The Project Gutenberg eBook of Chaucerian and Other Pieces This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: Chaucerian and Other Pieces Editor: Walter W. Skeat Release date: July 11, 2013 [eBook #43195] Language: English Credits: Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Keith Edkins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAUCERIAN AND OTHER PIECES *** Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Keith Edkins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they are listed at the end of the text. * * * * * In this text [gh] represents the Middle English letter "yogh", which appears similar to the numeral 3. [=a] signifies "a macron", and so forth. * * * * * CHAUCERIAN AND OTHER PIECES _EDITED, FROM NUMEROUS MANUSCRIPTS_ BY THE REV. WALTER W. SKEAT, LITT.D., D.C.L., LL.D., PH.D. ELRINGTON AND BOSWORTH PROFESSOR OF ANGLO-SAXON AND FELLOW OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE BEING A SUPPLEMENT TO THE COMPLETE WORKS OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER (OXFORD, IN SIX VOLUMES, 1894) * * * * * * * 'And yit ye shul han better loos, Right in dispyt of alle your foos, Than worthy is; and that anoon.' _Hous of Fame, 1667-9._ Oxford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS M DCCC XCVII * * * * * Oxford PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS BY HORACE HART, M.A., PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY * * * * * CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION.--§ 1. Works appended to those of Chaucer in various editions. § 2. Thynne's collection in 1532. _A Praise of Women._ _The Lamentation of Mary Magdalen._ _The Remedy of Love._ § 3. Other non-Chaucerian pieces. _The Craft of Lovers._ _A Balade._ _The Ten Commandments of Love._ _The Nine Ladies Worthy._ _Virelai._ _The Judgement of Paris._ _A Balade pleasaunte._ _Another Balade._ _The Court of Love._ § 4. Additions by Speght. _Chaucer's Dream._ _Eight Goodly Questions._ § 5. Editions and MSS. consulted. § 6. Authorities for the pieces here printed. § 7. I. THE TESTAMENT OF LOVE. § 8. The acrostic found in it. Name of the author. § 9. Fate of Thomas Usk. § 10. Idea of the work. § 11. The author's plagiarisms from Chaucer. § 12. How he stole a passage from The House of Fame. § 13. Borrowings from Troilus and Piers Plowman. § 14. The author's inaccuracies. § 15. The title; and the meaning of Margaret. § 16. Plan of the work. § 17. Outline of Book I. § 18. Outline of Book II. § 19. Outline of Book III. § 20. II. THE PLOWMANS TALE. § 21. Never supposed to be Chaucer's. § 22. Written by the author of The Ploughmans Crede. § 23. III. JACK UPLAND. § 24. Date, A.D. 1402. § 25. Traces of two texts. § 26. Not originally written in alliterative verse. § 27. IV. THE PRAISE OF PEACE. By John Gower. § 28. The Trentham MS. § 29. Date, A.D. 1399. § 30. V. THE LETTER OF CUPID. By Thomas Hoccleve. § 31. VI. TWO BALADES. By Thomas Hoccleve. § 32. VII. A MORAL BALADE. By Henry Scogan. Date, about 1407. § 33. The supper at the Vintry. § 34. VIII. THE COMPLAINT OF THE BLACK KNIGHT. By John Lydgate. § 35. His quotations from Chaucer's version of the Romaunt of the Rose. Date, about 1402. § 36. IX. THE FLOUR OF CURTESYE. By John Lydgate. Date, about 1401. § 37. X. A BALADE IN COMMENDATION OF OUR LADY. By John Lydgate. § 38. A new stanza and a new MS. § 39. XI. TO MY SOVERAIN LADY. By John Lydgate. § 40. XII. BALLAD OF GOOD COUNSEL. By John Lydgate. § 41. XIII. BEWARE OF DOUBLENESS. By John Lydgate. § 42. XIV. A BALADE: WARNING MEN, &c. By John Lydgate. § 43. XV. THREE SAYINGS. By John Lydgate. § 44. XVI. LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCY. By Sir Richard Ros. Date, about 1460. § 45. Apparently in the Leicestershire dialect. § 46. Alan Chartier. § 47. Thynne's text and the MSS. § 48. XVII. THE TESTAMENT OF CRESSEID. By Robert Henryson. Date, about 1460. § 49. XVIII. THE CUCKOO AND THE NIGHTINGALE. Probably by Sir Thomas Clanvowe. § 50. The queen at Woodstock; about A.D. 1403. § 51. Clanvowe's excessive use of the final _-e_. § 52. His partiality for 'headless' lines. § 53. Milton's Sonnet to the Nightingale. § 54. XIX. ENVOY TO ALISON. Not by Clanvowe. § 55. XX. THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF. By the authoress of The Assembly of Ladies. § 56. The former is the earlier poem. Neither of them is by Chaucer. § 57. Variations from Chaucer's usages. § 58. Examination of the Rimes. § 59. Change in pronunciation. § 60. Gower on the Flower and the Leaf. § 61. XXI. THE ASSEMBLY OF LADIES. By the authoress of The Flower and the Leaf. § 62. Ordering of a medieval household. § 63. XXII. A GOODLY BALADE. By John Lydgate. Imperfect. § 64. XXIII. GO FORTH, KING. By John Lydgate. § 65. _Duodecim Abusiones._ § 66. XXIV. THE COURT OF LOVE. First printed in 1561. § 67. Tyrwhitt's plan for a Glossary to the Canterbury Tales. § 68. Moxon's edition of Chaucer; establishing an erroneous canon of Chaucer's Works. § 69. How to draw up such a canon correctly. § 70. The Court of Love discussed. § 71. The Trinity MS. and the language. § 72. Artificiality of the archaisms affected. § 73. Examination of the Rimes. § 74. Comparison with Chaucerian English. § 75. The Courts of Love. § 76. Pieces numbered XXV-XXIX. § 77. Twelve authors (at least) distinguished in the present volume. § 78. There are probably four more. § 79. Improvements in the present PAGE edition ix I. THOMAS USK: THE TESTAMENT OF LOVE. BOOK I: PROLOGUE AND CHAPTERS I-X 1 BOOK II: CHAPTERS I-XIV 46 BOOK III: CHAPTERS I-IX 101 II. THE PLOWMANS TALE 147 III. JACK UPLAND 191 IV. JOHN GOWER: THE PRAISE OF PEACE 205 V. THOMAS HOCCLEVE: THE LETTER OF CUPID 217 VI. THE SAME: TO THE KINGES MOST NOBLE GRACE 233 TO THE LORDES AND KNIGHTES OF THE GARTER 234 VII. HENRY SCOGAN: A MORAL BALADE 237 VIII. JOHN LYDGATE: THE COMPLAINT OF THE BLACK KNIGHT; OR, THE COMPLAINT OF A LOVERES LYFE 245 IX. THE SAME: THE FLOUR OF CURTESYE 266 X. THE SAME: A BALADE; IN COMMENDATION OF OUR LADY 275 XI. THE SAME: TO MY SOVERAIN LADY 281 XII. THE SAME: BALLAD OF GOOD COUNSEL 285 XIII. THE SAME: BEWARE OF DOUBLENESS 291 XIV. THE SAME: A BALADE: WARNING MEN TO BEWARE OF DECEITFUL WOMEN 295 XV. THE SAME: THREE SAYINGS 297 XVI. SIR RICHARD ROS: LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCY 299 XVII. ROBERT HENRYSON: THE TESTAMENT OF CRESSEID 327 XVIII. THE CUCKOO AND THE NIGHTINGALE; OR, THE BOOK OF CUPID, GOD OF LOVE. (By Clanvowe) 347 XIX. AN ENVOY TO ALISON 359 XX. THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF (By a Lady) 361 XXI. THE ASSEMBLY OF LADIES (By the same) 380 XXII. A GOODLY BALADE. (By John Lydgate) 405 XXIII. GO FORTH, KING. (By John Lydgate) 408 XXIV. THE COURT OF LOVE 409 XXV. A VIRELAI 448 XXVI. PROSPERITY. (By John Walton) 449 XXVII. LEAULTE VAULT RICHESSE 449 XXVIII. SAYINGS PRINTED BY CAXTON 450 XXIX. BALADE IN PRAISE OF CHAUCER 450 NOTES TO THE FOREGOING PIECES 451 GLOSSARIAL INDEX 555 INDEX OF NAMES 603 INDEX TO SOME SUBJECTS EXPLAINED IN THE NOTES 607 * * * * * ERRATA AND ADDENDA P. 26, l. 45. _For_ conuersion _read_ conversion. P. 32, l. 38. Mr. Bradley suggests that _maistresse_ is a misprint of Thynne's for _maistres secrè_, i.e. master's secret; alluding to John of Northampton. P. 33, l. 75. _For_ may it be sayd in that thinge 'this man thou demest, _read_ may it be sayd, 'in that thinge this man thou demest, P. 50, l. 28. _For_ in sacke, sowed with wolle _perhaps read_ in sacke sowed, with wolle. P. 52, ll. 107, 109. Mr. Bradley suggests that 'Caynes' and 'Cayn' are Thynne's misprints for 'Cames' and 'Cam'; where _Cam_ (misread as _Cain_) means _Ham_, for which the Vulgate has _Cham_. P. 153, l. 187. _Insert a hyphen in_ gold-mastling. P. 163, l. 520. _For_ punishments _read_ punishëments. (_See_ note.) P. 180, l. 1050. _For_ [ful] _read_ [not]. (_See_ note.) P. 186, l. 1231. End the line with a semicolon. P. 192, l. 36. _Insert a mark of interrogation after_ speketh of. P. 206, l. 27. _For_ request [the] _read_ requestë. (_See_ note.) P. 213, l. 294. _For_ men _perhaps read_ pees. (_See_ note.) P. 215, l. 363. _For_ debated _read_ delated. (_See_ note.) P. 237; footnotes, l. 1. _For_ 1542 _read_ 1532. P. 256, l. 371. _For_ tha _read_ that. P. 458; note to l. 117. See also P. Pl. B. xiii. 277, 292. P. 458; note to l. 53. For fuller details, see the Introduction. P. 473; note to l. 155. Chaucer's Astrolabe was not written till 1391, after Usk's death. P. 475; note to Ch. XI. l. 11. On the subject of Grace, see Bk. iii. ch. 8. P. 478; note to l. 47. _For_ taken from _read_ compare. * * * * * INTRODUCTION § 1. The following pieces are selected, as being the most important, from among the very numerous ones which have been appended to Chaucer's works in various editions. I use the word 'appended' advisedly. It is not true that these works were all attributed to Chaucer in the black-letter editions. The Praise of Peace was marked as Gower's in Thynne's first edition of 1532. Another piece in that edition is attributed to Scogan. The Letter of Cupid is expressly dated 1402, though Chaucer died in 1400. The Flower of Curtesye contains the words 'Chaucer is dede'; and The Testament of Cresseid contains a remark which, in modern English, would run thus--'Who knows if all that Chaucer wrote is true?' Those who, through ignorance or negligence, regard Thynne's edition of Chaucer as containing 'Works attributed to Chaucer' make a great mistake; and even if the mistake be excused on the ground that it has been very generally and very frequently made, this does not lessen its magnitude. The title of Thynne's book is very instructive, and really runs thus:--'The Workes of Geffray Chaucer newly printed, with dyuers workes which were neuer in print before, &c.' This is strictly and literally true; for it contains such works of Chaucer's as had previously been printed by Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and Julian Notary (see vol. i. p. 28), together with 'dyuers workes [_of various authors_] which were neuer in print before.' Which is the simple solution of the whole matter, as far as this edition is concerned. The same remarks apply to the second edition in 1542, and the third, printed about 1550. But Stowe, in 1561, altered the title so as to give it a new meaning. The title-page of his edition runs thus:--'The Woorkes of Geffrey Chaucer, newly printed with diuers Addicions which were neuer in printe before.' Here the authorship of Chaucer was, _for the first time_, practically claimed for the whole of Thynne's volume. At the same time, Stowe did not really mean what he seems to say, for it was he who first added the words--'made by Ihon lidgate'--to the title of 'The Flower of Curtesie,' and who first assigned a title (ascribing the poem to _dan Ihon lidgat_) to the poem beginning 'Consider wel'; see no. 40 (vol. i. p. 33). § 2. It is clear that Thynne's intention was to print a collection of poems, including all he could find of Chaucer and anything else of a similar character that he could lay his hands on[1]. In other words, the collection was, from the beginning, a collection of the Works of Chaucer _and other writers_; and this fact was in no way modified by the adoption by Stowe and Speght of misleading titles that actually assigned to Chaucer all the poems in the volume! See further, as to this subject, in the discussion of The Court of Love below. The number of pieces appended, at various times, to Chaucer's Works are so numerous that I have been obliged to restrict myself to giving a selection of them only. Of the non-Chaucerian pieces printed by Thynne in 1532, I have included all but three. The rejected pieces are those numbered 18, 21, and 22 in the list given at p. 32 of vol. i. They are all poor and uninteresting, but I add a few words of description. 18. _A Praise of Women._ Noticed in vol. i. p. 37. Though decisively rejected by Tyrwhitt, and excluded from Moxon's reprint, it was revived (for no good reason) by Bell, and consequently appeared in the Aldine edition, which was founded on Bell's. It enumerates the merits of womankind, and condemns the slanders of men concerning them. We ought to worship all women out of reverence for the Queen of heaven, and we shall do well to pray to Our Lady to bring us to the heaven in which she and all good women will be found. Thynne is not the sole authority for this poem, as it occurs also (in a Scottish dress) in the Bannatyne MS., fol. 275. The whole of this MS. (written in 1568) was printed for the Hunterian Club in 1873-9; see p. 799 of that edition. 21. _The Lamentation of Mary Magdalen._ Noticed in vol. i. p. 37. This lugubrious piece was probably the wail of a nun, who had no book but a Vulgate version of the Bible, from which all her quotations are taken. It bears no resemblance to any work by Chaucer, nor to any of the pieces in the present volume. It consists of 102 seven-line stanzas. The metre resembles Lydgate's, but the final _-e_ is hardly ever used. Bell's text is not taken from Thynne, but from some later and inferior reprint of it. For this poem, Thynne's first edition is the sole authority. 22. _The Remedy of Love._ Noticed in vol. i. p. 38. It appears that the 'remedy of love' is to be found in a consideration of the wicked ways of women. Twelve whole stanzas are taken up with a metrical translation of one of the chapters in the book of Proverbs. The author refers us to 'the fifth chapter,' but he is wrong. He means chapter vii, verses 6-27. He also quotes from Ecclesiasticus, ix. 9, and xxv. 25. Nos. 28, 29, 30 (vol. i. p. 32) are not found in Thynne, but were first printed by Stowe. I give them below, at p. 297. The first two stanzas are Lydgate's; and probably the third is his also. It is no great matter. No. 41 (vol. i. p. 33) was also first printed by Stowe. To save words, I have printed it below, at p. 450, from the original MS. § 3. I now consider the non-Chaucerian pieces in Part II. of Stowe's Edition (see vol. i. p. 33). Of these, nos. 45, 50, 56, and 59 are here reprinted. Nos. 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, and 55 were all taken by Stowe from MS. Trin. R. 3. 19. Perhaps they are sufficiently noticed in vol. i. p. 41, as they present few points of interest. However, I enumerate them, adding a few remarks. No. 46. _The Craft of Lovers._ In 23 seven-line stanzas; 161 lines. Besides the copy in the Trin. MS., there are copies (almost duplicates) in MSS. Addit. 34360, fol. 73, back (p. 142), and Harl. 2251, fol. 53 (now called 52). Dated 1448 in the Trin. MS., but 1459 in the other two. The first line ought to run:--'To moralise, who list these ballets sewe'; but it is clear that some one added the words 'A similitude' in the margin, and that this remark was afterwards incorporated in the text. Hence the first line, in the latter MSS., stands:--'To moralise a similitude who list these balettis sewe'; which is more than enough for a line of five accents. After two introductory stanzas, the poem becomes a dialogue, in alternate stanzas, between a wooer, named _Cupido_, and a lass, named _Diana_[2]; the result of which is successful. This may be compared with La Belle Dame sans Merci, and with the Nut-brown Maid. The twenty-third stanza forms the author's _Conclusio_, which is followed by an Envoy in the Addit. MS., and in the Harl. MS. only. The same MSS. _seem_ to superadd two more stanzas; but they really belong to another piece. No. 47. Taken by Stowe from MS. Trin. R. 3. 19, fol. 156, back. _A Balade._ In 4 seven-line stanzas; 28 lines. Begins--'Of their nature they greatly them delite'; i.e. Women are by nature hypocrites; they like kissing live images rather than shrines. So I advise young men to take warning: 'Beware alwaye, the blind eateth many [a] flye'; a line which is quoted from Lydgate's ballad printed at p. 295. The author then prays God to keep the fly out of his dish; and ends by congratulating himself on being anonymous, because women would else blame him. No. 48. _The Ten Commandments of Love_; from Trin. MS., fol. 109. Also in MS. Fairfax 16. Begins:--'Certes, ferre extendeth yet my reason.' In 14 stanzas of seven-lines; the last two form the Envoy. After two introductory stanzas, the author gives the ladies their ten commandments. They are, it appears, to exhibit Faith, Entencion, Discrecion, Patience, Secretnesse, Prudence, Perseverance, Pity, Measure [Moderation], and Mercy. In the Envoy, the author says, truly enough, that he is devoid of cunning, experience, manner of enditing, reason, and eloquence; and that he is 'a man unknown.' No. 49. _The Nine Ladies Worthy._ In 9 seven-line stanzas, one stanza for each lady. Begins: 'Profulgent in preciousnes, O Sinope the quene.' Only remarkable for the curious selection made. The Nine Ladies are: (1) Sinope, daughter of Marsepia, queen of the Amazons; see Orosius, Hist. i. 10; (2) Hippolyta, the Amazon, wife of Theseus; (3) Deipyle, daughter of Adrastus, wife of Tydeus; (4) Teuta, queen of the Illyrians; see note to C. T., F 1453 (vol. v. p. 398); (5) Penthesilea the Amazon, slain by Achilles before Troy; (6) queen Tomyris, who slew Cyrus in battle, B.C. 529; (7) Lampeto the Amazon, sister of Marsepia, and aunt of Sinope; (8) Semiramis of Babylon; (9) Menalippe or Melanippe, sister of Antiope, queen of the Amazons, taken captive by Hercules, according to Justinus, ii. 4. 23. Most of these queens are mentioned by Orosius, i. 10, ii. 1, ii. 4; see also Higden's Polychronicon, bk. ii. chapters 9, 21, 24, and bk. iii. c. 7. From the Trin. MS., fol. 113, back. [No. 50. _Virelai._ Printed below, at p. 448.] No. 51. _A Ballade._ Begins:--'In the season of Feuerere when it was full colde.' In 7 seven-line stanzas. In praise of the daisy. Very poor. From the Trin. MS., fol. 160. No. 52. _A Ballade._ Begins--'O Mercifull and o merciable.' In 12 seven-line stanzas. The Trin. MS. has 13 stanzas; but Stowe omitted the tenth, because it coincides with st. 19 of the Craft of Lovers. It is made up of scraps from other poems. Stanzas 1-4 form part of a poem on the fall of man, from Lydgate's _Court of Sapience_ (see vol. i. p. 57). In st. 8 occurs the assonance of _hote_ (hot) and _stroke_; and in st. 9, that of _cureth_ and _renueth_. From the Trin. MS., fol. 161. No. 53. _The Judgement of Paris._ In 4 seven-line stanzas; the first is allotted to Pallas, who tells Paris to take the apple, and give it to the fairest of the three goddesses. After this, he is addressed in succession by Juno, Venus, and Minerva (as she is now called). Then the poem ends. Trin. MS., fol. 161, back. No. 54. _A Balade pleasaunte._ Begins--'I haue a Ladie where so she bee.' In 7 seven-line stanzas. Meant to be facetious; e.g. 'Her skin is smothe as any oxes tong.' The author says that when he was fifteen years old, he saw the wedding of queen Jane; and that was so long ago that there cannot be many such alive. As Joan of Navarre was married to Henry IV in 1403, he was born in 1388, and would have been sixty-two in 1450. It is an imitation of Lydgate's poem entitled A Satirical Description of his Lady; see Minor Poems, ed. Halliwell, p. 199. Trin. MS., fol. 205. No. 55. _Another Balade._ Begins--'O mossie Quince, hangyng by your stalke.' In 4 seven-line stanzas, of which Stowe omits the second. A scurrilous performance. Trin. MS., fol. 205, back. [No. 56. A Ballad by Lydgate; printed below, at p. 295.] No. 58 is a Balade in 9 seven-line stanzas, of no merit, on the theme of the impossibility of restoring a woman's chastity. No. 59. _The Court of Love._ Printed below, at p. 409. No. 60 is a genuine poem; and no. 61 is Lydgate's Story of Thebes. And here Stowe's performance ceases. § 4. The subsequent additions made by Speght are discussed in vol. i. pp. 43-46. Of these, The Flower and the Leaf, Jack Upland, and Hoccleve's poem to Henry V, are here reprinted; and Chaucer's ABC is genuine. He also reprinted the Sayings at p. 450. The pieces not reprinted here are Chaucer's Dream and Eight Goodly Questions. _Chaucer's Dream_ is a false title, assigned to it by Speght; its proper name is _The Isle of Ladies_. Begins--'Whan Flora, the quene of pleasaunce.' The MS. at Longleat is said to have been written about 1550. A second MS. has been acquired by the British Museum, named MS. Addit. 10303; this is also in a hand of the sixteenth century, and presents frequent variations in the text. It is very accessible, in the texts by Moxon, Bell, and Morris; but how Tyrwhitt ever came to dream that it could be genuine, must remain a mystery. I originally hoped to include this poem in the present selection, but its inordinate length compelled me to abandon my intention. In a prologue of seventy lines, the author truthfully states, at l. 60, that he is 'a slepy[3] writer.' There are many assonances, such as _undertakes_, _scapes_ (337); _named_, _attained_ (597); _tender_, _remember_ (1115, 1415); _rome_, _towne_ (1567). Note also such rimes as _destroied_, _conclude_ (735); _queen_, _kneen_, pl. of _knee_ (1779); _nine_, _greene_ (1861); _vertuous_, _use_ (1889). Some rimes exhibit the Northern dialect; as _paines_, _straines_, pr. s., 909; _wawe_, _overthrawe_, pp., 1153; _servand_, _livand_, pres. pt., 1629; _greene_, _eene_ (pl. of _e_, eye), 1719; _hand_, _avisand_, pres. pt., 1883; &c. Yet the writer is not particular; if he wants a rime to _wroth_, he uses the Southern form _goth_, 785; but if he wants a rime to _rose_, he uses the Northern form _gose_ (goes), 1287, 1523. But before any critic can associate this poem with Chaucer, he has first to prove that it was written before 1450. Moreover, it belongs to the cycle of metrical romances, being connected (as Tyrwhitt says) with the _Eliduc_ of Marie de France; and, perhaps, with her _Lanval_. To the _Isle of Ladies_ Speght appended two other poems, of which the former contains a single stanza of 6 lines, and the latter is a ballad in 3 seven-line stanzas. No. 66. _Eight Goodly Questions_; in Bell's Chaucer, iv. 421. In 9 seven-line stanzas. First printed in 1542. There are at least two manuscript copies; one in the Trinity MS., marked R. 3. 15; and another in the Bannatyne MS., printed at p. 123 of the print of the Bannatyne MS., issued by the Hunterian Club in 1873. In l. 19, the latter MS. corrects _tree_ to _coffour_, the Scottish form of _cofre_. It is merely expanded from the first seven lines of a poem by Ausonius, printed in Walker's _Corpus Poetarum Latinorum_, with the title Eorundem Septem Sapientum Sententiae. This English version is quite in Lydgate's style. § 5. EDITIONS AND MSS. CONSULTED. I have repeatedly explained that there were but four black-letter editions of Collected Works before Speght's; and these I call Thynne's first edition (1532), Thynne's second edition (1542), the undated edition (about 1550, which I call 1550 for brevity), and Stowe's edition (1561) respectively. I shall denote these editions below by the symbols 'Th.,' ed. 1542, ed. 1550, and 'S.' respectively. Of these editions, the first is the best; the second is derived from the first; the third is derived from the second; and the fourth from the third[4]. In every case it is useless to consult a later edition when an earlier one can be found. The following is the list of the pieces which depend on the editions _only_, or for which the editions have been collated. I always cite the earliest; that the later ones _also_ contain the piece in question must, once for all, be understood. Caxton.--XXVIII. No. VII. was also collated with a print by Caxton. Wynkyn de Worde.--XXIII. Wynkyn de Worde.--VIII. Chepman and Miller (1508).--VIII. Th.--I. IX. XI. XXII. Also collated for IV. V. VII. VIII. X. XII. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XXI. XXIII. Thynne had access to excellent MSS., and is always worth consulting. Ed. 1542.--II. XXVIII. Collated for VI. An early printed edition of Jack Upland.--III. S. (1561).--XV. Collated for XIII. XIV. XXIV. XXV. XXIX. A printed edition of the Testament of Cresseid (1593).--XVII. Speght (1598).--XX. Collated for III. The following twenty MSS. have been collated or consulted. Trentham MS.--IV. (See Introduction.) Fairfax 16.-V. VIII. XIII. XVI. XVIII. XIX. (See vol. i. p. 51.) Bodley 638.--V. VIII. XVIII. (See vol. i. p. 53.) Tanner 346.--V. VIII. XVIII. XIX. (See vol. i. p. 54.) Ashmole 59.--VII. X. XIII. (See vol. i. p. 53.) Arch. Selden B. 24.--V. VIII. XVIII. XXVI. XXVII. (See vol. i. p. 54.) Digby 181.--V. VIII. (See vol. i. p. 54.) Camb. Univ. Lib. Ff. 1. 6.--V. XII. XVI. XVIII. (See vol. i. p. 55.) Pepys 2006.--VIII. (See vol. i. p. 55.) Trin. Coll. R. 3. 19.--XIV. XVI. XXI. XXIV. XXV. XXIX. (See vol. i. p. 56.) Trin. Coll. R. 3. 20.--V. (One of Shirley's MSS.) Trin. Coll. O. 9. 38.--XIV. Addit. 16165, B. M.--XIII. (See vol. i. p. 56.) Addit. 34360, B. M.--XXI. Harl. 372, B. M.--XVI. (See vol. i. p. 58.) Harl. 2251, B. M.--VII. XII. XIV. (See vol. i. p. 57.) Harl. 7578, B. M.--XIII. (See vol. i. p. 58.) Sloane 1212, B. M.--X. (A fair copy.) Phillipps 8151.--VI. (See Hoccleve's Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 1.) Ashburnham 133.--V. (See the same, p. xxvii.) § 6. Conversely, I here give the authorities from which each piece is derived. For further comments on some of them, see the separate introductions to each piece below. I. _The Testament of Love_ (prose).--Th. (Thynne, 1532). II. _The Plowmans Tale_ (1380 lines).--Th. (Thynne, 1542). III. _Jack Upland_ (prose).--Early edition, Caius College library; Speght (1598). IV. _Praise of Peace_ (385 lines).--Th. (1532); Trentham MS. V. _Letter of Cupid_ (476 lines).--Th. (1532); Fairfax, Bodley, Tanner, Selden, Ashburnham, Digby MSS.; Trin. Coll. R. 3. 20; Camb. Ff. 1. 6; also in the Bannatyne MS. VI. _To the King's Grace_ (64).--Th. (1542); Phillipps 8151. VII. _A Moral Balade_ (189).--Th. (1532); Caxton; Ashmole 59, Harl. 2251. (I also find a reference to Harl. 367, fol. 85, back.) VIII. _Complaint of the Black Knight_ (681).--Th. (1532); Fairfax, Bodley, Tanner, Digby, Selden, Pepys; Addit. 16165. Also printed, separately, by Wynkyn de Worde (n. d.); and at Edinburgh, by Chepman and Miller, in 1508. IX. _The Flour of Curtesye_ (270).--Th. (1532). X. _In Commendation of our Lady_ (140).--Th.; Ashmole 59; Sloane 1212. XI. _To my Soverain Lady_ (112).--Th. XII. _Ballad of Good Counsel_ (133).--Th.; Camb. Ff. 1. 6; Harl. 2251. XIII. _Beware of Doubleness_ (104).--Stowe (1561); Fairfax 16, Ashmole 59, Harl. 7578, Addit. 16165. XIV. _A Balade: Warning Men_ (49).--Stowe (1561); Harl. 2251, fol. 149, back; Trin. R. 3. 19; Trin. O. 9. 38. XV. _Three Sayings_ (21).--Stowe (1561). XVI. _La Belle Dame sans Mercy_ (856).--Th.; Fairfax, Harl. 372; Camb. Ff. 1. 6; Trin. R. 3. 19, fol. 98. XVII. _Testament of Cresseid_ (616).--Th.; Edinburgh edition (1593). XVIII. _The Cuckoo and the Nightingale_ (290).--Th.; Fairfax, Bodley, Tanner, Selden; Camb. Ff. 1. 6. XIX. _Envoy to Alison_ (27).--Th.; Fairfax, Tanner. XX. _The Flower and the Leaf_ (595).--Speght (1598). XXI. _The Assembly of Ladies_ (756).--Th.; Addit. 34360; Trin. R. 3. 19. XXII. _A goodly Balade_ (71).--Th. XXIII. _Go forth, King_ (14).--Wynkyn de Worde; Th. XXIV. _The Court of Love_ (1442).--Stowe (1561); Trin. R. 3. 19. XXV. _Virelai_ (20).--Stowe (1561); Trin. R. 3. 19. XXVI. _Prosperity_ (8); XXVII. _Loyalty_ (7).--Selden MS. XXVIII. _Sayings_ (14).--Caxton; reprinted, Th. (1542). XXIX. _In Praise of Chaucer_ (7).--Stowe (1561); Trin. R. 3. 19. * * * * * § 7. I. THE TESTAMENT OF LOVE; BY THOMAS USK. Of this piece no MS. copy has been discovered. The only authority is Thynne's edition of 1532, whence all later editions have been copied more or less incorrectly. The reprints will be found to grow steadily worse, so that the first edition is the only one worth consulting. The present edition is printed from a transcript of Thynne (1532), made by myself; the proof-sheets being carefully read with the original. In making the transcript, I have altered the symbol _u_ to _v_, when used as a consonant; and (in the few places where it occurs) the consonantal _i_ to _j_. I have also substituted _i_ for _y_ when the vowel is short, chiefly in the case of the suffix _-yng_ or _-ynge_, here printed _-ing_ or _-inge_. In nearly all other cases, the original spellings are given in the footnotes. Thynne's chief errors of printing occur in places where he has persistently altered the spelling of the MS. to suit the spelling in fashion in the days of Henry VIII. His chief alterations are as follows. He prints _ea_ for open _ee_, written _ee_ or _e_ at the beginning of the fifteenth century; thus, he has _ease_ for _ese_, and _please_ for _plese_. He most perversely adds a useless final _e_ to the words _howe_, _nowe_, and some others; and he commits the anachronism of printing _father_, _mother_, _together_, _wether_, _gather_, in place of _fader_, _moder_, _togeder_, _weder_, _gader_; whereas the termination in these words invariably appears as _-der_ till shortly before 1500. Further, he prints _catche_ for _cacche_, _perfection_ for _perfeccion_, and the like; and in several other ways has much impaired the spelling of his original. Many of these things I have attempted to set right; and the scholar who compares the text with the footnotes will easily see why each alteration has been made, if he happens to be at all conversant with MSS. written in the fourteenth century. I believe that this piece is almost unparalleled as regards the shameful corruption of its text. It cannot be supposed that Thynne or any one else ever read it over with the view of seeing whether the result presented any sense. Originally written in an obscure style, every form of carelessness seems to have been employed in order to render it more obscure than before. In a great number of places, it is easy to restore the sense by the insertion of such necessary words as _of_, or _but_, or _by_. In other places, non-existent words can be replaced by real ones; or some correction can be made that is more or less obvious. I have marked all inserted words by placing them within square brackets, as, e.g., _am_ in l. 46 on p. 6. Corrections of readings are marked by the use of a dagger (+); thus 'I +wot wel' in l. 78 on p. 7 is my emendation of Thynne's phrase 'I wol wel,' which is duly recorded in the footnote. But some sentences remain in which the sense is not obvious; and one is almost tempted to think that the author did not clearly know what he intended to say. That he was remarkable for a high degree of inaccuracy will appear presently. A strange misprint occurs in Book III. ch. 4, ll. 30, 31 (p. 117), where nearly two whole lines occur twice over; but the worst confusion is due to an extraordinary dislocation of the text in Book III. (c. iv. l. 56--c. ix. l. 46), as recently discovered by the sagacity of Mr. H. Bradley, and explained more fully below. I have also, for the first time, revised the punctuation, which in Thynne is only denoted by frequent sloping strokes and full stops, which are not always inserted in the right places. And I have broken up the chapters into convenient paragraphs. § 8. A very curious point about this piece is the fact which I was the first to observe, viz. that the initial letters of the various chapters were certainly intended to form an acrostic. Unfortunately, Thynne did not perceive this design, and has certainly begun some of the chapters either with the wrong letter or at a wrong place. The sense shews that the first letter of Book I. ch. viii. should be E, not O (see the note); and, with this correction, the initial letters of the First Book yield the words--MARGARETE OF. In Book II, Thynne begins Chapters XI and XII at wrong places, viz. with the word 'Certayn' (p. 86, l. 133), and the word 'Trewly' (p. 89, l. 82). He thus produces the words--VIRTW HAVE MCTRCI. It is obvious that the last word ought to be MERCI, which can be obtained by beginning Chapter XI with the word 'Every,' which suits the sense quite as well. For the chapters of Book III, we are again dependent on Thynne. If we accept his arrangement as it stands, the letters yielded are--ON THSKNVI; and the three books combined give us the sentence:--MARGARETE OF VIRTW, HAVE MERCI ON THSKNVI. Here 'Margarete of virtw' means 'Margaret endued with divine virtue'; and the author appeals either to the Grace of God, or to the Church. The last word ought to give us the author's name; but in that case the letters require rearrangement before the riddle can be read with certainty. After advancing so far towards the solution of the mystery, I was here landed in a difficulty which I was unable to solve. But Mr. H. Bradley, by a happy inspiration, hit upon the idea that the text might have suffered dislocation; and was soon in a position to prove that no less than six leaves of the MS. must have been out of place, to the great detriment of the sense and confusion of the argument. He very happily restored the right order, and most obligingly communicated to me the result. I at once cancelled the latter part of the treatise (from p. 113 to the end), and reprinted this portion in the right order, according to the sense. With this correction, the unmeaning THSKNVI is resolved into the two words THIN USK, i.e. 'thine Usk'; a result the more remarkable because Mr. Bradley had _previously_ hit upon Usk as being the probable author. For the autobiographical details exactly coincide, in every particular, with all that is known of the career of Thomas Usk, according to Walsingham, the Rolls of Parliament, and the continuation of Higden's Polychronicon by John Malverne (ed. Lumby, vol. ix. pp. 45-6, 134, 150, 169); cf. Lingard, ed. 1874, iii. 163-7. The date of the composition of this piece can now be determined without much error. Usk was executed on March 4, 1388, and we find him referring to past events that happened towards the end of 1384 or later. The most likely date is about 1387. I here append an exact account of the order of the text _as it appears in Thynne_; every break in the text being denoted, in the present volume, by a dark asterisk. Thynne's text is in a correct order from p. 1 to p. 118, l. 56:--any mouable tyme there (Th. fol. 354, col. 2, l. 11)[5]. (1) Next comes, in Thynne, the passage beginning at p. 135, l. 94:--Fole, haue I not seyd--and ending at p. 143, l. 46:--syth god is the greatest loue and the (Th. fol. 356, back, col. 1, l. 5). (2) Next, in Thynne, the passage beginning at p. 131, l. 97:--ne ought to loke thynges with resonnyng--and ending at p. 132, l. 161, at the end of a chapter (Th. fol. 356, back, col. 2, last line). (3) Next, in Thynne, the passage beginning at p. 124, l. 8:--Now trewly, lady--and ending at p. 128, at the end of the chapter (Th. fol. 357, last line). (4) Next, in Thynne, the passage beginning at p. 132, new chapter:--Uery trouth (quod she)--and ending at p. 135, l. 94:--that shal bringe out frute that (Th. fol. 358, back, col. 1, l. 25). (5) Next, in Thynne, the passage beginning at p. 118, l. 56:--is nothyng preterit ne passed--and ending at p. 124, l. 7:--euer to onbyde (Th. fol. 360, col. 1, l. 24). (6) Next, in Thynne, the passage beginning at p. 128, new chapter:--Nowe, lady (quod I) that tree to set--and ending at p. 131, l. 97:--vse ye (Th. fol. 360, back, col. 2, l. 9). (7) Lastly, the text reverts to the true order, at p. 143, l. 46, with the words:--greatest wisdom (Th. fol. 360, back, col. 2, l. 9. as before). See The Athenæum, no. 3615, Feb. 6, 1897. It is not difficult to account for this somewhat confusing dislocation. It is clear that the original MS. was written on quires of the usual size, containing 8 folios apiece. The first 10 quires, which we may call _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, _e_, _f_, _g_, _h_, _i_, and _k_, were in the right order. The rest of the MS. occupied quire _l_ (of 8 folios), and quire _m_ (of only 2); the last page being blank. The seventh folio of _l_ was torn up the back, so that the two leaves parted company; and the same happened to both the folios in quire _m_, leaving six leaves loose. What then happened was this:--first of all, folios _l__1--_l__4, were reversed and turned inside out; then came the former halves of _m__1, and _m__2, and the latter half of _l__7; next _l__5 and _l__6 (undetached), with the former half of _l__7 thrust in the middle; so that the order in this extraordinary quire was as follows: _l__4, _l__3, _l__2, _l__1, all inside out, half of _m__1, half of _m__2, the latter half of _l__7, _l__5, _l__6, and the former half of _l__7, followed by the six undetached leaves. The last quire simply consisted of _l__8 (entire), followed by the latter halves of _m__2 and _m__1, which were kept in the right order by the fact that the last page was blank. It has thus become possible for us to make some progress towards the right understanding of the work, which has hitherto been much misunderstood. Warton (Hist. E. Poetry, 1840, ii. 218) dismisses it in two lines:--'It is a lover's parody of Boethius's book De Consolatione mentioned above'; whereas the author was not a lover at all, except in a spiritual sense. Even the fuller account in Morley's English Writers (1890), v. 261, is not wholly correct. The statement is there made, that 'it professes to be written, and probably was written, by a prisoner in danger of his life'; but the prison[6] may have been _at first_ metaphorical, as he could hardly have written the whole work in two or three months. In Book iii. ch. 9, ll. 131, 132, he prays that 'God's hand, which has scourged him in mercy, may hereafter mercifully keep and defend him in good plight.' The whole tone of the treatise shews that he is writing to justify himself, and thinks that he has succeeded. But a stern doom was close at hand. § 9. The truth is that the attempts of Godwin and others to make the autobiographical statements of the author fit into the life of Chaucer, have quite led the critics out of the right track. That the author was _not_ Chaucer is perfectly obvious to every one who reads the passage in the lower half of p. 140 with moderate attention; for the author there refers to Chaucer as Love's 'noble philosophical poet in English,' who wrote a treatise of Love's servant Troilus, and who 'passeth all other makers in wit and in good reason of sentence'; praise which, however true it may be of Chaucer, the writer was certainly not entitled to claim for himself. The sole point in which the circumstances of the author agree with those of Chaucer is this--that they were both born in London; which is, obviously, too slight a coincidence to build upon. Now that we know the author's name to have been Thomas Usk, the matter assumes quite another complexion. Usk was much inclined, in his early days, to a belief in Lollard opinions; but when he found that persistence in such belief was likely to lead to trouble and danger, he deemed it prudent to recant as completely as he could[7], and contemplates his consequent security with some complacency. In just the same way, it appears that he had changed sides in politics. We first find him in the position of confidential clerk to John of Northampton, mayor of London in 1381-2 and 1382-3. In July, 1384, Usk was arrested and imprisoned in order to induce him to reveal certain secrets implicating Northampton. This he consented to do, and accused Northampton before the king at Reading, on the 18th of August. Northampton strenuously denied the charges against him, but was condemned as guilty, and sent to Corfe castle[8]. After this, Usk joined the party of Sir Nicholas Brembre, mayor of London in 1383-4, 1384-5, and 1385-6, and Collector of Customs in 1381-3, when Chaucer was Comptroller of the same. Brembre had been active in procuring the condemnation of Northampton, and was, at the close of 1386, one of the few personal adherents who remained faithful to the king. In 1387, Richard was busily devising means for the overthrow of the duke of Gloucester's regency, Brembre and Usk being on the king's side; but his attempts were unsuccessful, and, in November of the same year, the duke of Gloucester and his partisans, who were called the 'appellants,' became masters of the situation; they accused the king's councillors of treason, and imprisoned or banished their opponents. On Feb. 3, 1388, the appellants produced their charges against their victims, Brembre and Usk being among the number. Both were condemned and executed, Brembre on Feb. 20, and Usk on the 4th of March. Usk's offence was that he had been appointed sub-sheriff of Middlesex by Brembre's influence[9], with a view to the arrest of the duke of Gloucester and others of his party. His defence was that all that he had done was by the king's orders, a defence on which he doubtless relied. Unfortunately for him, it was an aggravation of his crime. It was declared that he ought to have known that the king was not at the time his own master, but was acting according to the counsel of false advisers; and this sealed his fate. He was sentenced to be drawn, hung, and beheaded, and that his head should be set up over Newgate. The sentence was barbarously carried out; he was hung but immediately cut down, and clumsily beheaded by nearly thirty strokes of a sword. 'Post triginta mucronis ictus fere decapitatus semper usque ad mortem nunquam fatebatur se deliquisse contra Johannem Northampton, sed erant omnia vera quae de eo praedicaverat coram rege in quodam consilio habito apud Radyngum anno elapso.'--Higden, App. 169. John of Malverne speaks as if he had some personal recollection of Usk, of whom he says--'Satagebat namque astu et arte illorum amicitiam sibi attrahere quos procul dubio ante capitales hostes sibi fuisse cognovit,'--Ib. p. 45. We can now readily understand that Usk's praise of Chaucer must have been more embarrassing than acceptable; and perhaps it was not altogether without design that the poet, in his House of Fame, took occasion to let the world know how he devoted his leisure time to other than political subjects. § 10. Some of the events of his life are alluded to by Usk in the present treatise. He justifies his betrayal of Northampton (p. 26, ll. 53-103, p. 28, ll. 116-201), and is grateful for the king's pardon (p. 60, ll. 120-4). He refers to his first imprisonment (p. 60, l. 104), and tells us that he offered wager of battle against all who disputed his statements (p. 60, l, 116; p. 31, l. 10); but no one accepted the wager. He further tells us how he endeavoured to make his peace with the Church. Taking his cue from the parable of the merchantman seeking goodly pearls (p. 16, l. 84), he likens the visible Church of Christ to the pearl of great price (p. 145, l. 103; p. 94, l. 121), and piteously implores her mercy (p. 8, l. 135); and the whole tone of the piece shews his confidence that he is reasonably safe (p. 144, l. 120). He sees clearly that lollardy is unacceptable, and indulges in the usual spiteful fling against the cockle (_lolia_) which the Lollards were reproached with sowing (p. 48, l. 93). He had once been a heretic (p. 99, l. 29), and in danger of 'never returning' to the true Church (p. 99, l. 38); but he secured his safety by a full submission (p. 105, l. 133). At the same time, there is much about the piece that is vague, shifty, and unsatisfactory. He is too full of excuses, and too plausible; in a word, too selfish. Hence he has no real message for others, but only wishes to display his skill, which he does by help of the most barefaced and deliberate plagiarism. It was not from the Consolatio Philosophiae of Boethius, but from the English translation of that work by Chaucer, that he really drew his materials; and he often takes occasion to lift lines or ideas from the poem of Troilus whenever he can find any that come in handy. In one place he turns a long passage from the House of Fame into very inferior prose. There are one or two passages that remind us of the Legend of Good Women (i. pr. 100, ii. 3. 38, iii. 7. 38); but they are remarkably few. But he keeps a copy of Chaucer's Boethius always open before him, and takes from it passage after passage, usually with many alterations, abbreviations, expansions, and other disfigurements; but sometimes without any alteration at all. A few examples will suffice, as a large number of parallel passages are duly pointed out in the Notes. § 11. In Chaucer's Boethius (bk. i. pr. 3. 10), when Philosophy, the heavenly visitant, comes to comfort the writer, her first words are:--'_O my norry_, sholde I forsaken thee now?' In the Testament (p. 10, l. 37), Heavenly Love commences her consolations with the same exclamation:--'_O my nory_, wenest thou that my maner be, to foryete my frendes or my servaunts?' The Latin text--'An te, _alumne_, desererem?'