nor moral Senec most sad of his sen- Thouh Omerus heeld nat the torch liht tence 5 And semblably thouh I goo nat vpriht FALL OF PRINCES: K 187 Gaf me no part / of his moralites ’ Therfor I say / thus knelyng on my knes To al tho that shal pis booke beholde ‘I them beseeke to haue compassion .& therwtal / I pray hem that bei wolde 10 . ffavoure the metre & do correccion Of gold nor assur / I had no foison Nor othir colours / pis processe ten- lumyne ‘Sauf whit & blake & bei but dully shyne (3400) I nevir was acqueyntid wt Virgile 15 Nor wt pe sugrid ditees of Omer Nor Dares frigius / wt his golden stile Nor wt Ouyd / in poetre most enteer Nor wt pe sovereyn balladis of Chauncer Which among al pat euer wer rad or song 20 Excellid al othir / in our ynglish tong I can nat been a Iuge in this mateer As I conceive folwyng in fantasy ‘In moral mateer / ful notable was Gower (3410) And so was Stroode / in his Philosophy In parfit lyvyng / which passith poysy Richard Hermyte / contemplatif of sen- tence Drouh in ynglissh / the prike of con- science As pe gold tressid / briht somer sonne Passith othir sterris wt his bemys cleer 30 And as Lucyna cacheth skyes donne The frosty nyhtis whan Espirus doth apper ~Riht so my maister had neuer peer *I meene Chauncer / in stories pat he tolde (3420) And he also wrot / tragedies olde 35 The fal of princis / gan pitously com- pleyn As Petrake did / and also Iohn Bochas Laureat Franceis Poetis both tweyn Tolde howe princes / for ther gret tres- pace Wer ove(r)throwe / rehersyng al pe cas 40 As Chaucer did in be monkis tale But I that stonde / low doun in the vale So gret a booke in ynglyssh to trans- late ‘Did it by constreynt & no presump- cion (3430) ‘Born in a village / which called is Lidgate 45 In olde tym / a famous castel toun In Danys tyme / it was bett doun Tyme whan seynt Edmond martir maid & Kyng Was slayn at Oxne / record of writyng I me excus / now this booke is do 450 How I was neuer / yit at Citharon ‘Nor on be monteyn callid Pernaso Wher nyne musis / ha ther mansion But to conclude / myn entencion (3440) ‘I wil proceed / forth wt whit & blake 55 ‘And wher I faile / late Lidgate bere pe lake BENEDICT BURGH’S LETTER TO JOHN LYDGATE Very little is known of Benedict or “Benet” Burgh, an ecclesiastic of some standing in the latter fifteenth century. He was born ca.1413, received an Uni- versity training and a Master’s degree at Oxford (1433), and died in 1483 as Archdeacon of Colchester and Canon of St. Stephen’s Westminster. His prosper- ous although inconspicuous career in the Church seems to have been bound up with the patronage of the influential Bourchier family, but on one occasion at least a rich prebend was given him by the hand of Edward the Fourth direct. In the few bits of literary work which Burgh has left there is little or nothing of the personal such as we find abundantly in Hoccleve, more than a little in Bokenam, occasionally in the Palladius-translator. This address to Lydgate is the least di- dactic and most living of his productions. He is credited with: 1, a paraphrase of the Disticha Catonis so exceedingly popular in the late Middle Ages ; 2, a Christ- mas Game or poem on the Apostles, twelve stanzas, preserved in only one MS of the latter fifteenth century ; 3, the continuation of Lydgate’s Secreta Secretorum after his master’s death; 4, the brief poem below printed, preserved only by John Stow in a copy of 1558; 5, a five-stanza “Lesson to keep well the tongue”, simi- larly preserved; 6, the “ABC of Aristotle’, now known to be not Burgh’s, but by Benet of Norwich. For this last fact see Foerster, in Archiv 117: 371-5; and for prints of the poems numbered 2, 4, and 5 see Foerster, Archiv 101: 29-64, where the data on Burgh’s life are brought together. There is no certain date for this brief production, but Foerster, in his careful article on Burgh, Archiv 101, suggests the years 1433-40, while Burgh was, it is supposed, Vicar of Maldon in Essex, This is supported by the author’s dating of his letter from Bylegh Abbey, at Little Maldon; a detail unmentioned by Foerster is that not many miles separated the Abbey from Hatfield Broadoak, Es- sex, where Lydgate was Prior from 1423 to 1434. It is not impossible, al- though entirely conjectural, that Burgh at the opening of his Maldon life wrote (and sent?) this verse-tribute to the older man for whom he professes so ardent an admiration, and whose neighbor he had just become. In the poem Burgh discourses enthusiastically on Lydgate’s scholarship, and enumerates the classics known to Lydgate’s “innate sapience”,— Virgil, Homer, Boethius, Ovid, Terence, Persius, Lucan, Martianus Capella, Horace, Statius, Juvenal, and Boccaccio. Two of this list, Terence and Horace, are so far as I know unmentioned and unquoted by Lydgate; Lucan and Statius are named twice or thrice each, but there is no evidence that either the Pharsalia or the Thebais was used by Lydgate. To Virgil and to Homer his allusions, though fairly frequent, are mere formulae. Persius is once mentioned (FaPrinces iv:61), ina prologue on “letters” which, as I have suggested, was composed not only in def- erence to Gloucester’s taste, but in dependence on his books, or at least on their titles. Juvenal is named in the same prologue, along with Aesop, and in the Fall of Princes Lydgate twice cites the bit about the poor man singing before the thief, without Juvenal’s name; but he could get this, and the author’s name, from the Wife of Bath’s Tale of Chaucer. Nor, in his three allusions which I have noted to Martianus Capella and the De Nuptiis, is there anything which could not come from Chaucer’s remark in the Merchant’s Tale or from the mere heading of the [ 188 ] LEDER LOVELY DGATE 189 work. The monk’s very slight knowledge of Boethius, despite the interest felt by Chaucer, is discussed p. 185 here; Boccaccio’s De Casibus, in a French prose ver- sion, was perhaps at this very time in Lydgate’s hands, and he seems to have used the De Genealogia direct in other poems. But the only author of this list whom Lydgate not only mentions but has read sufficiently to quote of his own volition is Ovid; and this happens mainly in the Fall of Princes, on which the monk was engaged from ?1431 to 1438. Burgh’s compliment could hardly have less real foundation. Other prints of Burgh’s work have been :— Steele, ed. of the Secreta Secretorum for the EETS, 1894. Foerster, ed. of the Cato, Archiv 115:298-323 and 116:25 ff., from 24 MSS. Cp. Gold- berg, Der englische Cato, Leipzig diss., 1883. The Christmas Game, ed. by Thomas Wright in his volume of Carols, 1841, pp. 28-31; by Furnivall in Notes and Queries for May 16, 1868; by Fligel, Anglia 14 :463-66., Foerster, Archiv 101:52, gives a list of Fliigel’s errors. This poem to Lydgate is printed by Steele as above, p. xxxi-xxxii. Foerster in Ar- chiv 101:47-48 gives a list of Steele’s errors. On the manuscript see p. 194 below. [John Stow’s MS, Brit. Mus. Adds. 29729, fol. 6] Nat dremyd I in y® mownt of pernaso ne dranke I nevar at pegases welle the pale pirus saw I never also ne wist I never where y® muses dwelle ne of goldyn Tagus can I no thynge telle And to wete my lippis I cowde not atteyne In citero or elicon sustres tweyne / The crafte of speche that some tyme founde was of the famous philosophers moste perfite Aristotell gorge and ormogenes 10 nat have I. so I have lerid but a lite As for my party thowgh I repent I may go qwite of tullius frauncis and quintilian fayne wolde I lere . but I not conceyve can / The noble poete virgil the mantuan 15 Omere the greke and torqwat sovereyne Naso also that sith this worlde firste be gan the marvelist transformynge all best can devyne Terence y® mery and plesant theatryne Stow’s heading is nearly all trimmed away, but his copy is from some one’s “booke dwelyng at wyndsor.” porcyus lucan marcyan and orace 20 stace Iuvenall and the lauriate bocase / All thes hathe seyne . youre Innate sa- pience ye have gadred flowris in this motli mede to yow is yeven the ver(r)ay price of excellence thowghe they be go yet the wordis be not dede 25 thenlumynyd boke where in a man shall rede thes and mo be in this londe legeble ye be the same ye be the goldyn bible / 5 O yet I truste to be holde and see this blisfull booke wt y® goldyn clasppes seven 30 ther I wyll begyne and lerne myne a.b.c. that wer my paradyse, that wer my heven gretar filicitie can no man neven so god my sowle save, a benedicite Maister lidgate, what man be ye / 35 6 Now god my maister, preserve yow longe on lyve that yet I may be yowr prentice or I dye then sholde myne herte at y® porte of blise aryve 190 BENEDICT BURGH ye be the flowre, and tresure of poise the garland of Ive, and lawre of vic- torye 40 by my trowghte & I myght ben a em- perowr for yowr konynge I shulde yowr heres honor / 7 writen at thabbey of bylegh chebri place with frosti fingers, and nothynge pliaunt when from the high hille I men y® mownt canace 45 was sent in to briton the stormy per- saunt that made me loke as lede & chaunge semblant and eke y® sturdi wynde of yperborye made me of chere vnlusti sadde & sory / The laste moneth that men clepe de- cembre 50 when Phebus chare was dryven a bowte y® heven yf we reken a ryght & well remembre fowre tymes onys and aftar ward seven that is to sey passid ther war days a leven of the moneth when this vnadvisid lettar 55 writ was, but wt yowr helpe here aftar bettar / explicit per magistrum burgh ad Ioannem lidgate / JOHN SHIRLEY: TWO VERSIFIED TABLES OF CONTENTS John Shirley, a warm admirer and zealous copyist of Chaucer and of Lyd- gate, was for the latter part at least of his ninety-years’ life a resident of London, where he died in 1456. Stow in his Survey mentions the monument to him and his wife in the church of St. Bartholomew the Less; see Kingsford’s edition of the Survey, ii: 23-4, for the verse-epitaph on that monument. The Dict. Nat. Biog. describes Shirley as “translator and transcriber” ; and from an entry in the records of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital it appears that in 1456 John Shirley was renter of a large tenement with four shops, belonging to the Society.1_ Considering the char- acter of Shirley’s existing manuscripts and the number of volumes partly copied from his work, it becomes a question if Shirley were not one of England’s earliest publishers. These two tables of contents, and his verse “bookplate”’, show him as the proprietor and manufacturer of a lending library ; and in his long “gossiping” headings to separate poems,—as Bradshaw termed them,—Shirley addresses “my lords and ladies” much in the tone of a modern publisher’s jacket, explaining the work to follow and commending it to his readers with friendly respect. This also befits the lending library; but Shirley was a translator as well. Most of his ex- isting work of that sort is in the MS Brit. Mus. Adds. 5467, a volume not written in his hand but probably copied from him, as it retains his headings and his tricks of spelling. This volume has been discussed by Gaertner in his dissertation on Shirley, Halle, 1904, and by Brusendorff, pp. 213-15. There are two facts which contribute to the supposition that Shirley may have managed more than a lending library, that his London shops were used on a larger scale than one man’s activity would need. First, a number of existing MSS which do not show his script show the influence of his text. For instance, two codices of the British Museum, Harley 2251 and Adds. 34360, written in one and the same hand, reproduce texts with Shirley’s headings, derived probably from his volume now Trin. Coll. Cambr. R 3,20; this is especially true of the Harley manuscript. Also, the copy of the Canterbury Tales in Brit. Mus. Harley 7333, although not in Shirley’s hand, preserves his marginalia, his “Nota per Shir- ley” against passages that interested him. And a single isolated text may in similar way show a Shirleyan archetype; cf. the poem printed by MacCracken on p. 260 of his EETS edition of Lydgate’s Minor Poems, from MS Brit. Mus. Cotton Titus A xxvi. When we observe that the same man who wrote the Harley and Additionals volumes above mentioned also wrote the copy of the Canterbury Tales surviving in the College of Physicians’ library, and wrote part of that in the MS Brit. Mus. Royal 17 D xv, etc.; when we see another man working with him on this latter volume; when we recognize the possibility that both men were writing in a place where a Shirley volume (? R 3, 20) and other manuscripts were at hand,—we conjecture again as to the business conducted in those four shops in Shirley’s later years. The extent of Shirley’s influence on English “publishing conditions” has yet to be estimated ; his importance as a preserver of Chaucerian and Lydgatian texts u an See Sir Norman Moore, History of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, 1918, 2 vols., ii :30. [191] 192 JOHN SHIRLEY is already recognized, reduced although it be by his failings. For Chaucer’s work, he is our sole or main authority for including in the canon Anelida, Mars, Venus, Pity, Stedfastnesse, Truth, and the Words to Adam; of the last he has pre- served the only copy. For Lydgate, also, Shirley did yeoman service ; in the Trin- ity College MS above mentioned exists the only known set of Lydgate’s clumsy but important Mummings, long supposed lost; and various traces of Lydgate’s personal connection with Humphrey of Gloucester are preserved by Shirley, or his copyists, alone. His tone when speaking of the monk is friendly, even fa- miliar; and he evidently had especial opportunities of obtaining Lydgate’s work. For a piece of prose-translation which Shirley asserts to be Lydgate’s, see p. 101 here. The codices written by Shirley himself are nearly all commonplace-books, or collections of shorter works and scraps; they are now Brit. Mus. Adds. 16165, Bodl. Ashmole 59, and Trinity College Cambridge R 3,20; also an imperfect volume at Sion College, London, part of the volume Harvard University 530 F, and a few leaves each of Brit. Mus. Harley 78 and of the Earl of Ellesmere’s MS 26 A 13, now in the Huntington Library, California. The first-named has been de- scribed by me in MLNotes 19:35-38 and in Mod. Phil. 1:331; the Ashmole has been described by me in Anglia 30 :320-48 ; the Trinity College MS by me in Anglia 22 :364-374; the Harvard volume by F. N. Robinson in Harvard Studies, vol. v. For the Sion College MS see my Chaucer Manual, p. 333; and on the general subject of the Shirley volumes see Brusendorff, pp. 207-236. In MLNotes 36 :184 I queried if the imperfect Sion College MS could be the missing part of the Trinity College volume. Codices derived in part at least from Shirley are Brit. Mus. Adds. 5467, Harley 2251, Adds. 34360, and Harley 7333; also John Stow’s MS Brit. Mus. Adds. 29729, in which he transcribes a mass of material from the Trinity College volume, at that time his property. The first-named MS has been discussed by Gaertner as above, the next two by me in Anglia 28:1-28, Harley 7333 briefly by Gaertner op. cit. p. 19, more at length in my Chaucer Manual, pp. 176-77. The originals of Adds. 5467 and Harley 7333 are unknown to us, but a number of the poems in Harley 2251 and Adds. 34360 are in the Trinity College MS, with identical headings. There has as yet been no investigation to determine how far the copyists of Shirley are influenced by his shortcomings. Invaluable although Shirley’s work is historically and archaeologically, it is textually most disappoint- ing. The disorganization and corruption which he inflicts upon a text of Chaucer are often painful to witness. He had no feeling for rhythm, and either because of the fall of inflexional -e or because of his own insensitiveness, he did not per- ceive the speech-flow of Chaucer. The muddled conditions and omitted passages of Ashmole 59 may be due in part to Shirley’s great age when that volume was compiled ; but everywhere in his work the lines are jarring in ways which we may partly explain, but cannot reform. All the volumes in his own hand are charac- terized by this text-maltreatment, by his script, by his “gossiping” headings, by his orthography, and often by his device. On the title-pages of Ashmole 59 and on a leaf of the former Ellesmere MS 26 A 13 is a device, resembling a composite letter, surmounted by a crown and flanked on the one side by the words “ma ioye’’, on the other side by the word “Shirley. ” This appears ‘also on two MSS owned but not written by Shirley, both in French; one is a copy of Vegetius on the art of chivalry, in de Meun’s TWO TABLES OF CONTENTS 193 translation, and is in the British Museum as Royal 20 B xv; the other is a French poem on Edward the Black Prince, formerly in Lord Mostyn’s collection and after his sale presented (1921) to the present Prince of Wales. This latter volume is described by Sir Israel Gollancz in a small privately printed brochure, to which is prefixed a full-size photograph of Shirley’s device. A very small drawing of the device is in the British Museum catalogue of the Royal MSS, with the description of the codex above mentioned ; the device is there termed a “sort of monogram”, but Gollancz affirms positively that it is an A. The letter of the Royal MS is identical with that of the former Ellesmere MS, I am informed by the Keeper of MSS in the Huntington Library; and it is identical with that of the Ashmole. The first leaves of the Trinity College MS are missing, possibly with the device; and the MS Adds. 16165 carries a simplified mark, the word Shirley with ma ioye above it, and between them a smallish ordinary a as in his usual script, uncrowned. I have previously suggested that this “device” may be a composite letter, represent- ing perhaps MARIA or AMOR, and in the nature of an invocation or formula at beginning, like, e.g., the rubric “Assit principio sancta maria meo” on many MSS, such as Bodl. Laud 683 or those of the Bury Library as described by Dr. James. Shirley does indeed occasionally use this composite letter where an A is to be expected; but the difference between his device in Adds. 16165 and in the French MSS above mentioned or in Ashmole 59 may be one of date. The devices of the early printers may be compared. Shirley’s script is reproduced in the Chaucer Society Autotypes from the Adds. MS and from the Sion College MS; in Harvard Studies v from the MS Harvard 530 F; in Brusendorff to face p. 280, from MS Brit. Mus. Adds. 16165. Besides Shirley’s translations and copies there remain some bits of original verse by him :—a rimed table of contents in his autograph, here printed; a similar table existing only in Stow’s copy of it, also here printed; a single stanza used as a sort of bookplate in MS Ashmole 59, and printed thence in Reliq. Antiq. i1:163, in Anglia 30: 329, in Gaertner’s diss. as cited, p. 23 footnote, and by Brusen- dorff, p. 460; the same stanza is in the Trinity College MS, and is printed thence in James’ catalogue of the MSS, ii:81. Shirley perhaps also composed a sort of epitome of Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women, in nine eight-line stanzas, which is printed by the Chaucer Society, Odd Texts, appendix, p. vi, and by Gaertner, op. cit., p. 66, from the Ashmole volume. The two versified Tables of Contents here given are printed by Brusendorff, pp. 453-460; that in MS Adds. 16165 is printed by Gaertner, pp. 63-66. None of these bits has any literary value, and I include these Tables here mainly as illustration of the “publishing conditions” of the period and as parallel to the dialogue between Robert Copland and young Nevill, printed below pp. 287 ff. On Shirley see Brusendorff, pp. 453 ff. _ More than a hundred years later than Shirley, the London tailor and antiquary John Stow, who died in 1605, owned and annotated a number of Shirley, Shirleyan, and other MSS. No list of Stow’s known library has yet been compiled, but we find his memoranda, e.g., in Bodl. Fairfax 16, in Shirley’s MS Trin. Coll. R 3,20 and in the MS preserved ibid. as R 3,21, in Brit. Mus. Adds. 34360, and in a former Huth MS now Huntington 144, not to mention transcripts in Stow’s own hand in Stowe 952, ?Adds. 29729, Harley 542, etc., etc. In Stow’s Survey as ed. by Kingsford, ii: 24, he says of Shirley.—‘“This Gentleman, a great traueller in diuers countries, amongest other his labours, painefully collected the workes of Geffrey Chaucer, Iohn Lidgate, and other learned writers, which workes hee wrote 194 JOHN SHIRLEY in sundry volumes to remayne for posterity. I haue seene them, and partly do possesse them.” It is possible that between 1598, when Stow wrote this, and 1558 when he com- piled his MS Adds. 29729, he had come into possession of the Trinity MS R 3, 20, the Shirley volume from which he probably copied at the earlier date. His book 29729 is, he says, made up not only from “the boke of John Sherley”’, but from “master Blomfields boke”, “master Hanlays booke”, “master Philyppes boke”, and “master Stantons boke’. (See description of the MS by Sieper in his EETS edi- tion of Lydgate’s Reson and Sensuality, introduction). At the end of his set of Shirley extracts Stow copies the second of the versified Tables of Contents here printed, a table no longer in the Trinity MS because of its loss of quires at the beginning ; and he follows it with “Here endeth ye werkes of John lidgat which John Stow hath caused to be coppyed out of an owld booke som tyme wrytten by John Sherleye as is aboue made mencyon / John Sherley wrat in ye tyme of John lydgate in his lyffe tyme”. Stow was an author as well as a collector. The two most notable works of his busy life are the Chaucer edition of 1561 and the topographical Survey of London published in 1598. He also drew up a list of Lydgate’s works for the Speght Chaucer of 1598. The first-named piece of work has made Stow suspect with modern students so far as matters literary are concerned; for it foisted upon Chaucer many poems which are obviously not his, and which it has cost a long struggle to remove from the Chaucer-canon. See Skeat, Oxford Chaucer i:31 ff. Stow’s list of Lydgate’s works is discussed by MacCracken in his EETS ed. of Lydgate’s Minor Poems, with the conclusion that there, as in his Chaucer-ascrip- tions, Stow “has no great claim to credit”. But Stow’s evidence as an antiquary is another matter; and however we may censure and doubt his testimony or Shirley’s on textual points, we owe deeply to both for their interested zeal as transcribers. Stow’s script may ' be seen in photographs of nine pages of Brit. Mus. Adds. 29729, preserved in the library of Harvard University, with other photographs, as “Poems and Ballads: photographs of selected folios of Lydgate’s MSS in the British Museum.” [MS Brit. Mus. Adds. 16165, fol. 2a] pE PROLOGE OF PE KALUNDARE OF PIS LITTLE BOOKE 4 If bat you list / for to entende / Of pis booke / to here legende / Boicius in prose Of Nichodeme Suche as is / right vertuous / be maistre of be game Of maner of mirthe nought vicious / pe dreme for lovers As wryten haue / pees olde clerkes / be Ruyle of preestis Pat beon appreued / in aile hir werkis / be compleynt of a lover By oure eldres / here to fore be compleynt of anelida Remembraunce / ellys were forlore / Tiem «it ober hitel balades Wher fore / dere sirs / I you beseche complaintes & roundelles Pat ye disdeyne not / with my speche / 10 ffor affter be symplesse / of my witt / So as feblesse / wolde suffice hit / Pis litell booke / with myn hande / wryten I haue / ye shul vnderstande / And sought be copie / in many a place / To haue be more thank / of youre grace / PWO TABLES OF CONTENTS: I 195 § And doon hit bynde / In pis volume / Pat bobe be gret / and be comune / May per on looke / and eke hit reede Peyres beo be thanke / and be meede 20 Pat first hit studyed / and owt founde Nowe beon pey dolven / deep in be grounde / Beseche I god / he gyf hem grace / In hevens blisse / to haue a place / 4 And for to put hit / in youre mynde / first pus by ordre / shul ye fynde / Of Boece / be hole translacyoun / And Phylosofyes / consolacyoun / Laboured by Geffrey Chaucier Whiche in oure wolgare / hade neuer his pere / 30 Of eloquencyale retorryke / In Englisshe / was neuer noon him lyke / Gyff him be prys and seype ber hoo / For neuer knewe ye / suche na moo / {{ Pe passyoun panne / of Nichodeme / fful wel translated shul ye seen / Pe whiche of Berkeley / lord Thomas Whome god assoyle / for his grace / Lete oute of latyn / hit translate / By Johan Trevysa / pat hit made 40 A maystre in Theologye / Appreued clerk / for be maystrye / Thankepbe pe lord / and pe Clerk / Pat caused first / bat holy werk / {| Panne filowebe nexst / as in wryting / Pe notablest story of huntyng Pat euer was made / to fore pis day Redebe and proue hit by assaye Maystre of be game / men hit calle I prey to god feyre mot him falle 50 Duk of york / be last Edwarde Pat dyed in be vauntwarde Of pe bataylle In Picardye , At Agincourt / pis is no lye / ffor as of huntyng / here to fore Was neuer taught so truwe lore To alle bat beon gentyl of kynde / Beon bounde / to haue his soule in mynde And namelych / of bis oure regyoun Whiche was cleped Albyoun / 60 Pat nowe is called Engeland / { Panne shul ye wit / and vnderstand / Of an Abstract made in latyne / Al in proose / eke lyne by lyne / Grounded vpon holy writte / Regula sacerdotalis / men clepen hit / God helpe so / as bat I not / Who first hit made / ne hit wrot / Per fore noon Auctour / I allegge / 196 JOHN SHIRLEY Drynkebe to my lady / and I hir plegge / 70 Lest some folk wolde / me mysse construwe / Panne and ye wol be wryting suwe / { Shul ye fynde wryten / of a knyght Pat serued his soueraine / lady bright / As done bees louers amerous / Whos lyff / is offt seen parillous / Askebe of hem / pat haue hit vsed A dieux Joenesse I am refused Whos complaynt is al in balade Pat daun Johan of Bury made / 80 Lydegate pe Munk clobed in blacke In his makyng / per is no lacke / And thankebe / daun Johan for his peyne / Pat to plese gentyles / is right feyne / Bobe with his laboure / and his goode / God wolde of nobles / he hade ful his hoode / q And ober balades moo ber beon / Right godely / looke and ye may seen And whane ye haue pis booke ouerlooked / Pe right lynes / with be crooked / 90 And pe sentence / vnderstonden / With Inne youre mynde hit fast ebounden Thankepe pauctoures pat pbeos storyes { Renoueld haue / to youre memoryes / And be wryter / for his distresse Whiche besechibe / youre gentylnesse Pat ye sende pis booke ageyne Hoome to Shirley / pat is right feyne If hit hape beon / to yowe plesaunce / 4 As in be reedyng / of be romaunce / 100 And alle pat beon / in bis companye God sende hem Joye / of hir ladye And euery womman of hir loue Prey I to god pat sittebe aboue / Explicit [Brit. Mus. Adds. 29729, fol. 177 b] [John Stow’s MS] KALUNDARE OF JOHN SHIRLEY WHICH HE SET IN Y¥ BEGINNINGE OF HIS BOOKE O ye my lordes whan ye be holde this boke or list it to vnfould or ye y® leues turne to rede looke this calender and then proced for ther is titled compendyously 5 all y® storyes hole by and by eche after other in ther chapytles as yt sheweth pleyne / by ther tytles and for I haue but shorte space i must y® lyttler ouer pase 10 In margin by II:10 is: 1. John Shirley. besechynge / you be not to wroth ffor as I could / wt outen coth and as my febles would suffyse in my rude vplandishe wise thus haue I them in ordre sete 15 yt fere were eft / now here ben mette I meane y® copyes / ne douteth noughte In sondry place / haue I them soughte on this hallfe / and beyonde y¢ see as fortune hathe them brought to me 20 first y© humayne / pilgrymage TWO TABLES OF CONTENTS: II 197 sayd all by proose in fayre langage and many a roundell and balade whiche y® munke of bury hath made and sayd them wt hys sugred mouthe 25 in straunge metres so vnkouthe of morall mater / and holynesse of salmes / and of ympnes expresse of loue and lawe / and of pleyinges of lordes of ladyes of qwenes of kynges 30 his rymyng / is so moralysed that hym aught well / be solempnysed of all oure engelishe / nacion for his famus / translacyon Of this booke and of other mo 35 suche as he is haue we no mo yet for all his much konnynge which were gret / tresore to a kynge I meane this lidgate / munke dame John his nobles bene spent / I leue ychon 40 and eke his shylinges nyghe by his thred bare coule / woll not ly ellas ye lordis / why nill ye se and reward his pouerte y® liff also of sainte margarete 45 yt holy virgine so fayre and swete dame John hath it to translate at y® request now but late of my lady of huntyngeton which here fast by / nere to london 50 lythe entered at sainte Kateryn y* contesse of y© marche in hur tyme almightye god so graunte hur grace In heuen blysse to haue a place ther bene also deuocyons 55 and dyuers medytacions sayde bothe by lordes and by clerkes which bene accostomed / to suche werkes In french in engelishe and latine yt I haue wryt in this margyn 60 rede and persayue it by assaye beseche I god pt to your paye In_ margin by lines 24, 36, are: i. dame John lidgate, 1. dame John. and to your plesaunce it mought be whan yt ye rede ther on or se ffor than my trauayle is welle sett 65 I aske of you no other dett bot wher defaute is or y® blame yt it nenpayr y® auctors name as for fayllinge of y® scripture of y* meter / or ortografyure 70 wouch saue it to correcte elles of y® defaute am I suspecte yt thorugh your supportacion yow list to make correccion sith to such craffte I am not vsed 75 of your grac hath me excused So whan ye had thos storyes rede be ye fastyng or be ye fede as yt I dare I you beseche yt ye disdayne not wt my speche 80 but sendeth this boke to me agayne shirley I meane which is right fayne if ye ther of haue had plesaunce as in y® weddinge of y® romance than am I glad by god onlyue 85 as I were lord of tounes fyue and so at your commaundement It shall bene eft when you list send wt all y® saruice yt I can as he yt is your oune man 90 and all yt in this company ben knight squyer or lady or other estat what euer they be y® god of loue / wher so yt he ....e be in heauen or here in yearth 95 he brynge them to the heuen forthe if they in loue be founden true wt stedfast hert and nought renew nether in ernest nor in game but kepe ther worshipe and ther name 100 he send them lord such guerdonynge as they deserue in ther menynge be hit female be it male now seche and rede some other talle Explicit A REPROOF TO LYDGATE This poem exists, so far as is yet known, only in the volume from which it is here printed. In that manuscript it appears as one of a group of short courtly love-poems, separately headed in some cases as Balade, Compleynt, etc. Without title itself, this poem is immediately preceded by a “‘Compleynt” of the unpitied but loyal lover, and immediately followed by a sixteen-stanza “Parlement” of Cupid which is the last poem of the group. There is no mark of authorship to these poems in the manuscript; but H. N. MacCracken, publishing them as below, sug- gested the Earl of Suffolk (died 1450), and also suggested Suffolk as translator of the French poems by Charles d’ Orléans, a number of which are printed in this volume (pp. 214 ff.). That Suffolk dabbled in authorship we know from short French poems of his, preserved by John Shirley and also published by MacCracken, ibid. The two main reasons for binding his name upon this English collection appear to be, first, his relations with Orléans, whose gaoler he was for a part of the duke’s captivity in England, and whom he afterward visited in France ; and, secondly, the fact that one of the poems of this Fairfax series exists in the most important of the French volumes of Orléans’ verse, a manuscript argued to be of his own compilation and partly in his own hand. MacCracken would regard the presence of a ?Suffolk- poem in such an album, along with poems by the duke’s French circle, as a natural outcome of the close connection between Suffolk and Orléans; he therefore sug- gests that this English poem just mentioned (printed p. 222 here) is by Suffolk, and deduces thence Suffolk’s authorship of the rest of the group as copied in Fair- fax, including of course this present text. The theory is interesting but inconclusive. The French savant Champion’s suggestion of Alice countess of Suffolk as the “inamorata” and English instructor of the captive Orléans was interesting and not improbable; but the discovery of Anne Molins’ name, inserted acrostic-wise, in one of Orléans’ attempts at an English poem (see p. 222 here) puts a new face on the matter. And other facts may appear which will throw light on this group of courtly verses, especially on the tone here assumed toward Lydgate, who is both invoked as aid and censured for his language about women. The particular Lydgate- passages in the author’s mind may be those of the Fall of Princes; for in the commonplace-book Harley 2251, where are copied a mass of ‘ “tragedies” from the Fall, the scribe has written indignant marginal comments on the aspersions against women contained in the tragedies of Hercules and of Samson. These notes, foll. 127-43 of the codex, are: “Ye be shent. Ye leese your thank. So shul ye be pese. Holdith your pees. Ye haue no cause to say so. Ye wil be shent. Be pees I bidde you. Ye haue no cause to say so. Late hem compleyne that neode have. I pray yow to be pees. Be my trowth ye wilbe shent. Be pees or I wil rende this leef out of your booke. There is no good womman that wilbe wroth ne take no quarell agenst this booke as I suppose.”—etc. See Brusendorff, pp. 461-465. This last comment is perhaps suggested by Lydgate’s own text, Fall of Princes i: 6702-4; and when we note the characteristic Shirley-spelling of neode in these marginalia, we may wonder if they and their text were not copied from one of Shirley’s volumes, as is much of this particular Harley-manuscript. It [ 198 ] A REPROOF TO LYDGATE 199 may be a corroboration to note that in Shirley’s own copy of Lydgate’s mummings (printed as below) there is found a jesting query by him against one of Lydgate’s sly digs at women in the text. Lydgate says:—“I mene it bus, bat worde and werke were oon; It is no wonder, for wymmen soo beon echoon.” And Shirley ex- claims, in the margin: “A daun Iohan, est y vray?” It is, however, not certain that the Fall of Princes passages are meant; and regarding authorship there is only conjecture as yet. That the poem must date before Lydgate’s death in 1448-9 is clear. Although the larger half is devoted to Lydgate, the opening stanzas allude, apparently, to “a strife of the Flower and the Leaf” in which our writer has chosen the Flower. This “sentimental strife” of two Orders is mentioned in Chau- cer’s prologue to the Legend of Good Women, in various short poems by Chaucer’s French contemporary Eustache Deschamps, perhaps in Gower’s Confessio Amantis viii: 2462 ff., and clearly in Charles d’Orléans’ verse a generation later. Students have generally referred this “strife” to the age of Chaucer and Deschamps; but its fullest literary statement is in the anonymous “Flower and Leaf”, a poem probably of the latter fifteenth century. Were we to take these fictions at their face value, we should infer that there existed, in France at least, two courtly “Or- ders”, one vowing allegiance to the beauty of the Flower, the other making the Leaf the symbol of constancy and service. Such an inference passes well with what we know of the “Cour Amoureuse” of Charles the Sixth, the association of French chivalry and French letters in protest against the encroachment of the bourgeois spirit. That association, broken by the fall of so many of its members at Agincourt and by the long following war with England, was short-lived; but its code, or the code of a “sentimental strife”, lingers in a few pieces of Transition verse. SELECT REFERENCE LIST VII MacCracken, “An English Friend of Charles of Orléans,” PMLA 26:142 ff. See p. 218 here for comment on this paper. Shirley, see p. 191 here. Champion, “A propos de Charles d’Orléans,” Romania 49 :580-4. Hammond, E. P., “Charles of Orléans and Anne Molyneux,”’ ModPhil 22:215-16. Lydgate’s mummings are printed, all but the Mumming at Hertford, by Brotanek as appendix to his Englische Maskenspiele, 1902. The Hertford mumming is printed by me, Anglia 22:364; repr. Neilson and Webster, p. 223. On Harley 2251 see my Chaucer Manual, p. 329; earlier and fuller material in Anglia Qe: The Flower and the Leaf is ed. Skeat in Chaucerian and Other Pieces. See my Chau- cer-Manual, p. 423. See G. L. Marsh, Sources and Analogues of the Flower and the Leaf, Chicago diss., 1906 and ModPhil iv. On the Cour Amoureuse see Alma, LeDuc in Romanic Review 8:145,290, and Piaget in Romania 31 :597. 200 ANONYMOUS [MS Bodl. Fairfax 16, foll. 325-327] Myn hert ys set and all myn hole entent To serue this flour in my most humble wyse As faythfully as can be thought or ment Wyth out feynyng or slouthe in my seruyse ffor wytt the wele yt ys a paradyse To se this flour when yt bygyn to sprede Wyth colours fressh ennewyd white and rede 2 And for the fayth I owe vn to thys flour I must of reson do my obseruaunce To flours all bothe now and euery our 10 Syth fortune lyst that yt shuld be my chaunce If that I couthe do seruyse or plesaunce Thus am I set and shall be tyll I sterue And for o flour all othyr for (to) serue 3 So wolde god that my symple connyng Ware sufficiaunt this goodly flour to prayse ffor as to me ys non so ryche a thyng That able were this flour to countirpayse O noble chaucer passyd ben thy dayse Off poetrye ynamyd worthyest 20 And of makyng in alle othir days the best 4 Now thou art go / thyn helpe I may not haue Wherfor to god I pray ryght specially Syth thou art dede and buryde in thy graue That on thy sowle hym lyste to haue mercy And to the monke of bury now speke I ffor thy connyng ys syche and eke thy grace After chaucer to occupye his place 5 Besechyng the my penne enlumyne This flour to prayse as I before haue ment 30 There is no heading to the poem in the MS; it is separated from that preceding by a space of three lines and a horizontal bar. In the perhaps contemporary table of contents at the front of the Fairfax MS, this poem is described as “‘How he louer ys sett to serve the floure.””’ The MS is described in my Chaucer Manual, pp. 333 ff.; see also Notes below, p. 461. And of these lettyrs let thy colours shyne This byll to forthir after myn entent ffor glad am I that fortune lyst assent So to ordeyn that yt shuld be myn vre The flours to chese as by myn aventure 6 Wher as ye say that loue ys but dotage Of verey reson that may not be trew ffor euery man that hath a good corage Must louer be thys wold I that ye knew Who louyth wele all vertu will hym sew 40 Wherfor I rede and counsail yow ex- presse As for thys mater take non heuynesse 7 These clerkys wyse ye say were brought full lowe And mad full tame for alle thair sotelte Now am I glad yt shall ryght wele be know That loue ys of so grete autoryte Wherfor I lat yow wyt as semeth me It is your part in euery maner wyse Of trew louers to forther the seruyse 8 And of women ye say ryght as ye lyst 50 That trouth in hem may but awhile en- dure And counsail eke that men shuld hem not tryst And how they be vnstedfast of nature What causeth this for euery creature That ys gylty and knowyth thaym self coulpable Demyth alle othir thair case semblable 9 And be your bokys I put case that ye knewe Mych of this mater which that ye haue meuyd Yit god defende that euery thing were trew That clerkes wryte for then myght thys be preuyd 60 That ye haue sayd which wyll not be byleuyd I late yow wyt for trysteth verely In your conseyt yt is an eresy A REPROOF TO LYDGATE 201 10 A fye for schame O thou envyous man Thynk whens thou came and whider to repayr Hastow not sayd eke that these women can Laugh and loue nat parde yt is not fair Thy corupt speche enfectyth alle the air Knoke on thy brest repent now and euer Ayen therwyth and say thou saydyst yt neuer 70 11 Thynk fully this and hold yt for no fable That fayth in women hath his dwellyng place ffor out of her cam nought that was vnable Saf man that can not well say in no place O thou vnhappy man go hyde thy face The court ys set thy falshed is tryed Wythdraw I rede for now thou art as- pyed 12 If thou be wyse yit do this after me Be not to hasty com not in presence Lat thyn attournay sew and speke for the 80 Loke yf he can escuse thy necglygence And forther more yit must thou recom- pence ffor alle that euer thou hast sayde byfore Haue mynde of this for now I wryte no more PALLADIUS ON HUSBANDRY Tue PROLOGUE AND SOME LINKING STANZAS This straightforward translation of an unliterary Latin treatise, De re rustica, written in the fourth century by Palladius Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus, in prose, has great interest for students of fifteenth-century English verse. Its translator is unnamed and unknown; in his prologue he tells us that he is at the time of writ- ing under the protection of Humphrey duke of Gloucester, after being in some way misused by an enemy. He seems to have been set to work by Humphrey at this task, and he declares that the duke has taught him ‘“‘metring”, and is the watch- ful critic of the text as he produces it. The metrical management here is notice- ably competent and assured, at the very time when Lydgate, for instance, was producing his mechanical and monotonous translation of the Fall of Princes, also done for Gloucester. There is here a clarity of intention, a sureness of phrasing, a manipulation of rhythm, and a variety in breath-length, which Lydgate has not. This unknown workman has also animation in his personal touches, and interests us by his attempts at complex medial rime in his prologues ; but the general rhyth- mical handling is especially important for students of the Transition. Sharp twists of syntax and somewhat strained uses of words occur in the prologue because of the elaborate “rhetorical color”, the use of medial rime and of stanza-linking by echo. Such devices had been employed by Chaucer in parts of his Anelida; and see pp. 208, 211 here for their appearance in the Lover’s Mass. This man moves less gracefully, but he controls his material. Two manuscripts of the poem have been edited. In 1873 and 1879 the Col- chester Castle MS, now Add. A 369 of the Bodleian at Oxford, was printed for the Early English Text Society by Barton Lodge. He wrongly assigned the codex to ca.1420; its text is imperfect at beginning and close, and less valuable than that of the MS owned by Earl Fitzwilliam and preserved at Wentworth Wode- house. This latter was edited by Mark H. Liddell, Berlin, 1896, vol. i, text; notes, and discussion of the relation of the English to the Latin, have not appeared. The Fitzwilliam MS was apparently transcribed from the duke’s own copy, as it bears his arms in the capital letter of book i; its text is complete and very carefully writ- ten, with the interesting prologue lacking in the Colchester-Bodley copy. A photo- graphic reproduction of it exists in the Bodleian Library, marked Eng. poet. d. 27, and from this my extracts are made. According to Vickers’ life of Gloucester, pp. 434-5, the Fitzwilliam MS is not now known to exist at Wentworth Wode- house. There is another MS, Hunterian T, 5,6, at Glasgow, according to Archiv 100:156; it is imperfect, but is textually close to the Fitzwilliam. The work may be dated with some exactitude from allusions in the prologue. Gloucester’s gifts of books to the University of Oxford, so enthusiastically lauded here, were in 1439 and 1443; in the second list! we find a copy of the Latin of Palladius, possibly the very book used by this translator. The prologue also speaks, stanza 8, of Gloucester’s ‘annoying’ Orléans; and this must refer to the sharp 1See Anstey, Munimenta Academica, 1868. See pp. 758-772 for list of books given by Gloucester to Oxford. [ 202 ] PALLADIUS ON HUSBANDRY 203 controversy between the Beaufort party and Gloucester regarding the liberation of Charles duke of Orléans, a controversy terminated, over Gloucester’s protest, by the departure of the duke in November, 1440. The donation to Oxford here men- tioned must accordingly be that of November, 1439, and the translation must be- long in 1440. It might be argued, from the tone of this work, of Lydgate’s Fall of Princes, and of Hoccleve in his Dialogue, toward Gloucester, that the Palladius-translator was closely associated with the duke, that Lydgate saw him occasionally, and that Hoccleve saw him scarcely at all. The difference is more than one of tone; the emphasis of this man and of Lydgate (stanzas 58, 59 of the Fall of Princes prol.) on Gloucester’s activity against heretics may indeed be due to the two writers’ connection with the Church, but as years had elapsed since the executions of Sharp and of Wawe (line 51 below) it is also possible that the duke wished his piety commemorated, and that Hoccleve did not know of this wish. Our translator is, moreover, at this time residing, it would seem, in one of Gloucester’s manors, perhaps that of “Plesaunce” at Greenwich, the duke’s most famous abode; and in stanza 13 he mentions members of the household. Perhaps it was this very nearness to the powerful patron which urged him to a fulsomeness of praise greater even than Lydgate’s, and much in excess of Hoccleve’s. Lydgate is lavish, but with conventional formulae and comparisons; this man, although he has more of actual fact than Lydgate gives us, runs occasionally into hyperbole—see note on line 29 below—of which Lydgate would not be capable. But here again, as remarked in the note on line 51, the fact of Gloucester’s waning political power may have urged his supporters to greater emphasis on his ability. The work runs to nearly 6700 lines, mainly in rime royal, although the prologue and the connective-stanzas between books are of eight lines. The author thus uses a slightly different form when speaking in his own person; compare the use of refrain, occasionally of eight-line stanzas, in the envoys added by Lydgate, at Gloucester’s command, to the Fall of Princes translation. The elaborate rime- echo of the prologue has some small reflection in the body of the work, where each book opens with the closing phrase of the book preceding, or rather of the in- serted connective. Of these books the Palladius has thirteen, one for each month of the year and one introductory. SELECT REFERENCE LIST VIII Struever, C., Die mittelenglische Uebersetzung des Palladius: ihr Verhaltnis zur Quelle und ihre Sprache. Gottingen diss., pubd. Halle, 1887, pp. 82. (This is based on the EETS edition, the inadequacies of which Liddell has shown; the MS used for that ed. also lacks the prologue. ) Liddell’s collations of the EETS text with the Colchester-Bodley MS, correcting its many errors, are pubd. EETS 1896, and in his own ed. as above. See: “The Nine-Syllabled Pentameter Line in Some Post-Chaucerian Manu- scripts,’ by Eleanor P. Hammond, ModPhilol. 23:129-152, sect. 1v of paper. [Bodl. Eng. poet. d. 27, photogr. from MS Fitzwilliam] Agriculture as in nature and art List to prouide and duc H(umfrid)e his Tendure of creature AlCreatour part ————_— _. ’ z ; é GRI CUL TU RE AS IN NA TU RE AND ART. Verse 1 is written with 8-line gilt capital A, to the These smaller capitals are white or yellow right of which appears, in a narrow vertical on lake or blue ground. column, the remainder of the first line cut Lines 3, 4, 8, 27 are blotted where brackets ap- up into two- and three-letter pieces, viz.:— pear in text above. 204 ANONYMOUS Diuide of either side a(dd)ynge honour So high that we of princis se the flour 5 Hym be So sende he me sense and science Of my balade away to rade errour Pallade and do t(o gl)ade his excellence 2 His excellence O trine and oon eterne Almyghty lord Alsapyent al good Io Thy Prouidence as sterismon and sterne Emforth this word now refluent now flood Now in concord now violent and wood By lif present so list extende in grace That of his woord his werk entent or mood 15 Noon inuident may reprehende an ace 3 An ace apoynt y vndirstonde is werk Disioynt mys take on honde of his sup- port Wroght euer kynge or prince or knyght or clerk A thynge other then right by his con- fort 20 Though opon fame ha maad thus pleyn report Yit lame is she tatteyn onto the dede Of myghtiest to hym is glad resort Of meest and leest is had his loue and drede 4 His loue and drede in brestis sprede his wit 25 And grace in sondri place is so fecounde That sapienc(e in) his prudence is knyt As seyn in trewthis pleyn that list abounde In myn entent the Sapient secounde Is fonde into euery londe whos fame is born 30 And worthy straunge her londis chaunge & founde Expresse of his prowess at eye aforn 5 At eye aforn is hym right here in sight To here and noon was lorn of their labour Whos vertu seyn and doon disport aright 35 Resort han summe ayeyn wt gret hon- our And yiftis grete and summe vnder this flour Are heer and thyngis trete of high em- prise ffor lif present for lif future vche hour His cure and iust entent who kan com- prise 40 6 Who kan comprise in werkis wise in right In sadde avise as forto wise a londe The duc periure who made assure in flight Calise endure who made and sure in honde The kyngis right who made vpright to stonde 45 Who hath insight to stynte vnright aduerse Who hath be prest the chirche in rest to londe As trewthe is best let feithfullest re- herce Let feithfullest reherce y treste hym beste Yf heretike ought kouthe pike him fro 50 Yf Sharp or Wawe hadde of the lawe a feste Yf right was fond in al this londe unto Hit to gouerne he doon the sterne vnto Of euery poynt a kyng ennoynt of bothe Englond and ffraunce hath conysaunce also 55 Nis ther noo lord that nil record hem sothe 8 Record hem sothe hit self the dede ap- perith Wul he for bothe alyue and dede es- ploye To saue vs here and hem in ffraunce hit cherith His wit to here and Orliaunce ennoye 60 Wel myght a kynge of suche a flour enioye To seen hit sprynge in fyn odour & huys Strenght & sauour hym oueral to ioy In whos fauour science and al vertu is 9 Uertu is fonde if goldon Sapience 65 Haue intellect and consel ffortitude If pite stonde enaured wt science That hem connect the Lordis drede en- clude Man thus confect is voide of dedis rude PALLADIUS ON HUSBANDRY 205 This kyngis dere vncul & sone and brother 70 Hath god prouect His werkis to conclude His werkis here or where is suche an- other 10 Another felyng so the philosophre In bokis natural as is phisic Metaphisic also thus prompt to profre 75 Vche art quadriuial and hath practic With theoric moral as is Ethic Politic monastic yconomye In gramer ground of al growyng logic ffor fruyt and rethoric to florifie 80 i To florifie in artificial Science and al thorgh se philosophie Beth thyngis hie And yiftis natural Hit is not smal to haue as memorie What thynge engyne vpfynde or reson trie 85 And iustifie in tresor to reclyne Is not indigne if good phisionomye Vche organ eye and al figure & lyne 12 At Oxenford thys lord his bookis fele Hath euery clerk at werk They of hem gete 90 Methaphisic phisic these other feele They natural moral they rather trete Theologie here bye is with to mete Hem liketh loke in boke historial In deskis xij hym selue as half a strete 95 Hath boked thair librair vniuersal 13 For clergie or knyghthod or husbondrie That oratour poete or philosophre Hath tretid told or taught in memorie Vche lef and lyne hath he as shette in cofre 100 Oon nouelte vnnethe is hym to profre Yit Whethamstede and also Pers de Mounte Titus and Antony and y laste ofre And leest Our newe is old in hym ta- counte 14 But that his vertu list vs exercise 105 And moo as fele as kan in vertu do He sapient is diligent to wise Alle ignoraunt and y am oon of tho He taught me metur make and y soso Hym counturfete and hope aftir my sorow 110 In god and hym to glade and aftir woo To ioy and aftir nyght to sey good morow 15 And hym that held as doubil mortal foo Ten yeer my self and myne in wrong oppresse And yit my chirche and al my good me fro 115 Hath in effect yit treste y god redresse But this matere as here is not texpresse As y seid erst in hope y thynke abide And to that princis werk my wit com- presse My wronge my woo my care y sette aside 120 16 And hym that lord that wt his woundis wide ffrom deth vs bought and hath our lif in cure Thorgh al this werk so derk he be my gide My wight he right my number and mes- ure That first for hym and thenne his crea- ture 125 His princis flour good fruyt & fressh plesaunce Vpgrowe on hit in his Agriculture Maad at his hest and his Consideraunce Explicit Prohemium 206 ANONYMOUS [EPILOGUE-STANZAS FROM THE PALLADIUS TRANSLATION ] (A) (The final stanza of Book II, January) A now my lord biholdith on his book ffor sothe al nought he gynnyth crossis make With a plummet and y noot whow his look His cheer is straunge eschaunge Almeest y quake ffor ferd y shrynke away no leue y take ffarwel my lord do forth for y am heer And metur muse out of this prosis blake And heer y wul sette on At ffeueryeer (B) (The final stanza of Book III, February) Good hope is reste and al yit shal amende Theron y treste And al this longe yeer Of husbondrie in hast y thynke anende The forme book is doon and Ianyueer And lo my lord in honde hath ffeueryeer Wul he correcte by what have y to done He wul doon as a lord Thenne aftir heer Asfaste y thynke on sette At Marchis mone (C) (The final stanza of Book V, April) And heer an ende er then y wende y fynde Eek done is in this mone art taught aforn O Saluatour o iesse flour so kynde Of oon for euerychoon that list be born And for vs hynge a crowne vsynge of thorn Honour be to The flour of flouris ay Thy princis werk away fro derk vpborn So make as heer y take ayeyn at May (D) (The final stanza of Book VI, May) Lo May is ronne away in litil space The tonge is short and longe is his sentence fforride y se my gide and hym y trace As he as swyft to be yit y dispence O sone o god allone o Sapience O hope of synys drope or fraude immuyn Louynge y to the synge as my science Kan do and forth y go to werk at Iuyn THE LOVER’S MASS The only copy of this poem known to the present editor bears, in the manu- script Fairfax 16 of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, no title; in the (perhaps contemporary) table of contents prefixed to the volume it is described as “The observaunce of Venus goddes of love”. In structure the work is plainly an imita- tion of the Mass, and a title recognizing this has been given the poem on each of its appearances in print. Jt was published by the Rev. T. F. Simmons in the ap- pendix to his Lay Folks’ Mass-Book, EETS 1879, as Venus’ Mass, and by me in the JourEngGer Philol for 1908 (vii: 95-104) as The Lover’s Mass. I adopted this wording to bring the poem into line with other medieval “parodies” such as the Missa Potatorum, Messe des Oisiaux, etc. Although “parody” of the Mass is not here carried through, breaking off after the Epistle, and although the headings do not exactly represent the parts of the Mass so far as the work goes, the trend is yet closely parallel. The euchar- istic ritual opens with the Introibo ad Altare, continues with a Confiteor to which “Misereatur” is the response, and then, after versicles and a silent prayer by the priest, proceeds to the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Collects for the day, the Epistle, and so on. Here the headings are Introibo, Confiteor, Misereatur, Officium, Kyrie, Gloria, Orison, and Epistle. In discussion of this exceedingly interesting and graceful piece of writing, there are two main lines to be followed: its place among the mass of religious “parodies” of the late Middle Ages, and its varied verse-structure. Among definite parodies the poem hardly belongs ; and indeed, many medieval writings so classified have but small parodic intent. Such compositions, when based on the Church service, may be divided into those which incorporate phrases from the ritual into a lay text, and those which follow the structure of the whole service, while pre- senting material of quite different character. The phrase-borrowing poems are the most numerous ; they may employ the phrases as a sort of tail-rime, or incorporate the words firmly into a macaronic poem of love or politics, or scatter them through what is in reality a character-study, as are the striking French Patenostre de lUsurier and Credo au Ribaut. In the former of these two poems, the contrast between the routine lip-service of phrase and the busy suspicious usurer-mind at work behind the automatic lips is drawn with an attempt at “psychology”. And neither this poem nor many another of the large class to which it belongs is true parody ; the writer’s intent is elsewhere. In the larger-scale type of poem various subdivisions may be made. The service may be gone through by headings only, to bring forward an array of speakers united by a common feeling, as in the clumsy English poem on the death of the duke of Suffolk, or as in the various bird-Masses of France and of England. There may be actual parody of the Mass both in structure and in language, in which case it is Latin prose, and runs beyond the bounds of piety and of taste, as in the Missa Potatorum or the Officium Lusorum. There may be a definite religious attempt at putting the Mass into current language, as in the Lay Folks’ Mass-Book. And the religious headings of the service may be used to introduce a series of lay compositions having little or no trace of ritualistic language or purpose. Of this [ 207 ] 208 ANONYMOUS last-mentioned sort is the poem here printed, the only parallel to which, so far as I know, is the Spanish Misa de Amores. The accessible text bearing that title is by Suero de Ribera, who is said by Amador de los Rios, the historian of Spanish literature, to have imitated the Misa de Amores of Juan de Duefias. Both men were of the reign of John II of Castile, 1406-1454. The poem of de Duejfias is still unpublished, but that of de Ribera has been twice printed, as noted below. Between it and our English text there is no comparison in metrical variety ; the Spanish work is a sequence of short love- lyrics arranged under the headings of the Mass and continued through it, the separate parts being often of no more than one stanza, the stanzas varying from six to twelve lines, and these lines being of uniform length. Whether the English writer obtained his suggestion of a Lover’s Mass from Spain or not, his work is far more striking, even in its incompleteness, than that of de Ribera, because of its change of metrical flow to support every change of tone. Shifts of form to suit an altered key can be adduced from earlier literatures, but few are noteworthy. The first which I have observed is the Ephemeris of Ausonius; in this poem, which narrates the events of a day, the vehicle changes from Sapphic to iambic as the poet passes from the awakening of the sleeper to the preparations for rising; the long Oratio is in hexameter, the ten-line Egressio in tetrameter, the giving of invitations to friends in hexameter again, and so on. Less rapid variations are easier to find. The most usual is that from verse to prose and back, two very conspicuous examples of which are the Consolatio of Boethius and the De Planctu Naturae of Alanus; as a later, French, case, we may note Froissart’s Méliador. Still simpler, and still more frequent, is the shift from couplet to stanza, as in Lydgate’s Temple of Glass or Hawes’ Pastime of Pleasure ; also the change from one stanza of equal lines to another, as may be seen in the envoys and prologues of works in rime royal. Later French poets and rhétori- queurs, such as Octovien de St. Gelais, freely used change of stanza to represent change of mood; and something of this is found in Machaut, in Chaucer’s time. But the only compact yet elaborate instance of such work in early English is Chaucer’s Anelida, which its copyist John Shirley declared was written in “pe mooste unkoube metre coloures and Rymes pat euer was sayde tofore pis day.” Shirley does not use any such language of the Chaucerian Complaint to his Lady, printed by Skeat i: 360; but this also has a variety of stanza. From all these our poem differs in the intensive management it makes of strophic variation. Its author is not merely dexterous and graceful in the complex- ities of the Kyrie, and aware of the clear singing quality of the Gloria-stanza, but he is sufficiently sensitive to make the change to the deeper slower seriousness of the Orison. It is this quick and complete yielding to the shift of mood which makes it impossible to believe that Lydgate was the author of the Lover’s Mass. Yet Simmons, in his edition as above, ascribed the poem to Lydgate ; and he was followed by W. A. Neilson in his monograph, The Origins and Sources of the Court of Love (see p. 233 there). Also the New English Dictionary, s. v. assuage, entitle, adopts the assignment. Lydgate can indeed reach a fairly high lyric-re- ligious note; parts of his Testament show this. But this variety, this swift clean release of each tone, are not his. He is able in a small way to change his key, but not with this firm quickness, this control of material, this absence of repetition and padding. There are, it is true, certain contacts between the Mass and the THE LOVER’S MASS 209 work of Lydgate; but even when these contacts are recognized, the primary facts of speed and suppleness remain to dispute the monk’s authorship. One such contact is between the pilgrim-simile used in the Epistle here and the pilgrim-simile of Boccaccio’s De Casibus, bk. iii, developed thence by Laurent in his French prose, developed still more by Lydgate in the prologue to bk. iii of the Fall of Princes. The Latin and the French may be read in the note on the Fall of Princes C 92, here; and a comparison of them with the Epistle will show that Laurent’s French was probably known to the writer of the Mass. He is occasionally close to Laurent’s phrasing, he keeps at least one bit not retained by Lydgate, and he has a possible mistranslation not made by Lydgate. But did we take this agreement in source as evidence for Lydgate’s authorship of the Mass, we should have to assert that no English writer but Lydgate was in this period acquainted with Laurent’s translation of Boccaccio. Another and more important “contact” between the Mass and Lydgate is in the movement and phrasing of the prose Epistle here as compared with those of the prose passage, lines 16275 ff., of Lydgate’s Pilgrimage of the Life of Man. But the whole subject of prose in this period has still to be examined, and we do not as yet know, e.g., how far doublets may have been a conventional stylistic feature. It is therefore impossible to weigh such similarities of phrasing judicially. But a third “contact”, that of vocabulary, we can appraise. Suggestive al- though it may be, at first glance, to see the word contune used in the Mass, we must note that it appears in Bokenam as well as in Lydgate; that, also, words like allege, assuage, though common indeed in Lydgate, are not his sole property. An argument from vocabulary is too often the argument of the excluded middle; we cannot assert that no other writer used the term. Nor can we assert that the remin- iscences of Chaucer’s Anelida, or the false scansion of Citheron (line 5), or the padding phrase in line 34, mean Lydgate’s authorship; for all these are features common to the age. Lydgate’s composition of the poem seems very improbable, in the present state of our critical knowledge, because of traits in it larger than these ; but any positive theory of authorship we cannot offer. Nor can a definite theory as to the source be presented at this time. Very little is as yet known of the relation between English and Spanish letters in the fifteenth century. The alliances of Henry VIII with Katharine of Arragon and of Mary Tudor with Philip of Spain are so conspicuous in English history that we forget the earlier connections of England with Spain through John of Gaunt. His marriage with Constance of Castile in 1371 and his subsequent placing of his two daughters upon the thrones of Castile and of Portugal set a far earlier possible date for the transference of court-poetry from peninsula to island; and the bonds of commerce, the importation of Spanish secretaries, Spanish physicians, Spanish traders, into England before Tudor times, may have played some part in spreading West-European themes like the Dance Macabre or the confessions of a lover. Boccaccio’s De Casibus was translated into Castilian quite as soon as into French, and had a greater success in Spain than in France, to judge from the number of imitations. In fact, the identity of courtly taste between Castile, France, Bur- gundy, and England in this changing age is so marked that no study of the formal poetry of the period can be complete without an evaluation of Spain’s part,—for which, unfortunately, much of the source-material is still unpublished. An editor of the Lover’s Mass is therefore compelled to leave one possible line of the poem’s origin with the barest comment ; and as regards authorship even 210 ANONYMOUS less is to be said. It could only be a cause of trouble for future students, to bind any name conjecturally upon this fresh and gracious fragment, which Chaucer need not have been ashamed to sign. SELECT REFERENCE LIST IX On parody and on religious parody see :— Paul Lehmann, Die Parodie im Mittelalter, Munich, 1922. Paul Lehmann, Parodistische Texte, Munich, 1923. Eero Ilvonen, Parodies de thémes pieux dans la poésie frangaise du moyen age, Paris, 1914. Adolph Franz, Die Messe im deutschen Mittelalter, Freiburg, 1902. Francesco Novati, La Parodia sacra nelle letterature moderne, in Studi Critici, Turin, 1889. Missa Potatorum, in Lehmann, p. 59; in Franz, p. 754; in Novati, p. 289, in Reliquiae Antiquae (1843), ii:208. Messe des Oisiaus, by Jean de Condé, in vol. iii of A. Scheler’s ed., Brussels, 1866-67. Patenostre a l’Userier, in Ilvonen, pp. 44, 66; in Barbazan et Méon, Fabliaux, iv :99. Credo au Ribaut, in Ilvonen, p. 123; in Barbazan et Méon, of. cit., iv:445. Officium Lusorum, in Lehmann, p. 68; in Carmina Burana, ed. Schmeller (1883), p. 248; in Franz, p. 754. The Laborintus, by Evrard 1’Allemand, is printed in Leyser’s Hist. Poetarum, p. 796 ff.; in Faral, p. 336 ff. Poem on the Earl of Suffolk’s death; see Wright’s Polit. Poems, Rolls Series, ii:232; see PolitReligandLove Poems, EETS 1903, pp. 6-11. Lay Folks’ Mass Book, EETS 1879. Misa de Amores of Suero de Ribera; see E. de Ochoa’s ed. of ‘Rimas Ineditas’ by the Marquess de Santillana and others, Paris, 1844, 1851, appendix. See also the Cancionero Castellano del Siglo XIV, vol. ii, Madrid, 1915. Octovien de St. Gelais, see monograph by H. J. Molinier, Paris, 1910, especially chap. on ‘Le Séjour d’Honneur.’ For English and Spanish letters in the xv century see:— Note sulla fortuna del Boccaccio in Ispagna nell’ Eta Media, by A. Farinelli, in Archiv 114:397-429 (De Casibus) ; ibid. 115 :368-388 (De Claris Mulieribus) ; ibid. 116:67-96 (De Genealogia Deorum, etc.) ; ibid. 117:114-141 (Teseide, Filostrato, etc., Decamerone). [MS Bodl. Fairfax 16, fol. 314] 4 Introibo Of entent I may be take 10 Wyth all myn hool herte enter To hys seruyse / and ther assure To fore the famous Riche Auter As longe / as my lyf may dure Of the myghty god of Love To contune / as I best kan Whiche that stondeth high above Whil I lyve / to ben hys man In the Chapel / of Cytheron I will wyth gret devocion § Confiteor Go knele / and make sacrifyse I am aknowe / and wot ryght well 15 Lyke as the custom doth devyse Afor that God / preye and wake On the MS see note bottom p. 200. I speke pleynly as I fel Touchynge / the grete tendyrnesse Of my youthe / and my symplesse Of myn vnkonying / and grene age THE LOVER’S MASS 211 Wil lete me han noon avantage 20 To serue loue I kan so lyte And yet myn hert / doth delyte Of hys seruauntys / for to here By exaumple of hem / I myghte lere To folowe the wey / of ther seruyse 25 Yif I hadde konnyng to devyse That I myght a seruant be Amongys other in my degre Havynge ful gret repentaunce That I non erste me gan avaunce 30 In loue court / my selfe to offre And my seruyse / for to proire ffor ffer of my tender youthe Nouther be Est / nouther be Southe Lyst Daunger / putte me a bake 35 And dysdeyn / to make wrake Wolde hyndre me / in myn entente Of al this thyng / I me repente As my conscience / kan recorde I sey lowly Myserycorde 40 § Misereatur By god of louys Ordynaunce fiolkys / that haue repentaunce Sorowful in herte / and no thyng lyght Whiche ha nat spent hys tyme aryght But wastyd yt in ydelnesse 45 Only for lake of lustynesse In slep / slogardye / and slouthe Oi whom / ys pyte / and gret routhe But when they repente hem ageyn Oi al ther tyme / spent in veyn 50 The god of love / thorgh hys myght Syth that Mercy passeth ryght The mot acceptyd be to grace And pute daunger out of place This the wyl of Dame Venus 55 And of hyr Bisshop Genius § Offcium In honour of the god Cupide first that he may be my guyde In worshepe eke of the pryncesse Whyche is lady / and Maystresse 60 By grace they may / ior me provyde Humble of herie / devoyde oi pryde Envye and rancour set asyde With oute change / or doubilnesse In honour oi the 65 first that he Joye and welfare in euery tyde Be yove to hem / wherso they byde And yive to hem grace / on my dystresse To have / pyte / of ther hyghnesse 70 ffor in what place / I go or ryde In honour first that { Kyrie Mercy : Mercy : contynuely : I crye In gret disioynt : vpon the poynt : to deye 735 ffor that pyte : ys vnto me : contrayre Daunger my ffo : dysdeyn also : whylk : Of mortal smert : dyspeyre ffor she that ys : fayrest ywys : of ffayre Hath gladnesse : of my syknesse / to pleye & Thus my trouble / double and double / doth repayre € Chrisie Repeyreth ay : which nyght nor day // ne cesseth nought Now hope / now dred / now pensyff- hede / now thought Al thyse yiere / palen myn chere / and hewe Yet to hyr grace ech hour / and space / I ha besought &s Hyr lyst nat here / ffor hyr daunger / doth ay renewe Towardys me nat rewe Vp on my peyne / and thus my cheyne / ys wrought Which hath me bounde / founde / vntrewe for certys she / lyst neuer to be { Kyrie Vutrewe nay : to se that day : god for- bede 90 Voyde slouthe / kepe my trouthe / in dede Eve and morowe / fior Joye or sorowe / I have behyght Til I sterve : ewere to serve / hir womanhede s In erthe lyvynge / ther is no thyng / maketh me so lyght fior I shal dye : ne but wer hir Mercye / mor than ryght 95 Of no decertys / but Mercy certys / my Journe spede Adieu al play : thus may I say / I woiul wyght 212 ANONYMOUS { Gloria in excelsis Worsshyppe / to that lord above That callyd ys / the god of love Pes / to hys seruantes euerychon 100 Trewe of herte / stable as ston That feythful be To hertys trewe of ther corage That lyst chaunge / for no rage But kep hem / in ther hestys stylle 105 In all maner wedris ylle Pes concord and vnyte God send hem / sone ther desyrs And reles / of ther hoote ffyrs That brenneth at her herte sore TIO And encresseth / more and more This my prayere And after wynter / wyth hys shourys God send hem counfort / of May flourys Affter gret wynd / and stormys kene 175 The glade sonne / with bemys shene May appere To yive hem lyght affter dyrknesse Joye eke after hevynesse And after dool / and ther wepynge 120 To here / the somer foullys synge ffor ofte sythe men ha seyn A ful bryght day / after gret reyn And tyl the storme / be leyd asyde 125 The herdys vnder bussh abyde And taketh place After also the dirke nyght Voyde off the Mone / and sterre lyght And after nyghtys / dool and sorowe 130 ffolweth ofte a ful glade morowe Of Auenture Now lorde that knowest hertys alle Off louers / that for helpe calle On her trouthe / of mercy rewe 135 Namly on swyche as be trewe Helpe to recure Amen { The Oryson Most myghty / and most dredful lord That knowest / hertys fals and trewe As wel ther thynkyng as ther word 14 Bothe of lovers / old and newe Off pyte / and of mercy rewe On thy seruauntes / that be stable And make ther Joye / to renewe God yive grace Swich as wyl neuer be chaungable 145 { The Epystel in prose ffrom the party of the por plentyff in love wyth many yers of probacon professyd to be trewe / To all the holy ffraternite and Confrary: of the same bretherhede / And to alle hospytlerys and Relygious / nat spottyd / nor mad foul wyth no cryme of Apos- tasye / nouthyr notyd nor atteynt wt no double fface / of symulacon nor constreyned countenaunce of ypocrysye // To alle swiche chose chyldre of stabylnesse wyth [150 oute variaunce of corage / or of herte Joye / Elthe /: and long prosperyte / wyth perfeccon of perseueraunce / in ther trouthe perpetually / tabyde // Experyence techeth / that pilgrymes / and folkes custoumable to vyage // Whan they vnderfange / any long / weye wiche that ys laboryous // Somwhile off consuetude / and custoum / they vse a maner to reste on ther wey // Off entent to wype / and wasshe [155 away / the soot of ther vysages // And sum also vsen to ley adoun the hevy ffardellys of ther bake // ffor to alleggen ther wery lemys / of her grete berthene / And somme outher vsen to gadryn wyne / And somme to drynken outher water or wyn // of ther botell or Goordys to asswage / the grete dryhnesse of ther gredy thruste // And somme of hem somwhile / rekne and accounten / how myche they ha [160 passyd / off ther Journe / And sodeynly tourne ageyn ther bakkys towardys / som notable seteys Which they of newe / be partyd fro / And therwyth al Recorden / and remembren hem / of Cytes / Castelles / and touns which they ha passyd by / and nat forgete / hylles ne valeys / dygne / to be put in remembraunce of hyt / for a Memoryal / Somme entytlen hem / in smale bookes of Report / or in tablys / to [165 callen hem to mynde / whan they sene her tyme / And som ought callen to mynde gret Ryuers and smale / And pereylles of the see that they ha passyd by / And whan they han alle accountyd / and ageyn Relatyd the partyes passyd off her Journe / Off THE LOVER’S MASS 213 newe they take to hem force / vigour / and strengthe / myghtyly Wyth oute feyntyse / to performe / and manly to acomplysshe / the Resydue and the remnaunt of her [170 labour // And thus .I. in semblable wyse / al the tyme of my lyff / ffrom my grene tendre youthe / And tyme that I hadde / yerys of dyscrecon beynge / and contynuynge / as an Errynge pylgrym / in the seruyse of the myghty and dredful god of loue / how many perylous / passages / and wayes / that I ha passyd by / How ofte in compleynynge I have setyn don // to wypen away the soot of myn inportable labour [175 And dronken euer among of my botell and Goordes / the bytter drynkes / of drery- nesse / And offte sythes assayed / to casten adoun the inportable fardel / of myn heuy thoughtys / And amongys al this thyngys // lookyd bakward to consydren / and sen the fyn and the ende of my worthy bretheren / and predecessours in love // that ha passyd the same pilgrymage toforn // And ther I ha founden / and seyn [180 the grete trouthe of Troylus / perseuerant to hys lyves ende // The trewe stable menyng of penalope / The clennesse of polycene // The kyndenesse off Dydo / quen of cartage / And rad also ful often in my contemplatyff medytacons The holy legende of Martyrs / of Cupydo / The secre trouthe of Trystram and ysoude And the smale Gerdouns of woful Palamydes / All thyse / and anhondryd Thousand mo callyd [185 to mynde / me semeth / amonges all I am on of the most forsake / And ferthest set behynde of grace / And moste hyndred to be mercy of my lady dere / Nat wyth- stondynge the grete party of my pilgrymage / that I ha don But that I shal euere / for lyfe or deth / contynue / and perseuere trewe to my lyves Ende // Besechynge ful lowly / to alle yow my brethere / vn to whom thys lytel Epystel ys dyrect // [190 That yt lyke yow / of pyte / amonge your / devout obseruaunces to han me Recom- endyd / wt som Especial Memorye / in your prayers / That yet or I dye / I may sum mercy fynde / Or that the god of love / Enspyre my ladyes herte of hys grace what I endure for hyr sake /—/ CHARLES D’ORLEANS Charles duke of Orléans, of the blood royal of France, was nephew to Charles VI, and son to that Louis d’Orléans who was murdered in 1407 by members of the household of the duke of Burgundy. He was born in 1391, and his mother was Valentine Visconti, of the great Milanese house of despots. Charles was but sixteen when he succeeded to his father’s position as one of the four greatest feu- dal nobles of France; he had been married a year earlier to Isabella, widow of Richard II of England, who died in 1409; the young duke married a second time in the following year, and in 1415 he was taken prisoner at Agincourt and carried to England. There he remained for twenty-five years, his ransom constantly dis- cussed and as constantly deferred by disputes over the attendant conditions ; and there a large amount of his French poetry was written. During his captivity his second wife, Bonne d’Armagnac, died ; and immediately upon his liberation, in 1440, Charles married a niece of the duke of Burgundy, the principal agent in his release. He died in 1455, having spent much of his time since his return to France at his own court of Blois. Charles left behind him a large mass of lyrical poetry, cast in the forms of ballade, chanson, and rondeau, and purporting to be autobiographical. The themes are courtly :—reproach of the loved one’s coldness, praise of her excellences, com- plaints against separation. One body of the poems, written in England, has much of exile and love-longing; many of the poems written after Charles’ return to France are more of the poetic-exercise type. His work was exceedingly popular in aristocratic circles of his own and the next age; for instance, in the long post- humous Chasse et Départ d’Amours of Octovien de St. Gelais a great number of Charles’ poems were incorporated, and the plan of his Poéme de la Prison adopted. (See Molinier’s monograph on Octovien.) Also, several poems by Charles are included in the Jardin de Plaisance, printed by Vérard about 1501; see the facs. reproduction by the Soc. des anciens textes francais, and Piaget in Romania 21:581 ff. (Piaget on St. Gelais should be checked by Molinier as above.) And the translation of so much of Charles’ verse into English is a notable phenomenon. It is with these translations that we are especially concerned. They were termed “rubbish” by Hilaire Belloc, writing in the Athenaeum for 1904, ii:146; but few students of medieval verse will agree with this verdict. There is very little English verse in the fifteenth century worthy of comparison with these faithful, vigorous, and often graceful translations. Their editor has not yet arisen, although Sauerstein’s article below mentioned is an excellent preliminary study of the question ; but when he arrives, he will discuss various points indicating an- other than Charles as the author of the English versions. He will note, of course, the easy command of English in them, as compared with the stiff insecurity of the English bits preserved in French volumes; and he will have to consider the possi- bility either that lapse of years brought Charles to mastery of his gaolers’ language, or that in the French MSS the French scribe has garbled a fairly good English text. He will have to reckon with the fact that the personality behind the English recension is a more forceful and buoyant one than is the personality of the mass of the French poems; and he will have to note the presence in the translations of an occasional Chaucerian trace not in Charles’ French. [214] TRANSLATIONS FROM CHARLES D’ORLEANS 215 These Chaucerian tinges may have filtered to our author through a second dilution, as in the phrase “morow gray”, or the car of Phoebus “whirlid up so high” (see poem xix of this group). But the reproach to Death has verbal echoes of the Book of the Duchesse, and line 877 of that poem is reflected in the line “Me thynkith youre eyen mercy seith.” Also, evening “revith day his light”, and birds sing “Right as the wood therewith should forshyuere” (see Charles’ poem xiv here). A very marked allusion to Chaucer is in the poem beginning, “When y am leyd to slepe as for a stound”; the lover cannot rest, For-all the night myn hert aredith round As in the romaunce of plesaunt chaucer. Here the French has,—“Rommant de Plaisant Penser.” Further, both Troilus and Anelida have given our writer such clues as “Thus ay diyng y lyue and neuyr dede” (Trolius iv:280), “How love for love is skilful gerdonyng” (Troilus ii: 392), and “So thrillith me in my remembraunce” (Anelida 211). The translator has a good ear for rhythm, something noteworthy in fifteenth- century England. He inserts ejaculations such as Mafay, Lo, especially the latter, to fill out his metre, and places those ejaculations carefully. See poems xiii, xvi, xviii, here; note also the use of the dissyllabic apast in xvi and the insertion of even in xvi’s refrain-line. The change from French to English is not accom- plished without frequent padding; but the way this is handled, and the way the French rime-sounds are now retained and now discarded is worth study. The rime -ft: -ght is fairly frequent ; the verb square and the metaphor of a shirt recur. The translator more than once refers to his “derked eyen’”’. Whoever that translator was, he was both bilingual and a good metrist. He twists his syntax with a strong hand, using sometimes difficult inversions. He wastes no words; he is not clumsy, and he does not blur the light tenderness of the French, though he does occasionally add firmness and freshness. Whether he be the duke of Suffolk, as Dr. Mac- Cracken suggests (‘see below p. 218), or an unknown clerk, he is not writing “rub- bish”. There are degrees of ease and of excellence among these translations, of course, but whoever wrote— When I am hushed it marvel is to me To hear my heart how that he talketh soft, was not writing rubbish. Whoever wrote the dialogue between the lover and his heart,— Seest thou not well that fortune doth us fail ? Hast thou good lust to live in sorrow ?—Nay, Iwis,—he said—I trust more to attain; I had a pretty look yet yesterday, As me reported have mine eyen twain,— was not writing rubbish. The spell of allegory and of the courtly love-code was heavy on Charles and on his translator, but both walk well despite their burden. BIBLIOGRAPHY In the year 1734 the abbé Sallier read to his fellow-members of the French Institut Royal a paper on a “recueil manuscrit de poésies de Charles d’Orleans”’, the MS in question being the “Colbert”, now in the Bibliotheque Nationale as 216 ANONYMOUS fonds francais 1104,—according to Champion. This paper was published in 1740, in the Memoires de littérature tirez des registres de l’Academie royale des In- scriptions et belles Lettres, xiii:580-592. The abbé’s purpose was the demon- stration of Charles’ priority over Villon in the rebirth of French poetry. He cited portions of Charles’ French verse. Sallier was cited by the abbé Goujet in his Bibliothéque frangoise, ou Histoire de la littérature francoise, 18 vols., Paris, 1741-46; the discussion of Charles is in vol. ix: 230-287, and citations are more liberal than with Sallier. On p. 265 Goujet remarks that Charles has among his poems “plusieurs en anglois’; no ex- amples of these are adduced. Goujet notes the fact that the Jardin de Plaisance borrowed from Charles. According to d’Héricault’s ed. of Charles’ poems, ii: 281, the Annales poéti- ques ou Almanach des Muses has in its vol. i, Paris, 1778, a “Choix de Poésies de Charles d’Orléans”. (This I have not seen.) The Marquis de Paulmy, in his Mélanges tirés d’une grande Bibliothéque, 68 vols. and index 69, Paris, 1779-88, treats of Charles, with extracts (French only), in vol. iv : 239-267. The first citation of Charles’ English verse seems to have been made by Mlle. de Keralio, in vol. iii of her Collection des meilleurs ouvrages francois, Paris, 1786-88. This collection, issued by subscription, was run to about 36 vols., of which 14 appeared. The editor devotes pp. 140-167 to Charles, citing at length from Sallier, and supporting his point as to Charles’ superiority over Villon by printing Villon’s Ballade des dames du temps jadis and the Ballade addressed to the women of Paris. Villon, she says, obviously studied and imitated Charles, but ‘“n’obtint jamais la gloire de l’égaler’, as these poems, beside the duke’s, clearly prove. She speaks as if she used the MS known to Sallier, but when print- ing two English poems by Charles she states: “Je n’ai trouvé que deux essais de cette nature dans le manuscrit.’’ Goujet, however, used the words “plusieurs en Anglois”, and the MS fonds francais 1104 has, according to Guichard, nine Eng- lish poems. The texts printed by Mlle. de Keralio are those here numbered I and II. She appends to each a French prose paraphrase, and adds: “Ceux qui con- naissent la langue Angloise jugeront que ces vers sont assez bien tournés pour le temps, a l’exception de quelques mots qui ont vielli, et d’une ortographe assez mau- vaise.”” Horace Walpole, in his Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England, reprinted Mlle. de Keralio’s two texts, and sneered at her high valuation of Charles, not as in comparison with Villon, but as a French poet. For “such is the poverty and want of harmony of the French tongue that one knows how very meagre thousands of couplets are which pass for poetry in France.” The existence of a mass of translations from Charles’ French into English, in the MS Brit. Mus. Harley 682, was apparently first noticed by Joseph Ritson; he gave a specimen of what he assumed to be Charles’ English work in the dis- sertation prefixed to his Ancient Songs and Ballads, London, 1790. George Ellis, in his Specimens of the Early English Poets, first ed. 1790, fifth ed. 1845, printed i: 253-4 (1845 ed.) three English poems by Charles, which are found with a large quantity of his French work in MS Brit. Mus. Royal 16 F ii. The texts form part of Ellis’ footnote on King James of Scotland; in this volume they are nos. IVb, X, and XI. See remark on the London Magazine below. Charles’ French poems were first edited in 1803, and three times since; of his editors only one has included the English texts found among his French verse. See below, following notes on the MSS. TRANSLATIONS FROM CHARLES D’ORLEANS 217 In Park’s 1806 edition of Walpole’s work, Charles is treated 1:174-186. Park adds bits from the MS Brit. Mus. Harley 682, and expresses surprise at Walpole’s ignoring of the London codices of Charles’ poems. Manuscripts The MS Bibliothéque nationale, fonds francais 25458, is fully described by Champion in Le manuscrit autographe des poésies de Charles d’Orléans, Paris, 1907. Champion considers the codex as the verse-album of the court of Blois, after Charles’ return from captivity, and as partly in the script of Charles himself. He explains the composite appearance of the volume by supposing this sequence of facts:—1, That a professional scribe copied Charles’ work, that done while in England as prisoner, in the first part of the volume, and that Charles made cor- rections upon this with his own hand. 2, That in the following pages later poems, mainly by Charles himself, but also by others, were copied by various scribes, Charles being one. 3, That while the book as originally planned contained many chansons written in the lower parts of pages with the upper halves left blank for the music, a change of plan or need of space led to the use of those upper half- pages for poems subsequently entered. This MS contains, among the French, nine English poems, here printed. The similar texts found in the Grenoble MS, which is less complete than this “auto- graph” MS, were printed by Champollion-Figeac in his ed. of Charles, and re- printed from him by Bullrich (three texts), by Sauerstein (two texts), and by MacCracken (eight texts). The MS Bodl. Fairfax 16, described in my Chaucer Manual, pp. 333 ff., con- tains one of the nine English poems found in the “autograph” MS, transcribed into Fairfax with a body of courtly verse of similar nature. See the suggestion by MacCracken as to authorship, below. The MS Brit. Mus. Royal 16 F ii is a very large and handsome vellum volume, written, as Sir George Warner has suggested, for Arthur prince of Wales, son of Henry VIII, ca.1500. It is in a big deeply black professional hand, the enormous illuminated capitals and the line-capitals stiff with gilt ; it contains several fine fullpage illuminations, one of which, representing the Tower of London and Charles seated at a window, has been several times reproduced. See Edgar Tay- lor’s Minnesingers, London, 1825, to face p. 286; see Warner’s Illuminated MSS of the British Museum, 1893; see the illustrated ed. of Green’s Short History of the English People, ii: 640; see frontispiece to Benham’s Tower of London, 1906; see Champion’s Vie de Charles d’Orléans, Paris, 1911, frontispiece. On the MS see Warner as cited, Sauerstein as below, and the Catalogue of Western MSS in the Old Royal and Kings’ Collections, London, 1921. This MS contains among the French three English poems, one of which is also in the “autograph” manuscript. The three are printed by Ellis as above; two are printed by Costello and by Champollion-Figeac, three by Sauerstein and by Mac- Cracken. The MS Brit. Mus. Harley 682, which consists of a great number of English translations of Charles’ French verse, is a moderate-sized vellum volume of 148 leaves, written in one smallish neat unprofessional hand, apparently of the fifteenth century. In transcription, spaces were left for capitals, which were never sup- plied. It has been freely corrected by the same or a similar hand in a manner which often suggests translator’s rather than scribe’s revision; but this and all 218 ANONYMOUS questions connected with the codex are too closely bound up with the problem of authorship to enter upon here. The book contains, according to Sauerstein, 222 poems; for discussion of it see Sauerstein as below. This codex, unmentioned by Walpole or by Ellis, was noted by Ritson as above; he printed one text from it in 1790; and Walpole’s editor, Park, in 1806, added several others. In 1838 the savant Francisque Michel, sent by his govern- ment to investigate French MSS in English libraries, reported fully on this volume; see his Rapports a M. le ministre (etc.), 1838. Previous to Michel’s investigation, in 1827, there had been issued for the Roxburghe Club a print of the entire con- tents of Harley 682, edited by George Watson Taylor, who assumed that the trans- lations were the work of Charles himself. His edition, which is defaced by very many textual errors and prefaced by a scanty and valueless introduction, was published in but 44 copies. His assertion as to Charles’ authorship was doubted by a writer in the Retrospective Review for 1827, p. 147; but Sir Frederick Mad- den, in his book on Illuminated Ornament, London, 1833, took the authenticity of the translations as proved, and it was nearly seventy years before the papers of Bullrich and of Sauerstein (see below) dealt more exactly with the question. Bullrich opined that the Harley 682 poems show an easy flowing style, the English poems included in French MSS a stiff and shambling movement. He concluded that the Harley 682 translations were the work of an Englishman. Sauerstein, going more fully into the subject, arrives at the same conclusion; and Saintsbury, in his Encycl. Brit. article on Charles, thinks the attribution to Charles “without certainty”. An interesting suggestion as to the translator’s identity was made by H. N. MacCracken in PMLA 26:142 ff. (1911), viz., that the author of the group of English love-poems preserved in MS Bodl. Fairfax 16 and the author of these translations is one and the same person,—the earl of Suffolk, William de la Pole, made duke of Suffolk in 1449, the year before his death. Suffolk was for several years Charles’ English custodian, and the two men became friends, Suffolk visit- ing Charles at Blois in 1444, after the French duke’s liberation. A few French poems by Suffolk still exist, in MS Trinity College Cambridge R 3,20, and one of the English poems of Fairfax 16 appears also in Charles’ “autograph” MS, whence it is here printed, p. 222 below. Dr. MacCracken thinks that this English poem, like the rest of the Fairfax group, was by Suffolk, and was translated into the “Blois album” in the same way that various other poems by Charles’ friends were there included. Both the Fairfax group of love-poems and the Harley 682 translations show metrical command and show the influence of Chaucer; but the attributions of the two sets of texts to one person and the identification of that person as Suffolk are as yet matter of conjecture. Since Taylor’s print, no complete edition of the Harley 682 poems has ap- peared. In Wiilker’s Altengl. Lesebuch, Halle, 1874-80, ii:122-4, are printed three English texts from Harley, headed as by Charles. Twelve texts from it are printed in this volume; but a fac-simile of Harley 682, with full discussion of the author- ship problem, is a desideratum. Four English poems translated from Charles and apparently part of a collec- tion similar to that in Harley 682, are in a MS-fragment owned by the antiquary Thomas Hearne; they are reprinted from Hearne’s Diaries by Hausknecht in Anglia 17 :445-7, and may be seen also in Bliss’ Reliquiae Hearnianae, London, 1869, i:265-67. TRANSLATIONS FROM CHARLES D’ORLEANS 219 Manuscripts of Charles’ French poems, other than the “autograph MS”, are not here discussed ; see the French editors and biographers of Charles as below. Editions of Charles’ French Poems. The earliest of these was by P. V. Chalvet, librarian of the Grenoble collection, pubd. Grenoble 1803, repr. 1809. The texts are from the less complete Grenoble MS of Charles’ work, and the editing is severely censured by Champollion-Figeac. I have not seen the book. Poésies de Charles d’Orléans,—d’aprés les manuscrits des bibl. du Roi et de l’Arsénal, J. M. Guichard, Paris, 1842. Les poésies du duc Charles d’Orléans, publiées sur le manuscrit de la bibl. de Gren- oble conferé avec ceux de Paris et de Londres, etc., A. Champollion-Figeac, Paris, 1842. Guichard’s text appeared eight days previous to that of Champollion-Figeac, apparently in deliberate rivalry; and each editor followed up his text by an introduction or appendix censuring the procedure of the other. Guichard’s preference for the La Valliére MS, now known as the “autograph”, will be endorsed by modern students; his omission of the nine English poems from his print, an omission censured by his rival, will not be endorsed. The English poems are printed by Champollion-Figeac from the Grenoble MS, and reprinted from him by MacCracken as above, with some conjectural emendations. Poésies complétes de Charles d’Orléans, revues sur les manuscrits,—etc., C. d’'Héricault, Paris, 1874, 2 vols. Again 1896. The English poems are not printed. Text based on the “autograph” MS. There are French poems, marked as by Charles, in various English MSS. See the texts of Trinity College Cambridge R 3, 20 as above mentioned; also four quat- rains in Brit. Mus. Harley 7333, printed thence by MacCracken in PMLA 26:145 note. Translations from Charles’ French, other than those in Harley 682 In the London Magazine for Sept. 1823, pp. 301-6, is an unsigned article on Charles, with the text of five French poems from the ed. of 1809 and an English verse- translation of each. These are followed by the statement that the writer has found three English poems by Charles in a MS of the British Museum; the subjoined texts are those in Royal 16 F ii, nos. IVb, X, XI as here printed. The emendations of Ellis are repeated or adopted; is the translator George Ellis? See above, p. 216. In Edgar Taylor’s Lays of the Minnesingers, London, 1825, pp. 286-93, is a dis- cussion of Charles, with verse-translations of five poems. One of these coincides with one of the London Magazine set, and comparison is interesting. Verse-translations of nineteen poems by Charles, and a print of two of his English poems from the Royal MS (IVb, X as here), are included in Louisa S. Costello’s Specimens of the Early Poetry of France, London, 1835. Prose ascribed to Charles One French prose work, a debate between the heralds of England and of France, was ascribed to Charles by Henry Pyne, in his England and France in the Fifteenth Century, London, 1870. The attribution was successfully disputed by P. Meyer in:— Le débat des hérauts d’armes de France et d’Angleterre, suivi de “The debate be- tween the heralds of England and France by John Coke.” Paris, 1871, SATF. 220 ANONYMOUS Studies on Charles’ Life and Work. Champollion-Figeac, Louis et Charles d’Orléans, leur influence sur les arts, la littérature, et l’esprit de leur siécle, d’aprés des documents inédits, Paris, 1844. . Beaufils, Etude sur la vie et les poésies de Charles d’Orléans, Coutances, 1861. . Kuhl, Die Allegorie bei Charles d’Orléans, Marburg diss., 1886. . Bullrich, Ueber Charles d’Orléans u. die ihm zugeschriebene englische Uebersetz- ung seiner Gedichte, progr. Berlin, 1893. . Minster, Die Lautverhaltnisse in der neuengl. Uebersetzung der Gedichte des Her- zogs von Orléans, progr. Berlin, 1894. Sauerstein, Charles d’Orléans u. die englische Uebersetzung seiner Dichtungen, Halle, 1899. . Champion, Le manuscrit autographe des poésies de Charles d’Orléans, Paris, 1907. , La librairie de Charles d’Orléans, avec un album de facsimiles, Paris 1910. ————_—_——., Vie de Charles d’Orléans, Paris, 1911. . N. MacCracken, An English Friend of Charles of Orleans, in PMLA 26:142 ff. . Champion, A propos de Charles d’Orléans, in Romania 49:580-4 (1923). This article consists of two notes: 1, La dame anglaise de Charles d’Orléans, and 2, Recueils imprimés contenant des poésies de Charles d’Orléans. With the first cf. my note as below, in Mod. Phil.; with the second cf. Piaget in Romania 21:581, “Une edition gothique de Charles d’Orléans”; and see Molinier Essai . . . sur Octovien de St. Gelais, chap. iv (1910). E. P. Hammond, Charles of Orleans and Anne Molyneux, ModPhil 22:215-6 (1924). PO EO: ac ip Nae Veto Cae he wi The verse-work of Charles may be classed in four groups. 1, His French poems, preserved in a dozen or more MSS in England and France. 2, A small body of rondeaux written in English, preserved among these French poems. 3, A considerable body of English translations from his existing French verse, prob- ably not by Charles himself, and remaining in but one MS, Harley 682 of the British Museum. 4, About 77 English poems, mainly in stanza, intermingled with the poems of 3, in the same MS, but having so far as yet known no French original. This last subdivision I do not here consider, and I make it merely for the con- venience of future investigators. With the first subdivision I am now concerned only in so far as the French poems are the sources of work in our third or English group; to this third, and the second, we limit ourselves. There are here printed the entire body of Charles’ recognized English verse, and twelve selections from the English translations of his verse. Regarding this last, one word further. Charles was twenty-five years a prisoner in England, and the honorable con- finement in which he was held did not preclude his meeting with the households of his various gaolers, perhaps with their English friends. M. Pierre Champion’s article in Romania 49 as above calls attention to a passage in King René of Anjou’s Livre du Cuer d’Amours Espris; René, who knew Charles well, there says that fi prins fuz des Anglois et mené en servaige, Et tant y demouray qu’en aprins la langaige, Par laquel fus acoint de dame belle et saige, Et d’elle si espris qu’a Amours fis hommaige, Dont maints beaux ditz dictié bien prisez davantaige”’, etc. In the MS the blank here left at the beginning of the extract is filled by the name of “Charles quint de France, roy vertueux et saige”; this, M. Champion says, must be a scribal alteration, as the facts fit only Charles of Orleans. Should the substitution of Orleans’ name be justified, we have René’s support not only for TRANSLATIONS FROM CHARLES D’ORLEANS 221 the fact of Charles’ learning English, but for his becoming enamoured of his in- structress. Champion suggests the countess of Suffolk, Alice Chaucer, as the tutor and beloved lady, and seems to feel that the Harley 682 poems may be the amorous verse to which René refers. But the existence of the name Anne Molins in one of Charles’ original English rondeaux (see no. VI here) inclines to the belief that a lady of that name was more probably the admired of Charles, and that the poems addressed to her may be no more than the half-score composed in English by him. These English poems written by Charles have been often printed, viz.: Two by Mlle. de Keralio, nos. I, II here, from a Bibl. nat. MS; these were reprinted by Walpole. Three by Ellis from the Royal MS,—nos. IVb, X, XI here. Two by Costello from the Royal MS,—nos. IVb, X here. The entire group by Cham- pollion-Figeac from the Grenoble and the Royal MSS, in his edition of Charles. Three by Bullrich from that edition—nos. II, X, XI here. Four by Sauerstein from that edition and from the Royal MS,—nos. IVb, X, XI, I here. Two were printed from the Royal MS (X, XI), one from the Fairfax MS, and eight from Champollion-Figeac, by MacCracken as above. The three printed by Ellis are also in the London Magazine for 1823, pp.301-6, as ante. Fes POEMS'WRITTEN IN ENGLISH I [Bibl. Nat. fonds frang. 25458, p. 346] Myn hert hath send glad hope in hys message Vnto comfort plesans Ioye and sped I pray to god that grace may hym leed Wythout lettyng or daunger of passage In tryst to fynd profit and auauntage 5 Wyth yn short tym to the help of hys ned (M)yn hert &c. (V)nto comfort &c. Till pat he come myn hert yn ermytage Of thoght shall dwel alone god gyve hym med 10 And of wysshynge of tymys shal hym fed Glad hope folyw & sped wel thys viage (M)yn hert &c. II [ibid.] Whan shal thow come glad hope fro pi vyage Thow hast taryd to long many a day ffor all comford is put fro my away Tyll that I here tythynge of by message (W)hat that had be lettyng of thy passage 5 Or tariyng alas I can not say (W )hen shal &c. (T)how hast &c. Thow knows ful wel pat I have gret damage In abydynge of the that is no nay 10 And thof y synge & dauns or lagh and play In blake mournyng is clothyd my corage (W )han shal &c. III [Bibl. Nat. fonds frang. 25458, p. 310] A 3ens the comyng of may That is ful of lustynes Let vs leue al heuynes As fer as we can or may Now is tym of myrth and play a Wynter weth hys ydylnes Is dyscomfet as y ges And redy to fle away Azgens &c. Wherfore ladys. I 30w pray That 3e take in 30w gladnes 10 And do al 30ur besynes To be mery nyght and day Azjens &c. IV A [Bibl. Nat. fonds franc. 25458, p. 310] Go forth my hert wt my lady 222 ANONYMOUS Loke that ye spar no bysynes To serue hyr wyth seche lowlynes That 3e get hyr grace and mercy Pray hyr of tymes pryuely That sche guippe trewly hyr promes Go forth &c. I most as a hertles body Abyde alone in heuynes And 3e schal do wel wyth your mais- a tres 10 In plesans glad and mery Go forth &c. IV B [Brit. Mus. Royal 16 F ii, fol. 69a] Go forth my hert wt my lady Loke that ye spare no bysynes That ye gette her oftyme pryuely That she kepe truly her promes 5 Go forth &c. Iniust as a helis body Abyde alone in heuynes And ye shal dwell with your mastres In plaisauns glad and mery Go forth &c. V [Bibl. Nat. fonds frang. 25458, p. 311] for the reward of half a 3ere Tow trewe louys upon the brest hyt ys y now to brynge yn rest A hert that loue hold yn dangere Whenne he hath be sume wat stran- gere 5 To hym ys holyday and fest For the &c. Thousch hyt be a Juel ful dere And a charme for the tempest Yet y conseille hym to be prest IO And fore a3ens the warderere For the &c. VI [ibid.] A las mercy wher shal myn hert yow fynd Neuer had he wyth yow ful aqwaintans Now com to hym and put of hys greuans Ellys ye be vnto yowr frend vnkynd Mercy he hath euer yow in hys mynd 5 Ons let hym haue sum conforth of plesans Alas mercy &c. Let hym not dey but mak at ons a uende In al hys woo an right heuy penans Noght is the help that whyl not hym avans 10 Slauth hys to me and euer com be hynde Alas mercy &c. VII [ibid., p. 312] Ye shul be payd after your whylfulnes And blame nothyng but your mysgouern- ans For when good loue wold fayn had yow auans Then went ye bak wyth wyly frawhyed- nes I know anon your sotyl wyleness 5 And your danger that was mad for ascans Ye schal be &c. Ye might haue been my lady and maistres For euer mor with outhyn varians But now my hert yn yngland or in france Io Ys go to seke other nyw besynes Ye schal be &c. VIII [tbid., p. 312) So fayre so freshe so goodely on to se So welle dymeynet in al your gouernans That to my hert it is a grete plesans Of your godenes when y remembre me And trustyth fully wher that euer y be 5 I wylle abyde vndyr your obeyssance So fayre &c. For in my thought ther is nomo but ye Whom y haue seruid wythout repentance Wherfore y pray yow sethe to my greu- ance 10 And put o syde all myn aduersite So fayre &c. IX [ibid., p. 318] O thou fortune which hast the gouernance Of all thynges kyndely meuyng to se fro Thaym to demene after thyn ordonnance Right as thou lyst to grante hem wele or wo Syth that thou lyst that I be on of tho 5 That must be rewlyd be thyn auisines Why whylt thou not wythstand myn heuynes TRANSLATIONS FROM CHARLES’ FRENCH 223 2 Me thyng thou art vnkynde as in thys case To suffre me so long a whylle endure So grete a peyn . wehout mercy and grase 10 Which greuyth me right sore I the ensure And syth thou knawst / I am that crea- ture That wolde be fauourd be thy gentilles Why whylt thou not wythstand myn heuynes 3 What causyth the to be myn aduersarie 15 I haue not done which that schuld the dis- plese And yit thou art to myn entent contrarie Which makyth alwey my sorous to en- crese And syth thou wotst myn hert ys not in ese But euer in trouble wythout sykyrnenes 20 Why wylt thou not wythstand myn heuy- nes 4 To the allonly thys compleynt I make For thou art cause of myn aduersite And yit I wote welle thou mayst vnder- take For myn welfare if that thou lyst agre 25 I haue no cause to blame no wyght but the For thys thou doste of verrey wylfulnes Why wylt thou not wythstand myn heuynes x [Brit. Mus. Royal 16 F ii, fol. 118a] My hertly loue is in your governauns And euer shal whill pat I lyue may I pray to god I may see that day That we be knyt with trouthfull alyans Ye shal not fynd feynyng or variauns 5 As in my part that wyl I trewly say My hertly &c. XI [ibid., fol. 131a] Ne were my trewe innocent hert How ye hold with her aliauns That somtym wt word of plesauns Desceyued you vnder couert Thynke how the stroke of loue com smert 5 Without warnyng or defhauns Ne were my &c. And ye shall pryuely or appert See her by me in loues dauns Wyth her faire femynyn contenauns 10 Ye shall neuer fro her astert Ne were my &c. TRANSLATIONS FROM CHARLES’ FRENCH Lue soit cellui qui trouua Premier le maniere descripre En ce grant confort ordonna Pour amans qui sont en martire Car quant ne peuent aler dire 5 A leurs dames leur grief tourment Ce leur est moult dallegement Quant par escript peuent mander Les maulx quilz portent humblement Pour bien et loyaument amer 10 Quant vng amoureux escripra Son dueil qui trop tient de rire Honure and prays as mot to him ha- bound That first did fynde the wayes of writyng ffor comfort gret ordeynyd he that stounde To suche as haue of louys payne felyng ffor when to speke they naue tyme nor metyng To say ther ladies of ther aduersite Yet doth it them a gret tranquyllite ffor to endite and sende as in writyng What grevous lyf they lede as semeth me Only for loue and feithful trewe serv- yng 10 Who so that write how he is wrappid & wounde 224 ANONYMOUS Au plustost quenuoye laura A celle qui est son seul mire Si lui plaist a la lettre lire 15 Elle puet veoir clerement Son douloureux gouuernement Et lors pitie lui scet monstrer Qui dessert bon guerdonnement Pour bien et loyaulment amer 20 Par mon cuer ie congnois pieca Ce mestier car quant il soupire Iamais rapaisie ne sera Tant quil ait enuoye detire Uers la belle que tant desire 25 Et puis sil puet aucunement Oyr nouuelles seullement De sa doulce beaulte sans per Il oublie lennuy quil sent Pour bien et loyaulment amer 30 Lenuoy Madame dieu doint que briefment Uous puisse de bouche conter Ce que iay souffert longuement Pour bien et loyaulment amer From MS Brit. Mus. Royal 16 F ii, foll. 31 b-32 a. Fortune vueillez moy laissier En paix vne fois ie vous prie Trop longuement a vray conter Auez eu sur moy seigneurie Tousiours faictes la rencherie 5 Uers moy et ne voulez oyr Les maulx que mauez fait souffrir Il a ia plusieurs ans passez Dois ie tousiours ainsi languir Helas et nest ce pas assez 10 Plus ne puis en ce point durer A a. mercy . mercy ie crie Souspirs mempeschent le parler Uoir le pouez sans mocquerie Il ne fault ia que ie le die 15 In suche greef as kan kepe him from laughyng And so may sende it to his lady round Which is the leche to all his soore felyng If then to rede hit be to her plesyng 175 She may right wele therin perceyue and se What woofull gouernaunce endewrith he Of whiche pite may geue hir hit mevyng That his desert is reward of mercy Only for loue and feithfull trewe serv- yng 20 That hit is thus in myn hert haue y found And knowe the craft for when he tath sekyng No thyng kan him appese vpon the ground To he haue send or made sum endityng On the fayre which is his most likyng 25 Of which if so that his fortune be To haue a response of hir gret bounte He tath therin so huge a reioysyng That forget is he had on his party Only for loue and feithfull trewe serv- yng 30 But what madame crist ewre me so that ye May vndirstonde as bi my mouth telyng What y haue dewrid in tymys quantite es Only for loue and feithfull trewe servyng * From MS Brit. Mus. Harley 682, fol. 16. O ffortune dost thou my deth conspyre Onys let me pese y pray thee hertily ffor all to longe y fynde withouten wyre That thou hast had vpon me the maystry Whi dost thou straunge when y thi mercy cry 2 Hast thou disdayne me caytiff forto here That thus wt payne hast brought vnto be bere That how y ben so longe y mervell how With greef y haue endewrid many yere Alas alas and is this not ynough Io Longe in this lyf may y not dewren here A a fortune mercy y cry mercy Of my compleynt harke be carfull matere And not arett my rewdisshe speche mok- kery TRANSLATIONS FROM CHARLES’ FRENCH 225 Pource vous vueil ie requerir Quil vous plaise de me tolir Les maulx que mauez amassez Qui mont uns iusques au mourir Helas et nest ce pas assez 20 Tous maulx suis content de porter Fors vng seul qui trop fort mennuye Cest qui me fault loing demourer De celle que tiens pour amye Car pieca en sa compaignie 25 Laissay mon cuer et mon desir Uers moy ne veulent reuenir Delle ne sont iamais lassez Ainsi suis seul sans nul plaisir Helas et nest ce pas assez 30 Lenuoy De balader Jay beau loisir Autres deduitz me sont cassez Prisonnier suis damour martir Helas et nest ce pas assez From MS Brit. Mus. Royal 16 F ii, foll. 25 b-26. Also in Paris, Bibl. Nat. fonds fr. 25458, pp. 60-61. Trop long temps vous voy sommeillier Mon cueur en dueil & desplaisir Vueilliez vous ce jour esueillier Alons au bois le may cueillir Pour la coustume maintenir 5 Nous orrons des oyseaulx leglay Dont ils font les bois retentir Ce premier jour du mois de may Le dieu damours est coustumier A ce jour de feste tenir 10 Pour amoureux cueurs festier Qui desirent de le seruir Pour ce fait les arbres couurir De fleurs & les champs de vert gay Pour la feste plus embellir 5 Ce premier jour du mois de may ffor whi to iape not lustith me trewly 15 Wherfore y the right humbly requere To take fro me that thus me sett afyre The greef and smert / a welaway syn thou Vnto the deth as hast ybrought me nere Allas allas and is this not ynough 20 I may wel bere eche payne or displesere Saue only on which on me causith dy That y so longe dwelle fro my lady dere Whom y haue chose to loue no wondir why ffor tyme agoon as in hir company 25 Lefft y myn hert / my ioy and my desere That neuyr sith list come / to do me chere ffor werry there in no thing lo they mowe Thus lyve y sovl without ioy or plesere Allas allas and is this not ynough 30 To balade now y haue a fayre leysere All othir sport is me biraught as now Martir am y for loue and prisonere Allas allas and is this not ynow From MS Brit. Mus. Harley 682, foll. 27 b-28a. To longe for shame and all to longe trewly Myn hert y se thee slepe in displesere Awake this day awake o verry fy Lete vs at wode go geder may in fere To holde of oure oold custome the manere 5 Ther shall we here the birdis synge and pley Right as the wood therwt shuld forshy- uere This ioly tyme this fresshe first day of may The god of loue this worldis god myghti Holdith this day his feste to fede and chere 10 The hertis of vs poore louers heuy Which only him to serue sett oure desere Wherfore he doth affoyle the trees sere With grene / and hath the soyle yflowrid gay Only to shewe his fest to more plesere 15 This ioly tyme this fresshe first day of may 226 Bien scay mon cueur que faulx dangier Vous fait mainte paine souffrir Car il vous fait trop eslonguier Celle qui est vostre desir Pour tant vous fault esbat guerir Mieulx conseillier je ne vous scay Pour vostre douleur amendrir Ce premier jour du mois de may Lenuoy Madame mon seul souuenir En cent jours nauroye loisir De vous raconter tout au vray Le mal qui tient mon cueur martir Ce premier jour du mois de may From MS Bibl. Nat. fonds fr. 25458, p. 71. not in Brit. Mus. Royal 16 F ii. Balade Las mort qui ta fait si hardye De prendre la noble Princesse Qui estoit mon confort ma vie Mon bien mon plaisir ma richesse Puis que tu as prins ma maistresse Prens moy aussi son seruiteur Car iayme mieulx prouchainement Mourir que languir en tourment En paine soussy et douleur Las de tous biens estoit garnie Et en droitte fleur de ieunesse Je pry a dieu quil te mauldie Faulse Mort plaine de rudesse Se prinse leussiez en viellesse Ce ne fust pas si grant rigueur Mais prinse las hastiuement Et mas laissie piteusement En paine soussi et douleur Las ie suy seul sans compaignie Adieu ma dame ma leesse Or est nostre amour departie Non pourtant ie vous fais promesse Que de prieres a largesse th Nn Text Gr IO T5 XV ANONYMOUS Myn hert thou wost how daungere hath on whi Doon thee endure full greuous paynes here Which doth the longe thus absent thi lady That willist most to ben vnto hir nere 20 Wherfore the best avise y kan thee lere Is that thou drawe thee to disportis ay Thi trowbely sorow therwt to aclere This ioly tyme this fresshe first day of may My first in thought / and last my lady dere 23 Hit axith more then this oon day leysere To telle yow loo my greef and gret affray That this wolde make myn hert a poore martere This ioly tyme this fresshe first day of may From MS Brit. Mus. Harley 682, fol. 33. Allas deth who made thee so hardy To take awey the most nobill princesse Which comfort was of my lyf and body Mi wele my ioy my plesere and ricchesse But syn thou hast biraft me my mays- tres : 5 Take me poore wrecche hir cely servi- ture ffor leuyr had y hastily forto dy Than langwysshe in pis karfull tragedy In payne sorowe and woofull aventure Allas nad she of eche good thing plente 79 ffowryng in youthe and in hir lustynes I biseche god a cursid mote thou be O false deth so full of gret rudenes Had thou hir taken in vnweldynes As had thou not ydoon so gret rigure But thou alak hast take hir hastily And welaway this left me pitously In payne sorow and wooful aventure 5 Allas alone am y without compane ffare well my lady fare well my gladnes Now is the loue partid twix you and me Yet what for then y make yow here promes ° That wt prayers y shall of gret larges TRANSLATIONS FROM CHARLES’ FRENCH 227 Morte vous seruiray de cuer Sans oublier aucunement 25 Et vous regretteray souuent En paine soussy et douleur Dieu sur tout souuerain seigneur Ordonnez par grace et doulceur De lame delle tellement 30 Quelle ne soit pas longuement En paine soussy et douleur From MS Brit. Mus. Royal 16 F ii, foll 93b-94a. Also in Patis, Bibl. Nat. fonds fr. 25458, pp. 82-83. Balade Quant souuent me ramentoit La grant beaute dont estoit plaine Celle que mon cuer appelloit Sa seule dame souueraine De touz biens la vraye fontaine 5 Qui est morte nouuellement Te dy en plourant tendrement Ce monde nest que chose vaine Ou viel temps grant renom couroit De crisayde yseud helayne 10 Et maintes autres quon nommoit Parfaictes en beaulte haultaine Mais au derrain en son demaine La mort les prist piteusement Parquoy puis veoir clerement 15 Ce monde nest que chose vaine La mort a voulu et vouldroit Bien le congnois mettre sa paine De destruire selle pouoit Leesse et plaisance mondaine 20 Quant tant de belles dames maine Hors du monde car vrayement Sans elles a mon iugement Ce monde nest que chose vaine. Here serue yow ded while my lyf may endure Without forgetyng in slouthe or slog- ardy 25 Biwaylyng oft yowre deth wt wepyng ey In payne sorow and wofull aventure O god that lordist euery creature Graunt of thi grace thi right forto mesure On alle the offensis she hath doon wil- fully 30 So that the good sowle of hir now not ly In payne sorow and wofull aventure From MS Brit. Mus. Harley 682, foll. 38b-39a. There are some erasures and alterations in this text, for which see Notes. When y revolue in my remembraunce The bewte shappe and be swete eyen t(w)ayne Of hir y callid myn hert hool plesaunce Mi lyvis ioy my sovl lady souerayne Of eche good thewe that was be fressh fountayne 5 Which newly deth hath tane O welaway ffor which y say wt wepyng eyen t(w)ay That this world nys but eyen a thyng in vayne In tyme apast ther ran gret renomaunce Of dido cresseid Alcest and Eleyne 10 And many moo as fynde we in romaunce That were of bewte huge and welbesayne But in the ende allas to thynke agayne How deth hem slew and sleth moo day bi day Hit doth me wel aduert this may y say 15 That this world nys but even a thyng in vayne Me thenkith that deth cast bi his gouern- aunce fforto distroy all worldly plesere playn fforwhi he doth therto his gret puyssh- aunce That hath allas so moche fayre folkis slayn 20 And dayly slethe / what ioy doth he refrayne Out of this world and bryngith in such dismay ffor without them y iuge this mafay That. this world nys but even a thyng in vayn 228 ANONYMOUS Lenuoy Amours pour verite certainte 25 Mort vous guerrie fellement Se ny trouuez amendement Ce monde nest que chose vaine From MS Brit. Mus. Royal 16 F ii, foll. 95b-96. Bie Paris, Bibl. Nat. fonds fr. 25458, p. 8 XVII Balade Le lendemain du premier iour de may Dedens mon lit ainsi que ie dormoye Au point du iour mauint que ie songay Qur deuant moy vne fleur ie veoye Qui me disoit Amy ie me souloye 5 En toy fyer / car pieca mon party Tu tenoyes / mais mis las en oubly En soustenant la fueille contre moy Jay merueille que tu veulx faire ainsy Riens nay meffait se pense ie vers toy 10 Tout esbahy alors ie me trouuay Si respondy au mieulx que ie sauoye Tresbelle fleur onques ie ne pensay Faire chose que desplaire te doye Se pour esbat auenture menuoye 15 Que ie serue la fueille cest an cy Doy ie pourtant estre de toy bany Nennyl certes ie fais comme ie doy Et se ie tiens le party quay choisy Riens nay meffait se pense ie vers toy 20 Car non pourtant honneur te porteray De bon vouloir quelque part que ie soye Tout pour lamour dune fleur que iamay Ou temps passe / dieu doint que ie la voye En paradis apres ma mort en ioye 25 Et pource fleur chierement ie te pry Ne te plains plus car cause nas pourquoy Puis que ie fais ainsi que tenu suy Riens nay meffait se pense ie vers toy O god of loue thou may perseyue cer- tayne 25 To myn entent that deth thee warrith ay So se y wel but though hit menden may That this world nys but even a thyng in vayne From MS Brit. Mus. Harley 682, foll. 42b-43a. The secund day of fayre fresshe lusty May As half in slepe in slombir half wakyng Me mette this sweuene in spryngyng of pe day How to me came a flowre this resonyng Me and seide / my frend y had trustyng 5 Whilom that thou had holde on my parte But now me thynke thou hast forgoten me And strengthist lo the leef ageyn me sore I merveyle wherin y haue greuyd thee Me thynke y haue deservid not wher- fore 10 Sore basshid y when y this herde hir say Aftir my rewde havoure this answeryng Moost goodly flowre god helpe me so al- way As y thought neuyr doon ayenst yow thyng Yow to displese but happe of such ches- yng 15 The leef to serue this heyre hath made me he Ought ye therfore me blame then nay parde Syn so to doon is vsid evirmore And ye me blame as for my poore dewte Me thynke y haue deservid not wher- fore 20 Als yow in cheef that do y honoure ay What part y am as is me well sittyng All for oon flowre that me was tane away In tyme a past god graunt vs sone metyng In paradice the howre of my deiyng 25 O flowre wherfore ye not displesid be ffor cause therto well wote y noon nave ye Though that y levys were a thousand skore Whi blame ye me whi shewe ye crewelte TRANSLATIONS FROM CHARLES’ FRENCH 229 Lenuoy La verite est telle que ie dy 30 Jen fais iuge Amours le puissant roy Tresdoulce fleur point ne te cry mercy Riens nay meffait se pense ie vers toy From MS Royal 16 F ii, foll. 97b-98a. Text also in aries Bibl. Nat. fonds fr. 25458, pp. 88-89. Me thynke y haue deservid not wher- fore 30 The trouthe is this hit light is forto se God be my Juge y kan no ferthirmore ffor where ye seine y axen shulde merce Me thynke y haue deservid not wherfore From MS Brit. Mus. Harley 682, fol. 44. XVIII Chancon En la forest damoureuse tristesse Ung iour mauint qua par moy cheminoye Ie rencontray lamoureuse deesse Qui mappella demandant ou ialoye Te respondy que par fortune estoye 5 Mis en exi! en ce bois long temps a Et qua bon droit appeller me pouoye Lomme esgare qui ne scet ou il va En sourriant par (sa) tresgrant hum- blesse Me respondy amy se ie sauoye 10 Pourquoy tu es mys en ceste destresse A mon pouoir voulentiers tayderoye Car ia pieca ie mis ton cuer en voye De tout plaisir ne scay qui len osta Or me desplaist qua present ie te voye 15 Lomme esgare qui ne scet ou il va Helas dis ie souueraine princesse Mon fait sauez pourquoy le vous diroye Cest par la mort qui fait a tous rudesse Qui ma tollu celle que tant amoye 20 En qui estoit tout lespoir que iauoye Qui me gardoit sy bien macompaigna En son viuant que point ne me trouuoye Lomme esgare qui ne scet ou il va Lenuoy Aueugle suy ne scay ou aler doye 25 De mon baston affin que ne fouruoye In the forest of noyous hevynes As y went wandryng in the moneth of may I mette of loue the myghti gret goddes Which axid me whithir y was away I hir answerid as fortune doth convey 5 As oon exylid from ioy al be me loth That passyng well all folke me clepyn may The man forlost that wot not where he goth Half in a smyle ayen of hir humblesse She seide my frend if so y wist ma fay 0 Wherfore that thou art brought in such distresse To shape thyn ese y wolde my silf assay ffor here to fore y sett thyn hert in way Of gret plesere y not whoo made thee wroth Hit grevith me / thee see in suche aray 15 The man forlost that wot not where he goth Allas y seide most souereyne good prin- cesse Ye knowe my case what nedith to yow say Hit is thorugh deth that shewith to all rudesse Hath fro me tane that y most louyd ay 20 In whom that all myn hope and comfort lay So passyng frendship was bitwene vs both That y was not / to fals deth did hir day The man forlost that wot not where he goth Thus am y blynd allas and welaway 25 Al fer myswent with my staf grapsyng 230 ANONYMOUS Ie voy tastant mon chemin ca et la Cest grant pitie quil conuient que ie soye Lomme esgare qui ne scet ou il va From MS Brit. Mus. Royal 16 F ii, foll. 131b-132. Text also in Paris MS Bibl. Nat. fonds fr. 25458, pp, 89-90. 1. Paris reads dennuyeuse tristesse. 9. sa is inserted from Paris. 18. diroye is from Paris. Royal reads coniroye. The French was printed in the 1501 Jardin de Plaisance, fol. 201b; see facsimile is- sued by the Soc. d. anc. textes fr. Balade Le beau soleil le iour saint Valentin Qui aportoit sa chandelle alumee Na pas long temps entra par vng matin Priueement en ma chambre fermee Celle clarte quil auoit aportee 5 Sy mesueilla du somme de soussy Ou iauoye toute la nuyt dormy Sur le dur lit damoureuse pensee Ce iour aussi pour partir leur butin Des biens damours faisoyent assemblee 10 Tous les oyseaulx qui parlans leur latin Cryoyent fort demandans leur liuree Que nature leur auoit ordonnee Cestoit dun per comme chascun choisy Sy ne me peuz rendormir pour leur cry 15 Sur le dur lit damoureuse pensee Lors en mouillant de lermes mon coissin Je regretay ma dure destinee Disant oyseaulx ie vous voy en chemin De tout plaisir et joye desiree 20 Chascun de vous a per qui luy agree Et point nen ay. car Mort qui ma trahy A pris mon per dont en dueil ie languy Sur le dur lit damoureuse pensee Lenuoy Saint Valentin choisissent cest annee 25 Ceulx et celles de lamoureux party Seul me tendray de confort desgarny Sur le dur lit damoureuse pensee From MS Brit. Mus. Royal 16 F ii, fol. 134. Text Bee Paris, Bibl. Nat. fonds fr. 25458, p. 93. Paris reads in line 3—entra un bien matin. In 8, 16, 24, 28 it reads dennuieuse pensee. Line 20, omitted by Royal, is here given from Paris. wey That no thyng axe but me a graue to cloth ffor pite is that y lyue thus a day The man forlost that wot not where he goth From MS Brit. Mus. Harley 682, fol. 46 b-47 a. Whan fresshe Phebus day of seynt val- entyn Had whirlid vp his golden chare aloft The burned bemys of it gan to shyne In at my chambre where y slepid soft Of which the light that he had wt him brought 5 He wook me of the slepe of heuynes Wherin forslepid y all the nyght dowtles Vpon my bed so hard of newous thought Of which this day to parten there bottyne An oost of fowlis semblid in a croft 10 Myn eye biside and pletid ther latyn To haue wt them as nature had them wrou3t Ther makis forto wrappe in wyngis soft ffor which they gan so loude ther cries dresse That y ne koude not slepe in my distres 15 Vpon my bed so hard of newous thought Tho gan y reyne wt teeris of myn eyne Mi pilowe and to wayle and cursen oft My destyny and gan my look enclyne These birdis to and seide ye birdis ought 20 To thanke nature where as it sittith me nou3t That han yowre makis to yowre gret gladnes Where y sorow the deth of my maystres Vpon my bed so hard of noyous thought Als wele is him this day that hath him kaught 25 A valentyne that louyth him as y gesse Where as this comfort sole y here me dresse Vpon my bed so hard of noyous thought From MS Brit. Mus. Harley 682, foll. 47b-48a. TRANSLATIONS FROM CHARLES’ FRENCH Chancon Prenez tost ce baiser mon cuer Que ma maistresse vous presente La belle bonne ieune et gente Par sa tresgrant grace et doulceur 5 Bon guet feray sur mon honneur Affin que danger riens nen sente Prenez etc. Dangier toute nuyt en labeur A fait guet or gist en sa tente Acomplissez brief vostre entente Tandis quil dort cest le meilleur Prenez &c. Io English from MS Brit. Mus. Harley 682, fol. 77b. French from MS Brit. Mus. Royal 16 F ii, fol. 124b; copy also in Paris, Nat. fonds fr. 25458, p. 271. Bibl. Chancon Te ne vueil plus riens que la mort Pource que voy que reconfort Ne puet mon cuer esleesser Au moins me pourray ie vanter Que ie seuffre douleur a tort 5 Car puis que nay despoir le port Damours ne puys souffrir leffort Ne doy ie donc ioye lasser Te ne &c. Au dieu damour ie men rapport Quen pains suys boute sy fort Que pouoir nay plus dendurer Sen ce point me fault demourer Quant de moy ie my accort Te ne &c. Io English from MS Brit. Mus. Harley 682, fol. 68a. French from MS Brit. Mus. Royal 16 F ii, fol. 117b; copy also in Paris, Bibl. Nat. fonds fr. 25458, p. 251. XX XXI 231 Take take this cosse atonys atonys my herte That thee presentid is of thi maystres The goodly fayre so full of lustynes Only of grace to lessen wt thi smert But to myn honoure loke thou well avert 5 That daunger not parseyue my sotilnes Take take this That thee Daunger wacchith al nyght in his shert To spye me in a gery currisshenes 10 So to haue doon attones let se thee dresse While in a slepe his eyen ben covert Take take this That thee More then the deth nys thyng vnto me leef Syn recomfort vnto my karfull greef May noon be found to ioy my woofull hert But as a wrecche avaunt y may of smert That wrongfully my payne is to geef 5 ffare well hope for noon may me releef Thorugh loue fortune hath cast me to myschef Which shapen had my deth to fore my shert More then the Syn recomfort May noon ben O god of loue thou wost y am no theef Nor fallyng of my trouthe thou kan not preef Whi shall y dey then wolde y fayn aduert Although from deth y kepe not now IO astert 15 Though that he stood right even here at my sleve More then the Syn recomfort May noon ben 252 ANONYMOUS Chancon De la regarder vous gardez La belle que sers ligement Car vous perdrez soudainement Vostre cuer se la regardez Se donner ne le luy voulez 5 Clignez les yeux hastiuement De la. &c. Les biens que dieu lui a donnez Amblent vng cuer soubtilement Por ce prenez auisement 10 Quant deuant elle vous vendrez De la regarder. &c. English from MS Brit. Mus. Harley 682, fol. 72a. French from MS Brit. Mus. Royal 16 F ii, fol. 119a; text also in Paris, Bibl. Nat. fonds fr. 25458, p. 254. Bewar y rede yow loke here not vpon The goodly fayre that y loue feithfully ffor ye shall lese yowre hert even sodayn- ly If so be that ye cast her lokyng on Wherfore but ye lust gefe yowre hert anoon Shette vp yowre eyen and close hem we surely Bewar y The goodly ffor the bewte she hath bi god alon Hit stelith lo an hert so pratily 10 That but ye bet abowt yowre silf aspy Or ye be war yowre hert shall be goon Bewar y The goodly XXII1 Chancon Ie me mets en vostre mercy Tresbelle bonne ieune et gente On ma dit questes mal contente De moy ne scay sil est ainsy De toute nuyt ie nay dormy 5 Ne pensez pas que ie vous mente Ie me metz &c. Pource treshumblement vous pry Que vous me dictes vostre entente Car dune chose ie me vante 10 Quen loyaulte nay point failly Te me metz &c. The English text is from MS Brit. Mus. Harley 682, fol. 83a; the French from Brit. Mus. Royal 16 F ii, fol. 129a, compared with the text in Paris, Bibl. Nat. fonds fr. 25458, p. 278. I put my silf vnto youre mercy lo Moost goodly fayre most replete of bounte Hit seid me is that ye are wroth wt me Not wot y whi nor where hit be or no But all the nyght ne slepen y for woo 5 Saue thenke and muse wherfore that hit shuld be I put my Most goodly Allas beth not so moche to me my foo But youre entent wherfore as let me se 0 ffor this y vaunt my silf that y am he That kepe his trouthe and shall wherso y go I putt my Most goodly FROM HARDYNG’S CHRONICLE Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt John Hardyng was born in 1378, of a Northern family, and at twelve years of age entered the service of the Earl of Northumberland. He was at the battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, and witnessed the death of his master “Hotspur”. He then went into the service of Sir Robert Umfraville, in which he remained for the rest of his life. With Sir Robert he took part in the battle of Agincourt, and saw other foreign service. According to a rubric in MS Lansdowne 204, he was at Rome in 1424. Sir Robert iater made Hardyng constable of his castle of Kyme, Lincolnshire, where Hardyng lived for many years ; he was working on his Metrical Chronicle as late as 1464, when he was eighty-six years old, and it does not seem probable that he long survived that date. Hardyng was commissioned by the English Crown to seek in Scotland for evidence of the feudal relation between that country and England, and much time was spent in this search. The documents which he brought forward to attest the homage due from Scotland to the English sovereign were, however, too probably forged by himself ; and this and his constant demand to be rewarded for “discov- ering” them have seriously damaged his reputation with modern students. Nor is that reputation raised by his Chronicle, which, extending from mythical times to his own day, rarely contains anything independent of previous chronicles. He several times rewrote his work for different royal patrons. The earlier recension, of which the unique copy is Lansdowne 204 of the British Museum, and which was apparently the presentation text offered to Henry VI, concludes with the death of Hardyng’s master, Sir Robert Umfraville, in 1436; it is of about 2700 stanzas in rime royal. Kingsford considers that it was partly composed be- tween 1440 and 1450. A different and briefer version was subsequently prepared for Edward IV; the MS Harley 661, which Lee in the DictNatBiog terms “the best of the later versions’, has less than 1800 stanzas. There are two MSS in the Bodleian Library, one (Arch. Selden B 10) bearing the arms of Percy Earl of Northumberland (ob. 1527). In 1543 Richard Grafton the printer issued two editions of Hardyng’s work, following one of the later recensions, but in a form differing from any surviving copy; and in 1812 Sir Henry Ellis edited one of these. Two brief bits from MS Harley 661 are printed by Wulker, Altengl. Lese- buch, ii: 73-75. Two stanzas were printed by Mrs. Cooper in her (1737) Muses’ Library. There is no literary merit whatever in Hardyng’s work; its doggerel stupidity shows the uselessness of battle, foreign travel, and scholarly pursuits to summon any real response from a “spirit dried up and closely furled”. For discussion of Hardyng and his Chronicle, see C. L. Kingsford on The First Version of Hardyng’s Chronicle, in Engl. Hist. Review 27 :462-482 (1912). See Kingsford, English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century, Ox- ford, 1913, chapter vi. Kingsford considers that a comparative edition of the various recensions of the Chronicle would be of no value. The differences be- tween them, he says, are so great that no “critical” edition is possible. On Hardyng’s language see W. Hagedorn, Ueber die Sprache einiger nord- licher Chaucerschiiler, Gottingen 1892, p. 15. [ 233 ] 234 JOHN HARDYNG On Agincourt see Sir N. H. Nicolas’ History of the Battle of Agincourt, 1832. He prints 1) on pp. 301-329 a poem from MS Harley 565, which is attributed to Lydgate; this is in 3 passus, and covers not only Agincourt but the preceding siege of Harfleur and the sttbsequent triumphal entry of Henry into London. 2) along with the above, on pp. 303-325, a similar but shorter poem, from Hearne’s edition of Elmham’s life of Henry V, the text offered by a Cot- tonian MS now lost, Vitellius D xii. 3) in his Appendix, pp. 69-77, a poem on the same subject, from a black letter copy. This is also to be found in Hazlitt’s EEPopPoetry ii:92-108, and in Arber’s Engl. Garner, Westm., 1897, viii:13-24, its text there modernized and ascribed to Lydgate. Thomas Wright, in his PolitPoems ii:123-27, prints eight stanzas of verse on the battle, which appear in MS Cott. Cleopatra C iv with a prose account. The Latin prose of the Gesta Henrici Quinti, see ed. by Williams, London, 1850, was used by Hardyng for this poem, according to Kingsford as above p. 49. It is translated into English and printed by Nicolas as above, pp. 183-300. Other verses on the battle or on Henry’s return are printed by Nicolas, pp. 67-8, 78-86. Capgrave’s allusion to the battle, in his Chronicle of England, ed. Rolls Series, 1858, is very slight. On Oldcastle see the poem of Hoccleve in the EETS ed. of his work, iii:8 ff. [MS Brit. Mus. Lansdowne 204, chapter 211] Henry his sonne / that prynce of wales was than On seynt Cuthbert / day than next fol- owynge In marce was crounde / as I remembre can And als ennoynte / at Westmynster for kynge Of whom the reme / was glad with oute lesynge 5 Obeyand hym / in alkyns ordynaunce As subgytz owe / to ryall gouernaunce Z In his friste yer / the Cobham Errytyke Confedred with / lollers incipient Agayne the Chirche / arose and was full lyke 10 It haue distroyed / by thar intendement Had noght the kynge / than made sup- powelment And toke thaym vp / by gode inspeccioun That friste bygan / that insurreccioun 3 Than fled the lorde / Cobham errony- ouse 5 To Wales so / with lollers many one Musyng in his / oppynyoun venymouse How that he myght / the chirche distroy anone Bot god that sytte / in heuen aboue all- one Knowyng his herte / naked of gode sente- ment 20 Lete hym be take / to haue his Jugyment That prisonde was / at london in the Toure Of whiche he dyd / eschape away by nyght And taken was agayn with in an houre And after sone / dampned by law and right 25 ffor errisy / by all the Clergy sight And brent he was / tyll askes dede and pale Thurgh cursed lyfe / thus came he in grete bale 5 The kynge than sette / vpon all rightwys- nesse Of morall wytte / and all benygnyte 30 All openly / he ordeynde in expresse That all men myght with oute diffyculte The Archebisshop / of yorke vysyte and se FROM THE CHRONICLE 235 That Rychard Scrope / so hight full graciouse ffor whom god shewed / myracles ne uouse 6 Kynge Rycharde als / at langley leyde in erthe Agayne his wyll / and all his ordynaunce By comaundement / of kynge Henry the ferthe ffor folke of hym / shulde haue no re- membraunce The kynge toke vp / with riall ordy- naunce 40 And toumbed fayre / byside his wyfe quene Anne With all honoure / that myght be done by manne 7 The kynge so than / right in his seconde yer In his parlement / by gode benyvolence At laycestr / foure dukes made in fer 45 His brother Thomas / duke of Clarence His brother John / for grete expedience Duke off Bedford / he made by hole de- cre That next was than / sette in all dignyte 8 His brother Vmfray / next hym he P create ‘The so than / of Gloucestre a style “Thomas Bewford / his Eme Erle of Dorsette -He made than duke / of Excester that while And thar he graunte / than as I can compyle Henry Percy his londes / that wer in tayle 55 ‘To sewe thaym oute / by lawe and gouer- nayle 9 On Mawdelayne day the thirde yer of his rygne ‘Syr Robert than / Vmframvyle dyd so ryde In Scotlande so / and to none wolde re- sygne His power right / bot on hym toke that tyde 60 ‘That laboure hole / and toke hym to his gyde And tolde hym whare / he shulde hym brynge and lede Whar that he toke grete gode with outen drede 10 And faught with thaym / at Greterigge in batayle Whare eghtene score / of Scottes were dede and slayne 65 Nyne hundre fled / he folowed at thair tayle On whom he made / grete chace the sothe to sayne Twelfe myle on lenghe / with thaym he rode agayn Whare in the chase / bot with ffyve hundre men He toke thaym vp / and slew thaym fleand then 70 11 At lammesse after / the kynge to Nor- mandy At hampton was / with all his hoste to sayle Whare than the Erle of Cambrige cer- tanly The lorde Scrope als / Sir Thomas gray no fayle The kynges deth / had caste for thair avayle 75 Of whiche the kynge was ware and toke all thre And heded hem at hampton by decre 12 And helde hys way / to harflete than anone And wanne it so / and made ther of Captayne His Eme the duke / of Excester allone fo Ande homwarde went / by Calays so agayne At Agyncourte / the ffrensshe hym mette sertayne And with hym faught / with hoste in- nomerable Whare thay were take / and wonne with outen fable 13 The duke was take / that day of Orli- ence 85 The duke also / of Burboyne certaynly The Erle wendome / that was of grete credence 236 JOHN HARDYNG And sir Arthur / of Bretayn verryly * o* * * * * * * With many mo / of other prisoners 90 That taken wer / as sayne Cronyclers 14 The dukes thre / of Bare and Alaunson And of loreyne / were in that batayle slayn And for thair lyfes / they payed no more raunson Who to thayr wyfes / no more cam nought agayne Bot on that grounde / thar dyde thay certayn ffourty thousonde thar layde thair lyfes to wedde ffor thair raunson / me thought thay had wele spedde 15 On oure syde / was of yorke Duke Ed- ward slayne A myghty lorde / and ffull of sapi- ence I00 And few elles mo / of Englisshe men certayne As I consayue / that were of reuerence That was bot grace / of goddes omni- potence ffor Englisshe men / nyne thousond noght excede That faught agayne / an hundre thou- sonde in dede 105 16 On seynt Crispyne / and Crispynian day This batayle sore / certanly was smyten At Agyncourte / as thay with sette his way ffor whiche the kynge / gan fight as wele was wyten With thaym anone / whare wer slayne vnsmyten IIo Thousondes smored / thurgh thayr mul- titude That wolde haue fledde / fro his excelsi- tude 17 The yere of Criste / a thousonde and foure hundre And seuentene eke / whan that this same batayle Was smyten so / and of the regne no wonder 115 The thirde yere was / that tyme with outen fayle And home thay came / than to thair moste avayle Thurgh Pykardy / by Guynes and Calays than And thare thay shipte / and into Englond wan 18 In Englonde than / in the somer se- son 120 The Emperour / of Rome sir Sygis- mounde Was with the kynge / and made by grete encheson Of the Garter / a knyght so in that stounde And to the reule / and ordreur sworne and bounde And had his stall / vpon the kynges liite honde 125 In the Colage / of seynt George I vndyr- stonde LONDON LICKPENNY This poem narrates in stumbling metre, but with freedom and vivacity, the “experiences of a poor Kentishman in Westminster and London. The author, speaking in his own person, represents himself as going the round of the lawyers in Westminster Hall to get a hearing for his case; but as he has no money, no one will take it up. He leaves Westminster and goes through the city of London, among the hawkers and vendors, to Billingsgate, where he would fain ferry over to the Surrey and Kent side of the Thames. Here again his lack of money is against him, but ultimately he gets back to his plow, resolved to meddle no more with the law. A similar descriptive effort is seen in the seventeenth-century poem The Puisnes Walks about London, printed in Reliquiae Antiquae, 11:70, from MS Harley 3910. And cf. the Latin parody in Carmina Burana, pp. 22-23; also the complaint against the ecclesiastical law-courts printed from Harley 2253 by Wright in his Political Songs. . . John to Edward II, 1839, p. 155, and by Boddeker, Altengl. Dichtungen, p. 107. Of the poem two recensions are known, in MSS Brit.Mus.Harley 367 and Harley 542. Both volumes are miscellaneous collections, the latter written for the most part in the tiny needle-script of John Stow (died 1605) and the other com- .posed of papers of Stow’s age or later. Stow’s own copy, here printed, names no author; but in his Survey of London he gives a synopsis of part of it and at- .tributes it to Lydgate; see the ed. of the Survey by Kingsford, Oxford, 1908, i :217. And the recension of Harley 367, in a loose scrawl not that of Stow, is headed ~“London Lyckpeny A Ballade compyled by Dan Iohn Lydgate monke of Bery -about . . . yeres agoe, and now newly ouersene and amended.” A blank is left by the scribe before the word yeres. Both recensions were printed parallel by me in Anglia 20 :404-420 (1898), with the suggestion that part at least of the “amended” condition of the Harley 367 text was its change of the eight-line stanza as copied by Stow to the seven-line stanza. I also seconded the rejection of the -poem from the Lydgate canon, made by ten Brink in a note to vol. ii of his History of English Literature. But the Harley 367 version, which is in its own heading stated to be an al- teration from Lydgate, has been many times printed as his:—by Strutt in Horda Angelcynnan, London, 1775-6; by Hughson in his ‘London,’ 1805, ii:124-7; by Sir Harris Nicolas in his Chronicle of London, 1827, appendix; by Halliwell in his ed. of Lydgate’s Minor Poems, 1840; by Gilfillan in his Specimens of the Less- Known British Poets, Edinburgh, 1860, 1:49; by Henry Morley in his Shorter Eng- lish Poems, 1876-82, p. 53; by Skeat in his Specimens of Engl. Lit. 1394-1579, fifth ed. Oxford, 1890; by H. M. Fitzgibbon in Early Engl. Poetry, London, 1887 ; by Bronson in his Old and Middle Engl. Poems, 1910, pp. 166-69. The Harley 542 recension, that for which we have Stow’s assertion of Lydgate’s authorship, was printed by Nicolas as above, by me as stated, and by Sir Frederick Bridge in his Old Cryes of London, London, 1921, pp. 16-20. Since the appearance of the two texts in Anglia, there has been some ten- dency to reject the poem from the Lydgate canon, notably in Dr. MacCracken’s introd. to his volume of Lydgate’s Minor Poems, EETS 1911; but the earlier formula is followed by Saintsbury in his Engl. Prosody, i1:225, by the Cambridge [237] 238 ANONYMOUS Hist. of Eng. Lit. ii:228, by Courthope in his Hist. Eng. Poetry, i:326, and by the New Eng. Dict. s. v. common pleas. Halliwell meddled with the title, changing it to London Lackpenny. Skeat corrected this “popular etymology”, but it reappears in Courthope and in Compton- Ricketts’ London Life of Yesterday, p. 88. Skeat compared James Howell’s Lon- dinopolis, 1657, where it is said that London is called Lickpenny, just as Paris is called Pickpurse, because of its expensiveness. The text is discussed by J. H. Kern in Neophilologus iii :286-300. london licpenye / In london there I was bent I saw my selfe, where trouthe shuld be a teynte fast to westminstar ward I went to a man of lawe, to make my complaynt I sayd for maris love, that holy seynt 5 have pity on the powre, that would pro- cede I would gyve sylvar, but my purs is faynt ‘ for lacke of money, I may not spede / Z As I thrast thrughe out the thronge amonge them all, my hode was gonn 10 netheles I let not longe, to kyngs benche tyll I come by fore a juge I kneled anon I prayd hym for gods sake he would take hede full rewfully to hym I gan make my mone 15 for lacke of money I may not spede / benethe hym sat clerks, a great rowt fast they writen by one assent there stode vp one, and cryed round about Richard Robert and one of Kent 20 I wist not wele what he ment He cried so thike there in dede there were stronge theves shamed & shent but they that lacked money mowght not spede / vnto the comon place y yowde thoo 25 where sat one with a sylken houde I dyd hym reverence as me ought to do I tolde hym my case, as well as I coude _and seyd all my goods by nowrd and by sowde *I am defrawdyd with great falshed 30 he would not geve me a momme of his mouthe for lake of money, I may not spede / *Then I went me vnto the Rollis before the clerks of the chauncerie there were many qui tollis 35 but I herd no man speke of me before them I knelyd vpon my kne -shewyd them myne evidence & they be- gan to reade they seyde trewer things might there nevar be ‘but for lacke of money I may not spede / 40 In westminster hall I found one went in a longe gowne of ray I crowched I kneled before them anon for marys love of helpe I gan them pray as he had be wrothe, he voyded away 45 bakward, his hand he gan me byd I wot not what thou menest gan he say ley down sylvar, or here thow may not spede / 7 In all westminstar hall I could find nevar a one that for me would do, thowghe I shulde dye 50 -wtout be dores, were flemings grete woon vpon me fast they gan to cry and sayd mastar what will ye copen or by fine felt hatts, spectacles for to rede of this gay gere, a great cause why 55 for lake of money I might not spede / 8 Then to westminster gate y went when the sone was at highe prime Cokes to me, they toke good entent called me nere, for to dyne 60 and proferyd me good brede ale & wyne LONDON LICKPENNY 239 a fayre clothe they began to sprede rybbes of befe, bothe fat and fine but for lacke of money I might not spede / 9 In to london I gan me hy of all the lond it bearethe the prise hot pescods,one gan cry ‘strabery rype,and chery in the ryse one bad me come nere and by some spice pepar and saffron they gan me bede 70 clove, grayns, and flowre of rise for lacke of money I might not spede / 10 -Then into Chepe I gan me drawne where I sawe stond moche people one bad me come ner, and by fine cloth of lawne paris thred, Coton, and vmple I seyde there vpon I could no skyle I am not wont there to in dede one bad me by an hewre, my hed to hele for lake of money I might not spede / 80 11 Then went I forth by london stone Thrwghe out all canywike strete -drapers to me they called anon grete chepe of clothe, they gan me hete then come there one, and cried hot shepes fete Risshes faire & grene, an othar began to grete both melwell and makarell I gan mete but for lacke of money I myght not spede / 12 Then I hied me into estchepe one cried ribes of befe, and many a pie 90 pewtar potts they clatteryd on a heape ther was harpe pipe and sawtry ye by cokke, nay by cokke some began to cry some sange of Jenken and Julian, to get them selvs mede full fayne I wold hadd of that mynstralsie but for lacke of money I cowld not spede / 13 Into Cornhill anon I yode where is moche stolne gere amonge ‘I saw wher henge myne owne hode that I had lost in westminstar amonge be throng r00 then I beheld it with lokes full longe I kenned it as well as I dyd my crede to by myne owne hode agayne, me thought it wrong but for lacke of money I might not spede / 14 Then came the taverner,and toke (me) by pe sleve 105 and seyd ser a pint of wyn would yow assay syr quod I it may not greve for a peny may do no more then it may I dranke a pint, and therefore gan pay sore a hungred away I yede 110 for well london lykke peny for ones & eye for lake of money I may not spede / 15 Then I hyed me to byllingesgate and cried wagge wagge gow hens I praye a barge man for gods sake 115 that they would spare me myn expens he sayde ryse vp man,and get the hens what wenist thow I will do on be my almes dede here skapethe no man, by nethe ij pens for lacke of money I myght not spede / 16 Then I conveyed me into Kent I2I for of the law would I medle no more by caws no man to me would take entent ‘I dight me to the plowe, even as I ded be- fore ‘Ihesus save london, that in bethelem was bore 125 and every trew man of law god graunt hym souls med and they that be other, god theyr state restore for he that lackethe money, wt them he shall not spede / Explicet london lykke peny / THE LIBEL OF ENGLISH POLICY: Lines 1-563 This “libel”, or “little book”, of English policy, was written by an unknown hand soon after 1436. The copies of it thus far listed are orthographically poor, full of errors and variants; they differ also somewhat in length, the text of Bod. Laud 704 having 1156 lines, but others less. A marked difference among the thirteen (or fourteen) known MSS! is in the stanzas of epilogue. One type of this epilogue is addressed to Lord Hungerford, i.e., Walter baron Hungerford, who was prominent in the royal council from 1426 to 1449; it is found in three MSS and in the print by Hakluyt, 1599, from a text not now known but apparently bet- ter than the surviving copies. This recension was printed, from Laud 704, by Wright in his Political Songs and Poems, 1859-61, ii:157-205. Wright’s text was revised and annotated by W. Hertzberg, with an introduction by R. Pauli, Leipzig, 1878; but this edition standardizes the spelling and emends freely. The other epilogue, also of two stanzas, is addressed to three persons, “bishop and yerle and baron plentivous”, no names being given; a copy is printed in the Notes below. Another difference between the two recensions is found in line 9; the Laud MS there says of the emperor Sigismund “whyche yet regneth”, while the later re- cension reads “which late regned” or “of high renowne”. As Sigismund died in December 1437, and as the text of both recensions alludes to the attack on Calais by the duke of Burgundy in 1436 and to the taking of Harfleur in the same year, we can date the Laud type of text very closely; but there is as yet no means of dating the other recension. Sir George Warner, in his critical edition of the poem, considers that it cannot be separated from the earlier form of text by any such interval as Hertzberg conjectured, but probably followed soon. The poem, written in five-beat coupiets, is arranged in twelve chapters of unequal length, with a stanzaic prologue and epilogue. Certain of the chapters list the “commoditees” of Spain, Portugal, Brittany, Scotland, Hainault, Genoa, Ireland, etc., each description leading to an urgent demand on Government to con- trol all this sea-borne trade bound for the marts of Flanders past English shores. Illustrative anecdotes are interspersed,—Edward III’s dealings with the duke of Brittany, the sharp practices of Venetian woolbuyers, Hankyn Lyons the pirate, the wisdom of King Edgar, the prowess of Henry the Fifth. The writer’s recur- rent and constantly emphasized themes are the need for English sovereignty of the Channel or “narrow sea”, and the need for stringent laws controlling foreign woolbuyers in England. Great difficulties attend the attempt to generalize about English commerce and industry in the fifteenth century. Besides the lack of available information on many points, there is the contradiction between records existing for one part of the country and those remaining for others. It would seem, to steer a middle course, that the English agricultural districts were in this period depressed, often impov- erished, while many of the towns, especially those engaged in the cloth trade, were *Bodl. Laud 704, Pepys 1461 at Magdalene College Cambridge; two copies in Brit. Mus. Harley 78 (the second imperfect at close); Harley 271, Harley 4011 impf. at close; Brit. Mus. Adds. 40673 and Cotton Vitellius E x, the latter damaged by fire; Bodl. Rawlinson poetry 32 and All Souls College, Oxford, ciii; codices of the Cowper and of the Gurney collections ; the former Phillipps MS 8299, now no. 140 of the Huntington Library, California. Add the MS back of the Hakluyt print. [ 240 ] THE LIBEL OF ENGLISH POLICY 241 rapidly rising into wealth and power. The way in which the busy East and South coast towns, with their foreign commerce and their active manufacturing gilds, adopted the system of money payments and of credit, organized for overseas trade, and made themselves heard in Parliament, is a world removed from the situation of the stagnant country manor, its owner unable to collect his dues, harassed by the difficulty of procuring labor, and often semi-isolated by the badness of the roads. It is with the prosperous trading towns that the Libel of English Policy deals; the voice of the rimester is that of the ambitious thriving exporter, the eager partisan of “protection” and of the sovereignty of the narrow sea. England had long been aware of her advantage of position, lying just off the French and Flemish coasts, at the throat of the water route from Mediter- ranean countries to Flanders and to the Baltic. She had, however, made no effort to assert this advantage beyond the theoretical assumption to herself of “the sov- ereignty of the sea”. This “sovereignty” seems to have consisted in requiring salute from all foreign shipping in the Channel to any English craft there encoun- tered, and was not carried to exaction of tribute such as Venice imposed upon all shipping in the Adriatic, as Genoa sought to demand from craft entering the Ligurian Sea, or as Denmark and Sweden practiced in the Baltic. England did not even prohibit the Dutch from fishing freely in the Channel waters, until Stuart times ; and although in 1420 such restraining legislation was petitioned for, Henry V refused. One reason for this abstinence may have been England’s lack of power to en- force the claim, and another may have been her unwillingness to antagonize nations who were not only her customers, but in large measure the carriers of her foreign trade. At the opening of the fifteenth century England was still far behind Flan- ders, Genoa, Venice, and other countries in her shipping. The bulk of what reached her shores and of what was carried away,—wine, silks, cloth, oil, spices as imports, and raw wool, tin, lead, etc., as exports—came and went in foreign bottoms. English merchants visited the great foreign fairs, but the volume of trade thus obtained did not induce them to build and man their own ships for transportation. Until the Hundred Years’ War broke out, England as a market was relatively unimportant, and her traders betook themselves for custom to the fairs or “marts” of Burgundy and Champagne. These fairs are, with the “staple” system of English exports and other re- strictions on international commerce, the marked peculiarities of medieval trade. Until late in the Middle Ages the volume of trade in any one place was not constant enough to warrant the permanent domicile of merchants there. Hence the insti- tution of fairs or marts, sometimes under the shadow of a renowned saint or relic, sometimes determined by a convenient road or river, but usually coinciding with Church festivals so as to catch the stream of pilgrims, and always “sublet” by some seigneur to a town or a monastic brotherhood, for value received. These latter in their turn leased the booths, arranged hostel for the travellers, and col- lected dues on the sales. The fairs lasted from eight days to eight weeks, and filled the year in pretty regular sequence. Thus, Troyes had a summer fair and a winter fair ; and in the intervening time, from Sept. 14 to Nov. 2, was held the fair of St. Ayoul; from the date of the Troyes winter fair’s closing, Jan. 1, to the Wednes- day before mid-Lent, extended the fair of Lagny; and that of Bar followed on the six weeks assigned to Lagny, etc. The most important French fairs lay along a topographical line from Provence to Flanders through the valleys of the Rhone, 242 ANONYMOUS Sadne, Somme, Oise, Seine; here were the towns of Montpellier, Nimes, Lyon, Besancon, Troyes, Paris, Beauvais, Arras, and Calais. To these centers streamed at the appointed time the trade of Europe, moving on to the next fair northward or southward as the merchant’s advantage might dictate. At the greater fairs were to be seen not only Northerners with their furs, Englishmen with their wool, and Provencals with their wines and cheeses, but Lombards with their silks, Spaniards with their leather, Genoese with armor and swords, Venetians with jewels and laces, Germans with linens, Orientals with dyestuffs, spices, coffee, drugs, and slaves. Both geographical and political position favored the county of Champagne, where lay several of these towns, down to the fourteenth century. Such an influx of Mediterranean and Flemish merchants was made possible not only by the great rivers, but by the political neutrality of the counts of Champagne; and when, by the marriage of its heiress Jeanne to Philip IV of France in the early fourteenth century, the county was drawn into the quarrels of the Domain Royal, its com- mercial prestige declined with the departure of its peace. No part of France, not even Normandy, suffered more than Champagne and Burgundy during the Hun- dred Years’ War; and long before that war was at its height the fairs of eastern France had yielded priority to those of the Low Countries. Bruges, and later Antwerp, became the principal marts of Western Europe, and to them, as to other Flemish towns now rising into prominence, went the stream of Mediterranean com- merce. That stream was no longer overland ; the war-conditions of the French valleys forbade. The trade route north and south became a sea-route, which, of course, traversed the English Channel; but off the coasts of France and of the Low Coun- tries there raged all through the later Middle Ages violent and continual sea-war- fare. It was not so much by bands of pirates fighting for their own hand, as in the North Sea, that the Channel and the adjacent waters were infested, but by the plague of privateering, of warfare licensed by royal letters of reprisal for injury already received. Overtly the rulers of France, of England, of the Low Countries, framed treaties covering commercial matters and entered formal legal protest against any breach of maritime law by their neighbors; but covertly they issued to their belligerent subjects these documentary permissions to obtain a revenge which the law’s delay denied. As Malo expresses it in his Les Corsaires Dunkerquois, “in spite of the agreements almost yearly between English and Flem- ings, Flemings and Dutch, in spite of the alliances between France and Burgundy, the sea remained the theatre of incessant warfare, of a legalized brigandage.” Merchant ships sailed with convoys, heavily armed, from La Rochelle, from Hull, or from Bruges; but the corsair fleet swooped out of St. Malo or from behind the dunes of the Zwyn and fell upon the laden keels. The records of the time are full of petitions for indemnification, of narratives of cruelty such as the wholesale killing of crews or the abandoning of them in small boats, foodless and waterless, far from land. The coast towns of France and of Southern England were ex- posed to the descent of pirates, licensed or unlicensed ; some communes maintained guards in their harbors; and the sea-robbers were so well-informed and so bold that when Henry IV crossed the outer Thames in 1405, he narrowly escaped cap- ture, although he was convoyed by ships of war. Part of his retinue and of his baggage was indeed taken. The author of the Libel speaks of this piracy or privateering in his third and fourth chapters and in a few lines devoted to Hankyn Lyons, the French sea- THE LIBEL OF ENGLISH POLICY 243 marauder. But his main interest is elsewhere. He insists upon the need for Eng- lish dominance of the Channel, for acquiring a naval supremacy so evident that every nation shall be obliged to cultivate English friendship lest it be forbidden passage through English waters, and also upon the need for retaliating against foreign exactions by placing restraints on foreign merchants similar to the re- straints imposed abroad on English merchants. The whole medieval trade between England and the Continent was conducted under restrictions. In the first place, the English sovereign, in order to collect the export duty on the wool which was England’s main article of commerce, named certain ports as licensed for the shipment, and stationed his collectors there. Ed- ward III, by his Ordinance of the Staple, 1353, specified Newcastle, York, Lincoln, Norwich, Westminster, Canterbury, Chichester, Winchester, Exeter, Bristol, as “staple towns” ; each inland town of this list had its port appointed, Hull for York, Yarmouth for Norwich, Sandwich for Canterbury, etc. To these towns came the foreign buyers of wool, bringing their money or their goods for exchange, in a tide which grew steadily greater after the decay of the fairs of Champagne, and which continued to flow alongside the prosperity of the fairs of Flanders. What vexes our author is that the visiting merchant is not held to residence in one place, obliged to “go to host” ; and also that such a merchant is not compelled to keep his stay in England within narrow limits such as were imposed upon the English merchant abroad. There had been from Edward I to Henry VI a series of enact- ments directed to control of the visiting alien; but these had fallen into desuetude or had been evaded; the Libel indignantly demands their enforcement, and in a marginal note beside lines 474 ff. of our manuscript some scribe or reviser com- ments with disgust on the “wyles and giles” by which the laws were subverted. Our “poet” must have had a strong personal interest in the wool trade, his country’s greatest commercial activity. His indignation has often the ring of individual as much as of national feeling; compare for instance his description of the double-profit system practiced by the Venetians on the commodity and on the exchange. Indeed, despite its limping doggerel expression, the work is a human document throughout. There is a French prose Débat des Hérauts, written per- haps a score of years later than the Libel, 1453-1461, in which the heralds of France and of England argue before Dame Prudence the claims of their respective coun- tries to honor ; but that essay is much more general in its terms than is the Libel, lacks its vivacity, and yields the student no such amount of information. The Libel is a poor enough thing as literature, the average product of the fifteenth-century tendency to put into verse any kind of information, were it on husbandry, on table manners, on cookery, on alchemy; but as a revelation of national and personal egoism it has the passion of an Agincourt ballad. It was printed, from an unknown MS, by Hakluyt as below, and from Laud 704 by Wright as mentioned ante ; Wright was revised by Hertzberg, and Hakluyt’s text is reprinted by Benham, Univ. of Washington Press, Seattle, 1922. There is a bit of Wright’s text repr. in A. S. Cook’s Literary Mid. Eng. Reader, Bos- ton, 1915. A critical edition by Sir George Warner, Oxford Univ. Press, is dated 1926. In Brit. Mus. Lansdowne 796 is a condensed rewriting of the Libel into quatrains ; this was printed by Wright in his Polit.Poems, ii:282-7. The work has been freely used by historians of English commerce. 244 ANONYMOUS SELECT REFERENCE LIST X Débat des hérauts . . . etc., SATF 1871 (see p. 219 here). Fortescue, Sir John (d. 1476), is reputed author of a brief prose work on the Com- odytes of Englond, printed with his life and works, London, 1869, i:549-554. “Commodities” to Fortescue and his age meant “advantages”; and he enumerates England’s rivers, havens, and minerals, besides mentioning her soil as good for sheep and emphasizing that her people are better fed and better clothed than any other nation’s. When listing the exports of various countries, he remarks that the goods of all nations are “uttered” in Flanders. Forrest’s Pleasant Poesye of Princelie Practise, 1548, deals among other things with the wool trade; see extracts from it as appendix to Herrtage’s ed. of Starkey’s Dialogue, EETS 1878, under title England in the Reign of Henry VIII. Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the Eng- lish Nation, 1598-1600. Text of our poem, repr. as above. Lydgate’s Horse, Goose, and Sheep, ed. Degenhart, Leipzig, 1900, discourses, 288 ff., on the importance of the sheep to England. Schanz, Englische Handelspolitik gegen Ende des Mittelalters, etc., Leipzig, 1881. Cunningham, W., Growth of English Industry and Commerce, 3d ed., Cambridge, 1896. Huvelin, Essai historique sur le droit des marchés et des foires, Paris, 1897. Fulton, T. W., The Sovereignty of the Sea, Edinburgh, 1911. Malo, Les corsairs dunkerquois, Paris, 1913. Kingsford, English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century, Oxford, 1913. Warner, ed. The Libelle of Englyshe Polycye, Oxford, 1926; see introd. [MS Brit. Mus. Harley 4011, fol. 120a] HERE BEGYNNETHE THE PROLOGE OF THE LIBELLE OF ENGLISSH POLICIE EXHORTYNG ALL ENGLONDE TO KEPE THE SEE ENVYROUN AND NAMLY THE NAROW SEE, SHEWYNG WHAT PROFITE COMETH THEREOF AND ALSO WHAT WORSHIP AND SALUACION TO ENGLOND The trew processe . of Englissh policye Off outward to kepe this lond in rest Off oure Englond that no man may denye Men say of sothe this is the best Who sailethe Southe Northe Est or West 5 Cherissh marchauntes kepe the admyralte That we be maisters of the narow See 2 ffor Sygismond the grete Emperoure Whiche reigned whan he was in this lond With kyng Henry the fifte prince of honour 10 Here moche glorye as hym thought he fond A myghty lond whiche had take on hond To werre in ffraunce and make mortalite And were ever wele kept rounde aboute the See On the MS see the Notes, p. 478. 