--does not suggest this remarkable mode of address. This, however, is a mere beginning; it is not till further on that plagiarisms begin to be frequent. At first, as at p. 37, the author copies the sense rather than the words; but he gradually begins to copy words and phrases also. Thus, at p. 43, l. 38, his '_chayres_ of domes' comes from Chaucer's 'heye _chayres_' in bk. i. met. 5. 27; and then, in the next line, we find '_vertue, shynende naturelly ... is hid_ under cloude,' where Chaucer has '_vertu_, cler-_shyninge naturelly is hid_ in derke derknesses'; bk. i. met. 5. 28. At p. 44, l. 66, we have: '_Whan nature brought thee forth_, come thou not _naked out of thy moders wombe_? Thou haddest no richesse'; where Chaucer has: '_Whan_ that _nature broughte thee forth out of thy moder wombe_, I receyved thee _naked_, and nedy of alle thinges'; bk. ii. pr. 2. 10. Just a few lines below (ll. 71-76) we have the sense, but not the words, of the neighbouring passage in Chaucer (ll. 23-25). Further literal imitations are pointed out in the Notes to l. 85 in the same chapter, and elsewhere. See, for example, the Notes to Book ii. ch. iv. 4, 14, 20, 61; ch. v. 15, 57, 65, 67, 79; ch. vi. 11, 30, 74, 117, 123, 129, 132, 143; ch. vii. 8, 14, 20, 23, 30, 39, 50, 74, 95, 98, 105, 109, 114, 117, 130, 135, 139, 148; &c. Those who require conviction on this point may take such an example as this. 'O! a noble thing and clere is power, that is not founden mighty to kepe himselfe'; (p. 70, l. 20). 'O! a noble thing and a cleer thing is power, that is nat founden mighty to kepen it-self'; Ch. Boeth. bk. iii. pr. 5. 5-7. The Latin text is: 'O praeclara potentia quae nec ad conseruationem quidem sui satis efficax inuenitur.' I see no reason for supposing that the author anywhere troubled himself to consult the Latin original. Indeed, it is possible to correct errors in the text by help of Chaucer's version; see the last note on p. 461. § 12. We get the clearest idea of the author's method by observing his treatment of the House of Fame, 269-359. It is worth while to quote the whole passage:-- 'Lo! how a woman doth amis _To love_ him that unknowen is!... 270 Hit _is not_ al _gold_ that glareth;... Ther _may be under_ goodliheed Kevered _many_ a shrewed _vyce_; 275 _Therefore_ be _no wight_ so nyce, To take a love only for _chere_, For _speche_, or for frendly manere; For this shal every woman finde That som _man_, of his pure kinde, 280 Wol _shewen outward_ the faireste _Til he have_ caught that what him leste; And _thanne wol_ he _causes finde_, And swere how that she is unkinde, _Or fals_, or prevy, or double was ... 285 Therfor I wol seye a proverbe, That "he that fully knoweth th'erbe 290 May saufly leye hit to his yë" ... Allas! is every man thus trewe, That every yere wolde have a newe, ... As thus: of _oon_ he wolde _have fame_, 305 In magnifying of his name; Another _for frendship_, seith he; And yet ther shal the _thri de_ be, That shal be taken _for delyt_ ... _Allas, that ever_ hadde routhe 332 _Any woman_ on any man! Now see I wel, and telle can, We wrecched _women conne_ non art ... 335 How sore that _ye men_ conne _grone_, Anoon, as we have yow receyved, Certeinly we _ben deceyved_;... 340 For through you is my name _lorn_, And alle my actes _red and songe_ Over al this land on every tonge. 348 O wikke _Fame_!... Eek, thogh I mighte _duren ever_, _That_ I _have doon, rekever_ I _never_ ... 354 And that I shal thus juged be-- "Lo, right as she hath doon, now she Wol do eftsones, hardily."' 359 If the reader will now turn to p. 54, l. 45, and continue down to l. 81 on the next page, he will find the whole of this passage turned into prose, with numerous cunning alterations and a few insertions, yet including all such words as are printed above in italics! That is, he will find all except the proverb in ll. 290, 291; but this also is not far off; for it occurs over the leaf, on p. 56, at l. 115, and again at p. 22, ll. 44-45! Surely, this is nothing but book-making, and the art of it does not seem to be difficult. § 13. The author expressly acknowledges his admiration of Troilus (p. 140, l. 292); and it is easy to see his indebtedness to that poem. He copies Chaucer's curious mistake as to Styx being a pit (p. 3, l. 80, and the note). He adopts the words _let-game_ (p. 18, l. 124) and _wiver_ (p. 129, l. 27). He quotes a whole line from Troilus at p. 27, l. 78 (see note); and spoils another one at p. 34, ch. viii. l. 5, a third at p. 80, l. 116, and a fourth at p. 128, ch. vii. l. 2. We can see whence he took his allusion to 'playing raket,' and to the dock and nettle, at p. 13, ll. 166, 167; and the phrase to 'pype with an yvè-lefe' at p. 134, l. 50. It is further observable that he had read a later text of Piers Plowman with some care, but he seems to quote it from memory, as at p. 18, l. 153, and p. 24, l. 118. A few other passages in which he seems to have taken ideas from this popular and remarkable poem are pointed out in the Notes. It is probable that he thence adopted the words _legistres_ and _skleren_; for which see the Glossary, and consult the Notes for the references which are there given. § 14. The author is frequently guilty of gross inaccuracies. He seems to confuse Cain with Ham (p. 52, ll. 107, 109), but _Cayn_, says Mr. Bradley, may be Thynne's misprint for _Cam_, i.e. Ham. He certainly confuses Perdiccas with Arrhidæus (p. 52, l. 116). He speaks of the _eighth_ year, instead of the _seventh_, as being a sabbatical year, and actually declares that the ordinary week contains _seven_ working-days (p. 24, ll. 102-104)! He tells us that Sunday begins 'at the first hour after noon (!) on Saturday' (p. 82, l. 163). Hence it is not to be wondered at that some of his arguments and illustrations are quite unintelligible. § 15. The title of the work, viz. THE TESTAMENT OF LOVE, readily reminds us of the passage in Gower already quoted in vol. iii. p. xliii., in which the goddess Venus proposes that Chaucer should write 'his testament of love,' in order 'to sette an ende of alle his werke.' I have already explained that the real reference in this passage is to the Legend of Good Women; but I am not prepared, at present, to discuss the connection between the expression in Gower and the treatise by Usk. The fact that our author adopted the above title may have led to the notion that Chaucer wrote the treatise here discussed; but it is quite clear that he had nothing to do with it. Professor Morley well says that 'the writer of this piece uses the word Testament in the old Scriptural sense of a witnessing, and means by Love the Divine Love, the Christian spirit encouraging and directing the wish for the grace of God, called Margaret, the pearl beyond all price.' To which, however, it is highly essential to add that Margaret is not used in the sense of 'grace' alone, but is also employed, in several passages, to signify 'the visible Church of Christ.' The author is, in fact, careful to warn us of the varying, the almost Protean sense of the word at p. 145, where he tells us that 'Margarite, a woman [i.e. properly a woman's name], betokeneth _grace_, _lerning_, or _wisdom of god_, or els _holy church_.' His object seems to have been to extend the meaning of the word so as to give him greater scope for ingenuity in varying his modes of reference to it. He has certainly succeeded in adding to the obscurity of his subject. That by 'holy church' he meant the visible Church of Christ of his own time, appears from the remarkable assertion that it is 'deedly,' i.e. mortal (p. 94, l. 121). Such an epithet is inapplicable to the Church in its spiritual character. It may also be observed that, however much the sense implied by Margarite may vary, it never takes the meaning which we should most readily assign to it; i.e. it never means a live woman, nor represents even an imaginary object of natural human affection. The nearest approach to such an ideal is at p. 94, l. 114, where we are told that the jewel which he hopes to attain is as precious a pearl as a woman is by nature. § 16. It hardly seems worth while to give a detailed analysis of the whole piece. An analysis of the First Book (which is, on the whole, the best) is given by Professor Morley; and the hints which I have already given as to the character and situation of the author will enable the reader to regard the treatise from a right point of view. But it is proper to observe that the author himself tells us how he came to divide the work into three books[10], and what are the ideas on which each book is founded. Each of the three books has an introductory chapter. That to the First Book I have called a Prologue; and perhaps it would have been strictly correct to have called the first chapters of the other books by the same name. In the introductory chapter to the Third Book, p. 101, he declares that the First Book is descriptive of Error, or Deviation (which the editions print as Demacion!); the Second, of Grace; and the Third, of Joy. In other words, the First Book is particularly devoted to recounting the errors of his youth, especially how he was led by others into a conspiracy against the state and into deviation from orthodoxy. In the Prologue, he excuses himself for writing in English, and announces the title of the work. He then assures us that he is merely going to gather up the crumbs that have fallen from the table, and to glean handfuls of corn which Boethius has dropped. 'A sly servant in his own help is often much commended'; and this being understood, he proceeds to help himself accordingly, as has already been explained. § 17. BOOK I: CH. I. In Chapter I, he describes his misery, and hopes that the dice will turn, and implores the help of Margaret, here used (apparently) to typify the grace of God. He represents himself as being in prison, in imitation of Boethius; but I suspect that, _in the present passage_, the prison was metaphorical. (He had been imprisoned in 1384, and in 1387 was imprisoned again; but that is another matter.) CH. II. Heavenly Love suddenly appears to him, as Philosophy appeared to Boethius, and is ready to console and reclaim him. She is aware of his losses, and he tries to vindicate his constancy of character. CH. III. He describes how he once wandered through the woods at the close of autumn, and was attacked by some animals who had suddenly turned wild. To save himself, he embarks on board a ship; but the reader is disappointed to find that the adventure is wholly unreal; the ship is the ship of Travail, peopled by Sight, Lust, Thought, and Will. He is driven on an island, where he catches a glimpse of Love, and finds a Margaret, a pearl of price. He appeals to Love to comfort him. CH. IV. Love first reproves and then consoles him. She enquires further into his complaints. CH. V. She advises him to contemn such as have spoken against him. He complains that he has served seven years for Rachel, and prays for comfort in his eighth year. She exhorts him to perseverance. CH. VI. He here goes into several details as to his previous conduct. The authorities threatened to keep him in prison, unless he would reveal a certain secret or plot. He was afraid that the peace of his native place, London, would suffer; and to procure its peace, he 'declared certain points.' Being charged upon oath to reveal certain secret dealings, he at once did so; for which he incurred much odium. CH. VII. To prove that he had only spoken the truth, he offered wager of battle; and was justified by the fact that no one accepted it. He had not perjured himself, because his oath in the law-court was superior to his former oath of secrecy. He only meant truth, but was sadly slandered. It is absurd to be 'a stinking martyr' in a false cause. CH. VIII. Love tells him he has greatly erred, and must expect much correction. Earthly fame should be despised, whilst he looks for the fame that comes after death. CH. IX. Love vindicates the greatness of God and the goodness of His providence. CH. X. The author complains of his hard fortune; he has lost his goods and has been deprived of his office. Love explains that adversity teaches salutary lessons, and that the true riches may still be his own. § 18. BOOK II. In the first chapter (or Prologue) of the Second Book, he again discusses the object of his work. In Chapter II, Love sings him a Latin song, introducing complaints against the clergy such as frequently occur in Piers the Plowman. In Chapter III, we find a discourse on womankind, largely borrowed from Chaucer's House of Fame. The next eight chapters are chiefly devoted to a discussion of the way by which the repentant sinner may come to 'the knot' of Heavenly bliss; and it is here, in particular, that a large portion of Chaucer's Boethius is freely imitated or copied. The last three chapters recount the excellences of Margaret, which in many passages refers rather to the visible Church than to divine Grace. § 19. BOOK III. The first chapter is again introductory, explaining why the number of Books is three. 'The Margaret in virtue is likened to Philosophy, with her three kinds.' It is remarkable that this Third Book, which is dedicated to Joy, is the dullest of the three, being largely taken up with the questions of predestination and free will, with more borrowings from Chaucer's Boethius. In Chapter V, Love explains how continuance in good will produces the fruit of Grace; and, in Chapters VI and VII, shews how such grace is to be attained. Chapter IX recurs to the subject of predestination; after which the work comes to a formal conclusion, with excuses for its various imperfections. § 20. II. THE PLOWMANS TALE. This piece does not appear in Thynne's first edition of 1532, but occurs, for the first time, in the second edition of 1542, where it is added at the end of the Canterbury Tales, after the Parson's Tale. In the next (undated) edition, probably printed about 1550, it is placed _before_ the Parson's Tale, as if it were really Chaucer's, and the same arrangement occurs in the fourth edition, that of 1561, by John Stowe. It is worth mentioning that some booksellers put forward a fable as to the true date of the undated edition being 1539, in order to enhance the value of their copies; but the pretence is obviously false, as is shewn by collation[11]; besides which, it is not likely that the Plowman's Tale would have been _at first_ inserted before the Parson's Tale, _then_ placed after it, and then _again_ placed before it. It is best to separate the first four editions by nearly equal intervals, their dates being, respectively, 1532, 1542, about 1550, and 1561. Comparison of the black-letter editions shews that the first is the best; and the later ones, being mere reprints, grow gradually worse. Hence, in this case, the edition of 1542 is the sole authority, and the readings of the inferior copies may be safely neglected. It is remarkable that Mr. T. Wright, in his edition of this poem printed in his Political Poems and Songs, i. 304, should have founded his text upon a reprint of Speght in 1687, when he might have taken as his authority a text more than 140 years older. The result is, naturally, that his text is much worse than was at all necessary. According to Speght, there was once a MS. copy of this piece in Stowe's library, but no one knows what became of it. According to Todd, in his Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer, p. xxxix, there was once a black-letter edition of it, entitled 'The Plouuman's tale compylled by syr Geffray Chaucer knyght.' Todd says: 'It is of the duodecimo size, in the black letter, without date, and imprinted at London in Paules churche-yarde at the sygne of the Hyll, by Wyllyam Hyll. I have compared with the poem as printed by Urry forty or fifty lines, and I found almost as many variations between them[12]. The colophon of this book is, _Thus endeth the boke of Chaunterburye Tales_. This rarity belongs to the Rev. Mr. Conybeare, the present Professor of the Saxon language in the University of Oxford.' This edition can no longer be traced. Hazlitt mentions a black-letter edition of this piece, printed separately by Thomas Godfray (about 1535), on twenty leaves; of which only one copy is known, viz. that at Britwell. There is also a late print of it in the Bodleian Library, dated 1606. § 21. It is needless to discuss the possibility that Chaucer wrote this Tale, as it is absent from all the MSS.; and it does not appear that the ascription of it to him was taken seriously. It is obvious, from the introductory Prologue (p. 147), that the author never intended his work to be taken for Chaucer's; he purposely chooses a different metre from any that occurs in the Canterbury Tales, and he introduces his Ploughman as coming under the Host's notice quite suddenly, so that the Host is constrained to ask him--'what man art thou?' The whole manner of the Tale is conspicuously and intentionally different from that of Chaucer; and almost the only expression which at all resembles Chaucer occurs in ll. 51, 52:-- 'I pray you that no man me reproche Whyl that I am my tale telling.' Chaucer himself, before reciting his Tale of Melibeus, said much the same thing:-- 'And let me tellen al my tale, I preye.' I do not know why Mr. Wright, when reprinting this piece, omitted the Prologue. It is a pity that half of the sixth stanza is missing. § 22. At l. 1065 we meet with a most important statement:-- 'Of freres I have told before In a making of a Crede.' It is generally agreed that the author here claims to have previously written the well-known piece entitled Pierce the Ploughman's Crede, which I edited for the Early English Text Society in 1867. I then took occasion to compare the language of these two pieces (which I shall shortly call the Crede and the Tale), and I found ample confirmation, from internal evidence, that the claim is certainly true. There are many similarities of expression, some of which I here lay before the reader. FROM THE CREDE. FROM THE TALE. Curteis Crist (1, 140). curteys Christ (482). cutted cote (434). cutted clothes (929). y can noh[gh]t my Crede (8). Suche that conne nat hir Crede (413). At marketts and myracles, we Market-beters, and medling make medleth us nevere (107). (871). For we buldeth a burw[gh], a brod And builde als brode as a citè and a large (118). (743). portreid and peint (121). I-paynted and portred (135). peynt and portred (192). y sey coveitise catel to fongen To catche catell as covytous (385; (146). cf. 856). Of double worstede y-dy[gh]t (228). With double worsted well y-dight (1002). Than ther lefte in Lucifer, er he As lowe as Lucifer such shall fall were lowe fallen (374). (124). opon the plow hongen (421). honged at the plow (1042). povere in gost God him-self The pore in spirit gan Christ blisseth (521). blesse (915). ben maysters icalled, That the Maysters be called defended he tho gentill Jesus ... purly defended (1115). (574). to brenne the bodye in a bale of Thou shalt be brent in balefull fijr (667). fyre (1234). Thei shulden nou[gh]t after the They nolde nat demen after the face ... demen (670). face (714). Thei schulden delven and diggen Threshing and dyking fro town to and dongen the erthe, town, And mene mong-corn bred to her With sory mete, and not half y-now mete fongen (785). (1043). He mi[gh]te no maistre ben kald, Maysters be called defended he tho for Crist that defended (838). (1115). The Crede is written in alliterative verse; and it will be observed that alliteration is employed in the Tale very freely. Another peculiarity in the Tale may here be noticed, viz. the use of the same rime, _fall_ or _befall_, throughout Part I, with the exception of ll. 205-228. Indeed, in the first line of Part II, the author apologizes for being unable to find any more rimes for _fall_, and proceeds to rime upon _amend_ throughout that Part. In Part III, he begins to rime upon _grace_ in the first two stanzas, but soon abandons it for the sake of freedom; however, at l. 1276, he recurs to _grace_, and continues to rime upon it till the end. It is clear that the author possessed considerable facility of expression. We can date these pieces approximately without much error. The proceedings against Walter Brute, expressly alluded to in the Crede, l. 657, lasted from Oct. 15, 1391, to Oct. 6, 1393, when he submitted himself to the bishop of Hereford. We may well date the Crede about 1394, and the Tale (which probably soon followed it, as the author repeats some of his expressions) about 1395[13]. Both these pieces are written in a spirited style, and are of considerable interest for the light which they throw upon many of the corrupt practices of the monks, friars, and clergy. The Crede is directed against the friars in particular, and reflects many of the opinions of Wyclif, as will easily appear by comparing it with Wyclif's works. See, in particular, his Fifty Heresies and Errors of Friars (Works, ed. Arnold, iii. 366). It would have been easy to crowd the Notes with quotations from Wyclif; but it is sufficient to point out so obvious a source. I have not observed any passage in which the author copies the exact language of Langland. The dialect seems to be some form of Midland, and is somewhat archaic; many of the verbal forms are of some value to the philologist. Taken altogether, it is a piece of considerable interest and merit. Ten Brink alludes to it as 'that transparent, half-prophetic allegory of the Quarrel between the Griffin and the Pelican'; and adds--'The Griffin was the representative of the prelates and the monks, the Pelican that of real Christianity in Wyclif's sense. At a loss for arguments, the Griffin calls in at last all the birds of prey in order to destroy its rival. The Phoenix, however, comes to the help of the Pelican, and terribly destroys the robber-brood.' Tyrwhitt observed, with great acuteness, that Spenser's allusion, in the Epilogue to his Shepheards Calender, to 'the Pilgrim that the Ploughman playde awhyle,' may well refer to the author of the Plowman's Tale rather than to Langland[14]. Cf. p. 147, l. 12. It was natural that Spenser should mention him along with Chaucer, because their productions were bound up together in the same volume; a volume which was, to Spenser, a treasure-house of archaic words. The discussion on points of religion between the Griffin and the Pelican clearly suggested to Dryden his discussion between the Hind and the Panther. His choice of quadrupeds in place of birds is certainly no improvement. § 23. III. JACK UPLAND. Of this piece, no MS. copy is known. It is usually said to have been first printed by Speght, in his second edition of Chaucer's Works in 1602; but I have been so fortunate as to find a better and earlier text in the library of Caius College, Cambridge, to which my attention was drawn by a note in Hazlitt's Bibliographer's Handbook. This copy, here taken as the basis of my text, and collated with Speght, is a small book consisting of only 16 leaves. The title-page contains the following words, within a square border. ¶ Jack vp Lande | Compyled by the | famous Geoffrey | Chaucer. | Ezechielis. xiii. | ¶ Wo be vnto you that | dishonour me to me (_sic_) peo | ple for an handful of bar | lye & for a pece of bread. | Cum priuilegio | Regali. At the end of the treatise is the colophon: ¶ Prynted for Ihon Gough. Cum Priuilegio Regali. Hazlitt conjectures that it was printed about 1540. I think we may safely date it in 1536; for it is bound up in a volume with several other tracts, and it so happens that the tract next following it is by Myles Coverdale, and is dated 1536, being printed in just the very same type and style. We can also tell that it must have been printed after 1535, because the verse from Ezekiel xiii, as quoted on the title-page (see above), exactly corresponds with Coverdale's version of the Bible, the first edition of which appeared in that year. The text of Jack Upland, in the Caius College copy, has the following heading, in small type:--'¶ These b[=e] the lewed questions of Freres rytes and obseruaunces the whych they chargen more than Goddes lawe, and therfore men shulden not gyue hem what so they beggen, tyll they hadden answered and clerely assoyled these questions.' As this copy is, on the whole, considerably superior to Speght's both as regards sense and spelling, I have not given his inferior readings and errors. In a very few places, Speght furnishes some obvious corrections; and in such instances his readings are noted. § 24. A very convenient reprint of Speght's text is given in Wright's edition of Political Poems and Songs (Record Series), vol. ii. p. 16. In the same volume, p. 39, is printed a reply to Jack Upland's questions by a friar who facetiously calls himself Friar Daw Topias, though it appears (from a note printed at p. 114) that his real name was John Walsingham. Nor is this all; for Friar Daw's reply is further accompanied by Jack Upland's rejoinder, printed, for convenience, below Friar Daw's text. It is most likely, as Mr. Wright concludes, that all three pieces may be dated in the same year. It was necessary that Friar Daw (who gave himself this name in order to indicate that he is a comparatively unlearned man, yet easily able to refute his audacious questioner) should produce his reply at once; and we may be sure that Jack's rejoinder was not long delayed. Fortunately, the date can be determined with sufficient exactness; for Jack's rejoinder contains the allusion: 'and the kyng by his juges trwe [sholde] execute his lawe, as he _did now late_, whan he hangid you traytours,' p. 86. This clearly refers to June, 1402[15], when eight Franciscan friars were hanged at Tyburn for being concerned in a plot against the life of Henry IV. We may, accordingly, safely refer all three pieces to the year 1402; shortly after Chaucer's death. § 25. It is also tolerably clear that there must have been two texts of 'Jack Upland,' an earlier and a later one. The earlier one, of which we have no copy, can easily be traced by help of Friar Daw's reply, as he quotes all that is material point by point. It only extended as far as the 54th question in the present edition (p. 199); after which followed two more questions which do not here reappear. The later copy also contains a few questions, not far from the beginning, which Friar Daw ignores. It is clear that we only possess a later, and, on the whole, a fuller copy. One of the omitted questions relates to transubstantiation; and, as any discussion of it was extremely likely, at that date, to be ended by burning the disputant at the stake, it was certainly prudent to suppress it. Not perceiving this point, Mr. Wright too hastily concluded that our copy of Jack Upland is extremely corrupt, a conclusion quite unwarranted; inasmuch as Friar Daw, in spite of his affectation of alliterative verse, quotes his adversary's questions with reasonable correctness. On this unsound theory Mr. Wright has built up another, still less warranted, viz. that the original copy of Jack Upland must have been written in alliterative verse; for no other reason than because Friar Daw's reply is so written. It is obvious that alliteration is conspicuously absent, except in the case of the four lines (424-7), which are introduced, by way of flourish, at the end. My own belief is that our copy of Jack Upland is a second edition, i.e. an amended and extended copy, which has been reasonably well preserved. It is more correct than the Plowmans Tale, and very much more correct than the Testament of Love. § 26. Mr. Wright further imagines that Jack Upland's rejoinder to Friar Daw's reply, which he prints from 'a contemporary MS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, MS. Digby 41,' was also originally in alliterative verse. This supposition is almost as gratuitous as the former; for, although there are very frequent traces of alliteration as an occasional embellishment, it is otherwise written in ordinary prose. The mere chopping up of prose into bits of not very equal length, as in Mr. Wright's print, does not produce verse of any kind. Friar Daw's verses are bad enough, as he did not understand his model (obviously the Ploughman's Crede), but he usually succeeds in making a kind of jingle, with pauses, for the most part, in the right place. But there is no verse discoverable in Jack Upland; he preferred straightforward prose, for reasons that are perfectly obvious. For further remarks, I beg leave to refer the reader to Mr. Wright's Introduction, pp. xii-xxiv, where he will find an excellent summary of the arguments adduced on both sides. There is a slight notice of Jack Upland in Morley's English Writers, vi. 234. § 27. IV. JOHN GOWER: THE PRAISE OF PEACE. In Morley's English Writers, iv. 157, this poem is entitled 'De Pacis Commendatione,' on MS. authority (see p. 216). Mr. E. B. Nicholson, who has made a special study of Gower's poems, suggested 'The Praise of Peace,' which I have gladly adopted. I am much obliged to Mr. Nicholson for his assistance in various ways; and, in particular, for the generous loan of his own transcript of this poem. § 28. In Todd's Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer, p. 95, is a notice of a MS. 'in the present Marquis of Stafford's library at Trentham,' which had been previously described in Warton's Hist. of E. Poetry as being 'in Lord Gower's library.' Mr. Wright alludes to it as 'a contemporary MS. in the possession of his grace the duke of Sutherland.' It may be called 'the Trentham MS.' 'The Praise of Peace' was printed from it by Mr. Wright, in his Political Poems and Songs, ii. 4-15; and I have followed his text, which I denote by 'T.' At the same time, I have collated it with the text of Thynne's edition of 1532, which is a very good one. The differences are slight. Warton describes the MS. as 'a thin oblong MS. on vellum, containing some of Gower's poems in Latin, French, and English. By an entry in the first leaf, in the handwriting and under the signature of Thomas lord Fairfax, Cromwell's general, an antiquarian, and a lover and collector of curious manuscripts, it appears that this book was presented by the poet Gower, about 1400[16], to Henry IV; and that it was given by lord Fairfax to his friend and kinsman Sir Thomas Gower, knight and baronet, in the year 1656.' He goes on to say that Fairfax had it from Charles Gedde, Esq., of St. Andrews; and that it was at one time in the possession of King Henry VII, while earl of Richmond, who wrote in it his own name in the form 'Rychemond.' The MS. contains (1) The Praise of Peace, _preceded by_ the seven Latin lines (386-392), which I have relegated to the end of the poem, as in Thynne. The title is given in the colophon (p. 216); after which follow the twelve Latin lines (393-404), printed on the same page. (2) Some complimentary verses in Latin, also addressed to Henry IV, printed in Wright's Political Poems, ii. 1-3. (3) Fifty Balades in French, which have been printed by Stengel (Warton prints _four_ of them), with the colophon--'Expliciunt carmina Joh[=i]s Gower que Gallice composita _Balades_ dicuntur.' (4) Two short Latin poems in elegiacs; see Warton. (5) A French poem on the Dignity or Excellence of Marriage. (6) Seventeen Latin hexameters. (7) Gower's Latin verses on his blindness, beginning-- 'Henrici quarti primus regni fuit annus, Quo michi defecit visus ad acta mea,' &c. See Todd and Warton for more minute particulars. § 29. The poem itself may safely be dated in the end of 1399, for reasons given in the note to l. 393. It is of some interest, as being Gower's last poem in English, and the spirit of it is excellent, though it contains no very striking lines. We have not much of Gower's work in the form of seven-line stanzas. The Confessio Amantis contains only twelve such stanzas; iii. 349-352. I draw attention to the earliest known reference (l. 295) to the game of 'tenetz'; the enumeration of the nine worthies (ll. 281-3); and the reference to a story about Constantine which, in the Confessio Amantis, is related at considerable length (l. 339). We may compare with this poem the stanzas in praise of peace in Hoccleve's De Regimine Principum, quoted in Morley's English Writers (1890), vol. vi. pp. 131-2. § 30. V. THOMAS HOCCLEVE: THE LETTER OF CUPID. This poem needs little discussion. It is known to be Hoccleve's; see Dr. Furnivall's edition of Hoccleve's Minor Poems, E. E. T. S., 1892, p. 72. As explained in the notes, it is rather closely imitated from the French poem entitled L'Epistre au Dieu d'Amours, written by Christine de Pisan. At the end of her poem, Christine gives the date of its composition, viz. 1399; and Hoccleve, in like manner, gives the date of his poem as 1402. The poem consists of sixty-eight stanzas, of which not more than eighteen are wholly independent of the original. The chief original passages are ll. 176-189, 316-329, and 374-434. The poem is entirely occupied with a defence of women, such as a woman might well make. It takes the form of a reproof, addressed by Cupid to all male lovers; and is directed, in particular, against the sarcasms of Jean de Meun (l. 281) in the celebrated Roman de la Rose. Of this poem there are several MS. copies; see footnotes at p. 217. The best is probably the Ashburnham MS., but it has not yet been printed. I chiefly follow MS. Fairfax 16, which Dr. Furnivall has taken as the basis of his text. There is also a poor and late copy in the Bannatyne MS., at fol. 269; see the print of it for the Hunterian Club, 1879; p. 783. § 31. VI. THE SAME: TWO BALADES. These two Balades, also by Hoccleve, were composed at the same time. The former is addressed to King Henry V, and the latter to the Knights of the Garter. They are very closely connected with a much longer poem of 512 lines, which was addressed to Sir John Oldcastle in August, 1415; and must have been written at about that date. It was natural enough that, whilst addressing his appeal to Oldcastle to renounce his heresies, the poet should briefly address the king on the same subject at the same time. I think we may safely date this piece, like the other, in August, 1415. The remarkable likeness between the two pieces appears most in the references to Justinian and to Constantine. In fact, the reference to Justinian in l. 3 of the former of the Balades here printed would be unintelligible but for the full explanation which the companion poem affords. I have quoted, in the note to l. 3, the Latin note which is written in the margin of st. 24 of the address to Oldcastle; and I quote here the stanza itself:-- 'The Cristen emperour Justinian, As it is writen, who-so list it see, Made a lawe deffending every man, Of what condicion or what degree That he were of, nat sholde hardy be For to despute of the feith openly; And ther-upon sundry peynes sette he, That peril sholde eschuëd be therby.' Minor Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 14. Compare with this the fourth stanza of Balade I. We may regret that Hoccleve's desire to make an example of heretics was so soon fulfilled. Only three years later, in Dec. 1418, Sir John Oldcastle was captured in Wales, brought up to London, and publicly burnt. My text follows the sole good MS. (Phillipps 8151); which I have collated with the earliest printed text, that of 1542. There is, indeed, another MS. copy of the poem in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge (R. 3. 15); but it is only a late copy made from the printed book. § 32. VII. HENRY SCOGAN: A MORAL BALADE. The heading to this poem is from MS. Ashmole 59; it is, unfortunately, somewhat obscure. It is, of course, not contemporaneous with the poem, but was added, by way of note, by John Shirley, when transcribing it. In fact, the third son of Henry IV was not created duke of Bedford till 1415, after the accession of Henry V; whereas Henry V is here referred to as being still 'my lord the Prince.' Hence the poem was written in the reign of Henry IV (1399-1413); but we can easily come much nearer than this to the true date. We may note, first of all, that Chaucer is referred to as being dead (l. 65); so that the date is after 1400. Again, the poem does not appear to have been recited by the author; it was _sent_, in the author's handwriting, to the assembled guests (l. 3). Further, Scogan says that he was 'called' the 'fader,' i.e. tutor, of the young princes (l. 2); and that he sent the letter to them out of fervent regard for their welfare, in order to warn them (l. 35). He regrets that sudden age has come upon him (l. 10), and wishes to impart to them the lessons which the approach of old age suggests. All this points to a time when Scogan was getting past his regular work as tutor, though he still retained the title; which suggests a rather late date. We find, however, from the Inquisitiones post Mortem (iii. 315), that Henry Scogan died in 1407, and I have seen it noted (I forget where) that he only attained the age of forty-six. This shews that he was only relatively old, owing, probably, to infirm health; and we may safely date the poem in 1406 or 1407, the latter being the more likely. In 1407, the ages of the young princes were nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, and sixteen respectively, and it is not likely that Scogan had been their tutor for more than twelve years at most. This provisional date of 1407 sufficiently satisfies all the conditions. The four sons of Henry IV were Henry, prince of Wales, born at Monmouth in 1388; Thomas, born in 1389, and created duke of Clarence in 1412; John, born in 1390, created duke of Bedford in 1415; and Humphrey, born in 1391, created duke of Gloucester in 1414. § 33. The expression _at a souper of feorthe merchande_ is difficult, and I can only guess at the sense. _Feorthe_ is Shirley's spelling of _ferthe_, i.e. fourth. _Merchande_ is probably equivalent to O.F. _marchandie_ or _marchandise_. Godefroy gives an example of the latter in the sense of 'merchant's company.' I suppose that _feorthe merchande_ means 'fourth meeting of merchants,' or the fourth of the four quarterly meetings of a guild. Toulmin Smith, in his English Gilds, p. 32, says that quarterly meetings for business were common; though some guilds met only once, twice, or thrice in the course of a year. The Vintry is described by Stow in his Survey of London (ed. Thoms, p. 90): 'Then next over against St. Martin's church, is a large house built of stone and timber, with vaults for the stowage of wines, and is called the Vintry.... In this house Henry Picard [lord mayor in 1356-7] feasted four kings in one day.' I need not repeat here what I have already said about Scogan in vol. i. p. 83. I may add to the note about Lewis John (vol. i. p. 84), that he was a person of some note. In 1423 (Feb. 8), 'Ludowicus Johan, armiger, constitutus est seneschall et receptor generalis ducatus Cornub.': see Ordinances of the Privy Council, iii. 24. He is further mentioned in the same, ii. 334, 342. Chaucer's Balade on Gentilesse, quoted in full in ll. 105-125, is in seven-line stanzas; and is thus distinguished from the rest of the poem, which is written in eight-line stanzas. It may be noted that Scogan's rimes are extremely correct, if we compare them with Chaucer's as a standard. Of this piece there are two early printed copies, one by Caxton, and one by Thynne (1532); and two MSS., Ashmole 59 and Harl. 2251. It is remarkable that the printed copies are better than the MSS. as regards readings. § 34. VIII. THE COMPLAINT OF THE BLACK KNIGHT. Such is the title in Thynne's edition (1532). In MS. F. (Fairfax 16), it is entitled--'Complaynte of a Loveres Lyfe'; and there is a printed edition with the title--'The Complaynte of a Louers Lyfe. Imprynted at London in the flete strete at the sygne of the Sonne, by Wynkyn de Worde'; no date, 4to. on twelve leaves. In MS. S. (Arch. Selden, B. 24), there is an erroneous colophon--'Here endith the Maying and disporte of Chaucere'; which gives the wrong title, and assigns it to the wrong author. In accordance with the last MS., it was printed, with the erroneous title--'Here begynnys the mayng or disport of chaucer'--in a volume 'Imprentit in the south gait of Edinburgh be Walter chepman and Androw myllar the fourth day of ap_er_ile the yhere of god . M.CCCCC. and viii yheris' [1508]; and this scarce copy was reprinted as piece no. 8 in The Knightly Tale of Golagrus and Gawane, &c., as reprinted by Laing in 1827. But the fullest title is that in MS. Ad. (Addit. 16165), written out by John Shirley, who says: 'And here filowyng begynnethe a Right lusty amorous balade, made in wyse of a complaynt of a Right worshipfull_e_ Knyght that truly euer serued his lady, enduryng grete disese by fals envye and malebouche; made by Lydegate' (fol. 190, back). Some of the pages have the heading, 'The compleynte of a Knight made by Lidegate[17].' This attribution of the poem to Lydgate, by so good a judge as Shirley, renders the authorship certain; and the ascription is fully confirmed by strong internal evidence. Much of it is in Lydgate's best manner, and his imitation of Chaucer is, in places, very close; while, at the same time, it is easy to point out non-Chaucerian rimes, such as _whyte_, _brighte_, 2; _pitously_, _malady_ (Ch. _maladyë_), 137; _felyngly_, _malady_, 188; _mente_, _diligent_, 246; _grace_, _alas_, 529; _seyn_, _payn_ (Ch. _peynë_), 568; _diurnal_, _fal_, (Ch. _falle_), 590; _payn_, _agayn_, 650; _queen_ (Ch. _quene_), _seen_, 674. Besides which, there are two mere assonances in two consecutive stanzas, viz. _forjuged_, _excused_, 274; and _wreke_, _clepe_, 284. The occurrence of this pair of assonances is quite enough to settle the question. If we apply a more delicate test, we may observe that, in ll. 218-220, the word _s[=o]re_ (with long _o_) rimes with _tore_, in which the _o_ was originally short; on this point, see vol. vi. p. xxxii. As to this poem, Ten Brink well remarks: 'His talent was fairly qualified for a popular form of the 'Complaint'--a sort of long monologue, interwoven with allegory and mythology, and introduced by a charming picture of nature. His _Complaint of the Black Knight_, which contains reminiscences from the Romance of the Rose, the Book of the Duchesse, and the Parlement of Foules, was long considered a production of Chaucer's, and is still frequently included in editions of his works--although with reservations. The critic, however, will not be deceived by the excellent descriptive passages of this poem, but will easily detect the characteristic marks of the imitator in the management of verse and rhyme, and especially in the diffusiveness of the story and the monotony even of the most important parts.' § 35. Lydgate's reminiscences of Chaucer are often interesting. In particular, we should observe the passages suggested by the Roman de la Rose in ll. 36-112; for we are at once reminded of Chaucer's _own version_ of it, as preserved in Fragment A of the Romaunt. After noticing that he uses _costey_ (36) for the F. _costoiant_, where Chaucer has _costeying_ (134); and _attempre_ (57) where Chaucer has _attempre_ (131), though one French text has _atrempee_, it is startling to find him reproducing (80) Chaucer's very phrase _And softe as veluët_ (R. R. 1420), where the French original has nothing corresponding either to _soft_ or to _velvet_! This clearly shews that Lydgate was acquainted with Fragment A of the English version, and believed that version to be Chaucer's; for otherwise he would hardly have cared to imitate it at all. The date of this poem is discussed in the Introduction to Schick's edition of the Temple of Glas, by the same author; pp. c, cxii. He dates it in Lydgate's early period, or about A.D. 1402. The text is based upon Thynne's edition, which is quite as good as the MSS., though the spellings are often too late in form. The late excellent edition by E. Krausser (Halle, 1896) reached me after my text was printed. His text (from MS. F.) has much the same readings, and is accompanied by a full Introduction and eleven pages of useful notes. § 36. IX. THE FLOUR OF CURTESYE. This piece has no author's name prefixed to it in the first three editions; but in the fourth edition by Stowe, printed in 1561, the title is: 'The Floure of Curtesie, made by Iohn lidgate.' Probably Stowe had seen it attributed to him in some MS., and made a note of it; but I know of no MS. copy now extant. Few poems bear Lydgate's impress more clearly; there can be no doubt as to its authorship. Schick refers it to Lydgate's early period, and dates it about 1400-1402; see his edition of the Temple of Glas, p. cxii. As it was written after Chaucer's death (see l. 236), and probably when that sad loss was still recent, we cannot be far wrong if we date it about 1401; and the Black Knight, a somewhat more ambitious effort, about 1402. The 'Flour of Curtesye' is intended as a portrait of one whom the poet honours as the best of womankind. The character is evidently founded on that of Alcestis as described in the Prologue to the Legend of Good Women; and throughout the piece we are frequently reminded of Chaucer; especially of the Legend, the Complaint of Mars, and the Parliament of Foules. The Envoy presents a very early example of the four-line stanza, similar to that employed in Gray's famous Elegy. § 37. X. A BALADE IN COMMENDATION OF OUR LADY. This piece is attributed to 'Lidegate of Bury' in the Ashmole MS. no. 59; and the ascription is obviously correct. It abounds with evident marks of his peculiar style of metre; for which see Schick's Introduction to the Temple of Glas, p. lvi. We note in it a few reminiscences of Chaucer, as pointed out in the Notes; in particular, it was probably suggested by Chaucer's A B C, which furnished hints for ll. 27, 60, and 129. It is perhaps worth while to add that we have thus an independent testimony for the genuineness of that poem. As an illustration of Lydgate's verse, I may notice the additional syllable after the cæsura, which too often clogs his lines. Thus in l. 8 we must group the syllables thus:-- Wherefór : now pláynly : I wól : my stýlë : dréssë. Similarly, we find _lícour_ in l. 13, _pítè_ (18), _líving_ (24), _bémës_ (25), _gínning_ (31), _mércy_ (33), _gárden_ (36), &c., all occupying places where a monosyllable would have been more acceptable. The poem is strongly marked by alliteration, shewing that the poet (usually in a hurry) took more than usual pains with it. In the seventh stanza (43-49) this tendency is unmistakably apparent. It is hardly possible to assign a date to a poem of this character. I can only guess it to belong to the middle period of his career; say, the reign of Henry V. We have not yet obtained sufficient data for the arrangement of Lydgate's poems. § 38. Lines 121-127 are here printed for the first time. In the old editions, l. 120 is succeeded by l. 128, with the result that _Sion_ (120) would not rime with _set afere_ (129); but the scribe of the Ashmole MS. was equal to the emergency, for he altered l. 129 so as to make it end with _fuyrless thou sette vppon_, which is mere nonsense. Thynne has _fyrelesse fyre set on_, which is just a little better. This addition of seven lines was due to my fortunate discovery of a new MS.; for which I was indebted to the excellent MS. 