3 And to the kyng thus he seid my brother Whan he parseived Caleys and Dover 16 Of all your townes to chese of one and other Kepe the see and sone to come over And werre outward and your ream to re- cover Kepe this tow townes sir to your maieste As your twayn eyen kepe wele the narowe see 21 4 ffor if this see be kept in tyme of werre Who can here passe without Daunger or wo Who may ascape who may myschief de- ferre Whan marchaundise may not foreby Oo 25 gs ffor nedis must than take trusse every fo ffaundres Spayn and all other trust to me THE LIBEL OF ENGLISH POLICY 245 Or els hyndred are the(i) for this narow See 5 Therfore I cast me by a litelle writyng To shew at eye this conclusion 30 ffor conscience and for myn Acquytyng Ayenst god and ayenst Abusion And cowardise and to our enemyes con- fusion ffor -iiij- thynges oure noble sheweth to me Kyng:shipp: Swerd-and power of the See 35 6 Where ben our shippes wher ben thei be come Our enmyes bid vs for the shipp set a shepe Allas our rule halteth it is be nome Who dare wele sey that lordship shold take kepe I wille assay though myn hert begynne to wepe 40 To do this werke yf we wille ever thee ffor verray shame to kepe the narow see 7 Shall ony prynce what so be his name Whiche hathe nobles moche like to oures Be lordes of the See as flemynges to our blame 45 Stoppe vs: take vs- and so make fade the floures Of Englissh astate and disteyn oure honoures ffor cowardise allas it shold so be pe ctiore I begynne to write of this narow ee OFF THE COMMEDITEES OF SPAYN AND OF FFLAUNDRES Here begynneth the profites in certayn 50 With commoditees that comethe out of Spayn And marchaundise who so wille wete what it is Ben ffyges raysyns wyne Bastard and datis Likorise Sivile oyle and Grayn White castell Sope and wexe certayn 55 Iren wolle wadmole Gotefelle and kid- felle also ffor poynt makers full nedfull ben thei two Saffron Quyksiluer whiche Spaynyssh marchaundye Is in to flaundres shipped full craftely Vnto Bruges as to her staple fayre 60 To haue at Scluse her haven to repaire Whiche is cleped the Swyn theire shippes gidyng Where many a vesselle are bydyng But thise marchauntees wt thaire shippes grete And such chaffare as thei bye and gete 65 By the waies must nedes take on hond By the costes to passe of our Englond Betwixe Dover and Caleis this is no doute Who can wele els suche matirs bryng aboute And thise seid marchauntes (dis )charged be 70 Of marchaundise in ffaundres nere the See Than thei ben charged agayn with mar- chaundie That to flaundres longeth full richely ffyne cloth of Ipre that named is better than oures Clothe of Curryk fyne clothe of all col- oures 75 Moche ffustian and also lynnen clothe But ye fflemynges though ye be wroth The grete substaunce of your cloth atte fulle The clothe ye make of our Englissh wolle Than may it not synke in mannes brayn 80 But that it must thise marchaundise of Spayn Bothe out and in by oure costes passe He that seith nay in witte is like an asse Thus yf the see were kept I dare wele sayn We shold haue pease wt the growndes twayn 85 ffor Spayn and fflaundres is as eche other brother And neither may live welle with outen other They may not live to maynteyn theire degrees Wtouten our Englissh commoditees Wolle and tynne of our Englond 90 Susteyneth comons fflemynges I vndir- stond Than yf Englond wold his wolle restrayn 246 ANONYMOUS ffro fflaundres this foloweth in certayn fflaundres of nede must with vs haue pease Or els it is distroied with outen lease 95 Also yf fflaundres thus Distroied be Some marchaundise of Spayn wolle never thee ffor distroied it is and as in chief The wolle of Spayn it cometh not to preef But yf it be tosed and menged wele 100 Amonge Englissh wolle the gretter dele ffor Spaynyssh wolle in fflaundres Draped is And ever hathe be that men hathe mynd Iwis And yit wolle is one of the chief mar- chaundie That longeth to Spayn who so list aspie 105 It is of litell valew trust vnto me Wt Englissh wolle but yf it menged be Thus yf the see be kept than harken hedir Yf thise two londes come not to gedir So that the fflete of fflaundres passe nought II0 That in the narow see it be not brought Into the Rochell to seke the fumouse wyne Ne into Bretons baye for salt so fyne What is than Spayn what is fflaundres also As who seith naught the thrifte is all ago 115 ffor the litell lond of fflaundres is But a staple to other londes Iwis And all that groweth in ffaundres grayn or sede May not a monthe fynde hem mete and brede What hathe than fflaundres be fflemynges leef or lothe 120 But a litell madder and fflemyssh clothe By drapyng of our wolle in substaunce Liven her comons this is her governaunce With out whiche thei may not live at ease Thus must thei sterve or with vs haue pease 125 OFF THE COMMODITEES OF PORTYNGALE The marchaundise also of portyngale Into Dyvers londes come to sale Portyngalers wt vs haue truse in honde Whos marchaundise commeth moche in to Englond Thei ben our ffrendes wt thaire commod- itees 130 And we Englisshe passen into her coun- trees Her lond hathe Oyle- Wyne: osay - wexe ‘and grayn fiigges : Raisyns:- hony: and Cordewayn Datis: salt hides- and suche marchaundye And yef thei wold to fflaundres passe fore bye 135 Thei shold not be suffred ones ne twyes ffor supportyng of oure cruell enemyes That is to sey flemynges wt her gile ffor chaungeable the(i) are in litell while Than I conclude by resons many moo 140 Yeff we suffred neither frende ne foo What for enemye and supportyng Passe ffore by vs in tyme of werryng Sithe oure frendis wold (not) ben in cause Off our hyndryng yef reson lede this clause 145 Than nedes ffro fflaundres pease shold be to vs sought And other landes shold seche pease doute it nought ffor faundres is staple as men telle me Of all nacions of cristente OFF THE COMMODITEES OF LITELL BRETAIGNE Furthermore to write I am fayn 150 Somewhat spekyng of litell Bretaigne The commoditees therof is and was Salte- wynes:creste clothe: and Canvas And the lond of fflaundres sikerly Is the staple of theire marchaundie 155 Whiche marchaundise may not passe away But by the costes of Englond this is no nay And of this Bretaigne who so the trouthe beleves Are the grettest robbers and theves That haue ben in the see many a yere 160 That oure marchauntes haue bought all to dere ffor thei haue take notable good of oures On this seid see thise seid pillours Called (of) Seint malouse and els where Whiche to their Duke none obeisaunce wold bere 165 With such coloures we haue ben hyndred sore THE LIBEL OF ENGLISH POLICY 247 And fayned pease is called no werre here- fore Thus thei haue ben in dyuerse costes many Of our Englond mo than reherse can I In Norfolke costes and in other places aboute 170 Robbed brent and slayn by many a route And thei haue also (raunsomed) towne to towne That into regions of bost haue ronne the sowne Whiche haue ben ruthe to this ream and shame Thei that the see shold kepe are moche to blame 175 ffor Bretaigne is of easy reputacion And Seint Malouse turneth hem to repro- bacion A STORY OF KYNG EDWARDES ORDENAUNCE FOR BRETAIGNE Here bryng I in a story to me lent That a good Squyer in tyme of parlia- ment Toke vnto me wele written in a scrowe That I comoned with both wt hye and lowe Of whiche all men Accorded vnto one That it was done not many yeres Agone But whan that noble Kyng Edward the thirde Reigned in grace right thus it be tid 185 For he had A maner Iolesye To his marchauntes and loved hem hertlye He felt wele the waies the rules of the see Wherby marchauntes myght haue pros- perite Ther(for) Harflete and Houndflete did he make 190 And grete werres that tyme were vndir take Bytwene the kyng and the Duke of Bretaigne Atte last to falle to pease bothe were fayn Vpon whiche made by convencion Our marchauntes made hem _ redy bown 195 Toward Bretaigne wt theire marchaundie Wenyng hem frendes and thedir yode boldly But sone Anon oure marchauntes were Itake And we sped neuer the bettere for truses sake They lost her goodes her money and here spendyng 200 Than thei complayned hem vnto the kyng Than woxe the kyng wrothe and to the Duke sent And complayned how suche harme was hent Vndir convencion and pease made so re- fused The Duke sent Ayene and hym ex- cused 205 Rehersyng that the mounte of seint Michell Nor seint Malous wold never A dele Be subiecte vndir his governaunce Ne be vndir his obeisaunce And so with out hym thei did that dede 210 Amendes he wold none make he seide Wherfor the kynge in hast sette a Iuge- ment Wtout callyng of any parliament Or grete tary to take longe Avise To fortefye anon he did devise 215 Our Englissh townes that is to sey Dertmouth Plymouthe and Fowey And yaf hem help and notable pusaunce Wt Insistence to sette hem in govern- aunce Vpon litell Bretaigne for to werre 220 Than good see men wold not deferre But bete hem home that thei myght not route Toke prisoners And lerned hem to loute Than the Duke in like wise Wrote to the Kynge for the truse 225 The Kyng Aunswered how his mayne wode Wt grete power were passed over the flode To distroie the Dukes londe Ayenst his wille I vndirstonde And whan the Duke say how that townes thre 230 Shold haue distroied his countre He than made suerte trew and not fals ffor mount Michell and seint Malous als And for all the parties of litell Bretaigne Whiche to obeye as seid was were not fayne 235 So that all the lyf (tyme) of the kynge Marchauntes had pease wt out warryng 248 ANONYMOUS He made a statute for lombardes in this lond That thei shold in no wise take on hond Here to enhabite to charge and dis- charge 240 But-xl-daies no more had thei large This good kynge of suche Apreef Kept his marchauntes in the see fro myschief OF THE COMODITEES OF SCOTLOND AND DRAPYNG OF HER WOLLE IN FFLAUNDRES Also over all Scotland the commoditees ‘Are felles hides and of wolle the flees 245 All this must passe by vs away In to fflaundres by Englond this is no nay And all her wolle is draped for to selle In the townes of poperyng and of Belle Which the Duke of Gloucestre in grete Ire 250 ffor her falshede sete vpon a fire And yit thei of Belle and Poperyng Coude never drape her wolle for any thyng But yef thei had englissh wolle wt all Our goodly wolle it is so generalle 255 Nedfull to hem of Spayn and Scotland als And other costes this (sentence) is not fals Ye worthi marchauntes I do it vpon yow That this is trew ye wote wele how ffor the staple of that marchaundie 260 Of Scotland is fflaundres truly Than the Scottes ben charged at eye Out of fflaundres wt litell mercerye And grete plente of haberdasshe ware And (half ther shippes) wt cart wheles bare 265 And (with) Barowes are laden in sub- staunce Thus must rude ware ben her cheve- saunce So may thei not forbere this fflemyssh lond Therfore yef we wold manly take on hond To kepe the see fro fflaundres and fro Spayn 270 And fro Scotland and fro litell Bretaigne We shold right sone haue pease for all her bostes ffor thei must nedes passe by oure Eng- lisshe costes OF THE COMMODITEES OF PRUCE AND HIGH DUCHE MEN AND ESTERLYNGES [48 lines of Harl. 4011 are now omitted in this print. The passage in other MSS has 54 lines.] OF bE COMMODITEES OF PE JANUAYSE & HER GRETE CARRIKES The Januays comen in sondry wise Into this lond wt dyuerse marchaundise In grete Carrikes arraied wt outen lak With clothes of gold and Siluer & pepir blak 325 Thei brynge with hem waad grete plente Wolle oyle waad asshen by vessels in the see Coton Roche Alom and good gold of Jean And thei ben charged with wolle ayen And wollen clothe of oures of coloures all 330 And thei aventure as ofte it dothe befalle Into ffaundres wt suche thynges as thei bye That is theire chief staple sikerly And yef thei wold be our (fulle) enmyes Thei shold not passe our stremys Iwise OFF THE COMMODITEES OF THE VENYSIANS AND FFLORENTYNES WT THEIRE GALIES The grete Galeys of venyse and fflorence Be wele laden with thynges of compla- cience All Spicery and Grocers ware Wt swete wynes all maner of chaffare Apes / Japes / and Marmesettes / tayled 340 Nifles / trifles / that litell haue availed And other thynges whiche thei blere wt our eye Whiche thynges be not Duryng that we bye ffor moche of this chaffare that is vnstable Might be for born for thei ben disceiv- able 345 And yitt I wene as for infirmitees In Englond are suche commoditees Wt out help of any other londe Whiche by witte and practik bethe I founde That all humours myght be voided sure 350 Of that we gadir in our englissh cure That we shold haue no nede to Scamonye Turbit / Euforbe / Correcte / Dagardye Rubarbe / Sene / and yit thei bene towo nedfull But ther ben thynges also spedfull 355 THE LIBEL OF ENGLISH POLICY 249 That growen here as thise thynges fayned Lette of this matir no man be dismaied But that a man myght void in firmyte With out thise drugges fro be yonde the see And yf ther shold be except ony thyng 360 It were but Sugre trust to my senynge He that trusteth not to my sentence Lette hym better seche experience In this matir I wille no ferther plese Who so not beleveth let hym leve and cease 305 Thus thise Galeys fore theire likyng ware And etyng ware beren hens our best chaffare Clothe wolle and Tynne whiche as is seid beforn Out of this lond myght worse be for- born ffor eche other lond of necessite 370 Haue grete nede to bye one of thise thre And we resceive for hem in to this cost Ware and chaffare that lightly wille be lost And wold Ihesu that our lordes wolde Considre this welle bothe yonge and olde 375 Namly elder that haue experience That myght the yonger exhorte to pru- dence What harme what hurt what hyndraunce Is Done to vs vnto our grete grevaunce Of such londes and of thise nacions 380 As experte men shew by probacions By writyng Are discovered our counseils By fals colours alway the countertails Of oure enemyes that dothe vs hyndryng Vnto oure goodes our Ream and to the kyng 385 As wise men haue shewed welle at eye And all this is coloured by marchaundie AN ENSAMPLE OF A GRETE DISCEITE Also thei bere the gold out of this lond And sowketh the thrifte out of our hond As the waspe sowketh hony of the be 390 So mynnyssheth our commodite Now wolle ye here how thei in Cottes- wold Were wonte to borow as it shold be sold Here wolles good as fro yere to yere Of clothe and tynne thei did in like maner 395 And in theire Galeys shipp theire mar- chaundie Than some at venyse of hem wille it bye Thei vtter ther the chaffare by the peyse And lightly also ther thei make her reise And whan the goodes ben at venyse solde 400 Than to cary her chaunge thei ben full bolde Into ffaundres whan thei this money haue Thei wille it profir their sotelte to save To englissh Marchauntes to yeve it out by eschaunge To be paid agayn thei make not straunge Here in Englond semyng for the better At the resceivyng and sight of lettir By -iiij - pens losse in the noble rounde That is-xii-d-losse in the goldyn pounde And yef we wille haue of payment 410 A ffull monthe than must we assent To: viij -d-losse that is shillynges twayn In the englisshe pounde and ofte sone agayn ffor two monthes: xij-d- must hym pay In the englisshe pounde what it is to say 415 But-iij-shillynges so that in poundes fele For hurte and harme hard it is wt hem to dele And whan englisshe marchauntes haue content This eschaunge in Englond by assent Than thise venysians haue in wone 420 And fflorentynes to bere her gold sone Over the see into fflaundres agayn And thus thei live in flaundres sothe to sayn And in london with suche chevesaunce That men calle vsure to oure losse and hyndraunce 425 ANOTHER ENSAMPLE OF A GRETE DISCEITE Now listen wele how thei made vs a baleys Whan thei borowed atte towne of Caleys As thei were wonte their wolle to hem lent ffro yere to yere thei shold make pay- ment And somtyme:ij-yere and-ij-yere 430 This was faire lone but yit wolle ye here How thei to Brigges wold her wolle carry And for hem take payment without tary And selle it fast for redy money in hond ffor - L: pounde losse thei wold not wond In a thousand pounde and live therby Tille the day of payment easely 250 ANONYMOUS Come agayn in eschaunge makyng ffull like vsure as men make vndirtakyng Than whan this payment of a thousand pounde 440 Was welle content thei shold haue chaf- fare sounde Yf thei wold fro the staple fulle Resceive agayn-iiij- thousand pounde of wolle In Cotteswold also thei ride aboute All Englond and byen wt out dowte 445 What thei list wt fredom and fraunchise More than we englisshe may gete in any wise But wold god that without lenger delayes Here galeys were vnfraught in-xl- dayes And in: xl- dayes charged agayn 450 And that they myght be put in certayn To go to host as we with hem do It were expediente that thei did right so As we do ther yf the kyng wold it A what worship wold falle to englissh witte 455 What profite also to our marchaundie Wiche wold of nede be cherisshed hert- lye I wold wete whi our navie failethe Whan many a foo vs atte dore assailethe Now thise dayes that yef ther come a nede 460 What navie shold we haue it is to drede [12 lines omitted in this print] NOW TO THE PRYNCIPALL MATIR What reason is it that we shall go to host In her countrees and in this englissh cost 475 They shall not so but haue more liberte Than we our self now also mote I the I wolde men shold to yiftes take none hede That letteth our thing publius for to spede ffor this we see wele every day at eye 480 Giftes and festes stoppen our policye Now se that foles ben either thei or we But ever we haue the worse in this coun- tre Therfore lette hem vnto host go here Or be we fre wt hem in like manere 485 In theire countrees and yf it wold not be Compelle hem vnto host and ye shall se Moche avauntage and moche profite arise Moche more than I can write in any wise OFF OURE DISCHARGE AND CHARGE AT HER MARTES Conseive wele here that englisshe men at martes 490 Ben discharged for all her craftes and artes In the Braban of her marchaundye In - xiiij - daies (and) agayn hastly In the same - xiiij - daies are charged efte And yf thei abide lenger all is be refte 495 Anon thei shold forfaite theire goodes alle Of marchaundise it shold not better falle And we to martes of Braban charged ben With englisshe clothe full goode (and fayre) to sen We ben ayene charged with mercery 500 Haberdassh ware and wt Grocery To whiche Martes that englissh men calle faires Eche nacion maketh ofte her repaires Englissh . ffrenssh . Duche . lombardes and Januayes Cathalons thedir make her waies 505 Scottes . Spaynardes . Irissh men ther abides Whiche grete plente bryngen of Irissh hides And I here sey that we in Braban bye More plente of theire marchaundye In comon vse than dothe all other na- cions 510 This I haue herd of marchauntes rela- cions And yf the englissh be not in the martes Thei ben feble and as naught ben her partes ffor thei bye more and fro purse put out ffor marchaundise than all the other rout And pe see were kept pt shippes shold not bryng ne fecche 516 Than the carrys wold not thedir strecche Than shold tho martes full evell thee Yif we manly kept about the see OFF THE COMMODITEES AND MARCHAUN- DISE OF BRABAN SELANDE AND HENAUDE The marchaundise of Braban and Seland Bethe madir and wad that dyers take on hond 521 To dyne wt Garlik and Oynons THE LIBEL OF ENGLISH POLICY 251 And Salt fyssh als for husbondes and comons But thei of Selond at Caleis bye our felles And our wolle that english men hem selles 525 And the chaffare that englissh men byen In the martes no man may denyen It is nat made in Braban that countre It cometh out of henavde and not by the see But all by land Icaried and fro ffraunce ffro Burgayn Camerite Colayn in sub- staunce Therfore at martes yef ther by ony re- straynt Men seyn playnly that list no fables paynt Yef englissh men be with draw away Is grete rebuke losse and affray 535 As though we sent in to the land of ffraunce xx - thousand men of (good) pussaunce To werre vnto her hyndryng multiplye So ben our englissh marchauntes neces- sarye Whether it be thus assay and ye schull weten 540 Of men expert by whom I haue this writen ffor seid is whan this caried marchaundie Draweth as moche to valew sikerly As all the good that cometh in schippes thedir Whiche englissh men bye most and bryng hedir 545 ffor her martes ben feble shame to say But englissh men thedir dresse her way A CONCLUSION OF THIS DEPENDYNG OF KEPYNG OF PE SEE Than I conclude yf men so moche be of lond Were by carres brought vnto her hond Were be see welle kept in govern- aunce 550 Thei shold by see haue no delyueraunce We shold hem stoppe and hem distroye As prisoners we shold hem noye And so we shold of our cruell enemyes Make our frendes for fere of marchaun- dise 399) Yf thei were not suffred forto passe Into flaundres but we (be) fre as glasse And as Brasile not tough ne abidyng But whan grace shyneth than sone we are slidyng We wille it not resceive in any wise 560 That maketh lust envye and Covetise Expounde me this and the sothe Ifynde Bere it away and kepe it in your mynde [The text continues for about 500 lines more] GEORGE RIPLEY: THE COMPEND OF ALCHEMY Preface and Prohibicio Of George Ripley, canon of Bridlington in Yorkshire and an alchemical writer, little is known but his work. His Compend of Alchemy was dedicated to Edward the Fourth in 1471, and in 1476 Ripley presented to Nevill archbishop of York a similar work in Latin, the Medulla Alchimiae, with a request for a home in some religious house. Manuscripts of both works are fairly numerous, and in many of those of the English poem there appears a preface of sixteen lines assigning it to Ripley, mentioning his study in Italy, and saying that he dwelt “aforetime” at Exning or Yxning. We have as yet no more information about him. Manuscripts of the Compend are not yet listed, and probably not all recog- nized. That at Aberystwyth, South Wales, from which I print the Prohibicio, came to light in 1912; codices are known at Corpus Christi College Oxford, Univ. Libr. Cambridge Ff ii:23, Trinity College Cambridge O 2,16 and O 5,31, and Harley 367 of the British Museum, in the hand of John Stow. The preface to the poem is in Brit. Mus. Sloane 299, and there is a fragment in Univ. Libr. Cam- bridge Kk vi:30. The Compend was printed in 1591, and in Elias Ashmole’s Theatrum Chemi- cum Britannicum, 1652. In 1658 appeared Ripley Reviv’d: or an Exposition eee ae George Ripley’s Hermetico-Poetical Works; see Corser’s Collectanea, ix 21O7: The work consists of a dedicatory letter to Edward the Fourth, in thirty eight-line stanzas; Ripley therein says that he was earlier called upon to impart his knowledge to the king, while he was at the University of Louvain; that he wrote Edward thence secretly, and is now prepared to reveal much more valuable information to his sovereign, and to him alone. A general prologue of thirteen seven-line stanzas follows this letter, and the preface follows upon the prologue. This preface, of twenty-nine stanzas rime royal, closes with a list of the twelve chapters of the ensuing work; and to these twelve chapters, which constitute the body of the Compend, there is added a final “Prohibicio” of fifteen stanzas. De- spite the attempt at lofty and ‘“‘aureate” language in the preface, the work has no claim whatever to be considered literature ; but it has an antiquarian value, and a value as parallel or footnote to Chaucer’s Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale. Indeed, Ash- mole includes in his Theatrum both Chaucer’s tale and Lydgate’s Churl and Bird, which he entitles Hermes Bird, and to which he gives an alchemical interpretation. Royal interest in alchemy, as shown by both Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth, was doubtless responsible for the reappearance of the pseudo-science after its suppression during the early fifteenth century. Several of the numerous writers contemporary with Ripley are represented in Ashmole’s volume, where may be read Norton’s Ordinall of Alchemy, Charnock’s Breviary of Natural Phil- osophy, and various briefer anonymous pieces, all with introductions and notes by Ashmole, an ardent believer in the science. The student may consult also Gower’s Confessio Amantis, iv: 2450-2630, the EETS edition of the Boke of Quynt Essence, Lydgate’s Secreta Secretorum, Ben Jonson’s Alchemist as ed. by Hathaway, 1903, Waite’s translation of Paracelsus, London, 1894, Thorndike’s History of Magic, N. Y., 1923, Skeat’s notes to the Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale, etc. [ 252 ] THE COMPEND OF ALCHEMY 208 But from the summary of alchemical principles, given in my notes below, no clear and definite explanation must be expected; the subject is too cloudy and fantastic to admit of such statement. I use the form of title as in the MSS, passing over the modern “Compound of Alchemy”. The word compendium or compend meant a succinct statement, which was apparently Ripley’s intention. Of other works by him, as listed by Bale and repeated by Ashmole, I take no account here; the question of a Ripley canon is not yet investigated. Most of the copies of the Compend which I have examined are poorly written, often contained in sixteenth-century compilations of alchemical works. The Aberystwyth codex is a notable exception. It is a paper volume of 27 leaves, 17 by 11 inches, sewed into a vellum cover, and is of the Compend only. The hand is large and somewhat coarse, the ink still very dark and the paper clean and white. Mutilations of some lower leaf-corners injure the text occasionally. The last two folios, not needed for the Compend, are filled by a later hand with writing and pen-drawings. There is no letter to Edward the Fourth; the work begins with the prologue and goes through the Prohibicio. Other MSS lack sometimes the Pro- hibicio, sometimes the prologue ; the Cambridge Ff volume is often rubbed to il- legibility. I use the Aberystwyth codex for the Prohibicio here, and print some stanzas of the preface (not the prologue) from the Ff and the Corpus texts. Oh hyghe incomperable and moste glori- ose trinyte Whose lumynouse beames obtundytne our speculation Oh onehede in sothe oh trynhede in deite Of lierarchycall Iubilesses the gratulat gloryfycation O pietouse pueryfyer of Soules & pure perpetuation Of deviant into daunger oh drawer moste debonayr In thys envyouse valey of vanyte Oh our exalter * * * * * * And among other whych ben proffessed to thee I me present as one wyth humble sub- myssyon 30 Thy servant besechyng that I may be And trev in lyvyng accordyng to my pro- fessyon In order . channon reguler of Brydellyng- ton Stanza 1 is from the MS Ff ii, 23 of Univ. Libr. Cambridge, but the remaining stanzas of the Preface are from the Corpus copy, as the Ff is badly rubbed. I number the lines of Preface and Prohibicio separately, and moet recognition of other parts of the work, Besechyng thee lord . thou wylt me spare And to thy trew servant thy secret de- clare 6 In be begymnyng when thou madest all off noght A globous matter & dark vnder confu- syon By thee the begymner mervelusly was wrought Conteynyng materyally all thyngs wyth out dyvysyon Of whych thou madst in vj days clere dystynccion 40 As in the genysses of the same doth recorde Then heuen and erth were perfected wyth pi worde 7 So thorow thy wyll and power out of one mas Consumed . was made all thyngs that beyng is But in thy glory . afore . as maker thou was Now is and shall . wyth out end be Iwys As a most reverent god . florysshyng in all perfeccyon Of whose innvmerable gyfftes . hath re- ceyved many one 254 GEORGE RIPLEY And to sum the secret of the phylosophers stone For of one mas was made all thyng 50 And ryght so must it in our practyse be All our secrets of one ymage must spryng In phylosophers books therfore who lyst for to see Our stone is called the les world one of three Magnesia also of sulphur and mercury Proporcyonat by nature most perfectly 9 But many one marvayle and marvayle maye And muse on such a marvylous thyng What is our stone syth phylosophers doo say To such as ever be itt sekyng 60 It foules and fysshes to vs doo bryng Ech man hath it . and it is in ech place In thee and me . in ech thyng tyme and space 10 To this I answere that mercury it is Iwis But not the commen called quyksylver by name But mercury wythout whych nothyng beyng is All phylosophors truly say the same But symple sekers put them in blame Sayeng they hyde it . but they be blame worthy Whych be no clarks and wyll medle wyth phylosophy 70 11 But thogh it mercury be . yet wysely vnde(r)stande Wherin it is and where thou shalt it seche Els I thee counsayle take not thys work in hande For phylosophors flatters fooles wyth a fayer spech (But lyste to me for trulye I will be teche) Whych is the mercury most profytable Beyng to thee not deceyveable 12 It is more nygh in sum thyng then in sum Therfore take tent . what I to thee wryte For yf thou never to the knowledge com 80 Therof yet shalt thou me not wytt For I wyll truly thee exyte To vnderstand now mercurys three The keyse whych of our scyence be 13 Raymondus his menstrues he doth them calle Wythout whych truly no truth is done But two of them be superfycyall The thyrd essencyall of sonn and mone Her propertyse I wyll declare ryght sone And Mercury of other mettall essen- cyall 90 Is the pryncyple of our stone materiall 14 Non est mercurius de sole & luna sed de alio metallo In sonn and mone our menstru is not sene It not aperyth but by effect to syght That is the stone of whych I mene Who so our wrytyng conceyveth ryght It is a soule a substance bryght Of sonn and mone a subtyle influence By whych pe erth receyveth resplendence 16 Factum calcem Bodys wyth the fyrst we calcyne natur- ally Perfect . but none whych be vnclene Except one whych is vsyally Named by phylosophors the lyon grene He is the meane . the sonn & be mone betwene 110 Of ioynyng tyncture wyth perfectnes As Gebar therto bereth wytnes 17 Distillat calcem in furnace reverbera- cionts Wyth the second whych is an humydyty Vegetable revyvyng that before was ded Both pryncyples materyall must losyd be And formals els standeth they lytle in sted Thes menstrues therfore (know) I thee rede Wythout whych neyther treu calcynacyon Don may be neyther naturall dis- solucyon THE COMPEND OF ALCHEMY 255 18 Recepit flegma per se distillando Wyth the thyrd humydyty most perma- nent 120 Incombustyble and vnctuus in his nature Hermes tree to asshis is brent It is our naturall fyer most sure It is our Mercurius our sulphur wyth tincture pure Our soule our stone borne vp wyth wynde In the erth engendred bere thys in thy mynde 19 Thys stone also tell thee I dare Is the vapour of metalls potencyall How thou shalt gett it thou must beware For invysyble truly is thys menstruall 730 How be it wyth the second water phylo- sophycall By seperacyon of elements it may appere To syght in forme of water clere 20 Off that menstru by labor exuberate And with it may be made sulphur of nature If yt be kyndly acuate And sirculate into a spryt pure Then to dyssolve thou mayst be sure The bace wyth yt in dyvers wyse As thou shalt know by thy practyse 140 21 Circulare lygidum in siccum est acuare That poynt perfore in hys dew place I wyll declare wyth other mo Yf god wyll graunte me space and grace And me preserve in lyff from wo As I thee tech looke thou doo so And for thy fyrst ground pryncypall Vnderstand thy waters menstruall 22, And when thou hast made cyrculacyon ne not wastyng moysture rady- ca To thy bace by offten subtylacyon 150 Wyll lyghtly flow as wax apon metall Then lose it wyth thy vegytable men- struall Tyll thou hast oyle therof in coloure bryght Then is that menstru vysyble in syght 23 An oyle it is draune out in colour of golde Or lyke therto . out of our fyne red lede Whych Raymonde sayd when he was olde Much more then gold wyll stand in stede For when he was for age nygh dede He made ther of aurum potabile 160 Whych (hym) revyved as men may see 24 ffor so together may they be cyrculate That is to say that oyle and that vegytable menstruall Eyther so by laboure exvberat And made by crafft a stone celestyall Of nature so fyery that we doo call Our basylysk eyther our cockatryce Our grete Elyxer moste of pryce 25 Whych as the syght of a _basylyske abiecte Kylleth so slayeth the crude Mer- curye 170 When ther upon it is proiecte In twynklyng of an eye most sodaynly That Mercury then tayneth permanently All bodys to sonn and mone perfect Thus gyde thy bace both red and whytt 27 But into chapters thys (treatis) I shall devyde In number . xij . wyth dew recapytulacyon Superfluus rehersall I laye asyde Intendyng onely to gyve trew informa- cyon Both of the theoryk and practycall opera- cyon That by my wrytyng who so wyll gvyded be Of hys intent perfectly spede shall he 28 The fyrst chapter shalbe of naturall cal- cynacyon 190 The second of dyssolucyon secret and phylosophycall The thyrd of our ellementes seperacyon The fowerth of coniunccyon matrymony- all The .5. of putrefaccyon then folow shall 256 GEORGE RIPLEY Of congelacyon albyfycatyve shalbe the syxt Then of cybacyon the seventh shall folow next 29 The secretes of our sublymacyon the .8te. shal shew The .9th. shalbe of fermentacyon The tenth of our exaltacyon trew The eleventh of our mervylous multy- plycacyon 200 The 12th of proieccyon then recapytula- cyon And so thys tretys shall take an ende By the helpe of god as I intende . / Thus endyth the preface . / PROHIBICIO Affter all thys I wyll thow vnderstonde ffor thy sauegard what I haue done Meny experymenttes haue I hade in honde As I fownd wretyn for sune and mone Whych I wyll tell the rehersyng soone Begynnyng at vermylon whyche provyd nowght And mercury sublymyd whych I dere bowght I made solucions meny on Off spyryttes fermenttes salttes Iren and stele Wenyng so for to make ower stone 10 But faythfully I lost yche dele After my bokys yet wrowght I well Whych euer ontrewe I provyd And that made me full sore agrevyd 3 Water corosyves and water ardente In whych I wrowght in diuers wysse Many on I made but ail was schent Egge schelles I calcynyd twysse or thrysse Oyles from calcys I made aryse And every element from other twyne 20 But profyte fond I ryght none therin Also I wrowght in sulphure and in vi- triall Wych folys do call the grene Lyon In arsnyke in orpement fowle mut them befall In debily principio was myne Incepcion Therfore was ffrawde in fine my conclu- cion And thus I blewe my thryft at the colle My clothys were bawdy my stomake was neaver holle 5 Sall armonyake and sandyvere Sall alkeley sall alembroke sall alter 30 Sall peter sall tartour sall comen sall geme moste clere Sall vytre sall sode of thes be ware ffro the odovre of quyke syluer kepe the fare Medyll not wt mercury precypytate Nother with Inperfyte bodys rubyfycate 6 I provyd vrynes egges here and blode Es vste and crokfere wych dyd me no goode The scalys of Irene whych smethys of smytys Letarge and antymony not worth too myttes Bothe rede and whyght whych wer vntrewe 40 The sowle of saturne and also markesyte Off wych gay tynctures I made to schewe Oyle of lune and water wt labowre grete I made yt calcynyng wt salt preperate And be yt selfe wt vyolent heate Gryndyng wt venyger tyll I was fatygate And also wt aqua vite wt spycys accu- ate Vppon a marbyll stone whych stode me ofte to coste And oyles wt corrosyves but all was lost 8 Meny a malgam dyd I make Wenyng to fyx hem to gret avayle And therto sulphure dyd I take Tartour egges whyghtes and oyle of the snayle But euer of my purpose dyd I fayle What for the more and what for the lesse Euermore sumthyng wantyng ther was 9 Wyne and mylke oyles and renett The slyme of sterrys that fall vppon grownd Stanza 6. The line arrangement is wrong. The order in Ashmole’s print is 36, 38, 37, 41, 39, 42, 40. THE COMPEND OF ALCHEMY 257 Celydony with secundynes and meny mo yet In thes I practysyd as was in bokys fownd 60 I wan ryght nowght but lost meny a pound , Off mercury and metalles I made crys- tall stonys Wenyng it had bene a worke for the nonys 10 Thus I rostyd and broylyd as on of gevers cokys And oftentyme my wynnyng in the asches I sowght ffor I was dysseyuyd wt meny falce bokys Wherby vntrewly meny tymes I wrovght But all such experymenttes avaylyth ryght nowght But browght me in daynger and comber- aunce By los of my gooddys and meny other grevaunce tt Now for the love of ouer lady suche lewd- nes eschewe Nor medyll wt no falshod whych proved never well Assaye when thow wylte and thow schalt fynd me trewe Wyn schalt thow ryght nowght but lose euery dele es in thy pawkener few schalt thow ele In smokes and in smelles thow schalt haue mykell woo That vnneth for syknes on the grownd schalt thow goo 12 I saw neaver trew werke trewly but one Off the wych in thys treatys before I haue tolde Stond onely therby for to make ower stone 80 ffor therby may thow wyne both syluer and golde Vppon my wretyng therfore to grownd the beholde ffor so schalt thow lese nowght yff god be thy guyde Trust to my doctryne and therto Abyde 13 Remembre how man ys most noble crea- ture In composycyon ertly that euer god wrovght In whom ys of .4. elementtes propor- cyonnyd by nature A newtriall mercurialyte whych costyth ryght nowght Owte of hys mynerue by marte yt ys browght ffor ower metalles be nowght els but ower myners too 90 Off ower sune and mone wysse Raymonde saythe soo 14 The clernes of the mone and of the sune so bryght Into thes too myners descendyd secretly How be yt the clernes ys hyd from thy syght By crafte thow schalt make yt appere opynly Thys hyde stone thys on thyng therfore putryfye Washe hym wt hys owne broth tyll whyght he become Then ferment hym wyttely . loo here ys all and somme 15 Nowe vnto god almyghtye I the com- mende Whych gravnte the grace to knowe thys on thyng 100 ffor now ys thys treatysse browght to an ende And god for hys mercy vnto hys blys vs bryng Sanctus sanctus sanctus where angellys doth syng Praysyng wt owte sesyng hys gloryows mageste Whych he in hys kyngdome vs graunte for to see Amen [Below is a rubric by the scribe in doggerel] Hec auctor parse qui scripsit ritmica parte Tu miserere sibi qui dedit ista tibi Diuicias dat corporeas tu spirituales Dans Impende sibi que prece visque tibi Explicit Rypla THE COURT OF SAPIENCE The fifteenth-century poem bearing this title, and long, though mistakenly, attributed to John Lydgate, is composed of two books quite different from each other in character, the material of the first being theological, that of the second largely encyclopedic. In Book i the subject is the strife between Mercy and Peace, Righteousness and Truth, as to the fate of Adam or Mankind, the disobedient servant. This strife, when at the height, when Mercy has swooned and Peace has fled into the wilderness, is appeased by Sapience’s advice to Christ that the solution lies with him, in his submission to human life and human death for Mankind’s re- demption. He carries this out; Man is forgiven; and the Four Daughters of God are reunited in happiness. The whole story is narrated by Sapience herself to a learner, the author, who has sought her for advice on his own affairs; and at its close, with Book i, she invites the listener to accompany her to her dwelling. The wonders of the journey and of that dwelling, often presented merely by lists, fill the second book, with theological material again at its close. This second book is the longer, of 201 stanzas in rime royal; Book i has with the prologue 129 stanzas. Three written copies are known to exist. The first, in the library of Trinity College Cambridge, there marked R 3,21, lacks the ten stanzas of opening prologue, and stops some 30 stanzas short of the close of Book ii, although with a colophon by the scribe asserting conclusion. It has also three cases of omitted or amalga- mated stanzas, gaps noted on the margin by John Stow the antiquary, who at one time owned the volume, and has himself a copy of the poem in his MS Brit. Mus. Adds, 29729 ; Stow’s copy was made from the Caxton print, and was executed in 1558. The third MS-text is in Brit. Mus. Harley 2251, and is of 63 stanzas only, breaking off with the mutilation of the volume at close. Four (non-consecutive) stanzas from Peace’s appeal to God the Father in Book i, beginning “O Mercifull and O merciable’”, are found combined with other stanzas in the MS Trin. Coll. Cambr. R 3,19, and have been thence printed as noted in my Chaucer Manual, p. 442. Bits are in Dibdin’s Typographical Antiquities, i:325-30, from Caxton, and in Miss Spurgeon’s Chaucer-Allusion, i:16-17. The Caxton print of ?1481, which may not long postdate the composition of the poem, remains in four copies, one in the British Museum, one at St. John’s College, Oxford, another (Earl Spencer’s) at the John Rylands Library, Manches- ter, and another privately owned. Wynkyn de Worde issued an edition in 1510, of which there is a copy in the British Museum; and my text here cited is partly from a copy of de Worde checked by Caxton-collations made for me, and partly from a rotograph of the Trinity MS belonging to the Modern Language Associa- tion of America. There are two modern editions. That by Dr. Robert Spindler, Munich diss. and printed Leipzig, 1927, has appeared; that for the EETS by Miss Katherine Salter Block is under way. Stephen Hawes, in stanza 186 (chap. xiv) of his Pastime of Pleasure, in- cluded the Court of Sapience, or a Court of Sapience, among the works of Lyd- gate. The Caxton print bears no author’s name, but Hawes was supported by Stow, who not only put “compyled by John Lydgate” to his own copy, but wrote [ 258 ] THE COURT OF SAPIENCE 259 it after heading and colophon of the Trinity MS, whose scribe made no statement as to author. Warton and Dibdin accepted this, and Schick, page cx of his edition of Lydgate’s Temple of Glass, had no doubt as to the genuineness of the ascription. But MacCracken, page xxxv of his introduction to Lydgate’s Minor Poems, vol. i, EETS, refused to believe the poem by Lydgate, and it is hard to see how any close examination could leave Lydgate’s authorship unquestioned. Spindler, op. cit., presents the case fully. There is nothing in Lydgate’s style or in the movement of his mind which resembles this direct and often very vigorous workman; Lyd- gate’s hesitant repetitions, his jarring verse-structure, are not here; the mode in which knowledge is displayed, although pedantic, is not Lydgatian. The text of the poem is not in very good condition in any one copy; but when the blunders and omissions of the Trinity scribe are rectified by comparison with Caxton, Trinity’s consistent orthography, fairly sound rhythm, and careful mar- ginalia give an interesting result. The Trinity College MS is on paper, an amalgamation of many separate book- lets ; this, the third, is of 33 written and one blank leaf, in one neat compact profes- sional hand, with a full equipment of marginalia for the reader’s guidance and with many interspersed Latin passages, some lengthy, all carefully “engrossed”. The preceding booklet of the volume, carrying Pety Job, is in the hand of the scribe of MSS Harley 2251 and Adds. 34360 of the British Museum; this is important in view of the existence of our poem also in the Harley volume. The Trinity scribe’s spelling and language are late; he regularly writes theym, and uses the rune, even for the or that, in only one case so far as I have noted. As above remarked, Hawes mentions this poem, or a poem by this title, in his list of Lydgate’s works; see line 1301 of the Pastime of Pleasure, here. The frequent use by Hawes of terms found in the Court of Sapience, such as depured, gilt, gay and glorious, redolent, reflair, makes it probable that he read and admired this text. Burkart, pp. 51-54 of his Hawes dissertation mentioned p. 271 here, argued the influence of the Court of Sapience on Hawes, not only as regards vo- cabulary but on conception and management of the Pastime. Natter, as mentioned ibid., opposes the latter argument. Full discussion of Hawes’ relation to this poem will doubtless come with an edition of either work as a whole; it may then also appear that the similarity in subject between chapters xi-xiv of Lydgate’s Life of Our Lady and the Court of Sapience book i misled Hawes as to authorship of our poem. For this similarity see Schick, page cii of the introduction to his edition of the Temple of Glass; the Lydgatian heading there quoted, the “Dispute between Mercy and Peace, Righteousness and Truth, for the Redemption of Mankind”, could easily be used of the first half of the Court of Sapience. Note also that those chapters of the Life of Our Lady, with that heading, occur separately in at least one manuscript, now Huntington 144, from the Huth Library, and once in the pos- session of John Stow. Dr, Hope Traver, in her monograph on The Four Daughters of God (Bryn Mawr, 1907), devotes pp. 152-58 to a rapid summary of the contents of book i of this poem, and mentions at least three sources for its material,—Grosseteste, Bonaventura, and Deguileville’s Pélerinage de Jésu-Crist. Of the second book no detailed study has yet (1927) appeared, but the author’s familiarity with the Seven Liberal Arts indicates a man well-educated and alertly curious. There are dry theological passages in book i, and some barren lists in book 11; but there are also striking lyrical passages in the former book, striking descriptive bits in the 260 ANONYMOUS latter. Whoever made the compilation, although unoriginal enough, was observant, energetic, free of formula, often vigorous of speech; his control of rhythm and language is good, his rime living, his syntax clear. There is none of Lydgate’s floundering, either in verbiage or in sentence-structure. To make this evident, I cite a passage or two from the first (or theological) book, before a set of extracts from the second is presented. [From Caxton’s print, no date] The laberous & y® most merueylous werkes Of sapience syn firste regned nature My purpos is to tell as writen clerkes And specyally her moost notable cure In my fyrst book I wyl preche & depure 5 It is so plesaunt vnto eche persone That it a book shal occupye alone 2 Sone after this I shal wysedom descryue Her blessyd howshold / and her wonnyng place And than retourne vnto her actes blyue 10 As she them wrought by tyme, processe & space Al this mater she taught me of her grace I spak with her / as ye may here and rede For in my dreme I mette her in a mede 3 O clyo lady moost facundyous 15 O rauysshyng delyte of Eloquence O gylted goddes gay and gloryous Enspyred with the percyng Influence Of delycate heuenly complacence Within my mouth late dystylle of thy showres 20 And forge my tonge to glad myn audy- tours 4 Myn ignoraunce whome clowded hath eclippes With thy pure bemes illumyne al aboute Thy blessyd breth lete refleyr in my lyppes And with the dewe of heuen thou them degoute 25 So that my mouthe maye blowe & en- cense oute 1. Three-line capital T. Stow’s copy places the bar as does Caxton, and differs textually by omitting of from 12, insert- ing thee after O in 15, and changing thy to the in 28 The redolent dulcour Aromatyke Of thy depured lusty Rethoryck I knowe my self moost naked in al artes My comune vulgare eke moost inter- upte 30 And I conuersaunte & borne in the partes Wher my natyf langage is moost corrupt And wyth most sondry tonges myxt & rupte O lady myn wherfor I the byseche My muse amende, dresse / forge / mynysse & eche 35 For to al makers here I me excuse That I ne can delycately endyte Rude is the speche of force / whiche I must vse Such infortune my natyf byrth may wyte But O ye lordes whiche haue your delyte In termes gay / and ben moost eloquent This book to yow no plesaunce may pre- sent But netheles as tasted bytternesse Al swete thyng maketh be more precious So shal my book extende the godely- nesse 45 Of other auctours whiche ben gloryous And make theyr wrytyng delycyous I symple shal extolle theyr soueraynte And my rudenes shall shewe theyr subty- lyte 8 Gower chaucers erthely goddes two 50 Of thyrste of eloquent delycacye With al your successoures fewe or moo Fragraunt in speche / experte in poetrye You ne yet theym in no poynt I enuye Exyled as fer I am from youre glorye 55 As nyght from day / or deth from vyc- torye THE COURT OF SAPIENCE 261 I you honoure / blysse / loue and glory- fye ad to whos presence my book shal atteyne His hastyf dome I praye hym modefye and not detraye / ne haue it in dysdayne For I purpoos no makyng for to dystayne Meke herte / good tonge / and spyryte pacyent 62 Who hath these thre / my book I hym present 10 And as hym lyst lete hym detray or adde For syth I am constreyned for to wryte By my souerayne / and haue a mater glad And can not please paynte enourne ne endyte Late ignorance & chyldhode haue the wyte I aske no more / but god of his mercy My book conferme from sklaunder and enuy 70 Explicit Prohemium [The author of the poem, mated by Dame Fortune in the chess-play of life, is bidden by Reason to seek Sapience; he falls asleep, and in that sleep his spirit passes through a desert place inhabited by wild beasts “in deuouryng expert”. Beyond, in a heavenly mead by the River of Quiet, he finds Dame Sapience, to whom he swears fealty. She is resting from the performance of a task which she narrates to him,—a story we have just briefly summarized. The definitely religious or theological material of this first book puts it outside our consideration in this volume; but one passage may be cited, not merely for its quality but for its possible influence upon Stephen Hawes. It is from Peace’s farewell to the courts of light and love, and fills stanzas 64-69. Line-numbers as in Spindler’s ed. of the poem.] 64 O seraphin yeue vp thyne Armony O Cherubin thy glory do away O ye thronys late be all melody Youre Ierarchy discryuyd ys for ay 445 Youre maystresse see in what aray She lyth in sowne ylorne wt debate ffarewell farewell pure houshold desolate. Stow spells poyn, spryte, in 54, 62; otherwise he is almost the duplicate of Caxton. 445. Read disteynd. 454. Read ouer set. 65 O souuerayn myghty dominacions O ye vertues and potestates 450 O principates wt all yowre heuynly sowns Archaungelles Aungelles O thryes thre estates Youre spouse dame pease euer set ys wt debates Now may ye wepe and Ierarchies thre Youre ordres now may nat _ restoryd be 455 66 Farewell ye all . Dame Mercy lyth in sowne ffor sothfastnes accusyd hath made man- kynde And ryghtwysnes that sheld (to) all reasowne Hath dampnyd hym as crewell and vn- kynde Mercy ne pease for theym may no grace fynde 460 Natwtstandyng iugement may haue no sawte Because of pease but hit be execute 67 Wo worth debate that neuer may haue pease Wo worth penaunce that asketh no pite Wo worth vengeaunce whyche mercy may not cease 405 Wo worth iugement that hath noon equyte Wo worth that trewthe that hath no charyte Wo worth that Iuge that may none gylty saue And wo worth that ryght that may no fauour haue Farewell Saturne Joue / Mars and Phe- bus bryght 470 ffarewell Venus and farewell Mercury ffarewell the shynyng lady of the nyght I was your guyde but now awey go I O cruell Mars thy tempestious fury Now mayst thow shew and Jubiter thyne Ire Now mayst thow rynge wt dartys full of fyre 69 I was the ryng that helde yow all togedyr I brydelyd yow and set yow in acorde 458. The MS has do. 262 ANONYMOUS But now - I « go ywys and I wote not whydyr Wherfore of force ye must fall to dis- corde 480 O ye souerayn of all batayle the lord Now mayst thow sende aftyr (Comet) thy messingere To signify that batayle nygheth nere [The second book makes a complete change of subject. Its proheme is:] 130 (Forth) to procede in (mater) of my booke To preche and discryue the solempne mansioun Of sapience most heuynly on to looke Whos feete byn set in all perfeccioun And to auoyde the oblocucioun Of false tonges and thanke for to deserue Thow graunt me grace (0 good goddesse) Mynerue 910 131 My (style) thow dresse my langage thow depure My wyt thow force thow mynyster of matyer ffor syth I am most symple creature I nyl vsurpe in thy place to apyer But thow me guyde and shew on what manyer I shall pronounse thynges whyche thow dost me se Thy refrendary oonly wyll I be 132 The pure knowlage and verrey (sente- ment ) Of thy wysdom was neuer my dowere But as the (sonne in) lyght most ex- cellent 920 Wt hys beames the mone illumyneth clere So done allwey wysemen thorow foolys lere Therfore thy wysdom as thow lyst me teche O lady myne in my booke woll I preche 482. MS Cornet; Caxton as above. 904. MS has First, maner. 910. MS has thow good. 911. MS ‘styl. 918. MS sentment. 920. MS sonny. 934. MS of. 937, 941, 942, 943, MS On, that, another, hys. [Sapience now invites the author to ac- company her to her home.] Forth went we tho vnto a ryueres syde Whos name ys Quyete full of all swetenes Oute (ouer) whyche wt Archys hygh and wyde A brege was set full of all lustynes 935 The marbyll stoone the solempne worthy- nes (Of) Geometry shewyd on suche wyse So good a werk that no wyght cowde deuyse 135 The pylours strong enarchyd wt effect Wt pynnacles and towres full of blysse And allured clene (gaue) suche a dygne prospect That suche (a) brege was neuer seen ywysse And on a towre (this) scrypture wretyn ysse Who dredeth god com yn and ryght well come ffor drede of god ys wey of all wys- dome 945 [They cross the bridge, and note that the gravel of its bed and banks is all of pre- cious stones; in nineteen following stanzas these stones are alphabetically enumerated and their virtues given, from alabaster to zyngynt. As his authority the poet refers to the Lapidary, to Isidor, or Dioscorides, or Bartholomaeus. The reader may change the names of the stones at pleasure, says the writer; he himself has used Latin “for the more surete’. There now follows a descrip- tion of the river, with a praise of water the element, a list of the rivers of the world, and reference to the Hexameron of Basilius and to the fifteenth book of Bartholomaeus for more information, Stanzas 172 to 181 contain a “descripcio piscium”, with a list of nine authorities for the reader desirous of more knowledge. From these two sec- tions I give two stanzas each:] 166 Basilius in hys Exameron Discryueth watyr and hys propurte Whoso hath lust may loke hym opon But - I - myself wyll fle prolyxite And of my ryuer speke as lyketh me 7160 What shuld I say to her and to beholde All erthely thyng passeth a thowsand folde THE COURT OF SAPIENCE 263 167 Hys heuynly sowne his grones delicate Hys swete (murmour) hys subtyle course and (stylle) Hys fresshe colour whyche no storme may abate I165 His vapour swete hauyng (reflyer) at wyll Myght (saye) askaunce / on thys wyse be I wyll ffor to excyte owte from the heuens place Nature to come to se of my solace 172 Thys lusty fyssh (within) thys ryuer swete Theyre swymmyng course (whiche we) fynnys clepe They put in vse to bere and swymme and fleete 1200 Now at the ground and now aboue they (lepe) Now dysseueryd and now apon an hepe Now heere now theere now endelong now ouerthwert The syght of theym myght (hele eche wounded) hert 173 Som had a lust to (sewe) the sonnys (lyght ) Som to the pryuate vmbre gon to at- tende And gadreth in (theyr) bodyes to the syght Shot oute on (lengthe) theyre corage to extende Theyr parfyte blys nature myght nat amende Of net and hooke ne deceyte were they aferde 1210 What shuld I say they had an heuen in erde [A description of the mead and its flowers now follows, extending through the 189th stanza, when the “descripcio arborum” is reached. I give two of its nine stanzas.] Bracketed readings are from Caxton. The MS has: 1164 myrrour, fall; 1166 reflex; 1167 I say; 1198 wtoutyn; 1199 wt; 1201 fleete; 1204 wonder an; 1205 sowe grace; 1207 theym; 1208 leyngth. 190 An heuenly woode / was on that other syde 1325 And (closed) in wt a ryuer aboute Plantyd at lust wt trees full of pryde The (blossmy) bowys vnto the erthe gan loute The Cedyr tre presumptuous and stoute Hauyng dysdeyne (in erthe) oonly to abyde Among the sterres hys hede began to hyde 1330 191 He and the palme and (eke) the gret Cypres Gan ryse borioune and refleyre wt al delyte The bowes brought forth frute of all gentylnes And yaue vmbre vnto the solempne syght Wt double (blysse) eche tree was in- signyte 1335 Wt frute (to) man wt vmbre to the ground Thus hongor there ne heete myght ha- bound [The list of birds, which next follows, is subjoined entire. ] 199 ’ The best byrdes in theyre melody Theyre heuynly voyce gan to entewne anon Theyre aungelyk rauysshyng Armony Oute thorough the heuen in to the hygh- est trone 1390 Gan perse and passe the ix - ordres ech- one O cherubyn they sayd com hyder to vs - Lerne wt that tewne thow shalt syng Sanctus - 200 The (throstell coke) opon the Cedre grene The nytyngale vppon the blossom thorn The noble swan wt whyte federes shene The Ientyll lark fleyng among the corn Ne seaseth nat to syng from euen to morn Bracketed words are from Caxton’s print. The S reads: 1326, clothyd; 1328, blossom; 1329, omission; 1331 also; 1335 bysse, which is crossed out; 1336, omission; 1394, trustylcok. 264 ANONYMOUS Wt all other fowles of pure plesaunce Theyr voyce gan daunt vnto the concord- aunce 1400 201 Iche other foule in kynde there had hys blysse Hys lust hys comfort and hys sustenaunce They had no nede Roueyn to vse ywysse Iche thyng obeyed to theyr hertes ples- aunce Debate ne stryfe discorde ne yet dis- taunce 1405 Among theym myght nat engendryd be Ichone other supportyd in degre - 202 The prowde Pecok hys tayle began to whele On whyche the sparkyng son so purely brent That to the syght he semyd euerydele An Archaungell downe from the heuyn sent I4II All heuynly colours in hym was content Hys tayle the flowres the byrdys eke ywys The ey the nose the eare fed wt all blys 203 The Egle fresshe souerayn of fowles all The goode Goshawke the gentyll faucon of pryce 1416 Wt all other that (to) disport royall Dysposyd byn ther regnyth at deuyse The gentyll Doufe innocent of all vyce The Turtyll trew the ffenix singuler 1420 In lust and blysse togedyrs all they were 204 The holsom Pertrege and the Pellicane The sparow (eke) the plouers and the py The Popingeay the Cok the hen the Crane Theyre names all here for to specyfy 1425 Hit nedeth nat for eueryche (foule) shortly That ys in kynde and hath in vertew myght In all comfort reioysyd there hys (flyght) 205 They flee at lust there ys nought theym to let Bracketed readings are from Caxton’s print. In lines 1417, 1423, 1426, 1469, the MS omits to, eke, foule, the. In 1428 it reads myght; in 1431 let; in 1467 flowres. They bylde in blys they haue all liberte They nede not (drede) for gyldyr ne for net 1431 fee where they wyll they byn in all sewrtee The wynde the rayne nor noon aduersite May theym distorbe all ioy ys theym among The heuyn aboue delyteth in theyr song Explicit descripcio Auium Incipit descripcio Animalium [Four stanzas are now given to a list of animals, after which follows a stanza of “Recapitulacio”, and the arrival of the travelers at the home of Sapience:] 210 The watyrs sowne the lusty fysshe and fayre The good seasoun ye yongly son and bryght 1465 The meede the herbys the flowres and theyre reflayre The blossom bowes the (fowles) fresshe of flyght The tenore wynde wt hys brethe and hys myght Enspyryng thorough (the) blossoms at deuyse Depeyntyd new on heuynly paradyse 1470 Explicit descripcio Animalium Incipit descripcio Castri & Mansionis Sapiencie 211 Whan I had seene that souuerayn sol- empne syght Dame Sapience led me a lytell besyde Vnto a comly Castell shynyng bryght fful of all solace delyte lust and pryde In whos circuite wt vawtes large and wyde 1475 Of parfyte blys y set were towrys seuene The heyghte of whyche styeth vp to heuene 212 The Dyke of hit formyd wt delyte ffulfyllyd was wt the watyr of Quiete The marble stoone the Alabaustre whyte By geometry so frendly goon meete 1481 That suche a wall in hede body and feete Wt precyous stones illumyneth at deuyse Was neuer seen hit passeth paradyse THE COURT OF SAPIENCE 265 213 Vppon a rooche hit was groundyd and set 1485 And euery Botras full of ymagery Yche pynnacle (coner) towre and toret Wt golde and perle and stonys curyosly Depeyntyd was and powdryd lustyly And on the yate illumynyd wt all blys Wt goldyn lettres thys wrytyn was ywys 214 Thys ys the wey to vertew and to grace To konnyng knowlache wyt and all wys- dom Thys ys the wey vnto that heuynly place There storme / ne stryfe / syn / vyce ne euyll may com 1495 Thys ys the wey vnto that solempne kyngdom Where rest pease (blysse) and comfort (seceth) neuer Com in who wyll and ryght welcom for euer 215 Seuyn ladyes bryght downe fro the tow- res seuen Came to the yate wt many ladyes moo Seruauntes to theym whos names I woll neuen 1501 ffeyth hope / (tofore) wt Charyte dyd 0 g' Prudence wt wysdom dame ffortitude also Wt Temperaunce and Ryghtwysnes ywys Met Sapience / and hertyly gon hyr kys 1505 [The allegorical ladies who make up the trains of each of the Virtues are listed in the four following stanzas; Theology then appears, escorted by “ladyes seuen”, whose names are given in the next stanza, viz.:] 221 There was Gramor grounde of Sciences all And Dialatyk full of pure knowyng And Rethoryk Science Imperiall Dame Arsmetryke was in proporcionyng Geometry that mesureth euery thyng The lady Musyk and Astronomy These ladyes seuen seweth Theology Bracketed readings are from Caxton’s print. The MS omits those of lines 1487, 1497 (blysse), and 1502. It reads cesyd in 1497. [Dame Philosophy now comes down from the “dongeon grete within the place” and greets Sapience. Her nature is defined in four stanzas, and the functions of her three sisters, Phisica, Ethica, and Logica, in stan- zas 227-231. On these three, says stanza 232, Divinity is grounded. An alternative classification is then given, filling four stan- zas, and in stanza 237 the observer enters the first court, administered by Dame Science. Here he finds “the phylosopher with his companye” sitting in a goodly par- lor. Stanza 240 enumerates the company :] 240 Arystotyll Aueroys and Avycen Good Algazell Galien Apolonius Pictagoras and Plato wt hys pen Macrobius / Cato. Boecius Raasis . Isaak . Calyxt . Orbacius Salustius . Theophile . Ipocras Wt many mo whos names I lete pas [The second court is now entered, ruled by Dame Intelligence; it is “full of all lust and heuenly complacence’, depainted with the heaven, the hierarchies, and the “vn- happy chaunce” of Lucifer. A few of the indwelling scholars of that “parlor pure” are mentioned in stanza 245, but the multi- tude of them is too great for full enumer- ation, says the poet. Next is the third court, Sapience’s own, “so rauysshynge and elegaunte” that the author, unable to describe it, cries out, “O Priamus and thyn hall Ilion’, how insuffi- cient are you in comparison! It is hung with tapestries of the parables, of Ecclesias- ticus, Wisdom, Ecclesiastes; and on the dais is portrayed ‘““Mynerue that hyght Pal- las’, with spear, shield, serpent locks, cloth- ing “Of colours thre delycious and stoute”’, and an olive tree on which sits a “night crow’. Dame Sapience explains the attri- butes and powers of Minerva, stanzas 253- 255, referring to “Fulgencius in his Metho- logye’” as authority. After mentioning Theology and some of her listeners,—Holcot, Nottingham, Comes- tor, St. Thomas, etc.—the poet comes to Grammar. | ; 259 Wyth Gramer was foure ladyes well be- seene Of the whyche the furst hyght Dame Ortography Wythin a parlour lusty fresshe and cleene 266 ANONYMOUS Ther was (eke) gentyll Ethymology 18zo Diasintastica and prosody These systres foure dyfferent in offyce Seruyd Gramer as lady full of pryce 260 The furst taught lettres and how men shulde wryte The second taught the partyes of rea- soun 1815 To telle yche worde trewly ys her delyte Whyche ys nowne whyche verbe (and) whyche pronown The thryd dyd teche parfyte construc- ciown The last eche worde yaue hys tyme and hys accent And in these fowre all Gramer ys con- tent 1820 261 These foure seruyd that Science liberall In wrytyng pronow(n)syng and con- struyng Of letter sillable worde reason wt all She hath her principall consideryng She ys the ground the yate the entryng To all the noble artes liberall 1826 By her frendshyp they be made speciall 262 There was Moyses Cadmus and Card- menta Eborard fferrum John Garlond and Donate Precyan Petyr Thomas de Hennoya 1830 Lambard Papy they wryte erly and late The Ianuense was there in gret estate And Arystotyll for theyre bookes wyse Catholicon and pariarmonise 263 ‘Hugucion wt many auctors mo 1835 ‘Wrytyng there was and lokyng on Gram- ere Whos names all shortly I lete ouergo They may nat do / but prolong my (matere) Many a babe of souerayn heuynly chere Desyrous all in konnyng to habound 1840 Abowte Dame Gramer sate to haue theyr ground Bracketed readings are from Caxton’s print. In lines 1810, 1817, the MS omits eke, and. In line 1838 it reads tyme. [Dame Dialectic occupies the next “par- lour full of blys”, surrounded by eager pu- pils, to whom she reads Latin, and who ask no other wage but that they may “dyscerne and eke depure Trewthe from falshede”’. Her clothing is “prowde and stoute, Of differt Scire and of Incipit With Sophysms depeynted full aboute.” She teaches her students the ‘“comone treatyse’, ‘“Whiche whatkyns what is a proposycyon What thynge he is and his dyuysyon.” The learn- ers dispute briskly; ‘with sophysms straunge maters they discusse And fast they crye oft tu es Asinus.” She reads them “the vniuersals the predicamentes the Topykes the principals the Elynkes.” The group of her listeners is described in nine lines of famous names, including Alfred, Juvenal, Mercurius, Demosthenes, Euclid, Democritus, Physiologus, Ptolemy, and Wil- liam de Conches. Next, in her “parlour fresshe and preci- ous’, is “Dame Rethoryke modyr of Elo- quence Most elegaunt most pure and glory- ous.” Her delicious speech ravishes all her auditors :] 272 And many a Clerke had lust hyr for to here Hyr speche to theym was parfyte sus- tynaunce Yche worde of hyr depuryd was so clere 1900 And enlumynyd wt so parfyte plesaunce That heuyn hit was to here her beau parlaunce Her termes gay of facound souerayne Cacephaton in noo poynt myght dysteyne [In stanza 273 the author enumerates the subjects of Rhetoric’s teaching, and bids any one who considers his writing dull and blunt to go to “Tria sunt And to Galfryde the poete lawreate To Ianuense a clerke of gret astate”’, or to Tullius “the chosyn spowse vnto thys lady fre’, with his “ovityd craft’. After the usual catalogue of the principal students clustered about Rhetoric, the author proceeds to Arithmetic, stanzas 277-282, then to Geometry, stanzas 283-288; under this head is recounted the dispute between Aris- totle, Albert, and Ptolemy as to the extent of the earth’s circuit. To Music are given stanzas 289-299, the manuscript breaking off with stanza 297 complete, and a colophon as if finished. Astronomy has the following sixteen stanzas, which include a censure of THE, COURT OF SAPIENCE 267 the “Gentiles” for identifying the planets with gods, and for raising “fysshe and bes- tiall” to the heavens. The author also de- nounces the “old error” of astrology. ] 311 O mysbeleue merueylous for to neuene O cursed blyndenes of these gentyles all Whiche demyn fysshe / and bestyall be in heuen For gloryfyed regnaunt perpetuall As Rame / bore / crabbe / and bere in specyall 2175 Hounde / lyon / swan / the egle eke in fere Whome they worshyp for Ioues chyfe squyre 312 She tolde also of batayll destyne And how in sterres some men haue suche byleue That in theyr byrthe ryght by neces- syte 2180 Ordeyned is all that hym shall please or greue This olde errour our doctours done re- preue Socrates the same with Arystotyll sayth Notwithstondynge they were not of our fayth 313 (For) yf a man were in his natyuyte 2785 Constreyned to his sondry artes all Them for to do ryght by necessyte Why sholde good men haue laude in specyall Or myslyuers to punysshement be thrall Good Isodre maketh this reson 2190 In dampnynge of this false oppynyon {Astronomy is left behind, and Faith leads the learner to her tower, where, in a “par- lour full solacious”, sit the apostles writing the articles of our faith. Fourteen stanzas are filled by a digest of these truths, and the work then closes with a list of the things all Christian men and women are bound to learn. This last part is in prose. ] Stanzas 311 ff. are from the Caxton text. Line 2185, Caxton reads Or. STEPHEN HAWES: THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE (Extracts) We know very little of Stephen Hawes. He was allowed mourning-cloth af- ter the death of Henry VII’s queen in 1502; he dedicated his Pastime of Pleasure to Henry VII in 1506, styling himself one of the grooms of the king’s chamber; he may be the “Mr. Hawse” who received payment for a play in 1521 from the king; and in 1530 he is mentioned in the past tense by Feylde, in his Controversy between a Lover and a Jay. The notices of him by Bale in his 1557 Catalogus Scriptorum and by Antony a Wood in his 1691 Athenae Oxonienses are too con- ventionally flowery to deserve much consideration ; they assign to Hawes an Uni- versity education, a great store of learning, and extensive travels, to which a Wood adds the more lifelike detail that Hawes was highly esteemed by the king for “his facetious discourse and prodigious memory, which last did evidently appear in this, that he could repeat by heart most of our English poets, especially Jo. Lyd- gate, a monk of Bury, whom he made equal in some respects with Geff. Chaucer.” Hawes has left five poems, the two longer of which are allegorical-didactic fictions, the three shorter didactic or “‘occasional”’ with no element of fiction. The largest of his poems, the Pastime of Pleasure, is of 5770 lines, mainly in rime royal; it is to be dated 1506, as said. The other allegorical fiction, the Example of Virtue, was presented to Henry VII in 1504; it is of 2100 lines in rime royal. Both these poems are narrated in the first person; each hero, Youth or Virtue in the earlier work, Graunde Amour in the Pastime, is aided by a gracious woman- counsellor to win a bride; both youths must fight monsters to prove their worth; both are triumphantly wedded to the beloved; and each poem extends to the old age and death of the hero. This last is an awkward device for a first-person nar- rative, but is carried by Hawes in the Pastime even to his own epitaph and to Fame’s adding of his name to those of the Nine Worthies. There are many re- semblances in episode and in diction between the two poems; Hawes repeated in the Pastime every device, narrative or rhetorical, which he had used in the Exam- ple; but the Pastime is much enlarged, as compared with the Example, by its ad- dition of the education of the hero and of his visit to the Seven Liberal Arts in their Tower of Doctrine. This allegorizing of University education, and the parallel of Hawes’ nar- rative here to the Vision Delectable earlier composed by Alfonso de la Torre for a young Spanish prince, tempt the student to see in the Pastime a treatise possibly planned for the young prince Henry, son of Henry VII to whom the work is dedi- cated. If such be the case, the close similarity between poems written only two years apart may be treated as deliberate on Hawes’ part, the educational “cantos” being the raison d’étre of the Pastime, and the chivalric cantos expanded in treat- ment to support the importance of the perhaps suggested work. The Pastime, as remarked, falls into two parts, the cleric or scholastic and the chivalric. In the former of these the hero receives his book-education, and is accepted by La Bell Pucell, the heroine; in the second he makes himself worthy of her by slaying a series of monsters. Through these encounters he is accompanied by a comic servitor, Godfrey Gobelive, and the parts of the poem in which Godfrey comes to the front are written in couplets instead of the usual rime royal. -The [ 268 ] THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE 269 kinship of this portion of the poem with the Morality plays is obvious, while the romances, and Lydgate’s translation of Deguileville’s Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, have influenced the whole work in plan and in choice of episode. For the earlier, educational, chapters the sources are quite different. Burkart considered that the Court of Sapience was here Hawes’ model, while Natter emphasizes the influence of the Margarita Philosophica of the Carthusian prior Reisch, printed in 1503. It is not clear to me that Hawes owed much to the plan of either work, although the vocabulary of the Court of Sapience, which Hawes believed to be Lydgate’s, took a marked effect on him. Other works used by Hawes for these chapters are Caxton’s Recuyell of the Histories of Troy, which is cited by name, Caxton’s Mirror of the World, Donatus’ Ars Grammatica Minor, and the pseudo- Ciceronian treatise on rhetoric, Ad Herennium, etc. The treatment of some of this material, notably that from Donatus’ Grammar, is of the most scholastic and jejune sort, and as it is, e.g., accompanied by the hero’s request to know what a noun substantive is, we may underline our suggestion that the Pastime is a very young prince’s manual of education. See the note on lines 465-526 below. The influence of Chaucer and of Lydgate upon Hawes appears not in plan or vocabu- lary, but in certain details and rhetorical tricks, especially from the Temple of Glass and from the Troilus. For example, the dazzling palace upon which the eye cannot rest for brightness, the intervention of Venus to aid the lover, are devices of the former poem, while not only do the meeting and parting of the lovers show reminiscence of Troilus, but Hawes’ use of “anaphora” is perhaps modelled on the passage near the close of Chaucer’s poem. We have, however, to remark that his use is an abuse; see note on line 232 of Cavendish’s Metrical Visions here. There are other traces of Hawes’ reading in his English predecessors Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate, although he has not caught up their lines or their turns of speech with half the fidelity of Lydgate’s memory for Chaucer. He is a smaller man mentally than Lydgate; he is not so much hag-rid by the half-line formula, but he is much more a slave to rime and a hunter of the “aureate” word ; his perceptions are duller, his temperament more pedantic. And there is a misuse or strain of words in him which is not found in Lydgate. When Hawes says of Priam, in cap. 20 of the Pastime (ed. 1845) that “His propre death him selfe he nutrifyed”, this may be explained as a printer’s or editor’s error, but there are more than a few similar twists of language for rime’s sake in the poem. True, there are also some fortunate touches. The trembling servitor’s cry to the young knight, as the giant approaches,—‘‘Take heed, quod he, here is a feend of hell!” ; the Lydgatian sentiment—‘‘Was never payne but it had joye at last’’; the first view of Fame—“I sawe come ryding in a valey farre A goodly ladye” etc. ;—most fortunate of all the (possibly proverbial) couplet For though the day be never so long At last the bells ringeth to evensong,— these are high lights, but they are isolated spots in a very dull and long surface; and inasmuch as no writer is invariably inadequate, they prove nothing for Hawes. The approach of Fame, just mentioned, may have caught Spenser’s eye; but the criticism which traces Spenser’s “descent” from Hawes, even though it be Mrs. Browning’s criticism, needs scrutiny. In the Cambridge History of English Litera- ture, ii:266-7, are listed the agreements in theme and treatment between Hawes and Spenser ; but although the aim of both writers is “to fashion a gentleman”, 270 STEPHEN HAWES as Spenser said of himself, that purpose of the Elizabethan age had already begun to stir at the court of Henry the Seventh, and had under both sovereigns much the same book-material with which to work. As regards detail, Spenser’s Braggado- chio, for example, may owe something to Godfrey Gobelive, but the idea of a comedy relief could well occur independently to a man of Spenser’s ability, if the character be not accounted for by the Miles Gloriosus of the classics or a figure like the boastful servant of Herod in the Mysteries. Spenser, like Hawes, is a courtly allegorist ; but he is not therefore borrower from the lesser man. As Saints- bury says, if he owes Hawes anything, it is a very small royalty. The Pastime is a mere rifacimento of stock medieval motifs, whether, as Warton suggested, it has a possible French “Passetemps” behind it, or not ; in the Faerie Queene there has been a selection of such motifs as well as a transformation. Hawes’ clumsy piecing-together of “properties” into a court-poem is without anything of Spenser’s eye for the great or Chaucer’s eye for the little. But more than one historian of literature has praised Hawes. Warton, in the latter eighteenth century, called the Pastime of Pleasure an “unjustly neglected poem” which “contains no common touches of romantic and allegoric fiction”, and in which also “the improved harmony of numbers and facility of diction’ at- tained by Lydgate receive “new graces” from his disciple Hawes. And in our own time Churton Collins praised Hawes almost as warmly as he praised Lydgate, commending this poem for “‘its pathos, its picturesqueness, and its sweet and plain- tive music”. The fitness of these terms is, however, as questionable as is Churton Collins’ laudation of the frequent “exquisite beauty” of Lydgate’s verse. Spenser we may indeed call “picturesque”, a picture-maker. His material is medieval, and he is not a great narrator; he has no development of character to present, and his episodes and transitions are conventional. But his highly sensitized soul, delighting in color, in glitter, in richness of sound, in delicacy of touch, lavished upon his limited gallery of subjects a wealth of sensuous description previously unmatched in English. His verse, moreover, was worthy of his pictures. With him there re- appears a power lost since Chaucer’s death, the poet’s power to tread his measure with a sure and supple command of word, line, and paragraph, to bend language to his will. This power is not in Hawes. He is a professional verse-maker, honest, dull, didactic, possessed of the dangerously little learning which breeds complacency, quite rhythm-deaf, insensitive to sight and sound, carrying out his puerile plan with stumbling clumsiness. We do mark some small gain over Lydgate in the comparative steadiness of Hawes’ advance to his purpose; but we mark no real growth in narrative command. His conventional material is used with the vague- ness, the awkwardness, of an earlier age, an age overschooled and undersensitized. He saw a tower and a tapestry, and had an impulse to depict the pursuit of the Ideal; there results the Pastime of Pleasure. Centuries later, a poet saw a tower and a tapestry, and dreamed the pursuit of an idea for Truth’s sake; there results ‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came’. SELECT REFERENCE LIST XI No manuscript is known of any of Hawes’ works, which in the prints are extremely rare. They are, in order of consequence :— The Pastime of Pleasure, ca. 5770 lines, mainly in rime royal. Printed by de Worde in 1509 and 1517; copies in private possession. Printed by Wayland 1554, by Tottel 1555 (with woodcuts), and by Waley in 1555. The Wayland THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE 271 text is reprinted by Southey in his Select Works of the British Poets, 1831, the text of Tottel by Wright for the Percy Society, London, 1845. Both these modern editions omit some coarse lines from the Godfrey Gobelive portions of the poem. Selections are in Ellis’ Specimens, 1811, in Skeat’s Specimens of Eng, Lit. 1394-1579, in Ward’s Eng. Poets i:175, in Arnold’s Manual, in Fligel’s Neuengl. Lesebuch, in Neilson and Webster’s Chief Brit. Poets, 249-255. A bit is in Manly’s Eng. Poetry, 59-60. See discussion of the poem in Warton’s HistEngPoetry, ed. Hazlitt, 111:169-188, in Morley’s Engl. Writers vii, and in Berdan’s Early Tudor Poetry, chap. ii: also as below. The Example of Virtue, presented to Henry VII in 1504, is of 2100 lines in rime royal; it was printed ?de Worde ?1510, again 1530, and may be read in Arber’s Dunbar Anthology, 1901, pp. 217-296, with modernized text. The Conversyon of Swerers is of 307 lines, and the Joyfull Medytacyon, on the coronation of Henry VIII, is of 204 lines, both in stanza, and both printed de Worde 1509. They were reprinted for the Abbotsford Club in 1865 by David Laing. The former poem was also printed by Copland in 1551, by Butler in 1551. The Comfort of Louers, of about 350 lines, was printed de Worde no date. The unique copy is in private possession. See Berdan op. cit., pp. 86-88. Of these works the Pastime of Pleasure, because of its more elaborate structure and its supposed influence on Spenser, has received more attention. See:— Fuhr, Lautuntersuchungen zu Stephen Hawes’ Gedicht The Pastime of Pleasure Marburg diss., 1891. Burkart, Stephen Hawes’ The Pastime of Pleasure, A critical introduction to a proposed new edition of the text, Ziirich diss., ?1900, pp. 60. Zander, Hawes’ “Passetyme of Pleasure” verglichen mit Spenser’s “Faerie Queene” unter Berticksichtigung der allegorischen Dichtung in England, Rostock diss., 1906, pp. 114. Natter, Untersuchung der Quellen von Hawes’ allegorischem Gedicht “Pastime of Pleasure.” Munich diss., pubd. Passau, 1911. Rhodenizer, V. B., Studies in Stephen Hawes’ Pastime of Pleasure, Harvard diss., 1918. In typescript in the Harv. Univ. Library. A careful study of Hawes’ motifs and stage properties, especially as derived from the romances; valu- able for late medieval authors other than Hawes. On Hawes see also the Cambr. Hist. Eng. Lit. vol. ii, chap. ix, by William Muri- son; see Saintsbury’s Hist. Eng. Prosody i:235-39; see Courthope’s Hist. Eng. Poetry 1:380. [Dedication to Henry VII (part) ] Your noble grace, and excellent hyenes For to accepte I beseche ryght humbly, Thys little boke, opprest wyth rudenes Without rethoryke, or colour crafty: 25 Nothynge I am experte in poetry, As the monke of Bury, floure of elo- quence Which was in the time of great excel- lence, 5 Of your predecessour, the: v-kyng Henry, Unto whose grace, he dyd present 30 Ryght famous bokes, of parfit memory: Of hys faynyng wyth termes eloquent. Whose fatall ficcions, are yet permanent. Grounded on reason, wyth cloudy fygures He cloked the trouth of al his scrip- tures. 35 Ze STEPHEN HAWES 6 The light of trouth, I lacke cunnyng to cloke To drawe a curtayne, I dare not to pre- sume Nor hyde my matter, with a misty smoke My rudenes cunnyng, dothe so sore con- sume Yet as I may, I shall blowe out a fume 40 To hyde my mynde, vnderneth a fable By couert coloure, well and probable. 7 Besechyng your grace, to pardon mine ignoraunce Whiche this fayned fable, to eschue idle- nes Haue so compiled, nowe without doubt- aunce 45 For to present, to your hye worthines To folowe the trace, and all the perfitenes Of my master Lydgate, with due exer- cise Suche fayned tales, I do fynde and deuise. 8 For vnder a coloure, a truthe may arise 50 As was the guise, in olde antiquitye Of the Poetes olde, a tale to surmise To cloke the trouthe, of their infirmitye Or yet on ioye, to haue moralitye I me excuse, if by necligence 55 That I do offende, for lacke of science. Youre graces most bounden seruaunt Stephen Hawes, one of the gromes of your maiesties Chambre, the .xxi. yeare of your prosperous raygne. HOWE GRAUND AMOUR WALKED IN A MEDOWE, AND MET WITH FAME, ENUIRONNED WITH TONGUES OF FIRE. CHAP. 1. When Phebus entred was, in Geminy Shinyng aboue, in hys fayre golden spere And horned Dyane, then but one degre In the crabbe had entred, fayre & cleare When that aurora, did well appeare 5 In the depured ayre, and cruddy firma- ment Text from: The Historie of graunde Amoure and la bell Pucel, called the Pastime of plesure, conteining the Knowledge of the Seuen sciences & the course of mans life in this world. Jnuented by Stephen Hawes, grome of Kyng Henry the seuenth his chamber. Newely perused and imprynted by John Wayland [etc. Place and date in the colophon, London, June 1, 1554. pony in the British Museum, ete C.39.d.58.] Forthe then I walked, without impedi- ment 2 In to a medowe bothe gaye and glorious Whiche Flora depainted with many a colour Like a place of pleasure most solacious 10 Encensyng out, the aromatike odoure Of zepherus breathe, whiche that euery floure Throughe his fume dothe alwaie en- gender So as I went among the floures tender By sodaine chaunce, a faire pathe . founde On which I loked, and right oft I Bet | And then all about, I behelde the grounde With the faire pathe, whiche I sawe so vsed My chaunce or fortune, I nothing re- fused But in the pathe, forth I went a pace 20 To knowe whither, and vnto what place 4 It woulde me bryng, by any similitude So forth I went, were it ryght or wrong Tyll that I sawe, of royall pulcritude Before my face, an ymage fayre and strong 25 With two fayre handes, stretched out along Unto two hye wayes, there in particion And in the right hande, was this descrip- tion This is the strayght waye of contempla- cion Unto the ioyfull tower perdurable 30 Who that wyll walke, vnto that mancion He must forsake, all thynges variable With the vayne glory, so muche deceyu- able And though the way, be hard and daun- gerous The last ende therof, shalbe ryght pre- cious. 35 6 And in the other hande, ryght fayre wrytten was This is the waye, of worldly dignitye Of the actiue lyfe, who wyll in it passe Unto the tower, of fayre dame beautye THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE 273 Fame shal tell hym, of the way in cer- taintye 40 Unto la bell pucell, the fayre lady excel- lent Aboue all other, in cleare beauty splen- dent 7 I behelde ryght well, bothe the wayes twayne And mused oft, whyche was best to take The one was sharpe, the other was more plaine 45 And vnto myselfe, I began to make A sodayne argument, for I myght not slake Of my great musyng, of this royall ym- age And of these two wayes, so muche in vsage 8 For thys goodly picture was in altitude, Nyne fote and more, of fayre marble stone jr Ryght well fauoured, and of great alti- tude Thoughe it were made, full many yeres agone Thus stode I musynge, my selfe all alone By right long tyme, but at the last I went The actyue way, with all my whole en- tent 9 Thus all alone, I began to trauayle Forthe on my waye, by long continu- aunce But often times, I had great maruayle Of the by pathes, so fulle of pleasaunce 60 Whiche for to take, I had great doubt- ' aunce But euermore, as nere as I myght I toke the waye, whiche went before me right 10 And at the laste, when Phebus in the west Gan to auayle, with all his beames merye When cleare Dyana, in the fayre south- est 66 Gan for to ryse, lightyng our emispery With clowdes cleare, wythout the stormy pery Me thought a farre, I had a vysyon Of a picture, of marueylous facyon. 70 11 To whiche I went, without lenger delaye Beholdyng well, the right faire portay- ture Made of fine copper, shynyng faire and gaye Full well truely, accordyng to measure And as I thought, nine fote of stature 75 Yet in the breast, with letters fayre and blewe Was written, a sentence olde and true 12 This is the waye, and the sytuacion Unto the toure, of famous doctrine Who that will learne, must be ruled by reason 80 And with all his diligence, he must en- cline Slouthe to eschue, and for to determine And set his hert, to be intelligible To a willyng herte, is nought impossible 13 Beside the ymage, I adowne me sette 85 After my laboure, my selfe to repose Till at the last, with a gaspyng nette Slouth my head caught, with his whole purpose It vayled not, the bodye for to dispose Againste the heade, when it is applied 90 The heade must rule, it can not be denied 14 Thus as I satte, in a deadly slomber Of a great horne, I hearde a royall blast With which I awoke, and had a great wonder From whence it came, it made me sore agast 9. I loked about, the night was well nere past And fayre golden Phebus, in the morow graye With clowdes redde, began to breake the daye 15 I sawe come ridyng, in a valey farre A goodly Ladye, enuironned about 100 With tongues of fire, as bright as any starre That fiery flambes, ensensed al way out Whiche I behelde, and was in great doubt Her Palfrey swift, rennyng as the winde With two white greyhounds, that were not behind 105 274 STEPHEN HAWES 16 When that these greyhoundes, had me so espied With faunyng chere, of great humilitie In goodly haste, they fast vnto me hied I mused why, and wherfore it shoulde be But I welcomed them, in euery degree 110 They leaped oft, and were of me right faine I suffred them, and cherished them againe 17 Their collers were of golde, and of tys- sue fine Wherin their names, appeared by scrip- ture Of Dyamondes that clerely do shine 175 The letters were grauen fayre and pure To reade their names, I did my busye cure The one was gouernaunce, the other named grace Then was I gladde, of all this sodayne cace 18 And then the Ladye, with fiery flambe 120 Of brennyng tongues, was in my pres- ence Upon her palfrey, whiche had vnto name Pegase the swifte, so faire in excellence Whiche sometime longed, with his premi- nence To kyng Percius, the sonne of Jubiter 125 On whom he rode, by the worlde so farre 19 To me she saied, she marueyled muche why That her greyhoundes, shewed me that fauoure What was my name, she asked me truely To whom I saied, it was la graunde Amoure 130 Besechyng you to be to me succoure To the tower of doctrine, and also me tell Your proper name, and where you do dwell. 20 My name quod she, in all the world is knowen Iclipped Fame, in euery region 135 For I my horne in sundrye wise haue blowen After the deathe, of many a champion And with my tongues, haue made aye mencion Of their great actes, agayne to reuiue In flamyng tongues, for to abide on liue. 140 21 It was the custome of olde antiquitye When the golden world, had domination And nature highe, in her aucthoritie More stronger had, her operation Then she hath nowe, in her digres- sion 145 The people then did, all their busye payne After their death, in Fame to liue agayne 22 Recorde of Saturne, the first kyng of Crete Whiche in his youth, throughe his dili- gence Founde first plowing, of the landes swete And after this, by his great sapience 157 For the commen profite, and beneuolence Of all metalles, he made diuision One from another, by good prouision. 23 And then also, as some Poetes fayne 155 He founde shotyng, and drawyng of the bowe Yet as of that, I am nothynge certaine But for his cunnynge, of hye degre and lowe He was well beloued, as I do well knowe Throughe whose laboure, and aye busy cure 160 His fame shall liue, and shall right long endure 24 In whose time raigned, also in Thessayle A parte of Grece, the kyng Melizyus That was right strong, and fierce in battaile By whose laboure, as the storye sheweth vs 165 He brake first horses, wilde and rigorious Teachyng his men, on them right wel to ryde And he him selfe, did first the horse be- stryde. 25 Also Mynerue, the right hardy Goddesse In the same time, of so hyghe re- nowne 170 THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE 275 Uainquished Pallas, by her great worthi- nes And first made harneys, to laye his pride adowne Whose great defence, in euery realme and towne Was spredde about, for her hye chyualrye Whiche by her harneys, wanne the vic- torye 175 26 Dothe not remayne, yet in remembraunce The famous actes, of the noble Hercules That so many monsters put to vtteraunce By his great wisdome, and hye prowes As the recule of Troye, beareth good witnes 180 That in his time, he would no battayle take But for the wealthe, of the commens sake 27 Thus the whole mindes, were euer fixt and set Of noble men, in olde time to deuise Suche thinges as were, to the commen profite 185 For in that time, suche was their goodly guise That after death, their fame shoulde arise For to endure, and abide in mynde As yet in bokes, we maye them written fynde 28 O ye estates, surmountyng in noblenes 790 Remembre well, the noble paynyms all Howe by their labour, they wanne the highnes Of worthy fame, to raygne memoriall And them applyed, ever in speciall Thinges to practise, whiche should pro- fite be 195 To the comen wealth, and their heires in fee. OF THE SWETE REPORT OF FAME, OF THE FAIRE LADY LA BEL PUCEL, IN THE TOWER OF MUSIKE. CHAP. II. 29 And after this, Fame gan to expresse ences waye to the tower peril- ous And of the beautye, and the semelinesse Of la bel Pucell, so gaye and glorious 200 That dwelled in the tower so marueylous Unto which might come, no maner of creature But by great laboure, and hard aduen- ture 30 For by the waye, there lye in waite Gyantes great, disfigured of nature 205 That all deuoureth, by their euil conceite Against whose strength, there may no man endure They are so huge, and strong out of measure With many serpentes, foule and odious In sundry likenesse, blacke and tedi- ous 210 31 But beyonde them, a great sea there is Beyonde whiche sea, there is a goodly land Most full of fruite, replete with ioye and blisse Of right fine golde, appeareth all the sande In this faire realme, where the tower doth stand 215 Made all of gold, enameled aboute With noble stories, whiche do appeare without 32 In whiche dwelleth by great aucthoritye Of la bel Pucell, whiche is so fayre and bryght To whom in beautye, no peare I can see 220 For lyke as Phebus, aboue all starres in lyght When that he is, in his spere aryght Dothe excede, with his beames cleare So dothe her beauty, aboue other ap- peare 33 She is bothe good, aye wise, and vertu- ous 225 And also discended of a noble lyne Ryche, comely, ryght meke, and bounte- ous All maner vertues, in her clearely shine No uyce of her, maye ryght longe domyne And I dame Fame, in euery Nacion 230 Of her do make the same relation. 34 Her swete report, so my hart set on fyre With brennyng loue, most hote and feru- ent 276 STEPHEN HAWES That her to see, I had great desyre Saiynge to Fame, O Ladye excellent 235 I haue determined in my iudgement For la bel Pucell, the most fayre ladye To passe the waye, of so great ieopardye. 35 You shall quod Fame, attayne the victory If you wyll do, as I shal to you say 240 And all my lesson, retayne in memory To the tower of doctrine, ye shall take your waye You are now wythin a dayes iourney Both these greyhoundes, shal kepe you company Loke that you cherishe them full gentely 36 And countenaunce the goodly portres, Shall let you in, full well and nobly And also shewe you, of the perfectnes Of all the seuen sciences, ryght notably There in your mynde, you may entent- ifely 250 Unto dame doctrine, geue perfite audi- ence Whiche shall enfourme you, in euery science 37 Fare well she sayed, I may not nowe abide Walke on your way, with all your whole delite To the tower of doctrine, at this morowe tide 255 Ye shall to morowe, of it haue a syght Kepe on your waye, nowe before you ryght For I must hence, to specifye the dedes Of their worthines, accordyng to their medes. And with that she did, from me de- parte 260 Upon her stede, swifter then the wynde When she was gone, full wofull was my hart With inward trouble, oppressed was my mynde Yet were the greyhoundes, left with me behind Whiche did me comforte, in my great vyage 265 To the tower of doctrine, with their fawning courage. 39 So forthe I went, tossynge on my brayne Greatly musynge, ouer hyll and vale The way was troublous, & ey nothing playne Tyll at the laste, I came to a dale 270 Beholdyng Phebus, declinyng lowe and pale With my greyhoundes, in the fayre twy light I sate me downe, for to rest me all nyght 40 Slouthe vpon me, so fast began to crepe That of fyne force, I downe me layed 275 Upon an hyll, with my greyhoundes to slepe When I was downe, I thought me well apayed And to my selfe, these wordes then I sayed Who will attaine, sone to his iourneys ende To nourishe slouthe, he may not condis- cende. 280 HOWE FAME DEPARTED FROM GRAUNDE AMOURE, AND LEFT WYTH HYM GOUERN- AUNCE AND GRACE, AND HOWE HE WENT TO THE TOWER OF DOCTRINE. CA,III. 41 Thus then I slept, til that Auroras bemes Gan for to spreade, about the firmament And the clere sunne, wt his golden stremes Began for to rise, faire in the orient Without Saturnus, blacke encombrement And the little birdes, makyng melodye 286 Did me awake, with their swete armony. 42 I loked about, and sawe a craggy roche Farre in the west, neare to the element And as I did then, vnto it approche 290 Upon the toppe, I sawe refulgent The royall tower, of morall document Made of fine copper, wt turrettes faire and hye Which against Phebus, shone so marueyl- ously 43 That for the verye perfect brightnes, 295 What of the tower, and of the cleare sunne THE PASTIME.OF PLEASURE 277 I coulde nothing beholde the goodlines Of that palaice, where as doctrine did wonne Tyll at the last, with misty windes donne The radiant bryghtnes, of golden Phe- bus 300 Auster gan couer, wyth clowdes tene- brus. 44 Then to the tower I drewe nere and nere And often mused, of the great hyghnes Of the craggy rocke, which quadrant did appeare But the fayre tower, so muche of riches Was all about, sexangled doubtles 305 Gargeyld with greyhoundes, & with many lyons Made of fyne golde, with diuers sundry dragons 45 The little turrets, wyth ymages of golde About was set, which with the wynde aye moued 310 Wyth propre vyces, that I did well be- holde About the towers, in sundry wise they houed Wyth goodly pypes, in their mouthes ituned That wyth the wynde, they pyped a daunce Iclipped, amour de la hault pleasaunce. 315 HOWE HE WAS LET IN BY COUNTENAUNCE THE PORTERES, AND OF THE MARUEL- OUS BUILDYNGE OF THE SAME TOWER. CAPITULO - III - 46 The tower was greate, and of maruelous wydenesse, To whiche there was, no way to passe but one Into the tower, for to haue an intresse A grece there was, ychesyled all of stone Out of the rocke, on whyche men did gone 320 Up to the tower, and in likewise did I Wyth bothe the greyhoundes, in my com- pany 47 Tyll that I came, to a royall gate Where I sawe standyng, the goodly port- res Whiche axed me, from whence I came alate 325 To whom I gan, in euery thing ex- presse All myne aduenture, chaunce and _ busi- nes And eke my name, I tolde her euery dell When she hearde thys, she liked me ryght well 48 Her name she sayed, was called counten- aunce 330 In to the busy court, she did me then leade Where was a fountayne, depured of pleasaunce A noble spring, a royal conduit heade Made of fyne golde, enameled with redde And on the toppe, foure dragons blew and stoute 335 This dulcet water, in foure partes did spoute 49 Of whiche there flowed, foure riuers right cleare. Sweter then Nysus, or Ganges was their odour Tygrys, or Eufrates, vnto them no pere I dyd then taste, the aromatike licoure 340 Fragrant of fume, swete as any flower And in my mouthe, it had a marueylous cent Of diuers spices, I knew not what it mente 50 And after this, furder forthe me brought Dame countenaunce, into a goodly hall Of Jasper stones, it was wonderlye wrought 346 The windowes cleare, depured all of christal And in the roufe, on hye ouer all Of golde was made, a right crafty vyne In stede of grapes, the Rubies there did shyne. 350 51 The flore was paued, with berall clarified With pillers made, of stones precious Like a place of pleasure, so gayely glori- fied It might be called, a palaice glorious So muche delectable, and solacious 355 The hall was hanged, hye and circuler With clothe of arras, in the richest maner 278 STEPHEN HAWES 52 That treated well, of a full noble story Of the doubty waye, to the tower peril- lous Howe a noble knight, shoulde winne the victory 360 [The rest of this stanza, and 7 more, de- scribe the tapestry, which depicts the events to be narrated in the poem, ending with the wedding of the hero and La belle Pucell.] 60 And eke the clothe, made demonstration How he wedded, the great ladye beaute- ous 415 La bell Pucell, in her owne dominacion After his labour, and passage daungerous With solemne ioye, and mirthe melodious This famous storye, well pyctured was In the fayre hall, vpon the arras. 420 61 The marshall, yclipped was dame Reason And the yewres, also obseruaunce The panter Pleasaunce, at euery season The good butler, curteys continuaunce And the chiefe coke, was called temper- aunce, 425 The lady chamberlayne, named fidelitye And the hye stewarde, Liberalitye. 62 There sate dame Doctrine, that lady gent Whyche called me, vnto her presence For to knowe all the whole entent Of my commyng, vnto her excellence Madame I sayed, to learne your scyence I am comen, now me to applye Wyth all my cure, in perfect studye. 63 And yet also, I vnto her then shewed 435 My name and purpose, without doublenes For very great ioye, than were endued Her cristall eyes, full of lowlines When that she knewe, for very sikernes That I was he, that should so attayne 440 La bell Pucell, with my busy payne. 64 And after this, I had right good chere Of meate and drinke, there was great plentye Nothing I wanted, were it chepe or dere Thus was I serued, wt delicate dishes dainty 445 And after this, with all humilitie I went to doctrine, praiyng her good grace For to assigne me, my first learnyng place 65 Seuen daughters, most expert in cun- nyng Without foly, she had well engendred 450 As the seuen Sciences, in vertue so shin- yng At whose encrease, there is great thankes rendred Unto the mother, as nothing surrendred Her good name, and her dulcet sounde Whiche did engender, their originall ground. 455 66 And first to gramer she first me sent To whose request, I did well obey With diligence, forth on my way I went Up to a chambre, depaynted fayre and gaye And at the chambre, in right riche araye We were let in, by highe aucthoritye 46rz Of the ryght noble, dame congruitie. [Chapter v is Grammar, chap. vi Logic, chap. vii Rhetoric, chap. viii Invention, a part of Rhetoric. In chap. v Graunde Amour begs to knowe what a noun substantive is:—] To whom she answered, right gently agayne 530 Saiyng alwaye, that a nowne substantyue Might stande without helpe of an ad- -iectyue 77 The latyne worde, whiche that is referred Unto a thing, whiche is substantiall For a nowne substantiue, is well auerred And with a gender, is declinall 536 So, all the eyght partes in generall Are latyn wordes, annexed proprelye To euery speache, for to speake formally [Chapters vi and vii are omitted. Stanza 3, etc., of viii follow:] 95 It was the guyse, in olde antiquitye Of famous poetes, ryght ymaginatife 660 Fables to fayne, by good aucthoritye They were so wyse, and so inuentyfe Theyr obscure reason, fayre and sugra- tyfe THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE 279 Pronounced trouthe, vnder clowdy fyg- ures By the inuention, of theyr fatall scrip- tures 665 96 And thirdly, they had suche a fansy In thys hye art, to be intelligible Their fame encreasyng, euermore truely To slouthe euer, they were inuyncible To their wofull hartes, was nought im- possible 670 Wyth brennyng loue, of insaciate fyre Newe thynges to fynde, they set their desyre 97 For thoughe a man, of hys propre mynde Be inuentyfe, and he do not applye His fantasye, vnto the busye kynde 675 Of hys cunnynge, it may not ratifye For fantasye, must nedes exemplifye His new inuention, & cause hym to en- tende Wyth whole desyre, to bryng it to an ende 98 And fourthly, by good estimation 680 He must number, all the whole circum- staunce Of this matter, with breuiacion That he walke not, by long continuaunce The perambulat way, full of all variaunce By estimacion, is made annunciate 685 Whether the matter, be long or breuiate 99 For to Inuention, it is equipolent The matter founde, right well to com- prehende In suche a space, as is conuenient For properlye, it dothe euer pretende 690 Of all the purpose, the length to extende So estimation, may ryght well conclude The perfite number, of euery similitude 100 And yet then, the retentife memory Whiche is the fift, must euer agre- gate 695 All matters thought, to retayne inwardlye Tyll reason therof, hath made a probate And by scripture, will make demonstrate Outwardly, accordyng to the thought To proue a reason, vpon a thyng of nought 700 101 Thus when the fourth, hath wrought ful wonderly cae must the mynde, worke vpon them al By cours ingenious, to runne directly After their thoughtes, then in generall The mynde must cause them, to be mem- orial 705 As after this, shall appeare more openlye All whole exprest, by dame Philosophye. 102 O trust of vertue, and of royall pleasure Of famous Poetes, many yeres ago O insaciate couetise, of the special treas- ure 710 Of newe inuencion, of idlenes the fo We may you laude, and often praise also And specially, for worthy causes thre Whiche to this daye, we may bothe here and see 103 As to the first, your whole desire was set 715 Fable to fayne, to eschue idlenes With ampliation, more cunnyng to get By the laboure, of inuentife busines Touchyng the trouthe, by couert likenes To disnull vice, and the vycious to blame Your dedes therto, exemplified the same. 104 And secondly, right well you did endite Of the worthy actes, of many a conquer- oure Throughe which labour, that you did so write Unto this daye, rayneth the honoure 725 Of euery noble, and myghty warriour And for your labour, and your busy paine Your fame yet liueth, & shal endure cer- taine 105 And eke to praise you, we are greatly bounde Because our cunnyng, from you so pre- cedeth 730 For you therof, were first originall grounde And vpon your scripture, our science en- sueth Your splendent verses, our lightnes re- nueth And so we ought, to laude and magnifie 280 STEPHEN HAWES Your excellent springes, of famous poetry 735 106 But rude people, opprest with blindnes Against your fables, will often solisgise Suche is their minde, such is their folish- nes For they beleue, in no maner of wyse That vnder a coloure, a trouth may aryse ; 740 For folyshe people, blynded in a matter Will often erre, when they of it do clatter 107 O all ye cursed, and suche euil foles Whose sightes be blynded, ouer all with foly Open your eyes, in the pleasaunt scholes 745 Of parfect cunnyng, or that you replye Against fables, for to be contrarye For lacke of cunnyng, no maruell though you erre In suche scyence, whiche is from you so farre 108 For now the people, whiche is dull and rude 750 If that they do reade, a fatall scripture And can not moralise, the similitude Whiche to their wittes, is so harde and obscure Then will they saye, that it is sene in vre That nought do poetes, but depaynt and lye 755 Deceiuyng them, by tongues of flattery. 109 But what for that, they can not defame The Poetes actes, whiche are in effect Unto them selues, remayneth the shame To disprayse that, which they can not correct 760 And if that they, had in it inspect Than they would it praise, and often eleuate For it shoulde be to them, so delicate. [Chap. x, on Disposition, 12 stanzas, and most of chap. xi, on Elocution, 40 stanzas, are omitted. | 158 Cunnyng is lyght, and also pleasaunt 1700 A gentle burden, wythout greuousnes Unto hym, that is ryght well appliaunt For to beare it, with all his busines He shall attaste, the welle of fruitefulnes Whiche Uirgil clarified, and also Tul- lius 1105 With latyn pure, swete, and delicious. 159 From whence my master lidgate derified, The depured rethorike, in Englyshe lan- guage To make our tongue, so clearely purified That the vyle termes, shoulde nothing arage IIIO As like a pye, to chatter in a cage But for to speake, with rethorike form- ally In the good order, withouten vylany. 160 And who his bokes, list to heare or see In them he shall finde, elocution 7775 With as good order, as any maye be Kepyng full close, the moralization Of the trouthe, of his great intencion Whose name is regestred, in remem- braunce For to endure, by long continuaunce [One more stanza completes xi. Chap xii, 8 stanzas, treats of Pronunciation; chap. xili, 8 stanzas, of Memory. Two stanzas of chap. xiv are omitted; then:] 180 O pensyfe harte, in the stormy pery Mercury northwest, thou maist se ap- peare 1255 After tempest, to gladde, thine emispery Hoyse vp thy sayle, for thou must drawe neare Towarde the ende, of thy purpose so cleare Remembre the, of the trace and daunce Of poetes olde, wyth all thy puruey- aunce. 1260 181 As moral Gower, whose sentencious dewe Adowne reflareth, with fayre golden beames And after Chaucers, all abroade dothe shewe Our vyces to clense, his depured streames Kindlyng our hartes, wyth the fiery leames Of morall vertue, as is probable 1266 In all his bokes, so swete and profitable THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE 281 182 The boke of fame, whiche is sentencious He drewe him selfe, on his owne inuen- tion And then the tragidies, so piteous 1270 Of the nintene ladyes, was his translation And vpon his ymagination He made also, the tales of Caunterbury Some vertuous, and some glad and merye 183 And of Troylus, the piteous doloure 1275 For his ladye Cresyde, full of doublenes He did bewayle, full well the langoure Of all his loue, and great vnhappines And many other bokes doubtles He did compyle, whose goodly name 1280 In prynted bookes, dothe remayne in fame. 184 And after him, my master Lydgate The monke of bury, did him well apply Bothe to contryue, and eke to translate And of vertue, euer in especially 1285 For he did compyle, then full ryally Of our blessed ladye, the conuersation Saynt Edmundes life, martred with treason 185 Of the fall of Princes, ryght wofully He did endite, in all piteous wise 1290 Folowyng his auctoure, Bocas rufully A ryght great boke, he did truely com- pryse A good ensample, for vs to despyse This worlde so full, of mutabilitie In whiche no man, can haue a certainte. 186 And thre reasons, ryght greatly profit- able Under coloure, he cloked craftely And of the chorle, he made the fable That shitte the byrde, in a cage so closely The pamflete, sheweth it expreslye 1300 He fayned also, the court of sapience And translated, with all his diligence. 187 The great boke, of the last destruction Of the citye of Troye, whylome so fam- ous Howe for a woman, was the confusion And betwene vertue, and the life vicious Of Gods and Goddesses, a boke solacious He did compyle, and the tyme to passe Of loue he made, the bryght temple of glasse 188 Were not these thre, greatly to com- mende 1310 Which them applied, such bokes to con- triue Whose famous draughtes, no man can amend The tyme of slouthe, they did from them driue After their deathe, for to abide on lyue In worthy fame, by many a nacion 1315 Their bokes, their actes, do make rela- tion 189 O master Lydgate, the most dulcet spryng Of famous rethoryke, wyth ballade royall The chefe originall, of my learnyng What vayleth it, on you for to call 1320 Me for to ayde, nowe in especiall Sythen your bodye, is now wrapte in chest I pray God to geue, your soule good rest 190 O what losse is it, of suche a one It is to great truely, for me to tell 1325 Sythen the tyme, that his life was gone In all this realme his pere did not dwell Aboue all other, he did so excell None sythe his tyme, in arte woulde suc- cede After their death, to haue for their mede 1330 191 But many a one, is ryght well expert In this cunnyng, but vpon aucthoritie They fayne no fables, pleasaunt and couerte But spende their time, in vaynefull vanitie Makyng ballades, of feruent amitie 1335 As gestes and trifles, without fruitefulnes Thus all in vayne, they spende their busi- nes 192 I little or nought, expert in poetrye Of my master Lidgate, will folowe the trace 1330. Insert fame after have, as in reprint of the 1555 text. 282 STEPHEN HAWES As rhe so his name to magni- 1340 with Teeth little bokes, by Gods grace If in this worlde, I may haue the space The little cunnyng, that his grace me sent In tyme among, in suche wise shalbe spent. 193 And yet nothing, vpon presumption 1345 My master Lydgate, I will not enuy But all onely, is myne intencion With suche laboure, my selfe to occupy As white by blacke, dothe shyne more clearely So shal their matters, appeare more pleas- aunt 1350 Bisyde my draughtes, rude, and ignoraunt [The next chapter, xv, of 7 stanzas, deals with Arsmetrik. Chap. xvi, of music, opens :] 201 When splendent Phebus, in his middaye speare Was highe in Gemine, in the freshe sea- son Of iustye Maye, with golden beames cleare And darke Dyane, made declination When Flora florished, in this nacion 1405 I called vnto minde, right inwardly The report of Fame, so muche ententiflye 202 Of la bell Pucell, in the tower musicall And ryght anone, vnto the tower I went Where I sawe, a temple made of Crys- tal 1410 In whiche musyke, the lady excellent Played on base organes, expedient Accordyng well, vnto dyopason Dyapenthe, and eke dyetesseron [Seventy more stanzas complete the chap- ter, in which Graunde Amour sees and dances with La Bell Pucell, goes from her to a temple to bewail his passion and there is met by Counsel, who reminds him of the miser- ies of lovers of olden time, but advises him to pluck up heart. Chap. xviii, 40 stanzas, is a disputation between Graunde Amour and La bell Pucell. In chap. xix, 24 stanzas, she accepts his love, but at once departs in a ship. Graunde Amour is consoled by Counsel in chap. xx, 20 stanzas. In chap. xxi he betakes himself to Geometry, in xxii to Astronomy; chap xxiii is “Of the direct operation of Nature”, xxiv on the five wits, xxv on the supernal bodies. In chap. xxvi Graunde Amour comes to the tower of Chiy- alry, and then visits the temple of Mars, where he hears discourse on knighthood, is made knight, and sets out on horseback for adventures. In xxix he encounters a foolish dwarf, who accompanies him as his varlet. The portions of the work dealing with this dwarf, Godfrey Gobelive, are in couplets, and attempt a realistic use of Kentish dialect as well as a comic effect. Godfrey counsels Graunde Amour against women and mar- riage, and tells a clumsy story of Virgil the enchanter. They enter the temple of Venus, and Graunde Amour presents his bill of complaint. Venus writes a letter for him to La Bell Pucell, and the knight and his varlet continue their travels. Chap. xxxiii follows.] HOWE GRAUNDE AMOURE DISCOMFITED THE GYAUNT WITH THREE HEADES, AND WAS RECEIUED OF THREE FAYRE LADYES. CAPI. XXXIII 538 When golden Phebus, in the Capricorne Gan to ascende, fast vnto Aquary 4215 And Janus bifrus, the croune had worn With his frosty bearde in January, When cleare Dyana, ioyned with Mercury The cristall ayre, and assured firmament Were all depured, without encumbre- ment. 4220 539 Forthe then I rode, at mine owne aduen- ture Ouer the mountaines, and the craggy rockes To beholde the countres, I had great pleasure Where corall growed, by ryght hye stockes And the Popingayes, in the tree toppes Then as I rode, I sawe me beforne 4226 Beside a well hang, bothe a shelde and a horne 540 When I came there, adowne my stede I light And the faire bugle, I right well behelde Blasyng the armes, as well as I myght That was so grauen, vpon the goodly shelde First all of siluer, did appeare the felde With a rampyng Lyon, of fine golde so pure 4233 THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE 283 And vnder the shelde, there was this scripture. 541 If any knight, that is aduenturous Of his great pride, dare the bugle blowe There is a gyaunt, bothe fierce and rigor- ious That with his might, shall him sone ouer- throw This is the waye, as ye shall nowe knowe To la bell Pucell, but withouten faile 4240 The sturdy gyaunt, will geue you battaile. 542 When I the scripture, once or twise had reade And knewe therof, all the whole effect I blewe the horne, without any dreade And toke good hart, all feare to abiect Makyng me ready, for I did suspect That the great gyaunt, vnto me woulde haste When he had hearde me, blowe so loude a blast. 543 I alite anone, vpon my gentle stede About the well, then I rode to and fro And thought right well, vpon the ioyfull mede 4251 That I shoulde haue, after my payne and wo And of my lady, I did thinke also Tyll at the last, my verlet did me tell Take hede quod he, here is a fende of hell 544 My greyhoundes leaped, and my stede did start My spere I toke, and did loke about With hardy courage, I did arme my hart At last I sawe, a sturdy gyaunt stoute Twelue fote of length, to feare a great route 4260 Thre heades he had, and he armed was Bothe heades and bodye, all aboute with brasse 545 Upon his first heade, in his helmet crest There stode a fane, of the silke so fine Where was written, with letters of the best My name is falshode, I shall cause encline My neighbours goodes, for to make them myne Alway I get, their lande or substaunce With subtile fraude, deceypt, or variaunce 546 And when a knight, with noble chyualry Of la bell Pucell, shoulde attayne the grace 4271 With my great falshode, I worke so sub- tilly That in her hart, he hath no dwellyng place Thus of his purpose, I do let the case This is my power, and my condicion Loue to remoue, by a great illusion 547 And of the seconde heade, in a silken tas- sell f There I sawe written, ymagination My crafty witte, is withouten fayle Loue for to bring, in perturbacion 4280 Where la bell Pucell, woulde haue affec- tion To graunde amoure, I shall a tale deuise To make her hate him, and him to despise. 548 By my false witte, so muche ymaginatife The trouthe ful oft, I bryng in disease Where as was peace, I cause to be strife- I will suffer no man, for to liue in ease For if by fortune, he will be displease I shall of hym, ymagen suche a tale That out of ioye, it shall turne into bale. 549 And on the thirde heade, in a stremer grene 4291 There was written, my name is pariury In many a towne, I am knowen as I wene Where as I list, I do great iniury And do forswere my selfe full wrong- fully Of all thinges, I do hate conscience But I loue lucre, with all diligence 550 Betwene two louers, I do make debate I will so swere, that they thinke I am true 4299 For euer falshode, with his owne estate To a lady cometh, and sayeth to eschue An inconuenience, that ye do not rue Your loue is nought, ymagination know- eth I sweare in likewise, and anone she troweth 284 STEPHEN HAWES 551 That we haue saied, is of very trouthe Her loue she casteth, right cleane out of minde That with her loue, she is wondersly wrough With fayned kindenes, we do her so blinde Then to her louer, she is full vnkinde Thus our thre powers, were ioyned in one 4310 In this mighty gyaunt, many dayes agone 552 And when that I, had sene euery thing My spere I charged, that was very great And to this gyaunt, so fiercely commyng I toke my course, that I with him mette Breakyng my spere, vpon his first helmet And right anone, adowne my stede I light Drawyng my swerde, that was faire and bright. 553 Iclipped Clara prudence, that was faire and sure At the gyaunt I stroke, with all my vale- aunce : 4320 But he my strokes, might right well en- dure He was so great, and huge of puysaunce His glaue he did, against me aduaunce Whiche was -iiii- fote, and more of cuttyng And as he was, his stroke dischargyng 554 Because his stroke, was heauy to beare I lept aside, from him full quickely And to him I ranne, without any feare When he had discharged, agayne full lightly He rored loude, and sware I shoulde abye 4330 But what for that, I strake at him fast And he at me, but I was not agast. 555 But as he fought, he had a vauntage He was right hye, and I vnder him lowe Till at the last, with lusty courage Upon the side, I gaue him suche a blowe That I right neare, did him ouerthrowe But right anone, he did his mighte en- large That vpon me, he did suche strokes dis- charge 556 That I vnneth, might make resistence 4340 Against his power, for he was so strong I did defend me, agaynst his vyolence And thus the battayle, dured full right long Yet euermore, I did thinke among Of la bell Pucell, whom I shoulde at- tayne After my battailles, to release my payne 557 And as I loked, I sawe then auale Fayre golden Phebus, with his beames redde Then vp my courage, I began to hale Whiche nighe before, was agone and deade 4350 My swerde so entred, that the gyant bledde And with my strokes, I cutte of anone One of his legges, amiddes the thyghe bone. 558 Then to the grounde, he adowne did fall And vpon me, he gan to loure and glumme Enforsyng him, so for to ryse withall But that I shortly, vnto him did come With his thre heades, he spitte all his venyme And I with my sworde, as fast as coulde be 4359 With all my force, cut of his heades three. 559 When I had so, obtayned the victory Unto me then, my varlet well sayed You haue demeaned you, well and worthely My greyhoundes lept, and my stede then brayed And then from farre, I sawe well arayed To me come ridyng, thre ladyes right swete Forthe then I rode, and did with them mete 560 The first of them, was called Ueritie And the seconde, good Operation The thirde also, yclipped Fidelitie 4370 All they at once, with good opinion Did geue to me, great laudation And me beseched, with their hart entire With them to rest, and to make good chere. THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE 285 561 I graunted them, & then backewarde we rode The mighty gyaunt, to se and beholde Whose huge bodye, was more then fiue cart lode Whiche lay there bledyng, that was al- most colde They for his deathe, did thanke me many a folde For he to them, was enemy mortall 4380 Wherefore his thre heades, they toke in speciall 562 And then Ueritie, on the first fane Did set aloft, of falshode the heade And good Operacion, in likewise had tane Of ymagination, that full sore then bledde Upon his heade aloft, vpon his banner redde And in likewise, Fidelitie had serued Periuries heade, as he had well deserued 563 And with swete songes, and swete armony Before me they rode, to their fayre castell 4390 So forthe I rode, with great ioye and glory Unto the place, where these ladyes did dwell Set on a rocke, beside a spryng or a well And fayre Obseruaunce, the goodly por- tresse Did vs receiue, with solemne gladnes 564 Then to a chamber, that was very bryght They did me leade, for to take mine ease After my trouble, and my great sturdy fight But thre woundes I had, causyng my dis- ease 4399 My payne and wo, they did sone appease And healed my woundes, with salue aro- matike Tellyng me of a great gyaunt lunatike. 565 Whose name truely, was called Uariaunce Whom I shoulde mete, after my depart- yng These ladies, vnto me did great pleasaunce And in the meane while, as we were talkyng For me my supper, was in ordeynyng Thus when by temperaunce, it was pre- pared And then to it we went, and ryght well fared 566 Tell me quod Ueritie, if you be con- tent 4410 What is your name, so hye aduenturous And who that you, into this coast hath sent Madame I saide, I was so amorous Of la bell Pucell, so fayre and beauteous La graunde amoure, truely is my name Whiche seke aduentures, to attayne the fame 567 A ha quod she, I thought asmuche before That you were he, for your great hardi- nes La bell Pucell, must loue you euermore Whiche for her sake, in your hye nobles Dothe suche actes, by chyualrous excesse Her gentle hart, may nothing denye 4422 To rewarde your mede, wyth loue full feruently. 568 Thus did we passe time, in all maner of ioye I lacked nothing, that might make me solace But euermore, as noble Troylus of Troye Full oft I thought, on my faire ladyes face And her to se, a muche lenger space When time was come, to rest I was brought All to me longyng, there lacked right nought 4430 569 What shoulde I wade, by perambulucion My time is shorte, and I haue farre to sayle Unto the lande, of my conclusion The winde is east, right slowe without fayle To blowe my shippe, of diligent trauayle To the last ende, of my matter troublous With waues enclosed, so tempestuous. 570 Right in the morowe, when aurora clere Her radiaunt beames, began for to spreade And splendent Phebus, in his golden spere 286 STEPHEN HAWES The crystall ayre, did make fayre and redde 4441 Darke Dyane, declinyng pale as anye ledde When the little byrdes, sweetly did syng Laudes to their maker, early in the morn- yng. CAPIT. XXXIIII 571 Vp I arose, and did make me readye For I thought long, vnto my iourneys ende My greyhoundes lept, on me right merely To cheare me forwarde, they did conde- scende And the thre ladies, my cheare to amende A good breakefast, did for me ordayne They were right gladde, the gyaunt was slayne. 4451 [The work extends through 45 chapters and a brief author’s “Excusation” at close; in all 759 stanzas, and, with the two pas- sages in couplets, of about 5765 lines. The story, beyond chap. xxxiii, takes Graunde Amour to the palace of Comfort under guidance of Dame Perseveraunce; he then vanquishes a giant with seven heads, con- tinues to the palace of Patience, and slays a dragon. As the smoke from the death- throes of the “blacke and tedyous” monster passes away, the mansion of La Bell Pucell becomes visible. The hero is welcomed, and the marriage ceremony performed. Many years of happiness ensue; then, says the author, Old Age warned me, soon Death arrested me, and all my life was spent. In chap. xlii Remembrance makes his epitaph, modeling it on Earth upon earth. Fame then praises him, comparing him to each of the Nine Worthies. Time combats Fame’s pretensions to confer immortality, and Eter- nity utters a closing moralization.] WILLIAM NEVILL THE CASTELL OF PLEASURE (Extracts) and DIALOGUE BETWEEN NEVILL AND COPLAND Nothing is known of William Nevill except that he was the second son of Richard Nevill, Baron Latimer. His elder brother John, third baron Latimer, who died in 1543, was the husband of that Katharine Parr who later became the sixth wife of Henry the Eighth. We infer from the words of Copland to Nevill, in the introductory stanzas, that this poem was written in Nevill’s youth; it was printed by Pepwell in 1518 (whence this text) and Dibdin describes a print, undated but ?earlier, by de Worde. From this dialogue it might be inferred that Copland was the responsible printer ; but as he was for some time employed by de Worde in an “editorial” capacity, it is possible that he could arrogate to himself the role of publisher in this discussion. The figure of Robert Copland, fl. 1508-1547, is of interest to the student of the later Transition. His own typographical work is not very good, and the dozen or so books from his press are nearly all slight. But he differs from his employer de Worde and resembles Caxton in his literary attempts and his translations; he goes further than Caxton, however, in his adoption of a “popular” tone when writ- ing his two independent works. These compositions, Jyl of Brentford’s Testament and The Hye Way to the Spyttel Hous, although unoriginal in plan and clumsy in execution, are frankly human in their material; and it is the double strain in Copland, the address to the two publics as in Skelton, which marks him so plainly with the stamp of the Transition. When he translates, and often in his prologues and epilogues to other men’s work, he uses affectations and Latinisms; he talks of “odiferaunt flowers”, of “misorned language”, of “the divine savitude of God”, etc. These are concessions to “high style’, which Chaucer’s Host might have scorned ; but at the next moment Copland can speak as directly, as practically, and with as broadly coarse an appeal as Skelton himself or Harry Bailly himself. Copland translated, from the French, the Kalender of Shepeherdes, the ro- mances of King Apollonius of Tyre, of Helyas, and of Ipomydon, the Secret of Secrets, three marriage poems, etc. He added a long verse-invocation to Chertsey’s Passion of Our Lord, appended stanzas on French dances to Barclay’s book on French pronunciation, and stanzas on Newfangleness to the 1530 print of Chau- cer’s Parlement of Foules; to William Walter’s translation of Boccaccio’s Guiscard and Sigismonda he wrote a prologue, epilogue, and various interspersed comments, and to this poem the introductory and final stanzas as here printed. Most of these productions are wooden, aimed at a public of aristocratic or didactic tastes ; but in his Hye Way, especially, there is some real feeling for nature as well as for human nature. And the same thing might be said of Nevill’s picture of the fall of evening, although he even more than Copland is deeply branded with the iron of Hawes’ formulae and Hawes’ vocabulary. Pepwell, the printer of this text of Nevill, followed the “editorial” procedure of Caxton and of Copland by prefixing to Anslay’s translation of the Cité des [ 287 ] 288 WILLIAM NEVILL Dames a verse-prologue of four stanzas in rime royal ; this is reprinted by Fligel in Anglia 12 :13-14. SELECT REFERENCE LIST XII Dibdin, Typographical Antiquities: or the History of Printing in England, Scotland, and Ireland, etc. London, 1810-19, 4 vols. The unique copy of the de Worde print of this poem is discussed ii:371-2; it was then in the Roxburghe collection, dispersed 1812. Copland is discussed ibid., iii:111-126, and his stanzas appended to the Parlement of Foules are reprinted ibid., ii :268-70. Handlists of English Printers 1501-1556, London, 1895-1913, 4 vols., compiled by Gordon Duff, H. R. Plomer, etc. Plomer, Wynkyn de Worde and his Contemporaries, London, 1925. Copland’s Hye Way is reprinted in Utterson’s Select Pieces of Early Popular Poetry, ii:1-50, and in Hazlitt’s Early Popular Poetry iv:17-72. For a discussion of the poem see Herford’s Literary Relations of England and Germany, 357-62. There is an extract from the poem in Fliigel’s Neuengl. Lesebuch, pp. 203-6. On Copland’s appendix to Barclay see Fligel ibid. 423; and for one of his marriage poems translated from the French see Hazlitt, op. cit., iv: 73-80, and also Wright’s Poems of Walter Mapes, Camden Society, 1841, p. 295, from the text in MS Bodl. Digby 181. This latter was long ascribed to Lydgate. Fligel’s Lesebuch gives one stanza of Nevill’s poem, at p. 17, and in the Notes, pp. 374-5, prints Copland’s prologue-stanzas. Coplande the prynter to the auctour Your mynde consydered / & your good entent Theffecte regarded / in euery maner case Your cyrcunstaunce / and labour dyly- gent Who wyll construe / is of grete effycace (Y)our sentences morally tenbrace Concerneth reason of lauryate grauyte Yonge tender hertes / talecte with amyte Your aege also flourynge in vyrent youthe So to bestowe is gretely to commende Bookes to endyte of maters ryght vn- couthe 10 Ensample gyuynge to all suche as pre- tende In tharte of loue theyr myndes to con- descende In termes fresshe / theyr courage to endewe Text from: The Castell of pleasure. The conuey- aunce of a dreme how Desyre went to ye castell of pleasure / Wherin was the gardyn of affecyon inhabyted by Beaute to whome he amerously expressed his loue / vpon the whiche supplyca- cion rose grete stryfe dysputacion / & argu- ment between Pyte & Dysdayne.—(Colophon) Printed by Harry Pepwell, London, 1518. (Brit. Mus. black letter, 18 leaves, no pagin., in sixes.) Not with rude toyes / but elegant and newe Yet ben there many that lytell regarde Your pleasures castell / inhabyte with Beaute And I am sure wold gyue but small rewarde For this your labour / and studyous dyte But had ye compyled some maner sub- tylte Lucre to gete / theyr neyghbour to be- gyle 20 They wolde alowe it a perfyt dyscrete style Thauctour My boke of loue / belonges to no suche arte But to the pleasure / is his hoole affec- cyon Of gentyll people / whiche lyketh to take parte In pleasaunt youth / with amorous dylec- cyon Honour regarded / in clene cyrcunspec- cyon Layenge aparte / all wylfull vayne desyre To conforte them that brenne in louynge fyre THEN CASTELLI? OF “PLEASURE 289 Copland Bokes of loue innumerable prynted be I mene of ladyes / and many a hardy knyght 30 Withoute regarde of sensuall nycete In loue exployntynge / truly with all theyr myght But loue of golde / these dayes blyndeth the syght Of men and women / hauynge theyr chefe delyte Onely for mede to do theyr appetyte. Thauctour Emprynt this boke / Coplande at my request And put it forth to euery maner state It doost no good lyenge styll in my chest To passe the tyme some wyll bye it algate Cause it is newe / compyled now of late At leest way yonge folke / wyll gladly seke recure 41 Beauty to gete in the toure of pleasure. [Copland] At your instaunce / I shall it glad(l)y impresse But the vtteraunce I thynke wyll be but smale Bokes be not set by / theyr tymes is past I gesse The dyce and cardes / in drynknge wyne and ale Tables / cayles / and balles / they be now set a sale Men lete theyr chyldren vse all suche harlotry 48 That byenge of bokes they vtterly deny Finit prologus En passant le temps sans mal penser Tornyng & trauersyng hystoryes vn- ste(d) faste In Ouydes bokes of transformacyon It was my fortune and chaunce at the laste In ouertornyng of pe leues to se in what facyon Phebus was inflamyd by inspyracyon Of cruell cupyd to hym immercyable Whiche of hym was worthy no commen- dacyon Shewyng hymselfe alwayes deceyuable Therfore I wolde gladly yf I were able The maner playnly and in few wordes dysclose 10 How phebus and cupyd togyder were compenable Fyrst it to shewe I wyll me dyspose Phebus set on pryde and hault in corage Spake these wordes of grete audacyte Cupyde thou boy of yonge and tender aege How mayst thou be so bolde to compare with me These arowes becomes me as thou mayst clerely se Wherwith I may wounde bothe man and beste And for that at all creatures be subgect to the So moche is thy power lesse than myn at eche feste 20 Well well sayd cupyde it lyketh you to geste This sayd / he assended to the mount pernassus On the hyght his armis shortly abrode he keste And sayd I trust I shall this in haste dyscusse. For a profe he toke forth of his arowy quyuer A golden darte with loue ryght peny- trable Made sharp at the poynt that it myght enter With it he stroke phebus with a stroke ryght lamentable It to resyste he was weyke and vnable The stroke of his power who can or may resyste 30 But he must obey / and to loue be agre- able Constreygned by cupyde which may stryke whom he lyst An other darte he toke soone in his fyste Contrary to thoder ledyn blont and heuy With this he stroke Phebus loue or she wyste So that the more he desyred the more she dyd deny Her name was daphnys which was de- uoyed of loue By dame saunce mercy which made hym to complayne Cupyde in sondry wyse his power dyde proue On thone with loue on thoder with dys- dayne 40 290 WILLIAM NEVILL Thone dyde fle thoder wolde optayne Thone was glad thoder was in wo Thone was pencyfe and oppressyd with payne Thoder in Joy cared not though it were so By fere and dysdayne she dyd hym ouergo Lyke to an hare she ranne in haste He folowed lyke a grehounde desyre wrought hym wo But all was in vayne his labour was but waste. The nyght drew nye the day was at a syde My herte was heuy I moche desyred rest Whan without comfort alone I dyd abyde Seynge the shadowes fall from the hylles in the west 52 Eche byrde vnder boughe drewe nye to theyr nest The chymneys from ferre began to smoke Eche housholder went about to lodge his gest The storke feringe stormes toke the chymney for a cloke Eche chambre & chest were sonne put vnder locke Curfew was ronge lyghtes were set vp in haste They pt were without for lodgynge soone dyde knocke Which were playne precedentes pt 2 was clerely paste. Thus a slepe I fell by a sodayne chaunce Whan I lacked lyght alone without com- forte My sore study with slouthe dyde me enhaunce Myn eyes were heuy my tonge without dysporte Caused many fantasyes to me to resorte My hert was moche musynge my mynde was varyaunt So I was troubled with this vngracyous sorte That my herte & mynde to slouthe short- ly dyde graunt 68 About the whiche whyles I was atend- aunt Sodaynly came Morpheus & at a brayde Not affrayd but lyke a man ryght valy- aunt Couragyously to me th(e)se wordes he sayde. Morpheus Well knowen it is and noysed for a trothe Though perchaunce it hath not attayned yet to your audyence How Desyre in mynde hath made a solempne othe 75 Beaute to serue without resistence So to contynue he dothe ryght well pre- pence Durynge his lyfe with loue stedfast and sure In parfyte loue to kepe one contynuaunce It is his mynde to do her suche pleasure. On faruent loue he sette holy his mynde Loue is his pleasure yet loue putteth hym to payne 82 Moche rule I ensure you hath nature and kynde In hym as is possyble in one to remayne He wold fayne haue release and dare not yet complayne Howbe it to suche a poynte he is now brought That eyther to shewe his minde he must shortly be fayne Or elles his Joye is clerely solde and bought. For the whiche it is done me to vnder- stande That he wyll shortly now expresse is entent And this they say he wyll take on eae To go to her presence wherfore be dyly- gent And walke with me and be obedyent And I shall soone knowe how he shall spede I must of duety holde me content So ye supporte me alwaye whan I haue nede. The montayne of courage This sayd sodaynly by a chaunce repent- ine I was ascendynge a god(e)ly montayne About the whiche be sonne ouer eche syde dyd shyne Wherof the colour made my herte ryght fayne 100 To se fine golden valeys bothe fayre and playne But whan I to the toppe was nye auaunced —He, CASTELE OF | PLEASURE 291 None of my Joyntes coude to gyder con- tayne For Joy my herte lepyd and my body daunced. What call ye this hyll I pray you tell This is the mountayne of lusty courage This hath ben inhabyted of many a rebell As vnkyndnes / enmyte / dysdayne / and dotage 108 But now they be dystroyed by marcyall apparage So that now adayes here dwelleth none Yet dysdayne hath goten a more stately aduauntage For in the castell of plesure she troubles many one. Now goodly Justes here on they excer- cyse By thactyfnes of many a champyon And these well gargeled galeryes they dyde deuyse To thentent that ladyes myght haue pros- peccyon And to suche as were worthy graunte loue & affeccyon And also whan theyr lust were theyr courage to vse To daunce amonges theym they toke a dyreccyon As they myght well and not theym selfe abuse 120 Whan I aduerted of these galeryes pe quadrant facyon The meruelous mountayne so well made playne Me thought that syth the incarnacyon Was neuer seen a more goodly mountayne For Joy my herte leped I was so fayne Of it I was so ioyous and so well appade I coude in no wyse my mynde refrayne To suche tyme this as prayse of it I made O Puyssaunt courage chefe cause of com- forte Thou mayst well be nye the castell of pleasure 130 O hyll thupholder of all doughty dys- porte Of marcyall manhode thou art the treas- ure Out of thy bankes is goten the vre That causeth the pastymes of parfyte prowes O mountayne god graunt the long to endure Syth thou art the lanterne of lastynge lustynes So forth we walked on that goodly hyll To that we came to the bankes syde To se the fayre castell than we stode styll And to se the rennynge ryuer there we dyd abyde 140 To haue a lowe water we taryed the tyde The name of this water then thus he dyde expresse To dystroye chaungeable & people op- pressyd with pryde They call this water the lauer of lowly- nes On the stones of stedfastnes rennes this water clere To ouercome folkes chaungeable & proud of hert & minde Suche men shall be put in ryght grete daunger For than swellyth the water contrary to his kynde So that they can not the steppynge stones fynde By the meane wherof they be troubled so sore 150 With the wylde wawes waueryng with the wynde That for lake of helpe they are ryght soone forlore. But blessyd be god we came in good season Well passe this same I trust we shall in haste Be not to slowyshe but arme you with reason How ye shall gete ouer in mynde afore well caste To be to forwarde ye may soone make waste So forth we went in pacyent humylyte And whan I this water was well past I loked backe and sayd this in breuyte. 160 O lowly lauer slydyng ou(e)r the stones of stedfastnes O ryall ryuer whiche proueth perfytely 292 WILLIAM NEVILL All proude people that delytes in double- nes Thou drownest them in thy stremys ryght shortly 164 Thou hast a more praysable proprety Then euer hadde the well of helycon The moder of mekenes conserve the per- petually Syth thou arte the moder water of ver- tues many one So whan I towarde the castell dyrected my loke Whiche then was not from me a full stones caste 170 I remembred that I had redde in many a boke That in this place of plesure were many a stormy blast Notwithstandynge I thought all perylles had be past Whan I sawe of this castell the royall gates Yet afore I knewe that pleasour coude not last There as dysdayne is in fauour with estates. This royall castell was on eche syde quadraunt Gargaled with goodly grehoundes & beastes many one The tyrannous tygre the stronge & myghty elephaunt With a castell on his backe whiche he bare alone 180 The lyons fyry eyes with rubyes there shone [No gap in text] The golden grephyn with a rufull mone Stode there as desolate of lyuely creature. The walles were allectyng of adumantes The wyndowes of crystall were well for- tyfyed And as I was lokynge on these ele- phauntes On the gates two scryptures I aspyed Theym for to rede my mynd than I applyed Wryten in gold and indye blew for folkes fortheraunce 190 They betoken two wayes as after well I tryed These scryptures as I remembre thus sowned in substaunce Who as in to this place wyll take his entrynge Myst of these wayes haue fre eleccyon Yf he lyst be lusty lepe daunce and senge Or yf in worldly welthe he set his affec- cyon In honour ryches or prosperous inuen- cyon He shall be conueyed yf he wyll so ensewe Elles to the scrypture vnderneth let hym gyue intencyon Whiche is set out in letters of indye blewe. 200 Whose doth sette his pleasure and delyte His faruent herte to conioyne stedfastly On the loue of Beaute a blossom ryght whyte Or on ony of her ladyes lete hym enten- tyfely Be content his mynde and courage to apply 205 To suche as to conduyt all folkes lyeth in wate For none can without theyr leue passe theym by Nor yet attayne to beautes hygh estate This sayd my mynde musyd gretely Whiche of these wayes I was best to take Wherby I called to remembraunce shortly How Hercules of aege but tendre and wake Newe at yeres of dyscresyon his mynde sore brake Whan he sawe two wayes pe one of ver- tute be oder of plesure And of the nyght it caused hym ryght oft to wake 215 By cause he knewe not the waye of per- fyte mesure. Yet suche was his fortune ryght happy was his chaunce Whiche toke the way so moche praysable This to plesure and welth dothe men auaunce This other dooth enduce one to be amy- able 220 I am hereby moche troubled my mynde is vnstable What remedy shall I fynde to make my mynd stedfast THE CASTELL OF PLEASURE 293 I wyll endeuer me to reason to be con- formable All my wyttes serched I trust it so to caste This golden scripture is ryght moche pleasaunte And hath dampned the eyes of men many one I am sore troubled to whiche waye sholde I graunte Syth I am now here in maner as man alone This loue lasteth whan all ryches is gone Therfore I thynke it best with it to be content 230 Consyderynge that fewe theyr mysfor- fortune wyll mone That haue mo faces than hertes as dayly is euydent. [He chooses the “surest” way and enters the castle, where he is welcomed by Com- fort——“Wheder wyll ye to the hall or to Beaute now expresse.” He wishes to go into Beauty’s presence; Kindness must then lead him, and Comfort returns to the gate. They enter the garden of Affection, “enuy- roned with emyraudes.” He misses Morphe- us, sees him talking with Fantasy, and Kind- ness turns him over to Fantasy. They pro- ceed, and he sees the tree of Pyramus and Thisbe, which fills him with sadness. Fan- tasy discourses to him, with mythological examples, on the necessity of attaining pleas- ure through pain. He is then turned over to Eloquence, and through the boughs of an arbor they hear Fantasy ask Beauty if Desire may approach. The transition is very clumsily managed, viz.] Than she talked to me of Vlysses Thellynge me that he was a man ryght eloquent Than to lene at the herbar where Beaute sat at ese It pleased Eloquence / yet the bowes were so bent That we coude not se through / yet fantasy was present As we well herde by her communyca- cyon 430 And shewynge the maner of desyres en- tent She ordered her wordes moche after this facyon. [Desire approaches Beauty and begs her favor. Before she can reply, Disdain cen- sures his boldness. Pity intervenes on his behalf, and she and Disdain quote mytho- logical examples against each other. They are interrupted by the arrival of Credence, who has been summoned by Fantasy. Beauty thanks her, and accepts Desire. Desire re- joices in three stanzas beginning “O precyous pryncesse of preelecte pulcrytude.” Disdain goes away disgusted; all the lovers rejoice, and the noise causes Morpheus to vanish. The author awakes, and resolves to write his dream, that all may know this world is but fleeting. The third stanza after his awakening is:] Where is Sampson for all his grete strength 830 Or where is the sage Salomon for all his prudence Deth hath and wyll deuoure all at length for where is Vlysses for all his eloquence Where become Crassus for his ryches and opulence Where is Lucres for all her chastyte Where is Alexander whiche subdued to his obedyence Moche of the worlde by his marcyalte Where is Tully whiche had pryncypalyte Ouer all oratours in parfyte rethoryke Where be all the foure doctours of dy- uynyte 840 Where is Arystotyll for all his phyloso- phy & logyke [Having considered the matter, the author sees :] That this amerous study of Cupyde and Phebus Was cause therof which coude not be denyed Therfore in mynde I dyde playnly dyscus That I wolde study nomore and specyally thus I wold muse nomore in the euenynge so late 875 But conclude this shortly in wordes com- pendyous Lest I shold be as I was erste in myser- able estate V olunte ie ay mats ie ne veulx mon cuer chaunger. 294 WILLIAM NEVILL | Thenuoye. {Go humble style submytte the to cor- reccyon Be not so bolde to presume to the presence Of ony but suche as be enuyronde with effeccyon Let theym arrect theyr eeres to rebuke thy neglygence To theym thou perteynest of due con- . gruence 5 Let theym more curyously thy rurall termes affyle How thou sholdest be amended they haue best intellygence Therfore submytte the to theym my poore & humble style § yf ony that be more sad delytynge in grauyte And yf forther age wold agayne the gyue euydence 10 Sayng they were wel ocupyed bt were troubled with be Wrote not Ouyde in as low style which yf they prepence They may thynke pt I to auoyde of slouthe be vyolence Made thys without cloke or rethorycall language Thynkynge that I ought not of due conuenyence 15 Wryte the in so hyghe style as wyse storyes and sage. Finis. Lenuoy de Robert Copland lymprimeur. A ton aucteur / vaten petit liuret Et luy prier / dexcuser ton empraint Ce fault ya / de par moy incorrect Par sa copie souuent iestois constraint De diuigner / ou lencre cestoit destaint Ce nonobstant / ien ay fait mon debuoir Pour son plesir / dassembler blanc et noir. Treshonoure filz / du seigneur latimer Surnomme Neuyl / de noble parentaige O maistre guillawume / en sens at vertu cler Aucteur de ce / comme bon clerc et saige A vous / ie recommande cest ouuraige De moy indigne / si non par vostre suf- fraunce En ce monstrant / ma folle ignoraunce. R. Coplande to thauctour. Take ye in gre / o worthy mayster myne This rubryke frensshe / in verses incor- rect No meruayle is / though theyr speche be not fyne For in scole nor countre / I neuer toke effect 20 And from your boke / let them be vnde- iect Without your lycence / yf I dyde them impresse Pardon I praye you / of this my homely- nesse En passant le temps sans mal pencer Quod Coplande. ALEXANDER BARCLAY Alexander Barclay has been claimed as both Scotsman and Englishman; it seems probable that he was born, as his contemporary Bullein asserts, to the north ‘of the Tweed, but he spent much of his long life ( ?1475-1552) in England, in the . service of the Church. His first known literary work was an (anonymous) para- phrase of Gringoire’s Chasteau de Labeur, printed in England about 1505 and twice later. This poem, nearly all in eight-line stanzas, is a dull didactic dream in which the troubled author is browbeaten by various personified Virtues and Vices; neither in subject nor in execution has it interest for the modern student, although it apparently commanded some public in its own time. A far greater success was -Barclay’s next undertaking, the paraphrase of Sebastian Brant’s Ship of Fools, ' dedicated by the translator to his patron Bishop Cornish, who had presented him to a chaplaincy in Devonshire ; the work was published in 1509. Barclay seems to have spent some years in Devonshire at St. Mary Ottery, a town known to modern readers as the original of “Clavering St. Mary’s” in Thackeray’s Pendennis. Perhaps at the death of his patron Cornish in 1513, per- haps earlier, Barclay left Devonshire and joined the Benedictine monastery of ‘Ely. There he translated, for Sir Giles Alington, Mancini’s Latin treatise entitled ~The Mirror of Good Manners. It is noteworthy that he refused the first task offered him by his new patron, the “abridging to amende and from corrupte Eng- lishe in bettar to translate” Gower’s Confessio Amantis. The reasons assigned for his refusal were the wanton character of some of Gower’s stories, and the “im- portable labour” of the task for Barclay’s ““weake wittes” and “hoare heres”. The Eclogues were not at this time published or completed; but the Ship of Fools had made for Barclay a great reputation in England, so great that in 1520 Sir Nicholas Vaux, writing from the Field of the Cloth of Gold, begged Wolsey to send over Master Barclay the Black Monk and Poet, “to devise histories and convenient -raisons to flourisshe the buildings and banquet house withal.”’ We recall the pageant speeches, the tapestry verses, and the stanzas for towering cakes or “soteltees” at -royal dinners, written by an elder monk, and see that Barclay had inherited the ‘functions of Lydgate. While at Ely Barclay probably translated the Life of St. George, which is dedicated to Bishop West of Ely; and it is possible that the Eclogues, which con- tain references to West’s predecessor Bishop Alcock, were translated during Bar- clay’s residence there. How long that residence lasted we do not know, but Bar- - clay eventually left Ely for Canterbury and the Franciscan order. Six years before his death, when a man of seventy, he received from different patrons two vicarages in the Established Church; and in the year of his death he was given a Church appointment in London. The Life of St. Thomas which bears Barclay’s name may have been done while he was a monk at Canterbury; but how he spent his later years, or what was the reason for his transfer of monastic allegiance, we do not know. The only detail of his character that emerges from the flat dulness of gen- ‘erality is his lively antipathy to Skelton. This breaks out at the close of the Ship of Fools and in the Eclogues; had the Contra Skeltonum been preserved, which Bale includes among Barclay’s works, we might have known more of the relation between the two professional poets. [ 295 ] 296 ALEXANDER BARCLAY Barclay’s list of patrons is a solid one; to the various Bishops who employed his pen and to Sir Giles Alington we must add the duke of Norfolk, for whom Barclay executed a prose translation of Sallust and compiled a French handbook. Norfolk’s second son, Lord Edward Howard, is commemorated in the fourth Eclogue. The Eclogues were not so popular with Barclay’s own time as was the Ship of Fools; but his reputation now rests pretty equally on the two works. In both cases, although a translator, Barclay introduced a new literary form among his countrymen as definitely as did Wyatt or Surrey; in both cases, although a trans- lator, Barclay sets forth his own views and makes his own excursus at will, like all medieval paraphrasers. He was restricted in the tone of these additions by his obedience to clerical tradition; yet his descriptions of contemporary manners in the satire and his landscape-glimpses in the Eclogues have some independent value. As is true of Nevill, and still more of Gawain Douglas, we catch hints of an on- ward-pressing reality through the heavy veil of the conventional. Barclay was no “laureate” praised of Erasmus, but he very possibly com- manded as much Latin and French as did Skelton. He makes no restless parade of authorities, and does no juggling with words in Skelton’s manner; he is too much the decorous Churchman for Skelton’s horseplay, far more like Lydgate than like his unruly raffish contemporary. Barclay seems indeed to have known and used the work of Lydgate. Some influence of the Fall of Princes may be traced in the Ship of Fools, and in Jamieson’s edition, i1:189, we find a reference to “Bochas”. The moralizing envoys which Barclay adds after the separate chap- ters of the Ship of Fools are perhaps modeled on Locher’s less frequent summaries ; but the attempt to differentiate the envoy metrically by using an eight-line stanza instead of a seven-line reminds us of Lydgate’s occasional procedure in the Fall of Princes. It is, however, infrequently that Barclay writes more than the single stanza as an envoy, and he has very little of Lydgate’s refrain or attempted tour de force in rime; see as exceptions Jamieson’s edition, i:266-68, ii1:164, 284-85. Rare also is the echo of Lydgate’s words ; but compare Jamieson i:219— There is concorde, here is no thynge but stryfe, There is all rest, and here is care and payne with the Fall of Princes 1: 666 ff.— There is delit and heer is sorwe & care There is ioie and heer is heuynesse. The phraseology as to universal Death and his dance, Jamieson, ii:119, etc., may owe something to the Dance of Paul’s and the verses of Lydgate. But Barclay’s vocabulary and verse-management differ from those of Lyd- ‘ gate. Although Barclay works some words hard,—enormuty, inconvenient, laud- able,—he does not strain them as Lydgate strains cast, caught, recure. He is as free from cumbrous Latinisms as was Lydgate; words like caduke and fatigate are rare; but also rare are padding phrases, which cannot be said of Lydgate. . And Barclay’s syntax is clear, which is not one of Lydgate’s merits. In the verse- management of the Ship of Fools or of the Eclogues there is little skill or variety ; Barclay’s most interesting departure from equivalent line-work is in the song of Lust (see Jamieson ii: 290-92), which should be compared with the Palladius pro- PAE SHIE‘OF FOOLS 297 logue and links here printed p. 202, with the Kyrie of the Lover’s Mass, and with two passages in Chaucer’s Anelida, 272-80, 333-41. There is also in the Ship of Fools (Jamieson ii:317-21) a passage in four-beat lines. Generally speaking, Bar- clay’s rhythm, although without technical beauty or conscious management, runs free from the Lydgatian gasping half-line movement and the Lydgatian harshness of repeated variant. To this stylistic mixture of a small positive improvement with a large nega- ~ tive inertia, Barclay’s substance corresponds in its mingled quality. With plenty - of interest in the living beings around him, in the homely actualities of street life * or rural life, Barclay has no wider Renaissance feeling, no wonder, no curiosity, - no eagerness. He is as much against study of the world as he is against astrology and alchemy; he is so against excess in all things that he represses enthusiasm. ‘He has no sense of humor and no sense for values; he presents his material hu- -manly to a certain extent, but not humanely. We are indeed in a larger and more normally furnished room than Hawes would open to us; but its windows do not admit the air of the world. BIBLIOGRAPHY There is no known manuscript of any of Barclay’s works. The printed eds. are :— The Castell of Labour. By Vérard, Paris ?1503. Only fragments known. By Pynson ?1505. By de Worde 1506. (Brit. Mus., ULC.) By de Worde 21510. (Brit. Mus.). Facsimile of the 1506 text for the Roxburghe Club, 1905, with introd. by A. W. Pollard and with the 1501 French text of Gringoire. The Shyp of Foles of the Worlde. Printed by Pynson 1509. (Brit. Mus., Bodl.). Reprinted by Jamieson as below p. 299. Used in Fliigel’s Neuengl. Lesebuch, and here. Printed as “Stultifera Nauis—The Ship of Fools” by Cawood, London, 1570. To this Cawood appended the Eclogues and the Mirror of Good Manners, with no separate title-page. His text of the Ship is used by Zarncke as be- low for citations; for the other poems see as below. The Egloges (i-iii only). No date nor printer. Unique? see Jamieson, p. ciii. The Fourthe Eglogge . Pynson, no date. Unique? see Jamieson, p. ciii. The Fyfte Eglog. . de Worde, no date. ?1509. (Brit. Mus.) This last reprinted for the Percy Society, ed. Fairholt, 1847. The Egloges (i-iii only), John Herforde, no date. The Egloges (i-iii only), Humfrey Powell ?1548. (Brit. Mus.) Prologue is here reprinted from this text. Certayne Egloges (i-v) in Cawood as above, 1570. Cawood’s text reprinted by the Spenser Society, 1885. Cawood is used here for Eclogue iv. The Introductory to Wryte and to Pronounce Frenche. W. Copland, 1521. (Bodl. unique.) Parts are reprinted in Ellis’ Early Engl. Pronunciation, iii :803-13. The Myrrour of Good Manners. Pynson, no date, 71523. (Brit. Mus.) Printed by Cawood 1570 as above. His text reprod. Spenser Society as above. Cronycle compyled: by Sallust. Twice by Pynson, n.d. Both in Brit. Mus. and in ULC; one in Bodl. Brit. Mus. dates ?1520. Cronicle of Warre. The same work, corrected by T. Paynell. Printed by Waley 1557. (Brit. Mus.) The Lyfe ——of——Saynt George. Pynson, ca. 1530. A bit reprinted in G. Macken- zie’s Lives and Characters of the Most Eminent Writers of the Scots Nation, Edinburgh, 1708-22, 3 vols., ii:291. 298 ALEXANDER BARCLAY The Lyfe of Saynte Thomas. Pynson ?1520. (Brit. Mus.) Ascribed to Barclay are a treatise on Holy Church oppressed by the French King, and a transl. of Friar Haython’s Travels; see Jamieson as p. 299 below. Extracts from Barclay are in J. Sibbald’s Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, Edinburgh, 1802, ii:391-438 (part of Eclogue v, and from the Ship of Fools). Fliigel’s Neuengl. Lesebuch has, pp. 90-94, extracts from prol. to eclogues, prol. to ecl. v, a bit from ecl. v; on pp. 104-110 are extracts from the Ship. Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper, in her very inter- esting Muses’ Library, London, 1737, included, pp. 33-44, some thirty stanzas of the Ship of Fools, with introd. note. SELECT REFERENCE LIST XIII For Barclay’s life see :— Jamieson in the introd. to his ed. of the Ship of Fools, as on p. 299 here. A. W. Ward in the Dict. Nat. Biog. W. E. A. Axon on Alexander Barclay and Manchester, in the Proceed. Man- chester Literary Club, 1895. J. R. Schultz in JEGcPhil 18:360-68, reprinting Bale’s life of Barclay and valuable bits from Brewer’s Letters and Papers of—Henry VIII. On his work in general see:— Warton-Hazlitt, Hist. Eng. Poetry iii:189 ff.; Morley’s Eng. Writers, vii, chap. 4; Koelbing in Cambr. Eng. Lit., iii, chap. 4; Berdan in ModLangReview 8 :289-300 and in chap. 4 of his Early Tudor Poetry. See R.'M. Alden’s Rise of Formal Satire, Univ. Penna., 1899, and S. M. Tucker’s Verse Satire in Eng- land before the Reformation, Columbia Univ., 1908. On the Ship of Fools and the Eclogues see under those heads below. THE SHIP OF FOOES When the Narrenschiff of the German Sebastian Brant appeared, in 1494, printing was still a new art, and had until then been used to preserve the monu- -ments of an ecclesiastical and an aristocratic past. The Narrenschiff, as Max ‘Miiller remarks, was “the first printed book to treat of contemporaneous events -and living persons”; and although to us today its satire seems very general and its imaginative powers very limited, it came to fifteenth-century Germany and France as a new and interesting departure from the conventional methods so long in vogue. It was immediately translated into Latin by Locher, with the consent and supervision of Brant; this Latin was used by Riviere for his French verse- translation of the same year, 1497 ; and Dutch and English, as well as other French and Latin paraphrases, attest the widespread appeal of the new form. Of these para- .phrases the English was the latest, in 1509; in July of that year de Worde issued a prose translation by Henry Watson, done from Drouyn’s French prose rendering of Riviére at the bidding of Margaret countess of Richmond; and in December ‘Richard Pynson issued the much more elaborate work of Barclay. Fraustadt (as below) and Berdan (as ante) opined that Barclay used his sources exactly in the order in which he himself names them,—‘Latin, Frenche, and Doche”. He had before him Locher, Riviére, and Brant; and according to these students, the Latin is constantly his original, the French is often used, and the German rarely. This statement has been amended by the Dutch Franciscan scholar Fr. A. Pompen, who presents detailed proof that Barclay at no time made use of Brant, but depended almost entirely on the Latin, with some traces of THE SHIP OF FOOLS 299 -Riviére. It is Locher whom Barclay calls his “Actour”; and it is Locher’s Latin . which he prefixes, chapter by chapter, to his work. The admirable edition of Bar- clay’s Ship of Fools by Jamieson, which reproduces the woodcuts of 1497, does not reprint these Latin passages, thus depriving the modern student of the possi- bility of watching Barclay’s method of work; and the same economy has of ne- cessity ruled here. Barclay’s poem is even less a “translation” of Locher than Lydgate’s Fall -of Princes was a translation of Laurent and Boccaccio. Like Lydgate, like all medieval and many modern translators, Barclay followed the general plan of his original, brought forward the same figures, and narrated substantially the same ‘things of them; but the verbal relation of his text to its antecedent is extremely ‘free, and the translator added detail or comment at his pleasure to the text before ‘him. These additions by Barclay swell his poem to over 14,000 lines,—four times ‘the size of Locher. The conception of the work is that of the exhorter in his pulpit denouncing ‘sin and folly in a long catalogue-sermon, with the variation that the pulpit is the ‘poop of a ship, and that the generalities of the Seven Deadly Sins are concretized ‘into attacks on the vices and stupidities of the day,—backbiting, dancing, extrava- gant dressing, the disturbing of Church sanctity, etc. The ship never departs, and there is no description of life on board, no such scenic movement as Chaucer would have created. Had Chaucer used the ship-framework, we should have had de- velopments in the stage-management ; a man would have fallen overboard, others would have quarreled, boats putting off from shore would have raced and collided, and the characteristic follies of the passengers would have been displayed less by the captain than by their reproaches to one another or by their own braggadocio. Barclay is, however, more vivacious than Gower ; and among his didactic exhorta- tions his contemporaries found a gallery of portraits to recognize,—the besotted - student, the bushy-haired gallant, the shrewish wife, the ignorant physician, the greedy usurer, and many others. On these recognitions doubtless rested much of the appeal of the Ship of Fools to the sixteenth century; but it is noticeable that -although literary historians insist on the popularity of the poem, there was no re- -print of Barclay in England for sixty years after its first appearance. During that period, 1509-1570, there was indeed one reprint at least of Watson’s translation, in 1517; but Chaucer was printed four times, and Lydgate’s Fall of Princes three times. SELECT REFERENCE LIST XIV Zarncke’s ed. of the Narrenschiff, Leipzig, 1854, has, in its appendix ii, extracts from the French transls. by Riviére and by Drouyn, from Barclay (the Cawood print), and from Henry Watson. There are also, pp. 210-17, extracts from Locher’s Latin, and, pp. 217-20, from that of Badius. Jamieson, Edinburgh, 1874, edited The Ship of Fools translated by Alexander Bar- clay, 2 vols. The prefatory note states that the text, even to the punctuation, is exactly as in the 1509 edition. The woodcuts are facsimiles from those in the Basel ed. of the Latin, 1497. Locher’s Latin is not reprinted. Herford, Literary Relations of England and Germany in the Sixteenth Century, Cam- bridge, 1886. See chap. vi. Fraustadt, Ueber das Verhaltnis von Barclay’s “Ship of Fooles” zur lateinischen, fran- zosischen, und deutschen Quelle, Breslau diss., 1894. 300 ALEXANDER BARCLAY Dalheimer, Die Sprache Alexander Barclays in “The Shyp of Folys”, Ziirich diss., 1897. Pompen, Fr. A., The English Versions of The Ship of Fools, London, 1925. Extracts are in Fliigel’s Neuengl. Lesebuch i: 104-110. For discussion of Barclay see refs. p. 298 ante. THE SHYP OF FOLES OF THE WORLDE [Pynson, 1509] | Here begynneth the prologe. Amonge the people of euery regyon And ouer the worlde / south north eest and west Soundeth godly doctryne in plenty and foyson Wherin the grounde of vertue & wys- dome doth rest Rede gode and bad / and kepe the to the best 5 Was neuer more plenty of holsome doc- tryne ‘Nor fewer people that doth thereto en- clyne 2 We haue the Bybyll whiche godly doth expresse Of the olde testament the lawes mysticall And also of the newe our erour to re- dresse 10 Of phylosophy and other artes liberall With other bokes of vertues morall But thoughe suche bokes vs godly wayes shewe ‘We all ar blynde no man wyll them ensue 3 Banysshed is doctryne / we wander in derknes 15 Throughe all the worlde : our selfe we wyll not knowe Wysdome is exyled / alas blynde fol- ysshenes Mysgydeth the myndes of people hye and lowe ‘Grace is decayed / yll gouernaunce doth growe Both prudent Pallas and Minerua are slayne 20 Or els to heuyn retourned are they agayne The Pynson print of 1509 is described by Jamie- son in his ed. of the Ship of Fools i:xcviii; see ibid. for the various Latin and English prefa- tory bits preceding this Prologue, which is on fol. ix ff. of the 1509 volume. 4 Knowledge of trouth / Prudence / and iust Symplicite Hath vs clene left: For we set of them no store. Our Fayth is defyled loue / goodnes / and Pyte: Honest maners nowe ar reputed of: no more. 25 ‘Lawyers ar lordes: but Justice is rent and tore. Or closed lyke a Monster within dores thre. For without mede : or money no man can hyr se. 5 Al is disordred: vertue hathe no rewarde. Alas / Compassion: and Mercy bothe ar slayne. 30 Alas / the stony hartys of pepyl ar so harde That nought can constrayne theyr folyes to refrayne But styl they procede: and eche other meyntayne. So wander these foles: incresinge with- out nomber. That al the worlde they vtterly encomber. 6 -Blasphemers of Chryst: Hostlers: and Tauerners: -Crakars and bosters with Courters auen- terous / Bawdes and Pollers with comon extor- cioners Ar taken nowe adayes in the worlde moste glorious. But the gyftes of grace and al wayes gracious 40 We haue excluded. Thus lyue we carnal- ly: Utterly subdued to al lewdnes and Foly. Thus is of Foles a sorte almost innumer- able. THE SHIP OF FOOLS 301 Defilynge the worlde with syn and Vyl- any. Some thynkynge them self moche wyse & commendable 45 Thoughe al theyr dayes they lyue vn- thryftely. No goodnes they perceyue nor to no goode aplye. -But if he haue a great wombe / & and his Cofers ful -Than is none holde wyser bytwene Lon- don and Hul. ; ‘But to assemble these Foles in one bonde 50 -And theyr demerites worthely to note. -Fayne shal I shyppes of euery maner londe. None shalbe left: Barke / Galay / Shyp / nor Bote. ‘One vessel can nat brynge them al aflote. For yf al these Foles were brought into one Barge Eo The bote shulde synke so sore shulde be the charge. The sayles are hawsed / a plesant cole dothe blowe. “The Foles assembleth as fast as they may dryue. Some swymmeth after: other as thycke doth rowe In theyr small botes / as Bees about a hyue 60 The nomber is great / and eche one doth stryue For to be chefe as Purser and Capytayne Quarter mayster / Lodesman or els Bote- swayne. 10 -They ron to our shyp / eche one doth greatly fere Lyst his slacke paas / sholde cause hym byde behynde 65 The wynde ryseth / and is lyke the sayle to tere Eche one enforseth the anker vp to wynde The se swellyth by planettes well I fynde These obscure clowdes threteneth vs tempest All are nat in bed whiche shall haue yll rest 70 11 We are full lade and yet forsoth I thynke A thousand are behynde / whom we may not receyue For if we do / our nauy clene shall synke He oft all lesys that coueytes all to haue From London Rockes almyghty god vs saue 75 For if we there anker / outher bote or barge There be so many that they vs wyll ouer- charge 12 Ye London Galantes / arere / ye shall nat enter We kepe the streme / and touche nat the shore In Cyte nor in Court we dare nat well auenter 80 Lyst perchaunce we sholde displeasure haue therfore But if ye wyll nedes some shall haue an ore And all the remenaunt shall stande afar at large »And rede theyr fautes paynted aboute our barge 13 - Lyke as a myrrour doth represent agayne - The fourme and fygure of mannes coun- tenaunce 86 -So in our shyp shall he se wrytyn playne ~The fourme and fygure of his mysgouern- aunce What man is fautles / but outher igno- raunce Or els wylfulnes causeth hym offende: 90 -Than let hym nat disdayne this shyp / tyll he amende 14 And certaynly I thynke that no creature Lyuynge in this lyfe mortall (and) tran- sytory Can hym selfe kepe and stedfastly endure Without all spot / as worthy eternall glory 95 But if he call to his mynde and memory -Fully the dedys both of his youthe and age - He wyll graunt in this shyp to kepe some stage 15 But who so euer wyll knowlege his owne foly And it repent / lyuynge after in sympyl- nesse 100 302 ALEXANDER BARCLAY -Shall haue no place nor rowme more in our nauy But become felawe to pallas the goddesse But he that fyxed is in suche a blynd- nesse ‘That thoughe he be nought he thynketh al is well ~Suche shall in this Barge bere a babyll and a bell 105 16 These with other lyke may eche man se and rede Eche by themselfe in this small boke ouerall The fautes shall he fynde if he take good hede Of all estatis as degres temporall With gyders of dignytees spirituall 170 Both pore and riche / Chorles and Cyte- zyns -For hast to lepe a borde many bruse theyr shynnys 17 -Here is berdles youth / and here is crokyd age Children with theyr faders that yll do them insygne And doth nat intende theyr wantones to swage II5 Nouther by worde nor yet by discyplyne -Here be men of euery science and doc- tryne Lerned and vnlerned man mayde chylde and wyfe -May here se and rede the lewdenes of theyr lyfe 18 Here ar vyle wymen: whom loue Immod- erate I20 -And lust Uenereall bryngeth to hurt and shame ‘Here ar prodigal Galantes: wyth mouers of debate. And thousandes mo: whome I nat wel dare name. ‘Here ar Bacbyters whiche goode lyuers dyffame. Brakers of wedlocke / men proude: and couetous : 125 Pollers / and pykers with folke deli- cious. 19 It is but foly to rehers the names here Of al suche Foles: as in one Shelde or targe. Syns that theyr ‘foly dystynctly shal apere On euery lefe: in Pyctures fayre and large. 130 ‘To Barclays stody: and Pynsones cost and charge ~Wherfore ye redars pray that they both may be saued ‘Before God / syns they your folyes haue thus graued. 20 But to thentent that euery man may knowe -The cause of my wrytynge: certes I in- tende 135 -To profyte and to please both hye and lowe ~ And blame theyr fautes wherby they may amende But if that any his quarell wyll defende Excusynge his fautes to my derysyon ‘Knowe he that noble poetes thus haue done 140 ZA ‘Afore my dayes a thousande yere ago ~Blamynge and reuylynge the inconuen- yence Of people / wyllynge them to withdrawe therfro ’Them I ensue: nat lyke of intellygence And though I am nat to them lyke in science 145 ‘Yet this is my wyll mynde and intencion ‘To blame all vyce lykewyse as they haue done / ; 22 To tender youth my mynde is to auayle That they eschewe may all lewdenes and offence Whiche doth theyr myndes often sore as- sayle 150 Closynge the iyen of theyr intellygence ~But if I halt in meter or erre in elo- quence - Or be to large in langage I pray you blame nat me For my mater is so bad it wyll none other be {Here begynneth the foles and first in- profytable bokes. [Woodcut of a spectacled figure in cap and bells at a desk piled with books.] 23 ‘I am.the firste fole of all the hole nauy To kepe the pompe / the helme and eke the sayle 156 THE SHIP OF FOOLS 303 For this is my mynde / this one pleas- oure haue I Of bokes to haue grete plenty and apar- ayle -I take no wysdome by them: nor yet auayle Nor them perceyue nat: And then I them despyse 160 Thus am I a foole and all that sewe that guyse 24 ‘That in this shyp the chefe place I gouerne By this wyde see with folys wanderynge The cause is playne / and easy to dys- cerne -Styll am I besy bokes assemblynge 165 ’For to haue plenty it is a plesaunt thynge -In my conceyt and to haue them ay in honde ~But what they mene do I nat vnderstonde 25 ~But yet I haue them in great reuerence And honoure sauynge them from fylth and ordure 170 -By often brusshynge / and moche dyly- gence Full goodly bounde in pleasaunt couer- ture Of domas / satyn / or els of veluet pure I kepe them sure ferynge lyst they sholde be lost For. in them is the connynge wherin I me bost 175 26 But if it fortune that any lernyd men Within my house fall to disputacion I drawe the curtyns to shewe my bokes then That they of my cunnynge sholde make probacion I kepe nat to fall in altercacion 180 And whyle they comon my bokes I turne and wynde ‘For all is in them / and no thynge in my mynde. 27 -Tholomeus the riche causyd longe agone Ouer all the worlde good bokes to be sought Done was his commaundement anone 185 These bokes he had and in his stody brought Whiche passyd all erthly treasoure as he thought ‘But neuertheles he dyd hym nat aply Unto theyr doctryne / but lyued unhap- pely 28 Lo in lyke wyse of bokys I haue store 190 But fewe I rede / and fewer under- stande I folowe nat theyr doctryne nor theyr lore It is ynoughe to bere a boke in hande It were to moche to be (in) suche a bande For to be bounde to loke within the boke 195 -I am content on the fayre couerynge to loke 29 Why sholde I stody to hurt my wyt therby Or trouble my mynde with stody ex- cessyue Sythe many ar whiche stody right besely And yet therby shall they neuer thryue The fruyt of wysdom can they nat con- tryue 201 And many to stody so moche are in- clynde That vtterly they fall out of theyr mynde 30 -Eche is nat lettred that nowe is made a lorde -Nor eche a clerke that hath a _ bene- fyce 205 They are nat all lawyers that plees doth recorde ‘All that are promotyd are nat fully wyse “On suche chaunce nowe fortune throwys hir dyce That thoughe one knowe but the yresshe game Yet wolde he haue a gentyll mannys name 210 31 So in lyke wyse I am in suche case Thoughe I nought can I wolde be callyd wyse Also I may set another in my place Whiche may for me my bokes excercyse Or else I shall ensue the comon gyse 215 And say concedo to euery argument Lyst by moche speche my latyn sholde be spent 304 ALEXANDER BARCLAY 32 I am lyke other Clerkes whiche frowardly them gyde That after they ar onys come vnto pro- mocion They gyue them to plesour theyr stody set asyde. 220 Theyr Auaryce couerynge with fayned deuocion. Yet dayly they preche: and haue great derysyon Against the rude Laymen: and al for Couetyse. Though theyr owne Conscience be blynd- ed wt that vyce 33 But if I durst trouth playnely vtter and expresse. 225 This is the special cause of this Incon- uenyence. That greatest foles / and fullest of lewdnes Hauynge least wyt: and symplest Science Ar fyrst promoted: and haue greatest reuerence For if one can flater / and bere a hawke on his Fyst 230 He shalbe made Person of Honyngton or of Clyst. 34 -But he that is in Stody ay ferme and diligent. - And without al fauour prechyth Chrystys lore - Of al the Comontye nowe adayes is sore shent. .And by Estates thretened to Pryson oft therfore. 235 ‘Thus what auayle is it / to vs to Stody more: -To knowe outher scripture / trouth / wysedom / or vertue -Syns fewe / or none without fauour dare them shewe. 35 But O noble Doctours / that worthy ar of name: Consyder our olde faders : note wel theyr diligence: 240 Ensue ye theyr steppes : obtayne ye such fame, As they dyd lyuynge : and that by true Prudence. Within theyr hartys they planted theyr scyence And nat in plesaunt bokes. But nowe to fewe suche be. Therefore in this Shyp let them come rowe with me. {The Enuoy of Alexander Barclay Trans- latour exortynge the Foles accloyed with this vice to amende theyr foly. 36 Say worthy doctours and Clerkes curious: What moueth you of Bokes to haue such nomber. Syns dyuers doctrines throughe way con- trarious. Doth mannys mynde distract and sore encomber. Alas blynde men awake / out of your slomber 250 And if ye wyl nedys your bokes multy- plye With diligence endeuer you some to oc- cupye. * * * * * * {Of newe fassions and disgised Gar- mentes. 66 Who that newe garmentes loues or deuys- es. Or weryth by his symple wyt / and vanyte -Gyuyth by his foly and vnthryfty gyses -Moche yl example to yonge Comontye. Suche one is a Fole and skant shal euer thee 460 And comonly it is sene that nowe a dayes One Fole gladly folowes another wayes. Drawe nere ye Courters and Galants dis- gised -Ye counterfayt Caytifs / that ar nat con- tent ‘As god hath you made : his warke is despysed -Ye thynke you more crafty (than) God o(m)nipotent Unstable is your mynde : that shewes by your garment. .A fole is knowen by his toyes and his Cote. But by theyr clothinge nowe may we many note. THE SHIP OF FOOLS 305 68 -Aparayle is apayred. Al sadness is de- cayde 470 ‘The garmentes ar gone that longed to honestye. And in newe sortes newe Foles ar arayede Despisynge the costom of good anti- quyte. ‘Mannys fourme is disfigured with euery degre ‘As Knyght Squyer yeman Jentilman and knaue / 475 For al in theyr goynge vngoodely them behaue 69 ‘The tyme hath ben / nat longe before our dayes *Whan men with honest ray coude holde them self content. Without these disgised: and counter- fayted wayes. Wherby theyr goodes ar wasted / loste / and spent. 480 ‘Socrates with many mo in wysdom ex- cellent. ‘Bycause they wolde nought change that cam of nature ‘Let growe theyre here without cuttinge or scissure. 70 “At that time was it reputed to lawde and great honour. ‘To haue longe here: the Beerde downe to the brest 485 For so they vsed that were of moste valour. -Stryuynge together who myht be godly- est ‘Saddest / moste clenely / discretest / and moste honest. But nowe adayes together we contende and stryue. Who may be gayest: and newest wayes contryue. 490 71 Fewe kepeth mesure / but excesse and great outrage In theyr aparayle. And so therin they procede ‘That theyr goode is spent: theyr Londe layde to morgage. Or solde out right: of Thryft they take no hede. Hauinge no Peny them to socour at theyr nede. 495 So whan theyr goode by suche wasteful- nes is loste. They sel agayne theyr Clothes for half that they coste. 72 A fox furred Jentelman: of the fyrst yere or hede. If he be made a Bailyf a Clerke or a Constable. And can kepe a Parke or Court and rede a Dede 500 Than is Ueluet to his state mete and agreable. Howbeit he were more mete to bere a Babyl. For his Foles Hode his iyen so sore doth blynde That Pryde expelleth his lynage from his mynde. 73 Yet fynde I another sorte almoste as bad as thay 505 ‘As yonge Jentylmen descended of worthy Auncetry. Whiche go ful wantonly in dissolute aray. Counterfayt / disgised / and moche vn- manerly Blasinge and garded: to lowe or else to hye. -And wyde without mesure: theyr stuffe to wast thus gothe 510 ‘But other some they suffer to dye for lacke of clothe 74 Some theyr neckes charged with colers / and chaynes As golden withthes: theyr fyngers ful of rynges: -Theyr neckes naked: almoste vnto the raynes ‘Theyr sleues blasinge lyke to a Cranys wynges 515 Thus by this deuysinge suche counter- fayted thinges They dysfourme that figure that god hym- selfe hath made On pryde and abusion thus ar theyr myndes layde 75 Than the Courters careles that on theyr mayster wayte 306 ALEXANDER BARCLAY Seinge hym his Vesture in suche fourme abuse 520 Assayeth suche Fassion for them to counter fayte. And so to sue Pryde contynually they muse. - Than stele they: or Rubbe they. Forsoth they can nat chuse. -For without Londe or Labour harde it is to mentayne. ‘But to thynke on the Galows that is a careful payne. 525 76 But be it payne or nat: there many suche ende. ‘At Newgate theyr garmentis ar offred to be solde. - Theyr bodyes to the Jebet solemly as- cende. . Wauynge with the wether whyle theyr necke wyl holde. But if I shulde wryte al the ylles many- folde, 530 That procedeth of this counterfayt abu- sion And mysshapen Fassions: I neuer shulde haue done. 77 For both States / comons / man / wom- an / and chylde Ar vtterly incly(n)ed to this inconuen- yence. But namely therwith these Courters are defyled. 535 -Bytwen mayster and man I fynde no dyfference. Therfore ye Courters knowledge your offence. Do nat your errour mentayne / support nor excuse. For Fowles ye ar your Rayment thus to abuse. 78 *To Shyp Galauntes come nere I say agayne. 540 Wyth your set Busshes Curlynge as men of Inde. Ye counterfayted Courters come with your fleinge brayne Expresed by these variable Garmentes that ye fynde. ‘To tempt chast Damsels and turne them to your mynde -Your breste ye discouer and necke. Thus your abusion 545 ‘Is the Fendes bate. And your soules con- fusion. 79 Come nere disgysed foles: receyue your Foles Hode. And ye that in sondry colours ar arayde. Ye garded galantes wastinge thus your goode Come nere with your Shertes brodered and displayed. 550 In fourme of Surplys. Forsoth it may be sayde. That of your Sort right fewe shal thryue this yere. Or that your faders werith suche Habyte in the Quere. 80 And ye Jentyl wymen whome this lewde vice doth blynde Lased on the backe: your peakes set a loft. 555 Come to my Shyp. forget ye nat behynde. Your Sadel on the tayle: yf ye lyst to sit soft. ‘Do on your Decke Slut: if ye purpos to come oft. I mean your Copyntanke: And if it wyl do no goode. To kepe you from the rayne ye shall haue a foles hode. 560 81 -By the ale stake knowe we the ale hous And euery Jnne is knowen by the sygne ‘So a lewde woman and a lecherous -Is knowen by hir clothes / be they cours or fyne -Folowyng newe fassyons / not graunted by doctryne 505 *The bocher sheweth his flesshe it to sell ‘So doth these women dampnyng theyr soule to hell 82 What shall I more wryte of our enormyte Both man and woman as I before haue sayde Ar rayde and clothyd nat after theyr degre 570 As nat content with the shape that god hath made The clenlynes of Clergye is nere also decayed. Our olde apparale (alas) is nowe layde downe And many prestes asshamed of theyr Crowne. 573. The bracketed word (alas) is so bracketed in the text. Similarly in lines 8460, 13809, 13878. THE SHIP OF FOOLS 307 83 Unto laymen we vs refourme agayne 575 As of chryste our mayster in maner halfe asshamed My hert doth wepe: my tunge doth sore complayne Seing howe our State is worthy to be blamed. But if all the Foly of our Hole Royalme were named Of mys apparayle of Olde / young / lowe / and hye / 580 The tyme shulde fein: and space to me denye. Alas thus al states of Chrysten men de- clynes. And of wymen also disfourmynge theyr fygure. Wors than the Turkes / Jewes / or Sarazyns. ‘A Englonde Englonde amende or be thou sure 585 -Thy noble name and fame can nat en- dure Amende lyst god do greuously chastyce. Bothe the begynners and folowe(r)s of this vyce. "The enuoy of Alexander barclay pe translatour. 85 Reduce courters clerly vnto your re- m(em)brance From whens this disgysyng was brought wherein ye go 590 -As I remember it was brought out of France. This is to your plesour. But payne ye had also, ‘As French Pockes hote ylles with other paynes mo. Take ye in good worth the swetnes with the Sour. For often plesour endeth with sorowe and dolour. 595 But ye proude Galaundes that thus your- selfe disgise Be ye asshamed. beholde vnto your Prynce. Consyder his sadnes: His honestye de- uyse His clothynge expresseth his inwarde prudence Ye se no Example of suche Inconuen- yence 600 In his hyghnes: but godly wyt and grauy- te: Ensue hym enormyte. and sorowe for your 87 Away with this pryde / this statelynes let be ‘Rede of the Prophetis clothynge or ves- ture ‘And of Adam firste of your ancestrye 605 Of Johnn the Prophete / theyr cloth- ynge was obscure Uyle and homly / but nowe what crea- ture Wyll them ensue / sothly fewe by theyr wyll Therfore suche folys my nauy shall ful- fyll * * * * * * Of the folysshe descripion and inquisi- cion of dyuers contrees and regyons ‘Who that is besy to mesure and com- pace 6930 ‘The heuyn and erth and all the worlde large ~Describynge the clymatis and folke of euery place -He is a fole and hath a greuous charge Without auauntage / wherfore let hym discharge Hym selfe / of that fole whiche in his necke doth syt 6935 About suche folyes dullynge his mynde and wyt. That fole / of wysdome and reason doth fayle And also discression labowrynge for nought. And in this shyp shall helpe to drawe the sayle Which day and nyght infixeth all his thought 6940 To haue the hole worlde within his body brought Mesurynge the costes of euery royalme and lande And clymatis / with his compace / in his hande He coueytyth to knowe / and compryse in his mynde 308 ALEXANDER BARCLAY Euery regyon and euery sundry place Whiche ar not knowen to any of man- kynde 6946 And neuer shall be without a specyall grace Yet suche folys take pleasour and solace The length and brede of the worlde to mesure -In vay(n)e besynes / takynge great charge and cure 6950 They set great stody labour and besynes To knowe the people that in the east abyde -And by and by theyr measures after dres To knowe what folke the west and north part gyde And who the sowth / thus all the worlde wyde 6955 - By thes folys is meated by ieometry , Yet knowe they scant theyr owne vnwyse body Another labours to knowe the nacions wylde Inhabytynge the worlde in the North plage and syde Metynge by mesure / countrees both fyers and mylde 6960 Under euery planete / where men sayle go or ryde And so this fole castyth his wyt so wyde To knowe eche londe vnder the fyrma- ment That therabout in vayne his tyme is spent Than wyth his compace drawyth he about 6965 - Europe / and Asye / to knowe howe they stande And of theyr regyons nat to be in dout Another with Grece and Cesyll is in honde With Apuly / Afryke and the newe fonde londe With Numydy and / where the Moryans do dwell 6970 And other londes whose namys none can tell He mesureth Athlant / calpe / and cap- padoce The see of Hercules garnado and Spayne The yles there aboute shewynge all in groce Throwynge his mesure to Fraunce and to Brytayne The more and lesse / to Flaundres and almayne ‘There is no yle so lytell that hath name But that these Folys in hande ar with the same And regyons that ar compasyd with the se They besely labour to knowe and vnder- stande 6980 And by what cause / nature or prop- ertye The se doth flowe / nat ouercouerynge the londe So he descrybyth his cercle in his honde The hole worlde: leuynge no thynge be- hynde As in the Doctrynes of Strabo he doth fynde 6985 Whiche wrote in bokes makynge declara- cion ‘ Somtyme hym groundynge vpon auctoryte Howe eche Royalme and londe had sytua- cion Some in brode feldes some closyd with the see But ye geometryans that of this purpose be 6990 Ye ar but folys to take suche cure and payne Aboute a thynge whiche is fruteles and vayne It passyth your reason the hole worlde to discus And knowe euery londe and countrey of the grounde ‘For though that the noble a(u)ctour plinius 6995 The same purposyd / yet fawty is he founde And in Tholomeus great errours doth ha- bounde Thoughe he by auctoryte makyth men- cyon Of the descripcion of euery regyon -Syns these a(u)ctours so excellent of name 7000 -Hath bokes composyd of this facultye THE SHIP’ OF FOOLS 309 ‘And neuer coude parfytely perfourme the same -Forsoth it is great foly vnto the ‘To labour about suche folysshe vanyte -It is a furour also one to take payne 7005 -In suche thynges as prouyd ar vncer- tayne ‘For nowe of late hath large londe and grounde -Ben founde by maryners and crafty gouernours *The whiche londes were neuer knowen nor founde -Byfore our tyme by our predecessours And here after shall by our successours Parchaunce mo be founde / wherin men dwell 7012 Of whome we neuer before this same harde tell ’Ferdynandus that late was kynge of spayne _Of londe and people hath founde plenty and store 7015 Of whome the bydynge to vs was vncer- tayne No christen man of them harde tell be- fore ‘Thus is it foly to tende vnto the lore -And vnsure science of vayne geometry ~Syns none can knowe all the worlde per- fytely 7020 4 Thenuoy of Barklay. Ye people that labour the worlde to mesure Therby to knowe the regyons of the same *Knowe firste your self / that knowledge is moste sure For certaynly it is rebuke and shame For man to labour. onely for a name 7025 To knowe the compasse of all the worlde wyde Nat knowynge hym selfe / nor howe he sholde hym gyde * * * * * * -Of the arrogance & pryde of rude men of the countrey. The rustycall pryde of carles of the londe 8437 Remaynyth nowe / whiche I intende to note Whiche theyr owne pryde nat se nor vnderstonde -Wherfore they coueyte with me to haue a bote 8440 And so they shall / but whan they ar a flote Let them me pardon / for I wyll take no charge Of them: but them touche and let them ren at large -Of husbonde men the lyfe and the nature -Was wont be rude and of symplycyte 8445 ‘And of condicion humble and demure But if a man wolde nowe demande of me Howe longe agone is syns they thus haue be I myght well answere it is nat longe agone Syns they were symple and innocent echone 8450 And so moche were they gyuen to symplenes And other vertues chefe and pryncipall That the godly trone of fayth and righ (t) wysnes Had left great townes lordes and men royall And taken place amonge these men rur- all 8455 All vertues: stedfastnes iustyce and lawe -Disdayned nat these pore cotis thekt with strawe -There was no disceyt nor gyle of tymes longe Amonge these men: they were out chasyd and gone For iustyce (as I haue sayd) was then amonge 8460 And of long tyme there kept hir chayre and trone Of brynnynge Auaryce amonge these met was none ‘No wrongfull lucre nor disceytful auaun- tage Infect the myndes of men of the vyllage ‘That is to say they knewe none vsury No hunger of golde dyd theyr myndes confounde 8466 They knewe no malyce: nor pryde of theyr body Nor other vyces that trowbleth nowe the grounde They coueyted nat to greatly to abounde 310 ALEXANDER BARCLAY In proude aparayle / lyke Cytezeyns excellent 8470 But theyr hole lyfe was symple and in- nocent But nowe the lyfe of eche carle and vyllayne Is in all maners chaungyd euen as clene As if the trone moste noble and souer- ayne Of rightwysenes : amonge them had neuer bene 8475 Of theyr olde vertues nowe is none in them sene Wherby they longe were wont themself to gyde ‘Theyr lyfe is loste and they set hole on pryde -Theyr clothes stately after the courters gyse ‘Theyr here out busshynge as a foxis tayle 8480 And all the fassions whiche they can deuyse In counterfaytynge they vse in aparayll Party and gardyd or short to none auayle ~So that if god sholde theyr bodyes chaunge ' After theyr vesture theyr shape sholde be full strange 8485 Thus is theyr mekenes and olde symply- cyte Tournyd by theyr foly to arrogance and pryde Theyr rightwysenes / loue and fydelyte By enuy and falshode nowe ar set asyde - Disceyt and gyle with them so sure doth yde 8490 -That folke of the towne of them oft lerne the same And other newe yllis causynge reprofe and shame Theyr scarsnes nowe is tournyd to couet- yse They onely haue golde and that / in abun- daunce Theyr vertue is gone / and they rotyd in vyce 8495 Onely on riches fixed is theyr pleasaunce Fye Chorles amende this mad mysgouern- aunce What mouyth you vnto this thyrst fer- uent Of golde: that were wont to be so inno- cent What causeth you thus your lyfe to change 8500 To cursyd malyce from godly innocence ‘Nowe Carles ar nat content with one grange -Nore one ferme place / suche is theyr insolence -They must haue many / to support theyr expence -And so a riche / vyllayne proude and arrogant 8505 -Anone becomyth a couetous marchant -Than labours he for to be made a state ’ And to haue the pryuelege of hye nobles Thus churlys becomyth statis nowe of late Hye of renowne without all sympyl- nes 8510 But it is great foly and also shame doutles For Carles to coueyt this wyse to clym so hye And nat be pleasyd with theyr state and degre T(h)enuoy of Barclay the Translatour “Fye rurall carles awake I say and ryse “Out of your vyce and lyfe abhomynable Namely of pryde / wrath / enuy and couetyse 8516 Whiche ye insue / as they were nat damnable Recouer your olde mekenes / whiche is most profytable | Of all vertues / and be content with your degre For make a carle a lorde / and without any fable 8520 In his inwarde maners one man styll shall he be. % * * * * * Here purpose I no farther to procede Let euery man chose for hym selfe a place 13796 As he shall in this boke ouer se or rede For hym moste mete: man knoweth best his case And here shall I by goddes helpe and grace THE SHIP OF FOOLS 311 ‘Drawe all my Nauy / to hauyns for to rest 13800 ‘For fere of wynter stormes and tempest Wysdom hath gyuen me this commaunde- ment -My wyt is wery: my hande and hede also -Wherfore I gladly with all my herte as- sent -And lepe a borde / amonge the other mo 13805 ‘But in my iournay: if that I haue mysgo ‘By bytynge wordes or scarsnes of scyence I yelde me vnto men of more prudence It is no meruayle (the trouth playnly to say) Syth I a mayster without experyence Of worldly thynges haue erred from the way I38IT By ignoraunce / or slouthfull negly- gence Let none be wroth for blamynge his of- fence -For if his lyfe fro synne be pure and clere -No maner hurt is sayde agaynst hym here 13815 *Within a myrrour / if thou beholde thy chere -Or shap of face: if thy colour be pure Within the myrrour to the it shall apere -But if that thou be foule of thy fygure -The glas shall shewe the same I the in- sure 13820 -Yet blame thou nat the myrrour for the same -But thy owne shap thou ought rebuke and blame ‘The myrrour showys eche man lyke as they be ‘So doth my boke / for who that is in syn Shall of his lyfe / the fygure in it se 13825 If he with good aduertence loke therin But certaynly his reason is but thyn For his yll lyfe if he my boke despyse For them I laude that vertue exercyse Let nat the redar be discontent with this 'Nor any blame agayne me to obiect Thoughe that some wordes be in my boke amys For though that I my selfe dyd it cor- rect ‘Yet with some fautis I knowe it is infect ‘Part by my owne ouersyght and negly- gence 13835 ‘And part by the prynters nat perfyte in science And other some escaped ar and past For that the Prynters in theyr besynes -Do all theyr werkes hedelynge / and in hast Wherfore if that the redar be wytles He shall it scorne anone by froward- nes 13841 But if the reder wyse / sad and discrete e He shall it mende: laynge no faut to me It is ynoughe if my labour may be sene Of lernyd men / and theyr mynde to content 13845 -For nought is pleasaunt before a Folys iyen -And to be playne it was nat myne intent At my begynnynge to Folys to assent Ne pleas theyr myndes by sparynge of theyr vyce .But it to shewe: and that in playnest wyse 13850 Therfore let Folys haue theyr wordes vayne Whiche nought can do / but without reason chat All others dedes / by lewde tunge to dis- tayne Pe if theyr belyes be full / and chekis at Let Clerkes speke / and they haue scorne therat 13855 They knowe no thinge: yet wolde / they fayne haue prayse And theyr owne dedes onely doth them please With suche Folys I ende my besynes Whiche all thynge blame / and vtterly dispyse Yet all theyr lyfe they passe in ydyl- nes 13860 Or in theyr bely fedynge in bestely wyse 312 ALEXANDER BARCLAY But this I fynde / that no man can deuyse Jerome with other Doctours certaynly Cowde nat theyr warkes defende well A thynge so crafty / so good and excel- from enuy 13871 lent Or yet so sure: that may eche man con- Holde me excusyd: for why my wyll is content gode Men to induce vnto vertue and goodnes “What warke is that: that may eche man I wryte no lest ne tale of Robyn hode content 13865 Nor sawe no sparcles ne sede of vycious- -No worldly thynge: forsoth I trowe the nes 13875 same ~Wyse men loue vertue / wylde people ’ Thoughe Virgyll were a poet excellent wantones - Afore all other / shynynge in lawde and ‘It longeth nat to my scyence nor cun- fame nynge - Yet some there were whiche dyd his ‘For Phylyp the Sparowe the (Dirige) warkes blame to synge. BARCLAY’S ECLOGUES: THE PROLOGUE AND ECLOGUERW There are five of Barclay’s eclogues, of which the first three were amplified from the Miseriae Curialium of Pope Pius II (Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini), who died in 1454. The fourth and fifth are similarly expanded from the fifth and sixth eclogues of Baptista Mantuanus, 1448-1516. Barclay’s prologue to the group is also based upon Mantuanus, and utilizes Mantuan’s statements about the partial execution of his work in youth in such a way that we are in doubt whether Barclay asserts this of himself or not. Berdan remarks that the last two eclogues must have been done at much the same time as the first three, since the prologue to all is based on Mantuan. The work of Mantuan, a Christian monk and General of the Carmelite Order during the last three years of his life, is abundant and varied. His ten eclogues, imitated from Virgil, were first printed on the Continent in 1498, and frequently until the first English edition of 1519. For two hundred years after their appear- ance they were a school-text in England ; Colet, drawing up his statutes for the new St. Paul’s School, included Mantuan in a list of Latin authors otherwise solidly Christian in substance; and two generations later the boy Shakespeare must have learned some of his “small Latin’ from Mantuan, whom he quotes in act IV, scene 2, of Love’s Labour’s Lost. And although Spenser took an earlier and greater Mantuan for his model, there are more than a few traces of the Carmelite monk in the Shepherd’s Calendar. The fourth eclogue of Barclay, here reprinted from the text of 1548, is based on the fifth eclogue of Mantuan; but while the Latin is of 190 hexameter verses, the English runs to 1158 pentameter lines. Part of this difference is due to the two inserted recitations by the poor shepherd-poet, amounting with their connec- tive to about 380 lines; and the introductory setting of Barclay adds another 36 lines. But the difference between the remaining 740 verses of Barclay and the 190 of Mantuan is one of method rather than of additions ; it is caused by Barclay’s discursiveness. Every speech is lengthened and every motive repeated; and al- though a good deal of interesting descriptive detail is also added, the most of the increase in bulk is due, as in the Ship of Fools, to moralizing comment or exhortation. THE PROLOGUE AND» ECLOGUE IV 313 In spite of this long-winded treatment, Barclay’s management of his material in this eclogue has interest. He uses the Latin for his main structure, the at- tempt of a poor poet-shepherd to obtain the patronage of a richer but illiterate and niggardly neighbor. Into this frame Barclay works a double attempt at pleasing the imaginary patron, something on the Chaucerian pattern of a first essay inter- rupted and a second carried through ; the second inserted poem is an elegy modelled on a French original, mourning with Barclay’s actual patron the duke of Norfolk on the death of his son. Barclay then returns to Mantuan, and closes as does the Latin, with the listener’s refusal to pay for his entertainment. This second inserted poem, an elegy on Admiral Lord Howard, who was killed in a naval engagement in 1513, is said by Professor Mustard (ModLang- Notes 24:8-10) to owe something to Le Temple d’Honneur et de Vertus, a poem written in 1503 by Jean Lemaire de Belges to bewail the death of the duke of Bourbon. This suggestion, accepted by Lee in his French Renaissance in England, is rejected by Berdan, Romanic Review 2 :422. It does not indeed appear that the English poem owes the French much more than the title. The French has a high mountain crowned by a noble temple of Honor, to which press the valiant and worthy ; but this is frequent in medieval allegory, and appears quite as plainly in another poem by Lemaire de Belges, his Concorde des deux Langages, of 1511, with the addition also of a detail present in Barclay and not in the French Temple d’Honneur, the extreme difficulty of ascending the mountain. Barclay’s fierce guardian of the entrance, by him named Labor, is not in Lemaire de Belges’ Tem- ple-poem ; but in the Concorde-poem, where the temples of Venus and of Minerva are described, there is a loud-voiced porter of the Venus-temple, named Danger, who brandishes a staff and demands fees of the suppliants. This porter, a comic figure, hurls the poet’s proffered manuscript behind the altar in contempt. In Gringoire’s Chasteau de Labeur, translated earlier by Barclay, the narrator enters on “the waye of grete payne called dylygence”, accompanied by Lust to Do Good, Good Will, and Good Heart. They come to a fair castle, resplendent and joyous; the traveler would enter, but the porter Besynesse resists, saying that no one enters except by meekness. The porter’s wife Cure, however, intercedes, and the wayfarer is admitted. He learns that Travail and Pain are captain and mis- tress of the castle, and he addresses himself to the assigned task. There is no description of Labour’s figure such as Barclay here gives, and which has aroused the interest of students. SELECT REFERENCE LIST XV Kluge, Spenser’s Shepheards’ Calendar und Mantuan’s Eclogen, in Anglia 3:266-74. Mustard, W. P., ed. of Mantuan’s Eclogues, Baltimore, 1911. See paper by Mustard in Trans. Amer. Philol. Assn., 40:151-183. Reissert, Die Eklogen des Alexander Barclay, Hannover, 1886. J. R. Schultz, Alexander Barclay and the Later Eclogue-Writers, in ModLangNotes 35 :52-4. (Googe and Spenser show no influence of Barclay whatever; Francis Sabie very little. Reason,—the overshadowing fame of Mantuan.) Berdan, Early Tudor Poetry, N. Y., 1920. 314 ALEXANDER BARCLAY [THE PROLOGUE TO THE ECLOGUES]| The famous Poetes, with the Muses nyne, With wyt inspired, fresh, pregnant & diuyne. Say boldly, indite, in style substanciall : Some in poemes, hye and heroicall. Some them deliteth, in heuy Tragedies: 5 And some, in wanton or mery Comedies. Some, in Satiers, agayne vices dare carpe: Some, in sweete songes, accordant with the harpe, And eche of these all, had laude and ex- cellence: After their reason, and style of elo- quence. 10 Who, in fayre speache, coulde brefely comprehende: Most fruitful matter, men dyd him most commende And who were fruitlesse, and in speache superflue : Men by their writyng, scantly set a que. Therfore, wyse Poetes, to sharpe & proue their wyt: 15 In homely ieastes, wrote many a mery fyt. Before they durst be, of audacitie: Tauenture thynges, of weyght and graui- tie. In this same maner, the famous Teocrite: First, in Siracuse, attempted for to wryte. 20 Certayne Eglogues, or speaches Pastor- all: Inducyng Shepherdes, men, homely and rurall. Which in playne language, accordyng to their name: Had sondry talkyng, some in myrth and game. Sometyme, of thynges, more lyke to grauitie: 25 And not excedyng, their small capacitie. Most noble Uirgill, after him, long whyle, Wrote also Egloges, after lyke maner style. His wyttes prouyng, in matters Pastorall : Or he durst ventre, to style Heroicall. 30 And in lyke maner now, lately in our dayes: Hathe other Poetes, atempted the same wayes. As the most famous, Baptist Mantuan: The best of that sorte, synce Poetes first began. And Frances Petrarke, also in Italy, 35 In lyke maner style, wrote playne and merily. What shall I speake, of the father aun- cient: Which in breife language, both playne & eloquent: Betwene Alathea, Seustis, stout and bolde: Hath made rehersall, of all the stories olde. 40 By true histories, vs teachyng to abiect: Agaynst vayne fables, of olde Gentyles sect. Besyde all these, yet fynde I many mo: Which hath employed, their diligence also. Betwene Shepheardes, as it were but a fable: To write of matters, bothe true and prof- itable. But all their names, I purpose not to write, Which in this maner, made bookes in- finite. Now to my purpose, their workes worthy fame: Dyd my yong age, my herte greatly in- flame. 50 Dull slouth to eschew, my selfe to exer- cise: In suche small matters, or I durst enter- prise. To hyer matter, lyke as these chyldren do: Whiche first vse to crepe, and after- warde to go. The byrde vnused, first fliyng from her nest: 59 Dare not aduenture, and is not bolde nor prest: With wynges abrode, to flye as dothe the olde: For vse and custome, causeth all thynges be bolde. And lytell connyng, by crafte and exer- cyse: To perfecte science, causeth a man to ryse. 60 But ear the Paynter, can sure his crafte attayne, Much frowarde facion, transformeth he in vayne. THE PROLOGUE But rasyng superflue, and addyng, that dothe want: Rude pictures is made, both perfect and pleasant. So, where I in youth, a certain warke began: 65 And not concluded, as ofte doth many a man. Yet thought I after, to make the same parfyte: ’ But long I myssed, that which I first dyd wryte. But heare a wonder, I .xl. yere saue twayne, Procedyng in age, founde my first youth agayne. 70 To fynde youth in age, is a probleme diffuse: But now heare the truthe, & then no longer muse. As I late tourned, olde bookes to and fro: One lytle treatyse, I founde among the mo. Bicause that in youth, I dyd compile the same: 73 Egloges of youth, I called it by name. And seyng some men, haue in the same delyte : At their great instance, I made the same parfyte. Addyng and batyng, where I perceyued neade: All them desyring, which shall this trea- tyse reade. 80 Not to be greued, with my playne sent- ence, Rudely conueyed, for lacke of eloquence. It were not sittyng, a hearde or man rurall, To speake in tearmes, gay and rethoricall. So teacheth Orace, in arte of Poetry, 85 That writers namely, their reason should apply. Meete speache appropryng, to every per- sonage: After his estate, behauour, wyt, and age. But if that any woulde, now to me abiect, That this my labor, shalbe of small effect. And to the reader, not greatly proffit- able, OI And by that manner, as vayne and re- proueable. Bicause it maketh, onely relacion, Of Shepheardes manner, and disputacion. AND’ ECLOGUE IV 315 If any suche reade, my treatyse to the ende, 95 He shall well perceyue, if he therto en- tende. That it conteyneth, bothe laudes and ver- tue, And man enformeth, misliuyng to eschue. With diuers bourdes, and _ sentences morall: Closed in shadow, of speaches Pastor- all. 100 As many Poetes, as I haue sayde beforne: Haue vsed long tyme, before that I was borne. But of their writyng, though I ensue the rate, No name I chalenge, of Poete Laureate. That name, vnto them, is meete, and dothe agree: T05 Which writeth matters, with curiositee. Myne habite blacke, accordeth not with greene: Blacke, betokeneth death, as it is daily seene, The greene, is pleasaunt, fresh, lust and iolitie: These two, in nature, hath great diuer- sitie, IIo Then, who woulde ascribe, excepte he were a foole, The pleasaunt Lauret, vnto the mourn- yng coole. Another rewarde, abydeth my labor: The glorious syght, of God my Sauior. Which is cheife Shepherde, and head of other all: II5 To him, for succour, in this my warke, I call. And not on Clio, nor olde Melpomene: My hope is fixed, of him ayded to be. That he, me direct, my mynde for to ex- presse: That he, to good ende, my wyt and pen addresse. 120 For to accomplyssh, my purpose and en- tent: To the laude and pleasure, of God omni- potent. And to the profyte, the pleasure and the meede. Of al them which shal, this treatise heare & reede. But to the reader, now to retourne agayne: 125 316 ALEXANDER BARCLAY Fyrst, of this thyng, I wyll thou be cer- tayne. That . x . Egloges, this hole treatyse dothe holde: To imitate, of other Poetes olde. In which Egloges, Shepherdes thou mayst see, In homely language, not passyng their degree. 130 Some, disputyng, of Courtly Misery: Sometyme, of Uenus deceatfull tiranny. Sometyme, commendyng loue, honest, and laudable Sometyme, dispisyng loue, false, deceau- able. Somtyme, dispisyng, and blamyng au- arise: 135 Sometyme excityng, vertue to exercyse. Sometyme, of warre, abhoryng the out- rage: And of the same tyme, the manifolde damage. And other matters, as after shall appeare: To their great pleasure, whiche shal them reade or heare. 140 THE FOURTH EGLOGE OF ALEXANDER BARCLAY, entituled Codrus and Minalcus, treating of the behauour of Riche men agaynst Poetes 4 The Argument. Codrus a shepheard lusty, gay and stoute, Sat with his wethers at pasture round about, And poore Minalcas with ewes scarse fourtene Sat sadly musing in shadowe on the grene. This lustie Codrus was cloked for the rayne, And doble decked with huddes one o twayne, He had a pautner with purses manyfolde, And surely lined with siluer and with golde, Within his wallet were meates good and 5 r fine, Both store and plentie had he of ale and wine, 10 Suche fulsome pasture made him a double chin, His furred mittins were of a curres skin, Nothing he wanted longing to clothe or foode, But by no meane would he depart with good. Sometime this Codrus did vnder shadowe lye 15 Wide open piping and gaping on the skye, Sometime he daunced and hobled as a beare, Sometime he pried howe he became his geare, He lept, he songe, and ran to proue his might, When purse is heauy oftetime the heart is light. 20 But though this Codrus had store inough of good, He wanted wisedome, for nought he yn- derstood Saue worldly practise his treasour for to store, Howe euer it came small forse had he therfore. On the other side the poore Minalcas lay, 25 With empty belly and simple poore aray, Yet coulde he pipe and finger well a drone, But soure is musike when men for hun- ger grone, Codrus had riches, Minalcas had cunning, For God not geueth to one man euery thing. 30 At last this Codrus espied Minalcas, And soone he knewe what maner man he was, For olde acquayntaunce betwene them earst had bene, Long time before they met vpon the grene, And therfore Codrus downe boldly by him sat, 35 And in this maner began with him to chat. Codrus first speaketh Al hayle Minalcas, nowe by my fayth well met, Lorde Jesu mercy what troubles did thee let, THE, PROLOGUE That this long season none could thee here espy? With vs was thou wont to sing full merily, 40 And to lye piping oftetime among the floures, What time thy beastes were feding among ours. In these olde valleys we two were wont to bourde, And in these shadowes talke many a mery worde, And oft were we wont to wrastle for a fall, 4 But nowe thou droupest and hast for- gotten all. Here wast thou wont swete balades to sing, Of song and ditte as it were for a king, And of gay matters to sing and to endite, But nowe thy courage is gone and thy delite, 50 Trust me Minalcas nowe playnly I espy That thou art wery of shepheardes com- pany, And that all pleasour thou semest to de- spise, Lothing our pasture and fieldes in like- wise, Thou fleest solace and euery mery fitte, 55 Leasing thy time and sore hurting thy witte, In sloth thou slombrest as buried were thy song, Thy pipe is broken or som what els is wrong. Minalcas What time the Cuckowes fethers mout and fall, From sight she lurketh, hir song is gone withall, 60 When backe is bare and purse of coyne is light, The wit is dulled and reason hath no might: Adewe enditing when gone is libertie, Enemie to Muses is wretched pouertie, What time a knight is subiect to a knaue 65 To iust or tourney small pleasour shall he haue. Codrus What no man thee kepeth here in cap- tiuitie, AND ECLOGUE IV 317 And busy labour subdueth pouertie, And oft it is better and much surer also As subiect to obey then at freewill to go, 70 As for example beholde a wanton colte In raging youth leapeth ouer hill and holte, But while he skippeth at pleasure and at will Ofte time doth he fall in daunger for to spill, Sometime on stubbes his hofes sore he teares, Or fals in the mud both ouer head and eares, Sometime all the night abrode in hayle or rayne, And oft among breres tangled by the mayne, And other perils he suffreth infinite, So mingled with sorowe is pleasour and delite : 80 But if this same colte be broken at the last, His sitter ruleth and him refrayneth fast, The spurre him pricketh, the bridle doth him holde, That he can not praunce at pleasour where he wolde, The rider him ruleth and saueth from daunger. 85 By which example Minalcas it is clere That free will is subiect to inconuenience, Where by subiection man voydeth great offence, For man of him selfe is very frayle cer- tayne, But ofte a ruler his folly dothe re- frayne, 90 But as for thy selfe thou hast no cause pardie, To walke at pleasour is no captiuitie. Minalcas Seest thou not Codrus the fieldes rounde about Compassed with floudes that none may in nor out, The muddy waters nere choke me with the stinke, 95 At euery tempest they be as blacke as inke: Pouertie to me should be no discomforte If other shepheardes were all of the same sorte. 318 ALEXANDER BARCLAY But Codrus I clawe oft where it doth not itche, To see ten beggers and halfe a dosen riche, 100 Truely me thinketh this wrong pertition, And namely sith all ought be after one. When I first behelde these fieldes from a farre, Me thought them pleasant and voyde of strife or warre, But with my poore flocke approching nere and nere 105 Alway my pleasour did lesse and lesse appeare, And truely Codrus since I came on this grounde Oft vnder floures vile snakes haue I founde, Adders and todes and many fell serpent, Infecte olde shepe with venim violent, 170 And ofte be the yonge infected of the olde, That vnto these fewe nowe brought is all my folde. Codrus In some place is neyther venim nor ser- pent And as for my selfe I fele no greuous sent. Minalcas It were great maruell where so great grounde is sene, TI5 If no small medowe were pleasaunt, swete and clene, As for thee Codrus I may beleue right weele, That thou no sauour nor stinke of mud dost feele, For if a shephearde hath still remayned longe In a foule prison or in a stinking gonge, His pores with ill ayre be stopped so echone 121 That of the ayre he feleth small sent or none, And yet the dwellers be badder then the place, The riche and sturdie doth threaten and manace The poore and simple and suche as came but late, 125 And who moste knoweth him moste of all they hate, And all the burthen is on the Asses backe, But the stronge Caball standeth at the racke. And suche be assigned sometime the flocke to kepe Which scant haue so muche of reason as the shepe, 130 And euery shepheard at other hath enuy, Scant be a couple which loueth perfitely, Ill will so reygneth that brauling be thou sure, Constrayned me nere to seke a newe pasture, Saue onely after I hope of better rest, 135 For small occasion a birde not chaungeth nest. Codrus Welere thou graunted that in a large grounde Some plot of pleasour and quiet may be founde, So where of heardes assembled is great sorte, There some must be good, then to the best resorte. 140 But leaue we all this, turne to our poynt agayne, Of thy olde balades some would I heare full fayne, For often haue I had great pleasour and delite To heare recounted suche as thou did endite. Minalcas Yea, other shepheardes which haue inough at home, 145 When ye be mery and stuffed is your wombe, Which haue great store of butter, chese and woll, Your cowes others of milke replete and l, Payles of swete milke as full as they be able, When your fat dishes smoke hote vpon your table, 150 Then laude ye songes and balades magni- fie, If they be mery or written craftily, Ye clappe your handes and to the making harke, And one say to other, lo here a proper warke. But when ye haue saide nought geue ye for our payne, 155 THE PROLOGUE Saue onely laudes and pleasaunt wordes vayne, All if these laudes may well be counted good, Yet the poore shepheard must haue some other food. Codrus. Mayst thou not sometime thy folde and shepe apply, And after at leasour to liue more quietly, Dispose thy wittes to make or to endite, Renouncing cures for time while thou dost write. Minalcas Nedes must a Shepheard bestowe his whole labour In tending his flockes, scant may he spare one houre: In going, comming, and often them to tende, 165 Full lightly the day is brought vnto an ende. Sometime the wolues with dogges must he chace, Sometime his foldes must he newe com- pace: And oft time them chaunge, and if he stormes doubt, Of his shepecote dawbe the walles round about: 170 When they be broken, oft times them renue, And hurtfull pastures note well, and them eschue. Bye strawe and litter, and hay for winter colde, Oft grease the scabbes aswell of yonge as olde. For dreade of thieues oft watche vp all the night, 175 Beside this labour with all his minde and might, For his poore housholde for to prouide vitayle, If by aduenture his wooll or lambes fayle. In doing all these no respite doth re- mayne, But well to indite requireth all the brayne. 180 I tell thee Codrus, a stile of excellence Must haue all laboure and all the dili- gence. AND ECLOGUE IV 319 Both these two workes be great, nere im- portable To my small power, my strength is muche vnable. The one to intende scant may I bide the payne, 185 Then is it harder for me to do both twayne, What time my wittes be clere for to indite, My dayly charges will graunt me no re- spite: But if I folowe, inditing at my will, Eche one disdayneth my charges to ful- fill. 190 Though in these fieldes eche other ought sustayne, Cleane lost is that lawe, one may require in vayne: If coyne commaunde, then men count them as bounde, Els flee they labour, then is my charge on grounde. Codrus Cornix oft counted that man should flee no payne, 195 His frendes burthen to supporte and sus- tayne: Feede they thy flocke, while thou doest write and sing, Eche horse agreeth not well for euery thing, Some for the charet, some for the cart or plough, And some for hakneyes, if they be light and tough. 200 Eche field agreeth not well for euery seede, Who hath moste labour is worthy of best mede. Minalcas After inditing then gladly would I drinke, To reache me the cup no man doth care ne thinke: And oft some fooles voyde of discre- tion 205 Me and my matters haue in derision. And meruayle is none, for who would sowe that fielde With costly seedes, which shall no fruites yelde. Some wanton body oft laugheth me to scorne, 320 ALEXANDER BARCLAY And saith: Minalcas, see howe thy pilche is torne, 210 Thy hose and cokers be broken at the knee, Thou canst not stumble, for both thy shone may see. Thy beard like bristels, or like a porpos skin, Thy cloathing sheweth, thy winning is but thin: Such mocking tauntes renueth oft my care, 215 And nowe be woods of fruit and leaues bare. And frostie winter hath made the fieldes white, For wrath and anger my lip and tonge I bite: For dolour I droupe, sore vexed with dis- dayne, My wombe all wasteth, wherfore I bide this payne: 220 My wooll and wethers may scarsly feede my wombe, And other housholde which I retayne at home. Leane be my lambes, that no man will them bye, And yet their dammes they dayly sucke so dry, That from the vthers no licoure can we wring, 225 Then without repast who can indite or sing. It me repenteth, if I haue any wit, As for my science, I wery am of it. And of my poore life I weary am, Co- drus, Sith my harde fortune for me disposeth thus, 230 That of the starres and planettes eche one To poore Minalcas well fortunate is none. Knowen is the truth if it were clerely sought, That nowe to this time I still haue songe for nought: For youth is lusty, and of small thing hath nede, 235 That time to age men geue no force nor heede. Ages condition is greatly contrary, Which nowe approcheth right still and craftyly, But what time age doth any man op- presse, If he in youth haue gathred no riches: Then passeth age in care and pouertie, For nede is grieuous with olde infirmitie: And age is fetred oft time with care and neede, When strength is faded and man hath nought to feede, When strength is faded, then hope of gayne is gone, 245 In youthes season to make prouision, The litle Emmet is wise and prouident, In summer working with labour diligent, In her small caues conueying corne and grayne Her life in Winter to nourish and sus- tayne: And with her small mouth is busy it cutting, Least in her caues the same might growe or spring. So man of reason himselfe reputing sage, In youth should puruey, to liue theron in age. Codrus Men say that clerkes which knowe As- tronomy, 255 Knowe certayne starres which longe to desteny : But all their saying is nothing veritable, Yet heare the matter, though it be but a fable. They say that Mercury doth Poetes fauoure, Under Jupiter be princes of honour: 260 And men of riches, of wealth or dignitie, And all such other as haue aucthoritie: Mercury geueth to Poetes laureate Goodly conueyaunce, speeche pleasaunt and ornate, Inuentife reason to sing or play on harpe, 265 In goodly ditie or balade for to carpe. This is thy lot, what seekest thou riches? No man hath all, this thing is true doubt- lesse. God all disposeth as he perceyueth best. Take thou thy fortune, and holde thee still in rest: 270 Take thou thy fortune, and holde thy selfe content, Let vs haue riches and rowmes excellent, THE PROLOGUE Minalcas Thou haste of riches and goodes haboun- daunce, And I haue dities and songes of pleas- aunce: To aske my cunning to couetous thou art, Why is not thy selfe contented with thy part, Why doest thou inuade my part and por- tion, Thou wantest (Codrus) wit and discre- tion. Codrus Not so Minalcas, forsooth thou art to blame, Of wronge inuasion to geue to me the name. 280 I would no ditie nor ballade take thee fro, No harpe nor armes which long to Apollo: But onely, Minalcas, I sore desire and longe To geue mine eares to thy sweete sound- ing song. It feedeth hearing, and is to one pleas- aunt, 285 To heare good reason and ballade con- sonant. Minalcas. If thou haue pleasure to heare my melody, I graunt thee Codrus to ioy my armony, So haue I pleasure and ioy of thy riches, So giftes doubled increaseth loue doubt- lesse. 290 Codrus He of my riches hath ioy which loueth me, And who me hateth, nothing content is he. Enuious wretches by malice commonly Take others fortune and pleasure heauyly. Minalcas In like wise mayst thou inioy of our science, 295 And of our Muses though thou be fro presence: And of our cunning thou ioyest sembla- bly, If nought prouoke thee by malice and enuy. 278. The bracketed word is so bracketed in the text. Similarly in lines 411, 467, 587, 607, 629, 663, 811, 847, 911. AND ECLOGUE IV 321 If I feede thy eares, feede thou my mouth agayne, I loth were to spende my giftes all in vayne. 300 Meate vnto the mouth is foode and suste- naunce, And songes feede the eares with pleas- aunce, I haue the Muses, if thou wilt haue of mine, Then right requireth that I haue part of thine. This longeth to loue, to nourish charitee This feedeth pitie, this doth to right agree This is the pleasure and will of God aboue, Of him disposed for to ingender loue. All pleasaunt giftes one man hath not pardie, That one of other should haue neces- sitie. 310 No man of him selfe is sure sufficistent, This is prouision of God omnipotent. That one man should neede anothers as- sistence, Thereby is ioyned loue and beneuolence. Englande hath cloth, Burdeus hath store of wine, 315 Cornewall hath tinne, and lymster wools fine. London hath scarlet, and Bristowe pleas- aunt red, Fen lande hath fishes, in other place is lead. This is of our Lorde disposed so my brother Because all costes should one haue neede of other. 320 So euery tree hath fruit after his kinde, And diuers natures in beastes may we finde. Alway when nature of thing is moste laudable, That thing men counteth most good and profitable. And euery person in his owne gift hath ioy 325 The foole in his bable hath pleasure for to toy. The clerke in his bookes, the merchaunt in riches, The knight in his horse, harnes and hardynes. 322 ALEXANDER BARCLAY But euery person of his giftes and art, When nede requireth should gladly geue some part. 330 Such meane conioyneth in bonde of loue certayne, Englande and Fraunce, Scotlande, Grece and Spain. So hast thou Codrus of golde ynough in store, And I some cunning, though fewe men care therfore. Thou art beholden to Jupiter truely, 335 And I beholden to pleasaunt Mercury, Joyne we our starres, let me haue part of thine, Concorde to cherishe, thou shalt haue part of mine. Make thou Jupiter be frendly vnto me, And our Mercury shalbe as good to thee 340 If thy Jupiter geue me but onely golde, Mercury shall geue thee giftes many- folde. His pillion, scepter, his winges and his harpe, If thou haue all these thou mayst grathly carpe. And ouer all these geue thee shall Mer- cury 345 The knot of Hercules inlaced craftyly. Codrus Lorde God, Minalcas, why haste thou all this payne Thus wise to forge so many wordes in vayne. Minalcas That vayne thou countest which may hurt or inlesse 350 Thy loued treasure, or minishe thy riches : If thou wilt harken or heare my Muses sing, Refreshe my mindes with confort and liking, Rid me fro troubles and care of busynes, Confort my courage which nowe is com- fortlesse. 355 A clerke or poete combined with a boye, To haunt the Muses or write hath litle ioy The wit and reason is dull or of valour Like as the body is called to honour. When busy charges causeth a man to grone, The wit then slumbreth, and Muses all be gone. 360 A ditie will haue minde quiet and respite, And ease of stomake, els can none well indite, I sighe, I slumber, care troubleth oft my thought, When some by malice mine art setteth at nought. I hewle as a kite for hunger and for golde, 365 For thought and study my youth appereth olde: My skin hath wrinkles and pimples round about, For colde and study I dreade me of the gowte. When sickenes commeth then life hath breuitie By false vnkindnes and wretched pouer- tie. 370 If men were louing, benigne and chari- table, Then were pouertie both good and toller- able: But since charitie and pitie both be gone, What should pouertie remayne behinde alone. No man hath pitie, eche dayneth me to feede, 375 I lost haue confort, but still remayneth neede: I haue no wethers nor ewes in my folde, No siluer in purse, I knowe not what is golde: No corne on the grounde haue I whereon to fare, Then would thou haue me to liue auoyde of care. 380 Nay nay frende Codrus, trust me, I thee assure Such maner salues can not my dolour cure. Make thou me iocunde, helpe me with cloth and foode, Clothe me for winter with pilche, felt and hoode. Auoyde all charges, let me sit in my cell, 385 Let worldly wretches with worldly mat- ters mell. Succoure my age, regarde my heares gray, Then shalt thou proue and see what thing I may: THE PROLOGUE Then shalt thou finde me both apt to write and sing, Good will shall fulfill my scarcenes of cunning, 390 A plentifull house out chaseth thought and care, Soiourne doth sorowe there where all thing is bare, The seller couched with bere, with ale or wine, And meates ready when man hath lust to dine. Great barnes full, fat wethers in the folde, 395 The purse well stuffed with siluer and with golde. Fauour of frendes, and suche as loueth right All these and other do make thee full light, Then is it pleasure the yonge maydens amonge To watche by the fire the winters nightes longe 400 At their fonde tales to laugh, or when they brall, Great fire and candell spending for la- boure small, And in the ashes some playes for to marke, To couer wardens for fault of other warke. To toste white sheuers, and to make pro- phitroles, 405 And after talking oft time to fill the bowles. Where wealth aboundeth without rebuke or crime, Thus do some heardes for pleasure and pastime: As fame reporteth, such a Shepherde there was, Which that time liued vnder Mecenas. 470 And Titerus (I trowe) was this shep- herdes name, I well remember aliue yet is his fame. He songe of fieldes and tilling of the grounde, Of shepe, of oxen, and battayle did he sounde. 414 So shrill he sounded in termes eloquent, I trowe his tunes went to the firmament. The same Mecenas to him was free and kinde, AND ECLOGUE IV 323 Whose large giftes gaue confort to his minde: Also this Shepherde by heauenly influ- ence I trowe obtayned his perelesse eloquence. We other Shepherdes be greatly differ- ent, 421 Of common sortes, leane, ragged and rent. Fed with rude frowise, with quacham, or with crudd, Or slimy kempes ill smelling of the mud. Such rusty meates inblindeth so our brayne, 425 That of our fauour the muses haue dis- dayne: And great Apollo despiseth that we write For why rude wittes but rudely do indite. Codrus. I trust on fortune, if it be fauourable, My trust fulfilling, then shall I well be able 430 Thy neede to succoure, I hope after a thing, And if fortune fall well after my liking, Trust me Minalcas, I shall deliuer thee Out of this trouble, care and calamitie. Minalcas A Codrus Codrus, I would to God thy will 435 Were this time ready thy promise to ful- fill After the power and might that thou haste nowe. Thou haste ynough for both, man God auowe. If thy good minde according with thy might, At this time present thou should my heart well light. 440 I aske not the store of Cosmus or Capell, With silken robes I couete not to mell. No kinges dishes I couete nor desire, Nor riche mantels, or palles wrought in alice}: No cloth of golde, of Tissue nor vel- uet, 445 Damaske nor Sattin, nor orient Scarlet. I aske no value of Peters costly cope, Shield of Minerua, nor patin of Esope. I aske no palace, nor lodging curious, No bed of state, of rayment sumptuous. 324 ALEXANDER BARCLAY For this I learned of the Dean of Powles, I tell thee Codrus, this man hath won some soules. I aske no treasure nor store of worldly good, But a quiet life, and onely cloth and foode, With homely lodging to keepe me warme and drye 455 Induring my life, forsooth no more aske If I were certaine this liuing still to haue, Auoyde of trouble, no more of God I craue. Codrus This liuing haste thou, what needest thou complayne, Nothing thou wantest which may thy life sustayne: 460 What feele man, pardie thy chekes be not thin, No lacke of vitayle causeth a double chin. Minalcas. Some beast is lustie and fat of his nature, Though he sore laboure, and go in bad pasture. And some beast agayne still leane and poore is seene, 465 Thogh it fatly fare within a medowe greene. Though thou would (Codrus) stil argue til to morow, I licke no dishes which sauced be with sorowe. Better one small dish with ioy and heart liking Then diuers daynties with murmure and grutching. 470 And men vnlearned can neuer be con- tent, When scolers common, and clerkes be present. Assoone as clerkes begin to talke and chat, Some other glowmes, and hath enuy thereat. It is a torment a clerke to sit at borde, 475 And of his learning not for to talke one worde. Better were to be with clerkes with a crust, Then at such tables to fare at will and lust. Let me haue the borde of olde Pithag- oras, Which of temperaunce a very father was. 480 Of Philosophers the moderate riches In youth or age I loued neuer excesse. Some boast and promise, and put men in confort Of large giftes, moste men be of this sort, With mouth and promise for to be liber- all, 485 When nede requireth, then geue they nought at all. All onely in thee is fixed all my trust, If thou fayle promise then rowle I in the dust, My hope is faded, then shall my songe be dom Like a Nightingale at the solstitium. 490 If thou fayle promise, my comfort cleane is lost, Then may I hange my pipe vpon the poste: Shet the shop windowes for lacke of marchaundise, Or els for because that easy is the price. Codrus Minalcas, if thou the court of Rome haste seene, 495 With forked cappes or els if thou haste beene, Or noble Prelates by riches excellent, Thou well perceyuest they be magnifi- cent. With them be clerkes and pleasaunt Ora- tours, And many Poetes promoted to honours, There is aboundaunce of all that men desire, 501 There men hath honour before they it re- quire: In such fayre fieldes without labour or payne Both wealth and riches thou lightly mayst obtayne. Minalcas Thou art abused, and thinkest wrong doubtlesse 505 To thinke that I am desirous of riches. To feede on rawe fleshe it is a wolues gise, Wherfore he weneth all beastes do like- wise. THE PROLOGUE Because the blinde man halteth and is lame, In minde he thinketh that all men do the same. 510 So for that thy selfe desirest good in store, All men thou iudgest infected with like sore. Codrus, I couet not to haue aboundaunce, Small thing me pleaseth, I aske but suffi- saunce. Graunt me a liuing sufficient and small, And voyde of troubles, I aske no more at all. 516 But with that litle I holde my selfe con- tent, If sauce of sorowe my mindes not tor- ment. Of the court of Rome forsooth I haue heard tell, With forked cappes it folly is to mell. 520 Micene and Morton be dead and gone certayne, They, nor their like shall neuer returne agayne. O Codrus Codrus, Augustus and Ed- warde Be gone for euer, our fortune is more harde. The scarlet robes in songe haue small delite, 525 What should I trauayle, in Rome is no profite, It geueth mockes and scornes manyfolde, Still catching coyne, and gaping after golde, Fraude and disceyte doth all the world , And money reygneth and doth all thing at will. 530 And for that people would more intende to gile, Uertue and truth be driuen into exile. We are commaunded to trust for time to come Till care and sorowe hath wasted our wisedome. Hope of rewarde hath Poetes them to feede, 535 Nowe in the worlde fayre wordes be their mede. Codrus Then write of battayles, or actes of men bolde, AND ECLOGUE IV 325 Or mightie princes, they may thee well vpholde, These worthy rulers of fame and name royall Of very reason ought to be liberall. 540 Some shalt thou finde betwene this place and Kent, Which for thy labour shall thee right well content. Minalcas Yea, some shall I finde which be so prod- igall, That in vayne thinges spende and cleane wasteth all: But howe should that man my pouertie sustayne, 545 Which nought reserueth his honoure to mayntayne. For auncient bloud nor auncient honoure In these our dayes be nought without treasure. The coyne auaunceth, neede doth the name deiect, And where is treasure olde honour hath effect. 550 But such as be riche and in promotion Shall haue my writing but in derision. For in this season great men of excel- lence Haue to poemes no greater reuerence, Then to a brothell or els a brothelhouse, Mad ignoraunce is so contagious. 556 Codrus It is not seeming a Poet thus to iest In wrathful speeche, nor wordes dis- honest. Minalcas It is no iesting, be thou neuer so wroth, In open language to say nothing but troth: 560 If peraduenture thou would haue troth kept still, Prouoke thou not me to anger at thy will. When wrath is moued, then reason hath no might, The tonge forgetteth discretion and right. Codrus To moue thy minde I truely were full lothe, 565 To geue good councell is farre from being wrothe. 326 ALEXANDER BARCLAY Minalcas As touching councell, my minde is plen- tifull, But neede and troubles make all my rea- son dull, If I had councell and golde in like plen- tie, I tell thee Codrus, I had no neede of thee. 570 Howe should a Poet, poore, bare and indigent, Indite the actes of princes excellent, While scant is he worth a knife his pipe to mende, To rounde the holes, to clense or picke the ende. Beholde, my whittle almoste hath lost the blade, BAS So long time past is sith the same was made: The haft is bruised, the blade not worth a strawe, Rusty and toothed, not much vnlike a sawe. But touching this hurt, it is but light and small, But care and trouble is grieuous payne withall. 580 Good counsell helpeth, making the wittes stable, Ill councell maketh the mindes variable, And breaketh the brayne, diminishing the strength, And all the reason confoundeth at the length. Great men are shamed to geue thing poore or small, 585 And great they denye, thus geue they nought at all. Beside this (Codrus) princes and men royall In our inditinges haue pleasure faint and small, So much power haue they with men of might, As simple doues when Egles take their flight : 590 Or as great windes careth for leaues drye. They liue in pleasure and wealth contin- ually, In lust their liking is, and in ydlenes, Fewe haue their mindes clean from all viciousnes : Pleasure is thing whereto they moste intende, 595 That they moste cherishe, they would haue men concend If Poetes should their maners magnify, They were supporters of blame and lechery: Then should their writing be nothing commendable, Conteyning iestes and deedes detesta- ble, 600 Of stinking Uenus or loue inordinate, Of ribaude wordes which fall not for a state, Of right oppressed, and beastly gluttony, Of vice aduaunced, of slouth and iniury, And other deedes infame and worthy blame, 605 Which were ouerlonge here to recount or name. These to commend (Codrus) do not agree To any Poete which loueth chastitie. Codrus What yes Minalcas, some haue bene stronge and bolde, Which haue in battayle done actes many- folde, 610 With mighty courage hauing them in fight, And boldly biding for to maynteyne the right. To thee could I nowe rehearse well nere a score Of lust nor riches setting no force ne store. Despising oft golde, sweete fare and beddes soft, 615 Which in colde harnes lye on the grounde full oft, Closed in yron, which when their woundes blede, Want bread and drinke them to restore and feede. While some haue pleasure in softe golde orient, With colde harde yron their minde is well content. 620 Such were the sonnes of noble lord Hawarde, Whose famous actes may shame a faint cowarde. What could they more but their swete liues spende, THE PROLOGUE Their princes quarell and right for to defende: Alas that battayle should be of that ri- gour, 625 When fame and honour riseth and is in floure, With sodayne furour then all to quenche agayne, But boldest heartes be nerest death cer- tayne. Minalcas For certayne (Codrus) I can not that denye, But some in battayle behaue them man- fully, 630 Such as in battayle do actes marciall, Laude worthy Poetes and stile heroicall: The pleasaunt Muses which soundeth grauitie Had helpe and fauour while these were in degree. But sith stronge knightes hath left their exercise, And manly vertue corrupted is with vice, The famous Poetes which ornately indite Haue founde no matter whereof to singe or write. The wit thus dyeth of poetes auncient, So doth their writing and ditie eloquent. For lacke of custome, thought, care and penury, 641 These be confounders of pleasaunt poecy. But if some prince, some king or con- querour Hath won in armes or battayle great honour : Full litle they force for to delate their fame, That other realmes may laude or prayse their name. Of time for to come they force nothing at all, By fame and honour to liue as immortall : It them suffiseth, they count ynough true- ly That their owne realmes their names magnify. 650 And that for their life they may haue laude and fame, After their death then seeke they for no name: And some be vntaught and learned no science, Or els they disdayne hye stile of elo- quence: AND!) ECLOGUE IV 327 Then standeth the Poet and his poeme arere, When princes disdayne them for to reade or here. Or els some other is drowned all in golde, By couetise kept in cares manyfolde. By flagrant ardour inflamed in suche case, As in time past the olde king Midas was. Then of poemes full small pleasure hath he, 661 Couetise and clergy full lewdly do agree. Beside this (Codrus) with princes com- monly Be vntaught courtiers fulfilled with enuy. Jugglers and Pipers, bourders and flat- terers, Baudes and Janglers, and cursed aduout- rers: And mo such other of liuing vicious To whom is vertue aduerse and odious. These do good Poetes forth of all courtes chase, By thousande maners of threatning and manace, 670 Sometime by fraudes, sometime by ill reporte, And them assisteth all other of their sort: Like as when curres light on a carion, Or stinking rauens fed with corruption: These two all other away do beate and chace, Because they alone would occupy the place. For vnto curres is carion moste meete, And also rauens fele stinking thinges sweete. Another thing yet is greatly more damna- ble, Of rascolde poetes yet is a shamfull rable, 680 Which voyde of wisedome presumeth to indite, Though they haue scantly the cunning of a snite: And to what vices that princes moste intende, Those dare these fooles solemnize and commende. Then is he decked as Poete laureate, When stinking Thais made him her grad- uate. When Muses rested, she did her season note, And she with Bacchus her camous did promote: 328 ALEXANDER BARCLAY Such rascold drames promoted by Thais, Bacchus, Licoris, or yet by Testalis, 690 Or by suche other newe forged Muses nine Thinke in their mindes for to haue wit diuine. They laude their verses, they boast, they vaunt and iet, Though all their cunning be scantly worth a pet. If they haue smelled the artes triuiall, They count them Poetes hye and heroic- all. Such is their foly, so foolishly they dote, Thinking that none can their playne er- rour note: Yet be they foolishe, auoyde of honestie, Nothing seasoned with spice of grauitie, Auoyde of pleasure, auoyde of eloquence, With many wordes, and fruitlesse of sen- tence. 702 Unapt to learne, disdayning to be taught, Their priuate pleasure in snare hath them so caught: And worst yet of all, they count them ex- cellent, Though they be fruitlesse, rashe and im- prouident. To suche Ambages who doth their minde incline, They count all other as priuate of doc- trine, And that the faultes which be in them alone, Also be common in other men eche one. Thus bide good Poetes oft time rebuke and blame, aa Because of other which haue despised name. And thus for the bad the good be cleane abiect, Their art and poeme counted of none effect. Who wanteth reason good to discerne from ill Doth worthy writers interprete at his will: So both the laudes of good and not laudable For lacke of knowledge become vituper- able. Codrus In fayth Minalcas, I well allowe thy wit, Yet would I gladly heare nowe some mery fit 720 Of mayde Marion, or els of Robin hood, Or Bentleys ale which chaseth well the bloud: Of perte of Norwiche, or sauce of Wil- berton, Or buckishe Joly well stuffed as a ton: Talke of the bottell, let go the booke for nowe, Combrous is cunning I make to God a vowe. Speake of some matter which may re- fresh my brayne, Trust me Minalcas, I shall rewarde thy payne. Els talke of stoutenes, where is more brayne then wit, Place moste abused that we haue spoke of yet. 730 Minalcas Of all these thinges language to multi- ply, Except I lyed, should be but vilany. It is not seeming a Poete one to blame, All if his hauour hath won diffamed name. And though such beastes pursue me with enuy, 735 Malgre for malice, that payment I de- fye. My master teacheth, so doth reason and skill, That man should restore, and render good for ill. Codrus Then talke of somewhat, lo it is longe to night, Yet hath the sonne more then an houre of light, 740 Minalcas If I ought common sounding to grauitie, I feare to obtayne but small rewarde of thee: But if I common of vice or wantonnes, Then of our Lorde shall my rewarde be lesse, Wherefore my ballade shall haue con- clusion 7 On fruitfull clauses of noble Salomon. Codrus Sing on Minalcas, he may do litle thing, Which to a ballade disdayneth the hear- ing: But if thy ditie accorde not to my minde, THE PROLOGUE Then my rewarde and promise is be- hinde, 750 By mans manners it lightly doth appere, What men desire, that loue they for to here. Minalcas Though in thy promise I finde no cer- tentie, Yet of my cunning shalt thou haue part of me, I call no muses to geue to me doctrine, But ayde and confort of strength and might diuine, To clere my reason with wisedom and prudence To sing one ballade extract of sapience. As medoes paynted with floures redolent The sight reioyce of suche as them be- holde : 760 So man indued with vertue excellent Fragrantly shineth with beames many- folde. Uertue with wisedome exceedeth store of gold, If riches abound, set not on them thy trust. When strength is sturdy, then man is pert and bolde, 765 But wit and wisedome soone lay him in the dust. That man is beastly which sueth carnall lust, Spende not on women thy riches or sub- staunce, For lacke of vsing as stele or yron rust, So rusteth reason by wilfull ignoraunce. In fraudfull beautie set but small pleas- aunce, 771 A pleasaunt apple is oft corrupt within, Grounde thee in youth on goodly gouern- aunce, It is good token when man doth well begin. Toy not in malice, that is a mortall sinne, Man is perceyued by language and doc- trine, 776 Better is to lose then wrongfully to winne, He loueth wisedome, which loueth disci- pline: Rashe enterprises oft bringeth to ruine, A man may contende, God geueth victory, Set neuer thy minde on thing which is not thine, 781 AND ECLOGUE IV 329 Trust not in honour, all wealth is transi- tory, Combine thou thy tonge with reason and memory, Speake not to hasty without aduisement, So liue in this life that thou mayst trust on glory, 785 Which is not caduke, but lasting perma- nent. There is no secrete with people vinolent, By beastly surfeit the life is breuiate, Though some haue pleasure in sumptu- ous garment, Yet goodly manners him maketh more ornate. 790 Codrus Ho there Minalcas, of this haue we ynough, What should a Ploughman go farther then his plough, What should a shepherde in wisedome wade so farre, Talke he of tankarde, or of his boxe of tarre. Tell somewhat els, wherein is more con- forte, 795 So shall the season and time seeme light and short. Minalcas For thou of Hawarde nowe lately did recite, I haue a ditie which Cornix did indite: His death complayning, but it is lament- able To heare a Captayne so good and honor- able, 800 So soone withdrawen by deathes cruel- tie, Before his vertue was at moste hye de- gree. If death for a season had shewed him fauour, d To all his nation he should haue bene honour, Alas, bolde heartes be nerest death in warre, 805 When out of daunger cowardes stande a farre. Codrus All if that ditie be neuer so lamentable, Refrayne my teares I shall as I am able. Begin Minalcas, tell of the bolde hawarde, If fortune fauour hope after some re- warde. 810 330 ALEXANDER BARCLAY Minalcas I pray thee Codrus (my whey is weake and thin) Lende me thy bottell to drinke or I begin. Codrus If ought be tasted, the remnant shall pall, I may not aforde nowe for to spende out all. We sit in shadowe, the sunne is not fer- uent, 815 Call for it after, then shall I be content. Minalcas Still thou desirest the pleasure of my art, But of thy bottell nought wilt thou yet depart, Though thou be nigard, and nought wilt geue of thine, Yet this one time thou shalt haue part of mine. - 820 Nowe harken Codrus, I tell mine elegy, But small is the pleasure of dolefull armony. The description of the Towre of vertue and honour, into the which the noble Hawarde contended to enter by worthy actes of Chiualry. Minalcas speaketh High on a mountayne of highnes maruel- ous, With pendant cliffes of stones harde as flent, Is made a castell or toure moste curious, Dreadfull vnto sight, but inwarde excel- lent. Such as would enter finde paynes and torment, So harde is the way vnto the same moun- tayne, Streyght, hye and thorny, turning and different, That many labour for to ascende in vayne. 830 Who doth perseuer, and to this toure attayne Shall haue great pleasure to see the build- ing olde, Joyned and graued, surmounting mans brayne, And all the walles within of fynest golde, With olde historyes, and pictures many- folde, Glistering as bright as Phebus orient, With marble pillers the building to vp- holde, About be turrets of shape most excellent. This towre is gotten by labour diligent, In it remayne such as haue won honoure By holy liuing, by strength or tourna- ment, 841 And moste by wisedome attayne vnto this towre: Briefely, all people of godly behauour, By rightwise battayle, Justice and equitie, Or that in mercy hath had a chiefe plea- sour: In it haue rowmes eche after his degree. This goodly Castell (thus shining in beautie ) Is named Castell of vertue and honour, In it eyght Henry is in his maiestie Moste hye enhaunsed as ought a con- querour : 850 In it remayneth the worthy gouernour, A stocke and fountayne of noble pro- geny, Moste noble Hawarde the duke and pro- tectour, Named of Northfolke the floure of chiu- alry. . Here is the Talbot manfull and hardy, With other princes and men of dignitie, Which to win honour do all their might apply, Supporting Justice, concorde and equitie: The manly Corson within this towre I see, These haue we seene eche one in his estate, 860 With many other of hye and meane de- gree, For marciall actes with crownes laureate. Of this stronge castell is porter at the gate Strong sturdy labour, much like a cham- pion, But goodly vertue a lady moste ornate Within gouerneth with great prouision: But of this castell in the moste hyest trone Is honour shining in rowme imperiall, Which vnrewarded of them leaueth not one That come by labour and vertue princi- pall. 870 THE PROLOGUE Fearefull is labour without fauour at all, Dreadfull of visage, a monster intreat- able, Like Cerberus lying at gates infernall, To some men his looke is halfe intoller- able, His shoulders large, for burthen strong and able, His body bristled, his necke mightie and stiffe, By sturdy senewes his ioyntes stronge and stable, Like marble stones his handes be as stiffe. Here must man vanquishe the dragon of Cadmus, Against the Chimer here stoutly must he fight, 880 Here must he vanquish the fearefull Peg- asus, For the golden flece here must he shewe his might: If labour gaynsay, he can nothing be right, This monster labour oft chaungeth his figure, Some time an oxe, a bore, or lion wight, Playnely he seemeth, thus chaungeth his nature. Like as Protheus oft chaunged his stat- ure, Mutable of figure oft times in one houre, When Aristeus in bondes had him sure: To diuers figures likewise chaungeth labour, 890 Under his browes he dreadfully doth loure, With glistering eyen, and side depend- aunt beard, For thirst and hunger alway his chere is soure, His horned forehead doth make faynt heartes feard. Alway he drinketh, and yet alway is drye, 895 The sweat distilling with droppes aboun- daunt, His breast and forehead doth humours multiply By sweating showres, yet is this payne pleasaunt: Of day and night his resting time is scant, No day ouerpasseth exempt of busynes, AND ECLOGUE IV 331 His sight infourmeth the rude and ignor- ant, Who dare perseuer, he geueth them riches. None he auaunceth but after stedfastnes, Of litle burthen his bely is, and small, His mighty thyes his vigour doth ex- pres, 905 His shankes sturdy, and large feete with- all: By wrath he rageth, and still doth chide and brall, Such as would enter repelling with his crye, As well estates as homely men rurall — At the first entry he threatneth yrefully. I trowe olde fathers (whom men nowe magnify) Called this monster Minerua stoute and soure, For strength and senewes of man moste commonly 913 Are tame and febled by cures and laboure. Great Hercules the mighty conquerour Was by this monster ouerccome and superate, All if he before vnto his great honour The sonne of Uenus had strongly subiu- gate. Who would with honour be purely laure- ate, Must with this monster longe time before contende, 920 But lightly is man ouercome and fati- gate, To lady vertue if he not well intende: When strength is febled she helpeth at the ende, Opening the gates and passage to honour, By whose assistaunce soone may a man ascende 925 The hye degrees of the triumphant Tour. Mankinde inflamed by goodly behauour Of lady vertue come to this towre with payne, But for the entree pretendeth them rigour Many one abasheth, rebuking backe agayne: 930 To purchase honour they would be gla and fayne, But fearefull labour, the porter is so fell, To them proclaming, their enterprise is vayne, 332 ALEXANDER BARCLAY Except they before with him contende and mell. Here moste of all muste mans might ex- cell 935 With stedfast courage and sure per- seueraunce, Els shall this monster him backe agayne repell, But man preuayleth by long continuaunce. No costly treasour nor Jewell of pleas- aunce Without price or payne can man in earth come by: 940 So without labour doth vertue none aduaunce To parfite honour and noble seignory. Faynt cowarde mindes soone at the first escry Of sturdie labour, fall to the grounde as lame, Els runne they back warde fast fleing cowardly, 945 As hartles wretches caring nothing for shame: But noble heartes to win immortall name, Fight at these gates till they ouercome labour, Then lady vertue with good report and fame Suche knightes gideth to laude and hye honour. 950 But cruell fortune to some is harde and soure, That after trauell and many deadly wounde, When lady vertue should graunt to them this toure Then frowarde fortune them beateth to the ground: 954 Of this examples ouer many do abounde, But chiefly this one, the noble lorde Hawarde, When he chiefe honour was worthy to haue founde, False death and fortune bereft him his rewarde. Longe he contended in battayle strong and harde, With payne and labour, with might repel- ling wrong, 960 No backe he turned as doth some faint cowarde, But with this monster boldly contended long, When he had broken the locke and doores stronge, Ouercome the porter, and should ascende the toure, To liue in honour hye conquerours amonge, 965 Then cruell fortune and death did him deuoure. Though he were borne to glory and honour, Of auncient stocke and noble progenie, Yet thought his courage to be of more valour, By his owne actes and noble chiualry. Like as becommeth a knight to fortifye His princes quarell with right and equitie, So did this hawarde with courage val- iauntly, 973 Till death abated his bolde audacitie. O happy Samson more fortunate then he Onely in strength, but not in hye courage, O cruell fortune why durst thy crueltie This floure of knighthood to slea in lusty age, Thou hast debated the floure of his lin- age, If thou had mercy bewayle his death thou might, 980 For cruell lions and mo beastes sauage Long time not ceased for to bewayle this knight, O death thou haste done agaynst both lawe and right, To spare a cowarde without daunger or wounde, And thus soone to quench of chiualry the light, 985 O death enuious moste enemie to our grounde, What moste auayleth thou soonest doest confounde: Why did not vertue assist hir champion? Thou might haue ayded, for soothly thou was bounde, For during his life he loued thee alone, 990 O God almightie in thy eternall trone, To whom all vertue is deare and accept- able, If reason suffred to thee our crye and mone, THE PROLOGUE This dede might impute and fortune la- mentable, . Thou might haue left vs this knight moste honorable, 995 Our wealth and honour to haue kept in degree: Alas why hath death so false and dis- ceyuable, Mankinde to torment this will and liber- tie? It quencheth vertue, sparing iniquitie, The best it striketh, of bad hauing dis- dayne, 1000 No helpe nor comfort hath our aduersi- tie, Death dayly striketh though dayly we complayne: To treate a tiran it is but thing in vayne, Mekenes prouoketh his wrath and tiran- ny, So at our prayer death hath the more disdayne, 1005 We do by mekenes his furour multiply. If some fell tiran replete with villany Should thus haue ending the dede were commendable, But a stoute captayne disposed to mercy So soone thus faded, the case is lament- able, 1010 Was he not humble, iocunde and compan- able, No man despising, and first in all labour, Right wise with mercy debonair and tret- able, Mate and companion with euery souldier. Vice he subdued by goodly behauour, 1015 Like as a rider doth a wilde stede subdue, His body subiect, his soule was gouern- our, From vice withdrawen to goodnes and vertue, When pride rebelled mekenes did it es- chue, Free minde and almes subdued auarice: Alway he noted this saying iuste and true, 1021 That noble mindes despised couetise. His death declareth that slouth he did despise, By hardie courage as fyrst in ieopardie, Alway he vsed some noble exercise, 1025 Suche as belongeth to worthy chiualrie, AND ECLOGUE IV 330 In him was there founde no sparkle of enuy, Alway he lauded and praysed worthynes, Suche as were doughtie rewarding large- ly, Wrath saue in season he wisely coulde repres. 1030 Of wine or Bacchus despised he excesse, For mindes kindled to actes marciall, Seking for honour and name of doughti- nesse, Despiseth surfet and liuing bestiall, In him no power had luste venereall, 1035 For busy labour and pleasaunt abstinence All corporall lust soone causeth for to fall, No lust subdueth where reigneth dili- gence. He was a piller of sober countenaunce, His onely treasour and iewell was good name, 1040 But O cursed death thy wrathfull vio- lence, By stroke vnwarned halfe blinded of his fame, Whom may I accuse, whom may I put in blame, God for death, or fortune, or impotent nature, God doth his pleasour, and death will haue the same 1045 Nature was mightie longe able to endure, In fortune is the fault nowe am I sure, I would if I durst his tiranny accuse: O cursed fortune if thou be creature, Who gaue thee power thus people to abuse, 1050 Thy mutable might me causeth oft to muse, When man is plunged in dolour and dis- tresse, Thy face thou chaungest, which did earst refuse, By sodayne chaunces him lifting to rich- esse. And suche as longe time haue liued in noblenes 1055 Anone suche plungest in payne and pouer- tie, Wealth, honour, strength, right, iustice and goodnes, Misery, dolour, lowe rowme, iniquitie, 334 ALEXANDER BARCLAY These thou rewardest like as it pleaseth thee, To mans merite without respect at all, One this day being in great aucthori- tie, IO6r Agayne to morowe thou causest for to fall. When man is worthy a rowme imperiall, On him thou glowmest with frowarde countenaunce, Weake is thy promis reuoluing as a ball, 1065 Thou hast no fauour to godly gouern- aunce, No man by merite thou vsest to aduaunce, O blinded fortune ofte time infortunate, When man thee trusteth then falleth some mischaunce, } Unwarely chaunging his fortune and es- tate. 1070 Tell me frayle fortune, why did thou breuiate The liuing season of suche a captayne, That when his actes ought to be laureate Thy fauour turned him suffring to be slayne I blame thee fortune, and thee excuse agayne, 1075 For though thy fauour to him was rigor- ous, Suche is thy custome for to be vncer- tayne, And namely when man is hye and glori- ous. But moste worthy duke hye and victori- ous, Respire to comfort, see the vncertentie Of other princes, whose fortune pros- perous TO8I Oftetime haue ended in harde aduersitie: Read of Pompeius whose pereles dignitie Agaynst great Cesar did wealth of Rome defende, Whom after fortune brought in captiui- tie, 1085 And he in Egipt was headed at the ende. In likewise Cesar which did with him contende, When all the worlde to him was subiu- gate, From his hye honour did sodenly de- scende, Murdred in Rome by chaunce infortu- nate. I090 Cato and Seneke, with Tully laureate, These and mo like for all their sapience Hath proued fortune, sore blinding their estate, By wrongfull slaunders and deadly vio- lence. To poore and riche it hath no difference, Olde Policrates supposing perill past, 1096 With death dishonest ended his excel- lence, Great Alexander by fortune was downe cast, Bei draught of poyson him filled at the ast, Whom all the worlde earst could not saciate: II00 What is all honour and power but a blast, When fortune threatneth the life to breuiate. Beholde on Pirrus the king infortunate With a small stone dead prostrate vpon the grounde, See Ualerian brought downe from his es- tate, II05 From his empire in Percy thrall and bounde. Of olde Priamus it is in writing founde, Howe he by Pyrrus was in his palace slayne, Paris and Hector receyued mortall wounde, To trust in fortune it is a thing in vayne, IIIO The miightie Cyrus a king of Realmes twayne Was slayne and his hoste of Thomiris the quene. Thus is no matter of fortune to com- playne, All that nowe falleth of olde time hath bene sene, This shall be, this is, and this hath euer bene, IIIS That boldest heartes be nearest ieopardie, To dye in battayle is honour as men wene To suche as haue ioy in haunting chiu- alry. Suche famous ending the name doth magnifie, THE PROLOGUE Note worthy duke, no cause is to com- playne, 1120 His life not ended foule nor dishonestly, In bed nor tauerne his lustes to mayn- teyne, But like as besemed a noble captayne, In sturdie harnes he died for the right, From deathes daunger no man may flee certayne, I125 But suche death is metest vnto so noble a knight. But death it to call me thinke it vnright, Sith his worthy name shall laste per- petuall, To all his nation example and clere light, But to his progeny moste specially of all, 1130 His soule is in pleasour of glory eternall, So duke most doughty ioy may that noble tree, Whose braunches honour shall neuer fade ne fall, While beast is on earth or fishes in the sea. Lo Codrus I here haue tolde thee by and by 1135 Of shepheard Cornix the wofull elegy, Wherin he mourned the greeuous payne and harde, And laste departing of the noble lord Hawarde, More he indited of this good Admirall, But truely Codrus I can not tell thee all. 1140 AND ECLOGUE IV 335 Codrus Minalcas I sweare by holy Peters cope, If all thing fortune as I haue trust and hope, If happy winde blowe I shall or it be longe Comfort thy sorowe and well rewarde thy songe, What tary man a while till better fortune come, 1145 If my part be any then shall thy part be some. Minalcas If thou in purpose so to rewarde my hire, God graunt thee Codrus thy wishing and desire. Codrus Forsooth Minalcas I wishe thee so in dede, And that shalt thou knowe if fortune with me spede, 1150 Farewell Minalcas, for this time, dieu te garde, Neare is winter the worlde is to harde. Minalcas Go wretched nigarde, God sende thee care and payne, Our Lorde let thee neuer come hither more agayne, And as Midas, God turne it all to golde That euer thou touchest or shalt in handes holde, 1156 For so muche on golde is fixed thy liking, That thou despiseth both vertue and cun- ninge. Thus endeth the fourth Egloge. JOHN SKELTON Our conclusions as to Skelton’s work are based on scarcely a fourth of what he wrote, if we take his own list in the Garland of Laurell as trustworthy. We have but one of his three or more dramatic pieces, no one of his larger didactic compositions, doubtful bits of his religious verse, none of his translations except an incomplete copy of the Diodorus Siculus. Much of the lighter verse which he describes with such gusto is unknown to us, and time has preserved only his “satire” in any amount. Nevertheless, we are on fairly safe ground in making our generalizations. The way in which Skelton distributes his emphasis in cataloguing his works shows us that he took satisfaction in his smartly colloquial and ribald writing; and of that type of his production we have numerous specimens. His lighter lyric, in- serted into the Garland of Laurell, he can hardly have bettered under any of the titles he there mentions; and his success in addressing a superior to whom he wishes to show respect, in that poem, causes us no regret at the loss of his verse written for royalty. We may, with Dyce, deplore the loss of the Ballad of the ‘Mustard Tart and of the Mourning of the Mapely Root; but we can afford to lose the didactic, the monitory, the pompous Skelton, and we have material to recognize the roistering, abusive, voluble Skelton as clearly as if we possessed another volume filled with his How to Die, his advice to the Prince of Wales, and his attacks on Mistress Anne. John Skelton, born about 1460, was a Cambridge graduate, and early made a reputation for classical learning. In 1490 Caxton, writing a preface to his trans- lation of the Aeneid, begs Skelton’s criticism, praising his scholarship and men- tioning versions of Diodorus Siculus and of Cicero’s letters Ad Familiares as by him. Caxton also says that Skelton had lately been created poet laureate at Ox- ford; in 1493 Skelton received the same honor at Cambridge, and Robert Whitin- ton, maker of various grammars printed by de Worde, calls Skelton “Louaniensis” in a Latin eulogy printed by Dyce, i:xvi-xix. As the Cambridge record terms Skelton “poeta in partibus transmarinis atque Oxon. laurea ornatus”, we are tempted to believe that Skelton had indeed received the crown at Louvain; but the records of that University do not—or did not—chronicle the award. The ‘laureate-rank, it may be observed, was much the same as our Litt. D. or LL. D.; ‘it was held by other men of literary activity in Skelton’s time, e.g., by Whitinton and by Bernard André, the blind historiographer of Henry the Seventh. In 1498 Skelton took holy orders, passing rapidly through the three degrees in about as many months; this may have been that he might qualify for his duties as tutor to the young prince Henry. He was holding that post when Erasmus, in his ode De Laudibus Britanniae, of 1500, praised Skelton’s scholarship; and he had written, or soon wrote, various works for his royal patrons, which are not now known. He celebrated Prince Arthur’s creation as the Prince of Wales and Prince Henry’s elevation to the dukedom of York; he composed a Speculum Principis for his pupil (see the Garland, line 1202) ; and the translation mentioned in line 1194 of that poem was perhaps done for the mother of Henry the Seventh. Skelton’s tutorial duties seem to have been over by 1503, when we find him holding the rectory of Diss, in Norfolk, a post doubtless conferred on him as reward [ 336 ] JOHN SKELTON 337 for his services at Court. This change of locale marks a definite change in his utterance. He had been academic, didactic, conventional; he had lamented the death of Northumberland, he had paid homage to royalty, he had translated the classics, using the accepted literary vocabulary and moulds. But there now ap- pears a difference in his thought and expression. Whether he resided for long periods at his new position or not, his withdrawal from Court seems to coincide with the appearance of the characteristic “Skeltonicall” metre and with the dominance of censure or satire in his verse. Between his earlier conventional work and the rapid, short-breathed verse into which Skelton now breaks, rimed in groups of three to six lines of usually three beats and carrying voluble, often coarse, description and abuse, there inter- venes a poem still in the orthodox seven-line stanza, but free in spirit,—the Bowge of Court. This poem should be compared with the Ship of Fools; it is the outcome of a general impulse of the time, an expression of that newly powerful bourgeois spirit which found its voice most easily in attack. The contrast between the adoles- cent awkwardness of method in the poem and the mature inherited form is more striking than that between the intent of Hawes or Barclay and their expression. Bar- clay’s stiffness and Hawes’ senility sink below the level of the stanza and are unable to fill it; Skelton seems to twist and struggle in the form, like a powerful unmannerly dog in harness. But with Philip Sparrow, written early in his tenure of Diss, and in the free couplet, Skelton passes over into his own province. He never again appears to such advantage, for more than a few lines, as in this light occasional poem, written to please a young girl, and lamenting for her, now in earnest, now with banter, now with teasing magniloquence, the death of her pet sparrow under the claws of the family cat. His later coarseness and virulence » are not here; his classical knowledge is lightly handled; and his extravagance of vocabulary, his fondness for jargon and word-puzzles, for heaped alliteration, for a medley of pothouse vulgarisms, proverbs, and Latinisms, has not yet obsessed him. We can see the indications of these traits; but they are under control. So far as we can judge from his extant work, Skelton must have settled conclusively into the smartly-crackling, quick-fire verse-movement used in Philip Sparrow. He took pride in it, notwithstanding the objections of formal versifiers like Barclay; he says, speaking as Colin Clout, that “though my ryme be ragged, tattered and jagged,—If ye take well therwith, It hath in it some pyth.” Certainly this loosely metred, indeterminate line-sequence gave Skelton greater freedom of movement than rime royal. But it also removed all bonds from a spirit reckless and restless; it permitted the noisy vehemence of Ware the Hauke, the Reply- cacion, the poem against the Scots; it permitted the wallowing coarseness of Ely- nour Rummyng; it permitted the snarling of the Wolsey-poems. When objurgation was made so easy, the impulse was speedily gratified. The verse-form found its imitators later; but Elizabethan and Stuart critics regarded it with disfavor. Puttenham called Skelton “a rude ragling rimer” ; Browne and Wither said his reed jarred; Drayton censured him. A period in which drama and criticism were considering form would not, indeed, value a man for whom the word was of so much more moment than was structure, for whom recurrence meant more than pattern. What the course of life was which threw off these poems, we do not know with certainty. Tradition says that Skelton as a rector “was more fit for the stage than for the pulpit”; anecdotes were long current of the irregularity of his life, 338 JOHN SKELTON and vulgar jests were readily attributed to him. Some connection he had for a time with Wolsey, and this connection turned into enmity, which forced Skelton to take sanctuary at Westminster, where he died in 1529. How long he was there we do not know. He made visits in other counties than that of his benefice, as we learn from his own words; he was more than once the guest of the College of Bonshommes at Ashridge, Buckinghamshire, and he was entertained by the Coun- tess of Surrey at Sheriff Hutton Castle in Norfolk, writing there his Garland of Laurell. This poem, which of course postdates all the long list of Skelton’s writings ‘enumerated in it, was printed in 1523, and is conjecturally assigned to 1520, when Skelton was about sixty years old. It is a composite in tone and in form, and is in some ways the most interesting of Skelton’s surviving works. Speaking in his ‘own person, the poet narrates a dispute between Fame and Pallas, in the grand council of poets, as to Skelton’s right to the laurel; he describes the making of a ‘garland for him by the Countess of Surrey and her ladies, and the joy of the assembled poets on beholding his coronal. Skelton obviously endeavored to ex- press himself here with a dignity and sobriety befitting the occasion ; and he there- fore resorted to the seven-line stanza for most of his poem. But he breaks into lyric as he turns from the Countess to her waiting-women, and at the mention of Philip Sparrow, in his catalogue of his own work, he whirls off again into the rattling short line. More than once, in the course of the poem, he is tempted down a bypath of personal rancor or of vulgar jocularity ; he drags himself back each time with an effort, but the difficulty with which he avoids the indecorous, the voluble, and the violent is quite plain. It is also plain how much more clearly he sees himself than he does his hostess; he lauds her in careful stanzas, but the full paean of praise he reserves for himself. As Dyce remarks, there is no second example in literature of a poet’s deliberately writing sixteen hundred lines in his own honor. Commenting on the Garland in this same passage (i:xlix), Dyce opines that the poem cannot be reckoned among Skelton’s best ; but, he adds, “it contains several passages of no mean beauty, which show that [Skelton] possessed powers for the higher kind of poetry, if he had chosen to exercise them; and [it] is interspersed with some lyrical addresses to the ladies who weave his chaplet, which are very happily versified.” Our emphasis would fall somewhat differently. These inserted lyrics appeal to us more than they did to Dyce; we hear in them a slender but true prelude to the full orchestration of the Elizabethan lyric, and we may feel all the more interest because of the machine-made setting in which they appear. “Prior himself,’ says Saintsbury, “has nothing more graceful and delicate.” We do not however feel justified, because of these few notes of lyric, in re- garding Skelton as a metrical genius. The racing short line which is most charac- -teristic of him is not a thing of beauty. Its source is uncertain. Schipper con- sidered that it arose from the dissolution of the Early English alliterative line, and Saintsbury seems to suggest that the frequent internal rime of long-line poems led to the use of short lines. Brie, in Englische Studien 37 :80, takes the view that Low Latin hymns, independently imitated in secular verse by French and by Eng- lish writers, popularized short lines such as those of Skelton; and the development of complex stanza and of lyrical line in West Europe strongly favors this sugges- tion. Such a hymn as that printed by Koenigsfeld, Lateinische Hymnen aus dem Mittelalter, 1847, pp. 238 ff., is illuminating :-— JOHN SKELTON 339 Tandem audite me, Sionis filiae! Aegram respicite “Dilecto dicite Lines like these appear in the modern languages as well as in Latin. Lee, in his French Renaissance, pp. 194-5, cites from Skelton’s contemporary, Martial d’Auvergne ; and they had been employed by Trevisa, following Higden’s Latin as in the Polycronicon, i:394-7 of the Rolls Series edition. They can be found also in the Italian, e.g., of Guittone d’Arezzo. But in all these cases it is more a matter of line than of line-grouping in which the resemblance to Skelton consists. Rarely do the Latin, the French, the Italian, the earlier English, run other than in pairs; only in Martial d’Auvergne do we find the variation from two to four rimes in a sequence, or from two to three as in a hymn to St. Remigius printed by Mone in ‘his Hymni Latini, iii:490-91. Skelton not only chooses the short line, he abandons ‘the structural balance of lines. Whether he misunderstood the grouping of Latin lines or not is immaterial here ; the point is that even if we discover an example of ‘such irregular line-grouping of earlier date, we shall expect to discover behind ‘it a man of the same rebellious temperament as Skelton. For such a movement fits exactly what Skelton wished to say, and fits the style in which he said it. He was ‘a man of coarse, vigorous, and restless fibre, of huge vanity, bad temper, and no self-control. With more command of himself, more learning, and a critical theory, he might have done work resembling that of Ben Jonson; as it was, he swung from ~ enforced conventionality and pedantry to a series of outbursts personal and local. He has no outlook on life or on letters in the true sense. His style shows in the same way the lack of balance in his nature. He resorts to mystifications and to jargon as did the decadent grammarians of late Roman time, or as did a Gallic spirit restless as his, but finer than his,—Francois Villon. He pours out lists longer than those of Lydgate, whole catalogues of Greek myths -and Latin authors; and these he intermingles with homely proverbs and with col- -loquialisms. Everything is in excess; he cannot call Wolsey or Garnesche names without emptying the dictionary of thieves’ lingo ; and he hurls opprobrious epithets without pause or choice of weapon. Never is there in his work what Elton terms ‘the “precision of insult” attained by the Roman or by the eighteenth-century Eng- lish satirist. Skelton aims not at clarity but at speed, not at form but at fluency; and the race of his metre, the rattle of his epithets and allusions, suit the narrowly personal and occasional character of his work. But that a temperament has run away with an intellect we may judge from his University honors, from the praise of Caxton and of Erasmus, and from a very few words of his own. It was no incompetent literary critic who said of Chaucer that “no word he wrote in vain”, and of Lydgate that “it is diffuse to find The sentence of his mind”. Like most occasional literature, Skelton’s production has been classed as ‘satire. If satire be a criticism of life, an observer’s comment on the mistakes and the follies of mankind, it is obvious that the mood and the method of such comment ‘will vary widely. Should the observing spirit be tolerant and even amused, cog- ‘nizant always of its own kinship with humanity, we have the “satire” of Horace, ‘of Chaucer, of Jane Austen. But if that spirit denounce, if by its angry derision ‘it assert its superiority to humanity, the result is also called “satire”, but we have - Juvenal or Skelton. Moreover, beside this difference in mood, which our ter- 340 JOHN SKELTON minology does not recognize, there may be divergence of method. Indirect satire uses the minimum of comment, and often appears best in narrative; while direct satire prefers that comment which passes so easily into the didactic or the vituper- ative. If direct didactic satire be written in a society which, like the medieval, is strictly grouped, criticism will be of types rather than of persons, and will pass easily into general invective, as in the Ship of Fools. If by force of personal cir- cumstances direct “satire” be aimed at an individual instead of a class, the result ‘may become mere snarling, as in Skelton. Few are the men who can, like Chaucer, invest a class with individuality, and then hold the balance steady between censure and tolerance. Skelton was no such man, nor was Barclay. It was Skelton’s vain and violent temperament which led him to the intense personality of his criticisms. No happy man speaks with this voice, but a man dissatisfied with life’s verdict on him, turbulent under restraining circumstances, looking with unfriendly eye at his fellow-creatures. Twice, in all his existing work, does he depart from that tone,—when addressing a young girl in Philip Sparrow, and when paying his devoirs, a soothed and flattered guest, to a group of noble ladies. He is not there the Skelton of literary history, the author of the raucous violence of the Wolsey poems and of the deliberate squalor of Elynour Rummyng; but he is a Skelton whom the after-world values more. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SELECT REFERENCE LIST XVI Existing MS-copies of Skelton’s work are:— Against Garnesche. Brit. Mus. Harley 367. Colin Clout, and Speke, Parrot. Brit. Mus. Harley 2252. A fragm. of Colin is in Brit. Mus. Lansdowne 762. The Garland of Laurell. Brit.Mus.Cotton Vitellius E x (imperfect). The Lament for the Earl of Northumberland. Brit.Mus.Royal 18 D ii, a Percy MS. Manerly Margery. Brit.Mus.Adds. 5465, the “Fairfax MS”. To Mistress Anne. On the guard-leaf of Trin.Coll.Cambr. R. 3,17 (says Brie). Recule against Gaguyn. A few lines are perhaps preserved in Trin.Coll.Cambr. 2,53. See Brie, EnglStud 37 :31-2. Rose both White and Rede. Exchequer Rolls B 2,8. Printed by Dyce as below, i after Preface. Printed by C. C. Stopes, Athenaeum 1914 i:625 as previously unpublished. Identified by Brie, EnglStud 37:49-50, with the “Boke of the Rosiar” in Skelton’s list; already queried by Dyce. The short poem entitled I, liber, et propera, see Corpus Christi Coll. Cambr. 432. The Latin hymn Salve plus decies; see Brit.Mus.Adds. 4787. Why Come Ye Nat to Court? frag. in Bodl. Rawlinson C 813; see Archiv 85 :429-36. Wofully Araid. Brit.Mus.Adds. 5465, and on the flyleaf of a 1496 print of Boethius; see Dyce i, page ci. In the Athenaeum 1873 ii:697 is publ. a text differing from Dyce’s. See Brie, loc.cit. The prose transl. of Diodorus Siculus, incomplete, is in Corpus Christi Coll. Cambr. 357. It is to appear EETS. The Lament for Edward IV is in Brit. Mus. Harley 4011 and in Stow’s MS Brit. Mus. Adds. 29729. Authenticity questioned. Printed Editions. The first collected edition of Skelton’s works was issued by Thomas Marshe in 1568. Previously there had been printed :— Ballad of the Scottish King. Faukes, 1513. Discovered 1878, facsimile ed. by Ashton, London, 1882. JOHN SKELTON 341 The Bowge of Court. de Worde, no date, twice. Colin Clout. By Kele, Wyght, Kitson, Veale, ?Godfray, no dates. Comely Coystroun. ?Pynson, no date. Garland of Laurell. Faukes, 1523. (Brit.Mus.) Magnifycence. ?Rastell, no date. (Univ.Libr.Cambr. Impf. in Brit. Mus.) Reprinted by the Roxburghe Club, 1821; a facsimile issued in Tudor Fac- similes, 1910. Ed. by Ramsay, diss., 1905, for EETS 1908. Philip Sparrow. By Kele. Toye, Wight, Kitson, Veale, Waley, no dates. Replycacyon. By Pynson, no date. Why Come Ye Nat to Court? By Kele, Wyght, Kitson, Veale, no dates. Pynson printed, no date, a four-leaf pamphlet of “ballads and ditties solacious”’ ; a larger collection was pubd. by Kynge and Marshe, no date, and reprinted by Day, by Lant. See Dyce. Later separate prints were :— Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng. 1624. (Bodleian, Huth) Repr. Harleian Mis- cellany, vol. i. Thomas Marshe’s Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Lon- don, 1568, was reprinted London, 1736. Skelton’s Works were printed in vol. ii of Chalmers’ British Poets; they were edited by the Rev. Alexander Dyce, London, 1843, 2 vols., still the standard edition. Dyce’s text and his introd. and notes, whole or part, were reprinted Cambridge, 1855, Boston, 1856, 1866, 1887. The fairly comprehensive selection ed. by Richard Hughes, London, 1924, uses Dyce’s text, but has no notes other than glosses to text. Selections, with a life by Sanford, Phila., 1819-23. In Southey’s Select Works of the British Poets, 1831, are Colin Clout, Philip Sparrow. In Skeat’s Specimens, vol. iii, Oxford, 1871 ff., are passages from Why Come Ye, Philip Sparrow. In Fliigel’s Neuengl. Lesebuch, Halle, 1895, are the Garland, lines 323 ff., Ware the Hauke, Why Come Ye, Philip Sparrow, etc. In Manly’s English Poetry 1170-1892 are bits of Philip Sparrow, Why Come Ye, Colin Clout. In Headlam’s Selections from British Satirists, London, 1897, are extracts from the Bowge of Court, Colin Clout, Speke Parrot. Selections from Skelton were ed. W. H. Williams, London, 1902, i. The Bowge of Court, Philip Sparrow, Why Come Ye, Colin Clout. Notes and glossary. Neilson and Webster, Chief British Poets, 1916, contains Philip Sparrow, Elynour Rummyng, Colin Clout, Garland of Laurel, Lullaby. (Spelling modernized.) On Skelton see :— Schoneberg, Die Sprache John Skeltons in seinen kleineren Werken. Marburg diss., 1888, pp. 62. Rey, Skelton’s Satirical Poems in Relation to Lydgate’s Order of Fools, Cocke Lorell’s Bote, and Barclay’s Ship of Fools, Berne, 1899. Koelbing, Zur Charakteristik John Skelton’s, Stuttgart, 1904. Thiimmel, Studien tiber John Skelton, Leipzig, 1905. Brie, Skelton-Studien, in Englische Studien 37:1-81 (1906). Zwei verlorene Dichtungen von John Skelton, in Archiv 138:226-8 (1919). Bischoffsberger, Einfluss John Skelton’s auf die englische Literatur, Freiburg diss., 1914, pp. 80. A. S. Cook, Skelton’s Garland of Laurel and Chaucer’s Hous of Fame, in MLReview 11:9 (1916). 342 JOHN SKELTON R. L. Dunbabin, Notes on Skelton, in MLReview 12:129 and 257 (1917). Berdan, The Poetry of Skelton, in Romanic Review 6:364. On the Dating of Skelton’s Satires, PMLA 29:499-516. “Speke Parrot.” An interpretation, in MLNotes 30:140-44, . Se Boyar, Skelton’s Replycacion, in PMLA 28 :244-45. Warton, History of English Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, 1871, iii :268-90. Berdan, Early Tudor Poetry, N. Y., 1920. Koelbing, in Cambr. History of English Literature, iii chap. 4. Herford, Literary Relations of England and Germany in the Sixteenth Century, Cambridge, 1886. Saintsbury, English Prosody, i:235,240-45. Tucker, Verse Satire in England before the Renaissance, N. Y., 1908. On the play of Magnificence see The Library, series 3, vol. 4:393-408. [MS Brit. Mus. Cotton Vitellius E x] Arrectynge my Syght toward the Zodiak The signnys twelue for to beholde afar When Mars Retrogradant reuersid his bak Lorde of the yere in his Orbicular Put vp his sworde for he kowde make no war: And when Lucyna plenarly did shyne Scorpioune ascenddinge degrees twiys nyne 2 In place alone then musinge in my thowght How all thynge passithe as dothe the sommer floure On euery half my resons forthe I sowght 10 ‘How ofte fortune variythe in an howre Now clere wedder forthwithe a stormmy showre Al thynge compassid no perpetuyte Bot now in welthe now in aduersite 3 So depely drownnyd I was in this dumpe Encrampisshed so sore was my conceyte ‘ That me to rest I lent me to a stumpe 17 Of (an oke) that sumtyme grew ful streite A myghty tre and of a nobille heyghte The Cotton MS is on paper, of 242 leaves, imper- fect, damaged, and of miscellaneous content, none apparently early. The Libel of English Policy just precedes this poem, which has no heading. The Cottonian cataloguer of 1802 suggested that this “dialogue”, if by Skelton, was perhaps “* part of his ‘Crown of Glory.’ ” 18. MS rubbed. Text supplied from Faukes’ 1523 ed. a Whos bewte blastid was withe the boys- ters wynde 20 His levis lost the sap was frome the rynde 4 Thus stode I in the fryththy forest of Galtres Ensowkid with sylt of the myry moose Where harttis belluynge embosid wt dis- tres Ran on the raunge / so longe: that I suppose 25 ffew men can telle now where the hynde calf gose ffaire fall that foster that so kan bate his hownde Bot of my proces now turne we to the grownde: While I stode musinge in this medita- cioune In slumbrynge I fille and halfe in a slepe: 30 And wheither it were of Imagynacioune Or of humors superflu that often wille krepe Into the brayne by drynkkynge ouer depe / Or it procedid of fatall persuasioune I kan not wele telle yow what was the occasioun 35 Bot sodenly at onys as I me auysid As one in a traunce or in an extasy I saw a pauylioune wonderly disgisyd Garnnysshid freshe after my fantasy Enhachid with perle and stonys precious- ly 40 THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 343 The grounde engrosid and bet with burne gold That passinge goodely it was to behold eI fi Withe in it a prynces excellente of porte Bot to recounte her riche habilymente . And what astatis to her did resorte 45 There to am I fulle insufficiente A goddes Immortall she did represent ‘As I hard say Dame Pallas was her name To whome suppleyd the roiall quene of ffame: The quene of ffame to Dame Pallas Prynces mooste pusaunt of higth pre- hemynence 50 Renowmmyd lady above the starry heven All other transcendinge of verey congru- ence Madame regent of the Scyence sevene To whose astate all nobilnes most lene My supplicacioune to yow I arrecte 55 Where of I beseke yow to tender the ef- fect 9 Not vnremembred it is vnto your grace How ye yave me in roiall commaund- ment ‘That in my cowrte Skelton shuld have a place By cause that his tyme he studiowsly _ hath spent 60 In your seruyce: And to the accomplish- ment Of your request / regesterd is his name ‘Withe Laureate Tryumphe in the courte of ffame 10 Bot goode madame the acustome and vs- age Of auncyent Poetis ye wote ful wele hathe bene 65 Them self to enbissy withe all ther hole corage So that ther workkis myght famowsly be sene In figure where of they were the laurelle grene Bot how it is Skelton is wonder slak ‘And as we dare we fynde in hym grete lak: 70 11 ffor ne were only he hathe your promo- cioune Owte of my bokis fulle sone I shulde hym race Bot sithe he hathe tastid of thensugerd pocioune Of Elyconys wel / reffreshid withe your grace | And wille not endeuoure hym self to pur- chace 75 The fauor of ladys wt wordis electe It is fyttynge that ye most hym correcte: 12 Dame Pallas to the quene of ffame The sum of your purpose as we ar auysid Is for that our seruaunte is sumwhat to dulle: Where in this aunswere for hym we have comprisid 80 How ryuers ryn not tille the sprynge be fulle Better a dum mowthe than a braynles skulle ffor if he gloriowsly pullishe his matter Then men wille say how he dothe bot flatter 13 And if hym fortune to wright trew & playne 85 As sumtyme he mooste vicis remorde Then sum wille say he hathe bot litille brayne And how his worddis wt reson wille not corde Beware for writynge remaynnythe of recorde Displese not an hunderd for on mannys plesure 90 Who writithe wisely hathe a grete tres- ure 14 ‘Also to furnnyshe better his excuse -Ouyde was bannysshid for soche a skille And many mo whome I kowde enduse ‘Juvenall was thret parde for to kylle 95 .ffor pt he enveiyd: yit wrate he none Ille Savynge he rubbid sum on the gall It was not for hym to byde the tryall 15 In generall wordis I say not gretely nay A Poete sumtyme may for his plesure taunt I00 344 JOHN SKELTON Spekynge in Parabols: how the fox the gray The gander the goose: and the huge Oliphaunt Went wt the pokok agayne the fesaunt The lesarde kam lepynge and said that he must Withe helpe of the ram ley all in the dust: 105 16 Yit dyuerse that be Industriows of reson Sumwhat wold gadder in ther coniecture Of soche an enderkkid chapiter sum seson How be it it were hard to constru this lecture Sophisticatid craftily is many a confec- ture 110 Another mannys mynde diffuse is to ex- pound Yit harde is to make bot sum fawte be fownd 17 The Quene of ffame to Dame Pallas Madame wt fauour of your benygne suf- feraunce Vnto your grace then make I this motyve Whereto made ye me hym to avaunce 115 Vnto the rowme of laureat promotyve Or where to shuld he have that preroga- tyve Bot if he had made sum memoriall Where by he myght have a name Im- mortall 18 To passe the tyme in slawthfulle Idyl- nes 120 Of youre roiall palace it is not the gise Bot to do sumwhat eche man dothe hym dres ffor how shuld Cato els be callid wise Bot that his bokis whiche he did devise Recorde the same: or why is had in mynde 125 Plato: bot for he laft wrytinge behynde 19 ffor men to loke on: Aristotille also Of Philosophers callid the pryncipall Olde Dyogenes wt other many mo Dymostenes that Oratour roiall 130 Whiche yave Eschynes soche a cordiall That bannysshid was he by his proposi- cion Ageyne whome he kowde make no con- tradiccion 20 Dame Pallas to the quene of fame Softe goode my sister and make there a pause And was Eschynes rebukyd as ye say 135 Remember yow wele: Poynte wele that clause Wherefore then rasid ye not away His name: Or why is it I yow pray That he to your courte is goynge and commynge Sithe he is sclaunderde for defaute of konynge 140 21 The quene of ffame to Dame Pallas Madame your opposelle is wele inferrid And at your auauntage quykly it is Towchid: And hard for to be debarrid Yit shall I awnswere your grace as in this Withe youre reformacioun if I say amys ffor bot if youre bownte did me assure Myne argument els kowd not longe en- dure 147 22 As towchinge that Eschynes is rememberd That he so shuld be me semythe it is syttynge All be it grete parte he hathe surren- dered 150 Of his honour: whos dissuasyve in writ- ynge To korage Demostenes was moche ex- citynge In settinge owght freshely his crafty persuasioun ffrome whiche Eschynes had noone Eua- sioun 23 The cause why Demostenes so famowsly is brutyd 155 Only procedid for that he did owtray Eschynes: whiche was not shamefully confutid Bot of that famows Orator I say Whiche passid all other: wherfor I may Amonge my recordis suffir hym namyd Sithe thowthe he were venquisshid yit was he not (shamyd) I6I 24 As Jerome in his preambille ffrater Am- brosius 161. MS mutilated. Word supplied from 1523 ed. THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 345 ffrome that I have saide in no poynte dothe vary Where he reporttithe of the coragiows Wordis: that were moche consolatory 165 By Eschynes rehersid. to the grete glory Of Dymostenes that was his vtter fo ffew shall ye fynde or noone pt wille do so 25 Dame Pallas to the quene of ffame A thonke to have ye have wele deservyd Your mynde that kan mayntene so ap- parently 170 Bot yit a grete parte ye have reservid Of that most folow then consequently Or els ye demene yow inordynatly ffor if ye laude hym whome honour hathe opprest Then he that dothe worst is as goode as the best } 175 26 But whome that ye fauour I se wele hathe a name Be he neuer so litille of substance And whome ye love not ye wold put to shame Ye counterway not euynly youre bal- aunce As wele foly as wisdome ofte tyme ye auaunce 180 Reporte risithe many dyuerse waiys ‘Sum be moche spoken of for makinge of fraiys 27 Sum have a name for thefte and brybery Sum be callid crafty that kan kit a purse Sum men be made of for ther mokery 185 Sum karefulle kokolddis sum have ther wyvis kurse Sum famows wetewolddis and they be moche wurse Sum liddurns sum losellis sum nowghtty pakkis Sum facers sum bracers and sum make grete krakkis 28 Sum drunken dastarddis wt ther dry sowllis 190 Sume sluggishe slouens that slepe day & nyght Ryote and reuelle be in your courte rollis Mayntenans and myscheif theis be men of myght Extorcioun is kounttid withe yow for a knyght Theis pepille by me have noone assigne- ment 195 Yit ryde they and ryn they from karlyle to kente 29 Bot litille or no thynge shall ye here telle Of them that have vertu by reson of konyng Whiche souereynly in honor shuld ex- celle Men of soche maters make bot a mum- myng 200 ffor wisdom and sadnes be set owte a sunnyng And soche of my seruaunttis as I have promotid One fawte or other in them shall be notid 30 Eyther they shall say he is to wise Or els he kan nowght bot when he is at skole 205 Prove his wit saithe he at karddis or dise And ye shall fynde wele he is a verrey fole Twishe / set hym a chayre or reche hym a stole To syt vpon / and rede Jak Athrvmmys bibille ffor truly it were pyte that he sat ydyll 210 31 The quene of ffame to Dame Pallas To make repugnaunce ageyne pt ye have said Of verey dewte it may not wele acorde Bot your benynge sufferaunce for my dis- charge I laid ffor that I wold not withe yow fall at discorde Bot yit I beseke your grace that recorde May be browght forthe soche as kan be fownde 216 Withe laureate tryymphe why Skelton shuld be krownd 32 ffor els were to grete a derogacioun Vnto your palace oure nobille courte of ffame That any man vnder supportacioun 220 Withe owght deservynge shuld have the best game: If he to the ampille encrese of his name 346 JOHN SKELTON Can ley any workkis that he hathe com- pilyd I am contente that he be not exilid 33 ffrom the laureate Senate: by force of proscripcioun 225 Or els ye know wele I kan do no les Bot I most bannyshe hym frome my Turisdiccioun As he that aquayntithe hym wt Idelnes Bot yf that he purpose to make a redres What he hathe done let it be browght to sight 230 Graunte my peticioun I aske yow bot right 34 Dame Pallas to the quene of ffame ‘To your request we be wele condiscendid Calle forthe let se where is your claryon- ar To blow a blast withe his longe brethe extendid Eolus your trumpet whiche knowen is so far 235 That Bararag blowithe in euery marciall war Let hym blow now that we may take the vew What Poetis we have at oure retenew oo To se if Skelton dare put him self in prees Amonge the thikkest of all the hole rowghte 240 Make noyce Inowthe for claterars love no pece Let se my sister now spede go abowght Anon I say this trumpet were fownd oute And for no man hardly let hym spare To blow bararag brag til bothe his yen stare 245 [Vitellius MS mutilated. Text below from the Faukes print of 1523.] 36 Forth with there rose amonge the thronge A wonderfull noyse / and on euery syde They presid in faste / some thought they were to longe Sume were to hasty & wold no man byde Some whispred some rownyd / some spake / & some cryde 250 With heuynge and shouynge haue in and haue oute Some ranne the nexte way sume ranne abowte 37 ~ There was suyng to the quene of fame He plucked hym backe / and he went a fore Nay hold thy tunge quod a nother let me haue the name 255 Make rowme sayd a nother ye prese all to sore Sume sayd holde thy peas thou getest here no more A thowsande thowsande I sawe on a plumpe With that I harde the noyse of a trumpe 38 That longe tyme blewe a full timorous blaste 260 Lyke to the boryall wyndes whan they blowe That towres / and townes / and trees downe caste Droue clowdes together lyke dryftis of snowe The dredefull dinne droue all the rowte on a rowe Some tremblid / some girnid / some gaspid / some gasid 265 As people halfe peuysshe or men that were masyd 39 Anone all was whyste as it were for the nonys And iche man stode gasyng & staryng vpon other With that there come in wonderly at ones A murmur of mynstrels / that suche a nother 270 Had I neuer sene some softer some lowder Orpheus the traciane herped meledyously Weth Amphion and other musis of ar- chady 40 Whos heuenly armony was so passynge sure So truely proporsionyd and so well did gree 275 So duly entunyd with euery mesure That in the forest was none so great a tre But that he daunced for ioye of that gle The huge myghty okes them selfe dyd auaunce THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 347 And lepe frome the hylles to lerne for to daunce 280 41 In so moche the stumpe where to I me lente Sterte all at ones an hundrethe fote backe | With that I sprange vp towarde the tent Of noble dame Pallas wherof I spake Where I sawe come after I wote full lytyll lake 285 ' Of a thousande poetes assembled to geder But phebus was formest of all that cam theder ‘Of laurell leuis a cronell on his hede With heres enscrisped yalowe as the golde Lamentyng daphnes whome with the darte of lede 290 Cupyde hath stryken so that she ne wolde Concente to phebus to haue his herte in holde But for to preserue her maiden hode clene Transformyd was she in to the laurell grene 43 Meddelyd with murnynge the moost parte of his muse 295 O thoughtfull herte was euermore his songe Daphnes my derlynge why do you me refuse Yet loke on me that louyd you haue so longe Yet haue compassyon vpon my paynes stronge He sange also how the tre as he did take 300 Betwene his armes he felt her body quake Then he assurded into his exclamacyon Unto Diana the goddes inmortall O mercyles madame hard is your con- stellacyon So close to kepe your cloyster virgynall Enhardid adyment the sement of your wall 306 Alas what ayle you to be so ouerthwhart To bannysshe pyte out of a maydens harte 302. this exclamacyon Marshe. 45 Why haue the goddes shewyd me this cruelte Sith I contryuyd first princyples medy- cynable 310 I helpe all other of there infirmite But now to helpe my selfe I am not able That profyteth all other is no thynge profytable Unto me / alas that herbe nor gras The feruent axes of loue can not re- presse 315 46 O fatall fortune what haue I offendid Odious disdayne why raist bu me on this facyon But sith I haue lost now that I entended And may not atteyne it by no medyacyon Yet in ‘remembraunce of daph(n)es transformacyon 320 All famous poetis ensuynge after me Shall were a garlande of the laurell tre 47 This sayd a great nowmber folowyd by and by Of poetis laureat of many dyuerse na- cyons Parte of there names I thynke to spece- fye 325 Fyrste olde Quintiliane wt his declyna- cyons Theocritus with his bucolycall relacyons Esiodus the Icononucar And homerus the ffresshe historiar 48 Prynce of eloquence tullius cicero 330 With salusty ageinst lucius catelyne That wrote the history of iugurta also Ouyde enshryned with the musis nyne But blesses Bacchus the pleasant god of wyne Of clusters engrosyd with his ruddy droppes 335 These orators and poetes refresshed there throtis 49 Lucan with stacius in Achilliedos Percius presed forth with problemes diffuse Uirgill the mantuan with his eneidos Juuenall satirray that men makythe to muse 340 Stanza 49 is from Marshe; not in Faukes. 348 JOHN SKELTON But blessed Bacchus the pleasant god of wyne Of clusters engrosed with his ruddy flotes These orators & Poetes refreshed their throtes 50 There titus lyuius hym selfe dyd auaunce With decadis historious whiche that he mengith 345 With maters that amount the romayns in substaunce Enyus that wrate of mercyall war at lengthe But blessed bachus potenciall god of strengthe Of clusters engrosid wt his ruddy droppes Theis orators and poetis refreshed there throtis 350 51 Aulus Gelius that noble historiar Orace also with his new poetry Mayster Terence the famous comicar With plautus that wrote full many a comedy But blessed bachus was in there company Of clusters engrosyd with his ruddy dropis Theis orators and poetis refresshed there throtis 52 Senek full soberly wt his tragedijs Boyce recounfortyd with his philosophy And maxymyane with his madde di- tijs 360 How dotynge age wold iape with yonge foly But blessyd bachus most reuerent and holy Of clusters engrosid with his ruddy dropis Theis orators and poetis refresshed there throtis 53 There came John bochas wt his vol- umys grete 365 Quintus cursus full craftely that wrate Of alexander / and macrobius that did trete Of scipions dreme what was the treu probate But blessyd bachus that neuer man for- gate 353. Faukes conucar. Of clusters engrosed with his ruddy dropis 370 These orators and poetis refresshid ther throtis 54 Poggeus also that famous florentine Mustred ther amonge them with many a mad tale With a frere of fraunce men call sir gagwyne 375 That frownyd on me full angerly and pale But blessyd bachus that bote is of all bale Of clusters engrosyd with his ruddy dropis Theis orators and poetis refresshid there throtis 55 Plutarke and Petrarke two famous clark- is 380 Lucilius and valerius maximus by name With vincencius in speculo pt wrote noble warkis Propercius and Pisandros poetis of noble fame But blissed bachus that mastris oft doth frame Of clusters engrosed with his ruddy dropis Theis notable poetis refresshed there throtis 385 56 And as I thus sadly amonge them auysid I saw Gower that first garnisshed our englysshe rude And maister Chaucer that nobly enter- prysyd “ae How that our englysshe myght fresshely be (ennewed) The monke of Bury then after them en- suyd 390 Dane John Lydgate theis englysshe poetis thre ; As I ymagenyd repayrid vnto me 57 To geder in armes as brethern enbrasid There apparell farre passynge beyonde that I can tell Wt diamauntis and rubis there taber- (de)s were trasid 395 389. Faukes reads amende. Word from Marshe. 395. Reading amended from Marshe. THE GARLAND OF LAURELL None so ryche stones in turkey to sell Thei wantid nothynge but the laurell And of there bounte they made me godely chere In maner and forme as ye shall after here 58 Mayster Gower. To Skelton. Brother Skelton your endeuorment 400 So haue ye done that meretoryously ‘Ye haue deseruyd to haue an enplement In our collage aboue the sterry sky By cause that (ye) encrese and amplyfy The brutid britons of brutus albion 405 ‘That welny was loste when that we were gone 59 Poeta Skelton to Maister Gower. Maister Gower I haue nothyng deserued ‘To haue So laudabyle A commendacion To yow thre this honor shalbe reserued Arrectinge vnto your wyse examina- cion 410 -How all that I do is vnder Refformation .For only the Substance of that I entend ‘Is glad to please and loth to offend 60 Mayster Gower. To Skelton. Counterwayng your besy delygence Of that we beganne in the supplement 475 Enforcid ar we you to recompence Of all our hooll collage by the agrea- ment ‘That we shall brynge you personally present Of noble fame before the quenes grace ‘In whose court poynted is your place 420 61 Poeta Ske(l)ton answeryth. ~O noble Chaucer whos pullisshyd elo- quence » Oure englysshe rude so fresshely hath set out That bounde ar we with all deu reuerence Wt all our strength that we can brynge about To owe to you our seruyce / & more if we mowte 425 But what sholde I say ye wote what I entende Whiche glad am to please and loth to offende 404. Word supplied from Marshe. Stanza 59 is from Marshe: not in Faukes. 349 62 Mayster Lydgate. To Skelton. So am I preuentid of my brethern tweyne In rendrynge to you thankkes meritory That welny no thynge there doth re- mayne 430 Wherwt to geue you my regraciatory But that I poynt you to be prothonatory Of fames court by all our holl assent Auaunced by pallas to laurell prefer- ment 63 Poeta Skelton answeryth VSo haue ye me far passynge my meretis extollyd 435 Mayster lidgate of your accustomable Bownte / and so gloryously ye haue en- rollyd My name / I know well beyonde that I am able That but if my warkes therto be agreable I am elles rebukyd of that I intende 440 Which glad am to please and lothe to offende 64 So finally when they had shewed there deuyse Under the forme as I sayd to fore I made it straunge & drew bak ones or twyse And euer they presed on me more and more 445 Tyll at the last they forcyd me sore That wt them I went where they wolde me brynge Unto the pauylyon where pallas was syt- tyng 65 Dame Pallas commaundid pt they shold me conuay Into the ryche palace of be quene of fame 450 There shal he here what she wyl to hym say When he is callid to answere to his name A cry anone forthwt she made proclame ‘All orators and poetis shulde thider go before With all the prese that there was lesse and more 455 66 Forth wt I say thus wa(n)drynge in my thought 350 JOHN SKELTON How it was or elles wt in what howris I can not tell you / but that I was brought In to a palace wt turrettis and towris Engalared goodly with hallis and bow- ris 460 So curiously / so craftely / so connyng- ly wrowght That all the wor(1)de I trowe and it were sought 67 Suche a nother there coude no man fynde Wher of partely I purpose to expounde Whyles it remanyth fresshe in my mynde 465 Wt turkis and grossolitis enpauyd was the grounde Of birrall enbosid wer the pyllers rownde Of Elephantis tethe were the palace gatis Enlosenged with many goodly platis 68 Of golde entachid with many a precyous stone 470 An hundred steppis mountyng to the halle One of iasper a nother of whalis bone Of dyamauntis pointed was the wall The carpettis within and tappettis of pall The chambres hangid with clothis of arace 475 Enuawtyd wt rubis the vawte was of this place 69 Thus passid we forth walkynge vnto the pretory Where pe postis were enbulyoned wt saphiris indy blew Englasid glittering wt many a clere story Jacinctis and smaragdis out of the florthe they grew 480 Unto this place all poetis there did sue Wherin was set of fame the noble quene All other transcendynge most rychely be- sene 70 Under a gloryous cloth of astate Fret all with orient perlys of garnate 485 Encrownyd as empresse of all this wor(1)dly fate So ryally / so rychely / so passyngly ornate 460. Engolerid Faukes: reading from Marshe. It was excedyng by yonde the com- mowne rate This hous enuyrowne was a myle a bout If . xij . were let in . xij . hundrethe stode without 490 71 Then to this lady & souerayne of this palace Of purseuantis ther presid in wt many a dyuerse tale Some were of poyle & sum were of trace Of lymerik / of loreine / of spayne of portyngale Frome napuls / from nauern & from rounceuall 495 Some from flaunders / sum fro the se coste Some from the mayne lande / some fro the frensche hoste 72 With how doth be north what tydingis is in pe sowth The west is wyndy / the est is metely wele It is harde to tell of euery mannes mouthe 500 A slipper holde the taile is of an ele And he haltith often that hath a kyby hele Some shewed his salfe cundight some shewid his charter Some lokyd ful smothely and had a fals quarter 73 With sir I pray you a lytyll tyne stande backe 505 And lette me come in to delyuer my lettre A nother tolde how shyppes wente to wrak There were many wordes smaller and gretter With I as good as thou / I fayth and no better Some came to tell treuth / some came to lye 510 Some come to flater / some came to spye 74 There were I say / of all maner of sortis Of dertmouth / of plummouth / of por- tismouth also The burgeis / and the ballyuis of the.v. portis THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 351 With now let me come / and now let me go 515 And all tyme wandred I thus to and fro Tyll at the last theis noble poetis thre Unto me sayd / lo syr now ye may se 75 Of this high courte the dayly besines From you most we but not longe to tary 520 Lo hither commyth a goodly maystres Occupacyon famys regestary Whiche shall be to you a sufferayne ac- cessary With syngular pleasurs to dryue away the tyme And we shall se you ageyne or it be pryme 525 76 When they were past & wente forth on there way This gentilwoman that callyd was by name Occupacyon in ryght goodly aray Came towarde me and smylid halfe in game I sawe hir smyle and I then did the same 530 With that on me she kest her goodly loke Under her arme me thought she hade a boke 77 Occupacyoun to Skelton. Lyke as the larke vpon the somers day Whan titan radiant burnisshith his bemis bryght Mountith on hy wt her melodious lay 535 Of the sone shyne engladid with the lyght So am I supprysd wt pleasure and de- lyght _To se this howre now that I may say ~ How ye are welcome to this court of aray 78 Of your aqueintaunce I was in tymes past 540 Of studyous doctryne when at the port salu (Ye) fyrste aryuyd whan broken was your mast Of worldly trust then did I you rescu 542. Faukes The. Your storme dryuen shyppe I repared new So well entakeled what wynde that euer blowe 5 No stormy tempeste your barge shall ouer throw 79 Welcome to me as hertely as herte can thynke Welcome to me with all my hole desyre And for my sake spare neyther pen nor ynke Be well assurid I shall a quyte your hyre 550 Your name recountynge be yonde the lands of tyre From sydony to the mount olympyan Frome babill towre to the hillis Gaspian 80 Skelton poeta answeryth I thanked her moche of her most noble offer 554 Affyaunsynge her myne hole assuraunce For her pleasure to make a large profer Enpryntyng her wordes in my remem- braunce To owe her my seruyce wt true perseuer- aunce Come on with me she sayd let vs not stonde And with that worde she toke me by the honde 560 81 So passyd we forthe in to the forsayd place With suche communycacyon as came to our mynde And then she sayd whylis we haue tyme and space To walke where we lyst / let vs som- what fynde To pas be tyme with / but let vs wast no wynde 505 For ydle iangelers haue but lytill braine Wordes be swordes and hard to call ageine 82 /In to a felde she brought me wyde and large Enwallyd aboute with the stony flint Strongly enbateld moche costious of charge 570 To walke on this walle she bed I sholde not stint 352 JOHN SKELTON | Go softly she sayd the stones be full glint She went before and bad me take good holde I sawe a thowsande yatis new and olde 83 Then questionyd I her what thos yatis ment 575 Wherto she answeryd and breuely me tolde How from the est vnto the occident And from pe sowth vnto the north so colde Theis yatis she sayd which that ye be- holde Be issuis and portis from all maner of nacyons 580 And seryously she shewyd me ther de- nominacyons 84 They had wrytyng sum greke / sum ebrew Some romaine letters as I vnderstode Some were olde wryten / sum were writen new Some carectis of caldy / sum frensshe was full good 585 But one gate specyally where as I stode Had grauin in it of calcydony a capytall A What yate call ye this / and she sayd Anglea 85 The beldyng therof was passynge com- mendable Wheron stode a lybbard crownyd wt golde and stones 590 Terrible of countenaunce and passynge formydable As quikly towchyd as it were flesshe and bones As gastly that glaris as grimly that gronis As fersly frownynge as he had ben fyghtyng And with his forme foote he shoke forthe this wrytyng 595 Cacosinthicon ex industria Formidanda nimis Iouis vltima fulmina tollis Vnguibus ire parat loca singula liuida curuis Quam modo per phebes Nummos raptura celeno Arma / lues / luctus / fel / vis / fraus barbara tellus Mille modis erras odium tibi querere martis Spreto spineto cedat saliunca roseto 86 Then I me lent and loked ouer the wall Innumerable people presed to euery gate Shet were be gatis thei might wel knock & cal noe turne home ageyne for they cam al to ate I her demaunded of them and ther as- tate 600 Forsothe quod she theys be hastardis and rebawdis Dysers / carders / tumblars with gam- bawdis 87 Furdrers of loue with bawdry aqueinted Brainles blenkardis that blow at the cole Fals forgers of mony for (coynnage) atteintid 605 Pope holy ypocrytis as they were golde & hole Powle hatchettis pt prate wyll at euery ale pole Ryot / reueler / railer / brybery theft Wt other condycyons that well myght be left Sume fayne them selfe folys & wolde be callyd wyse 610 Sum medelynge spyes by craft to grope thy mynde Sume dysdanous dawcokkis bt all men dispyse Fals flaterers that fawne the & kurris of kynde That speke fayre before the & shrewdly behynde Hither they come crowdyng to get them a name But hailid they be homwarde wt sorow and shame 89 With that I herd gunnis russhe out at ones Bowns / bowns / bowns / that all they out cryde 605. Bracketed word from Marshe: Faukes kown- nage. THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 353 It made sum lympe legged & broisid there bones Sum were made peuysshe porisshly pynk iyde 620 That euer more after by it they were aspyid And one ther was there I wondred of his hap For a gun stone I say had all to iaggid his cap 90 Raggid and daggid and cunnyngly cut The blaste of be byrnston blew away his brayne 625 Masid as a marche hare he ran lyke a scut And sir amonge all me thought I saw twaine The one was a tumblar pt afterwarde againe Of a dysour a deuyl way grew a Jentil- man Pers prater the secund tha(t) quarillis beganne 630 91 Wt a pellit of peuisshenes they had such a stroke That all be dayes of ther lyfe shall styck by ther rybbis Foo / foisty bawdias sum smellid of the smoke I saw dyuers pt were carijd away thens in cribbis Dasyng after dotrellis lyke drunkardis pt dribbis 635 Theis titiuyllis wt taumpinnis wer towchid & tappid Moche mischefe I hyght you / amonge theme ther happid 92 Sometyme as it semyth when be mone light By meanys of a grosely endarkyd clowde Sodenly is eclipsid in the wynter night In lyke maner of wyse a myst did vs shrowde 641 But wele may ye thynk I was no thyng prowde Of that auenturis whiche made me sore ; agast In derkenes thus dwelt we tyll at the last 93 The clowdis gan to clere / be myst was rarifijd 645 ~In an herber I saw brought where I was There birdis on the brere sange on euery syde With alys ensandid about in compas The bankis enturfid with singular solas Enrailid with rosers and vinis engrapid It was a new comfort of sorowis escapid 94 In the middis a coundight that coryously was cast With pypes of golde engusshing out stremes Of cristall the clerenes theis waters far past Enswymmyng wt rochis / barbellis / and bremis 655 Whose skales ensiluered again the son beames Englistered: bt ioyous it was to be holde Then furthermore aboute me my syght I reuolde 95 Where I saw growyng a goodly laurell tre Enuerdurid with leuis contynually grene Aboue in the top a byrde of araby 661 Men call a phenix: her wynges bytwene She bet vp a fyre with the sparkis full kene With braunches and bowghis of be swete olyue Whos flagraunt flower was chefe pre- seruatyue 665 96 Ageynst all infeccyons with (r)ancour enflamyd Ageynst all baratows broisiours of olde It passid all bawmys that euer were namyd Or gummis of saby so derely that be solde There blew in that gardynge a soft pip- lyng colde 670 Enbrethyng of zepherus wt his pleasant wynde All frutis (&) flowris grew there in there kynde 97 ‘ Dryades there daunsid vpon that goodly soile Wit(h) the nyne muses pierides by name Phillis and testalus ther tressis with oyle 675 Were newly enbybid: and rownd about the same 656. This line from Marshe; omitted by Faukes. 354 Grene tre of laurell moche solacyous game They made / with chapellettes and gar- landes grene And formest of all dame flora the quene 98 Of somer: so formally she fotid the daunce 680 There cintheus sat twynklyng vpon his harpe stringis And iopas his instrument did auaunce The poemis and storis auncient in bryngis Of athlas astrology and many noble thyngis Of wandryng of the mone / the course of the sun 685 Of men and of bestis and where of they begone 99 What thynge occasionyd the showris of rayne Oi fyre elementar in his supreme spere And of that pole artike whiche doth remayne Behynde the taile of vrsa so clere 690 Of pliades he prechid wt ther drowsy chere Immoysturid wt mistyng and ay droppyng dry And where the two tr(i)ons a man shold aspy 100 ue of be winter days that hy them so ast And of the wynter nyghtes that tary so longe 695 aa of the somer days so longe that doth ast And of their shorte nyghtes / he browght in his songe How wronge was no ryght / and ryght was no wronge There was counteryng of carollis in meter and verse So many : that longe it were to re- herse 700 101 Occupacyon. To Skelton. How say ye: is this after your appetite May this contente you & your mirry mynde Here dwellith pleasure wt lust & delyte Contynuall comfort here ye may fynde Of welth & solace no thynge left be hynde 705 JOHN SKELTON All thynge conuenable here is contryuyd Where with your spiritis may be reuyuid 102 Poeta Skelton answeryth Questionles no dowte of that ye say Jupiter hym selfe this lyfe myght endure This ioy excedith all wor(1)dly sport & play 710 Paradyce / this place is of syngular pleasure O wele were hym that herof myght be sure And here to inhabite / and ay for to dwell But goodly maystres one thynge ye me tell [Text following is from MS Cotton Vitel- lius E x] 103 [Occupacyon. To Skelton.] Of your demaunde shew me the content What it is and where vpon it standdis And if there be in it any thynge ment Where of the awnswere restithe in myne handdis It shall be losond fulle sone owte of the banddis Of skrupulows dought: wherefor your mynde discharge 720 And of your wille the playnnes shew at large 104 Poeta Skelton to Occupacioun I thanke yow goodely mastres to me moost benygne That of your bownte so wele have me assuryd Bot my request is not so grete a thynge That I ne force what thowthe it be dis- curyd 725 I am not woundid but that I may be kuryd I am not ladyn of liddernes withe lumpis As dasid dotarddis that dreme in ther dumppis 105 Occupacioun to Skelton Now what ye mene I trow I coniecte God geve yow goode yere ye make me to smyle 730 Now by yowre faythe is not this the effecte Heading to Stanza 103 from Faukes. THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 355 Of yowre questioun ye make all this whyle To vnderstande who dwellythe in yonder pyle And ee blunderar is yonder that plaiyth diddil diddil He fyndithe owght fals mesuris of his fond fyddille 735 Interpolata / que industriosum Postulat interpretem / satira in vatis adversarium Tressis Agasonis Species prior altera Daui Aucupium culicis limis dum _ torquet ocellum Concipit: Aligeras rapit [a]ppetit aspice muskas: Maia queque fouet fouet aut que Juppiter aut que ffrigida / Saturnus . Sol . Mars. Venus. algida Luna Si tibi contingat verbo aut committere scripto Quam sibi mox tacita sudant precordia culpa Hinc ruit in flammas / stimulans hunc urget et illum Inuocat ad rixas . ignes Labra mouens tacitus rumpantur vt ilia Codro vanos tamen excitat -14.4.7.2.17.18.14.14. .18.19.1.8.17.12.14.14. 106 |Hys name for to know if that ye lyst | Enuyows Rancour truly he hyght | Beware of hym I warne yow for and ye wist How daungerows it is to stop vp his sight Ye wolde not dele wt hym thowthe that ye myght 740 ffor by his devillishe dryfte and graceles prouysioun An hole reme he is habille to set at dyvy- sioun 107 ffor when he spekithe fayrest then thynk- kithe he moost II fful gloriowsly kan he glose thy mynde for to fele . He wille stir men to brawlyng and syt hym self stil 745 Figures are in the prints: Lom ae eee li Z aml Ss Lie OFe tose One ae And smyrke lyke a smytthy kur at sparkkis of stele He kan neuer leve warke while it is wele To telle all his towchis it were to grete wunder The deuelle of helle and he be seldome asunder 108 Thus talkynge we went in at a posterne gate 750 Turnnyd on the right hand by a wyndyng stayre She browght me in to a goodely chaum- ber of astate Where the nobille Countes of Surrey / in a chayre Sat honorably / : to whome did repayre Of ladis a beuy / wt all du reuerence 755 Syt downe fayre ladis and do your dili- gence 109 Com forthe Jantilwomen I pray yow she sayde I have contryvyd for yow a goodely warke And who kan worke best now shall be asaiyd A coronelle of laurel withe verduris light and darke 760 I have devisid for Skelton my clarke ffor to his seruyce I have soche regarde That of oure bownte we will hym re- warde 110 ffor of all ladis he hathe the library Ther namys recountynge in the courte of ffame 765 Of all Jantylwomen he hathe the scruteny In famys courte reporttynge the same ~ ffor yit of women he neuer sayd shame Bot if they wer Counterfettes that wom- en them call That liste of ther lewdenes withe hym for to brall: 770 111 Wythe that the tappettis and Carpettis were layd Where on theis ladis softly myght rest The saumplar to sow on the lasis to enbrayd To weue in the stole sum were fulle prest Withe slaiys withe tauellis with heddelles wele drest 775 356 JOHN SKELTON The frame was browght forthe withe his wouynge God yeve them goode spede ther worke to begyn 112 Sum to enbrawder put them in prece Wel gydyng the glutton to kepe streyght ther sylk Sum pyrlynge of golde ther worke to encrese 780 Withe ffynggers smale and _ handdis whyght as mylke Withe reche me that skene of tuly silke And wynde me that botum of soche a hu Grene rede tawny whyht blak purpulle and blu 113 Of broken workis wrowght many a goodely thynge 785 In castinge in turnnynge in florisshinge of flowres Withe burris rowthe and buttunis sur- fullinge In nedel warke reisinge bothe birddis and bowres Withe vertu enbesid all tymes and howrys And truly of ther bownte thus were they bente 790 'To worke me this chapelet by goode auysemente: 114 Occupacioun to Skelton Beholde and se in youre aduertisement How theis ladis and Jantilwomen all ffor yowre plesure do ther endeuorment And for youre sake how fast to worke they fall 795 To youre remembraunce wherefor ye most call In goodely worddis pleasantly comprisid That for them sum goodely conceyte be deuysid 115 Wythe proper captaciouns of benyuo- lence Ornatly pullisshid after your faculte 800 Sithe ye most nedis afforce it by pretence Of youre professioun vnto humanyte Commensynge your proces after ther de- gre To eche of them rendrynge thonkkis com- mendabill Wythe sentence fructuows and termmys couenabill 805 784. blak is not in Faukes or Marshe. 116 Poeta Skelton Auaunsynge my self sum thonk to de- serue I me determynd for to sharpe my pen Deuowtly arrectynge my prayer to Myn- erve ee vowche saue me to enforme and en: To Marcury also hartly praiyd I then 870 Me to supporte to helpe and to assist To gyde & to gouerne my dredefulle tremlyng fyst 117 As a maryner that masid is in a stormmy rage Hardly bestad driven is to hope Of that the tempestuows wynde wille aswage 815 In troste where of counforte his harte dothe grope ffrome the Ankker he kyttithe the gabille rope Commyttithe all to god and lettithe his ship ride So I beseke Jhesu now to be my gyde 118 “To the Right nobille Countes of Surrey After all duly orderd obeisaunce 820 In humbille wise as lawly as I may Vnto yow madame. I make reconusaunce My lif enduringe . I . shall bothe wright and say Recounte . reporte . reherce withe owte delay The passinge bownte of your nobille es- tate 825 Of honour and worship whiche hathe the formar date 119 Lyke to Argyua by Juste resemblaunce The nobille wif of Polymytes kynge Prudent Rebecca of whome remem- braunce The bibille makithe: withe whos chast lyvynge 830 Your nobille demenor is counterweiynge Whos passinge bownte and right nobil astate Of honour and worship it hathe the for- mar date 120 The nobille Pamphila quene of the grekis land THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 357 Habilymenttis roiall fownd owte endus- triowsly 835 Thamar also wrowght withe her goodely hand Many dyvisis passinge kuriowsly Whome ye represent and exemplify Whos passinge bownte and right nobille astate Of honour and worship it hathe the for- mar date 840 121 As dame Thamaris whiche toke the kinge of Perse Cyrus by name / as writithe the story Dame Agrippina also I may reherce Of Jantylle corage the perfight memory So shall your name endure perpetually Whos passinge bownte and right nobille astate Of honor and worship it hathe the former date 122 ‘ To my lady Elisabethe [Howarde] To be your remembrancer Madam I am bownd Lyke to Aryna maydenly of porte Of vertew konyng the wel and parfight grownd 850 Whome dame Nature as wele I may re- porte Hathe freshely enbewtid withe many a goodely sorte Of womanly feturis / : whos florisshinge tender age Is lusty to loke on plesant demure and sage: 123 Goodely Creisseyda fairar than Poly- cene 855 ffor to envyve Pandarus appetite Troylus I trow if that he had yow sene In yow he wold have set his hole delight Of all your bewte I suffice not to wright Bot as I sayde your florisshynge tender age 860 Is lusty to loke on plesant demur & sage 124 To my lady Myrryel [Howarde] My lytille lady I may not leue behynde Bot do her seruyce nedis now I must Benygne kurteise of Jantille harte and mynde Bracketed words from Faukes of 1523. Whome fortune and fate playnly have discust 865 Longe to enioy plesure delight and luste Enbuddid blossome withe rosis rede of hu The lylly whight your bewte dothe renew: 125 Compare yow I may to Cydippes the mayd That of Aconycus when she fownd the bille 870 In her bosum: lorde she was afraiyd The ruddy shamefastnes in her visage fylle Whiche manner of abashemente becam her not Il Right so madame the rosis rede of hu Withe lyllis whight your bewte dothe renew 875 126 To my lady Dakers Zeuxes that enpycturid fayre Elene the quene Yow to deuyse his craft were to seke: And if Apelles your countenaunce had sene Of porturature whiche was the famows greke He kowde not deuyse the lest poynte of your cheke 880 Prynces of yowthe and floure of goodely porte Vertew konynge solace plesure counfort 127 Paregall in honour vnto Penolope That for her trowthe is in remembraunce had ffayre Dyanyra surmountynge in bewte Demure Dyana womanly and sad 886 Whos lusty lokis make heuy harttis glad Prynces of yowthe and flowre of goodely porte Vertew konyng solace plesure conforte: To mastres Margery Wentworthe Wythe Mageran Jantel 890 The flowre of goodlihode Enbrawderd the mantel Is of your maydenhode Playnly I kan not glose Ye be as I dyvyne 895 The praty prymerose The goodely columbyne 358 JOHN SKELTON Withe Mageran Jantel The floure of goodlihode Enbrawderd the mantel Is of your maydenhode Benygne curteise & meke Withe wordis wele deuysid In yow who list to seke Be vertewys wele comprisid Wythe Mageran Jantyl The floure of goodlyhode Enbrawderd the mantyl Is of your maydenhode: To mastres Margarete Tylnney I yow assure ffulle wele I know My besy cure To yow I ow Humbly and low Commendinge me To your bounte As Machareus ffayre Canace SO 5 lf. Is Endeuour me Your name to se It be enrold Wryttyn wt gold Phedra ye may Wele represente Intentyve ay And diligente No tyme mysspent Wherefor delight I have to wright Of Margaryte Perle oryente Lodestar of lyght Moche relucent: Madame regent I may yow call Of Vertuys all To mastres Jane Hasset What thowthe my pen wax faynte And hathe small lust to paynte Yet shall there no restraynte Cause me to cese Amonge this prese ffor to encrese Your goodely name 900 905 910 915 920 925 930 935 940 I wille my self apply 945 Trost me intentyvely Yow for to stellify And so observe That ye ne swerve ffor to deserve 950 The courte of fame Sythe mastres Jane Hasset Smale flowris helpt to set In my goodely chapelet Therefor I render of her the memory 955 Vnto the legend of fayre Laodomy: To mastres Isbill Pennel: By seynte mary my lady Youre mammy and your dady Browght forthe a goodely baby My maydyn Isabel 960 Reflayringe Rosabel The flagrant Camamel The ruddy Rosary The souereyne Rosemary The praty strawbery 965 The Columbyne the nept The Jeloffer wele set The proper vyolet Ennewyd (your) colour Is like the daisy flour 970 After the Apryle shour Star of the morow gray The blossom on the spray The fresshest flour of may Maydenly demure 975 Of womanhode the lure Wherefor I yow assure It wer an hevenly helthe It wer an endles welthe A lif for god hym (selfe) 980 To here this nytyngale Amonge the byrddis smale Warbolynge in the vale Dug Dug Jug Jug 985 Goode yere and goode luk Wyth chuk chuk . chuk chuk: To mastres Margarete Hussey: Myrry Margarete as mydsomer floure Jantylle as fawkon or hauke of the towr Withe solace and gladnes 990 Moche myrthe and no madnes All goode and no badnes So Joyously THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 359 So maydenly So womanly 995 Her demenynge In euery thynge ffar far passinge That I kan endight Or suffice to wright 1000 Of myrry margaret as mydsomer flowre Jantille as faukon or hawke of the towre As pacient and as stille And as fulle of goode wille As the fayre Isyphill 1005 Colyaundar Swete pomaunder Goode Cassander Stedfast of thowght Wele made wele wrowght 1010 ffar may be sowght Erst than ye kan fynde So kurteise so kynde As myrry Marget the mydsomer flowre Jantille as fawkon or hawke of the towre To mastres Geretrude Statham Thowthe ye were harde harttid And I withe yow thwartyd With worddis that smarttid Yit now dowtles ye geve me cause To wright of yow this goodely clause 1020 Mastres Geretrude Wt womanhode endude Wt vertew wele renewde I wille that ye shall be In all benygnyte 1025 Lyke to dame Pasiphe ffor now dowtles ye geve me cause To wright of yow this goodely clause Mastres Geretrude Wt womanhode endude 1030 Withe vertew wele renewde Partly by your counselle Garnnysshid withe laurelle Was my freshe coronelle Wherfor dowtless ye geve me cause 1035 To wright of yow this goodely clause Mastres Geretrude Withe womanhode endude Withe vertu wele renewde To mastres Isbell Knyght Bot if I shulde aquyte your kyndnes 1040 Els say ye myght: That in me were grete blyndnes I for to be so myndles And kowde not wright: Of Isbel Knyght: 1045 It is not my kustome nor my gyse To leve behynde: Her that is both maydenly & wise And specially whiche glad was to deuyse The mene to fynde: ; 1050 To plese my mynde: In helpynge to warke my laureel grene Withe silke and golde: Galathea the maide wele besene Was neuer half so fayre as I wene 1055 Which was extolde: A thowsand folde: By Maro the mantuane prudent Who list to rede Bot and I had leysor competente 1060 I kowde shew soche a presedente In verey dede How ye excede: 128 Occupacioun to Skelton Wythdraw your hand the tyme passithe fast Set on your hede this laurelle whiche is wrowght 1065 Here ye not Eolus for yow blowithe a blast I dare wele say that ye and I be sowght Make no delay for now ye most be browght Before my ladis grace the quene of fame Where ye most brevely aunswere to your name 1070 129 Poeta Skelton Castinge my sight the chaumber aboute To se how duly eche thinge in Order was Toward the durre as we were komynge owte I saw Master Newton sit withe his com- pas His plummet his penselle his specktakils of glas 1075 Deuysinge in picture by his industryows wit Of my Laureell the proces euery whit 130 fforthwt vpon this as it were in a thowght Gower Chawser Lydgate theis iij 1079 360 JOHN SKELTON Before rememberd: kurteisly me browght In to that place where as they left me Where all the saide poetis sat in ther degre But when they saw my lawrelle rychely wro(wght) All thos bt they ware were counterfettis they (thowght) 131 In comparison of that whiche I ware 1085 Sum praisid the perle sum the stonys bright Wele was hym that there vpon myght stare Of this worke they had so grete delight The silke the golde the floures freshe to sight They saide my laureel was the goodely- est I09o That euer they saw: and wrowght it was the best 132 In her astate there sat the nobille quene Of fame / : perceyvynge how that I was kum She wonderde me thowght at my laurelle grene She lokid hawtely and yave on me a glum 1095 There was not a worde amonge them then bot mvm ffor eche man harkend what she to me wold say Where of in substance I browght this away 133 The quene of ffame to Skelton My frynde sithe ye are before vs here present To aunswere vnto this nobille audyence Of pt shall be resond yow ye most be content: / And for asmoche as by the higthe pre- tense That ye haue now thorow preemynence Of laureat promocioun / : your place is here reservyd We wille vnderstand how ye have it deservid II05 1083, 1084. Mutilations of MS supplied from Faukes. 134 Poeta Skelton to the quene of ffame Right higthe and myghtty prynces of (astate ) In famows glory all other transcenddinge Of your bownte the acustomabille rate Hathe bene fulle oftene and yit is en- tendinge II09 To all that to reson is condiscendynge Bot if hastyve credence by mayntenaunce of myght ffortune to stande bytwene yow and the light 135 Bot soche evydence I thynke for me to enduce And so largely to ley for myn Indemnyte That I troste to make myne excus 1115 Of what charge so euer ye ley ageyne me ffor of my bokis parte ye shall se Whiche in your recorddis I know wele be (enrolde) And so Occupacioun your regester me told [Vitellius MS defective. Text below from Faukes.] 136 Forth with she commaundid I shulde take my place 1120 Caliope poynted me where I shulde sit With that occupacioun presid in a pace Be mirry she sayd be not aferde a whit Your discharge here vnder myne arme is it So then commaundid she was vpon this To shew her boke: and she sayd here it is 137 The quene of fame to occupacioun. Yowre bokes of remembrauns we will now pt ye rede If ony recordis in noumbyr can be founde What Skelton hath compilid & wryton in dede Rehersyng by ordre & what is the grownde 1130 Let se now for hym how ye can ex- pounde For in owr courte ye wote wele his name can not ryse But if he wryte oftenner than ones or twyse 1107, 1118. MS defective. Text from Faukes print. THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 138 Skelton Poeta. With that of the boke losende were the claspis The margent was illumynid all with gold- en railles 1135 And byse: enpicturid wt gressoppes and waspis Wt butterflyis and fresshe pecoke taylis Enflorid wt flowris and slymy snaylis Enuyuid picturis well towchid & quikly It wolde haue made a man hole pt had be ryght sekely 1140 139 To be holde how it was garnysshyd & bounde Encouerde ouer wt golde of tissew fyne The claspis and bullyons were worth a thousande pounde Wt balassis & charbuncles the borders did shyne 1144 With aurum musicum euery other lyne Was wrytin: and so she did her spede Occupacyoun immediatly to rede 140 Occupacyoun redith and expoundyth sum parte of Skeltons bokes and balades wt ditis of plesure in asmoche as it were to longe a proces to reherse all by name pt he hath compylyd &c. Of your oratour and poete laureate Of Englande his workis here they be- gynne 1149 In primis the boke of honorous astate Item the boke how men shuld fle synne Item royall demenaunce worshyp to wyne Item the boke to speke well or be styll Item to lerne you (t)o dye when ye wyll 141 Of vertu also the souerayne enterlude The boke of be rosiar: prince arturis creacyoun 1156 The false fayth bt now goth which dayly is renude Item his diologgis of ymagynacyoun Item antomedon of loues meditacyoun Item new gramer in englysshe compylyd Item bowche of courte where drede was be gyled 142 His commedy achademios callyd by name Of tullis familiars the translacyoun 361 Item good aduysement that brainles doth blame : The recule ageinst gaguyne of the frenshe nacyoun I165 Item the popingay pt hath in commenda- cyoun Ladyes and gentylwomen suche as de- seruyd And suche as be counterfettis they be reseruyd 143 And of soueraynte a noble pamphelet And of magnyfycence a notable mater How cownterfet cowntenaunce of the new get 1171 Wt crafty conueyaunce dothe smater and flater And cloked collucyoun is brought in to clater Wt courtely abusyoun: who pryntith it wele in mynde Moche dowblenes of the worlde therin he may fynde 1175 144 Of manerly margery maystres mylke and ale To her he wrote many maters of myrthe Yet thoughe ye say it ther by lyith a tale For margery wynshed and breke her hinder girth Lor(de) how she made moche of her gentyll birth 1180 With gingirly go gingerly her tayle was made of hay Go she neuer so gingirly her honesty is gone a way 145 Harde to make ought of that is nakid nought This fustiane maistres and this giggisse gase Wonder is to wryte what wrenchis she wrowght 1185 To face out her foly wt a midsomer mase Wt pitche she patchid her pitcher shuld not crase It may wele ryme but shroudly it doth accorde To pyke out honesty of suche a potshorde Patet per versus. Hine puer hic natus: vir coniugis hinc spoliatus 362 JOHN SKELTON Iure thori: est: fetus deli de sanguine cretus Hine magis extollo quod erit puer alter apollo Si queris qualis: meretrix castissima talis Et relis et ralis: et reliqualis A good herynge of thes olde talis 1790 Fynde no mor suche fro wanflete to walis Et relequa omelia de diuersis tractati- bus 146 Of my ladys grace at the contemplacyoun Owt of frenshe in to englysshe prose Of mannes lyfe the peregrynacioun He did translate / enterprete and dis- close T1195 The tratyse of triumphis of the rede rose Where in many storis ar breuely con- tayned That vn remembred longe tyme remayn- ed 147 The duke of yorkis creauncer whan Skel- ton was Now Henry the. viij . kyng of Englonde A tratyse he deuysid and browght it to pas Callid speculum principis to bere in his honde Therin to rede and to vnderstande All the demenour of princely astate To be our kyng of god preordinate 1205 148 Also the tunnynge of elinour rummyng Wt pon clowt / iohn iue / with ioforth iac To make suche trifels it asketh sum kon- nyng In honest myrth parde requyreth no lack The whyte apperyth the better for the black 1210 And after conueyauns as the world goos It is no foly to vse the walshemannys hoos 149 The vmblis of venyson / the botell of wyne To fayre maistres anne pt shuld haue be sent He wrate therof many a praty lyne 1215 Where it became and whether it went And how that it was wantonly spent The balade also of the mustarde tarte Suche problemis to paynt it longyth to his arte 150 Of one adame all a knaue late dede and gone 1220 Dormiat in pace / lyke a dormows He wrate an epitaph for his graue stone Wt wordes deuoute and sentence ager- dows For he was euer ageynst goddis hows All his delight was to braule and to barke 1225 Ageynst holy chyrche the preste and the clarke 151 Of phillip sparow the lamentable fate The dolefull desteny and the carefull chaunce Dyuysed by Skelton after the funerall rate Yet sum there be there wt that take greu- aunce 1230 And grudge ther at wt frownyng counte- naunce But what of that: hard it is to please all men Who list amende it let hym set to his penne For the gyse now a days Of sum iangelyng iays 1235 Is to discommende Pt they can not amende Though they wolde spende All the wittis they haue What ayle them to depraue 1240 Phillippe sparows graue His dirige: her commendacioun Can be no derogacyoun But myrth & consolacyoun Made by protestacyon 1245 No man to myscontent With phillippis enteremente Alas that goodly mayd Why shulde she be afrayd Why shulde she take shame 1250 That her goodly name Honorably reportid Shulde be set and sortyd To be matriculate With ladyes of astate 1255 I coniure be Phillip sparow THE GARLAND OF LAURELL By hercules pt hell did harow And wt a venomows arow Slew of the epidawris One of the centauris Or onocentauris Or hippocentaurus : By whos myght and maine An hart was slayne Wt hornnis twayne Of glitteryng golde And the apples of golde Of hesperides with holde And with a dragon kepte That neuer more slepte By merciall strength He wan at length And slew gerione With thre bodys in one With myghty corrage A dauntid the rage Of a lyon sauage. Of diomedis stabyll He brought out a rabyll Of coursers and rounsis Wit(h) lepes and bounsis And wt myghty luggyng Wrastelynge and tuggyng He pluckid the bull By the hornid scull And offred to cornucopia And so forthe per cetera Also by hecates powre In plutos gastly towre By the vgly Eumenides. Pt neuer haue rest nor ease By be venemows serpent That in hell is neuer brente In lerna the grekis fen That was engendred then By chemeras flamys And all the dedely namys Of infernall posty Where soulis fry and rosty By the stigiall flode And the stremes wode Of cochitos bottumles well By the feryman of hell Caron wt his berde hore That rowyth wt a rude ore And wt his frownsid fortop Gydith his bote wt a prop I coniure phillippe & call In be name of kyng Saull Primo regum expres 1260 1205 1270 1275 1280 1285 1290 I295 1300 1305 1310 i oO’ we He bad the phitones To witche craft her to dres And by her abusiouns And damnable illusiouns Of meruelous conclusiouns 1315 And by her supersticiouns Of wonderfull condiciouns She raysed vp in pe stede Samuell that was dede But whether it were so 1320 He were idem in numero The selfe same Samuell How be it to Saull he did tell The phillistinis shulde hym askry And the next day he shulde dye 1325 I wyll me selfe discharge To letterd men at large But phillip I coniure the Now by theys names thre Diana in the woddis grene 1330 Luna that so bryght doth shene Proserpina in hell That thou shortely tell And shew now vnto me What the cause may be 1335 Of this proplexyte Phillyppe answeryth Inferias phillippe tuas Scroupe pulcra Tohanna Instanter peciit: cur nostri carminis illam Nunc pudet: est sero: minor est: infamia vero Then such that haue disdaynyd And of this worke complaynyd I pray god they be paynyd No wors (than) is contaynyd 1340 In verses two or thre That folowe as ye may se Luride cur liuor volucrum pia funera damnas Talia te rapiant rapiunt que fata volu- crem. Est tamen inuidia mors tibi continua 152 The gruntyng (& the) groynninge (of the) gronnyng swyne Also the murmyng of the mapely rote How the grene couerlet sufferd grete pine 1345 1340. Faukes and; Marshe than. 1343. Bracketed words from Marshe’s ed. 364 JOHN SKELTON Whan the flye net was set for to catche a cote Strake one with a birdbolt to the hart rote Also a deuoute prayer to moyses hornis Metrifyde merely / medelyd with stormis 153 Of paiauntis pt were played in ioyows garde 1350 He wrate of a muse throw a mud wall How a do cam trippyng in at the rere warde But lorde how the parker was wroth with all And of castell aungell the fenestrall Glittryng and glistryng and gloryously glasid 13 It made sum mens eyn: dasild and dasid 154 The repete of the recule of rosamundis bowre Of his pleasaunt paine there and his glad distres In plantynge and pluckynge a propre ieloffer flowre But how it was sum were to recheles Not withstandynge it is remedeles What myght she say: what myght he do therto Though iak sayd nay: yet mok there loste her sho 155 How than lyke a man he wan the barbi- can 1364 With a sawte of solace at the longe last The colour dedely swarte blo and wan Of exione her lambis dede and past The cheke and the nek but a shorte cast In fortunis fauour euer to endure No man lyuyng he sayth can be sure 1370 156 How dame minuerua first found be olyue tre: she red And plantid it there where neuer before was none: vnshred An hynde vnhurt hit by casuelte: not bled Recouerd whan the forster was gone: and sped The hertis of the herd began for to grone: and fled 1375 The howndis began to yerne & to quest: and dred Wt litell besynes standith moche rest: in bed 157 His epitomis of the myller & his ioly make How her ble was bryght as blossom on the spray A wanton wenche and wele coude bake a cake 1380 The myllar was loth to be out of the way But yet for all that be as be may Whether he rode to swassham or to some The millar durst not leue his wyfe at home 158 Wt wofully arayd and shamefully be- trayd 1385 Of his makyng deuoute medytacyons Uexilla regis he deuysid to be displayd Wt sacris solempniis and other contem- placyouns That in them comprisid consyderacyons Thus passyth he the tyme both nyght and day 1390 Sumtyme wt sadnes sumtyme with play 159 Though galiene and diascorides With ipocras and mayster auycen By there phesik doth many a man ease And though albumasar can be enforme and ken 1395 What constellacions ar good or bad for men Yet whan the rayne rayneth and be gose wynkith Lytill wotith be goslyng what be gose thynkith 160 He is not wyse ageyne be streme pt stryuith Dun is in pe myre dame reche me my spur 1400 Nededes must he rin that the deuyll dryu- it When the stede is stolyn spar the stable dur A ientyll hownde shulde neuer play the kur It is sone aspyd where the thorne prik- kith And wele wotith the cat whos berde she likkith 1405 THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 365 161 With marione clarione sol lucerne Graund iuir: of this frenshe prouerbe olde How men were wonte for to discerne By candelmas day what wedder shuld holde But marione clarione was caught wt a colde colde 1410 [anglice a cokwolde] & all ouercast wt cloudis vnkynde This goodly flowre wt stormis was vn- twynde 162 This ieloffer ientyll / this rose this lylly flowre This prime rose pereles / this propre vyolet This delycate dasy / this strawberry pretely set 1415 This columbyne clere and fresshest of coloure Wt frowarde frostis alas was all to fret But who may haue a more vngracyous lyfe Than a chyldis birde and a knauis wyfe Thynke what ye wyll 1420 Of this wanton byll By mary gipcy Quod scripsi scripsi Uxor tua sicut vitis Habetis in custodiam 1425 Custodite sicut scitis Secundum lucam .