'Index of First Lines' in the British Museum. This told me that a poem (hitherto unrecognised) existed in MS. Sloane 1212, of which the first line is 'A thousand stories,' &c. On examining the MS., it turned out to be a copy, on paper, of Hoccleve's De Regimine Principum, with four leaves of vellum at the beginning, and two more at the end, covered with writing of an older character. The two vellum leaves at the end were then transposed, but have since been set right, at my suggestion. They contain a few lines of the conclusion of some other piece, followed by the unique _complete_ copy of the present Balade. This copy turned out to be much the best, and restored several of the readings. Indeed, the Ashmole MS. is very imperfect, having in it a lacuna of eight stanzas (ll. 64-119). I am thus able to give quite a presentable text. The correction that most interested me was one in l. 134, where the Ashmole MS. and Thynne have _probatyf piscyne_. On June 5, 1896, I read a paper at the Philological Society, in which (among other things) I pointed out that the right reading must certainly be _probatik_. The very next day I found the Sloane MS.; and behold, its reading was _probatyk_! It is not often that a 'conjectural emendation' is confirmed, on unimpeachable authority, within twenty-four hours. Another remarkable correction is that of _dyamaunt_ for _dyametre_ in l. 87. It was all very well to compare Our Lady to a diamond; but to call her a _diameter_ (as in all the editions) is a little too bad. Again, in l. 121 (now first printed) we have the remarkable expression _punical pome_ for a pomegranate, which is worthy of notice; and in l. 123 we find a new word, _agnelet_, which is not to be found in the New English Dictionary. All the printed editions print the next piece as if it _formed a part_ of the present one; but they have absolutely no point in common beyond the fact of having a common authorship. § 39. XI. TO MY SOVERAIN LADY. In all the old editions, this piece forms part of the preceding, though it is obviously distinct from it, when attention is once drawn to the fact. Instead of being addressed, like no. X, to the Virgin, it is addressed to a lady whose name the poet wishes to commend (l. 7); and from whom he is parted (51); whereas two lovers ought to be together, if they wish to live 'well merry' (64). Her goodly fresh face is a merry mirror (73); and he has chosen her as his Valentine (111). It is evidently a conventional complimentary poem, written to please some lady of rank or of high renown (93), one, in fact, who is 'of women chief princesse' (70). It is prettily expressed, and does Lydgate some credit, being a favourable specimen of his more playful style; I wish we had more of the same kind. L. 68--'Let him go love, and see wher [_whether_] it be game'--is excellent. I shall here submit to the reader a pure guess, for what it is worth. My impression is that this piece, being a complimentary Valentine, was suggested by queen Katherine's visit to England; the lover whose passion is here described being no other than king Henry V, who was parted from his queen for a week. The pair arrived at Dover on Feb. 2, 1421, and Henry went on to London, arriving on Feb. 14; the queen did not arrive till Feb. 21, just in time for her coronation on Feb. 23. This hypothesis satisfies several conditions. It explains why the lover's _English_ is not good enough to praise the lady; why so many French lines are quoted; the significant allusion to the lily, i.e. the lily of France, in l. 16; the lover's consolation found in English roundels (40); the expression 'cheef princesse' in l. 70; and the very remarkable exclamation of _Salve, regina_, in l. 83, which doubtless made Thynne imagine that the poem was addressed to the Virgin Mary. The expression 'for your departing' in l. 105 does not necessarily mean 'on account of your departure from me'; it is equally in accordance with Middle-English usage to suppose that it means 'on account of your separation from me'; see _Depart_ and _Departing_ in the New English Dictionary. It is well known that Lydgate provided the necessary poetry for the entry of Henry VI into London in Feb. 1432. Some resemblances to Chaucer are pointed out in the Notes. The most interesting circumstance about this poem is that the author quotes, at the end of his third stanza, the first line of 'Merciles Beautè'; this is a strong point in favour of the attribution of that poem to his master. This piece is distinguished from the preceding by the difference of its subject; by the difference in the character of the metre (there is here no alliteration); and, most significant of all, by its absence from MS. Ashmole 59 and MS. Sloane 1212, both of which contain the preceding piece. The two poems may have been brought together, in the MS. which Thynne followed, by the accident of being written about the same time. § 40. XII. BALLAD OF GOOD COUNSEL. The title of this piece in Stowe's edition stands as follows: 'A balade of good counseile, translated out of Latin verses into Englishe, by dan Iohn lidgat cleped the monke of Buri.' What were the Latin verses here referred to, I have no means of ascertaining. This Ballad is eminently characteristic of Lydgate's style, and by no means the worst of its kind. When he once gets hold of a refrain that pleases him, he canters merrily along till he has absolutely no more to say. I think he must have enjoyed writing it, and that he wrote it to please himself. He transgresses one of Chaucer's canons in ll. 79-82; where he rimes _hardy_ with _foly_ and _flatery_. The two latter words are, in Chaucer, _foly-ë_ and _flatery-ë_, and never rime with a word like _hardy_, which has no final _-e_. Lydgate is very fond of what may be called _catalogues_; he begins by enumerating every kind of possibility. You may be rich, or strong, or prudent, &c.; or fair (22) or ugly (24); you may have a wife (29), or you may not (36); you may be fat (43), or you may be lean (46); or staid (57), or holy (64); your dress may be presentable (71), or poor (72), or middling (73); you may speak much (78) or little (80); and so on; for it is hard to come to an end. At l. 106, he begins all over again with womankind; and the conclusion is, that you should govern your tongue, and never listen to slander. Thynne's text is not very good; the MSS. are somewhat better. He makes the odd mistake of printing _Holynesse beautie_ for _Eleynes beaute_ (115); but Helen had not much to do with holiness. Two of the stanzas (71-7 and 106-112) are now printed for the first time, as they occur in the MSS. only. Indeed, MS. H. (Harl. 2251) is the sole authority for the former of these two stanzas. § 41. XIII. BEWARE OF DOUBLENESS. This is a favourable example of Lydgate's better style; and is written with unusual smoothness, owing to the shortness of the lines. It was first printed in 1561. There is a better copy in the Fairfax MS., which has been taken as the basis of the text. The copy in MS. Ashmole 59 is very poor. The title--'Balade made by Lydgate'--occurs in MS. Addit. 16165. Stowe, being unacquainted with the phrase _ambes as_ (l. 78), though it occurs in Chaucer, turned _ambes_ into _lombes_, after which he wrongly inserted a comma; and _lombes_ appears, accordingly, in all former editions, with a comma after it. What sense readers have hitherto made of this line, I am at a loss to conjecture. § 42. XIV. A BALADE: WARNING MEN, ETC. First printed by Stowe in 1561, from the MS. in Trinity College Library, marked R. 3. 19, which I have used in preference to the printed edition. There is another, and more complete copy in the same library, marked O. 9. 38, which has contributed some excellent corrections. Moreover, it gives a better arrangement of stanzas three and four, which the old editions transpose. More than this, it contains a unique stanza (36-42), which has not been printed before. The poem also occurs in Shirley's MS. Harl. 2251, which contains a large number of poems by Lydgate; and is there followed by another poem of seven stanzas, attributed to Lydgate. That the present poem is Lydgate's, cannot well be doubted; it belongs to the same class of his poems as no. XII above. I find it attributed to him in the reprint of 'Chaucer's Poems' by Chalmers, in 1810. The substitution of the contracted and idiomatic form _et_ for the later form _eteth_ is a great improvement. It is due to MS. O. 9. 38, where the scribe first wrote _ette_, but was afterwards so weak as to 'correct' it to _etyth_. But this 'correction' just ruins the refrain. _Et_ was no doubt becoming archaic towards the middle of the fifteenth century. Two variations upon the last stanza occur in the Bannatyne MS., fol. 258, back; see the print by the Hunterian Club, 1879, pp. 754, 755. § 43. XV. THREE SAYINGS. First printed by Stowe; I know of no MS. copy. The first two Sayings are attributed to Lydgate; so we may as well credit him with the third. The second expresses the same statements as the first, but varies somewhat in form; both are founded upon a Latin line which occurs in MS. Fairfax 16 (fol. 196) and in MS. Harl. 7578 (fol. 20), and runs as follows:--'Quatuor infatuant, honor, etas, femina, uinum.' Note that these Three Sayings constitute the _only_ addition made by Stowe to Thynne in 'Part I' of Stowe's edition. See nos. 28, 29, 30 in vol. i. p. 32. Stowe introduced them _in order to fill a blank half-column_ between nos. 27 and 31. § 44. XVI. LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCY. First printed in Thynne's Chaucer (1532). Tyrwhitt first pointed out that it could not possibly be his, seeing that Alan Chartier's poem with the same name, whence the English version was made, could not have been written in Chaucer's lifetime. Chartier was born in 1386, and was only fourteen years old at the time of Chaucer's death. Tyrwhitt further stated that the author's name, Sir Richard Ros, was plainly given in MS. Harl. 372, fol. 61, where the poem has this title:--'La Belle Dame Sanz Mercy. Translatid out of Frenche by Sir Richard Ros.' I have not been able to find the date of the French original, as there is no modern edition of Chartier's poems; but it can hardly have been written before 1410, when the poet was only twenty-four years old; and the date of the translation must be later still. But we are not wholly left to conjecture in this matter. A short notice of Sir Richard Ros appeared in Englische Studien, X. 206, written by H. Gröhler, who refers us to his dissertation 'Ueber Richard Ros' mittelenglische übersetzung des gedichtes von Alain Chartier La Belle Dame sans Mercy,' published at Breslau in 1886; of which Dr. Gröhler has most obligingly sent me a copy, whence several of my Notes have been derived. He tells us, in this article, that his dissertation was founded on the copy of the poem in MS. Harl. 372, which (in 1886) he believed to be unique; whereas he had since been informed that there are three other MSS., viz. Camb. Ff. 1. 6, Trin. Coll. Camb. R. 3. 19, and Fairfax 16; and further, that the Trinity MS. agrees with the Harleian as to misarrangement of the subject-matter[18]. He also proposed to give a new edition of the poem in Englische Studien, but I am unable to find it; and Dr. Kölbing courteously informs me that it never appeared. Dr. Gröhler further tells us, that Mr. Joseph Hall, of Manchester, had sent him some account, extracted from the county history of Leicestershire by Nichols, of the family of Roos or Ros, who were lords of Hamlake and Belvoir in that county. According to Nichols, the Sir Richard Ros who was presumably the poet, was the second son of Sir Thomas Ros; and Sir Thomas was the second son of Sir W. Ros, who married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Arundel. If this be right, we gain the further information that Sir Richard was born in 1429[19], and is known to have been alive in 1450, when he was twenty-one years old. The dates suit very well, as they suggest that the English poem was written, probably, between 1450 and 1460, or at the beginning of the second half of the fifteenth century; which sufficiently agrees with the language employed and with the probable age of the MSS. The date assigned in the New English Dictionary, s.v. _Currish_, is 1460; which cannot be far wrong. It can hardly be much later. § 45. The above notice also suggests that, as Sir Richard Ros was of a Leicestershire family, the dialect of the piece may, originally at least, have been North Leicestershire. Belvoir is situate in the N.E. corner of Leicestershire, not far from Grantham in Lincolnshire, and at no great distance from the birthplace of Robert of Brunne. It is well known that Robert of Brunne wrote in a variety of the Midland dialect which coincides, to a remarkable extent, with the form of the language which has become the standard literary English. Now it is easily seen that La Belle Dame has the same peculiarity, and I venture to think that, on this account, it is worth special attention. If we want to see a specimen of what the Midland literary dialect was like in the middle of the fifteenth century, it is here that we may find it. Many of the stanzas are, in fact, remarkably modern, both in grammar and expression; we have only to alter the spelling, and there is nothing left to explain. Take for example the last stanza on p. 301 (ll. 77-84):-- 'In this great thought, sore troubled in my mind, Alone thus rode I all the morrow-tide, Till, at the last, it happèd me to find The place wherein I cast me to abide When that I had no further for to ride. And as I went my lodging to purvey, Right soon I heard, but little me beside, In a gardén, where minstrels gan to play.' A large number of stanzas readily lend themselves to similar treatment; and this is quite enough to dissociate the poem from Chaucer. The great difficulty about modernising Chaucer is, as every one knows, his use of the final _-e_ as a distinct syllable; but we may search a whole page of La Belle Dame without finding anything of the kind. When Sir Richard's words have an extra syllable, it is due to the suffix _-es_ or the suffix _-ed_; and even these are not remarkably numerous; we do not arrive at _cloth-ës_, a plural in _-es_, before l. 22; and, in the course of the first four stanzas, all the words in _-ed_ are _awak-ed_, _nak-ed_, _vex-ed_, _tourn-ed_, and _bold-ed_, none of which would be surprising to a student of Elizabethan poetry. That there was something of a Northern element in Sir Richard's language appears from the rime of _long-es_ with _song-es_, in ll. 53-55; where _longes_ is the third person singular of the present tense; but modern English has _belongs_, with the same suffix! Again, he constantly uses the Northern possessive pronoun _their_; but modern English does the same! § 46. Another remarkable point about the poem is the perfect smoothness and regularity of the metre in a large number of lines, even as judged by a modern standard. The first line--'Half in a dream, not fully well awaked'--might, from a metrical point of view, have been written yesterday. It is a pity that the poem is somewhat dull, owing to its needless prolixity; but this is not a little due to Alan Chartier. Sir Richard has only eight stanzas of his own, four at the beginning, and four at the end; and it is remarkable that these are in the seven-line stanza, while the rest of the stanzas have eight lines, like their French original, of which I here give the first stanza, from the Paris edition of 1617, p. 502. (See l. 29 of the English version.) 'N'agueres cheuauchant pensoye, Comme homme triste et douloreux, Au dueil où il faut que ie soye Le plus dolant des amoureux; Puisque par son dart rigoureux La mort me tolli ma Maistresse, Et me laissa seul langoureux En la conduicte de tristesse.' I have cited in the Notes a few passages of the original text which help to explain the translation. § 47. The text in Thynne is a good one, and it seemed convenient to make it the basis of the edition; but it has been carefully controlled by collation with MS. Ff. 1. 6, which is, in some respects, the best MS. I am not sure that Thynne always followed his MS.; he may have collated some other one, as he professes in some cases to have done. MS. Ff. 1. 6, the Trinity MS., and Thynne's principal MS. form one group, which we may call A; whilst the Fairfax and Harleian MSS. form a second group, which we may call B: and of these, group A is the better. The MSS. in group B sadly transpose the subject-matter, and give the poem in the following order; viz. lines 1-428, 669-716, 525-572, 477-524, 621-668, 573-620, 429-476, 717-856. The cause of this dislocation is simple enough. It means that the B-group MSS. were copied from one in which three leaves, each containing six stanzas, were misarranged. The three leaves were placed one within the other, to form a sheet, and were written upon. Then the outer pair of these leaves was turned inside out, whilst the second and third pair changed places. This can easily be verified by making a little book of six leaves and numbering each page with the numbers 429-452, 453-476, 477-500, 501-524, &c. (i.e. with 24 lines on a page, ending with 716), and then misarranging the leaves in the manner indicated. The copy in MS. Harl. 372 was printed, just as it stands, by Dr. Furnivall, in his volume entitled Political, Religious, and Love Poems, published for the E. E. T. S. in 1866; at p. 52. The text is there, accordingly, misarranged as above stated. There is another MS. copy, as has been said above, in MS. Trin. Coll. Camb. R. 3. 19; but I have not collated it. It seems to be closely related to MS. Ff., and to present no additional information. Not only do the MSS. of the A-group contain the text in the right order, but they frequently give the better readings. Thus, in l. 47, we have the odd line--'My _pen_ coud never have knowlege what it ment'; as given in MS. Ff., the Trinity MS., and Thynne. The word _pen_ is altered to _eyen_ in MSS. H. and F.; nevertheless, it is perfectly right, for the French original has _plume_; see the Note on the line. Other examples are given in the Notes. In l. 174, MS. Ff. alone has the right reading, _apert_. I had made up my mind that this was the right reading even before consulting that MS., because the old reading--'One wyse nor other, prevy nor _perte_'--is so extremely harsh. There is no sense in using the clipped form of the word when the true _and usual_ form will scan so much better. See C. T., F 531, Ho. Fame, 717. The Trinity MS. gets out of the difficulty by a material alteration of the line, so that it there becomes--'In any wyse, nether preuy nor perte.' § 48. XVII. THE TESTAMENT OF CRESSEID. I do not suppose this was ever supposed to be Chaucer's even by Thynne. Line 64--'Quha wait gif all that Chaucer wrait was trew?'--must have settled the question from the first. No doubt Thynne added it simply as a pendant to Troilus, and he must have had a copy before him in the Northern dialect, which he modified as well as he could. Nevertheless, he gives us _can_ for the Southern _gan_ in l. 6, _wrate_ for _wrote_ in l. 64, and has many similar Northern forms. The poem was printed at Edinburgh in 1593 with the author's name. The title is as follows--¶ THE TESTAMENT OF CRESSEID, Compylit be M. Robert Henrysone, Sculemai-ster in Dunfermeling. IMPRENTIT AT EDIN = burgh be Henrie Charteris. MD. XCIII. The text is in 4to, ten leaves, black-letter. Only one copy has been preserved, which is now in the British Museum; but it was reprinted page for page in the volume presented by Mr. Chalmers to the Bannatyne Club in 1824. The present edition is from this reprint, with very few modifications, such as _sh_ for _sch_, and final _-y_ for final _-ie_ in immaterial cases. All other modifications are accounted for in the footnotes below. No early MS. copy is known; there was once a copy in the Asloan MS., but the leaves containing it are lost. Thynne's print must have been a good deal altered from the original, to make it more intelligible. It is odd to find him altering _quhisling_ (20) to _whiskyng_, and _ringand_ (144) to _tynkyng_. I note all Thynne's variations that are of any interest. He must have been much puzzled by _aneuch in_ (which he seems to have regarded as one word and as a past participle) before he turned it into _enewed_ (110). But in some cases Thynne gives us real help, as I will now point out. In l. 48, E. (the Edinburgh edition) has--'Quhill Esperus reioisit him agane'; where _Esperus_ gives no good sense. But Thynne prints _esperous_, which at once suggests _esperans_ (hope), as opposed to _wanhope_ in the preceding line. In l. 155, E. has _frosnit_, which Laing interprets 'frozen,' as if the pp. of _freeze_ could have both a strong and weak pp. suffix at the same moment! But Thynne has _frounsed_, evidently put for _fronsit_, as used elsewhere by Henryson in The Fable of the Paddock and the Mous, l. 43:--'The Mous beheld unto her _fronsit_ face.' A printer's error of _sn_ for _ns_ is not surprising. In ll. 164, 178, 260, E. has _gyis_ or _gyse_; but Thynne has preserved the true Chaucerian word _gyte_, which the printer evidently did not understand. It is true that in l. 164 he turned it into _gate_; but when he found it recur, he let it alone. In l. 205, E. has _upricht_ (!); which Thynne corrects. In l. 290, Th. has _iniure_ for _iniurie_, and I think he is right, though I have let _injurie_ stand; _iniure_ is Chaucer's form (Troil. iii. 1018), and it suits the scansion better. In l. 382, Thynne corrects _Unto_ to _To_; and in l. 386, has _Beuer_ for _bawar_. In l. 441, he has _syder_ for _ceder_. In l. 501, he has _plyte_ for _plye_, where a letter may have dropped out in E.; but see the note (p. 525). In l. 590, his reading _tokenyng_ suggests that _takning_ (as in E.) should be _takining_ or _takinning_; the line will then scan. The contracted form _taikning_ occurs, however, in l. 232, where the word is less emphatic. Note further, that in l. 216 the original must have had _Philogoney_ (see the Note). This appears in the astonishing forms _Philologie_ (E.), and _Philologee_ (Th.). Laing prints _Phlegonie_, which will neither scan nor rime, without any hint that he is departing from his exemplar. All his corrections are made silently, so that one cannot tell where they occur without reference to the original. For further information concerning Robert Henryson, schoolmaster of Dunfermline, see the preface to David Laing's edition of The Poems and Fables of Robert Henryson, Edinburgh, 1865; and Morley's English Writers, 1890, vol. vi. p. 250. He is supposed to have been born about 1425, and to have died about 1500. On Sept. 10, 1462, the Venerable Master Robert Henrysone, Licentiate in Arts and Bachelor in Decrees, was incorporated or admitted a member of the newly founded university of Glasgow; and he is known to have been a notary public. Perhaps The Testament of Cresseid was written about 1460. It is a rather mature performance, and is his best piece. Perhaps it is the best piece in the present volume. § 49. XVIII. THE CUCKOO AND THE NIGHTINGALE. Of this piece there are several MSS., which fall into two main classes: (A)--Ff. (Ff. 1. 6, in the Camb. Univ. Library); T. (Tanner 346); Th. (MS. used by Thynne, closely allied to T.); and (B)--F. (Fairfax 16), and B. (Bodley 638), which are closely allied. There is also S. (Selden, B. 24) imperfect, which has readings of its own[20]. Of these groups, A is the better, and MS. Ff. is, in some respects, the most important. Nevertheless, MS. Ff. has never been collated hitherto, so that I am able to give a somewhat improved text. For example, in all former editions lines 12 and 13 are transposed. In l. 180, the reading _haire_ (as in Bell and Morris) is somewhat comic (see the Note). In l. 203, MS. Ff. restores the true reading _hit_, i.e. hitteth. Bell, by some accident, omits the stanza in which this word occurs. In vol. i. p. 39, I took occasion to complain of the riming of _now_ with _rescow-e_ in ll. 228-9, according to Bell. The right reading, however, is not _now_, but _avow-e_, which rimes well enough. MS. Selden has _allowe_, which Morris follows, though it is clearly inferior and is unsupported. On the other hand, MS. Selden correctly, and alone, has _leve_ in l. 237; but the confusion between _e_ and _o_ is endless, so that the false reading _loue_ creates no surprise. This poem is very interesting, and has deservedly been a favourite one. It is therefore a great pleasure to me to have found the author's name. This is given at the end of the poem in MS. Ff. (the best MS., but hitherto neglected), where we find, in firm distinct letters, in the same handwriting as the poem itself, the remark--EXPLICIT CLANVOWE. Remembering that the true title of the poem is 'The Book of Cupid, God of Love[21],' I applied to Dr. Furnivall, asking him if he had met with the name. He at once referred me to his preface to Hoccleve's Works, p. x, where Sir John Clanvowe and Thomas Hoccleve are both mentioned in the same document (about A.D. 1385). But Sir John Clanvowe died in 1391, and therefore could not have imitated the title of Hoccleve's poem, which was not written till 1402. Our poet was probably Sir Thomas Clanvowe, concerning whom several particulars are known, and who must have been a well-known personage at the courts of Richard II and Henry IV. We learn from Wylie's Hist. of Henry IV, vol. iii. p. 261, that he was one of twenty-five knights who accompanied John Beaufort (son of John of Gaunt) to Barbary in 1390. This Sir Thomas favoured the opinions of the Lollards, but was nevertheless a friend of 'Prince Hal,' at the time when the prince was still friendly to freethinkers. He seems to have accompanied the prince in the mountains of Wales; see Wylie, as above, iii. 333. In 1401, he is mentioned as being one of 'vi Chivalers' in the list of esquires who were summoned to a council by king Henry IV; see the Acts of the Privy Council, ed. Nicolas, temp. Henry IV, p. 162. (It may be noted that Sir John Clanvowe was a witness, in 1385, to the will of the widow of the Black Prince; see Testamenta Vetusta, ed. Nicolas.) § 50. It now becomes easy to explain the reference to the queen at Woodstock, which has never yet been accounted for. The poem begins with the words--'_The God of Love!_ Ah benedicite,' quoted from Chaucer, the title of the poem being 'The Book of Cupid, _God of Love_,' as has been said; and this title was imitated from Hoccleve's poem of 1402. But there was no queen of England after Henry's accession till Feb. 7, 1403, when the king married Joan of Navarre; and it was she who held as a part of her dower the manor and park of Woodstock; see Wylie, as above, ii. 284. Hence the following hypothesis will suit the facts--namely, that the poem, imitating Chaucer's manner, and having a title imitated from Hoccleve's poem of 1402, was written by Sir Thomas Clanvowe, who held Lollard opinions[22] and was a friend (at one time) of Henry of Monmouth. And it was addressed to Joan of Navarre, Henry's stepmother, queen of England from 1403 to 1413, who held as a part of her dower the manor of Woodstock. If so, we should expect it to have been written before April, 1410, when Thomas Badby, the Lollard, was executed in the presence of the prince of Wales. Further, as it was probably written early rather than late in this period, I should be inclined to date it in 1403; possibly in May, as it relates so much to the time of spring. I may add that the Clanvowes were a Herefordshire family, from the neighbourhood of Wigmore. The only remarkable non-Chaucerian word in the poem is the verb _greden_, to cry out (A.S. _gr[=æ]dan_); a word found in many dialects, and used by Layamon, Robert of Gloucester, Langland, and Hoccleve. The poem is written in a light and pleasing style, which Wordsworth has fairly reproduced. The final _-e_ is suppressed in _assay-e_ (l. 52). The non-Chaucerian rimes are few, viz. _gren-e_ and _sen-e_ as riming with _been_ (61-5), shewing that Clanvowe cut down those dissyllables to _green_ and _seen_. And further, the forms _ron_ and _mon_ are employed, in order to rime with _upon_ (81-5); whereas Chaucer only has the form _man_; whilst of _ran_ I remember no example at the end of a line[23]. § 51. But there is one point about Clanvowe's verse which renders it, for the fifteenth century, quite unique. In imitating Chaucer's use of the final _-e_, he employs this suffix with unprecedented freedom, and rather avoids than seeks elision. This gives quite a distinctive character to his versification, and is very noticeable when attention has once been drawn to it. If, for example, we compare it with the Parliament of Foules, which it most resembles in general character, we find the following results. If, in the Cuckoo and Nightingale, we observe the first 21 lines, we shall find (even if we omit the example of _hy-e_ in l. 4, and all the examples of final _-e_ at the end of a line) the following clear examples of its use:--_low-e_, _lyk-e_, _hard-e_, _sek-e_, _hol-e_ (twice), _mak-e_, _hav-e_, _wys-e_, _proud-e_, _grev-e_, _trew-e_, _hert-e_, i.e. 13 examples, besides the 5 examples of final _-en_ in _mak-en_, _bind-en_, _unbind-en_, _bound-en_, _destroy-en_. But in the first 21 lines of the Parliament of Foules there are only 2 examples of the final _-e_ in the middle of a line, viz. _lust-e_ (15) and _long-e_ (21), whilst of the final _-en_ there is none. The difference between 18 and 2 must strike even the most inexperienced reader, when it is once brought under his notice. However, it is an extreme case. Yet again, if the _last_ 21 lines in the Cuckoo be compared with ll. 659-679 of the Parliament (being the _last_ 21 lines, if we dismiss the roundel and the stanza that follows it), we find in the former 7 examples of final _-e_ and 2 of _-en_, or 9 in all, whilst in Chaucer there are 7 of final _-e_, and 1 of _-en_, or 8 in all; and this also happens to be an extreme case in the other direction, owing to the occurrence in the former poem of the words _egle_, _maple_, and _chambre_, which I have not taken into account. This suggests that, to make sure, we must compare much longer passages. In the whole of the Cuckoo, I make about 120 such cases of final _-e_, and 23 such cases of final _-en_, or 143 in all. In 290 lines of the Parliament of Foules, I make about 68 and 19 such cases respectively; or about 87 in all. Now the difference between 143 and 87 is surely very marked. The cause of this result is obvious, viz. that Chaucer makes a more frequent use of elision. In the first 21 lines of the Parl. of Foules, we find elisions of _men'_, _sor'_, _wak'_, _oft'_ (twice), _red'_ (twice), _spek'_, _fast'_, _radd'_; i.e. 10 examples; added to which, Chaucer has _joy(e)_, _love_, _knowe_, _usage_, _boke_, at the cæsura, and suppresses the _e_ in _write_ (written). But in ll. 1-21, Clanvowe has (in addition to _love_, _make_, _lowe_, _make_ (twice), _gladde_ at the cæsura) only 3 examples of true elision, viz. _fressh'_, _tell'_, and _mak'_ (15). And further, we seldom find _two_ examples of the use of the final _-e_ in the _same_ line in Chaucer. I do not observe any instance, in the Parl. of Foules, till we arrive at l. 94:--'Took rest that mad-_e_ me to slep-_e_ faste.' But in Clanvowe they are fairly common. Examples are: Of sek-_e_ folk ful hol-_e_ (7); For every trew-_e_ gentil hert-_e_ free (21); That any hert-_e_ shuld-_e_ slepy be (44); I went-_e_ forth alon-_e_ bold-e-ly (59); They coud-_e_ that servyc-_e_ al by rote (71); and the like. In l. 73, we have even _three_ examples in _one_ line; Some song-_e_ loud-_e_, as they hadd-_e_ playned. From all of which it appears that the critics who have assigned the Cuckoo to Chaucer have taken no pains whatever to check their opinion by any sort of analysis. They have trusted to their own mere opinion, without looking the facts in the face. § 52. I will point out yet one more very striking difference. We know that Chaucer sometimes employs headless lines, such as: Twénty bókes át his béddes héed. But he does so sparingly, especially in his Minor Poems. But in the Cuckoo, they are not uncommon; see, e.g. lines 16, 50, 72, 100, 116, 118, 146, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 161, 166, 205, 232, 242, 252, 261, 265, 268. It is true that, in Morris's edition, lines 72, 146, 153, 161, and 205 are slightly altered; but in no case can I find that the alteration is authorised. And even then, this does not get rid of the _five consecutive_ examples in ll. 154-158, which cannot be explained away. Once more, I repeat, the critics have failed to use their powers of observation. I think the poem may still be admired, even if it be allowed that Clanvowe wrote it some three years after Chaucer's death. § 53. At any rate, it was admired by so good a judge of poetry as John Milton, who of course possessed a copy of it in the volume which was so pleasantly called 'The Works of Chaucer.' That his famous sonnet 'To the Nightingale' owed something to Clanvowe, I cannot doubt. 'Thou with fresh hope the lover's heart dost fill' is, in part, the older poet's theme; see ll. 1-30, 149-155, 191-192. Even his first line reminds one of ll. 77, 288. If Milton writes of May, so does Clanvowe; see ll. 20, 23, 34, 55, 70, 230, 235, 242; note especially l. 230. But the real point of contact is in the lines-- 'Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day, First heard before the shallow cuckoo's bill, Portend success in love ... Now timely sing, ere the rude bird of hate Foretell my hopeless doom in some grove nigh; As thou from year to year hast sung too late For my relief, yet hadst no reason why: Whether the Muse or Love call thee his mate, Both them I serve, and of their train am I.' With which compare:-- 'That it were good to here the nightingale Rather than the lewde cukkow singe': (49). 'A litel hast thou been to longe henne; For here hath been the lew[e]de cukkow, And songen songes rather than hast thou': (102). 'Ye, quod she, and be thou not amayed, Though thou have herd the cukkow er than me. For, if I live, it shal amended be The nexte May, if I be not affrayed': (232). 'And I wol singe oon of my songes newe For love of thee, as loude as I may crye': (247). 'For in this worlde is noon so good servyse To every wight that gentil is of kinde': (149). § 54. XIX. ENVOY TO ALISON. This piece has always hitherto been printed _without any title_, and is made to follow The Cuckoo and the Nightingale, as if there were some sort of connection between them. This is probably because it happens to follow that poem in the Fairfax and Tanner MSS., and probably did so in the MS. used by Thynne, which has a striking resemblance to the Tanner MS. However, the poem is entirely absent from the Cambridge, Selden, and Bodley MSS., proving that there is no connection with the preceding poem, from which it differs very widely in style, in language, and in metre. I call it an Envoy to Alison. For first, it is an Envoy[24], as it refers to the author's 'lewd book,' which it recommends to a lady. What the book is, no one can say; but it may safely be conjectured that it was of no great value. And secondly, the lady's name was Alison, as shewn by the acrostic in lines 22-27; and the author has recourse to almost ludicrous efforts, in order to secure the first four letters of the name. Briefly, it is a very poor piece; and my chief object in reprinting it is to shew how unworthy it is of Clanvowe, not to mention Chaucer. We have no right even to assign it to Lydgate. And its date may be later than 1450. § 55. XX. THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF. This piece many 'critics' would assign to Chaucer, merely because they like it. This may be sentiment, but it is not criticism; and, after all, a desire to arrive at the truth should be of more weight with us than indulgence in ignorant credulity. It is of some consequence to learn, first of all, that it is hardly possible to separate this piece from the next. The authoress of one was the authoress of the other. That The Assembly of Ladies is longer and duller, and has not held its own in popular estimation, is no sound argument to the contrary; for it is only partially true. Between the first eleven stanzas of the Assembly and the first eleven stanzas of the present poem, there is a strong general resemblance, and not much to choose. Other stanzas of the Assembly that are well up to the standard of the Flower will be found in lines 456-490, 511-539. The reason of the general inferiority of the Assembly lies chiefly in the choice of the subject; it was meant to interest some medieval household, but it gave small scope for retaining the reader's attention, and must be held to be a failure. The links connecting these poems are so numerous that I must begin by asking the reader to let me denote The Flower and the Leaf by the letter F (= Flower), and The Assembly of Ladies by the letter A (= Assembly). The first point is that (with the sole exception of the Nutbrown Maid) no English poems exist, as far as I remember, written previously to 1500, and purporting to be written by a woman. In the case of F. and A., this is assumed throughout. When the author of F. salutes a certain fair lady, the lady replies--'_My doughter, gramercy_'; 462. And again she says, '_My fair doughter_'; 467, 500, 547. The author of A. says she was one of five ladies; 5-7, 407. Again, she was a woman; 18. The author of A. and some other ladies salute Lady Countenance, who in reply says 'fair sisters'; 370. Again, she and others salute a lady-chamberlain, who replies by calling them 'sisters'; 450; &c. The poem A. is supposed to be an account of a dream, told by the authoress to a gentleman; with the exception of this gentleman, all the characters of the poem are _ladies_; and hence its title. The poem F. is not quite so exclusive, but it comes very near it; all the principal characters are ladies, and the chief personages are queens, viz. the queen of the Leaf and the queen of the Flower. The 'world of ladies' in l. 137 take precedence of the Nine Worthies, who were merely men. A recognition of this fact makes the whole poem much clearer. But the most characteristic thing is the continual reference to colours, dresses, ornaments, and decorations. In F., we have descriptions of, or references to, white surcoats, velvet, seams, emeralds, purfils, colours, sleeves, trains, pearls, diamonds, a fret of gold, chaplets of leaves, chaplets of woodbine, chaplets of _agnus-castus_, a crown of gold, thundering trumpets, the treasury of Prester John, white cloaks, chaplets of oak, banners of Tartary-silk, more pearls, collars, escutcheons, kings-of-arms, cloaks of white cloth, crowns set with pearls, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds. Then there is a company all clad in one suit (or livery); heralds and poursuivants, more chaplets and escutcheons, men in armour with cloth of gold and horse-trappings, with bosses on their bridles and peitrels--it is surely needless to go on, though we have only arrived at l. 246. In A., we have much the same sort of thing all over again, though it does not set in before l. 83. Then we meet with blue colours, an embroidered gown, and a purfil with a device. After a respite, we begin again at l. 206--'Her gown was blue'; and the lady wore a French motto. Diligence tells the authoress that she looks well in her new blue gown (259). At l. 305, there is another blue gown, furred with gray, with a motto on the sleeve; and there are plenty more mottoes to follow. At l. 451 we come to a paved floor, and walls made of beryl and crystal, engraved with stories; next, a well-apparelled chair or throne, on five stages, wrought of 'cassidony,' with four pommels of gold, and set with sapphires; a cloth of estate, wrought with the needle (486); cloth of gold (521); a blue gown, with sleeves wrought tabard-wise, of which the collar and the _vent_ (slit in front of the neck) are described as being like ermine; it was couched with great pearls, powdered with diamonds, and had sleeves and purfils; then we come to rubies, enamel, a great balas-ruby, and more of the same kind. Again, it is useless to go further. Surely these descriptions of seams, and collars, and sleeves, are due to a woman. The likeness comes out remarkably in two parallel stanzas. One of them is from F. 148, and the other from A. 526. 'As grete perles, round and orient, Diamondes fyne and rubies rede, And many another stoon, of which I want The names now; and everich on her hede A riche fret of gold, which, without drede, Was ful of statly riche stones set; And every lady had a chapelet,' &c. 