&c. 163 Of the bone homs of a shrige besyde barkamstede That goodly place to Skelton moost kynde Where the sank royall is crystes blode so rede 1430 Where vpon he metrefyde after his mynde A plesaunter place than a shrige is harde where to fynde As Skelton rehersith with wordes few and playne In his distincyon made on verses twaine Fraxinus in cliuo : frondetque viret sine riuo Non est sub diuo:similis sine flumine viuo. 1411. Bracketed words from Faukes; not in Marshe. 164 The nacyoun of folys he left not be- hynde 1435 Item apollo that whirllid vp his chare That made sum to s(n)urt and snuf in the wynde It made them to skip to stampe and to stare Whiche if they be happy haue cause to beware In rymyng and raylyng with hym for to mell 1440 For drede that he lerne them there A. B. C. to spell 165 Poeta Skelton With that I stode vp halfe sodenly a frayd Suppleyng to fame I besought her grace And pt it wolde please her full tenderly I prayd Owt of her bokis apollo to rase 1445 Nay sir she sayd: what so in this place Of our noble courte is ones spoken owte It must nedes after rin all the worlde a boute 166 God wote theis wordes made me full sad And when that I sawe it wolde no better be 1450 But that my peticyon wolde not be had What shulde I do but take it in gre For by iuppiter and his high mageste I did what I cowde to scrape out the scrollis Apollo to rase out of her ragman rol- lis 1455 167 Now here of it erkith me lenger to wryte To occupacyon I wyll agayne resorte Whiche rede on still as it cam to her syght Rendrynge my deuisis I made in des- porte Of the mayden of Kent callid coun- forte 1460 Of louers testamentis and of there wan- ton wyllis And how iollas louyd goodly phillis 168 Diodorus Siculus of my translacyon Out of fresshe latine in to oure englisshe playne 366 JOHN SKELTON Recountyng commoditis of many a straunge nacyon 1465 Who redyth it ones wolde rede it agayne Sex volumis engrosid to gether it doth containe But when of the laurell she made rehersall All orators and poetis wt other grete and smale 169 A thowsande thowsande I trow to my dome 1470 Triumpha triumpha they cryid all aboute Of trumpettis and clariouns the noyse went to rome The starry heuyn me thought shoke wt the showte The grownde gronid & tremblid be noyse was so stowte |The quene of fame commaundid shett | fast be boke 1475 And ther with sodenly out of my dreme I woke 170 My mynde of the grete din was somdele amasid I wypid myne eyne for to make them clere Then to the heuyn sperycall vpwarde I gasid Where I saw Janus wt his double chere 1480 Makynge his almanak for the new yere He turnyd his tirikkis his voluell ran fast Good luck this new yere the olde yere is past Mens tibi sit consulta petis: sic con- sule menti Emula sis iani retro speculetur et ante Skeltonis alloquium Librum suum. Ite britannorum lux :O radiosa britan- num Carmina nostra pium vestrum celebrate catullum. Dicite Skeltonis Vester adonis erat. Dicite Skeltonis Vester Homerus erat. Barbara cum lacio pariter iam currite versu. Et licet est verbo pars maxima texta britanno. Non magis incompta: Nostra thalya patet. Est magis inculta: Nec mea caliope. Nec vos peniteat liuoris tela subire. Nec vobis peniteat rabiem tolerare cani- nam. Nam Maro dissimiles Non tulit ille minas. Immunis nec enim Musa nasonis erat. Lenuoy Go litil quaire Demene you faire 1485 Take no dispare Though I you wrate After this rate. In englysshe letter So moche the better 1490 Welcome shall ye To sum men be For latin warkis Be good for clerkis Yet now and then 1495 Sum Latin men May happely loke Upon your boke And so procede In you to rede 1500 That so in dede Your fame may sprede In length and brede But then I drede Ye shall haue nede 1505 You for to spede To harnnes bryght By force of myght Ageyne enuy And obloquy 1510 And wote ye why Not for to fyght Ageyne dispyght Nor to derayne Batayle agayne 1515 Scornfull disdayne Not for to chyde Not for to hyde You cowardly But curteisly 1520 That I haue pende For to deffend Under the banner Of all good maner Under proteccyon 1525 Of sad correccyon With toleracyon And supportacyon Of reformacyon THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 367 If they can spy 1530 Circumspectly Any worde defacid That myght be rasid Els ye shall pray Them that ye may 1535 Contynew still With there good wyll Admonet Skeltonis: omnes / arbores Dare locum viridi lauro / Iuxta genus suum Fraxinus in siluis: altis In montibus Orni. Populus in fluuiis Abies Patulissima Fagus. Lenta Salix platanus pinguis ficulnea ficus Glandifera et Quercus / pirus / esculus ardua pinus. Balsamus exudans; oleaster / oliua min- erue Iunipirus Buxus: lentiscus cuspide lenta. Botrigera & domino vitis gratissima Baccho Tlex & sterilis / labrusta per rosa colonis Mollibus exudans fragrancia thura Sa- beis Thus: redolens arabis pariter notissima mirrha Et vos o corili fragiles: Humilesque mirice. Et vos o Cedri redolentes vos quoque mirti. Arboris omne genus viridi concedite Lauro. Prenness En gre GEORGE CAVENDISH: METRICAL VISIONS The author of a prose narrative of Cardinal Wolsey’s closing years, written evidently by one closely connected with Wolsey, was long supposed to be Sir William Cavendish. Early biographical and genealogical compilations such, e.g., as the Biographia Britannica of 1741-66, mentioned the fact that the work had sometimes been attributed to Sir William’s elder brother George, but rejected the possibility. In 1814, however, an essay by Joseph Hunter established the author as George Cavendish, gentleman-usher to the Cardinal. This essay is reprinted by Singer, as below, in his edition of the biography. George Cavendish, born about 1500, died 1561 or 1562, became connected with the Cardinal’s household in 1526 or 1527, and remained with his lord until Wolsey’s death in 1530. He lived thereafter a quiet country life, although his younger brother William rose to title and fortune; the memoir of Wolsey was the work of these years, and is almost our first piece of separate biography in Eng- lish, preceded only by More’s (unfinished) life of Richard the Third. The work had an extensive circulation in manuscript among the generation just following the Cardinal’s death, but was not published until 1641, doubtless because of the author’s frank comments on Tudor royalty. Some fifteen or more manuscripts of it exist ; one of these, believed to be in Cavendish’s own hand, contains also a set of poems, death-laments by Wolsey, by Anne Boleyn and her fellow-sufferers, by King Henry, by Surrey, and many others. These poems are in the same script as is the prose Life of the same volume, and the comments which follow each lament are headed “Lauctour G. C.” Their first (and only) editor, Singer, had no hesi- tation in ascribing these “Metrical Visions” to George Cavendish also. Not only in plan but in execution the poems show the influence of Lydgate’s Fall of Princes; and we may remark that an edition of that work had appeared in 1554, the next earlier print being in 1527. There is the same defile of the mourn- ing figures past the author, the same comment of the author upon each figure; there is the same emphasis on the fickleness of Fortune, who is called “gery for- tune furious and wood”, as by Lydgate in book iii, line 2405; there are occasional attempts at the use of refrain in the author’s comment or envoy, as Lydgate had used it ; there is obvious borrowing in Cavendish’s lines 167-8 (see note here) ; and Cavendish’s lines 246-252 are lifted bodily from Fall of Princes iii :3760 ff. It is very improbable that Cavendish’s verse exerted any influence on the Mirror for Magistrates, which was coming into existence just as Cavendish finished his Visions. The tragedy of Wolsey, by Thomas Churchyard, which is included in the Mirror, owes nothing to the living, if awkward, stanzas by Cavendish put into Wolsey’s mouth. Nor does the later poem of Storer show any trace of Cav- endish’s verse. Thomas Storer published in 1599 The Life and Death of Thomas Wolsey Cardinall—etc.; and this was reprinted Oxford, 1826, and included in Part ii of Park’s Heliconia, 1815. Storer’s poem is of 241 stanzas rime royal, and is divided into three parts, Wolsey Aspirans, Wolsey Triumphans, Wolsey Moriens. It has a few passages of interest, especially in the regret of Wolsey at losing Henry’s friendship; “I am the tombe where that affection lies”, and its following lines, have an Elizabethan ring. [ 368 J THE METRICAL VISIONS 369 But neither Storer, nor Churchyard, nor Cavendish in his verse has any touch to bear comparison with the closing sentences of Cavendish’s own prose. His “Visions” are clumsy and stilted, loaded with rhetoric and fettered by for- mulae ; they have indeed their verities, but it is only when we turn to the prose life of Wolsey that a human voice speaks simply and freely. There every page has its interest, every page is candid; but the close is worthy of Bunyan. Caven- dish has been summoned, after the Cardinal’s death, to report to King Henry ; and _the Duke of Norfolk, acting as the king’s intermediary, concludes the business with Cavendish. ‘“He showed me,” says Cavendish, “how the king was my good and gracious lord, and had given me six of the best horses that I could choose amongst all my lord’s cart horses, with a cart to carry my stuff, and five marks for my cost homewards, and hath commanded me ten pounds for my wages being behind unpaid and twenty pounds for a reward. And he willed me to meet with him the next day at London; and there to receive both my money, my stuff, and horses that the king gave me; and so I did; of whom I received all things according, and then I returned into my country.” The manuscript from which I print, Egerton 2402 of the British Museum, con- tains only Cavendish’s life of Wolsey and the appended poems, here unique. The “Metrical Visions”, as their first editor Singer entitled them, are separately paged, 1 to 58, and their leaves are confused in binding, as has been noted on the lower margins already by a ?Stuart hand. The page-order should be :—1-20, 35, 36, 41- 54, 37-40, 21-34, 55-58. That is, the manuscript being in sixes and in fours, the bunch 21-34, composed of one six and two fours, was exchanged for the similarly- composed bunch 41-54, the latter being thrust in between the first and second leaves of the gathering 35-40. The Life and the Visions are in the same hand, a somewhat crabbed script said by Singer to be that of Cavendish himself ; facsimiles of it are included in Singer’s 1825 edition, to face page xvii of vol. i. The scribe of the poems made frequent alterations as he wrote, inserting words with a caret, deleting, rewriting. It would seem that Cavendish closed off and then continued his work from time to time; for twice at least in the long series of lamenting per- sonages a “Finis” has been put, and then more material, of later date, added. After mourning, in his own person, the death of Edward VI, Cavendish welcomes the accession of Mary, whom he describes as a maiden queen; but the final poem of the series bewails Mary’s death, and mentions her successor Elizabeth. Yet the colophon which follows upon this and upon the author’s farewell address to his book runs :—‘“Finie et compile le xxilij jour de Junij anno regnorum Philippi Rex et Reg. Mariae iiijti & vti. Per le auctor G. C.”” Below which, and apparently later, appears “Novus Rex Nova Lex Nova sola Regina proborum pene ruina”’,— such a comment as a devout Catholic might permit himself to his private journal on the Protestant Elizabeth’s accession. Considering the disorder of leaves, we may query if Cavendish himself separated them in order to force in the Epitaph of Queen Mary, after he had written his Philip and Mary colophon. For although the date of that colophon is 1558, the fourth year of Philip and fifth of Mary, yet Mary died in November 1558, five months after the June date which Cavendish there gives. The first edition of the life of Wolsey and the poems, from the authoritative “autograph” manuscript, was by Samuel Weller Singer, London, 1825, two vols. Singer’s text is in the main correct, although he “slightly” modernized the ortho- graphy. He omits occasionally in our parts of the poem, as noted lines 38, 1119, 370 GEORGE CAVENDISH and line 1368 entire; he inserts in 272, 1193, epilogue 39; in 1182, 1400 by error, and epilogue 8, he alters.. He appended much valuable illustrative material. In his second edition, London, 1827, one vol., the poems were cut to little more than Wolsey’s own lament. Other editors of the Life have passed the poems un- mentioned. Singer’s 1827 text of the Life was reprinted by Henry Morley in his Uni- versal Library, London, 1885, again 1887, accompanied by Churchyard’s Wolsey- stanzas from A Mirror for Magistrates, but not by the Visions or by any allusion to them. Morley’s error of “1815” instead of “1825” in describing Singer’s first edition has been copied by later editors and even by the Dict. Nat. Biog. The Life of Wolsey was edited by F. S. Ellis for the Kelmscott Press in 1893, from the “autograph” MS but with no mention of the Visions. Ellis’ text, the spelling modernized, was printed in the Temple Classics, 1893, with Churchyard’s poem, but with no mention of the Visions. Singer’s text was reprinted Boston, 1905, with Ellis’ corrections ; no mention of the Visions. In the Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies of Great Britain, ed. Mary A. E. Wood, 3 vols., London, 1846, Cavendish’s stanzas on the Countess of Salis- bury and on Lady Jane Grey are printed in the Notes, iii :94-5 and 273-4, from Singer. Previous to Singer the memoir had been published in 1641, in a garbled form, as “The Negotiations of Thomas Wolsey the Great Cardinal” etc. This was re- printed 1667, 1706, and in the Harleian Miscellany, 1744-46 and later. It was also included in Joseph Grove’s history of the life and times of Cardinal Wolsey, London, 1742-44, four vols. Grove, who reproduced the 1641 text, is said by Singer to have later discovered its unsoundness, and to have issued privately, in 1761, a few copies from manuscript. The Life was printed in vol. 1 of Christopher Wordsworth’s Ecclesiastical Biography, 1818 and later, from four MSS, not including the “autograph” text; Wordsworth therefore knows nothing of the poems. The text of his fourth edition was reprinted by J. Holmes, London, 1852, and a “slightly altered” text by “E. H.”, London, 1855. In 1901 the Life was reprinted in London by Grace H. M. Simpson, from the 1667 text. She asserts that this is the earliest, and that the author was William Cavendish; she refers to the Biographia Britannica. [MS Brit. Mus. Egerton 2402] Prolougus de lauctor G. C. In the monyth of June / I lyeng sole alon Vnder the vmber of an Oke / wt bowes pendaunt Whan Phebus in Gemynys / had his course ouergoon Corrections are made by the scribe, viz.:—1, of is inserted with a caret; similarly mean in 5, in in 6, all in 22. Singer in 13 reads gystes, which’ he explains as “gests, actions’; he reads devysing in 18; he alters lion to Leo in 6; and he omits the third of in 7 and this in 20. In 25 he reads spent. And entred Cancer / a sygne retrograd- aunt In a mean measure / his beames rady- aunt Fy Approchyng lion / than mused I in myn Of ffikkellnes of ffortune / and of the course of kynd 2 Howe some are by fortune / exalted to riches THE METRICAL VISIONS 371 And often suche / as most vnworthy be And some oppressed / in langor and syknes / 10 Some waylyng lakkyng welthe / by wretched pouertie Some in bayle & bondage / and some at libertie Wt other moo gyftes / of ffortune varyable Some pleasaunt / some mean / and some onprofitable 3 But after dewe serche / and better ad- visement 15 I knewe by reason / that oonly god above Rewlithe thos thynges / as is most con- venyent The same devydyng / to man for his be- hove Wherfore dame reason / did me per- swade & move / To be content / wt this my small es- tat 20 And in this matter no more to vestigate / 4 Whan I had debated / all thyng in my mynd I well considered / myn obscure blynd- nes So that non excuse could I se or fynd But that my tyme / I spend in Idelnes 25 ffor this me thought / and trew it is doughtles That sence I ame a reasonable creature I owght my reason & wyt to put in vre / 5 Than of what matter / myght I devise & wright To vse my tyme / and wytte to exer- cyse 30 Sythe most men haue / no pleasure or delight In any history / wtout it sownd to vice / Alas shold I than / that ame not yong attise Wt lewed ballates faynt hartes to synne Or flatter estates / some fauour of them to wynne / 35 6 What than shall I wright / the noble doughtynes Of estates / that vsed is nowe a dayes I shall than lake just matter / for gredy couetousnes Of vayn ryches / which hathe stopt all the wayes Of worthy Chyvallry / that now dayly sore dekayes 40 And yet thoughe some behaue them nobly Yet many ther be / that dayly dothe the contrarye ffor some lovyth meate fynne & delicious And some baudye brothes / as ther edu- casion hathe be So some lovethe vertue / and some tales vicious 45 Sewerly suche tales / gett ye non of me But to eschewe all Ociosite Of ffortunes fykellnes / here after shall I wright Howe greatest estates / she ouerthrowyth by myght 8 Thoughe I onworthe this tragedy do be- gyne 50 Of pardon I pray / the reders in meke wyse And to correct / where they se fault therin Reputyng it for lake / of connyng ex- cercyse The cause that moved me / to this enter- price Specyally was / that all estates myght se 55 What it is to trust to ffortunes mutabyl- ite 9 Wt pen & ynke I toke this worke in hand Redy to wright the deadly dole / & who- full playnt Of them whos fall the world dothe vn- derstand Which for feare made my hart to faynt / 60 I must wright playn / colours haue I none to paynt But termes rude / ther dolowrs to compile An wofull playnt must haue an wofull style 41. Some inserted by scribe with a caret, as is dothe in 42. 372 GEORGE CAVENDISH 10 To whome therfore / for helpe shall I nowe call Alas Caliope my callyng wyll vtterly re- fuse / 65 ffor mornyng dities / and woo of for- tunes falle Caliope dyd neuer / in hir dyties vse Wherfore to hir I myght my selfe abuse Also the musis that on Parnasus syng Suche warblyng dole / did neuer tempor stryng 70 11 Nowe to that lord / whos power is celestiall And gwydyth all thyng of sadnes and of blysse Wt humble voyce / to the I crie & call That thou woldest direct / my sely pen in this ffor wantyng of thy helpe / no marvell thoughe I mysse 75 And by thy grace / thoughe my style be rude In sentence playn / I may full well con- clude 2 Nowe by thy helpe / this history I wyll begyn And ffrome theffect varie nothyng at all ffor if I shold / it ware to me great synne 80 To take vppon me a matter so substan- cyall So waytie so necessarie of ffame per- petuall And thus to be short / oon began to speke / Wt deadly voyce / as thoughe his hart wold breke / ffinis Quod G. C. Le Historye Cardinalis Eboracensis 13 O ffortune / quod he / shold I on the complayn 85 Or of my necligence that I susteyn this smart Thy doble visage hathe led me to this trayn ffor at my begynnyng / thow dydest ay take my part Vntill ambysion had puffed vppe my hart Wt vaynglory.honor.and vsurped dig- nyte fforgettyng cleane my naturall mendycitie 14 ffrom pouertie to plentie whiche nowe I se is vayn A cardynall I was and legate de latere A bysshope & archebysshope / the more to crease my gayn Chauncelor of Englond / fortune by hir false flatere 95 Dyd me avaunce / and gave me suche auctorytie That of hyghe & lowe I toke on me the charge All Englond to rewle / my power ex- tendyd large 15 Whan ffortune wt fauour had sett me thus alofte I gathered me riches / suffisaunce cowld not content 100 My fare was superfluous / my bed was fynne & softe To haue my desiers / I past not what I spent In yerthe suche aboundaunce / ffortune had me lent Yt was not in the world / that I cowld well requyer But fortune strayt wayes / dyd graunt me my desier 105 16 My byldynges somptious / the roffes wi gold & byse Shone lyke the sone / in the myd day spere Craftely entayled / as connyng cowld devyse Wt images embossed / most lyvely did appere Expertest artificers / that ware bothe farre & nere II0 To beatyfie my howssys / I had them at my wyll Thus I wanted nought / my pleasurs to fullfyll / 17 My Galleryes ware fayer / bothe large & long To walke in theme / whan that it lyked me best My gardens swett / enclosed wt walles strong II5 THE METRICAL VISIONS 373 Enbanked wt benches / to sytt & take my rest The knottes so enknotted / it cannot be exprest Wt arbors and alyes / so pleasaunt & so dulce The pestylent ayers / wt flauours to re- pulse 18 My chambers garnysht / wt aras fynne Importyng personages / of the lyvelyest kynd 121 And whan I was disposed / in them to dynne My clothe of estate / there redy did I fynd ffurnysshed complett accordyng to my mynd The subtill perfumes / of muske and swett amber 125 There wanted non / to perfume all my chamber 19 Plate of all sortes / most curiously wrought Of facions newe / I past not of the old No vessell but syluer byfore me was brought ffull of dayntes vyaundes / the some can- not be told 130 I dranke my wynne alwayes in syluer & in gold And dayly to serue me / attendyng on my table Seruauntes I had / bothe worsh(i) pfull & honorable 20 My crossis twayn / of siluer long & greate That dayly byfore me / ware caried hyghe 135 Vppon great horses / opynly in the strett And massie pillers / gloryouse to the eye Wt pollaxes gylt / that no man durst come nyghe My presence / I was so pryncely to be- hold Ridyng on my mule / trapped in siluer & in gold 140 21 My legantyn prerogatyve / was myche to myn avayle 136. The scribe inserts the with a caret; so the second in of 140. By vertue wherof / I had thys highe pre- emynence All vacant benefices / I dyd them strayt retaylle Presentyng than my clarke / asson as I had intellygence I preventid the patron / ther vaylled no resistence 145 All bysshoppes and prelattes / durst not oons denay They doughtyd so my power / they myght not dysobey 22 Thus may yow se / howe I to riches did attayne And wt suffisaunce / my mynde was not content Whan I had most / I rathest wold com- playn 150 ffor lake of good / alas howe I was blent Where shall my gatheryng / and good be spent Somme oon perchaunce / shall me therof discharge / Whome I most hate / and spend it owt at large 23 Syttyng in Jugement / parcyall ware my domes 155 I spared non estate / of hyghe or lowe degree I preferred whome me lyst / exaltyng symple gromes Above the nobles / I spared myche the spiritualtie Not passyng myche / on the temperaltie Promotyng suche / to so hyghe es- tate 160 As vnto prynces / wold boldly say chek mate / 24 Oon to subdewe / that did me allwayes fauour And in that place an other to auaunce Ayenst all trewthe / I did my besy labor And whilest I was workyng / witty whiles in fraunce 165 I was at home supplanted / where I thought most assuraunce Thus who by fraud / ffraudelent is found ffraude to the defrauder / wyll aye re- bound 374 GEORGE CAVENDISH 25 Who workyth fraude / often is disceyved As in a myrror / ye may beholde in me 170 ffor by disceyt / or I had it perceyved I was dissayved / a guerdon met parde ffor hyme that wold / ayenst all equyte Dysseyve the innocent / that innocent was in deade Therfore justice of justice / ayenst me must procede 175 26 ffor bye my subtill dealyng / thus it came to passe Cheafely disdayned / ffor whome I toke the payn And than to repent / it was to late alas My purpose I wold than haue chaynged fayn But it wold not be / I was perceyved playn 180 Thus venus the goddesse / that called is of love Spared not wt spight / to bryng me frome above / Za Alas my souerayn lord / thou didest me avaunce And settest me vppe in thys great pompe & pryde And gayest to me thy realme in gouern- aunce 185 Thy pryncely will / why did I sett a side And folowed myn owen / consideryng not the tyde Howe after a floode / (an) ebbe com- mythe on a pace That to consider / in my tryhumphe / I lakked grace / Nowe fykkell fortune / torned hathe hir whele 190 Or I it wyst all sodenly / and down she dyd me cast Down was my hed / and vpward went my heele My hold faylled me / that I thought suer & fast I se by experyence / hir fauour dothe not last ffor she full lowe nowe hathe brought me vnder 195 188. MS reads and ebbe. Thoughe I on hir complayn alas it is no wonder 29 I lost myn honour my treasure was me berafte ffayn to avoyd / and quykly to geve place Symply to depart for me no thyng was lafte Wtout penny or pound / I lyved a certyn space / 200 Vntill my souerayn lord / extendyd to me hys grace Who restored me sufficient / if I had byn content To maynteyn myn estate / bothe of lond & rent 30 Yet notwtstandyng / my corage was so hault Dispight of myn ennemyes / rubbed me on the gall 205 Who conspired together / to take me wt asault They travelled wtout triall to geve me a fall I therfore entendyd / to trie my frendes all To forrayn potentates wrott my letters playn Desireng ther ayd / to restore me to fauour agayn 210 31 Myn ennemyes perceyvyng / caught ther- of dysdayn Doughtyng the daynger / dreamed on the dought In councell consultyng / my sewte to restrayn Accused me of treason / and brought it so abought That travellyng to my triall / or I could trie it owte 215 Deathe wt his dart / strake me for the nons In Leycester full lowe / where nowe lyethe my boons 32 Loo nowe may you se / what it is to trust In wordly vanytes / that voydyth wt the wynd The scribe has inserted, with a caret, it in 214, nowe in 217- THE METRICAL VISIONS 375 ffor deathe in a moment / consumyth all to dust 220 No honor . no glory / that euer man cowld fynd But tyme wt hys tyme / puttythe all owt of mynd ffor tyme in breafe tyme / duskyth the hystory Of them that long tyme / lyved in glory 33 Where is my Tombe / that I made for the nons 225 Wrought of ffynne Cooper / that cost many a pound To couche in my Carion / and my rotten boons All is but vaynglory / nowe haue I found And small to the purpose / whan I ame in the ground What dothe it avaylle me / all that I haue 230 Seyng I ame deade / & layed in my grave / 34 ffare well Hampton Court / whos ffound- er I was ffarewell Westmynster place / nowe a palace royall ffarewell the Moore / lett Tynnynainger passe ffarewell in Oxford / my Colege Cardy- nall 235 ffarewell in Jpsewich / my Scole gramat- icall Yit oons ffarewell I say / I shall you neuer se Your somptious byldyng / what nowe avayllethe me 35 What avayllyth / my great aboun- daunce What is nowe laft / to helpe me in thys case 240 Nothyng at all / but dompe in the daunce / Among deade men / to tryppe on the trace / And for my gay housis / nowe haue I this place To lay in my karcas / wrapt in a shette Knytt wt a knott / att my hed and my feete 245 36 What avaylleth / nowe my ffetherbeddes soit Shettes of raynes / long large & wyde And dyuers devysis / of clothes chaynged oft Or vicious chapleyns / walkyng by my syd Voyde of all vertue / fulfilled wt pryde Whiche hathe caused me / by report of suche fame / 251 ffor ther myslyvyng / to haue an yll name / of, This is my last complaynt / I can say you no moore But farewell my seruaunt / that faythe- full hathe be Note well thes wordes / quod he / I pray the therfore 255 And wright them thus playn / as I haue told them the All which is trewe / thou knowest it well parde Thou faylledest me not / vntill that I dyed And nowe I must depart / I may no lenger byde / ffinis Thauctor G. C. 38 Whan he his tale had told / thus in sentence 260 His dolorous playnt / strake me to the hart Pytie also moved me / to bewayll his offence And wt hyme to wepe / whan I did aduert In his aduersyte / howe I did not de- parte Tyll mortall deathe / had gevyn hyme his wou(n)d 265 Wt whome I was present / and layed hyme in the ground Whan I had wept / and lamentyd my ffyll Wt reason perswaded / to hold me con- tent I aspied certyn persons / commyng me tyll Strayngely disguysed / that grettly did lament 270 376 GEORGE CAVENDISH And as me semed / this was ther entent On ffortune to complayn / ther cause not slender And me to requyer ther ffall to re- member * * * * * * The Erle of Surrey 158 What avauntage had I to be a dukes heyr TI05 Endowed wt suche qualities / as fewe in my tyme Lakkyng no thyng / that nature myght repayr In dewe proporcyon / she wrought hathe euery lyne Assendyng ffortunes whele / made lyke to clyme Syttyng in myn abode / supposyng to sitt fast III0 Wt a sodeyn tourne she made me dissend as fast 159 Whoo trustith in honor / and settythe all hys lust In wordly riches / hauyng of theme aboundaunce Lett hyme beware / and take good hede he must Of subtill ffortune / wt dissemblyng countenaunce III5 ffor whan she smylyth / than hathe she least assuraunce ffor the fflatteryng world / dothe often them begyle With suche vayn vanyties / alas / alas / the whyle / 160 I haue not only / my self nowe ouer- throwen But also my ffather / wt heares old & hoore 1120 Allthoughe his actes marsheall be right welle knowen Yet was myn offence / taken so passyng sore That I nedes must dye / and he in prison for euermore Shall still remayn / ffor it wyll not avaylle 1111. MS crosses out she. 1116. She is inserted with caret before Jeast. All his great conquestes / wherin he did prevayle / 1125 161 O Julyus Cesar / O thou myghty con- queror What myght thy conquestes & all thy victorye The prevayle / that of Rome was Em- peroure Whos prowes yet remaynyth / in mem- orye Whan Brewtus Casseus / wt ffalce con- spyracye II30 Ayenst the in the Capitoll / did contend Than all thy worthynes / could the not defend 162 Also Scipio of Affrican / that for the co (m)en wele Of Rome the Empier / the Citie beyng in distresse Lykly to be subdewd / than euery dele By Anyballes / valyaunt hardynes 1136 And dyuers noble victoryes as the his- tory dothe expresse That he atchyved / to the honor of the town Cowld not hyme prevaylle / whan ffor- tune lyst to frown 163 Thes myghty Champions / thes valyaunt men 1140 Who for the publyke whele / travelled all theyr lyfe Regarded not ther ease / nowther where or when But most valyauntly / wt corage inten- tyfe Defendyd the wele publyke / ffrome all myschyfe Yet was ther nobles / put in oblyvion And by matters conspired / brought to confusion 1146 164 Loo the reward alas that men shall haue ffor all ther travelles in ther dayes old Wt small spot / ther honor to deprave Alas it causithe full often / mens hartes to be cold 1150 Whan suche chaunces / they do behold How for oon offence / a thousaund con- questes valyaunte Can haue no place ther lyves make war- raunt THE METRICAL VISIONS 377 165 Therfore noble ffather / hold your self content And wt your Captyfe lyve / be ye no thyng dysmayd II55 ffor you may se / in historys playn & evydent That many noble persons / as ye are hathe byn dekayed The chaunce therfore of ffortune / nedes must be obeyed / And perpetuall prisonment / here shalbe your Gwerdon And dethe for my desertes / wtout re- myse & pardon 1160 166 ffor all my knowlege / wysdome & sci- ence That god hathe me endowed / all other to precell Gave me here / but small preemynence / All thoughe some ware aduaunced in the comen wele / ffrome basse estate / as experience dothe tell T165 ffor suche vertues / as vices in me ac- compted were Caused me to be doughted / and in great feare / 167 That thyng which in some / deseruyth commendacion And hyghly to be praysed / as verteus commendable Beyng estemed therfore / worthy exalta- cion 1170 And to be auaunced / to dygnyties hon- orable I assure yow ware to me / nothyng prof- etable ffor suche some tyme / as are but vayn and idell Disdaynythe all them / that owght to rewle the bridell 168 Therfor ffarewell / my peers / of the noble sect II75 Desiryng you all / my fall for to be hold Lett it a myrror be / that ye be not enfecte Wt ffolyshe wytte / wherof be not to bold My warnyng to yow / is more worthe than gold An old prouerbe there is / which trewe is at thys day 1180 The warned is halfe armed / thus I hard men saye / 169 I thought of no suche chaunce / as nowe to me is chaunced I trusted so my wytt / my power & myn estate Thynkyng more rather / highly to be auaunced Than to be deposed / as I haue byn but late / 1185 Be it right or wrong / loo I haue lost my pate Ye se thend / of many noble estates Take a vowe of me / & of some your late mattes 170 Thauctor G. C. Wt that he vanysshed / I wyst not whether But a way he went / and I was left alone 1190 Whos wordes and talke I gathered them together And in this sentence rewde / wrott them euerychone Yet was my hart with sorowe full woo- begon So noble a yong man / of wyt & excel- lence / To be condempned / for so small of- fence TI95 [Three stanzas of Lenvoy de le auctor follow, then :—] 174 Lauctor G. C. Intendyng here to end / this my symple worke And no further to wade / in this on- savery lake My penne was fordulled / my wyttes be- gan to lurke / I sodenly trembled / as oon ware in a brake 1220 The cause I knewe not / that I shold tremble & shake Vntill dame fame I hard / blowe hir trembleng trompe Which woofull blaste brought me / in a soden dompe 378 GEORGE CAVENDISH 175 Dame ffame I asked / why blowe ye your trom(p)e so shryll In so deadly a sownd / ye make my hart full sorry 1225 She answered me agayn / and sayd / Sir so I wyll Deade is that royall prynce / the late viijth Harry Wherfor adewe / I may no lenger tarry ffor thorowghe the world I must / to blowe this deadly blast Alas thes woofull newes / made my hart agaste / 1230 176 I went my wayes / and drewe my self aside Alon to lament the deathe of this royall kyng Parceyvyng right well / deth wyll stope no tyde Wt kyng or kaysier / therfore a wonder- ouse thyng To se howe will in them dothe raygn makyng ther reconyng 1235 Euer to lyve / as thoughe deathe ware of them a feard To byd them chekmate / & pluke them by the berd / 177 To ffynysshe thys worke / I did my self dispose And to conclude the same / as ye byfore haue red I leaned to my chayer / entendyng to re- pose 1240 In a slepie slomber I fille / so hevy was my hed Morpheus to me appered / and sayd he wold me lede My spyrittes to revyve / and my labor to degest Wt whome ffantzy was redy / and stayed in my brest / 178 ffantzy by & bye / led me as I thought To a palice royall / of pryncely Edy- fice 1246 Plentyfully furnysshed / of riches it lacked nought Astonyed not a littill / of the wofull cries 1224. MS writes shyrll. 1240. Singer reads on my chayer. Which I hard there / wt many wepyng eyes Euer as we passed / frome place to place / 1250 I beheld many a pityfull bedropped face 179 So that at the last / to tell you playn & right We entred a chamber / wt out light of the day To whome wax candelles gave myche light Wherin I parceyved a bed of royall ar- ray 1255 To the which I approced / makyng no de- lay / Wherin a prynce lay syke / wt a deadly face And cruell Attrophos standyng in that place / 180 Clotho / I aspied also / that in hyr hand did support A distaffe wherof the stuffe / was well nyghe spent 1260 Which lacheses dothe spynne / as poetes dothe report Drawyng the lyvely thred / tyll Attropos had hent Hir sharped sheres / wt a full consent / To shere the thred / supporter of hys lyfe Ayenst whome ther botyth / no preroga- tyfe 1265 181 Attendyng on his person / was many a worthy grome Where he lay syke / to whome syknes sayd chekmate / All thoughe he ware a prynce / of highe renome Yet syknes regardyd not hys Emperyall estate Tyme approched / of his lyfe the fynall date / 1270 And Attrophos was prest / his lyves thred to devyde Hold thy hand / quod he / and lett thy stroke abyde / 182 Henricus Rex loquetus ad mortem Geve me leve Attrophos / my self for to lament THE METRICAL VISIONS 3/9 Spare me a lityll / for nature makes me sewe The ffleshe is frayle / and lothe for to relent 1275 ffor deathe wt lyfe cannot be shett in mewe They be contrariaunt / there is no thyng more trewe ffor lyfe ayenst dethe / allwayes dothe rebell Eche man by experience / naturally this can tell / 183 ffrome Clothos distafe / my lyvely stuffe is spent 1280 Whiche Lachesis the slender thred hathe sponne Of my lyfe Emperyall / and thou At- trophos hast hent The sharped sheres / to shere my feble throme That the warbeled spendell / no more abought shold ronne / And of my regall lyfe / thus hast thou great disdayn 1285 So slender a thred / so long shold it susteyn 184 But leave of Attrophos / thou nedes not make suche hast My symple lyfe / wt vigor to confound Thy sheryng sheres / thou shalt but spend in wast ffor the spyndelles end / alredy is at the ground 1290 The thred ontwynned cannot more be twound Great folly in the / that takes suche idell paynne To slee that thyng / that is all redy slayn / 185 Wherfore leave of Attrophos / for end of lyfe is deathe as ct I se / is end of worldes 1295 What Tale thou wyn than / to stope my faynted brethe Sythe well thou knowest / whan that thou hast me slayn To welle or woo I shall oons rise agayn Thoughe in thy fury / my lyfe nowe thou devoure To sle me agayn / it shall not lie in thy power 1300 186 Slee me not Attrophos but lete spyndell ronne Which long hathe hanged / by a feoble lynne / ffor whan Lachesis / hir fyned fflees hathe sponne The spyndell woll fall / thou seest well wt thyn eyen No stuffe is laft / agayn the thredes to twn 1305 So slender it is / that wt oon blast of wynd y: The thred will breke / it is so slakley twynd 187 But nowe alas / that euer it shold befall So famous a prynce / of ffame so notable That ffame wt defame / shold the same appall 1310 Or cause my concyence / to be so on- stable Which for to here / is wonderous lament- able Howe for the love / and fond affeccion Of a symple woman / to worke all by collusion 188 I brake the bond of mariage / and did my self inclyne 1315 To the love of oon in whome was all my felicitie By means whereof / this realme is brought in rewyn Yet notwtstandyng / I nedes wold serue my ffantzye So that all my lust / in hir was ffyxt as- suredly Which for to colour / I colored than my case 1320 Makyng newe lawes / the old I did de- face / 189 Wt coloure of concience / I colored my pretence Entendyng therby / to sett my bond at lybertie My lustes to frequent / and haue of them experience Sekyng but my lust / of onlefull lech- erye 1325 Wherof the slaunder / remaynythe still in me So that my wilfullnes / and my shamfull trespace 380 GEORGE CAVENDISH Dothe all my magestie / and noblenes de- face 190 Whan Venus veneryall / of me had domynacion And blynd Cupydo / my purpose did auaunce 1330 Than willfull lust / thoroughe Indiscres- sion . Was chosyn Juge to hold my ballaunce Of onlefull choyse / by whos onhappie chaunce Yt hathe darked my honour / spotted fame & glory Which causithe my concience / oft to be full sory 1335 191 Alake therfore / greatly I ame ashamed That thus the world / shold knowe my pretence Wherwt my magestie / is slaundred & defamed Thoroughe this poysoned / lecherous offence Which hathe constrayned / by mortall violence 1340 So many to dye / my purpose to attayn That nowe more grevous / suerly is my payn / 192 Thoughe I ware myghty / and royall in pieusaunce Havyng all thyng / in myn owen demayn Yet was my reason / vnder the obey- saunce 1345 Of fflesshely lustes / fetered in Venus chayn ffor of my lust / will was my souerayn My reason was bridelled / so by sen- sualite That wyll rewled all / wtout lawe & equytie 193 After I forsoke / my first most lawfull wyte 1350 And toke an other / my pleasure to full- fill I chaynged often / so inconstant was my lyfe Deathe was the meade / of some that did non ill Which oonly was / to satisfie my wyll I was so desirous / of newe to haue my lust 1355 Yet could I fynd / non lyke vnto the furst / 194 In excellent vertues and wyfely trouthe / In pryncely prudence / and whomanly port Which ffloryshed in hir / evyn frome hyr youthe So well disposed / and of so sad a sort To all men it was / no small comfort And synce the tyme / that I did hir de- vorse All Englond lamentithe / and hathe ther- of remorse 195 Hir to commende & prayse / evyn at the ffull As she was worthy / it lyethe not in my myght 1365 My wytt and connyng / is to grosse & dull Hir worthynes / in so rude a stile to wright ffor she may be compared / evyn of very right Vnto pacient Greseld / if euer there ware any ffor lyke hyr paciente / there hathe not regned many: 1370 196 What inconvenyence / haue I nowe brought to passe / Thoroughe my wilfullnes / of willfull necligence Wtin thys realme / fare frome the welthe it was Yt nedes not therfore / to geve you in- telligence ffor you haue fillt the smart / and the indygence / 1375 Wherfore to make / any ferther declara- cion Yt ware to me / but an idell occupa- cion / 197 ffor all my conquestes / and my royall powers My plesunt tryhumphes / and my ban- kettyng chere My pryncely port / and my youthfull powers 1380 My great liberalites / vnto my darlynges dere My Emperyall magestie / what ame I the nere THE METRICAL VISIONS 381 ffor all my great aboundaunce / no thyng can me defend ffrome mortall dethe / all fleshe must haue an end 98 Who had more Joyes / who had more pleasure 1385 Who had more riches / who had more abondaunce Who had more joyelles / who had more treasure Who had more pastyme / who had more dalyaunce Who had more ayed / who had more allyaunce Who had more howsis / of pleasure & disport 1390 Who had suche places as I for my com- fort 199 All thyng to reherce / wherin I toke delight A long tyme I assure you / wold not suffice / What avayllythe nowe / my power & my myght Synce I must dye / & shall no more aryse 1395 To raygn in this world / nor seen wt bodely eyes But as a clott of claye / consume I must to dust Whome you haue seen / to raygn in welthe & lust / 200 ffarewell my nobles / ffarewell my pre- lattes pasturall ffarwell my noble dames / ffarewell you pieuselles fayer 1400 ffarewell my Citezens / ffarewell my Comens all / ffarewell my howsses / where I was wont repayer ffarewell my gardens / ffarewell the pleasaunt ayer ffarewell the world / ffarewell eche crea- ture ffarewell my ffrendes / my lyfe may no more endure / 1405 201 Adewe myn Impe / adewe my relyke here Adewe my sonne Edward / sprong of the royall race / Of the wight roose and the rede / as it may well appere Lord god I beseche the / to send hyme of thy grace Prosperously to raygne / and long to enioy my place / 1410 To thy will & pleasure and the comen welthe / Justly here to gouerne / in great Joy & helthe / 202 Lauctor G. C. Wt that I sawe his brethe / fast con- sume away And lyfe also / allthoughe he ware a kyng / Whan deathe was come / nedes he must obeye 1415 ffor dethe is indyfferent / to eche crea- ture lyvyng He sparithe none / all is to hyme oon rykconyng / All estates by deathe must end / there is none other bootte Loo here nowe I lie / quod he / vnder nethe your foote / 203 Makyng thus an end / of his most dolor- ous talke / 1420 I strayt awoke / owt of my sobbyng slomber Morpheus than forsoke me / and forthe began to walke But ffantzy wt me abode / who did me myche encomber Puttyng me in remembraunce / of the lamentable nomber Which in my slepe I sawe / wt euery circumstance / 1425 Yt was no small greave / to my dull remembraunce / 204 And whan I degested / eche thyng as it was I cowld but lament / in my faythfull hart To se the want / of our wonted solas Wt whome I nedes must take suche equall part 1430 And than to my remembraunce / I dyd agayn reuert Recountyng his noblenes / shortly to con- clude 382 GEORGE CAVENDISH Wrott than thus his Epitaphe / in sen- An Achilles in presse tence brefe & rude / Epytaphe Victoryously didest rayn / The viiijth Herrye Worthy most souerayn Tenthe worthy worthy / A Jupiter of providence / A strengthe of Herculus A Mars of excellence / A paynfull Pirrus A Ceser of clemancye A Corage of Hector 10 A Salomon in sapience An Armez of Arthore A Cicero in eloquence / A hardy Anyball / A Davyd in prudence / A Allexander liberall In gouernaunce Agamemnon 20 A force of Sampson A Charlmayn in myght A Godfray of Bulloyn A Rowlond in fyght / An holy Phocion A contynent ffabricyus An intier Caton A pieusaunt Pompeyus A Marcus Marcellus A Sipio Affrican 30 A Ceaser Julius An other Octauyan This beawtie of Britayne Reyned prosperously Of progeny Grecean Dissendyd lynyally Whos honour to magnefie The myghty power dyvyn Hathe chosen hyme for (thye) A Plato in peace Above the sterres to shyn 40 Of beawtie an Absolon ffinis G. C. Troy. This however constitutes no Grecian 8. Pirrus. Singer prints Janus. 25-6. Praise of Henry VIII for the austerity of Phocion or the frugality of Fabricius is nearly as much out of place as for the clemency of Caesar, line 9. Grecean. Englishmen claimed descent from a mythical Brutus or Brut, a Trojan hero who found his way to Britain after the fall of 39. inheritance. See note Garland 405. The MS reads thyn, which is at the extreme edge of the leaf. Singer printed thyn eie, probably thinking that eie, “aye,’”’ had been trimmed away. I prefer to consider that Cavendish meant ‘‘forthye,” i.e., therefore, and wrote thyn by attraction of the rime above and that approaching. \ / MORLEY’S TRANSLATION OF PETRARCH’S TRIUMPH OF LOVE, BOOK I Henry Parker, eighth (or tenth?) baron Morley by right of his mother, born 1476 and died 1556, was for years gentleman usher to Henry the Eighth, and resident at the royal court. His connection with both Wyatt and Surrey is note- worthy in view of his similar literary interests. His daughter Jane married George | viscount Rochford, cousin to Surrey and brother to Anne Boleyn, with whom Rochford suffered death; another daughter married Sir John Shelton, whose child Mary not only owned and annotated one of the few existing manuscripts of Wyatt’s poems, but has written her name at the foot of a page carrying the unique copy of his acrostic-poem on the name Sheltun. The similarity in literary interest among Wyatt, Surrey, and Morley has, however, not the smallest parallel in literary command. Morley read Italian, an accomplishment of which he was proud; and he executed numerous translations from Italian or from Latin, often presenting them to the princess Mary, King Henry’s eldest daughter. In the dedication to his prose translation of the Dream of Scipio, offered later to the ‘““Lady Mary suster” of Edward VI, Morley says that it had been his habit to send the princess each year either a Latin work by some Christian doctor or something translated by himself. Other translations by him, still existing in the gift-copies, are dedicated to Henry VIII or to a lord of the court ; these never have any literary value, but the prefixed addresses are of anti- quarian interest. That accompanying the prose translation of Boccaccio’s De Claris Mulieribus, offered to Henry VIII, was printed by Waldron in his Literary Museum, London, 1792, and reprinted thence by Paget Toynbee in his Dante in English Literature, i:33-35. That prefixed to the translation of Turrecremata’s commentary on Psalm 36, with an accompanying “sonnet”, was printed by Flugel in Anglia 13 :73-75, and is addressed to “the Lady Mary doughter” of Henry the Eighth. The prose translation of Plutarch’s life of Agesilaus was dedicated to Lord Cromwell; in it Morley tells Cromwell that the work “was translated from Greke into Latyn by Antony Tudartyn and drawen out of Latyn into Englishe by me Henry Lord Morley”. Other translations by. Morley, still in manuscript, are preserved in the British Museum collection of Royal MSS, as below. Morley’s Italian work has more interest for us than have his translations from the Latin ;—the prose rendering of Masuccio’s forty-ninth novel offered to Henry VIII, and the ambitious attempt in verse at Petrarch’s Trionfi, dedicated to the young Lord Maltravers, from which selection is here made. Maltravers, son of the earl of Arundel, is the same youth who is lamented in a poem printed in Tot- tel’s Miscellany, p. 118 of the Arber edition, and there said to be from Dr. Had- don’s Latin. The date of Maltravers’ death is in the text given as July 31 in the fourth year of Queen Mary, i.e., 1556, and he is stated to have been nineteen years old at the time. Since Morley himself died in 1556, aged eighty, and would hardly have offered the Petrarch-translation to a very young boy, he was probably over seventy when this work was undertaken. The Trionfi of Petrarch show, more than any other part of his writing, the influence of Dante’s Commedia. Like the Commedia, their dominant figure is that of the beloved lady; and there are constantly situations, choices of material, and [ 383 ] 384 HENRY LORD MORLEY turns of phrase, which show study of Dante’s masterpiece. The Trionfi were very widely circulated, often with the Sonette and Rime. Hundreds of MSS exist, and after the first printing in 1470 the editions follow almost annually for years, The work was translated into French prose by La Forge and printed as early as 1514, with several reprintings. Whether one of those editions, or the verse-translation into French by Jean Maynier baron d’Oppéde, printed 1538, was seen by Morley, whether he used a manuscript or a print of the Italian, we do not know. He professes great admiration for Petrarch and for the Trionfi, which he places above all work done in any vulgar tongue,—without recognition of Dante. True, Dante is mentioned, and is given formal precedence over Petrarch, in Morley’s earlier dedication of the De Claris Mulieribus to King Henry; but Morley there says what we can well believe true, that there was at that time in Italy scarcely a prince or noble gentleman who had not Petrarch’s poems in his hands. It was Petrarch, in less degree Serafino, who caught the English ear of Wyatt, and who attracted that of many another Tudor poet. The Court of Love stencil, and the “conceits” of Petrarch, had more validity for the mid-sixteenth century than had Dante; only Sackville, in his Induction, printed 1563, turns to the stronger spirit. There is indeed in the Trionfi’s blending of allegory, pageant, classic legend, and worship of the Lady, as in its interlinking plan, just the sort of material and of structure which would please adolescent Tudor literature. The six Trionfi form a series. In the first of them, that of Cupid or Love, the onlooker sees humanity vanquished by the winged god, who is in turn compelled to yield to Chastity in the second of the poems, as Chastity falls before Death in the third, the Triumph of Death. Death is then triumphed over by Fame, who is later obliged to surrender to Time, and Time to Eternity or Divinity. Compare the appearance of Death, Fame, Time, and Eternity, one following another, at the close of Hawes’ Pastime of Pleasure. The whole was never completed; among the mass of existing MSS there are variants which show the poet retouching his work to the end of his life; but of a final version, or of any one recension as nearer definitive than the others, it is im- possible to speak. Our uncertainty as to which recension Morley used is increased by the freedoms and the inaccuracies of his handling, through which his original can often not be discerned; cf., e.g., lines 10, 131-2. If one compares his transla- tion with the two main types of Petrarchan text as edited by Appel, it will appear that Morley leans sometimes to one type, sometimes to the other. See for instance his lines 93, 229 with the Laurentian-Parma recension, and then his lines 8, 30, 36, 200 with the Casanatensis type. A mere glance over Morley’s work will show the inadequacy of his imagina- tion and the poverty of his ear. His rhythmic peculiarities are not the conscious licences of the competent poet nor the struggles of a strong and gifted spirit with language ; they are the deaf stupidities of the complacently ignorant versifier. His value for the modern reader resides in the likenesses and differences between him and his contemporary and fellow-courtier Wyatt. On the one hand, both read Italian, both translated Petrarch, both found it difficult to adjust language to the pentameter line; one the other hand, Wyatt ventured into terza rima and the son- net, while Morley stayed by the couplet or prose. It is worth noticing not only that Wyatt moved better in his couplet than in his sonnets, and that he chose or modelled a sonnet-form clinched by a couplet, but that later translations of this PETRARCH’S TRIUMPH OF LOVE, BOOK I 385 same Trionfo, in 1644 and in 1807, preferred the couplet. English has always leaned to the couplet-structure. In the Italian there are 160 lines of terza rima; the translation by Anna Hume in 1644 kept to the same number of verses, but that of Henry Boyd in 1807 runs to 196, that of Morley to 250 lines. Morley’s expansion is due in many cases to lines and half-lines of padding for rime’s sake; see note on line 16. But he also expands to display his knowledge, as in lines 21-24 with their picture of a Roman triumph, or in the biographical details added to Petrarch’s list of lovers, lines 200 ff. Mistranslations occur ; see notes on 103, 210, 229. I subjoin brief passages from the opening of the Hume and the Boyd trans- lations, to illustrate the difference in rhythmical flow. It was the time when I do sadly pay My sighs, in tribute to that sweet-sour day Which first gave being to my tedious woes; The sun now o’er the Bull’s horns proudly goes, And Phaeton had renew’d his wonted race; (1644) The fatal morning dawn’d, that brought again The sad memorial of my ancient pain; That day, the source of long-protracted woe, When I began the plagues of Love to know. Hyperion’s throne, along the azure field, Between the splendid horns of Taurus wheel’d; And from her spouse the Queen of Morn withdrew Her sandals, gemm’d with frost-bespangled dew. (1807) The whole of each version may be read in a volume of Petrarch’s sonnets, Tri- umphs, and other poems, translated by various hands, with a life of the poet by Thomas Campbell prefixed, London, 1859, again 1901. And it may be added that the Triumph of Death was translated into terza rima by Mary Sidney countess of Pembroke two generations later than Morley; her work is printed in PMLA 27 47-75 by Frances Young. The present text is reprinted from Cawood’s edition pubd. during the reign of Mary, ca.1555; it was reprinted for the Roxburghe Club in 1887, and this canto, the first part of the “Triumphus Amoris”, was printed (with modernized or- thography) by G. F. Nott in his edition of Wyatt and Surrey, 1815, i: appendix 36. Much of the dedication to Lord Maltravers is printed by Fltgel in Anglia 13: 72-3 footnote; and in his Neuengl. Lesebuch i:111 Fliigel reprinted the twenty opening lines of this “canto”, from Cawood. Morley’s “sonnet” on the Psalms, printed by Fliigel, zbid., p. 110, and in Anglia as cited, p. 75, is given here from MS. Brit. Mus. Royal 18 A xv, the presentation copy to the Princess Mary. SELECT REFERENCE LIST XVII Wyatt’s poems are ed. by Miss Foxwell in two vols., London, 1913. Morley’s translations still in MS are listed in the Dict. Nat. Biog. article on him; see earlier, Walpole’s Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, London, 1759, i :92-96. The Masuccio novel and its dedication are printed by Brie in Archiv 124:46-57. Petrarch’s Trionfi are ed. by Appel, Halle, 1901. 386 HENRY LORD MORLEY The Catalogue of Western MSS in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols., is of 1921. See, e.g., for Morley the Seneca in 17 A xxx, the Dream of Scipio in 18 A Ix, the Athanasius in 17 C xii. Two brief bits by Morley, the lines beginning “Neuer was I lesse alone”, and those beginning “All men do wisshe”, are printed by Fliigel in his Lesebuch, pp. 37-8, and also in Arber’s Surrey and Wyatt anthology, 1900, pp. 128-9. The latter was also printed in Bliss’ Athenae Oxon. i:118, the former in the British Bibliog- rapher, iv:107, and in Foxwell’s Wyatt, ii:162-3. The source of this stanza is discussed MLNotes 24 :54,123,226 and 34:122,441. Its theme is cited by Petrarch in his De vita solitaria as from Scipio and Cicero; Morley may have taken it from him. a) Wee LS eee [The Dedicatory Letter] Unto the mooste | towarde yonge gentle Lord Matrauers | sonne and heyre apparaunt to the worthy and noble | Earle of Arundel, your poore frende Henry Par | ker knyght, Lorde Morley, prayeth to God that | the vertue whiche doth floryshe in you in | this youre tender age, maye more and | more increase in you, to the comfort | of all that loue you, vnto the | laste age. The fables of Isope (mooste towarde younge Lorde) are not only had in com- mendation amonge the Philosophers, as with Plato, Aristotle, & diuerse other of ye moste excellent of them, but also the deuines, when in theyr preachynges there cometh to theyr purpose any matter, to rehearse to the rude people, they alledge the allegorye sence of them, to the muche edification of the hearers. I saye therfore, that amonge other his wyttye fables (not to you noble gentleman vnknowen) he telleth, how that the cocke scrapynge on a doungehill, found a precious stone, and when he sawe it, disdayninge, he spurned it from hym, sayinge, what haue I to do with the, thou canste not serue me to no kynde of vse, and so dispysynge it, left it where as it laye on the dongehyll styll. Euen so there be a nomber of that sorte, that percase when they shall eyther heare redde, or them selfe reade this excellent tryumphes, of this famous clercke Petrarca, shall lytle set by them, and peraduenture caste it from them, desyrynge rather to haue a tale prynted of Robyn Hoode, or some other dongehyll matter then of this, whiche I dare affirme, yea, and the Italians do the same, that the diuine workes set aparte, there was neuer in any vulgar speech or language, so notable a worke, so clerckely done as this his worke. And albeit that he setteth forth these syxte wonderfull made triumphes all to the laude of hys Ladye Laura, by whome he made so many a swete sonnet, that neuer yet no poete nor gentleman could amend, nor make the lyke, yet who that doth vnderstande them shall se in them comprehended al morall vertue, all Phylosophye, all story all matters, and briefely manye devyne sentences theologicall secretes declared. But alas who is he that will so reade them, that he wyl marke them, or what prynter wyll not saye, that he may winne more gayne in pryntynge of a merye ieste, then suche lyke excellente workes, suerlye (my good Lorde) very fewe or none, whyche I do lamente at my harte, consyderynge that aswel in French, as in the Italyan (in the whyche both tongues I haue some lytle knowledge) there is no excellente worke in the latyn, but that strayght wayes they set it forth in the vulgar, moost commonly to their kynges and noble prynces of theyr region and countreys: As one of late dayes that was grome of the chaumber with that renowmed and valyaunte Prynce of hyghe memorye, Fraunces the Frenche kynge, whose name I haue forgotten, that dydde translate these tryumphes to that sayde kynge, whyche he toke so thankefullye, that he gaue to hym for hys paynes an hundred crounes, to hym and to his heyres of inheritaunce to enioye to that value in lande for euer, and toke suche pleasure in it, that wheresoeuer he wente amonges hys precyous Iewelles, that booke was alwayes caryed with hym for his pastyme to loke vpon, and as much estemed by hym, as the rychest Diamonde he hadde: whiche sayde booke, when I sawe the From:—The tryumphes of Fraunces Petrarcke, translated out of Italian into English by Henrye Parker knyght, Lord Morley. [Colophon] Printed at London in Powles Churchyarde at the sygne of the Holy Ghost, by John Cawood, Prynter to the Quenes hyghnes. [After 1553]. PETRARCH’S TRIUMPH OF LOVE, BOOK I 387 coppye of it, I thoughte in my mynde, howe I beynge an Englishe man, myght do as well as the Frenche man, dyd translate this sayde worke into our maternall tounge, and after much debatyng with my selfe, dyd as your Lordshyppe doth se, translate the sayde booke to that moost worthy kynge our late soueraygne Lorde of perpetuall memorye kynge Henrye theyghte, who as he was a Prynce aboue all other mooste excellente, so toke the worke verye thankefullye, merueylynge muche howe I coulde do it, and thynkynge verelye I hadde not doone it, wythoute helpe of some other, better knowynge the Italyan tounge then I: but when he knewe the verye treweth, that I hadde traunslated the worke my selfe, he was more pleased therewith then he was before, and so what his highnes dyd with it, is to me vnknowen, one thynge is, that I dyd it in suche hast, that doubtles in many places (yf it were agayne in my handes) I thynke I coulde well amende it, albeit that I professe, I haue not erred moche from the letter, but in the ryme, whiche is not possible for me to folow in the translation, nor touche the least poynt of the elegancy that this elegant Poete hath set forth in his owne maternall tongue. But as it is, if in the translation there be any thynge to be amended, or any wyll depraue it, I shall praye you (mooste noble younge Lorde) the very myrroure of al the yonge noble gentelmen of this realme in vertue, in learnynge, and in all other feates appertayning to such a Lorde as you be, to defende it a-agaynst those that will more by enuy then by knowledge depraue it, and then I do not feare but those that knowe and can speake the Italian, will beare with the simple translation, and commende the worke, as it is so muche commendable, that it can not be to dere bought, I desyre god noble yonge gentleman, to make the lorde Matrauers an olde gen- tleman, and | then thy worthy father the Earle of Arundell | my most speciall good Lorde and frend, shall make | an olde Earle and lyue | vsque in senium et senectum. Dizi | Henry Morelye. The first Chapter of the Tryumphe of Loue. In the tyme of the Renewinge of my sus- pyres By the swete remembraunce of my louely desyres That was the begynnynge of soo longe a payne The fayre Phebus the bull dyd attayne And warmyd had the tone and tother horne 5 Wherby the colde wynter stormes were worne And Tytans chylde with her frostye face Ran from the heate to her aunciente place Loue, grefe, and complaynt, oute of rea- son Had brought me in such a case that sea- son 10 That myne eyes closed, and I fell to reste The very Remedye to such as be oppreste And ther on the grene, as I reposed fast Sodenly me thought, as I myne eyes vp cast I sawe afore me a maruelous great lighte 15 Wherin as well comprehend then, I myghte Was doloure ynough wyth smale sporte & play And thus in my dreame musyng, as I laye I sawe a great Duke victorious to beholde Tryumphyng on a chayre, shynyng as golde 20 Muche after the olde auncient sage wyse That the bolde Romayns vsed in there guyse When to the Capytoll the vyctors were brought With right riche Robes curiously were wrought I that such sightes was not wont to se 25 In this noyous worlde wherein I fynde me Uoyde from the olde valure & yet more in pryde Sawe comming towardes me ther on euery side Dyuerse men wyth straunge and queynte arraye Not vsyd amonge vs at this present daye Which made me wonder what persons thei shuld be 3I As one glad to learne, and some new thinges to se 388 HENRY | LORD.’ MORLEY There sawe I a boye on a firye chayre on hyghte Drawen with foure coursers all mylke whight Wyth bowe in hande and arrowes sharpe & keene 35 Against whome no shylde nor helme so sheene Myght in no wyse the mortale stroke wythstand When he shote wyth his most dreadfull hande To this also a straunge sight to se Two wynges vpon his shoulders had he 40 Wyth coloures more then I can wryte or tell A thousande dyuers this I noted well And all the rest were nakyd to the skynne ‘Aboute the chayre where that this boye was in Some laye there deade gapynge on the grounde 45 Some with his dartes had taken meny a wound Some were prysoners and could not scape away But folowed styll the chayre nyght and day I that sawe this wonderfull straunge sight To know what it mente, dyde that I myght 50 Tyll at the last I dyd perceaue and se My selfe to be amonge that company So had loue led me on that dawnce That as it lyked her, so must I take the chawnce I then among that great number in that place 55 Lokyng here and there in eche mannes face Yf any of myne Acquayntaunce I coulde se But none was there except perchaunce that he By age or death or payne was chaunged quyte As that I neuer had hym knowen by syght 60 Wyth folowing that great kyng in that houre That is the grounde and cause of all dolowre Thus all astonied as I loked here and there All sodenly afore me then dyd there ap- peare A shadowe much more sadde for to re- garde 65 Than all the reste that I had sene or harde This sayd shadowe called me by name And sayd by loue is gotten all this fame Whereat I marueyled and sayde to hym agayne How knowest thou me, to learne I wold be faine 70 For who thou arte I doo not knowe at all So wonderous derke is here thys ayre and all That I can nether perceaue nor yet well se What man thou art nor whence pt thou should be To that anone this shadowe to me sayde I am thy frende thou nedest not be dis- mayde 76 And borne in Toscane where bu was borne perdye Thyne auncient frende if that thou lyst to se His wordes whiche that I knewe by dayes paste By his speche, I knewe hym at the last 8c¢ All though his face, I coulde not then well se And thus in talkyng together went we And he beganne and thus to me dyd saye It is right longe and thereto many a day That I haue loked the my frynde to se 85 Amonge vs here in this our companye For thy face was to me a token playne That ones thou shouldest know loues payne To whome I made aunswere and sayde These wordes by me they cannot be de- nayde 90 But the sorowe the daunger and the dreade That louers haue at the ende for theyr meade So put me in feare, that I left all asyde Leste that my seruyce should be cleane denyde Thus sayd I and when he well percey- ued 95 Myne entention and my wordes conceyued es PETRARCH’S TRIUMPH OF LOVE, BOOK I Smylynge he sayde what flame of fyre Hath loue kyndled in thy hartys de- syre I vnderstode then lytle what he ment For his wordes vnto my heade then went As fyrme and fast sure set anone 01 As they had bene prynted in a marbell stone And thus for the newe game that I be- _ gane I prayde hym tell me of verie gentlenes than What people these were that afore me went 105 He aunswered bryfely to myne intente That I should knowe what they should be And be shortly one of theyr companye And that it was my destany and lotte ‘That loue shoulde tye for me such a knotte IIo That I shoulde fyrst chaunge my heade to graye Or that I coulde vnclose that knot away But to fulfyll thy yonge desyre sayth he I shall declare what kynde of men they be And fyrst of the capteynes of them all 175 His maner playne declare the I shall This is he that loue the worlde doth name Bytter as thou shalt well conceyue the same And much the more when the tyme shall be That thou shalt be amonge this companie A .meke chylde in his lustye yonge age I2I And in elde one all full of rage Well knoweth he that thys hath prouyd When thou by hym art heaued and shoued Thy selfe shall well see and vnder- stand 125 What a maister thou hast then in hande This god hath his fyrst byrth of ydelnes Noryshed with mankyndes foly and wan- tones And of vayne thoughtes plesaunt and swete To a sage wyse man nothynge mete 130 Callyd a god of the people most vayne All be it he geueth for theyr rewarde and payne Some the death forthwyth out of hande Some alonge tyme in miserye to stand To loue I say them that loues not hym 135 389 Fast tyed and fetred both cheke and chynne Nowe haue I declared to the this goddes feste Nowe wy! I tell the in order of the reste Hym that thou seest that so lordely doth go And leadeth wyth hym his loue also 140 ‘It is the valeaunte Cesar, Julius Wyth hym is quene Cleopatra the beuti- ouse She tryumphes of hym and that is good ryghte That he that ouercame the worlde by myght Should hymselfe ouer commen be 145 By his loue euen as thou mayest se The next vnto hym is his sonne deare The great Augustus that neuer had peare That louyde more iustly then Cesar playne By request hys Lyuya he dyd obtayne 150 The thyrde is the dyspytefull tyraunte Nero That furyously as thou seest doth go And yet a woman hym ouercame Wyth her regardes Lo she made hym tame Beholde the same, is the good Marcus Worthy to haue prayse for his lyfe ver- tuouse 156 Full of phylosophy both the tounge and breste Yet for Fausteyn he standeth (at) ar- reste The tother two that stand hym by That loke both twayne so fearefullye 160 The tone is Denyse the tother Alexander That well was rewarded for his sclaunder The tother was he that soore complayned Under Antander wyth teares vnfayned The death of Creusa and toke awaye 165 The loue from hym as the poete doth saye That toke from Euander his sone deare Among the rest thou mayest se hym here Hast thou harde euer reason heretofore Of one that neuer would consent more To hys stepmothers foull and shamefull desires 171 But flye from her syght and her attyres But wo alas that same chast honest mynde Was his death as thou mayst playnely fynde 158. The printed text reads as instead of at. 390 HENRY LORD MORLEY Because she chaunged hyr loue vnto hate Phedra she hyght that caused the de- bate 176 And yet was it hyr owne Death also A sore punyshment vnto both them two To (Theseus) that deceyued Adryan Wherefore it is full often founde than That one that blameth another parde 181 He hym selfe is more to blame then he And who so he be wythouten any doubte That by fraude or crafte doth go aboute Another that trusteth hym for to be- guyle Yt is good reason that wyth that selfe wyle 186 He be seruyd wyth that same sawse Lo what it is a louer to be false, This is he the famouse worthy knyght That betwyxt two systers standeth vp- ryghte 190 The tone by hym was cruelly slayne The tother his loue in ioye dyd remayne: He that goeth with hym in the route It is Hercules, the stronge, fierce, and stoute That loue caused to folowe hyr daunce: To other whiche in louynge had harde chaunce It is Achylles the Greke so bolde That for Polexemes loue dyed, as it is tolde. There mayst thou see also Demophone And Phylys hys loue, that sore dyd mone 200 Hys absence, wherby that she dyed. Lo those that stande vpon the tother syde Is Iason, and Medea that for his loue Deceaued hyr father his trueth to proue The more vngentle is Jason in dede 205 That gaue hyr suche rewarde for hyr mede. Hysyphyle foloweth and she doth wayle also For the barbarouse loue was taken hyr fro Next in ordre there commeth by and by He that hath the name moost excel- lently 210 Of bewtye, and with hym commeth she That ouersone behelde his beutye Wherby ensued innumerable of harmes Thoroughe out the world by Mars charmes Beholde I praye the among the com- panye 215 Enone complaynynge full heauely For Parys that dyd hyr falsly betraye And toke in hyr stede fayre Helen awaye Se also Menelaus the Grekysse kynge For his wyfe Helene in greate mourn- ynge 220 And a the fayre Horestes for to ca And Laodome that standeth all apall ine for hyr love the good Protheosso- aus And argia the faythfull for Pollynisus Here I pray the, the greuous lament- ynges 225 The syghes, the sorowes, and the bewayl- ynges Of the myserable louers in this place That are brought into so dolorous case That there spyrytes they are about to rendre Unto the fals God that is so sclendre 230 I can not nowe tell the all the names That the false God of loue thus tames Not onely men that borne be mortall But also the hyghe greate Goddes super- nall 234 Are here in this greate and darke presse What shulde I any more nowe rehearse Se where Uenus doth stande with Mars Whose heade and legges the yron doth enbrase And Pluto and Preserpyne on the other syde And Iuno the ielyous for all hyr pryde And Apollo with his gaye golden lockes That gaue vnto Uenus scornes and mockes 242 Yet in Thessalia with this boyes fyrye darte This great God was pearsed to the harte And for conclusion, the Goddes and God- desses al 245 Of whome Uarro doth make rehearsall Beholde how afore loues chayre they goo Fast fettred and chayned from toppe to too And Jupiter, hym selfe, the great myghty kynge Amonge the other, whiche is a maruelous thing. 250 [There follow Chapter ii, 274 lines, Chap- ter iii, 278 lines, Chapter iv, 222 lines. Next comes the Triumph of Chastity, 278 lines; then the Triumph of Death, in two parts, of 222 and 224 lines. The Triumphs of Fame, Time, and Divinity (or Eternity) complete the work.] A “SONNET” ON THE PSALMS 391 A “SONNET” ON THE PSALMS The manuscript now marked Royal 18 A xv, of the British Museum, is the gift-copy to the princess Mary Tudor of Morley’s prose translation of Turre- cremata’s commentary on the thirty-sixth Psalm. It is of nine leaves only; and on the last page, following the translation, we find :— Carmina Maphei Vegu Laudensis de vtilitate psalmorum Orpheu sileto abijcite Mercurii lyram Et tu Tripus obliterate Delphice. Nam Dauid ad nos spiritus pulsans lyram Mysteriorum operta patefecit dei. Miraculorum signat veterum copiam. Creata sit creantis in laudem sui. Preseruat omnes initians misteriis. Inter futura aperit iudicium iudiciis. The Englyshe of thies verses. In an Italion Ryme called . Soneto . Orpheus with thy musyke and all thy pryde. And thou Mercurius do thy harpe away And thow three fotede Apollo . I . do say Sett your Armony quyte and clene asyde. ffor dauid that the spryte of trueth tryde. Playnge on hys harpe the swete holy lay The mysterys of god dothe manifestly play In shewynge vs christe that on the crosse dyede And all creatures exhorteth to commende The hyghe god and celestiall kynge. And made with hys worde eury thynge. As the Iudge of vs all at the latter ende. Then let vs pretende Hys name to gloryfy hys mercy to reherse. Whiche Dauid harppes on in many a swete verse. Finis. The Latin which Morley translates was written by Mapheus Vegius of Lodi, who died in 1457. The Maxima Biblioteca Veterum Patrum, Leyden, 1677. con- tains in its vol. 26, pp. 632-787, a collection of Vegius’ work in prose and verse,— religious, didactic, allegorical, and pseudo-classical. The best-known of these compositions is a supplementary or thirteenth book to the Aeneid, which is to be found in many early editions of Virgil, and was included in Douglas’ translation of the Aeneid. In the Carmina Illustrium Poetarum Italorum, 11 vols, Florence, 1719-26, are printed (vol. 10) many epistles and epitaphs by Vegius, some “‘rustic- alia”, and (vols. 6 and 7) various poems addressed to Vegius by his contemporaries. This poem on the Psalms is not in either of the above-mentioned collections. With Morley’s application of the term “soneto” to his 15-line rendering of the Latin cp. Gascoigne’s (1563) definition in his Certayne Notes. Gascoigne there says,—“some think that all Poems (being short) may be called Sonets”’, but that he can best allow the word to be used of poems having fourteen lines, each line with ten syllables. In 1869 the editor of Hearne’s Reliquiae (see p. 218 here) applied the term “sonnets” to roundels translated from Charles d’Orléans ; one of these may be read on p. 231 above. WALTON’S TRANSLATION OF BOETHIUS A. PREFACE, PROLOGUE, METRE I, PROSE I [PAGE 42 1 ff. Apologies for “rude langage” and for “wittes dulle’ are formula with late medieval writers. Courtly versifiers often protested that the noble lady their subject was far beyond her servant’s powers of description, or indeed beyond that of any human tongue; writings of a more intellectual cast bewailed the poet’s inferiority to his model or his non-acquaintance with the Muses. Such apologies are often accompanied by the stereotyped request for the reader’s indulgence or for his corrective hand; and all this material was properly found in the prologue, with echo sometimes in the envoy or epilogue. Its appearance elsewhere in the work marks a growth towards individual expression. Another line of that growth was in the conception of the prologue itself. One type of the medieval prologue was the scholastic, organized according to Aristotle; it is discussed by Hope Allen in Romanic Review 8:454 ff. In its stricter early medieval construction it persists in such later works as Brunetto Latini’s Trésor, in Dante’s Convito, in Bokenam’s Legends. Its function was the preliminary stating of the “four causes” of the work which followed, causes “material, formal, final, and efficient”. The efficient cause, Bokenam says, is the author, the final cause his purpose; the matter of the work and its arrangement are included under the two other heads, But another type of prologue, which we may call the “rhetorical”, gained ground as the scholastic method relaxed; it is discussed in the pseudo-Ciceronian treatise Ad Herennium, the source of so much of the rhetorical theory of the latter Middle Ages. An “exordium”, says the Ad Herennium i, 4, may precede the argument for a cause which is either honest, vicious, doubtful, or humble; each of these is defined and the manage- ment of the audience for each is counselled. There are two sorts of exordia, that which the Greeks call the prohemium and that which is termed the epodos or “insinuatio”’. The proheme endeavors to attune the minds of the listeners, ta render them sympathetic toward a doubtful or a vicious case, attentive to a humble case. If the case be an honorable one, the proheme may or may not be used. Study of English prologues or prohemes written in the Transition age shows very plainly the attempt to win the sympathy and attention of the reader. In a literary period so controlled by aristocratic patronage this would naturally be the case; the author’s self-depreciation, his entreaty for indulgence, are aimed at the patron’s sympathy, just as the frequent praise of literature aims at holding his attention. And eulogy of the noble patron is of course to be expected in work done to order. It was the freer relation of author to the larger public, if only in the author’s thought, which brought about the great contrast between most medieval prologues and the prologues of Chaucer, even of Gower; and it is the relapse to protected literature which stamps most of the prologues of the fifteenth century. A comparative study of prologues in this period would have value for this reason alone, for there can be traced in each writer of the Transition, in Hoccleve’s evasion of the prologue, in Walton’s quiet business-like treatment, in Lydgate’s effusive obedience to code, in all the later combinations of tone, the varying relations between the stereotype and the increasingly plastic state of a liter- ature which was responding to social change. It is clarity which Walton seeks; and after complying briefly with conventional require- ment in his preface, he devotes a prologue to the historical setting of the Consolatio. 4. yowre hest, the command of Elizabeth Berkeley, according to the 1525 print as men- tioned in the introd. above. The absence of emphasis from Walton’s allusion to his supposed patroness should be compared with the tone e.g. of Hoccleve, of Lydgate, and of the Palladius- translator towards Gloucester; see pp. 90, 203, here. 13-17 may be paraphrased: “I pray to God so to help me with his inspiration that it (the text of Boethius) be not defouled nor corrupted by my translation——to God, who is both lock and key to wisdom, that I vary not from the text—’etc. 14, 16. Schiimmer in his critical edition puts a semicolon after each of these lines, thus destroying the syntactical connection. With 16 cp. Bokenam as cited note on 44 below. [ 392 ] PAGE 42] BOETHIUS-TRANSLATION: A 393 17. As for, etc. This use of as to introduce a precatory clause is characteristic of MidEng; cp. KnTale 1458, “As sende love and pees bitwixe hem two”, or Hoccleve’s LettCupid 30, “As doth me grace” etc. 18. his. The neuter pronoun its is a late coinage, rare in Shakespeare and not in the 1611 version of the Bible. 19. And wordes eke. This is an unusual statement for a medieval translator; the general attitude is that of Lydgate in the Dance Macabre 666,—‘“‘Not worde by worde but folwynge the substaunce”. Bokenam, finishing his life of St. Agnes, says, line 680 ff., that he has followed St. Ambrose Not wurde for wurde for bat ne may be In no translacyoun aftyr Ieromys decre But fro sentence to sentence. St. Jerome, in his epistle Ad Pammachium, no. 57 of his Epistles, declares that he has endeavored “non verbum e verbo, sed sensum exprimere de sensu” in translating from the Greek. He supports himself by reference to Cicero and to Horace’s Ars Poetica; and further on in the same letter he says, of interpreting the Apostles and Evangelists to elucidate the Old Testament,—“sensum quaesisse, non verba; nec magnopere de ordine sermonibus curasse, dum intellectui res pareret.” Also, in writing to Theophilus, epistle 114, Jerome says that his disciple should endeavor, when translating, “ut nihil desit ex sensibus, cum aliquid desit ex verbis.” Jerome’s words became law to the medieval mind; John of Salisbury dresses the principle more gracefully, but nevertheless conforms to it, when he writes (Polycraticus v:2) that he works “ita tamen ut sententiarum vestigia potius imitarer, quam passus verborum.” 25. This and the following stanza are printed by Todd in his Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer, page xxxii; also by Skeat, Oxford Chaucer ii :xvi-xvii. 26-27. So far as we know, Walton was preceded in English only by King Alfred’s prose, by the anon. Old Eng. alliterative version of the Metra, and by Chaucer. We do not however know the date of that revamping of Chaucer’s first book which is preserved in the fifteenth- century MS Bodl. Auct. F. 3, 5. And it must be noted that swm, as here used by Walton, may be either plural or singular. 29. word for word. Chaucer’s translation is closer to the Latin than is Walton’s; his principal divergences from Boethius are the doubling of terms to translate a single Latin word, and the frequent insertion of explanatory glosses. The adoption of some of these glosses into Walton’s text is, as Cossack points out, one of the clearest proofs of Walton’s study of Chaucer. 37. dop trete. On the auxiliary do in MidEng, especially in Walton, see p. 89 of Hittmair’s monograph in Ref.List below. Cp. dede line 56 below. 38. book of moralite. Gower’s Confessio Amantis. 44. Witnes vppon Ierome, etc. The passage referred to is probably that in Jerome’s letter to Eustachius, no. 22 of his Epistles as ed. in Migne’s Patrologia Latina. Jerome there asks what Horace has to do with the Psalter, or Virgil with the Gospels; “we ought not”, he says, “to drink at the same time from the cup of Christ and from the cup of demons.” He narrates a dream in which he was castigated before the Throne for his love of heathen authors; to his assertion that he was a Christian the Divine Voice replied, “Thou liest, thou art a Ciceronian.” And punishment followed, until he repented. With Walton’s disclaimer here we may compare Lydgate in the Life of Our Lady :— Nether to clyo ne to calyope Me list not calle for to helpe me Ne to no muse my poyntel for to gye But leve al this and say vnto marie... . Cp. also St. Edmund i. 90-92. Bokenam in his prolocutory to the life of St. Mary Magdalen says, line 234 ff. Wher fore lord to be alone I crye Wych welle art of mercy & of pyte And neyther to Clyo ner to Melpomene 394 NOTES [PAGE 43 Ner to noon opir of be musys nyne Ner to Pallas Mynerue ner Lucyne Ner to Apollo wych as old poetys seye Of wysdam beryth both lok & keye Of gay speche eek & of eloquencye But alle bem wyttyrly I denye. . . Similarly Hardyng, in cap. vi of his Chronicle as printed by Grafton in 1543, enumerates a list of “old false gods” and says: “All these I wyll refuse nowe and defye And to ye God in heauen I praye in magestie My wytte to enforce—” etc. See Barclay’s eclogue iv :755-6, p. 329 here, and his prologue 116-17. 58. welles of Calliope. With this mode of protesting incapacity cp. Chaucer, prol. to the FranklTale,— I slep never on the mount of Parnaso Ne lerned Marcus Tullius Cithero,— the hint for which probably came from Persius’ prologue to his satires,— Nec fonte labra prolui caballino Neque in bicipiti somniasse Parnasso Memini, ut repente sic poeta prodirem. Chaucer is imitated by Lydgate, by Bokenam, Burgh, and others. See Lydgate’s Troy Book iii :554-56, where Lydgate says of Chaucer: For in makyng he drank of be welle Vndir Pernaso pat pe Musis kepe On whiche hil I myght neuer slepe. . . . See also the envoy to Lydgate’s Miracles of St. Edmund, the Fall of Princes iii:8-17 as printed p. 174 here, and FaPrin ix :3436-38, p. 187 here; see Burgh as printed p. 189 here. Boke- nam in the prol. to his St. Anna says: For Tullius wolde me neuer non teche Ne in Parnase wher Apollo doth dwelle I neuer slepte— The Pilgrimage to Parnassus act i, Sidney’s “I never drank of Aganippe well”, etc. return to the classics for their inspiration. 60-61. Walton here names the three Furies, and rejects them as sources of inspiration. Chaucer, in Troilus iv :22-24, had set England the fashion of invoking the Furies for a tragic composition. Lydgate appeals to the Furies in Troy Book iii:5443 ff., Duobus Mercatoribus stanza 73. Does Walton’s language here indicate knowledge of Chaucer’s Troilus? 81-88. This stanza, the second of the prologue, is by some of the MSS, as here, marked “Nota per exemplum”; this may have led to its separate copying into commonplace-books. The (later) MS Selden B 24, for instance, has this isolated stanza, marking it “Qd Chaucere”, and the lines were therefore included by Morris in the Aldine Chaucer, (see my Manual, pp. 448-9). It is in Ellesmere 26 A, 13 of the Huntington Library, in Petworth 8, in Advo- cates Libr. Edinburgh 1, 1, 6, is at the end of Brit. Mus. Adds. 29729 (John Stow’s MS), and on the endleaf of the Gower-MS formerly Phillipps 8192, with other bits. It appears in Harley 2251, fol. 152 b, as if it were the last stanza of Lydgate’s Wicked Tongue. It is also in Brit. Mus. Royal 20 B xv, see Brusendorff, p. 436. With the phrase “parelouse pestilence” in line 87 cp. the closing sentence of Boethius’ hook iii prose 5, and its rendering by Chaucer, MerchTale 549 f. The ascription of this (detached) stanza to Chaucer in Scottish MSS may be responsible for the phrase in Henry- son’s Fables, 598. See Lydgate’s Troy Book iv :4517-18. 89. oon pe principall. This usage, instead of our modern one of the principal, is regular in MidEng, also oon with the superlative, e.g. “she was oon the faireste under sonne”, Frank- Tale 6. On Nero see below, line 94 note. PAGE 43] BOETHIUS-TRANSLATION: A 395 92. hym selfe. The use of himself etc. as nominative can be exemplified from all periods of English; cp. Robert of Gloucester, Chaucer’s CanYeoTale 431, Macbeth iv, 3:150, Tenny- son, Aylmer’s Field 596,—“The dagger which himself Gave Edith.” This fact is used as argument in note on FaPrinces A 303. 94, his maistir. The philosopher and rhetorician L. Annaeus Seneca, tutor of the youthful Nero, was condemned to death by the emperor, A.D. 65, on suspicion of complicity in a conspiracy. Boethius, who perhaps was attracted to that example by his own situation, dis- cusses Nero in book ii metre 6, book iii metre 4 and prose 5. The persecution of Christians by Nero was however the principal reason for the horror in which the Middle Ages held his name. 101. Paule writeth pus, etc. The persecutions of Christians by Nero and by Domitian were regarded by the Middle Ages as the activity of Antichrist, and Nero was often identified with the evil force described by St. Paul in 2d Thessal. ii, 3-4,—“et revelatus fuerit homo peccati, filius perditionis” etc. 105. techeth. For note on verbal plural in—th see Cavendish 1261 here. See line 367 below. 125. a conquerour. Theodoric the Ostrogoth, a Christian, was encouraged by the East- ern Roman emperor Zeno to march against the heathen Odoacer, the Germanic invader of Italy, whom Theodoric overthrew, making himself the master of Italy and Western Roman Emperor in 493. He ruled ably and peacefully for thirty-three years, during which time the Eastern emperors were Zeno, Anastasius, and Justin. 136. perelus with to dele. For word-order see note on Thebes 35. 139 ff. Walton, like many medieval chroniclers, connects the fall and death of Boethius with Theodoric’s alleged persecution of Trinitarian Christians, thereby making Boethius a religious martyr. But most of the long reign of Theodoric was conspicuously tolerant; him- self an Arian, he made no move against the orthodox. It was in 523 that the Eastern emperor Justin (see line 163) made a proclamation against Manichaean and other heretics, an action which roused Theodoric to protest. At nearly the same time a conspiracy against Theodoric was discovered, fomented from the East, and Boethius was imprisoned on suspicion of com- plicity in this. Boethius’ own account of the circumstances, as given in book i prose 4 of the Consolatio, describes his repeated opposition to “graft” by highly-placed officials, his defence of unpopular men, and one case of his withstanding the emperor’s will; of doctrinal differences we hear nothing., 143. hym presente. An ablative absolute. 154-5. colors ... of rethoryk. See note on FaPrinces G 46. 168. arrians, Arians, adherents to the doctrines of Arius, presbyter of Alexandria in the fourth century, who denied that Christ was consubstantial, i.e. of the same essence, with God. Arian opinions were embraced by a large part of the Church, and the fourth century was torn with dissension. 169 ff. Paulus Diaconus, a Lombard historian of the 8th century and reputed continuer of Eutropius in a Historia Romana, has in book xvi of that work a narrative of these events. He says that in the sixth year of his reign the orthodox Eastern emperor Justin moved against heretics; that Theodoric, “Ariana lue pollutus”, sent Pope John and several dignitaries to Constantinople to protest, threatening to put “universos Italiae populos” to the sword unless Justin abandoned his purpose; that the embassy implored Justin, with tears, to save Italy, and that Justin yielded to their entreaties. But as the embassy “in itinere demorantur”, Theodoric, “rabie suae iniquitatis stimulatus”, executed both the “catholicos viros” Boethius and Symmachus. (See ed. in Monumenta Germaniae Historiae, 1878.) There is nothing in Paulus Diaconus to match Walton’s lines 195-198. 188. for baire avne beste, for their own good, to save their own necks. 200. paire olde gouernaunce. Paulus Diaconus has suo iuri. 207-8. Boethius is said to be buried in Pavia, twenty miles from Milan, where he was slain. 209 ff. Somewhat different accounts of Pope John are given by Paulus, and by Gregory of Tours in his De Gloria Martyrum cap. 40. Paulus says that when Pope John on his return went to Theodoric at Ravenna, Theodoric, “ductus malitia quod eum Justinus catholicae pietatis defensor honorifice suscepisset”, threw him and his fellow-ambassadors into prison, where 396 NOTES [PAGE 45 the pope soon died. There is nothing as specific in Paulus as is line 214 here. Gregory does not mention any embassy to Constantinople, but says that the pope endeavored to dissuade Theodoric from his intended persecution of Trinitarians, the emperor imprisoned him, etc. 217. For the slaying of Symmachus, ex-consul and Boethius’ father-in-law, see 169; see FaPrinces H. 219. heroicus. The 1525 print of Walton has here, as often, a prose note in elucidation. According to Cossack, of. cit., p. 14, it reads: “Vir heroicus ys man geuen al to contemplation and to vertu in whom al flesly passyons ben quenched and repressed.” Cossack remarks that a Latin source for this part of Walton’s text is obvious, or the Latin word would not have been dragged in. 224. The he refers to Theodoric, whose death in 526 closely followed those of Boethius and of Pope John. 223. Walton now cites Gregory as his authority. The passage may be found in Migne’s Patrologia latina ed. of Gregory’s works, Dialogue iv cap. 30, p. 368,—“De morte Theoderici regis Ariani”. Travellers to the island of Lipari, visiting a holy hermit who dwelt there, were told by him of the emperor’s death. To their denial and disbelief the hermit replied that the dayi preceding he had seen Theodoric led between Pope John and Symmachus, his hands bound, shoeless and ungirt (discinctus), and cast into the crater (ollam) of Vulcan. (The substance of 234 ff. is not in Gregory.) And on their return to Italy the travellers found that Theodoric had died on the day specified by the hermit. (Most of this is also in Paulus Diaconus op. cit.) 231. By vlcane, or the pot of Vulcan, the still smoking crater of Vulcano is meant,—one of the Lipari Islands, a volcanic group north of Sicily. 244. According to Schiimmer, all MSS present this short line; the print reads—haue ofte seyde, etc. 249 ff. The text of Boethius now begins. Wiilker prints lines 249-344, and book i metre 5 entire, from this MS, with no mention of Walton’s name. Note the alliteration in the two opening stanzas. Note that in the Trésor Amoureux conjecturally ascribed to Froissart it is said of Boethius that by Envy he was brought— Ou il disoit: Las! qu’il m’ennoie, Je vi le temps que je faisoie En paix, en recreacion Chanconnettes ot je prenoie Parfaite consolacion! ... (ed. Scheler iii :216-17) 253. redyng. So most MSS; Phillipps 1099 and Harley 43 read rendyng, and Balliol 316 B is, corrected by an inserted n. The Latin lacerae Camenae and Chaucer’s rendinge Muses show the true form of the word, but reding probably appealed to the scribes as connecting the Muses with letters; and the horizontal line, for the omitted nasal, over the vowel, was either unnoticed or ignored. Skeat ii:xxiv puts this use of the participle in the list of Chaucer’s “inaccurate, unhappy, or insufficient” renderings. See Troilus iv:358, “And with his chere and loking al totorn”; and note that Coluccio Salutati (died 1406) says in one of his letters that the Muses are integrae when wisdom is joined to eloquence and sound reason does not oppose, but are lacerae if wisdom and reason be lacking to eloquence. See Emerton, Humanism and Tyranny, Cambridge, 1925, p. 329. Wilker, accepting redyng, explained as “die mir ratenden, die zu mir sprechenden Musen”. The 1525 print of Walton changed to “Lamentable Muses”. 255-56. Added by Walton, as are 257-8, 272. 273-80. See Lydgate’s DuorMercat 743-46, and the note on FaPrinces, p. 185 here. See also Orléans xv, and Chaucer’s Troilus iv :503-4. 283. The he refers to Death, in line 284. Note Walton’s use here of Chaucer’s gloss, as frequently. Chaucer has “the sorowful houre that is to seyn the deeth”. For sodainly Walton has no authority. 285. sche, i.e. Fortune. 289-96. This stanza is expanded from two lines of the Latin. a PAGE 46] BOETHIUS-TRANSLATION: A 397 298. fyngres folde. Walton departs from the Latin for the sake of rime; Chaucer and other workers in prose are literal. 299-300 are added by Walton, also 303-4. 307. brend semyng. The Latin is “ardentibus et . . . perspicacibus”. Chaucer has “iyen brenninge and cleer seinge”. The Walton MSS vary, writing brennyng, brenned, brennes. Two MSS write “—as fire clere”. 309. As bogh. So the MSS, according to Schiimmer. The print has Al, not As. 310. corage. This very frequent Middle English word meant “temperament, mind, spirit’. By the end of the 17th century it had become limited to its present meaning. 313 ff. This stanza is full of borrowings from Chaucer. 315. extent. This reading is found, says Schtimmer, in four MSS and the print; it is much more plausible than the existent of Royal and of nine other MSS. 318-19. Mainly padding by Walton. 322. Chaucer has “subtile craft of perdurable matere’, The Latin is “subtili artificio indissolubili materia perfectae”. Putting perdurable under rime, Walton was obliged to pad the lines riming with it. 328 is added by Walton because his adoption of the word elde from Chaucer, in 326, compelled him to pad. 330, 332. Walton does not use the explanatory glosses incorporated by Chaucer into his text. Boethius, in the dialogue with Porphyrius, says “Est enim philosophia genus, species vero eius duo, una quae Jewpyrixy dicitur, altera quae mpaxtixy, id est speculativa et activa.” In Chaucer the two species are termed “the lyf actif and the lyf contemplatyf”. 333. Chaucer, following the Latin, says “there were”. 338. The translation of abstulerant as born away (so in Chaucer), and its use in rime, forced Walton to pad the riming lines. 346. approchen. The Latin is adsistentes, “standing by”. It is Chaucer who says aprochen, as also endytinge wordeg in line 347. 349. bis companye. Walton softens here, using the same word by which, in 373, he renders the Latin chorus. Boethius’ scenicae meretriculae is translated by Chaucer “comune strompetes of the stage”, by Queen Elizabeth “stagis harlotz’, by Colvile “crafty harlots’, by Cooper “seducing mummers”. 354. Walton moves swete venim from a preceding sentence in Boethius to this. 356. full affeccioun. Three MSS, says Schtimmer, scattered in various parts of the genealogical tree, write foule instead of full. To this they could be led by the pressure of the context. Walton errs in full; the Latin sentence contains uberem, but not in syntactical connection with affectuum. 358 ff. Walton here renders the Latin better than did Chaucer. Boethius wrote: “mentes assuefaciunt morbo non liberant”. This the 1609 translator gives as “accustom men’s minds to sickness instead of curing them’. When Chaucer wrote “they holden the hertes of men in usage but they,ne delivere not folke fro maladye”’, he connected morbo with liberant. 360. aswage. This transitive use of assuage is not cited by the NED until the Lover’s Mass, a text which the Dictionary ascribes to Lydgate. See Mass 162. 362. By rendering profanum as foole unprofitable (from Chaucer), Walton found him- self obliged to pad the lines agreeing in rime. 366. Instead of &, several MSS have in; the Latin is in eo. Chaucer here translates: “for why, in swiche an unprofitable man, myn ententes ne weren nothing endamaged.” Queen Elizabeth renders correctly, ending “For by suche our worke had got no harme.” Walton’s aim is blind, but he seems to be using the Latin rather than Chaucer, and to have gone wrong. Boethius wrote: “nihil in eo nostrae operae laederentur.” Walton treated the verb as if singular, with nihil as subject and nostrae operae a genitive singular dependent on nihil. His not means nought. 367. Royal, says Schiimmer, is the only MS reading peie; others have pis, bese, Walton does not transfer to his text the Eleaticis atque Academicis which Boethius specifies with studiis, and which Chaucer retains, adding the explanatory phrase in Grece. 398 NOTES [PAGE 47 369. ye filthes. The Latin is Sirenes; Chaucer and Colvile use mermaidenes, Queen Elizabeth Sirenes swite. Possibly Walton here transfers some of the force unused in his line 349 above. 372 is inserted by Walton; note the rime. 375. Walton omits the blush of the original. 381 is inserted. 386. on be corner. Chaucer, the uttereste corner; Boethius in extrema parte, i.e. at the foot. 388. This line is short in the Royal and Balliol MSS, as in most others; Harley 43, a text usually careless and unreliable, reads “That so with teris wepynge was be wett”, and Trinity also has the word wepynge. 391-2 are padded. B. BOOK II METRE 5: THE FORMER AGE In this metre are found a number of Chaucerian phrases, from the prose, not from the verse; e.g., helden hem apayed, outrage, trewe feldes, hoolsom slepes, cruel clariouns ful hust, egre hate, a precious peril. It is printed by Skeat, Oxford Chaucer ii :xvii-xviii. 6. sese their talent, quench or satisfy their desire. This meaning for talent is usual in OFr and MidEng; sese is to be taken transitively, as cesse, “make to cease”. 8. Walton incorporates in his text the Chaucerian gloss, “that is to seyn, they coude make no piment nor clarrie.” See Roman de la Rose 8418-19, “Et de Viaue simple bevoient Sans querre piment ne clare”. 10. venim. Most of the early translators thus render veneno, which is rather “dye”. 13-14. Here Walton renders, not unhappily, “Vmbras (dabat) altissima pinus.” 21. armour, Chaucer armures. A number of Boethius-MSS have instead of arma the word arua, “fields”. Cp. footnote p. 96 here. 24.. reward, i.e. regard, consideration of the fact that he must lose his blood. 28. more fersere. The double comparative and double superlative are not uncommon in Middle English. See, e.g., most fresshest La Belle Dame 105, most surest Troy Book iii:47, more lyker Hawes’ Pastime 607, etc. Cavendish in his prose life of Wolsey is addicted to their use. 29-31. Here the syntax seems broken. “Alas, who was the man who would concern himself (with) the gold and gems thus hidden? who first began to mine I cannot say, but (I know) that’”—ete. Queen Elizabeth’s transl. of this metre is appended, from the EETS print. Happy to muche the formar Age Than wer Navies Stil With faithful fild content Nor bloudshed by Cruel hate Not Lost by sluggy Lust Had fearful weapons staned that wontz the Long fastz What first fury to foes shuld To Louse by son-got Acorne any armes rayse that knew not Baccus giftz Whan Cruel woundz he saw With molton hony mixed And no reward for bloude? Nor Serike shining flise Wold God agane Our formar time With tirius venom die to wonted maners fel Sound slips Gave the grasse But Gridy getting Loue burnes ther drink the running streme Sorar than Etna with her flames Shades gaue the hiest pine O who the first man was The depth of sea they fadomd not of hiden Gold the waight Nor wares chosen from fur Or Gemmes that willing lurkt Made Stranger find new shores The deare danger digd? _ It will be observed that the Elizabethan feeling for language and rhythm, is not shared by Elizabeth. C. BOOK II, METRE 7 From Chaucer’s prose are: liften up hir nekkes, maketh egal and evene, stinting of fame (this last from Chaucer’s added gloss). 2. The sense-order of the words is—“Sovereign joys for to be in renown”, i.e., whoever ignorantly thinks that joy is there. —— PAGE 48] BOETHIUS-TRANSLATION: D 399 3. Read As instead of And; see note on line 17 of A above. The Latin is cernat, i.e. “Let him behold”. 3-5. See Chaucer’s Parlement of Foules 57, where Chaucer is using the Somnium Scip- ionis, of which see lines 135 ff. 5-8 are expanded. 9. what aylen, etc. So MS Balliol A. The subject is apparently men, but this personal use of the verb is rare. proute is a normal OEng form beside proude, which died out by the end of the fifteenth century. 13. resoun. So MS Balliol. We expect renoun; the Latin has fama; and see 37 below. 13 ff. Stewart says of the Latin here that it is an “anticipation of Villon’. Rather say that the stanzas are dominated by the “Ubi Sunt” motive so frequent in the latter Middle Ages; see introd. to extract C from Lydgate’s Fall of Princes, p. 169 here. 21. we trowe. Other MSS, J trowe. The phrase is inserted for rime, as is overblowe, 24. 22. Brutus. When King Alfred renders this passage of Boethius, he adds here the explanation—“odSe naman Cassius’. See note on Brutus Cassius. Brutus is probably however L. Junius Brutus, the inflexible consul who condemned his two sons to death for conspiracy against the Republic, and for whom Rome wore twelve months’ mourning; Fabricius, consul and military commander, was famous for his frugality and his uprightness; stern Cato, the Censor, was the model of austerity to his time. 24. Chaucer has “marked with a few lettres’. MSS Balliol 316 A and Harley 43 read as does Royal. 27, 28 are inserted, as are 31, 32. 29. fforwip. Balliol 316 A, ffor why. Should we adopt this latter reading, we could paraphrase: “wherefore, when ye pass from this life, ye ben unable to be known”. 33. Chaucer and Gower are named together, conventionally. See pp. 96-97 here. 35. yow selven. Balliol, your seluen. D. BOOK III, METRE I2 With the serious simplicity of the story of Orpheus, as told here, by Chaucer, and by Boethius, compare the attempted waggishness of the version in Lydgate’s FaPrinces i:5776 ff., there filling eleven stanzas, of which I quote the third, fourth, and fifth from the text as ed. Bergen, Carnegie Instit. and EETS 1923-27. An harpe he hadde off Mercurius With the which Erudice he wan And to Bachus as writ Ouidius Sacrifises ful solempne he began And onto helle for his wiff he ran Hir to recure with soote touchis sharpe Which that he made vpon his heuenli harpe But whan that he this labour on hym took A lawe was maade which that bond hym sore That yiff that he bakward caste his look He sholde hire lese & seen his wiff no more But it is seide sithen gon ful yore Ther may no lawe louers weel constreyne So inportable is ther dedli peyne Yiff summe husbondis hadde stonden in the cas Ta lost her wyues for a look sodeyne Thei wolde ha suffred and nat seid allas But pacientli endured al ther peyne And thanked god that broken was the cheyne Which hath so longe hem in prisoun bounde That thei be grace han such a fredam founde The tone of this latter stanza continues through the rest of the story. It is not derived from the French prose of Laurent, which Lydgate is in general following, and as I have 400 NOTES [PAGE 49 suggested p. 95 here, may be an attempt to divert the Duke of Gloucester, the patron of Lydgate’s translation. 10. The houndes fell are added by Walton to the lions of the Latin. 12. Punctuate with a pause after hound; lines 13 and 14 are closely connected. 15, 16, 23, 24, are added by Walton. 28. welles thre. The numeral is added by Walton. It was a frequent medieval error to speak of Helicon as a fountain. On the slopes of Mt. Helicon, the haunt of the Muses, were the spring Hippocrene and the fount Aganippe; Walton may have thought of Helicon as a third fount. 29. modres. So all MSS which I have consulted; we expect the nominative? But the text here is unclear; there is no predicate for dere Calliope, and emendation is necessary. The Latin is deae matris fontibus hauserat. 34. helle. Hades or Pluto, god of the lower world. 35. lawnesse. For the spelling cp. avne, “owne”, line 188 of A ante. 36. at. To ask at is MidEng idiom; see Troilus 11:894, but cp. ibid. 896. 40. Walton renders stupet as “falle on slepe’. The Latin is: “Stupet tergeminus nouo Captus carmine ianitor”; Chaucer translates the verbs “caught and all abayst”. 52. surfetoures. Walton’s translation of sontes, “the guilty’, is more definite than Chaucer’s “the sowles”. The 1609 version has “the guilty souls”. 45. swift. Chaucer renders “Velox praecipitat rota” as “the overthrowing wheel”. 47-48. “And Tantalus, although he had long been tortured by thirst, desired no water.” 49. gryp. Chaucer, “the fowl that hight voltor”. 53 is inserted for rime. 61-2. This well-known passage of Boethius,—“Quis legem dat amantibus? Maior lex amor est sibi’,—is used by Chaucer in Troilus iv:618, KnTale 306. 63. neygh out of pe bondes blake. Boethius, “noctis prope terminos”; Chaucer, “almest at the termes of the night, that is to seyn, at the laste boundes of helle’. 64-5. The Latin is simply :—‘Vidit, perdidit, occidit”. Chaucer renders,—“lokede abakward on Eurydice his wyf, and loste hir, and was deed”. Walton was doubtless influenced} by the coming mentem, “mind”, which he uses as rime-word, to the weakening of occidit; but Chaucer gives an erroneous translation, as do many others. The 1609 rendering, uncorrected by Stewart in the Loeb Library ed., is “doth lose and kill her and himself”. But Boethius, who was a sound and able metrist, uses not the transitive verb occidit but the intransive occidit; he says that Orpheus looked on Eurydice, and lost her, and was undone. For his climax-verb Boethius may have had in mind the phrase of Virgil, Georg. iv:491-2, “ibi omnis Effusus labor”; he certainly did not intend to assert Orpheus’ immediate death, as Skeat’s note on the Chaucerian passage suggests. (I am here indebted to Prof. G. L. Hendrickson of Yale University.) E. PREFACE TO BOOKS IV AND V: BOOK IV, PROSE I AND METRE I Walton is about to attempt the most abstruse part of Boethius’ discussion, that dealing with predestination and free will. As he begins, he makes, in his own person, a renewed protestation of his insufficiency “to the height of this great argument”; and either because of the increased difficulty of his task or because of some external cause unknown to us, he changes at this point from the eight to the seven-line stanza. His proheme is lyrical, depreca- tory, suppliant; its dignity and its command of verse are notable. 3. Conteyned. This word may be Conceyued. See lines 14, 44 below. 8-11. See Job chap. 38. 20. Ye ben. Walton may be addressing his patroness, although the absence of any word of respect or gratitude is in that case peculiar. He may mean Boethius. 21-22. These lines are apparently bound together syntactically. Walton is compelled, he says, to show himself overbold (in discussing the questions) “of hap”, etc. 22. Of hap of fortune and of destine. Cp. Chaucer’s phrase, CTprol 846, “Were it by aventure or sort or cas”; see KnTale 607 etc., Lydgate’s Troy Book iii:2815 etc., Dante’s Inferno 32:76, “Se voler fu, o destino, o fortuna”. PAGE 50] BOETHIUS-TRANSLATION: E 401 24. Supposyng may be parsed as agreeing with mynde. These questions of predestination, says Walton, have bewildered many a mind which thinks that our free will, etc. 23-25, 26. Note the rime. 39. wel & wo. Cp. Chaucer’s “Wo was his cook”, CTprol. 351. 47. failleth of his ende, fails to accomplish its purpose. 49. So may we, i.e., “So little may we”, etc. 50. Schiimmer inserts the before movynge, from one MS and the print of 1525. The meaning is that fire, by the impelling power of its nature, rises. 66. wonder lustilye. Boethius, “leniter suauiterque”’, Chaucer “softely and delitably’. 67. This line is inserted by Walton. 70. interrupcion. This word, and interrupt, are mainly used by Lydgate and by Hoccleve to mean infringement of law, breach of the peace, etc. In a minority of cases they are applied to speech, e.g. Troy Book iv:4808. Not in Chaucer. Cp. Alanus’ De Planctu Naturae, prose iv, “praefata narrationi meorum verborum parenthesi syncopatae tenorem hujus quaestionis inserui, dicens :—” 71. Chaucer writes “gyderesse of verrey light”, which Walton may be following, although the Latin “ueri praeuia luminis”, gives most of the clue. It frequently happens that when Walton is literal in his translation, he necessarily comes close to Chaucer’s consistently literal version. 73. anon to pis. Latin, usque ad huc; Chaucer, “hider to”. Cp. Richard the Redeless ii:126. “anon to the skynnes”. See 151 below. 77. byknowen. So the Balliol MS. Harley 43 reads wnknowen, which gives better sense than either Balliol, or Royal’s we knowen. 89. Bot, etc. We expect Swiche rather than But; see the Latin, and Chaucer’s “that swiche thinges ben doon”, etc. Note Bot in line 86. 93. Abhomynable. This spelling, which has been attributed to the Latinizing tendencies of a later period of English, and explained as a false etymology from ab hominibus, is fairly frequent in the Transition. It and other h-forms are regular in the Bodley 263 MS of FaPrinces, as ed. by Bergen; and the spelling occurs in Latin. See Ship of Fools 8515. 100. “For if those things stand formally, to which we have already assented, then thou shalt hereafter acknowledge”, etc. 103. The MSS which I have used read he speketh. Read we speketh? For such a verb- form cp. line 100, A 105 ante, etc. The Latin is loguimur; Chaucer, “I speke’’. 117-119 are inserted. 123-5. The rime-arrangement here is inaccurate. Walton may have been thinking of the sequence in eight-line stanzas, such as he had been writing. 125. cariage. Boethius vehiculis, Chaucer sledes. 128-133. This passage of Boethius is used in Chaucer’s HoFame 973-78. 131. he. Walton’s change of pronoun, from it in line 130, is also in Chaucer. The word deviseth, and that line, are inserted for rime; so line 137. 133. The Latin is “nubesque postergum videt”. 139-40. Chaucer says “the olde colde Saturnus”. See Thebes prol. line 3, “Satourn olde with his frosty face”. 145-47 are padded by Walton. 146. be holden. Shall we read he beholdeth, or insert al to remedy this short line, taking be holden as are held? 148 is not in Boethius nor in Chaucer, and the rest of the stanza is padded. 152. The pronouns are confusing. He here and in 155 refers to God; the other cases of he, and the his of 152, refer to the mind. 158, 159 are closely bound; read with comma after place. The word reduce here, as frequently in the Transition, means to lead back; see Lydgate’s Troy Book ii:183. 4 402 NOTES [PAGE 60 HOCCLEVE LA MALE REGLE 1. Hoccleve opens with a paean in praise of Hygeia or Health; but his lyrical note is not supported by “aureate language”, as often in medieval prologues; see Ripley’s Compend of Alchemy or the Court of Sapience. 5. aduersitee, adverse action. So line 47 and in Regement of Princes 390. 22. feeste fro penaunce. “Now I can tell the difference between a feast-day and a fast- day ; but when I was in health I made none.” 31. lym... gore. The term “gore” for “gown” is frequent in the romances; the word “lym” was interpreted by Mason as “active instrument”. Cp. our “limb of the law’.—‘“His hand should not have clutched my sleeve.” 36. put... assay, “tried it”. 38. But what! Cp. Quid enim! e.g. in Philippians i:18 or in WBTale 58. Very frequent in medieval rhetorical writers. 39. With the alliteration cp. 220 below. 50. holde ...%m chief. Tenure in capite, or direct holding from the lord of the soil, implied under the feudal system homage or “reverence”. The tenant, as a vassal, swore alle- giance and obedience. 62. inprudence. Mason writes imprudence, the EETS inpudence. 63. curse... & warie. Doublets are frequent in Hoccleve; see Regement 2304, 2422, 2490, 2546-7, 2663, 2803, etc. 67. Regnynge which is an ablative absolute. 70. Instead of resoun, as in the MS and in Mason, the EETS reads reform. 78. brydillees, without bridle. See note on Epithalamium 88, Cavendish 1348. 79. hony and gall. This is a very frequent antithesis in late Middle English literature. The “two tuns” of Fortune or of Jupiter contained the sweet and the bitter; see Lydgate’s ResonandSens 50 ff., Troy Book ii:65, DuobMercat 697 ff., Gower’s Confessio vi:330 ff., also Lydgate’s many references to sugar as hiding gall, eg. FaPrinces A 243 and note. 85. Salomon wroot. See Prov. xi:14, xv:22, xx:18, xxiv:6. See Hoccleve’s Dialogue 451-2. 95. rype ... pit. See Hoccleve’s Complaint 266; see Chaucer’s MerchTale 157. 106. in tyme, at regular hours. Cp. 110 below. 113. The custume, the custom-house, or receipt of custom, i.e., the gluttonous mouth. 121. Bachus and his lure. The bush of Bacchus, the accepted sign of a wine-shop, is com- pared to the “lure” or bit of leather garnished with feathers which was used by fowlers to induce the soaring hawk to return. This line I would punctuate otherwise than in the EETS ed., with no comma after lure, but a comma after Bachus. 126-8. With outen daunger, without any compulsion. ‘Unless I was so heavily in debt or so pressed with business” etc. Note the rime of hye me:tyme, with an apparently silent -e in the verb. 130. Cp. London Lickpenny, p. 238 here. 138. Cp. SqTale 264, “—lusty Venus children dere”. The phrase “fressh repeir” means “ively visiting”’. 143. Poules heed, the sign of a tavern, the Paul’s Head. 146. wafres thikke, cakes substantial or abundant. 149. for the maistrie. See Prol. to CantTales 165. Tyrwhitt noted that old medical books applied the phrase pour la maistrie to remedies which were super-excellent. See Hoccleve’s Dialogue 565. 150. warme with. The word-order here is modern, not as in Thebes 35 and refs. there. 173 ff. “And yet my will (to blame others) was good, if I could have managed to suppress my cowardice.” Cp. Pope, Epistle to Arbuthnot, line 203, “Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike”. 188. priueseel, the Privy Seal office, where Hoccleve was employed. Apparently the clerks dwelt there. See line 300. PAGE 63] LA MALE REGLE 403 193. “Because the roads were rutted and muddy’, Hoccleve would pay a boatman and go by the river. 197. The EETS word-order is wrong. 202. in myn audience, in my hearing. Hoccleve is shrewd, although vain. 211. faueles tonge. The tongue of Favel or Flattery is again alluded to in lines 223, 244, 247, 284, 287. All medieval treatises on the governance of princes are strenuous against flattery; see for example Hoccleve’s own Regement lines 3039 ff., 4446 ff. Dante put flatterers deep down in hell, see Inferno xviii. On favel see Skeat’s note to Piers Plowman, C-text iii:6. 233. book of nature of beestes. This is not Albertus Magnus’ De naturis animalium, where the chapter on Sirens, book xxv chap. 53, is very brief and bald. It seems to be rather from Theobaldus’ Physiologus de naturis duodecim animalium; there the chapter De Syrene contains all the descriptive matter which Hoccleve gives, and this is followed by an “allegoriz- ing” of the siren’s “natura biformis” to mean human duplicity of character, smooth speech and injurious action. When here speaking of flattery, Hoccleve might well recall this inter- pretation of the siren’s wiles. See note on 249 below. 236, 240. spekth, swich. So the MS and Mason; the EETS reads spekith, which. 249. Holcote. The story of Ulysses and the Sirens is told by Robert of Holkot (died 1349) in his commentary Super Sapientiam Salomonis, lectio 64. Holkot is discussing “dangers of the sea’; he describes the Sirens, who he says were three in number, and gives an allegorical interpretation, saying that “moraliter Vlixes sapiens interpretatur et designat mentem in qua prudentia inhabitare debet.’’ Another “danger of the sea” described is Circe, for whom Holkot refers to Boethius bk. iv, metre 3. Hoccleve has possibly another use of Holkot in lines 300-04, see Note. 258. prudence. Mason reads providence, wrongly. 265. A nay. Mason Ah nay; EETS As nay, for which emphatic negative cp. Roberte the Deuyll, in Hazlitt’s EEPopPo i:860. The MS has a peculiar punctuation mark after A; see p. 60 ante. 269. a myte ... deere, “too expensive, if valued at a mite”. 270. priuee and appert, privately and openly. The lord favors the adroit courtier both when alone and in public. 280. “And he bids him begone quickly, with bad luck to him.” 294. The comma inserted by the EETS editor disturbs the sense. 301. malencolie. Melancholy, or black bile, was one of the four “humors” of the body, the others being blood, phlegm, and choler. The preponderance of any one humor determined the “complexion” of the individual, whether sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, or melancholic. If this preponderance of black bile were not excessive, the ‘melancholic’ man was distin- guished by steadiness of purpose and soundness of judgment, e.g., Hector. But in excess the melancholic temperament meant sullenness, jealousy, obstinacy. 300-04. The rhetorical device here employed, the linking of stages up to a climax, is termed gradatio: see the pseudo-Ciceronian treatise Ad Herennium, the source of so much medieval rhetorical principle, pp. 326-27. It may be noted that this particular passage is cited, as from Tullius, in the same commentary of Holkot which Hoccleve used for lines 249 ff. above. See lectio 84 of Holkot. 305. “Let us go on to the next point, late hours.” 312. cam. So the MS and Mason. The EETS reads can. 319-20. Note the lively management. 321. Prentys and Arondel, companions of Hoccleve. These two names appear in a peti- tion of 1431; see Proceedings of the Privy Council iv:77, cited EETS ed. of Hoccleve, i:page xxxv note. Other fellow-clerks are named in the supplication To Somer, sce p. 66 here. 349. My thank is qweynt, “gratitude due me is all wiped out.” 354. old Clerkes, etc. See Chaucer’s Melibeus, B 2405; cp. Dance Macabre 344 and the French, line 272. 380. The MS omits an, which is supplied in brackets. See Hoccleve’s poem for Chichele, EETS 1:67, line 20; see the WBprol. 659, Lydgate’s Troy Book ii:4043. 391. so do. MS and Mason thus; EETS reads do so. 404 NOTES [PAGE 66 417. the Fourneval. Thomas Nevil, lord Fournival, was in 1405 appointed subtreasurer, with Sir John Pelham. 421. theschequeer, the Exchequer, from which office Hoccleve’s yearly ten pounds was paid in instalments; he is asking for that due at Michaelmas, “Michel,” September 29. 423. The Latin side note is: Annus ille fuit annus restrictionis annuitatum. The “ferne yeer”, or previous year, is evidently overdue also. 430. estaat real, royal power. 432. Wherfore. So the MS and Mason; the EETS reads Therfore. 442. Shameth. Mason reads Shunneth, incorrectly. 446. Cp. Lydgate’s Letter to Gloucester, stanzas 1 and 6, p. 149 here. TO SOMER This half-jesting, half-earnest, and wholly punning supplication to Sir Henry Somer, the subtreasurer, must have been sent later than 1408, when Somer was appointed a baron of the Exchequer. Its exact date is uncertain, although it was obviously sent at Christmas-time. It was printed by Mason, by Morley, in EETS ed. i:59, and in Neilson and Webster p. 204. Its first three stanzas are on three rimes, and are linked by’ rime. 12-14. Read with a stop after Just, and then paraphrase “According to the maturity of our fruits, last Michaelmas was the time of year for the harvest of our seed.” Evidently the previous quarter’s salary was unpaid, for all four men. 20-22. “Whether our accounting shall soon make us sail with our ship to a safe harbor. For the pun on ships cp. Letter to Gloucester line 17 and note; the English gold noble and half-noble bore the stamp of a ship. “If you list” begins a new sentence. 25-6. Offorde. See note on this man by Kern in Anglia 40 :374. 33 ff. This roundel is in almost the briefest form possible to that metrical type; see note on lines 57-73 of the Lover’s Mass here, where other late MidEng. roundels are listed. Three more by Hoccleve are printed in this volume. ” TO CARPENTER The person to whom this poem is addressed was probably John Carpenter, town clerk of London 1417-1438, a man of large means and a public benefactor. It was he, for instance, who according to Stow paid for the painting-up of Lydgate’s Dance Macabre text in the cloisters of old St. Paul’s. The poem was printed by Mason, and in EETS ed. 1:63. 8. This “expression” refers to the line of initials in the margin, representing the creditors of Hoccleve, who would fain be “even” with him, that is, clear up their accounts. 22-4. Hoccleve begs Carpenter to stand surety for him, and prevent his arrest for debt. 23. The MS has not hem. 27-8. The meaning seems to be: “However completely you may settle the business, and however speedily, I can permit that for the ending of my anxiety.” THREE ROUNDELS From among the many begging-letters and laments for money-scantness in this period, cp. here Froissart’s Dit dou Florin, a dialogue with the last coin in his purse. The French poem is however of 490 lines; see Scheler’s ed. of Froissart, ii :220-34. In these roundels, note that the scribe has not filled out the repetition of the first member, which is characteristic of the form; he writes only a word or two of it. The poems are printed EETS ed., vol. ii, and earlier in Academy for 1892, i:542. For (3) see EETS ed. i, foot of xxxviii. (1) 6. streite. Read with a following question-mark. MHoccleve tells Lady Money that when she was shut up in his purse he never kept her close pent,—far from it, he let her out. PAGE 68] ROUNDELS: DIALOGUE 405 11. saillen. Perhaps again an allusion to the ship stamped on the English gold coins. See note on line 21 of the poem To Somer. 13. right a feynt, a right feigned, i.e. a mere show of good spirits. (2) 5. cheertee. This word is much used by Hoccleve. It means “affection, value’; the phrase here is “thou settest no store by me”. 7-8. “At the urge of your excessive expenditure I became extravagant (or dissolute).” The word delauee is also used by Hoccleve in Jereslaus’ Wife line 901, in the Regement 4624; and it occurs in line 40 of the Ballad of Good Counsel printed by Skeat vii:286. It was used by Chaucer in the Parson’s Tale; and it is in Laurent’s' French transl. of the De Casibus ii chap. 14, a passage which Lydgate materially changes. Chatterton took up the word, writing it as deslavate, and using the substantive deslavatie. 10,12. After each of these lines read a question-mark. (3) With this burlesque of a lover’s “praise of my lady” cp. the Balade Plesaunte and the poem beginning O Mossie Quince, both in MS Trin.Coll.Cambr. R 3, 19 and both printed thence as noted in my Chaucer Manual, pp. 428,442. On a very reduced scale, this is a feature-by-feature description, recognized as code in medieval court-poems lauding a beloved lady. Such may be seen in Matthew of Vendome’s Ars Versificatoria (ed. Faral, pp. 129-30), or in Geoffrey de Vinsauf’s Nova Poetria, ibid., lines 563 ff. of the text, or in the Archi- trenius of Johannes de Altavilla bk. ii, or in Alanus’ Anticlaudianus i chap. 7, or in the Historia Troiana of Guido delle Colonne where Helen is described. On the last-named it may be noted that when Lydgate in his Troy Book reaches that point (ii:3643 ff.) he says lines 3676-77, that Guido depicts Helen “by ordre ceryously From hed to foot’, but that he has no sufficient English, wherefore (3689-90) he refers his readers to Guido. A clumsy imitation of the method is made by the fifteenth-century author of the poem “How A Lover Praiseth his Lady”, printed ModPhil 21:379-95, which see for notes on medieval modes of description. 7-8. pentice, etc. Her nose is a penthouse, which keeps the rain out of her mouth even were she lying vprightes, ie. on her back. DIALOGUE WITH A FRIEND (EETS edition i:p. 128) The MS here used, Bodl. Selden supra 53, is described with its copy of Lydgate’s Dance Macabre, p. 124 here. In this poem it shows a number of minor differences from the Durham MS-text printed by the EETS. The word-order differs in lines 502, 525, 540, 548, 559, etc. The particles that, it, give the scribe especial trouble; see their omission or insertion in lines 507, 513, 529, 531, 686, 710, 733, 746, 779; also ther, 757, and thei 776. 533. now is lieutenant. Gloucester was appointed Lord Lieutenant of the kingdom Dec. 30, 1419. In early February, 1421, the king returned to England with his newly-wedded queen; in early June Gloucester went with Henry to France, and came back the next spring, replacing Bedford as regent or lieutenant some time before May, 1422, when Bedford accompanied Queen Katherine and the infant prince to France. He held this post until Henry’s death, when the king’s will provided for the establishment of a Council during the prince’s minority. 542-3. The Durham MS printed by the EETS has in the margin: scilicet de secundo redditu suo de ffrancia. 548. with to glade. The usual medieval word-order; see note on Male Régle 150. 550. The EETS text reads god instead of him. The phrase is an ejaculation. 561. This MS omits the rime-word Vegece, i.e., Vegetius’ Art of Chivalry, a work highly valued in the Middle Ages, and among those recommended by Hoccleve for Oldcastle’s reading in place of his dangerous incursions into Holy Writ; see the poem to Oldcastle, line 196 406 NOTES [PAGE 70 The work had been translated into French by Jean de Meun and also by Jean de Vignay(?) ; into English for Sir Thomas Berkeley in 1408. See the SATF edition of 1897, the Brit.Mus. catalogue of Royal MSS under 18 A xii, 20 B xi. The omission of the word is probably due to the scribe’s intention of rubricking it later, as was often done with special words. 563. A headless line. 565. for the maistrie. See note on Male Régle 149. 566. Bygonde, etc. “Beyond (the sea) he hath wel proved”, etc. 567. Chirburgh. See note on line 576 below. 573. Duke Herry. As no prince of the blood royal, fighting in France, bore the name Henry, I would interpret this allusion as to Henry the Fourth, whom Hoccleve may call “duke” to distinguish him from the reigning king. The words this prince, in line 574, are then in the nominative case. 576. Costantin. The district of the Cotentin, or outer peninsula of Normandy, was over- run by Gloucester after Easter 1418; he encountered serious resistance only at Cherbourg, which stood a fairly long siege, surrendering October first. 577. bi preising. EETS ed. reads hy preysynge. 579. a worthi stile, a dignified title or reputation. 581. The EETS has no and that is. 583. Note the metaphor. 587-8. “Lest I might perchance reduce his credit, if through my ignorance (ignorantly) I should enumerate (i.e. understate) them.” The word allege has in late Mid.Eng. a meaning of “lighten, reduce”, although it is thus applied usually to pain or misery, as in Lover’s Mass 160. Cp. Chaucer’s Troilus iv :802-5. 586-7. Humfrey, interpreted as “homme ferai’. This mode of elucidation is characteris- tically medieval. Hoccleve exaggerates it into a “conceit” in his Complaint of the Virgin Mary, EETS ed. i, p. 6; but a very marked example of the method is Giovanni del Virgilio’s explanation of the name Prometheus as from “pro id est provisio, me id est mentis, theus id est divine, unde prometheus id est provisio divine mentis.” (See Dante and Giov. del Virgilio, by Wicksteed and Gardner, 1902, p. 318.) Compare Holkot’s fantasy on Ave, the first word of the Salutation to Mary, as a reversal of Eva, the source of human unhappiness; the passage is in lectio 195 of the Commentary on Sapience, a book cited by Hoccleve in Male Régle 249,— see note. Chaucer “interprets” the name Melibeus, see line 2600 of that Tale. 592 ff. “Warlike Mars, at his birth, gave him that name” etc. Mars presided over Hum- phrey’s birth, says Hoccleve. 610 ff. Apparently the words O lorde are an ejaculation, with no reference to an earthly nobleman. Read them with a question-mark after dide, line 613, and interpret “whether fere or cowardyse” as “Was it fear or cowardice ?”’—an ironical question. Gloucester’s daring at the siege of Rouen is described in John Page’s (contemporary) poem, written by an eye- witness; it is pubd. by the Camden Society, where, on p. 11, we find:— Glouceter that gracyus home From the sege of Chirborough he come At the Port Synt Hyllarye Fulle manfully loggyd he In caste of stone in schot of quarelle He dradde hym for noo perelle But wanne worschyppe with his werre And lay hys enmys fulle nerre Thanne any man that there was Be xl rode and more in spas. Later in the same poem we read that the besieged’s shots wrought much damage to the English,—“‘And namely Gloucester that lord so dere, For he was loggyd them so nere.” 613. dide. Read with question-mark after dide. Cp. Lydgate’s FaPrinces ix :3423, “As Petrark did, and also Iohn Bochas”. Or the confession of the Earl of Cambridge after dis- covery of the conspiracy against Henry the Fifth, that certain men knew not of the extent of the plan, “but Grey dyd”. See Rymer’s Foedera, ix :300-01. PAGE 71] DIALOGUE 407 616. what is an exclamation. 620. ascance. Shakespeare, Lucrece 637, uses askance as a verb,—“turn away”. Can it here have the meaning “Begone!”? In the Court of Sapience ii:1167 we find: “Myght saye askaunce on thys wyse be I wyll’’; which I would interpret as “Go to! I shall be as I am moved to be!” The student will distinguish between this word and ascaunces, meaning as if, for which cp. Chaucer’s Troilus i:292, translating Boccaccio’s Quasi. 623. ministrith. An imperative ;—“give me some!” Read with pause after Can I in 622, comma after you here. 626. Read with a question-mark after of. 631. In the EETS ed. this line has no to, and Furnivall interprets that as meaning what, i.e., “what book”. 638-42. Cp. Chaucer’s Troilus i:1065 ff., a passage which Kittredge has shown to be from Geoffroi de Vinsauf’s Nova Poetria 43-45. 640. mental ye. This phrase, and inward sight, are frequent in Lydgate. See FaPrinces 1:17, v :453, Troy Book ii:2138, 3180, iv:177, 5045, v:51, 815, 1709, 3059, 3447. Cp. Chaucer’s MLTale 454-5; and cp. Isidor’s Etymologiae xi:1,20, where the power of sight is divided as “externa aetherea luce aut interno spiritu lucido”’. See St. Augustine, Confess. vii:ch. 17; see Boethius, Consol. Philos. iii, metr. 11. 643, 657, 662. The EETS ed. reads for the deffaute, I now byseeche, Syn now, ete. 669. quarter sak, a sack holding a quarter of a hundredweight, double the usual size. 675. The EETS ed. reads mis-berynge. 691. make partie, “put up a fight”. 694. The wyf of Bathe. See WBTale 81, 88. 721. evere. EETS ay. 724. See Genesis iii:15. 727-8. Hoccleve’s hand with a jest against women is lighter than Lydgate’s. 733-34. See Genesis iii:16. 736. See the conclusion of the Wife of Bath’s prologue. 751. “for the sake of him that died,” i.e. “In God’s name, how am I at fault?” 752. The EETS ed. reads dar I me auante, i.e., “I dare assert”. 755, 756. The EETS reads largeliche, swart wrooth. 759. for youre fader kyn, a common asseveration; see its use by the Host, headlink to the MoTale, 43. 764 ff. Cp. Chaucer ProlCantTales 731 ff. 772. conpleiningly, under protest. Cp. Lydgate’s expressions of reluctant disgust as he translates attacks on women in the Troy Book, e.g., i1:2100, ii1:3560. 778. EETS ed. reads woot I neuere, ete. 780-2. Note the quick crisp dialogue here. The only bit comparable in Lydgate is the dispute between Boccaccio and Brunhilda, FaPrinces ix :190 ff.; but that moves in much larger courses, and is a translation. Cp. Chaucer’s dialogue in the BoDuchesse, especially 749-57, 1045 ff., 1308-10. 789. kut to kepe. The NED says that this phrase is “of obscure origin’, and suggests that it means “keep your distance, be reserved”. The earliest cited case is from the Coventry Play of the Woman Taken in Adultery; the culprit is told by her captors that she shall be taught “bettyr to kepe thi kutte”. The next case is this passage, then Skelton’s Philip Sparrow 118. It seems to me that in all these cases a better interpretation is “be on guard, mind yourself”. 791. EETS has no nowe. 806. as wisly god me blesse. An asseveration. 810. bite me the crowe. Perhaps “May I die!” i.e., may crows or carrion birds peck me! 818-19. Note the like rime. Provided the two words were different parts of speech, the usage was allowable in Middle English. It was very common, and unrestricted, in French; note the greater frequency of such rimes in e.g. Chaucer’s Book of the Duchesse as compared with his later work. 408 NOTES [PAGE 74 820. Romayn dedis, the Gesta Romanorum, a Latin collection of anecdotes and tales, of the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century; author uncertain. It is discussed by Warton in a special section of his HistEngPoetry, see ed. by Hazlitt i:238 ff., and was: used by Gower, Hoccleve, and Shakespeare. The Latin is ed. by W. Dick, Leipzig 1890, earlier by Oesterley. An Eng. prose translation is in MS Harley 7333, etc., ed. by Sir F. Madden for the Roxburghe Club, ed. EETS 1879. Modern Engl. transl. by Charles Swan, N. Y., 1924. 826. sope. Manufactured in England in the fourteenth century. The word is used in the transl. of Jeremiah ii:22 and of Malachi iii:2, and means there a lye, or water alkalised by vegetable ashes. The Vulgate word in both cases is herba. IN PRAISE OF CHAUCER (from the Regement of Princes) 1956. ffadir, i.e., the old beggar with whom Hoccleve has been talking, who has advised him to write. 1968. synguleer. This word, in Chaucer and in Middle English, meant “separate, single, private, especial”. Cp. FaPrinces A 447 here,—“to censure in especial”; cp. the phrase “syngu- leer bataile’” as “single combat”, ibid. ii:4305, and that of “syngular profites” as “individual advantages”, ibid. ii1:1249. In St. Albon ii:92 we read “Not singuler founde nor yet parciall’”. And note the tautology in FaPrin. iii :2258,—“a special syngulerte”. 1971. He name. Read His name; the scribe errs. 1978. I ment is one word, the past participle meant. See 2090, 2100. 2083. Death is treated as feminine in this line and in 2099, 2101, 2103, 2105. 2090. I now is one word, i.e., enough. Cp. I leche, i.e., yliche, “alike”, in 2100. 2091-92. “I would that that cumberworld were slain.” 2096-97. The syntax is muddled, but the meaning is: “No more, as experience shows, (to) an excellent faithful servant than to a vicious lord.” 2105. nedes do moot sche. Compare Guillaume de Machaut, in the Jugement de Roy de Behaingne 730, of Fortune’s variance,—‘“Car elle fist dou faire son devoir”, etc. See Chaucer’s handling, BoDuchesse 675-82. See Boethius ii prose 1. 4978 ff. Hoccleve says that Chaucer has discussed the keeping of the Sabbath holy, and that a prince who would be obeyed by his subjects must obey God’s command on this point and on others. See the Parson’s Tale 667. 4987. ful many a lyne. Of poems by Chaucer to the Virgin we have the A. B. C., the Invocation at the opening of the Second Nun’s Tale, and the Prioress’ prayer at the be- ginning of her Tale. 4995-8. here his likinesse. The portrait of Chaucer which appears on the margin of a few MSS of the Regement at this point is our most authentic representation of him. That of the codex Harley 4866 is closely duplicated in the volume formerly Phillipps 1099, now in the hands of Dr. Rosenbach of New York City; and although a half-length, it is apparently the same picture as the Sloane portrait in the National Portrait Gallery and the “Clarendon” portrait, which are full-length. An identical full-length is on the single sheet of vellum marked MS Adds. 5141 in the British Museum; and the only difference of type between them and the half-length as here is that the MS-artist has turned the right hand of Chaucer from the penner which hangs upon his breast to point at the stanza mentioning his likeness. In MS Royal 17 D vi’s copy of the Regement the portrait on the margin is quite other than these, a full-length in another pose; see its reproduction in Spielmann’s Portraits of Chaucer to face p. 120, and see reprods. ibid., of other Chaucer portraits. Most MSS of the Regement are without the picture; it has been cut out of Harley 4826, but was never in Brit.Mus. Adds. 18632, Arundel 59, Harley 116, Harley 372, Royal 17 C xiv, Royal 17 D xviii, Royal 17 D xix, Sloane 1212, Sloane 1825, Ashmole 40, Dugdale 45. Regarding the Regement-MSS of the University Library, Cambridge, and of Cambridge colleges, I cannot speak; but neither the official catalogues nor Spielmann’s monograph mention the existence of a Chaucer- portrait in any of them, as is also the case with the two McClean MSS in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. PAGE 104] THE CHURL AND THE BIRD 409 Brit.Mus.Arundel 38, the gift-copy to Prince Henry of Hoccleve’s poem has on fol. 37 a miniature of Hoccleve presenting the book; but leaf 91, which probably carried a portrait of Chaucer, has been cut out, and with it lines 4990-5042. The leaf was lacking in Urry’s time; see preface to the 1721 Chaucer. THE CHURL AND THE BIRD 1. Problemes, etc. The MSS Harley, Caligula, and Trinity read as here; Lansdowne and Hh read Problemys liknessis and figures, Hh altering the last word to signes. The subject has no verb; should we omit And from line 3 we get a predicate. 6-9. Like as the Bibyll. See Judges ix :8-15. 13. tarage. See note on line 350 below. 15. Poetes Laureat. Lydgate is alluding to Aesop, whom he terms “this poyet laureat” in the prologue to his version of some of the Fables. The name was given in the late Middle Ages to a man honored by an University degree, eg., Bernard André the blind historiographer of Henry VII, Whitinton the grammarian, Skelton; or it was applied to eminent poets generally. Higden so terms Homer; Burgh, in his letter to Lydgate, applies the word to Boccaccio; in his Kingis Quair, stanza 197, King James applies it to Gower and to Chaucer; Dunbar in his Golden Targe uses it of Lydgate. See introd. to Skelton here. 29. Lydgate here comments on the use of the “fable” to convey a lesson; this was the accepted medieval and Christian view of literature, especially of poetry. See e.g. FaPrinces iii :3830-31, where the French original says that poetry, like Holy Scripture, reveals “soubz couerture de figures . . . . les choses advenir’. Boccaccio at this point has:—“ignari plerique existiment . . . . poetas mendaces et fabulosos homines esse . . . Sola quantum humane imbecillitati possibile est sancte pagine vestigia sequi conata. Nam prout illa divine mentis arcana prophetis futura que sub figurarum tegmine reserauit, sic et hoc celsos suorum conceptus sub figmentorum velamine tradere orsa est.” Hawes in his Pastime 659-665 recognizes this as the correct procedure, but he laments ibid. 737 ff. that the dull rude people fail to understand the method. Nevill in his envoy line 14 states that his “humble style’ is due to his having worked “without cloke’. 35. paunflete, pamphlet. The uses of this word by Hoccleve, RegPrinces 2060, and by Lydgate here, are two of the earliest in English. See Skelton, Garland 491. 43-44. Cp. Henryson, Fables 1944-45—“Quhilum thair wynnit in a wildernes. As myne authour expresli can declair.” 50 ff. See Skelton in his Garland, stanzas 93, 94, 95. 51. couerd. This reading, coueryd, is also in MSS Hh and Kk; Harley, Trinity, and Lansdowne have turued, and Caligula clowryd. See the turfed seats pictured in the Roman de la Rose, reproduced from MS in Amherst-Cecil’s history of gardening in England, ed. of 1910, to face pp. 50, 56. Cp. Chaucer’s Troilus ii:820-22 for Cressida’s garden; cp. the “benched herber grene” in Black Knight 125-6. In Wordsworth’s Descriptive Sketches 19 sod seats are mentioned. 52. There is no verb for condites. 53-4. ayenst the sonne shene. The same phrase is in Troy Book i:1268; cp. ibid. ii:2460, and cp. the rivers of FaPrinces i:577-78. Running water was a necessary furnishing of a medieval garden. 55. burbly. This is the only case given in NED. 56. shewing. We expect a finite verb. 59. gold were, golden wire. The likening of hair to gold wire is a very frequent simile in Lydgate and in later poets; Schick, note on Temple of Glass 271, cannot trace the com- parison earlier. See Troy Book i:1977, 2042, ii:4741-2, iii:4125, iv :6424, etc. 60, 61. If these lines were transposed the order of thought would be clearer. 68. Alceste. With this mention of the wife of Admetus as if she were a star, the daystar, cp. Chaucer’s Legend, prol. (A) 513-15,— 410 NOTES [PAGE 105 No wonder is thogh Jove hir stellifye As tellith Agaton, for hir goodnesse Hir whyte coroun berth of hit witnesse. The writer Agaton has been no further identified than by Sandras, who suggested (Etude sur Chaucer 115-16), that an Agaton might be meant whose comedy “The Flower”, now unknown, is mentioned in Aristotle's Poetics. With the Chaucerian passage cp. Lydgate’s allusions to the daisy as Alceste’s flower, Secrees 1305-6, and Looke in thy Mirour, printed Halliwell, p. 161. In TemGlass 70-74 he mentions the transformation of Alceste into a daisy. Cp. Court of Love 103-5. Gower’s treatment of Alceste, Confessio vii:1917-43, is very brief and bald, as is that of Fulgentius in his Mythologiae. It may be noted that Shirley, in his compendium of the Legend, the “Cronycle made by Chaucier”, copied in MS Ashmole 59, confuses Alcestis and Alcyone in his last stanza. Printed Chaucer Soc., Odd Texts, pp. vi ff. 73. sugred. See notes on Thebes 52 and FaPrinces A 243. 74. draw along, drawn along, prolonged. See Walton A 288, C 33, FaPrinces ii:900, v :659. 75. that all the wood rong. Cp. PoFoules 491-4, FlLeaf 100, BlKnight 45, Troy Book 1:3933, Cuckoo 99-100, Kingis Quair stanza 33. Marie de France in her fable “De volucribus et rege eorum’”, line 12, says “Kar tut le bois fist retentir’”. 76. ‘This line read in Longleat “On the morowe”, etc. The corrector struck out On and wrote Tyl. Cp. Troy Book iv:4024, “Til on a morwe whan Phebus shoon ful bri3t”, and a nearly identical line FaPrinces v:1524. Also St.Albon i:349 and cp. Chaucer’s Legend 773. Cp. also Thebes 4014, FaPrinces iii :2383. 87-8. See Barclay, Eclogue iv :63, p. 317 here. 96 ff. Here and 120 ff., cp. the Manciple’s Tale 59-70; cp. Boethius’ Consolatio, iii metre 2:19 ff. 115. MSS Linc. and Lansd. read morwenyng, Caligula in the gray mornynge. 122. wastel breed. This was the food of the Prioress’ little dogs, CTprol. 147. 124-6. See Lydgate’s Aesop, fable i:174-5 (Zupitza) :— Set more store I haue hit of nature Among rude chaffe to shrape for my pasture. 132. bere at the stake. Bear-baiting was a popular pastime in England earlier than Elizabeth’s time. 143. maugre thyn hede, “in spite of you’. See KnTale 311, NPTale 592, WBTale 31, and often. 145. Cp. Parlament of Byrdes 69-70, ed. Hazlitt in EEPopPoetry iii :167:— For the byrde that can not speake nor syng Shall to the kytchyn to serue the kynge. 162. Cp. Lydgate’s St.Margaret 216, “Trust me welle this no feyned tale”. 175. lyme twiggis (see line 192). Limed twigs were smeared with birdlime, a viscous preparation made from the bark of holly (NED) to hold the feet of birds fast. See Piers of Fulham as below, line 185 note. 177. fetters. The Longleat MS reads feders, feathers. Cp. PoFoules 346, where the Oxford MSS change eles, “eels”, to egles, “eagles”; and ibid. 521, 588, where some MSS change faconde, “eloquent”, to faucon, “falcon”, under pressure of the many bird-allusions of the poem. Note also the Trin.Coll. text of Lydgate’s fable of the Wolf and the Lamb, where, in line 85, the scribe has altered the correct wole, ‘wool’, to wolf. 182. treacle, triacle, a remedy, “theriacum”; originally an antidote against poison. A dignified word in this period, often applied by Lydgate to Christ or to the Virgin; now transferred to a substance resembling in appearance the liquid in which the medieval remedy was given. 185-6. Cp. Kingis Quair stanza 135,—‘“For as the foulere quhistlith in his throte Diuersely to counterfete the brid And feynis mony a suete and strange note That in the busk for his PAGE 107] THE CHURL AND THE BIRD 411 desate is hid Til sche be fast lokin his net amyd.” Cp. Piers of Fulham, in Hazlitt’s EEPopPo ii:94-96. 206-7. See Lydgate’s Thebes 3447-49. 209-10. clymbe to high, etc. One of Lydgate’s most frequent metaphors, especially in his Fall of Princes; it depends on Fortune’s wheel. Other MSS read—torne felyth oft his fall vnsoft. 213-14. Hawes’ Example of Virtue, stanza 59, has “For a thing lost without recover Look that thou never be too pensive.” 220. Cp. Chaucer’s) Legend, B-prol. 134 ff.,—“hem thoughte hit did hem good To singe of him, and in hir song despyse The foule cherl that for his covetyse Had hem betrayed with his sophistrye.” 227. MSS Linc., Lansd., Hh, read “riht to pleyne & maken dool”; Trinity has—“com- pleyn & make”, etc.; Harley has “to compleyn and make”, etc. See Troy Book i:1918, “bou mygtest wel compleyne and make dool.” 232. Iagounce. The French poem has “Qui apelee est Iacintus Vne once peise bien ou plus.” See descr. of the stone Hyacinthus in Evax, De Gemmis. This work (transl. by Moller, Wittenberg, 1574) is cited by Lydgate in his fable of the Cock and Precious Stone, so closely related to this poem. Evax, “rex Arabum’, is there mentioned by name, as in the Italian L’Intelligenza, a fourteenth-century poem. See lines 152 ff. of Lydgate’s fable, Archiv, vol 85. 239 ff. Cp. the virtues of “jasp” as listed by Henryson in his Fables 120 ff. 259. perry ... garnade. Old French pierrerie, precious stones. Garnade, ie. Granada, was under the Moorish dynasty of the Nasrides, 1238-1492, the seat of a brilliant civilization, the wealthiest of Spanish cities, and the centre of the European jewel-trade. See Garl. 485. 260 ff. A favorite theme with Lydgate. Cp. his fable of the Cock and Precious Stone lines 187 ff.— Thus euery byng foloweb hys nature Pryncys to reygne knyghtys for batayll Plowmen for tylpe shypmen forto sayll. See also his poem with refrain “Thus euery thyng draweth to his semblable’, in Harley 2251 and Ashmole 59, of which a stanza is cited in note on line 351 below; see a similar poem with the refrain “Utter thy Langage”, in Halliwell MinPo, p. 173; see FaPrinces iii :3786-3822, and the original in Laurent’s French, iii chap. 14. See Barclay, Ecl. iv:325 ff., as here. 266. lapidary. Chaucer, HoFame 1352, refers to the “Lapidaire”. Various catalogues of precious stones and their virtues were current in the Middle Ages. That of “Evax rex Arabum” is cited in note on line 232 above; that of Marbodus, bishop of Rennes in the 11-12th centuries, was widely known; the material of Isidor, Etymol. xvi cap. 9, and of Vincent de Beauvais in his Speculum Naturale, was also much used. See Pannier, Les lapidaires francais des xii, xiii, et xiv siécles, Paris, 1882. 275. This comparison was proverbial for dullness of perception. See Chaucer’s Troilus 1:731; see his Boethius v prose 4 and Skeat’s note. 276. For the expression see Chaucer’s Troilus v:1433, KnTale 980; see 340 below. 280. This was a proverb ;—“Whoever is serf to a boor is wretched”. See 371, 374 below. 290. The Longleat scribe ignores the peculiarly Lydgatian form of continue, which is necessary for rime. 306. All is not gold, etc. This very old proverb is often cited by Lydgate; see FaPrinces iv :2707, 2944, viii:3160; see Midsummer Rose, stanza 2, in Halliwell MinPo, p. 22. Chaucer uses the saying in CanYeoTale 409-10. It is found in Alanus’ Parabolae iii:1 as ““Non teneas aurum totum quod splendet ut aurum’. 345. Cp. CantTales prol. 9. 350. tarage. This word, apparently meaning “character, savor, quality’, is of uncertain origin, and is almost exclusively used by Lydgate. Henryson has it once at least, but it took no root in the language. 412 NOTES [PAGE I10 351 ff. This theme is closely allied to that touched on in line 260 above. Lydgate was perhaps influenced by the passage on dreams which Chaucer, PoFoules 99-105, drew from Claudian; but he is hardly likely to have known Propertius, Eleg. II, i:43-44, “navita de ventis, de tauris narrat arator, Enumerat miles vulnera, pastor oves.” See the theme again in the poem mentioned in note on 260 above; I cite from MS Harley 2251, fol. 19b:— With philosophres . trete of philosophie With the marchant.trete of riches With the poete.trete of poetrye With gentilmen. trete of gentilnes And serve a cherle . aftir his rudenes Who currieth hors . resortith to the stable Plowman in tilth.sette al theyr besynes Thus euery thyng.drawith to his semblable 356-7. MSS Trinity and Calig. agree with Longleat here; others have line 357 as 356, and as 357 have “The hunter to speke of venerye’. 359. popyngay, parrot. The parrot was in this period valued as an accessory to lux- urious life. Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry VII, paid in July 1502 the sum of 13 shillings and fourpence for a parrot, the same sum which she paid the musician Cornish for setting a carol in December, 1502, and the same sum which she paid weekly for the diet and clothing of her three young kinsfolk, the Courtenay children, with their three servants, in the country. See Nicolas’ Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, London, 1830, pp. 62-3, 30, 83. 363. hensforth my lyvyng. An accusative of duration of time. 374-5. This proverb is in Skelton’s Garland lines 1418-19, also in Barclay’s transl. of Mancini,—“Amonge olde parables this often haue I read, A vilayns subiect, a ielous boyes wife And a childes birde are wo and harde bested.” 379. Goo litil quayeer. On this very old form of envoy see Tatlock in ModPhil. 18 :115-118. 380. my maistir. See introduction above. 385. See note on Cavendish line 52. HORNS AWAY 10. Charbonclis. The carbuncle or ruby, very highly valued by the Middle Ages, was believed to emit light in darkness. In the De Planctu Naturae of Alanus, which Lydgate quotes just below, we find:—‘Carbunculus, qui solis gerens imaginem, suo radiationis cereo- noctis proscribens umbracula” etc. The same is recorded in Bartholomaeus Anglicus’ De Pro- prietatibus Rerum, xvi:26; and references to the stone in early French and English are very numerous. See Chaucer’s Legend 1119, Lydgate’s Troy Book ii:1027-30, iii:4787-9. Im Renaud’s Li Biaus Desconus 1897-1900 a carbuncle lights the castle at night. 17-22. Aleyn, Alanus de Insulis, died 1202. His De Planctu Naturae is here referred to, but not correctly. Lydgate confuses the description of Nature there found with the description of Venus in the PoFoules, where Chaucer says that Nature, presiding over the birds, is attired as Aleyn describes her; later in the poem, lines 269-73, Chaucer says of Venus that she lies covered below the breast with “a subtle kerchef of Valence”. Alanus’ description of Nature gave the goddess an elaborate diadem, carefully listing the stones, and a robe, mantle, and tunic on which were depicted all living and growing things. Lydgate has fused recol- lections, and given Nature as headgear the coverlet of Venus. But in his ResonandSens, 407 ff., he follows Alanus. 23. Texemplyfye, etc. This line is wrongly printed NED, s.v. exemplify, as “I exemple- fye”, etc. It is “To exemplify’. 27. Heleyne, etc. This is a very brief use of the common medieval list. See the Epitha- lamium for Gloucester 71 and note. 32. Ther bewte couthe. Apparently an ablative absolute; “their beauty being so evident’. In such case, hornys wer means simply “horns were’, and not “the defence of horns”. PAGE 112] BYCORNE AND CHICHEVACHE 413 37. arche wyves. This phrase is used by Chaucer in the envoy to the Clerk’s Tale, where Skeat explains it as “ruling wives’. For arch in this sense the earliest NED citation is of 1547; for the sense of “clever, crafty”, the earliest is of 1662. 45. Peysed. We might conjecture Peysyth here, on the analogy of Yeuyth, line 48, but the ablative absolute is very common in Lydgate. 49. Grettest of vertues, etc. Lydgate says the same thing in his St. Albon 1:480-1,— “the chefe founderesse Of all vertues / that called is mekenes.” And in the same poem i:487-8, he says that humility “bereth vp all / and hath the souereynte.” Cp. ibid. 493-4. In the Wisdom of Solomon x:12 it is godliness, not humility that is “stronger than all”. No exact parallel to Lydgate’s phrase is found in Proverbs; but see xv:33, xvi:19, xviii:12. Tennyson, in the Holy Grail 145, refers to “True humility, the highest virtue, mother of all” ; and his commentator Lester cites Philippians ii:3-8. See James iv:6, lst Peter v:5. 52. Cp. St. Albon iii:569, “Take hede hereto and yeueth good audience.” 59-64. There are no predicate verbs for the subjects. 60. iust convenience, i.e., “by perfect agreement (are) all virtues conjoined.” 62. roose of Jerycho, etc. See the poem beginning “Queen of heuene” etc., printed by MacCracken i:284, line 27:—‘‘Rose of Iherico groweth noon so fressh in May.” BYCORNE AND CHICHEVACHE It was suggested, p. 114 ante, that the text of this poem in MS Trin.Coll.Cambridge R 3, 20 was the source of the text as in MS Harley 2251. A possible point against this is the appearance of not, line 28, in the later MSS, but lacking in Shirley’s copy; another point is the reading of line 98. It should also be noted that Shirley transposed stanzas 2 and 3, marking them in the margin as a and 6 for correction; but the Harley scribe paid no attention to this, and the false sequence of stanzas as in his text remains in Dodsley, in Montaiglon, in Halli- well, in Morley, and in Neilson and Webster. Some of Shirley’s orthographic tricks are evident; his eo for long e, as in lines 71, 74, 75, 82, 86, 93, 104, 105, 108, 124, 127; his nuwe for newe, 112; his filowing for following as in the margin beside stanza 4; and note his frequent inorganic final e, as in cane, frome, etc. 13. in sentence. This word signified “meaning, import”. So in CTprol 800, “Tales of best sentence and most solas”. So in NPTale 345, “Ma dame, the sentence of this Latin is”. It could also mean “opinion”, see Troy Book ii:2697, 3006, etc. But the phrase is often with Lydgate a mere padding-formula, as here; and see Troy Book i:428. Cp. also Churl 302, Horns 15, ResonandSens 6448, FaPrin. i:3316. 16. foode. The MS wrongly reads foote. 17. men. The Harley MS omitted this word, and a later hand has inserted, with caret, husbondis, the h written badly. Halliwell read this husks never and his error is preserved by Montaiglon and by Neilson, but not by Dodsley or by Morley. 21. The MS reads Lyke luk, etc. 22. Cp. the French “Bigorne suis en Bigornois’”. See Archiv 114:80. 31. at be countretayle, in retort. The tally and countertally, two halves of a hazel or ash rod, were used in the days before written accounts were common. They were scored across, split lengthwise, and given to the two parties in a bargain. When payment was due, the tally and countertally were produced. Hence the figurative sense as here and in ClTale envoy. 32. hewe. The NED interprets this as “to strike’. Its only other citation is from Addison. See Doctor Doubble Ale, line 32, in Hazlitt’s EEPopPo iii:316. The usage in FlCourtesy 158, Troy Book i:1230-32, is another idiom. 35. The NED cites this passage under forbear 7 as “to refrain from using, uttering”. The sense seems to be ‘‘cannot restrain (overbear) their husbands in speech”. The Harley MS reads oon woord, as if “one word’. 38. per living; an accusative of duration of time; “all their life long”. See 48. 41. chaumpartye. Latin campt-partem, a divided field; French chawmpart. Chaucer, KnTale 1091, used the word in the sense of “partnership in power”. Lydgate, says the NED, 414 NOTES [PAGE 117 seems to have misunderstood “holde chaumpartye”’ as “to hold rivalry or contest with, to resist”. He was followed by some of the 16th century archdists, says NED. 71. O noble wyves. Cp. the Clerk’s envoy, passim, for this and various other phrases here borrowed by Lydgate. 85. In existence, in reality. Used definitely in this sense HoFame 266, but here merely padding for rime. Cp. 13 above, on the same rime-sound. 88. bountee, etc. “Or more patient than Griselda, to augment their excellence.” Bounty and beauty were two main categories of perfection; see Flower of Courtesy 216-217, where the poet says that “bountee and beautie both in her demeyne, She maketh bountee alwey souereyne”’. That is, graciousness has with her precedence over physical perfection. See also Gower’s ballade 31, in ed. by Macaulay i:363. From its first usage in English, ca. 1300, the word bounty has also a narrower sense of “kindness, liberality”; see ResonandSens 6160 ff., but see ibid. 6450. Cp. Shakespeare’s song ‘“‘Who Is Sylvia,” in Two Gentlemen of Verona,— “Ts she kind as she is fair? For beauty lives with kindness”. And cp. BoDuch 1195-8, also its direct sources, Machaut’s Roi de Behaingne 461-2, Reméde de Fortune 1671-83. See the variant-stanza in one MS of Chaucer’s Troilus, printed in Root’s ed., p. 140. 91. to breke with my faaste, to break my fast with. For the word-order, see Thebes 35 and note. 96. more pane thritty Mayes. The French text (Montaiglon xi:284) says “Des ans y a plus de deux cens”; that in Archiv 114:83 reads “Il y a des ans bien deux cens”. Whether Lydgate, by altering into this phrase, means that thirty years have elapsed since Chaucer wrote his Griselda, is uncertain. 98. This line gave the scribes some trouble. Harley writes “But yit oon Gresield”, etc.; R 3, 19 has “But oone lyke Gresild”, etc. If we keep this reading, we must render fonde in 98 as ‘discover’, in 99 as “found”. 105 ff. In the Bigorne text printed Archiv 114:80 there is at this point a stanza uttered by a wife who sees Bigorne about to lay hold on her husband. Lydgate has a stanza of lament by a husband. 110. an impossible, In English of this period, impossible was frequently a substantive. See WB prol. 688 etc., and many cases in Lydgate, e. g., FaPrin. i:6857. 115. made beyre avowe, sworn. On many formal occasions, when a lord and his cour- tiers pledged themselves to some undertaking, their oaths were made upon the body of a bird. The Vows of the Swan were taken by Edward I in 1306, when, according to the chronicler Matthew of Westminster, two swans appeared before the king as he was knighting his son previous to the invasion of Scotland. Cp. especially here the Vows of the Peacock. The peacock was in Greek and Roman times regarded as one of the greatest of table delicacies; Cicero, writing to Paetus, bids his correspondent marvel at his temerity in entertaining Hir- tius (a well-known gourmand) when he has no peacock to set before him. In the Middle Ages the peacock was “la viande des preux”; at state banquets it was formally set upon the table by the lady of greatest rank or beauty, to the accompaniment of music; and it was placed before the most honored guest that he might carve it. It became customary for the carver, and in turn the knights present, to pledge themselves to further achievement in the names of “God, Our Lady, the ladies, and the peacock”. Les Voeux du Paon, written about 1310 by Jacques de Longuyon, describes such a feast, such vows, and their fulfilment; see Ward, Cat. of Romances, i1:146. That Lydgate knew the custom, and perhaps knew of Longuyon’s epic, appears from his allusions to the “vowes of pecok”’; a stanza in his Midsummer Rose, pr. Halliwell, p. 22, contains the lines :— Where ben of Fraunce all the dozepiere Which in Gaule had the governaunce? Vowes of pecok with all ther proude chere? The worthy nyne with all ther high bobbaunce? See Gaston Paris, La littérature francaise au moyen-age, p. 76; see Koeppel in Archiv 108 :29. There is also in French a poem entitled Les Voeux du _Héron, prescribing vows taken by Edward III and many of his court in 1338, pledging Englishmen to perform marvels PAGE 118] THEBES-PROLOGUE 415 in their invasion of France; these vows were sworn at the instigation of Robert d’Artois, an exiled Frenchman, who served at the King’s banquet a roasted heron with the taunt that as it was the most timid of birds it should be an example to the most cowardly of men. This poem is printed in La Curne de Ste. Palaye’s Mémoires sur l’ancienne chevalerie, iii. In the prologue to the tale of Beryn we find “I make a vowe to the pecock”; and when Chaucer’s Sir Thopas, line 151, swears “by ale and breed”, it is probably intended as a burlesque of the solemn oaths taken upon the dish of honor, the peacock, 116. Harley 2251 reads exile for euer pacience. The words for evir have been written on the margin of our text, in darker ink, with a caret after eryle. 117. cryed wolffes hede obedyence. An outlaw, in the fifteenth century, was said to carry a wolf’s head on his shoulders, because he was hunted down like a wolf, the terror of the English medieval countryside. See Gamelyn 700, 710, 722. Lydgate uses the ex- pression in FaPrinces vii:1261, “Cried woluis hed was vertuous sobirnesse’, i. e. “It was cried,— Away with virtuous soberness!”’ 120. The MS R 3, 19 reads fast full longe. PROLOGUE TO THE SIEGE OF THEBES 1 ff. A temporal clause describing the season of the year is a favorite mode of opening with medieval writers. Nigel Wireker’s Contra Curiales begins :— Postquam tristis hiems Zephyro spirante recessit Grando, nives, pluviae, consuluere fugae, Terra, parens florum, vires rediviva resumpsit. (Wright, Satir. Po. i) The Metamorphosis Goliae of Walter Map begins :— Sole post arietem taurum subintrante Novo terrae faciem flore picturante. The fourth book of Guido delle Colonne’s Historia Trojana, cited by Skeat in his note on the opening of Chaucer’s Prologue, begins:—Tempus erat quo sol maturans sub obliquo Zodiaci circulo cursum sub signo iam intrauerat Arietis; see my Chaucer Manual, p. 267. The combination of mythology with nature-description in a temporal clause opening with When became still more common after Chaucer. In Lydgate’s Troy Book it frequently serves as an introduction to a new phase of the story, cp. i:3094, 3907, 11:3319, 5070, etc.; he uses it also Secrees 1296, Pedigree of Henry VI line 287 ff., etc. The printer Copland’s rejection of the method, and some modern acceptances of it, are noted with Cavendish’s Metrical Visions, line 1 here. In this poem Lydgate has the date of the Canterbury Pilgrimage in mind, and says that the sun has entered the Bull, the next constellation to the Ram which Chaucer mentioned in his line 8. Observe the sentence-structure of this opening in comparison with that of Chaucer. Chaucer’s first eighteen lines assure us of his full command of complex phrasing, his clear view of his goal. In line 12, Than longen folk is the prompt and expected conclusion of the Whan of lines 1 and 5. But Lydgate’s endeavor to imitate this poise expresses itself only in beginnings and rebeginnings, in an accumulation of clauses to their final exhaustion in line 78—or 91?—without reaching a principal verb. His habitual use of the ablative ab- solute and of the participles as a finite verb, as here, is one of his most baffling ineptitudes ; see lines 17, 35, 49, 53, 55, 56. But even were finite verbs substituted, the construction of the paragraph as a whole would not be established; this idiosyncrasy of Lydgate’s is an additional complication, not a fundamental cause of his incoherence. 3. Satourn old. Saturn was decribed by Albricus, De Deorum Imaginibus, as “homo senex, canus, prolixa barba, curvus, tristis et pallidus, tecto capite, colore glauco.” He is so described in Lydgate’s ResonandSens 1347, 3091, 3103; Sackville in his Induction line 3 borrows this verse from Lydgate. 8. Shour ... made avale. If Saturn were in Virgo and the moon were in opposition to him, she must be in Pisces, a “watery” sign. 416 NOTES [PAGE 120 19. Koeppel suggested here “Complet are told”, to obtain a finite verb. See his mono- graph as ante p. 120, note on his p. 12. The change would however stabilize only one clause. 22. Some of desport, etc. These same phrases appear in the description of Chaucer’s work FaPrinces i:344; see p. 162 here. 32. And eek also. This accumulation of emphasis, used by Chaucer, e.g. HoFame 178, is frequent in Lydgate. I have noted four other cases in Thebes, four in ResonandSens, fifteen in the Troy book. It occurs in the Serpent of Division, p. 55. 33. Lydgates here credits the Pardoner with the Summoner’s appearance and conduct. 35. to angre with, to anger. This locution, instead of “to anger the Friar with”, is regular in Middle English. Chaucer, Prol. 791, has “To shorte with our weye”’; Gower, Confessio i:2172, has “To tendre with the kinges herte’; Piers Plowman (B) vi:297, has “And profred Perse this present to plese with hunger’; Lydgate, Bycorne 91, has “to breke with my fast’, Dance Macabre 86, “to wrappen in my body”, Troy Book ii:6238, “to glade with the eyr”. See also Orléans xx :4, p. 231 here. Hoccleve, Male Régle 150, has the modern word-order. 51. many prouerbe. The Middle Ages set high value upon proverbs, maxims and “sen- tences”. The extracts from classical writers which appear and reappear in medieval authors are by preference “auctoritees”, scraps of moral or practical wisdom. This lasted long. When the second edition of Speght’s Chaucer was issued in 1602, it announced on its titlepage, among other improvements, ‘Sentences and proverbs noted”. This noting is done by tiny pointing hands along the margins of the text, sometimes only one on a page, sometimes, as in the Melibeus, ten or twelve. ,The difference between this and the modern view of literature is clearly illustrated by this choice of notes. In Chaucer’s Prologue, where we would mark the opening spring symphony, which, as Lowell said, still at the thousandth reading lifts the hair upon our foreheads with a breath of uncontaminated springtide; where we quote lines of character-description, of the Prioress’ smiling, of the Shipman’s tempest- shaken beard,—the medieval reader made a very different selection. The first line of the Prologue which is marked in the 1602 edition is 443, “For gold in phisik is a cordial’; three lines in the description of the Parson are noted, 500, 503, and 505; and other lines scored are 563, 652, 731, 741, and 830. This annotation is not retained in the 1687 Chaucer. 52. his sugred mouth. The term sugred is extremely common in Lydgate. He talks of sugared sounds, sugared eloquence, sweet sugared harmony, the sugared aureat liquor of the Muses, the god who sugars the tongues of rhetoricians, etc. Chaucer, translating the phrase of Boethius, “melliflui canit oris Homerus”, rendered it “Homer with the honey mouth, that is to say, Homer with the swete ditees.” Possibly it was this phrase which suggested Lydgate’s “sugred ditees of Omere”, (FaPrinces ix:3402); but the term sugred is rare in Chaucer (cp. Troilus ii:384) and Gower does not use the word freely. We should note that the Latin mellea, “honeyed”, would naturally give in Middle English the term sugared, since the sugar of the Middle Ages, a very expensive luxury obtained principally from Venice, was a viscous liquid or thick syrup, not unlike prepared honey. It was not until late in the fifteenth century that a Venetian discovered the art of refining and hardening the product. Such phrases as those of Ausonius in his Epistles, “quam mellea res sit oratio”, or “melleum eloquium’’, could lead direct to ‘“‘sugared eloquence”. The word was used by other than Lydgate; cp. Test. of Love i:4, Court of Love 22, Bokenam’s St. Anne 57-59, Skelton’s Garland of Laurell 73-4, etc. 55-56. These phrases, and a line from Chaucer’s Prologue, are echoed in Caxton’s pro- heme to his second edition of the Canterbury Tales; see Fliigel’s Neuengl. Lesebuch, p. 6. Caxton there says of Chaucer that “he comprehended hys matere in short / quyck / and hye sentences / eschewynge / prolyxyte / castyng away the chaf of superfluyte / and shewyng the pyked grayn of sentence / utteryd by crafty and sugred eloquence”. 58. ded mete. This use of the verb do as an auxiliary, rare in earlier English, and appearing in Chaucer only in interrogative construction (Monk’s Tale 442, 444), is very com- mon in Lydgate. In fact, the weakening of do into such usage is a feature of fifteenth- century grammar. See Hittmair, Das Zeitwort ‘do’ in Chaucer’s Prosa, 1923, pp. 85 ff. The Kentish form ded may be noted. PAGE 121] THEBES-PROLOGUE 417 65. See line 136; and cp. St. Albon i:130, “None so hardy to be therto contrarye”. 68-9. Hap or fortune. Cp. Chaucer’s Prologue 846, “Were it by aventure, or sort, or cas”; and from the many similar cases in Lydgate’s Troy Book take iii:2815, “Were it be hap auenture or caas”’. Note also Dante, Inferno xxxii:76, “Se voler fu, o destino, o for- tuna”. 