'After a sort the coller and the vent, Lyk as ermyne is mad in purfeling; With grete perles, ful fyne and orient, They were couched, al after oon worching, With dyamonds in stede of powdering; The sleves and purfilles of assyse; They were y-mad [ful] lyke, in every wyse.' I wonder which the reader prefers; for myself, I have really no choice. For I do not see how to choose between such lines as these following:-- And on I put my gere and myn array; F. 26. That ye wold help me on with myn aray; A. 241. _or_, So than I dressed me in myn aray; A. 253. As grete perles, round and orient; F. 148. With grete perles, ful fyne and orient; A. 528. And forth they yede togider, twain and twain; F. 295. See how they come togider, twain and twain; A. 350. So long, alas! and, if that it you plese To go with me, I shal do yow the ese; F. 391. And see, what I can do you for to plese, I am redy, that may be to your ese; A. 447. I thank you now, in my most humble wyse; F. 567. We thanked her in our most humble wyse; A. 729. Besides these striking coincidences in whole lines, there are a large number of phrases and endings of lines that are common to the two poems; such as--_the springing of the day_, F. 25, A. 218; _Which, as me thought_, F. 36, A. 50; _wel y-wrought_, F. 49, A. 165; _by mesure_, F. 58, A. 81; _I you ensure_, F. 60, 287, A. 52, 199; _in this wyse_, F. 98, A. 589; _I sat me doun_, F. 118, A. 77; _oon and oon_, F. 144, A. 368, 543, 710; _by and by_, F. 59, 146, A. 87; _withouten fail_, F. 369, A. 567, 646; _herself aloon_, F. 458, A. 84; _ful demure_, F. 459, A. 82; _to put in wryting_, F. 589, A. 664; and others that are printed out in the Notes. Very characteristic of female authorship is the remark that the ladies vied with each other as to which looked the best; a remark which occurs in _both_ poems; see F. 188, A. 384. A construction common to both poems is the use of _very_ with an adjective, a construction used by Lydgate, but not by Chaucer; examples are _very rede_, F. 35; _very good_, F. 10, 315; _very round_, A. 479. It is tedious to enumerate how much these poems have in common. They open in a similar way, F. with the description of a grove, A. with the description of a garden with a maze. In the eighth stanza of F., we come to 'a herber that benched was'; and in the seventh stanza of A. we come to a similar 'herber, mad with benches'; both from The Legend of Good Women. In F., the authoress has a waking vision of 'a world of ladies' (137); in A. she sees in a dream the 'assembly of ladies.' In both, she sees an abundance of dresses, and gems, and bright colours. Both introduce several scraps of French. In both, the authoress has interviews with allegorical or visionary personages, who address her either as daughter or sister. I have little doubt that the careful reader will discover more points of resemblance for himself. § 56. The chief appreciable difference between the two poems is that F. was probably written considerably earlier than A. This appears from the more frequent use of the final _-e_, which the authoress occasionally uses as an archaic embellishment, though she frequently forgets all about it for many stanzas together. In the former poem (F.) there seem to be about 50 examples, whilst in the latter (A.) there are hardly 10[25]. In almost every case, it is correctly used, owing, no doubt, to tradition or to a perusal of older poetry. The most important cases are the abundant ones in which a final _e_ is omitted where Chaucer would inevitably have inserted it. For example, such a line as F. 195--From the same grove, where the ladyes come out--would become, in Chaucer--From the sam-ë grov-ë wher the ladyes come out--giving at least twelve syllables in the line. The examples of the omission of final _-e_, where such omission makes a difference to the scansion, are not very numerous, because many such come before a vowel (where they might be elided) or at the cæsura (where they might be tolerated). Still we may note such a case as _green_ in l. 109 where Chaucer would have written _gren-e_, giving _a fresh gren-ë laurer-tree_, to the ruin of the scansion. Similar offences against Chaucer's usage are _herd_ for _herd-e_, 128 (cf. 191); _spek'_ for _spek-e_, 140; _al_ for _all-e_, plural, 165; _sight_ for _sight-e_, 174; _lyf_ for _lyv-e_, 182; _sam'_ for _sam-e_, 195; _the tenth_ for _the tenth-e_, 203; _gret_ for _gret-e_, plural, 214, 225; _red_ for _red-e_, 242; _the worst_ for _the worst-e_, 255; _yed'_ for _yed-e_, 295, 301; _fast_ for _fast-e_, 304; _rejoice_ for _rejoy-se_, 313; _noise_ for _nois-e_, 353; _sonn'_ for _son-ne_, 355, 408; _hir fresh_ for _hir fres-she_, 357; _laft_ for _laft-e_, pt. t., 364; _their greet_ for _hir gret-e_, 377; _sick_ for _sek-e_, 410; _about_ for _about-e_, 411; _to soup_ for _to soup-e_, 417; _without_ for _without-e_, 423, 549; _the hool_ for _the hol-e_, 437; _to know_ for _to know-e_, 453; _past_ for _pass-ede_ or _past-e_, 465; _My fair_ for _My fair-e_, vocative, 467, 500; _to tel_ for _to tell-e_, 495; _nin(e)_ for _nyn-e_, 502; _imagin(e)_ for _imagin-en_, 525; _they last_ for _they last-e_, 562; _thy rud(e)_ for _thy rud-e_, 595. Those who believe that The Flower and the Leaf was written by Chaucer will have to explain away every one of these cases; and when they have done so, there is more to be said. § 57. For it is well known that such a word as _sweetly_ (96) was trisyllabic, as _swet-e-ly_, in Chaucer; C. T., A 221. Similarly, our authoress has _trewly_ for _trew-e-ly_[26], 130; _richly_ for _rich-e-ly_, 169; _woodbind_ for _wod-e-bind-e_, 485. Similar is _ointments_ for _oin-e-ments_, 409. And, moreover, our authoress differs from Chaucer as to other points of grammar. Thus she has _Forshronk_ as a strong pp., 358, which ought to be _forshronk-en_ or _forshronk-e_. Still more marked is her use of _rood_ as the _plural_ of the past tense, 449, 454, where Chaucer has _rid-en_; and her use of _began_ as a plural, 385, where Chaucer has _bigonn-e_. Can these things be explained away also? If so, there is more to be said. § 58. All the above examples have been made out, without so much as looking at the rimes. But the rimes are much harder to explain away, where they differ from Chaucer's. Here are a few specimens. _Pas-se_ rimes with _was_, 27; so it must have been cut down to _pas_! Similarly, _hew-e_ has become _hew_; for it rimes with _grew_, sing., 32. _Sight-e_ has become _sight_, to rime with _wight_, 37. _Brought_ should rather be _brought-e_, but it rimes with _wrought_, 48. Similar difficulties occur in _peyn_ (for _peyn-e_), r. w. _seyn_ (62); _syd'_ for _syd-e_, r. w. _espy'd_ for _espy-ed_, 72; _eet_, r. w. _sweet_ for _swet-e_, 90; _not'_ for _not-e_, r. w. _sot_, 99; _busily_, r. w. _aspy'_ for _aspy-e_, 106; _trewly_, r. w. _armony'_ for _armony-e_, 130; _orient_ (_oriant_?), r. w. _want_ for _want-e_, 148; _person_ for _person-e_, r. w. _everichon_, 167. It is tedious to go on; let the critic finish the list, if he knows how to do it. If not, let him be humble. For there is more to come. § 59. Besides the grammar, there is yet the pronunciation to be considered; and here comes in the greatest difficulty of all. For, in ll. 86-89, we have the unusual rime of _tree_ and _be_ with _pretily_. This so staggered Dr. Morris, that he was induced to print the last word as _pretile_; which raises the difficulty without explaining it. For the explanation, the reader should consult the excellent dissertation by Dr. Curtis on The Romance of Clariodus (Halle, 1894), p. 56, § 187. He remarks that a rime of this character gives evidence of the transition of M.E. long close _e_ to (Italian) long _i_ [as in the change from A.S. _m[=e]_ to mod. E. _me_], and adds: 'this change became general in the fifteenth century, but had begun in some dialects at an earlier date.' Its occurrence in the present poem is a strong indication that it is later than the year 1400, and effectually disposes of any supposed connection with Midland poems of the fourteenth century. Both poems are remarkably free from classical allusions and from references to such medieval authors as are freely quoted by Chaucer. There is nothing to shew that the authoress was acquainted with Latin, though she knew French, especially the French of songs and mottoes. The Flower and the Leaf is chiefly famous for having been versified by Dryden. The version is a free one, in a manner all his own, and is finer than the original, which can hardly be said of his 'versions' of Palamon and Arcite and The Cock and the Fox. It is doubtless from this version that many critics have formed exaggerated ideas of the poem's value; otherwise, it is difficult to understand for what reasons it was considered worthy of so great a master as Geoffrey Chaucer. § 60. It will be seen, from the Notes, that the authoress was well acquainted with the Prologue to The Legend of Good Women; and it can hardly be questioned that she took the main idea of the poem from that source, especially ll. 188-194 of the later text. At the same time she was well acquainted with Gower's lines on the same subject, in the Conf. Amantis, iii. 357, 358; see vol. iii. pp. xlii, 297. Gower has:-- 'Me thoughte I sigh to-fore myn hede Cupide with his bowe bent, And like unto a parlement Which were ordeined for the nones, With him cam al the world atones[27] Of gentil folk, that whylom were Lovers; I sigh hem alle there ... Her hedes kempt, and therupon Garlondes, nought of o colour, Some of the Lefe, some of the Flour,[28] And some of grete perles were.[29] ... So loude that on every syde It thoughte as al the heven cryde[30] In such accorde and suche a soun Of bombard and of clarioun ... So glad a noise for to here. The grene Leef is overthrowe[31] ... Despuiled is the somer fare,' &c. (p. 371). § 61. XXI. THE ASSEMBLY OF LADIES. This has already been discussed, in some measure, in considering the preceding poem. Both pieces were written by the same authoress; but the former is the more sprightly and probably the earlier. With the exception of the unusual rime of _tree_ with _pretily_ (discussed above), nearly all the peculiarities of the preceding poem occur here also. The Chaucerian final _-e_ appears now and then, as in _commaund-e_ (probably plural), 203; _red-e_, 215; _countenanc-e_, 295; _pen-ne_ [or else _seyd-e_], 307; _chayr-e_, 476; _tak-e_, 565; _trouth-e_, 647; _liv-e_, 672; _sem-e_ (pr. s. subj.), 696. But it is usually dropped, as in _The fresh_ for _The fres-she_, 2; &c. In l. 11, Thynne prints _fantasyse_ for _fantasyes_; for it obviously rimes with _gyse_ (monosyllabic); cf. 533-535. _Hew-e_ and _new-e_ are cut down to _hew_ and _new_, to rime with _knew_, 67. _Bold_ rimes with _told_, clipped form of _told-e_, 94; and so on. So, again, _trewly_ appears in place of Chaucer's _trew-e-ly_, 488. It is needless to pursue the subject. The description of the maze and the arbour, in ll. 29-70, is good. Another pleasing passage is that contained in ll. 449-497; and the description of a lady's dress in ll. 519-539. As for the lady herself-- 'It was a world to loke on her visage.' There is a most characteristic touch of a female writer in lines 253-254:-- 'So than I dressed me in myn aray, And asked her, _whether it were wel or no?_' To attribute such a question as 'how will my dress do' to a male writer is a little too dramatic for a mere narrative poem. The two MSS. have now been collated for the first time and afford some important corrections, of which l. 61 presents remarkable instances. MS. Addit. 34360 is of some value. § 62. A considerable part of The Assembly of Ladies that is now of little interest may have been much appreciated at the time, as having reference to the ordering of a large medieval household, with its chambers, parlours, bay-windows, and galleries, carefully kept in good order by the various officers and servants; such as Perseverance the usher, Countenance the porter, Discretion the chief purveyor, Acquaintance the harbinger, Largesse the steward, Bel-cheer the marshal of the hall, Remembrance the chamberlain, and the rest. The authoress must have been perfectly familiar with spectacles and pageants and all the amusements of the court; but she was too humble to aspire to wear a motto. 'And for my "word," I have non; this is trew. It is ynough that my clothing be blew As here-before I had commaundement; And so to do I am right wel content'; A. 312. We must not forget that the period of the Wars of the Roses, especially from 1455 to 1471, was one during which the composition of these poems was hardly possible. It is obviously very difficult to assign a date to them; perhaps they may be referred to the last quarter of the fifteenth century. We must not put them too late, because The Assembly exists in MSS. that seem to be as old as that period. § 63. XXII. A GOODLY BALADE. For this poem there is but one authority, viz. Thynne's edition of 1532. He calls it 'A goodly balade of Chaucer'; but it is manifestly Lydgate's. Moreover, it is really a triple Balade, with an Envoy, on the model of Chaucer's Fortune and Compleynt of Venus; only it has seven-line stanzas instead of stanzas of eight lines. An inspection of Thynne's volume shews that it was inserted to fill a gap, viz. a blank page at the back of the concluding lines of The Legend of Good Women, so that the translation of Boethius might commence on a new leaf. It is obvious that the third stanza of the second Balade was missing in Thynne's MS. He did not leave it out for lack of space; for there is plenty of room on his page. That it is not Chaucer's appears from the first Balade, where the use of the monosyllables _shal_ and _smal_ in ll. 8 and 10 necessitates the use of the clipped forms _al_ for _al-le_, _cal_ for _cal-le_, _apal_ for _apal-le_, and _befal_ for _befal-le_. Moreover, the whole style of it suggests Lydgate, and does not suggest Chaucer. The sixth stanza probably began with the letter _D_; in which case, the initial letters of the stanzas give us _M_, _M_, _M_; _D_, _D_, _D_; _J_, _C_, _Q_. And, as it was evidently addressed to a lady named _Margaret_ (see the Notes), we seem to see here _Margaret, Dame Jacques_. The name of _Robert Jacques_ occurs in the Writs of Parliament; Bardsley's English Surnames, 2nd ed., p. 565. Of course this is a guess which it is easy to deride; but it is very difficult to account otherwise for the introduction of the letters _J_, _C_, _Q_ in the third Balade; yet it was evidently intentional, for much force was employed to achieve the result. To make the first stanza begin with _J_, recourse is had to French; and the other two stanzas both begin with inverted clauses. § 64. XXIII. GO FORTH, KING. I give this from Thynne's first edition; but add the Latin lines from the copy printed in Schick's edition of The Temple of Glas, at p. 68. His text is from that printed by Wynken de Worde about 1498, collated with the second and third prints from the same press at somewhat later dates, and a still later copy printed by Berthelet. The only difference between Thynne's text and that given by Schick is that Wynken de Worde printed _ar_ in the last line where Thynne has printed _be_. Schick also notes that 'the Chaucer-Prints of 1561 and 1598 omit _thou_' in l. 9; and I find that it is also omitted in the third edition (undated, about 1550). But it occurs in the edition of 1532, all the same; shewing that the later reprints cannot always be relied upon. I have already said (vol. i. p. 40)--'Surely it must be Lydgate's.' For it exhibits his love for 'catalogues,' and presents his peculiarities of metre. Dr. Schick agrees with this ascription, and points out that its appearance in the four prints above-mentioned, in all of which it is annexed to Lydgate's Temple of Glas, tends to strengthen my supposition. I think this may be taken as removing all doubt on the subject. § 65. I beg leave to quote here Schick's excellent remarks upon the poem itself. 'There are similar pieces to these _Duodecim Abusiones_ in earlier English literature (see ten Brink, _Geschichte der englischen Literatur_, i. 268, and note).[32] The "twelf unþ[=e]awas" existed also in Old-English; a homily on them is printed in Morris, _Old Eng. Homilies_, pp. 101-119[33]. It is based on the Latin Homily "De octo viciis et de duodecim abusivis huius saeculi," attributed to St. Cyprian or St. Patrick; see Dietrich in Niedner's _Zeitschrift für historische Theologie_, 1855, p. 518; Wanley's _Catalogus_, passim (cf. the Index _sub voce_ Patrick). In the Middle-English period we meet again with more or less of these "Abusions"; see Morris, _Old Eng. Miscellany_, p. 185 (11 Abusions); Furnivall, _Early Eng. Poems_, Berlin, 1862 (Phil. Soc.), p. 161; "Five Evil Things," Wright and Halliwell, _Reliquiae Antiquae_, i. 316, and ii. 14.' § 66. XXIV. THE COURT OF LOVE. This piece was first printed by Stowe in 1561. Stowe happened to have access to a MS. which was really a miscellaneous collection of Middle-English pieces of various dates; and he proceeded to print them as being 'certaine workes of Geffray Chauser,' without paying any regard to their contents or style. In vol. i. pp. 33, 34, I give a list of his additions, numbered 42-60[34]. By good fortune, the very MS. in question is now in Trinity College Library, marked R. 3. 19. We can thus tell that he was indebted to it for the pieces numbered 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, and 59. These eleven pieces are all alike remarkable for being non-Chaucerian; indeed, no. 56 is certainly Lydgate's. But it has so happened that no. 59, or The Court of Love, being the best of these pieces, was on that account 'attributed' to Chaucer, whilst the others were unhesitatingly rejected. And it happened on this wise. § 67. After Tyrwhitt had edited the Canterbury Tales afresh, it occurred to him to compile a Glossary. He rightly reasoned that the Glossary would be strengthened and made more correct if he included in it all the harder words found in the _whole_ of Chaucer's Works, instead of limiting the vocabulary to words which occur in the Canterbury Tales only. For this purpose, he proceeded to draw up a List of what he conceived to be Chaucer's _genuine_ works; and we must remember that the only process open to him was to consider all the old editions, and _reject_ such as he conceived to be spurious. Hence his List is not really a list of genuine works, but one made by striking out from all previous lists the works which he _knew_ to be spurious. A moment's reflection will show that this is a very different thing. Considering that he had only his own acumen to guide him, and had no access to linguistic or grammatical tests, still less to tests derived from an examination of rimes or phonology, it is wonderful how well he did his work. In the matter of rejection, he did not make a single mistake. His first revision was made by considering only the pieces numbered 1-41, in the _first_ part of Stowe's print (see vol. i. pp. 31-33); and he struck out the following, on the express ground that they were _known to have been written by other authors_; viz. nos. 4, 11, 13, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 33, and 40[35]. Then he went over the list again, and struck out, on internal evidence, nos. 15, 18, 21, 22, and 32[36]. Truly, here was a noble beginning! The only non-Chaucerian pieces which he failed to reject explicitly, among nos. 1-41, were the following, viz. 6 (A Goodly Balade of Chaucer), 17 (The Complaint of the Black Knight), 20 (The Testament of Love), 31 (The Cuckoo and the Nightingale), 38 (Go forth, King), and 41 (A Balade in Praise of Chaucer). Of course he rejected the last of these, but it was not worth his while to say so; and, in the same way, he tacitly rejected or ignored nos. 6, 30, and 38. Hence it was that nos. 6, 30, 38, and 41 did not appear in Moxon's Chaucer, and even no. 32 was carefully excluded. In his final list, out of nos. 1-41, Tyrwhitt actually got rid of all but nos. 17, 20, and 31 (The Black Knight, The Testament of Love, and The Cuckoo). As to the remaining articles, he accepted, among the longer pieces, nos. 59, 62, and 63, i.e. The Court of Love, Chaucer's Dream, and The Flower and the Leaf; to which he added nos. 42, 43, and 60 (as to which there is no doubt), and also the Virelai (no. 50), on the slippery ground that it _is_ a virelai (which, strictly speaking, it is not). § 68. One result of his investigations was that an edition of Chaucer was published by Moxon (my copy is dated 1855), in which all the poems were included which Tyrwhitt accepted, followed by Tyrwhitt's Account of the Works of Chaucer. Owing to the popularity of this edition, many scholars accepted the poems contained in it as being certainly genuine; but it is obvious that this was a very risky thing to do, in the absence of external evidence; especially when it is remembered that Tyrwhitt merely wanted to illustrate his glossary to the Canterbury Tales by adding words from other texts. The idea of drawing up a canon by the process of striking out from luxuriant lists the names of pieces that are obviously spurious, is one that should never have found acceptance. § 69. There is only one correct method of drawing up a canon of genuine works, viz. that adopted by Mr. Henry Bradshaw, formerly our Cambridge University Librarian. It is simple enough, viz. to take a clean sheet of paper, and enter upon it, first of all, the names of all the pieces that are admittedly genuine; and then to see if it can fairly be augmented by adding such pieces as have reasonable evidence in their favour. In making a list of this character, The Court of Love has no claim to be considered at all, as I fully proved about twenty years ago[37]; and there is an end of the matter. The MS. copy is in a hand of the sixteenth century[38], and there is no internal evidence to suggest an earlier date. § 70. Our task is to determine what it really is, and what can be made of it as it stands. We learn from the author that he was 'a clerk of Cambridge' (913), which we may readily accept. Beyond this, there is nothing but internal evidence; but of this there is much. That our 'clerk' had read Ovid and Maximian appears from the Notes; he even seems to have imbibed something of 'the new learning,' as he makes up the names Philo-genet and Philo-bone by help of a Greek adjective[39]. Dr. Schick has made it clear that he was well acquainted with Lydgate's Temple of Glas, which he imitates freely; see Schick's edition of that poem, p. cxxix. Mr. J. T. T. Brown, in his criticism on 'The Authorship of the Kingis Quair,' Glasgow, 1896, draws many parallels between The Court of Love and The Kingis Quair, and concludes that The Kingis Quair was indebted to The Court of Love; but it is tolerably certain that the indebtedness was in the other direction. For, in The Kingis Quair, some knowledge of the true use of Chaucer's final _-e_ is still exhibited, even in a Northern poem, whilst in The Court of Love, it is almost altogether dead, though the poem is in the Midland dialect. I shall presently shew that our clerk, whilst very nearly ignoring the final _-e_, occasionally employs the final _-en_; but this he does in a way which clearly shews that he did not understand when to use it aright, a fact which is highly significant. I am much indebted to my friend Professor Hales for pointing out another very cogent argument. He draws attention to the numerous instances in which the author of The Court of Love fails to end a stanza with a stop. There is no stop, for example, at the end of ll. 14, 567, 672, 693, 700, 763, 826, 1064, 1288; and only a slight pause at the end of ll. 28, 49, 70, 84, 189, 231, 259, 280, 371, 406, 427, &c. In Chaucer's Parlement of Foules, on the other hand, there is but one stanza without a stop at the end, viz. at l. 280; and but one with a slight pause, viz. at l. 154. The difference between these results is very marked, and would convince any mathematician. I should like to add that the same test disposes of the claims of The Flower and the Leaf to be considered as Chaucer's; it has no stop at the end of ll. 7, 70, 154, 161, 196, 231, 280, 308, 392, 476, and has mere commas at the end of ll. 28, 49, 56, 98, 119, 224, 259, 329, 336, &c. In the Assembly of Ladies this departure from Chaucer's usage has been nearly abandoned, which is one reason why that piece is in a less lively style. § 71. The sole MS. copy of The Court of Love belongs to the sixteenth century, and there is nothing to shew that the poem itself was of earlier date. Indeed, the language of it is remarkably like that of the former half of that century. If it be compared with Sackville's famous 'Induction,' the metrical form of the stanzas is much the same; there is the same smoothness of rhythm and frequent modernness of form, quite different from the halting lines of Lydgate and Hawes. This raises a suggestion that the author may have learnt his metre from Scottish authors, such as Henryson and Dunbar; and it is surprising to find him employing such words as _celsitude_ and _pulcritude_, and even riming them together, precisely as Dunbar did (ll. 611-613, and the note). One wonders where he learnt to use such words, if not from Scottish authors. Curiously enough, a single instance of the use of a Northern inflexion occurs in the phrase _me thynkes_, 874. And I admit the certainty that he consulted The Kingis Quair. I have no space to discuss the matter at length; so shall content myself with saying that the impression produced upon me is that we have here the work of one of the heralds of the Elizabethan poetry, of the class to which belonged Nicholas Grimoald, Thomas Sackville, Lord Surrey, Lord Vaux, and Sir Francis Bryan. There must have been much fairly good poetry in the time of Henry VIII that is lost to us. Tottell's Miscellany clearly shews this, as it is a mere selection of short pieces, which very nearly perished; but for this fortunate relic, we should not have known much about Wyat and Surrey. Sackville, when at Cambridge, acquired some distinction for Latin and English verse, but we possess none of it. However, Sackville was not the author of The Court of Love, seeing that it was published in a 'Chaucer' collection in 1561, long before his death. The fact that our clerk was well acquainted with so many pieces by Chaucer, such as The Knight's Tale, the Complaint of Pity, The Legend of Good Women, Troilus, and Anelida, besides giving us reminiscences of The Letter of Cupid, and (perhaps) of The Cuckoo and Nightingale, raises the suspicion that he had access to Thynne's edition of 1532; and it is quite possible that this very book inspired him for his effort. This suspicion becomes almost a certainty if it be true that ll. 495-496 are borrowed from Rom. Rose, 2819-20; see note at p. 545. I can find no reason for dating the poem earlier than that year. § 72. However this may be, the chief point to notice is that his archaisms are affectations and not natural. He frequently dispenses with them altogether for whole stanzas at a time. When they occur, they are such as he found in Chaucer abundantly; I refer to such phrases as _I-wis_ or _y-wis_; _as blyve_; the use of _ich_ for _I_ (661); _besy cure_ (36); _gan me dresse_ (113; cf. C. T., G 1271); _by the feith I shall to god_ (131; cf. Troil. iii. 1649); and many more. He rarely uses the prefix _i-_ or _y-_ with the pp.; we find _y-born_ (976), _y-formed_ (1176), _y-heried_ (592), _y-sped_ (977), all in Chaucer; besides these, I only note _y-fed_ (975), _y-ravisshed_ (153), _y-stope_ (281), the last being used in the sense of Chaucer's _stope_. The most remarkable point is the almost total absence of the final _-e_; I only observe _His len-ë body_ (1257); _to serv-e_ (909); _to dred-e_ (603); and _in thilk-ë place_ (642); the last of which is a phrase (cf. R. R. 660). On the other hand, whilst thus abstaining from the use of the final _-e_, he makes large use of the longer and less usual suffix _-en_, which he employs with much skill to heighten the archaic effect. Thus we find the past participles _holden_, 62; _growen_, 182; _yoven_ or _yeven_, 742; _shapen_, 816, 1354; _blowen_, 1240; the gerunds _writen_, 35; _dressen_, 179; _byden_, 321; _semen_, 607; _seken_, 838; _worshippen_, 1165, and a few others; the infinitives _maken_, 81; _byden_, 189; _quyten_, 327, &c., this being the commonest use; the present plurals _wailen_, 256; _foten_, 586; _speden_, 945, &c.; with the same form for the first person, as in _wailen_, 1113; _bleden_, 1153; and for the second person, as in _waxen_, 958; _slepen_, 999. Occasionally, this suffix is varied to _-yn_ or _-in_, as in _exilyn_, v., 336; _serchyn_, v., 950; _spakyn_, pt. pl., 624; _approchyn_, pr. pl., 1212. This may be the scribe's doing, and is consistent with East Anglian spelling. But the artificial character of these endings is startlingly revealed when we find _-en_ added in an impossible position, shewing that its true grammatical use was quite dead. Yet we find such examples. A serious error (hardly the scribe's) occurs in l. 347: 'Wheder that she me _helden_ lefe or loth.' _Hold_ being a strong verb, the pt. t. is _held_; we could however justify the use of _held-e_, by supposing it to be the subjunctive mood, which suits the sense; but _held-en_ (with _-en_) is the _plural_ form, while _she_ is singular; and really this use of _-e_ in the subjunctive must have been long dead. In l. 684, we have a case that is even worse, viz. _I kepen in no wyse_; here the use of _-en_ saves a hiatus, but the concord is false, like the Latin _ego seruamus_. In l. 928, the same thing recurs, though the scribe has altered _greven_ into _growen_[40]; for this present tense is supposed to agree with _I_! A very clear case occurs in l. 725: _For if by me this mater springen out_; where the use of _-en_, again meant to save a hiatus, is excruciatingly wrong; for _mater_ is singular! This cannot be the fault of the scribe. Other examples of false grammar are: _thou serven_, 290; _thou sene_, 499. But the climax is attained in l. 526, where we meet with _thay kepten ben_, where the _-en_ is required for the metre. _Kepten_, as a _past participle_, is quite unique; let us drop a veil over this sad lapse, and say no more about it[41]. We may, however, fairly notice the constant use of the Northern forms _their_ and _thaim_ or _theim_, where Chaucer has _hir_ and _hem_. The use of _their_ and _them_ (not _thaim_) was well established by the year 1500 in literary English, as, e.g., in Hawes and Skelton. Caxton uses all four forms, _hem_ and _them_, _her_ and _their_. § 73. I add a few notes, suggested by an examination of the rimes employed. The final _-e_ is not used at the end of a line. This is easily seen, if carefully looked into. Thus _lette_ (1284) stands for _let_, for it rimes with _y-set_; _grace_ and _trespace_ rime with _was_, 163; _kene_ rimes with _bene_, misspelling of _been_, 252; _redde_, put for _red_, rimes with _spred_, 302; _yerde_, put for _yerd_, rimes with _aferd_, 363; _ende_ rimes with _frend_ and _fend_, 530; and so on throughout[42]. The following assonances occur: _here_, _grene_, 253; _kepe_, _flete_, 309; and the following rimes are imperfect: _plaint_, _talent_, _consent_, 716; _frend_, _mynd_, 1056; _nonne_ (for _non_), _boun_, 1149; _like_ (_i_ long), _stike_ (_i_ short), 673; and perhaps _hold_, _shuld_[43], 408; _hard_, _ferd_, 151. _Hard_ is repeated, 149, 151; 1275, 1277. A curious rime is that of _length_ with _thynketh_, 1059; read _thenk'th_, and it is good enough. Noteworthy are these: _thryse_ (for Chaucer's _thry-ës_), _wyse_, 537; _hens_ (for Chaucer's _henn-ës_), _eloquence_, 935; _desire_, _here_, 961, 1301; _eke_, _like_, 561; _tretesse_ (for Chaucer's _tretys_), _worthinesse_, 28; _write_, _aright_, 13; _sey_ (I saw), _way_, 692. In one place, he has _discryve_, 778, to rime with _lyve_; and in another _discry_ (miswritten _discryve_, 97), to rime with _high_. As in Chaucer, he sometimes has _dy_, to die, riming with _remedy_, 340, and elsewhere _dey_, to rime with _pray_, 582; and again _fire_, _fyr_, riming with _hyre_, 883, or with _desire_, 1285, and at another time the Kentish form _fere_ (borrowed from Chaucer), with the same sense, r. w. _y-fere_, 622. The most curious forms are those for 'eye.' When it rimes with _degree_, 132, _see_, 768, we seem to have the Northern form _ee_ or _e_; but elsewhere it rimes with _besily_, 299, _pretily_, 419, _wounderly_, 695, _dispitously_, 1139, or with _I_, 282; and the plural _yen_ (= _y'n_) rimes with _lyne_, 135. The sounds represented by _[=e]_ and _y_ obviously afford permissible rimes; that the sounds were not identical appears from ll. 1051-1055, which end with _me_, _remedy_, _be_, _dy_, _company_ consecutively. § 74. Perhaps an easier way for enabling a learner to recognise the peculiarities of The Court of Love, and the difference of its language from Chaucer, is to translate some lines of it into Chaucerian English. The effect upon the metre is startling. So thanne I went-ë by straunge and fer-rë contrees; 57. Alceste it was that kept-ë there her sojour; 105. To whom obeyd-ën the ladies god-ë nynten-ë; 108. And yong-ë men fel-ë cam-ë forth with lusty pace; 110. O bright-ë Regina, who mad-ë thee so fair? 141. And mercy ask-ë for al my gret-ë trespas; 166. This eight-ë-ten-ë yeer have kept yourself at large; 184. In me did never worch-ë trew-ë-ly, yit I; 212. And ther I sey the fres-shë quene of Cartáge; 231. A! new-ë com-ën folk, abyde, and woot ye why; 271. Than gan I me present-ë tofor-ë the king; 274. That thou be trew-ë from henn-es-forth, to thy might; 289. And nam-ë-ly haw-ë-thorn brought-ën both-ë page and grom-ë; 1433. Very many more such examples may be given. Or take the following; Chaucer has (L. G. W. 476):-- For Love ne wól nat countrepleted be. And this is how it reappears in C. L. 429:-- For Love wil not be counterpleted, indede! Here the melody of the line is completely spoilt. In the present state of our knowledge of the history of the English language, any notion of attributing The Court of Love to Chaucer is worse than untenable; for it is wholly disgraceful. Everything points to a very late date, and tends to exclude it, not only from the fourteenth, but even from the fifteenth century. At the same time, it will readily be granted that the poem abounds with Chaucerian words and phrases to an extent that almost surpasses even the poems of Lydgate. The versification is smooth, and the poem, as a whole, is pleasing. I have nothing to say against it, when considered on its own merits. § 75. Space fails me to discuss the somewhat vexed question of the Courts of Love, of which some have denied the existence. However, there seems to be good evidence to shew that they arose in Provence, and were due to the extravagances of the troubadours. They were travesties of the courts of law, with a lady of rank for a judge, and minstrels for advocates; and they discussed subtle questions relating to affairs of love, usually between troubadours and ladies. The discussions were conducted with much seriousness, and doubtless often served to give much amusement to many idle people. Not unfrequently they led to tragedies, as is easily understood when we notice that the first of one set of thirty-one Laws of Love runs as follows:--'Marriage cannot be pleaded as an excuse for refusing to love.' The reader who requires further information is referred to 'The Troubadours and Courts of Love,' by J. F. Rowbotham, M.A., London, Swan Sonnenschein and Co., 1895. It is perhaps necessary to observe that the said Courts have very little to do with the present poem, which treats of a Court of Cupid in the Chaucerian sense (Leg. Good Women, 352). Even the statutes of the Court are largely imitated from Lydgate. § 76. PIECES NUMBERED XXV-XXIX. XXV. VIRELAY. This piece, from the Trinity MS., belongs to the end of the fifteenth century, and contains no example of the final _-e_ as constituting a syllable. Chaucer would have used _sore_ (l. 2), _more_ (l. 12), _trouth_ (l. 13), as dissyllables; and he would not have rimed _pleyn_ and _disdayn_ with _compleyn_ and _absteyn_, as the two latter require a final _-e_. The rime of _finde_ with _ende_ is extraordinary. The title 'Virelai' is given to this piece in Moxon's Chaucer, and is, strictly speaking, incorrect; in the MS. and in Stowe's edition, it has no title at all! Tyrwhitt cautiously spoke of it as being 'perhaps by Chaucer'; and says that 'it comes nearer to the description of a _Virelay_, than anything else of his that has been preserved.' This is not the case; see note to Anelida, 256; vol. i. p. 536. Tyrwhitt quotes from Cotgrave--'_Virelay_, a round, freemen's song,' and adds--'There is a particular description of a _Virlai_, in the _Jardin de plaisance_, fol. xii, where it makes the _decima sexta species Rhetorice Gallicane_.' For further remarks, see p. 554. XXVI. PROSPERITY: BY JOHN WALTON. 'To Mr. [Mark] Liddell belongs the honour of the discovery of John Walton as the author of the little poem on fol. 119 [of MS. Arch. Seld. B. 24]. The lines occur as part of the Prologue (ll. 83-90) to Walton's translation of Boethius' _De Consolatione_.'--J. T. T. Brown, _The Authorship of the Kingis Quair_, Glasgow, 1896; p. 71. See the account of Walton in Warton's Hist. E. Poetry, sect. xx. The original date of the stanza was, accordingly, 1410; but we here find it in a late Scottish dress. The ascription of it to 'Chaucer,' in the MS., is an obvious error; it was written ten years after his death. XXVII. LEAULTE VAULT RICHESSE. This piece, like the former, has no title in the MS.; but the words _Leaulte vault Richesse_ (Loyalty deserves riches) occur at the end of it. If the original was in a Midland dialect, it must belong to the latter part of the fifteenth century. Even in these eight lines we find a contradiction to Chaucer's usage; for he always uses _lent_, pp., as a monosyllable, and _rent-e_ as a dissyllable. It is further remarkable that he never uses _content_ as an adjective; it first appears in Rom. Rose, 5628. XXVIII. SAYINGS. I give these sayings as printed by Caxton; see vol. i. p. 46, where I note that Caxton did not ascribe them to Chaucer. They are not at all in his style. In MS. Ashmole 59, fol. 78, I find a similar prophecy:-- _Prophecia merlini doctoris perfecti._ Whane lordes wol leefe theire olde lawes, And preestis been varyinge in theire sawes, And leccherie is holden solace, And oppressyou_n_ for truwe p_ur_chace; And whan the moon is on dauid stall, And the kynge passe Arthures hall, Than[44] is [the] lande of Albyon Nexst to his confusyoun. It is extremely interesting to observe the ascription of these lines to _Merlin_; see King Lear, iii. 2. 95. XXIX. BALADE. This poor stanza, with its long-drawn lines, appears in Stowe at the end of 'Chaucer's Works.' In the Trinity MS., it occurs at the end of a copy of The Parlement of Foules. § 77. An examination of the pieces contained in the present volume leads us to a somewhat remarkable result, viz. that we readily distinguish in them the handiwork of _at least_ twelve different authors, of whom no two are much alike, whilst every one of them can be distinguished from Chaucer. These are: (1) the author of The Testament of Love, who writes in a prose style all his own; (2) the author of The Plowmans Tale and Plowmans Crede, with his strong powers of invective and love of alliteration, whose style could never have been mistaken for Chaucer's in any age[45]; (3) the author of Jack Upland, with his direct and searching questions; (4) John Gower, with his scrupulous regularity of grammatical usages; (5) Thomas Hoccleve, who too often accents a dissyllable on the latter syllable when it should be accented on the former; (6) Henry Scogan, whose lines are lacking in interest and originality; (7) John Lydgate[46], who allows his verse too many licences, so that it cannot always be scanned at the first trial; (8) Sir Richard Ros, who writes in English of a quite modern cast, using _their_ and _them_ as in modern English, and wholly discarding the use of final _-e_ as an inflexion; (9) Robert Henryson, who writes smoothly enough and with a fine vein of invention, but employs the Northern dialect; (10) Sir Thomas Clanvowe, who employs the final _-e_ much more frequently than Chaucer or even Gower; (11) the authoress of The Flower and the Leaf and The Assembly of Ladies, to whom the final _-e_ was an archaism, very convenient for metrical embellishment; and (12) the author of The Court of Love, who, while discarding the use of the final _-e_, was glad to use the final _-en_ to save a hiatus or to gain a syllable, and did not hesitate to employ it where it was grammatically wrong to do so. § 78. If the reader were to suppose that this exhausts the list, he would be mistaken; for it is quite easy to add at least one known name, and to suggest three others. For the piece numbered XXVI, on p. 449, has been identified as the work of John Walton, who wrote a verse translation of Boethius in the year 1410; whilst it is extremely unlikely that no. XXVII, written in Lowland Scottish, was due to Henryson, the only writer in that dialect who has been mentioned above. This gives a total of _fourteen_ authors already; and I believe that we require yet two more before the Virelai and the Sayings printed by Caxton (nos. XXV and XXVIII) can be satisfactorily accounted for. As for no. XIX--the Envoy to Alison--it _may_ be Lydgate's, but, on the other hand, it may not. And as for no. XXIX, it is of no consequence. Moreover, it must be remembered that I here only refer to the selected pieces printed in the present volume. If we go further afield, we soon find several more authors, all distinct from those above-mentioned, from each other, and from Chaucer. I will just instance the author of the Isle of Ladies, the authoress (presumably) of The Lamentation of Mary Magdalen, the author of The Craft of Lovers, the 'man unknown' who wrote The Ten Commandments of Love, and the author of the clumsy lines dignified by the title of The Nine Ladies Worthy. It is quite certain that _not less_ than twenty authors are represented in the mass of heterogeneous material which appears under Chaucer's name in a compilation such as that which is printed in the first volume of Chalmers' British Poets; which, precisely on that very account, is useful enough in its own peculiar way. § 79. I believe it may be said of nearly every piece in the volume, that it now appears in an improved form. In several cases, I have collated MSS. that have not previously been examined, and have found them to be the best. The Notes are nearly all new; very few have been taken from Bell's Chaucer. Several are due to Schick's useful notes to The Temple of Glas; and some to Krausser's edition of The Black Knight, and to Gröhler's edition of La Belle Dame, both of which reached me after my own notes were all in type. I have added a Glossary of the harder words; for others, see the Glossary already printed in vol. vi. In extenuation of faults, I may plead that I have found it much more difficult to deal with such heterogenous material as is comprised in the present volume than with pieces all written by the same author. The style, the grammar, the mode of scansion, the dialect, and even the pronunciation are constantly shifting, instead of being reasonably consistent, as in the genuine works of Chaucer. Any one who will take the pains to observe these points, to compile a sufficient number of notes upon difficult passages, and to prepare a somewhat full glossary, may thus practically convince himself, as I have done, that not a single piece in the present volume ought ever to have been 'attributed' to Chaucer. That any of them should have been so attributed--and some of them never were--has been the result of negligence, superficiality, and incapacity, such as (it may be hoped) we have seen the last of. I wish once more to acknowledge my obligations to Mr. E. B. Nicholson, for the loan of his transcript of The Praise of Peace; to Mr. Bradley, for his discovery of the authorship of The Testament of Love and for other assistance as regards the same; to Dr. E. Krausser, for his edition of The Complaint of the Black Knight; to Dr. Gröhler, for his dissertation on La Belle Dame sans Mercy; and to Professor Hales for his kind help as to some difficult points, and particularly with regard to The Court of Love. * * * * * THE TESTAMENT OF LOVE. PROLOGUE. Many men there ben that, with eeres openly sprad, so moche swalowen the deliciousnesse of jestes and of ryme, by queynt knitting coloures, that of the goodnesse or of the badnesse of the sentence take they litel hede or els non. Soothly, dul wit and a thoughtful soule so sore have myned 5 and graffed in my spirites, that suche craft of endyting wol not ben of myn acqueyntaunce. And, for rude wordes and boystous percen the herte of the herer to the in[ne]rest point, and planten there the sentence of thinges, so that with litel helpe it is able to springe; this book, that nothing hath of the greet flode of 10 wit ne of semelich colours, is dolven with rude wordes and boystous, and so drawe togider, to maken the cacchers therof ben the more redy to hente sentence. Some men there ben that peynten with colours riche, and some with vers, as with red inke, and some with coles and 15 chalke; and yet is there good matere to the leude people of thilke chalky purtreyture, as hem thinketh for the tyme; and afterward the sight of the better colours yeven to hem more joye for the first leudnesse. So, sothly, this leude clowdy occupacion is not to prayse but by the leude; for comunly leude 20 leudnesse commendeth. Eke it shal yeve sight, that other precious thinges shal be the more in reverence. In Latin and French hath many soverayne wittes had greet delyt to endyte, and have many noble thinges fulfild; but certes, there ben some that speken their poysye-mater in Frenche, of whiche 25 speche the Frenche men have as good a fantasye as we have in hering of Frenche mennes English. And many termes there ben in English, [of] whiche unneth we Englishmen connen declare the knowleginge. How shulde than a Frenche man born suche termes conne jumpere in his mater, but as the jay chatereth 30 English? Right so, trewly, the understanding of Englishmen wol not strecche to the privy termes in Frenche, what-so-ever we bosten of straunge langage. Let than clerkes endyten in Latin, for they have the propertee of science, and the knowinge in that facultee; and let Frenchmen in their Frenche also endyten their 35 queynt termes, for it is kyndely to their mouthes; and let us shewe our fantasyes in suche wordes as we lerneden of our dames tonge. And although this book be litel thank-worthy for the leudnesse in travaile, yet suche wrytinges excyten men to thilke thinges that 40 ben necessarie; for every man therby may, as by a perpetual mirrour, seen the vyces or vertues of other, in whiche thing lightly may be conceyved to eschewe perils, and necessaries to cacche, after as aventures have fallen to other people or persons. Certes, [perfeccion is] the soveraynest thing of desyre, and 45 moste +creatures resonable have, or els shulde have, ful appetyte to their perfeccion; unresonable beestes mowen not, sith reson hath in hem no werking. Than resonable that wol not is comparisoned to unresonable, and made lyke hem. For-sothe, the most soverayne and fynal perfeccion of man is in knowing of 50 a sothe, withouten any entent disceyvable, and in love of oon very god that is inchaungeable; that is, to knowe and love his creatour. ¶ Now, principally, the mene to bringe in knowleging and loving his creatour is the consideracion of thinges made by the 55 creatour, wherthrough, by thilke thinges that ben made understonding here to our wittes, arn the unsene privitees of god made to us sightful and knowing, in our contemplacion and understonding. These thinges than, forsoth, moche bringen us to the ful knowleginge [of] sothe, and to the parfit love of the 60 maker of hevenly thinges. Lo, David sayth, 'thou hast delyted me in makinge,' as who sayth, to have delyt in the tune, how god hath lent me in consideracion of thy makinge. Wherof Aristotle, in the boke _de Animalibus_, saith to naturel philosophers: 'it is a greet lyking in love of knowinge their 65 creatour; and also in knowinge of causes in kyndely thinges.' Considred, forsoth, the formes of kyndly thinges and the shap, a greet kindely love me shulde have to the werkman that hem made. The crafte of a werkman is shewed in the werke. Herfore, truly, the philosophers, with a lyvely studie, many 70 noble thinges right precious and worthy to memory writen; and by a greet swetande travayle to us leften of causes [of] the propertees in natures of thinges. To whiche (therfore) philosophers it was more joy, more lykinge, more herty lust, in kyndely vertues and maters of reson, the perfeccion by busy 75 study to knowe, than to have had al the tresour, al the richesse, al the vainglory that the passed emperours, princes, or kinges hadden. Therfore the names of hem, in the boke of perpetual memory, in vertue and pees arn writen; and in the contrarye, that is to sayne, in Styx, the foule pitte of helle, arn thilke pressed 80 that suche goodnesse hated. And bycause this book shal be of love, and the pryme causes of steringe in that doinge, with passions and diseses for wantinge of desyre, I wil that this book be cleped THE TESTAMENT OF LOVE. But now, thou reder, who is thilke that wil not in scorne 85 laughe, to here a dwarfe, or els halfe a man, say he wil rende out the swerde of Hercules handes, and also he shuld sette Hercules Gades a myle yet ferther; and over that, he had power of strengthe to pulle up the spere, that Alisander the noble might never wagge? And that, passing al thinge, to ben 90 mayster of Fraunce by might, there-as the noble gracious Edward the thirde, for al his greet prowesse in victories, ne might al yet conquere? Certes, I wot wel, ther shal be mad more scorne and jape of me, that I, so unworthily clothed al-togider in the cloudy cloude 95 of unconninge, wil putten me in prees to speke of love, or els of the causes in that matter, sithen al the grettest clerkes han had ynough to don, and (as who sayth) +gadered up clene toforn hem, and with their sharpe sythes of conning al mowen, and mad therof grete rekes and noble, ful of al plentees, to fede me 100 and many another. Envye, forsothe, commendeth nought his reson that he hath in hayne, be it never so trusty. And al-though these noble repers, as good workmen and worthy their hyre, han al drawe and bounde up in the sheves, and mad many shockes, yet have I ensample to gadere the smale crommes, 105 and fullen my walet of tho that fallen from the borde among the smale houndes, notwithstandinge the travayle of the almoigner, that hath drawe up in the cloth al the remissailes, as trenchours, and the relief, to bere to the almesse. Yet also have I leve of the noble husbande Boëce, al-though 110 I be a straunger of conninge, to come after his doctrine, and these grete workmen, and glene my handfuls of the shedinge after their handes; and, if me faile ought of my ful, to encrese my porcion with that I shal drawe by privitees out of the shocke. A slye servaunt in his owne helpe is often moche commended; 115 knowing of trouth in causes of thinges was more hardyer in the first sechers (and so sayth Aristotle), and lighter in us that han folowed after. For their passing +studies han fresshed our wittes, and our understandinge han excyted, in consideracion of trouth, by sharpnesse of their resons. Utterly these thinges be no 120 dremes ne japes, to throwe to hogges; it is lyflich mete for children of trouthe; and as they me betiden, whan I pilgrimaged out of my kith in winter; whan the +weder out of mesure was boystous, and the wylde wind Boreas, as his kind asketh, with dryinge coldes maked the wawes of the occian-see so to aryse 125 unkyndely over the commune bankes, that it was in poynte to spille al the erthe. THUS ENDETH THE PROLOGUE; AND HERE-AFTER FOLOWETH THE FIRST BOOK OF THE TESTAMENT OF LOVE. 2. delyciousnesse; (_and elsewhere_, y _is often replaced by_ i). 