72. vowes to aquyte. The sick who called upon a saint to heal them were bound when recovered to pay their thanks at his shrine; cp. Chaucer’s Prol. 17-18. Cp, also Bokenam’s prol. to St. Magdalen 112-13, “My pylgrymage . . . wych promysyd I to saynt Jamys wyth hert entere Had to performe be same yere.” 73. of black and not of grene. ‘Black was the color of the ascetic, of mourning, of the Benedictine monk; green that of youth, vigor, joyousness. See Barclay, Ecl. prol. 107; see Deschamps’ balade, Oeuvres iii:224, “Aingoix pour vert me vueil de noir vestir”. 75. The adornment of a horse’s trappings, especially the bridle, with bosses and bells of silver, was a frequent medieval mode of display; cp. Skeat’s note on CantTales prol. 170. _ Lydgates’s bridle, as described here and 85 below, indicated poverty. 76. My man toforn, etc. Cp. Chaucer, CanYeo headlink 13-14. 90. a wonder thred bar hood. See Shirley’s allusions to Lydgate’s poverty, in the poem printed p. 196 here, lines 37-44. 93. ny3 fyfty 3ere of age. Koeppel, in his diss. on this poem above mentioned, pp. 11 ff., argues the date of the Siege of Thebes from this passage. 95. As I haue hight. It is not clear whether this means “According to my promise”, or “As for my name”. 96. wel broke ye youre name, “well profit you your name!” Cp. Chaucer’s Legend, prol. (B) 194; cp. Beryn 66, “broke wel thy name”, King Horn 206, “wel bruke pu pi nevening”. 100. hagys. A sort of meat-loaf, cooked like a large sausage in the maw of the animal; see a verse-recipe printed Anglia 36:372, and one printed in the EETS volume of cookery- books, p. 39. The dish is still made in Scotland; see Burns, To a Haggis. Wiilker, in his text as above, was led by his use of Stow’s poor copy to render this word as bagys, bags. See also note on 162 below. 101. A ffranchmole a tansey or a froyse. Verse-recipes for these dishes are printed Anglia 36:373 and in the EETS vol. above mentioned, pp. 39, 45, 86. A franche mole was not unlike a haggis; a tansey and a froyse were pancakes. Gower, Confessio iv :2732, says of Somnolence that he “brustleth as a monkes froise Whanne it is throwe into the panne.” The froise or pancake made with fish was an especially common dish with monks because of their many fast-days. ; 102. sclender is youre koyse. The word koyse, coise is very rare in Mid. Engl. and Old French. Gower, Confessio i:1734, calls the hideous old wife whom Florent is forced to wed “this foule grete coise”; Godefroy, in his dictionary of Old French, cites the fifteenth play of St. Nicholas for the word, and queries its meaning. There also occurs, see Hartshorne’s Ancient Metrical Tales, p. 118, the phrase “coisy fish”, meaning apparently coarse or worth- less fish. 110. The bracketed word is not in the MS. 117-18. These herbs are remedies for flatulence or colic, the collis passioun of line 114. 124. parcel afore pryme, a little before dawn. Prime, the first period of the day, was originally reckoned from six a. M., then from sunrise. The use of parcel with a phrase, as here, is exemplified by NED from Lydgate only. 126. by kokkis blood, by God’s blood. For this corrupted form cp. Chaucer, Mancprol. line 9, Parson’s prol. 29; London Lickpenny 93. 142. platly. This word, like pleinly, sothly is much used by Lydgate for mid-line padding. Cp. in the Troy Book iv lines 79, 93, 139, 425, 447, 615, 618, 665, 681, etc. 155. Ospryng. This town was about ten miles on the London side of Canterbury. 160. be Zour Cristene name. This tag not only served to fill out a line, but gave the identification which the medieval mind so desired. Cp. Nun’s Priest’s prol. 42, “or dan Piers by your name”; DoctTale 213, “Virginia by thy name”; Gower’s Confessio i:1541, “And 418 NOTES [PAGE 123 seide Florent be thi name”. Cp. Bokenam, St. Magd. prol. 75; cp. Barclay, Eclogue i, prol. 19, “Himselfe he called Cornix by his name”. Skelton’s usage of the phrase in Garl. 381 is not a tag; see note tbid. 162. portoos, a breviary, Old French portehors. See Chaucer, Shipman’s Tale 131, “For on my porthors here I make an ooth”. The porthors was often of great beauty and value; Henry the Fourth bequeathed his to his son Henry the Fifth, who left it to Bishop Beaufort, cp. Wylie’s Henry the Fourth iii:233. John of Gaunt also bequeathed to Beaufort, then Bishop of Lincoln, “mon messale et mon portheus”, see Armitage-Smith’s life of Gaunt, p. 428. In catalogues of medieval libraries we frequently find the “porthors” very richly exe- cuted. Wiilker, following Stow’s text, printed portes here, and interpreted it as “gates” or “lips”. See note on line 100 above.—a twenty deuelway, i.e., in the name of twenty devils. See Chaucer, MillTale 527, Reves Tale 337; Chester Play of Noah’s Flood 219, etc. 165. a lape, no Jape. The MSS vary in the word appearing before Jape; Arundel omits. The word jape, “jest”, is used by the Host when ordering the Pardoner to narrate, Pard. headlink 33, ‘““Tel us som mirth or japes right anon”. 166. rouncy. This may be an error by Lydgate, as Chaucer assigns a rouncy, or common cart-horse, to the Shipman. 167. Cp. the Clerk’s headlink, “But precheth nat, as freres doon in Lente”. 169. bekke, beak, nose. The earliest example of this word given NED is of 1598. Cp. Troy Book ii:5781, “And noddeth ofte with his Ilowsy hed”. See MancTale 346. 170. draweth to effekke, “amounts to something, has weight”. The word effecte has in this MS been altered to effekke; both forms appear in the MSS of the poem. THE DANCE MACABRE The poem is headed in Brit. Mus. Harley 116 “The Daunce of Macabre”. Bodl. Laud 735 and this MS have only “Verba translatoris”; Bodley 221 has no heading. Of the B-recension MSS, Bodley 686 heads the poem “Here begynnep a tretys of the daunce of Poulys other weyes called Makabre;” Corpus writes “The Daunce of Powlys’’; Lansdowne and Lincoln Cathedral have as heading “Incipit macrobius’’. The five opening stanzas here are not in the B-recension. 6. pat be refers to folkes in line 1. 20. depict... in a wal. Cp. Horse Goose and Sheep 18, Utter Thy Language (Min Rowl73) e976 24. Machabres daunce. The earliest known use of this phrase is in the Respit de Mort of Jehan le Févre, ca. 1376. He there says :— Je fis de macabre la dance, Qui toutes gens maisne a sa tresche Et a la fosse les adresche Qui est leur derraine maison. The passage is printed by Gaston Paris, Romania 24:130. Apparently the next recorded use of the phrase is in the Journal d’un Bourgeois de Paris sous Charles VII, printed by Labarre in his Mémoires pour servir a l’histoire de France, 1729, and by Tuetey in 1881 for the Soc. de l’histoire de Paris, etc. The diarist says that a preacher speaking in the cloisters of SS. Innocents was “a l’endroit de la danse macabre”; and some pages earlier he states that the Dance was begun about August 1424 and finished by the following Lent. In a description of Paris compiled by Guil. de Metz about 1434, the fresco is mentioned as the Dance Macabre; in a poem written by Jehan Regnier after his imprisonment in 1432, he says “Si fault- il aller a la dance De macabre la trés-diverse’; the French MSS use that heading, as do the many prints. Lydgate adopted the phrase, and incorporated it in his text; a few usages of it in later English are mentioned in the Introduction ante, but the B-recension, which is without Lydgate’s prologue of explanation, does not preserve the French name. The word macabre is still a difficulty to philologists. It has been explained as from the Arabic maq-abir, a place of sepulture; see Seelmann, p. 24 and his reference to Van Praet, PAGE 131] THE DANCE MACABRE 419 author of the suggestion. This etymology is refused by Male, who in his work on French medieval religious art, p. 390 note, says that the only possible derivation is by popular modi- fication of the name of the Maccabees, the Jewish warrior-heroes. He points to the Latin heading “Macchabaeorum chorea”, the Dutch term “Makkabeus danz”, (see Romania 24 :588). The NED adopts this explanation; but no connection has yet been shown with any church or festivity sacred to the Maccabees. Another etymology is from Macarius, the name of a hermit-saint who may then be the hermit appearing in the Campo Santo fresco at Pisa and in some of the poems. Yet another, advocated by Gaston Paris as above, treats Macabre as the surname of the earliest painter of the Death-picture; and that the word was indeed a surname in medieval France is easily proved; see my paper MLNotes 24:63 for example. For a résumé of the discussion see Huet, Notes d’historie littéraire, iii, Paris, 1918. See Male as cited for treatment of the Dance as a dramatic performance. The word dance has here its frequent medieval sense of a procession, a chain or file formed in dancing; such a dance had generally a leader, as in the Flower and Leaf. The phrase olde daunce meant “experience”. 25. atte be leste. The medieval scribe frequently contracted at be into atte; he has here written both the contracted and the full form. 26. her sterying, their suggestion and urging. See MaReg 192, Thebes 235. 27. Lydgate here says that he executed his translation at the suggestion of French clerks. Warton-Hazlitt iii:55 has corrected Warton’s earlier assertion that the monk worked at the request of the Chapter of St. Paul’s,—a statement retained by the DNB. The DNB also says that this poem is of 24 quatrains, and mentions MS Lansdowne 699. 31. mirrour. See note FaPrinces G 179 for another usage of this metaphor; here the meaning is “example”. 41 ff. This first stanza from the French illustrates Lydgate’s adherence to the rime- sounds of his original. 46. The B-recension alters to “daunce which that ye see”. Note the excision of the word makabre. 60. The B-recension alters to “chirche most in especiall”. 64. to god is the honour. It might seem that Lydgate here mistranslated the French “Aux grans maistres est deu honneur’”; but at least one French MS, Bibl. nat. fonds latin 14904, writes “est dieu lonneur”. 68. The B-recension has seynt before Petris. 71. ffor such honour, etc. is the reading of the Lincoln Cathedral MS. 75. appil round. The orb or sphere was, with the sceptre and sword, an imperial attri- bute. This is not the appil round of line 288. 83. geim. Harley 116 reads bote, Ellesmere geyne, the B-recension gyn. 86. To wrappe in my body. See note on Thebes 35 here. 87. Harley 116 reads “And bervppon I may me sore complayne’”; Bodley and Corpus “full sore I may compleyne”’; Ellesmere agrees with Selden. 101. grys ne ermyn. ‘These valuable furs might be worn by high ecclesiastics. See line 250. 103. lyved wel. Ellesmere reads as Selden; Harley 116, conceyued well; B-type MSS, lerned wel, 107. This phrase, Com forth, is addressed to the Lady of Great Estate 185, to the Squire line 217, to the Abbot line 233, to the Bailiff line 265, to the Astronomer line 281, to the Sergeant line 361, and to the Gentlewoman line 449. See note on 153, 109, Ellesmere and Selden both omit for. Harley 116 reads “for all your highnesse”. 117. See line 308. 120. he shal al, etc. So Ellesmere. Harley 116 and the B-type MSS have we shul all, etc. 136. Note the use of do as an auxiliary, and cp. lines 287, 507, 619. See notes on Dial. 613, Thebes 58. 137 ff. The address of Death to the Constable is rewritten in the B-recension, the character summoned being termed the Prince. It runs, in Bodley 686 :— 420 NOTES [PAGE 133 Right myghti prince beth ryght wel certeyn This daunce to you is not eschewable ffor more mighty ban euer was Charlemayn Or worthi Artour of prowes ful notable With al his knyghtes of be rounde table What myght per platis ther Armes or maile Ther stronge curage ther scheldes defensable To deth avayle when he doth hem assaile Note the retention of A-type rime-sounds. 141-2. There is no verb for these subjects. See line 433. 153. whi. ..withdrawe. Cp. what do ye .. .tarie in line 297, or Com forth as in 107 etc., for the dramatic quality of the text. 174. This line reads in the B-version “Was in estate and worldely worschip to glade”. 179. my thanke also deuised, “acknowledgment also rendered to me”. 185-200. These Princess-stanzas are not in the French or in the B-recension. 195. Selden omits pronoun; Ellesmere reads moste y nedes fote; Harley and Trin, have J. 198. trace sewe, follow the steps. To follow or “sewe” the traces of Homer or of old authors, to dance the trace of lovers, etc., are phrases frequent in the fifteenth century and earlier. See prol. to Chaucer’s Legend 285, his Gentilesse 3; see the play of Mankind, where the minstrels are bid to play “the common trace”, and where Titivillus says of the leading character, “I shall make him to dance another trace”. 199-200. oure. Selden, Bodley 221, Laud, read Joure. 205. dredly. Most MSS dredeful. 207. broughte to lure. A metaphor from hawking. The falcon which had flown at its prey was reclaimed or recalled to the wrist of the master by calls and by the display of a lure, i. e. a bit of leather furnished with feathers to resemble a small bird. The metaphor is so common in MidEng as to be proverbial; see the WBprol 415 and cp. RevesTale 214, also two occurrences at least of the same proverb in Lydgate, in the fable of the Wolf and the Lamb and in Utter thy Language. In’a still older form it is used by John of Salisbury, Polycraticus v, cap. 10, “uacuae manus temeraria petitio est’. The metaphor occurs in Lyd- gate’s Letter to Gloucester 37 (see p. 150 here) and it continues to modern times, as in Swin- burne’s “Time stoops to no man’s lure’. 210. Harley 116 has. ..ye me bringe. 211. a symple ferye, an ordinary holiday or feria, a weekday on which work was sus- pended, but not a feast-day. 212. me list no ping syng, I am not at all disposed to sing. 213. The omission of the principal verb, here 7s, is common in Lydgate. 215. bat is not in Trin. or Corpus. 220. at youre vnkoupe dewise, to your special desire. See prol. to Thebes 99. 225-232. The rimes in this stanza have a monotony not seen in the French. 230. euery day is prime, every day is a beginning. See note on Thebes 124. For this more general use of prime cp. Lydgate’s FaPrinces i:738, “Off chaung it was to hem a newe pryme”. 235. heed in Harley, Trinity; Ellesmere hede; hood in Selden, Laud, Bodl. 221. 241. envie. From the context there seems a confusion in Lydgate’s mind between the Old French envie, “wish, desire”, and enuie “disgust, repulsion, annoyance’. The original “De cecy neusse point enuie”, means “For this (summons) I have no desire’; but Lydgate seems to institute a contrast between the loss of power and the death as a cloisterer. 249-64. The Abbess-stanzas are not in the French. The B-recension alters them. 250. mantels furred. The use of fur was very general in medieval England. Poor men wore sheepskin for warmth; the rich and those of high rank used ermine, vair and gris. Chaucer’s Monk, the Cardinal of this poem (line 101), Mercury as Doctor of Physic in Henryson’s Testament of Cresseid 251, all wear rich fur. Such display by Churchmen, as also the secular cut of their robes, was censured by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1342. PAGE 135] THE DANCE MACABRE 421 251. passing of greet, of passing great. 257 ff. The reply of the Abbess is rewritten in the B-recension, and deprived of force or color. Alas that deth hath so for me ordeyned That in no wise I kan him not eschewe Vnto this daunce of ryght I am constreyned That here with other y moste his trace sewe This pilgrimage to euery man is dewe A ernest matere a matere of no Jape Who that is redy schal neuer rewe The hour abydyng god hath for him schape (MS Bodley 686) 261. chekes...vernysshed. The Abbess painted her face. See in FaPrinces i:6525 ff., with mention of “farcing and popping” 6563, the long catalogue of women’s arts in dis- guising figure, hair, and complexion; this list is much expanded from Boccaccio by Laurent, Lydgate’s French original. See also the Troy Book ii:2685-99. As at this time all worldly license was imitated by the Church, regardless of archiepiscopal censure, we may suppose that Lydgate is here speaking by the book. The nuns who entertained Rozmital and his Bohemians at Neuss in 1465 were “acquainted with the most excellent dances.” See Mrs. Cust’s Gentlemen Errant, p. 16, and her references. 262. Vngirt...at the large. “At large’ means at liberty; cp. HoFame 745, WBprol 322, etc. To walk ungirt is probably a reflection on the nun’s chastity. In Nigel Wireker’s 12th century Speculum Stultorum (ed. Wright, Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets, i:94) one of the censures of nuns is “Cingula nulla ferunt”. And on p. 96, ibid., the speaker Brunellus an- nounces that in his new and easygoing Abbey, where there are to be the prancing horses of the Templars, the rich food of the Cluniacs, etc., he will adopt from nuns their custom “zonam semper abesse meam”. The girdle as a symbol of chastity plays an important part in canto v of the Faerie Queene. 265 ff: After the Abbess the B-recension has instead of the Bailly the Justice. A citation will show the difference of this addition from the movement of Lydgate. Thik honde of your my lorde Justice That hath rewled so longe in lawe Wel may men holde you ware and wise So that this drawght be wel ydrawe Escape schal not ye wolde ye neuer so fawe Suche dome to haue / as ye haue yeue in soth Therfor men seyn of an old sawe Wel is him alwey that wel doth (MS Bodley 686) The conception of the Bailly here is that of the officer of justice under a county sheriff, who made arrests, as in Piers Plowman B ii:59, and not as in Chaucer’s Prologue, the agent of a manorial lord. In either capacity he was a well-hated personage, his position affording him every opportunity for extortion. —knowen, cp. loken in line 281. 270-72. Observe the like rime, verb and substantive. 275. chaunge. Read chaunce, i.e., fortune. 276. what me list to spede, to promote whatever pleased me. 282. Instrumentis of Astronomy. By this is not meant the telescope, which was un- known before 1600 except to a few individuals who did not realize its practical importance, and who used it mainly in “natural magic” (Encyl. Brit.). Lydgate is probably alluding to armil- lary spheres, which were known already to Hipparchus and Ptolemy; or he may have in mind the astrolabe and cross-staff, which were used in taking altitudes; cp. line 283. Columbus and Vasco da Gama had these and the compass; the sextant was unknown until the 18th century. 292. domefiyng. The location of the planets in their respective “houses” of the Zodiac, preparatory to casting a horoscope. There is no corresponding word in the French, and this is the first citation of the word by the NED. See FaPrinces i:299, p. 161 here. 422 NOTES [PAGE 136 297. what. The line should perhaps be punctuated with an exclamation-point after this word, which would then be an introductory ejaculation, as in Chaucer’s Prologue 854. The meaning why would suit well with the context, but I find no cases of such use. 298. aver, possessions; in the French, line 226, avoir. Harley, Trinity, and the B-recen- sion change to honeur, onneur. 306. and may it not assure. Here may is the infinitive, as in Caxton, Foure Sonnes of Aymon, “As longe that I shalle may bere armes”. The meaning is “To leave all this and be unable to assure it, be certain of it”. Cp. the use of mowe in Troy Book i:4016, “schal nat mowe sustene”; see also ibid. i:1134, ii:4210, iv:1063, 6497; see Hoccleve’s Male Régle 148, and mow in Chaucer’s Boethius v prose 4:163, Gower’s Confessio ii :1670. 308. See line 117. 311. recure, recover, take back. This variant form of the verb recover is exceedingly common, even characteristic, in Lydgate. It occurs about a hundred times in the FaPrinces and nearly as often in the Troy Book, largely as a rime-word. The parallel form discure is not so common, and both are only occasional in Lydgate’s contemporaries; they are not in Gower’s Confessio, and Chaucer has apparently but one case, discure, BoDuchesse 549. The use of recure by Spenser should be noted. When translating here, Lydgate retained the French rime-words nature and creature, re- jecting norriture and droiture; the -ure words which he substituted, assure and recure, led him into difficulties. He seems to have read the French (stanza 30) with a full stop after demeurent, taking it to mean “do not endure’, and to have treated monde as a nominative. 313. prebende. An ecclesiastical living; the portion of the revenues of a cathedral or collegiate church granted to a canon or member of the chapter as his stipend. (NED) See line 596. 313 ff. The Canon-stanzas are somewhat altered in the B-recension, but the A-rimes are kept. 339. do carie, etc. “I have caused many a bale to be carried”. This old active use of do, so regular in Chaucer, is rare in Lydgate. See note on line 136. 344. Cp. the line “Who al embraceth litel shall restraine”, in the Proverbs attributed to Chaucer. See Hoccleve’s Male Régle 353-55; see the French Dance, line 272. 350. memoire. The OFr avoir memoire en meant penser a, acc. to Godefroy, There is no en in the French here, stanza 35, but the meaning seems to be “have no mind to longer life.” Lydgate’s use of memorie to translate the word is peculiar. 356. by kindly mocioun, by natural impulse. 368. MSS Bodley 221, Laud 735, Trinity, and Ellesmere agree with Selden. Harley has deth is a strong; Corpus 237, and the B-group, read “Thowghe he be myghty dethe is yit mor stronge”. 374. pou3 I hadde it sworn, though I had vowed against it. Common in Chaucer, see Troilus iv:976, KnTale 1666, etc. 377 ff. In this stanza Lydgate departs from the French (st. 39) in all but the last two lines. 392. This proverbial expression is differently twisted in PoFoules 592. 393 ff. The Usurer is not in the B-recension, and the removal of this very typical figure is an interesting point of difference between the two texts. The term “usury” was in the Middle Ages applied to all lending of money upon interest. The practice had been severely condemned by the ancient Jews (Exod. 22:25, etc), and by the Greek and Roman law-codes. For a man did not borrow, as frequently today, to push his undertaking or meet a temporary need, but when in a state of extreme distress. Unable to repay, he was often obliged to surrender his personal liberty; see Nehemiah 5:5. In both Greece and Rome a large part of the population, originally small proprietors, had become practically enslaved; and the failure of national feeling because of this must have contributed to the fall of the Empire. The Christian Fathers condemned “usury” in the strongest terms; even before the Council of Nicaea (325) we find legislation against it as practised by clerics, and the Church’s penalties for it were by later councils extended to laymen also. The Council of Vienne, in 1311, PAGE 137] THE DANCE MACABRE 423 declared it heresy to defend the legality of usury. In the fifteenth century, however, the whole character of borrowing changed with the development of the trading class, and in spite of the bull of Sixtus V (Detestabilis Avaritiae) in 1586, the Church was obliged to modify her position. See Cunningham’s Christian Opinion on Usury, 1884; see art. in Dict. of Religion and Ethics. The effect of this Church doctrine was to throw most medieval moneylending into the hands of the Jews, which increased the popular abhorrence of them. See Confessio Amantis vii:3239 ff., Piers’ Plowman B xviii:104, Chaucer’s Prioress’ Tale 39 ff.; see such English statutes as that of 5th Henry IV against the “horrible & dampnable peeche de Usure” which is practised “tres sotilment” by “gentz estraunges’. See the many examples in the Elizabethan drama. 401. In the French, stanza 42, one line begins “Je vais mourir”’; cp. the Vado Mori dis- cussed in introd. above, and such French poems as the Mirouer du Monde, in which each stanza begins with that phrase. 407. by kinde or fatal chaunce, “by nature or by accident of fate’. 409 ff. Stanza 52 is not in the French, in the B-type, or in Harley 116. 417. on 3oure vryne. The ancient medical theory of the four bodily “humors”, and of the “complexions” which resulted from the dominance of any one of them, regarded dis- ease as the excess of one of the humors. Traces of this excess would be found in the bodily excretions; the testing of the urine in particular was raised into an elaborate pseudo-science. Each of the senses of the examining physician was called into play in the tests; see the picture of a doctor in his robes holding a glass vessel to the light, reprod. from a 1490 copy of the works of Galen, in Studien zur Geschichte der Medizin, Leipzig, 1907, plate i of vol. i. In Hoccleve’s tale of Jonathas the physician comes to the sick woman, “sy hire vryne & eeke felte hir pous’. In Hawes’ Pastime lines 1645-7 we have “‘A physycien truely can lyttel descerne Ony maner sekenes wythout syght of vryne.’’ The notion persisted long; see second Henry IV, act I sc. 2, or Twelfth Night III sc. 4, etc. 427. speculatyf and . . . practyk. Medicine in its medieval state was linked with both astrology and alchemy or pseudo-chemistry. It determined theoretically the proper times for preparing and administering its practical remedies, and a long struggle was required to substitute for this “magic natural” the knowledge gained by direct experiments. Chaucer’s Physician, Prol. 411 ff., was grounded in astronomy; he knew how and when to make the “image” of his patient and how to treat that image so as to help the sufferer. Barclay, Ship of Fools, ed. Jamieson i:261, speaks of foolish physicians who neglect the speculation which is the chief thing in medicine. Jonson in Volpone, II, sc. 1, alludes to “the theorick and practick in the Aesculapian art”. See note on Walton A 332 here. 429. A3ens pestilence. The French, stanza 45, speaks only of “maladie” in general. The outbreak of the plague in London in 1426, the date suggested for this translation, may be noted. 433. There is no verb for Je. Cp. lines 141-2. 433-48. These stanzas are not in the B-recension. 434. grene age. The color green connoted youth and vigor, as in the leaf; in a bad sense, as of the transitoriness of the leaf, it connoted inconstancy. See the poem Against Women Unconstant, printed by Skeat with Chaucer’s works, i:409. 446. wel besein, well beseen, i.e. arrayed or equipped. Used by Chaucer and Gower, very frequent in Lydgate,—see TemGlass 1167 and Schick’s note there. In the Assembly of Gods 275-6 Juno appears “ful rychely beseene” in a surcoat as bright as glass; the Flower and the Leaf, the Garland of Laurell, the Palice of Honour, Orléans as translated here xvi:12, Spenser, etc., all use the word. 448. A proverb in more than one language. Caxton’s Recuyell, ed. Sommer ii:461, has “lyke as a small rayne abayteth or lyth doun a grete wynde”’. In Monaci’s chrestomathy of Italian, p. 219, Guido delle Colonne is cited—“E pogo piagio grande vento attera.” 449-464. These stanzas are not in the French; they are retained in the B-recension. 451. The beloved of Achilles, the faithful wife of Ulysses, the faithless but lovely wife of Menelaus stolen by Paris, constantly appear in Lydgate’s lists of noble dames; see his Epithalamium 71, and note there for other refs. 424 NOTES [pace 138 455. daunger . . . lad Joure reine, “though disdain has hitherto guided you’. The word danger meant in Mid. Eng. “power” (Chaucer’s Prol. 663), “difficulty”’ (WBprol 521), “haughtiness” (Anelida 186). For the metaphor, derived from the leading of the horses of dignitaries on state occasions, see Epithalamium 88. 456. arestid . . . doubilnesse, ie. “Your fickle shiftings are forced to cease”. Doubleness was the most frequent of medieval flings at women. See the poem so entitled in Skeat vii:291; see Anelida 159; see Troy Book i:1850, 2094, etc. 459. yseide chekmate, “said checkmate”. The French phrase eschec mat, “the king is dead”, from the Arabic shak mat, signifies to chess-players that the game is over. To “say checkmate” to any one was accordingly to defeat, to undo him. The metaphor is exceedingly common in Middle English; see note on FaPrinces D 52. 468. to do folke refuge, “For money you have undertaken to give people protection.” 481 ff. The Juror is not in the French; the character is retained by the B-recension. The medieval juror’s functions were wider than in our day. Under Richard I the assess- ment of taxes was entrusted to juries acting under knights of the shire; and as this duty implied the valuation of land and property, the opportunity for unscrupulousness was great. The juror was hated equally with the summoner, and second only to the usurer. It is how- ever not always clear whether the word is employed in its legal sense or in the general sense of one who swears, i.e. swears falsely. In Lydgate’s fable of the Hound and Sheep the “jurors” inveighed against are the false witnesses who take oath to a lie; but in his de- scription of the golden world, FaPrinces vii:1183, the line “Fraude, fals meede put bakward fro iorours”, the reference is probably to the legal juror, as is clearly the case here. See note below. 482. questes doste embrace. “Shire questes”’ were judicial inquiries; to embrace, in law-language, was to give bribes, especially to a jury or inquest; see NED. Cp. the Towneley Mysteries 22:24, where Pilate declares that “all fals endytars, quest-gangars, and Iurors” are welcome to him; cp. the acts of Henry VII against “unlawful mayntenours, ymbrasours, and Jurrours”. 490. The belle wedir, the bellwether. In Troilus i11:198 we have “which of yow shall bere the bell To speke of love aright’, which is first citation in NED, sense 7, for “take first rank, be the best”. This word is contemptuous; this is the earliest citation NED. 495. write. Note the use of write in this supposedly spoken text. Cp. Chaucer’s SecNun’s Tale 78. 497 ff. The two stanzas of the Minstrel are rewritten in the B-recension. The text of Lansdowne 699 (Bodley 686 has not this character) runs :— Gentil menstral / shewe now thi witt How thou canst pleye / or foote ariht this daunce I dar weel sei / that an harder fitt Than this / fil neuyr to thi chaunce Look ther fore / what may best avaunce Thi sowle as now / & vse that I reede Refuse nyce play / & veyn plesaunce Bettir late / than neuyr to do good deede Ey benedicite / this world is freele Now glad / now sorry / what shal men vse Harpe lute phidil / pipe farewell Sautry Sithol / & Shalmuse Al wordly myrthe / I here refuse God graunte me grace / of sich penaunce As may myn old / synnes excuse For alle be nat mery / that othir whyle daunce 509-10. The syntax here is awkward, as often in Lydgate. 512. Cp. line 392 above, and note. ani PAGE 139] THE DANCE MACABRE 425 513 ff. The Tregetour, or Juggler, is not in the French, nor in the B-recension, nor in the Trinity MS of the A-recension. It appears from Lydgate’s words that John Rikil or Rickhill, the juggler of Henry the Fifth, outlived his royal master, but had just died at the time this translation was made. I have not found his name among those of Henry’s min- strels and fools, see Rymer’s Foedera ix:255, 260, 336, x:287; but there is a John Michel in the list of 1415, who is not mentioned with the royal minstrels to whom money is granted by Henry VI in 1423 as having been in his father’s service. For the arts of tregetours see Chaucer’s Franklin’s Tale and the notes of Tyrwhitt and of Skeat on its line 413; see also HoFame 1260, 1277, and Skeat’s note; see Squire’s Tale 210-11. It will be observed that in this list the Tregetour precedes the Parson; but this is possibly because a definite individual formerly of the royal household, is named; for the German law-code of the 13-14 centuries placed the bastard children of monks below the peasant, “superior only to the juggler’. See Lea, Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. 336. For the introduction of a known and named contemporary into this list of types cp. the Fuckardus-or member of the wealthy mercantile family of the Fuggers, who appears, after the Mercator, in the Latin death-dance printed at Antwerp in 1533; see the reprint by Douce in his Dance of Death, ed. 1902, p. 19. Cp. also a poem by Cornelius Arnold, 1775, entitled The Mirror, in which a number of personages are seized by Death, among them David Garrick. There is in this poem no dialogue-method or class-arrangement; the person- ages are a Knight, the Lord Mayor “Sir Thrifty Gripe”, one “Sir Epicure”, a beauteous dame, a beau, a fawning reverend, “Sir Politick’, an actor, a physician, Robustus, a roaring blade, Prudella, a lawyer, a lustful old man, a group of fiddlers, dancers, jockeys, poetasters, etc. The beggar who sues to Death is refused. The actor is Garrick, who although not named is fully described and his most famous triumphs enumerated; the poem is dedicated to him. It is of 44 Spenserian stanzas. 523. cours of sterres. It appears from the FranklTale 545 ff. that the tregetour, like the physician, calculated the position and motion of the heavenly bodies as a preliminary io the exercise of his art, which must select the auspicious moment. See note on line 427 above. 529 ff. The character of the Parson or Curate is not in the B-recension. He bears no resemblance to Chaucer’s Parson; cp. lines 530-32 with Prologue 486. 532. Again in 541 Lydgate distinguishes between tithes, or assessed tenths of the parish property, due the Church, and the offerings or oblations voluntarily made. Cp. Chaucer’s Wife of Bath and her insistence on going up first to the altar to make offering, Prol. 450; also his Parson, ibid., 486, 489. 561. Cordeler. This name was given in France to the Franciscan Observantists, a reform-movement of the Franciscans which began at Foligno about 1390 and spread north- ward. In 1415 the Council of Constance allowed them a vicar of their own, and by the end of the Middle Ages they had some 1400 houses. They carried on the vow of poverty so characteristic of the Order, but they attached more value to study than did the earlier Franciscans, and were noted for the denunciatory vigor of their sermons, as Lydgate here says,—amplifying the French. 589. With this line and speech cp. Spenser’s ShepCal, January, 29-30; cp. also the poem said to have been written by Chidiock Titchbourne in 1586, the night before his execution for complicity in the Babington plot. I cite from MS Harley 36. My prime of youth is but a frost of cares My feast of ioye is but a dishe of paine My croppe of corne is but (a) field of tares And all my goodes is but vaine hope of gaine The daye is fled, and yet I sawe no sonne And nowe I live, and nowe my life is donne My springe is past, and yet it hath not sprunge The fruite is deade, and yet the leaves are green My youth is paste, and yet I ame but yonge 426 NOTES [PAGE 141 I sawe the worlde, and yet I was not seene My thrid is cutt, and yet it is not sponn And now I live, and nowe my life is donne I sought for death, and found it in the wombe I lookt for life, and yet it was a shade I trade the grounde, and knewe it was my tombe And nowe I dye, and nowe I am but made The glasse is full, and yet my glasse is ronne And now I live, and nowe my life is donne 593 ff. The character of the Clerk is not in the B-recension. 602. ffro my seruice. So the Ellesmere MS, etc. Read for my seruice? 606. To late ware, i.e., “It is too late to beware.” 621-3. Lydgate uses participles instead of finite verbs. 623-4. The second halves of these lines are altered in the B-recension to read respec- tively “such as I have assayed” and “but he that halt him payed”. Possibly the notion of “great habondance” offended the reviser when connected with hermit-life. 625 ff. Death’s reply to the Hermit is not in the B-recension. 633. Note the allusion to the picture for which the text was written. The B-recension changes lines 634, 638 so as to remove the pictorial quality. 641 ff. This stanza is marked ‘“Machabre doctour” in the French MS Bibl.nat.fonds francais 14989. The B-recension rewrites the stanza. 642. With the French cp. the Italian Lauda, pubd. by Vigo, Danze Macabre, p. 101; the second stanza there reads :—‘‘Questa vita e come vento Che ’n un punto passar via.” 643. Wake or winke. This formula, like flete or synke, is common for rime’s sake in Middle English. See Chaucer’s Pity 109, 110, PoFoules 482, Anelida 182, KnTale 1539; see the Confessio iii:1628, vi:334-5, Court of Love 311, Lydgate’s Troy Book i:439, iv :3825, etc. For the variant slepe or wake see SecNunTale 153, FlCourtesy 95, Troy Book iv :4123, v :271, etc. 657 ff. This envoy is not in the B-recension. 660. See note on Cavendish’s Visions 52, p. 527 here. 665 ff. This stanza was printed by Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper in her Muses’ Library, 1737. 666. Not worde by worde, etc. See note on translation, Walton’s Boethius A 19. 670. Lydgate sometimes gives his name in his compositions; see prol. to Thebes 92, Troy Book v:3468. He mentions his birthplace in the prol. to his Fables of Aesop 32, in FaPrinces viii:194, cp. ix :3431. 672. See Chaucer’s Venus line 81. LA DANCE MACABRE : FRENCH TEXT The manuscript from which the French Dance Macabre is here printed is no. 139 of the Bibliothéque Communale at Lille. It is bound with a printed copy, by Colard Mansion, of Gerson’s Dictes moraux des philosophes, marked Inc.D ii. The MS is of twenty leaves, containing a prose note on a sermon by Aubert Archbishop of Cologne and a note on the Mass, the Dance Macabre, the Trois Mors et Trois Vifs, and a copy of the Visio Phili- berti, in French verse. There are no headings or titles; the only ornament is coarsely-executed red capitals. The poem is written in long lines, in a commonplace but fairly early hand. Whether this volume still exists or not I cannot say. The Lille city-buildings were badly damaged by fire during the German occupation, and many books were destroyed; but the fate of this particular volume I have been unable to learn. Other texts of the French Dance Macabre which I have examined are :-— Bibl.nat.fonds lat. 14904, formerly St. Victor 516. A paper MS of nearly 200 leaves; has, prefixed, 72 leaves of vellum carrying tractates by Gerson and by Nicolas de Clemangis, especially the former, with the Dance among them. No ornament or color in the 72 leaves. Observe the association of the Dance Macabre again with the work of Gerson. LA DANCE MACABRE 427 Bibl. nat. fonds francais 25434. A small volume, formerly a Celestins MS. Neatly written in small square hands, and containing various Dances and Débats, also Alain Chartier’s Breuiaire des nobles. Bibl. nat. fonds francais 25550. Vellum and paper, in various hands, some bad. A composite MS. The Dance is in two hands, the second a loose scrawl. Bibl. nat. fonds francais 1186. Paper, of 108 leaves, containing the Epistle of Othea to Hector, the Dance aux Aveugles, Dance Cupido, Dance de Fortune, etc. Bibl. nat. fonds francais 14989. A tiny book of fifteen leaves, containing the Dance only, in a hand ? later than the fifteenth century. Bibl. nat. fonds francais 995, formerly du roi 7310. A gorgeous halfhundred of vellum leaves, the upper half of each page a beautifully executed picture; very elaborate borders. The Trois Mors et Trois Vifs, and the Dance des Femmes, follow the Dance Macabre. Bibl.nat.fonds francais 1181 I have not seen. Langfors, Les Incipit, p. 237, mentions a MS in the Musée Condé at Chantilly, one at Tours, and one in the Bibl. nat. fonds frangais 1055. [Lille MS] Discite vos Coram cunctis qui cernitis istam Quantum prosit honor gaudia diuicie Tales estis enim natura morte futuro Qualis in effigie mortua turba vocat O creature raisonnable / qui desire vie eternelle Tu as cy doctrine notable / pour bien finer vie mortelle La danse macabre sappelle / qui chascun a danser aprent A homme et femme est naturelle / mort nespargne petit ne grant 2 En ce miroir chascun peult lire Qui le conuient ainsy danser Io Cilz est heureux qui bien sy mire Le mort le vif fait auancer Tu vois les plus grans commencher Car il nest nulz qui mort ne fiere Cest piteuse chose y penser Tout est forgie dune matiere 3 [pEaTH] Vous qui viuez certainement Quoy quil tarde ainsy danserez Mais quant dieu le scet soullement Aduisez comment vous ferez 20 Damp pappe vous commencerez Comme le plus digne seigneur En ce point honnourez serez Aux grans maistres est deu honneur 4 [PorE} He fault il que la danse maine Le premier qui sui dieu en terre Jay eu dignite souueraine / En leglise comme saint pierre Et comme aultres mort me vient querre / Encor point morir ne cuidasse 30 Mais la mort a tous maine guerre / Peu vault honneur qui si tost passe 5 {DEATH ] Et vous le nom pareil du monde Prince et seigneur grant emperere Laissier fault la pomme dor ronde / Armes ceptre tymbre baniere Je ne vous lairay pas derriere / Vous ne pouez plus seignourir Je maine tout cest ma maniere . Les filz dadam fault tous morir 40 6 {£MPEKOR | Je ne say deuant qui Jappelle / De la mort quainsy me demaine Armer me fault de pic de pelle / Et dun lincheul ce mest grant paine Sur tous ay eu grandeur mondaine / Et morir me fault pour tout gage Et quest ce de mortel demaine Les grans ne lont pas dauantage Latin, Line 1. coram] choream B. N. 14904. 24. est dieu etc., B. N. 14904. 3. natura] matura B. N. 14904. 428 [pEaTH ] [CARDINAL] [DEATH | [KING] [DEATH ] [PATRIARCH ] [DEATH | [CONSTABLE] [DEATH ] LA DANCE MACABRE i Vous faittes lesbahy ce samble Cardinal sus legierement Sieuez les aultres hastiuement / Riens ny vault esbahissement Vous auez vescu haultement / Et en honneur a grant deuis Prenez en gre lesbatement / En grans honneurs se pert laduis 8 Jay bien cause de mesbahir /Quant Je me voy de sy pres pris La mort mest venu enuayr / Plus ne vestiray vaire ne gris Chappeau rouge & chappe de pris / Me fault laissier a grant destresse Je ne lauoye pas apruis Toute Joye fine en tristesse 9 Venez noble Roy couronnez Renomme de force & proesse Jadis fustes aduironnez / De grans pompes de grant noblesse Mais maintenant toute hautesse / Laisserez vous nestes pas seul Peu aurez de vostre ricesse / Le plu rice na que vng linceul 10 Je nay point aprins a danser / A notte na danse si sauuaige Helas on peult voir et penser / Que vault orgueil force lignage Mort destruit tout cest son vsage / Aussi tost le grant que le mendre Qui moins se prise plus est sage / A la fin fault deuenir cendre II Patriarce pour basse chiere / Vous ne pouez estre quitte Vostre double croix quauez chiere / Vng aultre aura cest equite Ne pensez plus a dignite / Ja ne serez pappe de Romme Pour rendre compte estes cite / folle esperance dechoit lomme I2 Bien perchoy que mondains honneurs / mont decu pour dire le voir Mes Joyes tournent en doleurs Et que vault tant dhonneur auoir Trop hault mopter nest pas sauoir / Haulx estas gettent gens sans nombre Mais peu le veullent parceuoir A hault monter le fais encombre 13 Cest de mon droit que je vous maine / A la danse gent Connestable Le plus fort comme Charlemaine / Mort prent cest chose veritable Riens ny vault chiere espouentable / Ne forte armur a cest assault Dun cop Jabas le plus estable / Riens nest darmes quant mort assaut 14 Jauoye encore intencion / Dassaillir chasteaux forteresses Et mener a subiection / En acquerrant honneur ricesses Mais Je voy que toute prouesse / Mort met au bas cest grant despit Tout luy est vng douceur rudesse / Contre, la mort nul na respit 15 Que vous tirez la teste arriere / Arceuesque tirez vous pres Auez paour que on ne vous fiere / Ne doubtez vous venrez apres Nest pas tousiours la mort empres / Tout homme elle sieut coste a coste Rendre conuient debtes et prestz / Vne fois fault compter a loste 64. Lille, by error, reads—tritresse. 50 60 7° 80 90 I0o IIo I20 LA DANCE MACABRE 16 [aRcHBISHOP] Las Je ne say ou regarder Tant suit par mort a grant destroit [DEATH ] [CHEVALIER] [DEATH ] [BISHOP | [DEATH ] [squrrE] [DEATH ] [ABBE] 126. Lille, by error, reads—pointe. 128. Lille reads grant contraire; B.N. Ou fuieray Je pour moy garder / Certes qui bien la congnoistroit Hors de raison Jamais nystroit Plus ne giray en chambre painte 429 Morir me conuient cest le droit / Quant faire fault cest grant [contrainte] 17 Vous qui entre les grans barons / Auez eu renon cheuallier Oublies trompettes clarons / Et me sieuez sans sommeillier Les dames solies resueillier / En faisant danser longue piece A aultre dansse fault veillier Ce que lun fait lautre despiece 18 Or aige este auctorisie en pluiseurs fais et bien fame Des grans et des petis prisie / Auec ce de dames ayme Ne oncques ne fui diffame / A la court de seigneur notable Mais a ce cop suis tout pasme / Desoubz le ciel na riens estable 19 Tantost naurez vaillant ce pic / Des biens du monde & de nature Euesques de vous est il pic / Non obstant vostre prelature Vostre fait gist en aduenture / De vos subgets fault rendre compte A chascun dieu fera droitture / Nest pas asseur qui trop hault monte 20 Le cuer ne me peult resiouir / des nouuelles que mort maporte Dieu vouldra de tous compte oyr / Cest ce que plus me descomforte Le monde aussy peu me conforte / Qui tous a la fin desherite Il retient tout nul riens nemporte / Tout se passe fors la merite 21 Auancies vous gent escuier Qui sauez de danser les tours Lance porties et escu hier / Et huy vous finerez voz Jours I] nest riens qui ne prengne cours / Dansez et pensez de suir Vous ne pouez auoir secours / II nest nul qui puist mort fuir 22 Puis que mort me tient en ses las Aumoins que Je puisse vng mot dire Adieu deduit adieu soulas / Adieu dames plus ne puis rire Pensez de lame qui desire repos ne vous chaille plus tant Du corps qui tous les Jours empire / Tout faut pourrir on ne scet quant 23 Abbe venez tost vous fuyez Nayes Ja la chiere esbahie Il conuient que la mort sieuez Combien que moult lauez haye Commandez adieu labbeye Qui gros et gras vous a nourry Tost pourriras a peu daye / Le plus grant est premier pourry 24 De cecy neusse point enuye Mais II conuient !e pas passer Las or nay Je pas en ma vie garde mon ordre sans casser Gardez vous de trop embracher / vous qui viuez au demourant Se vous voulez bien trespasser On sauise tart en morant 25434,—contrainte. 130 140 160 170 180 190 14904, 430 LA DANCE MACABRE 25 [DEATH ] Bailly vous sauez quest Justice Et hault et bas en mainte guise Pour gouuerner toute polisce Venez tantost a ceste assise Je vous adiourne de main mise Pour rendre compte de voz fais Au grant Juge qui tout vng prise Vng chascun portera son fais 200 26 [BAILLY ] Heu dieu vecy dure journee De ce cop pas ne me gardoye Or est la chance bien tournee Entre Juges honneur auoye Et mort fait raualler ma joye Qui ma adiourne sans rappel Je ny voy plus ne tour ne voye / Contre la mort na point dappel 27 [DEATH ] Maistre pour vostre regarder En hault ne pour vostre clergie 210 Ne pouez la mort retarder / Cy ne vault riens astrologie Toute la genealogie / Dadam qui fut le premier homme Mort prent ce dist theologie / tout fault morir pour vne pomme 28 [ASTRONOMER] Pour science ne pour degrez Ne puis auoir prouision Car maintenant tous mes regrez / Font morir a confusion 220 Pour finale conclusion / Je ne say riens que plus descripue Je pers cy toute aduision Qui vouldra bien morir bien viure 29 [DEATH ] Bourgois hastez vous sans tarder / Vous nauez auoir ne ricesse Qui vous puist de mort retarder / Se des biens dont eustes largesse Auez bien vse cest sagesse / Daultrui vient tout Aultrui passe 230 ffolz est qui damasser se bless / On ne scet pour qui on amasse 30 [BoURGEOIS ] Grant mal me fait si tost laissier / Rentes maisons cens nourreture Mais poures riches abaissier / Tu fais mort telle est ta nature Sage nest pas la creature / Damer trop les biens qui demeurent Au monde / et sont siens de droiture / Ceux qui plus ont plus enuis meurent 31 [DEATH ] Sire chanonne prebendez / Plus naurez distribucion Ne gros ne vous y atendez Prenez cy consolacion Pour toute retribucion / Morir vous conuient sans demeure Ja ny aurez dilacion / La mort vient quand on ne garde leure 32 [canon ] Cecy gaires ne me conforte / Prebendez fuis en mainte eglise 250 Or est la mort plus que moy forte / Qui tout emmaine cest la guise Blanc supplis et aumuce grise / Me fault laissier & a mort rendre Que vault gloire sy tost bas mise / A bien morir doit chascun tendre 33 [DEATH ] Marchant regardez par decha Pluiseurs pays auez cherchiez A pie a cheual de piecha / Vous nen serez plus empeschies 260 Jl conuient que par cy passez / De tous soings serez despeschies Tel couuoite quia assez / Vecy voz daranis jours marchies 227. retarder)] garder, B. N. 14904. 255. Lille MS.—pas mise; B. N. 14904 bas misse. 230. A aultruy passe. B. N. 14904. 264. B. N. 14904, 25434—wvostre desrain marchie. 252. La guise] sa guise, B. N. 25434; B. N. Both these MSS have line-order 260, 264, 14904 as here. 261, 262, 263. [MERCHANT] [DEATH ] [CHARTREUX ] [DEATH ] [SERGEANT] [DEATH ] [MonxK] [DEATH | [UsURER] LA DANCE MACABRE Jay este amont et aual Pour marchander ou Je pouoye Pour long tamps a pie a cheual / Mais maintenant pers toute Joye De tout mon pouoir acquerroie Et ay assez mort me constraint Bon fait auoir moyenne voye Qui trop embraisse mal estraint 35 Alez marchant sans plus rester Ne faites ja cy residence Vous ny pouez riens conquester / Vous aussy homme dabstinence Chartreux prenez en pacience / De plus viure nayes memoire ffaites vous valoir a la dansce / Sur tout homme mort a victoire 36 Je suis au monde piecha mort Pourquoy de viure ay moins enuye Ja soit que tout homme craint mort Puis que la char est assouuye Plaise a dieu que lame rauye Soit es cieulx apres mon trespas Cest tout neant de ceste vye / Tel est huy qui demain nest pas 37 Sergent qui portez celle mache / II samble que vous rebellez Pour neant faittes la grimace / Se on vous grieue sy appellez Vous estes de mort appellez Qui sy rebelle Jl se dechoit Les plus fors sont tost rauallez / Nest sy fort qui aussi fort ne soit 38 Moy qui suy Royal officier / Comment mose la mort frapper Je faisoie mon office hier Et elle me vient huy happer Je ne say quel part eschapper / Je suis pris decha et dela Malgre moy me laisse attraper / Enuis meurt qui apris ne la 39 Ha maistre par la passerez / Nayes Ja soing de vous deffendre Plus homme ne espouenterez / Apres moine sans plus attendre Ou pensez vous cy fault entendre Tantost aurez la bouce close 431 270 280 290 300 310 Homme nest fors que vent et cendre / Vie dhomme est moult peu de chose 40 Jamaisse mieulx encore estre En cloistre et faire mon office Cest vng lieu deuot et bel estre Or ay Je comme fol et nice Ou tamps passe commis maint vice / Dequoy nay pas fait penitance Souffisant dieu me soit propice / Chascun nest pas Joyeux qui dansce 41 Vsurier de sens desriglez / Venez tost et me regardez Dusure estes tant auueuglez / Que dargent gaignier tout ardez Mais vous en serez bien lardez Car se dieu qui est merueilleux Na de vous pitie tout perdez A tout perdre est cop perilleux 42 Me conuient Jl sy tost morir / Ce mest grant paine & grant greuaunce Et ne me pourroit secourir Mon or mon argent ma cheuance Je vois morir la mort mauance Mais Jl men desplait somme toute Quesse de malle acoustumance / Tel a beaux yeulx qui ny voit goutte 296. B. N. 14904 reads I] nest fort quaussi fort ne soit. 320 330 432 [DEATH ] [PHYSICIAN] [DEATH | [GALLANT] [DEATH ] [ADVOCATE] [DEATH ] [ MINSTREL] LA DANCE MACABRE 43 Vsure est tant mauuais pechie Comme chascun dit & racompte Et cest homme qui approuchie Se sent de la mort nen tient compte 340 Meismes largent que ma main compte Encore a vsure me preste Ji denra de retour au compte Nest pas quitte qui doit de reste 44 Medecin a tout vostre orine Veez vous Jcy que amender Jadis seustes de medecine Assez pour pourueoir commander Et vous vient la mort demander Comme aultres vous conuient morir 350 Vous ny pouez contremander Bon mire est qui se scet garir 45 Longtamps a quen lart de phisique Je ay mis toute mestudie Jauoye science et practique pour guarir mainte maladie Je ne say que Je contredie / Plus ny vault herbe ne rachine Nautre remede quoy gon die / Contre la mort na medecine 360 46 Gentil amoureux Josne et frisque Qui vous cuidies de grant valoir Vous estes pris la mort vous picque Le monde lairez a doleur Trop lauez ayme cest folour Et a morir peu regarde Tantost vous changerez coulour Beaute nest que ymage farde 47 Helas or ny a il secours / Contre mort / adieu amourettes 370 Moult tost va Jonnesse a decours / Adieu chappeaux boucages flourettes Adieu amans et pucellettes / Souuiengne vows de moy souuent Et vous mirez se saiges estes Petite pluye abat grant vent 48 Aduocas sans long proces faire / Venez vostre cause plaidier Bien auez sceu les gens attraire De pieca non pas dhuy ne dier 380 Conseil ne vous peult cy aydier Au grant Juge vous fault venir Sauoir le direz sans cuidier Bon fait Justice preuenir 49 Cest bien droit que raison se face Ne Je ny say mettre deffence Contre mort na respit ne grace Nul nappelle de sa sentence Jay eu de lautruy quant Je y pense Dequoy Je doubte estre repris 390 A craindre fait Jour de vengence / Dieu rendra tout a Juste pris 50 Menestrez qui danses et nottes Sauez et auez bel maintien Pour faire esiouir sos et sottes /Quen dittes vous alons nous bien Monstrer vous fault puis que vous tien Aux autres cy vng tour de danse Le contredire ny vault rien Maistre doit monstrer sa sciance 400 51 De dansser ainsy neusse cure Certes tres enuis Je men mesle Car de mort nest paine plus dure / Jay mis soubz le banc ma vielle Plus ne corneray sauterelle Ne aultre danse mort me retient Jl me fault obeir a elle Tel danse a qui au cuer nen tient 383. B. N. 14904 reads Sauoir se deues, etc. 391. B. N. 14904 reads A craindre est le jour, etc. {pEATH ] [parson ] [pEATH ] [LABORER ] [DEATH ] [CoRDELIER] [DEATH ] [INFANT] [DEATH ] LA DANCE MACABRE 433 52 Passez Cure sans plus songier Je sens questes abandonnez 410 Le mort le vif souliez mengier Mais vous serez aux vers donnez Vous fustes Jadis ordonnez Miroir daultrui estre exemplaire De voz fais serez guerdonnez A toute paine est deu sallaire 53 Vueille ou non Jl fault que me rende Jl nest homme qui mort nasaille Hee de mes parociens offrande Narray Jamais ne funeraille 420 Deuant le Juge fault que Jaille Rendre compte las dolloureux Or ay grant paour que ne faille Qui dieu quitte bien est eureux 54 Laboureux qui en soing et paine Auez vescu tout vostre tamps Morir fault cest chose certaine Reculler ny vault ne contens De mort deuez estre contens Car de grant soussy vous deliure 430 Approchies vous Je vous attens / Fol est qui cuide tousiours viure 55 La mort ay souhaidie souuent Mais voulentier Je la fuysse Jamaisse mieulx feist pluye ou vent / Estre es vingnes ou Je fouysse Aultre plus grant plaisir y prinse Car de paour pers tout propos Or nest Jl qui de ce pas ysse Au monde na point de repos 440 56 Faittes voye vous auez tort / Laboureux apres cordeliers Souuent auez preschie de mort / Se vous devez moins marueillier Ja ne sen fault esmay baillier Jl nest sy fort qui mort nareste Sy fait bon a morir veillier A toute heure la mort est preste 57 Quest ce de viure en ce monde Nul homme a sceurete ny demeure 450 Toute vanite y abonde Puis vient la mort qui tout court sceure Mendicite point ne masseure Des malfais fault payer lamende En petite heure dieu labeure / Sage est le pecheur qui samende 58 Petit enfant nagaires ne Au monde auras peu de plaisance Vieng a la danse sans mener Comme aultres Car mort a puissance 460 Sur tous du Jour de la naissance Conuient chascun a mort offrir ffol est qui nen a congnoissance Qui plus vit plus a a souffrir 59 A A A Je ne say parler Enffant suy Jay la langue mue Hier nasqui huy men fault aller Je ne say quentree & yssue Riens nay meffait mais de peur sue / Prendre en gre me fault cest le mieux Lordonnance dieu ne se mue / Aussy tost muert Jonne que vieux 60 Cuidez vous de mort eschapper Clerc esperdu pour reculler Il ne sen fault Ja defripper Tel cuide souuent hault aller Quon voit a cop tost raualler Prenez en gre alons ensamble Car riens ny vault le rebeller / Dieu pugnist tout quant bon lui samble 480 414. B. N. 14904 reads—daltrui & examplaire. 452. B. N. 14904 has—qua tous cour seure. 441. Lille miswrites tost for tort. 468. B. N. 14904 has Je ne fais quentrer, etc. 434 [cLERK] [DEATH | [HERMIT] [DEATH ] LA DANCE MACABRE 61 ffault Jl que Jonne clere seruant Qui en seruice prent plaisir Pour cuider venir en auant Meure si tost cest desplaisir Je sui quitte de plus choisir Aultre estat Jl fault quainsy dansce La mort ma prins a son loysir Moult remaint de ce que fol pensce 62 Clerc point ne fault faire reffus De danser faites vous valoir 490 Vous nestes pas seul leuez sus Pourtant moins vous en doit challoir Venez apres cest mon vouloir Homme nourry en hermitage Ja ne vous en conuient doloir / Vie nest pas seur heritage 63 Pour vie dure ou solitaire Mort ne donne de vie espace Chascun le voit sy sen fault taire Or requier dieu que vng don me face 500 Cest que tous mes pechies efface Bien sui contens de tous ses biens Desquelz Jay vse de sa grace / Qui na souffissance Jl na riens 64 Cest bien dit / ainsy doit on dire Jl nest qui soit de mort deliure Qui mal vit Jl aura du pire Sy pense chascun de bien viure Dieu pesera tout a la liure / Bon y fait penser soir & main 510 Meilleur science na en liure / Jl nest qui ait point de demain 65 Vng roy mort tout nu couchie en uers Vous qui estes en pourtraiture / Veez danser estas diuers Pensez quest humaine nature Ce nest fors que viande aux vers Je le monstre qui gis enuers Sy ay Je este Roy couronnez Tels serez vous bons et paruers Tous estas sont aux ver donnez 520 66 Vng maistre qui est au bout de la dance Riens est dhomme qui bien y pensce Cest tout vent chose transitore Chascun le voit par ceste dansce Pour ce vous qui veez listore Retenez le bien en memoire / Car homme et femme elle ammoneste Dauoir de paradis la gloire / Eureux est qui es cieulx fait feste 67 Mais aucun sont a qui nen chault / Comme sil ne fust paradis Ne enfer helas Jlz auront chault / Les liures que firent Jadis Les sains le monstrent en beaux dis Acquittez vous qui cy passez Et faittes bien plus que nen dis / Bien fais vault moult aux trespassez 536 Mortales dominus cunctos In luce creauit Vt capiant meritis gaudia summa polj Felix ille quidem mentem iugiter illuc Dirigit atque vigil noxia queque cauet Nec tamen Infelix [sceleris] quen penitet actj 5 Quique suum facinus plangere s(e)pe solet Sed viuunt homines tamquam mors nulla sequatur 487. B. N. 14904,—a son plaisir. reads sterilis, Lille in 6 has spe, in 7 513. B. N. 14904 Vous qui en ceste pourtraiture. vimunt (ur). Latin, line 5. Sceleris is from B. N. 14904; Lille PAGE 145] EPITHALAMIUM 435 Et velud infernis fabula vana foret Cum doceat sensus viuentes more resoluj Atque herebj penas pagina sacra probet 10 Quas qui non metuit Jnfelix prorsus & amens Viuit et exinitus sentiet ille rogam Sit igitur cuncti sapientes viuere certent Vt nichil inferni sit metuenda palus EPITHALAMIUM FOR GLOUCESTER 1. gladde aspectis, favoring regard. See FaPrin.E 88 here, and see FaPrin. iii :2763, of Fortune’s face; see Thebes 218, 275, 383-4, and Root’s notes on Chaucer’s Troilus ii:682, iii :716. 14. Jubiter’s cheyne. Jupiter maintained the sanctity of laws, oaths, and treaties; his consort Juno presided over marriage. In the next two stanzas Lydgate is not clear. Alliance excludes strife, he says; then, that wars are predetermined in the stars; then that God, by instituting marriage, has made it possible to contravene the stars. His misuse or omission of verbs, as e.g. line 21, confuses still more. 21. “(Of which) the first cause (is) portrayed in the stars.” 24. to voide. If we read do voide, the sense will be “Nor force destiny to yield, except God, who rules all’, etc. 29-31. “There is more than one example in books, (whoso will consider the deeper meaning) carried out in olden time’, etc. 31. Calydoyne and Arge, Calydon and Argos. See note on 138 below, and Troy Book v :1207 ff. 42. werre stynt. The marriage of Henry V to the French princess Katherine, in 1420, was supposed to end the war and to secure the French crown to their descendants. 55. duchy of Holand. See introduction above. 56. Brutus Albyoun, the Albion of Brut, a mythical warrior who wandered thither after _ the fall of Troy, and founded a settlement. See Garland 405. 69-70. “whose birth to describe, (she) is by descent” etc. 71 ff. This list of personages with whom comparison is made is a convention often used by Lydgate. He has two such catalogues in this poem, one of women and one of men; there is a long list of women in the Flower of Courtesy, a still longer in the Valentine to the Virgin, printed by MacCracken, p. 304 ff.; there is one of men in the Coronation of Henry VI, and shorter lists in TemGlass 405 ff., Horns Away 27 ff., and the Troy Book envoy. See the list in Black Knight 365 ff., or the prose Epistle of the Lover’s Mass, p. 213 here, or Cavendish, p. 382 here. See Feylde’s Controversy between a Lover and a Jay; see p. 69 of the Percy Society ed. of Hawes’ Pastime. 72. Polixseene. Polyxena, the daughter of Priam, beloved by Achilles. See note Garl. 855. 77. be. The scribe inserted this word above, with a caret. 83-4. The word beo, 83, is omitted by the scribe. With the rime-words here, comprehendid: amendid, cp. the same two-line formula in FlCourtesy 188-9, DuorMercat 391-2, Albon 1:386-7, St. Edmund i:408-9; and in Chaucer’s Anelida 83-4. It might be suggested that the 1532 print of the Flower of Courtesy, our only text, be read comprehende in line 188 instead of commende, with Skeat’s added her. But see ResonandSens 327-8 beside ibid. 1101-2. 87. avysee. This word, meaning “well-advised”, is fairly common in Lydgate; there are a dozen cases in the Troy Book alone. It is used by Chaucer in the Legend 1521; and I may suggest that the rime-word in FlCourtesy 142 is avisee, as in 215, rather than the emen- dation offered by Skeat. 88. brydil leede, a very common metaphor in Lydgate. See “And thus fals lust doth your bridil leede”, FaPrinces i1:838; see ibid., 1394, 1999, 2520, 6729, etc. 96. Nowe, omitted from the text, is supplied in the margin by Shirley, with a caret. 436 NOTES [PAGE 147 99. A heven it is. A Chaucerian locution. Cp. “It was an heven upon him for to see,” Troilus ii1:637; similarly ibid., ii:826, iii:1742, SqTale 271, 558. Lydgate uses the phrase Troy Book i:2048-9, etc. The word paradys instead of heven appears in Troy Book i:1590, St. Albon i:261, etc; see Reproof 5-6 here. 104-5. Hir eyeghen saygne, etc. Cp. Chaucer’s BoDuch 876-7, “. . . hir eyen seyde : my wrath is al foryive’. Cp. p. 286 of the transl. of Orléans ed. for the Roxburghe Club ‘Me thynkith yowre eyen mercy seith.” 112. Ce bien raysoun. This was presumably the motto of Jacqueline. The use of such mottoes was extremely common in this period; a long list may be read in the Assembly of Ladies. 114. “One of those the greatest-born alive.” 123. oon pe beste. This Middle English idiom is recurrent in both Chaucer and Lydgate; cp: “among kynges he was oon the beste”, FaPrinces i:5979, or “oon the best knyht”, ibid., viii :3227, etc. 129. daring doo. This is termed by NED a “pseudo-archaism”, and explained as a verbal phrase, “daring to do”, which was in later English treated as a substantive combination. See Chaucer’s Troilus v:837, “dorring don”; the passage is imitated by Lydgate, Troy Book 11 :4861 ff., see 4869. Spenser, ShephCal. October 65 and December 43, Faerie Queene ii:4, 42 and vi:5,37, uses the word substantively, as does Scott in Ivanhoe. But Lydgate’s treatment here has all the appearance of a substantive. 133. hous of ffaame. Cp. “Set and registred in the Hous of Fame”, FaPrinces iv :122,— “May be registrid in the Hous off Fame”, ibid. vi:514, etc. See note on FaPrin. B 95 here, and see Troy Book iii :4254. 134. worpy nyen, the Nine Worthies, i.e., Hector, Alexander, Caesar, Joshua, David, Judas Maccabaeus, Arthur, Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bouillon. In the presentation of the Nine Worthies in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost, Pompey and Hercules are included. 138. Tedeus, Tydeus, son of Oeneus king of Calydon, who, being obliged to flee from his native country, took shelter with the king of Argos, wedded his daughter, and became the father of a son Diomedes who subsequently rescued the Calydonian royal house from usurpers. Tydeus’ figure is greatly magnified in the form of the Theban story used by Lydgate for his Siege of Thebes, and the mention of Tydeus as a superman, both here and in St. Edmund 1:1036, suggests comment as to the relative dates of these works. 143. with pe Allegorye. The text of Scripture was held to require several interpreta- tions, the “literal, tropological, allegorical, and anagogical”. Until the work of Erasmus and Colet, in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the Bible was treated predominantly by the allegorical method of exposition. Gloucester’s MSS presented to Oxford include many works of this sort. 148. With this list see note on line 71 above. 161. Sanz plus vous belle. Gloucester’s heraldic motto was “Loyalle et belle’; he may have used a special motto for Jacqueline. Cp. the two mottoes of the Black Prince, ‘““Homout” for war, “Ich dene” for peace. 176. ymeneus, Hymen, god of marriage; usually said to be a son of one of the Muses. With this line cp. Thebes 826. 178. Juvo. Shirley’s spelling of Juno. She presided over marriage. 179-80. Phylogenye. A false rendering by Shirley of Philology, whose marriage to Mer- cury god of eloquence was described by Martianus Capella in a work of the fifth century, one of the influential books of the Middle Ages. Lydgate refers to it in Thebes 833-44, in St. Edmund i1:95-104; see also FaPrinces iii:66, and Chaucer’s MerchTale 488-90. 182. thryes thre. This convenient rime-formula is often used by Lydgate when he mentions the Muses. See Thebes 832, FaPrinces 1:459, iii:12. Or the formula is “in noumbre nyne”, as in St. Edmund i:91, FaPrinces iv :76. 189. neodful. Shirley’s spelling of needful. PAGE 149] LETTER TO GLOUCESTER 437 LETTER TO GLOUCESTER 4. hand... quake. The quaking hand or pen is a very frequent device with Lydgate; see TemGlass 947, BlKnight 181, St. Margaret 57, St. Edmund iii:89, St. Albon i:928, Troy Book i:4427 etc., FaPrinces i:5517 etc. Chaucer has the locution Troilus iv :13-14. 9 ff. The first group of metaphors is medical. Gloucester, a man of self-indulgence, was constantly under medical care, and took great interest in medicine; his library contained many books on the subject. Cp. Hoccleve’s Male Reégle 446-8. 12. Dragge nor dya. Cp. dyas and dragges, Piers Plowman B xx:173. The word dragge, an early form of drug, was accord. to NED used only in plural; but see the sing. here and in line 55. Dia means any medical preparation; it is the Greek prefix “through” used as a separate word. —Bury town. Was Lydgate writing at the monastery? 17. Ship was ther noon, etc. The metaphor changes to monetary, and means that there was no gold coin in Lydgate’s purse. In this period the noble, half-noble, and quarter-noble bore on the obverse the design of a crowned king in a ship; cp. Hoccleve’s poem to Somer line 21, and the “vj shippis grete”’, ie., six gold nobles, of EETS ed., i, p. 64. Similar metaphors are used by Aristophanes, who in The Birds calls Athenian coins “owlets”, from the stamp they bore; and by Dante, who in Paradiso xviii:133 censures the Papacy for preferring John the Baptist to Peter or Paul,—this meaning the figure of John on the gold florin. Also, in A Mirror for Magistrates ii p. 134 (Haslewood’s ed.) the poem on Humphrey of Gloucester says of Beaufort (stanza 24) that “Not God’s angels, but angels of old gold Lift him aloft.” seilis reed, etc. In this period sails were stained red or particolored. See Nicolas’ Hist. of the Royal Navy i:469, 471, and the directions for dyeing the sails of Edward III's ship; see Chaucer’s Legend 654 for Cleopatra’s “purpre sail,” i.e., crimson. 20. ebbe. See FaPrinces iii:69 for note. 25. from the Tour. The Mint was in the Tower of London after 1329, but for how long is uncertain. See Ruding, Annals of the Coinage of Britain, 5 vols., 1817-19. _ 27. ffretyng Ettk, a devouring fever. This phrase, “gredy etik”, and the word etik are common in Lydgate. See line 45 below; see FaPrinces ii:3739-43, 3889-92, iii:138, 695, 3724, 4286, 4029, iv:1103, vi:1323, etc. 28. cotidian. A fever persisting daily, instead of recurring as tertian or quartan. 29. Sol and Luna, the sun and moon, i.e., alchemical terms for gold and silver. Neither planet was shining upon the poet. 30. no cros, etc. The English silver coins of the fifteenth century bore on the obverse a crowned male head (“visage”), and on the reverse a large slender cross. 35-6. an ernest grote. The agreement between buyer and seller was clinched by pay- ment of a groat as “earnest-money” or guarantee. When the bargain was completed in an ale-house, as was frequently the case, the groat was spent in liquor.—stant in aventure, stands in peril, is shaky. 37. callyd to the lure, summoned to Indigence by her lure. See note on Dance Macabre 207 for lure. 39. recure. This form of recover, used transitively, is exceedingly common in Lyd- gate, and common in him alone. See note on Dance Macabre 311 here. 43. boklersbury, the London street occupied by grocers and apothecaries; see Stow’s Survey, ed. Kingsford, i:260. 46. aurum potabile, drinkable gold, the alchemical specific against age and its ills; see Ripley’s Compend, line 160 here. 47. quynt essence, the “fifth essence”, the element above the four earthly elements of earth, air, fire, and water; i.e., ether. Later, the concentration of pure quality in anything. —/n, read Is? 51. tonne attamyd, pierced (and drained) your cask. The verb attame rarely has in Lydgate the simple original meaning “to pierce, to broach”, as literally in Piers Plowman B xvii:68, metaphorically in Chaucer’s prologue to the NPTale 52. It usually means in Lydgate ‘“‘to lay hands on, meddle with, undertake”. 438 NOTES [PAGE 150 52. nichil habet. A nihil or nichil was the return made by a sheriff to the executor when the party named in the writ had no goods on which levy could be made. The first case NED is of 1585. 53. tisyk, phthisis, i.e., consumption with its attendant dry cough or asthma. 59. cros nor pyl. The cross was the mark stamped on the obverse of English silver coins; see note on line 30 above. The “pile” was the depression made by the stamping instru- ment on the reverse of such a coin. FALL OF PRINCES :A 1 ff. Lydgate’s opening prologue restates a part of Laurent’s, declaring the right of translators to remake, describing the magnitude of this particular task, and commenting on the folly of princes in supposing Fortune to be stable. The immediate problem is then taken up, and in his own person Lydgate laments his incapacity and his loss of his lodestar Chaucer. The well-known list of Chaucer’s works follows, after which, remarking that poets were of old held in high esteem by princes, Lydgate proceeds to the praise of his patron Humphrey of Gloucester. With another regret as to his own inadequacy, Lydgate closes the prologue. The portion of this which is derived from Laurent is relatively small, and is much padded by Lydgate, who also occasionally misunderstands his original;—see below 4-5 and 36-37. Laurent’s first desire, in his own proheme, was to explain why he was executing another version of the De Casibus, which he had so recently translated. He says that a man diligent in the pursuit of knowledge may change his “conseil de bien en mieulx’, just as a potter may break his vessel to give it a better form. And such license to improve holds good not merely for a man’s own work but for that of another, if the task be undertaken without “enuye ne arrogance”. Then Laurent says that he has already translated this work, following closely the subtle artificial language of Boccaccio; but that even those who call themselves clerks and men of letters suffer from great ignorance, and he has come to realize the necessity of rendering Latin books in such terms as can be understood without much labor. He then commends the De Casibus as of “tres singulier prix’, and its lesson as greatly needed; he states his intention of giving at length those histories which Boccaccio had merely touched, by which he evidently means the group-chapters with their brief mention of many notables. He considers that in so passing them over Boccaccio was brief not from lack of knowledge but because he thought others as well-informed as himself. He, Laurent, will enlarge on these points to give the work completeness. This prologue is modified by some of the French printers, and the form of its text which Lydgate used is uncertain. It may be read, as printed by du Pré, Paris 1483, in Bergen’s ed. of FaPrinces, i, pp. lii-liv. A text from MS is printed by Hortis, Opere latine del Boccaccio, Trieste, 1879, pp. 740-742. 4-5. Laurent, describing the scope of the De Casibus, says that it includes the histories of all the great from the beginning of the world “iusques a Iehan roy de France mort prisonicr en angleterre.” The assumption that this last event marks the date of Laurent’s work is Lydgate’s error.—Theere, i.e., The yeere. 13-14. For the simile of the potter cp. Jeremiah 18:4. 20. Fro good to better. In Laurent, “de bien en mieulx”’. The French phrase, as also “de mieulx en mieulx”, seems to have been frequent in courtly poetry. Granson uses the latter in one of his ballade-refrains, and it appears in Lydgate’s Temple of Glass 310. The phrase “De bien en mieulx’ was apparently one of Charles V’s mottoes, see Delisle’s Librairie de Charles V, i:128. We find “Fro good to better” in Lydgate’s St. Edmund i:361 and in his Pilgrimage 23696; the phrase “Fro wele to better” is in the Flower and Leaf 550. Similarly, “Fro bet to wers” appears in FaPrinces v:2339. 21-22. Note the stanza-liaison, frequent in this poem, and not uncommon in Lydgate. 24. chaff ... corn. See Chaucer, Legend 312, 529, and MLTale 603. 27. colours, i.e., of rhetoric. See note on G 46 below, on Cavendish’s Visions 61. PAGE 157] FALL OF PRINCES: A 439 29-35. This follows Laurent :—‘que on le face par bonte de couraige & par mouvement de pure charite qui en soy ne contient enuye ne arrogance.” 36-37. Lydgate thinks that the previous translation of the De Casibus was not by Laurent. But the French is explicit. 45-46. requerid Off estatis, urged by men of rank. Laurent says “a lenhortement & requeste daulcuns.” 50-77. An excursus by Lydgate. 78-84. This is an expansion of Laurent’s words as to the ignorance of even the clerks in his time; see above. 85-91. Here Lydgate restates Laurent’s announced intention of filling out the parts of the De Casibus which Boccaccio had treated summarily. As pointed out in the introduction to the poem here, such an expansion destroyed Boccaccio’s effect of varied focus. See note on 141-154 below. 92-98. Although this expansion of Laurent’s words apparently is endorsed by Lydgate, it can be paralleled by many passages rejecting “prolixite”’ or refusing to describe in detail. Each is a formula. 99-126 expand two sentences of moderate length in the French. 127-140 expand phrases of a long sentence in Laurent.—140. prince edward, the Black Prince, victor at Poitiers. 141-154. Lydgate follows Laurent in his alteration of Boccaccio. The Latin is: “Absit tamen vt omnes dixerim [i.e., that I should discuss al/ illustrious men and women]. Quis enim mortalium tanti foret vt infinito posset labori suffcere? Set ex claris quos clarissimos excerpsisse sat erit.” The text of Boccaccio used by Laurent we do not yet know, but Laurent gives no part of this reason, saying that Boccaccio did not make his omissions be- cause of ignorance, but because “les reputa communes et cogneues aux autres comme a soy.” 162-175. Here Lydgate uses a bit not of Laurent’s own preface, but of his translation of Boccaccio’s preface, which was retained in the second French version. In some MSS the text is more complete than in others; see Bergen’s ed. i, p. li. There we find “comme se ilz eussent endormie fortune par herbes ou par enchantemens ou ainsi comme se ilz eussent fermees leurs seignouries a croz de fer a roche daymant.” 182. seith ... chekmat. See note FaPrinces D 52 here. 183-224 are an excursus by Lydgate. 205 is parenthetical. 211-12. For this proverb see Chaucer’s SqTale 483. Skeat there cites from Othello 11,3 :276, from Cotgrave, from George Herbert. Holthausen, Anglia 14:320, gives 14th century examples, mainly Latin and German; and Lowes, Archiv 124:132, prints a passage from Jacobus de Voragine. It was evidently a commonplace of the Middle Ages; it occurs in a French collection of proverbs cited by Naetebus, p. 137, in the Geneva text of Proverbes des Philosophes as ed. by Ritter, 1880, and is used by Surrey in his poem opening “Suche way- warde wais hath Love”. 239. Cp. Lydgate’s DuorMercat. 498-99, Black Knight 176-77, and line 456 below. 241-45. This refusal of Calliope and the Muses to aid in “compleynyng” is a formula, a convention of formal poetry. See below 456-58, Temple of Glass 952-4, Troy Book iii :5428 ff. Chaucer in his Troilus had twice called upon the Furies to assist in narrating his tragedy. 243. sugre ...galle. The Muses, Lydgate says, refuse to mingle the sugar of their “rethorik swete’ with the bitterness of woe. In Lydgate and the Transition poets, elo- quence is “thensugerd pocioun of Elyconys welle”’, as Skelton says. See GarlLaurell 73-4, Court of Love 22, Bokenam’s St. Anne 57, etc. Also, when Fate or Fortune overthrows the proud, the sugar of life is “meynt with bittir gall” (FaPrinces i:4536) and the tragedy is consummated. Here and in 456-58 below the Muses take no part in woful narrative; in Thebes 828 ff. they are not present at the inauspicious wedding of Oedipus. See also Duor- Mercat. 505 ff. 246 ff. This long passage on Chaucer, by no means the only allusion in this poem, could hardly have been included without Gloucester’s approval. In this connection we may 440 NOTES [PAGE 160 query if Humphrey’s naming of his illegitimate daughter “Antigone” was so much classical as in remembrance of “Antigone the whyte”, her of the sweet song, in Chaucer’s Troilus. 248-9. The Monk’s Tale is meant; see FaPrinces ix :3421-27. 253-73. The mention of comedies and tragedies in conjunction sends Lydgate on a digression to Seneca’s tragedies, Cicero’s ‘“‘fressh ditees”, Petrarch’s De Remediis utriusque Fortunae, and Boccaccio. The “ditees” ascribed to Cicero mean not so much his surviving bits of verse as his “dictes’” or utterances. 257. petrak. The spelling of Petrarch’s name as Patrak or Petrak is frequent if not predominant in English MSS; it occurs in a number of CantTales MSS in the Clerk’s headlink, and in MSS of this poem. See Bergen’s ed. iii:3859, viii:61, 66, 87, 183, etc. And Delisle’s Librairie de Charles V mentions, p. 371, “un livre appellé Patrac.” See line 37 of extract K, below. 259. The work here alluded to is Petrarch’s De remediis utriusque fortunae, which as Lydgate says is divided into two books of dialogues, the first set between Gaudium (or Spes) and Ratio, the second between Dolor and Ratio. There was a copy of “Franciscus de remediis fortuitorum” among the manuscripts which Gloucester in 1439 presented to the University of Oxford. The work is again alluded to in this poem iv :109. 281 ff. After a transitional stanza, Lydgate returns to the matter of Chaucer’s works. Skeat comments on this list in Oxford Chaucer i:22-25. The stanzas containing it are printed in my Chaucer Manual, pp. 58-60 from the 1554 print of the FaPrinces, and by Miss Spurgeon in Chaucer Allusions 1:37-43 from MSS Harley 1766 and 4203. 284. trophe. There are but two known occurrences of this word in Middle English, one in Chaucer’s Monk’s Tale 127, the other here. Discussion of Chaucer’s “Trophee” has thus far most substantially resulted in Kittredge’s suggestion of a confusion, by Chaucer or in Chaucer’s source, between the “trophees” or columns set up by Hercules and Bacchus at the two ends of the world, and a book or author narrating the life of Hercules, of whom the Monk is speaking. This confusion, as Kittredge points out, might be caused by such a phrase as “ad Herculis Liberique trophaea”, which occurs in the so-called Letter of Alexander to Aristotle; the word Liber (Bacchus) might be understood as liber (book). See Kit- tredge’s paper in the Putnam Anniversary Volume, 1909. An earlier explanation of the MoTale allusion was Skeat’s identification of “Trophee” or “Pillar” with Guido delle Colonne or Guido de Columpnis, in whose Historia Trojana Hercules is a figure, and who might be cited, by his translated surname, as authority for statements about Hercules. But although the passage of the MoTale was doubtless known to Lydgate, it was not certainly in his mind here; and part of what he says is based on a quite different, and definite, piece of knowledge. He is aware that the original of Chaucer’s Troilus was written in Italian, “in lumbard tunge”, and he says that this original was called Trophe. He does not say, any more than Chaucer said, that the principal source of Troilus was the same “Bochas’” whom he is here following for the Fall of Princes; and it may be that he does not know it. But while Chaucer acknowledged none but a Latin source for his romantic tragedy, Lydgate is possessed of the fact that the original was in Italian. Two questions therefore follow :—Where did Lydgate obtain that fact?—and,—Why does he call Boccaccio’s Filostrato “Trophe”? On the former point, Prof. Kittredge, in his study of Chaucer’s Lollius, HarvStudClass- Philol 28, asserts that Chaucer’s setting-up of “Lollius’ to represent his various sources for the Troilus was a transparent literary artifice well understood by contemporary men of letters, and that Chaucer himself gave his “hearty consent” to the “common knowledge’ that the work was really from the Italian. This passage of Lydgate Prof. Kittredge regards as proof. But considering Lydgate’s dependence upon Gloucester’s library in this translation, I think it as probable that his information regarding a “Lombard” original of the Troilus derived from an Italian scholar in Gloucester’s entourage, or from Gloucester himself, the owner of so many Petrarch and Boccaccio volumes. The monk’s scrap of knowledge about Dante, his access to Coluccio Salutati’s declamation on Lucretia, came in all likelihood from PAGE 161] FALL OF PRINCES: A 441 his patron; and if Humphrey recognized the debt of Chaucer to the Italian for his Troilus-story, he was critic of letters as well as patron and collector. This is conjecture, and not fact; but there seems more probability of it than of the situation which Prof. Kittredge’s clairvoy- ance has depicted. On the second point there is little to be said. Although Chaucer made occasional use of Guido delle Colonne’s Historia Trojana in his Troilus, it is unlikely that Lydgate’s “Trophe” refers to Guido, as Skeat has suggested for Chaucer’s Trophee in the MoTale. Lydgate knew Guido, and had translated his Trojan chronicle in the Troy Book, there speaking con- stantly of the author as “Guido”. Moreover, he is here definitely talking of a book not in Latin. Prof. Kittredge opines that Lydgate has carelessly shifted the Monk’s Tale allusion, and that as “a constitutional blunderer” his statement “need trouble us no further”. Upon which I may comment that even a Homer-epigone nods not all the time. The connection of “Trophee” with the Troilus is at present unclear to us; but more knowledge of manuscript- conditions may yet show us that the transfer of names has an explanation. For an interesting suggestion on the gloss “Ille vates Chaldaeorum Trophaeus” in two of the best of the CantTales MSS, see Tupper in MLNotes, vol. 31. 291. Chaucer’s translation of Boethius’ De Consolatione Philosophiae. 292. The bracketed word is from MS Bodley 263; our MS reads &. 294. thastlabre, the Astrolabe. Tottel’s 1554 print reads “that labour”. 299-300. domefieng, etc. Late medieval Latin domificare, “to build houses”, was used astrologically to mean “to divide the heavens into twelve equal houses or mansions, to locate the planets therein”. This is the first case cited NED, and Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, is the second. See Dance Macabre 292. root... ascendent. The root or radix, in astrology, was the basis of any calculation, perhaps a nativity, perhaps the position of a planet. See Chaucer’s Astrolabe ii § 44, MLTale 314. The ascendent was that part of the ecliptic which was at any time rising above the horizon. See the Astrolabe ii § 3, lines 23-24, and especially § 4. With this line cp. Lydgate’s Thebes 370, “The root ytaken at the ascendent”. south is miswritten for souht. 303. Dante in inglissh / hym silff so doth expresse. This line has occasioned much discus- sion, which it may be convenient to restate in two sections,—opinion as to the first half of the line and opinion as to the latter half. Prof. Skeat, Oxford Chaucer i:22-25, comments only on the first half, which he considers as referring to the Hous of Fame. His reasons are that Lydgate would certainly mention that work, and would naturally mention it in con- nection with the Death of Blanche the Duchess, as Chaucer had in the Legend, line 418 of the prologue. Still stronger, indeed conclusive to Skeat’s mind, is the influence of Dante upon the Hous of Fame, of which he considers that Lydgate is thinking when he applies this name to the poem. Of the second half of the line Skeat says only that it is “rather dubious” ; he paraphrases—‘“‘Chaucer expresses himself (therein) like Dante.” MacCracken, in the N.Y.Nation for 1909, ii:276-77, offers a solution which like Skeat’s emphasizes mainly the first half of the line. But he argues, and justly, that Lydgate is not capable of any such critical dictum, such implied comparison of poems so different in form and tone as are the Divina Commedia and the Hous of Fame; the more incapable be- cause Lydgate’s knowledge of Dante was very slight. MacCracken’s suggestion is that as the next two poems in this list, Ceys and Alcyone and the Death of Blanche, are “piteous”, Lydgate introduces them by saying that Chaucer therein writes as Dante, author of the “piteous” story of Ugolino, would express himself in English. On this theory, the Hous of Fame is not mentioned by Lydgate; which need not surprise us in so careless a workman. Both Skeat and MacCracken, in their paraphrases and comments, treat the second half of the line as meaning “expresses himself”, as reflexive. I have however pointed out, Anglia 36 :375-6, that the NED has no case of express in reflexive usage before Shakespeare, and that, as himself has in all periods of the language served as a nominative, this half-line must be paraphrased “he himself says so”. (Compare in this connection Thebes 2442, “—hyr- silf in ordre did expresse”.) This being so, then he must mean Chaucer; and any interpre- 442 NOTES [PAGE 161 tation of the first half of the line must be shaped by this fact. Should we take Dante in inglissh as referring to the story of Ugolino, in the Monk’s Tale, and point both to the separate mentions of Melibeus, of Griselda, of the Monk’s Tale, in lines 249, 346-350, and to Chaucer’s own naming of Dante as he ends the Ugolino-story, we should still have to recognize that Lydgate’s telling of the Pisan tragedy, FaPrinces ix:2051-55, makes no mention of Chaucer, and is dismissed with five lines. The tale which in this Prologue the monk singled out and described in accordance with Chaucer’s own reference to Dante as its author, he would, on this explanation, have totally forgotten when he arrived at the ninth book of his translation. This is perhaps not impossible for Lydgate; it is not impossible that he noticed Chaucer’s mention of Dante more than he did the heading of that particular tragedy in the Monk’s tale. But the first half of the line remains “dubious”, rather than the second, which is linguistically clear. On the line see Brusendorff, p. 151. It may be added that in the many scores of usages of expresse by Lydgate, with whom the word is a favorite, I have noted no case of the reflexive; nor in any writer of this period. The phrasing “as he seith hymselue’, FaPrinces vi:3170, may be compared here. In these extracts it is G 223. 304. ciex and alcione. This story forms part of the Boke of the Duchesse, and is separately mentioned ML headlink 57. It may once have been an independent poem. 314. See Parl. of Foules 540. 318. This translation is not now known to exist. 319. of the leoun. Mentioned in the Retractation to the Canterbury Tales, but not now known. Perhaps, as Tyrwhitt suggested, a translation of Machaut’s Dit du Lion. 321-3. “The Broche of Thebes” is the title of the Complaint of Mars in MS Harley 7333; see my Manual, p. 384.—Note the stanza-liaison. 324. Ouyde. Lydgate is in error. It is Statius who mentions the fatal brooch, or rather bracelet, so desired of Theban women, in his Thebais ii1:265. Chaucer, in his Mars 245-260, extends the maleficent effect to men, and Lydgate follows him. 330. at requeste of the quene. Lydgate may be recalling incorrectly the close of the pro- logue to Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women, where Love bids the poet give the queen his book, when finished, ‘fat Eltham or at Shene”. This passage is not in the Cambridge Gg text of the prologue. 330-36. This passage is used in the Schole-House of Women, ed. Hazlitt, EEPopPoetry iv :141-2. 331. The Legend of Good Women. 332. bounte & fairnesse. See note on Bycorne 88. 334-36. This is what Skeat would call “a waggish comment” by Lydgate. The words And for in 334 oblige us to read a comma at end of 336, and make Lydgate say that Chaucer turned to the Canterbury Tales because he could not complete the Legend as commanded. This is doubtful. 345. sentence, sense, substance. See 448 below, Chaucer’s Prologue 306, 800, NPTale 345, Troilus iii:1327, etc. 342-5. See Lydgate’s prologue to Thebes, 22-23. 346. The story of Melibeus, from the Cant.Tales—348. The Clerk’s Tale. 350. The Monk’s Tale. 353. virrelaies, virelays. A virelay was a poem in strophes, on two rimes, the last rime of each strophe becoming the first rime of the next strophe; e.g., aab aab aab bcc, etc. 365-8. In Higden’s Polychronicon iii cap. 42 (Rolls Series ed.) we find :—“Auditorium Tullii Caesar intravit. Cui cum assurgeret Tullius, Caesar prohibuit, dicens ‘Non assurgas mihi, maior est enim sapientia quam potentia.’ Cui Tullius: ‘Orbis victori non assurgam?’ Et Caesar, ‘Et tu maiorem lauream adeptus es quam propagare terminos Romani imperii.’ Cuius verbi occasione lex a Caesare emanavit ut nemo codicem tenens aut legens cuiquam assurgat.” 375-6. As pointed out Anglia 38:135-6, this allusion, with line 406, enables us to date the prologue of the Fall of Princes. Koeppel, interpreting the phrase “which is now in fraunce” to mean Gloucester, connected it with the duke’s 1424-5 campaign in Flanders. PAGE 162] FALL OF PRINCES: A 443 But from the next line we learn that Gloucester at time of writing was “lieftenant” of Britain; to fill this office he must be in England. And as the phrase “which is now in fraunce” could in Lydgate’s syntax equally well apply to Henry VI, whose absence in France would compel the appointment of a lieutenant, it is clear that Henry was out of England and Gloucester acting as lieutenant, when Lydgate wrote these lines. This was noted by Schick, Temple of Glass, introd. p. cv. The date would then be between April 1430 and January 1432; Schick fixes on 1430,—but see note on 406 below.—Observe stanza-liaison 378-9, 385-6. 387. commune, converse. This word was used in the late MidEng period alongside the more frequent common, which it ultimately displaced. 389. contune. This variant on continue, of obscure formation, occurs three times in the Romaunt of the Rose, is frequent in Lydgate and in Bokenam, and goes no further. Its presence in “fragment B” of the Romaunt is with some scholars an argument for Lydgate’s authorship of that part of the translation. The word occurs in Lover’s Mass 13. 391-2. And wher he loueth, etc. These lines may be conventional praise of Gloucester for a virtue highly commended by medieval poets, although quite foreign to the duke’s tempera- ment; they may be an allusion to Gloucester’s motto, “Loyalle et belle”; and they may hint at the circumstances of the moment. Gloucester, after a passionate and ill-advised marriage with Jacqueline of Holland in 1424, had forsaken her, and had caused public scandal by his connection with Eleanor Cobham. When the earlier union was annulled, he made Eleanor his duchess, some time between 1428 and 1431. Lydgate, who is now probably writing in 1431, had written not only an Epithalamium for the marriage with Jacqueline (see p. 144 above), but ? a lament over Gloucester’s desertion of her and infatuation with Eleanor, an infatuation piously attributed to witchcraft. (See text of the poem in Anglia 27 :393 ff.) We may query if the second marriage was recent when Lydgate wrote this passage, if he is here justifying Gloucester, by his phrase “without cause”, for the rejection of Jacqueline. 398. hym silff to ocupie. This reflexive use of occupy is earlier than the NED citations of 1555, 1604. Cp. note on 303 ante. 406 ff. To punysshe alle tho, etc. A yet closer approximation to the date of this Pro- logue may be obtained from these lines. In the spring of 1431 there were various outbreaks of Lollardy in the south of England, all of which were rigorously put down by Gloucester’s government, acting in the king’s absence, and he himself was present at the beheading, at Oxford, of a small band of recalcitrants led by the bailiff of Abingdon. This was in May, 1431. As a matter of politics, Gloucester made much of his loyalty to the Church, and Lydgate is very probably referring to this occasion. The date of the Prologue would then be between May 1431 and the New Year of 1432, when Henry VI returned from France and Gloucester’s lieutenancy ended. See other allusions to these outbreaks in the Palladius-pro- logue line 51, and cp. note on that passage. 409. synglar, singular. This word has usually in Lydgate the force of “especial, particu- lar”; but the phrase ‘‘synguler bataile”, as in FaPrinces i:5455, etc., means “single combat” ; and in a number of cases the word means “personal, individual”, e.g., FaPrinces iii:1249, etc. 431. Cp. the management of line 454. 456. Ditees of murnyng, etc. Cp. lines 24-5 above. 459. in noumbre thries thre. A formula for rime; see note on line 182 of the Epitha- amium above. See also FaPrinces i:3758, i1:3237, Kingis Quair, stanza 19, 464-5. The verb-forms are confused and confusing. To hynder is equivalent to “hindering”. 465. Hauyng is to be parsed with the me of line 463. 466. To the tragedies, i.e., “for the tragedies”. FALL OF PRINCES : B 1. abrayde, start up. The Old Eng. transitive vb. abregdan was in Mid. Eng. intransi- tive, one of its senses being “‘to break into motion or speech”. It is frequent in Lydgate, more so than in Chaucer; see G 174 here, and Churl 83. 6. The text of the Carnegie ed. reads “be will were so disposid”. The meaning apparently is “were so shaped by our inclinations”. Cp. the various readings wel, wil, in 444 NOTES [PAGE 166 Chaucer’s PoFoules 214, and the possible confusion between Voluptas the daughter of Cupid and Voluntas, “will”, as Chaucer or his scribe may have misread Boccaccio, 4-18. As remarked in the introd. above, Lydgate here dilutes Gower’s balanced “oppo- sites”. 22-25. A characteristic Lydgatian repetition. 33-35. See Ovid’s Heroides xi:124, Gower iii:293-4. This is a stock idea; see Shakes- peare’s Winter’s Tale iii:2, 236. With line 34 cp. Lydgate’s Troy Book i:892, 45 ff. Lydgate’s tenderness for an innocent helpless child is also expressed i:3219-20, 3236, 4022, i11:3135—“‘with lippis tendre & softe’,—ii:3143,—“In childli wise on hir gan to smyle”,—iv :3929, viii:1187. 49. the goodly ffayre. With the substantival use of the singular adjective cp. lusty in Troilus iii:354, fre in FlCourtesy 222, Compl. to his Lady 104. 50. A mouth he hath, etc. This expression, here highly pathetic, occurs several times in Lydgate. In the Troy Book iii:4178 it is said, of Troilus grieving over Cressida, that “He had a moube but wordis had he noon”. Jn TemGlas Compl. 49 the lover says “A tunge I haue but wordys none”. In ResonandSens 6268, FaPrin i:4742, similar phrases are used sardonically of women in general, and in St. Albon ii:401-2, 1398 ff., the eyes, ears, and arms of idols are so described. Cp. “Anon he lost be offys of spekyng”’, Troy Book iii:5530. Donne, in his Progress of the Soul, writes “A mouth, but dumb, he hath’’, For the different color taken by a line in its different contexts cp. Chaucer’s use of “Allone withouten any companye” in KnTale 1921 and in MillTale 18; see note on Charles of Orléans xvi:20 here. 60. A favorite line with Lydgate. See ii:2918, vi:807 of the FaPrinces, also Troy Book ii:4248, iv :4383, v:1563. 59-63. An example of Lydgate’s real feeling and muddled expression. The arbitrary omission of the auxiliary or of the subject of the verb, the use of the ablative absolute, the forcing of participles to function as finite verbs, are constant weaknesses with him. One might suggest emending considred to considre in line 62; but the construction as it stands is common enough in Lydgate. With line 62, ‘‘lyppes soffte as sylk,”’ cp. FaPrin ii:3135. For the simile cp. St. Margaret 416, ResonandSens 1643, TemGlas 540, PilgrMan 24446,—each case riming with milk. 64-65. Cp. Jeremiah, Lament. i:12, “O vos omnes qui transitis per viam, attendite et videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus.” In Aeschylus’ Promethus, Io cries “Who of the com- pany of the unfortunate endure sufferings such as mine?” (Smyth’s trans.) Cp .Ovid, Metam. iii :442,—“ecquis, io silvae, crudelius, inquit, amavit?” And Dante, Inferno 28:132, “vedi se alcuna (pena) é grande come questa.” The same thing is said by Brunhilde in FaPrinces ix :473-4. 65. comparable. This word and incomparable, neither cited NED anterior to Lydgate, are used by him, especially the latter, in rime a number of times. 70. corage. For note on this word, see B 62 of Walton’s Boethius here. 81. be lady, etc. Bergen’s text reads be lord & souereyne. 82. at me so dysdeyne. This locution is more frequent in Mid. Eng. than that of line 139 below, now the standard. 95. To Virgil, Aeneid vi:173-197, Fame is a messenger oftener of evil than of good, “tam ficti pravique tenax quam nuntia veri’. To Ovid she is “Fama loquax”, a disseminator of falsehood; but the description of her palace in Metam. xii:39-63 stirred the imagination of later poets. Both Petrarch in the Trionfo della Fama and the Amorosa Visione, and Chaucer in the third book of his Hous of Fame, dwell upon her powers and her abode, treat- ing her less as messenger than as divinity. Lydgate, FaPrinces i:5111, vi:109-119, speaks of Fame’s two trumpets, a detail he could get from Chaucer. The golden, or favorable, trumpet, is mentioned FaPrinces i1:3013, vi:3093, ix :3468, the other trumpet i1:5117 and vii:418. The swiftness of evil Fame Lydgate mentions here and in FaPrinces iv:2373; the palace or house of Fame is named ibid. iii:2352, iv:122, v:420, vi:514, viii:26, 2735, Troy Book iii:4254, Epithal. 133. The table of Fame is alluded to in FaPrinces iv:999. See Hawes 136, Caven- dish 1222. PAGE 167] FALL OF PRINCES: B 445 99. Cp. Barclay’s Eclogue iv :1043. 101-2. “There is no way to mitigate these slanderous reports for our exculpation, unless Cupid be blamed.” 106 ff. This digression is at first sight tasteless and no more. But inept as it is, it endeavors at a reasoning-out of circumstance such as Chaucer seeks in Troilus’ long musing on predestination, iv :960-1078, or such as he puts into Cressida’s mouth, iii:813-40. And “Cupid”, to us so insipid, represents the force of Love, over which clerks and chevaliers argued scholas- tically. Lydgate’s expression is weak enough, but he is following code. 108. mesour, moderation, ‘“mensura”, the golden mean of rhetorical as well as of moral code. See note on “reason”, line 110 below, and see MLReview 21 :380-4 on “The Conception of Mesure in some Medieval Poets”. Cp. moderatio in the de Vinsauf passage cited in note on G 193 below. 110. reson. This word meant not only “a comment, a word, an argument”, as in Fa- Princes G 117 or Garl. 10, but also a systematic arrangement, the principle of such order, a scheme of “mesure”. The latter, a technical term of rhetoric, is thus used by Chaucer, CTprol 37, Troilus iii:1408-9, HoFame 707-8, etc.; and when so used, it is similar to the phrase by ordre, cp. notes on Shirley 1:26 and on Roundel 3 here. For reson in this sense see MLReview 21 :13-18. 112. Supply he before yiveth. 115. arke, the part of a circle which a heavenly body appears to pass through, either above the horizon (diurnal) or below it (nocturnal). See MerchTale 551. 117. lures. See note Dance Macabre 207. 127-8. See Chaucer’s Troilus iv :798. 130. Vnto ... ward. See FaPrinces ix:1806, Hoccleve EETS ed. i:50 line 44, Dial. 469, Jonathas 65; see Lydgate’s DuorMercat. 791, St. Margaret 90, etc., for this idiom. 143-4. Ovid, Petrarch, Gower, are all particular about this picture of Canace, who has her pen in her right hand, the sword in her left. According to Ovid, Heroides xi:89-90, the child has already been taken away; according to Gower and to Lydgate, it is in its mother’s “barm”’. I cannot cite the word barm from Lydgate elsewhere, and the NED does not cite it between A. D. 950 and Douglas (1513). It is in Chaucer’s MoTale 76, 450, SqTale 631, ClTale 495. 154. save: bathe. Lydgate has a number of cases of assonance. The TemGlass has three, 125-6, 858-9, 1017-18; the Black Knight has three, 274-6, 284-5, 460-1; Thebes has one, 1247-8; the DuorMercat has two, 202-3 and 293-4. I have noted at least fifteen in the Troy Book, mainly on p and k, but have not observed others in that poem. Chaucer has but one clear case of assonance, Troilus 11:884-6; that in BoDuch 79-80 is susceptible of explanation. —the silff, itself, i.e., Canace’s very blood. FALL OF PRINCES ; € 2. Compare Dante, Inferno 26:118, “Considerate la vostra semenza”,—though said in a very different spirit. 3. discencioun. The quarrel between Romulus and Remus. See FaPrinces ii:4072 ff. 16. triumphe usurpyng. Caesar’s demand for a triumphal entry and honors, on his re- turn from Britain and Gaul, was refused by Pompey and the Senate from fear of Caesar’s waxing power; civil war followed. The matter of the Roman triumph was very interesting to Lydgate; he goes into particulars in book iv, lines 519 ff., and still more fully in ?his prose Serpent of Division, which narrates the Caesar-Pompey quarrel. He also discusses “crowns” in FaPrinces iv :239 ff. The word usurp is occasionally employed by Lydgate in the sense of “claim,” as here. See FaPrinces i:5669-70, ii:2719-20, iv :1228-29. 18. serious. This word, frequent here and in the Troy Book, is explained by Skeat, note on MLTale 87, as “minutely, with full details”. It can have the force of “in sequence, serially”. See Thebes 333, “Cereously be lyneal discent”. 19, Octavyan. Octavianus Augustus, Caesar’s nephew and successor. 446 NOTES [PAGE 172 20. Wher is become, i. e., “What is become of?’ See Libel 36, Garland of Laurell 1216. 21. After this line there is inserted in Dr, Bergen’s edition of the poem a stanza found only in the 1554 print and in one MS. I have not included it, and the numbering of this text is not correspondent with Bergen’s beyond this point. 22. cheef lanterne. This term, or “light”, is used by medieval writers to imply super- excellence in the person described, or to assert that he guides lesser men as does one bearing a lantern. Laurent’s French prose, Lydgate’s principal source, speaks elsewhere of Hector as “lumiére de prouesse et de chevalerie”; Athens is “lIumiére de philosophie”, and “lumi- ére de Gréce”, in the same way that Cicero calls Rome “lux orbis terrarum”’. When Dante addresses Virgil, Inferno 1:82, as “degli altri poeti onore e lume”, he is probably thinking in the second of these senses, as was the Psalmist in 119:105, which Wyclif translates “Lan- terne to my feet thy word and light to myn pathe’”. Cp, Dante in Purgat. 1:43, 22:67, fol- lowing Seneca or Ennius; and Chaucer, Legend 926, following Dante. 27. declyne. Trajan would not ‘‘decline on’,—lean toward, favor,—any party. 29-35. The Middle Ages regarded Virgil not only as a poet and philosopher, but as a beneficient magician; see Comparetti’s Vergil in the Middle Ages. The story here told was long current without Virgil’s name as the worker of the wonder, e. g. in Jacobus de Voragine’s Legenda Aurea cap. clvii, earlier in the Mirabilia Urbis Romae of ca. 1150, and earlier yet in a MS of the 8th century cited by Keller, Li Roman de Sept Sages, 1836, p. ccvii. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries this marvel, with others, was ascribed to Virgil; in chap. clxxiv of Alexander Neckam’s De Naturis Rerum, late 12th century, we are told that Virgil constructed at Rome a palace in which were statues representing the subject provinces of the Empire, each statue bearing a bell which rang if that province meditated revolt. Vincent de Beauvais has the same story in his Speculum Historiale (before 1264) at the opening of his discussion of Virgil, book vi, chap. 61; and in the Polychronicon of Higden, trans- lated by Trevisa, this building is more than once mentioned. In the Rolls Series ed. of Trevisa, i:217-19, the building is described, but attributed to witchcraft; in iv:243-45 Virgil is named as its builder, and Neckam as source of the fact. Laurent repeats the legend, see FaPrinces ix :20 ff. He does not mention Virgil as the builder, but says that the emperor Phocas gave to Boniface, “le quart pape depuis sainct Gregoire’, this “pantheum”, which he describes, and recounts how Boniface dismantled it and consecrated it to Our Lady and all the saints. Lydgate, at that point in his translation, says nothing about Virgil, as Laurent had not; he muddles the names of Gregory and Boniface, and refers to “poetis and Fulgence” for the story of the statues. I do not find anything about the “pantheon” in Fulgentius; Lau- rent in his rendering fuses, as do some earlier writers, the image-filled “Salvatio Romae” and the pagan temple hallowed by Boniface. 44. This MS and Royal 18 D v omit the word enrichyng at the end of the line; I sup- ply it from Harley 1245. In Bergen’s edition there is a typographical error in the order of words. 69. thordris nyne. The nine grades of angels, viz., Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Domin- ions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, Angels. So Dante, Paradiso 28:98 ff., fol- lowing Dionysius’ De Caeleste Hierarchia. See FaPrinces ix :2399 ff. 74. wordli. An exceedingly frequent MS-spelling for worldly. 76. bowe ... chyne, bow thy shin, kneel. One might consider that in FaPrinces iii :2594, viii :497, this word meant chin. In iv:3637, “Tascende the mounteyn feeble wer ther chynes”, the meaning is clear. Cp. iii:3132, iv:2536, vii:442, viii:995, 2091; Troy Book i:3066. 85. Cast up, ie., Consider. See Thebes 1687, Troy Book iv:4959. With this passage cp. Lydgate’s St. Albon ii:1745-61. 88. Now briht, etc. The balance of “opposites” by the word Now is a device Chaucer and Lydgate could find, e.g., in the Romaunt of the Rose, 6327 ff. Chaucer uses it briefly - and colloquially in KnTale 674-7; Lydgate has it, in this poem, ii:4554, iii:1321, 4337, iv :623, 1987, v :439, and especially in the description of Fortune vi:55-69, 169-71, 192-4. 93. Cirenes. Lydgate’s allusions to sirens are frequent. See this poem i:5157, ii:658, 4245-9, iii:1637, 3708, 4610, vi:69-70, etc.; cp. his ResonandSens 1772-5, 4098, 5257, 6732; cp. Troy Book v:2054 ff., Letter to My Lady of Gloucester stanza 10. He could get his PAGE 173] Abi, OF PRINCES? € 447 material from Isidor’s Etymologies xi:3, 30, or from Hugh of St. Victor, De Bestiis et Aliis Rebus, ii cap. 32; or he could find a brief account in another part of Laurent’s French, book i chap. 18. 96. Synderesis, or Synteresis, Aquinas’ term for conscience as applied to human con- duct. In his translation of Deguilleville’s Pilgrimage, 4963 ff., Lydgate gives a definition of synderesis as “the hiher party of Resoun”’. Hoccleve uses the same source, see EETS ed. iii p. xxv, line 76. In the Assembly of Gods, 937 ff., Synderesis aids Conscience, the judge of the combat between Virtues and Vices. Milton in his Commonplace Book copies a defini- tion of Synderesis as a “natural power of the soul, set in the highest part thereof, moving and striving it to good, and abhorring evil. And therefore Sindrisis never sinns nor erres. And this Sindirisis the Lord put in man to the intent that the order of things should be observed.” Vincent de Beauvais, Speculum Historiale i cap 40, has “Sinderesis est scintilla conscientie in speculamentis constituta, cuius est peccato remurmurare & errata corrigere. & hec est que movet liberum arbitrium in bonum commune, et retrahit a malo communi” etc. He says it is extinct in the devil and in the damned, but not in Jews, nor quite so in heresiarchs. FALL OF PRINCES : D 8. I meene as thus. Such an explanation by a writer of his own words, scholastic in its origin, is very frequent in Chaucer, for example; and the usage is continued by his fol- lowers. See for instance the Kingis Quair, stanzas 72, 78, 79, 123, 129, 184. It was much used by Chaucer in his Boethius-translation, when he was incorporating glosses to make the text clearer to his readers. And Dante’s use of dico, although generally a mode of emphasis or of filliping the attention, is sometimes directly parallel to Chaucer’s “This is to meene”; cp. Inferno 4:66, “la selva, dico, di spiriti spessi’. And note ibid., 14:7-8. A similar turn of words is employed by Chaucer in a way which to a modern ear sounds mischievous. In Troilus ii:904-5 he says :— The dayes honour and the hevenes ye The nightes fo (al this clepe I the sonne)— and, with a fuller formula, FranklTale 289-90, For th’ orisonte hath reft the sonne his light This is as much to seye as it was night. But if this latter is in intent a burlesque, what of the parallel passage in Fulgentius’ Mitolo- giarum, bk. i? After protracted and somewhat turgid description of night, in verse, Fulgen- tius says: “ut, in verba paucissima conferam, nox erat.’ This particular Chaucerian passage took effect on his followers; cp. the Kingis Quair stanza 72, “This is to say, approche gan the nyght”,—and Lydgate’s Troy Book iv :3582-3 :— And Espirus gan his ligte to shede pis to seyn, for it drowe to nygt,— also, ibid., iv :629, “pis to seyne be sonne went doun”. See also ibid., iii:15, 2749. It is doubtful if either King James or Lydgate read humorous intent into the Chaucerian phrase which was serving as their model. But Lowell, in his essay on Chaucer, says of the FranklTale passage that the poet “turns round upon himself and smiles at a trip he has made into fine writing”; and Mackail, in his Springs of Helicon, p. 59, remarks of it: “It may be suspected that Chaucer is making fun of Dante’. On this point note Matthew of Venddéme’s ““it sit sensus ‘jam diescebat’ ”,—after a citation of Aeneid iv:584. See Faral, p. 185. Other passages in which Chaucer’s “I seye” is parallel to Dante’s scholastic dico are MLTale 162-3, ClerkTale 410 ff., FranklTale 337-40; in the two latter he repeats himself emphatically. The locution is very common in Lydgate, usually in the form as here; it is more frequent as explanation than as emphasis, and often seems merely padding. 8-21. For this apology see note on Walton A 58. Calliope, the muse of epic poetry and eloquence, and Clio the muse of history, are frequently mentioned together by Lydgate; see 448 NOTES [PAGE 174 Thebes 831, Epithal. 181, Troy Book prol. 40, 46, ii1:5445, Life of Our Lady as cited by Schick TemGlas note on 958. 10. rethorik ... floure. The term flowers was often used by medieval writers for the adornments of rhetoric, beside the term colours. Both are found in Cicero, ep. De Oratore iii:25, where he says that oratio is adorned quasi colore quodam and quasi verborum senten- tiarumique floribus. 12. in noumbre thries thre. For note on this rime-tag see FaPrinces A 459, Epithal. 182. 16. Pegase. In Greek mythology, the spring Hippocrene, upon Helicon, was opened by the thrust of Pegasus’ hoof. Fulgentius says merely “Musarum fontem ungula sua rupisse fertur”,—without connecting the kick of Pegasus, as fuller myth does, with the song-contest of the Pierides and the Muses, the rising of Helicon in rapture while the Muses sang and Jupiter’s command to Pegasus to thrust the mountain back. An almost identical line is in Troy Book i prol. 45. 19. tame ther tunnys. The word tame is a shortened form of attame, frequently used by Lydgate in its sense of “to broach, to open as a cask is opened’. It seems to have here the force of “to sample’. Cp. “Who that wil entren to tamen of the sweete”’, DuobMercat. 701. 20-21. poliphemus ...Argus. Argus had many eyes, Polyphemus but one. In this poem ix :3335 Lydgate says of himself ““Myn eyen mystyd and dirked my spectacle’. Possibly he, like Hoccleve and Bokenam, had weak or overworked eyes; see Bokenam p. 23, line 657-8, Hoccleve to Oldcastle 417-20, and to the duke of York 57-59. 22-23. Our life here short, etc. Cp. the line-movement of the opening of Chaucer’s PoFoules. Cp. for the wording the prologue of John of Salisbury to his Polycraticus, bk. i:—‘‘Siquidem vita brevis, sensus herbes, negligentia torpor, inutilis occupatio, nos paucula scire permittunt: et eadem iugiter excutit, et avellit ab animo fraudatrix scientiae, inimica et infida semper memoriae noverca, oblivio.” The use of the last phrase in line 30 below makes it probable that Lydgate has the Polycraticus in mind rather than a more general observation like that of Vincent of Beauvais in his Speculum Naturale :—“Quoniam multitudo librorum et temporis brevitas memorie quoque labilitas non patiuntur cuncta que scripta sunt pariter animo comprehendi—’’etc. 30. stepmodir. John of Salisbury’s phrase, as above. The metaphorical use of noverca is very common in the latter Middle Ages. Fulgentius and Matthew of Vendome, especially the latter, employ it frequently. Vendome in his Tobias, 2123-4, says: “Vocum congeries prolixa noverca favoris Displicet, excurrit, labitur, auris abest’”; and Bokenam in his St. Margaret 941-3 speaks of prolixity as “Stepdame of fauour aftyr the sentence. In a vers of Mathu Vindocinence”’—referring obviously to the passage just cited. Lydgate, FaPrinces iv:150-51, calls idleness the stepmother of science and cunning; ibid., i:4811 hasty credence is the stepmother of good counsel; ibid., i1:643 flattery is stepmother to virtue; and so in 111:3980 of Will and Wit, in v:3045-7 of Covetousness and Worthiness. Cp. also PilgLifeMan 15985-7, Secrees 665. The metaphor in Matthew of Vendome occurs, e. g., Tobias 193-4, 811-12, Ars Versificatoria end of part i and passim there; see Faral, pp. 118, 163, etc. 36. were, i.e., doubt, perplexity. 38. The punctuation in the Carnegie edition is erroneous, The phrase “who euer list to lere” is one of Lydgate’s lumps of padding, is parenthetical, and should be set off by commas. 41. with a maas, i. e., with mace, or the staff carried by a sheriff's officer, by one who makes an arrest. 46. felt quake. The quaking hand or pen is a favorite mode with Lydgate of asserting his inadequacy for his task. Chaucer had used the locution, Troilus iv:13-14, and it is found, e.g., in Lydgate’s BlKnight 181, TemGlas 947, St. Marg. 57, St. Edmund iii:89, AlbonandAmph. i:928, LettGlouc 4, Troy Book i:4427, ii1:145, iii:5425, v:1044, Secrees 334, 1555, FaPrinces i:5517, 7023, ii:1022, iii :3684, iv :3495, v:2133, vi:2989, ix :3307. See Hawes, Example of Vertu stanza 112, Skelton’s GarlLaurell 812. 52. stood chek maate, was nonplussed, helpless. This also is a favorite locution with Lydgate. It appears in Chaucer’s Troilus ii:754 as “say chekmate”’, ie., force to a halt, to PAGE 175] FALL OF PRINCES: D 449 submission; see BoDuch 659-60. See Hoccleve’s Lerne to Dye 181; sea Dance 459, Caven- dish 161. 63. Pierides & Meduse. Lydgate has said that the Muses show him no favor; he now says that only to the unworthy rivals of the Muses, those daughters of Pierus who attempted to assert their own supremacy in song, and to stony Medusa, can he look for aid. 66. Mercurie. ..and Philologie. Mercury and Philology are referred to together in TemGlas 129, where the allusion is to their marriage as described by Martianus Capella in one of the widely read books of the Middle Ages. The names also appear together Epithal- Glouc. 179-80 with reference to their marriage, which is described by Lydgate Thebes 833-44. Here the two are rather thought of as presiding over eloquence, the special province of Mer- cury, as Lydgate says ResonandSens 1657 ff., Troy Book ii:2499-2501, 5605-8, FaPrinces 11:4544-5. See St. Edmund i:99-101. 69. ebb. A frequent metaphor with Lydgate; see this poem i:4422-24, 6079, iii :355-58, ix 3348-51, Troy Book ii:456, LettGlouc 20. 67-9. With these lines cp. LettGlouc 20-24. 78. ertheli. Warley 1245 reads hertely. 82. The bracketed phrase is from MS Harley 1245; our MS by error repeats from 79 as “list nat to aduertise”. 83. to greue. Harley 1245, or greve. 92. Translation of Laurent now begins. In the French there is no distinct prologue to this Book; the introductory simile (in the printed ed. here used) runs without break into the dispute of Fortune and Poverty which follows. In Boccaccio’s Latin, however, the eleven-line prologue is set off separately, and its first half is, as printed in Paris n. d. by Jehan Petit :—‘“Consverere longum ac laboriosvm iter agentes / non solum aliquando con- sistere /sudores abstergere / corpus leuare / auram captare lenem / & sitim poculis pellere: Set etiam in tergum facie versa / iam acta metiri spatia / opida recolere / flumina / montes / vallesque / & aequora / recensere. Et dum toti itineri quod preteritum est / eximunt: Non modicum sibi / ad laboris residuum / virium superaddere.” Laurent renders this :— “Pelerins & autres voyageurs qui font aucun long & labourieux chemin ont de coustume soy arrester / & aucunesfois torcher la sueur de leur visage / et la lautre fois mettre ius leurs fardeaulx pour aleger le corps & autrefois prendre le vent fres et souef / et boire ou vin ou eaue pour oster la soif & si ont de coustume de veoir & abater combien ils ont fait apres ce quilz ont tourne le dos a aucun notable lieu dont ils se sont partis / ils recordent entre eulx le nombre et les noms des chasteaulx / des riuieres / des valles / des montaignes / et des mers que ils ont passees / & quant ils rabatent de tout leur chemin ce qui en est fait ils prennent en leurs cueurs forces et allegences plus quilz nen auoient pour acomplir le remanant du labour & du chemin.” (From the Petit print, Paris 1538).—With this pilgrim-simile cp. the Lover’s Mass, Epistle in prose, p. 212 here; and see p. 209 here. FALL OF PRINCES : E In this extract Lydgate is very prone to the absolute treatment of participles and to the omission of the verb-subject; cp. lines 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 27, 31, 50, 53, 70, 76, 90, 103. 11. Germanye. The Bergen ed. reads Lumbardie. 13. peisid...seyn. An ablative absolute. “This matter having been examined and weighed’’,—nevertheless Caesar had no guerdon, no triumph. 16. appesid, were appeased. Laurent says: “appaisa les discentions civiles’”. 17. Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale, vi., cap. 37, “De initio imperii Cesaris”, gives Sichardus as his authority for the statement: “Denique Cesar Romam reuersus rerum summam ac potentiam quam Greci monarchiam vocant solus sibi presumpsit.” Lydgate makes no use of Laurent’s repeated emphasis on the graciousness and leniency of Caesar as compared with other despots. 18. sxiiine regiouns. Rome was divided into fourteen regions, Italy into eleven. This may be a miswriting for xiiiine. 19-21. The refusal of the triumph to Caesar is again mentioned. 450 NOTES [pace 178 20. recure. See note Dance Macabre 311. Our MS erroneously reads replye, under influence probably of the rime-word. 21. Other MSS request instead of conquest. 25. doomys.. .dresse, administer judgments. 37. Cp. similar line Knight’s Tale 152. 42. parody. This word, probably a reshaping of French période, “duration”, was used by Chaucer, Troilus v:1548, to mean “term of life’. Lydgate employs it four times in this poem, twice in the Troy Book, and elsewhere; but it was not longer preserved in English. The 1554 print of the Fall of Princes renders the word here as periody; and the scribe of Harley 2251, copying a poem which is printed Halliwell MinPo, p. 126, changes it to paradice. 43. Tongilyus. Lydgate’s source for this bit of information is perhaps the same as that of the De Nugis Curialium, or rather of the Dissuasio Valerii ad Rufinum which is in- corporated in the fourth Distinction of the De Nugis, and which had a large circulation as a separate work, being sometimes attributed to St. Jerome. Walter Map mentions the story merely to urge on his correspondent that however humble the source of advice, it should be heeded lest worse follow. See p. 146 of the ed. by Wright, p. 149 of the ed. by M. R. James. The same name is given to the warner of Caesar in the Serpent of Division, see ibid., p. 64; and the phrase of introduction is there identical, ‘a pore man called Ton- gilius’. Map says “Tongillo humili quidem sed divino”, making Tongillus a soothsayer ; Laurent says that “vne sedulle’ was offered Caesar, mentioning no name for its bearer. 48. ambicious necligence. The “necligence”’, Caesar’s delay to read the warning scroll, is deplored by both Laurent and the author of the Serpent of Division. Laurent says that Caesar was “trop tardif”, and that the tragic outcome should teach all to be prompt in opening and reading their letters. 50. consistory. This word was used in the Middle Ages for any dignified assemblage, but is now restricted to an ecclesiastical sense. 54. bodkyns. Laurent says “dagues assez longues et estroictes, presque a facon de greffes.” Chaucer says “boydekins”. 63, 70, etc. Brutus Cassius. This fusion of the two names was made by Chaucer in the Monk’s Tale 707; and he was followed by Lydgate on at least four separate occasions, viz., this, the Serpent of Division, the Coronation Address to Henry VI, and the poem printed Halliwell MinPo, p. 125. Bradshaw, in his life of St. Werburgh, line 1714, has Cassius Brutus; and Cavendish in his Metrical Visions, line 1130 (Surrey), has Brewtus Cassius. Both these men derive from Lydgate, who derives from Chaucer; where Chaucer obtained the error is not yet clear, and it is singular that in the same tale in which he uses material from Dante’s Inferno, canto 33, and sends his readers to Dante, he should ignore a fact extremely clear from a reading of canto 34, where Brutus and Cassius hang separately from the jaws of Lucifer. The only case of the error earlier than Chaucer which I have as yet noted is in King Alfred’s translation of Boethius chap. 19,—‘“Brutus opre naman Cassius”,—an addition by Alfred to the text. Any brief colorless narrative, such as perhaps an epitome of Orosius, which used the sign for et between the two proper names, could start the error. Thus, as Prof. John L. Lowes points out to me, we find in Philargyrius’ fifth-century commentary on Virgil :—“Tiberius Caesar Iulius et Antonius contra Cassium Brutum civile bellum gesserunt.” Note that Lydgate’s usual source for this poem, Laurent’s French, is quite definite on Brutus and Cassius, speaking of “les deux coniurateurs’’; see note on F 15 below. And Coluccio Salutati, in his De Tyranno, discusses at length the propriety of Dante’s handling of the two tyrannicides. Lydgate very probably knew no more of Coluccio than the “Lucre- tia” which Gloucester ordered him to work into the Fall of Princes book ii; but his ignoring of Laurent is a different matter. For the reverse sort of error, with other names, see note .on Barclay’s Ship of Fools prol. line 20. 69. to lustris, two lustres, i. e., ten years. It was just about ten years from Caesar’s second invasion of Britain to his assassination in 44 B. C. 82. “Add the unhappy fate of Caesar.” 95. malencolik vengeaunce. The chronicler Sichardus, from whom Vincent of Beauvais often draws, and Laurent, both emphasize the leniency of Caesar after his assumption of FALL OF PRINCES: F 451 power. Apparently Lydgate’s rime-scheme drives him to a different statement. Of the four humors, sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic, the last-named, determined by a pre- ponderance of the black bile, was said by medieval medicine to cause gloom, sulleness, and irasci- bility. The phrase here fits Achilles sulking in his tent or raging against the slayers of Patroclus,—but not Caesar. FALL OF PRINCES : F 8. Brutus Cassius. See note on E 63 ante. 10-12. Decius Brutus, according to MacCallum, in his Shakespeare’s Roman Plays, “the least erected spirit of the group”. He was killed in Gaul while trying to escape to join Brutus and Cassius in Macedonia, s. c. 43. 13. what costis, etc., “wherever one may go”. 15 ff. Lydgate here disregards all of Laurent’s narrative. The French says that “Anthoine filz de seur” was by Caesar’s will named second of the heirs and executors; “et octouien nepueu aussi de cesar fut premier heritier’; etc. Octavian fought five battles against the rebels, and afterwards “vng cheualier appelle Decius Brutus confessa a octouien la maniere de la coniuration faicte contre Cesar / et pource que Decius Brutus auoit este vng des coniurateurs / il luy requist pardon en luy monstrant signe de repentance.” Then, says Laurent, Dolabella killed Trebonius, another conspirator; ‘‘et Decius Brutus vng autre des meurtriers fut prins et occis en France ou il sen estoit fuy.” Then Basilius is disposed of; then Brutus and Cassius (“les deux coniurateurs”) gather head at Athens and at Rhodes; Octavian and Antony, “iustes vengeurs”, pursue them into Macedonia, where there is a great battle. Brutus and Cassius kill each other in despair. Other nobles are drawn into the miserable conflict, among them Tullius. 15. thre yere. There is nothing of this time limit in Laurent; Lydgate, in line 19, refers to “auctours”. He could read in Vincent of Beauvais’ Speculum Historiale, book vi, cap. xlii—“percussorum cesaris fere neque triennio quisque amplius superuixit”,—etc. Observe, in this stanza, Lydgate’s weak repetition; the last two lines restate the two opening lines of the stanza. 22 ff. Laurent has at this point in his work nothing about tyrannicide; but he elsewhere touches on the question, one which aroused much discussion in the century, and had since John of Salisbury’s inadequate argument. See Emerton, Humanism and Tyranny, Boston, 1926; see Lydgate’s Fall of Princes ix:1443 ff. and note the solemn popular vote there, justifying the deposition and killing of Andronicus. FALL OF PRINCES :G 3. laumpe and lanterne. See note, FaPrinces C 22. 5. barein style. See note on Nevill envoy 12. 10. flours, i. e., of rhetoric. See note, FaPrinces D 10. 17. termes and resouns, i. €., set phrases and words. For this meaning of “terms” cp. CantTales prol. 325, 641, Pard. headlink 25, CanYeoTale 845; for the use of “reason” to mean “word, motto, speech”, cp. Libiaus Desconus 3218, 3221, 3430, 4280, 4931, 4948, Squire of Lowe Degre 214, Chaucer’s Troilus i:796, Henryson’s Testament of Cressida 606, FaPrinces 11:2327, and the Orléans transl. here printed, xviii:4. Another and very important medieval use of the word reason is in the larger sense of “decorum”, closely corresponding to the ordo, ordine, of late Latin rhetoricians and of Italian philosophic poets before Dante. See Goffin in MLReview 21:13-18 for Chaucer’s use of reason in such sense; and cp. Jacopone da Todi’s laude, e.g. as cited by Gardner, Dante and the Mystics, 1913, for praise of Order. Cp. also the use of Reason in contrast with Sensuality, the bridled with the unbridled; not only in Lydgate’s poem of that name, but in his St. Ed- mund i:398, his St. Albon ii:16, his Troy Book ii:1821-3, FaPrinces i:6200, 6257, ii:579-80, 2535-6, etc. Note Hamlet’s “blood and judgment”. For the limited simple usage of the word as here see note on Shirley 1:78. 452 NOTES [pace 180 19. The syntax is here broken and bewildered; the movement would be clearer were this line omitted. In 21 to is repeated, though already in line 19; see a similar confusion in FaPrinces i :3246-48 and ii:2325-27; also iv :26-28. 22. kauht a fantasie. To catch envy, catch an indignation, catch a melancholy, espe- cially to catch a fantasy, are stereotyped phrases in Lydgate. Chaucer in the MLTale 628 uses “caught a gret motyf”, and in FrklTale 12, 792 we find—catch a pity, catch routh. The word supprisid means, as in Chaucer, “overcome by feeling”. 24. skie. In Chaucer’s HoFame 1600 this word means cloud, as it usually does to Gower. For Lydgate it usually means cloud; and this phrase,—see also FaPrinces i:3539, ix :2020, Pilgrimage 9626,—seems to be “a cloudy mass of cloud”. 32. The subject of spak is not in the text. 33-35. Too colours sein; i. e., “to see two colors’. Laurent writes :—‘‘quant deux choses contraires sont mises lune pres de lautre / elles se monstrent plus legierement.’ Chaucer made a similar remark, Troilus 1:642-3; and Lydgate uses it again Temple of Glass 1250. See Hawes’ Pastime, line 1349; see Skelton’s Garland 1210, Spenser’s Faerie Queene iii :9,2. Observe the like rime 35-36. The rime on other was often awkwardly managed by early poets; Lydgate is sometimes reduced to use of the padding phrase “I meene non othir”, when he has brothir in rime,—see FaPrinces v :3025-6, and see Troy Book ii:5439-40, 5965-6, etc. Chaucer manages better; see HoFame 2101-2, PoFoules 566-7, BoDuchesse 891-2, Troilus iv :608-9, KnTale 273-4, etc.; but he has some difficulty HoFame 795-6, 815-6. 36. In phebus presence, etc. The comparison of the “sun passing the stars’, whether to exalt some person praised or to describe the inferiority of the lover-disciple, is very frequent in medieval literature. We find in the Carmina Burana no. 143: “Sol solis in stellifero Stellas excedit radio”; Chrétien de Troyes, in his Yvain 3245 ff., writes “Si con cierges antre chandoiles Et la lune antre les estoiles Et li solaus desor la lune.’ Machaut in his Fontaine Amoureuse says “Aussi com li solaus la lune Vient de clarte Avait elle les autres sormonte De pris.” See Chaucer’s PoFoules 299-300, Lydgate’s Flower of Courtesy 113-14, his Temple of Glass 251-2, his St. Albon i:288-90, his Secrees 344, 348, FaPrinces ii:995-6, ix :1878, 2350- $1, 3415-16, Troy Book ii:8471-2; see Metham’s Amoryus and Cleopes 148 ff., Hawes’ Pas- time 221-4 as here and p. 185 of the Percy Soc. edition. See Bradshaw’s St. Werburge i:733-5; and further in note on K 29-30 below. 42. quaking hond. See note FaPrinces D 46. 43-49. There is no principal verb or clause here. 46. colours. . .of eloquens. “Colours” were embellishments of style, ornaments of dic- tion. The phrase “colours of rhetoric” is extremely common in English and French medieval writers. Its use to mean definite categories of ornamentation goes back to the pseudo- Ciceronian treatise Ad Herennium, which contains a list, with definitions, of the various “exornationes” of formal speech; this is retained by the Latin grammarians and by Italian and French writers of the later Middle Ages. The eight “colors of rhetoric” listed by Dante’s teacher Brunetto Latini in his Livre dou Trésor were Ornament, Circumlocution, Comparison, Exclamation, Fable, Transition, Demonstration, and Repetition. Under Demonstration Bru- netto cites a description of Iseult, feature by feature; for this mode! of praising the lady see note here on Hoccleve’s third Roundel. Under Ornament Brunetto says that a simple state- ment, such as “Jules Cesar fu empereres de tout le monde”, should be expanded by longer and more becoming words; the writer should say “The prudence and valor of Julius Caesar brought all the world into subjection to him, and he was lord and emperor of the whole earth.” The earlier categories of “colors” were much expanded by later medieval rhetoricians ; they are enumerated in the “Arts of Poetry” collected by Langlois, Paris, 1902, and by Mari, Milan, 1899; see also in especial the Latin treatises edited by Faral, Paris, 1924, comprising Matthew of Vendéme and Geoffrey de Vinsauf. It is in Ornament and Repetition that the greatest amount of development takes place; the French treatises of Deschamps and of Alain Chartier discuss elaborate stanza-forms, acrostic-stanzas, groups of lines beginning with the same word or phrase, repetitions of the same word-base in different forms, etc. Among the sub-forms of Repetition we find lines ending with the word on which they opened, as in pace 181] FALL OF PRINCES: G 453 Cavendish 212 here; or a sequence of lines each catching up the last word of the preceding verse,—i.e., enchained lines; or stanzas similarly enchained. See for example the elegy inserted into Barclay’s fourth eclogue, where the last rime of one stanza is the opening rime- sound of the next; or see the prologue to Palladius here. For still more elaborate echoes see Naetebus’ book on the non-lyric strophe-forms of early French poetry, and see Butler’s Forerunners of Dante. In our own time J. C. Squire’s Wind at Evening is a very studied and graceful chain-line poem. From Dante down, such rhetorical effects have been recognized. Dante was austerely sparing in his use of lines with identical beginning, somewhat freer in his admission of words built on an identical base; the passage with recurrent onor—, Inferno 4:72-80, is the longest in his work. It was more or less imitated by Tennyson at the opening of The Marriage of Geraint, with the word Jove; and Tennyson has used groups of lines beginning alike with far more freedom than Dante. A more delicate form of this “color of rhetoric” is the grouping by Shelley or by Keats of adjectives with similar prefixes or suf- fixes; for example,—‘“With feet unwet, unwearied, undelaying,” (Prometheus Unbound iii, 3:157) ; or in the opening of Hyperion,—‘“His old right hand lay nerveless, listless, dead, Unsceptred; and his realmless eyes were closed.’ But the sensitized modern ear has sought a variety and attained a delicacy not in the medieval code. With the approach and arrival of humanism in England, many other modes of ornament became prevalent. The list of classical (and Biblical) examples was developed, naturally, far beyond what the classical or post-classical mind had deemed appropriate; Latin tags, borrowed or manufactured polysyllables, plays upon words, were everywhere. Lydgate does not employ the play upon words, as Ovid had employed it; but his admiration for “aureate language” is very great. Indeed, we cannot always interpret a digression, or even a tedious repetition of material, by him, as a proof of his incompetence and dulness. He, or Cavendish, or many a late medieval writer, may be following a principle, that of rhetorical ornamentation and expansion. The result is undoubtedly similar, for the average reader, to what pure dulness would produce; but the student perceives an attempt, however clumsy, to follow a code. See note on Cavendish line 232. 52. afforcid his corage. See same phrase Churl 64. 55. ditees. This word may mean in Mid. Eng. either “compositions” or “compositions in verse, songs”. For the former sense see the Romaunt of the Rose 5285-6, “And whilom of this (amitee) Spak Tullius in a ditee’, i. e, De Amicitia; see FaPrinces A 256, G 225. For the latter sense see FaPrinces A 352, 456 above. 63. As Koeppel points out in his De Casibus monograph, p. 65, Lydgate took Laurent’s translata, “transplanted”, to mean “translated”. The French is: “Tulle non pas seulement translata lart de rhetorique de Grec en langage latin / mais augmenta accreut & aorna la science tellement que par luy elle creust & croist’—etc. Isidor, in his Etymologies ii:2, says that “haec autem disciplina [i. e., rhetoric] a Graecis inventa est,. ..translata in latinum a Tullio ...” This statement is correctly rendered by Lydgate in FaPrinces vi:3300-01. 67. The vices of Rome, mentioned by Laurent, are omitted by Lydgate. 69. tyme. Accusative of duration. 71, 75. There is no auxiliary for the verb. 80. There is no principal verb for Catalina. Lydgate omits mention of Catiline’s noble origin and picture of his financial difficulties, except for a slight allusion to the latter in line 93. 96. “Found out means, did devise ways to his purpose”, etc. The omission of the sub- ject and the connective makes the syntax unclear. 102. Lydgate omits the go-between Fulvia mentioned by Laurent. 109. Lydgate reduces to generalities Laurent’s vigorous description of Cicero shattering “par tres aigres & mordantes parolles. . .la paresseuse souffrance des senateurs.” 116. Laurent here dwells on Catiline’s courage, and has no moralizing such as Lydgate’s in 118-19. 122. Ceregus. Read Cetegus. 454 NOTES [pace 182 125-6. Tulliane ... the prisoun. Laurent gives this detail. There was on the Capitoline a prison built by Servius Tullius, but from the twelfth century the name “Tullian” was incorrectly applied to the locality on which stood a prison erected by Appius Claudius. Cicero had no connection with either. See Gregorovius, Gesch. der Stadt Rom in Mittelalter, iv :350, note 2. 127. Between the material of this and of the preceding stanza there intervenes in Laurent and in Boccaccio an interesting simile omitted by Lydgate. It runs in the Latin: “Sic armatos duces togatus excessit Cicero si is medicus praeferendus est qui secretam adque laetiferam intes- tinorum vomicam argumentis exclusit et repulit; ei qui vulnus adparens et si maximum sit vnguentis et arte traxit in cicatricem.’ We may note here Boccaccio’s reminder of Cicero’s own line of verse,—‘‘Cedant arma togae...” etc. 133. clergy, learning. Bergen’s text reads polycie. 140. Here Boccaccio said: “vt Plotinum Gallum / qui primus vrbi rhetoricam Latine monstrauit / & Miltacilium Plotum & alterum ex Graccis / atque Hortensium / aliosque elegantissimos oratores / Graecosque veteres anteiret.’ Laurent wrote: “que il surmonta aussi en rethoricque Milius catilius / et Gracius / et Hortense & autres plusieurs orateurs latins treselegans et autres anciens orateurs de Grece.’”’ The word Policius here reads in other MSS Plocius; the reference is to Plotius Gallus, of whom it is recorded: “Plotius Gallus primus Romae latinam rhetoricam docuit.” See Jerome’s comment. on Eusebius, ed. Migne, viii:528; and note that the name is not in Laurent. “Gracce” is probably the younger Grac- chus, a most brilliant orator. 145. The subject of the verb is again omitted. 146-7. The golden trumpe. This allusion is drawn from Chaucer’s HoFame iii, where Aeolus, at Fame’s command, blows good report through his golden trumpet, ill report through one of brass. See Cavendish, line 1222 here. 154. lanterne... & liht. See line 3 above, and note on FaPrinces C 22. 156-68. This is from Laurent, with praise of Cicero’s “doulce et amesuree prononcia- tion de voix”. 159, Laurent gives the names of the defendants, 160-1. The text printed by Dr. Bergen reads repreeff at close of 161,—an error by contamination in our text. 172. Note the elision of that he was. 173-5. platon. . .bees...hony. The story of the bees moistening the lips of the infant Plato with honey is in both Laurent and Boccaccio, in John of Salisbury’s Polycraticus i, chap. 13, and in Valerius Maximus i, chap. 6. 178. sours and welle. This phrase, also gynnyng and grounde, are frequent in Lydgate. In this poem i:3887 Atreus is “of tresoun sours and welle”; in viii:2976-7 Arthur’s court is “sours and welle” of martial deeds, etc. Cp. Skelton, Garland 850. 179. merour. Insistence that a knight or a lady is “the glass” not merely of fashion but of all virtues, is exceedingly frequent in medieval literature. In Chaucer’s MLTale 68, Constance is “mirrour of alle curteisye”; the lady of Lydgate’s Temple of Glass 754 is “mir- our of wit”; in this poem vii:784 Nero is “cheef merour of diffame”. For use of the term Speculum or Mirror in titles of books see note on Ship of Fools 85, 183. Lydgate omits to mention Cicero’s return to Rome, which Laurent describes. 186. Lydgate omits the names given by Laurent. 193. pronunciacioun, “oratorical delivery”. This is the NED’s earliest case of the word in this sense; Laurent speaks at this point of Cicero’s “doulce et amesuree prononciation de~ voix”. But Lydgate is using, I think, Vinsauf’s De arte versificandi. In Faral’s edition of that work, p. 318, we find Pronunciation termed “quasi totius orationis condimentum, ut sine qua totum est insipidum et inconditum. Pronuntiatio sic describitur a Tullio in Rhetoricis: ‘Pronuntiatio est vocis, vultus, gestus moderatio cum venustate’”. By Rhetoricis, Vinsauf means the pseudo-Ciceronian treatise Ad Herennium, see Marx’s ed., p. 188, bk. i, 2. For Vinsauf’s further discussion, see note on 197 below. The next chapter of the Fall of Princes, against “Janglers and Diffamers of Rethorique”, gives, following Laurent, five “banners of eloquence”, viz., Invention, Disposition, Elocution, PAGE 183] FALL OF PRINCES: G 455 Pronunciation, Remembrance. In Ad Herennium and in Isidor’s Etymologies ii:3, Mem- ory precedes Pronunciation in the list; in the Margarita Philosophica perhaps known to Hawes and in Hawes’ Pastime 659 ff., the order is as in Lydgate. See note on Hawes loc. cit. 196. His thank receivith. “He earns his reward.” (?) 197-203. glad mateere ... glad cheere. Lydgate omits Laurent’s comment that in a mere reading of Cicero one must lose his “bonne prononciation et bel maintien”; in the English we find instead this passage, which appears again 3347 ff. as “An heuy mateer requereth an heuy cheer To a glad mateer longeth weel gladnesse”. Here, line 203, Lydgate ascribes the dictum to Cicero. The passage of de Vinsauf above cited continues: “Si materia fuerit de dolore, vox et vultus et gestus debent conformari materiae et testes esse doloris. Si fuerit de gaudio, similiter vox et vultus et gestus debent attestari laetitiae” etc. If Lydgate read this passage, he might not perceive the change from the Rhetoricis citation to Vinsauf’s own words, and might thus credit all to Cicero. Something similar, indeed, may be read near the close of the De Oratore; and the precept was general, from Horace’s “Tristia maestum Vultum verba decent,” (Ars Poetica 105) to Chaucer’s Troilus i:12-14. But Chaucer says nothing of Cicero in connection with the dictum. See the Troy Book iii:5455-56; see note on Cavendish line 63. 208-10. Laurent introduces these homely details more artistically. After saying, as above, that no reading of Cicero can produce the effect of his delivery, and that he himself is powerless to describe such eloquence, he adds that he will pass over mention of Cicero’s wealth, his wife, his friends, because such details are not wisely mingled with account of the honor paid Cicero for his especial virtues. He then goes on to recount Cicero’s banishments and death; Lydgate inserts, from Vincent de Beauvais, a list of his works. 211 ff. For this list of Cicero’s works Lydgate refers, line 215, to Vincent of Beau- vais; see the Speculum Historiale, ed. 1494, book vy, chap 6. He uses, however, not all of the books mentioned by Vincent, whose list is: De Officiis, De Amicitia, De Senectute, De Oratore, De Paradoxis, the Philippics, two books of ‘‘Rethoricorum”, the Tusculan disputa- tions, twelve books of orations, six books of invectives, De Legibus, De Fine Boni et Mali, De Natura Deorum, De Divinatione, De Fato, De Creatione Mundi, Ad Hortensium, De Parti- tione Orationis, the Academics. To Vincent’s list Lydgate adds the Dream of Scipio, De Lege Agraria, De Gloria, De Re Publica. 218. the dreme of Scipioun. This narrative was by Cicero included in book vi of his De Re Publica, of which portions only have come down to us; but the “Somnium Scipionis” was preserved in a commentary by Macrobius, and attained great popularity in the Middle Ages. See, for example, Chaucer’s PoFoules. 221. of cithe lond. Read “of tilth of lond’; so other MSS and the 1554 print. By this is probably meant the three orations De Lege Agraria, in which Cicero combated the proposal of a tribune to purchase and distribute lands in Italy. Vincent does not separately mention the work. 223. as he sayth himselue. Cp. “himself so doth express’, A 303 here. Does Cicero say this? 228. Lydgate returns to Laurent as his source. 233. In campania at Ative. Laurent gives no name to the city; Lydgate could obtain his Atine (the MS wrongly writes Ative) either from Boccaccio or from Valerius Maximus; in the latter the dream of Cicero, not in Laurent, is fully given. 239-41. Cp. the opening of Dante’s Inferno. 250-52. The pronouns are confused. The “seriaunt” is to convey Cicero to the sepul- ture of Marius. 277-78. Again, as often, the ablative absolute. 279. beyng of assent probably refers to Cicero. 281. ffaryman. Laurent has “vne ville appelle Fornian”. Cicero’s country seat near Formiae is meant. 285. Inuentiff. Bergen’s text reads “invectiff scripture”, which must be correct. 287. Cleopatraas. This form is regular in Lydgate, and occurs in Chaucer, see Legend 582, 601, 604. Laurent does not mention the name here. 456 NOTES [PAGE 184 291. At this point Laurent tells the story of Popilius Lena’s debt of gratitude to Cicero; Lydgate defers it until after narrating the murder. It is given at length in Valerius Maximus v, chap. 3. Both in the MS and in the French and English early prints the ingrate’s name is written with nasal mark above the 0. The free use of Pompey’s name in this part of the poem may have led by contamination to the writing Pompilius. 292. who is omitted before gat. 295 ff. Clumsily expressed. The sense is: “By virtue of the commission given to Popilius, who took licence and liberty from Antony, it followed that the chief rhetorician who ever was in the city, he who among Romans added dignity to Rome, was slain.” 301. This renders Valerius Maximus’ statement that Popilius “rogavit” to be sent on the errand of execution. 306-8. Laurent’s comment on Antony’s vengeance for Cicero’s “invective” is that it is unwise in this world to tell the whole truth, because of the hate thereby incurred. The Frenchman drops a bit of practical wisdom; the English monk repeats a proverb. 309-15 are added by Lydgate. Lines 311-12 mean that whoever is in heart treasonable determines to do ill in return for good will. Between 314 and 315 supply “that it is”. 317. This MS did not complete the line; bracketed words from Harley 1245. 320. to heere abhominable is parenthetical. On the orthography see Walton E 93 note. 321-2 means that he, Cicero, while living, took upon him to write, etc. 321-6. Laurent laments “le sage et venerable test de Tulle en qui estoit enclose toute eloquence latine”’, and the right hand with which so many notable books were written. He narrates how head and hand were set up on two lances, but has nothing of 327-30 as here; the rest of his chapter demands of God why his fire, his thunderstroke, his earthquake, did not overwhelm the “mauldit varlet” Popilius. With this lament for head and hand cp. that for the lips of Orpheus, Ovid’s Metam. xi:41-43, and the mention of Ceyx’s hand ibid., xi:560-61. FALL OF PRINCES : H 1. Symak. Symmachus, Boethius’ father-in-law, an ex-consul, historian, and patriot, one of the most cultivated men of his time, was involved in Boethius’ fate. See Walton A 217 ff. ante. 11. a geyn to, against two. 11 ff. Boethius has told his own story of his resistance to the “graft” practised by un- scrupulous Imperial officials; see the Consolatio bk. i, prose 4. Of the full account Lydgate uses very little. 12. wiht. Our MS writes whiht. 15. Theodorik, Theodoric the Ostrogothic Emperor, treated by Lydgate solely as usurper and tyrant; this view he could get from Laurent, see introd. ante. 19. Dide, i.e., he did, with the omission of subject as so frequently in Lydgate and occasionally in Chaucer. See 33 and 35 below. 23. his comon. Bergen’s text reads the comon, i.e., the common people. 28. Pauwye, Pavia in Lombardy, about 20 miles from Milan, and one of the leading cities in Italy under the Lombard emperors, Until 1584, a tower in Pavia was pointed out as Boethius’ place of detention. Laurent says nothing of Pavia, only of Ravenna, whither the prisoner was first sent. Boccaccio speaks of Ravenna as Boethius’ earlier prison, “Ticinum”, ie. Pavia, as the place of his death. See Walton A 207-222. 32-55. This meager treatment of Boethius as philosopher and as (supposed) Christian is surprising in a Churchman and a disciple of Chaucer. With the anticlimax of the last line, forced by the rime, cp. Chaucer’s Troilus iv:25, 762, MoTale 3948; see an egregious case in the lines printed in my Chaucer Manual, p. 398-9. The finale of Lydgate’s St. Giles— “Thi goost to God conveied vp by grace With hooly angelis moneth of Septembre’’,—is less absurd than at the first glance, because the poem was probably for use on the saint’s day, and the emphasis thus understandable. PAGE 186] FALL OF PRINCES: K 457 Laurent says nothing of a work on the Trinity by Boethius, and the library of Bury St. Edmunds, Lydgate’s Abbey, contained only the Consolatio and the treatises on Music and on Arithmetic; see Dr. James on the Abbey, p. 30. FALL OF PRINCES : K 4. colours of cadence, ornament by ?rhythm or measure. For cadence the NED cites first Chaucer’s HoFame 112, “In ryme or elles in cadence’. Gower, Confessio iv :2413-15, says that “Heredot” was earliest in the science “Of meter of rime and of cadence’. The Coventry Mysteries speak of ‘‘gramer cadens and of prosodye”. In Wyntoun’s Orygynall Cronykill the word obviously means rhythm, as it does to Douglas; and in several fifteenth- century cases the term is applied to rhythmic prose. Thus, a piece of Latin copied by Shirley into MS Ashmole 59, fol. 77, is headed as “prosed in feyre cadence”; and in Brit.Mus.Royal 12 B xvii a tract on prose rhythm is headed “Iam de cadenciis”. Skeat in his note on the line HoFame 112 opined that cadence may possibly have meant couplet-lines, while rime meant their grouping into stanzas. But see above. Lydgate uses this same phrase in the envoy to his St. Edmund; in the Troy Book prol. 362 he speaks of “craft and cadence”, and in Guy of Warwick 588 he says he “hadde of cadence no colour”. A poem attributed to Lydgate by Shirley in Ashmole 59 fol. 18 speaks of “metres and cadence”. For the term colour, “rhetorical ornament’, see note on FaPrinces G 46. 5. moral Senec, Seneca the moralist, “most grave in his discourse”. In A 253 ante Lydgate spoke of Seneca as a tragic writer, but “of great moralite’. Koeppel, p. 62-3 says that although Boccaccio made two Senecas out of the tragedian and the philosopher, Lyd- gate knows that they are one. 11. do correccion. The usual request of the poet endeavoring to please a patron. See note on Cavendish 52 here. The MS erroneously reads ffauoutre. 13. colours. Lydgate plays on the double meaning of the word, as actual hue and as rhetorical ornament. 15 ff. The monk now disclaims knowledge of Virgil, of Homer, of Dares Phrygius, of Ovid and of Chaucer’s “balladis”. So far as the Fall of Princes is concerned, no direct acquaintance with Virgil appears, although his works are enumerated iv:67-91 and his name mentioned with praise. In the same passage various works by Ovid are listed, and of the Metamorphoses at least Lydgate had direct knowledge, see p. 92 here. Homer, it is needless to say, Lydgate did not know; Dares Phrygius, whose meagre Latin account of the Trojan War was used by Guido delle Colonne, is mentioned by Lydgate Troy Book i:310 as one of the predecessors of his own author, Guido. The list of these predecessors, there given, is Ovid, Virgil who followed Homer, Lollius, and above all “Dares Frigius” and “Dytes eke”—i.e. Dictys Cretensis, and then Guido. What Lygate means by declaring his ignorance of Chaucer’s sovereign ballads we do not know, nor exactly what he means by that term. 23. in fantasy. Bergen’s text, mi fantasy. 24-28. The mention of Gower and of Strode, together, is evidently a following of Troi- lus v:1856-57; the same descriptive epithets are used. The monk adds to this brief list of English writers the hermit of Hampole, reputed translator of the Stimulus Conscientiae. 29-30. As the... sonne, etc. A favorite simile with Lydgate. See note on G 36 ante, to which add Seneca’s ‘“(Quemadmodum minuta lumina claritas solis obscurat”, epist. Ixvi to Lucilius; cp. also Ovid, Metam.ii:722-24, and Petrarch, In Vita, canzone 12, lines 69-70, 218. 31. cacheth. Other MSS chaceth. 37. Petrake. On this spelling see note A 257 ante. The Liber Augustalis may be meant. 41. did. Note the “modern” usage, as in 37. See note Dance 136, and do in Glossary. 42-3. Partial liaison of stanzas. See note Mass 74-97. 45. Lydgate here gives the name of the Suffolk village in which he was born, and whence he probably took his name. See this poem viii:194, and note to Dance 670. 458 NOTES [PAGE 187 48. On the life of St. Edmund, king of the East Angles at the time of the Danish incursions, and of his martyrdom and miracles, Lydgate composed a poem in three books, at the bidding of his abbot, for King Henry VI. The royal presentation copy still exists, Harley 2278 of the British Museum. 49. Oxne. Hoxne, twenty miles from Thetford; the site of the battle in which Edmund was slain. He was ultimately interred at Bury St. Edmunds, later the site of the monastery to which Lydgate belonged. 51-3. For this mode of disclaiming inspiration see note on Walton A 58 here. Chaucer, in the Franklin’s headlink, joined Parnassus and Cicero as sources of eloquence; and he was followed by Bokenam as cited. But Lydgate here uses Citheron instead of Cicero, in which he is justified by classic myth, for the range of mountains between Boeotia and Attica, called Cithaeron, was sacred to Dionysus and to the Muses. See also Burgh’s letter to Lydgate, line 7 and note. The Roman de la Rose, 15865, 15867, made Cithaeron the special abode of Venus, and also gave the word a short penult, kept by Chaucer, KnTale 1078, 1365, and by Lydgate as cited in the note on Burgh 7. Lydgate uses the word again in FaPrinces ix :3592; but in this latter passage it is not certain whether Cithaeron or Cicero is meant, and the scribes add to the uncertainty. In the FranklTale many MSS write Cithero, Scithero, just as some write Marcus Tullius and Cicero; and in the Court of Sapience we find Cythero among philosophers. BURGH’S LETTER TO LYDGATE 1-2. Nat dremyd I, etc. See note on Walton A 58. 3. the pale pirus. A miswriting by Stow or his original is here probable. Stow wrote priu, struck it through, and proceeded with pirus. Possibly Pieria, one of the earliest places where the Muses were worshipped; but why pale? 5. Tagus. Allusions to the river Tagus and its golden sands are several times made by Ovid and by Claudian. Boethius in the Consolatio iii metr. 10 speaks of “Tagus aureis harenis’, but Chaucer does not transfer the bit elsewhere. Isidor twice mentions Tagus, Etymol. xiii :21,33 and xiv:4,29; and in the fifteenth century the river again becomes literary material, still more so in the Renaissance. See FaPrinces iii:3734, Douglas’ Palice of Honour, prol. 42, the Epist. Obscurorum Virorum, p. 23 of the 1909 edition, Wyatt, Browne’s Britannia’s Pastorals, etc. 7. Citero or elicon. Stow’s script may be read either Cicero or Citero, ie., Mt. Cithaeron in the latter case. Steele and Foerster print Cicero; but the confusion is so frequent in MSS, the use of Tullius as Cicero’s name so regular in this period, and the coupling with Mt. Helicon so plain that Burgh, at least must have meant Cithero. The word was regularly scanned with short penult in Middle English. See its use by Lydgate in Troy Book ii:3456, 3635, iv :4602, 5708. See note on Mass line 5 and on FaPrinces K 51-3. The mountain Helicon and its spring were often confused by medieval writers, because of ambiguity already in the Aeneid vii:641, Dante’s Purgatorio 29:40. Boccaccio is clear, Teseide i:1 and xi stanza 63; but Chaucer is not, HoFame 521-2, Anelida 15-18, Troilus iii:1809-10; nor is Lydgate, Troy Book prol. 42, i:1612, ii1:5432, TemGlass 706, St. Edmund envoy. Cp. Court of Love 22, Skelton’s GarlLaurell 73-4 and Philip Sparrow 609-10; especially Spenser, ShepCal April 41-2. See Pilgrimage to Parnassus act i. 8. founde. Steele prints formde. 9. moste. The MS writes noste. 10. Aristotell, etc. Burgh may mean Aristotle, Gorgias, and Hermogenes, as Stow writes, or Aristotle, Gorgias, and Hermagoras as in Isidor, Etymol, ii, 2. Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric is meant. Gorgias is not the sophist contemporary with Socrates, but a later author of a treatise on the figures of speech, partly preserved in a Latin paraphrase,—see Halm’s Rhetori Latini Minores, Leipzig, 1863. Hermogenes was a Greek rhetorician of the second cen- tury, author of a treatise on oratory still in existence,—see Halm as above. Hermagoras, also a Greek rhetorician, was contemporary with Cicero. NHermogenes is mentioned in Lydgate’s Secrees 964, 1023, etc. PAGE 189] BURGH TO LYDGATE 459 13. tullius etc. Marcus Tullius Cicero, Francis Petrarch, Quintilian. The linking of Petrarch’s name with those of the elder writers is noteworthy. 16. torqwat sowereyne. Boethius, i.e., Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius. See p. 39 here. 17. Naso, i.e. Ovidius Naso. His Metamorphoses are meant by line 18, which is mud- dled in transcription. 20. porcyus, i.e. Persius.—marcyan, printed marycan by Steele, is Martianus Capella, author of the De Nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae. 21. lauriate bocase. Boccaccio was not “laureate” in the sense in which Petrarch was; he never received the laurel crown. But the term was applied in this period to many great writers, see note on Churl 15. 22. seyne. Steele prints peyne—Innat sapience. See Hoccleve’s Regement 2130. 23. See note on FaPrinces D 10. 30. booke wt... clasppes seven. The allusion is to the seven liberal arts, which en- close the volume of literature and of science. 34. a benedicite. The two lines are an admiring exclamation—“Ah, Heaven bless you, Master Lydgate, what a man you are!” Steele prints di benedicite. Cp. Chaucer’s BoDuchesse 859, 895, 919. 40. garland of Ive. The ivy garland had in ancient times no special meaning, as had the wreaths of laurel, grass, bay, oak, and olive. The garland of bay was at Athens worn by orators while speaking, and that of olive was given to victors in the games or to specially- deserving citizens. Either bay or olive would single Lydgate out more than does the gar- land of ivy which, mingled with wool or with flowers, was worn by any Greek or Roman on festival occasions. 43. chebri place, etc. Burgh here gives the place of his letter; see introduction ante. Foerster would interpret chebri place as “‘shivery place”, alluding to the winter weather; but this appears to me very doubtful. The word shiver has indeed the modern sense in Black Knight 230, but the transference of meaning Foerster suggests has no example in the NED before 1850, and is strongly modern in feeling. I would sooner expect “Chebri Place” to be the name of the building in which Burgh is writing; for a number of localities and manorhouses in Essex were known as “Places”, and one of the Abbey-tenements may have borne that title from its former owner. There was, for instance, a family Chevere (or Cheever?) in that part of Essex. I have, however, not found the name in the list of the Abbey’s possessions. See Morant, Hist. and Antiq. of Essex, London, 1768, i:327-338, especially 335 note. 45. mount Canace. Boccaccio’s De Montibus says of Mt. Canatus, in Spain, that it is “excelsus”’, has a deep black lake atop, and is so often the source of tempest that it is believed to be the abode of demons; which, Boccaccio adds, ‘‘meo iudicio fabulosa”. 50 ff. Burgh gives his date of writing as December the eleventh, but gives no year. If the letter were actually sent, omission of the year would be natural. 51. chare, chariot. Steele prints share. SHIRLEY’S TABLES OF CONTENTS : I 26. ordre. The medieval rhetorical code required an “orderly’ exhaustive tabulation of qualities or points. On its feature-by-feature description see note on Hoccleve’s third Roundel, ante; on the sections of an argument or list cp. Chaucer’s Second Nun’s Tale 358, “It were ful hard by ordre for to seyn How many wondres Jesus for hem wroghte.” Compare also such phrases as “the ordre of compleynt’, Chaucer’s Mars 155, or “the ordre of endityng”, Hoccleve’s poem to the Duke of York 50, for order as “rhetorical code.” Cp. Lydgate’s very frequent use of ceriousli, “serially”. 35. Chaucer’s translation of Boethius’ Consolatio is followed in the MS by a prose tractate on the martyrdom of Nicodemus, which fills the next twenty pages. Shirley says that this translation from the Latin was made by John Trevisa for his patron Thomas lord Berkeley. Berkeley was father of that Elizabeth Countess of Warwick who accepted the 460 NOTES [PAGE 195 dedication of John Walton’s Boethius-translation; see p. 39 here. He commissioned from John Trevisa (1326-1412) translations of Higden’s Polychronicon and of Bartholomaeus’ De Proprietatibus Rerum; various other works are less certainly ascribed to Trevisa, e.g., Englishings of Vegetius’ De Re Militari and of Aegidius de Colonna’s De Regimine Principum. 49. maystre of be game, Master of Game, a treatise on hunting by Edward second duke of York. This has been edited by W. A. and F. Baillie-Grohman, with an introd. by Theodore Roosevelt, London, 1904, again 1909. Edward York, killed at Agincourt in 1415, is the Aumerle of Shakespeare’s Richard II. He dedicated his work to Henry prince of Wales, afterward Henry the Fifth, whose Master of Game, i.e. of the Hunt, he was. 57. Toalle. Read So alle? 66. Regula sacerdotalis. This article does not come next in the MS, but after the Com- plaint of the Black Knight, which now follows. The Regula fills four and one-half leaves, prose, and in its colophon is the phrase “tam dominis quam communibus” which Shirley uses in line 18 of this poem. Shirley professes ignorance of the tractate’s authorship. 70-71. On these lines I can throw no light. They seem more useful as rime-connectives than as sense-connectives. of his introd. to the EETS edition of the Temple of Glass. 73. of a knyght. Lydgate’s Complaint of the Black Knight; see my Chaucer Manual, p. 413. 78. Cp. Hall’s Chronicle (1548), “Gounes embrodred with reasons of golde that sayd adieu Iunesse.” 81. clobed in black. Lydgate belonged to the Benedictines or Black Friars. Shirley’s tone of familiarity toward Lydgate should be noted; cp. the following piece of verse. 87. ober balades. The remainder of MS Adds. 16165 is filled with Chaucer’s Anelida, Lydgate’s St. Anne and his Departing of Chaucer, Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick’s poem to Lady Despenser, and by a number of short amatory verse-bits. Warwick’s poem has been edited by MacCracken in PMLA 22:597; the Departing of Chaucer was printed by me in ModPhil 1 :333-36, repr. by Ruud in Thomas Chaucer, pp. 119-121. See my Manual, p. 327. 92. ebounden. Note the peculiar Shirleyan spelling, and cp. ellas in 11:43, filowibe in 45 here. SHIRLEY’S TABLES OF CONTENTS : II In this text, of 1558, observe the constant writing ye for older pe. The use of y, in print and in script, to replace the obsolete rune so similar in shape, has led to our pseudo-archaism of “Ye olde”. 12. coth. The MS so reads; but it may be that ooth was intended; in either case, a padding phrase. 16. “What were (once) widely scattered are afterwards here brought together.” The pause is in front of eft. 21. humayne pilgrymage. This prose translation, ? of Deguileville’s Pélerinage de la vie humaine may or may not be ascribed by Shirley to Lydgate, according as one treats line 24. Lydgate executed a verse-translation of Deguileville’s second recension, which is ed. EETS 1899-1904, and a prose Englishing of the earlier French recension is printed by the Roxburghe Club, 1869. The relations of the Englishings of Deguileville are not clear. It is to be noted that although Stow in this part of his volume, foll. 132a-179a, is tran- scribing from Shirley, and from the existing MS Trinity College R 3, 20 (see pp. 79, 194 ante), the Trinity volume does not now contain the Pilgrimage-translation. But as that volume’s first existing quire is marked xiiij, and as there is an isolated copy of the prose translation, filling 93 leaves though imperfect, in the Sion College Shirley MS, I have queried if the Sion MS be the missing Shirley gatherings, once part of the Trinity codex. PAGE 197] SHIRLEY’S TABLES 461 23. many a roundell and balade. The Trinity MS contains a number of French roundels by the duke of Suffolk; and many of its poems, especially the French, are headed “Balade gaye et gracieux”, etc. Shirley cannot apply “many a roundell” to Lydgate. 25. sugred mouthe. See note on Thebes 52. 29-30. pleyinges ... of kynges. Probably the royal mummings are meant. 31. Supply is before so. 32. “He ought to receive a formal expression of gratitude from all our nation.” 40 ff. “I believe his nobles (i.e., gold coins) are spent, and nearly all his shillings.” Note Lydgate’s pleas for money, as in the Letter to Gloucester, here printed, p. 149. With 42 cep. Thebes 90. 45. sainte margarete. This poem is printed by MacCracken i:173 ff., from the Durham MS. All that intervenes between the Pilgrimage-translation and this poem on fol. 178 is summarily mentioned by Shirley. He now pauses over a translation commissioned by the countess of March, and as a Londoner he mentions the countess’ burial place in London. 57. by lordes and by clerkes. This statement represents the whole MS better than it does the leaves after the Life of St. Margaret. 61. persayue, etc. The MS writes without the er-flourish. 71. correcte. Shirley asks his readers to correct metrical and scribal errors. It may be that the modesty, or assumed modesty, of an author in making this conventional plea received emphasis from his realization of scribal carelessness. 76. grac. So in the MS. 84. weddinge. Is reading meant? See Shirley 1:100. 88. when you list send. Shirley's function as a book-lender is plainly stated. 90. as... owne man, “as much as if I were actually of your household.” 94. The last word is partly deleted, and doubtless should be so entirely. 99. in ernest nor in game. A convenient padding phrase; see Troilus iv:1465, Troy Book iv :4559, v :2687, etc. REPROOF TO LYDGATE The MS Fairfax 16 of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the source of our text, is a thick but not large vellum volume of 336 leaves, written almost entirely in one clear neat firm book-hand; one of its copied poems postdates the death of Henry the Fifth in 1422. It bears on leaf 14 verso an elaborate illumination to illustrate Chaucer’s Mars, which faces the pic- ture; in the border of this are the arms of Stanley-Storeton-Hooton. Its contents are listed pp. 334-35 of my Chaucer Manual, where, on p. 338, will be found a parallel-table proving the close relationship between this volume and two others of the Bodleian Library. The Fairfax scribe, although insensitive to the value of -e final (see ModPhii 23:129-52), is steadily consistent in orthography and above the average in accuracy. Since the publication of my Chaucer Manual, the then unpubd. texts of Fairfax have appeared in print; the series of short poems on foll. 318a-329a was ed. by MacCracken in PMLA 26:142 ff.; the poem “How a Lover Praiseth his Lady’ was pubd. by me in Mod Phil 21:379-95; the Lover’s Mass is again printed here p. 207; and one of the short poems ed. by MacCracken, the Reproof to Lydgate, is included in this volume, as here. 4. slouthe, sloth or remissness. As Sloth was one of the Seven Deadly Sins for a Christian, so was it most blameworthy in a lover. Gower in his Confessio bk. iv illustrates the failing by several narratives, among them that of Demophoon and Phyllis, in which latter he twice speaks of Demophoon’s “‘sloth” in not returning to the deceived and despairing Phyllis. Lydgate, BlKnight 380, also mentions the “sloth” of Demophoon, which he would not get from Chaucer’s Legend 2394 ff., since Chaucer denounces the traitor Demophoon, taking his key from Ovid’s Heroides ii. The “sloth” mentioned by Orléans, extract vi here, seems to be merely neglect on the lady’s part; and see TemGlas 379, FlandLeaf 549. A more serious and philosophical conception of “sloth” in love is that of Dante in the Purgatorio, where the seven capital sins are treated as arising from disordered love. Sloth is there deficient love, the loving too little what should be the goal of the mind’s desire. See Gardner, Dante and the 462 NOTES [PAGE 200 Mystics, 1913, pp. 55-57 and mark the notion of ordo or reason as the essence of virtus. See note on FaPrinces G 17 here. 5. wytt the. Probably miswritten for wytt ye, the y treated as the rune th. 6. See prol. to the Legend of Good Women (B) 202. 14. The MS omits to. 29. MacCracken, loc. cit., above, says “This is certainly a burlesque of Lydgate’s style.” 31. colours, i.e., of rhetoric; see note FaPrinces G 46 above. 36 ff. Lydgate is now censured for saying that love is dotage, that great clerks have yielded to it, that women are false and fickle, and that they can pretend love without feeling it. 40. MacCracken, loc. cit., above, says “This is certainly a parody on the moral poem by Lydgate with the refrain ‘Who sueth vertu vertu he shal lere’.” It may be, however, that both pieces of verse used a current proverb. 58. The MS has myned instead of meuyd. 65. Thynk whens, etc. Cp. Hoccleve’s Letter of Cupid 178, “Take hede of whom / thou took thy bygynnyng”. Another and different use is Ovid’s in Metam. iii:543, “Este, precor, memores qua sitis stirpe creati’,—and Dante’s Inferno xxvi:118. The MS writes thom instead of thou. 66. The MS writes Hastow thou not, etc. 67. not fair. I do not find this apparently modern locution in Chaucer, but it occurs a number of times in Lydgate; see ResonandSens 1448, FaPrinces i:2624, 4171, iv :2148, etc. 79, 80, 81. These are in the MS arranged as 80, 81, 79, with scribal marks for transposition. TRANSLATION OF PALLADIUS PROLOGUE In this original prologue prefixed to the Palladius-translation, the author’s business is almost entirely praise of his patron Gloucester. With it compare Hoccleve’s praise of the duke, Dialogue lines 532-616, Lydgate’s prologue to FaPrinces 373-420 and his Epithalamium, also his Letter to the duke; cp. the Libel of English Policy 250-51, the extract from Hardyng’s Chronicle 49-50. The prologue is heavy with “rhetorical color”. Observe not only the internal rime in single verses, but the linking of stanza by phrase-echo. Such technique is much more elabo- rate, but less pleasing, than that of the Lover’s Mass (see p. 211 here), or of parts of Chaucer’s Anelida. Necessarily the poet has difficulty in fitting speech to such a form, and is driven to twist syntax or force the senses of words. Thus, in line 8 he says “To rade error from my balade and do Pallade [so as] to glade his excellence”,—i.e., Gloucester. And at the opening the sense apparently is:—“The All-Creator of creatures chose to establish agri- culture (and set it) to endure in nature and in art; and (that Creator chose) to assign duke Humphrey his part in each respect, adding honor so great that we see the duke as flower of princes.” In the second stanza the opening phrase “His excellence’ is the object of extende in line 14; and I take “Thy Providence” as its subject :—‘“Thy Providence so chooses to extend his excellence.” 