4. none. 5. Sothely. wytte. 8. inrest poynte. 10. spring. boke. great floode. 12. catchers. 13. hent. 18. afterwarde. 19. leudenesse. 20. comenly. 21. leudenesse. 23. gret delyte. 24. fulfylde. 27. englysshe. 28. englysshe; _supply_ of. englyssh-. 29. Howe. borne. 31. englyssh. englyssh-. 32. stretche. 34. propertie. 35. facultie. lette. 39. boke. thanke worthy. 42. sene. 44. catche. 45. _I supply_ perfeccion is; _to make sense_. soueraynst. 46. creature (_sic_). reasonable. 47, 50. perfection. 47. sythe reason. 48. reasonable. 51. one. 54. Nowe. meane. 56. be (_for_ by). 57. arne. 60. _I supply_ of. parfyte. 61. haste. 62. delyte (_this sentence is corrupt_). 64. saythe. 65. great. 66, 67. thyng_es_ co_n_sydred. Forsoth (_sic_). 68. great. me (_sic_); _for_ men. 72. great. _Supply_ of. 73. propertyes. 75. matters of reason. perfection. 76. treasour. 79. peace. 80. stixe. 81. boke. 83. dyseases. boke. 85. nowe. 87. set. 89. pul. 92. great. 94. wote. made. 95. vnworthely. 98. gathered. toforne. 100. made. great. plentyes. 102. reason. hayn (_sic_). 102. -thoughe. 103. hyer. 104. made. 105. gader. 106. fullyn. amonge. 108. remyssayles. 109. relyef. 112. great. 113. encrease. 114. priuytyes. 116. knoweyng. 118. study (_sic_). 120. reasons. 121. lyfelyche meate. 122. betiden (_sic_); _past tense_. 123. wether. measure. 124. wynde Borias. kynde. 125. dryenge. 127. spyl. (_rubric_) boke. CHAPTER I. Alas! Fortune! alas! I that som-tyme in delicious houres was wont to enjoye blisful stoundes, am now drive by unhappy hevinesse to bewaile my sondry yvels in tene! Trewly, I leve, in myn herte is writte, of perdurable letters, al the entencions of lamentacion that now ben y-nempned! For any 5 maner disese outward, in sobbing maner, sheweth sorowful yexinge from within. Thus from my comfort I ginne to spille, sith she that shulde me solace is fer fro my presence. Certes, her absence is to me an helle; my sterving deth thus in wo it myneth, that endeles care is throughout myne herte clenched; blisse of 10 my joye, that ofte me murthed, is turned in-to galle, to thinke on thing that may not, at my wil, in armes me hente! Mirth is chaunged in-to tene, whan swink is there continually that reste was wont to sojourne and have dwelling-place. Thus witless, thoughtful, sightles lokinge, I endure my penaunce in this derke prison, 15 +caitived fro frendshippe and acquaintaunce, and forsaken of al that any +word dare speke. Straunge hath by waye of intrucioun mad his home, there me shulde be, if reson were herd as he shulde. Never-the-later yet hertly, lady precious Margarit, have mynde on thy servaunt; and thinke on his disese, how lightles he 20 liveth, sithe the bemes brennende in love of thyn eyen are so bewent, that worldes and cloudes atwene us twey wol nat suffre my thoughtes of hem to be enlumined! Thinke that oon vertue of a Margarite precious is, amonges many other, the sorouful to comforte; yet +whyles that, me sorouful to comforte, is my lust 25 to have nought els at this tyme, d[r]ede ne deth ne no maner traveyle hath no power, myn herte so moche to fade, as shulde to here of a twinkling in your disese! Ah! god forbede that; but yet let me deye, let me sterve withouten any mesure of penaunce, rather than myn hertely thinking comfort in ought 30 were disesed! What may my service avayle, in absence of her that my service shulde accepte? Is this nat endeles sorowe to thinke? Yes, yes, god wot; myn herte breketh nigh a-sonder. How shulde the ground, without kyndly noriture, bringen forth any frutes? How shulde a ship, withouten a sterne, in the grete see 35 be governed? How shulde I, withouten my blisse, my herte, my desyre, my joye, my goodnesse, endure in this contrarious prison, that thinke every hour in the day an hundred winter? Wel may now Eve sayn to me, 'Adam, in sorowe fallen from welth, driven art thou out of paradise, with swete thy sustenaunce to beswinke!' 40 Depe in this pyninge pitte with wo I ligge y-stocked, with chaynes linked of care and of tene. It is so hye from thens I lye and the commune erth, there ne is cable in no lande maked, that might strecche to me, to drawe me in-to blisse; ne steyers to steye on is none; so that, without recover, endeles here to 45 endure, I wot wel, I [am] purveyed. O, where art thou now, frendship, that som-tyme, with laughande chere, madest bothe face and countenaunce to me-wardes? Truely, now art thou went out of towne. But ever, me thinketh, he wereth his olde clothes, and that the soule in the whiche the lyfe of frendship was 50 in, is drawen out from his other spirites. Now than, farewel, frendship! and farewel, felawes! Me thinketh, ye al han taken your leve; no force of you al at ones. But, lady of love, ye wote what I mene; yet thinke on thy servaunt that for thy love spilleth; al thinges have I forsake to folowen thyn hestes; 55 rewarde me with a thought, though ye do naught els. Remembraunce of love lyth so sore under my brest, that other thought cometh not in my mynde but gladnesse, to thinke on your goodnesse and your mery chere; +ferdnes and sorowe, to thinke on your wreche and your daunger; from whiche Christ me save! My 60 greet joye it is to have in meditacion the bountees, the vertues, the nobley in you printed; sorowe and helle comen at ones, to suppose that I be +weyved. Thus with care, sorowe, and tene am I shapt, myn ende with dethe to make. Now, good goodly, thinke on this. O wrecched foole that I am, fallen in-to so lowe, 65 the hete of my brenning tene hath me al defased. How shulde ye, lady, sette prise on so foule fylthe? My conninge is thinne, my wit is exiled; lyke to a foole naturel am I comparisoned. Trewly, lady, but your mercy the more were, I wot wel al my labour were in ydel; your mercy than passeth right. God graunt 70 that proposicion to be verifyed in me; so that, by truste of good hope, I mowe come to the haven of ese. And sith it is impossible, the colours of your qualitees to chaunge: and forsothe I wot wel, wem ne spot may not abyde there so noble vertue haboundeth, so that the defasing to you is verily [un]imaginable, 75 as countenaunce of goodnesse with encresinge vertue is so in you knit, to abyde by necessary maner: yet, if the revers mighte falle (which is ayenst kynde), I +wot wel myn herte ne shulde therfore naught flitte, by the leste poynt of gemetrye; so sadly is it +souded, that away from your service in love may he not departe. 80 O love, whan shal I ben plesed? O charitee, whan shal I ben esed? O good goodly, whan shal the dyce turne? O ful of vertue, do the chaunce of comfort upwarde to falle! O love, whan wolt thou thinke on thy servaunt? I can no more but here, out-cast of al welfare, abyde the day of my dethe, or els to see the 85 sight that might al my wellinge sorowes voyde, and of the flode make an ebbe. These diseses mowen wel, by duresse of sorowe, make my lyfe to unbodye, and so for to dye; but certes ye, lady, in a ful perfeccion of love ben so knit with my soule, that deth may not thilke knotte unbynde ne departe; so that ye and my 90 soule togider +in endeles blisse shulde dwelle; and there shal my soule at the ful ben esed, that he may have your presence, to shewe th'entent of his desyres. Ah, dere god! that shal be a greet joye! Now, erthely goddesse, take regarde of thy servant, though I be feble; for thou art wont to prayse them better that 95 wolde conne serve in love, al be he ful mener than kinges or princes that wol not have that vertue in mynde. Now, precious Margaryte, that with thy noble vertue hast drawen me in-to love first, me weninge therof to have blisse, [ther]-as galle and aloes are so moche spronge, that savour of 100 swetnesse may I not ataste. Alas! that your benigne eyen, in whiche that mercy semeth to have al his noriture, nil by no waye tourne the clerenesse of mercy to me-wardes! Alas! that your brennande vertues, shyning amonges al folk, and enlumininge al other people by habundaunce of encresing, sheweth to me 105 but smoke and no light! These thinges to thinke in myn herte maketh every day weping in myn eyen to renne. These liggen on my backe so sore, that importable burthen me semeth on my backe to be charged; it maketh me backwarde to meve, whan my steppes by comune course even-forth pretende. These 110 thinges also, on right syde and lift, have me so envolved with care, that wanhope of helpe is throughout me ronne; trewly, +I leve, that graceles is my fortune, whiche that ever sheweth it me-wardes by a cloudy disese, al redy to make stormes of tene; and the blisful syde halt stil awayward, and wol it not suffre to 115 me-wardes to turne; no force, yet wol I not ben conquered. O, alas! that your nobley, so moche among al other creatures commended by +flowinge streme +of al maner vertues, but ther ben wonderful, I not whiche that let the flood to come in-to my soule; wherefore, purely mated with sorowe thorough-sought, 120 my-selfe I crye on your goodnesse to have pitè on this caytif, that in the in[ne]rest degree of sorowe and disese is left, and, without your goodly wil, from any helpe and recovery. These sorowes may I not sustene, but-if my sorowe shulde be told and to you-wardes shewed; although moche space is bitwene 125 us twayne, yet me thinketh that by suche +joleyvinge wordes my disese ginneth ebbe. Trewly, me thinketh that the sowne of my lamentacious weping is right now flowe in-to your presence, and there cryeth after mercy and grace, to which thing (me semeth) thee list non answere to yeve, but with a deynous chere ye 130 commaunden it to avoide; but god forbid that any word shuld of you springe, to have so litel routh! Pardè, pitè and mercy in every Margarite is closed by kynde amonges many other vertues, by qualitees of comfort; but comfort is to me right naught worth, withouten mercy and pitè of you alone; whiche thinges hastely 135 god me graunt for his mercy! CH. I. 2. enioy. 3. sondrye. 5. nowe. 6. disease outwarde. 7. comforte. 8. ferre. 9. hell. dethe. 10. endelesse. 12. hent. 13. swynke. 14. dwellynge-. wytlesse. 15. syghtlesse. prisone. 16. caytisned (_for_ caytifued). 17. wode (!); _for_ worde; _read_ word. 18. made. reason. herde. 20. disease. 21. beames. 22. _For_ be-went, Th. _has_ be-we_n_t. 23. one. 25. wyl of; _apparently an error for_ whyles (_which I adopt_). luste. 26. dede (_for_ drede). 27. myne. 28. twynckelynge. disease. 29. lette (_twice_). dey. measure. 30. myne. comforte. 31. diseased. maye. aueyle. 32. endlesse. 33. wote; myne hert breaketh. 34. howe. grou_n_de. forthe. 35. howe. shippe. great. 36. Howe. 39. nowe. sayne. 40. arte. weate. 44. stretche. 45. stey. endlesse. 46. wotte. _I supply_ am. spurveyde. arte. nowe. 47. frenshyppe (_sic_). 48. nowe arte. 49. weareth. 51. Nowe. 53. leaue. 57. lythe. 59. frendes (_sic_); _for_ ferdnes: _cf._ p. 9, l. 9. 60. Christe. 61. great. bounties. 62. hel. 63. veyned (_sic_); _for_ weyued. 64. shapte. Nowe. 65. wretched. 66. heate. 68. wytte. 69. wote. 72. ease. sythe. 73. qualyties. 74. wote. wemme ne spotte maye. 75. _Read_ unimaginable. 77. knytte. fal. 78. wol wel (_for_ wot wel). 80. sonded; _read_ souded. maye. 81. pleased. charyte. 82. eased. 83. comforte. fal. 85. out caste. daye. se. 86. flodde. 87. diseases. 89. perfectyon. knytte. dethe. 91. togyther is endelesse in blysse(!). dwel. 92. eased. 93. thentent. 94. great. Nowe. 95. arte wonte. 98. Nowe. haste. 100. _I supply_ ther. 104. folke. 105. encreasing. 110. forthe. 112, 113. trewly and leue; _read_ trewly I leve. 113. gracelesse. 114. disease. 115. halte. 117. (_The sentence beginning_ O, alas _seems hopelessly corrupt; there are pause-marks after_ vertues _and_ wonderful.) 118. folowynge; _read_ flowinge. by; _read_ of. 119. flode. 122. caytife. inrest. disease. lefte. 124. maye. 125. tolde. 126. ioleynynge (_sic_). 127. disease. 128. nowe. 130. the lyst none. 131. worde. 134. qualites of comforte. worthe. CHAPTER II. Rehersinge these thinges and many other, without tyme or moment of rest, me semed, for anguisshe of disese, that al-togider I was ravisshed, I can not telle how; but hoolly all my passions and felinges weren lost, as it semed, for the tyme; and sodainly a maner of drede lighte in me al at ones; nought suche 5 fere as folk have of an enemy, that were mighty and wolde hem greve or don hem disese. For, I trowe, this is wel knowe to many persones, that otherwhyle, if a man be in his soveraignes presence, a maner of ferdnesse crepeth in his herte, not for harme, but of goodly subjeccion; namely, as men reden that aungels ben aferde 10 of our saviour in heven. And pardè, there ne is, ne may no passion of disese be; but it is to mene, that angels ben adradde, not by +ferdnes of drede, sithen they ben perfitly blissed, [but] as [by] affeccion of wonderfulnesse and by service of obedience. Suche ferde also han these lovers in presence of their loves, and 15 subjectes aforn their soveraynes. Right so with ferdnesse myn herte was caught. And I sodainly astonied, there entred in-to the place there I was logged a lady, the semeliest and most goodly to my sight that ever to-forn apered to any creature; and trewly, in the blustringe of her looke, she yave gladnesse and 20 comfort sodaynly to al my wittes; and right so she doth to every wight that cometh in her presence. And for she was so goodly, as me thought, myn herte began somdele to be enbolded, and wexte a litel hardy to speke; but yet, with a quakinge voyce, as I durste, I salued her, and enquired what she was; 25 and why she, so worthy to sight, dayned to entre in-to so foule a dongeon, and namely a prison, without leve of my kepers. For certes, al-though the vertue of dedes of mercy strecchen to visiten the poore prisoners, and hem, after that facultees ben had, to comforte, me semed that I was so fer fallen in-to miserye and 30 wrecched hid caytifnesse, that me shulde no precious thing neighe; and also, that for my sorowe every wight shulde ben hevy, and wisshe my recovery. But whan this lady had somdele apperceyved, as wel by my wordes as by my chere, what thought besied me within, with a good womanly countenance she sayde 35 these wordes:-- 'O my nory, wenest thou that my maner be, to foryete my frendes or my servauntes? Nay,' quod she, 'it is my ful entente to visyte and comforte al my frendshippes and allyes, as wel in tyme of perturbacion as of moost propertee of blisse; in me shal 40 unkyndnesse never be founden: and also, sithen I have so fewe especial trewe now in these dayes. Wherefore I may wel at more leysar come to hem that me deserven; and if my cominge may in any thinge avayle, wete wel, I wol come often.' 'Now, good lady,' quod I, 'that art so fayre on to loke, 45 reyninge hony by thy wordes, blisse of paradys arn thy lokinges, joye and comfort are thy movinges. What is thy name? How is it that in you is so mokel werkinge vertues enpight, as me semeth, and in none other creature that ever saw I with myne eyen?' 50 'My disciple,' quod she, 'me wondreth of thy wordes and on thee, that for a litel disese hast foryeten my name. Wost thou not wel that I am LOVE, that first thee brought to thy service?' 'O good lady,' quod I, 'is this worship to thee or to thyn excellence, for to come in-to so foule a place? Pardè, somtyme, 55 tho I was in prosperitè and with forayne goodes envolved, I had mokil to done to drawe thee to myn hostel; and yet many werninges thou madest er thou liste fully to graunte, thyn home to make at my dwelling-place; and now thou comest goodly by thyn owne vyse, to comforte me with wordes; and so there-thorough 60 I ginne remembre on passed gladnesse. Trewly, lady, I ne wot whether I shal say welcome or non, sithen thy coming wol as moche do me tene and sorowe, as gladnesse and mirthe. See why: for that me comforteth to thinke on passed gladnesse, that me anoyeth efte to be in doinge. Thus thy cominge bothe 65 gladdeth and teneth, and that is cause of moche sorowe. Lo, lady, how than I am comforted by your comminge'; and with that I gan in teeres to distille, and tenderly wepe. 'Now, certes,' quod Love, 'I see wel, and that me over-thinketh, that wit in thee fayleth, and [thou] art in pointe 70 to dote.' 'Trewly,' quod I, 'that have ye maked, and that ever wol I rue.' 'Wottest thou not wel,' quod she, 'that every shepherde ought by reson to seke his sperkelande sheep, that arn ronne in-to 75 wildernesse among busshes and perils, and hem to their pasture ayen-bringe, and take on hem privy besy cure of keping? And though the unconninge sheep scattred wolde ben lost, renning to wildernesse, and to desertes drawe, or els wolden putte hem-selfe to the swalowinge wolfe, yet shal the shepherde, by businesse and 80 travayle, so putte him forth, that he shal not lete hem be lost by no waye. A good shepherde putteth rather his lyf to ben lost for his sheep. But for thou shalt not wene me being of werse condicion, trewly, for everich of my folke, and for al tho that to me-ward be knit in any condicion, I wol rather dye than suffre 85 hem through errour to ben spilte. For me liste, and it me lyketh, of al myne a shepherdesse to be cleped. Wost thou not wel, I fayled never wight, but he me refused and wolde negligently go with unkyndenesse? And yet, pardè, have I many such holpe and releved, and they have ofte me begyled; but ever, at the ende, 90 it discendeth in their owne nekkes. Hast thou not rad how kinde I was to Paris, Priamus sone of Troy? How Jason me falsed, for al his false behest? How Cesars +swink, I lefte it for no tene til he was troned in my blisse for his service? What!' quod she, 'most of al, maked I not a loveday bytwene god and mankynde, 95 and chees a mayde to be nompere, to putte the quarel at ende? Lo! how I have travayled to have thank on al sydes, and yet list me not to reste, and I might fynde on +whom I shulde werche. But trewly, myn owne disciple, bycause I have thee founde, at al assayes, in thy wil to be redy myn hestes to have folowed, and 100 hast ben trewe to that Margarite-perle that ones I thee shewed; and she alwaye, ayenward, hath mad but daungerous chere; I am come, in propre person, to putte thee out of errours, and make thee gladde by wayes of reson; so that sorow ne disese shal no more hereafter thee amaistry. Wherthrough I hope thou 105 shalt lightly come to the grace, that thou longe hast desyred, of thilke jewel. Hast thou not herd many ensamples, how I have comforted and releved the scholers of my lore? Who hath worthyed kinges in the felde? Who hath honoured ladyes in boure by a perpetuel mirrour of their tr[o]uthe in my service? 110 Who hath caused worthy folk to voyde vyce and shame? Who hath holde cytees and realmes in prosperitè? If thee liste clepe ayen thyn olde remembraunce, thou coudest every point of this declare in especial; and say that I, thy maistresse, have be cause, causing these thinges and many mo other.' 115 'Now, y-wis, madame,' quod I, 'al these thinges I knowe wel my-selfe, and that thyn excellence passeth the understanding of us beestes; and that no mannes wit erthely may comprehende thy vertues.' 'Wel than,' quod she, 'for I see thee in disese and sorowe, 120 I wot wel thou art oon of my nories; I may not suffre thee so to make sorowe, thyn owne selfe to shende. But I my-selfe come to be thy fere, thyn hevy charge to make to seme the lesse. For wo is him that is alone; and to the sorye, to ben moned by a sorouful wight, it is greet gladnesse. Right so, with my sicke frendes I am 125 sicke; and with sorie I can not els but sorowe make, til whan I have hem releved in suche wyse, that gladnesse, in a maner of counterpaysing, shal restore as mokil in joye as the passed hevinesse biforn did in tene. And also,' quod she, 'whan any of my servauntes ben alone in solitary place, I have yet ever besied me 130 to be with hem, in comfort of their hertes, and taught hem to make songes of playnte and of blisse, and to endyten letters of rethorike in queynt understondinges, and to bethinke hem in what wyse they might best their ladies in good service plese; and also to lerne maner in countenaunce, in wordes, and in bering, 135 and to ben meke and lowly to every wight, his name and fame to encrese; and to yeve gret yeftes and large, that his renomè may springen. But thee therof have I excused; for thy losse and thy grete costages, wherthrough thou art nedy, arn nothing to me unknowen; but I hope to god somtyme it shal ben amended, as 140 thus I sayd. In norture have I taught al myne; and in curtesye made hem expert, their ladies hertes to winne; and if any wolde [b]en deynous or proude, or be envious or of wrecches acqueyntaunce, hasteliche have I suche voyded out of my scole. For al vyces trewly I hate; vertues and worthinesse in al my power 145 I avaunce.' 'Ah! worthy creature,' quod I, 'and by juste cause the name of goddesse dignely ye mowe bere! In thee lyth the grace thorough whiche any creature in this worlde hath any goodnesse. Trewly, al maner of blisse and preciousnesse in vertue out of 150 thee springen and wellen, as brokes and rivers proceden from their springes. And lyke as al waters by kynde drawen to the see, so al kyndely thinges thresten, by ful appetyte of desyre, to drawe after thy steppes, and to thy presence aproche as to their kyndely perfeccion. How dare than beestes in this worlde aught forfete 155 ayenst thy devyne purveyaunce? Also, lady, ye knowen al the privy thoughtes; in hertes no counsayl may ben hid from your knowing. Wherfore I wot wel, lady, that ye knowe your-selfe that I in my conscience am and have ben willinge to your service, al coude I never do as I shulde; yet, forsothe, fayned I never to 160 love otherwyse than was in myn herte; and if I coude have made chere to one and y-thought another, as many other doon alday afore myn eyen, I trowe it wolde not me have vayled.' 'Certes,' quod she, 'haddest thou so don, I wolde not now have thee here visited.' 165 'Ye wete wel, lady, eke,' quod I, 'that I have not played raket, "nettil in, docke out," and with the wethercocke waved; and trewly, there ye me sette, by acorde of my conscience I wolde not flye, til ye and reson, by apert strength, maden myn herte to tourne.' 170 'In good fayth,' quod she, 'I have knowe thee ever of tho condicions; and sithen thou woldest (in as moch as in thee was) a made me privy of thy counsayl and juge of thy conscience (though I forsook it in tho dayes til I saw better my tyme), wolde never god that I shuld now fayle; but ever I wol be redy 175 witnessing thy sothe, in what place that ever I shal, ayenst al tho that wol the contrary susteyne. And for as moche as to me is naught unknowen ne hid of thy privy herte, but al hast thou tho thinges mad to me open at the ful, that hath caused my cominge in-to this prison, to voyde the webbes of thyne eyen, to make thee 180 clerely to see the errours thou hast ben in. And bycause that men ben of dyvers condicions, some adradde to saye a sothe, and some for a sothe anon redy to fighte, and also that I may not my-selfe ben in place to withsaye thilke men that of thee speken otherwyse than the sothe, I wol and I charge thee, in vertue of 185 obedience that thou to me owest, to wryten my wordes and sette hem in wrytinges, that they mowe, as my witnessinge, ben noted among the people. For bookes written neyther dreden ne shamen, ne stryve conne; but only shewen the entente of the wryter, and yeve remembraunce to the herer; and if any wol in 190 thy presence saye any-thing to tho wryters, loke boldely; truste on Mars to answere at the ful. For certes, I shal him enfourme of al the trouthe in thy love, with thy conscience; so that of his helpe thou shalt not varye at thy nede. I trowe the strongest and the beste that may be founde wol not transverse thy wordes; 195 wherof than woldest thou drede?' CH. II. 2. disease. 3. tel howe. holy. 4. loste. 5. light. 6. feare. folke. 7. done. disease. 9. ferdenesse. 10. subiection. 11. maye. 12. disease. meane. 13. frendes; _read_ ferdnes; _see_ l. 16. perfytely. _I supply_ but _and_ by. 14. affection. 16. aforne. ferdenesse. 18. lodged. moste. 19. to-forne. 21. comforte sodaynely. dothe. 23. myne. beganne. 27. prisone. leaue. 28. al-thoughe. stretchen. 29. faculties. 30. ferre. 31. wretched hyd. thynge. 33. heauy. 37. wenyst. foryet. 38. naye. 39. frenshippes. alyes. 40. propertye. 42. nowe. 42, 43. maye. 45. Nowe. 46. honny. paradise. 47. comforte. howe. 49. sawe. 52. the. disease haste. Woste. 53. the. 54. worshyppe. the. thyne. 57. the. 58. graunt thyne. 59. nowe. 60. thyne. 61. thoroughe. 62. wotte. none. 64. se. 67. howe. 69. Nowe. se. 70. wytte in the. _I supply_ thou. arte. 74. shepeherde. 75. shepe. arne. 76. amonge. 78. tho. shepe. loste. 79. put. 80. shepeherde. 81. put. forthe. let. loste. 82. shepeherde. lyfe. loste. 83. shepe. shalte. 85. mewarde. 86. throughe. 91. Haste. radde howe. 92. so_n_ne. 93. _For_ false _read_ faire. howe Sesars sonke (_sic_); _corrupt_. 95. louedaye. 96. chese. put. 97. howe. thanke. 98. rest. home; _read_ whom. 99. the. 101. haste. the. 102. ayenwarde. made. 103. put the. 104. the. reason. disease. 105. the. 106. shalte. haste. 107. Haste. herde. howe. 111. folke. 112. cyties. the. cleape. 113. poynte. 116. Nowe. 118. wytte. 120. se the in disease. 121. wote. arte one. maye. the. 123. thyne. 125. great. 129. byforne. 131. comforte. 134. please. 135. bearyng. 137. encrease. maye. 138. the. 139. great. wherthroughe. arte. arne no-thinge. 141. thus as I; _om._ as. 143. endeynous; _read_ ben deynous. wretches. 144. schole. 148. beare. the lythe. 151. the. 155. perfection. Howe. 157. counsayle maye. hydde. 158. wote. 162. doone aldaye. 164. done. nowe. 165. the. 166. playde. 169. reason. aperte. 171. faythe. the. 172. the. 173. counsayle. 174. forsoke. 175. nowe. 178. hert. 179. made. 180. the. 181. se. 183. anone. fyght. maye. 184. withsay. the. 185. the. 188. amonge. 189. onely. 191. -thynge. 194. shalte. 195. maye. transuers. CHAPTER III. Gretly was I tho gladded of these wordes, and (as who saith) wexen somdel light in herte; both for the auctoritè of witnesse, and also for sikernesse of helpe of the forsayd beheste, and sayd:-- 'Trewly, lady, now am I wel gladded through comfort of 5 your wordes. Be it now lykinge unto your nobley to shewe whiche folk diffame your servauntes, sithe your service ought above al other thinges to ben commended.' 'Yet,' quod she, 'I see wel thy soule is not al out of the amased cloude. Thee were better to here thing that thee might 10 lighte out of thyn hevy charge and after knowing of thyn owne helpe, than to stirre swete wordes and such resons to here; for in a thoughtful soule (and namely suche oon as thou art) wol not yet suche thinges sinken. Come of, therfore, and let me seen thy hevy charge, that I may the lightlier for thy comfort 15 purveye.' 'Now, certes, lady,' quod I, 'the moste comfort I might have were utterly to wete me be sure in herte of that Margaryte I serve; and so I thinke to don with al mightes, whyle my lyfe dureth.' 20 'Than,' quod she, 'mayst thou therafter, in suche wyse that misplesaunce ne entre?' 'In good fayth,' quod I, 'there shal no misplesaunce be caused through trespace on my syde.' 'And I do thee to weten,' quod she, 'I sette never yet person 25 to serve in no place (but-if he caused the contrary in defautes and trespaces) that he ne spedde of his service.' 'Myn owne erthly lady,' quod I tho, 'and yet remembre to your worthinesse how long sithen, by many revolving of yeres, in tyme whan Octobre his leve ginneth take and Novembre 30 sheweth him to sight, whan bernes ben ful of goodes as is the nutte on every halke; and than good lond-tillers ginne shape for the erthe with greet travayle, to bringe forth more corn to mannes sustenaunce, ayenst the nexte yeres folowing. In suche tyme of plentee he that hath an home and is wyse, list not to 35 wander mervayles to seche, but he be constrayned or excited. Oft the lothe thing is doon, by excitacion of other mannes opinion, whiche wolden fayne have myn abydinge. [Tho gan I] take in herte of luste to travayle and see the wynding of the erthe in that tyme of winter. By woodes that large stretes wern in, 40 by smale pathes that swyn and hogges hadden made, as lanes with ladels their maste to seche, I walked thinkinge alone a wonder greet whyle; and the grete beestes that the woode haunten and adorneth al maner forestes, and heerdes gonne to wilde. Than, er I was war, I neyghed to a see-banke; and for 45 ferde of the beestes "shipcraft" I cryde. For, lady, I trowe ye wete wel your-selfe, nothing is werse than the beestes that shulden ben tame, if they cacche her wildenesse, and ginne ayen waxe ramage. Thus forsothe was I a-ferd, and to shippe me hyed. 50 Than were there y-nowe to lacche myn handes, and drawe me to shippe, of whiche many I knew wel the names. Sight was the first, Lust was another, Thought was the thirde; and Wil eke was there a mayster; these broughten me within-borde of this shippe of Traveyle. So whan the sayl was sprad, and this ship 55 gan to move, the wind and water gan for to ryse, and overthwartly to turne the welken. The wawes semeden as they kiste togider; but often under colour of kissinge is mokel old hate prively closed and kept. The storm so straungely and in a devouring maner gan so faste us assayle, that I supposed the date of my 60 deth shulde have mad there his ginning. Now up, now downe, now under the wawe and now aboven was my ship a greet whyle. And so by mokel duresse of +weders and of stormes, and with greet avowing [of] pilgrimages, I was driven to an yle, where utterly I wende first to have be rescowed; but trewly, +at 65 the first ginning, it semed me so perillous the haven to cacche, that but thorow grace I had ben comforted, of lyfe I was ful dispayred. Trewly, lady, if ye remembre a-right of al maner thinges, your-selfe cam hastely to sene us see-driven, and to weten what we weren. But first ye were deynous of chere, after 70 whiche ye gonne better a-lighte; and ever, as me thought, ye lived in greet drede of disese; it semed so by your chere. And whan I was certifyed of your name, the lenger I loked in you, the more I you goodly dradde; and ever myn herte on you opened the more; and so in a litel tyme my ship was out of 75 mynde. But, lady, as ye me ladde, I was war bothe of beestes and of fisshes, a greet nombre thronging togider; among whiche a muskel, in a blewe shel, had enclosed a Margaryte-perle, the moste precious and best that ever to-forn cam in my sight. And ye tolden your-selfe, that ilke jewel in his kinde was so 80 good and so vertuous, that her better shulde I never finde, al sought I ther-after to the worldes ende. And with that I held my pees a greet whyle; and ever sithen I have me bethought on the man that sought the precious Margarytes; and whan he had founden oon to his lyking, he solde al his good to bye that jewel. 85 Y-wis, thought I, (and yet so I thinke), now have I founden the jewel that myn herte desyreth; wherto shulde I seche further? Trewly, now wol I stinte, and on this Margaryte I sette me for ever: now than also, sithen I wiste wel it was your wil that I shulde so suche a service me take; and so to desyre that thing, 90 of whiche I never have blisse. There liveth non but he hath disese; your might than that brought me to suche service, that to me is cause of sorowe and of joye. I wonder of your worde that ye sayn, "to bringen men in-to joye"; and, pardè, ye wete wel that defaut ne trespace may not resonably ben put to me-wardes, 95 as fer as my conscience knoweth. But of my disese me list now a whyle to speke, and to enforme you in what maner of blisse ye have me thronge. For truly I wene, that al gladnesse, al joye, and al mirthe is beshet under locke, and the keye throwe in suche place that it may not be 100 founde. My brenning wo hath altred al my hewe. Whan I shulde slepe, I walowe and I thinke, and me disporte. Thus combred, I seme that al folk had me mased. Also, lady myne, desyre hath longe dured, some speking to have; or els at the lest have ben enmoysed with sight; and for wantinge of these thinges 105 my mouth wolde, and he durst, pleyne right sore, sithen yvels for my goodnesse arn manyfolde to me yolden. I wonder, lady, trewly, save evermore your reverence, how ye mowe, for shame, suche thinges suffre on your servaunt to be so multiplied. Wherfore, kneling with a lowe herte, I pray you to rue on this 110 caytif, that of nothing now may serve. Good lady, if ye liste, now your help to me shewe, that am of your privyest servantes at al assayes in this tyme, and under your winges of proteccion. No help to me-wardes is shapen; how shal than straungers in any wyse after socour loke, whan I, that am so privy, yet of helpe 115 I do fayle? Further may I not, but thus in this prison abyde; what bondes and chaynes me holden, lady, ye see wel your-selfe. A renyant forjuged hath not halfe the care. But thus, syghing and sobbing, I wayle here alone; and nere it for comfort of your presence, right here wolde I sterve. And yet a litel am I gladded, 120 that so goodly suche grace and non hap have I hent, graciously to fynde the precious Margarite, that (al other left) men shulde bye, if they shulde therfore selle al her substaunce. Wo is me, that so many let-games and purpose-brekers ben maked wayters, suche prisoners as I am to overloke and to hinder; and, for 125 suche lettours, it is hard any suche jewel to winne. Is this, lady, an honour to thy deitee? Me thinketh, by right, suche people shulde have no maistrye, ne ben overlokers over none of thy servauntes. Trewly, were it leful unto you, to al the goddes wolde I playne, that ye rule your devyne purveyaunce amonges 130 your servantes nothing as ye shulde. Also, lady, my moeble is insuffysaunt to countervayle the price of this jewel, or els to make th'eschange. Eke no wight is worthy suche perles to were but kinges or princes or els their peres. This jewel, for vertue, wold adorne and make fayre al a realme; the nobley of vertue is 135 so moche, that her goodnesse overal is commended. Who is it that wolde not wayle, but he might suche richesse have at his wil? The vertue therof out of this prison may me deliver, and naught els. And if I be not ther-thorow holpen, I see my-selfe withouten recovery. Although I might hence voyde, yet wolde 140 I not; I wolde abyde the day that destenee hath me ordeyned, whiche I suppose is without amendement; so sore is my herte bounden, that I may thinken non other. Thus strayte, lady, hath sir Daunger laced me in stockes, I leve it be not your wil; and for I see you taken so litel hede, as me thinketh, and wol 145 not maken by your might the vertue in mercy of the Margaryte on me for to strecche, so as ye mowe wel in case that you liste, my blisse and my mirthe arn feld; sicknesse and sorowe ben alwaye redy. The cope of tene is wounde aboute al my body, that stonding is me best; unneth may I ligge for pure misesy 150 sorowe. And yet al this is litel ynough to be the ernest-silver in forwarde of this bargayne; for treble-folde so mokel muste I suffer er tyme come of myn ese. For he is worthy no welthe, that may no wo suffer. And certes, I am hevy to thinke on these thinges; but who shal yeve me water ynough to drinke, lest myn eyen 155 drye, for renning stremes of teres? Who shal waylen with me myn owne happy hevinesse? Who shal counsaile me now in my lyking tene, and in my goodly harse? I not. For ever the more I brenne, the more I coveyte; the more that I sorow, the more thrist I in gladnesse. Who shal than yeve me a contrarious 160 drink, to stanche the thurste of my blisful bitternesse? Lo, thus I brenne and I drenche; I shiver and I swete. To this reversed yvel was never yet ordeyned salve; forsoth al +leches ben unconning, save the Margaryte alone, any suche remedye to purveye.' CH. III. 1. gladed; _see_ l. 5. 2. somdele. 5. nowe. comforte. 6. nowe. 7. folke. 9. se. 10. the (_twice_). 11. light. 13. one. arte. 15. sene. comforte. 16. puruey. 17. Nowe. comforte. 21. mayste. 25. the. set. 29. howe. 30. leaue. 32. londe-. 33. great. forthe. corne. 35. plentie. lyste. 37. doone. 38. _I supply_ Tho gan I. 39. se. 40. werne. 41. swyne. 43. great. great. 44. gone; _read_ gonne. 45. ware. 46. shypcrafte. 48. catche. 49. a-ferde. 51. lache. 52. many; _read_ meynee. knewe. 55. sayle. shyppe. 56. wynde. 58. olde. 59. kepte. storme. 61. made. 61, 62. nowe. 62. shyppe. 62, 64. great. 63. wethers; _read_ weders. 64. _I supply_ of. 65. as; _read_ at. 66. catche. 67. thorowe. 69. came. 71. a-lyght. 72. great. disease. 75. shyppe. 76. lad. ware. 77. great. amonge. 79. to-forne came. 82. helde. 83. peace. great. 85. one. 86. nowe. 87. myne. 88. nowe. 89. Nowe. 91. none. 92. disease. 94. sayne. 95. reasonably. 96. ferre. 97. disease. 103. folke. 106. mouthe. 107. arne. 108. howe. 111. caytife. 112. nowe. helpe. 113. protection. 114. helpe. howe. 115. socoure. 116. maye. 117. se. 119. comforte. 120. gladed. 121. none. hente. 122. lefte. 123. sel. 126. harde. 127. deytie. 133. weare. 139. ther-thorowe. se. 141. daye. destenye. 143. maye. none. 145. se. 147. stretche. 148. arne. 150. miseasy. 151. ynoughe. 153. ease. maye. 156. teares. 157. myne. nowe. 158. harse (_sic_); _for_ harme? 161. drinke. 162. sweate. 163. lyches (for leches). 164. puruey. CHAPTER IV. And with these wordes I brast out to wepe, that every teere of myne eyen, for greetnesse semed they boren out the bal of my sight, and that al the water had ben out-ronne. Than thought me that Love gan a litel to hevye for miscomfort of my chere; and gan soberly and in esy maner speke, wel avysinge what 5 she sayd. Comenly the wyse speken esily and softe for many skilles. Oon is, their wordes are the better bileved; and also, in esy spekinge, avysement men may cacche, what to putte forth and what to holden in. And also, the auctoritè of esy wordes is the more; and eke, they yeven the more understandinge to other 10 intencion of the mater. Right so this lady esely and in a softe maner gan say these wordes. ¶ 'Mervayle,' quod she, 'greet it is, that by no maner of semblaunt, as fer as I can espye, thou list not to have any recour; but ever thou playnest and sorowest, and wayes of remedye, for 15 folisshe wilfulnesse, thee list not to seche. But enquyre of thy next frendes, that is, thyne inwit and me that have ben thy maystresse, and the recour and fyne of thy disese; [f]or of disese is gladnesse and joy, with a ful +vessel so helded, that it quencheth the felinge of the firste tenes. But thou that were wont not only 20 these thinges remembre in thyne herte, but also fooles therof to enfourmen, in adnullinge of their errours and distroying of their derke opinions, and in comfort of their sere thoughtes; now canst thou not ben comfort of thyn owne soule, in thinking of these thinges. O where hast thou be so longe commensal, that hast so 25 mikel eeten of the potages of foryetfulnesse, and dronken so of ignorance, that the olde souking[es] whiche thou haddest of me arn amaystred and lorn fro al maner of knowing? O, this is a worthy person to helpe other, that can not counsayle him-selfe!' And with these wordes, for pure and stronge shame, I wox al 30 reed. And she than, seing me so astonyed by dyvers stoundes, sodainly (which thing kynde hateth) gan deliciously me comforte with sugred wordes, putting me in ful hope that I shulde the Margarite getten, if I folowed her hestes; and gan with a fayre 35 clothe to wypen the teres that hingen on my chekes; and than sayd I in this wyse. 'Now, wel of wysdom and of al welthe, withouten thee may nothing ben lerned; thou berest the keyes of al privy thinges. In vayne travayle men to cacche any stedship, but-if ye, lady, 40 first the locke unshet. Ye, lady, lerne us the wayes and the by-pathes to heven. Ye, lady, maken al the hevenly bodyes goodly and benignely to don her cours, that governen us beestes here on erthe. Ye armen your servauntes ayenst al debates with imperciable harneys; ye setten in her hertes insuperable blood of 45 hardinesse; ye leden hem to the parfit good. Yet al thing desyreth ye werne no man of helpe, that +wol don your lore. Graunt me now a litel of your grace, al my sorowes to cese.' 'Myne owne servaunt,' quod she, 'trewly thou sittest nye 50 myne herte; and thy badde chere gan sorily me greve. But amonge thy playning wordes, me thought, thou allegest thinges to be letting of thyne helpinge and thy grace to hinder; wherthrough, me thinketh, that wanhope is crope thorough thyn hert. God forbid that nyse unthrifty thought shulde come in thy mynde, 55 thy wittes to trouble; sithen every thing in coming is contingent. Wherfore make no more thy proposicion by an impossible. But now, I praye thee reherse me ayen tho thinges that thy mistrust causen; and thilke thinges I thinke by reson to distroyen, and putte ful hope in thyn herte. What understondest 60 thou there,' quod she, 'by that thou saydest, "many let-games are thyn overlokers?" And also by "that thy moeble is insuffysaunt"? I not what thou therof menest.' 'Trewly,' quod I, 'by the first I say, that janglers evermore arn spekinge rather of yvel than of good; for every age of man 65 rather enclyneth to wickednesse, than any goodnesse to avaunce. Also false wordes springen so wyde, by the stering of false lying tonges, that fame als swiftely flyeth to her eres and sayth many wicked tales; and as soone shal falsenesse ben leved as tr[o]uthe, for al his gret sothnesse. 70 'Now by that other,' quod I, 'me thinketh thilke jewel so precious, that to no suche wrecche as I am wolde vertue therof extende; and also I am to feble in worldly joyes, any suche jewel to countrevayle. For suche people that worldly joyes han at her wil ben sette at the highest degree, and most in reverence 75 ben accepted. For false wening maketh felicitè therin to be supposed; but suche caytives as I am evermore ben hindred.' 'Certes,' quod she, 'take good hede, and I shal by reson to thee shewen, that al these thinges mowe nat lette thy purpos by the leest point that any wight coude pricke. 80 CH. IV. 2. great-. 4. heauy. 5. easy. 6. easyly. 7. One. 8. easy speakynge. catche. put forthe. 9. easy. 11. ladye easely. 13. great. 14. ferre. 16. the lyste. 17. inwytte. 18. disease (_twice_). 19. nessel; _misprint for_ uessel. 20. wonte. onely. 22. distroyeng. 23. comforte. seare. 24. comforte. 25. haste. 27. soukyng. 28. arne. 30. woxe. 33. thynge. 36. teares. 38. Nowe. wysedom. the. 39. bearest. 40. catche. 43. done her course. 45. blode. 46. leaden. parfyte. thynge. 47. wern. wele; _read_ wol. done. 48. nowe. 49. cease. 53. wherthroughe. 58. nowe. the. 59. reason. 60. put. 61. lette-games. 63. meanest. 65. arne. 67. steeryng. lyeng. 68. eares. 72. wretche. 78. reason. 79. the. let. purpose. CHAPTER V. Remembrest nat,' quod she, 'ensample is oon of the strongest maner[es], as for to preve a mannes purpos? Than if I now, by ensample, enduce thee to any proposicion, is it nat preved by strength?' 'Yes, forsothe,' quod I. 5 'Wel,' quod she, 'raddest thou never how Paris of Troye and Heleyne loved togider, and yet had they not entrecomuned of speche? Also Acrisius shette Dane his doughter in a tour, for suertee that no wight shulde of her have no maistry in my service; and yet Jupiter by signes, without any speche, had 10 al his purpose ayenst her fathers wil. And many suche mo have ben knitte in trouthe, and yet spake they never togider; for that is a thing enclosed under secretnesse of privytè, why twey persons entremellen hertes after a sight. The power in knowing, of such thinges +to preven, shal nat al utterly be yeven to you 15 beestes; for many thinges, in suche precious maters, ben reserved to jugement of devyne purveyaunce; for among lyving people, by mannes consideracion, moun they nat be determined. Wherfore I saye, al the envy, al the janglinge, that wel ny [al] people upon my servauntes maken +ofte, is rather cause of esployte 20 than of any hindringe.' 'Why, than,' quod I, 'suffre ye such wrong; and moun, whan ye list, lightly al such yvels abate? Me semeth, to you it is a greet unworship.' 'O,' quod she, 'hold now thy pees. I have founden to many 25 that han ben to me unkynde, that trewly I wol suffre every wight in that wyse to have disese; and who that continueth to the ende wel and trewly, hem wol I helpen, and as for oon of myne in-to blisse [don] to wende. As [in] marcial doing in Grece, who was y-crowned? By god, nat the strongest; but he that rathest 30 com and lengest abood and continued in the journey, and spared nat to traveyle as long as the play leste. But thilke person, that profred him now to my service, [and] therin is a while, and anon voideth and [is] redy to another; and so now oon he thinketh and now another; and in-to water entreth and anon respireth: 35 such oon list me nat in-to perfit blisse of my service bringe. A tree ofte set in dyvers places wol nat by kynde endure to bringe forth frutes. Loke now, I pray thee, how myne olde servauntes of tyme passed continued in her service, and folowe thou after their steppes; and than might thou not fayle, in case thou worche 40 in this wyse.' 'Certes,' quod I, 'it is nothing lich, this world, to tyme passed; eke this countrè hath oon maner, and another countrè hath another. And so may nat a man alway putte to his eye the salve that he heled with his hele. For this is sothe: betwixe 45 two thinges liche, ofte dyversitè is required.' 'Now,' quod she, 'that is sothe; dyversitè of nation, dyversitè of lawe, as was maked by many resons; for that dyversitè cometh in by the contrarious malice of wicked people, that han envyous hertes ayenst other. But trewly, my lawe to my servauntes ever hath 50 ben in general, whiche may nat fayle. For right as mannes +lawe that is ordained by many determinacions, may nat be knowe for good or badde, til assay of the people han proved it and [founden] to what ende it draweth; and than it sheweth the necessitè therof, or els the impossibilitè: right so the lawe of my servauntes 55 so wel hath ben proved in general, that hitherto hath it not fayled. Wiste thou not wel that al the lawe of kynde is my lawe, and by god ordayned and stablisshed to dure by kynde resoun? Wherfore al lawe by mannes witte purveyed ought to be underput to lawe of kynde, whiche yet hath be commune to every kyndely 60 creature; that my statutes and my lawe that ben kyndely arn general to al peoples. Olde doinges and by many turninges of yeres used, and with the peoples maner proved, mowen nat so lightly ben defased; but newe doinges, contrariauntes suche olde, ofte causen diseses and breken many purposes. Yet saye I nat 65 therfore that ayen newe mischeef men shulde nat ordaynen a newe remedye; but alwaye looke it contrary not the olde no ferther than the malice streccheth. Than foloweth it, the olde doinges in love han ben universal, as for most exployte[s] forth used; wherfore I wol not yet that of my lawes nothing be adnulled. 70 But thanne to thy purpos: suche jangelers and lokers, and wayters of games, if thee thinke in aught they mowe dere, yet love wel alwaye, and sette hem at naught; and let thy port ben lowe in every wightes presence, and redy in thyne herte to maynteyne that thou hast begonne; and a litel thee fayne with 75 mekenesse in wordes; and thus with sleyght shalt thou surmount and dequace the yvel in their hertes. And wysdom yet is to seme flye otherwhyle, there a man wol fighte. Thus with suche thinges the tonges of yvel shal ben stilled; els fully to graunte thy ful meninge, for-sothe ever was and ever it shal be, that myn enemyes 80 ben aferde to truste to any fightinge. And therfore have thou no cowardes herte in my service, no more than somtyme thou haddest in the contrarye. For if thou drede suche jangleres, thy viage to make, understand wel, that he that dredeth any rayn, to sowe his cornes, he shal have than [bare] bernes. Also he that 85 is aferd of his clothes, let him daunce naked! Who nothing undertaketh, and namely in my service, nothing acheveth. After grete stormes the +weder is often mery and smothe. After moche clatering, there is mokil rowning. Thus, after jangling wordes, cometh "huissht! pees! and be stille!"' 90 'O good lady!' quod I than, 'see now how, seven yere passed and more, have I graffed and +grobbed a vyne; and with al the wayes that I coude I sought to a fed me of the grape; but frute have I non founde. Also I have this seven yere served Laban, to a wedded Rachel his doughter; but blere-eyed Lya is brought to 95 my bedde, which alway engendreth my tene, and is ful of children in tribulacion and in care. And although the clippinges and kissinges of Rachel shulde seme to me swete, yet is she so barayne that gladnesse ne joye by no way wol springe; so that I may wepe with Rachel. I may not ben counsayled with solace, 100 sithen issue of myn hertely desyre is fayled. Now than I pray that to me [come] sone fredom and grace in this eight[eth] yere; this eighteth mowe to me bothe be kinrest and masseday, after the seven werkedays of travayle, to folowe the Christen lawe; and, what ever ye do els, that thilke Margaryte be holden so, lady, in 105 your privy chambre, that she in this case to none other person be committed.' 'Loke than,' quod she, 'thou persever in my service, in whiche I have thee grounded; that thilke scorn in thyn enemyes mowe this on thy person be not sothed: "lo! this man began to edefye, 110 but, for his foundement is bad, to the ende may he it not bringe." For mekenesse in countenaunce, with a manly hert in dedes and in longe continuaunce, is the conisance of my livery to al my retinue delivered. What wenest thou, that me list avaunce suche persons as loven the first sittinges at feestes, the highest stoles 115 in churches and in hal, loutinges of peoples in markettes and fayres; unstedfaste to byde in one place any whyle togider; wening his owne wit more excellent than other; scorning al maner devyse but his own? Nay, nay, god wot, these shul nothing parten of my blisse. Truly, my maner here-toforn hath ben [to] worship[pe] 120 with my blisse lyons in the felde and lambes in chambre; egles at assaute and maydens in halle; foxes in counsayle, stil[le] in their dedes; and their proteccioun is graunted, redy to ben a bridge; and their baner is arered, like wolves in the felde. Thus, by these wayes, shul men ben avaunced; ensample of 125 David, that from keping of shepe was drawen up in-to the order of kingly governaunce; and Jupiter, from a bole, to ben Europes fere; and Julius Cesar, from the lowest degrè in Rome, to be mayster of al erthly princes; and Eneas from hel, to be king of the countrè there Rome is now stonding. And so to thee I say; 130 thy grace, by bering ther-after, may sette thee in suche plight, that no jangling may greve the leest tucke of thy hemmes; that [suche] are their +jangles, is nought to counte at a cresse in thy disavauntage. CH. V. 1. one. 2. maner; _read_ maneres. purpose. 3. nowe. the. 4. proued. 6. howe. 9. suertie. 15. so; _read_ to. 17. lyueng. 19. _I supply_ al. 20. efte; _read_ ofte. 24. great. 25. holde nowe thy peace. 27. disease. 29. one. _I supply_ don. _I supply_ in. 31. come. abode. 32. lest. 33. nowe. _I supply_ and. 34. _I supply_ is. nowe one. 35. nowe. 36. one. p_er_fyte. 38. nowe. the howe. 42. worlde. 43. one. 44. alwaye put. 45. healed. 47. Nowe. 48. reasons. 51. lawes; _read_ lawe. 52. determinati[=o]s. 53. _I supply_ founden. 58. reasoun. 59. purueyde. vnderputte. 61. arne. 65. diseases. breaken. 66. mischefe. 68. stretcheth. 69. exployte forthe. 70. nothynge. 71. purpose. 72. the. 73. lette. porte. 75. the. 77. wysdome. 78. fyght. 79. graunt. 80. meanynge. 84. vnderstande. rayne. 85. _I supply_ bare. 86. aferde. 88. great. wether; _read_ weder. 90. huysshte. peace. styl. 91. se nowe howe. 92. groubed. 94. none. 101. Nowe. 102. _I supply_ come. 103. kynrest (_sic_). 109. skorne. 110. this; _read_ thus? 120. toforne. 121. worship; _read_ worshippe (_verb_). 122. styl. 123. protection. 130. nowe. the. 131. set the. 132. lest. 133. ianghes; _read_ jangles. CHAPTER VI. Ever,' quod she, 'hath the people in this worlde desyred to have had greet name in worthinesse, and hated foule to bere any [en]fame; and that is oon of the objeccions thou alegest to be ayen thyne hertely desyre.' 'Ye, forsothe,' quod I; 'and that, so comenly, the people wol 5 lye, and bringe aboute suche enfame.' 'Now,' quod she, 'if men with lesinges putte on thee enfame, wenest thy-selfe therby ben enpeyred? That wening is wrong; see why; for as moche as they lyen, thy meryte encreseth, and make[th] thee ben more worthy, to hem that knowen of the soth; 10 by what thing thou art apeyred, that in so mokil thou art encresed of thy beloved frendes. And sothly, a wounde of thy frende [is] to thee lasse harm, ye, sir, and better than a fals kissing in disceyvable glosing of thyne enemy; above that than, to be wel with thy frende maketh [voyd] suche enfame. _Ergo_, thou art encresed 15 and not apeyred.' 'Lady,' quod I, 'somtyme yet, if a man be in disese, th'estimacion of the envyous people ne loketh nothing to desertes of men, ne to the merytes of their doinges, but only to the aventure of fortune; and therafter they yeven their sentence. And some 20 loken the voluntary wil in his herte, and therafter telleth his jugement; not taking hede to reson ne to the qualitè of the doing; as thus. If a man be riche and fulfild with worldly welfulnesse, some commenden it, and sayn it is so lent by juste cause; and he that hath adversitè, they sayn he is weked; and 25 hath deserved thilke anoy. The contrarye of these thinges some men holden also; and sayn that to the riche prosperitè is purvayed in-to his confusion; and upon this mater many autoritès of many and greet-witted clerkes they alegen. And some men sayn, though al good estimacion forsake folk that han adversitè, 30 yet is it meryte and encrees of his blisse; so that these purposes am so wonderful in understanding, that trewly, for myn adversitè now, I not how the sentence of the indifferent people wil jugen my fame.' 'Therfore,' quod she, 'if any wight shulde yeve a trewe sentence 35 on suche maters, the cause of the disese maist thou see wel. Understand ther-upon after what ende it draweth, that is to sayne, good or badde; so ought it to have his fame +by goodnesse or enfame by badnesse. For [of] every resonable person, and namely of a wyse man, his wit ought not, without reson to-forn 40 herd, sodainly in a mater to juge. After the sawes of the wyse, "thou shalt not juge ne deme toforn thou knowe."' 'Lady,' quod I, 'ye remembre wel, that in moste laude and praysing of certayne seyntes in holy churche, is to rehersen their conuersion from badde in-to good; and that is so rehersed, as 45 by a perpetual mirrour of remembraunce, in worshippinge of tho sayntes, and good ensample to other misdoers in amendement. How turned the Romayne Zedeoreys fro the Romaynes, to be with Hanibal ayenst his kynde nacion; and afterwardes, him seming the Romayns to be at the next degrè of confusion, 50 turned to his olde alyes; by whose witte after was Hanibal discomfited. Wherfore, to enfourme you, lady, the maner-why I mene, see now. In my youth I was drawe to ben assentaunt and (in my mightes) helping to certain conjuracions and other grete maters of ruling of citizins; and thilke thinges ben my 55 drawers in; and ex[c]itours to tho maters wern so paynted and coloured that (at the prime face) me semed them noble and glorious to al the people. I than, wening mikel meryte have deserved in furthering and mayntenaunce of tho thinges, besyed and laboured, with al my diligence, in werkinge of thilke maters 60 to the ende. And trewly, lady, to telle you the sothe, me rought litel of any hate of the mighty senatours in thilke citè, ne of comunes malice; for two skilles. Oon was, I had comfort to ben in suche plyte, that bothe profit were to me and to my frendes. Another was, for commen profit in cominaltee is not but pees and 65 tranquilitè, with just governaunce, proceden from thilke profit; sithen, by counsayle of myne inwitte, me thought the firste painted thinges malice and yvel meninge, withouten any good avayling to any people, and of tyrannye purposed. And so, for pure sorowe, and of my medlinge and badde infame that I was in ronne, tho 70 [the] teres [that] lasshed out of myne eyen were thus awaye wasshe, than the under-hidde malice and the rancour of purposing envye, forncast and imagined in distruccion of mokil people, shewed so openly, that, had I ben blind, with myne hondes al the circumstaunce I might wel have feled. 75 Now than tho persones that suche thinges have cast to redresse, for wrathe of my first medlinge, shopen me to dwelle in this pynande prison, til Lachases my threed no lenger wolde twyne. And ever I was sought, if me liste to have grace of my lyfe and frenesse of that prison, I shulde openly confesse how pees might 80 ben enduced to enden al the firste rancours. It was fully supposed my knowing to be ful in tho maters. Than, lady, I thought that every man that, by any waye of right, rightfully don, may helpe any comune +wele to ben saved; whiche thing to kepe above al thinges I am holde to mayntayne, and namely in 85 distroying of a wrong; al shulde I therthrough enpeche myn owne fere, if he were gilty and to do misdeed assentaunt. And mayster ne frend may nought avayle to the soule of him that in falsnesse deyeth; and also that I nere desyred wrathe of the people ne indignacion of the worthy, for nothinge that ever I 90 wrought or did, in any doing my-selfe els, but in the mayntenaunce of these foresayd errours and in hydinge of the privitees therof. And that al the peoples hertes, holdinge on the errours syde, weren blinde and of elde so ferforth begyled, that debat and stryf they maynteyned, and in distruccion on that other syde; 95 by whiche cause the pees, that moste in comunaltee shulde be desyred, was in poynte to be broken and adnulled. Also the citee of London, that is to me so dere and swete, in whiche I was forth growen; (and more kyndely love have I to that place than to any other in erthe, as every kyndely creature hath ful appetyte to that 100 place of his kyndly engendrure, and to wilne reste and pees in that stede to abyde); thilke pees shulde thus there have ben broken, and of al wyse it is commended and desyred. For knowe thing it is, al men that desyren to comen to the perfit pees everlasting must the pees by god commended bothe mayntayne and 105 kepe. This pees by angels voyce was confirmed, our god entringe in this worlde. This, as for his Testament, he lefte to al his frendes, whanne he retourned to the place from whence he cam; this his apostel amonesteth to holden, without whiche man perfitly may have non insight. Also this god, by his coming, made not 110 pees alone betwene hevenly and erthly bodyes, but also amonge us on erthe so he pees confirmed, that in one heed of love oon body we shulde perfourme. Also I remembre me wel how the name of Athenes was rather after the god of pees than of batayle, shewinge that pees moste is necessarie to comunaltees and citees. 115 I than, so styred by al these wayes toforn nempned, declared certayne poyntes in this wyse. Firste, that thilke persones that hadden me drawen to their purposes, and me not weting the privy entent of their meninge, drawen also the feeble-witted people, that have non insight of gubernatif prudence, to clamure 120 and to crye on maters that they styred; and under poyntes for comune avauntage they enbolded the passif to take in the actives doinge; and also styred innocentes of conning to crye after thinges, whiche (quod they) may not stande but we ben executours of tho maters, and auctoritè of execucion by comen 125 eleccion to us be delivered. And that muste entre by strength of your mayntenaunce. For we out of suche degree put, oppression of these olde hindrers shal agayn surmounten, and putten you in such subjeccion, that in endelesse wo ye shul complayne. The governementes (quod they) of your citè, lefte in the handes 130 of torcencious citezins, shal bringe in pestilence and distruccion to you, good men; and therfore let us have the comune administracion to abate suche yvels. Also (quod they) it is worthy the good to commende, and the gilty desertes to chastice. There ben citezens many, for-ferde of execucion that shal be doon; for 135 extorcions by hem committed ben evermore ayenst these purposes and al other good mevinges. Never-the-latter, lady, trewly the meninge under these wordes was, fully to have apeched the mighty senatoures, whiche hadden hevy herte for the misgovernaunce that they seen. And so, lady, whan it fel that free 140 eleccion [was mad], by greet clamour of moche people, [that] for greet disese of misgovernaunce so fervently stoden in her eleccion that they hem submitted to every maner +fate rather than have suffred the maner and the rule of the hated governours; notwithstandinge that in the contrary helden moche comune meyny, 145 that have no consideracion but only to voluntary lustes withouten reson. But than thilke governour so forsaken, fayninge to-forn his undoinge for misrule in his tyme, shoop to have letted thilke eleccion, and have made a newe, him-selfe to have ben chosen; and under that, mokil rore [to] have arered. These thinges, lady, 150 knowen among the princes, and made open to the people, draweth in amendement, that every degree shal ben ordayned to stande there-as he shulde; and that of errours coming herafter men may lightly to-forn-hand purvaye remedye; in this wyse pees and rest to be furthered and holde. Of the whiche thinges, lady, 155 thilke persones broughten in answere to-forn their moste soverayne juge, not coarted by payninge dures, openly knowlegeden, and asked therof grace; so that apertly it preveth my wordes ben sothe, without forginge of lesinges. But now it greveth me to remembre these dyvers sentences, in 160 janglinge of these shepy people; certes, me thinketh, they oughten to maken joye that a sothe may be knowe. For my trouthe and my conscience ben witnesse to me bothe, that this (knowinge sothe) have I sayd, for no harme ne malice of tho persones, but only for trouthe of my sacrament in my ligeaunce, by whiche 165 I was charged on my kinges behalfe. But see ye not now, lady, how the felonous thoughtes of this people and covins of wicked men conspyren ayen my sothfast trouth! See ye not every wight that to these erroneous opinions were assentaunt, and helpes to the noyse, and knewen al these thinges better than I my-selven, 170 apparaylen to fynden newe frendes, and clepen me fals, and studyen how they mowen in her mouthes werse plyte nempne? O god, what may this be, that thilke folk whiche that in tyme of my mayntenaunce, and whan my might avayled to strecche to the forsayd maters, tho me commended, and yave me name of 175 trouth, in so manyfolde maners that it was nyghe in every wightes eere, there-as any of thilke people weren; and on the other syde, thilke company somtyme passed, yevinge me name of badde loos: now bothe tho peoples turned the good in-to badde, and badde in-to good? Whiche thing is wonder, that 180 they knowing me saying but sothe, arn now tempted to reply her olde praysinges; and knowen me wel in al doinges to ben trewe, and sayn openly that I false have sayd many thinges! And they aleged nothing me to ben false or untrewe, save thilke mater knowleged by the parties hem-selfe; and god wot, other mater 185 is non. Ye also, lady, knowe these thinges for trewe; I avaunte not in praysing of my-selfe; therby shulde I lese the precious secrè of my conscience. But ye see wel that false opinion of the people for my trouthe, in telling out of false conspyred maters; and after the jugement of these clerkes, I shulde not hyde the 190 sothe of no maner person, mayster ne other. Wherfore I wolde not drede, were it put in the consideracion of trewe and of wyse. And for comers hereafter shullen fully, out of denwere, al the sothe knowe of these thinges in acte, but as they wern, I have put it in scripture, in perpetuel remembraunce of true meninge. 195 For trewly, lady, me semeth that I ought to bere the name of trouthe, that for the love of rightwysnesse have thus me +submitted. But now than the false fame, which that (clerkes sayn) flyeth as faste as doth the fame of trouthe, shal so wyde sprede til it be brought to the jewel that I of mene; and so shal I ben 200 hindred, withouten any mesure of trouthe.' CH. VI. 2. great. beare. 3. _read_ enfame; _see l. 6_. one. obiections. 7. Nowe. leasynges put on the. 8. wronge. 9. se. encreaseth. 10. the. 11. arte encreased. 12. _I supply_ is. 13. the. harme. false. 15. _I supply_ voyd. arte. 17. disease. 22. reason. 23. fulfylde. 24. sayne. lente. 25. sayne. weaked; _read_ wikked? 26. anoye. 27. sayne. 29. great. 30. forsaken; _read_ forsake. 31. encrease. 32. arne. 33. nowe. howe. 36. disease. se. 37. vnderstande. 38. fame or by goodnesse enfame; _read_ fame by goodnesse or enfame. 39. _Supply_ of. reasonable. 40. wytte. reason to-forne. 41. herde. 42. toforne. 45. conuercion. 48. Howe. zedeoreys _or_ [gh]edeoreys. 53. meane se nowe. 55. great. 56. exitours. werne. 61. tel. 63. One. comforte. 64. profyte. 65. profyte. comynaltie. peace. 66. profyte. 68. meanynge. 71. _I supply_ the _and_ that. 72. rancoure. 73. fornecaste. distruction. 74. blynde. 76. Nowe. caste. 77. dwel. 78. threde. 80. howe peace. 81. endused. 84. done. maye. helpe (_repeated after_ comen); _read_ wele. thynge. 86. distroyeng. 87. misdede. 88. frende maye. 94. -forthe. debate. 95. stryfe. distruction. 96. peace. comunaltie. 97. cytie. 98. forthe. 101-6. peace (_five times_). 104. thynge. perfyte. 107. left. 108. came. 109. perfytely. 110. none. 111-2. peace (_twice_). 112. one (_twice_). 113. howe. 114-5. peace (_twice_). 115. comunalties and cytes. 116. toforne. 119. meanynge. feoble. 120. none. gubernatyfe. 122. passyfe. 126. election. 128. agayne. 129. subiection. 131. distruction. 135. doone. 138. meanynge. 139. heauy. 141. election. _Supply_ was mad. great (_twice_). _Supply_ that. 142. disease. election. 143. face; _read_ fate. 146. onely. 147. reason. to-forne. 148. shope. 149. electyon. 151. amonge. 154. to forne hande. peace. 156. to forne. 158. apertely. 159. leasynges. 160. nowe. 162. maye. 164. sayde. 165. onely. leigeaunce. 166. se. nowe. 168. Se. 171. cleapen. false. 172. howe. 173. maye. folke. 174. stretch. 179. Nowe. 181. knowyuge (_sic_). sayng. arne nowe. 183. sayne. 184. nothynge. 185. wote. 186. none. 188. se. 194. werne. 195. meanynge. 196. beare. 197. submytten (!). 198. nowe. sayne. 199. dothe. 200. meane. 201. measure. CHAPTER VII. Than gan Love sadly me beholde, and sayd in a changed voyce, lower than she had spoken in any tyme: 'Fayn wolde I,' quod she, 'that thou were holpen; but hast thou sayd any-thing whiche thou might not proven?' 'Pardè,' quod I, 'the persones, every thing as I have sayd, han 5 knowleged hem-selfe.' 'Ye,' quod she, 'but what if they hadden nayed? How woldest thou have maynteyned it?' 'Sothely,' quod I, 'it is wel wist, bothe amonges the greetest and other of the realme, that I profered my body so largely in-to 10 provinge of tho thinges, that Mars shulde have juged the ende; but, for sothnesse of my wordes, they durste not to thilke juge truste.' 'Now, certes,' quod she, 'above al fames in this worlde, the name of marcial doinges most plesen to ladyes of my lore; but 15 sithen thou were redy, and thyne adversaryes in thy presence refused thilke doing; thy fame ought to be so born as if in dede it had take to the ende. And therfore every wight that any droppe of reson hath, and hereth of thee infame for these thinges, hath this answere to saye: "trewly thou saydest; for thyne 20 adversaryes thy wordes affirmed." And if thou haddest lyed, yet are they discomfited, the prise leved on thy syde; so that fame shal holde down infame; he shal bringe [it in] upon none halfe. What greveth thee thyne enemye[s] to sayn their owne shame, as thus: "we arn discomfited, and yet our quarel is 25 trewe?" Shal not the loos of thy frendes ayenward dequace thilke enfame, and saye they graunted a sothe without a stroke or fighting? Many men in batayle ben discomfited and overcome in a rightful quarel, that is goddes privy jugement in heven; but yet, although the party be yolden, he may with wordes saye his 30 quarel is trewe, and to yelde him, in the contrarye, for drede of dethe he is compelled; and he that graunteth and no stroke hath feled, he may not crepe away in this wyse by none excusacion. Indifferent folk wil say: "ye, who is trewe, who is fals, him-selfe knowlegeth tho thinges." Thus in every syde fame sheweth to 35 thee good and no badde.' 'But yet,' quod I, 'some wil say, I ne shulde, for no dethe, have discovered my maistresse; and so by unkyndnesse they wol knette infame, to pursue me aboute. Thus enemyes of wil, in manyfolde maner, wol seche privy serpentynes queintyses, to 40 quenche and distroye, by venim of many besinesses, the light of tr[o]uthe; to make hertes to murmure ayenst my persone, to have me in hayne withouten any cause.' 'Now,' quod she, 'here me a fewe wordes, and thou shalt fully ben answered, I trowe. Me thinketh (quod she) right now, by 45 thy wordes, that sacrament of swering, that is to say, charging by othe, was oon of the causes to make thee discover the malicious imaginacions tofore nempned. Every ooth, by knittinge of copulation, muste have these lawes, that is, trewe jugement and rightwysenesse; in whiche thinge if any of these lacke, the ooth is 50 y-tourned in-to the name of perjury. Than to make a trewe serment, most nedes these thinges folowe. For ofte tymes, a man to saye sothe, but jugement and justice folowe, he is forsworn; ensample of Herodes, for holdinge of his serment was [he] dampned. 55 Also, to saye tr[o]uthe rightfulliche (but in jugement) otherwhile is forboden, by that al sothes be nat to sayne. Therfore in jugement, in tr[o]uthe, and rightwisenesse, is every creature bounden, up payne of perjury, ful knowing to make, tho[ugh] it were of his owne persone, for drede of sinne; after that worde, 60 "better is it to dey than live false." And, al wolde perverted people fals report make in unkyndnesse, in that entent thy [en]fame to reyse, whan light of tr[o]uthe in these maters is forth sprongen and openly publisshed among commens, than shal nat suche derke enfame dare appere, for pure shame of his falsnesse. As some 65 men ther ben that their owne enfame can none otherwyse voide or els excuse, but +by hindringe of other mennes fame; which that by non other cause clepen other men false, but for [that] with their owne falsnesse mowen they nat ben avaunsed; or els by false sklaund[r]inge wordes other men shenden, their owne 70 trewe sklaunder to make seme the lasse. For if such men wolden their eyen of their conscience revolven, [they] shulden seen the same sentence they legen on other springe out of their sydes, with so many braunches, it were impossible to nombre. To whiche therefore may it be sayd in that thinge, "this man thou demest, 75 therein thy-selfe thou condempnest." But (quod she) understand nat by these wordes, that thou wene me saye thee to be worthy sclaunder, for any mater tofore written; truely I wolde witnesse the contrary; but I saye that the bemes of sclaundring wordes may not be don awaye til the 80 daye of dome. For how shulde it nat yet, amonges so greet plentee of people, ben many shrewes, sithen whan no mo but eight persons in Noes shippe were closed, yet oon was a shrewe and skorned his father? These thinges (quod she) I trowe, shewen that fals fame is nat to drede, ne of wyse persons to accepte, and 85 namely nat of thy Margarite, whose wysdom here-after I thinke to declare; wherfore I wot wel suche thing shal nat her asterte; than of unkyndnesse thyn ooth hath thee excused at the fulle. But now, if thou woldest nat greve, me list a fewe thinges to shewe.' 90 'Say on,' quod I, 'what ye wol; I trowe ye mene but trouthe and my profit in tyme cominge.' 'Trewly,' quod she, 'that is sothe, so thou con wel kepe these wordes, and in the in[ne]rest secrè chambre of thyne herte so faste hem close that they never flitte; than shalt thou fynde hem 95 avayling. Loke now what people hast thou served; whiche of hem al in tyme of thyne exile ever thee refresshed, by the valewe of the leste coyned plate that walketh in money? Who was sory, or made any rewth for thy disese? If they hadden getten their purpose, of thy misaventure sette they nat an hawe. Lo, whan 100 thou were emprisonned, how faste they hyed in helpe of thy deliveraunce! I wene of thy dethe they yeve but lyte. They loked after no-thing but after their owne lustes. And if thou liste say the sothe, al that meyny that in this +brige thee broughten, lokeden rather after thyne helpes than thee to have releved. 105 Owen nat yet some of hem money for his commens? Paydest nat thou for some of her dispences, til they were tourned out of Selande? Who yave thee ever ought for any rydinge thou madest? Yet, pardè, some of hem token money for thy chambre, and putte tho pens in his purse, unwetinge of the renter. 110 Lo for which a company thou medlest, that neither thee ne them-selfe mighten helpe of unkyndnesse; now they bere the name that thou supposest of hem for to have. What might thou more have don than thou diddest, but-if thou woldest in a fals quarel have been a stinkinge martyr? I wene thou fleddest, as 115 longe as thou might, their privitè to counsayle; which thing thou hele[de]st lenger than thou shuldest. And thilke that ought thee money no penny wolde paye; they wende thy returne hadde ben an impossible. How might thou better have hem proved, but thus in thy nedy diseses? Now hast thou ensaumple for whom thou 120 shalt meddle; trewly, this lore is worth many goodes.' CH. VII. 2. Fayne. 3. haste. 4. -thynge. 7. Yea. Howe. 9. wyste. amongest. greatest. 14. Nowe. 15. moste pleasen. 17. borne. 19. reason. the. 22. leaued. 23. _Supply_ it in. 24. the. enemye (_sic_). sayne. 25. arne. 30. partie. 33. maye. 34. folke. false. 36. the. 44. Nowe. shalte. 45. answerde. nowe. 46. swearyng. 47. one. the. 48. othe. copulation. 50. othe. 53. forsworne. 54. _Supply_ he. 61. false. 62. reporte. 63. forthe. 67. be; _for_ by. 68. cleapen. _Supply_ that. 70. sklaundynge. shendyn. 72. _I supply_ they. sene. 73. legen [_for_ aleggen]. 75. maye. 77. vndersta_n_de. 78. the. 80. beames. done. 81. howe. great. 82. plentie. 83. one. 85. false. 86. wysedom. 87. wotte. thynge. 88. thyne othe. the. 89. nowe. 91. meane. 92. profyte. 94. inrest. 95. shalte. 96. nowe. haste. 97. the. 98. sorye. 99. disease. 101. howe. 103. -thynge. 104. brigge; _read_ brige. 104, 105. the. 108. the. 109. pardye. 111. the. 112. now. beare. 114. done. false. 117. helest; _read_ heledest. the. 119. Howe. 120. diseases. Nowe haste. 121. shalte. worthe. CHAPTER VIII. +Eft gan Love to +steren me [with] these wordes: 'thinke on my speche; for trewly here-after it wol do thee lykinge; and how-so-ever thou see Fortune shape her wheele to tourne, this meditacion [shal] by no waye revolve. For certes, Fortune sheweth her fayrest, whan she thinketh to begyle. And as me 5 thought, here-toforn thou saydest, thy loos in love, for thy rightwysenesse ought to be raysed, shulde be a-lowed in tyme cominge. Thou might in love so thee have, that loos and fame shul so ben raysed, that to thy frendes comfort, and sorowe to thyne enemys, endlesse shul endure. 10 But if thou were the oon sheep, amonges the hundred, were lost in deserte and out of the way hadde erred, and now to the flocke art restoored, the shepherd hath in thee no joye and thou ayen to the forrest tourne. But that right as the sorowe and anguisshe was greet in tyme of thyne out-waye goinge, right so 15 joye and gladnesse shal be doubled to sene thee converted; and nat as Lothes wyf ayen-lokinge, but [in] hool counsayle with the shepe folowinge, and with them grasse and herbes gadre. Never-the-later (quod she) I saye nat these thinges for no wantrust that I have in supposinge of thee otherwyse than I shulde. For 20 trewly, I wot wel that now thou art set in suche a purpose, out of whiche thee liste nat to parte. But I saye it for many men there been, that to knowinge of other mennes doinges setten al their cure, and lightly desyren the badde to clatter rather than the good, and have no wil their owne maner to amende. They also 25 hate of olde rancours lightly haven; and there that suche thing abydeth, sodaynly in their mouthes procedeth the habundaunce of the herte, and wordes as stones out-throwe. Wherfore my counsayl is ever-more openly and apertly, in what place thou sitte, counterplete th'errours and meninges in as fer as thou hem 30 wistest false, and leve for no wight to make hem be knowe in every bodyes ere; and be alway pacient and use Jacobes wordes, what-so-ever men of thee clappen: "I shal sustayne my ladyes wrathe which I have deserved, so longe as my Margarite hath rightwysed my cause." And certes (quod she) I witnesse my-selfe, 35 if thou, thus converted, sorowest in good meninge in thyne herte, [and] wolt from al vanitè parfitly departe, in consolacioun of al good plesaunce of that Margaryte, whiche that thou desyrest after wil of thyn herte, in a maner of a +moders pitè, [she] shul fully accepte thee in-to grace. For right as thou rentest clothes in 40 open sighte, so openly to sowe hem at his worshippe withouten reprofe [is] commended. Also, right as thou were ensample of moche-folde errour, right so thou must be ensample of manyfolde correccioun; so good savour to forgoing +of errour causeth diligent love, with many playted praisinges to folowe; and than shal al 45 the firste errours make the folowinge worshippes to seme hugely encresed. Blacke and white, set togider, every for other more semeth; and so doth every thinges contrary in kynde. But infame, that goth alwaye tofore, and praysinge worship by any cause folowinge after, maketh to ryse the ilke honour in double 50 of welth; and that quencheth the spotte of the first enfame. Why wenest, I saye, these thinges in hindringe of thy name? Nay, nay, god wot, but for pure encresing worship, thy rightwysenesse to commende, and thy trouthe to seme the more. Wost nat wel thy-selfe, that thou in fourme of making +passest nat Adam that eet 55 of the apple? Thou +passest nat the stedfastnesse of Noe, that eetinge of the grape becom dronke. Thou passest nat the chastitè of Lothe, that lay by his doughter; eke the nobley of Abraham, whom god reproved by his pryde; also Davides mekenesse, whiche for a woman made Urye be slawe. What? 60 also Hector of Troye, in whom no defaute might be founde, yet is he reproved that he ne hadde with manhode nat suffred the warre begonne, ne Paris to have went in-to Grece, by whom gan al the sorowe. For trewly, him lacketh no venim of privè consenting, whiche that openly leveth a wrong to withsaye. 65 Lo eke an olde proverbe amonges many other: "He that is stille semeth as he graunted." Now by these ensamples thou might fully understonde, that these thinges ben writte to your lerning, and in rightwysenesse of tho persones, as thus: To every wight his defaute committed 70 made goodnesse afterwardes don be the more in reverence and in open shewing; for ensample, is it nat songe in holy churche, "Lo, how necessary was Adams synne!" David the king gat Salomon the king of her that was Uryes wyf. Truly, for reprofe is non of these thinges writte. Right so, tho I reherce thy 75 before-dede, I repreve thee never the more; ne for no villany of thee are they rehersed, but for worshippe, so thou continewe wel here-after: and for profit of thy-selfe I rede thou on hem thinke.' Than sayde I right thus: 'Lady of unitè and accorde, envy and wrathe lurken there thou comest in place; ye weten wel 80 your-selve, and so don many other, that whyle I administred the office of commen doinge, as in rulinge of the stablisshmentes amonges the people, I defouled never my conscience for no maner dede; but ever, by witte and by counsayle of the wysest, the maters weren drawen to their right endes. And thus trewly 85 for you, lady, I have desyred suche cure; and certes, in your service was I nat ydel, as fer as suche doinge of my cure streccheth.' 'That is a thing,' quod she, 'that may drawe many hertes of noble, and voice of commune in-to glory; and fame is nat but 90 wrecched and fickle. Alas! that mankynde coveyteth in so leude a wyse to be rewarded of any good dede, sithe glorie of fame, in this worlde, is nat but hindringe of glorie in tyme comminge! And certes (quod she) yet at the hardest suche fame, in-to heven, is nat the erthe but a centre to the cercle of heven? A pricke is 95 wonder litel in respect of al the cercle; and yet, in al this pricke, may no name be born, in maner of peersing, for many obstacles, as waters, and wildernesse, and straunge langages. And nat only names of men ben stilled and holden out of knowleginge by these obstacles, but also citees and realmes of prosperitè ben letted to 100 be knowe, and their reson hindred; so that they mowe nat ben parfitly in mennes propre understandinge. How shulde than the name of a singuler Londenoys passe the glorious name of London, whiche by many it is commended, and by many it is lacked, and in many mo places in erthe nat knowen than knowen? For in 105 many countrees litel is London in knowing or in spech; and yet among oon maner of people may nat such fame in goodnes come; for as many as praysen, commenly as many lacken. Fy than on such maner fame! Slepe, and suffre him that knoweth previtè of hertes to dele suche fame in thilke place there nothing 110 ayenst a sothe shal neither speke ne dare apere, by attourney ne by other maner. How many greet-named, and many greet in worthinesse losed, han be tofore this tyme, that now out of memorie are slidden, and clenely forgeten, for defaute of wrytinges! And yet scriptures for greet elde so ben defased, that 115 no perpetualtè may in hem ben juged. But if thou wolt make comparisoun to ever, what joye mayst thou have in erthly name? It is a fayr lykenesse, a pees or oon grayn of whete, to a thousand shippes ful of corne charged! What nombre is betwene the oon and th'other? And yet mowe bothe they be nombred, and 120 ende in rekening have. But trewly, al that may be nombred is nothing to recken, as to thilke that may nat be nombred. For +of the thinges ended is mad comparison; as, oon litel, another greet; but in thinges to have an ende, and another no ende, suche comparisoun may nat be founden. Wherfore in heven to 125 ben losed with god hath non ende, but endlesse endureth; and thou canst nothing don aright, but thou desyre the rumour therof be heled and in every wightes ere; and that dureth but a pricke in respecte of the other. And so thou sekest reward of folkes smale wordes, and of vayne praysinges. Trewly, therin thou 130 lesest the guerdon of vertue; and lesest the grettest valour of conscience, and uphap thy renomè everlasting. Therfore boldely renomè of fame of the erthe shulde be hated, and fame after deth shulde be desyred of werkes of vertue. [Trewly, vertue] asketh guerdoning, and the soule causeth al vertue. Than the soule, 135 delivered out of prison of erthe, is most worthy suche guerdon among to have in the everlastinge fame; and nat the body, that causeth al mannes yvels. CH. VIII. 1. Ofte; _read_ Eft. sterne; _read_ steren. _I supply_ with. 2. the. 3. howe. se. 4. meditation. _I supply_ shal. 6. toforne. 8. the. 9. co_m_forte. 11. one shepe. 12. loste. nowe. 13. arte. shepeherd. the. 15. great. 16. the. 17. wyfe. _I supply_ in. hoole. 20. the. 21. wotte. nowe. arte sette. 22. the. 23. bene. 26. thynge. 28. stones _repeated in_ Th. 29. counsayle. apertely. 30. therrours. meanynges. ferre. 31. wystyst. leaue. 32. eare. 33. menne. the. 36. meanynge. 37. _I supply_ and. wolte. parfytely. 37. consolatyoun. 38. pleasaunce. 