16. an ace. For this and for the ace apoynt of line 17 I can offer little. The author himself considers it necessary to explain the second phrase. The ace, especially the ambes-as or double ace, was the lowest cast at dice, consequently, a failure. Regarding apoynt I can suggest only the rare Old French use of apointer to mean “deceive, ensnare”. 18. Read with period after honde; the two and a half lines following are a question. 22. lame is used by Transition writers to mean “inadequate, imperfect”. Cp. Chaucer’s Troilus ii:17. There is a full stop at the end of the line. 23. By myghtiest the poet probably means the great nobles and Churchmen of the time. We may note that at this moment, ca. 1440, Gloucester’s power and influence were on the wane, whether this translator knew it or not. 28. I read with stop at end of the line. PAGE 204] PALLADIUS 463 29. the Sapient secounde. Apparently the translator says that the lieutenant or “second” to all-sapient God is found in Gloucester. This is no more extreme than his declaration in book i:1194, also of Gloucester, But God me semeth best thou mayst resemble ffor verite Iustice and mansuetude. The use of secounde is not infrequent in Middle English; e.g., Troilus is termed “Hector the secounde” in Lydgate’s Troy Book ii:288, iv:2344, following Chaucer’s Troilus ii:158, v:834-40; and Chaucer is following Guido delle Colonne. In FaPrinces iv :3961, Arsinoe is called “Venus the seconde”. 31. founde means to test, try, learn by experience. 35-37. “To see whose virtue and to do pleasure to it’, etc., many “have resorted with great honor and gifts”. 37, 38. “And some under this flower (i.e. Gloucester) are here.” The translator is appar- ently working at one of Gloucester’s castles; in 102-3 the men alluded to are members of Gloucester’s household. See introduction ante. 42. Full stop at end of the line. Lines 43-47 are all interrogative. 43. The duc periure, the perjured duke, i.e., Philip of Burgundy, who after supporting for some years the English claim to the French crown, at length abandoned that position and threw his influence for the French king. A Flemish force under Burgundy invested Calais and its English garrison in 1436. Gloucester, who had been made Lieutenant of Calais in the preceding year, crossed the Channel with an English force; but the Burgundian army was already in retreat, and after ravaging some Burgundian territory Gloucester returned to England to meet an enthusiastic popular welcome. Cp. a poem jeering at the craven Flemings, included in one version of the Brut, or English Chronicle——see ed. of the Brut for EETS 1906-08, ii:582. MacCracken has ascribed this poem to Lydgate. Cp. the undoubted Lydgate poem, Horse Goose and Sheep, 413-420. 50. kouthe pike him fro, could get any advantage over him. In Chaucer’s Legend 2467, “And piked of her al the good he mighte”, the word means literally “robbed”, but this use seems more like the modern colloquial ‘get any change out of him’. 51. Sharp or Wawe,—if they had a happy time with the law!—In 1431 John Scharpe of Wigmoreland created a commotion by distributing bills in London, Coventry, Oxford, and other towns, against the great possessions of the clergy and suggesting their appropriation to help the poor. Gloucester, who was at the time Protector during the king’s absence in France, arrested Scharpe and several others, who were all hanged or beheaded. See the Annales Monast. S. Albani, ed. 1870, 1:63; see Proceed. Privy Council iv: 89,99,107. In 1427 one William Wawe, who had attacked and robbed a nunnery near St. Albans, was tried before Gloucester in London as a heretic and outrager of the Church, and was hanged. The insistence upon these facts by this translator and by Lydgate (see p. 163 here) may show Gloucester’s wish to keep alive the popular idea of him as champion of the Church; cp. introduction above. 52-53. These lines present difficulty. Liddell states that against 52 is in the margin a cross; as this was the usual scribe’s note of a correction to be made, and as at present the rime here is over-rich, Liddell substitutes for the unto of 52 the word undo and puts a following comma. His paraphrase of 52 would then probably be: “(Say) if right was found undone in all this land”; but 53 remains difficult. Did we retain the unto of 52 we might paraphrase the two lines: “(Say) if right was found in all this land until he put his hand to the rudder to govern it.” But either there or with the rime-change it is necessary to explain the apparent plural-form doon with a singular subject. 57. Read question or exclamation after sothe. 60. and Orliaunce ennoye. In 1439 the Beaufort party, always antagonistic to Glou- cester, pressed strongly for a peace with France and for liberation of the duke of Orléans, a prisoner since Agincourt. Gloucester opposed both moves, but the liberation of Orléans was decided on, despite a formal and weighty protest from Gloucester, for which see Rymer’s Foedera x :764-767 or Vickers’ life of the duke, pp. 264-65. His arguments, which 464 NOTES [PAGE 204 of course stressed the dying commands of Henry the Fifth, aroused so much popular feeling that they were answered by the other Lords of Council in the name of the boy-king; see Stevenson, Letters and Papers ii:451-60, Vickers, op. cit. p. 267. Orléans was set free in Nov. 1440; and when, on the preceding Aug. 28, he took solemn public oath never to move against the English king, Gloucester left Westminster Abbey and the ceremony and went direct to his post in South Wales. It thus seems probable not only that “Orliaunce ennoye” refers to Humphrey’s efforts to prevent the French duke’s liberation, but that this transla- tion if supervised by Gloucester, must antedate August 1440 as well as postdate November 1439 and the first gift of books to Oxford. 68. hem connect. Liddell punctuates with a semicolon after connect and period after enclude, line 67 running over into 68. The translator seems to have been led by his closing phrase in 64, “al vertu is”, to start his next stanza with a definition of virtus. He may be using for it a Latin source, which I have not identified; and his adoption of the word intellect drives him to a somewhat unusual group of rime-words, connect, confect, provect. I might paraphrase: “If mercy (piety?) be adorned with knowledge, (and if) fear of the Lord hold them connected together.” ’ 72. Pause after werkis; the rest of the line is an interrogation. 73. felyng. Here and in line 91 this word apparently means “to grasp mentally’. See Libel 188. See also Walton’s Boethius, v prose 4:145, “As be exsaumple myght pou feelen yit”. In 91 the word is glossed sentiunt by the scribe, while the fele of 89 is glossed plures. We may paraphrase the awkward stanza: “Another testing so the philosopher in books of natural philosophy, as is physics; so prompt also to proffer metaphysic, or each art quadrivial ; and who hath the practical with the theoretical” etc. A description of Gloucester is intended. 76. quadriuial. The quadrivium joined with the trivium to make the seven liberal arts; it included Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy, while the trivium (see 79, 80) in- cluded Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. See the Court of Sapience, or Hawes’ Pastime of Pleasure, from among countless medieval works on the Seven Liberal Arts.—practic With theoric. See notes on Dance Macabre 427, on Walton A 332; see Confessio Amantis vii: 1499 ff., 1649 ff. 78. Politic, etc. In an explanatory Latin comment near the opening of the Court of Sapience, we read that “Policia” is, according to Aristotle, Arnulphus, Kilwardby, and Isidor, to be divided into monastic, economic, and civil or politic. Monastic deals with the adminis- tration of the individual, economic with that of the household, politic with that of the subjects in a state. See Gower as cited above, and Macaulay’s note, vol. iii, p. 522. 82. al thorgh se,—‘to see (understand) philosophy thoroughly”. 86-88. This stanza apparently says that acquired knowledge is a high possession, that natural gifts are no small endowment, and that it is a proper procedure to depend upon “tresor” if a wise use of the science of physiognomy judge each organ and feature. The pseudo-Aristotelian Secreta Secretorum devotes a long section to physiognomy; but the exact force of tresor I cannot interpret, unless it refers to the Secreta itself,—see Lydgate’s translation, line 592. 89. At Oxenford etc. Gloucester made two princely gifts of books to the University of Oxford, one in November 1439, the second in February 1443. His first donation, of 129 volumes, was sent in answer to an appeal from the scantily-equipped University; the delivery was made by Master Gilbert Kymer and by Ralph Drew. The second gift, of 135 volumes, was delivered by Master William Say and Ralph Drew. The University acknowledged the donations with warm gratitude, drew up lists of the books, and provided for their storage in a “cista trium philosophiarum et septem scientiarum liberalium”, whence they might be borrowed by Masters under special indenture. Annual masses were to be said for Gloucester and for his consort forever, etc. These lists are printed by Anstey in his Munimenta Academica, 1868, ii1:758-772; but there is nothing either there or in the Epistolae Academicae Oxon., 1898, to indicate that the duke equipped an University reading-room with desks. A letter from the University to Humphrey, after the first gift, speaks of the need for a larger reading-room because of the PAGE 205] PALLADIUS 465 increased number of readers; but Humphrey, says Vickers, p. 406-7, seems to have ignored the hint. The recurrent They, these other, They, mark out different classes of readers. There are pauses after methaphisic, line 91, and natural, line 92. With 89 the stanza-linking ceases, also the internal rime-echo; there are reappearances of the latter in 107, 117, 123, 124. 93. “Here (close) by is theology to be met with.” 102-104. These men must have presented their works to Gloucester before this transla- tion was executed in 1440. Whethamstede, Abbot of St. Albans and counsellor of Gloucester in literary matters, is praised by Lydgate in St. Albon and Amphabell (done to Whetham- stede’s order) for his “gaye librarye” and for his scholarly industry. He compiled a Gran- arium, or De Viris Illustribus, which Lydgate mentions, and which appears in the 1443 list of Gloucester’s gifts to Oxford. The work still exists, part 1 in Brit. Mus. Cotton Nero C vi; part 2 in Cotton Tiberius D v, very badly damaged by fire; part 4 in Brit. Mus. Adds. 26764. Pers de Mounte, Peter de Monte of Venice, dedicated to Gloucester his treatise De virtutum et vitiorum inter se differentia, which is probably meant by the next to the last entry of the 1443 list, “De vitiorum inter se”. Titus is Titus Livius of Friuli, an Italian and Gloucester’s resident poet, who wrote a Latin life of Henry the Fifth at the duke’s command. Anthony is Antonio da Beccaria of Verona, Gloucester’s secretary, who translated at his master’s order several theological treatises by Athanasius. Capgrave the prior of Lynn in Norfolk is not here mentioned; he dedicated to Gloucester his commentary on Genesis, which is in the 1443 list. Upton is not mentioned, nor Lydgate, but they both translated into Eng- lish, which may have seemed negligible to our author except in his own case. 104. There is a pause after least. 109. taught me metur make. How to estimate this curious and important statement we are not certain. The management of rhythm in the body of the translation is so good, and the text so careful of e-final, that a strict supervision over it is obvious. Such a super- vision, by Gloucester himself, is asserted in the January and February epilogue-stanzas, here printed; but how far the duke was responsible for the sound and competent rhythm we do not and cannot know. Certainly no amount of correction could have put the management of Lydgate’s Fall of Princes on a par with this. The flourished trickery of the prologue gives no real idea of this translator’s ability to cope with his main problem, which he handles easily and well. 111-112. Compare the Lover’s Mass 115 ff. 113-16. The translator’s personal grievance breaks into expression, but is quickly curbed. Nothing is known of the circumstances, nor can be until the translator is identified. The late E. W. B. Nicholson, Bodley’s Librarian, suggested John Walton; but the ability of the two men in handling difficult Latin is the only point of similarity to be noted. PALLADIUS: EPILOGUE-STANZAS A 1. A now, Ah now! Liddell suggests “And now”. 2. crossis make, to make crosses, the recognized method of indicating, in the margin, the need for correction in the text. These crosses are sometimes lightly scratched, sometimes in faint crayon or ink easy of erasure. 3. plummet. Whether the implement used by Gloucester was the egg-shaped pointed plummet of lead, such as a surveyor carries today, or a sort of crayon pencil, cannot be determined. See Garland 1075 and note 1074 ibid. 4. straunge eschaunge, strangely altered. 5. no leue I take, i.e., I slip away quietly. 6. do forth, continue? This line is puzzling. Does the author first withdraw quaking and then submit himself? 466 NOTES [PAGE 206 B 6. by what, etc. Liddell reads this ‘Ey what” etc., that is, “Ah, what have I to do?” This gives better sense and a more dramatic meaning. A question mark is then to be understood after correcte, and after done. 7. In this line, in A 4 above, and previously, note how the scribe indicates a new sentence, in mid-line, by a capital. In C 6, however, the capital means the Deity. Cc 1. “And here I find an end sooner than I thought.” 2. “(What) art taught before is finished this month.” 4. “That chose to be born of one for every one.” 6-8. The last sentence of this stanza begins either with Ay or with line 7; there is a comma-pause after make. “So bear up thy prince’s deeds from darkness, while I set to work at May.” D 3-4. “I see my guide far ahead, and I follow him, although I do not attempt to be as swift as he.” 5. o god allone. Liddell suggests of God allone, the reading of the Oxford MS. 6. “O hope, free of drop of sin or fraud.” THE LOVER’S MASS 5. Cytheron. This may be the mountain, or may be Venus,—Cytherea. See note FaPrinces K 51; see Burgh 7 and note. 15-40. Compare the “confession” of Troilus, in Chaucer’s poem ii:523 ff., and see Root’s (522) note in his edition of the poem. 53. The is miswritten by the scribe, for Ther? 56. Genius. This name is given to the mystagogue of Nature, or “prélat Venérien”, in Alanus’ De Planctu Naturae, prose ix, in the Roman de la Rose, in the Confessio Amantis, in Lydgate’s Reson and Sensuality 6623, 6677, in his Troy Book iv:6975-6, in Lemaire de Belges’ Concorde des deux Langages, in Marot’s Temple de Cupido. See Spenser, Faerie Queene ii:12, 47, ii1:6, 31. 57-72. The Officium is a roundel, i., a poem of unequally tripartite structure on two rimes, repeating its opening lines in two other positions in the poem. Scribes often write only the first word or two of the repeated lines, as here. The roundel was originally a French “rondet de carole’, or lyric sung in dance. Roundels appear inserted into thirtenth-century romances, eg., the Cléomades 5497-5504, 5513-20; and thereafter they developed as an independent literary form, in various lengths according to the number of thematic lines. Roundels occur in earlier English at the close of Chaucer’s Parlement of Foules, in Lydgate’s Entry of Henry VI into London and in his Pedigree of Henry VI, at close. Four by Hoccleve are printed here pp. 67, 68; a roundel to Fortune, with Lydgate’s Pedigree-roundel, is printed by Ritson, Ancient Songs i:128-9; and Lydgate’s first roundel above mentioned is discussed by Schleich, Archiv 96:193. All these, except perhaps the Fortune-roundel, were intended for singing; and the employment of the roundel- form in this part of the Mass should be noted. Three roundels, entitled Merciles Beaute, are printed by Skeat i:387-8 with the work of Chaucer; they are preserved in one MS only, without mark of authorship. The earl of Suffolk has left several roundels written in French; see print by MacCracken in PMLA 26:142 ff. English translations of several roundels by the duke of Orléans are printed in, this volume, pp. 221-3, 231-2. 74-97. In these Kyrie stanzas two “rhetorical colors’ are employed, internal rime and stanza-linking. Internal rime was twice used by Chaucer in his Anelida, in groups of nine verses, 272-8, 332-41; and we find similar nine-line stanzas at the close of Douglas’ Palice of Honour. Here the stanza is of eight verses, the internal rime changing with each verse; but in the three eight-line stanzas at the close of Henryson’s Prayer for the Pest, PAGE 212] THE LOVER’S MASS 467 in a stanza closing part ii of the Palladius-translation, and in one strophe of the Song of Lust in Barclay’s Ship of Fools (ii:290), the rime-management differs each time. Palladius and Henryson both construct the stanza ababbcbc, but while Henryson shifts his (often three- fold) internal rime with every line, Palladius uses a twofold b-rime within his a-lines and an a-rime within his b-lines. Barclay, changing his internal rime with each verse, builds his stanza aabbaabb. None of these is therefore exactly parallel to the stanza as constructed here or to the Anelida-stanza; but their common refusal of the Anelida-stanza of nine lines, which is reproduced by Douglas, is noteworthy. The use of internal rime by Dunbar in part of each stanza of his Ballat to Our Lady, when taken with this general divergence from the Chaucerian model, indicates that not so much Chaucer as a known rhetorical device was in the minds of these post-Chaucerian versifiers, who each varied to suit himself. A brief treatment of medial or “leonine” rime is in the Laborintus, see Faral, p. 362. The enchaining of stanzas, by phrase, word, or rime, has a longer history. It is found, in English, in Laurence Minot, in the Pearl, in Sir Perceval of Galles, in the archetype of the Awnters of Arthur, in various poems of MS Harl 2253 as ed. in Boddeker’s Altenglische Dichtungen, etc. Italian, Provencal, and early French poets use the device; see, e.g. the 19th canzone of Guittone d’Arezzo; see Butler’s Forerunners of Dante nos. i, xiii, xxii, xlv; see Naetebus, pp. 143-4, 164, 174, 181-2. Lydgate makes an attempt at it in Black Knight 217-45. A reduced form of stanza-linking, by rime only, is employed by Barclay in the Tower of Virtue poem inserted into his fourth eclogue; see p. 330 here. For a modern example see Alfred Perceval Graves’ ‘““When Adam’s eyes childwise.” 123. For this thought see Troilus i1:950-52, 111:1060-62; see Lydgate’s Guy of Warwick 81-85; see Dunbar’s Of the Changes of Life; see Orléans’ poem “Aftir wynter the veer with foilys grene”’. Cp. the Palladius-prologue, line 112 here. And see Matthew of Venddme’s lines from the Tobias 457-8 :— Flores post hiemem, post absinthim risum Praestas post lacrimas, post tenebrosa iubar. 146. With the Epistle cp. such addresses to the “fedeli d’Amor”, or initiates of love, as in Dante’s Vita Nuova. For a contact between the pilgrim-simile here and in Boccaccio’s De Casibus bk. iii see the introduction to this poem; and for the text of Laurent’s transla- tion of Boccacio at this point see the note to FaPrinces C 92. 151. Read with comma after Joye. 155. use a maner to reste on ther wey. Laurent has “ont de coustume de soy arrester”. 157. alleggen ther wery lemys. Laurent has “aleger le corps’. 160-1. somme ... vsen to gadren wyne. Can this be a misunderstanding of Laurent’s “prendre le vent fres et souef”? Is vent taken as vin? The next clause, in both Laurent and Lydgate, treats of water and wine-drinking. 159. asswage. This is the earliest NED case of this word in this sense, Lydgate being treated as the author. He uses it frequently in the Troy Book and the FaPrinces. 160. how myche they ha passyd. Laurent has ‘‘combien ils ont fait”; the FaPrinces iii:112 has “whiche thei ha passyd”. The French continues “apres ce quilz ont tourne le dos a aucun notable seteys dont ils se sont partis’. The passage is loosely and verbosely rendered in the FaPrinces, but Lydgate seems to understand the French, which this writer does not follow. 165. entytlen hem, make notes on, keep'a journal. This seems a reflexive use, but is not so recognized by the NED. See a non-reflexive use in FaPrinces ix:1885, and a half- score of cases in Lydgate’s Secrees, also non-reflexive. 167. Lydgate in the FaPrinces omits rivers and sea from his list. 184-5. The holy legende of Martyrs of Cupydo. The Legend of Good Women, so called in the Man of Law’s prologue, includes women only. The author says that after noting the fidelity of Troilus, the truth of Penelope, the purity of Polyxena, the generous trust of Dido, he often read this holy legend, also the story of Tristram and Isolde, and the meagre rewards of Palamides. In Lydgate’s Black Knight 330, Palamides the unsuccessful lover 468 NOTES [PAGE 221 of Isolde is mentioned, and two stanzas given to him. Tristram is one name of a list, ibid., 366. Tristram and Isolde are mentioned in Lydgate’s Temple of Glass 77-79, in the PoFoules 290, in the Confessio vi:471, viii: 2500. The notion of ‘martyrs of Cupid” was general. Charles of Orléans, ed. d’Héricault i:24, says that he ought to be called martyr, “Se Dieu d’Amours fait nulz amoureux saints”; and Villon in his Petit Testament 47-8 said “ie suis amant martir, Du nombre des amoureux sains.” CHARLES D’ORLEANS A. POEMS WRITTEN IN ENGLISH Of these eleven poems, ten are rondeaux and one (IX) is written in stanza. The rondel or rondeau, a favorite French courtly verse-form, is a short poem of unequally tri- partite structure, which repeats its opening line or lines in two other positions in the poem, one being at close. See note on Mass 57. The first two of these poems appear together on one page of the “autograph” MS, a page which according to Champion is in the hand of Charles himself. Hence the use of the Northern rune p in 1:9, I1:1, 4, 9, is noteworthy when compared with the Grenoble MS’ your instead of by in I1:1, 4 (1 cite from Champollion-Figeac’s edition, not from the MS, unseen by me.) The Grenoble scribe, or his editor, also expanded final e-flourishes to er in some cases, but in yet more cases rendered it as -ing. Those English texts are otherwise defaced by a great number of misunderstandings and miswritings, some of which are emended by MacCracken, who however leaves standing the cryst of 1:5, the tho fy of II:11. I Printed by Champollion-Figeac, p. 269, from the Grenoble MS; reprinted by Sauerstein, pp. 65-6, by MacCracken, PMLA 26:177. It was printed from a Bibl.Nat.MS by Mlle. de Keralio, and reprinted from her by Walpole, as cited p. 216 here. Keralio’s principal differences from the present text are: thys message (1), plesant (2), im leed (3), all yat (9), and in line 4 clenching instead of Jettyng. She reads this viage in line 11. MacCracken emends of tymys (11) to ofttym y; but the line as here has both sense and syntax, agreeing with the construction of line 10. MacCracken retains the (Grenoble) foly- wing of 12, though removing an excrescent -ing from earlier lines. For the theme of the poem cp. d’Héricault’s ed. of Charles, 1:37, 39, 59; all of these exist in English translation, see the Roxburghe Club print of Brit. Mus. Harley 682, pp. 38, 44, 66. The French of the last-mentioned opens “Mon cueur est devenu hermite En lermitage de Pensée.” Cp. lines 9, 10 here. II Printed by Champollion-Figeac, pp. 269-70; repr. by Bullrich, by MacCracken, loc. cit., 177-8. It was printed by Mlle. de Keralio and repr. from her by Walpole, as above p. 216 Keralio’s variants are thows (1, 2, 9 etc.), hope y viage (1), of my message (4); she omits is (12), writes yat y in 9, and renders 5 as “Us hat that had letting of thy passage’. This is obviously a misreading of W to Us. Neither the Grenoble nor this MS writes the W; MacCracken emends to Wher that hyt be etc. The Grenoble MS otherwise abounds in errors. The word taryd is each time written carydge; blake (12) is written clake; nay (10) is written way; and line 11, soundly pre- Served in de Keralio’s text, is given as “And tho fy syngling et dauns or lagh and play”. MacCracken leaves tho fy unrectified; thof is however a by-form of though, see no. xix below. In line 9 Grenoble omits the initial T of Thow; MacCracken emends to Who. For the theme of the poem cp. d’Héricault’s ed. of Charles, ii:22, 54. Neither of these poems is translated in MS Harley 682. III Printed in Champollion-Figeac’s ed. of Charles, p. 265; repr. by MacCracken, loc. cit., pp. 174-5. PAGE 221] CHARLES D’ORLEANS 469 The use of the rune in line 1, and in the next poem lines 4, 10, 11, should be noted with Champion’s statement, of. cit., p. 47, that pp. 299-314 of the “autograph” MS are the work of an English scribe. If this be so, the writing of guippe for keep in IV A 6 is peculiar. IV A Printed by Champollion-Figeac, p. 266; repr. by MacCracken, loc. cit., p. 175. The reading guippe for keep in line 6 is apparently an ear-error, as is do wel for dwel in line 10. Both appear also in the Grenoble MS printed by Champollion. IV B Printed by Ellis, Specimens of Early Engl. Poets, i:253; in the London Magazine for 1823, pp. 301-6; printed by Costello, Specimens of the Early Poetry of France, 1835, p. 138; printed by Sauerstein, p. 64. In this Royal text the roundel-form is muddled, lines 4 and 5 run together. The word kepe (5) appears in its proper form; line 7 has undergone miswritings which are eye- errors, J must being rendered Iniust, and hertles as helis. If the archetype indicated the er of hertles by the usual flourish, this latter error would be easy. Vv Printed by Champollion-Figeac, pp. 266-7; repr. MacCracken, loc. cit., pp. 175-6. The French editor has tvewe in line 2, serve instead of sume in line 6, and Thousches at opening of line 8. The poem is clumsily expressed, but apparently says that after a half-year of waiting and a time of endured disdain, an embrace is a jewel full dear: but that the lover must be on the alert against a ?jealous guardian. The phrase fore against, line 11, is first cited by NED from the year 1494, with the meaning “directly opposite, facing”. The rune again appears, line 11. VI Printed by Champollion-Figeac, pp. 266-7; repr. MacCracken Joc. cit., pp. 175-6. This roundel contains in its line-initials the name Anne Molins, a fact pointed out by me in ModPhil 22:215. In Romania 49:580 ff., M. Pierre Champion published an interest- ing passage from King Réné’s Cuer d’Amours Espris (cited above p. 220), which says that Charles learned English while a prisoner, from a lady to whom he paid court and addressed poems. As the duke undoubtedly had social intercourse with his various English gaolers, he may well have met a daughter of the house of Molyneux; she may have been in the train of a greater lady, just as the damsels to whom Skelton addresses the lyrics of his Garland of Laurell were associated with the countess of Surrey. The family of Molyneux or Moleyns was an ancient and dignified house; its most conspicuous figure was Adam de Moleyns, bishop of Chichester and keeper of the Privy Seal, who died in 1450. His connec- tions with French affairs were many, and he was more than once associated in diplomatic business with the earl of Suffolk, who was for four years Charles’ guardian. De Moleyns was of the Lancashire branch of the family; his sister Katharine was duchess of Norfolk; of another sister, Anne, nothing is recorded; his brother’s daughter Anne became the wife of Sir Richard Nevil. Champollion-Figeac prints let have have in line 6, a vende in line 8; MacCracken emends to let hym have,—an ende. The latter phrase may however mean “a turning”. The French editor has line 10 as here; MacCracken omits not. In line 11, the word hys is perhaps the verb hies, “hastens” ? Vil Printed by Champollion-Figeac, p. 267-8, repr. by MacCracken, loc. cit., p. 176. The French editor writes puyd for payd in line 1, nuans for auans in line 3, fraichyedness in line 4, Ye go for Ys go in line 10. 470 NOTES [PAGE 222 VIII Printed by Champollion-Figeac, pp. 267-8, repr. by MacCracken, loc. cit., pp. 176-7. IX Printed by Champollion-Figeac, pp. 268-9; printed by MacCracken, loc. cit., pp. 160-61, from the MS Bodl. Fairfax 16 fol. 321, where the stanzas form one of a group of English amatory poems, for which MacCracken suggests the earl of Suffolk as author. On this hypo- thesis, the poem would have been preserved in Charles’ “album” as so many other poems by his fellow-versifiers were preserved. And it is to be noted that its form and flow differ sharply from those of Charles’ rondeaux here printed. The “autograph” and the Grenoble MSS agree in some textual differences from the Fair- fax copy. They read to se fro in line 2, where Fairfax reads to and fro; they read Me thyng in line 8, where Fairfax reads Me thynk; they read wehout in line 10, where Fairfax reads wythout; they read makyth alwey in line 18, where Fairfax reads makyth now; they write sykyrvenes, sykyrnenes in line 20, where Fairfax writes sykernes. In line 16 Fairfax has no the; in line 19 it writes wost. The French editor’s text shows worst in line 19, omits J from line 5, and has other divergences. x Printed by Ellis 1:253; in the London Magazine and in Costello as under IV B above. Printed by Champollion-Figeac, p. 455, repr. by Bullrich, op. cit. Printed by MacCracken, loc. cit., p. 178; printed by Sauerstein, p. 65. XI Printed as is no. X, omitting Costello. Ellis suggested Be ware in line 1 instead of Ne were, an emendation incorporated into the London Magazine text. The com smert of line 5 is possibly con (can) smert; for And in line 8, read An, ie., If. B. TRANSLATIONS FROM CHARLES’ FRENCH XII Printed in the Roxburghe Club ed. of these translations, pp. 36-7. 1. As mot, etc. The use of as with the imperative to express a wish is very frequent in Middle English. Cp. KnTale 1444, MillTale 591, MLTale 761, Troilus ii:1025, etc. 11. wrappid & wounde. See ClTale 527, PoFoules 670-71. 18. hir hit mevyng, urging on her the fact that, etc. ZA MOpMeneHalattle 26. Of which, i. e., “From whom’. 29-30. lennuy is omitted in transl. Supply al? With the poem cp. Pope’s Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard, lines 51 ff. XIII Printed in the Roxburghe Club edition, pp. 62-3. 5. Whi dost thou straunge, “Why art thou distant, aloof’? See Chaucer, PoFoules 584, Troilus ii:1660, Skelton’s Garland 444, etc. 8. The scribe has marked ben for erasure and put Jeve in the margin. 10. ynough is pronounced to rime with how, i., as enow. This w-form is the old plural of the word, an archaism in Modern English. 15. to iape not lustith me, “it is not my intention to jest’. 19. as hast, i.e., thus hast. See xv:15 below. 22. The second on is written over an erasure. 28. ffor werry may be understood as a single word, the verb forweary, to become ex- hausted. “They may (mowe) grow weary in the lady’s company in no respect.” Or, for may be the conjunction. The use of Jo as a line-filler is very frequent in this translator; PAGE 225] CHARLES D’ORLEANS 471 note Chaucer’s Troilus i:397, 845, ii:255, 1433, 1633, 1743, iii1:1341, iv:284, 1231, 1319, v:54, 127, 461, 704, 1828. XIV Printed in the Roxburghe Club edition, pp. 74-5. Printed in Park’s 1806 ed. of Walpole (see p. 217 here) 1:184-85. The -ir and -ay rimes of the French are retained as -er and -ay, -cy. 4. at wode, to the wood. geder may, gather the appropriate Mayday green branches or flowers. See Knight’s Tale 654. Ub Right as the wood, etc. See Chaucer’s PoFoules 493, Lydgate’s Black Knight 46. 8. first day of may. See note on xvii below. 13. affoyle. Neither the NED, Godefroy, nor Cotgrave gives this word. The sense of “beleave”, i e. to adorn with leaves, lies very near, cp. foille, fueille, leaf. Cotgrave has the substantive foyle as the setting of precious stones, the mounting of a mirror, etc.:—our word foil. In such latter case, this word might be a coinage for metre, such as apast in xvi:9, a word used also in the romances.—trees. Scanned disyllabic? Cp. PoFoules 173, Prol. CT 607. 15. Note the French, and the position of to after its case; see xix:20 below. 17. on whi. Read and whi? 19. Here absent is probably a transitive verb; “doth remove, keep away, thy lady from thee”. 20. That, i. e., who, refers to thee, to the lover. XV Printed in the Roxburghe Club edition pp. 87-88. With this outcry against Death cp. Chaucer's BoDuchesse 475-83; see Floris and Blanchefleur 281 ff.; see Machaut’s motet printed by Chichmaref ii:487; see Villon’s rondeau “Mort, iappelle de ta rigueur”, in von Wurzbach’s edition, p. 100; see Pugliese’s ‘‘Morte, perche m’ai fatte si gran guerra”, in Butler’s Forerunners of Dante or in Monaci, p. 92. The ring of the Floris and Blanchefleur bit is much nearer Boethius (see lines A 277-80 of Walton) than is this purely court-poem. Note the treatment of the French rime-sounds. 11. fflowryng in youthe. A stock phrase. See Lydgate’s St. Margaret 439; and for similar phrase ‘“Flouryng in vertu” see ibid., 96, FaPrinces iii:3165, etc.; the phrase “flouryng age” occurs often in this period. 14. Had is altered from hadest, and after taken a word is erased, apparently yet. unweldynes is the inactivity of age. Gower in the Confessio vii:1855 uses unwelde as the op- posite of deliver; Lydgate, FaPrinces i1:2259, uses weeldi as equivalent to deliver, “active”. For the phrase “vnweldy croked age” see Scogan’s Moral Balade line 145, in Skeat vii :242; see Lydgate’s FaPrinces i:1686, 2127, iii:5117, etc.; and cp. Romaunt of the Rose 4886, etc. 15. As had, i.e. “So had’. See above, xiii:19. 16. take shows an erased n. 17. this is written over an erasure. 19, Alone ... wtout compane. The phrase “seul sans compaignie” occurs also in Orléans’ twelfth ballade, see ed. by d’Héricault 1:26. Machaut, in his Dit dou Lyon 182, speaks of walking “Par le vergier sans compaignie”; Christine de Pisan in her poem Seulete, ed. SATF i:12, has as line 3, “Seulete suy, sanz compaignon ne maistre”’. The phrase “seus sans com- paignie’ appears in Venus la Déesse, quatrain 229, (see ed. Foerster, Bonn, 1880). Cp. Bartsch’s Chrestomathy of Old French, 11th ed., pp. 146, 151, 231, 262. Dante, Inferno 23:1, says that he and Virgil were “soli e senza compagnia’’; cp. his Vita Nuova, section 12, line 6 of its ballata. Petrarch, In Vita 135, line 6 (canzone 18), describes “un augel... sol, senza consorte”’; cp. ibid. 106, line 4. Chaucer uses the phrase three times, KnTale 1921, MillTale 18, Melibeus 2749-50. In Gower’s Confessio iii:1220 we find “Solein with- oute compaignie” applied to Diogenes. The Old Eng. Dream of the Rood 123-4 has “paer ic ana waes Maete werode”. Hawes employs the phrase in his Pastime 1938, (p. 78 of the Percy Soc. edition). 472 NOTES [PAGE 227 Here and in line 25 the wi of without has been erased. 25. im is inserted above the line. 30. The is of offensis has been erased. XVI Printed in the Roxburghe Club edition, pp. 94-5. With the opening cp. Shakespeare’s sonnet xxx. 1. The Paris MS of the French reads souuenir instead of souuent. 2. This MS very frequently writes tayne for twayne, as here. See the repetition in line 7, and cp. “thir goodely eyen twoo” of Lydgate’s New Year poem, pr. Anglia 32:190 ff., line 46. 3. myn hert. Read hertis, but note the French. 8. Note the padding but even for rhythm, and cp. O welaway of line 6 for rime. 11. The English omits Yseult and adds Dido and Alceste, probably with reminiscence of Chaucer. 17. Death is feminine in the French, where line 19 ends “s’elle pouoit”. Notice the skil- ful amplification of the English in this stanza, but the twist of “Hors du monde” to another purpose. 27. “unless it should improve’? “even though it should improve”? XVII Printed in the Roxburghe Club edition, pp. 99-100. 1. The secund day, etc. The three opening days of May were those of the festival. It is on “Mayes day the thridde” that Pandarus feels love’s pain, Troilus ii:56. The Cuckoo and Nightingale is timed on “the thridde night of may”, line 55. In Octovien de St. Gelais’ Séjour d’Honneur the hero embarks with Sensuality on his voyage on May 2. Orléans has a French ballade beginning “Le premier jour du mois de May”; transl. also into English, see Roxburghe Club edition, p. 97. 2. half. ..half. The French does not say this, but that the lover was asleep. In the rondeau by Orléans, printed d’Héricault 11:98, is the phrase “moitié veillant”’. This was a medieval formula; see the opening line of La Belle Dame; see Lydgate’s PilgrLifeMan 222. Perhaps cp. the phrase “neither living nor dead’ from Alanus down to Shelley, e. g. De Planctu Naturae prose 3, Dante’s Inferno 34:25, Chaucer’s Troilus iii:79, Gower’s Confessio 1:289, Shelley’s Epipsychidion 309. 4-8. Here is mentioned the strife of Flower and Leaf; see p. 259 here.—lo is again used to fill out the line. 12. “In my clumsy fashion”, etc. Note the French. 15-16. “But the fortune of such choice hath made me this year he who is to serve the Leaf.”’ Note the case of he; and read yere instead of heyre,—French “cest an”. Is it likely that the author of this translation himself would have written heyre? 22. what part y am, wherever I am. XVIII Printed in the Roxburghe Club edition, pp. 105-6. Translated in the London Magazine for Sept. 1823, pp. 301-6. 1. noyous. The translation is closer to the Paris than to the Royal text of the French. Cp. xvi:l, and the refrain line of xix. 3. I mette. Mark the difference from Me mette in xvii:3. 6. al be me loth, “although it displeases me’. Changed from the French for the sake of rime. Cp. BoDuchesse 8, Legend 1639, etc. 15. thee see, “to see thee”. 23. to, i.e. till—did hir day, caused her to die. 27 is added to the French. With the picture cp. PardTale 400 ff. PAGE 230] CHARLES D’ORLEANS 473 XIX Printed in the Roxburghe Club edition, pp. 107-9. Observe in this poem the rime of thought with aloft, etc. See the romance of Eger and Grine 261-2, Sir Isumbras 222-3, 445-6, Perceval de Galles 161-3. In the prol. to Shakes- peare’s Winter’s Tale, act. iv, daughter and after are rimed; in Chamberlayne’s Pharonnida, of 1659, such rimes as thought: soft occur. See the writing thof for though in ii:11 here; other cases in the Roxburghe ed. are on pp. 30, 55, 64, 75, 180, 198, 207, 221. 1, 2. Cp. the Squire’s Tale 663, followed by Lydgate’s Troy Book i:626 and by the Flower and Leaf at opening; see Skelton’s Garland 1436, and the Serpent of Division, ed. MacCracken, p. 55,—‘“‘When pe same golden wayne of Titan... is whirlid vp’, etc.—day of seynt valentyn is accusative of specification—‘‘on the day”. 6. He wook is confusing. Read Awook? See BoDuchesse 1324. 8, 16, 24, 28. The text is nearer the Paris than the Royal version. See xvi:1, xviii:1. 11. pletid ther latyn, pleaded in their speech. See PoFoules 495, SqTale 427,—both bird-passages. The word latyn or leden had come to mean “speech”. 13. wrappe. ..soft. See the PoFoules 670. 14. This does not render line 12 of the French, which is very close to Chaucer’s PoFoules 491, “The noyse of foules forto ben delivred”. 20. These birdis to, to these birds. See xiv:15. 27. this comfort sole, “without this comfort”. French desgarny, etc. XX Printed in the Roxburghe Club edition, p. 159. This is an especially successful trans- lation. 4. to lessen wt. Cp. Thebes 35, Bycorne 91, and notes, for this word-order. XXI Printed in the Roxburghe Club edition, p. 146. This poem is one of the four printed from Hearne’s Diaries (1712) in Anglia 17:445-7, and by Bliss as on p. 218 here. 5. to geef, Old Eng. to giefe, “dirt cheap”. The sense is “is underrated, held cheap”. Note the retention of this early native idiom, and also a coinage like affoyle, xiv:13 ante. 8. my deth...shert. See the Knight’s Tale, Troilus iii:733, Lydgate’s BlKnight 489, Partonope of Blois 109, etc.; also Wyatt in the poem beginning “Alas the greiff”’. 15. y kepe, etc. “I have no desire to escape from death.” XXII Printed in the Roxburghe Club edition, p. 151. Translated by Costello as p. 219 here. 4. Inversion for rime’s sake. 5. but ye lust, etc. “unless you desire to give”. XXIII Printed in the Roxburghe Club edition, p. 167. 5. ne slepen y. This seems an early case of the incorrect use of -m in the verb-singular, as it was later abused by, e.g., Urry in his 1721 ed. of Chaucer. See J ben in xiii:8 ante; and see “the greef y han” on p. 61 of the Roxburghe print, in rime; and see the 1840 ed. of Guy of Warwick, p. 297,—“He seemed as it weren a fend bat comen weren out of helle’. HARDYNG’S CHRONICLE THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT The MS, Brit. Mus, Lansdowne 204, has many marginal summaries to chapters and stanzas. Beside stanza 1 is: “The vij Book primum Capitulum. Henry the fyfte kynge of Englonde & ffraunce and lorde of Irelonde duke of Normandy Guyen & of Aungevy.” In the right hand margin is: “Nota quod Cronica istius Regis Henrici patet in quadam cronica 474 NOTES [PAGE 234 Magistri Norham doctoris Theologiae & secundum quod compilator huius libri vidit & audiuit.” There are English summaries beside stanzas 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, etc. 2. seynt Cuthbert day, March 20. Hardyng is inaccurate. Henry IV died on March 20, 1413, and Henry V was crowned on Passion Sunday, April 9, in a heavy snowstorm. This error was amended by Hardyng in later versions of the Chronicle; cp. the text of this stanza in the Grafton-Ellis ed. of 1812:— Henry his sonne that prynce of Wales was than On Saynt Cuthbertes day in March folowynge Kyng was, so as I remembre canne: On Passyon Sonday after was this kyng Anoynted and crowned without taryeng, The ninth daye it was of April so With stormes fell and haylestones greate also. 6. obeyand. The participle here shows the Northern ending, as does fleand in 70. 8. Cobham Errytyke, Cobham the heretic. Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, was an earnest disciple of Wyclif. His activity in supporting and disseminating Lollard doctrines brought down on him the wrath of the Church, and after the passing of Henry V’s statutes against heresy not all Oldcastle’s distinguished military record nor his personal friendship with Henry could save him. He was cited before the Bishops, examined, and adjudged a heretic. He was committed to the Tower, but escaped, and was at large for four years, when he was captured, brought to London, and hanged and burned in 1417. The orthodox Hoccleve has a poem of pious denunciations against Cobham, printed EETS ed. i:8; and the Liber Metricus of Elmham, printed in the Memorials of Henry V, Rolls Series 1858, is equally fierce. Later Oldcastle became a sort of half-mythical figure; from Shakespeare’s (first) Henry Fourth i, scene 2:48 it may be inferred that there was an early play in which he figured. His “Examination” may be read in Arber’s Engl.Garner, vol. vi. See Tenny- son’s poem on Oldcastle. 9. lollers, Lollards. See Skeat’s note on CantTales B 1173.—incipient. The Grafton- Ellis text reads insapient, “foolish”. 11. it haue, “it to have”. 12. suppowelment, aid, support. The word suppowaile, sowponaile, is frequent in this sense in Lydgate. See, e.g.,Thebes 267, “As his Pyler & his sowpowayle’’, or FaPrinces iv :39, “And registreer to suppowaile trouthe”. See Dance 663. 13. toke them vp. The sense of “capture, arrest” for this phrase is more modern. It may mean “overtook”, ie., after pursuit. Grafton-Ellis has a different line. 24. What ground Hardyng had for the statement that Oldcastle was recaptured within an hour of his escape from the Tower is not clear. There was some mystery about the means of his escape. Redman,—see the Memorials of Henry V above cited—says that he was either helped by his friends or bribed his guards, and fled into Wales, where “ad breve et perexiguum tempus permansit”. This remark as to the length of Oldcastle’s stay in Wales Hardyng may have misinterpreted to refer to the period of his freedom, which was, how- ‘ever, as said, four years. 26. by all the Clergy sight, i.e. in all the clergy’s sight, or opinion? 34. Rychard Scrope. Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York, was executed for treason in 1405 by Henry the Fourth. He was buried in York Minster, and the men of his county elevated their fallen leader to the rank of martyr. Miracles were said to be wrought at his tomb, and although the Church never canonized him, he was known in the North of England as St. Richard Scrope. His nephew Henry le Scrope was implicated in the Earl of Cam- bridge’s conspiracy against Henry V, and was summarily executed in 1415, on the eve of Henry’s departure for France. 36. Kynge Rycharde, etc. Richard II of England, deposed by Henry of Lancaster, afterward Henry the Fourth, was probably murdered while a prisoner in Pontefract Castle, Yorkshire, a few months after his deposition. The popular pity and interest for him were so great that Henry IV surrounded his death and burial with secrecy, and interred him in a PAGE 235] HARDYNG 475 church at Kings Langley, near Windsor, instead of in the tomb Richard had built for him- self and his first wife Anne of Bohemia in Westminster Abbey. But Henry V removed Richard’s body to its proper place in the Abbey tomb. 45. laycestr, Leicester, where the Parliament of 1414 was held. 46. Thomas duke of Clarence, third son of Henry the Fourth, fell in the French war in 1421, a year before the king’s death. 47. John duke of Bedford, Henry V’s next brother, was the most able and highminded of the brothers; he carried on the French war after Henry’s death. 50. Vmfray. Humphrey duke of Gloucester, Henry the Fourth’s youngest son. See the notes on him as listed in the Glossary. 52. Bewford. This is Thomas Beaufort, one of the children of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, by his mistress Katherine Swynford, whom Gaunt ultimately married as his third wife. Her children, all born previously, were legitimised by Richard II, but barred from succession to the crown. This uncle of Henry V was made duke of Exeter by the king; another uncle, the Cardinal Bishop of Winchester, was a man of great wealth, who after Henry’s death struggled with Humphrey of Gloucester for control of the infant king and the national affairs. 55-56. Henry Percy, “Hotspur”, eldest son of the earl of Northumberland, fell at Shrewsbury fighting against Henry IV, and according to Shakespeare died by the hand of “Prince Hal” himself. As the father also had conspired against the House of Lancaster, the Percy name was attainted and the estates reverted to the crown; but in 1414 Henry V restored the family honors to Hotspur’s son, another Henry Percy. It is this restoration which Hardyng mentions. Whenever an English noble holding fief direct from the Crown succeeded to title and estates, it was necessary for him to ‘‘sue out” or present his claim, do formal homage, and teceive his inheritance from his feudal lord. It was the traversing of such established right by Richard II, who seized the Lancastrian estates on John of Gaunt’s death, which brought Henry of Lancaster (afterwards Henry IV) back from temporary banishment to insist upon his claim; and the dispute led directly to Richard’s fall, 57. Mawdelayne day, St. Mary Magdalen’s day, July 22. 58-63. This muddled statement seems to be that Sir Robert Umfraville (Hardyng’s patron), entrusted with an expedition against the Scots, took full control of it, and directed the nominal guide whither he should lead the party,—from which expedition he, Umfraville, derived great credit. In line 61 toke hym to has the force of “betook him to”, i.e., addressed himself to. 64. thaym, i.e., the Scots. “Greterigge” is rendered “‘Geteryng” in the Grafton-Ellis text. 70. toke thaym vp, overtook them. See note on line 13 above.—fleand, see line 6. 71. lammesse. “Lammas” is celebrated on August 1. The word is derived from O. E. Alaf, a loaf, and maesse, mass, and denotes the harvest festival, at which bread was made from the first ripe corn. 72. hampton. Southampton, whence the French expedition sailed under Henry V to the conquest of Normandy. Here was settled the fate of the Earl of Cambridge, Henry Lord Scrope, etc., whose conspiracy against the king was discovered on the eve of departure. See note on line 34 above. 78. harflete, Harfleur in Normandy. Henry laid siege to this town the middle of August 1415, and it surrendered on Sept 22. See the first poem on Agincourt mentioned at close of introd. ante. 85. Orlience. The duke of Orléans whose capture at Agincourt is here mentioned is the poet-prince Charles of Orléans, translations of whose verse are included in the present volume. 86. Burboyne. This is Jean de Bourbon, born 1381, who remained in captivity in Eng- land for 18 years, and died there in 1434, after paying a ransom of 300,000 crowns three times over to no avail. It is asserted by French writers that Henry V on his deathbed charged his brother to keep Bourbon and Orléans prisoners at all costs until the establish- ‘ment of Henry VI upon the throne of France. 476 NOTES [PAGE 235 87. wendome, Louis de Bourbon, count of Vendome. 88. sir Arthur of Bretayne. Arthur duke de Richemont, afterward duke of Brittany, prisoner in England until 1420,—Line 89 is missing from this MS, but has been recognized in the numbering. The Grafton-Ellis text is at this point quite different; it condenses the material of stanzas 13 and 14 into one strophe, and does not use the second half of stanza 14 as here. A mention of Boucicault marshal of France as an eminent prisoner is perhaps the content of the line here missing. 92-93. The French dukes of Bar, Alengon, and Lorraine, slain at Agincourt, are now named. 97. layde ... to wedde, pledged. O. E. wedde, a pledge or forfeit. 99. Edward second duke of York, who commanded the van at Agincourt, was the eldest son of Edmund the first duke, son of Edward III. 104-5. Hardyng’s figures here and in line 97 are not in accord with scholarly investiga- tion and estimate. The English army may have numbered 15,000 men; the French was, according to Ramsay’s Lancaster and York, “certainly three times as numerous”, perhaps of 50,000 men. Monstrelet, the French chronicler, gives the French loss at 10,000, and English writers state theirs to have been from 14 men to 1,600 men. 106. Crispin and Crispimian day, October 25. 111. smored, smothered. Rendered “smouldered to death” in Leland’s Itinerary i:4-5. 118. Thurgh Pykardy etc. From inland Normandy a force marching to English-held Calais would cross Picardy, and pass Guines. 121. Sygismounde. The emperor Sigismund, also king of Hungary and of Bohemia and brother to Anne of Bohemia wife of Richard II, is degraded in modern estimation by his betrayal of the reformer John Huss, who came to the Council of Constance (1414) trusting in the imperial safe-conduct. Sigismund later visited France and England; he was in France in March 1416, and arrived in England May first. His visit, which lasted until latter August, was elaborately celebrated, and left many echoes in fifteenth-century writings; see for instance the Libel of English Policy, printed here, lines 8 ff. Henry V made Sigis- mund a knight of the Garter, as Hardyng says; on that occasion the emperor presented the head of St. George to the Order, and Ramsay, in his Lancaster and York i:234 note, cites to show that the relic was preserved until Henry VIII's time. 123. the Garter. The Order of the Garter was established by Edward III in 1349, five years after Philip of Burgundy’s establishment of the Order of the Golden Fleece. It was founded on St. George’s day, April 23, and its patrons were the Holy Trinity, the Virgin, St. Edward the Confessor, and St. George. As the last-named was patron saint of England, he was often considered especial patron of the Order, which was thus sometimes called the “Order of St. George”. As originally constituted, it was made up of twenty-five Knights Companions and the Sovereign; each had a stall in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, where the annual assembly was held. The Order was reorganized and enlarged in 1831. LONDON LICKPENNY 1, 2. In the latter “amended” version of Harley 367, these lines read:—“To london once my stepps I bent Where trouth in no wyse should be feynt’. 12, 25, 33. Upon these three Courts of Law see Stow’s Survey of London, ed. Kingsford, 1i:118. They were all in Westminster Hall. “At the entry on the right hand the common place [i. e. Common Pleas], where ciuill matters are to be pleaded, especially such as touch lands or contracts; at the vpper end of the Hall, on the right hand or Southest corner, the king’s bench, where pleas of the Crowne haue their hearing; and on the left hand or South- west corner sitteth the Lord Chancellor, accompanied with the master of the Rowles and other men... called maisters of the Chauncerie.” This last-named court handled all cases relating to revenue, and the King’s Bench and Common Pleas, as Stow says, took cognizance respec- tively of trespasses against the King’s peace and of disputes between private persons. PAGE 238] LONDON LICKPENNY 477 20. The clerk apparently calls the names of the parties concerned in the next action. See lines 155-59 of the Satire on the Consistory Courts, printed by Boéddeker in his Altengl. Dichtung, p. 107; see the 14th Coventry Play. 26. The silken hood was worn by sergeants; only a sergeant could plead in the Court of Common Pleas. See note on 31. 31. momme of his mouthe. Here cp. Piers Plowman (B) prol. 210-15:—“3it houed there an hondreth in houues of selke Seriauntz it semed that serueden atte barre Plededen for penyes and poundes the lawe. And nou3t for loue of owre lorde vnlese here lippes onis. Thow my3test better mete the myste on Maluerne hulles Than gete a momme of here mouthe but money were shewed”. 35. qui tollis, This line and its companion are rewritten in the later version of the poem. The Latin phrase, evidently a legal formula, may be the summons to complainants to stand forth, i.e. “Thou who hast a grievance, present it”. 42. gowne of ray. Ray, a striped cloth, was much worn by lawyers; see Assembly of Gods 550 for Minos in his “roob of ray”. 51. flemings grete woon, a great crowd of Flemings. Both felt hats and spectacles, offered for sale by the Flemish traders so numerous in London at this time, are appropriate merchandise for a country which specialized in cloth-making and was the first in Europe to develop the art of lens-grinding. 54. spectacles. Spectacles had not long been in use in England. Hoccleve in his poem to Oldcastle, line 417, describes them, and in his poem to the Duke of York he says that his own vanity prevents his use of them. Bokenam, in his St. Margaret, lines 657-8, says that his eyes “bleynte shuld be, ner helpe of a spectacle”. And Lydgate, FaPrinces ix :3335, de- scribes his “eyen mystyd and dirked my spectacle’. Flemish fifteenth century tapestries and paintings show spectacles in use, e. g. by St. Peter in a large tapestry hanging in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 58. at high prime. Nine o’clock in the morning; see Skeat’s note on Piers Plowman (C) ix:119. Laborers and artisans then took the first hearty meal of the working day, which began very early. See Chaucer’s Troilus ii1:1557. 59. Cokes, etc. The vendor-calls of cooks and taverners are mentioned in Piers Plow- man prol. 225-9. See Hoccleve’s Male Régle 57 for cooks at Westminster Gate, and 89 below for others near Billingsgate, on the river. 65. In to London. In the fifteenth century Westminster and the City of London were separated by the “Liberties”, a district partly open and partly occupied by the walled resi- dences of nobles, the buildings of the Temple, etc. Our countryman crossed Long Ditch after leaving Westminster Hall by the Gate, walked by White Hall along the Strand, entered the City through Ludgate, and passed along Fleet Street to St. Paul’s and the west end of Cheapside. 67 ff. This poem contains some of the earliest records of London street cries. Later they attracted the attention of musicians, and in the seventeenth century combinations of them, known as “fancies”, were arranged. On them see Bridge, Old Cryes of London, 1921; ibid., pp. 36-39, is such a compilation, repr. from the Roxburghe Ballads vii:57.—in the ryse, on the twig or branch. 76. umple. Fine gauze or lawn; see the Assembly of Ladies 471, in Skeat’s Chaucer, vol. vii. This word is removed in the Harley 367 remodeling of our poem. 77. could no skyle, had no knowledge. 81. London Stone. Stow in his Survey, i:224-5, gives various theories as to the purpose served by this stone. The antiquary Camden first suggested, says Kingsford, that it was a Roman “milliarium”, or central stone from which distances were measured along the great roads to the north and west. In Stow’s day the stone was very large, was near the middle of Candlewick (now Cannon) Street, and was supported by iron bands. What remained of it was in 1798 built into the wall of St. Swithin’s Church near by. The streets traversed by the author are West Cheap (Cheapside today) and its eastward continuation Cornhill; Candlewick or Canwick Street and its continuation Eastcheap run 478 NOTES [PAGE 239 east and west nearer the river. He seems to have wandered back to Cornhill after being in Eastcheap, and then to have turned south down to the Thames at Billingsgate, just beyond London Bridge. Lacking his two pence for the ferry, he may have crossed the bridge into Southwark, and so got back to Kent and his plow. 93. ye by cokke, etc. “Yea, by God”. See the Manciple’s prologue, the Parson’s prol. 29, in the CantTales; see the Plowman’s Tale 1271 in Skeat vii. 94. Jenken and Julyan. Evidently a song or songs by itinerant beggars. St. Julian was the patron saint of hospitality, but the poem does not read St. Julian. 100. in westminstar. These words are perhaps an explanatory gloss which has been worked into the text. 105. the Taverner. A wine-dealer. The MS writes my instead of me. 114. wagge ... gow hens. The word wagge may be either verb or substantive. The verb means “begone” in Elizabethan writers; the subst. means “fellow”. For gow, “go we”, “let us go”, cp. Troilus i1:615, 1163, v:402; see the first Digby Mystery, line 276. 118. “Do you think I will choose you as a subject for almsgiving?” The MS has made a correction of my to no, in which case we must put our question after thow, and treat the rest of the line as an assertion. * THE LIBEL OF ENGLISH POLICY The MS here used, Brit. Mus. Harley 4011, is a paper volume containing various entries in both verse and prose, written partly by W. Grauell, who has executed the copy of our poem, and partly by W. Woodeward. It contains three short poems by Lydgate, the second and third being extracts from the Fall of Princes; Lydgate’s Life of our Lady, etc.; a copy of the Mappula Anglie attributed to Bokenam, see EnglStud 10:1-40; etc. 2. Off outward. i. e., from outside. 4. The Cotton MS reads: “Ner say of sooth but it is one of the best”. Laud is very similar ; this MS is inferior in sense. 5. Who sailethe. A better reading is “as who seith”, in the Laud MS. See line 115. 7. narow See, the English Channel. 8. Beside stanza 2 is the marginal rubric:—‘‘Videns Imperator Sigismonde duas villas inter ceteras Anglis .d. Calisiam (et) Doveriam ponens suos duos digitos super suos duos oculos ait regi ffrater custodite istas suas villas sicut vestros oculos &c”’. For Sigismund’s visit to England in 1416 see note on line 121 of Hardyng’s Chronicle here. 9. Whiche reigned. The Laud MS reads “Whyche yet regneth”; Harley 271 and Har- ley 78 (fol. 35) read “Wiche late reyned”; the Cotton MS, “Of high Renowne”. The dif- ference in tense marks the earlier and the later recension, Laud’s composition dating before the death of Sigismund in December 1437. 20. sir. Other MSS sure—a better reading. 25. The Laud MS reads: “‘What marchaundy may forby be agoo”. Our text gives the sense of “When commerce cannot go past, who can escape (business) misfortune? 34-35. In the margin the scribe has written:—‘Quatuor considerantur in moneta aurea anglicana quod dicitur nobile S. Rex Navis Gladius et potestatem super mare. In quorum obprobrium hijs diebus britones minores & fflandrenses &c. dicunt Anglicis tollite de nobile vestro Navem & imponite ovem. Intendentes quare sicut quondam A tempore Edwardi tercij Anglici erant domini maris modo hijs diebus sunt vecordes victi & ad bellandi & mari conservandi velud oves & sicut sepissime patet eorum derisio &c.’”—oure noble. The gold coin called the noble bore a crowned male figure holding a sword and seated in a ship on the waves. See line 17 and note, of LettGlouc., here. 37. set a shepe. The increase of England’s sheepfarming in this period was associated by her enemies with her decline in naval power. See Capgrave’s De IIlustribus Henricis, line 135:—“Cachinnant de nobis inimici et dicunt ‘Tollite navem de pretiosa moneta et im- primite ovem’.” 38. our rule halteth, our sovereignty is lame, loses strength. PAGE 245] ANSUS, IAUSIOIL, 479 39. “Who is bold enough to bid our government be on the alert”? 44. Warner notes that nobles similar to those of England were struck in Flanders, and were forbidden currency in England because of their lighter weight. 45. as. MS Laud reads and. 57. The “points” of a medieval gentleman’s dress were a set of leather thongs upon the lower part of the doublet and the upper part of the hose or breeches; these had to be tied or “trussed” to support the hose. Point-making was a separate occupation, and required deli- cate leather. 60. staple fayre. See introd. to this text for note on the fairs of the Low Countries. 61. To haue. A better reading is They have, as in MS Laud.—Scluse, Sluys, the port of Bruges. 62. the Swyn, the small arm of the North Sea, called the Zwyn, where the modern canal of Bruges terminates. When this silted up, in the late fifteenth century, the commercial pros- perity of Bruges waned. 74. cloth of Ipre. The clothmaking of Ypres and of Ghent is mentioned ProlCT 447. 75. Curryk. Laud 704 reads Curtryke, i. e., Cortoriacum, the Courtrai of modern Bel- gium, busy then as now in the weaving of linen and cotton. 79. Other MSS read “Ye wote ye make (it) of—’etc. , 80-82 is a question. “Do you not get it through your head (that)” etc. 85. the growndes twayn, the two lands of Spain and Flanders. 91. comons fflemynges, the Flemish common people. 95. with outen lease, verily. A tag for rime. 112. the Rochell, La Rochelle, on the French coast north of the mouth of the Garonne; a centre of the wine-trade. 113. Bretons baye. Warner cites Nicolas as identifying this bay with that of Bourg- neuf, south of the Loire. It was granted by Edward III to Walter de Bentley in 1349, and was a centre for the salt trade. 120. leef or lothe, i. e., willy-nilly. A padding phrase frequent for rime. 122. in substaunce, a padding phrase; “for the most part”. 132. osay. In Piers Plowman prol. 228-9 are mentioned “white wyn of Osey and red wyn of Gascoigne Of the Ryne and of the Rochel”. Hakluyt in his Voyages 1:188 assigns Osey to Portugal; Skeat considers the word as a corruption of Alsace, which fits the Rhine district named in Piers Plowman. But see Warner’s note. 142. The passage is confused in our MS and in Laud; the sense is clearer in Harley 271 with which Harley 78 fol. 38 closely agrees :— Vn to oure sayd enmyes by se to resorte In tyme of warre & them to soporte Seth our frendis owe not for to be the cavse Of our hyndryng ban reson schewith pis cawse... The author is really discussing the impossibility of neutrality. 144. Our MS omits the negative present in other MSS. 161. “This fact our merchants have realized all too dearly.” 163. thise seid pillours. Laud reads “these fals coloured piloures”. 164. Seint malouse. The town of St. Malo was until the 19th century a centre of cor- sair activity. 172. Our MS reads recunsomed. Laud reads “towne by towne”. 173. This probably corrupt line gave the scribes trouble. Texts vary between regnes and regions, best and bost. The sense apparently is that the story of these misdeeds has gone far and wide. Cp. the Inferno 27:78, “ch’al fine della terra il suono uscie’, from Romans x :18. 176. Easy reputacion, ill repute. 179. a good Squyer. Warner identifies this man, mentioned as “Hampton squyere” in the later version of the Libel, with John Hampton, squire of the body to the king, Master of the Ordnance, etc. 480 NOTES [PAGE 247 181. The Laud MS has only one with. The sense is—“that I have discussed with men of rank and with commoners”, 184. third. Read thrid for rime. 188. Laud and the Hakluyt print read:—“He feld the wayes to rule well the see.’ For this use of felt see Pallad. prol. 73 and note. 190. Harflete and Houndflele, i. e. Harfleur and Honfleur, important trading towns at the mouth of the Seine, taken and retaken during the Hundred Years’ War. 194. Laud reads “Upon the whyche” etc.; that is, this peace having been made by agree- ment, the merchants ventured out. 200. money. Laud reads navy. 202. the Duke, i. e., of Brittany, as in 192. 203-4. “How such injury was estopped by convention, and the peace just made was nulli- fied by this conduct.” 206, 208. Mont St. Michel and St. Malo, strongholds of Breton piracy, which their Duke at first declares are beyond his control. 211. Laud reads “But whan the kyng anone had takene hede.” 216. Laud has wj after townes, 217 ff. King Edward issues to the energetic seaport towns of Dartmouth, Plymouth, and Fowey, authority to avenge England on the Breton robbers.—fortefye, i.e., to strengthen, assist. 221. see men, seamen, 222. thet myght not route, could not assemble, unite to resist. 225. for the truse. Laud reads “as he fyrst dyd dewysse”. 235. as seid was is parenthetical. 236. The bracketed word is from other MSS. After this line other texts have a couplet not in Harley 4011. 238-41. He is King Edward, who by an act of 1343 ordered that Lombards and other alien merchants should be taxed if they outstayed their forty days on English soil. 249. In the margin is:—“Hic patet de incendio villarum de Poperyng & de Belle per ducem Gloucestrie & suos.’ The Flemish towns of Poperinghes and of Bailleul were sacked by Gloucester’s forces in a punitive expedition, 1436, after Philip of Burgundy’s at- tempted seizure of Calais. See the Ballad against the Flemings, Ref. List v1, p. 145. 253. for any thyng, at all costs. See Prol CT 276. 257, 265, 266, 334. The bracketed words are in other MSS. 258. JI do it vpon yow, I call upon you, put it up to you. 202. This line gave the scribes trouble. Laud has knowen after charged; Cotton reads charged knowen that ye; Harley 78 has charged ayen wt outtyn ly, and Harley 271 is similar. The phrase at eye usually means “clearly, obviously”; it is here so used lines 30, 386, 480, and in the Palladius prol. 32, 33. One might surmise that charged at eye meant “loaded to the hawseholes”, which were called eyes; but this is surmise. 263-4. A distinction is made between mercery and “haberdasshe ware”. The former was textile fabrics; although the earliest English use of the word haberdassher is connected with cap-making, the 16th cent. users of the term defined it to mean French or Milan caps, daggers, swords, glasses, etc., or birdcages, lanterns, etc. Our writer seems to distinguish between fabrics and hardware. 325. Siluer. MSS Laud and Harley 271 read sylke. 326. waad is probably woad, a plant yielding a blue dye. 327. Wolle oyle, wood-oil, used in the draping of cloth. 329. Laud and Cotton fill out the line at close with J wene, Harley 78 and 271 with bedene. 338. The Company of Grocers, incorporated in London about 1344, was composed of wholesale dealers in spices and foreign foodstuffs. Spices were extensively used on the medieval table and in cooking because the lack of refrigeration made it necessary to dis- guise the taste of meats and fish past the prime. They were of course high-priced, and “things of complacience”, i.e., luxuries. PAGE 248] THE LIBEL 481 340. Apes / Japes / and Marmesettes. This line is cited NED for jape, which is explained as “trifle, toy, trinket”. In Skelton’s Magnificence 1132-34 these three words are also linked. Marmosets, or small monkeys, were favored pets in the houses of the rich, as contemporary paintings show us. 341. nifles, things of naught. See Chaucer’s SummTale 52, Skelton’s Magnif. 1143. With this passage cp. Browne, Britannia’s Pastorals ii, song 4 near close. 342. blere with our eye, “with which they blear our eye”, ie., deceive us. For the idiom see Reve’s Tale 129; for the use of with see note Thebes 35 here. 344. Other MSS have wastable instead of unstable. 351. cure seems to mean pharmacopoeia. 352. In the margin is: “Of dragges materiall for resceites of medecyne.’—scamonye, a gum from the roots of Convolvulus Scammonia, native in Syria and in Asia Minor, was a strong purgative. 353. Turbit. Turbith, or turpeth, was a cathartic drug prepared from the root of East Indian jalap—euforbe, euphorbia or milkweed, growing in warm climates, secretes a milky juice used to purge phlegm.—correcte is noted by NED only as “some medicinal herb”. —dagardye or diagrydium was a preparation of scammony, see 352. 354. Rubarbe Sene, rhubarb and senna.—towo may be two; Laud has to, the Harleys full. 356. fayned is an error; read forsayd, with the two Harley MSS; Laud has said. 361. senynge is probably written for seyinge, as in Laud. 364. Read prese, as in MS Laud, instead of plese. 366-67. likyng ware and etyng ware, luxuries and food-stuffs, already named, for which England exchanges her necessities. 369 means “which can ill be spared”. 382-3. That is, these travelling alien merchants spy out our economic conditions and plans, and write them in report; then by disguised schemes are pushed their countertails, i.e. opposed plans.—The countertally and tally were originally the two halves of the scored account-rod, split and given respectively to seller and purchaser, in the days before written accounts were general. Here the word is metaphorical. 388. This illustration is of great value to economic historians, although the badness of the MSS and the confusion of the pronouns make it difficult to follow. The first com- plaint is the usual one, of the drain of gold from England; see Cunningham pp. 395 etc. Then it would seem that the Cotswold men sold their wool on credit to Italian merchants, who retailed it in Italy at higher prices, took their Italian gold to Flanders and loaned it, making a further profit there while their English creditors waited. 405. make not straunge, do not shrink from. 407. lettir seems to be the Venetians’ bill of exchange, which when cashed in England meant a loss of fourpence in the noble, twelvepence in the pound. 410 says apparently that if Englishmen desired payment a month ahead of maturity they must accept a discount of two shillings in the pound, three shillings if two months ahead. The writer reckons eightpence per noble, and three nobles equal a pound. On the English gold retailed in Flanders another usurious profit follows; see note Dance Macabre 393 on usury. 426 ff. is another case of “deceit”. The foreign dealer sold at Bruges for cash the wool he had purchased in England on time-note of one or two years; then taking a five per cent. loss on the cash transaction, he lent the money out at interest until maturity, making profit enough to purchase more wool at the Staple. 438. Read with a comma after agayne; day is the subject of come. 443. Harley 78 and 271 read iij instead of iiij, and Laud reads her. 444. The free travel of the foreign merchant about England is indignantly contrasted by the author with the restrictions imposed upon English merchants abroad. 449 ff. A time-limit of forty days for the discharge and re-loading of alien ershanes ships is demanded. 482 NOTES [PAGE 250 452, 474. go to hoste. In continuance of an earlier policy, it had been ordained by a statute of 5th Henry IV that in every town and port to which aliens resorted there should be a sufficient “host” or guardian assigned to them by the mayor or bailiff, and that such aliens should dwell only under his control. This however was not strictly enforced, and the Rolls of Parliament all through the reigns of Henry V and Henry VI are dotted with petitions from English traders praying for more restraints on visiting foreign merchants. A marginal note against this passage is: “Here is to be noted pat sithen this seid ordenaunce of writyng thei haue be ordeyned to go to host in london.—But how bis pollecy is subuerted it is mervayle to know pe wyles and giles.” 461. The 12 lines of Harley 4011 now omitted are paralleled by 22 in other texts. 478. A complaint of “graft”. 479. publius is an error for public; thing publius is res publica. 481. “Bribes and entertainments are used to thwart the normal growth of our commerce.” 481, 506, 510, 525. Observe the various plural endings. 490. Only 14 days are allowed us in Brabant for unloading and loading, says our writer. 493, 499. Bracketed words are from other texts. 502. faires. See introduction to this text. 516. And is written for an, “if”. 517. The means of land transportation would not suffice to handle the sea traffic, were that checked. 522. dyne. Read dyen, as in the Cotton MS. A comma, in sense, follows wt. 531. Burgayn, etc. Burgundy, Cambrai, Cologne. 537. The bracketed word is from other texts. 538. multiplye. Read multifarye, as in Laud. 542. whan this caried. Other MSS that this cartyd. 548. men. Other MSS neuer. See line 4 above. The of is superfluous. 552. MSS Laud and Harley 271 read “and we shuld hem distroye”. 553. Other MSS have before nove either bring to or take and. 554. A marginal note reads: “Note of defautes lettyng of our good spede in policie.” 557-8. The Laud MS reads: “but we be frail as glasse’; Harley 78, “but we by for a glasse”; Cotton has “but we be freely I gesse’. Our MS omits be, and should read fraile for fre. Brasil is miswritten for brotyll as in other MSS. Punctuate with a full pause after fflandres. [No more of the Libel is here printed.] As mentioned in the introduction to this text, the epilogue differs in the two recen- sions of the poem. The first copy of Harley 78 has no epilogue, and a condensed conclusion. The epilogue of Harley 78 (second copy) runs with that of Laud and Pepys. Harley 271, Gurney, Brit.Mus.Adds. 40673, Bodl.Rawlinson poetry 32, and (probably) the mutilated Cotton Vitellius E x, alter one stanza of the epilogue to address three unnamed lords instead of Baron Hungerford as in the earlier recension. Phillipps 8299 (now Huntington 140) I have not seen, nor the Cowper MS. All Souls College, Oxford, ciii, is impf. at close, as is Harley 4011. I print below the text of Harley 271. Go forthe lytle bylle & mekly schew pis face Apperyng euer wt humbell eontenance & pray my lordes to take In grace In apposell & cherisch be & a Avaunce To hardyness yf bt no variaunce pou hast sore thowt trowthe be full experience Auutors & resons if ow3t falle in substaunce Remytt to hym pt geff be pis science To the gret prelate pe heyghest so confessor The gret mayster of be gretest housse Cheff tresorere of the gret socoure PAGE 252] THE COMPEND OF ALCHEMY 483 Besschop Cherle and baroun plentivous Of high wyttes lordes thre famous To examene thy doubled rendytee I offer be tham to be gracious To myn excuse farwell my own trete (In line 12 cherle should be erle.) Warner suggests as the first of these three nobles either John Stafford, bishop of Bath and Wells, or Henry Cardinal Beaufort, bishop of Winchester; as the second, William de Ia Pole earl of Suffolk, steward of the king’s household; as the third, Ralph Cromwell. See Warner’s notes. RIPLEY’S COMPEND OF ALCHEMY A Note on Alchemy Alchemy in its widest sense has a philosophical basis. It pretends, and has pretended, to no miracle, but asserts its entire dependence upon the laws of nature. It maintained, as Plato maintained in the Timaeus, that all matter is in essence one; behind all visible phenomena there is an Essential, and from this one “prima materia’ or “remote matter’, differentiated into four elements of earth, air, water, and fire, God created the whole world of things. The substances known to us are complexes, full of admixtures and impurities, but never- theless each containing some portion of that “remote matter”, which well-directed effort can disengage and refine. This separation of the ‘‘prima materia’, or “elixir”, or “philoso- pher’s stone”, or “powder of projection”, from the gross burden of ordinary matter was the central problem of the alchemists. An important point, of course, was to begin this process of separation as near as possible to purity; and alchemists very early agreed in identifying the “prima materia” with mercury,—not crude mercury, but that sublimed “mer- cury of the philosophers” which was most immediately resident in mercury, and could be ob- tained from it by removing the fluidity, the volatility, and other disturbing attributes of ordinary mercury. The ancient or medieval student of chemistry (alchemy) guided his procedure as much by theory as by practice; philosophy and analogy were as important to him as experiment or observation. Stephanus of Alexandria, a seventh century writer, said, for example, that a metal was, like man, composed of a body and a soul. The soul of anything in nature was its most subtle essence, its natural tinctorial spirit. And if matter was to become perfect, it must be stripped of its physical qualities, its grosser body, so that its soul might be set free. The second cardinal dogma of alchemy, that substances were within limits capable of transformation into one another, was also based on analogy and theory. Since an oxide-bearing rock could be forced by heat into the semblance of iron, and this iron by more heat or by exposure to the air could pass back into the state of oxide; since all matter decayed, changed, and was born again, it followed that the whole creation was in a ceaseless flux, that the “prima materia” or soul of things was continually receiving and discarding qualities. And the adept by study could reproduce and develop those processes. None but a charlatan would pretend that anything non-metallic, as eggshells or ashes, could be transmuted into the highest of metals, gold; but the baser metals, such as iron or lead, could, on alchemical theory, be deprived of their own superficial qualities, could be reduced to their ultimate metallic base, and then, by addition of the qualities peculiar to gold, could be transmuted into the nobler metal. A chief agent in this transmutation was the “prima materia” or “remote matter”. The management of the stages by which “remote matter” was first found, then intermingled with an inferior substance so as to give the common metal-base, and then refined so as to become gold, was the most desired and most difficult art of the alchemist. In Jonson’s Alchemist, act ii, scene 3, we find the arch-swindler Subtle saying that “remote matter” is a “humid exhalation” called “materia liquida or the unctuous water”, and that when intermingled with a certain “crasse and viscous portion of earth”, the result would be the elementary matter of gold. The theory underlying all 484 NOTES this process was at first solely “chemical”, but was applied with increasing frequency to medicine, especially by Paracelsus in the sixteenth century. The science of alchemy reaches back much further than the sixteenth century. Many of its practitioners claimed the god Hermes as father of the art; treatises in Greek exist, and Arabic sources are claimed for many Latin treatises of the Middle Ages. The Arabian Jaber or Geber, of the eighth-ninth century, and the Spanish mystic Raimon Lull or Lully, who died in 1315, had probably little or no share in the alchemical treatises which passed as theirs; but Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, and Arnoldus Villanovanus,—Chaucer‘s “Arnold of the Newe Toun” in the CanYeoTale,—were great thirteenth-century names. Among the crowd of teachers there were differences of detail, but some general tenets were common to all. There were four spirits, or substances by means of which bodies could be changed,—mercury, sulphur, arsenic, and sal ammoniac. There were three “men- strues” or liquors, which were respectively animal, vegetable, and mineral, and were presided over by Sol, Luna, and Mercury. Every metal had in the cycle of existence previously been “water mineral’, and had in itself the potentiality of a liquid state. In seeking a solution, any substance must be “loosed in its own menstrue”, (Jonson’s Alchemist ii,3:281) that is, a vegetable menstrue must not be employed to dissolve animal or mineral. The metals were seven: mercury (which was thus both body and spirit), gold, silver, iron, tin, copper, and lead. In alchemical jargon, the names of the planets wére applied to the metals; gold and silver were Sol and Luna, iron Mars, tin Jupiter, copper Venus, lead Saturn. Gold was to be formed from purified mercury and a small portion of pure sulphur. To arrive at this union, the spirits and bodies must be subjected to a long and complicated series of processes, chief among which was the action of heat. According to Geber, these pro- cesses were sublimation, or the rendering a body vaporous; then volatilisation or condensation ; distillation; calcination; coagulation or crystallisation; incineration, etc. Great stress was laid upon the purity of the substance used, and upon right composition. God had made all things in “number, ponder, and measure’; and an alchemical procedure must heed these subtle laws. When the four elements are wisely joined in a body, the color will rise toward perfection; inward natural heat will begin to work, excited by out- ward artificial heat; and the process of change is comparable, said the analogy-hunting al- chemists, to human digestion. The index to a right progress of this digestion is the color of the composition at various stages Color was highly important in alchemy. It was believed, e.g., that any metal was potentially all metals, and that the predominance of the quality which individualized each was expressed in its color. To change silver to gold was to remove whiteness and substitute yellowness, or, as the alchemist would say, to dealbi- ficate and then citrinate. The function of the “philosopher’s stone” was colorative or “tinctorial”. The comparison with the art of the dyer was constantly in the minds of the alchemists, and one reason for the superiority of gold to other metals was its refusal to be decolorized, its resistance to fire. To obtain a superficial coloration was mere dyeing; real coloration implied a transformation of the metal. In maintaining the proper heat for the proper length of time, in carrying each operation to its right pitch, lay unlimited possibilities of error and of excuses for fraud. There were no means of test such as we use today in experiment; and when failure arrived, as it regularly did, the alchemist and his assistant accused one another (see Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale) of wrong temperature, wrong ingredients, wrong material burned for the fire :—and everything was begun again. We may marvel that the belief persisted; but there has always been and always will be a type of mind which receives Moses’ striking the rock as proof of the doctrine that mineral is potentially liquid, or which is impressed by the treatment of two substances as father and mother, by the theory that months of slow incu- bation in a closed vessel are necessary to produce the offspring. Kings have on occasion been as credulous as commoners; the interested belief of Henry VI and Edward IV is probably responsible for the mass of treatises on the subject in the late fifteenth century. But the failure of the alchemists continued, and the art at length retired from its attempts at transmutation and emphasized its philosophical tenets, finding then, as Hathaway remarks, the audience which spiritualism and theosophy have today with us. PAGE 253] THE COMPEND OF ALCHEMY 485 6,7. Ashmole reads “O deviaunt fro danger’—and “Fro thys envyos valey”. 36 ff. Here is stated the basic alchemical position,—that the one Primal Substance, containing all things potentially, was separated by the Deity at creation. 38. begynner is in apposition with thee. 44. Consumed. Ashmole reads Confused, with better sense. See line 37. 47-49. Here the rime-scheme is broken; the fifth should rime with the fourth and does not. The lines are quite different in Ashmole, where the rime-arrangement is preserved. 49. sum is contrasted with many one of line 48. Norton’s Ordinal (see p. 15 in Ash- mole) says that as there be but seven planets among the host of heaven, “Soe among millions of millions of Mankinde Scarslie seaven men maie this Science finde.” 54. the les worlde, the microcosm. Norton’s Ordinal, p. 62 of Ashmole, says that among creatures these two alone ‘‘Be called Microcosmus, Man and our Stone”. See tbid., p. 85-6 for the stone as the microcosm, and, e.g., Lydgate’s ReasonandSens 540 ff. for man as the microcosm; cp. Sieper’s note on line 552 ibid—one of three. Ashmole reads one and three. 59 ff. The movement of idea here seems to be,—“What is this stone, when philoso- phers say to those seeking it that each man has it” etc. 69. The first they means the philosophers, the second “the symple sekers”. 75. This line, omitted by Corpus, is here supplied from the MS Ff.ii, 23; Stow, in Harley 367, has it as line 74, and 74 as 75. 85. Raymondus, Raymund Lully, the thirteenth-century Spanish mystic and philosopher, to whom unfounded tradition attributed a number of alchemical works. 88. sonn and mone, gold and silver; see Note on Alchemy ante. 106. the fyrst, the first or animal menstruum, sal. 109. the lyon grene. The glossary of alchemical terms appended by Waite to his ed. of Paracelsus says that the Green Lion is mineral, and the base of all menstrua or solvents, the fixed part of matter, capable of resisting the action of fire. His strength is “vernant and greene evermore enduring”, according to Bloomfield’s Blossoms, in Ashmole p. 312; ibid. p. 278, in the “Hunting of the Greene Lyon”, this menstruum is said to be metallic vitriol, the priest who weds Sun and Moon, etc. 111. tyncture, see Note on Alchemy ante, par. 4. 112. Gebar, Geber, an Arabian chemist of the 8th century, the supposed author of numerous alchemical treatises the origin of which is now dated about the thirteenth century. See line 64 of the Prohibicio and note. 113. the second, the second or vegetable menstruum, sulphur, more humid than the first. 116. formals. Read formall? Both the material and the formal principle must be dis- solved, says Ripley. 117. Ashmole supplies the word. 120. the thyrd humydyte, mercury, the essence underlying metals. 122. Hermes tree. In the various processes of alchemical experiment aiming at the pure white elixir or stone, a black deposit was encountered. Waite’s transl. of Paracelsus 1:68 says that “when the philosophers have put their matter into the more secret fire, and when with a moderate philosophical heat it is cherished on every side, beginning to pass into corruption, it grows black. This operation they call putrefaction, and they call the blackness by the name of the crow’s head”. Other names, says Ripley in his first book, on Calcination, are the ashes of Hermes tree, or the toad of the earth. Comparison of the “prima materia” to a golden tree may be found in Paracelsus as cited, i:54. 133-34. These lines are closely bound syntactically—by labor exuberate, rendered fruitful by labor. This case cited NED. 136. kyndly acuate, etc., properly refined (“sharpened”) and passed into a pure spirit. Ashmole reads “well and kyndly”. 149. cyrculacyon. Ashmole reads Calcination. 486 NOTES [PAGE 255 151. The “circulation”, if properly made, will cause the compound to flow over the base as smoothly as wax flows over metal. Then “loose” i.e. dissolve it, etc. 160. aurwmn potabile, drinkable gold, the elixir of life. Use of this is ascribed to Lully. See Lydgate’s Letter to Gloucester, line 46. 161. hym is inserted from Ashmole’s text. 166. Ashmole reads “we yt call”. 169. Our basylyske, etc. The basilisk or cockatrice, the “little king” of serpents, was a mythical creature having legs, wings, a serpentine tail, and a puffed crest. Its look was possessed of death-dealing power, even from a distance; as Sir Thomas Browne says in his Vulgar Errors, “this venenation shouteth from the eye’. Bloomfield the alchemist, in his Blos- soms,—see Ashmole, pp. 318, 322,—says that Raymond called the Stone “Basiliske and Cocatrice”’; and he himself uses the same terms, by metaphor, to indicate the marvellous and unique qualities of the stone.—abiecte, prone? ‘The basilisk could slay without moving from its usual position. But Ashmole here reads “hys object’, evidently interpreting sight as “olance’”’. 173. tayneth, kindles. 174. perfect. Read perfyt, for rime. 183. The bracketed word is supplied from Ashmole’s text. 187. theoryk and practycall. See notes on Walton A 332, Dance Macabre 427. 190 ff., Ripley now enumerates the twelve processes or “gates” of the art of alchemy, to each of which he devotes a chapter of his work. The first is of natural calcination, i. e., the reduction to powder by means of heat. The second is of solution, the third of separation, the fourth of conjunction; by the fifth, “putrefaction”’, the alchemists understood a breaking- down process: the sixth step was congelation accompanied by whitening, and the seventh ciba- tion, by which alchemists meant the adding of fresh substances to compensate for the evapora- tion which had taken place. The eighth process was sublimation, and the ninth fermentation; after these followed exaltation, or the raising of qualities to a higher degree, multiplica- tion, and finally projection, the end and crown of all. To these twelve chapters Ripley de- votes, respectively, 22, 15, 18, 15, 51, 30, 6, 8, 19, 11, 9, and 8 stanzas. A recapitulation of 11 stanzas then follows and a Prohibicio is appended to all, THE PROHIBICIO 4.. for sune and mone, for Sun and Moon, i. e., for gold and silver. See CanYeoTale 887. 6. vermylon, vermilion, the red mercuric sulphide used by alchemists. Later, any red pigment. 15. water corosyves and water ardente, acids and spirits. 20. calcys. A calx, in alchemy, was a powder produced by thoroughly burning a mineral or metal. 23. Vitriol, says Ripley, is called the Green Lion by fools. See note on 109 ante. 24. arsnyke. Arsenic, in its alchemical sense, might be the Mercury of the philosophers when in the stage of putrefaction. Orpement is yellow arsenic. See CanYeoTale 269-70. 25. In debily principio, etc. The contrast is between principio and fine. A poor begin- ning makes a bad ending. 29 ff. give a list of salts:—sal ammoniac, sandiver (the liquid saline floating on glass after vitrification), sal alkali, alembroth or the double chloride of mercury and ammonium, sal altincar or borax, saltpetre, sal of tartar, sal comen or meconic acid, sal-gem or rock- salt, vitriol, and sal soda. See CanYeoTale 231 ff. for some of these terms. 36 ff. Ripley now enumerates the false methods which he unsuccessfully tried; cp. also Norton’s list, p. 39 in Ashmole. In chapter 8 of Paracelsus’ Aurora of the philosophers (see Waite’s transl. 1:55), Paracelsus says that some have sought the stone in hairs, urine, hen’s eggs, milk, in calx of eggshells, in galls of oxen, and in dragon’s blood. Others, he says, take a score of lizard-like animals, shut them in a vessel, and make them mad with hunger, so that they devour one another until but one survives. This one is then fed with filings PAGE 256] THE COMPEND OF ALCHEMY 487 of copper and it is supposed that by his digestion of the copper he will bring about the de- sired transmutation into gold. Such experimenters then burn the lizard into a red powder, which they think must be gold; but they are deceived, says Paracelsus. 37. Es uste, aes ustum, the crocus of copper or crocus of Venus. The method of making this is described by Paracelsus, see Waite’s translation i:141-2. The copper, in thin plates, is smeared with salt and vinegar, burnt in a blast furnace, and dipped in vinegar and sal ammoniac. This process is repeated, the scales being scraped off each time, until the plates are nearly consumed. Then the vinegar is extracted by distillation, and is allowed to coagulate into a very hard stone, which is the crocus of copper used in alchemy.—crokfere, crocus ferri, the crocus or yellow powder of iron; peroxide of iron. 39. letarge, litharge, protoxide of lead. The rime should be worth a myte——antymony, antimony, sometimes classed as a metal, sometimes as a non-metal; one of the elementary bodies. Etymology unknown; popularly explained as “anti-moine”, hence called monksbane. 41. The sowle of Saturn —the sal of Saturn? sugar of lead—arkesyte, marcasite, iron pyrites, which often had the lustre of gold. Waite says that all stones which contained any proportion of metal were called marcasite by the alchemists—For the wrong line-arrange- ment in this stanza see footnote to text. 43. Oyle of lune, oil of silver. Paracelsus, in Waite’s transl. ii:140, gives a recipe for making “the oil and quintessence of Luna”. 47. aqua vite. Ashmole reads “a quantity”. 48. In one of the minor alchemical tracts printed by Ashmole, p. 205, the worker is bidden to take “the red substance” and break it on a marble stone. 53. oyle of the snayle. The NED notes the use of snail-oil, as late as 1887, as remedy for backache. 57. rennet. A mass of curdled milk found in the stomach of an unweaned calf, and used to curdle milk for cheese. Mentioned among natural liquors by Norton, see p. 79 of Ashmole. 58. slyme of sterrys. According to the NED, the alga Nostoc, which appears as a jelly-like mass on dry soil after rain, was popularly supposed to be the remains, or “slime”, of fallen stars or meteors. This assertion is found in Paracelsus. 59. celydony. This probably means not the fabled stone found in the entrails of a swallow, but the plant celandine, from which, says Paracelsus, some alchemists have pressed a juice, boiled it, put it in the sun, and after coagulation pounded it to a fine black powder, which should by projection turn Mercury into Sol, but does not.—secundynes, afterbirths. It may be noted that in a Herbal of 1526 amber is said to be the secondine cast by a whale. 63. for the nonys, suited for the occasion. See note Garl. 267. 64. on of gevers cokys, one of Geber’s cooks. To the Arabian Geber, as above noted, line 112, were attributed many alchemical works. See for this locution Norton’s Ordinal as printed by Ashmole, p. 103, “manie of Gebars Cookes”; and see the poem by Sir Edward Kelle, printed ibid. p. 324, beginning “All you that faine Philosophers would be And night and day in kitchin broyle, Wasting the chipps of ancient Hermes tree,” etc. 88. newtriall mercurialyte. Ashmole reads A naturall Mercuryalyte. This is the first NED citation of mercuriality as “the mercurial part of something”. 89. Owte of hys mynerue by marte, etc. Ashmole reads “Out of his myner by Arte”, etc., and the Corpus MS reads arte. The NED defines minera as the matrix in which a precious stone or metal was supposed by the alchemists to grow, and cites Ripley. DHE TECOURT OF SAPIENCE is neither annotated nor glossed. HAWES: THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE In his dedication to King Henry the Seventh, Hawes makes the conventional protesta- tions of his rudeness and dulness, and lauds the ‘“‘fatal fictions’ of his master Lydgate. In 488 NOTES [PAGE 271 the tone of his excuses he closely follows Lydgate, whom he treats with the same respect which Lydgate showed for Chaucer, and Chaucer for Dante or Virgil. The theory of poetry stated in 34-42 is that current, in medieval formal poetry, that, as Spingarn phrases it, “the reality of poetry is dependent on its allegorical foundations; its moral teachings are to be sought in the hidden meanings discoverable beneath the literal expression”. Thus, John of Salisbury praises Virgil, “qui sub imagine fabularum totius philosophiae exprimit veritatem” (Polycraticus vi, cap. 22; see ibid., ii, cap. 15). Dante in Inferno ix :63 calls upon his readers to observe the “dottrina che s’asconde Sotto il velame degli versi strani.” See note on Churl and Bird 29 here, and the paragraphs on allegory in Gen. Introd. 25. colour crafty. See note on FaPrinces G 46. 28, 29. Observe stanza-liaison; also between stanzas 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 42 and 43, 186 and 187, 550 and 551, 555 and 556, 564 and 565, 570 and 571 of the poem. 33. fatall. See note on line 665 below. 44. to eschue idlenes. See note on line 1313 below, and on Cavendish; lines 24-30. 1 ff. When...etc. The usual temporal-astronomical opening; see note on Thebes 1. 6. depured. ..cruddy. The adjective depured is a favorite with Hawes, and is prob- ally taken from the Court of Sapience, where its use is frequent. It is occasional in Lydgate and in Bokenam, but it is not in Chaucer. The use of cruddy, ‘‘curdled”, to describe the sky, is very interesting to the modern student, who thinks of Shelley's “crudded rack’’ or “curdling winds”. The likeness between the torn white clouds of morning and the integument of curdling milk is sufficiently marked to rouse curiosity as to Hawes’ intention here. The passage is the earliest of the few NED citations. Had Hawes for an instant his “eye on the object”, instead of blindly repeating conventional phrases as usual? 8. gaye and glorious. Used again 200, 1400, 2504, 3181, 4880, 5264, 5616; see note on line 353. The phrase is in Bradshaw’s St. Werburge i:1786. 11-13. Possibly a recollection of Chaucer’s opening to the CantTales. 15-18. In the Example of Virtue, stanza 26 begins “A path we found, right greatly used”. 19. chaunce or fortune. This and similar couplings are very frequent in Lydgate, not uncommon in Chaucer. Note the “aventure or sort or cas” of the CTprologue 846, the ‘“‘aven- ture or cas” of Knight’s Tale 216, the many cases in Lydgate’s Troy Book, e. g., “of caas or aventure” i:34, “hap or sort” iii:5315, etc. Note Dante’s “Se voler fu, o destino, o fortuna”, Inferno 32:76. But Hawes’ phrase, as often Lydgate’s, is a synonym instead of a distinction. 27. The two ways are those of the Active and the Contemplative Life. A choice of paths is a frequent motif in medieval literature, but the contrast is oftener between Voluptas and Virtus (as in the choice of Hercules) or Idleness and Occupation (cp. Pilgrimage of the Life of Man 11232 ff.) or Reason and Sensuality, as in Lydgate’s poem 637 ff., than as here. 29 ff. The most famous example of the inscription at entrance, that over the gate of the Inferno in Dante’s third canto, is imitated by Chaucer PoFoules 127 ff. There is a brief inscription on the entrance tower of the Court of Sapience, see ii:40-42 ibid. See below 78 ff. 73. shynyng. The print has shydyng; and in 72 it reads portayture. For copper as ma- terial for statues cp. note here on Cavendish line 225. For the use of picture as “image” the NED gives first the Coventry Plays, then this passage, etc. 78. situacion.. Hawes frequently, under coercion of rime, uses a sounding Latin abstract term in a forced sense, e. g.:— . . it shall to him exemplify Pastime 1214 . . she can exhort Of La Bell Pucell... Pastime 4588 . . they did then conject To make... Pastime 4896 . the high promotion Of la Bell Pucell’s domination Pastime 5113 . I cannot extend the goodlyness Of this palace... Pastime 5198 87. gaspyng nette. This may be a printer’s error for galpyng, i.e. “gaping, yawning”, in which case the rhetorical figure is parallel to Chaucer’s “slepy yerd”, KnTale 529, or to the THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE 489 PAGE 273] “trembling trompe” of Cavendish’s Metrical Visions 1222. The NED treats the word here as asping. ; a deadly slomber, profound slumber. Cp. Lydgate’s mortal slepe, Troy Book v:2072. Note the assonance. 93. The wakening of the sleeper by a loud or musical sound is a favorite device in medieval dream-poetry. The voice of birds is used in Chaucer’s PoFoules, followed by Lydgate’s Black Knight, by the Cuckoo and Nightingale, and by Dunbar’s Thrissill and Rois. In the BoDuchesse Chaucer uses the castle-bell; in the Parlement of Thre Ages it is the blast of a bugle, in Dunbar’s Goldin Targe the noise of guns, which wakes the sleeper. Differing modes are the dreamer’s fall from the bridge in Douglas’ Palice of Honour, the water springing in his face at the close of the Assembly of Ladies. In the Kingis Quair, Fortune takes the poet by the ear. See Cavendish’s Visions 1222. 97. morow gray. This phrase, used by Chaucer at the opening of his Mars, reappears in the Flower of Courtesy 9, the Troy Book i:3078, 3098, iii:3760, v:2958, and often else- where in Lydgate. See also the introduction to Orléans, p. 215 here, other cases in Hawes, and later English writers such as William Browne the student of Lydgate. 99. This description of the approach of Fame is one of the few really good bits in the poem. 106 ff. With the arms of Henry VII and of Henry VIII two greyhounds were often used as supporters; Fame’s bestowing of them, under the names of Governance and Grace, on the youthful prince, is a workmanlike blend of allegory and compliment. 121. was in my presence. Hawes has of course no notion of following the procedure of Dante, who often obtains his “dream-effects” by saying that some one “was there’, with- out mentioning the approach or using such words as “came”, “crossed”, “rowed”, etc. 125. kyng Percius. Perseus, son of Zeus and slayer of Medusa, has no connection in myth with the winged steed Pegasus except that in the moment of Medusa’s death her son by Neptune, the flying horse, was born. It was Bellerophon, slayer of the Chimaera, who rode Pegasus. Rhodenizer suggests that Caxton’s comparison of Perseus’ spreading fame to the flying steed led Hawes to this statement; see Recuyell, ed. Sommer i:196. 129. The request for the name is as usual in medieval work. When names are not given, the writer thinks it necessary to apologize; cp. PoFoules 287, BlKnight 124, FlandLeaf 150, 273, Thebes 3195, AssGods 406, 1542, 1598, etc. 130-1. The confusion of direct and indirect discourse, and the use of the participle as a finite verb, are very Lydgatian. See for the latter Thebes prol. passim. 136. my horne haue blowen, etc. See Cavendish’s Visions 1222; see this poem 5498, or p. 210 of the Percy Soc. edition. See note on FaPrinces B 95 here. 145. in her digression, i. e., in the decline of the world. 146, 148. The phrases busy payne, Record of, are Lydgatian. The former occurs again 441, 727, the phrase busy cure 117, 160. 148 ff. Fame now discourses on the “first finders” of arts in the golden age. The chapter in Lydgate’s FaPrinces, ii:2409 ff., is not used; Hawes takes his material, as Rhod- enizer points out, from Caxton’s Recuyell, to which he refers in line 180. He also uses the book, calling it “the Trojan story”, in ExamVirtue stanzas 87-89. The “finding” of agri- culture by Saturn is described at the very opening of the Recuyell, the mining and working of the metals a little later, see p. 117 of Sommer’s edition. 163 ff. Melizyus. The importance of King Melizyus in this poem should be noted. At his court the youthful hero receives his training in the arts of chivalry, and from the king personally the order of knighthood. If this poem has a connection with the young prince Henry (see note on 106 above) a compliment to the reigning sovereign would be entirely in place. In the Recuyell (ed. Sommer i:14), “Mellyseus” is‘lord of the city of Oson; on p. 70 he is king of Epirus; on p. 144 “the kyng of Mollose”, who has “founden the craft to tame and breke horses” leads a hundred Centaurs to the aid of Jupiter. Rhodenizer suggests a con- fusion between the two names in Hawes’ mind. The fact that “Millesius”, ic. Thales of Miletus, is one of the seven sages in the Court of Sapience has no connection here. 490 NOTES [PAGE 274 169 ff. Minerva’s gift of arms to man, and her conquest of the giant Pallas, whose name she took, are in the Recuyell (Sommer i:38). See also the ExamVirtue, stanza 37. Lydgate’s list makes Pallas the inventor of weaving, see note on 148 above. 180. Hercules’ life and deeds are fully narrated in the Recuyell. 196. heyres in fee, the heirs of feudal privileges and obligations. 205. Gyauntes. A frequent feature of the romances, see e. g. Sir Tristrem, Sir Perceval, Sir Beves of Hamtoun. 210. serpentes. ..blacke and tedious. The latter epithet is used by Lydgate of abstrac- tions; cp. “on this mater is tedious for to abyde”, FaPrinces vii:460, “tedius to here’, Troy Book iii:5565. He also uses tediouste to mean “prolixity”, cp. DuorMerce 900. But Hawes regularly, and Barclay occasionally, use this word of concrete things; Barclay writes of a “tedious shout”, of “infernal floodes tedious and horrible’; and Hawes, always coupling the word with black, applies it to devils, to serpents, and to the evil spirit expelled from a dragon. See this poem 953, 2229, 5090, and ExamVirtue stanza 270. 211. For beyonde the Percy Society text reads behynde. 216-17. The outer walls of the tower are “enamelled” as were those of the garden in the Roman de la Rose, with paintings. In the Assembly of Gods the outside of the walls of Dame Doctrine’s foursquare arbor were painted with figures. See further on in this poem, 5122-3 and 5177-8, pp. 195, 197 of Percy Soc. edition. 219. Delete Of? 221. Ivke as Phebus. See note on FaPrinces G 36 here for this locution in formal verse. 246. The porter of Venus, in the PoFoules, is Richesse; the portress of the Roman de la Rose is Idleness; in the Assembly of Ladies the portress is called Countenance, as here. For a full household staff of such allegorical figures see this last, and also the French poem printed by Meyer in Romania 15:241-6. See 421 below. 249. the seuen scyences. Graund Amoure is to receive something parallel to an Uni- versity education. Of the seven liberal Arts, the trivium was made up of grammar, logic, and rhetoric; the quadrivium of arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. See Abelson, The Seven Liberal Arts: a study in Medieval Culture, N. Y., 1906. See also the essay on these Arts in the Vision Delectable of Alfonso de la Torre, by J. P. W. Crawford in Romanic Review 4:58-75, and the earlier paper by d’Ancona in vol. 5 of L’Arte, on the influence of Martianus Capella as seen in frescoes, tapestry, etc. of the pre-Renaissance. See the Court of Sapience, book ii. 266. fawning courage, i. e., ingratiating ways, obedient spirit. On the word courage see note above on Walton A 310. 269. Perhaps read ek for ey? 272. twylight. The first NED citation is from Lydgate’s Troy Book i:2733. Of his several uses of the word, that ibid., i1i1:2677 ff. is accompanied by a definition. 275. fyne force, stern necessity, perforce. See Chaucer’s Troilus v :421. 281. This chapter-heading is out of place; it should precede stanza 38. 286. For the awakening by birds cp. note on line 93. 289. the element, the upper air. See Comus 299. 292. Document, instruction. In the ExamVirtue prol. 3, Hawes cites St. Paul as saying “All that is written is to our document”. He is probably quoting 2d Tim. iii:16. 293. copper. The use of metal or of precious stones in architecture (also amber, coral, and jet) is a constant feature of the romances and of medieval tales of marvel such as Mandeville’s Travels. Chaucer’s house of Fame is of beryl, and the palace of Venus, in the PoFoules, is of brass set on jasper pillars; in Caxton’ Recuyell the tower in which Danaé is imprisoned is “alle of copper”, and Douglas’ palace of Honour is of beryl upon a marble rock. We may also remember that when Henry VIII later erected his palace of Nonesuch he covered the timbers with lead and gilded them. The taste of the time, as well as the romance-formula, is expressed in this detail of Hawes’ poem; and much later, when Keats in his Endymion or Tennyson in his Palace of Art, was creating a mythical building, he sought glitter to enhance its beauty. PAGE 277] THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE 491 297. In Lydgate’s Temple of Glass 20 ff. the brilliancy of the building blinds the gazer until “‘certain skyes donne” cover “the stremes of Titan”. In Douglas’ Palice of Honour, “For brichtnes scarslie blenk thairon I mocht’, says the author. 301. Auster, the south wind, was supposed to bring mist and fog. 305. The definiteness of this description suggests that Hawes had at least a picture in mind. In the Margarita Philosophica the tower of Philosophy is hexagonal, but the full- page cut shows it standing apparently in the street of a city; see reproduction in The Legacy of the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1926, to face p. 272. The foursquare base may have been added from some woodcut or pageant-setting seen by Hawes; neither Chaucer’s HoFame nor Lydgate’s TemGlas nor the Court of Sapience gives any statement as to the shape of the rock-base. 309. The castles of the romances, the palaces of Chaucer, of the Court of Sapience, and of Douglas, are all equipped with pinnacles. In Hawes’ ExamVirtue stanza 27 the castle of Fortune has high diamond towers “with fanis wavering in the wind’; and Doug- las’ Palice of Honour has “goldin fanis waifand with the wind”, also “pinaclis quhilk like to Phebus schone”. See also this poem, p. 196 of the Percy Soc. ed. In this last extract, and here, the special feature is the musical quality of the wind-moved turrets. Chaucer, HoFame 1193 ff., fills his pinnacles with enshrined figures of singers; Tennyson, in the Palace of Art, tips his turrets with figures which seem to toss incense from golden cups. 311. propre vyces. The word vyces may mean a screw, a turning shaft; cp. the pseudo-Chaucerian Isle of Ladies 1312, in which the writer, ascending “a winding stayer keeps hold on “the vice” as he climbs. The adjective means that each pinnacle had its own. 315. dance Iclipped, etc. The more popular “caroles’ and group-dances bore the names of their thematic lines or their place of origin, etc. Some mentioned in the Tournois de Chauvenci (ed. Delmotte, Valenciennes, 1835) are Béguignaige, Ermite, Pélérinaige, Pro- vencel, le Chapelet. And in line 1528 below the musicians are bidden to play “Mamours the swete and the gentill daunce”. 331. besy court. Probably a misprint for base court, “lower or main court”, the French “basse cour”. See lines 2942, 5140, where the correct form appears. 337. The four rivers of medieval allegorized gardens and palaces were ultimately modelled on the four rivers of Paradise, which are named lines 338-9. In the Palace of Art Tennyson modifies the convention into four courts, each with “the golden gorge” of a dragon spouting forth “a flood of fountain-foam”. 338. Nysus is an error for Nilus, the Nile. Cp. note on line 87 above. 347. The crystal windows, usually “depured” as here, are always noted by Hawes. See this poem 1360, 1468, 2502, 5176, 5197; see the ExamVirtue stanzas 28, 46, 70, 174. So in the romances, e.g., Sir Degrevaunt 1441-54; so in Mandeville’s Travels. 349-50. Hawes invariably shows great interest in the roofs of his buildings, which are either “knotted” curiously or equipped with precious stones, especially the radiant car- buncle. See also his ExamVirtue stanzas 32, 238. With this grapevine of gold and rubies Rhodenizer compares the similar vine in the hall of the Great Khan, described by Mande- ville chap. 23 of his Travels as of gold with clusters of fine grapes made of white crystal, yellow topaz, red rubies, green emeralds, and black onyx. Other descriptions of the roof in this poem are 1359, 1467, 2504-6, 3180, 3240, 3701, 4112, 5181-6, 5192. See note on Cavendish’s Visions line 106; see Shelley’s Revolt of Islam, i, stanzas 51, 52. 353. gayely glorified. This phrase also occurs 597, 3194, and ExamVirtue stanza 77. It is a variant of the phrase gaye and glorious as in line 8, etc. Cp. gaye and gorgeous, 2833. 356-7. The same two lines recur 1469-70. 358-420. The coming story of Graund Amoure, up to his wedding, is given by antici- pation in this tapestry. There is a curious parallel in the novel This Freedom, temporarily popular in the third decade of the twentieth century; its author says of his heroine, “We'll fix her stage from first to last, then see her walk upon it.” Events to come are then out- lined, after which the narrative begins. Hawes may have been influenced by the Knight’s Tale 1175-80. 492 NOTES [PAGE 278 421-7. With the careful apportioning of household duties among allegorical female figures cp. the Assembly of Ladies, where Discretion is purveyor, Countenance porter, Bel- chere marshal, Largesse steward, Remembrance chamberlain, Aviseness secretary, Temper- ance chancellor, etc. See also Douglas’ Palice of Honour, ed. Small i:68; and see the French poem cited in note on 246 ante. 453-5. The meaning seems to be that Doctrine has given birth to these seven daughters without lessening her own authority. 462. Congruitie. In the fullpage illustration of the Margarita Philosophica entitled “Typus Gramatice”, the learner is presented by Grammar, or Nicostrata, with a key inscribed “Congruitas”, which opens the tower of Philosophy. 463-526 are omitted from this selection of passages. In them Grammar receives and addresses the learner, and instructs him in “Donat”, i. the Ars Grammatica Minor of Donatus, the usual medieval text-book. Four stanzas epitomize the hero’s study, and six, chapter 6 entire, dispose of Logic. Rhetoric, the next sister, is given much more space, and discourses through a number of chapters. The approach to the Seven Arts is quite different in Hawes from the approach in the Court of Sapience. In the earlier work the seven sisters are found in the third court of Sapience’s palace, and are by no means the principal figures of the narrative. Much is made of their pupils, whose names are carefully given; and the account of their teachings is often very technically phrased, and far from puerile as is the instruction here. It might almost be suspected from the full treatment of Rhetoric here that the young prince for whom the poem was intended was at the time engaged with that particular branch of study. There is no such proportion in the Court of Sapience, where Rhetoric has six stanzas and Dialectic or Logic seven; and in the Margarita Philosophica the section of Rhetoric fills 23 pages as compared with Dialectic’s 64 and the seventy-two devoted to Grammar. 527-536 are retained from the chapters on Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric now omitted, in order to illustrate the extreme definiteness of Hawes’ pedagogic intention. 659 ff. Hawes now formulates his theory of sound composition, insisting upon the neces- sity of a fable of “clowdy fygure”, and censuring the dull rude people who think themselves deceived by a poet if they have to interpret his meaning; see note on Churl and Bird 29 ante. He then proceeds to give the five parts of Rhetoric. These are, as in the usual medieval text-books, ultimately from the pseudo-Ciceronian treatise Ad Herennium, see ibid., i chap. 2; but instead of following the order of that treatise, “inventio, dispositio, elocutio, memoria, pronuntiatio”’, Hawes puts Pronuntiatio before Memoria. In this he agrees with Lydgate’s FaPrinces vi :3319-3360, and with the Margarita Philosophica. See note FaPrinces G 193 here. 663. obscure reason, “veiled discourse’. The word reason often means “utterance” in Middle English; and see the French Li Biaus Desconus, Lydgate’s Troy Book ii:5392, etc. etc. Cp. for the theory Dante in the Inferno ix :62-3,—“la dottrina che s’asconde Sotto il velame degli versi strani.” See note ante on Churl and Bird 29.—obscure means “hard to understand”. First case NED for this sense is of 1495; but see FaPrinces vi:2339, “to whom she gaff an ansuere ful obscure.” 665. fatall scriptures. In Chaucer’s MLTale 163 fatal means “fraught with destiny” ; and so in Lydgate, where Minos’ hair is fatal, FaPrinces i:2528. But Hawes gives the word the meaning “prophetic”; in ExamVirtue he writes of “poetes that were fatall”; and cp. dedication here, line 33, also 751, 813; cp. Skelton’s Garland 34. 670. wofull hartes. Why woeful? 674. and, i.e., an, “if”. 675-79. Hawes’ meaning seems to be that Invention must be supported by Industry. The exemplify of 677 may be one of his grandiloquent polysyllables inexactly employed,— see introd. ante—or Hawes may mean that the working-out in narrative “exemplum” of something found by Invention is necessary to successful literary work. 692-3. After praising brevity, Hawes says that it is necessary to estimate what length of treatment is fitted for the matter in hand. PAGE 279] THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE 493 730-32-33. Note the rime on accented -eth, and cp. the procedure of Sir Thomas Wyatt. 737. solisgyse, “syllogize”, i.e. argue, dispute. First used, according to NED, in the Assembly of Gods. 752. moralyse the similitude, “interpret the fable’. The same phrase is used at the opening of The Craft of Lovers, see my Chaucer Manual, p. 420. Skeat in his Chaucer Canon, p. 121, thinks the phrase was there a marginal note which has crept into the text. 757. what for that is an ejaculation. 763. Chapters X and XI are now omitted. 1107. derified, “derived”. In the Percy Soc. edition, veryfyde. 1110. arage. The two examples of this word in NED are both transitive. Hawes apparently uses it intransitively, “to be enraged”; such twisting is not uncommon in his work, 1121. Chapters XII and XIII are omitted. 1255. Mercury northwest. Compare the much-debated passage in PoFoules 117, “As wisly as I saw thee north-northwest”, i.e. the planet Venus. Cp. Hamlet’s “mad north- northwest”. 1257. Hoyse vp thy sayle, etc. Cp. opening of the second book of Troilus. 1259. trace and daunce, manner and procedure. 1260. thy. The later print, of 1555, reads the. 1261 ff. Hawes’ allusions to Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate are interesting. I reprint the three closing stanzas of the Example of Virtue, from the ,unique copy of de Worde’s 1510 print in the Pepysian collection, Magdalene College, Cambridge. O gower fountayne moost aromatyke I the now lake for to depure My rudnes with thy lusty retoryke And also I mys as I am sure My mayster Chaucers to take the cure Of my penne for he was expert In eloquent termes subtyll and couert Where is now lydgate flourynge in sentence That shold my mynde forge to endyte After the termes of famous eloquence And strength my penne well for to wryte With maters fresshe of pure delyte They can not helpe me there is no remedy But for to praye to God almyghty for to dystyll the dewe of influence Upon my brayn so dull and rude And to enlumyn me with his sapyence That I my rudnes may exclude And in my mater well to conclude Unto thy pleasure and to the reders all To whome I excuse me now in generall Explicit exemplum yirtutis 1268 ff. In discussing Chaucer’s work, Hawes distinguishes between invention, transla- tion, and imagination; this may be a mere coercion by rime, but the description of the Legend of Good Women as a translation is noteworthy, also the term “sentencious” as applied to the Hous of Fame. Hawes names, of Chaucer’s work, the Hous of Fame, the Legend, the Canterbury Tales, Troilus, and “many other bokes” remaining in print. At the time Hawes wrote, there was no collected edition of Chaucer; there were ,in existence four editions of the Canterbury Tales, two of which were by Caxton; from the same press had 494 NOTES [PAGE 281 been issued Troilus, Boethius, the Hous of Fame, and eight of the minor poems, including the Parlement of Foules. There was no text of the Legend in print when Hawes wrote. 1286 ff. A selected list of Lydgate’s work follows. It runs: the Life of Our Lady, St. Edmund, the Fall of Princes, the Churl and Bird, the Court of Sapience, the Troy Book, a “boke solacious” of gods and goddesses, and the Temple of Glass. Of these eight, the first, fourth, fifth, and eighth had been printed by Caxton, and the Assembly of Gods (the “boke solacious”’?) and Fall of Princes by de Worde, anterior to the date at which Hawes is writing. This attribution of the Temple of Glass to Lydgate is accepted by scholars, hut neither the Assembly of Gods nor the Court of Sapience is viewed as his. See p. 100 here. 1286. rvyally. The text reads nyally. 1297. See note on Churl 29. 1313. the tyme of slouthe. This is corrected by the 1555 editor to The synne, etc. Sloth was_one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and writers of this period freqently state that their purpose in writing is “to eschewe idilnesse, modir of vycis’. See, e.g., Lydgate’s FaPrinces i:4685-6, vi:234, vii:696-7, etc. Cp. the Franciscan phrase “ad repellendam otiositatem”; and see Caxton’s insistence on writing as safeguard against sloth, in the Recuyell and elsewhere. See note on lines 24-30 of Cavendish’s Visions. 1318. ballade royall. The application of “rime royal” to the seven-line stanza rimed ababbcc is by the NED et al. ascribed to its use in the post-Chaucerian “Kingis Quair” of King James of Scotland. MacCracken however points out the term in Quixley’s ?1402 translation of Gower’s French ballads; see MLNotes 24:31. 1330. The 1555 text reads “to haue fame for their mede”, supplying the omission. 1334-37. According to Hawes, the making of love-songs was as favored an occupation at the court of Henry VII as we know it to have been at the court of his son. 1349. See Chaucer’s Troilus 1:642-3 for this more or less proverbial parallel between the heightening of white by black and the aggrandizement of a great writer by a humble follower. It is especially developed by Lydgate, FaPrinces vi:2969-82; see also his Temple of Glass 1250, and cp. Skelton, Garland of Laurell 1210, Spenser’s Faerie Queene, iii:9, 2, 4. See note FaPrinces G 33-35 here. 1351. Chapter XV is omitted from these extracts. 1401 ff. Another temporal-astronomical beginning, as in Lydgate’s Thebes 1 ff., or at the opening ofthis poem. It is now May; the sun is in Gemini. 1404. darke Dyane, the unillumined moon. 1412-14. base organes, etc. In the Margarita Philosophica the woodcut of “Typus Musica” represents Music as a female figure holding a placard of musical notation and surrounded by performers on various instruments, harp, viol, organ, etc. With the chapter is a diagram of the groupings of musical tones. Under the all-inclusive Bis Diapason are the subdivisions Diapason and Diapason-cum-Diapenthe; under the Diapason or octave appears Diapenthe the interval of a fifth, and under Diapenthe the Diatessaron or Tetrachord, the interval of a fourth. 4213. Another temporal-astronomical opening, as in 1401 above. Lydgate, in his Troy Book, frequently marks thus a new phase of his story. 4215. Aquarius is next Capricorn in the Zodiac. 4216. Janus bifrus. This should be “bifrons”, or two-browed; the print failed to recog- nize the horizontal mark over the vowel indicating an omitted ‘nasal. Janus, in Roman mythology, presided over the beginnings of all things, was porter of Heaven, and guardian of gates on earth. He was represented with two heads because every door looks two ways. 4224-5. corall....rockes ... toppes. Hawes probably uses coral to make the land- scape magical. According to Bartholomaeus’ De Proprietatibus Rerum, coral was a tree as long as it remained under water, but on being drawn out turned to stone. Note the assonance of rockes: toppes. This un-Chaucerian license is fairly frequent in Lydgate. 4225. popingayes, parrots, favorite birds with medieval courts because of their decorative plumage and peculiar ways. PACE 282] THE PASTIME OF PLEASURE 495 4230. blasyng, i.e. blazoning, or interpreting the devices upon a shield. 4255 ff. Take hede, etc. In the romance of Sir Degore 321-2 (see Utterson’s Select Pieces of Early Popular Poetry, 1817, i:113-155) the giant is described “to loke on as I you tell As it had bene a fiende of hell.” So in Guy of Warwick, when the hero encounters the giant Colbrond:—“Swiche armour as he hadde opon Ywis no herd ye neuer non Bot as it ware a fende of helle” (see ed. of 1840, p. 393). On p. 297 of the jsame text it is said of the Saracen giant that ‘““He semed as it weren a fend bat comen weren out of helle.” 4261. In Caxton’s Recuyell, Hercules encounters the giant Cerberus with three heads, then the Hydra with seven heads. 4266. cause encline, cause to encline. Hawes’ twisting of word-use again. 4288. be displease. There is apparently text-corruption here. 4291. stremer grene. Green was the color of fickleness. 4301-3. Clumsy change from indirect to direct discourse. 4307. wondersly wrough. The reprint of 1555 reads wonderly wroth, which restores the rime. Note reading of line 346. 4319. Hawes gives a name to his hero’s sword, a trait frequent in the romances. Cp. Arthur’s Excalibur, Sir Beves’ Morgelai, Grine’s Erkyn, Horn Childe’s Bittofer, Torrent’s Adolake. And in the Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, Moses gives Manhode the sword Versatile, Grace Dieu giving him the sword Righteousness. 4332. what for that. An ejaculation, as in line 757 above. 4344-45. In Caxton’s Recuyell, ed. Sommer i:26, Hercules remembers Megaera as he fights. fk 4358. venyme should be venum, “venom”, as in the 1555 text. 4363. The 1555 text garbles demeaned you to demaunded. 4364. brayed. This term was formerly applied to the voices of various animals. Caxton uses it of the elephant, and in book ii of the Recuyell the lions attacking Hercules “brayed in her throtes”. The Italian poet Pugliese, of the 13th century, wrote “Gli auscelletti odo bradire”, applying the word of same etymology to birds. 4386. Upon, at opening of the line, has apparently been intruded into the text from the second half-line. It is not in the 1555 edition. 4406. The verb talk is rarely used by Chaucer, somewhat more freely by Lydgate. 4411. The hero’s name is asked; see note on 129 above. 4416. The 1555 text reads: “to attayne the same’. 4426. The allusion is to Chaucer’s Troilus i:358 ff. The movement of thought in 4427 is “and desired to see her still longer”. 4431. Chaucer uses wade of conversation in Troilus ii:150; so does Capgrave in his St. Katherine iv:1624, and Cavendish as here, line 1218. For the ship-metaphor see note on 1257 ante. 444-45. The chapter-heading is out of place; it should precede line 4438. NEVILL AND COPLAND: THE CASTELL OF PLEASURE DIALOGUE 1 ff. Copland uses his participles very clumsily. Putting a semicolon or full stop at the end of line 4, we may paraphrase: “Your mind being considered (etc.), the effect being regarded (etc.), your circumstance and labor is of great efficacy (for him) who will examine it.” Although the word “concern”, line 6, is used by Lydgate to mean, “discern, perceive’,— see FaPrinces i:6719, iii:1346, 4766, etc.—it seems here to have more the later sense of “relate to, bear on”. The last three lines of the stanza might then be paraphrased: “To adopt your moral teachings has a bearing on reason, (and tends) to draw young hearts with affection.” Beside this loose management of the participle, which reminds us of Lydgate, and the inversions, we observe in Copland’s opening compliment to Nevill a further beclouding of the intention by the arbitrary use of Latin abstract words wrenched from their normal meaning. 496 NOTES [PAGE 288 This wrenching, we may remark, is not characteristic of Lydgate, but is frequent in Hawes; see for instance the note on line 78 of the Pastime of Pleasure. But such flourishing of terms does not go through Copland’s introduction; although it reappears in his envoy, the most of these stanzas express the opinion of a practical business man/or a comment on the degeneracy of the times. With this dialogue as!introduction compare the method of Hoccleve in opening both his De Regimine Principum and his series of poems intended for Gloucester. 16. inhabyte with Beaute. See line 107; see Lydgate’s Troy Book i:854. 32. exployntyng. Read “exploytyng”, \i.e., “succeeding”. See Lydgate’s FaPrinces v:713, vi:517, 542, etc. He uses it to mean “make to succeed”, and the noun expleit as synonymous with “good speed”. 38. doost should be dooth. 43. At your instaunce. Copland perhaps means an arrangement such as was frequent between Caxton and his noble patrons, who engaged to take “a reasonable number of copies” and to give him some material help otherwise. See p. 14 here. 47. Tables / cayles / and balles, i.e., backgammon, ninepins, and ball-playing. THE CASTELL OF PLEASURE 1 ff. As Chaucer had done in the Book of the Duchesse and Parlement of Foules, Nevill starts his work with the reading of an old book, in this case the Metamorphoses of Ovid. He chances on the story of Phoebus’ wounding by the arrow of Cupid, and his consequent passion for Daphne. His lines 13-48 should be compared with Metam. i:454-549. 11. were compenable, “were associated”, i.e., what the conversation was. 17. becomes me. Ovid, “decent umeros nostros”. 19-20. Nevill here muddles the Latin. It is Cupid, not Phoebus, who says (Metam. i:464-5), “quantoque animalia cedunt cuncta deo, tanto minor est tua gloria nostra.” That is, “by as much as all living things are less than deity, by so much less jis thy glory than mine.” To this add the typographical error of the inserted at in line 19. 38. dame saunce mercy. As Daphne was vowed to virginity and the service of Diana, it may be that dame here is miswritten for Diane. 49. at a syde. Perhaps “at the moment of departure”. Early Eng. sithe meant “a going, a journey”. The last NED citation in this meaning is from the ,Towneley Mysteries, 1460. 49 ff. The ice of convention falls from Nevill’s eyes and tongue in this stanza; but the conventional dream nevertheless follows. The lines, 49-60, are included in Fliigel’s Neuengl. Lesebuch, 1895, p. 17. 63. enhaunce. The NED gives one example, from 1632, of the “misuse” of this word to mean “surpass”. This appears to be its force here, “overmaster”. 79. The twelve-line stanza is now exchanged for the eight-line. 84. in one, i.e., in one man? 88. solde and bought. A proverbial expression, “all over with, done for”. Cp. Richard Bact V5) sca od00: 89. it is done me, etc. “I am given to understand.” Cp. “I do you to wit.” 95-6 are apparently the author’s reply to Morpheus. 105 is spoken by the author, the rest of the stanza by Morpheus. 109. apparage is explained by NED as “rank”, and illustrated from Hawes’ ExamVirtue. Both there and here the sense “prowess” would better fit. 115. gargeled galeryes. See note on 178, and cp. Surrey’s Complaint at Windsor, where the ladies watch the contestants from above. 119. toke a dyreccyon. Cp. Hawes’ wresting of word-meaning for rime; see note on the Pastime line 78. 133. Nevill’s meaning is that from courage comes the delight of the tourney. He may be using wre in a double sense, the ore from the Hill of Courage and the practice that upholds “doughty disport”; (ure can derive from augurium, “destiny’, opera, “custom, practice”, or hora, “hour”. Lydgate-MSS usually spell it ewre). PAGE 291] THE CASTELL OF PLEASURE 497 151. Nevill, like Hawes, uses alliteration as a verse-ornament. 178. Gargaled, etc. The tower is “gargoyled” with various animals, among which the greyhound is first mentioned. See note on Hawes 106; and in 307 of the Pastime the Tower of Doctrine is “Gargeyld with grayhoundes and with many lyons”. In chap. 26 of the Pastime the Tower of Chivalry, on a rock, is quadrant and is “gargeylde wyth beastes”. 183. grephyn, “griffin”. These mythological creatures, called by Aeschylus the “‘sharp- beaked unbarking dogs of Zeus”, were mentioned by Pliny as “ferarum volucre genus”. They were winged lions with the beaks of birds and with blazing eyes; they were supposed to guard the treasures of the Ind from those who would seize gold. They symbolized strength and guardianship, and their duty placed them in watchful antagonism to men. Hence, proba- bly, Nevill speaks of their being “desolate of lyuely creature”, and terms them “golden”. But the “ruful mone” is perhaps for rime. 185-6. Nevill follows the procedure of Hawes in describing the “bejewelled” architecture and the windows. See notes on 347, 349-50 of the Pastime. 191-3. The two ways and their two “scryptures” are as in the Pastime 27-42; see note on 27 ibid. for Hercules’ choice between Pleasure and Virtue, a choice referred to by Nevill in line 212 below. 209. Nevill muses as did Hawes line 44 of the Pastime. 214. In the fable of Prodicus, fifth century B.c., Hercules does not see two ways, but two female figures who discourse of their different ways, that of Pleasure and that of Virtue. Barclay (see ed. Ship of Fools by Jamieson 1i1:287) says however that he saw in a dream the two ways. The more obvious story-form must therefore have displaced the earlier. _ 425. She is Eloquence, who is escorting the dreamer. 427. to lene at the herbar, to listen outside the flower-walls of the arbor, as in La Belle Dame sans Merci 195. 830 ff. The Ubi Sunt motif; see FaPrinces, extract C here, introduction. 840. the foure doctours, i.e., Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Gregory. 872. thereof, i.e. of his dream. NEVILL: ENVOY 1. Go humble style, etc. See note on Churl 379. 4. arrect, etc. The first NED case of to arrect or prick up (the ears) is of 1646. 12. Ouyde ... low style. Nevill compares his work with that of Ovid in its lack of “rethoriques”. See Lydgate’s definition of “humble style” in FaPrinces vi:102-4: Nat maad corious be non auauntage Of rethoriques with musis for to stryue But in pleyn foorme ther deedis to descryue. Ovid’s style appears to us decidedly rhetorical; but Nevill continues by pointing out that his simple matter is not worthy the “high style” befitting wise and serious stories. The term “high style” was used by Chaucer in the Clerk’s prol. and Tale 41,1092; see my Chaucer Manual, p. 252. On the “colors of rhetoric’ see note FaPrinces G 46 here. 13. to auoyde ... slouthe. See note on Hawes’ Pastime, line 1313. 14. with cloke, i.e., under a fable or allegory. See note on Churl line 29, and cp. Hawes’ Pastime, lines 659 ff. COPLAND: ENVOY 16. This rubryke, i.e., this part or section of the work, with’ its heading. Titles or sum- maries were usually written in red, “rubricked”; and the term was extended to mean parts of the work thus marked. 18. toke effect. Again a wrenching of word-meaning; see notes on Nevill 119 and on the Pastime, line 78. 498 NOTES [PAGE 300 BARCLAY: THE SHIP OF FOOLS 7. doth. The plural in°-th is frequent in Barclay; cp. lines 23, 206, 249, 6997, 7001, 8490, 8509. See also Walton’s Boethius A 105 and Note, Cavendish 1261 and Note. 20. Pallas and Minerva. For this division of the goddess see Dunbar’s Goldin Targe 78. Hawes’ Pastime, chap. 36, lines 4914 etc., makes “dame Pallas” a goddess, while in chap. 27, lines 3271 etc., Minerva is at the court of king Meligius as instructress in arms. A similar splitting of Tullius and Cicero is made in the Confessio Amantis iv :2647-8, and earlier by Alars de Cambrai as cited Hist. Litt. de la France xvi:218. Alars also made Virgilius and Maro two people, as John of Salisbury does with Suetonius Tranquillus, see his Polycraticus viii:18 ad finem. For the reverse error see note on Brutus Cassius, FaPrinces E 63 here. 27. lyke a Monster. In the time of Shakespeare and Jonson, London abounded in exhibitors of “monsters”, creatures which either were abnormal in physical structure or had been taught tricks; see The Tempest II, scene 2, and III, scene 2, also Jonson’s Bartholo- mew Fair V, scene 3. This passage shows that earlier in the century the “monster” was exhibited, behind closed doors for better security of the owner’s income. 36-7. The marginal note is ‘Horatius in sermonibus”. The second satire of Horace’s first book begins:—‘‘Ambubiarum conlegia, pharmacopolae, Mendici, mimi, balatrones, hoc genus omne.” Locher’s Latin uses the word pharmacopolas in line 21; hence probably the reference. 43-49. The marginal note is: “Eccles. primo. Peruersi difficile corriguntur Et stultorwm infinitus est numerus. Prouer. xxvi.’ The citation is from Ecclesiastes i:15; Proverbs xxvi deals with fools. 68. by planettes. The navigator finds in the stars adverse conditions. 74 is a proverb; cp. Lydgate’s Dance Macabre 344, “Who al enbraceth litel shal restreine”, and its French original, “Qui trop embraisse mal estraint’, line 271 on p. 431 here. The same French sentence is at the head of a poem by Deschamps (see ed. by Tarbé i:32). Chaucer quotes it as a proverb in the tale of Melibeus, and it appears in the “Proverbs” ascribed to him. 75. London Rockes. This phrase I cannot satisfactorily explain. I find no evidence as to actual rocks in the Thames, nor any jesting use of the phrase to describe the low marshy banks of the river. It is possible that there is here a misprint of Rocks for Docks, a term used as early as Douglas’ Aeneid and Leland’s Itinerary to denote the bed in which a ship is anchored. 78. arere. Apparently an exclamation:—“Get back!” In Jamieson’s ed. of the whole poem 1: p. 297 we find the foolish night-serenaders made to “‘stande arere” by missiles flung from the windows. See also Eclogue iv:655. Cp. Avaunt! 85. myrrour. An exceedingly common metaphor in medieval literature. The number of volumes entitled Speculum or Mirror,—Ecclesiae, Laicorum, Peccatoris, Historiale, Myrrour of Life, Mirouer du Monde, Miroir aux Dames, Mirror for Magistrates, etc., is beyond count. The metaphor was as common in discourse as in title, cp. e.g., Lydgate’s Dance Macabre 31, 637; cp. line 13186 here, etc., etc. 86-7. Beside these lines the print has “Speculum stultorum” in the margin. 92-3. In the margin the print has “Seneca Prouer.”, transferred from Locher’s Latin. Locher’s text at that point is: “Nemo caret vitiis, nemo est sine crimine vite.” Just below, against 95-98, is: “Quis potest dicere mundum est cor meum purus sum a peccato.’ This is from Proverbs xx:9. In 93 the bracketed word is from the 1570 ed.; our text reads im. 105. babyll, i.e., bauble, the imitation sceptre carried by the professional fool, resembling the modern “rattle” of a small child. See 502. Cromwell termed the Parliamentary mace “that bauble”. 114. insygne. French enseigner, “educate”. Note Barclay’s use of a French term in rime. In the margin by this stanza is ‘““Pedes enim eorum ad malum currunt et festinant ad effundendum sanguinem. Prouer. i. Ps. xlviii.” The citation is from Proverbs 1:16, but ends “ut effundant sanguinem”. There is a similar text in Isaiah lix:7, but not in Psalms. PAGE 302] TEE SHIP“OF FOOLS 499 126. delicious, i.e., sensual, voluptuous. Caxton in the Golden Legend speaks of monks as “ouer delicious”; and Palsgrave in his 1530 dictionary defines it as “daynty mouthed or delycate”. 131. The 1570 text changes Pynsones to the Printers. 134. In the margin is “Scribendi causa’. The poet’s conception of his duty and function, from Plato to George Meredith, is one of great interest. Browning, in The Glove, writes, “For I—so I spoke—am a poet; Human nature,—behooves that I know it!” Meredith (Melam- pus) says that vitality resides in song solely “where earth and her uses to men, their needs, their forceful cravings, the theme are: there is it strong.’ Bunyan says that the Pilgrim’s Progress was written “mine own self to gratify’. Dante in the Vita Nuova says that he cannot do his lady justice with his praises, but speaks “to discharge his mind”. None of these was the average medieval position. Barclay, translating and expanding the prologue of Locher to the Ship, declares that no poets write unless it be for the reader’s pleasure or profit, or both; that poets teach what is good and what is evil, and that their intention has ever been to reprove vice and to.commend virtue. He is undertaking the work to promote wisdom and to cleanse the vanity and madness of foolish people. Again, in the brief prose “Argument” just before the first book, Barclay says that he writes both to “auoyde the execrable inconuenyence of ydilnes, whyche (as saint Bernard sayth) is moder of all vices”, and to deride fools. Henryson commends the sweet rhetoric of fables, but says they were first written to reprove misliving. The disappearance of the plea of “virtuous besynesse” as a literary motive and the frank recognition of pleasure to individual or group in its place is a mark of the Renaissance, and runs parallel with the crowding out of allegory by pure story. See notes on Hawes’ Pastime 1313, Cavendish 24-30; see FaPrinces iii: 3823-36. 142. inconuenyence, “impropriety, unseemly wrong-doing”, as in lines 534, 600 below, and often in this period. Cp. Cavendish 1371. In line 226 it means “injury”, as in Hawes’ Pastime, chap. 10, line 818, a passage not reproduced here. 148. In the margin is “Excusatio scribentis”. 154. A passage of prose follows, introducing the “Boke”. It is headed by Jamieson i:17 “The Argument”, and may be read either there or in Fliigel’s Neuengl. Lesebuch, p. 104. 156. pompe. Is this misprinted for “poupe”’, the poop or high afterpart of the ship where the master stands, as in 162? The writing pompe is retained in the 1570 text; and cp. Cocke Lorels Bote, “some roped ye hoke, some ye pompe and some ye launce.” The corres- ponding Latin line is: “rego docili vastaque vela manu”. 162. In the margin appears “Diodorus Siculus 1i.i.”, and just below it “Ecclesi. xij”. The opening chapter of Diodorus the Sicilian’s (Greek) Biblioteca Historica lauds the endeavor of historians to teach mankind “praeteritorum exemplis quid nobis appetendum sit quidve fugiendum”. This Latin citation is from the transl. of the first five books of Diodorus by Poggio Bracciolini, printed 1472, 1476, 1496, ?1515, etc. We do not know whether Poggio, or Skelton’s transl. of Diodorus, or a mere transfer of the marginal reference from Locher, is behind Barclay’s use of the name here. The Ecclesiastes reference is to verse 129 :— “Faciendi plures libros nullus est finis; frequensque meditatio carnis afflictio est”. 166-68. In the margin is:—“Dabitur liber nescientibus literas. Esaie. xxix”. See xxix :12 ibid. 181. comon, commune, talk. A frequent word with Barclay; see, e.g., Eclogue iv :472, 541. The Cawood print of 1570 changes to comment. 183. Tholomeus. In the margin is:—“Ptolomeus philadetemus meminit Jo Sephus li.xij”. In Josephus’ Antiquitates Judaeorum xii cap. 2 it is said of Ptolemy Philadelphus’ library that the king endeavored to gather all the books of the known world. Locher’s text has “philadelphus’, accurately. 190. In the margin is:—“Qui parwm studet parum proficit glo. Li. vnicuigue C. de prox. sacr. scri.” I have not worked out this reference. 194. The 1570 edition reads in, our text it. 209. the yresshe game. “Irish” was a game resembling backgammon, but more compli- cated. Nares in his Glossary refers to the “Compleat Gamester” of 1680. 500 NOTES [PAGE 303 216. Concedo. “I assent.” The Latin is:—“At si cum doctis versor concedere malo Omnia: ne cogar fors verba latina profari’, etc. Watson translates :—‘I shall condyscende vnto all theyr preposycyons for fere that I sholde not be reproched of that that I haue so euylly lerned.” 231. Honyngton or of Clyst. These small Devonshire parishes,—Honiton and six places named Clyst,—were in the vicinity of St. Mary Ottery, where was Barclay’s chaplaincy at this time. What personal animus may lie behind the allusion we do not know; but Pompen, p. 207, notes that the incumbent of Honiton, from 1505 till 1517, was Henry Ferman or Feyrman. See Pompen as cited; see Jamieson i:221; and cp. Skelton’s Ware the Hauke. 235. The 1570 text omits to Pryson. 245. The last line of Locher’s Latin at this point is:—‘Auriculis asini tegitur sed magna caterua”; in the margin beside which is ‘“Persius’’. 250. In the margin is:—“Translatio a somniantibus”. 252. occupye. This word frequently means “to use’ in late Middle English. In Cay- endish’s life of Wolsey we hear of “broken plate and old, not worthy to be occupied”. See Exodus xxxviii:24, Judges xvi:11. In Lydgate, however, this sense is infrequent, and his usage is more commonly like ours. It is reflexive in FaPrinces A 398. Two chapters are now omitted, on Evil Counsellors and on Avarice. 456 ff. Extravagantly cut and ornamented dress and headgear, curled, frizzed, and padded hair, as worn by upper-class men and women, were constant topics of satire in this period. See the dramas, from the 25th Coventry Piay and the Woodstock Play to Medwall’s Nature and its figure of Pride. See the introduction to Horns Away, p. 110 here, with refs. to contemporary verse and pictures. See lines 514, 533, 541, 8479-85 below; and with it cp. the sobriety of Henry VII, as described by John Blacman in his memoir of Henry, Cambridge, 1919, 466. The 1570 edition reads :—“you wiser then God omnipotent’. 470. “The mode of dress has deteriorated. All sobriety is gone’. 498. of the first yere, etc. That is, newly raised in rank; a metaphor from hunting. The antlers of a buck are said to be of the “first head” until he is at least five years old. “Of the first year” would be a still greener dignity—foxfurred. Furs were most carefully pre- scribed and proscribed by the various English Acts of Apparel. By that of 1363 no yeoman or his family was to wear any rich fur, “mes soulment d’aignel, conil, chat, et goupil”, i.e., lamb, cony, cat, and fox. In the petition of 1402 no “vadlet” is permitted any fur but lamb, fox, cony, and otter. By the law of 1465 sable and ermine were restricted to lords, and by that of 1509-10 sable could be worn only by earls and yet higher ranks. A foxfurred gentle- man is therefore so new in gentlemanhood that he still wears the fur of his native yeoman class. 509,514. to lowe probably alludes to the cut of clothing at the neck. While in Henry VI’s time both sexes covered the neck and throat completely, in the reign of Henry VII men as well as women were bare-necked. The English fop at this period cut his doublet in a V as deep as that of a modern woman of fashion. A similar change from one extreme to the other may be seen in the styles of hair and shoes; cp. notes on 541, 8480 below, and the dif- ference between the headdress of Richard II’s time and the low flat cap of latter Edward IV, as described in the introd. to Horns Away ante. 512-13. chaynes as withthes, chains like (plaited?) golden rushes. 515. The wearing of “grosses Maunches pendants ouertez ne closez”, i.e., big hanging sleeves open or closed, was petitioned against by the Commons in 1402. In 1406 they repeated the request to the King that such sleeves, and long gowns touching the ground, be forbidden; they also asked that sleeves “tranchez des peces”, i.e., slashed, jagged in patterns at the edges, be prohibited. At this time sleeves were often made separate from the rest of the garment, of very rich stuffs, and either cut into roses, birds, etc., along the border, or trailing nearly to the ground, or padded to great dimensions,—“blasinge”. By the 1465 Act of Apparel, early in Edward IV’s reign, no yeoman or man of lower degree was to stuff his doublet with any bolster, wool, or cotton. See the prologue to the 25th Coventry Play, where Lucifer describes a dandy’s costume. PAGE 306] THE SHIP Or FOOLS 501 In France especially the sleeve was further adorned by devices and mottoes, a custom followed by the higher classes in England. Charles of Orléans wore on his sleeve the words of a song and its notes, embroidered in seed pearls and precious stones. In the Epithalamium for Gloucester, 112, 161, are mentioned ‘‘mottoes” which may have been used in this manner. And it may be remarked that in the MS of the Fall of Princes, formerly Phillipps 4254, two of the miniatures show gallants who have devices embroidered on the left leg of the hose. 523. Rubbe. This orthography appears several times in the 1509 print of the Ship; see Jamieson i:80, ii:101. On ii:202 it is spelled rebbing. 527-9. The garments of a condemned criminal were sold after he had been hanged at Newgate. His body remained hanging, at least on a country gallows, until the neck broke away. 533-6. The manuscript-illuminations and the monuments of the time bear Barclay out in this statement; and the Acts of Apparel not only bewail the “inordinate Aray”, but endeavor to force men and women to dress “according to their degrees”. Impoverishment of the less wealthy, and class-confusion, were the arguments of the Commons in their various petitions to the sovereign. From that of 1363, which presents both these reasons, to that of 1465, there were three abortive attempts at controlling dress, the petitions of 1379, 1402, and 1406; only the second of these drew an assent, a very general one, from the king. See Rotuli Parliam. ii:278-82, iii:66, 506, 593, v:504. The law of 1465 was re-enacted in 1477 (Rot. Parl. vi:188-9), when the Commons declare that it had not been enforced, and that matters are worse than ever. There is then provided a system of collecting fines; but it was of no avail, and in 1482 (Rot. Parl. vi:220), the law was again enacted. Nothing more appears until the opening of Henry VIII’s reign, 1509-10, when an Act of Apparel was passed (Statutes of the Realm iii:8-9), and is re-enacted 1514-15 and 1532-33. There was another such statute under Mary; see Statutes iv:239. That all the statutes on the matter were virtually a dead letter may be inferred from the satires of the two centuries. 541. set Busshes. See 8480 below. A gallant’s hair, from the reign of Richard II to that of Edward IV, was curled and bushed like that of a Polynesian savage. In Medwall’s play of Nature, printed 1516-20, the character of Pride says that he knits up his long hair at night and combs it out crisp and shining for the daytime. Other allusions by Barclay are in Jamieson ii:97, 268. Fraustadt points out, p. 41 of his monograph as ante, that Barclay changes Locher’s Ethiopians, as the source of this fashion, to “men of Inde’. The same change is made in another passage of Barclay; see Jamieson ii:264. It is possibly because Vasco da Gama’s opening of the sea-route to India in 1498, between the Latin and the English versions of the Ship, had created a general European interest in India; but it is also true that ‘‘the gretter Inde” had represented fabulous wealth and incredible marvel to the Western imagination long before da Gama. Some part in this change made by Barclay was perhaps due to the convenience of Jnde as a rime-word. This fashion, like that of neckwear, headdresses, and shoes, changed to the extreme when it changed. In 1521 Francis the First of France introduced the mode of close-cut hair, and a little earlier the long peaked men’s shoes were replaced by the clumsy broadtoed footwear seen in the portraits of Henry VIII. 542-3 etc. fleinge brayne. The “inconstant mind” of the gallant is expressed by his extravagant parti-colored often-changed clothing. 553. in the Quere, in the choir. Their fathers were mass-priests? 555. Barclay censures dresses laced in the back, and high pointed headgear. 556. Delete the period at the end of the line as in the print. 557. sadel. I can throw no light here except to query if Barclay can mean the long train, often worn gathered up and fastened at the back of the waistband. 558-9. decke slut. Copyntanke. The word copyntanke (copatain in Shakespeare’s Tam. Shrew V, 1:69), is first used here, according to the NED, and is found only in XVIth-century texts. It means a high sugarloaf hat, and its etymology, although probably French, is not clear. 502 NOTES feace god The only meaning for the word slut which seems applicable here is that of “an oven- mop”, recorded from Shropshire in the Engl. Dialect Dictionary. It is possible that Barclay first disrespectfully terms the high hat with its mass of ribands and veils a “deck mop”, and then makes amends by giving it its foreign name. Cp. Lydgate’s “humorous” procedure in FaPrinces ii :3360 ff. 575. By letting the tonsure grow the cleric “re-forms” himself to the appearance of a layman. 597. your Prynce. The Ship of Fools was published in December 1509, and Henry VII died in April of that year. The phrases here used seem more applicable to him than to Henry VIII, and this early part of the translation may have been executed before his death. 6930 ff. In Jamieson’s edition of Barclay, this chapter is at p. 23 of vol. ii. 6953. “And then they take measures to know”, etc. 6968. These place-names are largely adopted from the Latin. Moryans, or Barbary Moors, are also mentioned in Eclogue v; Athlant and Calpe are Atlas and Gibraltar, the latter being one of the two jaws of the Straits of Hercules; Garnado is Granada. Barclay does not mention the Northern lands “hynder Norvegen und Thyle”, Iceland and “Pylappen- land”, which Locher had already dropped, except Thule, in translating the German of Brant. He adds to Locher’s strong Mediterranean interest an allusion to the “newe fonde londe”, line 6969. The coast of Labrador had been visited by the Portuguese in 1501, and in that year and in 1502 Henry VII had granted some Bristol and Portuguese merchants the right to make a voyage of discovery. In 1502 he paid twenty pounds to “the merchants of Bristoll that haue bene in the Newefounde Launde”, and in 1503, 1505, he rewarded men who brought him hawks, wildcats, and popinjays from “the Newfounded Island”. Hakluyt also speaks of three wild men who were captured “in the Newfound Island” and brought to court. Hick- scorner mentions the “newfound island” in its list of places visited; and in Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, ed. Brewer iii:366, there are mentioned in the inventory of Lord Darcy’s goods, 1520, nine pieces of hangings “having the story of the new funnd island”. See Pollard’s Reign of Henry VII, ii1:345-47. 6973. the see of Hercules. Probably that part of the Mediterranean adjacent to the Straits of Hercules? 6985, 6995, 6997. Strabo, plinius, Tholomeus. The Geographia of Strabo, written under Augustus, the Historia Naturalis of Pliny the Elder, born just as Strabo died, and the “Instructions for the Drawing of Maps” written by Ptolemy in the second century, are the three great geographical reference-books of the Middle Ages. The churchman Barclay is by no means anticipating the anti-Ptolemiac theory of the solar system; but his criticism of these mighty authorities is noteworthy. Compare, in the second book of the Court of Sapience, the “processus” of Geometry, where the various theories of the earth’s measurement, by Aris- totle, Albertus, and a follower of Ptolemy, are given, and it is said “thus one clerk doth another confound”. 7005. “It is a mad thing for any one to take trouble”, etc. 7007-15. Allusion is here made to recent discoveries:—that of Newfoundland in 1501, the return of Vasco da Gama in 1503 from around the Cape of Good Hope to India, the earlier success of Columbus. Ferdinandus is Ferdinand V of Castile and II of Aragon, “the Catholic”, husband of Isabella (who died 1504), and patron of Columbus. 8444 ff. Cp. the description of the Golden Age and the simplicity of manners then, in Vir- gil’s Georgics i:125 ff., Ovid’s Metamorphoses i:89 ff. and xv:96 ff., Hesiod as cited by Diodorus Siculus v, chap. 4, Boethius’ De Consolatione ii metre 5, Chaucer’s translation The Former Age, Lydgate’s FaPrinces vii:1153 ff., Spenser’s Faerie Queene ii, 7:16, Browne’s Britannia’s Pastorals ii, song 3, Thomson’s Spring 235 ff., Beattie’s Minstrel ii, stanza 38. 8465. On usury see note Dance Macabre 393. 8480. here out busshynge. See 541 and note. In Barclay’s Eclogue ii it is said that women most love those “well decked with large busshes set”. 8503. one grange, etc. Neither to Barclay’s mind nor to that of most Englishmen did it appear unfitting that an English cleric should hold more than one benefice; and “plurality” PAGE 310] THE SEE OF FOOLS 503 was not removed from the Church for centuries. But that a churl should own more than one bomestead or farm was scandalously greedy. 8509. churlys becomyth statis. This may be a general conclusion from the preceding, and it may perhaps hint at Wolsey, to whom Barclay is supposed to have been antagonistic. Wolsey, the son of a well-to-do butcher or grazier, had received an University education, had been introduced to the notice of Henry VII, and had “‘of late” been made the King’s chaplain, in 1507, the year before Barclay began his translation. Henry made him dean of Lincoln in early 1509, and Henry VIII on his accession in April of that year made Wolsey his almoner. In that capacity Wolsey was particularly distasteful to the old nobility. In the first of Barclay’s eclogues is an allusion to “butchers dogges wood” (i.e. mad), which has been interpreted as meaning Wolsey; and documents printed by Brewer, Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, indicate that Barclay had incurred the suspicion of the Cardinal. See Schultz as ante, p. 298. 8515. abhomynable. For the spelling see note on Walton E 93 here. 13796-8. “A place .. . most meet for him.” 3827. reason... thyn. Cp. Merch Tale 438, ‘‘my wit is thinne”. ProlCantTales 748 has “my wit is short’. 13836-9. Note Barclay’s comment on printers. 13869. For a censure of Virgil see Macrobius’ Saturnalia as cited by Skelton in the Gar- land of Laurell 380-84 note. 13874-8. Barclay ends with blame of vicious literature; cp. the remarks of Nevill and Copland at the opening of the Castell of Pleasure, p. 289 here. The names here singled out are Robin Hood and Philip Sparrow; and also in Eclogue iv:721 Barclay casts slur on Robin Hood. Ward, Catal. of Romances i:507, opined that Skelton, to whom Barclay had a strong antipathy, was probably author of a Robin Hood interlude or pageant; Brie, Engl Stud. 37 :32-7, supports this. In Roy’s Rede Me and Be Not Wroth, ed. Arber, p. 64, it is said that the “frantyke foly” of the bishops forbids the use of the New Testament in English, “but as for tales of Robyn hode / With wother iestes nether honest or goode / They have none impediment’. See Morley’s language in his prose dedication, p. 386 here. sparcles, scattered particles, whether of fire or not. The word, as verb or as substantive, is frequent in this period, from Caxton on. In Barclay’s fifth eclogue we find “sprinkled and sparkled abrode”; Surrey in his Aeneis is fond of the term, which Wyatt also uses; in Sack- ville’s Induction 464 he speaks of “spercled tresse”’, meaning scattered or dishevelled locks. BARCLAY’S ECLOGUES: THE PROLOGUE AND THE FOURTH ECLOGUE The text of this prologue shows the peculiar and apparently unreasonable notions of a sixteenth-century printer as to punctuation. The old cesural bar of the scribes, which had itself become a carelessly-handled convention before it passed away, is quite regularly replaced by a mid-line comma; and in a large number of cases the second line of a couplet closes with a full stop, the first with a colon, regardless of the flow of the sense. It is these frequent arbitrarinesses of method, alongside the better-judged handling of a few texts, e.g., in the Chaucer of 1561, which make the early history of English punctuation a psychological prob- lem. The meddling of John Stow with Chaucerian rhythm, although it proves that he failed to hear -e final, proves also that he actually read the text; the more reasonable punctuation in his 1561 Chaucer may be due to the same cause, although the question has not yet been investigated. But the pointing here is quite mechanical and stupid; the reader should cancel it mentally in order to get the flow of Barclay’s meaning. Barclay’s prologue bears but small relation to the dedicatory prose preface of Mantuan. ‘It begins with Barclay’s own survey of previous eclogue-writing. He names Theocritus, Virgil, and Mantuan, giving the palm to Mantuan in “that sorte’. Petrarch follows, and then, unnamed, Theodulus, author of an “Ecloga” written in the seventh or eighth century, a dialogue between the shepherd Pseustis and the shepherdess Alithia, representing Falsehood 504 NOTES [PAGE 314 and Truth, and discussing heathendom and Christianity with many examples from history or myth in support of the argument. Barclay then says that a youthful work is here revised and completed by him; he generalizes for a number of lines on this point, where Mantuan says briefly that he found a work of his youth which he had supposed destroyed, that he has polished it, and has added two more eclogues done later. The close agreement of line 73 with Mantuan’s “intellexi apud quendam litterarium virum esse quendam libellum meum” causes us to doubt whether the experience here described is actually Barclay’s or is imitated from Mantuan. The remainder of the prologue seems to be Barclay’s own. THE PROLOGUE 3. “They say boldly, they indite”, etc. 14. a que, a half-farthing or quadrans, often abbreviated to q in accounts. The same phrase occurs in Barclay’s Mirror of Good Manners; and see Skelton’s Magnificence 36. 21. Eglogues. This word, first cited NED as of 1514, is used by Lydgate in Fall of Princes iii:110. 30. style Heroicall. See note on style, Nevill envoy 12. 31. in our dayes. Mantuan died in 1516. 32. Hathe. See note on Cavendish 1261. 37-42. the father, etc. See above. 51. slouthe to eschewe. See note on Hawes 1313, Cavendish 24-30. 78. great instance, urgent request. 85 ff. Horace in the Ars Poetica 114 ff. says, in Conington’s translation :—‘“Gods should not talk like heroes, nor again Impetuous youth like grave and reverend men; Lady and nurse a different language crave, Sons of the soil and rovers o’er the wave.” 98. by that manner, because of this mode of presenting my material. 100. Closed in shadow. Barclay means the same thing that Lydgate or Hawes means by “the veil of the fable’. See notes Churl and Bird 29-30, Hawes’ dedic. 34-42, etc. 104. Poete Laureate. See note on Churl and Bird 15, Burgh 21, 107. blacke ... greene. See note on Thebes prol. 73. 116-17. See note on Walton A 44. 127. There are not ten eclogues by Barclay preserved, but five. Mantuan had ten, Virgil ten, Petrarch twelve. 131. Courtly Misery, The title of the poems by Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, which Barclay follows in the first three eclogues, is Miseriae Curialium. THE FOURTH ECLOGUE Compare Spenser, Shepherd’s Calendar, October. The names of the interlocutors here are, according to Mantuan, eclogue 5, Silvanus and Candidus, Silvanus being the rich and stingy sheepowner. Barclay substitutes Codrus and Minalcas. The latter is Virgilian, from the fifth eclogue; and in that same poem line 11 are mentioned the turgia Codri or quarrels of Codrus, while in viii:26 Codrus is represented as envious. See the Carmina Burana II close,—“quia Codro codrior omnibus abundas”; is this a Virgilian allusion? 1-36. Barclay’s stage-setting has no parallel in Mantuan. 16. wide open, i.e., on the back, relaxed. See Sir Degrevaunt 3352, Morte Arthure 2147, Beryn prol. 1293. 18. “Peered to see how his garments became him.” 63. See Churl and Bird 87-8. 71 ff. This “example” is not in Mantuan. 137. Perhaps read “wel ere”, i.e., “just now you conceded”. 145. Read “Ye other shepherds’; Mantuan has “Vos quibus est res ampla domi”, etc. 145-151 is quite closely from Mantuan. 162. Renouncing cures. Mantuan has :—‘“positis vitam traducere curis”. 167-178. The description of a shepherd’s duties fills two lines of Latin. 170. daube, lay on as whitewash. In Eclogue v one of the shepherd’s labors, repairing the holes in his sheepcote, is to ‘‘stop them with stubble, eft daube them with some clay”. ECLOGUE IV 505 PAGE 319] 180. Mantuan 18-19 has:—‘“laudabile carmen. Omnem operam totumque caput... requirit.” 185. “I can hardly support the burden of attending to one.” 190. “Every one disdains to perform my tasks.” 194. “—then my work is ruined”. 195-200 are inserted by Barclay to break the long speech; see 459-62. Note the rime 199-200. Cornix is the principal speaker in Mantuan’s sixth eclogue, used by Barclay for his fifth; he says nothing of this sort, however, and the sentiment is not in keeping with Codrus’ later stinginess. If Barclay had any plan of making the niggard expansive until he had obtained his end, the management is interesting. 212. For this light and colloquial touch, and for lines 210-15, the Latin has only :—“tibi paenula, dicunt, . . . trita, genu nudum, riget hispida barba”. 216. of leaues bare. Mantuan has “iam silvae implumes”. 228-9. With the repetition of weary cp. Mantuan’s repetition of paenitet thrice in two lines. 233 represents ut nosti in the Latin. 236. “At that time men give no thought to age.” 247. Mantuan line 36 reads :—“formica, brevis sed provida bestia.” 257. Barclay cannot pass unchallenged the acceptance of stellar influence on human fate in the Latin. Cp. his chapter against “astronomy” in the Ship of Fools, Jamieson ii:18. In the preface to his translation of Mancini we find:—“Helped by milde Planet and constellation. If Planets haue power or may helpe any thing.’ The Latin there is:—‘Sydera coniuncta, sydera si qua valent.” Mantuan himself, ecl. vii:181-2, makes Cornix say that “qui numerant stellas et se comprendere fata posse putant, stulti’. 273-294. These four speeches are in Mantuan of two lines each. 286. reason and ballade consonant, sense and sound agreeing. Cp. such a title as Brown- ing’s Bells and Pomegranates. 295-346. This speech is of eleven lines in Mantuan. 296. fro presence, i.e., although thou art far from the Muses’ presence, through us may come enjoyment of them. 301-2. Mantuan says, “Carmina sunt auris convivia, caseus oris”. Note his word-play auris: oris, and cp. John of Salisbury’s scitu: situ, urbis: orbis, militia: malitia; Fulgentius’ famae: fami; Alanus’ nomen: numen, etc. 315-18 are added by Barclay; see the FaPrinces viii :2685 ff. and note on Churl 260. 317. lymster, Leominster, in the west of England, near the Welsh border. 327. See Chaucer’s adaptation from Claudian in PoFoules 99-105, and see note on Churl 351. 346. knot of Hercules, one of the attributes of Mercury; the twist of the serpents on his staff or caduceus. The allusion is to Hercules’ strangling of two serpents while he was yet an infant; the phrase is explained by Macrobius in his Saturnalia i chap. 19 thus :—“Hi dracones parte media voluminis sui invicem nodo, quem vocant Herculis, obligantur” (Mustard). 347-8. Mantuan’s shepherd says: “Vana supervacuis inculcas plurima verbis.” The reply begins: “Vana inquis—” etc. 355. boye, a serving-knave; Prompt. Parv. scurrus. The meaning is that the attempt to labor hard, like a servant, is impossible if one is to “haunt the Muses’. 385. Auoyde all charges, remove all responsibilities. 388. “Then shalt thou see and test what I am able to do”. 399. Barclay expands somewhat Mantuan’s sketch of a winter evening’s amusements around the hearth; his eight lines represent five Latin. The prophitroles of 405 I cannot explain; the look of the word tempts one to suggest a game such as Ragman Roll, in which various written “fortunes”, rolled together, were drawn out in turn by the players and read aloud. But such an amusement seems too “literary” for the group here described. See note on GarlLaurell 1455. With the description cp. Thomson’s Winter 617-29, Milton’s L’Allegro 100-15. 506 NOTES [PAGE 323 411. Titerus, Tityrus, i.e., Virgil. 414, 415. Cp. use of sound with that in 633, and see note ibid. 416. Mantuan 88 says: ‘et magno pulsabat cantu”. 419-28. The parallel lines in Mantuan are :— eloquium fortuna dabat. Nos, debile vulgus, pannosos, macie affectos, farragine pastos, Aoniae fugiunt Musae, contemnit Apollo. 423. frowise, froyse? See note on Thebes 101.—quacham is not in NED or Eng. Dialect Dict. 425. rusty meates, foul food.—inblindeth. See use of blind in lines 1042, 1093, as “to make decrepit, dull”. 431. Render with strong pause after succoure. 438. man God auowe, man may declare to God. See 726 below. The modern locution is “T’ll tell the world”. Cp. and God toforn, Troilus iii:1639, etc. 441. Cosmus or Capell. The wealth of Cosmo de’ Medici of Florence was proverbial. Capell was the name of a great Austrian family, owners of vast landed estates in the four- teenth century. Their male line became extinct in 1408, and their possessions passed by mar- riage to the house of Lichtenstein. 444-6. Mantuan has only :—“Serica pallia, Tyrias chlamydes.” The Acts of Apparel of Henry VIII and his predecessors specify these same costly stuffs named by Barclay as to be worn only by nobles. 447-8. Mantuan 98 has:—‘non patinam Aesopi fames clipeumve Minervae.” Mustard notes that this is Clodius Aesop, a Roman tragic actor of Cicero’s time, of great wealth, who according to Pliny, Nat. Hist. x:141, served at a banquet a patina or pie of rare singing birds. This extravagance became proverbial. It was the son of this Aesop who is said to have dis- solved and drunk a pearl. The shield of Minerva was also a large and costly pie, made of peacocks’ brains, flamingoes’ tongues, etc., and so called from its size. To these classical examples Barclay adds “Peter’s costly cope’. Both here and in line 1141, where the miserly Codrus swears by “holy Peter’s cope”, the phrase may mean “a treasure”. The NED under cope cites from Barclay’s contemporary Whitinton, who in his Vulgaria quaedam cum suis vernaculis, printed in 1527, has “wolde spend Goddes cope (Tantaleas opes)”. The NED suggests connection of the gold-idea with the stars, and the cope as heaven. See Beryn 453, where “siker as of goddis cope” apparently means “not sure at all”. 451. Mantuan 101 has: “haec me iam pridem memini didicisse sub Umbro.” The teacher from whom Mantuan makes his poet-shepherd derive his learning is Umber, Mantuan’s name in his eclogues for his own master Gregorio Tifernate. Barclay makes a similar allusion to the Dean of St. Paul’s, Colet. 459-62. This interruption by Codrus, not in Mantuan, is probably introduced by Barclay to make the dialogue brisk. Cp. 195-200, 609-28. Barclay adds 463-78. 479-80. olde Pithagoras. The Greek teacher Pythagoras, of the sixth century B.c., was a proverb for his doctrines of moral abstinence, extended by later popular belief to physical abstinence. The Pythagorae mensae of Mantuan 104 are dinners of herbs, with no meat. 490. Mantuan in ecl. ii1:46-7 says, ‘“finem philomena canendi fecerat” in the heat of sum- mer. See also his ecl. v:108-9, the source of this passage. 496. forked cappes were worn by bishops. Mantuan 112 says “‘pontifices”. Read the line: . “Or else if thou hast been with the forked caps.” 507-8. Mantuan 115 has: “vesci Et lupus omni animal crudis existimat escis.” 519. I haue heard tell. Mantuan says:—‘“Romana palatia vidi.” 521. Micene and Morton. John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of the realm 1486, Cardinal 1493, previously Bishop of Ely, had died in 1500. Micene is perhaps Richard Mesyn or Misyn, Bishop of Dromore, who had died about 1462. He was the trans- lator of Hampole into English, and as a Carmelite may have been conspicuous in Barclay’s memory. PAGE 325] ECLOGUE IV 507 523-4. Mantuan 121 reads:—“Occidit Augustus numquam rediturus ab Orco.” 525 ff. With Mantuan’s censure of Rome’s greed and Barclay’s adoption of it unex- panded cp. Wyatt’s expansion and emphasis on Alamanni’s censure in his first satire, to Poyntz. 543-556. Three lines in Mantuan. 557-8. The couplet of the English is a single line in the Latin. 567-8. Mantuan has: “Consilii locuples ego, sed pauperrimus auri.” 578. a sawe, etc. Mantuan 141 has: “‘ut dentata acies veterique simillima serrae.” 584. at the length, at length, finally. Cp. at the large, 81. 590-91. Mantuan 147 has: “ut frondes Aquilo, mare Libs, vineta pruinae.” 596. concend. This is the only citation NED, which interprets “kindle, inflame”. Why not “concede, agree to”? This spelling for consent is not impossible. 602. “Which do not become a man of position.” 605. deedes infame. Mantuan has “infamibus actis’. 606. ouerlonge here. This is a very frequent device of narrators. See, e.g., the tales of Knight and Squire, Lydgate’s Thebes. 609-28 is inserted by Barclay to break the longest speech of the Latin. Cp. 459-62. 633. Mantuan 155 has “graves Musae.” Barclay’s use of sound as a transitive verb gov- erning an abstract noun is not common in Mid Eng; but cp. Prol CT 275, ‘“Souning always the encres of his winning”. 634. “While these were in power.” 639. Mantuan 159 has: “occidit ingenium vatum, ruit alta poesis.” 643-652. Four lines in Mantuan. 654. hye stile. See notes here on Nevill’s envoy line 12, and FaPrinces G 46. 659. Mantuan 165 has: “curis flagrantibus ardet.” 686 ff. Thais, an Athenian courtesan, accompanied Alexander the Great to the East. Virgil in eclogue x mentions Lycoris as a Roman courtesan, and Barclay ecl. ii alludes to her. Testalis, “Thestylis”, is referred to by Barclay in ecl. ii and by Skelton in his Garland 675; the name is taken either from Virgil’s second eclogue or from Mantuan iv:176. The passage from Barclay’s ecl. ii is: “Yet is it pleasour to handle and to toye With Galatea, Licoris, or Phillis, Neera, Malkin or lustie Testalis.” Compare, without comparison, Milton’s Lycidas 68-9. 688. camous did promote. Here I can only conjecture. The meaning of camous is a flat nose; see Chaucer’s Reeve’s Tale 14, 54, and Lydgate’s Secrees 2623. If it be used here to mean “a flat-nosed (i.e., sensual and boorish) person”, then Barclay says that Thais and Bacchus take their opportunity to push such a disciple (Skelton?) when true poetry is no longer practised. One might interpret that Thais tipped up her nose while drinking, as Milton’s Death “upturned his nostril wide” (Par. Lost x:279-80), but there would be no apparent connection with what Barclay is saying in the rest of the passage. See Skelton’s Elynour Rummyng 28. 689. drames. This is the earliest NED citation for the use of drama in its modern sense. But does it not mean “writers of plays”? 695. artes triuiall. The three arts of the Trivium, or fundamental University course in Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. 702. fruitlesse of sentence, empty of wisdom. This passage, 699 ff., is parallel to Man- tuan’s line 179,—“‘insulsi, illepidi, indociles, improvidi, inepti”. 707. Mantuan has: “qui solet his vacuas praebere ambagibus aures.” 708. “They count all others as devoid of judgment.” 719-1140 are inserted by Barclay into the plan of the Latin eclogue. 721. The illiterate Codrus praises songs of Robin Hood; see note on line 13874 of the Ship of Fools here. 722. Bentleys ale. In ecl. ii one of the shepherds says “This ale brewed Bentley, it maketh me to winke.”—chaseth. See Barclay’s transl. of Mancini,—“though labour hath sore chased thy bloud”. We might expect chafeth? 723-4. These are apparently women of the town, vulgar versions of Lycoris and Thestylis. 508 NOTES [PAGE 328 726. “Knowledge is a bore, I declare to God.” See 438 and note. In Roy’s Rede Me and Be Nott Wroth, ed. Arber, p. 62, one speaker says that he has explained a point and the other replies, “that thou hast, I make god a vowe”. Cp. the use of “God to recorde”, etc. in Skel- ton’s Why Come Ye 483, in Godly Queen Hester 599, etc. 729-30. This couplet apparently refers to a rival of the poet. Minalcas, who has refused to sing of the vulgar subjects suggested by Codrus, refuses also to attack the envious of “diffamed name”. Can this mean Skelton? does “Place most abused” refer to Skelton’s rank of laureate? 736. Malgre for malice. In his fifth eclogue Barclay uses malgre (or maugre) as a substantive :—“I thought no mauger, I tolde it for a bourd.” The NED exemplifies the word as a substantive, meaning ‘‘ill will’, from 1320 to 1542. This passage means “To render ill will for malice, I refuse such payment”. 755-56. The poet will call on no Muses to aid him; see note on Walton A 44. 759-60. In 746 Barclay announces that his ballad is to be based on “noble Salomon”, in 758 that it is extract of Sapience,—perhaps the apocryphal book of, Wisdom, which bears. Solomon’s name. No line of the four stanzas is exactly copied from a verse of Wisdom, but many of its principles are restated. Thus with 763-4 cp. Wisdom viii:10, 11, 19, xi:4, 28, xvi:16, xxili:5; with 766 cp. Wisdom xxviii:11; with 775 cp. Wisdom i:4; with 783 cp. Wisdom xxi:23; with 784 cp. Wisdom xiv:29 and xxix:20; with 788' cp. Wisdom xxiii:5. There is but a general parallel between these stanzas and the De Quatuor Virtutibus translated from Mancini by Barclay. 791. Compare, so far as narrative management is concerned, the Host’s interruption to the Rime of Sir Thopas. Most of Codrus’ objection, however, is of the “Shoemaker, stick to your last!” type. 794. boxe of tarre. The constant companion of the shpeherd, used to heal scabs or wounds on the sheep. In the Assembly of Gods Pan has “a gret tar box hangyng by his side”; in As You Like It, act iii, the shepherd’s hands smell of tar. Drayton in his fourth eclogue says of his shepherd that “His tarbox on his broad belt hung”. See note on Piers Plowman (C) x :262-3. 798. Cornix is the name which Barclay often gives himself in these poems. See 1136. 811-20. As in 459-62, Barclay breaks up a long speech by a short one. 823 ff. The relation of this inserted elegy to Jean Lemaire de Belges‘ Temple dHonneur et de Vertus is briefly discussed in the introd. above. We may note that except between lines 878 and 879, 894 and 895, each stanza of Barclay picks up the rime of that preceding. For the subject of the elegy, Sir Edward Howard, see note on 853 below. 850. enhaunsed, etc., “elevated as is due a conqueror’. The Scots had just been defeated, and their king slain, at Flodden Field. The English army was commanded by Thomas How- ard, earl of Surrey, made Duke of Norfolk immediately after. See Cavendish 1121. 853. Moste noble Hawarde, etc. This is Thomas Howard, second duke of Norfolk, died 1524. Although attainted and imprisoned for his support of Richard III, Howard was sub- sequently restored to his honors by Henry VII, and under Henry VIII was an influential member of Council and an able military commander. He won the battle of Flodden Field in 1513, when seventy years old; and so highly did Henry value his judgment that he was made guardian of the realm during the king’s absence at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. The duke had by his two wives eleven sons and seven daughters; see Barclay’s line 852. His second son, Sir Edward Howard, was a gallant sea-fighter. After two daring raids on the French coast in 1512, he was made Lord High Admiral; and the next year he was killed in a third expedition. His death was felt as a national disaster. His wife was by an earlier marriage to Sir William Parker the mother of Henry Lord Morley, whose verse-work is discussed in this volume. It was the wife of Sir Edward’s elder brother, the third duke, who patronized Skelton, and for whom he wrote, at Sheriff Hutton, the Garland of Laurell. See the appendix to vol. i of Nott’s Wyatt and Surrey, passim. 855. Talbot. George Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, died 1541, bore the sword at the coronation of both Henry VII and Henry VIII, was an executor of Henry VII’s will, a joint PAGE 330] ECLOGUE IV 509 ambassador to the Pope in 1511, Lieutenant-General of the King’s army in Picardy in 1513, etc. One of the most powerful of English nobles, of whom Wolsey wrote to the king :—“as active a capitaine as can be chosen within your realm”. 859. Corson. This is probably Sir Robert Curzon or Corson, also termed Baron Curson, who in 1513 was Henry VIII’s master of ordnance; see various mentions of him in Brewer’s Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vol. i. He is called “master of the rearward” in entry no. 4354 ibid., and in entry no. 1757 is said to be ‘‘of Ipswich”. 867. For note on the double superlative see Walton’s Boethius B 28 here. 871 ff. Critics have praised this portrait of Labor, which I have not traced to any earlier source. The word of course means Effort. The opposing guardian of an entrance, in medieval romance and allegory, is usually a monster, from Cerberus to Milton’s Sin and Death. Barclay’s business here was to depict a figure definitely human, at once terrible and admirable; and he staggers somewhat under difficulties. He begins a list of “labors” with the dragon slain by Cadmus, the Chimaera overcome by Bellerophon, and the conquest of the Golden Fleece by Jason. His imagination is then apparently attracted to the labors of Her- cules, and in 885 he mentions the oxen (of Geryon), the boar (of Erymanthus), the lion (of Nemaea). This variety of animal form sends his mind to Proteus and the changes assumed when Proteus attempted escape from the grasp of Aristeus,—see the fourth Georgic of Virgil; and for other accounts of the forms taken by the sea-god see the fourth book of the Odyssey or Ovid’s Metamorphoses viii :732-4. 876-8 repeats the rime-word; in 878-9 the stanza-liaison by rime is broken, as in 894-5. 879-80. The management of these two lines, with the different placing of the word Here, recalls Inferno iii:14-15. This is not, however, saying that Barclay knew Dante’s poem. 883. “He cannot of himself get anything.” 895. Alway he drinketh, etc. It is the characteristic of “idropesie” in medieval thought that his thirst “crescit indulgens”, as in Horace, Odes ii, 2:13, Gower’s Confessio v:253-4, Lydgate’s FaPrinces vii:998. This last reads: “The mor he drank the mor he was athrust”. Barclay uses the touch here to make the giant’s laborious sweat a realistic portrait. 901. “The sight of him instructs the rude.” 905. doth expres. On the -th plural see notes Walton A 105 and Cavendish 1261. On express see note FaPrinces A 303 here. 912. monster Minerua, etc. Here I can only conjecture. Hercules was ultimately over- come by his labors, says Barclay, although at the opening of life he had chosen the path of Virtus rather than that of Pleasure. This story of the “Choice of Hercules” Barclay had translated when doing the Ship of Fools; see Jamieson ii1:287, 302. On such a suggestion, the “sonne of Venus”, line 918, would be a covering phrase for Pleasure; we may recollect that the daughter of Cupid was named Voluptas. But why Minerva or Pallas should be identified with this monster Labor is unclear, unless the similarity of their high inflexible purpose be dwelt on to the exclusion of all else. 916. ouerccome and superate. The spelling is as in the text. Such word-pairs, English and Latin often, are not uncommon in Barclay, and are frequent in Lydgate and in Early English generally. See line 921 here; see “more ewrouse or happy” in Eclogue v and in the preface to the translation of Mancini, also, e.g., in Lydgate’s FaPrinces iv :3831. 929. “But because the entrance offers difficulty to them.” In Chaucer’s Troilus iv :922 pretend means tend; in Douglas’ Aeneis and in Barclay’s fifth eclogue it means portend. 969. “Yet his spirit (courage) thought itself of more worth” than inherited glory. 983 ff. With this reproach to Death compare the FaPrinces iii:3655 ff., Troy Bool i11:5475 ff., Skelton’s elegy on the earl of Northumberland, on the duke of Bedford (?), etc. Barclay is free from Lydgate’s allusions to the Parcae, but “cries out on Fortune” quite according to medieval code. Love-laments of the period are more the direct address to Death, like Barclay’s here; see Orléans’ poem xv here and notes ibid. 994. “This act (of injustice) we might impute” etc. Read the passage with a comma after suffred and none after mone, in line 993. The first case NED of impute in the sense of accuse is of 1596. 998. “This will and liberty to torment mankind”? 510 NOTES [PAGE 333 1022. This line is aimed at the niggard Codrus. 1042. See 1093 for similar use of blind as “deprived of”. 1043. See line 99 of FaPrinces extract B here. 1044. The meaning is,—shall I blame God for his death, or Fortune? Cp. FaPrinces 1:2195, ii:3717, 3748, 4284, etc. for mention of God and Fortune as co-deities; denied however, ibid. i:4977-78. 1074. Read with a comma after turned. 1075-78. With this “exculpation” of Fortune cp. Boethius’ De Consolatione ii prose 1, Machaut’s Roy de Behaingne 725-34, Chaucer’s Troilus i :848-49. 1083 ff. A list of unfortunate great now follows:—Pompey, Caesar, Cato, Seneca, Cicero, Polycrates, Alexander, Pyrrhus, Valerian, Priam, Paris, Hector, Cyrus. 1093. “Fortune hath tried, sorely dimming their dignity”. 1097. death dishonest. Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, was hanged as “to alle folk odious”, see FaPrinces iv :1094. 1103. Pirrus. Pyrrhus king of Epirus, while invading Argos B. c. 273, was killed by a tile flung from a housetop by a woman. Lydgate, FaPrinces iv :3880, has a different story. 1112. Thomyris. This savage queen of the Massagetae, who defeated Cyrus and plunged his head in a bath of blood, exercised a strong fascination on the early Renaissance. Lydgate deals with her FaPrinces ii:3844 ff., giving her no praise; but see note on Skelton’s Garland 827 ff. here. 1115 ff. The close of the elegy, with its dignified exhortation to the bereaved father to recall the “dulce et decorum” of his son’s death, is like the close of Lemaire de Belges’ Temple d’Honneur. Note lines 1124, 1127-8. 1142. Here Mantuan begins again. The nine lines of the Latin ending are closely followed by Barclay. In 1141 the “holy Peters cope” of the English represents ‘‘per Superos, per Olympica numina’. See note on 447-8 above; see TemGlass 117. SKELTON: THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 1 ff. The astronomical opening; see note on Thebes 1 here. Mars is retrograde, going down the sky; Scorpio is 18 degrees high; the moon is full. 16. encrampisshed, etc. “My imagination was so straitly bound.” See Chaucer’s Anel- ida 171, Lydgate’s FaPrinces i1:3623, Flower of Courtesy 49, for this word. 17. With this leaning of the poet against a stump cp. Drayton’s picture of his shepherd Rowland “leaning on a rampike tree”, (i.e. one dead at the top), eclogue i, stanza four. Drayton’s preface compares Barclay and ?Skelton, whom he calls Scoggin. 22. forest of Galtres. This great forest extended all around Sheriff Hutton, the seat of the Duke of Norfolk in Yorkshire, where Skelton was at this time the guest of the duke’s daughter-in-law, the countess of Surrey. The forest was in part swampy, says Dyce, citing Camden’s Britannia; see line 23 below. 27. faire fall, etc., “Success to that forester that can so bate his hound”. The exact force of bate here is uncertain; it usually means to check, restrain. 34. fatall persuasioun, “prophetic assurance’. See note on Hawes 665. Skelton fore- sees what is to happen to him. 36. as I me auisid, as I took note. At the opening of the Inferno Dante says mi ritrovai, “T came to myself”. He too has slept, as Skelton has. 53. Scyence seven. See note on Hawes line 249. 71. “If it were not that he has your support.” 73-4. thensugerd pocioune, etc., the sugared draught of Helicon’s spring. See note on sugared, Thebes 52, on Helicon, Burgh’s Letter 7. Cp. Bokenam’s prol. to St. Agnes, “sugird welle in Elicona”; cp. “sugar dropis swete of Helicon”, Court of Love 22; see Skelton against Garnesche, 98-99. The Roman poet Claudian, in his Laus Serenae, has “mella Heliconis”. PAGE 343] THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 511 77. fyttynge. In line 149 syttynge is similarly used. Either is appropriate, and either may be a misprint. 93-7. In defence of Skelton’s “trew and playne” writing, Pallas adduces the cases of Ovid and of Juvenal, banished and threatened with death for similar free censure of the powerful. The reason for Ovid’s banishment by Augustus kas never been known; and the belief that Juvenal’s visit to Egypt was a sort of exile because of his satiric attack on the imperial favorite has no certain basis. 97. rubbid sum on the gall, touched a sore spot for somebody. The NED cites Chaucer’s WifeBath’s Tale 84, and then this passage. See Cavendish 205. 101 ff. Skelton here sketches an animal-fable, and makes Pallas say that faultfinders might try to put an injurious interpretation on what the poet had written for his own pleasure. This passage seems to be a defense of something written by Skelton, using animals as poetic material, which had brought him under suspicion. 112. fawte, fault. This word was pronounced without the /-sound down to the nineteenth century; note Pope’s rimes sought: fault, Iliad v:15-16, thought: fault, Odyss. xvii: 16-17. See Nevill 187-8 here. 114. make I this motyve, “propound this argument”. The NED cites this passage to illustrate the meaning “a motion, proposition’. The word has, I would suggest, much the meaning of opposaile below, i.e., of a propounded difficulty or question requiring answer. See Hoccleve’s Lerne to Die 564, and see one of the many cases in Capgrave’s St. Katherine, iv :1884,—“This is my motyf, an answere I desyre.” Cp. ibid., ii:1236, iv:1572, 1856, etc. 125-6. With this line-flow, run over and pausing sharply after the first foot of the following line, cp. lines 137-8, 143-4, 156-7, 164-5; and note 436-8, 656-7. It is more effective in Chaucer’s BoDuchesse 22-23, 78-79, 111-12, 227-8, 1275-76; and in modern work such as Shelley’s Hellas, Swinburne’s Tristram of Lyonesse, the device is very conscious and emphatic. 130 ff. So full is the discussion of the relations between Demosthenes and Aeschines which Skelton now makes, that we may conjecture an allusion to himself and some rival poet under this disguise. Aeschines, for years the rival of Demosthenes, was at last defeated by him in public argument, and left Athens. It perhaps adds a special force to this comparison that the question argued was the legality of the golden crown which the State proposed to confer upon Demosthenes for his services. 141-3. “Your query in opposition is well put, and vigorously developed to your advantage; it is hard to combat.” The word opposaile is first cited NED from Lydgate, see FaPrinces 111 :431, v:2268. It occurs both times in rime, and with no such word in the antecedent French. It is also used in the earlier form of the envoy to the Libel of English Policy, not in rime. 151-3. “Whose attack in writing was very effective in urging Demosthenes to set out brilliantly his well-wrought argument, from which Aeschines had no escape.” 162-7. A letter of St. Jerome to Paulinus, prefixed to the translation of the Vulgate by Jerome, begins :—“Frater Ambrosius tua mihi munuscula perferens, detulit simul—” etc. In the letter Jerome illustrates the greater force of the spoken as compared with the written word by an anecdote of Aeschines. “Unde et Aeschines cum Rhodi exularet, et legeretur illa Demosthenis oratio, quam adversus eum habuerat, mirantibus cunctis atque laudantibus, suspirans ait:—‘Quid si ipsam audissetis bestiam sua verba resonantem!’ ” 188-9. liddurns or lidderons (cp. Ital. ladrone) means in sixteenth century English “rascals, scoundrels”. Used by Skelton in Magnificence line 1919.—losellis, losels or worthless fellows, used from Langland down, and revived by Browning and other modern writers.— facers are swaggerers, bullies—bracers is not in the NED, but cp. bracery, corruption, cited NED from a 1540 text. However, the word is in the rules of the charter of the Company of Musicians, incorporated 1640, forbidding “facing, bracing, evil reproaching, or affraying”. This seems to connote violent deeds or talk—nowghtty pakkis is used in a de Worde text of 1531, cited NED, as synonymous with “wretched livers”. In Cotgrave’s Dictionary putaigne, “harlot”, is rendered “naughty pack”. 192. “Riot and Revel are in the list of your household.” 512 NOTES [PAGE 345 193. Mayntenans, maintenance, the keeping of an army of retainers paid or protected by the lord, was an evil legislated against in England by Richard II, and overcome through Henry VII’s militia-system and the transfer of civil cases to the Star Chamber. Its abuse— the Earl of Warwick was escorted to Parliament by six hundred men wearing his badge and pledged to him—was according to historians a prime cause for the long-drawn out Wars of the Roses. See Hoccleve’s RegPrinces 2791 ff. 196. karlyle to kent, Carlisle to Kent, from North to South of England. 201. set oute a sunnyng, idle in the sun, like useless or unnecessary things. 209. Jak Athrommys bibille, Jack o’ Thrums’ Bible. The same phrase occurs in Skelton’s Magnificence, line 1427, and Jack a Thrums is mentioned in the third Garnesche poem, line 204, and in Colin Clout 284. Dyce refers to a burlesque printed in Reliquiae Antiquae i:84, in which are mentioned two noted preachers, “Jacke a Throme and Jone Brest Bale; these men seyd in the bibull that an ill drynker is unpossibul hevyon for to wynne; for God luffus nodur hors nor mare, but mere men that in the cuppe con stare.” Note also that Jack Drum’s Entertainment, referred to in the Three Ladies of London, written about 1584, is a thrashing. Is “Jack a Thrums’” the type of an illiterate tosspot, and his “Bible” the bottom of a tankard? 215. The printed eds, read good record. MS omits. _217. Note the inversion, and cp. lines 230, 232, 415, 417, 419, 879. 235. In the third book of Chaucer’s Hous of Fame, Eolus is Fame’s trumpeter. 236. Bararag. We would say “Tarantara”. See line 245. 238. at our retenew, at our cost and charge. The phrase today would be “in our retinue”, meaning the organization of household dependents. 239. put hymself in prees. This phrase, meaning to put one’s self forward, compete for, take a risk, is used by Chaucer PoFoules 603, Scogan 49, Former Age 33. It is very frequent in Lydgate, and appears in Hoccleve, Bokenam, etc. Wyatt has it; but Spenser, ShepCal October 70, does not treat it as a reflexive. 242. The prints have spede you. MS omits. 243. “Let this trumpeter be produced at once!” 251. “Have in! Have out!” ie., “Let me in! Get out!” are the cries of the rivals for Fame’s favor. 260. timorous blaste. Timorous may mean terrible; see the NED citations, which do not include this passage. Cp. such phrases as Chaucer’s ‘‘slepy yerde”, KnTale 529, Cavendish’s “trembling trompe”, Visions 1222, Spenser’s “slombring dew’, Faerie Queene i, 1:36, Sandys’ “drowsie rod”, (translating Ovid’s virga movente soporem), Milton’s “oblivious pool”, Par.Lost 1:266, and his “forgetful lake”, ii:74; cp. Thomson’s “panting height”, Summer 1670. 267. for the nonys, for the occasion. This phrase early became stereotyped, and part of its uses in late Middle English are such, part real. In Chaucer’s Troilus iv:185, 428, it is living, probably also in ProlCT 379, but not so in Prologue 545, KnTale 21, 565, etc. With Lydgate it is oftener stereotyped than real; see Thebes 311, but Troy Book i:1315. This latter line has “‘as it wer for the nonys’, like the Skelton line here, and as in Beryn 544. Hawes, Wyatt, etc., use the phrase; in our day it has been revived by Browning at its full original value; see Ring and Book x:41, Tiwo Poets 1108-9, and cp. Childe Roland 179. In the epil. to Pacchiarotto, Browning uses it to contrast with “for the future”. 270. a murmur of minstrels. Dyce compares “a noise of musicians” etc., in early plays by Lyly, Jonson, ete. This group includes Orpheus the Thracian and Amphion of Arcadia. 290. Daphne, pursued by Phoebus Apollo, fled him because Eros had stricken her with the leaden dart which expels love. See Ovid, Metam. i:471. 296. O thoughtful herte, etc. As Dyce notes, Lydgate opens his Life of Our Lady with this phrase. Skelton also used Lydgate’s entire line in a poem to a lady named Katherine,— see Dyce i:25, where it will be seen that the stanza-initials give “Kateryn’. Another phrase in the Kateryn-poem also occurs line 315 here. And there is a similarity in the opening line of a poem copied by MS Bodl. Fairfax 16,—“O wofull hert prisound in gret duresse.” Mac- Cracken, printing this last-named poem in PLMA 26:160, reads the line “—profound in gret duresse”’. PAGE 347] THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 513 300. “As he did take the tree”, etc. 301. This line is from Ovid, Metam. i:554,—‘“sentit adhuc trepidare novo sub cortice pectus.” 302. his. Marshe’s edition reads this. 304. hard is, etc. “Your star is unrelenting, unfavorable.” 305. cloyster virginall, physical chastity. 306. ‘Hardened adamant is the cement of your wall.” 310-14. These lines from Ovid, Metam. 1:521-4. Marshe reads gresse in 314. 315. “The fervent accesses, burning fever-attacks, of love.” A similar phrase, “feverous axys”, occurs in Skelton’s Kateryn-poem mentioned in note on 296 above; it is in the line preceding that modeled on Lydgate. The term access for recurrent ague-fits is used in Chaucer’s Troilus ii1:1316, in Lydgate’s Temple of Glas 358 (see Schick’s note), in the Cuckoo and Nightingale, etc. 320. What Ovid makes Apollo say is that if Daphne cannot be his love she shall be his tree, that he will always wear the laurel, and that it shall be worn by victorious generals. 324. See notes on ChurlandBird 15, Burgh 21. Dyce points out that “poetis laureat” means those holding degrees in the Trivium of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, and that poet was used to signify a writer of either verse or prose, a maker. 326. declynacyons. Marshe’s edition reads “Declamations”. 326 ff. Skelton proceeds to display his learning by a list of writers and works from Quintilian to Lydgate. Quintilian’s “Declamations” are now considered spurious. Theo- critus’ “bucolycall relacyons” are his idyls, in which pastoral setting and story are mingled. Hesiod the “economist” or writer on husbandry is named in line 328, misprinted “Eliodus” by Faukes; Icononucar, as Dyce notes, is miswritten for Oeconomicus or Economicar (see line 353). Homer is in line 329 termed “the ffresshe historiar”, i.e. vigorous narrator. Stanza 48 presents Cicero, Sallust’s Catiline and his Jugurthine War, and Ovid. Skelton does not say that the Jugurtha has been translated by Barclay; the work appeared in 1520. 334-6. Read blessed in 334, as in 341, 348, etc.; MS blesses. The stanza-refrain uses assonance, droppes: throtis, as printed by Faukes; note Marshe’s different reading, line 342. 337 ff.. This stanza mentions Lucan, Statius and his Achilleis (only a fragment of which exists), Persius, Virgil, and Juvenal. Persius’ problems diffuse may mean the veiled allusions of his satires, and it may mean only Skelton’s desire for pr-alliteration. Virgil’s Aeneid, and Juvenal who makes men thoughtful, follow. The word satirray is not in the NED, but obviously means satirist. 339 has no rime for 341. 342. The reading flotes instead of droppes is peculiar to the Marshe print, from which this stanza is taken to supply a gap in Faukes’ text. The word perhaps means “flowings”; cp. flotesse, scum, skimmings. 344 ff. This stanza mentions Livy and Ennius. To Livy are ascribed “decades”. His history of Rome was not so arranged by himself, but the scribes of it, already at the close of antiquity, imposed such a grouping on his material. Ennius’ Annales are probably meant by line 347, but the work does not exist. 351 ff. Here are named Aulus Gellius the historian, Horace, Terence, and Plautus. Hor- ace is credited with a ‘“‘new poetry’, a possible confusion, as Warton suggests, of the title of his Ars Poetica with that of Vinsauf’s Nova Poetria. 358 ff. Skelton proceeds to Seneca’s tragedies, Boethius’ Consolatio, and Maximian’s elegies, which latter are termed “mad ditties”. Of Maximian’s six elegies, the fifth, as Dyce remarks, may be described in line 361; in that poem Maximian narrates a love-adventure between himself in his later years and a “puella”. 365 ff. This stanza mentions “John Bochas”, ie. Boccaccio, Quintus Curtius, and Macro- bius. By the “volumys grete”’ of Boccaccio are meant his Latin works, the De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, De Claris Mulieribus, De Genealogia Deorum. Quintus Curtius was the author of De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni. Macrobius’ principal works are the Saturnalia, which Skelton does not mention, and a commentary, or “treu probate”, on the Somnium Scipionis; this dream was contained in one of the lost books of Cicero’s De Re Publica, and is preserved only by Macrobius. 514 NOTES [PAGE 348 372-6. Poggio of Florence and the French friar Gaguin are now named. Skelton does not allude to Poggio’s Latin translation of (part of) Diodorus Siculus, used by himself for his version (see 1463 ff. below) ; what he mentions is the Facetiae, a collection of anecdotes and jests very popular in the sixteenth century, but now classed among the incredibly indecent productions of the Italian Renaissance. It gave Poggio a great reputation; Gawain Douglas names him with Plautus and Persius. Line 376 alludes to the quarrel between Skelton and Robert Gaguin, the leader of humanism in Paris, head of the Order of the Maturins, and royal ambassador to England in 1490, when he and Skelton may have met. We have no knowledge of this “flyting” other than Skelton’s mention, line 1165 below, of his “recule against gaguyne”, a work preserved only in fragments (see Brie in Englische Studien 37 :32). 380-4. Plutarch and Petrarch, Lucilius, Valerius Maximus, Vincentius, Propertius, and Pisander are next mentioned. Plutarch’s Lives were translated from Greek into Latin, com- plete, by Campano, a pupil of Valla, and printed at Rome in 1470. Petrarch’s Latin works, to which alone Skelton is probably alluding, include a Ciceronian treatise De remediis utriusque fortunae, many letters on the model of Cicero’s, verse-eclogues, an epic entitled Africa, etc. Lucilius, a Roman satirist, is known to us only by fragments of his works. Valerius Maximus is the author of Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium Libri, a compilation of anecdotes of “human interest” into groups according to the moral they point; the book was very popular in the late Middle Ages because of these two qualities. The phrase “by name”, applied to Valerius, is not padding here, but a discrimination between him and Valerius Flaccus. See note on Thebes line 160. Vincencius in speculo alludes to Vincent of Beauvais, the thirteenth- century compiler of a huge four-part encyclopedia entitled the Speculum Majus, and divided into Naturale, Morale, Doctrinale, and Historiale. Propertius is the Roman writer of elegies. Pisander was the name of two Greek poets; the work of neither survives, but in Macrobius’ Saturnalia (see note on 365 above) a carping guest at the banquet accuses Virgil, whose work is under discussion, of having stolen nearly all of the second book of the Aeneid from Pisander. 386. “And as I thus soberly looked about among them.” 387-91. Skelton here links in apparent equality Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate; but in Philip Sparrow 783 ff. he is amply shrewd in his judgment of the three elder poets. Other writers were less critical; see introd. to Lydgate, page 96, and see Walton’s Boethius A 33-40 here, King James in the last stanza of the Kingis Quair, the Court of Sapience as printed p. 260 here, Hawes line 1261 ff. here and note, Feylde’s prologue to Controversy between a Lover and a Jay. 397. Skelton’s vanity is painfully obvious here, as in 1470. 402. enplement. The medieval French word emplement means approximately “arrival at goal, consummation”. 405. Brutus Albion. Britain was supposedly founded by Brutus the Trojan, descendant of Aeneas, who came from Italy thither, and settled London as “New Troy”. So says Geoffrey of Monmouth, the Welsh historiographer of the twelfth century. See note on Cay- endish epitaph 35 here. 413. This line is used as refrain 427, 441. Note the repetition of 334-6. 415, 417, 419, are all inverted sentences; the latter half of each line is to be read first. See line 217. 436-7, 437-8. Cp. the run-over of 125-6 and note there. 442. shewyd ther deuyse, played their part. See FaPrinces v :2404. 455. A comma is to be understood after was. 460 ff. Observe the number of formations with the prefix en, a favorite device with Skelton. See 648 ff. 479. clere story. The upper part of a building, especially a church, which is free to light and air, and has a series of windows. Skelton’s is the earliest non-ecclesiastical use, says NED. See Twelfth Night iv, 2:41. 485. perlys of garnate. The allusion here may be to Granada, at this time the center of the European jewel-trade. See note Churl and Bird 259. Caxton renders “‘von dosoye et de garnate” as ‘“wyn of oseye and of Garnade”’. PAGE 350] THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 515 492. purseuantis, etc. Pursuivants, i.e., heralds or newsbringers, with reports from Apulia (Poyle), Thrace, Limerick (Ireland), Lorraine (eastern France), etc, 495. nauern, etc. Navarre, a territory part French part Spanish, lying on both sides of the Pyrenees, is often mentioned in literature of this period. See FaPrinces viii:2884, ix :2459, 2471, Court of Love 1229, Skelton’s poem Against the Scots 153, Lyndesay’s Dreme 729-30, the poem Doctor Doubble Ale (89) in Hazlitt’s EarlyPopPoetry iii, etc. Earlier uses cp. Laurence Minot, poem iv:70, the romance of Octavian 962, the poem King Berdok, etc. On this last the Cambr. Hist. Eng. Lit. ii:315 says “Strathnaver”’. One of the main roads from Spanish Navarre north led through Roncesvalles, ‘“rounceuall”, where part of Charlemagne’s army suffered defeat in 778, and where a later church was famous. 497. the mayne lande. Probably the Almayne land, Germany. 500-502 are proverbs. 504. fals quarter. Dyce explains this from a seventeenth-century handbook on Armory as meaning a soreness on the inside of the hoof. 512-14. All sorts of men were there, from Dartmouth, Plymouth, Portsmouth; the bailiffs and burgesses of the Cinque Ports, i.e., of Dover, Sandwich, Romney, Hastings, Hythe. Skelton enumerates the most important commercial coast towns of England, his imagination passing from west through south to southeast. 522. Occupacyon. In the following passage Skelton states, in his own way, that the “eschewing of idleness”, his industry in study and in writing, is the source of his fame. See notes here on Hawes 1313, Cavendish 24-30. 533-36. Skelton here suddenly gives a glimpse of lyrical power; the picture of the rising lark, springing from this pretentious and feeble allegory, gives us a shock of pleasure, all the greater because the line-movement reminds us of a true poet’s: “Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth’. Most poets are touched to finer speech by the lark; Dante, Chaucer, Lydgate’s lark “with notis newe hegh vp in the ayr”’, Milton’s herald lark, come to the memory. William Browne and Beattie hear the song as “shrill’, and pay less attention to the morning freshness of it. The nineteenth century is impressed by the invisibility of the music, as indeed was Charles Cotton in the seventeenth century. Hood speaks of “vanished larks”, Keats of the “skysearching lark”, and the lark “lost” in the sky. Mrs, Browning’s lark is “sucked up out of sight In vortices of glory and blue air’, Tennyson’s is ‘a sightless song”, Browning’s is ‘“emballed by its own crystal song”. Tennyson in The Princess harks back to the epithet “shrill”; Meredith calls the bird “dewdelighted’’,—and see his poem The Lark Ascending; to Christina Rossetti the lark is “hopeful”. Galsworthy says that the lark “dripped his beads of song’”’; Amy Lowell sees him “shooting up like a popgun- ball”; Joseph Auslander hears him “arguing with the sun”, or “talking madness in some corner of the sky”. 541 ff. There seems here an allusion to a turning-point in Skelton’s life, when his “mast of worldly trust’ was broken, perhaps by the death or alienation of a powerful patron, and when his assiduity in study repaired his fortunes. 550 ff. a quyte your hyre, reimburse you for your trouble. Skelton’s name is to be sounded beyond Tyre, from Sidon to Olympus, from Babel to the Caspian hills. 561-2. There is here, as in Barclay’s eclogue iv :879-80, a momentary reminder of the method of Dante; see Inferno iv:104, vi:113. 563 whylis ... space. See ProlCantTales 35. 564-5. Cp, Dante’s request to Virgil, Inferno xi:13-14,—“alcun compenso . . . trova, che il tempo non passi perduto”, 567. Wordes be swordes, etc. A proverb. 590, 595. The leopard has an upraised paw resting on a scroll bearing the inscription. Line 595 is followed by a “cacosyntheton”, or, in Greek, something ill put together. The subject is Industry; Skelton’s six Latin lines show borrowings from classical authors, which Dyce points out. The second and third lines of the group are modeled on Juvenal’s Satire viii :129,— Nec per conventus et cuncta per oppida curvis Unguibus tre parat nummos raptura Celaeno, 516 NOTES [PAGE 352 and the last line echoes Virgil’s eclogue v:16. Dyce says that these lines are beyond his comprehension. Skelton seems to say that Industry (?) bears weapons more to be feared than are the bolts of Jove; that she is as ready to use her curved talons as is a harpy to snatch money. Then, enumerating the disputes of a fierce world, he adds: “Thou wanderest a thousand ways to seek for thyself the strife of Mars, that the wild nard may give place to the scorned and thorny rose-tree.” Is he alluding to his own industrious use of letters as a weapon of attack?—These six lines are not included in our line-numbering, nor are sub- sequent Latin passages; the numbering of Dyce’s edition therefore ceases now to agree with this. 604. Dyce cites but dismisses the suggestion that alchemists are here meant. See note on 607 below. 606. pope-holy. In the Romaunt of the Rose 415 Chaucer thus translates the French papelardie, “hypocrisy”. The word is there possibly an adjective; it is such in Piers Plow- man B 13:284, in the Ship of Fools, ed. Jamieson i:154, in Skelton’s Magnificence 467 and in his ?Replycacion, ed. Dyce i:209. In the poem printed as by Lydgate, Halliwell, MinPo 27-46, it is a substantive—golde and hole, “precious and perfect’. 607. powle hatchettis. The NED, citing Skelton only, says “an opprobrious appellation”, Skelton uses it also in a poem printed Dyce i:22-3. As he there employs the phrase “blynkerd blowboll”, may it be that the expression “blow at the cole’, above cited 604, is to be read “at the bole’? See Colyn Blowbole’s Testament for the use of the word blowbole to mean “drunkard”; in Barclay’s first eclogue Godfrey Gormand “blows in a bole’, and in Lydgate’s Mumming at Hertford the wife of Hob the Reeve sits “bolling at the nale” all day, and “hathe for the collyk pouped in the bolle”. 613. “That fawn on thee and curs by nature. That—”. 618. Bowns, etc. In modern parlance, “Bang, bang, bang”. 623. gunstones. Dyce notes that this term was retained after iron shot had supplanted round stones for artillery. 626. Masid as a marche hare, wild as a hare in March,—the breeding time for hares. Earliest case of the locution in NED is 1529. 628. Skelton here fetches a slap at one of his opponents, whom he describes as a “tumbler” or mountebank, who later became a “dysour” or sneering jester, and then a gentle- man. He is, adds Skelton, a second Piers the prater, who begins quarrels. The “Piers the prater” carries a modern student’s thought to Piers Plowman and its attack on social abuses, but there is no certainty as to Skelton’s meaning here. 629. a deuyl way. Cp. Chaucer’s MillProl. 26 etc., and the phrase “a twenty devil way” in MillTale 527 etc. The exclamation is equivalent to “the devil take him!” 633. foisty bawdias. This exclamation occurs also in the fourth poem against Gar- nesche, line 76. It is used, with “Stryke pantnere”, as formulae before drinking in The Kyng and the Hermyt, printed by Hazlitt, EEPopPo i, see lines 346, 349, etc. 635. Dasyng, or staring stupidly, after dotrellis, in the manner of dotterels or foolish birds easily caught, “like drunkards that drivel”. 636. Theis titiwyllis, etc. Titivillus is the name given to the devil-figure of the Towneley Mysteries and other late medieval plays. The term became synonymous with any evil-meaning evil-doing person. Skelton says that these men were hit and “plugged” with tampions, the wooden stoppers of cannon-mouths. 646 ff. With the description of this garden cp. that depicted by Lydgate in the Churl and the Bird. Observe again the lavish coinage of words with prefix en, as in 460 ff. 646. “I saw where I was brought in an arbor.” Note the inversion, and cp. 654. For the arbor see note on Cavendish 115-18; and cp. also the arbor of Doctrine, in the Assembly of Gods, with its painted walls. In the Augsburger Geschlechtertanz, of 1522, is depicted an arbor in a tree, reached by stairs; see Jahrb. d. kgl. preuss. Kunstsammlungen 32 :230. 656-7. Again the run-over through one foot of the succeeding line, as in 125-6. With this line cp. Churl 53. 664. In the margin is “Oliua speciosa in campis”, PAGE 353] THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 517 665. The olive branches, symbols of peace, beat or blew up a fire against all rancor. We may perhaps note that a crest of the Howards of Norfolk was a pair of expanded wings. Note the linking to next strophe. 666. In the margin is “Nota excellentiam virtutis in oliva”. 670. soft pipling colde. This phrase is used in George Macdonald’s David Elginbrod. 675. Thestylis. See note on Barclay’s eclogue iv :690. 681. Cintheus. Apollo; so called, as his sister Diana is called Cynthia, from their birth- place, Mt. Cynthus. 682-97. Dyce cites the passage, Aeneid i:740 ff., which Skelton here uses :— Cithara crinitus Iopas Personat aurata, docuit quae maxumus Atlas. Hic canit errantem lunam, solisque labores; Unde hominum genus, et pecudes; unde imber, et ignes; Arcturum, pluviasque Hyadas, geminosque Triones ; Quid tantum Oceano properent se tinguere soles Hiberni, vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet. 683. The poemis, etc. Either read That for The, or he for in. 691. drowsy chere. This term as applied to the Pleiades I cannot explain. The Hyades, sisters to the Pleiades, are termed by Virgil (see note above) pluvias, and by Horace tristes; see Carmina i, 3:14. 693. trions, or triones, ploughing-oxen; a name for the seven principal stars of Ursa Major, i.e. Charles’ Wain. The Latin, as cited above, has “geminosque Triones”, probably referring to both Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, The first citation of trions in NED is of 1594. 699. counteryng, singing counter, or by way of “embroidery” upon the simple air. 713. The opening And seems superfluous. 725. “That I care very much if it be disclosed’, care to disclose it. 727-8. “I am not weighed down with lumps of sluggishness [note the inversion] as are bewildered dotards who dream in their stupidity.” . 730. goode yere. A formula-imprecation—“Good luck to you!’ See 986 below. 736. The Latin heading after this line means:—‘“‘A satire against a poet is interpolated, which it requires industry to understand.” The set of numbers appended to the Latin, although reproduced here as in the Cotton MS, must be emended to the form given by the prints if the name of the person attacked by Skelton is to be deciphered. The puzzle was solved by the late Henry Bradley, in the Athenaeum 1896 ii:83; he explained that if the five vowels be represented by the numbers 1 to 5, and the consonants by their numbers in the alphabet, there will result from these figures the name Rogerus Stathum. Of this personage nothing is yet known; but as one of the ladies-in-waiting addressed by Skelton later in this poem is Gertrude Statham, and as Skelton hints that he had spoken sharp words to her on a previous occasion, it may be that the man Statham, her kinsman, was also a member of the Countess’ household and an object of Skelton’s uneasy jealousy. The Latin verses have various classical echoes, pointed out by Dyce. The phrase non tressis agaso, “a hireling not worth three groats’, is from Persius, Sat. v:76. Davus is in Plautus and Terence the name of a slave. The phrase tacita sudant praecordia culpa, “sweat with the silent consciousness of sin”, is from Juvenal, Sat. i:167, and the words labra... tacitus are from Persius, Sat. v:184. From Virgil, eclogue vii:26, is the half-line rumpantur ut ilia Codro, “that Codrus’ sides may burst”. Skelton’s portrait is of a clownish slave who rolls his eyes asquint as he catches parasites. If it happen, says Skelton, that you mention the things pleasing to Maia or to Jupiter, then suddenly he sweats in silent consciousness of wrongdoing; he flames up, urges this man and that man to strife; but none the less he fans useless fires, murmuring silent wishes that Codrus may burst his sides. The list of deities here agrees with the seven fundamental metals of alchemy, as a mar- ginal note in the prints states. It may be that Statham was interested in that science. 753. Countes of Surrey. This is Elizabeth Stafford, daughter of Edward duke of Buck- ingham, and second wife of Thomas Howard earl of Surrey, elder brother of the Admiral Howard who is lamented in Barclay’s fourth eclogue. Surrey later, in 1524, became duke of 518 NOTES [PAGE 355 Norfolk; he was twenty years older than his wife, and the marriage was unhappy. See the duchess’ later letters to Thomas Cromwell, lord of the Privy Seal, complaining bitterly of her husband’s cruelty, niggardliness, and infidelity ; these are printed in vol. i of Nott’s ed. of Wyatt and Surrey, appendix nos. xxvii-xxxi, and a letter from the duke as no, xxxii. In these letters the duchess several times states that she has borne her husband five children. The eldest of these was Henry Howard earl of Surrey, the poet, who was at this time not more than three years old, while his mother was twenty-six. She was residing with her father-in-law at his estate of Sheriff Hutton. Her mother-in-law, Norfolk’s second duchess, Agnes Tilney, is not of the little family circle which Skelton addresses. 769. “That call themselves women.” 771. Skelton now draws a graceful picture of the “group of noble dames” at their needle- work. Sewing, lacemaking, weaving, embroidering, are the various occupations; some work on “samplers” (773) or braid lace (773), and some set themselves to weave in the stool, a stretcher or tambour-frame mounted on legs for the worker’s convenience. In line 775 are enumerated some of the necessary appliances, the slaiys, sleys or weavers’ reeds, the heddles or cords sustaining the warp on the loom. Tuly or tewly silk, mentioned in 782, is dark red; the botum or bottom of 783 is a skein of thread or the clew on which to wind a skein. The tavels of 775 are bobbins on which silk for the shuttle is wound; see Skelton’s poem Comely Coystroun 34. 776-7. Observe the rime of ng:n, also in 779-82 the identical rime. 779. glutton. This term is clear from the context; but the NED recognizes no meaning which would would apply here. 785. broken workis, not defined in NED, may perhaps, like broken ground, be a raised surface, say of heavy embroidery. 786-7. Castinge is the making of knots on the ends of cords; turnnynge is twisting; florisshinge of flowers is the adding of curved lines waving from the blossoms over the groundwork. burris rowthe are raised rings; buttunis surfullinge means the embroidery of button-like knots. 801 ff. The sense is that you, Skelton, have to devise this “goodly conceit” (798) because you lay claim to the profession of humanity, i.e., the humanities, polite literature. Acknowl- edgments are to be made “after ther degre”, that is, in order of the ladies’ rank. 812. tremlyng fyst. Lydgate’s phrase is “quaking pen”. 823. my lif enduring, during my life. 826. “Which hath the highest quality (?) of honor and worship.” This line is used as refrain, as was 336 ante.—former date is used by Skelton in his Northumberland 18. 827 ff. Skelton here makes some use of Boccaccio’s De Claris Mulieribus. In that work Argia wife of Polynices is discussed in chap. 27, Pamphila in chap. 42, “Thamar” queen of Scythia in chap. 47, “Thamaris pictrix” in chap. 54, and) Agrippina in chap. 88. Between Argia and Pamphila Skelton inserts the Biblical Rebecca. The selection of Pamphila and of “Thamar pictrix” (stanza 120) is obviously to draw the parallel between their occupations and that of the Countess at the time of Skelton’s writing. Pamphila’s discovery of silkworm culture and of the mode of weaving silk is described by Boccaccio more fully than here; Skelton brushes it all into one generalized line. He could get such a condensed version from Pliny’s Natural History xi:26; but neither there nor in Boccaccio is Pamphila more than “mulier’’ or “femina’. Thamyris daughter of Mycon the painter was herself an artist; pos- sibly the similarity of names takes Skelton from her to “dame Thamaris” the victor over Cyrus. But Queen Tomyris and Agrippina seem extraordinary selections from classical story to compare with English noblewomen. It is however true that Tomyris exercised a strong attraction on the Early Renaissance. In the set of tapestry verses sent to Queen Elizabeth by order of Catherine de Medicis, the gift copy of which is now MS Brit. Mus. Royal 20 A xx, Tomyris opens the list of 18 famous queens, and is followed by Artemisia, Esther, Plotina wife of Trajan, Eudoxia wife of Theodosius, Zenobia, Helena mother of Constantine, Clo- tilde,—then by French, Spanish, and English princesses. In Feylde’s Controversy we hear (sarcastically?) of Tomyris “so hynde”; in Douglas’ Palice of Honour a group of queens 1s “Semiramis, Thamar, Hippolita, Penthessilea, Medea, Zenobia”; Deschamps mentions PAGE 357] THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 519 “Tamaris l’onouree” next after Hippolyta; Lydgate in the FaPrinces ii:3844 ff. narrates at length her slaying of Cyrus, Sackville in his Buckingham tragedy (Mirror for Magistrates) more briefly; Barclay ecl. iv:1112 merely mentions her. It might be remarked that just as the Transition or Early Renaissance included Thamaris among great queens, so it included Pasiphae and Sextus Tarquinius among great lovers. The Spaniard Ruiz, in his Libro del buen amor, did the latter, and Feylde the former, along with Scylla and Canace; Feylde’s tone may be questioned. 848-61. The Lady Elizabeth Howard who is here addressed is probably the third daughter of the then duke of Norfolk by his second wife Agnes Tilney. As the duke married in 1508-9, and as their son was born 1509-10, the third daughter cannot in 1520 have been more than a child of five or six. Cp. 853 below. 849. Skelton compares Lady Elizabeth to ‘‘Aryna”. Dyce suggests that this may mean Trene daughter of Cratinus, described by Boccaccio as above (chap. 57) as an artist and the daughter of an artist. 850. “The well and the perfect basis of virtue and knowledge.’ Cp. Lydgate’s frequent complimentary phrases “sours and welle”’, “gynnyng and grounde”. 855. Polycene. Polyxena daughter of Priam, beloved of Achilles, was in the Middle Ages proverbial for beauty and for fidelity in love. See, e.g., the balade of Chaucer’s Legend; see Lydgate’s Epithalamium 72 here. 862. The Lady Muriel Howard may be, as Dyce queries, a daughter of the earl and countess of Surrey. According to the countess’ own statement, cited note on 753, ante, she bore her husband five children; the eldest of these, afterwards the poet, was in 1520 only about three years old, and his sister Mary a year or so younger. Between them and the youngest son, born about 1529, intervened two children of whom nothing is recorded, and who died early. Perhaps the “lytille lady” Muriel is one. 869. Cydippes, Cydippe, whose lover Acontius obtained her avowal by flinging at her feet an apple wrapped with a letter or “bille’, which she unthinkingly read aloud. 876. my lady Dakers. Dyce identifies this lady as the wife of Thomas lord Dacre, and granddaughter of the then duke of Norfolk by his first wife Elizabeth Tilney. The married granddaughter of the first duchess and the girl daughter of the second duchess are thus asso- ciated here with the wife of the heir-apparent, the countess of Surrey. Skelton is classical and complimentary in his address of Lady Dacre. He praises her beauty, which he declares neither Zeuxis nor Apelles could paint, and compares her to Penelope, Deianira, and Diana. He does not specifically mention Diana’s supremacy in weaving (see Ovid’s Metamorphoses vi), nor Penelope’s industry at the loom. 879. With the inversion cp. line 217 above. 890-1063. In these seven short-line lyrics, addressed apparently to damsels of the countess’ household, Skelton’s tone and touch change. There are still cumbrous classical allusions, but the line-movement is fresh and lilting, and the scent of flowers is about the reader. The first of the poems, to Margery Wentworth, is unsubstantial, for three of its five stanzas are identical; but its singing quality is marked. Observe the keeping of reference to the occu- pation of the group, in the embroidery-simile. Margery Wentworth is probably the daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth, eldest son of an ancient Yorkshire house, who by his marriage with the daughter of Sir Philip Despenser had acquired the manor of Nettlestead, Suffolk. This daughter, who died 1550, married Sir John Seymour, by whom she became mother of Henry VIII’s wife Jane Seymour, and grandmother to Edward VI. Note that she here outranks all the other ladies-in-waiting. 890. mageran Jentil. Dyce quotes Gerard’s Herbal to show that this term was applied to the best sort of marjoram. 910. Mistress Margaret Tilney, here addressed, must be a kinswoman of either the first or the second duchess of Norfolk, both of whom bore that surname. The student may find food for conjecture in Skelton’s language to her; he compares himself to Macareus the brother-lover of Canace, and likens her to Canace and to Phaedra, thus using two of the more impossible stories of antiquity, of the type rejected by Chaucer in the prologue to his Man of Law’s Tale. Dyce quotes a passage from Feylde’s Controversy between a Lover and 520 NOTES [pace 358 a Jay to show that the sixteenth century could see in Phaedra, Progne, Pasiphae, and Canace, examples of “true love’. But, as said note 827 ante, Feylde’s tone is not certain; nor is Skelton’s here. . 919. Iwus, “iwis’; cp. German gewiss, “certainly”. The i- of this word is a survival of the OldEng past-participial ge- prefix, in this case of the verb witan, to know. Modern English constantly confuses the word with an imaginary J wis, treating J as a personal pro- noun. So frequently in Browning. 932. perle oryent, i.e., margaret, a pearl. See 485 ante. 938 ff. The Jane Hassett here addressed, called Jane Blenner haiset in the printed eds., is surmised by Dyce to be perhaps a daughter of Sir Thomas Blennerhassett, who was one of the executors to the second duke of Norfolk a few years later. 947. stellify. This word in its first sense meant “to place among the constellations”, as Jupiter raised Castor and Pollux, etc.; see HoFame 1002-08. Hence “to make a member of the Olympian group”, as Philology by her marriage to Mercury. See Temple of Glass 136. Hence, “to exalt, extol”. 956. Laodomy, Laodamia, one of the classical types of womanly constancy. After the death of her husband Protesilaus at Troy, she had an image of him made, upon which she centered all her grief. When her father destroyed this, she killed herself. 957. To Isabel Pennell, now addressed, Skelton uses a much livelier and more familiar tone. 969, 980. The MS reads her, sefhe. 976. lure. See note Dance Macabre 207. As the lure used in recalling hawks was the model of a bird, the sense here may be that of ‘‘type, model”. But the NED gives no authority for such interpretation. 988. Margaret Hussey, another of the countess’ gentlewomen, is now addressed. The rimes of the lyric again run in threes, except for the opening and closing lines; but the verse- length is varied. My numbering hereafter departs further from that of Dyce, who breaks some of the lines written long by the manuscript. 989. hauke of the towr. A highflying or “towering” hawk; see Magnificence 926. 1005. Isyphill. Hypsipyle, the beloved of Jason, was another favorite classical heroine of the Middle Ages. Chaucer includes her in his Legend of Good Women, and part of her story is told by Lydgate, Thebes 3028 ff., with a reference there to Boccaccio’s De Claris Mulieribus. 1007. pomaunder. French pomme d’ambre, a ball, or box containing a ball, of perfumes and spices, carried in the latter Middle Ages as a specific against the plague or as a luxury. Cardinal Wolsey used often an orange so stuffed; see line 125 of Cavendish here for note. 1008. Goode Cassander. Does Skelton mean Cassandra, or the herb cassawder, cassava? 1011-12. “Far may be sought before you can find” etc. 1016. See note on 736 for similarity of name between this lady-in-waiting and the Roger Statham there described. 1026. dame Pasiphe. Pasiphae, wife of King Minos of Crete, was mother of the monster Minotaur by a bull. See notes on 827, 910 ante. 1054, 1059. Delete the colon at end of 1057 and place period at end of 1059. Skelton says that Galatea was extolled by Virgil; she is briefly mentioned in the third eclogue, but her story is more fully told in Theocritus, 1074. Master Newton. Dyce makes no note at this point. Apparently the duke’s house- hold included a man whose occupation was draughting, illuminating, and scrivener-work. He is using compasses, a plummet or ?leadpencil, a penselle or brush of fine hair; he wears spec- tacles. For these last see note on line 54 of London Lickpenny here. The word pencil is used to mean “brush” as late as Tennyson, Gardener’s Daughter 26; the term plummet for a leadpencil is not cited NED earlier than 1634, but see note here on Palladius, line 3 of extract A. 1108 ff. “The usual amount of your grace has been and yet is in proportion to all which suits with reason, unless hasty credence, by the urge of force, should happen to stand” etc.— fortune, 1112, is a verb, as in 85 above. PAGE 361] THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 521 1134-40 are used, with appropriate border, as title page to Madden’s Illuminated Orna- ment, London 1833. 1135. golden railles. The NED gives no clue here. What is meant may be something like “strap-work”, which the NED defines as “an ornament consisting of a narrow fillet or band arranged in loops, sometimes of two such bands interlaced”. This was much used in the 15th and 16th cents., especially in Flanders and Germany. Gollancz speaks of the Shirley MS now owned by the Prince of Wales (see p. 193) as having “borders of gold strap-work and flowers”. 1145. aurum musicum. Read aurum mosaicum, a bronze powder used by painters. 1148. In the margin by stanza 140 is, in small type:—“Honor est benefactiue operacionis signum: Aristotiles: Diuerte a malo & fac bonum; Pso. Nobilis est ille quem nobilitat sua virtus: Cassianus. Proximus ille deo qui scit racione tacere. Cato. Mors vltima linea rerum. Horat.” 1150 ff. A list of Skelton’s works now follows. Many of them are lost; and in giving the catalogue, Occupation makes no distinction as to length or importance, nor as to date of composition. Manerly Margery is discussed through two stanzas, while the translation of Cicero’s Ad Familiares is given one line. The early-executed rendering of Diodorus Siculus is mentioned far down the list, line 1463. Skelton opens, stanza 140, with books on Honorous Estate, on How Men Should Flee Sin, on Royal Demeanor, on How to Speak Well, on How to Die. None of these has yet been identified with existing work; the last-mentioned is perhaps, as Dyce suggested, a ver- sion of the same original as Caxton used for his 1490 “Crafte to Know Well to Dye’. There follow in stanza 141 the Interlude of Virtue, the Book of the Rosiar, Prince Arthur’s Creation (i.e., assumption of the dignity of Prince of Wales, in 1489), a book on False Faith, dialogues of Imagination, “Antomedon of love’s meditation”, a new grammar, and the Bowge of Court. The last exists; and Brie identifies the Book of the Rosiar with the poem printed by Dyce i to follow page viii. See EnglStud 37:49. Upon Antomedon, or better “Automedon’, line 1159, Brie has an important note in Archiv 138:228. Among the poets of the Anthologia Graeca, he tells us, was an epigrammatist named Automedon, to whom there are assigned eleven epigrams. The tenth is, in the Latin version of Duebner’s ed. ii:294,— Felix est primum quidem qui nulli quidquam debet ; dein qui non duxit uxorem, tertio qui est sine liberis. si vero insanus uxorem duxerit quispiam, habet gratiam, si defodiat statim uxorem, dotem nactus magnam. Haec edoctus sapiens esto; incassum vero Epicurum sine ubi sit vacuum quaerere, et quae sint monades. Brie remarks that however trivial this seems to us, it had interest for the Renaissance; it was for instance translated by Ronsard in 1560. 1155. In the margin by stanza 141 is:—“Virtuti omnia parent: Salust. Nusquam tuta fides: Virgiliws. Res est solliciti plena timoris amor. Ouid. Si vacet vsus quem penes &c. Horace.” 1162 ff. In stanza 142 are listed a comedy Academios and the translation of Tully’s (i.e., Cicero’s) Ad Familiares, neither now known; a book Good Advisement (not known, but see Skelton’s Replycacion 360-61), the Recule against Gaguin, a few lines of which have been discovered by Brie (see EnglStud 37:32), and The Popinjay, which is perhaps the existing Speke Parrot. In the margin by this stanza is: “Non est timor dei ante oculos eorum. Spalmo. Concedat laurea lingue. Tulliws. Fac cum consilio & in eternum non peccabis. Salamon.” 1169 ff. This stanza mentions a pamphlet on Sovereignty (not known), and Magnificence. In the margin by this and the next stanza is:—“Non mihi sit modulo rustica papilio. Uates. Dominare in virtute tua. Pso. Magwificauit eum in conspectu regum. Sapiencia. Fugere pudor verumque fidesque. In quorum subiere locum fraudesque dolique. Insidieque et vis et amor scileratus habendi. Ouid. Filia Babilonis misera. Psalmo.”’ 522 NOTES [PAGE 361 1176 ff. Two stanzas are now devoted to the various poems addressed to “Manerly Mar- gery”, only one of which is known today. Skelton breaks into rollicking doggerel coarseness as easily as he had earlier broken into song; he either likes his subject here or believes it interesting to the countess, for he disports himself at length with allusion incomprehensible to us. We perceive only that “Margery” is a woman of loose life but pretended honesty. Some- thing further about her may be contained in the Latin verses, as yet unsolved. These Latin lines are omitted from the numbering here, while the two English lines are included. The last Latin line is unconnected with what precedes, and serves to summarize work by Skelton. 1183. In the margin by stanza 145 is:—‘“De nihilo nihil fit. Aristotiles. Le plus dis- pleysant pleiser puent.” 1188. Cp. the proverbial “It may well ryme but it acordeth nought”, used as refrain in the poem printed as Lydgate’s by Halliwell, Min Poems, p. 55. 1191 ff. As Dyce notes, “my ladys grace” perhaps refers to the countess of Derby, mother of Henry VII; see also Brie in EnglStud 37:9. By the Peregrination of Man’s Life Skelton may mean a translation of Guillaume de Deguilleville’s Pélerinage, a very popular three-part poem of the fourteenth century, the first of the three pilgrimages being of man’s life, the second of the soul, the third of Christ. Lydgate’s verse-translation of the first part exists, but Skelton’s prose is today unknown. Of the Red Rose treatise nothing is now known. Beside stanzas 146 and 147 runs the marginal note:—‘‘Notat bellum cornubiense quod in campistribus & in patencioribus vastique solitudinibus prope Grenewich gestum est.” Beside 146 is the note:—‘“‘Apostolus. Non habemus hic ciuitatem manentem sed futuram perquerimus”’. 1199. In the margin by stanza 147 is:—“Erudemini qui iudicatis terram. Pso.” 1202. This treatise, written for Henry VIII’s boyhood, is not now known. Skelton was at the time “‘creancer” or tutor to the boy-prince. Dyce remarks that a manuscript of Precepta Moralia compiled by Skelton for Henry was once in the library of Lincoln Cathedral, but is now missing. Such handbooks were very numerous in the late Middle Ages; cp. Hoccleve’s Regement of Princes, Ashby’s Active Policy of a Prince, Barclay’s transl. of Mancini, Hawes’ effort to combine precept and entertainment in his Pastime of Pleasure, Spenser him- self,—etc. For the Speculum-title see note on Ship of Fools 85. 1206-07. The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng and Colin Clout still exist. John Ive is possibly, as Dyce suggests, a lost work using the heretical teacher John Ive’s name in its title. Joforth Iack means “Get up, Jack!” and Dyce thinks that the phrase was used as a sort of refrain in the poem John Ive. But it must be noted that as “with Colyn Clout” intro- duces a separate work, a separate poem may here also be meant. In the margin by stanza 148 is:—“Quis stabit mecum aduersus operantes in iniquitatem. Pso. Arrident melius seria picta iocis. In fabulis isopi.” 1210. whyte ... blacke. See note on Hawes’ Pastime 1349. 1211. conueyauns, conveyance, is cunning, underhand dealing. See the play Magnificence. 1212. vse the walshemannys hoos. Dyce explains this as parallel to the proverbial use of “shipman’s hose” to mean something which can be indefinitely adapted and stretched. See Colin Clout 780. 1213. These poems do not exist. A poem addressed to “Mistress Anne” is printed by Dyce i:20, and a fragmentary copy of another is printed by Brie in Engl Stud 37 :29-30, from a text discovered by him on a guardleaf of MS Trin. Coll. Cambr. R 3, 17. In the margin by stanza 149:—“Implent veteris Bacchi pinguisque ferine. Virgilius. Aut prodesse volunt aut delectare poete. Horace.’ 1216. Where it became, “what became of it”. See FaPrinces C 20 here. 1218. The Ballad of the Mustard Tart is now unknown. 1220. Adame all. This epitaph may be read in Dyce i:171-3. Line 1221 means “let him sleep in peace like a dormouse”’, In the margin by stanza 150 is:—“Adam adam vbi es. genesis. Resp. Vbi nulla requies vbi nullus ordo sed sempiternus horror inhabitat. Job”. 1227 ff. Philip Sparrow was contemptuously treated by Barclay; see the close of the Ship of Fools. Although the Ship was printed in 1508, twelve years earlier than the Garland PAGE 362] THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 323 was written, it must be that Barclay’s scorn still rankled, or that there had been more recent criticism, by Barclay or another. For the allusion to Philip Sparrow sends Skelton off on a detour of a hundred lines in the short couplet of that poem, an excursus which indeed appears in the early prints as “an adicyon made by Maister Skelton”. See Dyce i:90-92. In the margin by stanza 151 is:—“Etenim passer inuenit sibi domum. spalmo”. 1242. His dirige, etc. Skelton says: ‘‘What ails (such jangling jays) to carp at Philip Sparrow’s grave, at his dirige?” Her commendation, i.e., the praise of Philip’s owner in the poem, cannot be matter of fault finding; it was joyous material, put in so that no one be displeased at the burial-song for Philip. 1250-55. In praising Jane or Joanna Scrope, the young girl-owner of Philip Sparrow, Skelton compares her to Lucretia, Polyxena, Calliope, Penelope, etc. She was thus “set and sorted”, that is, placed and classed, with women of dignity. 1257. Hercules took out of hell Cerberus, his own friends Theseus and Pirithous, and Alcestis. The term “harrow hell” is applied in Middle English to Christ’s descent into hell and removal from it of Adam, Eve, and the patriarchs, as related in the apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus. Warner, describing Hercules’ exploits in his Albion’s England, book i, says that he “harrowed Hell”. 1259. Is Skelton thinking of Georgics iii:44,—“domitrix Epidaurus equorum’’? Is he arbitrarily connecting that place with the horse-men, and constructing a form for rime? 1264. Hercules wounded and captured, but did not slay, the Maenalian hind, which had horns of gold and hoofs of brass. This was his fourth labor. 1267 ff. Hercules’ eleventh labor was the obtaining of the apples of the Hesperides, which were guarded by a serpent. His tenth labor was the slaying of the three-bodied Geryon. 1277. lyon sauage, the Nemaean lion, slain as the first labor. 1278-81. The mares of Diomed were captured as Hercules’ ninth labor. 1280. The rouncy was a common hackney or nag, more a farmhorse than a “steed”. 1282-7. The bull here mentioned is a shape taken by the river-god Achelous, who fought in that form with Hercules for the possession of Deianira, but was defeated and deprived of one of his horns. Ovid, Metam. ix :86-7, says that the Naiads changed this horn into the horn of plenty; he makes Achelous say :— Naides hoc, pomis et odoro flore repletum, Sacrarunt; divesque meo Bona Copia cornu est. 1288. Skelton has conjured Philip Sparrow by Hercules, who harrowed Hell; now he calls on him by Hecate’s power in the underworld, by the Eumenides or Fates, by the Lernaean hydra, by the Chimaera (1296), by the river Styx (1300), by Cocytus, by Charon, by Saul and the incantations of the witch who raised Samuel, by Diana, Luna, and Proserpine,— by all those who have power in Hades; then he asks (1336) what is the cause of this perplexity? 1310. Primo regum expres, “in the first book of Kings expressly set forth”. 1311. Phitones. A Pythoness or witch is a woman possessed of an evil spirit which speaks. The name is ultimately from the Vulgate; in First Chronicles x:13 the modern rendering “one that hath a familiar spirit” appears as “pythonissa’; and in First Samuel xXxviii:7 the witch of Endor is “mulier pythonem habens”. The NED opines that a connec- tion with Pythia was felt in the coinage of the word. In the form Phitonesse it is frequent in Middle English; see Chaucer’s HoFame 1261, Friar’s Tale 212, Gower’s Confessio iv :1937, etc. The NED cites Pythoness as late as Byron. 1321. idem numero, the same (as) in the Book of Numbers. 1326-7. Skelton says: “I will leave it to lettered men generally to say (whether that spirit were the same Samuel as appears in the Book of Numbers)”. See Lydgate’s FaPrinces 11 :451 ff. 1330-32. Diana is invoked in her three forms, earthly, heavenly, infernal. 1337. The words “Phillyppe answeryth” are found in the margin by the Latin line beginning “Nunc pudet”; it is probable that they refer only to the latter part of that line. The sense is: “O Philip, fair Joanna Scrope urgently implores thy deeps of hell; why does she now shrink in modesty from our song?—It is [too?] late; infamy is less than truth.” 524 NOTES [PAGE 363 1342. The sense is: ‘““‘Why, O sallow Envy, dost thou condemn the pious funeral rites of a bird? May such Fates snatch thee as snatch the bird! But envy is to thee an unending death.” (Does this point at Barclay?) 1343. In the margin by stanza 152 is:—“Porcus se ingurgitat ceno & luto se immergit: Guarinus Veronensis. Et sicut oportorium mutabis eos & mutabuntur. Pso, C, Exultabuntur cornua iusti: spalmo.”’ The same collocation of gr-words appears in the second poem against Garnesche ; see Dyce i:118 line 2. 1344. “The mourning of the maple-root”. Dyce points out that this lost poem is prob- ably alluded to in one line of a song of 1609,—“Why weepst thou, maple root?” 1345-7. On this poem I can give no information; the lines may or may not sketch the plot of the Maple Root. 1348. Moyses hornis. The Vulgate translation of Exod. xxxiv:29 says that Moses, descending from Sinai, knew not “quod cornuta esset facies sua ex consortio sermonis Domini”. St. Jerome, making the translation, was here misled by the Hebrew word meaning “tq emit rays”, which also meant “to put forth horns”. Hence the horned Moses of Michel- angelo; hence, e.g., Lydgate’s allusions PilgLifeMan 1398, 1580, and Proc. Corpus Christi 50. 1349. stormis. Marshe reads scornes. 1350. paiauntis, etc. Dyce in a long note argues that this stanza does not refer to “theatrales ludos”’ such as Bale includes in his list of Skelton’s writings, but to “things that were done” in Joyous Gard. As this was the name of Lancelot’s castle, Skelton may be alluding to some aristocratic escapade or pageant of which the countess knew, and perhaps of which he had written disguisedly. 1351. muse. Marshe reads mows. In the margin here is:—‘“Tanquam parieti inclinato & macerie depulse. spalmo. Militat omnis amans et habet sua castra Cupido. Ouid.” 1354. Dyce cites Cavendish’s use of this phrase to mean Castle St. Angelo in Rome. But a student who reads, in Brewer and Gairdner’s Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, ii:1510-11 etc., the long list of names of halls, tents, and pavilions, may query if this name were not applied to some English building, or even some pageant such as the “Gardyn de Esperance” described ibid., p. 1509. 1357 ff. Again Skelton pours out a stream of disguised allusions, which his older hearers may have understood, but which are blind to us. Line 1357 means “‘the recital of the group of poems dealing with Rosamond’s Bower’. As the phrase “mok loste her sho” in 1363 seems to be part of a narrative of a love-affair, it may be used as was the phrase “tread her shoe amiss”, which meant sexual misdoing, for a woman. But in Why Come Ye 83 the locution is less probably of this sort. In the margin by the stanza is:—‘Introduxit me in cubuculum suum. Cant. Os fatue ebullit stultitiam. Cant.” 1358. pleasaunt paine, etc. This rhetorical device of “opposites” goes back, like so much else of late medieval poetic mannerism, to Ovid. Schroetter in his Ovid und die Troubadours points out that “pleasant pain’ was a commonplace of Roman elegies, later a commonplace of Provencal lyric. He cites Ovid’s dulce malum, the Troubadours’ doussa dolors. Medieval Latin rhetoricians worked the device freely; St. Augustine uses it, and it is very frequent in Alanus. Chaucer is sparing of it; see Troilus ii:1099; and Lydgate has not many cases. It is often employed by Petrarch. 1367. Exione. Possibly Hesione, sister of Priam, taken captive by King Telamon and the Greeks in an expedition which slew Priam’s father Laomedon and ravaged Troy, see Lydgate’s Troy Book ii. It was in revenge for this that Paris made his incursion into Greece and carried off Helen, a deed followed by the Ten Years’ War. Hesione herself plays no part in the Troy Book, but her name appears in some late medieval lists; eg., Feylde in his Controversy says ‘““Where is Semele and Iocasta, Cleoparte and Ixionya?” etc. And Douglas in his Palice of Honour, ed. Small i:23, writes “Jole, Hercules, Alcest, Ixion”. Christine de Pisan in the Epistle of Othea mentions “Esyona’. The Troy Book story of Hesione is quite other than the usual classical narrative as in e.g., Diodorus Siculus iv, chap. 42, or as in Hyginus’ Fabulae no. 89. Lines 1367 and 1368 are quite inexplicable to me. Marsh reads “her lambe is”. PAGE 364] THE GARLAND OF LAURELL 525 In the margin by stanza 155 is:—‘‘Audaces fortuna iuuat. Uirgilius. Nescia mens hominum sortis fatique futuri. Uirgilius” (Aeneid x:501). 1371-7. The structure of this stanza is freakish. The usual rime-scheme is kept, but there is appended to each line a foot monorimed throughout, while the five-stress movement is quite lost. In the margin by the stanza is:—“Oleeque minerua inuentrix. Georgicorum (see i:18-19). Atque agmina cerui puluerulenta glomerant. Eneid. 4” (see 154-5). 1377. A proverb:—With little occupation much rest is possible. 1378 ff. In the margin by this stanza is:—‘‘Due molentes in pistrino vna assumetur altera relinquetur. Isaias. Foris vastabit eum timor et intus pravor. Pso.” 1383. Swassham and Some, i.e., Swaffham(?) and Soham. Swaffham is in Norfolk, about 25 miles from Norwich, and Soham is six miles from Ely. Both places have fine early churches. 1385 ff. In the margin by this stanza is:—“Opera que ego facio ipsa perhibent testimonium de me. In euang. &c.”—wofully arayd. A poem opening thus has been preserved, and is printed with Skelton’s work by Dyce i:141. Brie in EnglStud 37:22-25 discusses this text and an earlier using the same phrase; he concludes that the poem printed by Dyce is probably not Skelton’s. 1386. Another inverted line; see 217 ante and note. This line is appositive with that preceding. 1387. Uexilla regis. Dyce identifies this with a poem which he prints i:144. Brie, Engl- Stud 37 :25-6, questions. 1388. sacris solempniis. Dyce doubts if this be a transl. of the Latin hymn beginning “Sacris solemniis juncta sunt gaudia”. 1392 ff. In the margin by stanza 159 is:—‘Honora medicum propter necessitatem creauit eum altissimus &c. Superiores lationes influunt in corpora subiecta et disposita &c. Nota.” 1392-3. Here are mentioned a group of ancient physicians, Galen, Dioscorides, Hippo- crates, Avicenna. 1395. Albumazar, an Arabian astrologer of the ninth century. 1397 ff. Skelton now runs into a whirl of proverbs and madcap nonsense. Stanza 160 is a compound of proverbs. Line 1400, “Dun is in the myre”’, is a Christmas game the title of which coincided with or passed into a proverb; the meaning is, “We are in a tight place”. See Skeat’s note CantTales H 5. 1399. In the margin beside this stanza is:—‘‘Spectatum admisse risus teneatur amor. Horace.” 1401-02 are transposed in the Faukes print. 1406 ff. In the margin is:—‘Lumen ad reuelacionem gentium. Pso. clxxv.” If “sol lucerne” means “sunlight” and “grand iuir’ means “long winter’, the French proverb here referred to is parallel to the Anglo-Saxon saying that if the ground hog sees his shadow on February second (Candlemas Day) there will be six weeks more of winter. The ‘‘Marion clarion” part of the stanza alludes probably to some story of Skelton’s own making, and says that cold and clouds descended upon this goodly flower and untwined her (i.e., tore her to pieces). The bracketed addition to line 1410 appears only in the Faukes print, and may be a gloss. 1413 ff. In the margin is:—‘Uelut rosa vel lilium O pulcherrima mulierum. &c. Cant. ecclesia.” 1418-19. See the proverb in Churl and Bird 374. Barclay in his Mancini-translation also uses it. 1420 ff. In the margin is:—“Notate verba signata misteria. Gregori.” 1422. mary gipcy. St. Mary Egyptiaca, the ‘“Egipcien Marie” of Chaucer’s Man of Law’s Tale 402, is often confused with St. Mary Magdalen by the similarity of their stories. 1423. Quod scripsi, scripsi. So said Pilate, John xix :22. 1424-27. Dyce thinks that Skelton alludes to Luke i:13. If we credit Bale’s report that Skelton was disciplined for maintaining an illegal wife, we might refer to Luke xx:35. 526 NOTES [PAGE 365 1428, 1432. Marshe reads Asshrige. Dyce has a full note here. There was a College of the Bonhommes at Ashridge in Buckinghamshire, which cherished as relic a portion of the blood of Jesus, brought over in the reign of Henry III by Edmund of Cornwall, the king’s nephew and founder of the College. Another portion of the sacred blood, “sang royall’’, was deposited at Hailes Abbey; see PardTale 324 and Skeat’s note. Both societies were in con- sequence sought by many pilgrims, and must have kept open house, see line 1432. On the Ashridge fraternity see Todd, History of the College of the Bonhommes at Ashridge, London, 1823. It may be remarked that the noble “Ellesmere” manuscript of the Canterbury Tales is possibly of Ashridge provenance, 1434. Skelton says that he has made a “distinction”, or definition of the College, which follows in the two Latin lines. In these, the ‘“‘fraxinus in clivo”’ is an ash-tree on a cliff or ridge,—Ashridge; and it flourishes without a supply of living water. 1435'ff. In the margin is:—‘Nota. Penuriam aque nam canes ibi hauriunt ex puteo altissimo. Stultorum infinitus est numerus, &c. Ecclesiasticus. Factum est cum apollo esset corinthi: Actws apostolorum. Stimulos sub pectore vertit Apollo. Uirgilius—The nacyoun of folys.” This was connected by Dyce with The Boke of Three Folys, which he reprinted i:199 from the 1568 Skelton. But Brie, EnglStud 37:18-21, points out that these three prose chapters are from the translation of the Ship of Fools made by Henry Watson and pubd. slightly earlier than that of Barclay. We have accordingly to say that Skelton’s work here mentioned is unknown to us. 1436. Apollo... whirllid vp his chare. This line is the first of two which are all that remain of a third part of Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale. It seems to have caught the fancy of later versifiers. The author of the Flower and the Leaf begins his poem with it; the trans- lator of Charles d’Orléans uses the line, see p. 230 here; and apparently Skelton opened one of his tirades with it. This poem he now wishes to efface from Fame’s record, but she refuses,—stanza 165. 1442 ff. In the margin is:—“Fama repleta malis per virilis euolat alis, &c.” 1449 ff. In the margin is:—“Ego quidem sum Pauli, ego Apollo: Cor.” 1455. ragman rollis. This phrase is variously applied in Middle English to an important legal document and to a game, the point of contact being that in the game a roll of verses, individual “characters”, was used, having separate pendent strings like the pendent seals of the document. The word “ragman” is still in dispute etymologically; Skeat (Piers Plow- man A prol. 73 and C xix:122) suggests a Scandinavian connection with the word ragmenni, “coward”. Such a term might have been applied to the Scottish nobles who signed allegiance to Edward I, and thereafter, on this theory, any document with seals might be so called. But Nares and others think that the game may have antedated the use of the word for law- documents; with this opinion I may compare the French poem in Montaiglon and Raynaud’s Recueil général des Fabliaux, 1878, iii:247-8. Here an aristocratic company plays at “roy- qui-ne-ment”, a sort of forfeits-game. Froissart twice mentions the game, and Langlois in Roman. Forsch. 23 :163-73 discusses it, citing an allusion as early as 1285. With the roi of this game cp. the Greek game Basilinda and its elected king, also the late Mid Eng (tautological ?) use of King Ragman. The word ragment came to mean any sort of discourse; see its use by Douglas, Dunbar, and Lyndesay. Gower, Confessio viii :2378-9, mentions the game; Udall in his transl. of Erasmus’ Apophthegms, 1542, renders “Fescennina carmina” by “ragmans rewe”, and then explains the word as “a long iest that raileth on any person by name” etc. Here the phrase means “list”. 1456 ff. In the margin is:—‘‘Malo me galathea petit lasciua puella. Virgilius. Nec si muneribus certes concedet Iollas. 2. Bucol.” 1460-62. Three lost works by Skelton are now mentioned:—Of the Maiden of Kent called Comfort, Of Lovers’ Testaments, and How Iollas Loved Phillis. Iollas is mentioned in Virgil’s second eclogue, line 57, as a wealthy rival to Corydon. In the collection of Bucolica brought together by the printer Oporinus in 1546 are eclogues entitled Jolas, by an unknown author and by Stigelius. 1463 ff. In the margin is:—“Mille hominum species & rerum discolor vsus. Horace.— Diodorus Siculus. This translation of part of Diodorus, done from the Latin of Poggio, a PAGE 366] THE METRICAL VISIONS 527 was mentioned by Caxton in the preface to his 1490 translation of the Aeneid, along with the translation of Cicero’s Letters; both must therefore have been executed in Skelton’s young manhood. An imperfect copy of the Diodorus exists in MS 357 of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. 1470 ff. In the margin is:—“Millia milium & decies millies centena millia &c. Apoca- lipsis. Uite senatum laureati possident. Ecclesiastica. Cauit.”’ 1480. Janus refers to an approaching January. The Latin following stanza 170 says:— “Dost thou desire to know what meaning may be in this for thee? Then advise thy mind; like Janus, look forward and back.” Note the feminine aemula; Skelton is addressing a woman. Marshe’s edition reads Mens, Faukes’ Meus; Marshe reads sis in the second line, Faukes sit. In the margin by the Latin couplet is :—‘‘Uates”.—Skelton now addresses his book, using Latin and English in turn. He says: Go forth, O radiant light of the Britons! Our songs, do ye celebrate your worthy British Catullus! Say that Skelton is your Adonis, your Homer! CAVENDISH’S METRICAL VISIONS 1 ff. Cavendish fixes the date of his poem astronomically, as Chaucer did the prologue to the Canterbury Tales, as Lydgate did his Siege of Thebes, Black Knight, etc., and as did many earlier writers; see note on Thebes lines 1 here. Cavendish’s contemporary Robert Copland, in his Hye Wey to the Spyttel Hous, expressly declined such mode of dating a work; but modern poets have not ignored the effect of allusion to the great stars or constella- ions. Thus Chatterton in his February, Thomson at the opening of his Autumn and of his Winter; thus Tennyson in the third part of Maud; thus Hardy in the second chapter of Far from the Madding Crowd,—‘‘The Dog Star and Aldebaran, pointing to the restless Pleiades, were halfway up the southern sky”. Still more archaic is the method of Hous- man,—“The sun at noon to higher air. Unharnessing the silver Pair That late before his chariot swam, Rides on the gold wool of the Ram”. We may recollect Housman’s strong interest in astrology. 4. sygne retrogradaunt. This means that the constellation or “sign” was on the western or descending side of the meridian line. 24-30. Idelnes. Sloth was one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and medieval writers fre- quently state that their work is undertaken to avoid the “mater vitiorum omnium”. Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury 1279-1292, in his treatise De Paupertate chap. 9, says “Labor principaliter inventus est pro otio excludendo”. De Vignay in the prol. to his transl. of the Legenda Aurea speaks of the dangers of “oysiuete’, and Chaucer at the opening of the Second Nun’s Tale says that he intends to eschew idleness; see Brown in ModPhil 9:1-16 on the source. The lover in Chaucer’s Book of the Duchesse wrote songs to keep himself from idleness; the compiler of the Scottish Legendary, ca. 1400, worked “for til eschew idilnes”. Copland in the prol. to his Kalender of Shepeherdes gives the same reason for his undertaking; and the list could be indefinitely extended. See note on Hawes 1313 here, and for sloth in a lover see note on Reproof line 4. See also line 47 below, Barclay’s prol. ecl. 51, Ship 134, etc. 31-2. Compare Copland’s introd. to Nevill as ante, p. 289. 38. Cavendish says that should he choose as his theme the high courage of men of rank, he would lack examples of it in England because covetousness has so sorely impaired chivalry. Cp. Copland as just noted. 52. The request to correct is very common in the medieval period. Chaucer at the close of his Venus apologized for his inadequacy; and the phrases of excuse which he put into the mouth of his Franklin were taken as model by Lydgate, by Bokenam, and by others, who added to the apology an entreaty that the patron correct shortcomings. Chaucer makes such a request only at the close of his Troilus, and addresses it to fellow-writers, to Gower and to Strode; but Lydgate is profuse of it. See for instance Dance Macabre 660, Churl and Bird 385, ResonandSens 32-40, Troy Book i:30 ff., the close of St. Edmund, etc. When translating Laurent’s version of the De Casibus, Lydgate could also find it in the French— “ie le laisse et remetzi en la correction et amendment des sages hommes”. Cp. also the last 528 NOTES [PAGE 371 stanza of La Belle Dame, Skelton’s Garland 1525 ff., very often in Caxton, etc. In the Temple of Glass 1400 Lydgate says that he himself will correct if his patroness so desires. It is possibly the dependence of formal literature on patronage which gives this request to correct so wide a currency. See note on Shirley II: 71 here. 61. colours. This word has in late Middle or early Modern English three senses :—(1) pretext, as in FaPrinces i:5223, “Under a colour off liberalitie’; (2) rhetorical ornament, see note on FaPrinces G 46 here; (3) the fable under which a moral truth is conveyed; sce Hawes’ Pastime 740, 1297. 63. wofull style. Chaucer, Troilus i:12-14, said that a “sory chere”’ suits well a sor- rowful tale; and in SqTale 102-4 he said ‘““Acordaunt to his wordes was his chere, As techeth art of speche hem that it lere’. Lydgate, making similar statements in Black Knight 183-4, Troy Book iii:5453-57, especially FaPrinces vi:3144-50 (G 197-203 here), says in the last- named passage that men may read this doctrine in Tullius. In De Oratore ii:148, §35, we read “—ut eius . . . vultus denique perspiciamus omnis, qui sensus animi plerumque indicant’. See also ibid., iii:221, §59, and cp. Ovid, Fasti ii:755, ‘“—facies animo dignaque parque fuit”. Alanus says in his Anticlaudianus iii, cap. 4:7, 8 that the countenance is “nuntius, interpres verax animique figura”. See Lydgate’s description of the actors, Troy Book ii: 905 ff.; see Hawes’ Pastime 1172 ff. Allied are FaPrinces ix :3447 and Henryson’s Testament of Cres- seid 1-2. See note on FaPrinces G 197 here. 65 ff. Caliope wyll refuse, etc. This line is imitated from FaPrinces prol. 241, see p. 160 here. In it and in 456-58 Lydgate says that ditties of complaining do not fit Calliope and the Muses. He had already said this in the Temple of Glass 952-4; and the rhetorical ques- tion of that passage,—‘‘Allas to whom shal I for help call?” is repeated FaPrinces prol. 240 and by Cavendish 64 here. Chaucer had said, Troilus i:6, 7 and iv:22-24, that the Furies alone are fit patronesses of a woeful tale; and Lydgate adopts this convention, e.g., in DuorMere 505, Troy Book iii:5428 ff. Cavendish calls on God for aid, though not rejecting the Muses for religious reasons, as Walton had done, see his Boethius A 60-64 and note. 79. frome. The writing of an inorganic final e is frequent in Cavendish’s orthography; cp., in these extracts, frome 182, 1359, 1373, bye 176, hyme 173, 263, 266, 1139 and epitaph 39, ame 229, 231, 1382, theme 114, 1113, whome 154, 157, 266, 1316, etc. This inorganic e is also frequent in the copies of Chaucer and of Lydgate executed by John Shirley. 85. Cavendish opens his pageant of the fallen great with Wolsey, his late master, Car- dinal and Archbishop of York,—Eboracensis. The career of Wolsey, born a grazier’s son, educated at Oxford, favored by Henry because of his conspicuous ability, and deprived of his enormous wealth and power when his arrogance and excess, more especially his failure to obtain Henry’s divorce from Katharine, had aroused the despot’s anger,—is one of the perennially interesting stories of the world. 93. legate de latere. There are three classes of Papal legates,—legati nati, legati missi, and legati a latere. The first-named hold this ambassadorial power by virtue of their office; the second are deputed by the Pope for some special occasion, and the third, chosen by the Pope from among the Cardinals, exercise his power in some foreign country, where they reside. See note on 141. 101. fynne instead of fyne. Note the similar orthography in 43, 226; note fynne: dynne in 120-122; note wynne 131, lynne 1302, also basse 1165, mattes for mates in 1188. That a soft bed was a luxury in the Middle Ages we may infer from 246 and from Dance Macabre 252. The inventory of Wolsey’s possessions written out in MS Brit. Mus. Harley 599 lists, in the expenditures for 1527, “A bedde for my Lordes owne lying, 8 mattresses, every one of them stuffed with 13 pounds of carded wulle”. See Hoccleve’s Lerne to Dye 778, and the original in Suso’s Horologium,—‘Tolle, tolle a me lectisterniorum molliciem’, etc. 104-5. This means that there was nothing in the world Wolsey could desire which For- tune would not at once give him. 106. Very little remains of the interior decoration of Hampton Court, to which Cay- endish is probably alluding here; but Law, in his History of Hampton Court Palace (1885) 1:53, describes the beautiful ceiling of one small room still existing, ribbed with moulded wood, gilt, and with a light blue ground. The interest of the late Middle Ages in the roofs PAGE 372] THE METRICAL VISIONS 529 of halls and reception rooms was very great; cp. Hawes’ Pastime 349-50 and refs. given in note. Cp. also the romances, e.g. Syr Degrevaunt, for roofs “craftely entaylled”. 111. Expertest artificers. A large number of the painters, carvers, and workers in plaster or terra-cotta who were employed on Hampton Court Palace by Wolsey were Italians. Many Italian artists were settled in or near Winchester, and the South-England great houses dating from Tudor times still show traces of their handiwork. Eminent men such as Rovezzano, Torrigiano, Maiano, executed commissions for Wolsey and for other English patrons; cp. note regarding Wolsey’s tomb, line 225 below. The ten terra-cotta medallions done by Maiano for Wolsey are still at Hampton Court. 113. Galleryes. This especial feature of Wolsey’s architecture is described in a con- temporary Italian letter cited by Law, op. cit. above i:127, as consisting of long porticoes with windows on each side, looking on garden or river, the ceilings marvellously wrought, etc. It was Wolsey’s habit in inclement weather to walk meditating in his galleries instead of in his gardens. 114. Here is still the Middle English construction it lyked me, where the modern is J liked. See Walton A 41, etc. 115-18. Garden ... arbors. Wolsey’s gardens, at Hampton Court and at York Place, were the objects of his most interested attention, and were laid out with great care. A walled garden was the fashion of the time, and had long been so; see the Roman de la Rose, Froissart’s Paradys d’Amour, Lydgate’s Black Knight, Reson and Sensuality, Churl and Bird, etc. No garden was complete without its arbor, set either high upon the mound, in a nook in the wall, or behind a thick hedge. In the last case, the hedge was made of trees so thickly intertwined with climbing plants that the occupant of the arbor was completely screened from observation. See the Pearl 38, Chaucer’s prol. to the Legend 97, the Kingis Quair 213, La Belle Dame 191, the Flower and Leaf 49, 64, Hawes’ Pastime 1939, 1962, Skelton’s Garland 646, etc. At Hampton Court there were at least two arbors; and Wolsey loved to sit in one of these at evening to say his devotions. 117. knottes, i.e. flowerbeds laid out in fanciful intricate designs. In Cecil’s Hist. of Gardening in England, ed. 1910, p. 76, are cuts of some of these knots. Inside the rectangular flowerbed an elaborate design in curves was laid out, the lines of which were either formed of box, thrift, savory, marjoram, on the general level of the bed, or the pattern was of raised earth, held in place by brick, tile, or lead, and artificially colored. This latter practice is condemned by Bacon in his essay Of Gardens; and the green knots were far more favored. Within the divisions of the pattern thus made the bed was filled with flowers, and green was used as border to the whole. Care had to be exercised to keep the knots from growing into the filling of the bed; cp. Shakespeare’s Richard II act ii scene 4:46. Knots in a garden are mentioned by Hawes, Pastime chap. 18 line 1955, and also in roofs, see note on line 106 above. 119. pestylent ayers. It was the general medieval belief that disease and pestilence were caused and spread by bad air. Many authorities opined that the ultimate cause of the Black Death which ravaged Europe in the latter fourteenth century was the inauspicious conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars in the sign of Aquarius in 1345. There was in consequence, said the medical faculty of Paris, a struggle between the sun and the sea in the Orient which produced a thick stinking mist; and this mist spread gradually to Europe. Terrific earth- quakes in Greece, Cyprus, and Italy in 1348 were accompaniments of this pestilential fog. Whoever breathed such an atmosphere suffered a putrid corrupton of the blood in the lungs and heart; consequently all who wished to escape infection must purify the air about them, and must bleed and purge. The south wind, the bringer of evil from the world’s centre of contagion, must be carefully avoided. Fires were to be kept blazing in the house; the leaves of the baytree, the juniper, and wormwood, were to be strewn about; the floors were to be sprinkled with vinegar, and the hands and face frequently washed with vinegar and water. Sanitary measures were also advised for towns; refuse was not to lie in the streets. Lydgate in his Troy Book ii:749 ff. enlarges on the sewerage system of New Troy, and describes how the gutters were so constantly flushed that no filth could be seen anywhere,—‘Whereby be town was outterly assured From engendryng of al corrupcioun, From wikked eyr and from infeccioun, bat causen ofte by her violence Mortalite and gret pestilence.” 530 NOTES [PAGE 373 A garden was thus not merely an aesthetic delight, but an hygienic precaution, to the medieval mind. Hawes, in his Pastime 1924-5, speaks of walking “among the floures of aromatic fume The mysty ayre to exyle and consume”. And whenever writers of this period allude to morning mists or to the danger of the south wind, it is these theories which are at the back of their minds. See note on 125 below. 120-1. Tapestry was a passion with Wolsey. He purchased scores of sets at a time, and Sir Richard Gresham was especially commissioned to obtain in Flanders the many hang- ings for Hampton Court. See the comment of Skelton, evidently an eyewitness, in Colin Clout 942 ff.; and see Law’s Hist. of Hampton Court Palace i chap. 5. A condensed list of the Cardinal’s tapestries, made when his goods were handed over to Henry VIII, is in Brewer’s Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, iv:2763 ff. Many of these were of Scriptural subjects, but many also of the story of Priam, the Romaunt of the Rose, the Triumphs of Petrarch, the Wheel of Fortune, etc. Others were hunting scenes, studies of flowers, trees, etc. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries made a distinction between ordinary tapestry and tapestry a personnages; the latter presented heroes and scenes of history or romance, and the weave was full of human figures, often with verses in the bordure and scrolls of identification or of speeches on the shoulders or pennons of the principal actors. “Tapestry ystoriée” was the term applied to such hangings; see EnglStud 43:10-26 for note on two sets of verses composed by Lydgate for this purpose; see also Bycorne and Chichevache, p. 114 here. 123. clothe of estate, the canopy over the seat of honor. See Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey. ed. 1827, p. 113, with its mention of “my lord Cardinal sitting under the cloth of estate”; and see also ibid., 117, 195, 211, etc., Skelton’s Garland 484, Paradise Lost x :445-6, 125. The use of perfumes was not only a luxury but an hygienic precaution in an age of the pestilence and “the sweating sickness”. Cavendish says in his Life, ed. 1827, p. 106, that whenever the Cardinal was receiving a throng of suitors he moved among them “holding in his hand a very fair orange, where the meat or substance within was taken out, and filled up again with the part of a sponge, wherein was vinegar, and other confections against the pestilent airs”. Perfumes were frequently used in such a “pomaunder”, see note on Skelton’s Garland 1007. The musk and ambergris here mentioned as used in the chamber were too costly for any but the wealthy; poorer people used bay leaves, etc.; see note on 119 ante. 127. Plate. There is an “Account of Plate, Gold and Silver, made for Cardinal Wolsey from the 9th Year of Henry VIII unto the 19th’,—printed from MS in John Gutch’s Collectanea Curiosa, Oxford, 1781, ii:334-344. Cavendish in his Life mentions Wolsey’s plate on p. 195. 133. seruauntes. Fiddes in his Life of Wolsey ed. 1726, p. 100, says that the Cardinal’s household numbered 800; Law in his Hampton Court i chap. 7 says 500. Cavendish’s Life, ed. 1827, p. 96 ff., enumerates the principal officers. 134. Crossis twayn. These, and the pillars and pole-axes mentioned in 137-8 below were borne before Wolsey on all formal occasions. Cavendish, op. cit., p. 94, says that the crosses were carried “whithersoever he went or rode, by two of the most tallest and comeliest priests that he could get within all his realm’; and p. 108 he describes Wolsey as riding “upon his mule with his crosses, his pillars, his hat, and the great seal, to his barge”. Also, ibid., p. 150, Wolsey starts on his embassy to France having “before him his two great crosses of silver, two pillars of silver, the great seal of England, his cardinal’s hat, and a gentleman that carried his valaunce, otherwise called a cloakbag’’. It is perhaps on this last passage that a drawing is based which is incorporated in Stephen Batman’s copy of Cavendish’s Life, in MS Douce 363 of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and which is reproduced in both editions of Cavendish, at i:87 and 149 respectively. But neither this sixteenth-century picture nor Roy’s “Rede Me and Be Nott Wrothe’, a contemporary attack on Wolsey, agrees exactly with Cavendish. Roy (see ed. Arber, 1871, p. 56) says that the two crosses are borne first by two priests, and that two, laymen bearing the pillars follow, just preceding “my lord on his mule”. He continues, “On each syde a pollaxe is borne / Which in none wother use are worne. Pretendyng some hid mistery.” Cavendish, of. cit., 105-7, says that Wolsey in going to Westminster Hall was preceded by two crosses, by two great silver pillars, and by a mace PAGE 373] THE METRICAL VISIONS 531 of silver gilt, “having about him four footmen with gilt pollaxes in their hand”. The drawing shows no pole-axe bearers; Wolsey, rides quite alone, preceded by two crosses, these by the two pillar-bearers, and these by the bearers of the Great Seal and of the Cardinal’s hat, all mounted. It must however be noted that in this drawing Wolsey is inaccurately represented as bearded. Of the two crosses, one is simple, the archiepiscopal or legantine; the other is that of a Primate or Patriarch, with two transoms, indicating the double supremacy as a Metropolitan and as in authority over other Metropolitans. This double cross, according to Rock, Church of Our Fathers (1905) ii:180 ff., “was used in very few places and for a very short period”. It existed, says Rock, more in the imagination of painters, as did the Papal three-transomed cross entirely. Wolsey’s insistent use of it alongside his archiepiscopal cross, and still more his parade of pillars and pole-axes, aroused the irritation of his con- temporaries. The former were taken to symbolize his function as a pillar of the Church; but the pole-axes were not understood. Skelton in Speke Parrot 510 sneers at both; Roy as cited says the pole-axes pretend some hid mystery; Robert Barnes, in his Supplication to Henry VIII, recounts his dispute with Wolsey over the extravagance of these costly emblems. See Works of Tyndale, Frith, Barnes, Lond., 1573, pp. 214-15, and Cavendish (1827), note to pp. 109-111. 141. legantyn prerogative. Wolsey was in 1516 made the Pope’s legate a latere; see note on line 93 above. By virtue of this special power he might convoke all British ecclesi- astical courts, and exercise visitatorial powers over all monasteries and colleges. His assumption of this office and use of it to raise his authority above that of the king was the leading article of the 43 accusations brought against him in Oct. 1529 by the Lords. See Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, iv:2712-13, and Fiddes’ Life of Wolsey, ed. 1726, pp. 172-79. Wolsey’s attorneys pleaded for him that he did not know he was “in contempt” in so doing, and he threw himself on the king’s mercy. The bill was dropped, but Wolsey accepted the king’s commands as if he had been found guilty. See note on 198. 143-5. Cavendish makes Wolsey say that when a benefice fell vacant he at once appointed his clerk to it to keep it in his jurisdiction, thus preventing, i.e. anticipating, the patron or owner of the living in disposing of it. 148. Note the use of yow as nominative, and cp. 218. 161. say chek mate. Cp. 1237, 1267. For note see Dance Macabre 459, FaPrinces D 52. 165. whiles, wiles, schemes. For the orthography cp. whofull 58, whele 1141, whomanly 1358.—In 1408 wight is written for white. The meaning of 165-182 is that while Wolsey was in France in 1527 the infatuation of Henry for Anne Boleyn nullified all his plans. Thus Venus, as he says 181, overthrew him, “brought me from above”. 167-8. These two lines agree closely with Lydgate’s FaPrinces ii :4437-38 :— For who with fraude fraudulent is founde To a diffraudere fraude will ay rebounde. See also Lydgate’s Frog and Mouse fable, last stanza, and the stanza beginning “Deceit deceiveth and shal be deceived’, copied separately in Fairfax 16, Harley 7578, Hatton 73 (flyleaf), Douce 45, Trin. Coll. Camb. R 3, 20, and the Bannatyne MS. Shirley in the Trinity MS writes “A Proverb” in the margin; and Lydgate evidently worked up proverbial material, with a play upon words which contributed to the popularity of the saying. For this latter see the ringing of changes on a wordbase in Dante’s Inferno iv :72-80. 170. mirror. See notes FaPrinces G 179, Ship of Fools 85. 177. disdayned (by him) for whom I toke the payn; that is, Henry, for whom Wolsey’s efforts were made, disdained and spurned him. 188. A proverb, and a frequent metaphor with Lydgate, see note on FaPrinces D 69 here. 190-92. fykkell fortune. A frequent pictorial representation of Fortune, in the latter Middle Ages, showed her presiding over a wheel, on the rim of which were human figures in different positions. When these figures numbered four, that atop was a crowned and exultant king, marked “Regno”; on one side was a figure climbing, marked “Regnabo”; the opposite side showed him falling headlong, and was inscribed “Regnavi”; and a prostrate body underneath the wheel was lettered “Sum sine regno”. Such a drawing is reproduced in 532 NOTES [PAGE 374 Schmeller’s Carmina Burana, Breslau, 1883, p. 1, a different design as frontispiece to vol. i of Bergen’s ed. of the FaPrinces, Carnegie Instit., 1923. Early eds. of the FaPrinces, e.g., that of 1554, have at the opening of book vi a cut of hundred-handed Fortune ruling a wheel crowded with figures; and K. Weinhold, in his monograph Gliicksrad und Lebensrad (Abhandl. d. kgl. Akad. d. Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1892), describes pictures in MSS of Boethius and of Brunetto Latini. Modifications may be seen in drawings by ?Hans Burgkmaier for Petrarch’s De remediis utriusque fortunae, Augsburg 1532, reproduced in Hirth’s Les grands illustrateurs i:221-2, also in the earliest German editions of the Ship of Fools, etc. The idea of the Wheel of Life, more than that of the Wheel of Fortune, is present in the seventeen sculptured figures which border the upper half of the great rose-window of the south portal at Amiens, and in the twelve figures of St. Etienne de Beauvais’ north transept. Whenever the late Middle Ages turned to the theme of fickle Fortune,—and that was constantly—some such picture of her and her wheel, whether with four figures or with many, was in their minds. That Cavendish so imagined her we can see from this passage, from a phrase in his prose Life of Wolsey,—‘‘climbing thus hastily on Fortune’s wheel”,—or from lines in his Surrey tragedy, 1109-11 here. We may remember that a tapestry of the Wheel of Fortune was in Wolsey’s possession; see note on 120-1 above. It may be added that this typically medieval treatment of Fortune and her wheel roots in both Boethius and Dante; see the De Consolatione ii prose 2, the Inferno vii:67 ff. On the whole subject see H. R. Patch, The Tradition of the Goddess Fortuna in Mediaeval Philosophy and Literature, North- ampton, Mass., 1922. See also description in the Morte Arthure, EETS, 3260-67. 198. ffayn to avoid, “I was fain to depart”. In 1529 Wolsey was ordered by Henry to yield up all his benefices and possessions and retire to Esher, a manor not far from Win- chester. Later the Cardinal was directed to remove to his Archbishopric of York, which Henry restored him in February 1530; but a few months subsequently he was suddenly accused of high treason and ordered to London. On the journey he fell ill, and died at the Abbey of Leicester; see line 217. 200-203. When Henry restored Wolsey to the Archbishopric of York, he returned his fallen favorite about three thousand pounds in money, and goods, furniture, etc., of the value of £3600 more. See the 1827 Cavendish, appendix, p. 507. Wolsey had been for some time quite without funds. 205. rubbed me on the gall. See Skelton’s Garland 97; but see also ‘“‘rubbyth me on the splene”, Visions, p. 34 of the 1827 edition, for the possible meaning “rouse my spleen, stir up my gall”. 207. letters playn. Wolsey appealed privately to the French ambassador to beg King Francis’ intercession on his behalf, as in 209-10 below. This appeal was betrayed by the Cardinal’s Italian physician to the English Lords in Council, with addition of false details likely to arouse Henry’s anger. Wolsey’s enemies saw their opportunity to degrade him yet more completely. The arrest was made on November 7, and he died November 29. 209. caught ... dysdayn. See note on FaPrinces G 22 here. 215. travellyng to my triall. See note on line 198 above. The phrase here means “travel- ing to my trial”; but in line 207 travelled means “‘travailed”. 222-24. Of this sort of word-manipulation Cavendish is fond. Elsewhere in the Visions we read “When lust was lusty, wyll did hyme advaunce To tangle me with lust where my lust did requier’, etc. See 1310, 1320 below, 167-8 above. 225. my Tombe. Wolsey had planned an elaborate mausoleum for himself, the work of the Florentine artist Rovezzano, who came to England about 1520. It was not complete at the time of Wolsey’s fall, and the king seized it for himself. Rovezzano was called upon for an inventory of the material in his hands; and this list is printed by Blomfield in his Hist. of Renaissance Architecture in England, i:13. It includes:—4 graven copper pillars; 4 angels to kneel at the head and foot of the tomb, ready gilt and burnished; 4 angels with candle- sticks to stand on the said pillars; 4 naked children to stand at the head and foot of the tomb with the arms; 2 pieces of copper with epitaphs; a tomb of black touchstone 7 feet by 4 feet, and 2 1/2 feet high; 4 copper leaves for the corners of the tomb; 12 pieces of black touchstone, and 8 of white marble. for the base of the tomb; a step of black touchstone (etc., etc.). The PAGE 375] THE METRICAL VISIONS 533 work was continued by Rovezzano, who used, for Henry’s enlarged plan, more than 2000 additional pounds of copper; Henry was to have had a recumbent figure of himself, many figures of the apostles, etc. The work however was never finished, and although Charles the First intended the tomb for himself, Parliament after his execution sold all the bronze and copper. In 1806-10 the sarcophagus was used for the burial of Nelson in St. Paul’s. See A. Higgins’ paper on the work of Florentine sculptors in England, Archaeol. Journal, Sept. 1894. Henry VIII had previously contracted with Torregiano, in 1519, to make for him and Katharine of Arragon a tomb of white marble and black touchstone, one-fourth larger than that which the artist had made for Henry VII; it was to be completed in four years under Wolsey’s direction. See Brewer’s Letters and Papers iii:2. We may note that the tomb ordered by Richard II for Anne was to be made by London masons, and that London copper- smiths were to furnish the images for it. See Rymer’s Foedera vii :795-7. 227. to couche in. See note on Thebes 35. Cp. 244 below. 232. Hampton Court, etc. This stanza contains a list of Wolsey’s principal residences and foundations,—Hampton Court, Westminster Place or York Place (now Whitehall), The Moor, ‘“‘Tynnynainger” or Tittenhanger, Cardinal College (now Christ Church College Ox- ford), and the Ipswich Grammar School. The last of these was not yet erected at Wolsey’s fall, and was re-founded by Elizabeth; it was intended to serve as preparatory school for Wolsey’s “Cardinal College’, of which hardly more than the great kitchen was completed when Wolsey’s career ended. Henry VIII subsequently re-founded and renamed it. Hampton Court and York Place are the best-known of Wolsey’s palaces; Tittenhanger was in Hert- fordshire, a manor belonging to the Abbey of St. Albans, which was one of Wolsey’s holdings. The Moor was also in Hertfordshire, near Rickmansworth; it was built by an earlier Arch- bishop of York, and came into Wolsey’s hands about 1525; he rebuilt the palace. See Robert Bayne’s Moor Park, London, 1871. It is Hampton Court with which Wolsey’s name is most intimately connected, though little remains of his buildings there, Henry VIII and later sovereigns having made extensive changes. Wolsey leased in 1514 about 2000 acres on the Thames, and erected a huge brick palace with a frontage of 400 feet, containing nearly a thousand rooms. He not only equipped his buildings with an excellent water supply, and drained them in the most approved manner, but laid out elaborate gardens (see stanza 17), and lavished immense sums on interior decorations and furnishings. There were for instance 280 guest rooms, with beds of velvet or satin and counterpanes of satin or damask richly embroidered; two hundred feather-beds are inventoried in the list of the Cardinal’s posses- sions in MS. Brit. Mus. Harley 599, and the expenditure on gold and silver plate represents more than seven millions of American money. See note on 127 above; and see Law’s Hamp- ton Court as cited, note on 106 above. This device of a series of lines beginning alike, “anaphora” or “epanophora’’, is fre- quently used in medieval formal poetry. Like all the “colores rhetorici” lightly handled by Ovid, still more lightly by Dante, it is overworked by the average medieval writer. Matthew of Vendome or Alanus parades all these “exornationes”’; anaphora is a feature of the Pro- vengal “enueg”; it appears in the Roman de la Rose (see ed. Méon ii:pp. 13-15, 334-5, 366 etc.), in Christine de Pisan, Marie de France, Granson, etc.; Chaucer has three notable examples of it near the close of his Troilus; Gower employs it, cp. Confessio prol. 935 ff., ili :279 ff., v:2469-81; Lydgate, Hawes, Dunbar, Henryson, Douglas, all avail themselves of this “color”, as do the romancers. In the Squyr of Lowe Degre 941-954 is a sequence of lines beginning “Farewell”, as here; see also stanzas 14 and 15 of the Lament for the Duchess of Gloucester (Eleanor Cobham), printed in Wright’s PolitPoems ii:205-8, in Anglia 26 :177-80 by Fliigel, in the EETS Songs and Carols etc. by R. Dyboski. The difference between the tiresome over-emphasis of Hawes in chaps. 21, 31, of the Pastime and the sparing use of the device by Keats in Endymion iii:543-6, in Isabella 417-20, or by Tennyson in the Holy Grail 473-6, Guinevere 467-72, Enoch Arden 590-92, or in Mere- dith’s Love in the Valley 113-116, Sage Enamoured 292-94, is the same difference as exists between Dante’s restraint (Inferno v:100-106) in the three successive terzine beginning Amor, and the 31 lines beginning Amors, inserted into the Roman de la Rose by a fifteenth-century 534 NOTES [PAGE 375 scribe; see Méon’s ed. ii:pp. 19-22. To this latter workman and to Hawes, as to Lydgate, quantity produced effect. 242. The allusion probably is to the Dance Macabre or Dance of Death. In Cavendish’s time Lydgate’s verses and the accompanying paintings were still in the churchyard of St. Paul’s Cathedral. See the text here, p. 124. 246-54. With the change of meyne to chapleyns in 249, this stanza is taken complete from " Lydgate’s FaPrinces iii:3760 ff. Cp. line 101 above with 246 here. 247. shettes of raynes, “sheets of Rennes”. A fine linen was made at Rennes in Brittany; see Chaucer’s BoDuchesse 255, see the Squyr of Lowe Degre, 842, see Skelton’s Colyn Clout 316 and Magnyfycence 2042. 249. vicious chapleyns. Wolsey’s chaplain Dr. John Allen, according to Fiddes’ life of the Cardinal, p. 372, rode in a kind of perpetual progress from one religious house to another, drawing from them large sums for his master’s use. This was at last so bitterly complained of that the king compelled Wolsey to promise to offend no more in such manner. On p. 205 Fiddes says “That whereby the Cardinal seemeth to have given the greatest and most general disgust was his erecting the Legate’s court and employing a person as judge in it, charged with much rapine and extortion,”—this person being the chaplain Allen. See note on 141. 254-58, 264. Cavendish was proud of his fidelity to Wolsey. 269. This is the method of the Fall of Princes, even more of Boccaccio’s De Casibus its ultimate original, where inserted and generalized groups break the succession of individual laments. Of the personages intervening between Wolsey and Surrey in this poem, the vis- count Rochford, brother to Anne Boleyn, and the grooms of Henry’s chamber Norris, Weston, Brereton, and Smeaton, were all accused with Anne of adultery, and all executed. Cavendish gives from three to seven stanzas to each of the lesser men, and sixteen to Anne Boleyn, who follows in the list. Next comes a group of minor figures accused of rebellion and murder in Henry’s reign and executed by him; then Cromwell earl of Essex, who had been one of Cavendish’s fellow-servants in Wolsey’s household, who rose to the chancellorship after Wolsey’s death and More’s resignation, and went to the scaffold a bare two months after he was made earl. Next come the lords Exeter and Montagu, beheaded for treason; Queen Katharine Howard and the king’s page Culpepper; the viscountess Rochford; the countess of Salisbury; the earl of Surrey. 1105 ff. Henry Howard earl of Surrey, lyric poet and blank-verse translator of the Aeneid, was beheaded by Henry VIII a very short time before the king’s own death in 1547. Henry was then mortally ill, and filled with anxiety for the future of his son; and the enemies of the Howards persuaded the king that Surrey and his aged father the duke of Norfolk aspired to make themselves guardians of the boy Edward and to rule through him and the princess Mary. Of the frivolous pretexts upon which Surrey was sentenced, Cavendish seems to have known only the flimsiest, the charge that Surrey, by quartering upon his shield the arms of Edward the Confessor, had committed an act of high treason. To this line 1195 doubtless alludes. Surrey went to the block, but the death of Henry saved his father after the warrant had actually been made out. The old duke remained a prisoner in the Tower for seven years, and died immediately after liberation and restoration to his honors, aged 83. See note on 1121 below. 1109. whele (1) made lyke to clyme. See note on 190-92 above. 1121. actes marsheall, martial deeds. Norfolk was captain of the English vanguard when his father, Thomas Howard second duke, won the battle of Flodden Field in 1513 over the Scots. He was at various times lieutenant-general of forces sent abroad, lord lieutenant of Ireland, and warden of the Scottish marches. See Barclay, écl. iv:850, 853, notes. 1130. Brewtus Cassius. See note on FaPrinces E 63 here. 1133 ff. This stanza is very Lydgatian in its confused verb-management. 1137. dothe expresse. The convenience of this verb for rime with abstract terms in -nesse made its use exceedingly common in Lydgate and in later formal writers of the period,— Bokenam, Capgrave, Bradshaw, Barclay. It does not appear in the reflexive construction, but dothe expresse, did expresse, are freely used, especially by Lydgate. See note on FaPrinces A 303 here. PAGE 376] THE METRICAL VISIONS 535 1149. deprave. This transitive use of the verb occurs in Lydgate, cp. FaPrinces A 447 here; it is more frequent in Hawes. 1151 is a short line. 1155. Singer puts a semicolon after Jyve, thus wrecking the sense. See 1314, 1356. 1157. hath byn dekayed, have been overthrown, have fallen from high estate. This use of the verb decay appears in the sixteenth century, and is frequent in Spenser. 1164-1174. This passage says that the qualities which had raised low-born men to high. rank were accounted dangerous in men already high-born like Surrey, who met only disdain from “suche” (men) as were vain and idle. 1177. myrror. See note on Barclay’s Ship of Fools 85. 1182. Singer substitutes shame for chaunce in the middle of the line. 1184. more rather. The double comparative and double superlative are frequent in Cavendish. 1186. lost my pate. Until after the seventeenth century, says the NED, the word pate had not its present ridiculous connotation. See Beryn, prol. 139. 1188. Take a vowe. This seems to mean ‘‘Take my assurance”. It is thus not the same locution as “make avowe”, e.g., in Barclay’s fourth eclogue 438, 726. 1193. The scribe inserts wt sorowe, with a caret. 1217. Cavendish more than once made an end of his Visions, and again took them up. At the close of the Wolsey tragedy he wrote Finis; here he says that after finishing the lines on Surrey he intended to stop; after the epitaph of Henry VIII he writes Finis G. C., and just before the stanzas on the death of Edward VI another Finis stands in the manuscript. At the end of Queen Mary’s epitaph is “Fiat. Fiat. Finis’. This is followed by the author’s address to his book and by the colophon, which, as remarked in the introduction here, sets a date for completion five months anterior to the death of Mary. The piecemeal composition of the Visions is obvious. 1220. “As if one were in a brake, like one who is in a brake.”’ The word brake in late Middle English meant a cage, snare, dilemma; the first case NED is from Skelton’s Elynour Rummyng 325. 1222. trembling trompe, i.e, trumpet which causes trembling. See timorous blast in Skelton’s Garland 260, and note ibid. For the use of a loud sound to waken a sleeper or turn a narrative cp. Hawes 93 note. For Fame’s trump blown at the death of a champion see Hawes 136 and note. 1237. chekmate. See note on 161 above—pfluk them by the berd. A mark of contempt. See, e.g., the romance of Sir Degrevaunt 835-6,—“I shal schak hym by the berd pe nexte tyme we mete”. To meet an opponent “in the beard” was to face him, e.g., in combat; see Troilus iv:41, Lydgate’s Troy Book ii:6283, i11:1203, and often. To “make a man’s beard” was to deceive him. See WBprol. 361, Beryn 436, 485, 622. 1241. The device of a sleep for changing scene in narrative is more than common in medieval formal verse. 1245. by & bye, immediately. The phrase also means “in sequence”, see Morley 209 and note. 1246. Henry VIII died at Whitehall, the palace he took from Wolsey; Whitehall is in Westminster. 1251. bedropped face, face dripping with tears. Cp. “so dropping was her wede”’, Flower and Leaf 371. The NED has no case of bedropped between Gower’s Confessio vii:4832 and Paradise Lost x :527. 1259 ff. The three Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, are present at Henry’s death-bed, drawing and cutting the thread of his life. 1261. as poettes dothe. The use of the verb in -th with a plural subject may be dialectal, a survival of the old Southwestern plural; or it may be an extension of that use of a singular verb with plural subject which has always been sporadic in English,—influenced sometimes in this latter case by the feeling that a collective subject has singular force. See line 1366 below, also lines 1174, 1327-8, 1394; see the Lover’s Mass 127, Libel of Eng. Policy 389, 510, Hawes’ Pastime 206. There are several cases in Walton’s Boethius; see A 105 and note. 536 NOTES [PAGE 379 1283. throme, thrum, the part of the warp unwoven, at the sides of the finished web. 1288. vigor. Perhaps read rigor? 1293. Compare Antigone 1030, ris dAxy Tov Oavovr’ émixravetv, “what valor to slay the slain?” 1302-4. Note the rime. 1309-10. For the word-play see 222 and note; cp. 1320-22. 1314. Singer puts a period at the end of this line, as in 1356, although in both cases there is syntactical connection with the next stanza. See note on 1155. 1315 ff. This extremely outspoken language regarding Henry VIII made the publication of the Visions even more impossible than that of the Life of Wolsey. Cavendish was a strong Roman Catholic, and rejoiced at the accession of Mary; but his opinions about her father were none the less too dangerous for publication. 1348. bridelled. This metaphor is very common in Lydgate; see Epithal. for Gloucester 88 and note; see his Thebes 2704-5, Troy Book prol. 6, i11:6628, v:1369, etc. For the conjunction of Reason and Sensuality (“blood and judgment”) see e.g. FaPrinces i:6200, 6257, ii :579-80, 2535-6, etc. 1355-56. Note the rime. 1368. Singer omitted this line. 1369. Greseld. At the very time of Cavendish’s completion of this set of poems, June 1558, there appeared a poem on Katharine of Arragon by William Forrest, chaplain to Queen Mary, entitled Grisild the Second. See the edition for the Roxburghe Club, 1875, by Macray. From the Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary, ed. Madden, 1831, we see that in 1523, when the scholar Ludovico Vives drew up a scheme of education for Katharine’s use in training her daughter, he included, as one of the few fictions permitted, “Gresilda vulgata jam fabula”. 1371. inconvenyence. This word had for Lydgate or for Cavendish much more force than for us. In this stronger sense it is frequent in Barclay; see note Ship of Fools 142. 1378-80. Observe the identical rime. 1379. bankettyng chere. The same phrase is used by Holinshed in his Scottish Chronicle, according to the NED. 1385 ff. See latter part of note on 232 ante. 1400. pieuselles, pucelles, maidens. Singer prints prensells. 1406. Impe, scion, especially of a noble house. The first case given by NED in this sense is from Hoccleve’s De Regimine Principum 5442; the word is used by Hall in his 1548 Chronicle, also of Prince Edward. Epytaphe. Singer, in a note on this epitaph, refers to the Coplas of Jorge Manrique on his father’s death, written in Spain in the mid-fifteenth century. He reprints the part in question, which is here given :— En ventura Octaviano Antonio Pio en clemencia Julio Cesar en vencer Marco Fabio en igualdad Y batallar Del semblante En la virtud Africano Adriano en eloquencia Hanibal en el saber Theodosio en humildad Y trabajar Y buen talante En la bondad un Trajano Aurelio Alessandro fue Tito en liberalidad En diciplina y rigor Con alegria De la guerra En sus brazos un Troyano Un Constantino en la fe Marco Tulio en la verdad Y Camilo en el amor Que prometia De su tierra The use of a list of great ancient names, when praising a contemporary, is so frequent with medieval rhetoricians that I point out no kinship here other than that of descent from a common ancestor or stock. Compare Lydgate’s procedure in his poem on the Coronation of Henry VI (printed by Wright, PolitPoems ii:141), where Solomon, David, Samson, Joshua, Judas Maccabaeus, Alexander, Julius Caesar, “Brutus Cassius”, Hector, Fabricius, PAGE 382] THE METRICAL VISIONS 537 Zenocrates, Scipio, Titus, Trajan, Tiberius, Gratian, Justinian, Octavian, Constantine, and the pious emperor Sigismund, the betrayer of Huss, are marshalled as examples of the virtues. The list includes most of the Nine Worthies (see note on Epithal. 134 here), but the additions are in several cases interesting; ‘‘Brutus Cassius” is praised for foresight, Tiberius for “fredam and gentilesse”. The change of metrical form, when narrative gives way to lyric, is to be expected even in the Transition; and Cavendish does not imitate the Spanish stanza. But the possibility that he knew of the poem is not excluded; see introduction to the Lover’s Mass, p. 209 here, and consider his possible meeting with servants of Katharine of Arragon. The Historia Trojana of Guido delle Colonne, ed. of 1486, has after the close of its text the epitaphs of Hector and of Achilles. The Epitaph is followed, in Cavendish’s work, by two stanzas of author’s comment, which rebegin the series after the “Finis” below the Epitaph. There follow :—Seymour, Somerset, Arundel, Stanhope, Vane, and Partridge, then another “Finis”; the re-opening is “Lauctor in Mortem Edwardi VI”; and after this ensues a praise of Queen Mary. The tragedies of Northumberland, of Suffolk, and of Lady Jane Grey follow, and next is an “Epitaphe on the Late Quene Marie”, beneath which is “Fiat. Fiat, Finis’. Six stanzas of author’s address to his book follow, and the colophon. LORD MORLEY’S TRANSLATION OF PETRARCH’S TRIUMPH OF LOVE DEDICATORY LETTER Robyn Hoode. Cp. Barclay’s scorn, Ship of Fools 13874-8.—swete sonnct. Petrarch’s sonnets were often included in the MSS of his Trionfi.—story all, i.e., storiall, “historical”.— ryme. Morley undoubtedly means that he cannot manage the terza rima scheme. THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE, BOOK I 1. In the tyme, etc. Petrarch begins “Al tempo che rinova i miei sospiri’, etc. He is dating his poem on April 6, the anniversary of his first meeting with Madonna Laura; and in verse 8 of the Italian he.imagines himself “al chiuso loco”, i.e., Vaucluse, his country home, and the scene of that meeting. This latter allusion escapes Morley, unless his ‘““myne eyen closed” in line 11 is an erroneous attempt at it. Petrarch’s choice of dawn as the time of his vision was to the medieval reader assurance of its truth. See Albertus Magnus De Somno; see Ovid’s Heroides 19 :195-6,— Namque sub Aurora, jam dormitante lucerna, Somnia quo cerni tempore vera solent. See Dante’s Inferno 26 :7,—‘‘Ma se presso al mattin del ver si sogna’’. 7. Tytans chylde, etc. Petrarch’s “fanciulla di Titone” refers to Aurora, either as bride of Tithonus or as daughter of the Titan Hyperion. According to Skeat, Chaucer has con- fused Titan and Tithonus in Troilus ii1:1464; one of the Troilus MSS, Harley 2392, has there a side-note, “Aurora: amica solis’. Lydgate at the opening of Troy Book iii makes Phoebus the husband of Aurora. In the attempt to secure a rime to place, the “soggiorno” of the Italian, Morley has translated gelata by the phrase applied to Saturn in Lydgate’s Thebes prologue line 3. 16. This line is padding for rime; cp. also 18, 38, 39, half-lines 41 and 42, 44, 48, 49, 54, 63, 78, 89, 116, 124, 126, 130, 132, 135, 137-8, 140, 154, 156, 168, 174, 198, 202, 217-18, 232, 236, 245. 28-32 have no parallel in the Italian. 32 is apparently twisted from Petrarch’s 21, but line 20 of the Italian, “levando gli occhi gravi e stanchi”’, is omitted. Mrs. Hume renders,—‘And having raised mine eyes, which wearied were, To understand this sight was all my care”. 43. Read this line with period at close—all the rest means all the rest of Cupid’s body. 45. Petrarch does not say that any were lying on the ground. 50-54. Mrs. Hume’s fairly accurate version is:—“Glad to learn news I rose, and for- ward pressed So far, that I was one amongst the rest; As if I had been kill’d with loving pain Before my time”, etc. 538 NOTES [PAGE 388 62. Petrarch describes the king as he who is thirsty of tears, “sempre di lagrime digiuno” ; Morley blurs this into a medieval formula. 65. more sadde. Petrarch says “less sad’. 68. fame is dragged in for rime. What Petrarch says is:—“This is what comes of loving.” 72-4 are taken from the newcomer’s speech by Morley, and given to the dreamer, 100. then. Petrarch says that now, i.e., later, those words are recorded in his memory. 103 is a mistranslation. What Petrarch says is:—‘‘And because of my forward youth, which makes mind and tongue bold and hardy, I asked him” etc. 115. Read capteyn. 116 is weakened. It is in the Italian:—“who thus deprives (men) of life and liberty”. 135-8 are added by Morley. 150. By request. Augustus compelled the husband of Livia to divorce her, B.c. 38, in order that he himself might marry her. She was at the time pregnant, and one at least of the early prints, that of Venice 1519, reads pregnante here instead of pregando. Morley had pregando before him, and his By request is a softening, though less so than his rendition of Petrarch’s tolse, “seized”, as obtayne. 161. Denyse, etc. The elder Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, was intensely suspicious, and similar but less extravagant tales are related of Alexander. Morley follows Petrarch in mentioning only the “paura e sospetto” of the two sovereigns; but like Petrarch he includes them among those conquered by love. Lydgate in his FaPrinces iv:799 ff. treats at length of Dionysius’ unbridled cruel lust, saying nothing of his suspicion. 162. sclaunder. Petrarch says “temer”, i.e., fear. 163-7. These lines allude to Aeneas, whose wife Creusa was separated from him during the flight from Troy. He mourned for her at the foot of Mt. Ida, near the Greek colony of Antander; and later, in Italy, he wedded Lavinia the betrothed of Turnus. Turnus also is not directly named, but identified as the slayer of Evander’s son. Petrarch was driven to this circumlocution by his use of Alexandro in rime; and Morley follows him. 170. one. Hippolytus son of Theseus. Not named by Petrarch for several lines. 178-9. Petrarch here says, in one of the two main recensions of his text, that Phaedra’s death was “vendetta” for Hippolytus, Theseus, and Ariadne whom Theseus had earlier deceived. When Morley uses the phrase them two, he seems to follow the other main recen- sion, however. In 179 the printed edition reads the sens instead of Theseus. 180-87 expand two lines of Petrarch. 187-8. Note the rime indicating a silent / in false. See note on Garland 112. 189 ff. Theseus is meant, between the sisters Ariadne and Phaedra. He carried off both from Crete after the slaying of the Minotaur, and on the voyage deserted Ariadne for Phaedra. He did not slay either, as Morley asserts in 191. Petrarch says that Theseus stands “fra due sorelle morte”, and then makes the rhetorical antithesis, in the next line, that “the one rested her joy in him, he rested his joy in the other”. Morley runs the word morte, a plural, into connection with the following “L’una di lui’, and says that the one was slain by Theseus. The antithesis he spoils. 194 ff. A list of lovers follows:—Hercules, Achilles and Polyxena, Demophoon and Phyllis, Jason, Medea, and Hypsipyle; then unnamed at first, are Paris and Helen, then Oénone. Next are Menelaus, Hermione and Orestes, Laodomia and Prothesilaus, Argia and Polynices. This is the standard list. Chaucer in the (unfinished) Legend of Good Women included Hypsipyle, Ariadne, and Phyllis; and in the introduction to the Man of Law’s Tale he mentions all these women but Polyxena, Helen, Oenone, and Argia. Lydgate in his Thebes has the story of Argia and Polynices, in his Troy Book those of Polyxena and of Helen. These latter two are often named in his lists of fair ladies; see the Dance Macabre 451-2, the Flower of Courtesy 190-1, and the entire list in the latter poem. 205-6 do not follow the Italian. Petrarch says at this point, of Medea, that “even as she was cruel to her old father and to her youthful brother, so much had she reason to curse her own lot”. PAGE 390] PETRARCH-TRANSLATION 539 209. in ordre by and by, arranged one after the other. For “by and by” cp. AssGods 302, “Next to Cupido in ordre by and by”, and very many cases in Lydgate. For the phrase “by ordre” see note on Hoccleve’s third Roundel, p 405 here. 210-12. The pronouns are all of the wrong gender. It is Helen who “hath the name of bewtye’”’; Morley’s omission of ‘‘pastor” to identify Paris increases the vagueness. 213. innumerable of harmes, the Trojan War. Petrarch says “gran tempeste”. 214 is a clumsy makeshift for rime. 229-30. Here Morley’s error drives him to absurdity. What Petrarch says is “Hear the cries which the spirits address to him who thus leads them”. In one of the main types of Italian text the verb for “address” is diero, in the other rendero. Apparently Morley had the latter before him; and having translated it render, he drags in the word slender for rime. 235. Morley omits the “shadowy myrtles” which Petrarch borrows from Aeneid vi :443-4; he has instead “a greate and darke presse”. 241-2. Apollo, etc. The reference is probably to Apollo’s love for the two Thessalian sisters Daphne and Cyrene, daughters of the river-god Peneus. 246. Uarro. M. Terentius Varro, a voluminous author of the first century B. c., wrote forty-one books “Antiquitatum rerum humanarum et divinarum”, of which fragments are preserved by citation in the writings of the Church Fathers Augustine, Tertullian, and Lac- tantius. In that work Varro made an elaborate classification of the Greek and Roman deities. According to Sandys ii:13, Boccaccio was the first humanist to quote Varro, and may have been the discoverer of the archetypal manuscript. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SELECT REFERENCE LIST (See also separate Reference Lists s.v. in Glossary.) Adds., applied to a manuscript, indicates one of the “Additionals” sub-collection of the British Museum. Ad Herennium. A rhetorical treatise long ascribed to Cicero ; ed. by Marx, Leipzig, 1894, Alanus. Alanus de Insulis or Alain de Lille, a twelfth century rhetorical writer, in Latin. Works ed. in Migne’s Patrologia Latina, vol. 210; his Anticlaudianus is ed. by Thomas Wright in Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets of the Twelfth Cen- tury, ii: 268 ff.; his De Planctu Naturae, ibid., 429 ff. The latter work is translated into English by D. M. Moffatt, N. Y., 1908. On Alanus see H. O. Taylor, The Medieval Mind, London, 1911, vol. ii. Albon or St. Albon. Lydgate’s metrical life of Saints Albon and Amphabell, ed. Horstmann, Berlin, 1882. Allegory. See under Virgil. Anglia. Zeitschrift fir englische Philologie, Halle, 1878 ff. quarterly. Anglia Beiblatt, containing reviews, 1890 ff. Anticlaudianus. See under Alanus. Archiv. Archiv fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Litteraturen, 1846 ff. Arundel. A sub-collection of MSS in the British Museum. Ashmole. A sub-collection of MSS in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.—Elias Ash- mole’s Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, a collection of treatises on alchemy, London, 1652. AssGods. The Assembly of Gods, a poem formerly ascribed to Lydgate, and ed. as his for the EETS in 1895 by O. L. Triggs. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 407. AssLadies. The Assembly of Ladies, a poem of unknown authorship, printed by Skeat in Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. 380 ff. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 408. Barclay. See pp. 295 ff. here. Barclay’s Ship of Fools is ed. Jamieson, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1874. Bartholomaeus Anglicus. Of the thirteenth century; was author of the encyclo- pedia De Proprietatibus Rerum, Englished by Trevisa in 1398; no modern edition. “Gleanings” from it, translated, constitute R. Steele’s Mediaeval Lore, London, 1893. See Voigt in Engl. Stud. 41 : 337-9. Bedford. Hoccleve’s poem to the duke of Bedford, p. 76 here. Berdan. Early Tudor Poetry, 1485-1547, by John M. Berdan, N. Y., 1920. Bergen, Henry. Editor of Lydgate’s Troy Book for the EETS, 1906, 1908, and of Lydgate’s Fall of Princes for the Carnegie Institution of America, 1923, 1927. Beryn. A supplementary Canterbury tale, of unknown authorship. Unique copy in the Northumberland MS of the Canterbury Tales, ed. for the Chaucer Society 1876. Bibl.nat. The Bibliotheque nationale at Paris. Bibl.nat.fonds francais. The “fonds francais” MSS, or French section of the MS- collection in the Bibliothéque nationale. [ 540 ] REFERENCE LIST 541 BlKnight. Lydgate’s poem The Complaint of the Black Knight. Edited by Krausser in Anglia 19: 211 ff., and by Skeat in Chaucerian and Other Pieces. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 413. Boccaccio. The Opere Volgari were edited by Moutier, Florence, 1827-34, 17 vols. Several poems are separately ed. in the Biblioteca Romanica, notably II Filos- trato; and of this poem there is a stanzaic translation by H. M. Cummings, Princeton, 1924. Editions of the Decameron are very numerous. None of the three Latin works is accessible in a modern edition; they are: De Casibus Virorum Illustrium, De Claris Mulieribus, and De Genealogia Deorum. The first-named is the ultimate source of Lydgate’s Fall of Princes, see p. 151 here; of the second Skelton makes some use in his Garland of Laurel, see p. 518 here; and the third is often mentioned in these Notes. On Boccaccio’s Latin works see Hortis, Opere latine del Boccaccio, Trieste, 1879; on the relation of the De Casibus to Lydgate see vol. iv of Bergen’s ed. of the Fall of Princes, introd., and also Koeppel as p. 151 foot, here. Bodl. The Bodleian Library at Oxford—One of the “Bodley” sub-collection of MSS there. BoDuch. Chaucer’s Boke of the Duchesse. Boethius. See pp. 39 ff., p. 185. Bokenam. Osbern Bokenam, author of a fifteenth-century collection of saints’ lives, ed. Horstmann, Heilbronn, 1883. Brown’s Register. A Register of Middle English Religious and Didactic Verse, ed. Carleton Brown, Oxford, 1916, 2 vols. Bradshaw, Henry, (died 1513). Author of a verse-life of St. Werburge, ed. by Horstmann for the EETS, 1887. Bradshaw, Henry. Librarian of the University Library, Cambridge, England, 1867-86. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 520. Brit.Mus. The British Museum, London. Brusendorff. Author of The Chaucer Tradition, Copenhagen and Oxford, 1926. Burgh. Burgh’s Letter to Lydgate, see pp. 188 ff. here. Bycorne. Lydgate’s Bycorne and Chichevache, see pp. 113 ff. here. Calig. The mark of a MS in the Cottonian collection of the British Museum, and from the case of that collection bearing the bust of Caligula. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 511. CambrHEL. The Cambridge History of English Literature, Cambridge, 1907 ff. CantTales. The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer. CanYeoTale. Chaucer’s Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale, from the Canterbury Tales. Capgrave. John Capgrave, eminent Churchman of the fifteenth century, author among other of a life of St. Katherine. See under Gloucester. Carmina Burana. A collection of vigorous Latin verse of the Middle Ages, ed. by Schmeller, 1883. To Carpenter. Poem by Hoccleve, printed p. 67 here. Cavend. The Metrical Visions of George Cavendish, see pp. 368 ff. here. Caxton. See Gen. Introd. pp. 9, 35; see p. 88. Chaucer Manual. Chaucer, a Bibliographical Manual, by E. P. Hammond, N. Y., 1908. Supplement to appear. Chaucer, Praise of. Extracts from Hoccleve’s Regement of Princes, see p. 74 here. 542 ABBREVIATIONS Chaucer Society. For publications see my Manual, pp. 523 ff. Chrétien de Troyes, of the twelfth century. Author among other of the romance of Yvain, cited Gen. Introd. p. 31, 32. The Works are ed. by Foerster, 4 vols., Halle 1884-99, Christine de Pisan, died ca. 1430. Oecuvres poétiques are ed. by Roy for SATF., 3 vols., 1886-96. Her Chemin de Long Estude is ed. R. Piischel, Berlin, 1881. Her Epistle of Othea to Hector was transl. by Stephen Scrope and ed. by Warner for the Roxburghe Club, 1904. Many other works, some inedited. Churl. Lydgate’s Churl and Bird; see p. 102 here. ClTale. The Clerk’s Tale, from the Canterbury Tales. Compl. to his Lady. A Complaint to his Lady, a poem printed with the work of Chaucer by Skeat, i: 360. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 411. Confessio. Gower’s Confessio Amantis, ed. with the other works of Gower by G. C. Macaulay, Oxford 1899, 4 vols.; also EETS. Copland. . Robert Copland, printer and editor, also writer; see p. 287 here. CourtLove. The Court of Love, an anonymous poem ed. Skeat vii:409. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 418. CourtSap. The Court of Sapience, a poem ascribed to Lydgate by Hawes. Ed. by Spindler, Leipzig, 1927. Extracts pp. 258 ff. here. CT. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. CT prol., the General Prologue to the Tales. Cuckoo. The Cuckoo and the Nightingale, a poem ed. Skeat vii:347. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 420. Dance. Lydgate’s Dance Macabre, printed pp. 124 ff. here. French text of the poem, pp. 427 ff. Deguilleville, Guillaume de, of the fourteenth century. Author of a three-part Pilgrimage :—the Pélerinage de la Vie Humaine, the Pelerinage de l’Ame, the Pélerinage de Jésu Christ. The first of these was Englished, verse, by Lyd- gate ; see my Chaucer Manual, p. 76. De Planctu Naturae. See under Alanus ante. Deschamps, Eustace. French contemporary of Chaucer, died ca. 1406. His works are ed., in 11 vols., for the SATF., 1878-1903. See my Chaucer Manual, Dasa Dial. Hoccleve’s Dialogue with a Friend : extract printed here p. 69 ff. Dibdin. Typographical Antiquities, London, 1810-19, 4 vols. Antiquated but still useful. For works supplementing it see Handlists, and see Blades on Caxton. diss., dissertation. DNB or Dict Nat Biog. The British Dictionary of National Biography, with its supplements. Living personages not included. See pp. 98, 419 here. DoctTale. The Doctor’s Tale, from the Canterbury Tales. Donatus. See under Grammarians. Douglas, Gavin. Scottish poet, died 1522. Bishop of Dunkeld, translator of the Aeneid. Works edited for the STS by Small, 4 vols., Edinburgh, 1874. Du Cange. Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, 1678. Edited by Henschel, 10 vols., 1882-88. Antiquated but still useful. Dunbar, William. Scottish poet, died ca. 1520. Poems edited for the STS by Small, Mackay, and Gregor, 1888-93; ed. in one volume by H. B. Baildon, Cambr. Univ. Press, 1907. REFERENCE LIST 543 DuorMerc or DuobMercat. Lydgate’s Fabula Duorum Mercatorum, ed. Zupitza- Schleich, Strassburg, 1897. Dyce. The Poetical Works of John Skelton, with notes, by the Rev. Alexander Dyce, 2 vols., London, 1843. Ecl.,Ecl.prol. Barclay’s Fourth Eclogue, pp. 312 ff. here and his prologue, ibid. Education. In the Universities, see Rashdall’s Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, 2 vols., Oxford, 1895; see H. Parker in English Historical Review, vol. 5 (1890) ; see Abelson’s Seven Liberal Arts, Columbia Univ., 1906. In the schools, see Leach’s Schools of Medieval England, London, 1915; see Foster Watson’s English Grammar Schools to 1660, Cambridge, 1908. In the Inns of Court, see the bit in Fortescue’s De Laudibus Legum Angliae, and see the chapter on Chaucer’s Education in Manly’s New Light on Chaucer, N. Y., 1926. See the chapter on Education in vol. ii of the Cambridge Hist. Eng. Literature; and Seebohm’s Oxford Reformers for a study of Colet and his school at St. Paul’s. EEPopPo. Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 4 vols., London, 1864-66. EETS. The Early English Text Society, founded 1864 and still active. Egerton. The mark of a MS-subcollection in the British Museum. Ellesmere. The mark of a MS owned by the Earl of Ellesmere. The noble copy of the Canterbury Tales once owned by Lord Ellesmere has passed to the Huntington collection in California; and the copy of poems by Lydgate, etc., formerly marked Ellesmere 26 A 13, is also now of that library, but retaining the early mark.—See refs., p. 58 here. EncyclBrit. The Encyclopedia Britannica. EnglStud. Englische Studien, Heidelberg, 1877 ff., quarterly. Epithal. Lydgate’s Epithalamium for Gloucester, printed pp. 142 ff. here. Fairfax. The mark of a small sub-collection of MSS in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. For the most important, no. 16, see my Chaucer Manual, p. 333 ff. Fall, FaPrin. Lydgate’s Fall of Princes, ed. Bergen 1923-27, 4 vols. Extracts pp. 150 ff. here. Faral. Editor of Les arts poétiques du xii et du xiii siécle, Paris, 1924. Texts, with introductions, of the more important Latin rhetoricians in that period ; includes Matthew of Venddme’s Ars Versificatoria, Gaufrid de Vinsauf’s Poetria Nova and his De Arte Versificandi, Evrard |’Allemand’s Laborintus. Supersedes Leyser as below, and supplements the collection of Mari, I Tratti Medievali di Ritmica Latina, Milan, 1899, also that of Langlois, Recueil d’arts de séconde Rhétorique, Paris, 1902. On the general subject see also Norden, Die antike Kunstprosa vom vi Jahrhundert vor Christo bis in die Zeit der Renaissance, Leipzig, 1898, 2 vols. See under Rhetoric below. On Faral see Sedgwick in Speculum ii: 331-342. Filigranes. See collection ed. by C. M. Briquet, 4 vols., Paris, 1907. Fitzwilliam MS of Palladius. See p. 202 here. FlandLeaf. The anonymous poem, The Flower and the Leaf, ed. Skeat in Chaucerian and Other Pieces, pp. 361 ff. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 423. FlCourt. The Flower of Courtesy, a poem presumably by Lydgate. Text in Skeat as just cited, p. 266; see my Chaucer Manual, p. 424. 544 ABBREVIATIONS Flugel, Ewald, died 1914. Co-editor of Anglia, where are printed many articles by him. Editor of a Neuenglisches Lesebuch, Halle, 1895, vol. i only published. FranklTale. The Franklin’s Tale, from the Canterbury Tales. Fulgentius, died 533 a.p. Works, ed. by Helm, Leipzig, 1898, include a Myth- ologicon much read in the Middle Ages, also an allegorical interpretation of Virgil. Furnivall. Frederick James Furnivall, died 1910, founder and indefatigable edi- tor for the Ballad Society, the Chaucer Society, the Early English Text Society, etc. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 522. Gamelyn. The Tale of Gamelyn, found in many MSS of the Canterbury Tales. Edited by Skeat, Oxford, 1884, 1893. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 425. Garl. Skelton’s Garland of Laurel, printed pp. 336 ff. here. Gen. Introd. The General Introduction to this volume. Gesta Romanorum. For note on this collection of anecdotes and stories see my Chaucer Manual, p. 90. The Latin is edited by Oesterley, Berlin, 1871 et seq., and by Dick, Leipzig, 1890; transl. into English by Charles Swan, see ed. N. Y., 1924. Gower. See under Confessio above; see pp. 21, 96, 164 ff. Grammarians. See Grammatici Latini, ed. H. Keil, Leipzig, 1857-78, 7 vols. and suppl., for Donatus, Priscian, etc. Guido. Guido delle Colonne, translator, from Benoit’s French, of the Historia Trojana; cited by Lydgate as source of his Troy Book. No modern edition. Guy of Warwick. By Lydgate; see pp. 96, 100 here. Halliwell, MinPo. A Selection from the Minor Poems of Dan John Lydgate, ed. by J. O. Halliwell, London, for the Percy Society, 1840. Ill done, with much spurious matter. Handlists. Handlists of English Printers, 1501-1556. London, 1895, 1896, for the Bibliographical Society. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 548. Hardyng. The extract from Hardyng’s Chronicle, printed pp. 233 ff. here. Harl. As applied to a MS, one of the sub-collection formerly owned by Lord Harley, and now in the British Museum. Harv.Stud. Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, pubd. under the direction of the Modern Language Departments of Harvard University, 1892 ff. Hawes. Stephen Hawes’ Pastime of Pleasure, from which extracts are printed pp. 268 ff. here. Hazlitt. W.C. Hazlitt, editor of the 1871 revision of Warton’s History of Eng- lish Poetry, on which see my Chaucer Manual, p. 556-57. Editor of Remains of Early Popular Poetry, as above; etc. etc. Henryson, Robert, “the schoolmaster of Dunfermline,” died ca. 1506. The most Chaucerian of the “Scottish Chaucerians”. Poems ed. G. Gregory Smith for the Scottish Text Society, 3 vols., 1906-14. An ed. in one volume, with texts selected and slightly modernized, is by W. M. Metcalfe, Paisley, 1917. See p- 25 here. Hh. Class-mark of MSS in the University Library, Cambridge. REFERENCE LIST 545 Higden. Compiler of the Polychronicon, ed., with Trevisa’s English translation, for the Rolls Series, 1865. The Polychronicon was completed in 1387. HistEEPO. Warton’s History of English Poetry; see under Hazlitt above. HM. The usual mark of a MS in the collection of the late Henry E. Huntington, San Gabriel, California. HoFame. Chaucer’s Hous of Fame. Horns. Lydgate’s poem Horns Away, printed pp. 110 ff. here. HorGoSheep. Lydgate’s poem The Horse, the Goose, and the Sheep, ed. Degen- hart, Leipzig, 1900. How A Lover. The anonymous poem “How a Lover Praiseth his Lady”, printed by me in Modern Philology 21 : 379-395. Hunterian. The mark of MSS in the University Library, Glasgow. Huntington. See under HM above. Hye Way to the Spyttelhous. See under Copland here. Hyginus. A mythographer, died ca. A.p. 17. His Fabulae are in Scriptores Rerum Mythicarum Latini Tres, ed. Bode, Kiel, 1834. Isidor. Isidor bishop of Seville, “Isidorus Hispalensis”, died ca. 636 A.D. His Opera are in Migne’s Patrologia latina, vols. 81-84; his principal work, the Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, is ed. by W. M. Lindsay, Oxford, 1911, 2 vols. Isle of Ladies is ed. Sherzer, Berlin diss. 1905. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 429. James I king of Scotland. See under Kingis Quair. Jamieson. Editor of Barclay’s Ship of Fools, q.v. James, Dr. Montague Rhodes, Compiler of many catalogues of MSS in the libra- ries of Cambridge, especially of those in Trinity College, 4 vols., Cambridge 1900-04 ; author of a volume on the Abbey of St. Edmund at Bury, Cam- bridge, 1895. Jardin de Plaisance. A fifteenth-century French compilation of amatory and didactic prose and verse, facsimiled for the Soc. des anciens textes frangais, 1910. JEGcPhil. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Bloomington, IIls., U.S) A. 1897 ff. Ouarterly. John of Salisbury, English schoolman of the twelfth century, author of the Poly- craticus, a work (Latin) on the vices and follies of courts ; of the Metalogicus ; etc. His Opera are pubd. in Migne’s Patrologia latina, vol. 199; and the Polycraticus is edited by C. C. J. Webb, Oxford, 1910. See H. O. Taylor’s Medieval Mind, vol. ii; see Schaarschmidt’s Johannes Sarisberiensis, Leipzig, 1862. Kingis Quair. The single poem by King James I of Scotland; accessible in ed. by Skeat, Scottish Text Society, 1884, or in ed. of Medieval Scottish Poetry by G. Eyre-Todd, Glasgow, 1892. See also Alex. Lawson, London, 1910. A monograph by J. T. T. Brown, Glasgow 1896, on the authorship of the poem, opened a discussion; see Jusserand in Révue historique, vol. 64, R. S. Rait, The Kingis Quair and the New Criticism, Aberdeen, 1898. 546 ABBREVIATIONS Kingsford, C. L., died 1927. Editor of Stow’s Survey of London, 2 vols., Oxford, 1908; author of English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century, Oxford 1913, and of Prejudice and Promise in Fifteenth Century England, Oxford 1925, etc. Kk. Class-mark of MSS in the University Library, Cambridge. KnTale. Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, from the Canterbury Tales. Koeppel. Emil Koeppel, died 1917, author of monographs on Lydgate’s Fall of Princes and on his Siege of Thebes; see pp. 151, 120 here. La Belle Dame. La Belle Dame sans Mercy, ed. Skeat vii: 299. Laborintus. See under Faral above. Lansd., Lansdowne. Mark of a collection of MSS in the British Museum, so called from its former owner. Laurent. Laurent de Premier fait, fifteenth-century French translator of Boccaccio, etc.; see p. 150 here, and passim under Fall of Princes; see Notes on that poem, A 3, 36, 79, etc. Legend. Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women. LettGlouc. Lydgate’s Letter to Gloucester, see p. 149 here. Leyser. Historia Poetarum et Poematum Medii Aevi, 1721. Now largely super- seded by Faral, q.v. LGW. Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women. Libel. The Libel of English Policy, see pp. 240 ff. here. Lickp. London Lickpenny, see p. 237 here. Liddell. See under Palladius, p. 202 here. Linc. The mark of a MS owned by Lincoln Cathedral. Longleat. The mark of a MS in the library of the Marquess of Bath, at Longleat House. MacCracken. Editor of The Minor Poems of John Lydgate, vol. i, EETS 1911. Contains essay on the Canon, and Religious Poems. Reference to the paper on the Canon is frequent here.—Editor of The Serpent of Division, see p. 101 here.—See under FaPrinces A 303 here (Notes) for suggestion as to “Dant in English”.—See under Orléans, p. 218 here, for suggestion as to authorship ; see pp. 79, 198, note on Garl. 296, on Orl. I-XI. Machaut, Guillaume de, died ca. 1377. Oeuvres, ed. Hoepffner, Soc. des anciens textes francais, 3 vols., 1908-1921. Poésies lyriques, ed. V. Chichmaref, Paris, 1909. Macrobius. Of the fifth century. Author of the Saturnalia, a report of conversa- tions at a banquet, really an encyclopedia thinly disguised. Author of Com- mentarii in Somnium Scipionis, a treatise which preserves for us part of Cicero’s De Republica. Macrobius is ed. by Eyssenhardt, Leipzig, 1893; on him see Whittaker’s study, Cambridge, 1923, and chap. viii of Glover’s Life and Letters in the Fourth Century, 1901. Magic. See under Thorndike. Magnificence. Skelton’s play of that name; ed. by Ramsay for EETS, 1908. Male, E. L’art réligieux de la fin du moyen-age en France. Paris, 1908. Malory, Sir Thomas. See Gen. Introd. pp. 30, 34, 36. See the many eds. of his Morte dArthur; see Vida D. Scudder, Le Morte dArthur of Sir Thomas Malory and its Sources, London and N. Y., 1917. MancTale. Chaucer’s Manciple’s Tale, in the Canterbury Tales. REFERENCE LIST 547 Mandeville. His Travels were ed. 1889 for the Roxburghe Club by Sir George Warner, with the original French; by A. W. Pollard, London 1900; by Hame- lins for the EETS, 1919. Map, Walter. Of the twelfth century, a Welshman writing in Latin. Author of De Nugis Curialium, ed. Wright for the Camden Society in 1850, and ed. by M. R. James, Oxford, 1914; transl. into English, with notes, by Frederick Tupper and M. B. Ogle, N. Y., 1924. Map is also redactor of the Arthurian romances, and supposed author of a quantity of bitter “Goliardic” verse, ed. for the Camden Society, 1841, by Wright, as “Poems of Walter Mapes”. See Hinton in PMLA 32: 81-132, Bradley in Engl. Histor. Review 32 : 393-400. See note on FaPrinces E 43 here. MaReg. Hoccleve’s Male Regle, printed p. 60 here. Margarita Philosophica. See p. 269 here. Mars. Chaucer’s Complaint of Mars. Martianus Capella. Of the latter fifth century, author of De Nuptiis Mercurii et Philologiae, an encyclopedic work popular throughout the Middle Ages. It is ed. Eyssenhardt, Leipzig, 1866. See note on FaPrinces D 66 here. Mass. The Lover’s Mass, printed p. 207 here. Matthew of Vendome. See under Vendome. McClean. Mark of a MS of the McClean bequest, at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Melibeus. Chaucer’s tale of Melibeus, in the Canterbury Tales. MerchTale. Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale, in the Canterbury Tales. Metam. Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Convenient edition in the Loeb Library, 2 vols., 1916. MidEng. Middle English. Migne. Editor of the Patrologia Cursus Completus, of which the Patrologia Latina fills 225 vols., Paris, 1844-55, and includes the Latin works of all fathers, doctors, and authorities of the Church, from the apostolic age to the time of Pope Innocent III. Ill-printed, and with many errors, but offering much material not yet better edited. MillTale. The Miller’s Tale, in the Canterbury Tales. MinPo. Minor Poems, i.e. of Lydgate. See Halliwell. MLWNotes. Modern Language Notes, Baltimore, 1886 ff. MLReview. The Modern Language Review, which in 1905 succeeded the Modern Language Quarterly. Cambridge, Eng.; quarterly. MLTale. The Man of Law’s Tale, in the Canterbury Tales. ModPhil. Modern Philology. University of Chicago, 1903 ff.; quarterly. Monaci. Editor of Crestomazia Italiana dei Primi Secoli, 1912. MoTale. The Monk’s Tale, in the Canterbury Tales. Naetebus. Die nichtlyrischen Strophenformen des altfranzésischen, Leipzig, 1891. NED. The New English Dictionary, Oxford 1888-1927. Additions and cor- rective suggestions, see p. 87; see, in Glossary, under amount, degest, erron- youse, engrosid, frowtse, lurke, mortalite, obscure, prouect, salarie, satirray, ?spare, sufficistent, trions, vauntwarde. In the Notes see Walton A 360, Horns 23, 37, Thebes 169, LettGlouc. 12, 55, FaPrinces A 398, B 143, Mass 165, Orl. v, Hawes 87, 494, 663, Nevill 49, Nevill envoy 4, Garl. 785, 1074, Ecl. 596, 994, Ecl. prol. 21, Cavend. 1251. See under affoyle, drames, glutton, lauer, plummet, quacham. On the Dictionary’s attribution of poems see Mass, p. 208, Lickp., p. 238. 548 ABBREVIATIONS Neilson. Neilson and Webster’s ed. of The Chief British Poets of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Boston, n.d. (?1916). Nevill, Nevill dial., Nevill envoy. The extracts from Nevill’s Castell of Pleasure, p. 287 here. NPTale. The Nonne Prestes Tale, in the Canterbury Tales. OEng. Old English. OFr. Old French. Orl. The translations from Charles d’Orléans’ verse, pp. 214 ff. here. Pallad. The translation of Palladius De re rustica; prologue printed p. 202 here. Pallad.A,B,C,D. The four “linking-stanzas’” from the above work, p. 206 here. PardTale. The Pardoner’s Tale, from the Canterbury Tales. ParsTale. The Parson’s Tale, from the Canterbury Tales. Phillipps. Many Chaucer and Lydgate MSS were formerly in the great collection of the late Sir Thomas Phillipps, at Cheltenham, but are now all in other libraries. No. 9053 (miscell.) is Brit. Mus. Adds. 34360; no. 4255 (Fa- Princes) is in the hands of Quaritch; nos. 8117 and 8118 (FaPrinces) are owned by Robert Garrett of Baltimore and John Gribbel of Philadelphia ; no. 8151 (Hoccleve) is now HM 111 of the Huntington Library, California, and no, 8299 (miscell.) is no. 140 of the same library. Other Phillipps MSS are at present (1927) in the hands of Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach of New York viz. :—nos. 1099 (Hoccleve and Walton), 4254 (FaPrinces), 6570 (fragments of the CantTales), 8136 and 8137 (CantTales), 8192 (Gower’s Confessio). 8250 (Chaucer’s Troilus). y Piers Plowman. Edited by Skeat, 2 vols., Oxford, 1886. Cited by either the A,B, or C-recension, and by Passus or section. PilgLifeMan. Lydgate’s verse-translation of Deguilleville’s Pélerinage de la Vie Humaine, ed. for EETS 1899-1904, as The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man. Pity. Chaucer’s poem so entitled. PMLA. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 1884 ff. ; quarterly. PoFoules. Chaucer’s Parlement of Foules. Polit.Poems. Political Poems and Songs . . . from the Accession of Edward III to that of Richard III, ed. by Thomas Wright, 1859-61, for the Rolls Series, 2 vols. PolReligLove Poems. Political, Religious, and Love Poems, ed. Furnivall for the EETS in 1866, and revised 1903. Praise of Chaucer. Three extracts from Hoccleve’s De Regimine Principum, in praise of his master ; see p. 74-75 here. PriorTale. The Prioress’ Tale, from the Canterbury Tales. Priscian. See under Grammarians. Prohib. The final chapter or “Prohibitio” of Ripley’s Compend of Alchemy. See p. 256 here. ProlCT. The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Prompt. Parv. Promptorium Parvulorum, the first English-Latin dictionary, ed. for the EETS by A. L. Mayhew, 1908. Quaritch. The foremost bookdealing business of the English-speaking world takes its name from its founder, the late Bernard Quaritch. REFERENCE LIST 549 Rashdall. See under Education ante. RefList. This Reference List. RegPrinc. Hoccleve’s poem The Regement of Princes, or De Regimine Princi- pum; extracts pp. 74-75 here. Edited entire for the EETS in vol. iii of Hoccleve’s works, 1897. Relig.Antiq. Reliquiae Antiquae, ed. J. O. Halliwell and Thomas Wright, 2 vols., London 1841-43. A collection of shorter poems and scraps from MSS, in several languages. Renaud. See Gen. Introd. pp. 32-33. Reproof. A Reproof to Lydgate, printed p. 198 here. ResonandSens. Lydgate’s poem Reson and Sensuality, ed. for the EETS 1901-3. Rhetoric. See under Faral ante, and under Venddme below. The Poetria of Johannes de Garlandia is ed. by Mari in Rom. Forsch. vol. 13. For earlier treatises see collection ed. by Halm, Rhetores Latini Minores, Leipzig, 1863; see under Ad Herennium ante. Ripley. The extracts from George Ripley’s Compend of Alchemy, here printed p. 252. See also under Prohibicio. Rolls Series. The series of Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ire- land during the Middle Ages, pubd. under the direction of the Master of the Rolls, in London. Romania. Paris, 1872 ff.; quarterly. Rom.Forsch. Romanische Forschungen, Erlangen, 1833 ff.; quarterly. Rom.Review. Romanic Review, New York (Columbia Univ.), 1910 ff. ; quarterly. RomRose. Le Roman de la Rose, a French poem of the 13th century, of enormous influence in West Europe. Translated or partly translated by Chaucer; see my Manual, p. 450. Edited by Méon in 1814, by Michel in 1864, by Marteau in 1878-80, by Langlois, SATF, 5 vols., 1914-1924. Rosenbach. Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach, bibliophile and dealer, New York City. Round. One of Hoccleve’s three roundels here printed p. 68. Royal. As applied to a MS, one of the Royal collection of the British Museum. See Catalogue of the Western MSS in the Old Royal and Kings’ Collections, London, 1921, for full descriptions and much information. Rylands. The John Rylands Library at Manchester, England. Rymer’s Foedera. Foedera, Conventiones, Litterae, et cujusque generis Acta Publica (etc.) 1101-1654. 20 vols. London, 1704-35. Salisbury, John of. See John of Salisbury. Sandys. History of Classical Scholarship, by J. E. Sandys, Cambridge 1903-08, 3 vols. SATF. Société des anciens textes francais, Paris. Issues one or more medieval French texts each year. SatirPoets. The Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets and Epigrammatists of the Twelfth Century, ed. Thomas Wright, 2 vols., London, 1872. SecNunTale. The Second Nun’s Tale, in the Canterbury Tales. Secrees. The Secrees of Olde Philisoffres, by Lydgate and ?Burgh. EETS 1894. Selden. Class-mark of a collection of MSS in the Bodleian Library. Serpent of Division. Prose tractate probably by Lydgate; ed. MacCracken, Ox- ford, 1911. Servius. See under Virgil. 550 ABBREVIATIONS ShephCal. The Shepherd’s Calendar of Spenser, Ship. Barclay’s rendering, from Locher, of Brant’s Ship of Fools. See extracts pp. 298 ff. Shirley. John Shirley, fifteenth-century copyist of Chaucer and Lydgate; see p. 191 here. Sir Thopas. Chaucer’s Rime of Sir Thopas, in the Canterbury Tales. Skeat, Walter William, died 1912. Author of various works on English philology, and editor of many Early English texts. See his “Oxford” edition of Chaucer, 6 vols., 1894 and subsequently, and especially the supplementary volume “Chaucerian and Other Pieces,” cited here as wit.