39. hert. mothers; _read_ moders. _I supply_ she. 40. the. 42. _I supply_ is. 44. correctioun. al; _read_ of. _After_ errour _I omit_ distroyeng (_gloss upon_ forgoing). 47. encreased. sette. 48. dothe. 49. gothe. worshippe. 52. wenyste. Naye nay god wotte. 53. encreasyng. 55-7. passeth (_twice_); passyst (_third time_). ete. 57. eatynge. become. 61. whome. 63. begon. ganne. 65. leaueth. wronge. withsay. 68. Nowe. 71. done. 72. song. 73. howe. gate. 74. wyfe. 75. none. 76-7. the (_twice_). 78. profyte. 81. done. 87. ferre. 88. stretcheth. 91. wretched. 96. respecte. 97. borne. 98. onely. 101. reason. 102. parfitely. Howe. 107. one. 108. Fye. 110. nothynge. 112. Howe. great (_twice_). 113. nowe. 115. great. 116. maye. wolte. 118. fayre. one grayne of wheate. thousande. 120. one. thother. 121-2. maye. 123. ofte; _read_ of the. made. one. 124. great. 126. none. 127. canste nothynge done. rumoure. 128. healed; _read_ deled? eare. 129. rewarde. 131. valoure. consyence. 134. _Supply_ Trewly, vertue. 136. prisone. guerdone. CHAPTER IX. Of twey thinges art thou answered, as me thinketh (quod Love); and if any thing be in doute in thy soule, shewe it forth, thyn ignoraunce to clere, and leve it for no shame.' 'Certes,' quod I, 'there is no body in this worlde, that aught coude saye by reson ayenst any of your skilles, as I leve; and by 5 my witte now fele I wel, that yvel-spekers or berers of enfame may litel greve or lette my purpos, but rather by suche thinge my quarel to be forthered.' 'Ye,' quod she,'and it is proved also, that the ilke jewel in my kepinge shal nat there-thorow be stered, of the lest moment 10 that might be imagined.' 'That is soth,' quod I. 'Wel,' quod she, 'than +leveth there, to declare that thy insuffisance is no maner letting, as thus: for that she is so worthy, thou shuldest not clymbe so highe; for thy moebles and thyn 15 estate arn voyded, thou thinkest [thee] fallen in suche miserie, that gladnesse of thy pursute wol nat on thee discende.' 'Certes,' quod I, 'that is sothe; right suche thought is in myn herte; for commenly it is spoken, and for an olde proverbe it is leged: "He that heweth to hye, with chippes he may lese 20 his sight." Wherfore I have ben about, in al that ever I might, to studye wayes of remedye by one syde or by another.' 'Now,' quod she, 'god forbede +that thou seke any other doinges but suche as I have lerned thee in our restinge-whyles, and suche herbes as ben planted in oure gardins. Thou shalt 25 wel understande that above man is but oon god alone.' 'How,' quod I, 'han men to-forn this tyme trusted in writtes and chauntements, and in helpes of spirites that dwellen in the ayre, and therby they han getten their desyres, where-as first, for al his manly power, he daunced behynde?' 30 'O,' quod she, 'fy on suche maters! For trewly, that is sacrilege; and that shal have no sort with any of my servauntes; in myne eyen shal suche thing nat be loked after. How often is it commaunded by these passed wyse, that "to one god shal men serve, and not to goddes?" And who that liste to have myne 35 helpes, shal aske none helpe of foule spirites. Alas! is nat man maked semblable to god? Wost thou nat wel, that al vertue of lyvelich werkinge, by goddes purveyaunce, is underput to resonable creature in erthe? Is nat every thing, a this halfe god, mad buxom to mannes contemplation, understandinge in heven and 40 in erthe and in helle? Hath not man beinge with stones, soule of wexing with trees and herbes? Hath he nat soule of felinge, with beestes, fisshes, and foules? And he hath soule of reson and understanding with aungels; so that in him is knit al maner of lyvinges by a resonable proporcioun. Also man is mad of 45 al the foure elementes. Al universitee is rekened in him alone; he hath, under god, principalitè above al thinges. Now is his soule here, now a thousand myle hence; now fer, now nygh; now hye, now lowe; as fer in a moment as in mountenaunce of ten winter; and al this is in mannes governaunce and disposicion. 50 Than sheweth it that men ben liche unto goddes, and children of moost heyght. But now, sithen al thinges [arn] underput to the wil of resonable creatures, god forbede any man to winne that lordship, and aske helpe of any-thing lower than him-selfe; and than, namely, of foule thinges innominable. Now than, why shuldest 55 thou wene to love to highe, sithen nothing is thee above but god alone? Trewly, I wot wel that thilke jewel is in a maner even in lyne of degree there thou art thy-selfe, and nought above, save thus: aungel upon angel, man upon man, and devil upon devil han a maner of soveraigntee; and that shal cese at the daye 60 of dome. And so I say: though thou be put to serve the ilke jewel duringe thy lyfe, yet is that no servage of underputtinge, but a maner of travayling plesaunce, to conquere and gette that thou hast not. I sette now the hardest: in my service now thou deydest, for sorowe of wantinge in thy desyres; trewly, 65 al hevenly bodyes with one voyce shul come and make melody in thy cominge, and saye--"Welcome, our fere, and worthy to entre into Jupiters joye! For thou with might hast overcome deth; thou woldest never flitte out of thy service; and we al shul now praye to the goddes, rowe by rowe, to make thilk Margarite, 70 that no routh had in this persone, but unkyndely without comfort let thee deye, shal besette her-selfe in suche wyse, that in erthe, for parte of vengeaunce, shal she no joye have in loves service; and whan she is deed, than shal her soule ben brought up in-to thy presence; and whider thou wilt chese, thilke soule shal ben 75 committed." Or els, after thy deth, anon al the foresayd hevenly bodyes, by one accorde, shal +benimen from thilke perle al the vertues that firste her were taken; for she hath hem forfeyted by that on thee, my servaunt, in thy lyve, she wolde not suffre to worche al vertues, withdrawen by might of the hygh bodyes. 80 Why than shuldest thou wene so any more? And if thee liste to loke upon the lawe of kynde, and with order whiche to me was ordayned, sothely, non age, non overtourninge tyme but +hiderto had no tyme ne power to chaunge the wedding, ne the knotte to unbynde of two hertes [that] thorow oon assent, in 85 my presence, +togider accorden to enduren til deth hem departe. What? trowest thou, every ideot wot the meninge and the privy entent of these thinges? They wene, forsothe, that suche accord may not be, but the rose of maydenhede be plucked. Do way, do way; they knowe nothing of this. For consent of two hertes 90 alone maketh the fasteninge of the knotte; neither lawe of kynde ne mannes lawe determineth neither the age ne the qualitè of persones, but only accord bitwene thilke twaye. And trewly, after tyme that suche accord, by their consent in hert, is enseled, and put in my tresorye amonges my privy thinges, than ginneth 95 the name of spousayle; and although they breken forward bothe, yet suche mater enseled is kept in remembrance for ever. And see now that spouses have the name anon after accord, though the rose be not take. The aungel bad Joseph take Marye his spouse, and to Egypte wende. Lo! she was cleped "spouse," 100 and yet, toforn ne after, neither of hem bothe mente no flesshly lust knowe. Wherfore the wordes of trouthe acorden that my servauntes shulden forsake bothe +fader and moder, and be adherand to his spouse; and they two in unitè of one flesshe shulden accorde. And this wyse, two that wern firste in a litel 105 maner discordaunt, hygher that oon and lower that other, ben mad evenliche in gree to stonde. But now to enfourme thee that ye ben liche to goddes, these clerkes sayn, and in determinacion shewen, that "three thinges haven [by] the names of goddes ben cleped; that is to sayn: man, divel, and images"; 110 but yet is there but oon god, of whom al goodnesse, al grace, and al vertue cometh; and he +is loving and trewe, and everlasting, and pryme cause of al being thinges. But men ben goddes lovinge and trewe, but not everlasting; and that is by adopcioun of the everlastinge god. Divels ben goddes, stirringe by 115 a maner of lyving; but neither ben they trewe ne everlastinge; and their name of godliheed th[e]y han by usurpacion, as the prophete sayth: "Al goddes of gentyles (that is to say, paynims) are divels." But images ben goddes by nuncupacion; and they ben neither livinge ne trewe, ne everlastinge. After these wordes 120 they clepen "goddes" images wrought with mennes handes. But now [art thou a] resonable creature, that by adopcion alone art to the grete god everlastinge, and therby thou art "god" cleped: let thy +faders maners so entre thy wittes that thou might folowe, in-as-moche as longeth to thee, thy +faders worship, so 125 that in nothinge thy kynde from his wil declyne, ne from his nobley perverte. In this wyse if thou werche, thou art above al other thinges save god alone; and so say no more "thyn herte to serve in to hye a place." CH. IX. 1. arte. 2. thynge. 3. thyne. leaue. 5. reason. 6. nowe. bearers. 7. purpose. 9. Yea. 10. -thorowe. steered. 13. leneth; _read_ leueth. 15. thyne. 16. arne. _I supply_ thee. 17. the. 18. myne hert. 20. maye. 23. Nowe. are; _read_ that. 24. the. 25. shalte. 26. one. 27. Howe. to forne. 31. fye. 38. vnderputte. 39. thynge. made. 40. buxome. 41. manne. 43. reason. 44. knytte. 45. lyuenges. reasonable. made. 47. Nowe. 48. nowe. nowe ferre nowe. thousande. 49. nowe (_twice_). ferre. momente. 50. tenne. disposytion. 52. nowe. _I supply_ arn. vnderputte. 53. reasonable. 54. lordshippe. thynge. 56. nothynge. the. 57. wote. euyn. 58. arte. 59. manne (_twice_). 60. soueraygntie. cease. 61. thoughe putte. 64. haste. 64-5. nowe. 68. haste. dethe. 70. nowe pray. 71. _For_ in _read_ on? comforte. 72. lette the. 75. wylte. 76. dethe anone. 77. beno_m_men; _read_ benimen. 79. the. 81. the. 83. none (_twice_). 84. hytherto. 85. _Supply_ that. thorowe one. 86. togyther. dethe. 87. ydeot wotte. 88. accorde. 89. waye (_twice_). 90. consente. 93. onely. 93-4. accorde. 94. ensealed. 96. breaken forwarde. 97. ensealed. kepte. 98. se nowe. accorde. 99. bade. 101. toforne. 102. luste. 103. father and mother; _rather_, fader and moder. adherande. 105. werne. 106. one. 107. made. nowe. the. 108. sayne. 109. thre. _I supply_ by. 110. cleaped. 111. one. 112. his; _read_ is. 116. lyueng. 117. thy; _read_ they. 118. saythe. 121. cleapen. 122. nowe. _I supply_ art thou a. reasonable. 123. arte (_twice_). great. 124. lette. 124-5. fathers; _read_ faders. 125. the. worshyppe. 127. arte. CHAPTER X. Fully have I now declared thyn estate to be good, so thou folow therafter, and that the +objeccion first +by thee aleged, in worthinesse of thy Margaryte, shal not thee lette, as it shal forther thee, and encrese thee. It is now to declare, the last objeccion in nothing may greve.' 5 'Yes, certes,' quod I, 'bothe greve and lette muste it nedes; the contrarye may not ben proved; and see now why. Whyle I was glorious in worldly welfulnesse, and had suche goodes in welth as maken men riche, tho was I drawe in-to companyes that loos, prise, and name yeven. Tho louteden blasours; tho 10 curreyden glosours; tho welcomeden flatterers; tho worshipped thilke that now deynen nat to loke. Every wight, in such erthly wele habundant, is holde noble, precious, benigne, and wyse to do what he shal, in any degree that men him sette; al-be-it that the sothe be in the contrarye of al tho thinges. But he that can 15 never so wel him behave, and hath vertue habundaunt in manyfolde maners, and be nat welthed with suche erthly goodes, is holde for a foole, and sayd, his wit is but sotted. Lo! how fals for aver is holde trewe! Lo! how trewe is cleped fals for wanting of goodes! Also, lady, dignitees of office maken men mikel 20 comended, as thus: "he is so good, were he out, his pere shulde men not fynde." Trewly, I trowe of some suche that are so praysed, were they out ones, another shulde make him so be knowe, he shulde of no wyse no more ben loked after: but only fooles, wel I wot, desyren suche newe thinges. Wherfore I wonder 25 that thilke governour, out of whom alone the causes proceden that governen al thinges, whiche that hath ordeyned this world in workes of the kyndely bodyes so be governed, not with unstedfast or happyous thing, but with rules of reson, whiche shewen the course of certayne thinges: why suffreth he suche 30 slydinge chaunges, that misturnen suche noble thinges as ben we men, that arn a fayr parcel of the erthe, and holden the upperest degree, under god, of benigne thinges, as ye sayden right now your-selfe; shulde never man have ben set in so worthy a place but-if his degrè were ordayned noble. Alas! thou that knittest 35 the purveyaunce of al thinges, why lokest thou not to amenden these defautes? I see shrewes that han wicked maners sitten in chayres of domes, lambes to punisshen, there wolves shulden ben punisshed. Lo! vertue, shynende naturelly, for povertee lurketh, and is hid under cloude; but the moone false, forsworn (as 40 I knowe my-selfe) for aver and yeftes, hath usurped to shyne by day-light, with peynture of other mens praysinges; and trewly, thilke forged light fouly shulde fade, were the trouth away of colours feyned. Thus is night turned in-to day, and day in-to night; winter in-to sommer, and sommer in-to winter; not in 45 dede, but in misclepinge of foliche people.' 'Now,' quod she, 'what wenest thou of these thinges? How felest thou in thyn hert, by what governaunce that this cometh aboute?' 'Certes,' quod I, 'that wot I never; but-if it be that Fortune 50 hath graunt from above, to lede the ende of man as her lyketh.' 'Ah! now I see,' quod she, 'th'entent of thy mening! Lo, bycause thy worldly goodes ben fulliche dispent, thou beraft out of dignitè of office, in whiche thou madest the +gaderinge of thilke goodes, and yet diddest in that office by counsaile of wyse [before 55 that] any thing were ended; and true were unto hem whos profit thou shuldest loke; and seest now many that in thilke hervest made of thee mokel, and now, for glosing of other, deyneth thee nought to forther, but enhaunsen false shrewes by witnessinge of trouthe! These thinges greveth thyn herte, to sene thy-selfe thus 60 abated; and than, frayltè of mankynde ne setteth but litel by the lesers of suche richesse, have he never so moche vertue; and so thou wenest of thy jewel to renne in dispyt, and not ben accepted in-to grace. Al this shal thee nothing hinder. Now (quod she) first thou wost wel, thou lostest nothing that ever mightest thou 65 chalenge for thyn owne. Whan nature brought thee forth, come thou not naked out of thy +moders wombe? Thou haddest no richesse; and whan thou shalt entre in-to the ende of every flesshly body, what shalt thou have with thee than? So, every richesse thou hast in tyme of thy livinge, nis but lent; thou 70 might therin chalenge no propertee. And see now; every thing that is a mannes own, he may do therwith what him lyketh, to yeve or to kepe; bul richesse thou playnest from thee lost; if thy might had strecched so ferforth, fayn thou woldest have hem kept, multiplyed with mo other; and so, ayenst thy wil, ben they departed 75 from thee; wherfore they were never thyn. And if thou laudest and joyest any wight, for he is stuffed with suche maner richesse, thou art in that beleve begyled; for thou wenest thilke joye to be selinesse or els ese; and he that hath lost suche happes to ben unsely.' 80 'Ye, forsoth,' quod I. 'Wel,' quod she, 'than wol I prove that unsely in that wise is to preise; and so the tother is, the contrary, to be lacked.' 'How so?' quod I. 'For Unsely,' quod she, 'begyleth nat, but sheweth th'entent 85 of her working. _Et e contra_: Selinesse begyleth. For in prosperitè she maketh a jape in blyndnesse; that is, she wyndeth him to make sorowe whan she withdraweth. Wolt thou nat (quod she) preise him better that sheweth to thee his herte, tho[ugh] it be with bytande wordes and dispitous, than him that gloseth and 90 thinketh in +his absence to do thee many harmes?' 'Certes,' quod I, 'the oon is to commende; and the other to lacke and dispice.' 'A! ha!' quod she, 'right so Ese, while +she lasteth, gloseth and flatereth; and lightly voydeth whan she most plesauntly 95 sheweth; and ever, in hir absence, she is aboute to do thee tene and sorowe in herte. But Unsely, al-be-it with bytande chere, sheweth what she is, and so doth not that other; wherfore Unsely doth not begyle. Selinesse disceyveth; Unsely put away doute. That oon maketh men blynde; that other openeth their 100 eyen in shewinge of wrecchidnesse. The oon is ful of drede to lese that is not his owne; that other is sobre, and maketh men discharged of mokel hevinesse in burthen. The oon draweth a man from very good; the other haleth him to vertue by the hookes of thoughtes. And wenist thou nat that thy disese hath 105 don thee mokel more to winne than ever yet thou lostest, and more than ever the contrary made thee winne? Is nat a greet good, to thy thinking, for to knowe the hertes of thy sothfast frendes? Pardè, they ben proved to the ful, and the trewe have discevered fro the false. Trewly, at the goinge of the ilke brotel 110 joye, ther yede no more away than the ilke that was nat thyn proper. He was never from that lightly departed; thyn owne good therfore leveth it stille with thee. Now good (quod she); for how moche woldest thou somtyme have bought this verry knowing of thy frendes from the flatteringe flyes that thee glosed, 115 whan thou thought thy-selfe sely? But thou that playnest of losse in richesse, hast founden the most dere-worthy thing; that thou clepest unsely hath made thee moche thing to winnen. And also, for conclusioun of al, he is frende that now leveth nat his herte from thyne helpes. And if that Margarite denyeth now nat 120 to suffre her vertues shyne to thee-wardes with spredinge bemes, as far or farther than if thou were sely in worldly joye, trewly, I saye nat els but she is somdel to blame.' 'Ah! pees,' quod I, 'and speke no more of this; myn herte breketh, now thou touchest any suche wordes!' 125 'A! wel!' quod she, 'thanne let us singen; thou herest no more of these thinges at this tyme.' THUS ENDETH THE FIRSTE BOOK OF THE TESTAMENT OF LOVE; AND HERAFTER FOLOWETH THE SECONDE. CH. X. 1. nowe. 2. abiection; _read_ objeccion. be; _read_ by. the. 3. the. 4. the. encrease the. nowe. 5. obiection. 6. let. 7. maye. se nowe. 12. nowe. 14. set. 15. can ne never; _omit_ ne. 18. wytte. false. 19. auer (_sic_); _for_ aueir (_avoir_). howe. cleaped. false. 24. onely. 25. wotte. new. 26. whome. 27. worlde. 29. reason. 32. arne a fayre parsel. 33. nowe. 37. se. 39. pouertie. 40. hydde. forsworne. 44. daye (_twice_). 46. miscleapynge. 50. wotte. 52. nowe I se. thentent. meanyng. 53. berafte. 54. gatherynge. 55. _I supply_ before that. 56. whose profyte. 57. nowe. 58. the (_twice_). nowe. 63. dispyte. 64. the. Nowe. 65. woste. 66. the forthe. 67. mothers; _read_ moders. 69. the. 70. haste. lente. 71. propertie. se nowe. 72. owne. 73. the. 74. stretched. fayne. 76. the. 78. arte. 79. ease. loste. 84. Howe. 85. thentent. 88. Wolte. 89. the. 91. their; _read_ his. the. 92. one. 94. ease. he; _read_ she. 99. dothe. awaye. 100-1. one (_twice_). 101. wretchydnesse. 103. one. 105. disease. 106. done the. 107. the. great. 109. Pardy. 111. awaye. 111-2. thyne. 113. leaueth. the. Nowe. 114. howe. 115. the. 117. thynge. 118. cleapest. the. thynge. 119. nowe leaueth. 120. hert. nowe. 121. the. spreadynge beames. 122. farre. 123. somdele. 124. peace. myne. 125. breaketh nowe. 126. lette. BOOK II. CHAPTER I. Very welth may not be founden in al this worlde; and that is wel sene. Lo! how in my mooste comfort, as I wende and moost supposed to have had ful answere of my contrary thoughtes, sodaynly it was vanisshed. And al the workes of man faren in the same wyse; whan folk wenen best her entent for to 5 have and willes to perfourme, anon chaunging of the lift syde to the right halve tourneth it so clene in-to another kynde, that never shal it come to the first plyte in doinge. O this wonderful steering so soone otherwysed out of knowinge! But for my purpos was at the beginninge, and so dureth yet, if god 10 of his grace tyme wol me graunt, I thinke to perfourme this worke, as I have begonne, in love; after as my thinne wit, with inspiracion of him that hildeth al grace, wol suffre. Grevously, god wot, have I suffred a greet throwe that the Romayne emperour, which in unitè of love shulde acorde, and every with 15 other * * * * in cause of other to avaunce; and namely, sithe this empyre [nedeth] to be corrected of so many sectes in heresie of faith, of service, o[f] rule in loves religion. Trewly, al were it but to shende erroneous opinions, I may it no lenger suffre. For many men there ben that sayn love to be in gravel and sande, 20 that with see ebbinge and flowinge woweth, as riches that sodaynly vanissheth. And some sayn that love shulde be in windy blastes, that stoundmele turneth as a phane, and glorie of renomè, which after lustes of the varyaunt people is areysed or stilled. Many also wenen that in the sonne and the moone and other 25 sterres love shulde ben founden; for among al other planettes moste soveraynly they shynen, as dignitees in reverence of estates rather than good han and occupyen. Ful many also there ben that in okes and in huge postes supposen love to ben grounded, as in strength and in might, whiche mowen not helpen their owne 30 wrecchidnesse, whan they ginne to falle. But [of] suche diversitè of sectes, ayenst the rightful beleve of love, these errours ben forth spredde, that loves servantes in trewe rule and stedfast fayth in no place daren apere. Thus irrecuperable joy is went, and anoy endless is entred. For no man aright reproveth suche errours, 35 but [men] confirmen their wordes, and sayn, that badde is noble good, and goodnesse is badde; to which folk the prophete biddeth wo without ende. Also manye tonges of greet false techinges in gylinge maner, principally in my tymes, not only with wordes but also with armes, 40 loves servauntes and professe in his religion of trewe rule pursewen, to confounden and to distroyen. And for as moche as holy +faders, that of our Christen fayth aproved and strengthed to the Jewes, as to men resonable and of divinitè lerned, proved thilke fayth with resones, and with auctoritès of the olde testament and of the newe, 45 her pertinacie to distroy: but to paynims, that for beestes and houndes were holde, to putte hem out of their errour, was +miracle of god shewed. These thinges were figured by cominge of th'angel to the shepherdes, and by the sterre to paynims kinges; as who sayth: angel resonable to resonable creature, and sterre of miracle 50 to people bestial not lerned, wern sent to enforme. But I, lovers clerk, in al my conning and with al my mightes, trewly I have no suche grace in vertue of miracles, ne for no discomfit falsheedes suffyseth not auctoritès alone; sithen that suche [arn] heretikes and maintaynours of falsitès. Wherfore I wot wel, sithen that 55 they ben men, and reson is approved in hem, the clowde of errour hath her reson beyond probable resons, whiche that cacchende wit rightfully may not with-sitte. By my travaylinge studie I have ordeyned hem, +whiche that auctoritè, misglosed by mannes reson, to graunt shal ben enduced. 60 Now ginneth my penne to quake, to thinken on the sentences of the envyous people, whiche alway ben redy, both ryder and goer, to scorne and to jape this leude book; and me, for rancour and hate in their hertes, they shullen so dispyse, that although my book be leude, yet shal it ben more leude holden, and by 65 wicked wordes in many maner apayred. Certes, me thinketh, [of] the sowne of their badde speche right now is ful bothe myne eeres. O good precious Margaryte, myne herte shulde wepe if I wiste ye token hede of suche maner speche; but trewly, I wot wel, in that your wysdom shal not asterte. For of god, maker of 70 kynde, witnesse I took, that for none envy ne yvel have I drawe this mater togider; but only for goodnesse to maintayn, and errours in falsetees to distroy. Wherfore (as I sayd) with reson I thinke, thilke forsayd errours to distroye and dequace. These resons and suche other, if they enduce men, in loves 75 service, trewe to beleve of parfit blisse, yet to ful faithe in credence of deserte fully mowe they nat suffyse; sithen 'faith hath no merite of mede, whan mannes reson sheweth experience in doing.' For utterly no reson the parfit blisse of love by no waye may make to be comprehended. Lo! what is a parcel of lovers 80 joye? Parfit science, in good service, of their desyre to comprehende in bodily doinge the lykinge of the soule; not as by a glasse to have contemplacion of tyme cominge, but thilke first imagined and thought after face to face in beholding. What herte, what reson, what understandinge can make his heven to be 85 feled and knowe, without assaye in doinge? Certes, noon. Sithen thanne of love cometh suche fruite in blisse, and love in him-selfe is the most among other vertues, as clerkes sayn; the seed of suche springinge in al places, in al countreys, in al worldes shulde ben sowe. 90 But o! welawaye! thilke seed is forsake, and +mowe not ben suffred, the lond-tillers to sette a-werke, without medlinge of cockle; badde wedes whiche somtyme stonken +han caught the name of love among idiotes and badde-meninge people. Never-the-later, yet how-so-it-be that men clepe thilke +thing preciousest 95 in kynde, with many eke-names, that other thinges that the soule yeven the ilke noble name, it sheweth wel that in a maner men have a greet lykinge in worshippinge of thilke name. Wherfore this worke have I writte; and to thee, tytled of Loves name, I have it avowed in a maner of sacrifyse; that, where-ever it be 100 rad, it mowe in merite, by the excellence of thilke name, the more wexe in authoritè and worshippe of takinge in hede; and to what entent it was ordayned, the inseëres mowen ben moved. Every thing to whom is owande occasion don as for his ende, Aristotle supposeth that the actes of every thinge ben in a maner 105 his final cause. A final cause is noblerer, or els even as noble, as thilke thing that is finally to thilke ende; wherfore accion of thinge everlasting is demed to be eternal, and not temporal; sithen it is his final cause. Right so the actes of my boke 'Love,' and love is noble; wherfore, though my book be leude, the cause 110 with which I am stered, and for whom I ought it doon, noble forsothe ben bothe. But bycause that in conninge I am yong, and can yet but crepe, this leude A. b. c. have I set in-to lerning; for I can not passen the telling of three as yet. And if god wil, in shorte tyme, I shal amende this leudnesse in joininge 115 syllables; whiche thing, for dulnesse of witte, I may not in three letters declare. For trewly I saye, the goodnesse of my Margaryte-perle wolde yeve mater in endyting to many clerkes; certes, her mercy is more to me swetter than any livinges; wherfore my lippes mowen not suffyse, in speking of her ful laude and worshippe 120 as they shulde. But who is that [wolde be wyse] in knowing of the orders of heven, and putteth his resones in the erthe? I forsothe may not, with blere eyen, the shyning sonne of vertue in bright whele of this Margaryte beholde; therfore as yet I may her not discryve in vertue as I wolde. In tyme cominge, 125 in another tretyse, thorow goddes grace, this sonne in clerenesse of vertue to be-knowe, and how she enlumineth al this day, I thinke to declare. CH. I. 2. howe. comforte. 3. hadde. 5. folke. 6. anone. 10. purpose. 12. wytte. 14. wotte. great. 16. _(Something seems to be lost here)._ 17. _I supply_ nedeth. 18. o; _read_ of. 19. erronyous. maye. 20. menne. sayne. 26. amonge. 31. wretchydnesse. fal. _I supply_ of. 32. forthe. 33. stedfaste faythe. 34. darne. 35. endlesse. 36. _I supply_ men. 37. folke. 39. great. 40. onely. 42. fathers; _read_ faders. 44. faythe. 47. put. miracles; _read_ miracle. 48. thangel. 50. saythe. 51. werne. 53. discomfyte. 54. _I supply_ arn. 55. wotte. 56. reason. erroure. 57. reason. bewonde (_sic_). catchende wytte. 59. with; _read_ whiche. 60. reason. 61. Nowe. 62. alwaye. 63. booke. rancoure. 64. althoughe. 65. booke. 67. _I supply_ of. nowe. 69. wotte. 70. wysdome 71. toke. 73. reason. 75. reasons. 76. parfyte. 78-9. reason (_twice_). 79. parfyte. 80. maye. persel. 81. parfyte. 85. reason. 86. none. 88. amonge. sayne. 88-91. sede. 91. mowen; _read_ mowe. 92. londe-tyllers. set. 93. hath; _read_ han. 94. meanynge. 95. howe. menne cleape. kynge (_sic_); _read_ thing. 98. great. 99. the. 101. radde. 104. thynge. done. 107. thynge. 110. boke. 111. done (_sic_). 112. yonge. 113. canne. sette. 114. thre. 116. thynge. maye. thre. 121. that in knowyng (_sic_); _supply_ wolde be wyse _before_ in knowing. 125. maye. 126. thorowe. 127. howe. CHAPTER II. In this mene whyle this comfortable lady gan singe a wonder mater of endytinge in Latin; but trewly, the noble colours in rethorik wyse knitte were so craftely, that my conning wol not strecche to remembre; but the sentence, I trowe, somdel have I in mynde. Certes, they were wonder swete of sowne, and they 5 were touched al in lamentacion wyse, and by no werbles of myrthe. Lo! thus gan she singe in Latin, as I may constrewe it in our Englisshe tonge. 'Alas! that these hevenly bodyes their light and course shewen, as nature yave hem in commaundement at the ginning of the first 10 age; but these thinges in free choice of reson han non understondinge. But man that ought to passe al thing of doinge, of right course in kynde, over-whelmed sothnesse by wrongful tytle, and hath drawen the sterre of envye to gon by his syde, that the clips of me, that shulde be his shynande sonne, so ofte is seye, 15 that it wened thilke errour, thorow hem come in, shulde ben myn owne defaute. Trewly, therfore, I have me withdrawe, and mad my dwellinge out of lande in an yle by my-selfe, in the occian closed; and yet sayn there many, they have me harberowed; but, god wot, they faylen. These thinges me greven to thinke, and 20 namely on passed gladnesse, that in this worlde was wont me disporte of highe and lowe; and now it is fayled; they that wolden maystries me have in thilke stoundes. In heven on highe, above Saturnes sphere, in sesonable tyme were they lodged; but now come queynte counsailours that in no house 25 wol suffre me sojourne, wherof is pitè; and yet sayn some that they me have in celler with wyne shed; in gernere, there corn is layd covered with whete; in sacke, sowed with wolle; in purse, with money faste knit; among pannes mouled in a +whicche; in presse, among clothes layd, with riche pelure arayed; in stable, 30 among hors and other beestes, as hogges, sheep, and neet; and in many other wyse. But thou, maker of light (in winking of thyn eye the sonne is queynt), wost right wel that I in trewe name was never thus herberowed. Somtyme, toforn the sonne in the seventh partie was smiten, 35 I bar both crosse and mytre, to yeve it where I wolde. With me the pope wente a-fote; and I tho was worshipped of al holy church. Kinges baden me their crownes holden. The law was set as it shuld; tofore the juge, as wel the poore durste shewe his greef as the riche, for al his money. I defended tho taylages, 40 and was redy for the poore to paye. I made grete feestes in my tyme, and noble songes, and maryed damoselles of gentil feture, withouten golde or other richesse. Poore clerkes, for witte of schole, I sette in churches, and made suche persones to preche; and tho was service in holy churche honest and devout, in 45 plesaunce bothe of god and of the people. But now the leude for symonye is avaunced, and shendeth al holy churche. Now is steward, for his achates; now +is courtiour, for his debates; now is eschetour, for his wronges; now is losel, for his songes, personer; and [hath his] provendre alone, with whiche manye 50 thrifty shulde encrese. And yet is this shrewe behynde; free herte is forsake; and losengeour is take. Lo! it acordeth; for suche there ben that voluntarie lustes haunten in courte with ribaudye, that til midnight and more wol playe and wake, but in the churche at matins he is behynde, for yvel disposicion of his 55 stomake; therfore he shulde ete bene-breed (and so did his syre) his estate ther-with to strengthen. His auter is broke, and lowe lyth, in poynte to gon to the erthe; but his hors muste ben esy and hye, to bere him over grete waters. His chalice poore, but he hath riche cuppes. No towayle but a shete, there god 60 shal ben handled; and on his mete-borde there shal ben bord-clothes and towelles many payre. At masse serveth but a clergion; fyve squiers in hal. Poore chaunsel, open holes in every syde; beddes of silke, with tapites going al aboute his chambre. Poore masse-book and leud chapelayn, and broken surplice with 65 many an hole; good houndes and many, to hunte after hart and hare, to fede in their feestes. Of poore men have they greet care; for they ever crave and nothing offren, they wolden have hem dolven! But among legistres there dar I not come; my doinge[s], they sayn, maken hem nedy. They ne wolde for 70 nothing have me in town; for than were tort and +force nought worth an hawe about, and plesen no men, but thilk grevous and torcious ben in might and in doing. These thinges to-forn-sayd mowe wel, if men liste, ryme; trewly, they acorde nothing. And for-as-moch as al thinges by me shulden of right ben governed, 75 I am sory to see that governaunce fayleth, as thus: to sene smale and lowe governe the hye and bodies above. Certes, that policye is naught; it is forbode by them that of governaunce treten and enformen. And right as beestly wit shulde ben subject to reson, so erthly power in it-selfe, the lower shulde ben 80 subject to the hygher. What is worth thy body, but it be governed with thy soule? Right so litel or naught is worth erthely power, but if reignatif prudence in heedes governe the smale; to whiche heedes the smale owen to obey and suffre in their governaunce. But soverainnesse ayenward shulde thinke in 85 this wyse: "I am servaunt of these creatures to me delivered, not lord, but defendour; not mayster, but enfourmer; not possessour, but in possession; and to hem liche a tree in whiche sparowes shullen stelen, her birdes to norisshe and forth bringe, under suretee ayenst al raveynous foules and beestes, and not to 90 be tyraunt them-selfe." And than the smale, in reste and quiete, by the heedes wel disposed, owen for their soveraynes helth and prosperitè to pray, and in other doinges in maintenaunce therof performe, withouten other administracion in rule of any maner governaunce. And they wit have in hem, and grace to come to 95 suche thinges, yet shulde they cese til their heedes them cleped, although profit and plesaunce shulde folowe. But trewly, other governaunce ne other medlinge ought they not to clayme, ne the heedes on hem to putte. Trewly, amonges cosinage dar I not come, but-if richesse be my mene; sothly, she and other 100 bodily goodes maketh nigh cosinage, ther never propinquitè ne alyaunce in lyve was ne shulde have be, nere it for her medling maners; wherfore kindly am I not ther leged. Povert of kinred is behynde; richesse suffreth him to passe; truly he saith, he com never of Japhetes childre. Whereof I am sory that 105 Japhetes children, for povert, in no linage ben rekened, and Caynes children, for riches, be maked Japhetes heires. Alas! this is a wonder chaunge bitwene tho two Noës children, sithen that of Japhetes ofspring comeden knightes, and of Cayn discended the lyne of servage to his brothers childre. Lo! how gentillesse 110 and servage, as cosins, bothe discended out of two brethern of one body! Wherfore I saye in sothnesse, that gentilesse in kinrede +maketh not gentil linage in succession, without desert of a mans own selfe. Where is now the lyne of Alisaundre the noble, or els of Hector of Troye? Who is discended of right 115 bloode of lyne fro king Artour? Pardè, sir Perdicas, whom that Alisandre made to ben his heire in Grece, was of no kinges bloode; his dame was a tombestere. Of what kinred ben the gentiles in our dayes? I trow therfore, if any good be in gentilesse, it is only that it semeth a maner of necessitè be input to 120 gentilmen, that they shulden not varyen fro the vertues of their auncestres. Certes, al maner linage of men ben evenliche in birth; for oon +fader, maker of al goodnes, enformed hem al, and al mortal folk of one sede arn greyned. Wherto avaunt men of her linage, in cosinage or in +elde-faders? Loke now the ginning, 125 and to god, maker of mans person; there is no clerk ne no worthy in gentilesse; and he that norissheth his +corage with vyces and unresonable lustes, and leveth the kynde course, to whiche ende him brought forth his birthe, trewly, he is ungentil, and among +cherles may ben nempned. And therfore, he that 130 wol ben gentil, he mot daunten his flesshe fro vyces that causen ungentilnesse, and leve also reignes of wicked lustes, and drawe to him vertue, that in al places gentilnesse gentilmen maketh. And so speke I, in feminine gendre in general, of tho persones, at the reverence of one whom every wight honoureth; for her 135 bountee and her noblesse y-made her to god so dere, that his moder she became; and she me hath had so greet in worship, that I nil for nothing in open declare, that in any thinge ayenst her secte may so wene. For al vertue and al worthinesse of plesaunce in hem haboundeth. And although I wolde any-thing speke, 140 trewly I can not; I may fynde in yvel of hem no maner mater.' CH. II. 1. meane. ganne. 4. stretche. somdele. 7. ganne. 11. none. 12. thynge. 15. sey; _read_ seye _or_ seyen. 16. thorowe. 17. made. 19. sayne. 20. wote. 21. wonte. 23. nowe. 24. seasonable. 26. sayne. 27. corne. 28. layde. 29. knytte. amonge (_twice_). wyche; _read_ whicche. 30. layde. 31. amonge horse. shepe. nete. 33. woste. 36. bare. 37. went. 40. grefe. 41. pay. great. 44. preache. 45. deuoute. 46. nowe. 47. Nowe. 48. stewarde. nowe. it; _read_ is. nowe. 49. eschetoure. nowe. 50. _I supply_ hath his. 51. encrease. 56. eate beane-. 58. lythe. gone. horse. 59. easy. beare. great. 61. meate-. borde-. 65. boke. leude chapelayne. 66. harte. 67. great. 68. nothynge. 69. amonge. dare. 70. sayne. 71. forthe; _read_ force. 72. worthe. pleasen. 73. to-forne-. 74. nothynge. 76. sorye. se. 78. polesye. 79. treaten. wytte. 80. subiecte. reason. 82. worthe. 83. reignatyfe. 85. ayenwarde. 87. lorde. 88. possessoure. 89. forth bring. 90. suretie. 96. cease. 97. profyte. pleasaunce. 99. put. dare. 100. meane. 109. comeden (_sic_); _read_ comen? 110. howe. 111. bretherne. 113. maken; _read_ maketh. deserte. 114. nowe. 118. tombystere. 123. one. father; _read_ fader. 124. folke. arne. 125. -fathers; _read_ -faders. 126. clerke. 127. corare; _read_ corage. 128. leaueth. 129. forthe. 130. amonge. clerkes (!); _read_ cherles. 131. mote. 132. leaue. 136. bountie. 137. great. 139. maye. CHAPTER III. Right with these wordes she stinte of that lamentable melodye; and I gan with a lyvely herte to praye, if that it were lyking unto her noble grace, she wolde her deyne to declare me the mater that firste was begonne, in which she lefte and stinte to speke beforn she gan to singe. 5 'O,' quod she, 'this is no newe thing to me, to sene you men desyren after mater, whiche your-selfe caused to voyde.' 'Ah, good lady,' quod I, 'in whom victorie of strength is proved above al other thing, after the jugement of Esdram, whos lordship al lignes: who is, that right as emperour hem commaundeth, 10 whether thilke ben not women, in whos lyknesse to me ye aperen? For right as man halt the principaltè of al thing under his beinge, in the masculyne gender; and no mo genders ben there but masculyn and femenyne; al the remenaunt ben no gendres but of grace, in facultee of grammer: right so, in the femenyne, the 15 women holden the upperest degree of al thinges under thilke gendre conteyned. Who bringeth forth kinges, whiche that ben lordes of see and of erthe; and al peoples of women ben born. They norisshe hem that graffen vynes; they maken men comfort in their gladde cheres. Her sorowe is deth to mannes herte. 20 Without women, the being of men were impossible. They conne with their swetnesse the crewel herte ravisshe, and make it meke, buxom, and benigne, without violence mevinge. In beautee of their eyen, or els of other maner fetures, is al mens desyres; ye, more than in golde, precious stones, either any richesse. 25 And in this degree, lady, your-selfe many hertes of men have so bounden, that parfit blisse in womankynde to ben men wenen, and in nothinge els. Also, lady, the goodnesse, the vertue of women, by propertè of discrecion, is so wel knowen, by litelnesse of malice, that desyre to a good asker by no waye conne they 30 warne. And ye thanne, that wol not passe the kynde werchinge of your sectes by general discrecion, I wot wel, ye wol so enclyne to my prayere, that grace of my requeste shal fully ben graunted.' 'Certes,' quod she, 'thus for the more parte fareth al mankynde, to praye and to crye after womans grace, and fayne many fantasyes 35 to make hertes enclyne to your desyres. And whan these sely women, for freeltè of their kynde, beleven your wordes, and wenen al be gospel the promise of your behestes, than graunt[en] they to you their hertes, and fulfillen your lustes, wherthrough their libertè in maystreship that they toforn had is thralled; and 40 so maked soverayn and to be prayed, that first was servaunt, and voice of prayer used. Anon as filled is your lust, many of you be so trewe, that litel hede take ye of suche kyndnesse; but with traysoun anon ye thinke hem begyle, and let light of that thing whiche firste ye maked to you wonders dere; so what 45 thing to women it is to loven any wight er she him wel knowe, and have him proved in many halfe! For every glittring thing is nat gold; and under colour of fayre speche many vices may be hid and conseled. Therfore I rede no wight to trust on you to rathe; mens chere and her speche right gyleful is ful ofte. 50 Wherfore without good assay, it is nat worth on many +of you to truste. Trewly, it is right kyndely to every man that thinketh women betraye, and shewen outward al goodnesse, til he have his wil performed. Lo! the bird is begyled with the mery voice of the foulers whistel. Whan a woman is closed in your nette, 55 than wol ye causes fynden, and bere unkyndenesse her +on hande, or falsetè upon her putte, your owne malicious trayson with suche thinge to excuse. Lo! than han women non other wreche in vengeaunce, but +blobere and wepe til hem list stint, and sorily her mishap complayne; and is put in-to wening that 60 al men ben so untrewe. How often have men chaunged her loves in a litel whyle, or els, for fayling their wil, in their places hem set! For fren[d]ship shal be oon, and fame with another him list for to have, and a thirde for delyt; or els were he lost bothe in packe and in clothes! Is this fair? Nay, god wot. 65 I may nat telle, by thousande partes, the wronges in trechery of suche false people; for make they never so good a bond, al sette ye at a myte whan your hert tourneth. And they that wenen for sorowe of you deye, the pitè of your false herte is flowe out of towne. Alas! therfore, that ever any woman wolde take 70 any wight in her grace, til she knowe, at the ful, on whom she might at al assayes truste! Women con no more craft in queynt knowinge, to understande the false disceyvable conjectementes of mannes begylinges. Lo! how it fareth; though ye men gronen and cryen, certes, it is but disceyt; and that preveth wel 75 by th'endes in your werkinge. How many women have ben lorn, and with shame foule shent by long-lastinge tyme, whiche thorow mennes gyle have ben disceyved? Ever their fame shal dure, and their dedes [ben] rad and songe in many londes; that they han don, recoveren shal they never; but alway ben demed 80 lightly, in suche plyte a-yen shulde they falle. Of whiche slaunders and tenes ye false men and wicked ben the verey causes; on you by right ought these shames and these reproves al hoolly discende. Thus arn ye al nighe untrewe; for al your fayre speche, your herte is ful fickel. What cause han ye women to dispyse? Better 85 fruite than they ben, ne swetter spyces to your behove, mowe ye not fynde, as far as worldly bodyes strecchen. Loke to their forminge, at the making of their persones by god in joye of paradyce! For goodnesse, of mans propre body were they maked, after the sawes of the bible, rehersing goddes wordes in 90 this wyse: "It is good to mankynde that we make to him an helper." Lo! in paradyse, for your helpe, was this tree graffed, out of whiche al linage of man discendeth. If a man be noble frute, of noble frute it is sprongen; the blisse of paradyse, to mennes sory hertes, yet in this tree abydeth. O! noble helpes 95 ben these trees, and gentil jewel to ben worshipped of every good creature! He that hem anoyeth doth his owne shame; it is a comfortable perle ayenst al tenes. Every company is mirthed by their present being. Trewly, I wiste never vertue, but a woman were therof the rote. What is heven the worse though Sarazins 100 on it lyen? Is your fayth untrewe, though +renegates maken theron lesinges? If the fyr doth any wight brenne, blame his owne wit that put him-selfe so far in the hete. Is not fyr gentillest and most comfortable element amonges al other? Fyr is cheef werker in fortheringe sustenaunce to mankynde. Shal 105 fyr ben blamed for it brende a foole naturelly, by his own stulty witte in steringe? Ah! wicked folkes! For your propre malice and shreudnesse of your-selfe, ye blame and dispyse the precious[es]t thing of your kynde, and whiche thinges among other moste ye desyren! Trewly, Nero and his children ben shrewes, 110 that dispysen so their dames. The wickednesse and gyling of men, in disclaundring of thilke that most hath hem glad[d]ed and plesed, were impossible to wryte or to nempne. Never-the-later yet I say, he that knoweth a way may it lightly passe; eke an herbe proved may safely to smertande sores ben layd. So 115 I say, in him that is proved is nothing suche yvels to gesse. But these thinges have I rehersed, to warne you women al at ones, that to lightly, without good assaye, ye assenten not to mannes speche. The sonne in the day-light is to knowen from the moone that shyneth in the night. Now to thee thy-selfe 120 (quod she) as I have ofte sayd, I knowe wel thyne herte; thou art noon of al the tofore-nempned people. For I knowe wel the continuaunce of thy service, that never sithen I sette thee a-werke, might thy Margaryte for plesaunce, frendship, ne fayrhede of none other, be in poynte moved from thyne herte; wherfore 125 in-to myne housholde hastely I wol that thou entre, and al the parfit privitè of my werking, make it be knowe in thy understonding, as oon of my privy familiers. Thou desyrest (quod she) fayn to here of tho thinges there I lefte?' 