—Skeat was also editor of a volume of Specimens of English Literature 1394-1579, Oxford, 1871 and many reprints, cited here as Specimens. This volume followed on R. Morris’ Specimens of Early English Literature (the Old Eng. Homilies to King Horn), and on Morris and Skeat’s companion volume covering Robert of Gloucester to Gower. Sloane. As applied to a MS, one of the collection in the Brit. Mus. bearing that name. Somer. Hoccleve’s poem to the sub-treasurer Somer; see p. 66 here. Specimens. See Skeat. Speculum. Publ. quarterly, 1926 ff., by the Medieval Academy of America, Boston, Mass. Speght. Editor or part-editor of the Chaucer of 1598; see my Manual, pp. 122-128. SPT. Supplementary Parallel Texts of Chaucer’s Minor Poems, Chaucer Society. Spurgeon, Caroline F. E. Compiler of : Five Hundred Years of Chaucer-Criticism and Allusion, Chaucer Society, 1908-1926, five parts. SqTale. The Squire’s Tale, in the Canterbury Tales. Stow, John. See p. 193 here; and see under Kingsford. STS. The Scottish Text Society, founded 1884. Summ.Catal. A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford which have not hitherto been catalogued in the quarto series. Oxford 1895—in progress. Vols. III-VI have appeared; vols. I and II are to be a new edition of the Old Catalogue by Bernard etc., 1697, and of this vol. I part i has been pubd., 1922. Tanner. The class-mark of a collection of MSS in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. TemGlass. Lydgate’s Temple of Glass, ed. for the EETS 1891 by Dr. Schick. ten Brink. ten Brink’s (unfinished) History of English Literature was pubd. 1877-89, and transl. into English in 1883-93. See my Chaucer Manual, p. 555, and for ten Brink’s other volumes see p. 556; see ibid. p. 520. Test. Lydgate’s Testament ; see p. 101 here, also pp. 79-80. TestLove. The Testament of Love, a prose treatise of the fourteenth century; see ed. in Skeat vol. vii. Thebes. Lydgate’s Siege of Thebes; prologue printed pp. 118 ff. here. Thorndike. History of Magic and Experimental Science during the First Thirteen Centuries of our Era, by Lynn Thorndike, 2 vols. New York, 1923. Trevisa. John of Trevisa, died 1412, did most of his translation for Thomas lord Berkeley. His version of Higden’s Polychronicon, finished in 1387, is ed. in the Rolls Series 1865; his transl. of Bartholomaeus’ De Proprietatibus Rerum was finished in 1398. REFERENCE LIST 551 Trin.Coll. The mark of a Trinity College MS, either at Cambridge or at Oxford. The Oxford college distinguishes by a following numeral; the great Cam- bridge college classes its MSS under various alphabetical divisions, having the more important English MSS in class R. Thus,—the often-mentioned Shirley MS R 3,20. Tyrwhitt. Thomas Tyrwhitt, classical and English scholar, executed the first critical edition of the Canterbury Tales entire. See my Chaucer Manual, pp. 205 ff. Ubi Sunt motif. See p. 169 here. ULC. The University Library, Cambridge, England. Utter thy Language. Poem by Lydgate, ed. Halliwell MinPo, p. 173. Venus. Chaucer’s poem The Complaint of Venus. Vendéme, Matthew of, or Matthaeus Vindocinensis. A twelfth-century rheto- rician, two of whose works are ed. by Faral as ante. Matthew’s importance has not yet been estimated for Chaucer and the Chaucerians, although notes on the subject are beginning to appear, see e.g. Goffin in ModLangReview 21:13, and Prof. Manly’s Warton lecture on Chaucer and the Rhetoricians, pubd. Oxford, 1926. Matthew’s Tobias was ed. by Mueldener, Gottingen, 1855, from 6 MSS in German libraries. His Ars Versificatoria was ed.. Bour- gain, Paris, 1879, and by Faral as ante; portions are in Relig. Antiq. ii: 257 ff., reprinted in Migne, vol. 205, where is also the Tobias from the ed. by Hering of 1642. Matthew’s collection of model letters is printed by Wattenbach in Sitzungsberichte der konigl. bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Munich, 1872, iii: 561-631. Vincent de Beauvais. Compiler of a four-volume encyclopedia in the thirteenth century,—the Speculum Historiale, Speculum Doctrinale, Speculum Naturale, and a Speculum Morale not certainly by Vincent. Vinsauf, Gaufrid or Geoffroi de. Of the thirteenth century ; author of a rhetorical treatise for which see Faral as ante. Virgil. See in especial Comparetti’s Vergil in the Middle Ages, Eng. transl., Lon- don, 1895. For the allegorical interpretation of Virgil see Servius’ com- mentary, ed. Thilo and Hagen, Leipzig, 1878-87, 3 vols. ; see under Fulgentius. Walton. Extracts from John Walton’s transl. of the Consolatio Philosophiae are here printed pp. 39 ff. Ward, Catal. Catalogue of Romances in the Manuscript Department of the British Museum, ed. H. L. D. Ward, completed by J. A. Herbert. London, 1883 ff., 3 vols. Warton, HistEEPoetry. See under Hazlitt ante, and see my Chaucer Manual, p. 556-57. Watermarks of paper, see under Filigranes. WBprol., WBTale. The Wife of Bath’s prologue and tale, in the Canterbury Tales. Wells. A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1400. By J. E. Wells. London and New Haven 1916; first supplement 1919. Wright,Politpoems,—SatirPoems. See ante under those abbreviations, and under Map. Wiilker. Editor of an Altenglisches Lesebuch, 2 vols., Halle, 1874-80. Editor of Anglia for years, and late professor at the University of Leipzig. SELECT GLOSSARY AND FINDING LIST No attempt is made here to include all variants in spelling, for example as between -i- and -y-, or to cite words of which the meaning is recognizable despite slight archaism, such as list; nor is any attempt made to elucidate terms like Hector or Mercury, or to catalogue all mentions of names. The constant reference to Lydgate or to Chaucer, in the various Introductions here, would if recognized extend this Index beyond all bounds; and to collect all the echoes of the Bible or all the proverbial material or all the cases of alliteration would be a labor in itself. An asterisk, following a line-number, means that a note on the word is to be found there. The Court of Sapience extracts are neither annotated nor glossed. A, Ah! Walton A 273, MaReg. 265*, FaPrin. D 78, Pallad. A 1, Burgh 34, Reproof 64, Orl. xii: 12, 18, Libel 455, Ship 585, Ecl. 435;—on, Nevill dial. 47. aart, art, MaReg. 32. abasched, abaisshid, abashed, Walton A 382, Dance 89, 98, FaPrin. G 16. abate, to bring down, Dance 12, 150. abhomynable, abominable, Walton E 93*, Fa- Prin. G 320, Ship 8515. abiect, to cast out, cast down, Hawes 4245, Ecl. 713;—to object, Ecl. prol.41, 89;—a. prone, Ripley 169*. abit, v. abides, Dance 405, FaPrin. E 104. abood, s. delay, FaPrin. B 150;—». remained, FaPrin. G 69, 116, 236. abraid, abrayde, v. speak out, start up, Churl 83, FaPrin. B 1*;—». to approach, FaPrin. A 451, G 174. abrode, abroad, FaPrin. G 147, etc. absent, v. Orl. xiv: 19%. Absolon, Cavend. epit. 14. abuse, to be mistaken, Ecl. 505; see Cavend. 68. abusion, s. abuse, Libel 32, FaPrin. D 113. abye, to pay dearly, Hawes 4330. abyt, s. habit, Walton A 375. acate, s. purchasing, MaReg. 181. access, Garl. 315*. accessary, 5. aid, support, Garl. 523. accloyed, hampered; Ship, heading on p.304. accuate, acuate, a. sharpened, refined, Ripley 136*, Prohib. 47. accusith, v. discloses, MaReg. 40. See Chaucer RomRose 1591. ace, s. Pallad. 16, 17*. Achilliedos, Garl. 337*. aclere, v. to clear, Orl. xv: 23. acquite, aquytte, acquitted, Thebes 29, see 72. acustomabill, usual, Garl. 1108. adauntid, v. beat down, Garl. 1276. a dewe, adieu, Dance 166, 200. admittible, admissible, MaReg. 299. aduenture, risk, Hawes 4221;—chance. Ecl. 178. aduersite, opposition, attack, MaReg. 5*, 47. aduerte, aduertise, to attend, notice, Dance 615, FaPrin. A 202, D 79, Orl. xvi:15, Nevill 121;—to know, Orl. xxi:14;—to consider, Fa- Prin. A 164, Cavend. 263. aduertence, attention, Dance 2, Ship 13826. aduertisement, attention, Garl. 792. enaeement consideration, Ecl. 784, Cavend. 15. adumantes, diamonds, Nevill 185. aduoutrers, adulterers, Ecl. 666. adyment, adamant, Garl. 305. aege, age, Nevill dial. 8, Nevill 16, 212. eee interested desire, FaPrin. A 368, 4. affore, afforn, before, Churl 118 etc., Dance 5, etc., Thebes 124, FaPrin. E 58 etc., Morley 15. afforcid, v. strengthened, Dance 140, FaPrin. G 52. See Churl 64. affoyle, Orl. xiv: 13*. affray, terrifying, Churl 222; — discomfiture, Libel 535. affter, according to, Churl 321, FaPrin. A 361, 432, G 199, Shirley I: 11, Reproof 32, 78, Orl. ix: 3, vii: 1, Prohib. 12, Ship 570, Ecl. prol. 10, 88, Ecl. 321, Garl. 39, 800, 1431;—afterward. FaPrin. A 103, 123, G 264, 274, Hawes 1263. after one, on one pattern, Ecl. 102. affyaunsynge, pledging, Garl. 555. afor, aforn, before, Dance 376, Epithal. 3, Mass 9; etc. atcureae, read aforne, i.e., previously, Dance 4 Agellius, Aulus Gellius, i.e., A. Gellius. agerdows, sour-sweet, Garl. 1223. Fr. aigre- doux. ageyn, back, Walton D 59, FaPrin. D 97,99;— in return, Ship 85, Cavend. 1226.—for, To Somer 19. ageyn, ayens, against, Churl 53 etc., Dance 349 etc., Epithal. 45, FaPrin. B 47, D 96,H 11, Hardyng 10, 37, 105 etc., Nevill envoy 10, Garl, 103, 211, 656, 1116:—for, FaPrin. G 76, Garl. 1359, 1509, 1513, 1515. pere ageyne, thereagainst, on the contrary, Walton E 106. aght, aught, MaReg. 319, Roundel 2. agilte, offended, Dial. 751. Agincourt, Shirley I: 54. Hardyng as p. 233. agone, ago, FaPrin. A 302, Ship 8448, etc. agoo, gone, Walton C 28. agreeth, suits, Ecl. 198, 201. ai, aye, always, FaPrin. D 67. Iam aknowe, I confess, Mass 15. at al, completely, Churl 272, Epithal. 100. AND FINDING LIST 553 alak, alack! Orl. xv: 16. alate, recently, Hawes 325. Alathea, Ecl. prol. 39*. Alaunson, Alengon, Hardyng 92. albe, although, FaPrin. E 21. Albumasar, Garl. 1395. albyfycatyve, whitening, a 195. Albyoun, Albion, Shirley I: Alcest, Alcestis, Churl 68, On. xvii: 10. Alchemy, see Ripley. Alcione, Alcyone, FaPrin. A 304. Alcreatour, Creator of all, Pallad. 2. alegge, to state, Dial. 588*, Shirley I: 69. aleven, eleven, Burgh 54. Aleyn, Alanus de Insulis, Horns 17*. See Ref. List. algate, anyway, MaReg. 183, FaPrin. B 26, Ripley 180, Nevill dial. 39. Alisaunder, Alexander, FaPrin. E 92. See Nevill 836, Ecl. 1098, Garl. 367, Cavend. epit. 12. alite, mounted, Hawes 4249. alkyns, of every kind, Hardyng 6. all, s. awl, FaPrin. E 54 allay, s. alloy, Horns 6. Allecto, one of the Furies, Walton A 61. allectyng, alluring, Nevill 185. See talecte. First case NED 1528. alleggen, to relieve, FaPrin. G 255, Mass 160. See Dial. 588*. See alegge. Allegory discussed, Gen. Introd. p. 28. See Epithal. 143*, allewei, always, FaPrin. C 25, G 229. all if, although, Ecl. 157, 734, 917. allonly, solely, Orl. 1x: 22. alloone, all one, united, Epithal. 18. Almayne, Alemannia, Germany, Ship 6976. allmeest, almost, Pallad. A 4. almes, charity, Ecl. 1020. See FaPrin. A 206. alom, alum, Libel. 328. alon, alone, all one? Orl. xxii: 9. Alone without company. See note, Orl. xv:19. alowe, to praise, Dial. 717, Nevill dial. 21, Ecl. 719. Lat. allaudare. als, as, Walton A 19, Libel 355, 363; —also. Hardyng 4, 36, 74, Libel 233, 256, 523, Orl. xix: 25; —so. Libel 477; —for? Orl. xvii: 21, xix: 2s alsapyent, all-wise, Pallad. 10. alys, alleys, Garl. 648, Cavend. 118. ambages, s. obscurities, double meanings, Ecl. 707. ambicious, haughty, FaPrin. E 48. ameede, miswritten for amende. FaPrin. A 40. amenusyng, diminishing, FaPrin. C 107. amiddes, in the midst of, Hawes 4353. amitie, amyte, fervent affection, Hawes 1335, Nevill 7. among, therewith, Dial. 792, FaPrin. D 106, E 97, Mass 176, Lickp. 98, Hawes 1344, 4344; —sometimes, FaPrin. A 120, ?363, ?D 106. amongys, among, Mass 28. amount, to increase in estimation, Garl. 346. First case NED 1563. Amphion, Garl. 273. ampille, ample, Garl. 222. ampty, empty, Walton, A 270. an, on, Dance 190. Anaphora, See note Cavend. 232. and, an, if, Dial. 766, LettGlouc. 1, Burgh 41, Shirley T :72, Orl. xi:8, xvi1:19, Libel 516, Hawes 674, Garl. 462, 738, 1060, Cavend. 188. and eke also, Thebes 32*. anende, constantly, Pallad. B 3. an hondryd, a hundred, Mass 185. annexed, Hawes 591. annunciate, announced, Hawes 685. annys, anise, Thebes 118. anon riht,immediately, FaPrin. G 23. So anon, Hardyng 18. anon to, as far as, Walton E 73, 151. Antigone. See note FaPrin. A 246. antimony, Prohib. 39*. Reyes Hannibal, Cavend. epit. 14, Cavend. 1136. apall, a. pale, aghast, Morley 222. aparayle, equipment, Ship 158;—apparel, Ship 470, 492, 580, 8470, 8482. apast, past, Orl. xvi:9, xvii:24. NED gives cases from the romances. apayed, pleased, Hawes 277. apayred, impaired, made worse, Ship 470. apese, to mitigate, FaPrin. B 16, D 109. See appease. ale a work by Skelton, Garl. 1436, 1445, 1455. Apology, See Correcte, request to. See Wal- tonwAvI*,) 537. apon, upon, Ripley 152. apoynt, Pallad. 17*. appade, appayed, pleased, Nevill 126. appall, to fade, to lose color or vigor. MaReg. 310, Thebes 44, FaPrin. A 395;— to cause to lose strength, Cavend. 1310. apparage, apparatus? Nevill 109. Apparel, Acts of, See notes, Ship 498, 515, 533. apparence, appearance, Horns 2, Dance 351, SDD. appease, to relieve, Hawes 4400. See apese. appert, open, MaReg. 270, Orl. xi:8. appliaunt, diligent, docile, Hawes 1102. apply, to tend, Ecl. 159. appoorte, s. bearing, Epithal. 86. appreued, approved, Shirley 1:6, 42. appropryng, assigning, Ecl. prol. 87. apreef, s. approved worth, Libel 242. Apuly, Apulia, in southern Italy, Ship 6969. ar, are, FaPrin. B 69 etc. oa aras, Arras tapestry, Garl. 475, Cavend. arage, to enrage? Hawes 1110. aray, condition, Orl. xviii:15;— court of aray, a formally summoned court, Garl. 539. arayed, prepared, Walton A 238. arbitrye, judgment, Walton E 36. arbor. See Nevill 427*, Cavendish 115-118*, Garl. 646. arche wyves, Horns 37*. ardente, spirituous, Prohib. 8. 554 SELECT GLOSSARY opel Ship 78*;— behind, at disadvantage, Ecl. 65 arestid, checked, Dance 456. arett, to consider, repay. Orl, xiii:14. arghnesse, timidity, MaReg. 435. Argia, Morley 224. Argus, FaPrin. A 383, D 21. Aristeus, Ecl. 889*. Aristotell, Aristotle, Praise of Chaucer 2088, Burgh 10, Nevill 841, Garl. 127. arke, arc, FaPrin. B 115*. Arnold, Cornelius, poem by, see note Dance 513. arrayed, put forth, Walton C 4; —placed, Libel 324. arrect, to raise (the eyes), to prick up (the ears) Garl. 1, 808, Nevill envoy 4*; —to submit? Garl. 55, 410*. arrest, standeth at, “is held in durance’, Morley 158. Arrians, Arians, Walton A 168*, 177, 182, 192, 199: arsnyke, arsenic, Prohib. 24. artid, to cause, compel, MaReg. 396, 438. artike, Arctic, Garl. 689. Arts, the Seven Liberal, see under Seven etc., below. as, so, thus, Walton A 16, Orl. xiii:19, xv:15;— as if, FaPrin. A 167, 169 etc. as, introducing a clause, see note, Walton A 17; Orl. xii:1,*, xxiii:10. asaiyd, assayed, tested, Garl. 759. ascaunce, Dial. 620*, Orl. vii:6. ascendent. See FaPrin. A 300*. askes, ashes, Hardyng 27. askry, to assail with a shout, Garl. 1324. See escry. as nowe, just now, at once, Dance 192, Orl. xi11:32. aspectis, Epithal. 1*, FaPrin. E 88. assay, to try, test, use, Walton B 7, MaReg. 36, Horns 14, FaPrin. A 195, Shirley 1:48, 11:61, Orl. xviti: 12, jetckp. 106, Prohib. 3s Libel 40, 540, Ship 52 assencioun, lee the rising arc of a planet, FaPrin. C 71. assent, agreement, Churl 18, 171. assise, assize, session of justice, Dance 267. asson, as soon, Cavend. 144. Assonance, see FaPrin. B 154*, Hawes 92-4, 4224*, Garl. 335-6, etc., 980, Cavend. 162-4, 272-3, 1281-3. assoyle, absolve, Shirley 1:38. assur, azure, FaPrin. K 12. assuraunce, security, FaPrin. E 96. assurded, broke out, (O. F. assourdre, to rise up), Garl. 392; only case in NED. assure, to find safety, Pallad. 43; —assured, Mass 11. assured, azured, Hawes 4219. asswagin, to assuage, FaPrin. D 95, Mass 159. astat, see estate. asterte, to escape, avoid, MaReg. 96, Churl 111, Dance 510, FaPrin. B 29, 152, Orl. xi:11, XXIeiOe astonid, astonished, FaPrin. D 132, G 15. apne to assuage, Walton A 360". See ass- wag at al, People Churl 272;—in every way. Epithal. 100. atame, to lay hands on, Walton C 36. atchyved, achieved, Cavend. 1138. ateynt, attained, Lickp. 2. Athlant, Atlantis, Ship 6972. athlas, Atlas, Garl. 684. Athrvmmys, Garl. 209*, atonys, attonys, at once, Orl. xxi:l, 11. attame, to broach, i.e., drain, LettGlouc. 51*. attaste, to taste, experience, Hawes 1104. atte, at the, Walton A 130, 132, Dance 25*, Fa- Prin. D 69, G 164, Libel 193, 427, etc. aa accused, Garl. 605; —stained, Mass 4 atteyne, take a hand, FaPrin. A 107. attise, to entice? Cavend. 33. attyres, solicitations, Morley 172. atwen, between, FaPrin. A 266, Cop} atwyte, to blame, FaPrin. B 99. auale, to fall, Thebes 8;—to set, sink, Hawes 65, 4347 ;—to bend, conform, Dance 347 —s. profit, Prohib. 51, etc. auans, to advance, Orl. vii:3; to put forward, Garl. 806. aueyie, be of profit, Ship 148; —s. profit, Ship 159; auctor, autour, author. auctoritee, authority. auctorised, authorized, Dance 177;—recorded? FaPrin. A 154. auctrice, s. (feminine) authority, Dial. 694. audience, s. hearing, MaReg. 202, Horns 44, Hawes 251, Nevill 74. auenter, to venture, Ship 80. auenterous, venturesome, Ship 37. auenture, s. chance, lot, Dance 658, FaPrin. B 112, 114, G 284, Reproof 35, Mass 132, Orl. xv:9, 18, etc.;—». to venture, Libel 331. in auenture, in danger, Churl 208, LettGlouc. 36. auertise, to consider, FaPrin. A 186. See ad- uerte. aught, ought, Phuley 11:32. FaPrin. G 324 Augustus, Morley 148, see Octavia auisines, judgment, Orl. me auysid, I took note, Cea 36. See Garl. 78, 386. Aulus Gellius, Garl. 351. See Agellius. auncetry, ancestry, Ship 506 on aunter, in case, Walton A 55. auoyde, a. devoid, Ecl. 380, 458, 699, 701; — v. remove, Ecl. 385. aureat, golden, FaPrin. A 461, C 13. Aureate Language, see p. 25, 453, see MaReg. 1*. aurum musicum, Garl. 1145*. aurum potabile, LettGlouc. 46", Ripley 160. Auster, the south wind, Hawes 301%. autentyk, authentic, Epithal. 36. auter, altar, Mass 2 auhte, ought, AND FINDING LIST 555 “Autograph MS” of Orleans, p. 217. auycen, Avicenna, Garl. 1393. avaunt, awaunt, s. and v. boast, MaReg. 6, Walton A 289, Orl. xxi:4. aver, possession, Dance 298*. avert, to advert, attend, Orl. xx:5. avis, auys, consideration, Walton A 111, 198, Dance 96, FaPrin. A 307, Pallad. 42, Libel 214. avise, to give thought, Dance 248. ; avise, avysee, prudent, FaPrin. A 71, Epithal. 87*. avisement, prudent consideration, FaPrin. E 34 avisioun, vision, FaPrin. G 256. avne, own, Walton A 188. avoyd, to banish, remove, FaPrin. A 439, B 78, Ecl. 385; —to depart, Cavend. 198. awail, s. profit, FaPrin. G 258. awaitepe, lies in wait for, Bycorne 128. awaityng, ambush, FaPrin. A 63. awhappyd, stupefied with fear, FaPrin. B 141. awne, own, Walton A 323. axe, axyth, etc., to ask. axes, s. access, Garl. 315*. ayed, s. aid, Cavend. 1389. ayein, ayen, again, Churl 69;—in return, Orl. xviii:9, Libel 329, 500; —thither, Pallad. 36; — against, Dance 79, 152, 280, 349, 380, 418, 422, 447, 474, 613, 618, Reproof 70. a3ens, against, Dance 429, 432, 442, 479, 598. ayenst, toward, Libel 32;—against, Libel 32, Cavend. 164, 173, etc. aylen, to ail, Walton C 9. baar, v. bore, Roundel 1. babill, Babel, Garl. 553. babyll, bauble, Ship 105*, 502, Ecl. 236. Bacchus, FaPrin. C 90, D 68, Ecl. 690, 1031, Garl. 334, 341, etc. bace, (chemical) base, Ripley 139, 150, 175;— down, Walton A 256. bad, Walton A 269. badder, worse, Ecl. 123. bagge, purse, MaReg. 163. bake, back, Mass 157. balade, stanza, Shirley 1:79;—a poem in stan- zas, a poem, Shirley 1:87, (see 11:23), Pallad. 6, Hawes 1335, Ecl. 142, 151, 286, 745, 747, 758, see Cavend. 134;—to make stanzaic verse, Orl. xiii:31. balassis, grouped rubies used as ornaments, Garl. 1144. bale, s. ill, Hardyng 28, Hawes 4290, Garl. 377. baleys, bundle of twigs for flogging, Libel 426. ballade royal, Hawes 1318*. ballyuis, bailiffs, Garl. 514*. bankettyng, a. festal, Cavend. 1379. bansshid, banished, FaPrin. F 18, G 231, H 27. bararag, Garl. 235*, 245. baratows, tricky, Garl. 667. barbellis, fish of the carp-tribe, Garl. 655. barbican, outer defence of a castle, Garl. 1364. Bare, Bar, Hardyng 92. barm, bosom, FaPrin. B 146*. base organes, Hawes 1412*. basse, low, Cavend. 1165. basshid, was abashed, Orl. xvii:11. bastard, a sweet Spanish wine, Libel 53. bee a small fortress, a barricade? FaPrin. basylyske, basilisk, Ripley 169*, batail, armed force, FaPrin. D 25. batallous, warlike, Dial. 592. bate, to check? Garl. 27*;—-s. bait, Ship 546; — batyng, reducing, Ecl. prol. 79. baudye, bawdy, coarse, dirty, Prohib. 28, Cav- end. 44. bawme, balm, Thebes 17, FaPrin. D18, Garl. 668. be, by, Walton A 8, C 34, E 6, 91, 102, Churl 153, Thebes 113, 166, FaPrin. A 95, B 64, 119, 136, D 58, E 3, G 165, 265, 279, Orl. ix:6, Prohib. 45. beatyfie, to beautify, Cavend. 111. bebled, covered with blood, Walton B 21. it became, i.e; (what) became of it? Garl. 1216. is become, i.e., (what) has become of it? Fa- Prin. C 20*, 43, Libel 36, Nevill 834. bed, v. bade, Garl. 571. bede, to offer, Lickp. 70. bedleem, Bethlehem, Horns 54. beeldyng, building, FaPrin. C 30. beet, to beat, Walton A 316. Begging letters, see MaReg. 417ff., To Somer, To Carpenter, Roundel 1, LettGlouc. Beginnings of Lines alike, Cavend. 232*. Be- ginning, mode of, Thebes 1*, Cavendish 1. begone, begun, Garl. 686. behight, promised, Dance 239, Mass 92. behove, s. need, Cavend. 18. bekke, beak, nose, Thebes 169*. bellewedir, bellwether, Dance 490*. beldyng, building, FaPrin. C 3, Garl. 589. belluynge, bellowing, Garl. 24. ben, bene, v. are, Dance 635, Shirley II:40, Libel 36, etc. benome, stupefied, rendered helpless. The past part. of O. E. deniman, in Mod. Eng. erroneously treated as ““‘benumbed’’, Libel 38. beo, beon, Shirley’s spelling of o. “be”. ber, to bear, FaPrin. K 56. berall, beryl, Hawes 351. See birall. berd, beard, Cavend. 1237*. bere, bier, Orl. xiii:7;—beer, Ecl. 393. berefte, taken away, Libel 495. berthen, burden, Dance 136, Mass 157. beseched, besought, Hawes 4373. beseene, besein, Dance 446*, Garl. 483, 1054; see Orl. xvi:12. beseke, to beseech, FaPrin. K 9, Garl. 56, 215, 818. See byseeke. besi, diligent, FaPrin. G 251. bestad, pressed by circumstance, Garl. 814. besynesse, earnest effort, Walton A 141, Fa- Prin. A 275, Garl. 1377. bet, bete, beat, beaten, MaReg. 434, Libel 222, Garl. 41, 663. 556 SELECT GLOSSARY bet, bette, better, Bedford 9, Churl 377, Thebes 145, 151, 172, Dance 645, FaPrin. A 467, Orl. xxii:11. beth, are, Pallad. 83, Libel 349, 521 ;-imperat. pli., be, Churl 368, Thebes 97, Orl. xxiii:9. bepynke, to devise, contrive, Walton B 9. betid, happened, Libel 185. bett, beaten, FaPrin. K 47. Bewford, Beaufort, Hardyng 52*. bexample, by example, FaPrin. C 126. bi, from? Orl. xxii:9, See by. Bibliographies; see Reference Lists; see for Lydgate, p. 98, for Orleans, pp. 215 ff. bide, i.e., bye, to endure, Ecl. 711. bifru(n)s, two-faced, Hawes 4216*. biheest, promise, Dial. 598. bihoueth, it is necessary, Dance 168. bileven, to remain, Dance 93 bille, a written composition, LettGlouc. 49. bilt, built, FaPrin. G 260. biraft, biraught, bereft, Orl. xiii:32, xv:5. birall, byral, beryl, Churl 5650935 Garl. 467. See berall. bit, biddeth, MaReg. 280, Dance 269. bitake, to recommend, Dial. 789. biwepen, to bewail with tears, FaPrin. A 235. biwreie, to betray, reveal, Dial. 599. Black Death, see p. 10; see note Cavend. 119. blasinge, Ship 509, 515*. blasyng, Hawes 4230*, see 3169. ble, countenance, Garl. 1379. blenkardis, men with blinking eyes, dullards, Garl. 604. blent, deceived, FaPrin. A 166, Cavend. 151. blere, v. Libel 342*. blere-eyed, with eyes tear-dimmed, Churl 187. bleuh, blew, FaPrin. G 147. blew, blue, Hawes 335. blis, to bless, Walton A 49. blo, livid, Garl. 1366. blont, blunt, Nevill 34. blowe, to break wind, Thebes 112; see Garl. 604*. blyue, soon, quickly, Dial. 542, MaReg. 280, Churl 10. bocase, Boccaccio, Burgh 21, Hawes 1291. Boccaccio, see Fall of Princes, pp. 150 ff.; see Gar]. 827 ff*. Bochas, Boccaccio, FaPrin. A 2, 64, 114, 120, 141, 150, 269, 423, 469, G 27, H 2, K 37, Garl. 365. See bocase. bocher, butcher, Ship 566. bodkyns, daggers, FaPrin. E 54*. boece, Boethius, FaPrin. A 291, Shirley 1:27. Boethius, see Walton’s translation, pp. 39 ff.; see FaPrin. H, p. 185; see Burgh 16. See Boys. boked, equipped with books, Pallad. 96. boklersbury, Bucklersbury, (a London street), LettGlouc. 43*. bole, Boole, a bull, the constellation Taurus, Thebes 2. bondes, boundaries, Walton D 58, 63. bone, a request, Walton A 194. bonechife, bonchief, good fortune; the con- trary of mischief, Walton A 256. bone homs, Bonshommes, Garl. 1428*. boos, a boss, ornamental knob, Thebes 85. boost, boastfulness, FaPrin. C 58, 59. bootte, bote, a resource, remedy, Dance 193 FaPrin. D 3, Garl. 377, Cavend. 1418. bordure, border, Walton A 33d). bore, born, Dance 586, Lickp. 125. born, borne, Pallad. 30. borowe, to redeem, Dance 358;-to sell on credit? Libel 393, 427, (see note 388). borowis, boroughs, towns, FaPrin. D 117. Pome, borwith, borrowed, borrows, MaReg. boryall, Boreal, northern, Garl. 261. bost, outcry, Libel 173*. bot, bot if, see but; ee Hardyng 69, 103. bothes, both, FaPrin. B 1 bottyne, booty, (Fr. en Orl. xix:9. botum, a bottom or clew of thread, Garl. 783. botyth, booteth, avails, Cavend. 1265 bounsis, bounces or bounds, Garl. 1281. ponies; see Bycorne 88*, Dance 197, FaPrin. bourde, to jest, Ecl. 43; —a jest, Ecl. prol. 99. bourder, a jester, Ecl. 665. bowes, boughs, Nevill 428. bowgy, bulgy, Roundel 3. bown, ready, “bound”, Libel 195. bowns, bang! Garl. 618. boy, s. menial, Ecl. 355.* Boys, Boethius, FaPrin. H 3, 6, etc., Garl. 309. boysters, boisterous, Garl. 20. boystously, boisterously, Thebes 30. boyueer, boveer, rustic churl, Churl 266, 355. Braban, Brabant, Libel 492, 498, 508, 528. bracers, Garl. 189*. brake, asnare, Cavend. 1220* ; —was disturbed, Nevill 213. Bae to brawl, wrangle, Ecl. 401, 907, Garl. Basile written by error for brotil, brittle, Libel 558*. at a brayde, nS Nevill 70. brayed, Hawes 4364*. brede, breadth, Garl. 1503. bremis, bream, (a kind of fish), Garl. 655. brend, fiery? Walton A 307*. brenne, etc., to burn, Walton A 210, 235, B 27, D 17, Mass 110, Hawes 121, 233, 671, Nevill dial. 28. brent, burnt, Dial. 499, Churl 178, Hardyng 27, Libel 171, Garl. 1293. brest, the breast, Dance 260. breteyne, Britain, FaPrin. A 377. brettaygne, Britain, Epithal. 53. breuiacion, shortening, Hawes 682. breuiate, v. and a., abbreviate, Hawes 686, Ecl. 788, 1071, 1102. brevely, briefly, Churl 20, Garl. 1070, etc. bribour, a rascal, robber, "FaPrin. G 308, 319. bride, briddes, etc. , bird, etc., Churl 39, 72, etc. AND FINDING LIST 557 bridle lead, Epithal. 88*; see Cavend. 1174, 1348*, MaReg. 78*. Brigges, Bruges, Libel 432. Bristowe, Bristol, Ecl. 317. briton, Britain, Burgh 46, Garl. 405. broche of Thebes, FaPrin. A 322-3*. brodered, embroidered, Ship 550. broisid, bruised, Garl. 619. broisours, ? bruisers, ruffians, Garl. 667. broke, Thebes 96*. broken, see Garl. 785*. Broken backed lines, see p. 21, p. 84-5. bronte, brunt, FaPrin. G 119. brotilnesse, brittleness, fragility, FaPrin. D 24. Browne, William, his MSS, p p. 58-59. Brutes, of Brut, Epithal. 36", Sete E 68, see Garl. 405. Brutus, Walton C 22*. Brutus Cassius, FaPrin. E 63*, Cavend. 1130; see Walton B 22. brutyd, bruited, renowned, Garl. 155, 405, brydilless, without bridle, MaReg. 78*, brynnynge, burning, Ship 8462. buckishe, lascivious, Ecl. 724. bull, (see bole), Morley 4. bullyons, metal knobs as ornaments, Garl. 1143. burbly, Churl 55*. Burboyne, Bourbon, Hardyng 86*. Burdeus, Bordeaux, Ecl. 315. burgeis, burgess, Dance 297, Garl. 514. burne, burnt, Garl. 41. burris, raised rings, Garl. 787. business, effort, Hawes 1337. busy, error for base, Hawes 331. but, FaPrin. A114, read bit, i.e., biddeth. but, but if, unless, Walton A 177, 192, C 24, D ST MaReg. 57, 127, 129; Dial. 637, 810, Churl 1385 Dance 399) FaPrin. A 326, Orl. xxii:5, Hardyng 19, 60, 96, Libel 100, 107, 254, 547, Ship 96, Garl. 119, 146, 439, 769, Old: but though, unless, Orl. xvi:27. buttunis, buttons, knots, Garl. 787. buxom, obedient, Dial. 687; see Roundel 2. by, according to, Libel 521; about, Hawes 126; —he, Libel 532 by and by, in sequence, Dance 542, FaPrin. A "137, Shirley I1:6, Ecl. 1135, Garl. 323, Morley 209*. —immediately, Cavend. 1245. by caws, because, Lickp. 123, Garl. 60. by cock, parde, Lickp. O33 Bycorne, see Bycorne and Chichevache, p.113. byde, to await, Garl. 98. bydynge, existence, dwelling-place, Ship 7016. bye, to buy, Lickp. 53, 69, 75, 79, 103, Libel a 397, 445, 508, Nevill dial. 39, 49, Ecl. 173, bsfit, befell, Thebes 70. bygonde, beyond (the sea), Dial. 566. byll, piece of writing, Reproof 32, Garl. 1421. see bille. byholde, to behold, Walton B 139. byknowen, recognized, Walton E 77. byleuyd, believed, Reproof 61. benepen, beneath, Walton A 329, 336; see Lickp. 119. byrnston, brimstone, Garl. 625. byse, dull blue, Garl. 1136, Cavend. 106. byseeke, to beseech, MaReg. 411. See beseeke. byseye, (see beseene), MaReg. 142. bysynes, business, matter, Dance 303. bytwix, bytwyne, between, Walton A 151, 230, Kpithal. 196, Libel 192. bywette, bewet, Walton A 388. by yonde, beyond, Garl. 488. caas, cas, case, FaPrin. E 46, G 102, etc. caball, horse, Ecl. 128. cace, case, matter, Hawes 119. cacheth, chaseth? FaPrin. K 31*. cadence, FaPrin. K 4*. Cadmus, Ecl. 879. Caesar, Julius, Epithal. 149, FaPrin. A 365, C 15, Ecl. 1084, 1087 ff., Cavend. 1126- 32, Cavend. epit. 5, 31, Wades 141 ff.; his tragedy, pp. 176 ff. caduke, transitory, Ecl. 786. calcydony, chalcedony, Garl. 587. calcys, Prohib. 19*. caldy, Chaldaean, Garl. 585. Calise, Calais, Pallad. 44. Calliope, Walton A 58*, Epithal. 181, FaPrin. A 457, D 9, Cavend. 65*, 67, Garl. 1121. Calpe, Ship 6972*. camamel, camomile, Garl. 962. camous, Ecl. 688*. can, knows, knows how, Dial. 565, Dance 218, 571, Mass 21, Ship 212;—accomplishes, Ecl. 883; —written for gan, did, FaPrin. A 46. Canace, her letter to Macaire, FaPrin. B;—a mountain, Burgh 45* canvas, Libel 153. Canywike, the name of a London street, Lickp. 82*. Capell, Ecl. 441*. cappadoce, Cappadocia, Ship 6972. captacions, ornaments, pleasing artifices, Garl. 799. carders, card players, Garl. 602. carectis, characters, letters, Garl. 585. carfull, full of care; Orl. xiii:13; —woeful, Garl. 1228; see carfull. cariage, transportation, Walton E 125. carl, rustic churl, Churl Ban Ship 8437, etc. Caron, Charon, Garl. 1 carpe, to talk, *Churl O78, 337, Ecl. 266, 344, Ecl. prol. 7. Carpenter, Hoccleve to, p. 67. carres, see carrys. carrikes, large ships, Libel 324. carrys, land routes, Libel 517, 549. Cartage, Carthage, Mass 183. cassander, Garl. 1008*. cast, cast him, etc., to intend, Churl 33, 80, 174, 363, Bycorne 44, FaPrin. A 100, G 312, Orl. xvi: 17, Hardyng 75, Libel 29 —to con- sider, Nevill 156, 224. 558 SELECT GLOSSARY castell, Castile, Libel 55, castinge, Garl. 786*. casuelte, chance, Garl. 1373. catch, caught, FaPrin. G 22*, 165, Cavend. 211. Cathalons, Catalans, Libel 505. Catoun, Cato, Walton C 23, FaPrin. C 24, G 269, Ecl. 1091, Garl. 123, Cavend. epit. 23. causa, cause, because, LettGlouc. 6, FaPrin. G 125, Nevill dial. 40. for causa, because, Walton A 139. Caxton, pp. 14, 35, 96; see Thebes 55-6 cayles, ninepins, Nevill dial. 47*. caytiff, captive, Orl. xiii:6;—see Ship 464. ceesse, to cease, Epithal. 44 cely, (silly), ‘poor’, Churl 83, Bycorne 124, Orl. xv:6. celydony, Prohib. 59*. cent, scent, Hawes 342. cercle, circle, Walton E 143;—a nautical in- strument, Ship 6983. ceriousli, serially, FaPrin, A 135. See notes Shirley 1:26, Morley 209. Cerberus, Ecl. 873. certys, certainly, Mass 96, etc. cessen, to cease, Mass 82;—to cause to cease, Walton A 196, B 6. See sese. Cesyll, Sicily, Ship 6968. chaffare, merchandise, bargain, Libel 65, 441, 526, etc. chaier, see chare. chance, lot, Dance 53, FaPrin. E 82, Hawes 19*. chapytles, chapters, Shirley II:7. charbonclis, carbuncles, Horns 10*, Garl. 1144. chare, chaier, chayre, chariot, FaPrin. E 75, Burgh 51, Orl. xix:2, Morley 20, 48. But see chayre. charet, carriage, Ecl. 199. charge, responsibility, Dance 206, 272, Ship 6950, 8442, Ecl. 188, 190, 194, 359, 385, Cav- end. 97; —load, Ship 56, 6933; —expense, Garl, 570. charge, to make responsible, Dance 270;—to consider, Epithal. 30*; —to load, Libel 240. charged, loaded, Libel 72, 262, 494, Ship 512;— laid in rest, Hawes 4313 chartereux, a monk of the Charterhouse,Dance 347. chat, talk, Ship 13852, Ecl. 473. Chaucer, see Gen. Introd. 5, 11-12, 14, 18, 19, 21, 24, 26, 29, 31, 32. See Walton introd., Hoc- cleve introd., Lydgate introd., Churl introd., Bycorne introd., Thebes introd., FaPrin. introd., —See Hoccleve’s stanzas to him ,»p. 74; portrait, se2 note on Praise of Chaucer 4995: see FaPrin. A 246, ibid. 275* ff. for list of his works; see introd. to FaPrin. B and H, see K 19-21, 34-41; see Shirley 1:29-34; see Reproof 19; see Hawes 1263 ff. and note on 1261; see Garl. 388, 414-427, 1079. See under Griselda, Troilus, Wife of Bath. chaumpartye, Bycorne 41*. chaunge, read chaunce, i.ec., cast of dice, lot, Dance 275. chayre, seat, ae aes Garl. 753, Cavend. 1240; —car, Morley 33 , 44, 48. chebri place, Burgh 43°, to say checkmate, to call a halt, defeat, Dance ae FaPrin. A 182, D 52*, Cavend. 161, 1237, cheertee, Roundel 2*. chemeras, chimeras, Garl. 1296. chepe, a bargain, Lickp. 84; —a London street, Cheapside, Lickp. 72. chere, countenance, bearing, Walton A 347, 387, E 65, Churl 79, 296, Bycorne 94, Dance 90, 121, 372, 391, 621, Thebes ioe FaPrin. B 137, D 45, G 81, "197" , 200, Burgh 49, Pallad. A4, Mass 84, Hawes 107, Ship 13816, Ecl. 893, Garl. 691, 1430. chere, entertainment, Hawes 442, 4374,?4449, Garl. 398, Cavend. 1379. cherice, to cherish, MaReg. 282. chese, to choose, Walton A 135, Churl 143, Thebes 133, Reproof 35, Libel iv chesyng, choosing, Orl. xvii:15. SaEee bargain, goods, Dance 404,Libel Chichevache, see pp. 113 ff. as ga chief, especially, Libel 98. See MaReg. Chimer, Chimera, Ecl. 880. chippe, ship, Dance 264. EPOOVe: Chirburgh, Cherbourg, Dial. 567, vee churl, Churl passim, Hawes 1298, Ship 111, 8497. chose, chosen, FaPrin. A 408, G 75, 132, Mass eee children, Mass 150. chynchy, stingy, MaReg. 136. See introd. to Bycorne and Chichevache. chyne, FaPrin. C 76*. Cicero, see Tullius. See Cavend. epit. 9. ciex, Ceyx, FaPrin. A 304*. Cintheus, Apollo, Garl. 681*. Circes, Circe, FaPrin. C 92. circumstance, detail, Cavend. 1425. Cirenes, see Sirens. Citero, Citheron, Burgh 7*. Citharon, FaPrin. K 51*. cithe, read tilthe, FaPrin. G 221*. Cithera, Venus, FaPrin. D 13. citheryn, a. citron, Churl 235. clappid, etc., to prate, MaReg. 394, Bycorne 32. clarified, made famous, Hawes 1105. clarry, wine mixed with honey, Walton B 8. claryonar, trumpeter, Garl. 233. clatter, to chatter, Hawes 742. See Garl. 241, 1173. Cleopatras, FaPrin. G 287*. See Morley 142. clepen, clepid, clept, to call by name, to cry out, Walton A 168, 278, MaReg. 225, Dance 489, Burgh 50, Shirley 1: 60,66, Orl. xviii:7, Libel 62. for clere, for clearness, Walton A307. Or for- clere, very clear? AND FINDING LIST 559 clere story, Garl. 479*. clergi, clergye, learning, Walton E 32, FaPrin. G 133*, 150, Pallad. 97, Ecl. 662;—the clergy, Ship 572. Clio, Walton A 58*, Epithal. 181, FaPrin. D 10, Ecl. prol. 117. clipsen, to eclipse, Dance 13. cloke, veil of allegorical language, Nevill envoy 14. See Churl 29* cloked, hid, veiled, Hawes 1297*, Garl. 1173. See Chur] 29*, FaPrin. G 46*. cloos, stronghold, territory? Dial. 576. Clotho, etc., Cavend. 1259 ff. clowdes, the heavens, Hawes 68. clowdy, veiled, Hawes 34, 664. See cloked. clypsyd, eclipsed, Epithal. 29. coast, part of the world, Hawes 4412, Ecl. 320. See coost. cochitos, Cocytus, the river or pit of hell, Garl. 1302. cockatryce, Ripley 167*. Cobham, Eleanor, duchess of Gloucester, see pp. 143, 145. Codrus, a speaker in Barclay’s Eclogue iv. cokers, leggings, Ecl. 211. colage, collage, a college, an assembly, Hard- yng 126, Garl. 403, 417 cole, coolness, Ship 57. colers, collars, Ship 512. colle, coal, Prohib. 27. collis passioun, Thebes 114, 1.e., colica pas- sio, the pain of colic. colour, a pretext, Libel 166, 383, Cavend. 1322; —color, FaPrin. G 33-35*;—a fable, Hawes 740, 1297, see dedic. 41-2;—rhetorical orn- ament, Walton A 154, FaPrin. A 27, 278, 452, G 46*, K 4, Reproof 31, Hawes dedic. 25, 42, Cavend. 61*, 232*. colour, v. to disguise, Cavend. 1320, 1322. colour, the symbolism of, Epithal. 107-110, Ecl. prol. 107 ff. coloured, given a false appearance, Libel 387. ae Salutati, see p. 91; see note FaPrin. 63. colyaunder, coriander, Garl. 1006; see Thebes com, can, Orl. xi:5*. comberaunce, encumbrance, difficulty, Pro- hib. 69. combreworldes, cumberers of earth, nuisances, MaReg. 225 comicar, writer of comedies, Garl. 353. comen, common, Hawes 196. commen, common, Ripley 65, Hawes 185. commens, the common people, Hawes 182. com(m)on, to talk, discuss, Libel 181, Ship 181*, Ecl. 472, 741, 743. commynalte, the communalty, Walton A 80. comons, the common people, FaPrin. H 14, 23, Libel 123, 523. comontye, the common people, FaPrin. A 207, Ship 234, 459. compace, to enclose, Ecl. 168. Compaigne, Campania, FaPrin. G 294, companable, compenable, in company, Nevil! 11); —social, Ecl. 1011. Comparative, "double, Walton B 28, Hawes 144, Cavend. 1184. compassid, included, considered, Garl. 13. compendyous, etc., brief, briefly, FaPrin. A90, G 4, H 22, Shirley Il: 5, Nevill 876. competente, sufficient, Garl. 1060. complacience, luxury, Libel 337. compline, the last prayer-service of the day, after sunset, Churl 67. compownen, to reconcile, Walton E 42. Pom prpended Epithal. 83*. See Walton 44, comprise, etc., to compose, describe, Pallad. , 41, Hawes 1292, Garl. 80;—to include, Ship 6944, Garl. 905. compyle, to collect, write, Hardyng 54, etc. comune, common, Walton A 314, Shirley 1:18. comyn, cummin, Thebes 118. comynly, in common, Walton D 20. concedo, see Ship 216*. conceit, opinion, thought, MaReg. 381, Dial. 591, 601, 658, Hawes 206, Ship 167, Garl. 16; —device, plan, Garl. 798. concend, Ecl. 596*. conclusions, riddles, experiments, Dance 518. condescend, to agree, consent, Dance 537, LettGlouc. 2, Hawes 280, 4448, Nevill dial. 12?, Garl. 232, 1110. condicioun, nature, disposition, Walton A 359, Garl. 609? or “classes of society’’?. conductis, conduits, FaPrin. D 9. conduyt, conduct, Nevill 206. confect, made up, Pallad. 69. confecture, compound, Garl. 110. confedred, confederate, Hardyng 9. confortatyff, remedy, LettGlouc. 11. conforth, comfort, Orl. vi:6. confrary, brotherhood, Mass 147. congruence, fitness, Garl. 52. coniecte, to guess, Garl. 729. connyng, ability, art, Reproof 15, 27, Garl. 1208, Cavend. 108; —knowledge, Ship 175, Ecl. prol. 59, Garl. 140, ae 850; —a. wise, Cavend. 53. See cunnyn consayue, to think, FePrin. A 449, Hardyng 102. consel, s. counsel, Pallad. 66. consentant, in agreement, Walton A 131. conseyt, opinion, Walton E 44, FaPrin. C 125, Reproof 63. See conceit. consistorye, place of assembly, assembly, Fa- Prin. E 50, G 278. consonant, harmonious, Ecl. 286. consuetude, custom, Mass 154. consuleere, consular, consul, FaPrin. G 75. contagious, injurious, Ecl. 556. contekk, contest, debate, Epithal. 20. content, fulfilled, paid up, Libel 418, 441. contesse, countess, Shirley I1:52. continuaunce, countenance, FaPrin. G 196. contraire, contrary, FaPrin. C 52, etc. contrarie, to oppose, Dance 156, 502. 560 SELECT GLOSSARY contune, to continue, Churl 290, Thebes 140, FaPrin. A 62, 389*, Mass 13. conuersation, mode of life, life, Dance 533, Hawes 1287. conuysance, cognizance, Pallad. 55. convenable, suitable, Churl 262, Garl. 706. See couenable. convenience, fitness, Horns 60*, Nevill envoy 15. convenient, suitable, Dial. 590*, Churl 16, Hawes 689, Cavend. 17. conveyance, Garl. 1172, 1211*;-style, Ecl. 264. conveyed, brought thither? Nevill 198. coole, cowl, Ecl. prol. 112. cooper, copper, Cavend. 226; see note on 225, and see Hawes 293*. coost, coste, place, country, Walton A 179. See coast, costis.—euery coost, on every hand, Dance 158. cope, Ecl. 447*, 1141*. copen, to buy, Lickp. 53. Copland, Robert. See under Nevill, p. 287. copper, see cooper. copyntanke, Ship 559*. corage, spirit, temper, strength, Walton A 310*, Churl 45, 64, 82, Dance 436, LettGlouc. 54, FaPrin. A 395, B 70, D 68, G 16, 52, Reproof 38, Mass 103, 151, Nevill 13, etc., Ecl. 969, Garl. 66, 844, 1275, Cavend. 204, 1143, epit. 6. See courage. coral, Hawes 4224*. corde, to accord, Garl. 88. cordeler, a Cordelier, a Franciscan friar of the strict rule, girt with the knotted cord, Dance 56a cordewayn, Spanish goat-leather from Cordova, Libel 133. See Sir Thopas 21. coriandre, Thebes 118; see Garl. 1006. corious, elaborate, Dance 672, FaPrin. C 30, Garl. 652. See curious. Cornix, Ecl. 195*, 798, 1136. corosyves, acids, Prohib. 8, 49. correcte? Libel 353*. Correct, request to, Churl 385, Dance 660, Fa- Prin. K 11, Shirley 11:71*, Cavend. 52*. Corson, Fcl. 859*. Cosmus, Cosmo de’ Medici, Ecl. 441*. cosse, a kiss, Orl. xx:1. Costantin, the Cotentin, Dial. 576*. costious, costly, Garl. 570. costis, places, FaPrin. F 13. See coost. cote, coot, (a waterfowl), Garl. 1346;—a coat, Ship 468. coth, disease, pestilence? Shirley I1:12*. cotidian, daily, daily fever, MaReg. 25, Lett- Glouc. 28*. cotis, cotes, cottages, Ship 8457. Cotteswold, Cotswold, the sheep-raising dis- trict of England, Libel 392. couched, packed in layers, Ecl. 393;—to lay, Cavend. 227. couenable, couenabill, fitting, Dial. 635, Garl. 805. See convenable. eure no skyle, possessed no knowledge, Lickp. coule, cowl, Shirley 11:42. coulpable, culpable, Reproof 55. Seecoupable. coundight, conduit, Garl. 652. counten, to make up account, Dance 160,542. countirpeys, balance, counterpoise, LettGlouc. 26, FaPrin. E 79, Reproof 18. countertails, counterstrokes, Libel 383*. countertayle, Bycorne 31*. countervayle, opposed weight, Chur! 315. counterwayng, balancing, Garl. 414; see 179. counterweiynge, comparable, Garl. 831. counteryng, singing an accompaniment to the melody or plain song, Garl. 699. coupable, culpable, Dial. 688, FaPrin. G 319. Cour Amoureuse, see p. 199 here. courage, Hawes 266, 4335, Nevill 118. See corage. cours, coarse, Ship 564. coursidhede, cursedness, Walton E 87. Court of Sapience, see Hawes 1301. Extracts from the poem, pp. 258 ff. here. couthe, kouth, could, Walton A 248, 303, 330, B 2, 6, 9, ?Horns 32*. Reproof 12 couthe, known, FaPrin. G 204. covert, couerte, covered, Orl. xx:12;—of hid- den meaning, Hawes dedic. 42, Hawes 1389. See Churl 29*. crafty, expert, Hawes dedic.25, Ship 7008; — elaborate, Hawes 405, Ship 13683. See Ecl. 346, etc. crakars, braggarts, Ship 37. crase, to break, Garl. 1187. Crassus, Nevill 834. crease, to increase, Cavend. 94. creauncer, tutor, Garl. 1199. credence, credit, dignity, Hardyng 87*. Cresseid, Cressida, Orl. xvi:10, Hawes 1276, Garl. 855. creste cloth, a linen fabric, Libel 153. Creusa, Morley 165. cristente, Christendom, Libel 149. croft, a small field, Orl. xix:10. erokfere, Prohib. 37*. crokyd, bent, FaPrin. D 65, Ship 113. cronell, coronal, Garl. 288. crowne, a tonsure, Ship 574. crudd, curds, Churl 124, Ecl. 423. cruddy, Hawes 62*. cunnyng, knowledge, FaPrin. A 432, Hawes 449, 717, 730, 746, 748, 1100, 1332, 1343, Ship 179, Ecl. 29, 275, 297, 334, etc. Cupide, Cupid, Dance 445, FaPrin. B 102, C 89, Nevill 11, 15, 21, 32, 39, 871, Garl. 291, Cav- end. 1330;—martyrs of, Mass 191*. cure, care, attention, pains, MaReg. 261, 309, Churl 124, 327, Dance 205, FaPrin. G 251, Pallad. 40, 122, Libel 351*, Hawes 117*, 160, 434, Ship 6950, 6991, Ecl. 162, Garl. 912. curiositee, rhetorical ornamentation, Ecl. prol. 106. curious, intricate, elaborate, Walton A 11, Ship 246, Ecl. 449, 825. See Morley 24. currishenes, dishonorable act, Orl. xx:10. curteys, courteous. custom, trade? LettGlouc. 23. AND FINDING LIST 561 custoumable, accustomed, Mass 153. custumed, habitual, Bedford 8. cybacyon, Ripley 196*. Cypyoun, Scipio, Epithal. 154. cyrcunspeccyon, circumspection, Nevill 26. cyrcumstaunce, detail?, effort?, Nevill dial. 3. See NED meanings 6 and 7. Cyrus, Ecl. 1111. cytezyns, citizens, Ship 111, 8470. Cytheron, Mass 5*. .d., pence, Libel 409, 412, 413. dagardye, Libel 353*. daggid, slashed, cut in long points, Garl. 624. daliaunce, intercourse, talk, Walton A 361, Dial. 706, Dance 189, Cavend. 1388. e, i.e., dan, dominus, as a title, Shirley II:39, 47; also Dane. Dante in English, see note on FaPrin. A 303. Dante as known to Lydgate, p. 93 here. Danys, the Danes, FaPrin. K 47. Daphnes, Daphne, Garl. 290, 297. Dares i aa Dares the Phrygian, FaPrin. Ret daring doo, Epithal. 129*. dasid, etc., to daze, Garl. 635, 728, 1356. dasild, dazzled, Garl. 1356. dastarddis, dullards sots, Garl. 190. daswed, dazed, Bedford 9. daunce, dance, Dance 24*, Orl. xi:9, Hawes 1259, Cavend. 241, Morley SS 195: daunger, danger, FaPrin. F 17: ?G 161, Libel 23;—tyranny, MaReg. 126*, Dance 455, Fa- Prin. A 63, Mass 86, Orl. v4, xx:6, 9, Ecl. 1125;—bond to another’s power, Walton E 11, Churl 85, 114;—daungerous, Dial. 745. dawe, to be day, Thebes 129. dawbe, to mend, Ecl. 170. dawcokkis, male jackdaws, i.e., simpletons, Garl. 612. day, to die, Orl. xviii:23. dayneth, disdains, Ecl. 375. dayse, days, Reproof 19. De bien en mieulx, FaPrin. A 20*. in deade, indeed, Cavend. 174. deadly, profound, Hawes 92; —like death, Cav- end. 84, 1257;—ominous, Cavend. 1225, 1229. Dean of Powles, Ecl. 451*. Death. See Dance Macabre, Orl. xv*, Ecl. 983*, debarrid, stopped, Garl. 143. debated, abated, Ecl. 979. debily, Prohib. 25*. debonayr, gracious, Ripley 6. decertys, deserts, nes, Mass 96. decked, covered, Ecl. 6 decke slut, Ship S5Be: declinall, declinable, Hawes 533. declination, downward course, Hawes 1404. declyne, to evade, FaPrin. G 115; —to incline, show favor, FaPrin. C 27. dede, did, Walton A 56, Thebes 58, FaPrin. Al, 49, 209, 249, 273, 275, etc., Lickp. 124. dedis, deeds, Dial. 820*. deel, part, MaReg. 153, Epithal. 105; see dele. deemyng, judging, FaPrin. C 26. deen, to dye, Walton B 9. defye, to digest, Bycorne 42. degest, to get over the effects of, Cavend. 1243, (NED first case 1576); —ponder, Cavend. 1427. degree, place, position, rank, Walton A 293, E 157, MaReg. 317, Dance 101, 491, FaPrin. A 67, pier Mass 28, Libel 88, Ship 474, 570, 8519, Ecl. prol. 130, Ecl. 846, 861, Garl. 803, 1082; 3——Wway, manner, Hawes 110.—in degree, in supremacy, Ecl. 634, 996; see 602. deide, died, FaPrin. C 70. deiect, to sink, Ecl. 549. deied, etc., died, etc., FaPrin. F 21, Orl. xvii:25. dekayed, ‘etc., to bring low, Ship 470, 572, Cav- end. 1157*. delate, to spread afar, publish, Ecl. 645. delavee, Roundel 2 dele, part, bit, Walton A 158, E 147, Dance ie 408, Libel 101, 207, Cavend. 1135. See d delice, s. delight, Walton A 109. delicious, sensual, Ship 126*. See Cavend. 43. dell, vale, Walton E 70;—part, Walton D 12, Hawes 328. See dele, deel. demayn, domain, power, Cavend. 1344. demene, to manage, Orl. ix:3, Hawes 4363. demenaunce, demenynge, behavior, FaPrin. G 194, Garl. 996, 1152. demerites, Ship 51. Demophon, Morley 199. dempte, deemed, FaPrin. G 27. denay, to deny, Cavend. 146, Morley 90. Denyse, Dionysius, Morley 161*. depaint, adorned, depicted, FaPrin. B 106, Hawes 9, 459, 755. See dope ec depart, to part with, Ecl. 14, 818;—to divide, separate, MaReg. 133, Dance 483. depayseth, deprives of value, Walton C 17. depraue, to speak ill of, stain, MaReg. 171, FaPrin. A 447, Garl. 1240, Cavend. 1149. depured, purified, clear, Hawes 68h 33259347, 108, 1264, 4220, etc. derayne, derrain, to decide, offer for decision, Bycorne 6, Garl. 1514. (Late Latin derationare. dere, to injure, Dial. 711. derified, derived, Hawes 1107. Pesenption by order, see Roundel 3*, Shirley descryve, to express, Epithal. 116. desere, to desire, Orl. xiv:12. See desier. desese, discomfort, FaPrin. G 247. desier, desire, Cavend. 102, 105. deteyee besmirched, MaReg. 340. See Libel - determine, to fix, assert, FaPrin. B 6, G 152. dette, dettour, debt, etc., Walton E 11, Dance 159, Shirley 11:66. deu, due, FaPrin. G 153, Garl. 423. A deu, Adieu, see Dial. 504; see note Dance 64. deueere, devoir, duty, FaPrin. F 5. 562 SELECT GLOSSARY deuelway, Thebes 162*, Garl. 629. deuise, describe, Churl 334, Dance 340, 483, etc., Ship 598;—arrange, Libel 215, ?Garl. 1387; —manage, Mass 26;—-s. device, fancy, Dance, 220, 436, 483, Garl. 442*, 1459;— fashion, Cavend. 248. deuised, given, Dance 179. deuoyed, deprived, Nevill 37*. deviant, one who turns aside, Ripley 6*. Devices, see Mottoes. For Shirley’s device see pp. 192-3 here. dewren, etc., to endure, Orl. xii:33, xiii:11. dewte, duty, Orl. xvii:19, Garl. 212. deye, to die, FaPrin. B 26, 33, 84, 128, Orl. vi:8, xxi:14. deynous, disdainful, proud, Dance 299, 364. deynte, dignity, value, FaPrin. A 359. Diana, FaPrin. C 87, Garl. 303. diascorides, Garl. 1392", dictes, FaPrin. G 225. See dite. dide, died, Dial. 751. Dido, Orl. xvi:10. See Dydo. diffautis, wrongdoings, FaPrin. B 122, G 160, 87 287. diffied, disintegrated, FaPrin. G 329. diffieng, defying, refusing, FaPrin. C 60. diffuse, difficult, obscure, Ecl. prol. 71, Garl. 111, 338. dight, set to, prepare, Walton D 71, Lickp. 124. digne, worthy, FaPrin. F 26, G 131. digression, decadence of moral quality, Hawes 145. For the rhetorical ‘“digressio” see Gen. Introd. p. 25. dilacioun, delay, Dance 314. Diodorus Siculus, see notes Ship 162, Garl. 1463. Dirige, dirge, Ship 13878*. dirke, dark, Mass 128. dirkid, darkened, FaPrin. D 21, 57. discharge, to unload, Libel 70, 240, 491, Ship 6934, Garl. 720;—to unburden, Cavend. 153; —to excuse, Garl. 1326; to make void, FaPrin. B 40.—s. vindication, Garl. 213, 1124. discommend, to dispraise, Garl. 1236. discrive, to describe, Walton A 303, Dance 294. discure, to discover, FaPrin. G 90, 100, Garl. 725. See note Dance 311. discusse, dyscus, to decide, determine, allot, Nevill 24, 873, Ship 6993, Garl. 865. disese, discomfort, evil case, Walton A 255, 352, MaReg. 414, Hawes 4285, 4399. See desese. disespeirid, in despair, FaPrin. D 47. disgysyd, decked, adorned, Garl. 38. dishonest, wretched, shameful, Ecl. 1097. disioynt, ill-wrought, Pallad. 18;—-s. evil case, misery, Mass 75. disnull, v. destroy, Hawes 720. dispence, excuse myself, Pallad. D 4. dispense, s. expense, Horns 55. disporte, to give pleasure, Dance 324; —s. pleas- ure, Pallad. 35. dissert, desert, worth, MaReg. 272. disseruid, deserved, FaPrin. G 304. disseuere, to depart, pass away, Dance 310. disteyn, to stain, Libel 47. See desteyn. distincyon, a division of a composition, Garl. 1434. distresse, trouble, pains, Shirley 1:95. distryed, destroyed, Walton Av25er dite, dyte, ditijs, etc., “dicta”, literary com- positions, FaPrin. A 256m 352, 456, G 55*, K 16, Nevill dial. 18, Garl. 360°, Cavend. 66, 67. ditie, ditte, ditty, Ecl. 48, 351, etc. diynge, dying, Dance 248. do, s. doe, Garl. 1352 do, dede, doon, etc., 1)causative, as in Chaucer; see e.g., Dance 339, Shirley 1:17. 2) auxil- lary; see e.g.,Walton "A 225, Thebes 58*, Dance 136*, FaPrin. A 303, G 136, ete. 3) indepen- dent verb; see e.g., Walton A 56, Dial. 613*, FaPrin. K’ 37, 41. do forth, Dial. 524, Pallad. A 6*. do it upon you, Libel 258%. do on, put on, don, Ship 558. document, Hawes 292*. doke, duck, Churl 360. dolven, dug, buried, Dance 558, Shirley I:22. dom, dumb, Ecl. 489. See dum. domas, damask, Ship 173. dome, doomys, etc., doom, judgment, FaPrin. E 25, F 7, Garl. 1470, Cavend. 155. domefying, Dance 293%, FaPrin. A 299*, dominacion, domain? Hawes 416. dompe, to be downcast, Cavend. 241. See dumpe. NED 1530 first. —s. a depressed or musing state, Cavend. 1223, domyne, to have power, Hawes 229. dongel, dunghill, Churl 360. donne, dun, FaPrin. K 31, Hawes 299. dool, dolor, FaPrin. B 67, Mass 120, 130. doomys, see dome. dopeynt, Thebes 16. See depaint. dorste, dared, Walton D 15, etc. dotrellis, Garl. 635*. Double Compar. and Superl., Walton B 28*, FaPrin. C 19, 50, Ecl. 867, Cavend. 1184. doublenes, Hawes 436, 12775 Gasl, 1175. doubletys, imitations, Horns 13*. doubt, doubtaunce, dread, Hawes dedic. 45, Hawes 5, 103, Ecl. 169. doubty, dreadful, Hawes 359. dought, fear, Cavend. 212. doughtyd, feared, Cavend. 147, 212, 1167. doutfull, uncertain, Walton A 313. drad, dreaded, Dance 491. draff, s. refuse, Churl 256, 258. dragge, drug, LettGlouc. 12*, 55. drames, ?drama-writers, Ecl. 689*. drape, etc., to weave into cloth, Libel 102, etc. draughtes, attempts, works, Hawes 1312,1351. drauh, draw, FaPrin. C 64. draw, to tend, approach, Churl 260, Thebes 170, FaPrin. H 1, Lickp. 73;—to amount, Libel 543. drawe along, to protract, draw out, Walton A 288, C 33, Churl 74. drede me, have fear, Dance 98. dreepyng, drooping, FaPrin. C 88. AND FINDING LIST 563 drempt, dreamed, FaPrin. E 96. Dress, extravagance in, see pp. 110-11. dresse (one’s self), to prepare, set about, under- take, direct, Walton D 26, Dance 300, 611, 626, FaPrin. A 449, D 72, E 25, G 3, 51, 65, Orl. xix:14, 27, xx:11, Libel 547, Ship 6953, Garl. 22-1312. dreye, dry, Thebes 164. dribbis, to dribble, slaver, Garl. 635. drone, lower tube of a bagpipe, Ecl. 27. dropsy, see Ecl. 895*. drouh, drew, i.e., translated, FaPrin. K 28. drouh him to, adhered to, FaPrin. G 269. dud, did, Churl 63. dulce, sweet, Cavend. 118. dum, dumb, Garl. 82. See dom. dumpe, fit of abstraction or depression, Garl. 15, 728. See dompe. dure, door, Garl. 1402;—». to endure, Mass 12, Libel 343, Hawes 4343. durre, door, Garl. 1073. duskyth, v. dims, Cavend. 223. dy, die, Orl. xiii:22. dya, s. LettGlouc. 12*. dyane, the moon, Diana, Hawes 1404, 4218. See Garl. 303. dyapenthe, Hawes 1414*. Dydo, Dido, Epithal. 73, Mass 182. See Dido. dyetesseron, diatessaron, Hawes 1414*. dyffautes, faults, defects, FaPrin. B 122. dygne, worthy, Mass 164. dyleccyon, delight, Nevill dial. 25. dymeynet, demeaned, Orl. viii:2. Dymostenes, Demosthenes, Garl. 130, 152, 155, 167. dyne, to die, Libel 522. dynne, to dine, Cavend. 122. Dyogenes, Garl. 129. dyopason, Hawes 1413. dyscomfet, discomfited, Orl. iii:7. dyscusse, to decide, Nevill 24, 873. See dis- cusse. dysese, discomfort, unhappiness, FaPrin. B 18. See desese. dysour, dice-player, Garl. 629. Cysseuyd, deceived, Prohib. 66. ear, ere, Ecl. prol. 61. earst, erst, Ecl. 33, 1053, 1100. Earth upon Earth, alluded to in closing summary of Hawes. See ed. for EETS, and Wells, p. 387. ebb, s. FaPrin. D 69*, Cavend. 188. ebounden, bound, Shirley 92: ebrew, Hebrew, Garl. 582. en , echoon, each one, Churl 109, FaPrin. 41 Ector, see Hector. Ecuba, Hecuba, Epithal. 74. Edmund, St., FaPrin. K 48. Education, see introd. to Hawes; see in Ref. List. Edward III, Libel 184 ff., Ecl. 523. Edward VL, Cavend. 1407. eende, end, FaPrin. G 256. effekke, effect, Thebes 170. effycace, efficacy, Nevill dial. 4. eft, again, afterwards, MaReg. 408, Libel 494, Shirley IT :16*, 88. efte sone, afterwards, then, Walton A 196, D 60, 69, etc. egall, ae Epithal. 145, FaPrin. G 182. See Epithal. 134. eger, eager, Walton B 20. egloges, eclogues, Ecl. prol. 21*, 28, 76, 127, 129: eied, eyed, equipped with eyes, FaPrin. A 383. eir, heir, Dance 238. eld, age, Walton A 267, 326, Morley 122. eldres, elders, Shirley Ley: elephant, Garl. 468. See oliphaunt. Eleyne, Helen of Troy, Horns 27*, Dance 452, Epithal. 78*, Orl. xvi:10, Garl. 876, Morley 218, 220. eleuate, to extol, Hawes 762. elich, alike, Churl 48. elicon, Helicon, Burgh 7*. See Helicon. ellas, alas! Shirley I1:43. ellis, ellys, else, Dance 636, 641, 661, Shirley 1:8, Orl. vi:4, Nevill 199, etc. Elizabeth, Queen, her transl. of Boethius, see Walton A 366*, B notes. eloquencyale, eloquent, Shirley 1:31. elthe, health, Mass 151. Elyconys, of Helicon, Garl. 74. embosid, foaming at the mouth, Garl. 24. ee adorned in raised patterns, Cavend. 109. embrace, v. Dance 482*. eme, uncle, Hardyng 52, 80. emforth, according to, Pallad. 12. emispery, hemisphere, Hawes 67, 1256. emmet, ant, Ecl. 247. empier, empire, Cavend. 1134. emprice, emprise, s. undertaking, Dance 178, 221, 655; —renown, Pallad. 38. enaured, gilded, adorned, Pallad. 67. enbateled, fortified, Garl. 570. enbesid, busied, Garl. 789. enbewtid, beautified, Garl. 852. enbissy, v. busy, Garl. 66. enbosid, embossed, Garl. 467. enbrawded, etc., embroider, Garl. 778, 892. enbrayd, ». braid, Garl. 773. enbulyoned, bejewelled? Garl. 478. enbybid, moistened, Garl. 676. enchace, drive away, FaPrin. D 91. encheson, occasion, Hardyng 122. encline, to decay, lose value, Hawes 4266. enclude, to hold together, Pallad. 68*. encouerde, covered, Garl. 1142. encrampisshed, cramped, bound, Garl. 16*. enderkkid, a. obscure, Garl. 108. endeuorment, endeavor, Garl. 794. endewe, ». discipline, Nevill dial. 13. endite, to write, Walton A 59, 155, 253, Ma- Reg. 298*, FaPrin. G 41, Orl. xii:8, 24, Hawes 722, 1290, Nevill dial. 10, Ecl.681;—to dic- tate, Walton A 347;—to indict, Dance 492. 564 SELECT GLOSSARY enduce, to induce, Nevill 220. endued, dewed, wet with tears, Hawes 437;— clothed, Garl. "1022, etc. enduringe, during, Garl. 823*. enduse, to adduce, Garl. 94, 1113. enflorid, decked with ornaments? Garl. 1138. enforced, stimulated, Walton E 53, 60, Churl apes him, attempting, Hawes 4411. See Ship 67. engalared, having galleries, Garl. 460. engladid, gladdened, Garl. 536. englasid, glazed, Garl. 479. englistered, glistened, Garl. 657. engrapid, hung with grapes, Garl. 650. engrosid, swollen, Garl. 335, 342, 349, etc. (So Dyce. First case NED, 1561) ;—written, Garl. 1467; Tae Garl. 41. engyne, “ingenium’’,, ingenuity, Pallad. 85. enhabite, dwell, Libel 240. See Nevill dial. 16. enhachid, adorned, Garl. 40. enhardid, hardened, Garl. 306. enhaunce, overcome? Nevill 63;—to elevate, Ecl. 850. enlosenged, patterned in lozenges, Garl. 469. enmy, enemy, FaPrin. G 283. ennewed, renewed, Reproof 7, Garl. 389, 969. ennoy, annoy, Pallad. 60*. ennoynte, anointed, Hardyng 4, Pallad. 54. enormyte, flagrant wrongdoing, Ship 568, 602. enow, ynow, enough, Dance 336. enpauyd, paved, Garl. 466. enplement, Garl. 402*. enpreented, imprinted, LettGlouc. 56. enprise, charge?, bidding, Churl 333. enrailid, surrounded by a rail, Garl. 650. ensaumple, to give example to, Dial. 604;—s. example, Hawes 1294. enscrisped, crisped, curled, Garl. 289. ensensed, etc., to sprinkle with odor, Hawes 11, 102 enserched, searched out, Walton E 4. ensewe, to follow, ensue, Nevill 198, Garl. 321, 390. See Ship 14, 62, 144, 215, 241, 603, 608, 8517, Ecl. prol. 103. ensowkid, soaked, Garl. 23. enstore, provide, Bycorne 103. ensue, see ensewe. ensure, to assure, Orl. ix:11, Nevill 83. entachid, linked? Garl. 470. entakeled, furnished with (ship’s) tackle, Garl. 545. entayle, quality, Churl 235. entaylled, adorned or carved, Cavend. 108. enteer, perfect, FaPrin. G74, K 18. See entere. entencioun, desire, intent, FaPrin. D 108. entend, to give attention to, Dance 328, Fa- Prin. A 13, Shirley I:1, Hawes 678, Ecl. ’rol. 96; —to intend, Garl. 412, 426; 49 tend, Garl. 1109? entent, intention, Dance 33, 461, 531, 665, Fa- Prin. A 309, 428, B 155, G 97, Mass 10, 37, 155, Reproof 32, Orl. ix:17, xvi:26, xxiii:10, Hawes 56, 430, Nevill 431, Cavend. 271; — attention, Lickp. 59. ententifely, attentively, Walton E 103, Hawes 250, 1407, Nevill 204. enterchaungyng, interchanging, FaPrin. A 125; entere, entire, Dance 659, FaPrin. G 74, Epi- thal. 178, Mass 1. See enteer. entered, interred, Shirley 11:51. enterement, interment, Garl. 1247. PRT RPRN ENS: endeavored, Gar]. 388, Ecl. prol. 2. entremete, to take part in, meddle with, Wal- ton A 36, MaReg. 439. entyrmete, see entremete. ee to write down under headings, Mass 165* enuawtyd, arched over, vaulted, Garl. 476. enuerdurid, made green, Garl. 660. enuolupid, enwrapped, MaReg. 245. enuy, envie, to try to rival, Hawes 1346. See Dance 241* enuyronde, environed, Nevill envoy 3. enuyrowne, around, Garl. 489. enuyuid, to enliven, kindle, Garl. 856, 1139. enveiyd, inveighed, ‘censured, Garl. 96. First case NED 1529. enviroun, round about, Dance 107. See en- uyrowne. Enyus, Ennius, Garl. 347. Eolus, Aeolus, Garl. 235, 1066. epitomis, brief writings, Garl. 1378. equypollent, of equal worth, Epithal. 151, Hawes 687. er, ere, Pallad. C 1. —er, rime on, Nevill 25-27. See -eth. eresy, errisy, heresy, Reproof 63, Hardyng 26. erkith me, “‘it irks me”, Garl. 1456. ernest, Shirley II:99*. ernestful, exacting?, MaReg. 293. erronyouse, misguided, Hardyng 15. First case NED 1512. errytyke, heretic, Hardyng 8. erst than, before, Garl. 1012. erste, first, Mass 30, Pallad. 118. ertly, earthly, Prohib. 86. erudice, Eurydice, Walton D 18, 64. es, Lat. aes, brass or copper, Prohib. 37*. eschape, escape, Hardyng 23. eschaunge, Pallad. A 4*. Eschines, Aeschines, Garl. 131, 135, 154, 157, 166. escry, outcry, battle cry, Ecl. 943. See askry. escuse, excuse, Reproof 80. Esiodus, Hesiod, Garl. 328. Esope, Aesop, Ecl. 448*. Espirus, Hesperus, FaPrin. K 32. esploye, Fr. esploier, s’avancer, i.e., to put one’s self forward, Pallad. 58. estchepe, Eastcheap, a London street, Lickp. 89. estate, class, rank. Thebes 20, Dance 573, Epi- thal. 146, FaPiin. A 128, 167, 177, 181, 447, Shirley 11:93, Ecl. 860, 1093, Garl. 54, 600, 1204, 1255, Cavend. 48, 55, 156, 1187, 1269, 1418;—higher rank, men of eminence, Churl 17, FaPrin. A 46, 67, Hawes 190, Nevill 176, AND FINDING LIST 565 Ship 235, Ecl. 909, Garl. 45, Cavend. 35, 37;— condition, Hawes 4300, Nevill 877;—dignity, FaPrin. E 51, Garl. 752, 1092. See state. cloth of astate, Garl. 484*, Cavend. 123. este, east, Walton A 133. ete, ate, Walton D 49. -eth, rime on, Hawes, stanza 105. etik, etiques, "flushed “hectic” dry fever, Dance 398", LettGlouc. 27, 45. euasioun, escape, Garl. 154. Etymology, see Dial. 586*. euforbe, Libel 353*. Eumenides, Garl. 1290. ewre, to prosper, Orl. xii:31. See ure. exaumplaire, model, Dance 534. excelsitude, majesty, Hardyng 112. excesse, excess? access? Hawes 4421. exemplifye, to adduce as example, Hawes 677. Exione, Garl. 1367*. existent, Walton A 315*. expedient, Libel 453, Hawes 1412. expert, able, well-contrived, FaPrin. A 298. a cntyase, performing exploits, Nevill dial. Me cane, to tell, utter, FaPrin. A 303*, Hawes 197, 326, Nevill 90, 142, Ecl. prol. 119, Cavend. 117, 1137. in expresse, expressly, Walton A 143, E 113, Dance 269, Reproof 41, Shirley I1:28, Pallad. 32, Hardyng 31. expreslye, Hawes 1300. exskus, excuse, FaPrin. B 101. exuberate, Ripley 134*, 164. exyte, excite, Ripley 82. ey, ever, Hawes 269. eye, ever, Lickp. 111;—to examine with the eye, Pallad. 88? at eye, at a glance, obviously, Pallad. 30, 386, 480, Pallad. 32, 33. See Libel 262*. eyeghen, eyes, Epithal. 164, 167. eyne, eyes, Orl. xix:17. See iyen. eyre, air, Churl 22. eyther, either, or, Ripley 164, 167. faatal, see fatal. fable, see Churl 29*, Hawes dedic. 34-42, Pastime 663*, Nevill envoy 14, Ecl. prol. 100 Fabricius, Walton C 22*, Cavend. epitaph 22. facers, Garl. 189*. facoun, falcon, Churl 358. faculte, ability, Garl. 800; —art, branch of learn- ing, Ship 7001. falle, to befall, MaReg. 74, FaPrin. G 24, Shir- ley 1:50.—fall not, fit not, Ecl. 602. ffaire fall, success befall, Shirley 1:50, Garl. 27. falls, false, FaPrin. A 320. fallyng, failure, Orl. xxi:13. Fame. See note FaPrin. B 95; see Epithal. 133, Hawes 135 ff., Cavend. 1223 ff. fane, banner, Hawes 4264;—vane, Hawes 4382. ffantasien, to imagine, FaPrin. A 17, 23. fantasy, opinion, FaPrin. E 59, G 22, Garl. 39; —imagination, Hawes 675, 677. ffantzy, fancy, Cavend. 1244, 1245, 1318, 1423. ffardel, burden, FaPrin. D 106, Mass 156, 177. fare, far, Prohib. 33, Cavend. 1973" farsid, filled, well provided, MaReg. 13. faste by, close by, Epithal. 20. fatal, fateful, FaPrin. B 114, Garl. 316;—fore- ordained, Dance 407, Epithal. 10, Garl. 34; — prophetic, Hawes dedic. Sih Hawes 665%, 751, Garl. 34. fatenesse, fatness, Churl 11. fatigate, wearied, Prohib. 46, Ecl. 921. fauel, MaReg. 211*, 223, 244, 247, 284, 287. fauour, appearance, Ecl. 426. fautes, fawtes, faults, Ship 84, 108, 137, 139, 13834, Garl. 112*, 203. fautles, faultless, Ship 89. fawty, faulty, Ship 6996. fayn, fain, Hawes 111;—to feign, Hawes 155, 716, 1301, 1357, 1389, 4308, Ship 52. faynt, exhausted, Lickp. a —weak, Cavend. 34. feard, afraid, Ecl. 894. feare. to terrify, Hawes 4260. fearefull, dreadful, Ecl. 881. febled, enfeebled, Ecl. 923. feblesse, weakness, Shirley 1:12, 11:13. fee, Hawes 196*. feere, fear, Walton D 16, 42. in feere, together, Walton E 145, Bycorne 11, Dance 95, 657, Epithal. 5, Orl. xiv:4, Hardyng 45. See fere. fel, to feel, Mass 16. fele, many, Pallad. 89, 106, Libel 416;—to ex- amine, comprehend, Pallad. 73*, 91, Libel 188, Garl. 744; see FaPrin. A 126; —to notice, Ecl. 114, 118, 122, 678*. fell, cruel, Walton A 237, D 10, E 166, Ecl. 932, 1007 felles, skins, Libel 245, 524. felly, cruelly, FaPrin. B 114. felt, felt hat, Ecl. 384; —v., see fele, Libel 188. femel, female, MaReg. 138. ffemynyte, femininity, Horns 35. fendis, of fiends, Dance 359. fenestrall, windows, Garl. 1354. fer, ferre, far, Walton A 12, 308, E 48, 59, Epi- thal. 46, FaPrin. A 245, B95, 108 115, D 56, 68, Orl. xviii:26, Nevill 54; —s. fear, Mass aa: ferd, see fforferd. Ferdinand, Ship 7015*. fere, mate, Dial. 739;—-s. fire, Churl 178; —far, Shirley 11:16; —fear, Libel 555. See feere. ferforth, far, Walton E 52. ferme place, a farm, Ship 8503. fern ago, long ago, MaReg. 196. ferneyeer, last year, MaReg. 423. fers, fierce, Walton A 237, FaPrin. A 212. fersere, fiercer, Walton B 28*. ferthe, fourth, Hardyng 38. ferye, holiday, Dance 211*. fesaunt, pheasant, Garl. 103. festes, entertainments, Libel 481. fette, fetch, Dance 414. feynt, insufficient, Thebes 104. feyntice, weakness, FaPrin. D 96, Mass 169. ff-. For words so beginning see under f-. 566 SELECT GLOSSARY ffeueryeer, February, Pallad. A 7, B 5. fil, befell, Churl 42, FaPrin. A 102, 104. fill, fell, FaPrin. A 53, 271, B 152, Garl. 30. filowePe, followeth, Shirley 1:45. fine, end, Dance 32, 39, 640, Prohib. 26*;— to end, Dance 430. See fyne. fitte, song, section of a poem, Ecl. 55, 720. flagraunt, fragrant, Garl. 665, 962. flambe, flame, Walton A 234, E 45, Hawes 102, 120 flatereris, flatterers, FaPrin. C 86. fleand, fleeing, Hardyng 70; see 6*. fleen, to fly, Churl 137. t ees, fleece, Walton B 10, Libel 245. fleinge, inconstant, variable, Ship 542. flent, flint, Ecl. 824. ffleth, vo. flies, FaPrin. B 95, 120. fletinge, flowing, Thebes 17. fleyen, to fly, Walton C 32. fligh, flew, Churl. 171. Flora, Thebes 13, Garl. 679. florifie, to adorn with flowers, Pallad. 80, 81. florthe, floor, Garl. 480. flouring, vigorous? ornate? FaPrin. G 163. Flower and Leaf strife, see p. 199. See Orl. xvii. fovoun, oan Churl 130, 241, FaPrin. C 106, Ka 25i9, foisty et Gar]. 633*. folde, bend, Walton A 298. foly, foolish, Dance 128. folynesse, folly, Walton A 368. fond, silly, Ecl. 401, Garl. 735. fond, found, Walton B 32, Bycorne 98, 99, Dance 20, Epithal. 10, FaPrin. A 76, D 62, G 96, Pallad. 30, 65. foo, Phoo! Garl. 633. foone, foes, Churl 238, Epithal. 164. for, as, Hardyng 4;—because (of), Walton A 129, 299, D 43, E 12, 168, etc., MaReg. 335, FaPrin. A 451, G 269, Ecl. 797, 929, Garl. 214; —in order that, Hardyng 39;—for? Orl. vii:6; —against, Ecl. 5. for any thyng, Libel 253*. for thy, see forthy. forbere, do without, Bycorne 35*, Libel 268. force, s. matter, consequence, MaReg. 305, Ecl. 236, 614;—». to care, attach importance to, Ecl. 645, 647, Garl. 725. See forse. fordope, destroys, Dance 117, 308. fordullid, much dulled, Churl 340, Cavend. 1219. fforferd, much terrified, Pallad. A 5. fore, Orl. v:11*. fore by, by, Libel 25, 135, 143. forgate, forgot, Garl. 369. forlete, forletten, to abandon, Walton A 106, 319, 326. forlore, lost, Shirley I:8, Nevill 152. forlost, lost, Orl. xviii:8, 16, 24, 28. formals, Ripley 116*. forme, front, first, Pallad. B 4, Garl. 595. formely, formally, Walton E 100. Former Age, Walton B. former date, Garl. 826*. formest, foremost, Garl. 287, 679. fforpyned, tortured, Walton D 48. fforride, riding ahead, Pallad. D 3. forsayd, aforesaid, Garl. 561, forse, s. care, Ecl. 24. See force. forshyuere, to break in pieces, Orl. xiv:7. forslepid, slept heavily, Orl. xix:7. forster, forester, Garl. 1374; see 27. for that, because, Thebes 140, Ecl. 531. forther, earlier?, elder, Nevill envoy 10. See former date. not forthi, nevertheless, Walton E 19, 47. forthinki) me, gives me regret, Dance 275. forthir, forthre, to further, support, FaPrin. D 62, K 4, Reproof 32, 49. forthwt, forthwith. forthy, therefore, MaReg. 356. See not forthi, yit forthy. See Cavend. 39* fortop, forehead, Garl. 1306. fortune, to happen, Ship 176, ae 85,1112; — to manage, favor, Epithal. 176. Fortune exculpated, Ecl. 1O7s® Fortune’s wheel, Cavend. 190-92*. foro ive, to support, to equip?, Nevill 186, Ecl 971 for well, farewell, Lickp. 111. forwhy, wherefore, Orl. xvi:19;—because, Orl. xili:l foryete, to forget, Dance 171. foryetilnesse, forgetfulness, FaPrin. D 31. foryeue, forgive, MaReg. 408 fforyoven, forgiven, Epithal. 105. foster, forester, Garl. 27; see 1374. founden, tested? tried? Walton A 368. Old Eng. fandian ? afourme, Dance 274. Read a forne. fowerth, fourth, Ripley 193. fowles, fools, Ship 539. foysoun, see foison, Ship 3. fraiys, frays, quarrels, Garl. 182. Franceis, i.e., Petrarch, FaPrin. K 38. franchemole, Thebes 101*. fraunchise, s. and v., license, Dance 366, 469, 604. frauncis, i.e., Petrarch, Burgh 13. frawhydnes, frowardness, Orl. vii:4. fre, Libel 557*. Read frele? frequent, to use, practise, Cavend. 1324. frere, friar, Garl. 375. freshe, gay, gorgeous, Garl. 39. fret,torn, Dance 341, Garl. 1417;—ornamented, Garl. 485. frete, to devour, Dance 398, Emenee 24s frigius, Phrygian, FaPrin. K 17. friste, first, FaPrin. G 58, 266, Hardyng 8, 14. fro, from. frowise, Ecl. 423. Same as froyse? Not in NED frownsyd, wrinkled, Garl. 1306. froyse, Thebes 101*. fryththy, having low woods, Garl. 22. fulfill, to eke out, Ecl. 390. fulfilled, filled, Ecl. 664, Ship 609. fulle, atte fulle, as a whole. Libel 78. AND FINDING LIST 567 fume, odor, smoke, Hawes dedic. 40, Hawes 13, 341. fumouse, heady, vaporous, Libel 112. funerall, ominous, “‘funeste”, FaPrin. E 31. fur, Dance 250*, Ship 498*. furder, further, Hawes 344. Furies not invoked, Walton 60-61*. furour, madness, rage, Ship 7005, Ecl. 1006. fury, fiery, Walton A 233. ffustian, a coarse weave of cotton or flax, Libel 76. See Garl. 1184 for metaphor. fuyre, fire, Walton B 28, E 45, 50, 134. fuyres, furies, Walton D 41. fy, Fie! Orl. xiv:3. fyers, fierce, Ship 6960. fylle, v. fell, FaPrin. B 152, Garl. 872. fyn, a. close, FaPrin. G 164. See under fyne. fyne, to end, Walton A 161, Dance 263, 430, Epithal. 44, FaPrin. C 62, G 124;—s. end, Dance 32, 39, 640, Epithal. 175, FaPrin. A 228, E 97, G 164, Mass 179. fyne force, Hawes 275*. fyned, wrought to delicacy, Cavend. 1303*. fyt, Ecl. prol. 16. See fitte. fyx, to make permanent, Prohib. 51. gabille, cable, Garl. 817. gadder, to gather, Garl. 107. gadrid, gathered, FaPrin. G 10. gadryn, to gather, Mass 158. gaff, gave, FaPrin. D 14, E 89, K 6. gagwyne, Gaguin, Garl. 375*. galauntes, galaundes, gallants, Ship 540, 596. galeys, galleys, Libel 336, Ship 53. galiene, Galen, Garl. 1392*. gall, see honey and gall, MaReg. 79*; see rub on the gall, Garl. 97*. Galtres, Garl. 22*. galwes, gallows, FaPrin. G 303. gambawdis, s. gambols, Garl. 602. gan, began, Walton A 140, 348, D 44, E 68, Churl 65, FaPrin. A 7, C 3, D 89, Orl. xix:3, Lickp. 52, Hawes 65, 197, 4215, 4355. See Hawes 67, 282. gan, did (auxil.), Walton A 301, 387, D 17, Chur! 10, 297, FaPrin. D 39, 46, 52, 72, 128, E 5, 24, 73, G 3, 15, 31, 51, 65, 96, 98, H 1, K 36, Lickp. 44, 46, 47, 65, 70, 73, 84, 87, 109, Orl. xix:14, Hardyng 109, Hawes 301, 326. garded, trimmed or faced, Ship 509, 549, 8483. Garden, Churl 47 ff.*, Garl. 646 ff., Cavend. 115- 18*. gargeled, gargeyld, equipped with gargoyles, Hawes 307, Nevill 115, 178. garnade, garnado, Granada, Churl 259, Ship 6973. See Garl. 485. Garter, Order of, Hardyng 123*. gase, s. that which is stared at, Garl. 1184. See NED. gasid, gazed, stared, Garl. 265. Gaspian, Caspian, Garl. 553, (Marshe ed. reads Caspian). gaspyng, Hawes 87*. gastful, dreadful, Dance 564. gat, got, FaPrin. E 68, G 292. gayne, Bycorne 46. Read gyn, device? Gayus Marrius, Caius Marius, FaPrin. G 243. geare, equipment, Ecl. 18. Gebar, Ripley 112*; see Prohib. 64*. geder, to gather, Orl. xiv:4. geef, s. Orl. xxi:5*, see xxii:5. geet, raised, tossed up, Walton A 317. gefe, to give, Orl. xxii:5. gein, against, FaPrin. G 159. Gemine, Gemynys, the constellation Gemini, Hawes 1403, Cavend. 3. Genius, Mass 56*. gent, noble, Hawes 428. gentrye, noble blood, FaPrin. E 94. gentyl, gentle, Shirley 1:57. gentyles, gentlefolk, Shirley 1:84. genysses, Genesis, Ripley 41. gerdouns, guerdons, rewards, Mass 185. gere, stuff, Lickp. 98. gery, fickle, Orl. xx:10. ges, to guess, Orl. 1ii:7, xix:26. Gesta Romanorum, Dial. 820. gest, guest, Nevill 55. geste, s. and v., jest, Hawes 1336, Nevill 21. gestes, deeds, Dial. 820*. get, fashion, Garl. 1171. geue, to give, Lickp. 31, Hawes 251, etc., Ecl. 320, etc. gevers, Geber’s, Prohib. 64*. geyn, against, FaPrin. C 98;—s. remedy, help, Bycorne 46, Dance 83,157, 603;—to avail, Dance 143. giggisshe, flighty, wanton, Garl. 1184. First case NED. giltees, guilty acts, Dial. 717. girdle, meaning of, Dance 262*. ee snarled so as to show the teeth, Garl. gise, guise, mode, Dance 218, 265, Garl. 121. glacing, slippery, FaPrin. D 24. glade, to gladden, Pallad. 8;—to rejoice, Churl 258, Pallad. 111. glaue, sword, Hawes 4323. glee, music, Garl. 278. gleede, hot coal, MaReg. 159. glint, slippery, Garl. 572. globous, globe-shaped, Ripley 37. gloire, glory, FaPrin. C 13. gloriowsly, brilliantly, Garl. 83. glose, to flatter, talk smoothly, MaReg. 266, Garl. 744, 894. Gloucester, Humphrey, duke of: etymology of his name, Dial. 596-7; made duke, Hardyng 50; lieutenant of England, Dial. 533; against Orleans’ liberation, Pallad. 60; marriage to Jacqueline, introd. to Epithalamium; his books, pp. 143,145, andnoteonPallad. 89; asbibliophile and patron, introd. and prol. to FaPrinces, introds. to Epithal. and to Letter, introd. to Pallad.; military commander, Dial. 576, 610, Libel 249; pious son of the Church, prol. to FaPrin., introd. to Palladius; name of his daughter, FaPrin. A 246*. glowmes, is gloomy, Ecl. 474, 1064. glum, a black look, Garl. 1095. glumme, to look sourly, scowl, Hawes 4355. 568 SELECT ‘GLOSSARY glutton, Garl. 779*. Not in NED. Go, little book; see Churl 379 note; see Nevill en- voy 1, Garl. 1484. god, good, FaPrin. D 39. God avow, Ecl. 438*. Gold, proverb on, Churl 306*. Golden Age, Walton B, Ship 8444* ff. goldissh, golden, Churl 306*. gone, go, Hawes 320. gonge, the privy-closet, Ecl. 120. gonne, begun, FaPrin. H 13. good, property, Churl 367. goode yere, Garl. 730*, 986. goordis, gourds, Mass 159, 176. gorge, Gorgias, Burgh 10*. Gorgones, Gorgons, FaPrin. C 95. gose, goes, Garl. 26. gossomer, gossamer, Horns 5, LettGlouc. 26. gotefelle, goatskin, Libel 56. goten, gotten, obtained, Nevill 111, 133, Ecl. 839, Morley 68. gouernaunce, mode of life, Libel 123; —enter- prise, Libel 219. gouernour, guide, pilot, Thebes 79, Ship 7008. gow, Go we! Lickp. 114*. Gower, FaPrin. K 24*, Hawes 1261*, Garl. 387 ff., 1079. See p. 21. goynge, gait, Ship 476. Gracce, Gracchus, FaPrin. G 140*. Gradatio, MaReg. 300-04*. grame, woe, Walton C 37. grange, farm Ship 8502. grapsyng wey, feeling my way, Orl. xviii:26. grathly, well, Ecl. 344. gratulat, rejoicing, Ripley 4. graued, engraved, Ship 133. graunt, yield, Nevill 68. gray, the badger, Garl. 101. grayn, dye, especially scarlet dye, Libel 54;— grain, Libel 118. gre, a stair, degree, Walton A 335, Dance 283. Lat. gradum. greable, agreeable, Dial. 690. greave, grief, Cavend. 1426. grece, staircase, Hawes 319. gree, to agree, Garl. 275. in gree, kindly, Dance 599, Nevill envoy 15, Garl. 1452. Lat. gratum. green, Dance 434*. grekysshe, Greek, Walton A 330, FaPrin. G 61. grene, immature, Mass 19, 171. grephyn, griffin, Nevill 183*. gressoppes, grasshoppers, Garl. 1136. grete, to cry out, Lickp. 86. greuance, sorrow, FaPrin. G 245, 255. greuen, to suffer, Thebes 115. greyhounds, Hawes 106*. greyn, grain, Thebes 56. Griselda, Bycorne passim, FaPrin. A 348, Cav- end. 1369*. in groce, ‘“‘en masse”; or “in full’’?, Ship 974. grocery, goods by wholesale, Libel 501. grope, to probe, search, Garl. 611, 816. grosely, heavily, Garl. 639. grossolitis, error for chrysolitis, Garl. 466. ground, theme, Garl. 28;—country, Libel 85; —floor, Garl. 41? 466;—earth, Orl. xii:23; Ecl. 986;—occasion, Epithal. 39. grucche, to grudge, be unwilling, Dance 363, 598, FaPrin. B 52. gryp, vulture, Walton D 49. grys, gray fur, Dance 325. guie, to guide, FaPrin. D 64. guippe, error for keep? Orl. iv A:6. guy, gye, to guide, MaReg. 387, FaPrin. G 132. en, given, Walton A 88. gynne, to begin, Thebes 129, 168, FaPrin. A 136, ‘© 2, PalladAv2s gynyng, a beginning, FaPrin. C 2. h, excrescent in spelling, see Walton E 93*. ha, han, to have, Churl 99, Thebes 95, 103, Dance 170, FaPrin. A 130, 218, 274, B70, E62, K 83, Pallad. 21, Mass 85, Orl. xix:22, etc. habille, able, Garl. 742. habound, to abound, Orl. xii:1. hagys, haggis, Thebes 100*. hailid, pulled, Garl. 616. Hair, see Ship 456*, 541*. hale, to pull, Hawes 4349. half, hallfe, side, Shirley 11:19, Garl. 10. halteth, limps, FaPrin. K 2, Libel 38, Ship 152, Ecl. 509, Garl. 502, Hanibal, Hannibal, Epithal. 152. hampton, Southampton, Hardyng 72, 77. at the hand, near, Dance 158. harde, heard, Ship 7017, Cavend. 1181, Mor- ley 66, 169. hardly, sorely, Garl. 814. harneys, armor, Hawes 172, 175, Ecl. 1124, Garl. 1507. hastardis, base fellows, Garl. 601. haste, hasty, Churl 197. hastly, in haste, Libel 493. hastow, hast thou. hastyue, hasty, Garl. 1111. hath, imper. plu., have, Shirley I1:76. hattered, hatred, FaPrin. G 288. haue in, haue out, i.e., Get in, Get out! Garl. 25 hauing, behaving, Ecl. 611; see 734; —posses- sion, Walton B 27. hault, high, Nevill 13, Cavend. 204. haunt, to frequent, practise, Ecl. 356, 1117. Bravieke behavior, manner, Orl. xvii:12, Ecl. 34. Hawarde, see Howard. hawe, fruit of the hawthorn, i.e., something valueless, MaReg. 380. hawsed, hoisted, Ship 57. Headless lines, see p. 21. hearde, herdsman, Ecl. prol. 83, Ecl. 139, 408. heares, hairs, Cavend. 1120. heauely, heavily, sadly, Morley 216. heaven to hear, etc. See note Epithal. 99. See paradyce. Hecate, Garl. 1288. AND FINDING LIST 569 Hector, Epithal. 138, FaPrin. E 94, Ecl. 1199, Cavend. epitaph 6. heddelles, Garl. 775*. heded, beheaded, Hardyng 77, Ecl. 1086. hedelynge, headlong, Dial. 647, Ship 13839. hedir, hither, Libel 108, 545. on heed, ahead, Dial. 630. heeght, i.e., hight, is called, Epithal. 47. heelde, kept, held, FaPrin. G 210, K 3. heep, a number of people or things, MaReg. 340, Lickp. 91. heere, to hear, FaPrin. G 320. hegged, hedged, Churl 49. heghe, high, Epithal. 128. hele, welfare, advantage, Walton A 134;—». to cover, conceal, Lickp. ee Helen, of f Troy, see Eleyn Helicon (sce elicon), Wal en D 28*, Burgh 5*, See Garl. 74. helis, error for hertles, Orl. iv B:6. heim, hem, them, Dance 414, Libel 326, etc. helthe, healing? Garl. 978. Helycon, Helicon, Nevill 166. See Elicon. henavde, Hainault, Libel 529. See introd. to Epithal. heng, hung, Walton A 382, Lickp. 99. hennes, hens, hence, Walton E 162, Dance 656, Lickp. 114. Henry V, see Epithal. 49, Hardyng; see p. 90. Henry VII, see dedic. to Hawes. Henry VIII, Ecl. 849, Garl. 1200, Cavend. 1227 ff., Morley dedic. letter. hent, taken, Libel 203, etc., Cavend. 1262, 1282. her, their, Dial. 671, etc., Thebes 30, Dance 12, Pallad. 31, Libel 131, Ripley 89, etc. See hir, here. her aftir, hereafter, Dance 120. herber, arbor, Nevill 427, Garl. 646*. Hercules, Hawes ie Ecl. 915, Garl. 1257 ff., Cavend. epitaph 2, Morley 194; ;—choice of, Hawes 27*, Nevill 214*;—knot of, Ecl. 346*. herdys, herdboys, Mass 126. here, to hear, FaPrin. A368, Shirley 1:2, Pallad. 34, 60, Mass 86, Libel 508, Garl. 197, 451, 981, 1066, 1190, Cavend, 1312;—s. hair, Burgh 42, Prohib. 36, Ship 483, 485, 8480, Garl. 289;— their, Libel 394; —her, FaPrin. A 237, 242; —s. heir, Cavend. 140°. herefore, heretofore, Libel 167. heremyte, hermit, Walton A 227. Ad Herennium, see MaReg. 300-04*, see notes FaPrin. G 197, etc. heris, heres, hairs, Walton A 268, Burgh 42. Hermon, Hermione, Morley 221. heroicus, Walton A 219*. hertis, harts, Garl. 1375. hest, command, Walton A 4, 132, Pallad. 128; —promise, Mass 105. hete, to offer, Lickp. 84. hewe, Bycorne 32*. hewle, to howl, Ecl. 365. hewre, a cap, Lickp. 79: heyre, error for yere, Orl. xvii:16. hie, high, Pallad. 83. See hih. hiere, her, Walton A 305. hight, to ‘be named, Thebes 95, Hardyng 34, Morley 176. higth, high, Garl. 50, 1102, 1106. hih, to hie, FaPrin. G272; high, Walton A 317, FaPrin. E 61, F 28, Gas: 305. rer as nominative, Walton A 92*, FaPrin. PaEpecent aus, centaur, horse-man, Garl. 1262 hir, hire, their, Walton A 350, Churl 22. historiar, historian, Garl. 351. hie, it. ho, who, Dance 67, 119. hokir, scorn, Dial. 741. Holcot, MaReg. 249*. hold, held, Churl 203, FaPrin. A 47, E 90, G i71, 258, Orl. xvii:6. holde an hond, hold in hand, manage, Dance 190. hole, holl, whole, Reproof 1, Shirley 1:27, Hardyng 48, 61, Prohib. 28, Ship 579, 6941, 6984, 6993, 8471, Ecl. prol. 127, Garl. 66, 240, 433, 548, 553, 742, 858, 1140. hole, ’ wholly, Shirley Il: 6, Ship 8478. holie, holly, wholly, Churl 287, FaPrin. E 1, G 92, Nevill 130. homerus, Homer, Garl. 329. See Omer. an honde, on hand, in control, Dance 190. honey and gall, see MaReg. 79*, hoo, Halt! Shirley 1:33. hool, whole, Dance 124, 145, Epithal. 197, Fa- Prin. C 68, Mass 1, Orl. xvi:3. See hole. hoolde, s. hold, FaPrin. G 248. Horace, see Orace. hore, hoar, Walton A 268. Horestes, Orestes, Morley 221. horns, women’s, see Horns Away, p. 110;—of Moses, Garl. 1348*. hoso, whoso, Dance 67. hospytlerys, hospitallers, members or residents of religious orders which cared for the sick, Mass 148. host, go to, Libel 452*, etc. hostlers, innkeepers, Ship 36. hoten, hidden, Walton A 267. hot, Ship 593. houe, to hover, Walton E 133, Hawes 312. See howyng. Howard, Lord, Ecl. 621, 797, 853; —the Earl of Surrey, Cavend. 1105 ff;—see Garl. 848*, 862*. howssys, houses, Cavend. 111. howyng, hovering, Churl 224. hoyse, to hoist, Hawes 1257. huddes, hoods, Ecl. 6. huge, great, Orl. xvi:12. humors, see note FaPrin. E95. See Libel 350. Humphrey, etymology of, Dial. 596-7. See Gloucester. hundrethe, hundred, Garl. 490, etc. hur, her, Shirley 11:52, 53. husbondes, husbandmen, Libel 523. huscht, hushed, Walton B 19. huys, hues, Pallad. 62. 570 SELECT GLOSSARY hy, to hie, Lickp. 15. hyde, hidden, secret, Prohib. 96. hye stile, see ’style. hyegh, hyhe, high, Walton A 11, 88, etc., By- corne 114, Epithal. 153, 180. hyenes, highness, Hawes dedic. 22. hyghte, height, Morley 33;—>p. to assure, Garl. 637. See hight. Hymen, see Ymeneus, Epithal. 176. hynde, hind, female of the hart, Garl. 26. hynderen, to hinder, FaPrin. G 202. hynes, haughtiness, Dance 109. hynge, Ene Pallad. C 5. hys, v. hies? Orl. vi:11. Hysyphyle, Hypsipyle, Morley 207. See Isy- phill. hyvye, Churl 276. jacinctes, jacinths, Garl. 480. Jacqueline of Hainault, pp. 144-45. to iaggid, cut to pieces, Garl. 623. iagounce, jacinth, Churl 232, 318*. iangelers, chatterers, Ecl. 666, Garl. 566. See Garl. 1235. jantel, jantylle, wellborn or wellbred, Garl. 844, 864, 989, etc.; see 890. jantilwomen, gentlewomen, Garl. 793. Januays, the Genoese, Libel 322, 504. Janus, Garl. 1430. Ianyueer, January, Pallad. B 4 iape, s.and »., trick, jest, Churl 192, Thebes 185, Orl. xiii:15, Garl. 361. Jaques, Jacqueline, Epithal. 69. Iason, Morley 203. Ibroght, brought, Walton A 296. icaried, carried, Libel 530. iche, each, Garl. 268. iclipped, called by name, Hawes 135, 315, 4319. See yclipped. Icononucar, Garl. 328*. Idleness or Sloth. See Hawes dedic. 44, Hawes 711, Garl. 120, Cavend. 24-30*. idrede, dreaded, Walton E 167. Jean, Genoa, Libel 328. ieet, jet, Roundel 3. ieloffer, gillyflower, Garl. 967, 1359, 1413. ielyous, jealous, Morley 240. lerome, St. Jerome, Walton A 19, 44*, Ship 13870, Garl. 162°. iet, to swagger, Ecl. 693. I fayth, i’faith, in faith, Garl. 509. ifeere, together, FaPrin. G 79. ifounde, found, Libel 9. ifynde, to find, Libel 562. ihesu, Jesus, Libel 374. jhewe, hewed, FaPrin. A 96. lierarchycall, hierarchical, Ripley 4. Jleid, laid, FaPrin. A 168. ill, bad, Ecl. 121, 582;—-s. harm, Thebes 108. See yl. ilyke, equal, Walton A 129. immercyable, merciless, Nevill 6. immoysturid, saturated, Garl. 692. impressid, imagined, ee 175: immuyn, immune, Pal lad. D 6. jmowled, mouldy, FaPrin. A 220. impe, Cavend. 1406*. importable, unbearable, FaPrin. D 48. importyng, including, bringingin, Cavend. 121. impossible, s. Bycorne 110* impute, to blame, Ecl. 994. inblindeth, v. blinds, Ecl. 425, incipience, insapience, unwisdom, Bedford 17. incipient, Hardyng 9*. inconuenyence, Ship 142*, 226, 534, 600, Ecl. 87, Cavend. 1371. Inde, India, Ship 541. See ynde. indigne, unworthy, Pallad. 87. indite, see endite. ieee to bring in, lead, Ship 13873, Ecl. prol. induring, during, Ecl. 456. ive blew, deep blue, Nevill 190, 200, Garl. infame, infamous, Ecl. 605. inferrid, adduced, rote forward, Garl.141*. influence, favor, Ecl. 4 inlesse, to diminish, Rel, "aa inowthe, enough, Garl. 241. inperfyte, imperfect, Prohib. 35. inportable, unbearable, Mass 175, 177. See importable. inspeccioun, vigilasce, Hardyng 13;—insight FaPrin. G 4 instance, suggestion, Roundel 2. insue, see ensue. insure, to assure, Ship 13820. insygne, to educate, Ship 114. (Fr. enseigner) intencyon, attention, Nevill 199, intende, to pay heed to, Ship 115, Ecl. 185, 531, 595, 683, 922. intendement, intention, Hardyng 11. ie attentive, Garl. 926, 946, Cavend. intier, entire, complete, Cavend. epit. 23. intreatable, intractable, pitiless, Ecl. 872. intresse, entrance, Hawes 318;—concern, share FaPrin. A 268. inuentyff, error for invectyff, FaPrin. G 285. inuentyfe, inventive, Hawes 674, 718. inuident, envious person? Pallad. 16. inwarde siht, creative mind, FaPrin. A 17. See note Dial. 640. joenesse, jeunesse, tis ata 1:78. iolesye, jealousy, Libel 1 iolite, gayety, Walton A et. Tollas, Garl. 1462*. Ioly, Ecl. 724*. Joone, John, Walton A 211. Iopas, Garl. 682*. iornee, iourne, journey, Dance 273, FaPrin. D 50, 98, 114, etc iowes, jaws, Roundel 3. ioy, to make joyful, Orl. xxi:3. joyelles, jewels, Cavend. 1387. ipight, penetrated, set, Walton E 129, ipocras, Hippocrates, Garl. 1393. AND FINDING LIST 57 Ipre, Ypres, Libel 74. iren, iron, Libel 56, Prohib. 38. ironne, run, Dance 421. irous, wrathful, violent, FaPrin. G 80. perehill, Hypsipyle, Garl. 1005*. See Hysy- hh phyle. ; itake, taken, Libel 198. Itau3t, taught, Dance 563. Tubilesses, celebrations? Ripley 4. Jubiter, Jupiter, FaPrin. E 87, 89, etc. Judicum, the book of Judges, Churl 9. juel, jewel, Orl. v:8. iugurta, Jugurtha, Garl. 332. iurediccion, jurisdiction, FaPrin. A 161. juror, see Dance 481*. iust, joust, Ecl. 66. Tuvenall, Juvenal, Burgh 21, Garl. 95, 340. Juvo, Juno, Epithal. 177. ive, ivy, Burgh 40*. iwis, iwus, iwys, certainly,Walton A 247, Libel 103, 117, 335, Ripley 46, 64, Garl. 919*. iyen, eyes, Ship 151, 503, 13846. kannest, canst, Walton A 24. karfull, woeful, Orl. xv:8, xxi:2. See carfull. Katherine of France, Epithal. 47*. kauht. See catch. kechyn, kitchen, Churl 145. keep, kepe, s. heed, MaReg. 195, Libel 39. kempes, eels, Ecl. 424. ken, to instruct, guide, Garl. 809, 1395. kenned, knew, Lickp. 102. kepe, kepte, to care, heed, MaReg. 425, Orl. ~ -xxi:15, Ship 180. kerue, to carve, plow, Walton B 15. keste, cast, threw, Nevill 23, Garl. 531. keuered, covered, Walton B 30. keuerchef, keverche, kerchief, Horns 21, 56. keyse, keys, Ripley 84. kid, made known, FaPrin. A 237. kidfelle, kidskin, Libel 56. kinde, nature, Churl 256, 407, FaPrin. G 35, Ecl. 321. See kynde. kindly, natural, Dance 356. See kyndely. kit, cut, Garl. 184. knet, knotted, FaPrin. G 306. kneuh, knew, FaPrin. G 148. knottes, Cavend. 117*. knowleching, knowledge, FaPrin. C 5, D 123. knowlege, acknowledge, Ship 99, 537. kokkis, God’s, Thebes 126*. kokolddis, cuckolds, Garl. 186. konne, to be master of, know how, Walton E 32, Dance 420, Thebes 138. konnynge, ability, knowledge, Dance 294, Fa- Prin. G 18, Burgh 42, Shirley 11:37, Mass 26, Garl. 198, 850, 882, 889, 1208. korage, to encourage, Garl. 152. koude, could. kouthe, known, FaPrin. G 204. koyse, Thebes 102*. krakkis, boasts, Garl. 189. kunnyng, see konnynge. kurris of kynde, curs by nature, Garl. 613. kus, a kiss, MaReg. 155. kut, Dial. 789*. kyby, chapped, Garl. 502. kylle, to be killed, Garl. 95. kynde, kyndely, nature, natural, Walton A 359, 372, E 14, 24, 44, 151, Horns 1, 23, 31, FaPrin. A 109, Shirley 1:57, Orl.ix:2, Ripley 136, Nevill 83, 148;—a. gracious, Pallad. C 3, Cavend. 7. kynrede, kindred, FaPrin. E 1. kyt, cut, Walton A 338. See kit. kythe, to make evident, show, MaReg. 406. kyttithe, cuts, Garl. 817. L., fifty, Libel 435. Labor, figure of, Ecl. 864 ff. lace, a net, Dance 225;—». to bind, Epithal. 13. lacheses, Lachesis, Cavend. 1261, 1281. lad, led, Dance 494, 546, 580. ladyn, loaded, Garl. 727. laft, left, Cavend. 1305. lake, s. lack, FaPrin. G 18, K 2, 56, Mass 46, Garl. 285, Cavend. 38, 151. lame, Pallad. 22*. lammesse, Lammas-tide, Hardyng 71*. lanterne, FaPrin. C 22*, G 8, 154, Nevill 136. Laodome, Laodomia, Garl. 956*, Morley 222. Lapidary, see note Churl 266. large, free, Ship 153. at large, at liberty, Churl 137, Dance 262, Ship 83, 8443, Cavend. 154. See Libel 241; —in general, Garl. 1327. larges, largesse, abundance, Orl. xv:23. lark, see note Garl. 533-36, and see p. 83. lasis, laces, Garl. 773. lasse, less, Chur! 338. lassith, lessens, FaPrin. G 26. at the longe last, finally, Garl. 1365, Ecl. 81, cp. 584. late, v. let, Walton C 3, 5, FaPrin. K 56, Re proof 47, 62. latyn, Orl. six:11*. lauer, a stream? Nevill 144, 161. NED says “basin of a fountain’. Laurent de Premierfait, FaPrin. introd. ee laurel, Churl 25, 57, 116, 172, FaPrin. 14. lauret, laurel, Ecl. prol. 112. lauriate, honored by or worthy of the laurel, Churl 15*, FaPrin. C 12, K 38, Burgh 21*, Nevill dial. 6, Ecl. prol. 104, Ecl. 263, 685, 862, 919, 1073, 1091, Garl. 63, 116, 324 and introd. lawly, lowly, Garl. 821; see Walton D 35. lawre, laurel, Burgh 40. lay, law? Walton A 103. Fr. /ei. laycestr, Leicester, Hardyng 45. leames, rays, Hawes 1265. lease, a lie, Libel 95. See lesyng. leasing, losing, Ecl. 56. leasour, leisure, Ecl. 160. least, lest, Ecl. 252. at least way, leastways, anyhow, Nevill dial. 41 leche, alike, Praise of Chaucer 2100*. 572 SELECT GLOSSARY leche, s. physician, Dance 424. lectrure, learning, FaPrin. A 384. lede, lead, Burgh 47. ledyn, leaden, Nevill 34. leechys, physicians, LettGlouc. 9. leef, pleasant, pleased, Orl. xxi:1, Libel 120*. leet, caused to be, MaReg. 254. leeued, believed, MaReg. 220. left, lived? Walton A 220. leften, to lift, Walton C 10, FaPrin. C 61. legeble, legible, Burgh 27. legende, reading, Shirley 1:2. legerdemayn, Dance 526. leicer, leisure, FaPrin. A 232, 364, C 123. lemys, limbs, Mass 157, Nevill 427. lene, to lean, bow, Garl. 54;—lent me, leaned on, Garl. 17, 281. lenger, longer, FaPrin. E 41, Libel 448, etc. lengest, longest. lenghe, length, Hardyng 68. lept, leaped, Hawes 4364, 4382. See Garl. 104, Hawes 111. lere, to inform, teach, Thebes 36, FaPrin. A 43, Orl. xiv:21; —to learn, Churl 299, Dance 92, FaPrin. D 38, Burgh 11, 14, Mass 24. lerned, taught, Libel 223. lesard, lizard, Garl. 104. lese, to lose, Walton B 24, Churl 95, 265, 270, Dance 400, FaPrin. G 36, Orl. xxii:3, Prohib. 83, Ship 74. leste, to choose, Walton A 186, MaReg. 107, Dance 144;—least, Walton A 130, Dance 25, 320, 646, Garl. 880. leeynge, a lie, MaReg. 223, Churl 200, Hard- g 5. letarce: Prohib. 39*. lete, to leave, Dance 110;—to cause to, FaPrin. E 45, Shirley 1395 Libel 363, 484; —to delay, Dance 567, Lickp. we lete, for lette, to hinder, Walton A 259, Hawes 4274, Ecl. 38. lette, to hinder, FaPrin. G 303, Libel 479;—s. hindrance, Walton A 389, MaReg. 174, Thebes 171, FaPrin. D 91, Orl. i:4, 11:5. letuary, electuary, a thick sirupy medicine, LettGlouc. 43, 63. leue, to believe? Libel 365, Shirley II:10;—to leave, Walton A 179; —? Dial. 714. leve up, to leave, Dance 237. leuer, leuyr, rather, Dial. 817, Churl 124, Dance 385, Orl. xv:7. leuyng, living, FaPrin. B 66, C 9, G 321. lewde, ignorant, Churl 311. See Roundel 2: Churl 326, Prohib. 71, Ship 13853, Garl. 227, Cavend. 34; —sensual, Ship 553, 563. lewdeness, Ship 119, 227, Garl. 770. lewdly, badly, Ecl. 662. leysere, leisure, LettGlouc. 2, Orl. xiv: 26, xiii:31, Garl. 1060 li, i.e., librae, pounds, MaReg. 421. librair, library, Pallad. 96. library, catalogue, Garl. 764. Libye, Libya, FaPrin. E 8. nag as, like, asif, Dance 3, 389; —as, Epithal. Lichlider, his theory of verse, pp. 83-84. lidderness, i.e., lithernes, sloth, timid inertia, Gar]. 727. liddurnes, blackguards, Garl. 188*. liff, life, FaPrin. H 24. lifly, living, Dance 538. See lyvely. lifte, left, Hardyng 125. ligging, lyinz, recumbent. light, alighted, Hawes 4228, 4317. likerous, greedy, sweet-toothed, MaReg. 147. likyng, delight, luxury, Libel 366, see note 338; Orl. xii:25, Ecl. 352. lion, the constellation Leo, Cavend. 6. List, the, as a rhetorical “color”, Epithal. 71*, See Cavend. epitaph. list, v. wish. listith on, listens to, Churl 275. litel, lyte, little, Walton A 57, MaReg. 92, Dial. 506, Dance 322, 490, Burgh we lith, imposes as a burden, requires? Dial. 682; —lies, FaPrin. B 49, 52. on liue, alive, Walton A 184, Hawes 140, 1314. Livius, Garl. 344. lo! Walton D 66, Orl. xiii:28*. lodesman, pilot, Ship 63. on loft, aloft, Churl 209. logged, lodged, Thebes 67, 78, etc. loken, to look, Walton D 72. fol Lollards, FaPrin. A 403, Hardyng 9*, Leliiua; see note FaPrin. A 284. londe, to bring, set? Pallad. 47. London Rockes, Ship 75*. lone, loan, Libel 431. on long, in length, Walton C 3 long, to belong, FaPrin. G io, ‘Libel 73, 1055 Hawes 124, 4430, Ship 471, 13877, Ecl. 13, 256, 282, 305, Garl. 1219. loodsterre, lodestar, Epithal. 191. looke, look at, Shirley I1:4. loos, reputation, MaReg. 345. Lat. laus. loose, to lose, Walton D 72. lordshipepe, rules, ee over, Epithal. 25, lore, lost, MaReg. 349 loreyne, Lorraine, Hardyng 93, Garl. 494. lorn, lost, FaPrin. E 32; ; —deprived? Pallad. 34. lose, to dissolve, Ripley TiS MS2 losellis, Garl. 188*. losengeour, false flatterer, MaReg. 220. losond, loosened, Garl. 719, 1134 lopest, most loath or unwilling, Dance 312. louh, low, FaPrin. A 128, 223. loute, to bend low, submit, Libel 223. lowis, Lewis. ee to lower, look black, Walton A 258, Hawes 4354. Lucan, Burgh 20, FaPrin. C 17, Garl. 337. Lucilius, Garl. 381. Lucine, Lucina, the moon, Thebes 7, FaPrin. C 90, G 37, K 31, Garl. 6. ye Lucretia, Horns 29, Epithal. 75, Nev- ill 835. AND FINDING LIST BAS lumpes, dullards, Garl. 727. lune, Luna, the moon, i.e., silver, Prohib. 43*. lure, s. Dance 2077; "LettGlouc. 37, FaPrin. B 117; see MaReg. 121; :—standard? Garl. 976. lurke, to shirk work, be idle, Cavend. 1219 (first case NED, 1551); —to hide, Ecl. 60. not lustith me, it pleases me not, Orl. xili:15; see Orl. xxii:5. lustris, FaPrin. E 69*. ly, to lie, Shirley I1:42. lybbard, leopard, Garl. 590. lych, like, FaPrin. B 106. Lydgate, essay on, pp. 77-98; partial list of his work, 100-101; his metre, 83 ff.; his padding phrases, 88 ff. his reading, 92- 94; his use of Chaucer, 90- 92; list of better lines by him,81- 82; his writing about women, 95; his attitude to ‘Nature, 95. He gives his name, Thebes 92, FaPrin. K 56; names his birthplace, Fa- Prin. K 45. His relation to Gloucester, in- trods. to Epithal. and to Letter, also to FaPrin. Alluded to Reproof 26 ff., by Shirley 1:80, 11:24, by Hawes 1261 note, 1282 ff., 1317 ff., 1339, 1346, dedic. 27, 48; by Skelton, Garl. 391 428 ff., 1079. in lyke, alike, Walton C 19. lyketh me, it pleases me, Walton A 41 (dut see B 17), Cavend. 114. lymster, Leominster, Ecl. 316. lyn, to lie, FaPrin. A 70. lynage, lineage, Walton C 15, etc. lynkeld, linked, Bycorne 193: lyst, lest, Ship 65, 81, 217, 587;—to will, Re- proof 11, etc., Orl. ix: 4, 5, Ripley 53, etc. lyste, to listen, Ripley 75. lyte, little, Mass 21. lyttler, lesser, Shirley I1:10. lyvely, of life, Cavend. 1262, 1280. See Cav- end. 121. See lifly. maad, made, FaPrin. H 18. maas, mace, FaPrin. D 41*. macabre, pronunciation of, p. 124 note; etymo- logy of, see note on Dance 24. MacCracken. See notes FaPrin. A 303, Garl. 296; see pp. 79, 198, 218. macrobius, Garl. 367. mad, made, Mass 148. made, made of, held, regarded, Walton E 98, Garl. 185. madir, madder, Libel 521. mafay, My faith! Orl. xvi:23, xviii:10. mageran, marjoram, Garl. 890, etc. magre, maugre, in spite of, Dance 15. See malgre, maugre. maintenance, Garl. 193*. to maistresse, as a mistress, Dance 165. maistrie, maystry, mastery, FaPrin. A 169, 399, Orl. xiii:4. for the maistrie, MaReg. 149*, Dial. 565, Shir- ley 1:42. maistris, crafts, schemes, Dance 528, see Garl. 83 make, mate, Orl. xix:13, 22, Garl. 1378. makyng, composition, Walton A 39, Thebes rae FaPrin. A 356, D 17, 28, Reproof 21 Shirley malapertly, ill-advisedly, Epithal. 50. male, portmanteau, Thebes 76. malencolie, melancholy, MaReg. 301*. malencolik, melancholic, Thebes 5, FaPrin. BI 95*: malgam, amalgam, Prohib. 50. malgre, s. illwill, Ecl. 736*. See mawgree, Dial. 795. maligne, to speak evil, FaPrin. G 84. Malory. See Gen. Introd. pp. 34, 36. manace, to menace, FaPrin. B 93, C 46, Dai. maner, sort of, FaPrin. Gist man is, mannes, man’s, Churl 247. mansion, Thebes 11, FaPrin. A 299*. Mantuan, Ecl. prol. 33: see introd. to Ecl. Manuscripts: a) in lists. —Of Walton, p. 41; of Hoccleve, p. 57; of the Churl and Bird, p. 103; of Horns yaa p. 111; of Bycorne, p. 114; of the Siege of Thebes, p. 119; of the Dance Mac- abre, p. 125; of the French Dance Macabre, pp. 426-7; of the Fall of Princes, pp. 155-6; of the Libel of English Policy, p. 240 footnote; of Orléans, p. 217; of the Compend of Alchemy, pa 2o2. b) singly.—Aberystwyth of Ripley, p. 253; Adds. 29729 (Stow) of Burgh and of Shirley II, p. 194; Arundel 38 of Hoccleve, p. 74; Arun- del 119 of Thebes, p. 120; Bibl. nat., Paris, of Orléans, p. 217; Cotton Vitellius E x of Skelton, p. 342; Egerton 2402 of Cavendish, p. 369; Fairfax 16 of the Reproof and of the Lover’s Mass, p. 461; Harley 542 of London Lickpenny, p. 237; Harley 682 of the Orléans translations, p. 217; Harley 1766 of the Fall of Princes, p. 156; Harley 2255 of the Letter to Gloucester and of Horns Away p. 79; Harley 4011 of the Libel, p. 478; Hunt- ington 111 and Huntington 744 of Hoccleve, pp. 60, 57; Lansdowne 204 of Hardyng, p. 233; the Lille MS of the Dance Macabre, p. 426; Lincoln Cathedral and Longleat 258 of the Churl and Bird, pp. 103-04; Royal 16 F iiof Or- leans, p. 217; Royal 18 A xiii of Walton, p. 41; Royal 18 A xv of Morley, p. 391; Royal 18 D iv and D v of the Fall of Princes, p. 156; Selden supra 53 of the Dance Macabre and of Hoc- cleve’s Dialogue, p. 124; Trinity College Cam- bridge R 3, 20 (Shirley) of Bycorne, of the Epithalamium, and of Shirley I, p. 79; Trinity College Cambridge R 3, 21 of the Court of Sapience, p. 259; Wentworth Wodehouse of Palladius, p £ mapely, maple, Garl. 1344. Mapheus Vegius, see p. 391. marce, March, Hardyng 3. March Hare, Garl. 626*. marchaundye, merchandise, Libel 396, 456, 492, 509. Marcus, i.e., M. Antoninus Pius, Morley 155. marcyalte, martial prowess, Nevill 837. marcyan, Martianus Capella, Burgh 20%. 574 SELECT GLOSSARY margarete, gem, Churl 253. margent, margin, Garl. 1135. maris, Mary’s, Lickp. 5, 44. markesyte, Prohib. 41". Maro, Virgil, Garl. 1058. marrius, Caius Marius, FaPrin. G 260. marte, error for arte? Prohib. 89*. martes, marts, Libel 518. martys, of Mars, Epithal. 155. marvelist, marvellous? Burgh 17*. mas, substance, Ripley 43, 50. masid, bewildered, Garl. 266, 626, 813. mastris, works of skill or power, Garl. 383. See maistris. mateeris, matters, Dial. 497, etc., FaPrin. G 166, K 22, 24 matriculate, enrolled, associated, Garl. 1254. mattes, mates, Cavend. 1188. maugre, mawgree, illwill, Dial. 795; —on pain of (losing), Churl 143;—in spite of, Dance 15, 537, FaPrin. E 74. See malgre. maundement, command, Walton A 190. Mawdelayne day, St. Mary Magaalen’s day, July 22, Ha dyng 57. Maximian, Garl. 360*. may as infinitive, see Dance 306*. may, am able, Ecl. 388. May-days, see Orleans xvii. mayne, see meyne. mayne land, i.e., Alemannia, Germany, Garl. 497. mayntenans, s. support, Garl. 193*, 1111. mayster, master, Shirley 1:49*, Ship 13810. See MaReg. 177, 201. meade, meed, Cavend. 1353, Morley 92. mean, medium, Cavend. 5, 14. Imean, see note FaPrin. D 8. measure, see note FaPrin. B 108. See order. meated, meted, measured, Ship 6956 Mecenas, Maecenas, Ecl. 410, 417. med, meed, reward, Lickp. 126. meddelyd, mingled, Garl. 295, 1349. See med- lid. mede, meed, Walton A 238, E 85, 107, Lickp. 94, Hawes 4251, 4423, Nevill dial. 35. medlid, mingled, FaPrin. E 94. See med- delyd. medoes, meadows, Ecl. 759. Medusa, FaPrin. C 94, D 63. meenys, means, FaPrin. G 96. meest, most, greatest, Pallad. 24. meet, measurement, Walton A 314;—a. suit- able, Ecl. prol. 87, 105. See mete. meeued, moved, MaReg. 333. megare, Megaera, one of the Furies, Walton A 61. meigne, meynee, group of attendants, Wal- ton A 381. Mel yus, Hawes 163 ff.*. mell, take part, encounter, Ecl. 386, 442, 520, 934, Garl. 1440. him melle, concern himself, Walton B 29*. Melpomene, Ecl. prol. 117. melwell, cod, Lickp. 87. memorial, memory, Dance 18;—remembrance, FaPrin. A 64;—in memory? Hawes 193, 705, memory, memorial? Garl. 955. eee tes memory, Thebes 45, FaPrin. A 149, 4, men, to mean, Burgh 45. mende, meant, Walton A 334. mendycitie, low origin? Cavend. 91. NED “beggary”’. mene reule, rule of moderation, MaReg. 352. See measure. menged, mingled Libel 100, 107. mengith, mingles, Garl.345. menstru, solvent, Ripley passim. menstruous, monstrous, Walton E 93. mentayne, to maintain, Ship 524, 538. ene eye, see note Dial. 640. See inwarde siht. in thes menynge, by their intention, Shirley :102. merce, mercy, Orl. xvii:33. mercerye, merchandise, Libel 263, 500. Mercury, FaPrin. C 78, D 66*, Ecl. 259, 263, 342, etc., Garl. 810. Mercy belongs with Beauty. See Bycorne 88 and note. mercyall, martial, Garl. 347, 1271. merely, merrily, Churl oT; 144, Hawes 4447, Garl. 1349. meritory, deserved, Garl. 429. merour, mirror, FaPrin. A 159, G 179*, 216*, 227. See Dance 49. See myrrour. merueiled, marvelled, Walton A 378. meschief, ‘misfortune, Walton A 158, etc., Ma- Reg. 53, FaPrin. B 71, Hl. See myschief. mesour, measure, moderation, FaPrin. B 108*, Nevill 216, Ship 491. mest, must, Walton A 135. met, a. meet, suitable, Cavend. 172. mete, to meet, Walton A 257, ?Lickp. 87;—a. suitable, Ship 501, 502, Ecl. 1126. metely, fairly, Garl. 499. metrifyde, made in metre, Garl. 1349, 1431. mette, met, FaPrin. G 242, Orl. xviii:3;—a. meet, fitting, FaPrin. A 454. me mette, I dreamed, Orl. xvii:3. was mette, met, Walton A 391. meueth, moves, Walton E 155. meuyd, disturbed, Dial. 807;—suggested, Re- proof 58. meuyng, moving, FaPrin. C 82, Orl. ix:2. mewe, place of confinement, Cavend. 1276. meynee, group of attendants, subjects, Walton A 130, MaReg. 202, Libel 226. See meigne. meynt, mixed, LettGlouc. 55. miche, much, Epithal. 198. mid, amid, FaPrin. G 229. Midas, Ecl. 660, 1155. Minalcas, speaker in Barclay’s Eclogue iv. Minerva, shield of, Ecl. 448*, See Ship 20, Ecl. 912, Garl. 808, 1371. minishe, to diminish, Ecl. 350. AND FINDING LIST 575 ministrith, administers, Dial. 623. mirror, MaReg. 330, Dance 31, 534, 637, Fa- Prin. A 159, G 179*, Ship 85*, Cavend. 170, 1177. mirry, merry, Garl. 702, 988, 1001. mis, amiss, Bedford 18. mo, moo, more, many. moch, much. mocioun, urging, impulse, Dance 26, 356, Fa- Prin. G 274. Molins, Anne, Orl. vi*. momme, a mumble, Lickp. 31. See Garl. 1096. monastic, Pallad. 78*. mone, moon, month, Pallad. B 8, C 2. Monster, see note Ship 27. moordre, etc., murder, FaPrin. C 4, E 49, F 1, etc, moose, moss, Garl. 23. moot, mot, must, may. moralise, to interpret, Hawes 752, cp. 1117. more, greater, Ship 6976. mornyng, mourning, Walton A 252, 297, Lett- Glouc. 5, Cavend. 66. morowe gray, see note Hawes 97. Morpheus, Cavend. 1242, 1422. mortalite, death, Libel 13. Earlier than first case NED? mortail, mortall, aca dealing, Dance 460, FaPrin. A SSB: 7. G24 mortified, injured eae caused the death of, MaReg. 212. Moryans, Moors, Ship 6970. Moses’ horns, Garl. 1348*. moost, must, Walton A 5, etc., Garl. 172, 796, 1070, etc. moste, v. might, Walton A 177;—a. greatest, FaPrin. G 11, Orl. ix:25. mote, must. motli, Burgh 23*. Mottoes. See Epithal. 112, 161*, Ship 515*. motyve, Garl. 114*. mought, 0. mene arey 11:63. mout, to moult, Ecl. 59. mouth he hath, FaPrin. B 50*. mowe, may, Walton E 4, 38, MaReg. 148, Orl. xi11:28. mowght, might, Lickp. 24. mowte, v. might, Garl. 425. much, great, Shirley II:37. multiplye, Libel 538*. mummyng, a shen thing, Garl. 200. murmur, Garl. 2 murmyng, error va murnyng, mourning, Garl. 344. See 295. muse, to ponder, Orl. xxiii:6, Hardyng 17, Hawes 109, 268, 303, Nevill 875, Ship 522, Ecl. prol. 72, Garl. 8, Morley 18;—s. meditation? Garl. 295; —s. opening in a fence or thicket made by small animals, Garl. 1351. Muses not invoked, Walton A 44*, Ecl. prol. 117, Ecl. 755. mvym, See momme. myt, must, may, FaPrin. B 14, etc., Prohib. 24. myche, much. mykell, much, Prohib. 76. hath mynd, remember, Libel 103. myleyne, Milan, Walton A 207. myne, to penetrate, Walton B 31, FaPrin. C125. myner, Prohib. 90, 93; see mynerue. mynerue, Prohib. 39, mynnyssheth, diminishes, Libel 391. myrrour, Ship 85*. See mirror. myry, miry, Garl. 23; —myreth, gets into the mire, MaReg. 355. mys, amiss, Pallad. 18. mys apparayle, improper apparel, Ship 580. myschief, misfortune, FaPrin. B 161, G 161, Hi 1, Orl. xxi:7, Libel 24, etc. See meschief. myschief, misfortune, FaPrin. B 161, Orl. xxi:7, Libel 24, etc. See meschief. at myscheef, wretchedly, FaPrin. F 21, G 124. myschevous, wretched, FaPrin. E 82. mysse, amiss, Shirley I:71. myst, must, Nevill 194. myswent, gone astray, a XVili:26. myttes, mites, Prohib. 3 —n in singular af verb, Orl. xxiii:5. na, no, Shirley 1:34. nad, ne had, had not, Orl. xv:10. Name, request for, see note Thebes 160, Hawes 129. namelych, namely, Shirley 1:59. napuls, Naples, Garl. 495. Narrative method. See FaPrin. A 92 ff. See Gen. Introd. p. 27 ff. narwe, narrow, Walton A 213, Roundel 3. nas, ne was, was not, Dial. 761, etc. Naso, Ovid, Burgh 17. naue, ne have, have not, Orl. xii:5, xvii:27. Nauern, Navarre, Garl. 495* ne, nor, not. neaver, never, Prohib. 28, 78. nededes, needs, Garl. 1401. nedes, necessarily, Libel 146. neigh, near, Walton A 19, 377;—to draw near, ibid., 385. nenpayr, ne enpair, do not impair, Shirley II :68. neodful, needful, Epithal. 188. nept, catnip, Garl. 966. ner, nor, Churl 175, 198, 240, 245, 307,Epithal. 24. nere, ne were, were not, Dance 156. nere, near, Walton A 385; —nearer, Hawes 302, Ecl. 105, Cavend. 1382. Nero, Walton A 89*, Morley 151. netheles, nevertheless, Lickp. 11. neven, to name, tell, Burgh 33. nevewe, nephew, FaPrin. BS: newe fonde londe, Newfoundland, Ship 6969*. of newe, anew, recently, Dance 591, FaPrin. PANS: newous, annoying, see Orl. xix: 8, 16, and the French of the Paris MS. newtriall, neutral, Prohib. 88*. nexst, next, so spelt by Shirley. 576 SELECT GLOSSARY ney, neygh, greens near, Walton A 29, 267, 346; —nearly, Walton D 63. nichil habet, LettGlouc. 52*. nifles, Libel 341", nightirtale, night-time, MaReg. 306. nill, ne will, will not, Shirley 11:43, Pallad. 56. Nine Orders, FaPrin. C 69*. Nine Worthies, Epithal. 134*. nis, ne is, is not. nobles, gold coins, Libel 34*, 44, 408, Shirley 1:86, 11:40; —members of the nobility, Cay- end. 1399. See LettGlouc. 17*. nobles, nobleness, excellence, FaPrin. A 425, C1355 074; D 86, E 88, G53. 243, Hawes 4420, Ship 8508, Cavend. 1145. nobleye, nobility, Bedford 26. noght, not. noght for thye, not forthi, nevertheless, Wal- ton A 31, E 19, 47. noie, to annoy, injure, FaPrin. D 83. nold, ne wold, would not, Walton A 179, etc. nolle, the noddle, top of the head, Thebes 32. nomo, no more, Orl. Vill:7. nons, nonys, in phrase for the nonys, Garl. 267*, Prohib. 63, Cavend. 216, 225. noot, see not. nore, nor, Ship 8503. note, not, ne wot, know not, MaReg. 329, Dial. 619, Thebes 68, "Dance 81, Shirley I: 67, Orl. xviii:14, nother, nor, Prohib. 35. notty, heady, foaming, Thebes 110. Only ci- tation NED of this variant of nappy, noppy. notyd, marked, Mass 149. nouelrie, novelty, MaReg. 38. nought, not, Shirley I:4, “Libel 110. noumbre, number, FaPrin. D 12. nouthir, neither, Dance 209, etc., Epithal. 34, Mass 34, 149, Ship 116. noverca, see under stepmother, FaPrin. D 30*. “Now,” etc., see note FaPrin. C 88. as nowe, at once, Dial. 621. nowghtty pakkis, Garl. 188*. nowrd, north, Lickp. 29. noye, to annoy, Libel 553. noyous, annoying, wearisome, Orl. xviii:1, xix: 24, 28*, Morley 26. noyse, fame, publicity, FaPrin. B 93, 119; — to make public, Nevill 73. Numydy, Numidia,onthe north coast of Africa, Ship 6970. nuwe, new, Epithal. 60. of nuwe, recently, Bycorne 113. nyce, foolish, stupid, MaReg. 204, Dance 389. modal 31 stupidity, folly, MaReg. 45, 404, Nev- ill dia nyen, nine, ‘Epithal. 134. ny3, nigh, near, Thebes 93. anyht, at night, FaPrin. G 237. nys, ne is, is not, Dance 196, Orl. xvi:8, etc., xxi:l. Nysus, for Nilus, the Nile, Hawes 338. nyw, new, Orl. vii:10. o, a, Walton C 36, etc. Oo, on, 00, oone, one, Walton E 157, Churl 204, 217, 346, Dance 56, 160, 176, 226, 400, 585, Thebes 60, 67, FaPrin. A 409, 442, B35, E72, F 11, 20, 27, Reproof 14, Orl. viii: 10, xiii :22, Prohib. 17, 64, 96, 100, Garl. 90. See oon. obeisaunce, obedience, FaPrin. E 65, 93, Orl. viii:6, Libel 165, Garl. 820, Cavend. "1345. obeyand, obeying, Hardyng 6. oblacion, voluntary offering, Dance 532. obscure, difficult to understand, Hawes 663* 753;—dark, Ship 69, Cavend. 23; ;—mean? Ship 606. NED has this sense only for Rene obtundythe, dulls, overpowers, Ripley 2 occupy, to use, Ship 252F: ociosite, idleness, Cavend. 47; see note ibid., 24-30. Octavian, FaPrin. C 19, F, Cavend. epit. 32. oder, other, Nevill 214. odible, odious, FaPrin. G 316. of, off, FaPrin. D 68, G 301, 320, Mass 157, Pro- hib. 38, Hawes 4352, Cavend. 1294. off, of, Epithal. 38, FaPrin. A 44, 463, etc.,H 11, 13, 25, 25, 26, 33, 34, Reproof 20, Ripley 36, Pro- hi off ee newly, recently, FaPrin. H 13. ofte sone, eftsoons, afterward, Libel 413. of tymes, ofttimes, Orl. i:11, iv A:5, cp. B 4. Oldcastle, Hardyng 8*. oliphaunt, elephant, Garl. 102. Omer, Omerus, Homer, FaPrin. K3,16, Burgh 16; see Garl. 329. on, see o. after one, on one pattern, Ecl. 102. onely, only. all onely, only, Hawes 1347. ones, ons, onys, oonis, once, Dance 20,Lickp. 111, FaPrin. A 327, B 42, D 14, Orl. vi:6, 8, xiii:2, Libel 136, 143, Garl. 269, 282, 1447, 1466, Cavend. 146, 237, Noe 88. onipotent, omnipotent, Ship onlefull, unlawful, Cavend. A 35, 1333; on lyue, alive, Shirley 11:85. onocentauris, ass-men, Garl. 1261. onto, unto, Pallad. 22 ; ontwyne, ontwynned, to untwine, etc., i.e., to terminate, FaPrin. C 55, Cavend. 1291. onworthe, unworthy, Cavend. 50. onys, see ones. oo, Oh! FaPrin. E 40, 48. oon, one, Walton A 174, 179, FaPrin. G 234, 291. Seeo. euer in oone, forever, Dance 3. oon the, one of the, Walton A 174*, Epithal. 123*, FaPrin. E 90 oonli, only. F oost, host, Dance 160;—a crowd, Orl. xix:10. opon, upon, Pallad. 21 opposelle, Garl. 114*. Opposites. See note Garl. 1358. See p. 164. or, ere, Walton E 30, MaReg. 29, 226, 292, 293, 376, 444, Dial. 575, 648, 652, 793, Dance 226, 231, 440, FaPrin. A 286, 301, Mass 192, Shir- AND FINDING LIST ae ley 11:3, 67, Orl. xxii:12, Hawes 746, Nevill 35, Ecl. prol. 30, 52, Fcl. 812, 1143, Garl. 525, Cavend. 171, 191, 215, Morley 112. Orace, Horace, Burgh 20, Ecl. prol. 85, Garl. 352. orbicular, s. circuit, orbit, Garl. 4 order, in the phrase ‘ “by ordre” » see ‘Shirley I 226%; Roundel 3*; cp. Morley 209. Orders Nine, see Nine. ordeynyng, preparation, Hawes 4406. ordreur, order, Hardyng 124 ore, oar, Ship 82. orient, Eastern, Garl. 485, 932. orisouns, orations, FaPrin. G 184, 224. Orleans and Anne Molins, Orl. vi. Orlience, Orleans, Hardyng 85. See pp. 221 ff., for texts of Orleans; see Pallad. 60 and note. orloger, timekeeper, Thebes 122. ormogenes, Hermogenes, Burgh 10*. orpement, Prohib. 24*. Orpheus, see Walton D; see Garl. 272. ortagrafyure, orthography, Shirley I1:70. osay, Libel 132*. o syde, aside, Orl. viii:11. other, or, Churl 151. For rime on “‘other”’ see FaPrin. G 34-35*. others, udders, Ecl. 148. othre, others, FaPrin. G 88. oueral, everywhere, Pallad. 63, Ship 107. ouerblowe, passed like a wind, Walton C 23. ouercharge, to overload, Ship 77. ouergo, to outstrip, Nevill 45. Ouersayne, guilty of an oversight, Churl 269. : ouerthwart, contrary, Garl. 307. ought, is owing to, Ecl. 850. ougly, ugly, Dance 32. Quid, Ouyd, Ovid, FaPrin. A 324, K 18, Nev- ill 2, Nevill envoy 12, Garl. 93, 333. oure, hour, Walton A 284, Dance 619, Reproof 10 Out! an ejaculation, Walton A 277. oute, aught, Walton A 117. outerage, outrage, Walton B 3. with outhyn, without, Orl. vii:9. outher, or, FaPrin. G 201, Mass; 158;—either, Ship 76, 89, 237. outraie, to surpass, defeat, Bycorne 123, Fa- Prin. G 128, Garl. 156. outrarious, outrageous, FaPrin. C 4, 9. ower, our, Prohib. 10, 90, 91. owght, out, Garl. 153, 221, 735. Oxenford, Oxford, Pallad. 89. oynons, onions, Libel 522. pace, to pass, Dance 72, 656, FaPrin. H 5. a pace, briskly, Hawes 20, Cavend. 188. Padding Phrases, see pp. 88-89. paiauntis, pageants, Garl. 1350. pakkis, Garl. 189*. Palamydes, Mass 185*. palen, to make pale, Mass 84. pall, a rich cloth, a canopy, Ecl. 444, Garl. 474. Pallas, Hawes 170, Ship 20*, 102, Garl. 284 and passim. pamflete, pamphlet, Hawes 1300. See Churl 35, Garl. 1169. Pandarus, Garl. 856. pantere, a swoop-net, Churl 77, etc.;—a clerk of the pantry, Hawes 423. papelay, popingay, a parrot, Roundel 3. paradise to see, etc., see note Epithal. 99. parage, rank, lineage, Dance 8. cas, perchance, for example, Dance 411, FaPrin. G 284 (note the tautology). pares a little, partly, Thebes 124, FaPrin. parde, par Dieu, MaReg. 363, Dial.509,Thebes 125, Reproof 67, Or]. xvii:17, ’Ecl. 91, 309, 461, Garl. 95, 1209, Cavend. 172, 257. See Morley 71, 181; paregall, fully equal, Garl. 883. parelouse, perilous, Walton A 87, B 32. parfit, parfyte, perfect, complete, FaPrin. K 26, Burgh 9, Hawes dedic. 31, Ecl. prol. 67, 78, etc. parfourm, to complete, Epithal. 120, FaPrin. D 49. See performe. Paris, son of Priam, Epithal. 135, Ecl. 1109, Morley 217. parker, park-keeper, Garl. 1353. Parnassus, see note Walton A 58. See Cav- end 69. See pernaso. parody, term of life, FaPrin. E 42*, 83. parseyve, to perceive, Orl. xx:6. what part, wherever, Orl. xvii:22. parten, to divide, Orl. xix:9. partes, profits, Libel 513. partie, a part, i.e., geographical division, Fa- Prin. G 91;—part, side, Churl 204, FaPrin. A 315, C27, G 181, Burgh 12, Mass 168, 188, Orl. xii:29, xvii:6; —direction, Dance 161;— party, case, FaPrin. G 167, ?271; —parti- colored, Ship 8483;—resistance, head against, Dial. 691. partyng, departure, Dance 215. Pasiphae, see Garl. 827*, 910*, 1026*. passyng well, more than well, Orl. xviii:7, etc. See Dance 251. passyoun, martyrdom, Shirley 1:35. past, pastry, Churl 151 past not, etc., cared not, Cavend. 102, 128, 159. pasture, food, feeding-place, Bycorne 12, 17, 83, Churl 123*, Thebes 101, 104. pate, top of the head, Cavend. 1186*. patere, to patter, repeat the paternoster rap- idly, murmur rapidly, Thebes 163. patin, Ecl. 448*. Patronage. See Gen. Introd. pp. 6, 15, 35; see under Gloucester. See p. 95. paunflete, pamphlet, Churl 35. See Hawes 1300, Garl. 1169. pautner, a wallet, scrip, Ecl. 7. Pauye, Pavia, FaPrin. H 28. pawkener, or pautner, Prohib. 75. paye, pleasure, Walton A 201, 340, Horns 46, Shirley I1:62;—». to please, Walton B 2. payne, ‘effort, Hawes 146, 441. See cure in 7 578 SELECT GLOSSARY paynfull, Cavend. epitaph 4. paynyms, pagans, Hawes 191. payse, to weigh, Walton C 12. See peyse. peakes, lofty headgear, Ship 555. See introd. to Horns Away. peare, s. peer, Hawes 220. See pe Pegase, Pegasus, FaPrin. D io", Haves 123, See Ecl. 881. pegases, of Pegasus, Burgh 2. peise, to weigh, Bedford 23. peisid, weighed, FaPrin. E 13, F 27. peisith, vo. imper., weigh, FaPrin. C 122. pele, appeal, Dance 365. pen, see quaking pen. pencyfe, pensive, Nevill 43. Penelope, wife of Ulysses, Horns 27, Dance 452*, Mass 182, Garl. 883. pennes, feathers, Walton E 121. penselle, Garl. 1075*. pentice, penthouse, Roundel 3*. perambulat, circuitous, Hawes 684. perambulucion, circumlocution, Hawes 4431. Percius, Perseus, Hawes 125;—Persius, Garl. 338. See Burgh 20. Percy, Persia, Ecl. 1106. perdurable, ofenduring strength,Walton A 322, Hawes 30. perdye, see parde. pere, s. peer, Hawes 339, 1328, Shirley 1:30. See peare. perelus, perilous, Walton A 136, perlious, Churl 181. performe, to complete, Mass 170, Ship 7002. See parforme. pernaso, Parnassus, FaPrin. A eo 458, D 13, G 10, K 52, Burgh 1; see Nevill 2 perre, perry, Churl 259*, Horns ot Pers de Mounte, Pailad. 102-104*. persaunt, keen, piercing, Burgh 46 (adj. used as subst?). personage, parsonage, Dance 321. peruerse, adverse, FaPrin. A 259. pery, blast of wind, Hawes 68, 1254. pescods, peascods, Lickp. 67. pese, to be in peace, Orl. xiii:2. Pestilence, see note Cavend. 119; see Dance 429. pet, a breaking of wind, Ecl. 694. Only cita- tion : Peter’s cope, Ecl. 447*, 1141. Petrarch. See FaPrin. A 257, Ecl. prol. 35, Garl. 380. See Burgh 13. Petrake, FaPrin. A 257*, K 37. peuishe, peevish, silly, stupid, Garl. 266, 620, see 631. peyce, weight, Churl 314. peyse, weight? piece? Libel 398;—to weigh, Churl 312. peysith, to weigh, Churl 234, 318. See peisid. peysyble, peaceable, Bycorne 107. Phebus passing the stars, see Sun. Phedra, Morley 176; see note Garl. 910. Philip Sparrow, see note Garl. 1227. Philologie, FaPrin. D 66*, see Epithal. 179*. phisionomye, physiognomy, Pallad. 87*. phitones, Pythoness, Garl. 1311*. Phocion, Cavend, epitaph 21. Phylogeny, error for Philology, Epithal. 179*. picture, image, Hawes 50, 70. Pierides, FaPrin. D 6am Garl. 674. pietous, merciful, Ripley 5. pieusaunce, puissance, Cavend. 1343, pieusaunt, puissant, Cavend. epitaph 28. pieuselles, pucelles, maidens, Cavend. 1400. See pucell. pike, Pallad. 50*. piked, picked, Thebes 56. pikoys, pickaxe, Dance 84, 557. pilche, a leather or coarse wool outer garment, Ecl. 210, 384. piler, pillar, MaReg. 8. pillion, a hat or cap, Ecl. 343. Lat. pilleus. pillours, robbers, Libel 163. pine, pain, Garl. 1345. See pyne. piplyng, gently moving, Garl. 670*, First case D Pirrus, Ecl. 1103*, Cavend. epitaph 4. pirus, Burgh 3*. Pisandros, Garl. 383. Pistoye, Pistoja, FaPrin. G 114. Pithagoras, Ecl. 479*. pitous, piteous, FaPrin. F 22, etc pithth, pith, essence, strength, spirit, Epithal. 30. plage, region, Ship 6959. platly, plainly, Dance 641, Thebes 142%. See ple pee BBE G 173-182*, Garl. 126, Cavend. epitaph 13. Plautus, Garl. 354. playn, smooth, Churl 50, 137, Hawes 45, 269; —to complain, Churl 245, 283, FaPrin. G 159. plees, pleas, Ship 206. plenerly, fully, Walton E 114, Garl. 6. plentyuouse, abundant, Hardyng 3D: plesere, pleasure, Orl. xiv:15. plete, etc., to plead a cause, to talk, Dance 466, FaPrin. G 156, 162, Orl. 10 pleye, to make sport, Mass 8 ples to complain, Ronee 1;—a. full, Pal- d. 21, Orl. xvi:18. See playn. ae plainly, Thebes 71, 138. See plasigs pleyntiff, Mass 146. pleyntis, complaints, Roundel 2, FaPrin. G 199. pliades, the Pleiades, Garl. 691. Plinius, Pliny, Ship 6995*, " lummet, a pencil? Pallad. A 3*. First case NED 1634. plummouth, Plymouth, Garl. 513. plumpe, a group, sae 258. Plutarch, Garl. 3 Pluto, Garl, 089, qe 239. pockes, pox, venereal ‘oe Ship 593. poecy, poetry, Ecl. Poet, function of, see ae Ship 134. Poggeus, Poggio, Garlh373%: points, Libel 57*. poise, poesy, Burgh 39. poites, poets, Churl 29. AND FINDING LIST 579 pokok, peacock, Garl. 103. Polexemes, see Polyceene, Morley 198. Policius, FaPrin. G 140*. Policrates, Ecl. 1096*. poliphemus, Polyphemus, FaPrin. D 20. Politic, Pallad. 78* pollers, extortioners, Ship 30, 126. cee Polyxena, Horns 28*, Dance 451, Epithal. 72, Mass 182, Garl. 855*, See Mor- ley 198. pomaunder, Garl. 1007*. pompe, Ship 156*. Pompeie, Pompey, Epithal. 153, FaPrin. G 189, 268, Ecl. 1083, Cavend. epitaph 28. ponyschement, punishment, Walton E 88. pope holy, Garl. 606*. poperyng, Popering, Libel 249*, 252. popingay, parrot, Churl 359*, Hawes 4225. See papelay. por, poor, Mass 146. poraill, poor people, FaPrin. H 12. porcyus, Persius, Burgh 20. See Percius. porisshly, peeringly, with half-shut eyes, Garl. 620. porpos, porpoise, Ecl. 213. port, bearing, Dance 167. port salu, safe haven, To Somer 22, Garl. 541. portismouth, Portsmouth, Garl. 513. portoos, Thebes 162*. portyngale, Portugal, Garl. 494. possede, to possess, Dance 126, 132. posty, pouste, power, Garl. 1298. potshorde, fragment of a broken earthen pot, Garl. 1189. pouer, power, Walton A 85. pouert, poverty, Walton A 81*. pourveyed of, equipped with, Epithal. 124. Powle hatchettis, Garl. 607*. Powles, Paul’s, St. Paul’s, Ecl. 451*. Powles heed, Paul’s Head, a tavern sign, Ma- Reg. 143. poyle, Apulia, Garl. 493*. poynt, to appoint, Garl. 420, 432, 1121;—s. point. See Libel 57*. poysy, poetry, FaPrin. K 26. practik, Walton A 330, 332*, Dance 427, Pal- lad. 76. pratily, praty, pretty, etc., Churl 81, Orl. xxii: 10, Garl. 896, 965, 1215. praysable, laudable, Nevill 165, 218. prebende, Dance 313*, 326, 596. prece, see press. precedentes, signs, Nevill 60. precell, to excel, Cavend. 1162. in preciouste, as of value, Walton E 98. preeff, proof, test, FaPrin. G 310, Libel 99;— v. to prove, Orl. xvi:13. preent, print, Epithal. 30, 60. preferre, to advance to dignity, FaPrin. A 251, 361, G 207, Cavend. 157. premynence, preéminence, Horns 53, Hawes 124, Garl. 50, 1103. prepence, to plan, intend, Nevill 77;—to con- sider, Nevill envoy 12. preperate, prepared, Prohib. 44. presid in a pace, hastened up, Garl. 1122. press, put (one’sself) in, to press forward, en- deavor, Garl. 239*, 778. prest, ready, hasty, Dial. 553, Pallad. 47, Orl. v:10, Garl. 774, Ecl. prol. 56, Cavend. 1271; — s.aloan, Dance 159. Ereeeece, assertion, reason, Garl. 801, Cavend. 133 pretende, to offer, Ecl. 929. pretory, a hall or palace, Garl. 477. preuyd, proved, Dial. 566, Reproof 60, FaPrin. Ell. See prouyd. prevayle, to avail, Cavend. 1128, 1139. preventid, anticipated, Garl.428, Cavend. 145*. Priamus, Ecl. 1107. price, see pris. pried, peeped, looked, Ecl. 18. prike, FaPrin. K 28*. prime, Thebes 124*, Dance 230*. See pryme. prime rose, primrose, Garl. 1414. principio, Prohib. 25* pris, prys, highest esteem, Thebes 46, Burgh 24, Shirley 1:33, Lickp. 66. prise, prisse, value, quality, Walton A 108, Churl 252, FaPrin. A 294, 409. priuate, deprived of, Ecl. 708. priuee, privately, MaReg. 270. probable, evident, Hawes 1266. probacion, experience, proof, Dial. 735, Libel 381, Ship 179. probate, test, Broo! Hawes 697;—interpreta- tion, Garl. 3 procede, to be legal process, Lickp. 6. proces, ordered material, Garl. 28;—narrative or argumentative presentation, ‘Dance 465, FaPrin. A 127, 453, B 160, Cu Ke) Garl. 803, 1077. bi processe, in the course of events, FaPrin. B7, etc. Procession as a motif, see p. 126, 151. profe, proof, Nevill 25, proferryng, i.e., preferring, FaPrin. C 25. proiecte, projected, Ripley 171. projection, Ripley 190*. prolle, to prowl, seek advantage from, Dial. 744, Prologue, see Walton 1*. promocioune, advocacy, Garl. 71. promotyve, promotion, Garl. 116. pronostik, prognostic, FaPrin. G 176. Pronunciation, FaPrin. G 193*. prop, pole, Garl. 1307. proper, propre, pretty, Garl. 968, 1359, 1414; —one’s own, Hawes 311. Propertius, Garl. 383. prophitroles, ? Ecl. 405*. proplexyte, perplexity, Garl. 1336. Prose in this volume, see Epistle of Lover’s Mass, see dedic. letter of Morley. Proserpine, FaPrin. C 90. prospeccyon, a view, Nevill 116. Protheus, Proteus, Ecl. 887. 580 SELECT GLOSSARY prothonotary, protonotary, a principal notary or chief clerk, Garl. 432. prouect, to carry forward, send forward, Pallad. 71. NED first 1652. proueth, tests, Nevill 162. See Prohib. 36. prouyng, testing, Ecl. prol. 29. prouision, foresight, Ecl. 866. proute, proud, Walton C 9*, Proverbs, see note Thebes 51. prow, advantage, Bycorne 113, Dance 557. pryce, value, Ripley 168. See pris. pryme, prime, Garl. 525. See prime. pryncypalyte, supremacy, Nevill 838. ryuely, privately, Orl. iv A:5, B:4. Pisa see Tholomeus. publius, Libel 479*. pucell, damsel, Hawes passim. See pieusell. pulcritude, beauty, Hawes 24. pullisshe, to polish, Garl. 83, 421, 800. Punctuation, see Preface; see Ecl. prol introd. punsshe, to punish, FaPrin. A 198, F 6, G 127. purpartye, proportion or share, FaPrin. E 80. purpos, the point, Churl 372. Purpose in writing. See Hawes 1313*, Ship 134- 7*, Cavend. 24-30*. purpure, purple, Walton B 9. purseuantis, pursuivants, messengers, Garl. 492*. pursue, to persecute, Walton A 107, 167;—to pursue, Walton E 16. purueyaunce, management, foresight, Dance 405, FaPrin. E 86, G 110, Hawes 1260. pusaunce, power, Libel 218, 537, Hawes 4322. pusaunt, puissant, Garl. 50. put back, thwart, Mass 35. put case, to raise ‘the question of, Reproof 57. putrefaccyon, putrefaction, Ripley 194, see 190*. putryfye, to putrefy, Prohib. 96, see 190*. pycche, to set, Walton E 121. pye, magpie, Hawes 1111. pyke, to pick, Garl. 1189. pykers, thieves, Ship 126. pyl, pile, the obverse of a coin, LettGlouc. 59. pylled, bald, Thebes 32. pyment, sweet wine, Walton B 8. pynacles, Hawes 309*. pynchid nat, raised no question, MaReg. 181. pyne, pain, Walton E75. See pine. Pink pee pinkeyed, smalleyed or squint-eyed, ar pynned, bolted, barred, Churl 120. pyrlynge, pirling, | twisting, Garl. 780. Pyrrus, Ecl. 1108* quacham, Ecl. 423. Only citation NED; no definition. quadrant, foursquare, Nevill 121, 177. quadriuial, Pallad. 76*. Quaking hand or pen, LettGlouc. 4, FaPrin. B 142, D 46*, G 42. quarter, Garl. 504*. qQuayeer, quair, song or poem, Churl 379, Garl. 1484. See “Go little book”’. qd, quod, said. ae ie., quadrans, a half-farthing, Ecl. prol. 14. queint, extinguished, FaPrin. D 60. See qweynt. queinte, artful? FaPrin. D 27. quemyd, appeased, pleased, FaPrin. B 125. quere, choir, Ship 553. querele, quarrel, cause, Dance 83. queste, to give tongue together, Garl. 1376. queveryng, uncertain, FaPrin. E 96. quik, to enliven, FaPrin. D 34; —in lifelike man- ner, Garl. 142, 1139; see 592. Quintilian, Burgh 13, Garl. 326. Quintus Cursus, Q. Curtius, Garl. 366. quit, free, Dance 416. quite, to requite, repay, Dial. 578, Dance 488, 629, FaPrin. A 290, G 308; —to bear one’s self, Dance 480; —to acquit, FaPrin. A 290. quook, quaked, shook, FaPrin. B 148. qweynt, extinguished, blotted out, MaReg. 349, qwynt essence, quintessence, LettGlouc. AT qwyte, quit, emptyhanded, Burgh 12. rabyll, rabble, Garl. 1279. See Ecl. 680. race, to erase, Churl 301, Garl. 72. See rasid. rad, etc., to read, Walton A 331, Horns 44, Fa- Prin. A 13 BiG 108, K 20, Mass 183. rade, to remove, Pallad. 7. ragman rollis, Garl. 1455*. railles, Garl. 1135*. raist, arrayest, l.e., treatest, Garl. 317. rakil, unstable, reckless, MaReg. 83, Dial. 655. rampyng, rampant, Hawes 4233 rascolde, rascally, Ecl. 680, 689. rasid, etc., to erase, Ecl. prol. 63, Garl. 137, 1445, 1455, 1533. See race. raskaille, vile rabble, FaPrin. C 98. rate, manner, Ecl. prol. 103, Garl. 1108, 1229, 1488. rathe, hasty, soon, Walton A 268, D 62, Cavend. 150, 1184. rather, earlier, former, Walton B 1. ratifye, to confirm truth of, consummate? Hawes 676. raught, reached, caught, Thebes 158, Dance 561. raunge, range, Garl. 25. on the range,at lib- erty? ray, a striped cloth, Lickp. 42*, Ship 478. rayde, arrayed, Ship 570. raynes, kidneys or loins Ship 514; —Rennes, Cavend. 247*. Raysoun, Reason, Epithal. 89. real, royal, MaReg. 430. ream, realm, Libel 19, 174, 385. reason, see resoun. rebawdis, ribald fellows; Garl. 601. rebuke, to repel, repulse, Ecl. 930, —s. Libel 535% receyt, receipt, Epithal. 40. recheles, reckless, Garl. 1360. reclyne, to lean on, Pallad. 86. reclus, a prisoner, LettGlouc. 59. reconcile, to restore, FaPrin. G 262, 276. reconusaunce, acknowledgment, Garl. 822. AND FINDING LIST 581 recorde, to take note, FaPrin. E 104. recounfortyd, comforted, Garl. 359. recours, course, Walton E 145. recule, recueil, collection of writings, Hawes 180, Garl. 1165, 1357. recure, to recover, heal, obtain, Churl 207, 326, Dance 311*, 424, LettGlouc. 39, FaPrin. B 91, E 20, Mass 137, Nevill dial. 41. rede, redde, etc., to advise, MaReg. 35, 86, 91, 105, 382, Dial. 719, 801, Reproof 77, Orl. xxii: 1; —advice, Chur] 155, Dial. 619. reduce, to lead back, Walton E 158, Ship 589. redyng, Walton A 253*. reed, read, FaPrin. G 203, 228;—advice, Ma- Reg. 108, Dial. 722. Reference Lists:—I, to Gen. Introd., p. 38; II, to Walton, p. 41; III, to Hoccleve, p. 57; IV, to Bycorne, p. 115; V, to the Dance Macabre, p. 130; VI, to the Epithalamium, p. 145; VII, to the Reproof, p. 199; VIII, to Palladius, p. 203; IX, to the Mass, p. 210; X, to the Libel, p. 244; XI, to Hawes, p. 270; XII, to Nevill, p. 288; XIII, to Barclay, p. 298; XIV, to the Ship of Fools, p. 299; XV, to the Eclogue, p. 313; XVI, to Skelton, p. 340; XVII, to Mor- ley, p. 385. See Bibliographies. reffuce, outcast, FaPrin. B 116. reflareth, distils, Hawes 1262. See Garl. 961. refluent, back-flowing, Pallad. 12 reformacion, correction, Garl. 145. refrayne, to draw back, hold back, bridle, Wal- ton A 114, MaReg. 338, Orl. xvi:21, Nevill 127, Ship 32, Ecl. 82, 90, 808. refute, refuge, Dance 163, regestary, registrar, Garl. 522. See Garl. 1119. regraciatory, thanks, Garl. 431. NED gives Skelton only. rehersall, mention, Garl. 1468. reise, journey? profit? Libel 399, rekne, rekune, to reckon. relacions, narratives, Libel 511; see Hawes 231. release, to relieve, Hawes 4346. releef, to relieve, Orl. xxi:6. relent, to yield, melt, Cavend. 1275. See Troy Book ii:5077. reles, s. release, relief, Mass 109. relucent, gleaming, Garl. 934. relyke here, remaining heir, Cavend. 1406. reme, realm, Hardyng 5, Garl. 742. remedeles, without remedy, Garl. 1361. remevyng, unstable, moving, FaPrin. C 86. remorde, to carp at, rebuke, Garl. 86. remue, remuwe, to remove, swerve, Epithal. 24, FaPrin. A 231. remyse, remission, Cavend. 1160. renett, rennet, Prohib. 57*. renne, etc., to run, Walton B 11, D 8, MaReg. 78, Dial. 746, Nevill 140, 145, Ship 8443. renomaunce, renown, Orl. xvi:9. renommed, renoumyd, renowned, Horns 26, Epithal. 79, 127, FaPrin. G 67. renoueld, renewed, Shirley 1:94. renude, renewed. repair, a coming, frequenting, return, MaReg. 137, FaPrin. E15, G 245;—to supply, Cavend. 1107; —a visit, Libel 61, 503; —to return, Re- proof 65, Mass 81, 82. repentine, sudden, Nevill 97. repete, recital, Garl. 1357. repreef, reproof, discredit, injury, Dial. 671, FaPrin. G 312. reprehende, to reprove? Pallad. 16. repugnaunce, opposition, Garl. 211. reputing it for, imputing it to, Cavend. 53. requeere, to require, FaPrin. G 199. rerage, arrears, LettGlouc. 6. rere warde, back entrance, Garl. 1352. rescws, rescue, Dance 278. resemblance, mirror, pattern, Dance 639. reseruyd, put aside, Garl. 1168. residewe, residue, FaPrin. D 50, etc. Reson and Sensuality, see Cavend. 1348*. resorte, to return, Churl 178, Dance 325, Fa- Prin. A 191, C 68; —s. visitation, Pallad. 23. See FaPrin. C 101. resoun, reason, a word or saying, ?Walton E 72, FaPrin. G 17*, Garl. 10; —subject- matter, Ecl. 286, Ecl. prol. 10; —order or decorum, FaPrin. B 110, G 194;—to talk, address, Orl. xvii:4, Garl. 1101, Morley 169, (where Petrarch has ragionar). respire, to recover (hope or courage), Ecl.1080. respite, to interrupt, Walton A252;—to hold back, FaPrin. B 101. reste, to arrest, Dance 137, 567. is reste, remains? Pallad. B 1 restrayn, to hold back, Walton D 57, Libel 92. retaylle, Cavend. 143*, retayne, to maintain, Ecl. 222. retenew, retinue, maintenance, Garl. 238. retorryke, rhetoric, Shirley 1:31. retrogradaunt, retrograde, Garl. 3*, Cavend. 4. reuerent, dignified, Walton A 305. reuers, reverse, Dial. 735 reule, rule, Hardyng 124. See mene reule. reuolde, rolled or revolved, Garl. 658. reward, to regard or look, Dance 331, Orl. xii:19; —reward? Walton B 24, Shirley I1:44; —s. regard, Dance 331. rewdisshe, rewde, rude, Orl. xiii:14, xvii:12. rewe, rue, to have pity, Mass 87. rewlyd, ruled, Orl. 1x:6. rewme, realm, Walton E 89, FaPrin. E 67. See reme, ream rewyn, ruin, Cavend. 1317. Rhetorical Theory. See Colors of Rhetor Description by Order, Lists, Prologue. riall, royal, Hardyng 40. rialte, royalty, Dance 108. ribaudye, ribaldry, Thebes 25. Richard II, Hardyng 36. Richard Hermyte, see FaPrin. K 27*. riff, rife, current, Churl 372, FaPrin. G 205. right, to make right, Pallad. 124. now right, just now, Epithal. 158. right wise, righteous, Ecl. 1013. See Dance 629. 582 SELECT GLOSSARY nie fierce, cruel, Hawes 166, 4237, Fcl. 1076* rigure, ‘rigor, Orl. xv:15. riht, right; —very, FaPrin. H 14;—a. direct, FaPrin. G 66. rihtis, rites, FaPrin. C 75. Rime on -tA, see -th; of -/t: -ght, see Orl. xix. rin, to run, Garl. 1401, 1448. rise, rice flour, Lickp. 71. risshes, rushes for floor coverings, Roundel 2, Lickp. 86. Robin Hood, Ship 13874-88*, Ecl. 721, Mor- ley dedic. roche alom, rock alum, Libel 328. rochis, roaches, fish, Garl. 655. roffes, roofs, Cavend. 106*. Rolle, Richard, see Richard Hermyte. romain, Roman, FaPrin. G 157. Romayn dedis, the Gesta Romanorum, Dial. 820*. ronne, run, Pallad. D 1, Libel 173, Cavend. 1301. roof described, Hawes 348-50*, Cavend. 106*. rooff, pierced, FaPrin. B 151. root. See FaPrin. A 300*. roppys, the intestines, Thebes 115. rosary, rosebush, Garl. 963. rosers, rosebushes or rose-gardens, Garl. 650. rosty, to roast, Garl. 1299. rote, root, Garl. 1347;—hart rote, heart’s root. —to rot, Dance 232. rotyd, rooted, rotted? Ship 8495. roufe, roof, Hawes 348. rounceuall, Roncesvalles, Garl. 495. rouncy, Thebes 166*. round, around, Orl. xii:13. roundel, To Somer 31, FaPrin. A 353, Shirley 123%: Roundels in this volume, pp. 67, 68, 211, 221-23, 231-32. See Note p. 466. rounsis, Garl. 1280*. rout, a multitude, Libel 515. route, tosnore, Thebes 110;—to assemble, Libel 222 routhe, pity, FaPrin. H 7. rowghte, rout, Garl. 240. rowle, roll, Ecl. 488. rowmes, positions, ranks, Ecl. 272, 846, 868, 1058, 1063; —place, space, Ship 101, Garl. 116, 256. rownyd, whispered, Garl. 250. rownyngely, in a whisper, MaReg. 172, Garl. 250. rowthe, rough, Garl. 787. royalme, realm, Ship 579, 6942, 6988. rub on the gall, Garl. 97*, Cavend. 205*. rubarbe, rhubarb, Libel 354. rubbe, to rob, Ship 523*. rubryke, rubric, Nevill envoy 16*. rubyfycate, heated to redness, Prohib. 35. Only case NED. rudesse, violence, Orl. xviii:19. rusty, foul, Thebes 75, Ecl. 425. ruthe, a pity, Libel 174. ryall, ryally, royal, etc., Hardyng 7, Hawes 1286, Nevill 162, Garl. 487. ryconyng, a reckoning, Cavend. 1235, 1417. rygne, to reign, Hardyng 57. rympled, wrinkled, Dance 200. ryn, to run, Garl. 81, 196. ryse, Lickp. 68*. ryve, to split, Churl 282. s as a verbal ending, Libel 158, 507, 525, Ripley 74, Prohib. 38, Nevill dial. 99. Nevill FER 12, 145, 163, Ship 74, 208, 456, 462, 467, 582, 6958, 8507, 13823, Ecl. ” 474, Garl. 593, 635, 683, 716, 1211, 1526, Cavend. 40, Morley 135, 4 143. saby, Sheba, Garl. 669. sad, sadness, etc., serious, sobriety, Walton A 387, E 67, MaReg. 274, Dial. 558, Epithal. 85, FaPrin. A7l, C24, G 198, 244, K’S, Pallad. 42, Nevill envoy 9, Ship 470, 488, 598, 13842, Garl. 201, 386, 886, 13915 1526, Cavend. 1360: —sad, sadness, Cavend. 725 Morley 65? safe, save, except, Dance 293, Reproof 74. See sauf. Sails, see note LettGlouc. 17. salarie, Dance 536. First case NED 1484. salfe cundight, safe conduct, Garl. 503. sall, salt, Prohib. 29*. See Notes for all the terms of this stanza. salmes, psalms, Shirley II:28. Salomon, Nevill 831. salu, see port salu, Garl. 541. salusty, Sallust, Garl. 331. Samson, Nevill 839, Ecl. 975. sandyvere, Prohib. 29*. sank royall, Garl. 1430*. satirray, Garl. 340*. Not in NED. Saturn, Walton E 140, Thebes 3, FaPrin. C 64, Hawes 285. sauf, save, except, FaPrin. K 14. See safe. sauh, saugh, saw, Thebes 172. saunce mercy, Nevill 38*. sawe, to sow, Ship 13875. sawh, saw, Walton, etc. sawte, assault, Garl. 1365. sawtry, psaltery, a stringed instrument, Lickp. 92. say, saw, Libel 230, Garl. 623. scamonye, Libel 352*. scape, s. escape, Dance 501. scapid, escaped, FaPrin. G 314. scarcete, scarcity, FaPrin. D 18, 69. schenschipe, destruction, injury, Walton A 65. schent, injured, Walton E 86, Prohib. 18. schold, schuld, should, Walton passim. schrewes, evildoers, Walton A 88. science, knowledge, Hawes 56, Ship 145, 243, 13807, 13836, 13877, Ecl. prol. 60, Ecl. 228, 653, Cavend. 1133, epitaph 30. Scipioun, Scipio, FaPrin. C 10, G 218*. See Cipioun. scissure, cutting? scissor? Ship 483. sclaundre, slander, FaPrin. B 91, 98. Scluse, Sluys, Libel 61*. scole, school. Scottish Poets, see Gen. Introd. p. 24-25. scrowe, scroll, Libel. 180. AND FINDING LIST 583 scut, rabbit, Garl. 626. se, seen, Pallad. 82*. By error in Orl. ix:2*. seche, seek, Dial. 658, Ripley 72, Shirley I1:104, Libel 147, 363; —such, Orl. iv A:3. sect, Cavend. 1174. secundynes, Prohib. 59*. see, seat, throne, Dance 14, see 66; FaPrin. A 68, 118; —sea, Ship 6973. seek, seekly, sick, etc., Walton A 350, MaReg. be seely, silly, simple, LettGlouc. 49. seeth, sees, Dance 635; v. imper. see FaPrin. HDi seie, saw, Walton A 302; —say, Walton A 383. seignory, lordship, Ecl. 942. sein,to see, seen, FaPrin. D 101, G 33;—to say, Orl. xvii:33. seist, seest, Churl 326. were to seke, were boageduats, Garl. 877. seknesse, sickness, Walton A 360 Te seelde, seldom, Walton A 328, MaReg. ie cell, Walton E 165. seller, cellar, Ecl. 393. Selond, Zeeland, Libel 524. seluen, self, Walton A 133. seluerene, silver, FaPrin. C 67. sely, “poor”, Cavend. 74. semachus, Symmachus, Walton A 217; see Fa- cine eu lis semblabli, similarly, FaPrin. D 127, Ecl. 297. semblid, assembled, Orl. xix:10. sement, cement, Garl. 306. sempte, seemed, FaPrin. A 431, 454. sene, senna, Libel 354. sene, seen, Hawes 754;—to see, Libel 499, Ecl. Ss Senek, Seneca, FaPrin. A 253, C 24, K 5*, Ecl. 1091, Garl. 358. senge, to sing, Nevill 195. sengle, single, Dance 112. sengulerli, particularly, FaPrin. A 447. See Praise of Chaucer 1968*. sent, scent, Ecl. 114, 122. sentence, sense, purport, Walton A 18, 32, E18, Churl 2, 302, Thebes 54, FaPrin. A 345, 448, Shirley 1:91, Nevill dial. 5, Ecl. 702, Cavend. 77, ?260; —utterance, opinion, Churl 321, Horns 15, Dance 431, FaPrin. K 5, 27; —sub- ject, MaReg. 160. sentencious, full of meaning, Hawes 1261, 1268. senyng, Libel 361*. septir, sceptre, Walton A 343. seriaunt, sergeant, FaPrin. G 249. serious, FaPrin. C 18*. Serpent of Division, see p. 177. seryously, serially, in sequence, Garl. 581. See ceriousli. sese, to cause to cease, quench, Walton B 6. sesyng, ceasing, Prohib. 104. seteys, cities, Mass 162. seth, sethen, since, Dance 99, 285, 628. See sith. seth, v. imper.see, Orl. viii:10; —sees, FaPrin. B 122. setten by, value, MaReg. 28. See FaPrin. A 184. setyn, sat, Mass 174. Seueryne, Severinus, a name of Boethius, Fa- Prin. H 35. Seustis, Pseustis, Ecl. prol. 39*. Seven Liberal Arts. See Hawes 249*, 463-526*, Garl. 53. sewe, to follow, Walton A 260, Dance 198, Fa- Prin. A 230, Reproof 40, Ship Gil, Epp Ecl. 767, Cavend. 1274; to petition, plead legally, Reproof 79; Hardyng 56s sewr, sure, MaReg. 320. sewte, suit, Cavend. 213. sexangled, hexagonal, six-cornered, Hawes 306. sey, saw, Libel 230. seyne, seen, Walton A 25, 318, FaPrin. A 60?, Eat3) Burgh 22, Mass 180; —to say, FaPrin. B 105, Pallad. 28, Libel 533; —to see, Pallad. 355 seyng, seeing, FaPrin. A 165, Ecl. prol. 77. shadde, shed, FaPrin. C 77. shadow, shadwe, shadow, FaPrin. DIs2y Bel: prol. 100*. See under cloked, cloudy. shape, to make, Orl. xviii:12. shappe, shape, FaPrin. A 11, Orl. xvi:2. sharp, rough, rugged, Hawes "45, shene, pane shining, Churl 53, 98, Mass 116, Morley 3 shent, misused, Ship 234. sheo, "she, Epithal. 80. shet, shette, shut, Churl 107, Orl. xxii:6, Pal- lad. 100, Ecl. 493, Garl. 598, 1475. sheuers, pieces, Fcl. 405. Ship on coins, To Somer 17, LettGlouc. 17*. shitt, shut, Churl 120, 161, Hawes 1299. shope me, set myself, Dial. 802. shone, shoes, Ecl. 212. shours, rainfalls, onsets, Dance 13. shrape, to scrape, Churl 125. shrewdly, shroudly, evilly, ill, Garl. 614, 1188. a shrige, Ashridge, Garl. 1428, 1432*. shul, shall. siker, sure, Dial. 723. sikerly, surely, Walton A 208, E 99, Libel 154, 333, 543. sikernesse, security, Roundel 2, Dance 628, Fpithal. 162, Hawes 439. silff, self, FaPrin. A 369, G 301, 317, Orl. xviii: 125 xxil:11, xxiii:1, 11. similitude, fable, Hawes 693, 752. simulacioun, imitation, falsity, Dance 172. singulere, FaPrin. G 57, 193, Garl. 649. See synguleer. Sirens, MaReg. 249*, FaPrin. C 93*. sit, etc., to be appropriate, MaReg. 329, 407, Churl 166, FaPrin. A 431, Orl. xvii:22, xix:21, Ecl. prol. 83. See sytte sith, sithen, since, Dial. 721, Churl 141, Dance 225, 278, FaPrin. A 252, 356, B 27, 100, D 114, Epithal. 159, 196, Burgh 17, Shirley I1:75, Re- proof 24, Libel 144, Orl. xiii:27, Ecl. 230, ete. See seth. 584 SELECT GLOSSARY sith go ful yore, many years ago, Bycorne 100. ofte sithes, often times, Churl 184, 375, Dance 177, 508, Epithal. 3. sivile, Seville, Libel 54. skapethe, escapes, Lickp. 119. skene, skein, Garl. 782. skie, sky, cloud, FaPrin. G 24*, K 31. skile, course of reasoning, MaReg. 299. skille, skyll, cause, reason, knowledge, Walton E 91, Lickp. 77, Ecl. 737, Garl. 93. sklender, slender, Thebes 102. See Morley 230*. slacke, slow, Ship 65. slaiys, Garl. 775*. slake, to abate, cease, Walton A 276, Hawes 47. slauth, see sloth. slawthfulle, Garl. 120. See sloth. sleeth, slen, etc., to slay, MaReg. 19, Dance 7, FaPrin. B 59. sleues, sleeves, Ship 515*. slidyng, inconstant, Libel 559. slipir, slippery, Roundel 2. slipper, slippery, Garl. 501. Sloth, Epithal. 141, FaPrin. A 399, 417, Re- proof 4*, Orl. vi:11, xv:25, Mass 47 ,91, Hawes 669, 1313*, Nevill envoy 13, Ecl. prol. 51, Ecl. 1023, Garl. 120, see 522, Cavend. 24-30*, see 47. slowe, slouh, slew, Walton A 94, 97, 222. slowyshe, slow, Nevill 155. slyme, Prohib. 58*. smaragdis, emeralds, Garl. 480. smertly, briskly, Walton A 381. smet, smote, FaPrin. G 320, see 301. smethys, smiths, Prohib. 38. smook, smoke, Walton A 327. smored, smothered, Hardyng 111. smyten, struck, fought, Hardyng 107, 115. smyten of, smite off, FaPrin. G 301. of smytys, smite off, Prohib. 38. snayle, snail, Prohib. 53*. snite, snipe, a game-bird, Churl 360, Ecl. 682. snurt, to snort, Garl. 1437. soche, such. Socrates, Ship 481. soden, sudden, FaPrin. E 83, etc. soiour, sojourn, stay, Dance 378. solace, pleasure, Garl. 1365. solacious, pleasurable, Hawes 10, 355, 1307, Garl. 677. solas, delight, Garl. 649. solein, an independent role, “lone hand”, Dial. 42 solempnysed, Shirley I1:32*. solisgise, Hawes 737*. Somer, Hoccleve to, p. 66. all and somme, general and particular, Pro- hib. 98. sonde, message, visitation, Dial. 522. sondri, sundry, FaPrin. G 95, etc. sone, soon, Dance 592, etc. songe, sung, FaPrin. G 62, K 20. sonnest, soonest, Dance 240. sonnyssh, sunny, sunlike, Churl 59, 250. sool, alone, Dance 110. soor, sore, Epithal. 39. soore, sorely, Walton C 6. soote, sweet, FaPrin.G 175, 184; —s. sweat, FaPrin. D 105, Mass 156, 175. sope, soap. Dial. 826*, Libel 55. sorous, sorrows, Orl. ix:18. sort, manner, Cavend. 1360; —condition, Nevill 67;—class, kind, Ship 43, Garl. 512;—to be classed, Garl. 1253. sorte, number, Ecl. 139. soso, after a fashion, Pallad. 109. sorw, sorweful, sorrow, etc., Dance 151, Fa- Prin. B 65, etc. sotelte, subtlety, Reproof 44, Libel 403. soth, true, FaPrin. E 40. sotill, subtle, able, Walton E 141. souffren, to suffer, permit, Roundel 1. souhte, sought. soul, alone, Thebes 97. soundeth, sounds, Ship 3;—to make sounds, Ecl. 414, 415;—to promote, tend to, Ecl. 633, 741. See sownd. soupe, to sup, Thebes 98. sovl, alone, Orl. xiii:29, xvii:4. south, i.e., souht, sought, FaPrin. A 300. sow, sew, Garl. 773. sowde, south, Lickp. 29. sowketh, sucketh, FaPrin. B 63, Libel 389, 390. sowle, Prohib. 41*. sownde, sowne, to tend toward, Dial. 758, Cay- end. 32; —to sound, Walton D 27; to be of a certain tenor, Nevill 192; —s. report, noise Libel 173. See soundeth. sowponaile, aid, Dance 663. See suppowel- ment, Hardyng 12*. spar, to fasten, Garl. 1402. sparcles, scattered particles, Ship 13875*, Ecl. 1027. spare, to spar, prop up? FaPrin. A 88. Not in NED in such sense, nor in Bergen. in special, in detail, Dial. 582. spectacles, FaPrin. D 20*, Lickp. 54*, Garl. 1075. speculatif, theory, Dance 427*. spede, to prosper, Mass 96, Lickp. 8 and pas- sim, Hardyng 98, Libel 199, 479, Ripley 189, Nevill 94. spedfull, helpful, Libel 355. speere, speare, sphere, Walton E 132, etc., Fa- Prin. C 82, Hawes 2, 222, 1401, 4440, etc., Garl. 688, Cavend. 107. spendell, spindle, Cavend. 1284. sperycall, spherical, Garl. 1479. spill, to come to grief, Ecl. 74. spryngyng, a rising, Orl. xvii: 3. spyne, thorn, FaPrin. C 83. stace, Stacius, Statius, Burgh 21, Garl. 337. stal, stole, FaPrin. D 65. stall, seat of honor, Hardyng 125. Stanza-liaison, Mass 74-97*. See Pallad. prol. For simple enjambement, see Hawes dedic. 28-29*. staple, staple fayre, a market, exchange, Libel 60, etc. See introd. to Libel. AND FINDING LIST 585 stars, see sun. state, class, rank, Dance 634, Nevill dial. 37, Ship 533, 578, 8513; —man of rank, Ship 8507, 8509, Ecl. 602. See estate. stede, place, Garl. 1318. stellify, to raise to the stars, i.e., to extol, Garl. 947*. stepmodir, stepmother, see FaPrin. D 30*. sterismon, steersman, Pallad. 11. sterne, star? Pallad. 11; —rudder? idid., 53. sterre, etc., star, Walton E 136, etc. sterue, to die, Reproof 13, Mass 93, Libel 125. steryng, urging, Dance 26*. stieng, ascending, Walton E 128. stigiall, of Styx, Garl. 1300. stiketh by, is close at hand, Dial. 775. stile, a pen, Dance 40, FaPrin. A 449, D 61, G 5, K 17?;—title, appellation, Dial. 579; — style, Nevill envoy 12*, Ecl. 181, 632, 654, Cavend. 1367. See style. stired, incited, MaReg. 192. See steryng. stockes, trunks, Hawes 4224. stole, stool, Garl. 774, see note 771. stood at, i.e., were in, FaPrin. G 191. stood a bak, "lacked success, FaPrin. D 56. stound, time, Walton A 384, Orl. xii:3, Hard- yng 123. stoupe, to stoop, FaPrin. K 2. Stow, see p. 193. stowte, stout, Garl. 1474. Strabo, Ship 6985*. strake, struck, Hawes 4331, Garl. 1347, Cav- end. 216, 261. straunge, etc., disdainful, Dance 187, 299, 454, see Dance 505 made it straunge, was aloof, refused, Orl. xiii: 5*, Libel 405*, Garl. 444. straunge, s. foreigners, Pallad. 31. strawed, strewn, Churl 180. strayt, immediately, Cavend. 143. strecche, to suffice, Libel 517. streit, strict, Churl 108. strenges, strings, Walton D 26. strengthist, strengthenest, Orl. xvii:8. strett, street, Cavend. 136. stroke, struck, Nevill 35. Stroode, FaPrin. K 25. strook, s. stroke, Dance 183. stye, to ascend, Walton E 53. style, title of rank, Hardyng 50;—pen or liter- ary style, FaPrin. G °; Nevill dial. 21, envoy 125Eclt 654, Ecl. prol. 3, 10, 28, 30, 36, Cavend. 63*, 76; see "stile. stynt, ended, Epithal. 42;’'—to end, Pallad. 46. subgytz, subjects, Hardyng 7. sue, see sewe. suerte, security, firm bond, Libel 232. sufferayn, sovereign, Walton A 68, Garl. 523. sufficistent, sufficient, Ecl. 311. Not in NED. sugratyfe, sugared, Hawes 663. See sugre. sugre, sugrid, etc., sugar, Churl 73, Thebes 52*, Pe A 243*, 461, K 16, Shirley 1E:25; Garl. 3-4* sum, a person, somebody, Walton A 27, Garl. My Gxes Sun passing the stars. See FaPrin. G 36*, K 29- 30*, Hawes 222-24.—Not affected by clouds, FaPrin. G 24-26. superate, conquered, Ecl. 916*. superflu, superfluous, Ecl. prol. 13, 63, Garl.32. Superlative, the use ok double, FaPrin, C 19, 50, Ecl. 867. See note Walton B 28. suppleyd, supplicated, Garl. 49, 1443. supportacion, support, Shirley "11:73. suppowelment, aid, Hardyng 12*. ponaile. supprisid, overcome, FaPrin. G 22*, Garl. 537. surfullinge, embroidering, Garl. 787. surmountynge, excelling, Garl. 885. surpluage, SUC PEAae, remainder, rest, Dance 36, FaPrin. D 120, G 166. surquedie, pride, FaPrin. A 176. surquidous, haughty, Dance 372, FaPrin. C 54. Surrey. See p. 376 and note; Countess of Surrey, Garl. 753*. suSpyres, sighs, Morley 1. sustren, sustres, sisters, Epithal. 182, FaPrin. A 242, D 12, Burgh 7. suwe, to follow, pursue, Shirley 1:72. See sewe. suyng, the pleading of a suit, Garl. 253. Swage, to assuage, reduce, Ship mS. swarte, black, Garl. 1366. sweuene, dream, Orl. xvii:3. Sword, the named, Hawes 4319*. SWOWN, swoon, FaPrin, Bale Swyn, Libel 62*, sy, saw, Dial. 821. syche, such. at a syde, at close? Nevill 49*. sydony, Sidon, Garl. 552. Sygismounde, Sigismund, Hardyng 121*, Libel See sow- ee sighs, FaPrin. B 65. sykernesse, sykyrnenes, security, FaPrin. B 8, Orl. ix:20. sylff, self, FaPrin. B 151, see 154. sylt, soil deposited by water, sand, Garl. 23. Symak, Symmachus, FaPrin. H1*. See Sem- achus. symplesse, simplicity, Shirley I:11, Mass 18. symulacon, simulation, Mass 149. symulacres, images, FaPrin. C 100. syn, since, MaReg. 383, Roundel 2, Orl.xiii:18, xv:5, xvil:18, xxi: Synderesis, FaPrin. C 96*. syngler, especial, FaPrin. A 409, Garl. 524, 711. synguleer, single, Praise of Chaucer 1968*. See FaPrin. A 409, G 57, 193. syth, sythen, since, Orl. 1x:5, 12, 19, Mass 52, Nevill 123, 136, 168, ae Ripley 59, Hawes 1322, etc. See sith, seth sythe, times, Mass 123, 177. See sithes. sytte, to be fitting, Hardyng 19, Garl. 149, see note on 77. See sit. ta, to have. taberdes, sleeveless surcoats, Gari. 395. tabide, to abide, FaPrin. H 28, Mass 152. tables, backgammon, Nevill dial. 47; tablets, Mass 165. 586 SELECT GLOSSARY tacounte, to account, Pallad. 104, Tagus, the river, Burgh Se taill, payment, due, To Somer 20. take, to put, Prohib. 52;—given, FaPrin. B 144; pleased, enthralled, Walton D 39. take on hond, to undertake, LettGlouc. 21, Libel 12, 66, 239, 269, Nevill 91. taken, considered, Ship 39. Talbot, Ecl. 855. talecte, to allure, Nevill 7. See allectyng. talent, desire, Walton B 6. talis, tales, Churl 366. talkyng, Churl 142, Hawes 4406*. talle, tale, Shirley 11:104. tame, to open, set abroach, FaPrin. D 19*. See attame. tane, taken, Orl. xvi:6, xvii:23, xviii;20, Hawes 4440, tansey, Thebes 101*. Tapestry. See Cavend. 120-21*. Tapestry Verses. See p. 114. tappettis, figured cloths used as hangings,Garl. 474, 771. tapplien, to apply, FaPrin. A 297. tarage, Churl 13, 350*. taraye, to array, Churl 47. targe, shield, coat of arms, Ship 128. tartour, tartar, Prohib. 5. tath, taketh, Orl. xii:22, 28. tathenis, to Athens, FaPrin. G 149, tatteyn, to attain, Pallad. 22 tauellis, Garl. 775*. tauenture, to venture, Ecl. prol. 18. taumpinnis, Garl. 636* taunt, to answer back, retort, Garl. 100. tawoiden, to avoid, to banish, FaPrin. A 277. See avoyd. tayle, tail, rear, Hardyng 66. in tayle, entailed, Hardyng 55. tayneth, kindles, Ripley 173. Tedeus, Tydeus, Epithal. 138*. tedious, Hawes 210*. teene, anguish, Bycorne 81. teermes, terms, Thebes 30. teint, tainted, Dance 472, 487. Temple of Glass. See Hawes 1309. tenbrace, to embrace, Epithal. 14, Nevill dial. 5 tencrese, to increase, FaPrin. C 47. tende, to attend, Ship 7018. tendure, to endure, Epithal. 7, 161, Pallad. 2. tenebrus, dark, Hawes 301. tenlumyne, to illumine, FaPrin. C 13, K 13. tent, heed, Ripley 79. Teocrite, Theocritus, Ecl. prol. 19. See Garl. 327. Terence, Burgh 19, Garl. 353. termes, terms, FaPrin. G 17*. See teermes. termyne, to determine, describe, Epithal. 69. tessiphone, Tisiphone, one of the Furies, Wal- ton A 60*. Testalis, Thestylis, Ecl. 690*. See Garl. 675. texcluden, to exclude, Epithal. 61. texecut, to execute, Epithal. 188. texemplyfye, to exemplify, Horns 23*. texpresse, to express, Pallad. 117. ateynte, attained, Lick —th, verbal plural, Walton’ A 105", 2535 254. C 25, D 42, E 100, Epithal. 78, FaPrin. D 25, 28, Hawes 206, etc., Nevill 24, Libel 50, 51, 510, Ripley 2 , 116, Prohib. 68, Ship ie 25, 58, 115, 206, 531, 553, 6997, 7001, 8468, 8490, 13857, Ecl. prol. 5, 44, 106, 110, Ecl. 290, 425, 502, 529, 544, 591, 626, 633, 635, 672, 707, 845, 897, 905 ,1034, Garl. 696, Cavend. 42, 43, 217, 219, 1174, 1261*, 1328. ae rime on verb-ending. See Hawes, stanza 105. thabbey, the abbey, Burgh 43. thactyfnes, the activity, Nevill 163. Thais, Ecl. 686, 689. thallpies, the Alps, FaPrin. E 66. thamaris, Tomyris, Garl. 841*. See Ecl.1112. than, then, FaPrin. G 283, Hardyng 1, etc., Cavend. 38, 144. thanke, thanks, credit, MaReg. 349, Dial. 587, Shirley I:16, 20. thar, their, Hardyng 11; —there, Hardyng 54, 96, 119. tharte, the art, Nevill dial. 12. thassaut, the ‘assault, Epithal. 163, FaPrin. A 236. thastlabre, the Astrolabe, FaPrin. A 295*. thauctour, the author, Shirley 1:93, etc. thawaityng, the lying in wait, FaPrin. A 63. eee them, Reproof 55, Orl. ix:3, Hardyng 133 the, pron. thee, Dial. 684, 688, etc., Churl 300, etc., FaPrin. B 76, 113, Can "118, Orl. ii: 10, ix: 11, 15, 16, 22, 26, xiii:16, Lickp. 117, Prohib. 5, Nevill envoy 10, Ship 7003, 13820, Garl. 612, 613, Cavend. 85, 255, etc. theatryne, dramatist, Burgh 19*. theder, thither, Walton E 48, Libel 197, 517, 544, 547, Garl. 287. thee, ‘the, to prosper, Libel 41, 97, 477, 518, Ship 460. theere, the year, FaPrin. A 5. Pees, these. theffecte, the effect, the purpose, Nevill 2, Cav- end. 79. theih, though, FaPrin. A 229. thekt, thatched, Ship 8457. thellynge, telling, Nevill 426. Pempire, the empire, FaPrin. C 16. then, than, Churl 59, 98, 259, Pallad. 20, C 1, Orl. xxi:l, Hawes 261, 338, 4377, Ecl. 70, 123, 555, 729, 740, 777, 976; —thence, Walton A 215. thend, the end, Cavend. 1187. thenk, think, Walton E 49, Orl. xxi:6. thenlumynyd, the illumined, Burgh 26. Pensaumple, the example, Dance 19. thensugerd, the sugared, Garl. 73*. thentent, the intent, purpose, Nevill 115, Ship 134. Theocritus, Garl. 327. See Teocrite. AND FINDING LIST 587 theoric, the theoretical aspect of a science or art, Pallad. 77, Ripley 187; see notes Dance 427, Walton A 332. Peos, She Shirley 1:93. ther, their, FaPrin. A 244, G 128, 129, 130, etc., Orl. xix:9. See Garl. 394, 442, 526, Giles 1441, 1537. Perfro, from there, Dance 582. PerPe, the earth, Walton C 5. erwt, therewith. Peternal, the eternal, Epithal. 27. thexperience, the experience, FaPrin. E 9. thewes, habits, virtues, Walton A 86, Orl.xvi:5. thider, thither. thikke, numerous, thick, MaReg. 146; —ado. Lickp. 22 thilke, those, Walton D 36, Churl 291. thin, meagre, Ecl. 214. See thyn. Pinward, the inward, Epithal. 30. “This is to say”. See note on FaPrin. D 8. Po, thoo, those, Walton A 46, 49, 174, C 25, E 100, MaReg. 225, FaPrin. A 150: F 6, K 8, Pallad. 108, Epithal. 335 Orl: ix:5, "Libel 518; —then, Walton A IDSs B LOD) 45, FaPrin. G 249, Lickp. 25, Orl. xix:17. thobeisaunce, the Obeisance, obedience, Fa Prin. E 12. thoder, the other, Nevill 34, 40, 41, 42, 44. thof, though, Orl. ii:11; see note Orl. xix. Tholomeus, Ptolemy, Ship 133*, 6997*. Thomyris, Ecl. 1112*. See Thamaris. thone, the one, Nevill 40, 41, 42, 43. Pordeynaunce, the ordinance, Epithal. 22. Pordre, the order, Epithal. 28. thordris nyne, the nine orders. See FaPrin. C 69 note. thorug, through, Dial. 588. thoruh, through, FaPrin. E 57, etc. thoruhgirt, pierced, paras BiSie thousch, though, Orl. v:8 thowthe, though, Garl. 725, 740, 938, 1016. in a thowght, in a trice, Garl. 1078. thrast, thrust, Lickp. 9. threde, third, Churl 211, 330. thret, threatened, Garl. 95. thridde, third, FaPrin. G Bee thries, thrice, FaPrin. D1 thrift, prosperity, Libel 115, 389, Prohib. 27. a s. and »., thirst, Walton D 47, MaReg. thristy, thirsty, MaReg. 135. throme, thrum, Cavend. 1283*. Jack a’ Thrum’s bible. See note Garl. 209. throwe, time, Dial. 649; —through, Garl. 1351 thrust, thirst, Dance 396, FaPrin. D 4, Mass 159, thrysse, Eth Prohib. 18. ce through, Lickp. 82. pt, that. thu, thou, LettGlouc. 49. thupholder, the upholder, Nevill 131. thuntrust, the untrust, instability, FaPrin. A 429 thurgh, through. thwartyd, disputed, Garl. 1017. thycke, numerous, Ship 59. thye, Walton A 31. See noght for thye. thylke, FaPrin. B 69. See thilke. thymage, the image, FaPrin. C 34. thyn, Ship 13827. See thin. thyng, thinketh, Orl. ix:8. Pynke, see bePpynke. til, to, Epithal. 48. tilthe, cultivation, Churl 355. unto time, until, Churl 305. timorous, Garl. 260*. tirikkis, tricks? Garl. 1482. First case NED 1548. tisyk, phthisis, LettGlouc. 53*. Titchbourne, poem by, see note Dance 589. titiuyllis, Garl. 636*. titled, listed by title, Shirley II:5. Tityrus, i.e., Virgil, Ecl. 411. to, till, Orl. xii: 24, xvili:23, Nevill 128, 138, 139; —too, Walton "A 268, MaReg. 362, Churl 209, 325, Dance 248, 606, FaPrin. B 57, E 40, G 1G Shirley II:11, Nevill 157, Ship 153, 194, 244, 509, Ecl. 275, 784, PIS25 Garl. 204, 248° 249, 748, 1360, Cavend. 178, 1366: ;—two, Pa. Prin. E 69, H tf. Sze too. to for, before, Dance 31, 472, 488, FaPrin. E 30, G 259, Mass 2, Orl. xviii: 13, xx1:9, toforn, before, Churl 252, Thebes 76, Dance 51, etc. togedir, together, Libel 109, Garl. 286, 393. togidre, together, Walton E 155 FaPrin, E 81, Nevill 103. toiaggid, torn to pieces, Garl. 623. toke, gave, FaPrin. E 45, Libel 180; —obtained, Hardyng 63. toke on him, undertook, FaPrin. G 321*. toke him to, Hardyng 61*. tolde, accounted, Walton A 300. Tomyris, see Thamaris, Thomyris. tone, the one, FaPrin. D 38, Morley 5, 161, 191. Tongilius, FaPrin. E 43*, tonne, tun, LettGlouc. 51*. too, two, FaPrin. AV2595 GiS33 133, 1595 EL 18: Sil Prohib. 90935 tookene)e, betokens, Epithal. 107. toome, empty, Walton A 269. ens. fone sapphire, or precious stone, Churl 250 torqwat, ie Boethius, Burgh 16*. Toscane, Tuscany, Morley 77. tosed, carded or combed, Libel 100. tossyng on my brayne, turning over in my mind, Hawes 267. tothir, the other, FaPrin. H 21, Morley 5, 159, 161, 163, 192, 203. touchyng, concerning, FaPrin. H 32, Mass 17. toumbed, entombed, Hardyng 41. tow, to? Orl. v:2;—two, Libel 20;—*to.....ward, see ward. towche of, mention, MaReg. 320. towchis, devices, tricks, Garl. 748. towchyd, portrayed, expressed, formed, Garl. 143, 592, 1139. 588 SELECT GLOSSARY trace, footing, step, moving procession, Dance 198*, Hawes dedic. 47, Hawes 1259, 1339, Cav- end. 242;—to follow, Dance 46, 70, Pallad. D 3. trace, Thrace, Garl. 493. tragedy, FaPrin. K 35, Orl. xv:8, Hawes 1270, Cavend. 50. Traian, Trajan, FaPrin. 1@06) Translation, theory of, Walton A 19*. trasid, ornamented with tracery, Garl. 395. trauayle, travel, Hawes 57, Ecl. 526; —1labor, Fel. 952, Cavend. 1148. travelled, travailed, worked, Cavend. 207,1141; —travelled, Cavend. 215. trayne, deception, Cavend. 87. treacle, Churl 182*. treate, to entreat, Ecl. 1003. tregetour, Dance 513*. tresor, Pallad. 86*. treste, trust, Pallad. 49, 116, B 2. tretable, docile, Ecl. 1013. tretour, traitor, FaPrin. F 18, G 127, 316. Trevisa. See Gen. Introd. p. 15, Shirley I 40. trie, to test, Pallad. 85. trifles, Libel 341, Hawes 1336. trine, threefold, Pallad. 9. trions, Garl. 693*. First case NED of 1594. tristesse, sorrow, Dance 131. triuiall, Ecl. 695*, Triumph, FaPrin. A 366, C 16*, E 19, 73. Troilus, Epithal. 136, Mass 181, Hawes 1275, 4426. See FaPrin. A 287*, Garl. 857. trone, throne, seat, Ship 8453, 8461, 8474. Trophe, FaPrin. A 284*. troth, truth, Nevill 73. trow, believe, Walton C 21, Garl. 729, etc. trowbely, troubled, Orl. xiv: 23 trowghte, troth, Burgh 41, Troy Book. See "Hawes 1304. trumpet, trumpeter, Garl. 235, 243. truse, trusse, truce, Libel 26, 128, 199; 225. truwe, true, Shirley 1:56, etc. tryce, to drag away, MaReg. 287. trwly, truly, Walton A 105. trynhede, Trinity, Ripley 3. tryst, trust, Reproof 52. trysteth, plu. imper. trust, Reproof 62. See treste. Trystram, Tristan, Mass 184. Tullius, i.e., Cicero, Praise of Chaucer 2085, Epithal. 151, FaPrin. VDSS S67, C22» G pas. sim, Burgh 13) Hawes 1105, Nevill 838, Ecl. 1091, Garl. 330, see 1163. Tragedy of Tullius, FaPrin. G. tuly, dull red, Garl. 782*. tunnys, tuns, FaPrin. D 19*. turbit, Libel 353*. turkis, turquoises, Garl. 466. turvys, turfs, Churl 51 (variant). Tuskan, Tuscany, FaPrin. G 59, 65, 91. twein, twain, FaPrin. B 56,G 156, ete. twen, between, Horns 5, FaPrin. A 264, D 50, G 268 Twishe, Tush! Garl. 208. twiys, twice, Garl. 7 Two Ways, Hawes 27*, Nevill 191*, 214*. twound, twined, Cavend. 1291. twyes, twice, Libel 136. See twiys. twylight, Hawes 272*, twynd, twined, Cavend. 1307. twyne, to separate, MaReg. 17, 42, 318, Prohib. 20, Cavend. 1305; —to wind, turn (a song), Dance 260. by twyne, between, Walton A 333. twynklyng, tinkling, Garl. 681. twysse, twice, Prohib. 18, Garl. 444. tyde, time, Hardyng 60. tyll, to, Epithal. 197, Hardyng 27, Cavend. 269. tyne, interval, Garl. 505. tyred, tore, Walton D 50552; tyryen, Tyrian, Walton B 10. tyssue, tissue, Hawes 113. tything, tidings, Churl 198, 202, Orl. 11:4. Vado Mori text, p. 128. vailith, to avail, Dance 132, 280, Hawes 1320, Cavend. 145. Valence, Valenciennes, Horns 21. Valerian, Fcl. 1105. Valerius Maximus, Garl. 381*. valour, valure, worth, Ship 486, Ecl. 357, 969, Morley 27. Varro, Morley 246. vauntage, advantage, Hawes 4333. vauntwarde, vanguard, Shirley 1:52. First case NED 1476; but see FaPrin. ix:1904. vawte, vaulting, inner roof, Garl. 476. vaylled, availed, Cavend. 145. vaynefull, trivial, Hawes 1334. Ubi Sunt motif, Walton C 13*, FaPrin. C introd., Nevill 830 ff vche, each, Pallad. 39, 88, 100. uende, Orl. vi:8*, vengoures, avengers, Walton D 41. venim, etc., venom, Walton A 354, C 10, Hard- yng 17, Hawes 4358. ventre, to venture, Ecl. prol. 30. venyger, vinegar, Prohib. 46. verlet, varlet, Hawes 4254. vermylon, vermilion, Prohib. 6*. verray, etc., very. vertute, virtue, Nevill 214. vestigate, to investigate, Cavend. 21. vew, s. survey, Garl. 237. viagis, journeys, FaPrin. D 92, 102. Vincencius, Vincent of Beauvais, FaPrin. G 215, Garl. 382*. vinolent, wine-bibbing, Ecl. 787. Virgil, Praise of Chaucer 2089, FaPrin. C 29*, K 15, Burgh 15, Hawes 1105, Ship 13867,Ecl. prol. 27, Garl. 339, 380-4*. See Maro. virrelaies, virelays, FaPrin. A 353*. Vican, Vulcanus, a volcano, Walton A 233*. Vlysses, Nevill 425, 833. vmber, shadow, Cavend. 2. vmblis, entrails, Garl. 1213. vmple, Lickp. 76*. unconnyngly, ignorantly, Bedford 12. AND FINDING LIST 589 yncouth, strange, Churl 74, Thebes 51, Dance 220, FaPrin. D 117, Nevill dial. 10. unctuus, unctuous, oily, Ripley 121. vneul, uncle, Pallad. 70. vndeiect, not cast out, Nevill envoy 21. yndirfong, to undertake, FaPrin. A 48, D 93, Mass 153. ynkonning, ignorance, FaPrin. D 25, Mass 19. vnkouthe, unusual, Shirley 11:26. See ‘yncouth. ynlust, distaste, lack of sete: Dial. 537. vnlusti, unhappy, Burgh 49 vnmete, insufficient, Walton A 39, E 17. yvnneth, scarcely, with difficulty, MaReg. 216, 365, 400, Roundel 3, Pallad. 101, Prohib. 77, Hawes 4340. ynponysched, unpunished, Walton E 81. ynrecuperable, not to be recovered from, Fa- Prin. B 68. vnselPe, misery, Walton A 251. vnshred? Garl. 1372. vnsmyten, unsmitten, Hardyng 110. vnto, until, Walton D 58. unto, read undo? Pallad. 52*; or, until? vntretable, intractable, FaPrin. B 24. yntwynde, broken apart, Garl. 1412. vnweldynes, Orl. xv:14*. unwarly, unawares, Walton A 265. vnwyttyly, ignorantly, Walton C 1. voluell, a device of graduated circles, used to ascertain the rising and setting of the moon, etc., Garl. 1432. vowche saue, vouchsafe, Garl. 809. vowe, Cavend. 1188*, Ecl. 438, 726. See note Bycorne 115. voyd, etc., to avoid, Ecl. 88;—to be gone, Ma- Reg. 280, Cavend. 219;—to expel, get rid of, Thebes 55, Epithal. 24, Libel 358. vp so don, upside down, FaPrin. B 89, Lett- Glouc. 13. vpfynde, to find out, Pallad. 85. vpholde, to maintain, Ecl. 538. vplandisshe, rustic, countrified, Shirley I1:14. vprightes, Roundel 3*. vre, s. practice, Hawes 754, Cavend. 28; —for- tune, lot, Reproof 34; —ore? Nevill 133*. vrsa, the Bear, Garl. 690. vrynes, urines, Dance 417*, Prohib. 36. vsage, habit, Walton A 363. vse, to be accustomed, FaPrin. D 92. vste, burnt, Prohib. 37*. Lat. ustum. usurpyng, claiming, FaPrin. C 16*. See Cav- end. 90. Usury, Dance 393 ff.*, Libel 425, Ship 8465. vthers, udders, Ecl. 225. vtter, to pass current, to sell, Libel 398. vtteraunce, sale, Nevill dial. 44;—‘‘outrance”’, Hawes 178. vtterly, at all, Walton D 21; —completely, Ship 35, 203, 534, 13859. vulgar, vulgar tongue, FaPrin. A 286, 317. vyage, journey, Mass 153, Hawes 265. vyces, Hawes 367*. vyrent, fllourishing, blooming, Nevill dial. 8. waad, wad, woad, Libel 326, 521. waad ‘aschen, wood ashes, Libel 3277. wacche, watch, wakefulness, Dance 346. wach, wakefulness, i i.e., late hours, MaReg. 322. wade, to proceed "heavily, Hawes 4431*, Ecl. 793, Cavend. 1219. wadmole, a coarse woollen cloth, Libel 56. wafres, cakes, MaReg 146. wagge, Lickp. 114*, waiys, ways, Garl. 181. wake, weak, Nevill 212. wake or winke, Dance 643*. Waking, devices for, Hawes 93 note. See note Cavend. 1222. wan, 0. got, i.e., arrived, Hardyng 119;—won, FaPrin. A 366, Prohib. 61, Garl. 1272, 1364; a. wan, Garl. 1366. wanhope, despair, FaPrin. B 11. wanne, won, Hardyng 79, Hawes 175,192. war, ware, wary, cautious, Thebes 143, Dance 606. war, ware, were, Burgh 54, Reproof 16, Cavend. 80, 110, 135, 155, 1164, 1172, 1220, 1236, 1268, 1343, 1369, 1377; —wore, Garl. 1084, 1085. warbeled, whirling? Cavend. 1284. to....ward, FaPrin. B 130*, Lickp. 3. wardens, a kind of pears, Ecl. 404. warie, to curse, MaReg 63. Warwick, see note Shirley 1:87. wastelbrede, bread of fine flour, Churl 122. wate, s. wait, Nevill 206. waue, flicker, MaReg. 399. wawes, waves, Nevill 151. waytie, weighty, Cavend. 82. wax, v. became, Walton A 299. waytie, weighty, Cavend. 82. wealthe, weal, Hawes 182, 196, Ecl. 1084. See welthe. wedde, pledge, Hardyng 97. wedder, weather, Garl. 12, 1409. wedir, wether, Dance 490, FaPrin. G 328, Mass 106. weel willy, favorable, Epithal. 186. weengis, wings, FaPrin. A 436. wehout, without, Orl. ix:10 (scribal error). weie, to weigh, Dial. 600 weies, ways, FaPrin. G 96. welaway, Well away! Orl. xiii:18, xv:17, xvi:6, xvili:25. welbesayne. See besein. wele, well, Orl. xix:25;—weal, Orl. ix:4, Cav- end. 1144, 1164. weleful, fullof weal, MaReg. 402, FaPrin. A259. welere, Ecl. 137*. welny, well nigh, Garl. 430. welthe, weal, fortune, Walton A 156, 249, 291, E 109, MaReg. 6, Garl. 14, 705, 979, Cavend. 1411. wende, to turn, go, Walton A 214, Dial. 790, FaPrin. F 13. See wene, pret. wendome, Vendome, Hardyng 87*. wene, wende, etc., to deem, think, Walton C 33, Dial. 521, 784, Dance 552, 595, FaPrin, E 62) Pallad. C 1, Lickp. 188, Libel 197, Pro- hib. 10, 51, 63, Hawes 4293, 590 SELECT GLOSSARY were, to wear, FaPrin. B 137, Orl. xvii:28, Garl. 68, 322. were, s. doubt, difficulty, FaPrin. D 36 (here Bergen’s text reads werre). See Orl. xiii:3; —wire, Churl 59. wern, were, FaPrin. A 153, E 3, F 16, G 107; — to refuse, Walton A 279, MaReg. 430, 442. wern, were, FaPrin. E 3, F 16, G 107;—to re- fuse, Walton A 279, MaReg. 430, 442. werrai, very, FaPrin. A 216. werre, to make war, Libel 19;—s. war, Dial. 818, Epithal. 125; —worse, Dial. 819. werreie, to attack, make war, MaReg. 117, Fa- Prin. G 270. werry, Orl. xiii:28*. werryng, war, Libel 143. wete, to know, Libel 52, 458, 540. wetewolddis, cuckolds by consent, Garl. 187. weth, with, Orl. 1ii1:6, Garl. 273 wexe, grown, Bycorne 104;—s. wax, Libel 55, 132 wey, to weigh, Bedford 23, FaPrin. E 81. weyke, weak, Nevill 29. weylleway, FaPrin. B45. See welaway. wham, whom, FaPrin. G 41. whar, where, Hardyng 62, se 73, 110. whas, whose, Epithal. 69, what, as interjection, MaRew. 38, Dial. 616, Orl. xii:31, Ecl. 67, 1145. what, why, Dance 097, Hawes 4431, Ecl. 526, 1925, 793% what for that, what of that! Hawes 757. what for then, what of that? Orl. xv:22. whele, weal, Cavend. 1141, cp. 1144. wher, whether, Walton E 27, FaPrin. A 94, G 327, Orl. xxiii:4. Where? see Ubi Sunt. wherwt, wherewith. whether, whither, Cavend. 1189, 1216. whiles, s. wiles, Cavend. 165*. whill, while, Orl. x:2. white by black, see notes on FaPrin. G 33, Hawes 1349. See Garl. 1210. whittle, knife, Ecl. 575. whomanly, womanly, Cavend. 1358, see 165*. whofull, woeful, Cavend. 58. whois, whose, Churl 32. whose, whoso, Nevill 201. whow, how, Pallad. A 3. whyght, white, Prohib. 40, 98. egges whyghtes, whites of eggs, Prohib. 53. whyl, while, Orl. vi:10. whylfulnes, wilfulness, Orl. vii:1. whylk, which, Mass 77. whyste, whist, quiet, Garl. 267. ee which, Dance 2, etc., Mass 154, Libel 457 wide open, flat on his back, Ecl. 16. Wife, the patient, see Bycorne;—Wife of Bath, Dial. 694. wight, weight? word-mass? Pallad. 124; —white, Cavend. 1408. wi3t, wiht, MaReg. 175, Dance 208, 583, 625, FaPrin. E 12. wilfully, of free will, Walton E 38. willi, willing, FaPrin. A 462. Windows, Hawes 347*. winke, Dance 643*. wirche, to work, Dial. 647. wise, to guide, Pallad. 42; —to instruct, idid., 107. thus wise, in such manner, Ecl. 349. wist, knew, Burgh 4, Lickp. 21, Orl. xviii:10. wit, to know, Shirley 1:62. arr: to blame, Dial. 667;—to know, MaReg. 85. with, see note Thebes 35. withall, therewith, Hawes 4356. withhalt, withholds, Dance 215. withholde, kept, Garl. 1268. wie bands of twisted twigs, ropes, Ship 13. wode, furious, cruel, Libel 226, Garl. 1301. See wood. wofull? Hawes 670. wol, woll, v. will, Cavend. 1304. wolde, would. wolffes hede, wolf’s head, Bycorne 117*. wolgare, vulgar (tongue?, Shirley 1:30. See vulgar. woll, will, Cavend. 1304. wolle, wool, Libel 56, 79, 90, Ecl. 147. Wolsey, >Ship 8509*, Cavend. 85 ff. wombe, belly, Ship 48, Ecl. 146, 220, 221. wane to turn from, shrink, Dial. 523, Libel 435, wonder, woundir, wonderfully, very, Walton A 26, 76, 154, 165, 173, 305, B 1, E 66, Garl. 69;—a. wonderful, Walton A 279, FaPrin. G 238. wonderly, wonderfully, Walton D 8, Hawes 701, Garl. 38, 269. wondersly, wonderfully, very, Hawes 4307. wone, wonne, to dwell, Hawes 298; —s. cus- tom, MaReg. 294, Libel 420. woned, wont, Walton D 37. wont, ‘accustomed, Lickp. 78. wood, furious, Walton B 22, Pallad. 13. See wode. wook, woke, Orl. xix:6. woon, number, Lickp. 51. woot, to know, MaReg. 42. wordli, worldly, Churl 378, FaPrin. C 74, Cav- end. 219, 1113. Frequent in MSS. worne, outworn? Morley 6. worship, s. worth, honor, Dance 63, FaPrin. A273; \G 2295 Mass 98, Garl. 1152; —to gain honor for, FaPrin. G 229, 298. wot, woot, to know. wost, wotst, thou knowest, Orl. xxi:12, ix:19. wouch saue, vouchsafe, Shirley II:71. woundir, see wonder. wouynge, s. weaving, Garl. 776. wowed, wooed, tempted, MaReg. 188. woxe, waxed, grew, Libel 202. wrake, vengeance, Mass 36;—wreck, Garl. 507. wrate, wrote, Garl. 96, 347, 367, 1215, 1222, 1351, 1487. AND FINDING LIST 591 wreche, vengeance, FaPrin. B 57. wreke, avenged, Walton A 115, Dance 587. wrenchis, shrewd turns, MaReg. 378, Garl- 1185. wrete, written, Dial. 671. wretyn, written, Prohib. 4. wretyng, writing, Prohib. 82. wright, write, Garl. 85. wrotte, wrote, FaPrin. H 33. wrough, rough, Hawes 4307. wt, with. wtin, within. wtout, without. wtstonde, withstand. wul, »v. will, Pallad. 58. wych, which, Prohib. 23, 42, 79. wyle, s. while, time, Dial. 578. wyly, wily, Orl. viiz4 wyne, to win, Garl. 152: wynshed, kicked up, Garl. 1179. wyre, i.e., were, doubt, Orl. xiii:3. wysse, 4. wise, Prohib. 91;—s. wise, manner, Prohib. 16. wyten, known, Hardyng 109. ae to know, Reproof 5, 62;—to blame, Rip- ey 81. wyttely, wisely, Prohib. 98. xiiine, thirteen, FaPrin. E 18. xxti, twenty, MaReg. 111. y, I, Walton passim, MaReg. passim, Orleans passim, etc. y fere, see yfere. y now, see ynow. yaf, gave, Walton B 11, Dance 484, FaPrin.H 31. yalowe, yellow, Garl. 289. yatis, gates, Walton D 38, Garl. 574, 575, 579. yave, gave, Garl. 58, 131, 1095. yborn, born, Dance 577. yche, each, Prohib. 11. ychesyled, chiselled, Hawes 319. ychon, each one, Shirley I1:40. yclipped, called by name, Hawes 421, 4370. See iclipped. yconomye, economy, Pallad. 78*. ydoon, done, Orl. xv:15. ye, the, Shirley II, in Stow’s hand, passim. ye, yea, Epithal. 134, Lickp. 93;—eye, MaReg. 97, 98, Garl. 245. yearth, earth, Shirley II:95. yede, went, Lickp. 110. yef, if, Libel 135, 141, 145, 269, 334, 410, 460, 5325 534. See yiff. but yef, unless, Libel 254. yelde, to return, i.e., as reward, Dial. 558; —to render, Dance 270. See yolde. yelde me, submit myself, Ship 13808. yeman, yeoman, Ship 475. yen, eyes, Bedford 8, Garl. 245. yerne, to pursue eagerly, Garl. 1376. yerne, quickly, Epithal. 188. yerthe, earth, Cavend. 103. yeuyth, give (imper.plu.), Horns 48, 52. yeve, etc., to give, Churl 14, 158, 197, 304, 322, Horns 13, LettGlouc. 42, FaPrin. B 112, C 5, 73, E 53, G 43, 202, Burgh 24, Libel 404. yewres, 1.€., eweress, she who fetches water for the guests’ handwashing, Hawes 422. yfere, in fere, in company, Dance 95, Mass 84. yiff, if, Thebes 39, 112, 134, FaPrin. A 187, B 19; 93, Libel 519. See yef. we gifts, Dance 622, Pallad. 37, 83, Libel 478. yit, yet, Orl. ix:17, Libel 346, 354. yit for thy, nevertheless, Dance 91. yive, give, FaPrin. A 279, Mass 69, 118, 122. yles, isles, Ship 6974, 6977. yliche, alike, Dance ‘47, ylle, evil, bad, Mass 106, Ship 19, 70, 459, 13828; —s. harm, Ship 593, 8492. See ill. ymagen, imagine, invent, Hawes 4289. ymaginatife, imaginative, Hawes 660, 4284. ymaginid, imagined, contrived, FaPrin. G 93. ymeeued, moved, MaReg. 391. ymeneus, Hymen, Epithal. 176*. ymeynt, mingled, Thebes 15. ympnes, hymns, Shirley I1:28. ynamyd, named, Reproof 20. ynde, of India, Churl 254, 308. ynne, in, Walton D 43. ynnynge, harvest, To Somer 15 ynough, ynow, enough, Dial. 602, Orl. v:3, xili:10, etc. yode, went, Lickp. 97, Libel 197. yoie, joy, FaPrin. A 371. yolde, yielded, submitted, FaPrin. E 65; — paid, Dance 159. went: youthful, Walton A 310. yore, before, MaReg. 29. yore agone, long ago, Epithal. 31, FaPrin. 215. yove, given, MaReg. 99, Horns 34, Thebes 46, Dance 38, FaPrin. G 144, Mass 68. yowde, went, Lickp. 2 yperborye, the Hyperborean, Burgh 48. ypocrysye, hypocrisy, Mass 150. yresshe game, Ship 209*. yseide, said, Dance 459. ysoude, Isolde, Mass 184. yt, it; —that, in Shirley’s abbreviation, II. See under ye. "See Cavend. 104. | a x. Me \e iv : | it ah ain ay oor a a L z * ‘ 1 - % - iy