'Ye, forsothe,' quod I, 'that were to me a greet blisse.' 130 'Now,' quod she, 'for thou shalt not wene that womans condicions for fayre speche suche thing belongeth:-- CH. III. 2. ganne. 5. beforne. 6. thynge. menne. 9. thynge. whose. 10. lignes (_sic_). 11. whose lykenesse. 12. halte. 15. facultie. 17. forthe. 18. borne. 19. comforte. 20. dethe. 23. buxome. beautie. 27. parfyte. 32. wotte. 38. graunt. 40. toforne. 48. golde. 51. worthe. on; _read_ of. 53. -warde. 54. birde. 56. beare. vnha_n_de; _read_ on hande. 58. none. 59. bloder; _read_ blobere. 61. Howe. 63. sette. frenship (_sic_). one. 64. lyste. delyte. 65. faire. 66. maye. tel. 67. bo_n_de. 69. dey. 72. trust. crafte. 74. howe. 76. thendes. Howe. 77. lorne. longe-. 78. thorowe. 79. _I supply_ ben. radde. 80. done. 81. fal. 83. holy. 84. arne. 87. farre. stretchen. 97. dothe. 99. wyst. 101. faythe. thoughe rennogates. 102. leasynges. fyre (_four times_) 103. wytte. farre. heate. 104, 112. moste. 104. element comfortable; _read_ comfortable element. 105. chefe. 108. precioust. 109. amonge. 112-3. gladed and pleased. 115. layde. 120. Nowe. the. 122. arte none. 123. set the. 124. frendeshyp. fayrehede. 127. parfyte. 128. one. 129. fayne. 130. great. 131. Nowe. CHAPTER IV. Thou shalt,' quod she, 'understonde first among al other thinges, that al the cure of my service to me in the parfit blisse in doing is desyred in every mannes herte, be he never so moche a wrecche; but every man travayleth by dyvers studye, and seke[th] thilke blisse by dyvers wayes. But al the endes 5 are knit in selinesse of desyre in the parfit blisse, that is suche joye, whan men it have gotten, there +leveth no thing more to ben coveyted. But how that desyre of suche perfeccion in my service be kindely set in lovers hertes, yet her erroneous opinions misturne it by falsenesse of wening. And although 10 mannes understanding be misturned, to knowe whiche shuld ben the way unto my person, and whither it abydeth; yet wote they there is a love in every wight, [whiche] weneth by that thing that he coveyteth most, he shulde come to thilke love; and that is parfit blisse of my servauntes; but than fulle blisse may not 15 be, and there lacke any thing of that blisse in any syde. Eke it foloweth than, that he that must have ful blisse lacke no blisse in love on no syde.' 'Therfore, lady,' quod I tho, 'thilke blisse I have desyred, and +soghte toforn this my-selfe, by wayes of riches, of dignitè, 20 of power, and of renomè, wening me in tho +thinges had ben thilke blisse; but ayenst the heer it turneth. Whan I supposed beste thilke blisse have +getten, and come to the ful purpose of your service, sodaynly was I hindred, and throwen so fer abacke, that me thinketh an inpossible to come there I lefte.' 25 'I +wot wel,' quod she; 'and therfore hast thou fayled; for thou wentest not by the hye way. A litel misgoing in the ginning causeth mikil errour in the ende; wherfore of thilke blisse thou fayledest, for having of richesse; ne non of the other thinges thou nempnedest mowen nat make suche parfit blisse in love as I shal 30 shewe. Therfore they be nat worthy to thilke blisse; and yet somwhat must ben cause and way to thilke blisse. _Ergo_, there is som suche thing, and som way, but it is litel in usage and that is nat openly y-knowe. But what felest in thyne hert of the service, in whiche by me thou art entred? Wenest aught thy-selfe 35 yet be in the hye way to my blisse? I shal so shewe it to thee, thou shalt not conne saye the contrary.' 'Good lady,' quod I, 'altho I suppose it in my herte, yet wolde I here thyn wordes, how ye menen in this mater.' Quod she, 'that I shal, with my good wil. Thilke blisse 40 desyred, som-del ye knowen, altho it be nat parfitly. For kyndly entencion ledeth you therto, but in three maner livinges is al suche wayes shewed. Every wight in this world, to have this blisse, oon of thilke three wayes of lyves must procede; whiche, after opinions of grete clerkes, are by names cleped bestiallich, resonablich, [and 45 manlich. Resonablich] is vertuous. Manlich is worldlich. Bestialliche is lustes and delytable, nothing restrayned by bridel of reson. Al that joyeth and yeveth gladnesse to the hert, and it be ayenst reson, is lykened to bestial living, which thing foloweth lustes and delytes; wherfore in suche thinge may nat that precious blisse, 50 that is maister of al vertues, abyde. Your +faders toforn you have cleped such lusty livinges after the flessh "passions of desyre," which are innominable tofore god and man both. Than, after determinacion of suche wyse, we accorden that suche passions of desyre shul nat be nempned, but holden for absolute from al other 55 livinges and provinges; and so +leveth in t[w]o livinges, manlich and resonable, to declare the maters begonne. But to make thee fully have understanding in manlich livinges, whiche is holden worldlich in these thinges, so that ignorance be mad no letter, I wol (quod she) nempne these forsayd wayes +by names and 60 conclusions. First riches, dignitè, renomè, and power shul in this worke be cleped bodily goodes; for in hem hath ben, a gret throw, mannes trust of selinesse in love: as in riches, suffisance to have maintayned that was begonne by worldly catel; in dignitè, honour and reverence of hem that wern underput by maistry 65 therby to obeye. In renomè, glorie of peoples praising, after lustes in their hert, without hede-taking to qualitè and maner of doing; and in power, by trouth of lordships mayntenaunce, thing to procede forth in doing. In al whiche thinges a longe tyme mannes coveytise in commune hath ben greetly grounded, to come 70 to the blisse of my service; but trewly, they were begyled, and for the principal muste nedes fayle, and in helping mowe nat availe. See why. For holdest him not poore that is nedy?' 'Yes, pardè,' quod I. 'And him for dishonored, that moche folk deyne nat to 75 reverence?' 'That is soth,' quod I. 'And what him, that his mightes faylen and mowe nat helpen?' 'Certes,' quod I, 'me semeth, of al men he shulde be holden a wrecche.' 80 'And wenest nat,' quod she, 'that he that is litel in renomè, but rather is out of the praysinges of mo men than a fewe, be nat in shame?' 'For soth,' quod I, 'it is shame and villany, to him that coveyteth renomè, that more folk nat prayse in name than preise.' 85 'Soth,' quod she, 'thou sayst soth; but al these thinges are folowed of suche maner doinge, and wenden in riches suffisaunce, in power might, in dignitè worship, and in renomè glorie; wherfore they discended in-to disceyvable wening, and in that service disceit is folowed. And thus, in general, thou and al suche other that so 90 worchen, faylen of my blisse that ye long han desyred. Wherfore truly, in lyfe of reson is the hye way to this blisse; as I thinke more openly to declare herafter. Never-the-later yet, in a litel to comforte thy herte, in shewing of what waye thou art entred *selfe, and that thy Margarite may knowe thee set in the hye way, 95 I wol enforme thee in this wyse. Thou hast fayled of thy first purpos, bicause thou wentest wronge and leftest the hye way on thy right syde, as thus: thou lokedest on worldly living, and that thing thee begyled; and lightly therfore, as a litel assay, thou songedest; but whan I turned thy purpos, and shewed thee 100 a part of the hye waye, tho thou abode therin, and no deth ne ferdnesse of non enemy might thee out of thilk way reve; but ever oon in thyn herte, to come to the ilke blisse, whan thou were arested and firste tyme enprisoned, thou were loth to chaunge thy way, for in thy hert thou wendest to have ben there 105 thou shuldest. And for I had routhe to sene thee miscaried, and wiste wel thyn ablenesse my service to forther and encrese, I com my-selfe, without other mene, to visit thy person in comfort of thy hert. And perdy, in my comming thou were greetly glad[d]ed; after whiche tyme no disese, no care, no tene, might 110 move me out of thy hert. And yet am I glad and greetly enpited, how continually thou haddest me in mynde, with good avysement of thy conscience, whan thy king and his princes by huge wordes and grete loked after variaunce in thy speche; and ever thou were redy for my sake, in plesaunce of the Margarite-perle and 115 many mo other, thy body to oblige in-to Marces doing, if any contraried thy sawes. Stedfast way maketh stedfast hert, with good hope in the ende. Trewly, I wol that thou it wel knowe; for I see thee so set, and not chaunginge herte haddest in my service; and I made thou haddest grace of thy kinge, in 120 foryevenesse of mikel misdede. To the gracious king art thou mikel holden, of whos grace and goodnesse somtyme hereafter I thinke thee enforme, whan I shew the ground where-as moral vertue groweth. Who brought thee to werke? Who brought this grace aboute? Who made thy hert hardy? Trewly, it was I. For 125 haddest thou of me fayled, than of this purpos had[dest thou] never taken [hede] in this wyse. And therfore I say, thou might wel truste to come to thy blisse, sithen thy ginninge hath ben hard, but ever graciously after thy hertes desyr hath proceded. Silver fyned with many hetes men knowen for trew; and safely men 130 may trust to the alay in werkinge. This +disese hath proved what way hence-forward thou thinkest to holde.' 'Now, in good fayth, lady,' quod I tho, 'I am now in; me semeth, it is the hye way and the right.' 'Ye, forsothe,' quod she, 'and now I wol disprove thy first 135 wayes, by whiche many men wenen to gette thilke blisse. But for-as-moche as every herte that hath caught ful love, is tyed with queynt knittinges, thou shalt understande that love and thilke foresayd blisse toforn declared in this[e] provinges, shal hote the knot in the hert.' 140 'Wel,' quod I, 'this inpossession I wol wel understande.' 'Now also,' quod she, 'for the knotte in the herte muste ben from one to an-other, and I knowe thy desyr, I wol thou understande these maters to ben sayd of thy-selfe, in disproving of thy first service, and in strengthinge of thilke that thou hast 145 undertake to thy Margaryte-perle.' 'A goddes halfe,' quod I, 'right wel I fele that al this case is possible and trewe; and therfore I +admitte it altogither.' '+Understand wel,' quod she, 'these termes, and loke no contradiccion thou graunt.' 150 'If god wol,' quod I, 'of al these thinges wol I not fayle; and if I graunt contradiccion, I shulde graunte an impossible; and that were a foul inconvenience; for whiche thinges, lady, y-wis, herafter I thinke me to kepe.' CH. IV. 1. shalte. amonge. 2. parfyte. 4. wretche. 5. seke; _read_ seketh. 6. p_ar_fyte. 7. lyueth; _read_ leveth. thynge. 8. howe. perfection. 9. erronyous. 13. _I supply_ whiche. 14. moste. 15. parfyte. maye. 16. thynge. 20. sothe; _read_ soghte. toforne. 21. thrages (_sic_); _read_ thinges. 22. heere. 23. get; _read_ getten. 26. wol; _read_ wot. 30. p_ar_fite. 33. some (_twice_). 37. the. shalte. con. 39. howe ye meanen. 41. so_m_e deale. 42. entention. thre. lyuenges. 43. one. 44. thre. 45. great. cleaped. _I supply_ and manlich. Resonablich. 47. nothynge. 47-9. reason (_twice_). 49. lyueng. thynge. 50. maye. 51. fathers. toforne. 52. lyuenges. 54. determination. 56. lyuenges (_twice_). lyueth; _read_ leveth. to; _read_ two. 57. the. 58. lyuenges. 59. made. 60. be; _read_ by. 62. cleaped. 64. begon. 65. werne. 66. obey. 70. greatly. 73. Se. 75. folke. 80. wretch. 89. disceite. 92. reason. 94. arte. 95-6. the (_twice_). 97-100. purpose. 98. lyueng. 99. the. 100-2. the. 101. parte. dethe. 103. one. 106. the. 107. wyst. thyne. encrease. 108. come. mean. _For_ person _read_ prison? comforte. 109. greatly gladed. 110. disease. 111. gladde. greatly. 112. howe. 114. great. 115. peerle. 119. se the. 121. arte. 122. whose. 123. the. grounde. 124. the. 126. purpose. had; _read_ haddest thou. _I supply_ hede. 128. harde. 129. desyre. 130. heates. 131. diseases (_sic_). waye. -forwarde. 133-142. Nowe (_four times_). 139. toforne. 143. desyre. 145. stre_n_ghthynge. haste. 148. admytted; _read_ admytte it. 149. Vnderstanden (_sic_). 149-152. contradyction (_twice_). 153. foule. ladye. CHAPTER V. 'Wel,' quod she, 'thou knowest that every thing is a cause, wherthrough any thing hath being that is cleped "caused." Than, if richesse +causeth knot in herte, thilke richesse +is cause of thilke precious thinge being. But after the sentence of Aristotle, every cause is more in dignitè than his thinge caused; 5 wherthrough it foloweth richesse to ben more in dignitè than thilke knot. But richesses arn kyndely naughty, badde, and nedy; and thilke knotte is thing kyndely good, most praysed and desyred. _Ergo_, thing naughty, badde, and nedy in kyndely understandinge is more worthy than thing kyndely good, most 10 desyred and praysed! The consequence is fals; nedes, the antecedent mot ben of the same condicion. But that richesses ben bad, naughty, and nedy, that wol I prove; wherfore they mowe cause no suche thing that is so glorious and good. The more richesse thou hast, the more nede hast thou of helpe hem 15 to kepe. _Ergo_, thou nedest in richesse, whiche nede thou shuldest not have, if thou hem wantest. Than muste richesse ben nedy, that in their having maken thee nedy to helpes, in suretee thy richesse to kepen; wherthrough foloweth, richesse to ben nedy. Everything causinge yvels is badde and naughty; but 20 richesse in one causen misese, in another they mowen not evenly strecchen al about. Wherof cometh plee, debat, thefte, begylinges, but richesse to winne; whiche thinges ben badde, and by richesse arn caused. _Ergo_, thilke richesse[s] ben badde; whiche badnesse and nede ben knit in-to richesse by a maner of kyndely propertee; 25 and every cause and caused accorden; so that it foloweth, thilke richesse[s] to have the same accordaunce with badnesse and nede, that their cause asketh. Also, every thing hath his being by his cause; than, if the cause be distroyed, the being of caused is vanisshed. And, so, if richesse[s] causen love, and richesse[s] 30 weren distroyed, the love shulde vanisshe; but thilke knotte, and it be trewe, may not vanisshe, for no going of richesse. _Ergo_, richesse is no cause of the knot. And many men, as I sayd, setten the cause of the knotte in richesse; thilke knitten the richesse, and nothing the yvel; thilke persons, what-ever they 35 ben, wenen that riches is most worthy to be had; and that make they the cause; and so wene they thilke riches be better than the person. Commenly, suche asken rather after the quantitè than after the qualitè; and suche wenen, as wel by hem-selfe as by other, that conjunccion of his lyfe and of his soule is no more 40 precious, but in as mikel as he hath of richesse. Alas! how may he holden suche thinges precious or noble, that neither han lyf ne soule, ne ordinaunce of werchinge limmes! Suche richesse[s] ben more worthy whan they ben in +gadering; in departing, ginneth his love of other mennes praysing. And avarice +gadering 45 maketh be hated, and nedy to many out-helpes; and whan leveth the possession of such goodes, and they ginne vanissh, than entreth sorowe and tene in their hertes. O! badde and strayte ben thilke, that at their departinge maketh men teneful and sory, and in the +gadering of hem make men nedy! Moche folk at 50 ones mowen not togider moche therof have. A good gest gladdeth his hoste and al his meyny; but he is a badde gest that maketh his hoste nedy and to be aferd of his gestes going.' 'Certes,' quod I, 'me wondreth therfore that the comune opinion is thus: "He is worth no more than that he hath in 55 catel."' 'O!' quod she, 'loke thou be not of that opinion; for if gold or money, or other maner of riches shynen in thy sight, whos is that? Nat thyn. And tho[ugh] they have a litel beautee, they be nothing in comparison of our kynde; and therfore, ye shulde nat sette 60 your worthinesse in thing lower than your-selfe. For the riches, the fairnesse, the worthinesse of thilke goodes, if ther be any suche preciousnesse in hem, are nat thyne; thou madest hem so never; from other they come to thee, and to other they shul from thee. Wherfore enbracest thou other wightes good, as 65 tho[ugh] they were thyn? Kynde hath drawe hem by hem-selfe. It is sothe, the goodes of the erth ben ordayned in your fode and norisshinge; but if thou wolt holde thee apayd with that suffyseth to thy kynde, thou shalt nat be in daunger of no suche riches; to kynde suffyseth litel thing, who that taketh hede. 70 And if thou wolt algates with superfluitè of riches be a-throted, thou shalt hastelich be anoyed, or els yvel at ese. And fairnesse of feldes ne of habitacions, ne multitude of meynè, may nat be rekened as riches that are thyn owne. For if they be badde, it is greet sclaunder and villany to the occupyer; and if they be good 75 or faire, the mater of the workman that hem made is to prayse. How shulde other-wyse bountee be compted for thyne? Thilke goodnesse and fairnesse be proper to tho thinges hem-selfe; than, if they be nat thyne, sorow nat whan they wende, ne glad thee nat in pompe and in pride whan thou hem hast. For their 80 bountee and their beautees cometh out of their owne kynde, and nat of thyne owne person. As faire ben they in their not having as whan thou hast hem. They be nat faire for thou hast hem; but thou hast geten hem for the fairnesse of them-selfe. And there the vaylance of men is demed in richesse outforth, wenen 85 me[n] to have no proper good in them-selfe, but seche it in straunge thinges. Trewly, the condicion of good wening is to thee mistourned, to wene, your noblesse be not in your-selfe, but in the goodes and beautee of other thinges. Pardy, the beestes that han but feling soules, have suffisaunce in their owne selfe; 90 and ye, that ben lyke to god, seken encrese of suffisaunce from so excellent a kynde of so lowe thinges; ye do greet wrong to him that you made lordes over al erthly thinges; and ye putte your worthinesse under the nombre of the fete of lower thinges and foule. Whan ye juge thilke riches to be your worthinesse, than 95 putte ye your-selfe, by estimacion, under thilke foule thinges; and than leve ye the knowing of your-selfe; so be ye viler than any dombe beest; that cometh of shrewde vice. Right so thilke persons that loven non yvel for dereworthinesse of the persone, but for straunge goodes, and saith, the adornement in the knot 100 lyth in such thing; his errour is perilous and shrewd, and he wryeth moche venim with moche welth; and that knot may nat be good whan he hath it getten. Certes, thus hath riches with flickering sight anoyed many; and often, whan there is a throw-out shrewe, he coyneth al the 105 gold, al the precious stones that mowen be founden, to have in his bandon; he weneth no wight be worthy to have suche thinges but he alone. How many hast thou knowe, now in late tyme, that in their richesse supposed suffisance have folowed, and now it is al fayled!' 110 'Ye, lady,' quod I, 'that is for mis medling; and otherwyse governed [they] thilke richesse than they shulde.' 'Ye,' quod she tho, 'had not the flood greetly areysed, and throwe to-hemward both gravel and sand, he had mad no medlinge. And right as see yeveth flood, so draweth see ebbe, and 115 pulleth ayen under wawe al the firste out-throwe, but-if good pyles of noble governaunce in love, in wel-meninge maner, ben sadly grounded; +the whiche holde thilke gravel as for a tyme, that ayen lightly mowe not it turne; and if the pyles ben trewe, the gravel and sand wol abyde. And certes, ful warning in love shalt 120 thou never thorow hem get ne cover, that lightly with an ebbe, er thou be ware, it [ne] wol ayen meve. In richesse many men have had tenes and diseses, whiche they shulde not have had, if therof they had fayled. Thorow whiche, now declared, partly it is shewed, that for richesse shulde the knotte in herte neither ben 125 caused in one ne in other; trewly, knotte may ben knit, and I trowe more stedfast, in love, though richesse fayled; and els, in richesse is the knotte, and not in herte. And than suche a knotte is fals; whan the see ebbeth and withdraweth the gravel, that such richesse voydeth, thilke knotte wol unknitte. 130 Wherfore no trust, no way, no cause, no parfit being is in richesse, of no suche knotte. Therfore another way muste we have. CH. V. 1. thynge. 2. -throughe. 3. causen; _read_ causeth. arne; _read_ is. 7. arne. 8, 9. thynge (_twice_). moste. 10. thynge. moste. 11. false. 12. mote. 15. haste. 18. the. 19. suretie. 21. misease. 22. stretchen. debate. 24. arne. richesse; _read_ richesses. 25. propertie. 27-30. richesse; _read_ richesses (_thrice_). 35. nothynge. 40. coniunction. 41. howe maye. 42. lyfe. 43. richesse; _read_ richesses. 44-5. gatheryng. 50. gatheryng. folke. 53. aferde. 55. worthe. 57. golde. 58. whose. 59. beautie. 60. set. 64-5. the (_twice_). 68. wolte. the apayde. 72. ease. 73. maye. 75. great. 76. workeman. 77. Howe. bountie. 79. the. 81. bountie. beautes. 83-4. haste (_thrice_). 86. me; _read_ men. 87. co_n_dytion. 88. the. 89. beautie. 91. encrease. 92. great. 93-6. put (_twice_). 101. shreude. 102. maye. 105. throwe out. 106. golde. 108. Howe. haste. 108-9. nowe. 111. misse medlyng. 112. _Supply_ they. 113. floode greatly. 114. hemwarde. sande. made. 115. floode. 116. out throw. 117. meanynge. 118. to; _read_ the. 120. sande. 121. shalte. thorowe. 122. beware. _I supply_ ne. 123. diseases. 124. Thorowe. nowe. partely. 126. maye. knytte. 129. false. 131. parfyte. CHAPTER VI. Honour in dignitè is wened to yeven a ful knot.' 'Ye, certes,' quod I, 'and of that opinion ben many; for they sayn, dignitè, with honour and reverence, causen hertes to encheynen, and so abled to be knit togither, for the excellence in soverayntè of such degrees.' 5 'Now,' quod she, 'if dignitè, honour, and reverence causen thilke knotte in herte, this knot is good and profitable. For every cause of a cause is cause of thing caused. Than thus: good thinges and profitable ben by dignitè, honour, and reverence caused. _Ergo_, they accorden; and dignites ben good with 10 reverences and honour. But contraries mowen not accorden. Wherfore, by reson, there shulde no dignitee, no reverence, non honour acorde with shrewes. But that is fals; they have ben cause to shrewes in many shreudnes; for with hem they accorden. _Ergo_, from beginning to argue ayenward til it come to the laste 15 conclusion, they are not cause of the knot. Lo, al day at eye arn shrewes not in reverence, in honour, and in dignitè? Yes, forsothe, rather than the good. Than foloweth it that shrewes rather than good shul ben cause of this knot. But of this [the] contrarie of al lovers is bileved, and for a sothe openly determined 20 to holde.' 'Now,' quod I, 'fayn wolde I here, how suche dignitees acorden with shrewes.' 'O,' quod she, 'that wol I shewe in manifolde wyse. Ye wene (quod she) that dignites of office here in your citè is as the 25 sonne; it shyneth bright withouten any cloude; [of] whiche thing, whan they comen in the handes of malicious tirauntes, there cometh moche harm, and more grevaunce therof than of the wilde fyre, though it brende al a strete. Certes, in dignitè of office, the werkes of the occupyer shewen the malice and the 30 badnesse in the person; with shrewes they maken manyfolde harmes, and moche people shamen. How often han rancours, for malice of the governour, shulde ben mainteyned? Hath not than suche dignitees caused debat, rumours, and yvels? Yes, god wot, by suche thinges have ben trusted to make mens understanding 35 enclyne to many queynte thinges. Thou wottest wel what I mene.' 'Ye,' quod I, 'therfore, as dignitè suche thing in tene y-wrought, so ayenward, the substaunce in dignitè chaunged, relyed to bring ayen good plyte in doing.' 40 'Do way, do way,' quod she; 'if it so betyde, but that is selde, that suche dignitè is betake in a good mannes governaunce, what thing is to recken in the dignitees goodnesse? Pardè, the bountee and goodnesse is hers that usen it in good governaunce; and therfore cometh it that honour and reverence shulde ben 45 don to dignitè bycause of encresinge vertue in the occupyer, and not to the ruler bycause of soverayntee in dignitè. Sithen dignitè may no vertue cause, who is worthy worship for suche goodnesse? Not dignitè, but person, that maketh goodnesse in dignitè to shyne.' 50 'This is wonder thing,' quod I; 'for me thinketh, as the person in dignitè is worthy honour for goodnesse, so, tho[ugh] a person for badnesse ma[u]gree hath deserved, yet the dignitè leneth to be commended.' 'Let be,' quod she, 'thou errest right foule; dignitè with 55 badnesse is helper to performe the felonous doing. Pardy, were it kyndly good, or any propertè of kyndly vertue [that men] hadden in hem-selfe, shrewes shulde hem never have; with hem shulde they never accorde. Water and fyr, that ben contrarious, mowen nat togider ben assembled; kynde wol nat suffre suche 60 contraries to joyne. And sithen at eye, by experience in doing, we seen that shrewes have hem more often than good men, siker mayst thou be, that kyndly good in suche thing is nat appropred. Pardy, were they kyndly good, as wel oon as other shulden evenlich in vertue of governaunce ben worthe; but oon fayleth in 65 goodnesse, another doth the contrary; and so it sheweth, kyndly goodnesse in dignitè nat be grounded. And this same reson (quod she) may be mad, in general, on al the bodily goodes; for they comen ofte to throw-out shrewes. After this, he is strong that hath might to have grete burthens, and he is light 70 and swifte, that hath soveraintè in ronning to passe other; right so he is a shrewe, on whom shreude thinges and badde han most werchinge. And right as philosophy maketh philosophers, and my service maketh lovers, right so, if dignites weren good or vertuous, they shulde maken shrewes good, and turne her malice, 75 and make hem be vertuous. But that they do nat, as it is proved, but causen rancour and debat. _Ergo_, they be nat good, but utterly badde. Had Nero never ben Emperour, shulde never his dame have be slayn, to maken open the privitè of his engendrure. Herodes, for his dignitè, slew many children. The 80 dignitè of king John wolde have distroyed al England. Therfore mokel wysdom and goodnesse both, nedeth in a person, the malice in dignitè slyly to brydel, and with a good bitte of arest to withdrawe, in case it wolde praunce otherwyse than it shulde. Trewly, ye yeve to dignites wrongful names in your cleping. 85 They shulde hete, nat dignitè, but moustre of badnesse and mayntenour of shrewes. Pardy, shyne the sonne never so bright, and it bringe forth no hete, ne sesonably the herbes out-bringe of the erthe, but suffre frostes and cold, and the erthe barayne to ligge by tyme of his compas in circute about, ye wolde wonder, 90 and dispreyse that sonne! If the mone be at ful, and sheweth no light, but derke and dimme to your sight appereth, and make distruccion of the waters, wol ye nat suppose it be under cloude or in clips, and that som prevy thing, unknowen to your wittes, is cause of suche contrarious doinge? Than, if clerkes, that han 95 ful insight and knowing of suche impedimentes, enforme you of the sothe, very idiottes ye ben, but-if ye yeven credence to thilk clerkes wordes. And yet it doth me tene, to sene many wrecches rejoycen in such maner planettes. Trewly, litel con[ne] they on philosophy, or els on my lore, that any desyr haven suche 100 lightinge planettes in that wyse any more to shewe.' 'Good lady,' quod I, 'tel me how ye mene in these thinges.' 'Lo,' quod she, 'the dignites of your citè, sonne and mone, nothing in kynde shew their shyning as they shulde. For the sonne made no brenning hete in love, but freesed envye in 105 mennes hertes, for feblenesse of shyning hete; and the moone was about, under an olde cloude, the livinges by waters to distroye.' 'Lady,' quod I, 'it is supposed they had shyned as they shulde.' 110 'Ye,' quod she, 'but now it is proved at the ful, their beautè in kyndly shyning fayled; wherfore dignitè of him-selven hath no beautee in fayrnesse, ne dryveth nat awaye vices, but encreseth; and so be they no cause of the knotte. Now see, in good trouth; holde ye nat such sonnes worthy of no reverence, and dignites 115 worthy of no worship, that maketh men to do the more harmes?' 'I not,' quod I. 'No?' quod she; 'and thou see a wyse good man, for his goodnesse and wysnesse wolt thou nat do him worship? Therof he is worthy.' 120 'That is good skil,' quod I; 'it is dewe to suche, both reverence and worship to have.' 'Than,' quod she, 'a shrewe, for his shreudnesse, altho he be put forth toforn other for ferde, yet is he worthy, for shrewdnesse, to be unworshipped; of reverence no part is he worthy to have, 125 [that] to contrarious doing belongeth: and that is good skil. For, right as he besmyteth the dignites, thilke same thing ayenward him smyteth, or els shulde smyte. And over this thou wost wel (quod she) that fyr in every place heteth where it be, and water maketh wete. Why? For kyndely werking is so y-put in 130 hem, to do suche thinges; for every kyndely in werking sheweth his kynde. But though a wight had ben mayre of your city many winter togider, and come in a straunge place there he were not knowen, he shulde for his dignitè have no reverence. Than neither worshippe ne reverence is kyndely propre in no dignitè, 135 sithen they shulden don their kynde in suche doinge, if any were. And if reverence ne worshippe kyndely be not set in dignitees, and they more therein ben shewed than goodnesse, for that in dignitè is shewed, but it proveth that goodnesse kyndely in hem is not grounded. I-wis, neither worshippe, ne reverence, ne 140 goodnesse in dignitè don non office of kynde; for they have non suche propertee in nature of doinge but by false opinion of the people. Lo! how somtyme thilke that in your city wern in dignitè noble, if thou liste hem nempne, they ben now overturned bothe in worship, in name, and in reverence; wherfore 145 such dignites have no kyndly werching of worshippe and of reverence. He that hath no worthinesse on it-selfe, now it ryseth and now it vanissheth, after the variaunt opinion in false hertes of unstable people. Wherfore, if thou desyre the knotte of this jewel, or els if thou woldest suppose she shulde sette the knotte 150 on thee for suche maner dignitè, than thou wenest beautee or goodnesse of thilke somwhat encreseth the goodnesse or vertue in the body. But dignite[es] of hemself ben not good, ne yeven reverence ne worshippe by their owne kynde. How shulde they than yeve to any other a thing, that by no waye mowe they have 155 hem-selfe? It is sene in dignitè of the emperour and of many mo other, that they mowe not of hem-selve kepe their worshippe ne their reverence; that, in a litel whyle, it is now up and now downe, by unstedfaste hertes of the people. What bountee mowe they yeve that, with cloude, lightly leveth his shyninge? Certes, 160 to the occupyer is mokel appeyred, sithen suche doinge doth villanye to him that may it not mayntayne. Wherfore thilke way to the knotte is croked; and if any desyre to come to the knot, he must leve this way on his lefte syde, or els shal he never come there. 165 CH. VI. 3. sayne. 4. knytte. 6. Nowe. 12. reason. none. 13. false. 15. ayenwarde. 16. arne. 19. _Supply_ the. 22. Nowe. fayne. howe. 26. _I supply_ of. thynge. 28. harme. 32. Howe. 34. debate. 35. wote. 37. meane. 39. ayenwarde. 44. bountie. 45. honoure. 46. done. encreasynge. 47. soverayntie. 53. magre. 57. _Supply_ that. men _and_ it. 59. fire. 61. ioyn. 62. sene. menne. 63. mayste. 64-5. one (_twice_). 66. dothe. 68. made. 69. throwe out. 70. great burthyns. 77. debate. 80. slewe. 81. Engla_n_de. 82. wysedom. 88. bring forthe. heate. 89. colde. 91. son. 93. distruction. 94. some. 98. wretches. 99. con; _read_ conne. 100. desyre. 102. howe. mean. 107. lyuenges. 111. nowe. 113. beautie. encreaseth. 114. Nowe se. 118. se. 119. wysenesse wolte. 124. forthe toforne. 125. parte. 126. _I supply_ that. 127. ayenwarde. 128. woste. 129. fyre. heateth. 132. cytie. 141. done none. none. 142. propertie. 143. howe. cytie werne. 144. nowe. 147. _For_ He _read_ That thing? 147-8. nowe (_twice_). 151. the. beautie. 152. encreaseth. 153. dignite; _read_ dignitees. 154. howe. 155. thynge. 158. that that; _read_ that. nowe (_twice_). 159. bountie. 160. leaueth. 161. dothe. 162. maye. waye. 164. leaue. waye. CHAPTER VII. Avayleth aught (quod she) power of might in mayntenaunce of [men, to maken hem] worthy to come to this knot?' 'Parde,' quod I, 'ye; for hertes ben ravisshed from suche maner thinges.' 5 'Certes,' quod she, 'though a fooles herte is with thing ravisshed, yet therfore is no general cause of the powers, ne of a siker parfit herte to be loked after. Was not Nero the moste shrewe oon of thilke that men rede, and yet had he power to make senatours justices, and princes of many landes? Was not 10 that greet power?' 'Yes, certes,' quod I. 'Wel,' quod she, 'yet might he not helpe him-selfe out of disese, whan he gan falle. How many ensamples canst thou remembre of kinges grete and noble, and huge power +helden, and 15 yet they might not kepe hem-selve from wrecchednesse? How wrecched was king Henry Curtmantil er he deyde? He had not so moche as to cover with his membres; and yet was he oon of the grettest kinges of al the Normandes ofspring, and moste possession had. O! a noble thing and clere is power, that is not 20 founden mighty to kepe him-selfe! Now, trewly, a greet fole is he, that for suche thing wolde sette the knotte in thyne herte! Also power of rëalmes, is not thilke grettest power amonges the worldly powers reckened? And if suche powers han wrecchednesse in hem-selfe, it foloweth other powers of febler condicion to 25 ben wrecched; and than, that wrecchednesse shulde be cause of suche a knotte! But every wight that hath reson wot wel that wrecchednesse by no way may ben cause of none suche knotte; wherfore suche power is no cause. That powers have wrecchednesse in hem-selfe, may right lightly ben preved. If power lacke on 30 any syde, on that syde is no power; but no power is wrecchednesse: for al-be-it so the power of emperours or kinges, or els of their rëalmes (which is the power of the prince) strecchen wyde and brode, yet besydes is ther mokel folk of whiche he hath no commaundement ne lordshippe; and there-as lacketh his 35 power, his nonpower entreth, where-under springeth that maketh hem wrecches. No power is wrecchednesse and nothing els; but in this maner hath kinges more porcion of wrecchednesse than of power. Trewly, suche powers ben unmighty; for ever they ben in drede how thilke power from lesing may be keped 40 of sorow; so drede sorily prikkes ever in their hertes: litel is that power whiche careth and ferdeth it-selfe to mayntayne. Unmighty is that wrecchednesse whiche is entred by the ferdful weninge of the wrecche him-selfe; and knot y-maked by wrecchednesse is betwene wrecches; and wrecches al thing bewaylen; 45 wherfore the knot shulde be bewayled; and there is no suche parfit blisse that we supposed at the ginning! _Ergo_, power in nothing shulde cause suche knottes. Wrecchednesse is a kyndely propertee in suche power, as by way of drede, whiche they mowe nat eschewe, ne by no way live in sikernesse. For thou wost wel 50 (quod she) he is nought mighty that wolde don that he may not don ne perfourme.' 'Therfore,' quod I, 'these kinges and lordes that han suffisaunce at the ful of men and other thinges, mowen wel ben holden mighty; their comaundementes ben don; it is nevermore 55 denyed.' 'Foole,' quod she, 'or he wot him-selfe mighty, or wot it not; for he is nought mighty that is blynde of his might and wot it not.' 'That is sothe,' quod I. 60 'Than if he wot it, he must nedes ben a-drad to lesen it. He that wot of his might is in doute that he mote nedes lese; and so ledeth him drede to ben unmighty. And if he recche not to lese, litel is that worth that of the lesing reson reccheth nothing; and if it were mighty in power or in strength, the lesing shulde ben 65 withset; and whan it cometh to the lesing, he may it not withsitte. _Ergo_, thilke might is leude and naughty. Such mightes arn y-lyke to postes and pillers that upright stonden, and greet might han to bere many charges; and if they croke on any syde, litel thing maketh hem overthrowe.' 70 'This is a good ensample,' quod I, 'to pillers and postes that I have seen overthrowed my-selfe; and hadden they ben underput with any helpes, they had not so lightly falle.' 'Than holdest thou him mighty that hath many men armed and many servauntes; and ever he is adrad of hem in his herte; 75 and, for he gasteth hem, somtyme he mot the more fere have. Comenly, he that other agasteth, other in him ayenward werchen the same; and thus warnisshed mot he be, and of warnisshe the hour drede. Litel is that might and right leude, who-so taketh hede.' 80 'Than semeth it,' quod I, 'that suche famulers aboute kinges and grete lordes shulde greet might have. Although a sypher in augrim have no might in significacion of it-selve, yet he yeveth power in significacion to other; and these clepe I the helpes to a poste to kepe him from falling.' 85 'Certes,' quod she, 'thilke skilles ben leude. Why? But-if the shorers be wel grounded, the helpes shulden slyden and suffre the charge to falle; her might litel avayleth.' 'And so me thinketh,' quod I, 'that a poste alone, stonding upright upon a basse, may lenger in greet burthen endure than 90 croken pilers for al their helpes, and her ground be not siker.' 'That is sothe,' quod she; 'for as, [if] the blynde in bering of the lame ginne stomble, bothe shulde falle, right so suche pillers, so envyroned with helpes, in falling of the grounde fayleth +altogider. How ofte than suche famulers, in their moste pryde 95 of prosperitè, ben sodainly overthrowen! Thou hast knowe many in a moment so ferre overthrowe, that cover might they never. Whan the hevinesse of suche fayling cometh by case of fortune, they mowe it not eschue; and might and power, if ther were any, shulde of strength such thinges voyde and weyve; and 100 so it is not. Lo, than! whiche thing is this power, that, tho men han it, they ben agast; and in no tyme of ful having be they siker! And if they wold weyve drede, as they mow not, litel is in worthines. Fye therfore on so naughty thing, any knot to cause! Lo! in adversitè, thilk ben his foes that glosed and 105 semed frendes in welth; thus arn his familiers his foes and his enemyes; and nothing is werse, ne more mighty for to anoy than is a familier enemy; and these thinges may they not weyve; so trewly their might is not worth a cresse. And over al thinge, he that may not withdrawe the brydel of his flesshly lustes and his 110 wrecched complayntes (now think on thy-selfe) trewly he is not mighty; I can seen no way that lyth to the knotte. Thilke people than, that setten their hertes upon suche mightes and powers, often ben begyled. Pardè, he is not mighty that may do any thing, that another may doon him the selve, and that men 115 have as greet power over him as he over other. A justice that demeth men ayenward hath ben often demed. Buserus slew his gestes, and he was slayn of Hercules his geste. Hugest betraysshed many men, and of Collo was he betrayed. He that with swerde smyteth, with swerde shal be smitten.' 120 Than gan I to studyen a whyle on these thinges, and made a countenaunce with my hande in maner to ben huisht. 'Now let seen,' quod she, 'me thinketh somwhat there is within thy soule, that troubleth thy understanding; saye on what it is.' 125 Quod I tho, 'me thinketh that, although a man by power have suche might over me, as I have over another, that disproveth no might in my person; but yet may I have power and might never-the-later.' 'See now,' quod she, 'thyne owne leudenesse. He is mighty 130 that may without wrecchednesse; and he is unmighty that may it not withsitte; but than he, that might over thee, and he wol, putte on thee wrecchednesse, thou might it not withsitte. _Ergo_, thou seest thy-selfe what foloweth! But now (quod she) woldest thou not skorne, and thou see a flye han power to don harm to 135 an-other flye, and thilke have no might ne ayenturning him-selfe to defende?' 'Yes, certes,' quod I. 'Who is a frayler thing,' quod she, 'than the fleshly body of a man, over whiche have oftentyme flyes, and yet lasse thing than 140 a flye, mokel might in grevaunce and anoying, withouten any withsittinge, for al thilke mannes mightes? And sithen thou seest thyne flesshly body in kyndely power fayle, how shulde than the accident of a thinge ben in more suretè of beinge than substancial? Wherfore, thilke thinges that we clepe power is but 145 accident to the flesshly body; and so they may not have that suretee in might, whiche wanteth in the substancial body. Why there is no way to the knotte, [for him] that loketh aright after the hye way, as he shulde. CH. VII. 2. _I supply_ men, to maken hem. 8. parfyte. 9. one. 11. great. 14. disease. fal. Howe. canste. 15. great. holden; _read_ helden. 16. wretchydnesse. Howe wretched. 18. one. 19. greatest. 20. thynge. 21. Nowe. great. 23. greatest. 24. wretchydnesse (_several times_); wretched (_several times_). 27. reason wote. 33. stretchen. 34. folke. 40. howe. 41. prickes. 47. parfyte. 49. propertie. 50. woste. 51-5. done (_thrice_). 57-62. wotte (_four times_). 61. a dradde. 63. leadeth. retche. 64. worthe. reason retcheth. 68. arne. great. 69. beare. 70. thynge. 72. sene. 73. fal. 75. adradde. 76. mote. feare. 77. ayenwarde. 78. mote. 82. great (_twice_). Althoughe. 88. fal. 90. graet (_sic_). 91. grou_n_de. 92. _Supply_ if. bearyng. 93. fal. 95. al togyther. howe. 96. haste. 108. enemye. 109. worthe. 110. maye. 111. wretched. nowe thynke. 112. sene. waye. lythe. 115. maye doone. 116. great. 117. ayenwarde. slewe. 118. slayne. 122. huyshte. 123. Nowe. sene. 130. Se nowe. 131. maye. wretchydnesse. 132. the. 133. put. the wretchydnesse. 134. nowe. 135. se. done harme. 141. anoyeng. 143. howe. 147. suretie. 148. waye. _Supply_ for him. 149. waye. CHAPTER VIII. Verily it is proved that richesse, dignitè, and power ben not trewe way to the knotte, but as rathe by suche thinges the knotte to be unbounde; wherfore on these thinges I rede no wight truste to gette any good knotte. But what shul we saye of renomè in the peoples mouthes? Shulde that ben any cause? 5 What supposest thou in thyn herte?' 'Certes,' quod I, 'yes, I trowe; for your slye resons I dare not safely it saye.' 'Than,' quod she, 'wol I preve that shrewes as rathe shul ben in the knotte as the good; and that were ayenst kynde.' 10 'Fayn,' quod I, 'wolde I that here; me thinketh wonder how renomè shuld as wel knitte a shrewe as a good person; renomè in every degree hath avaunced; yet wist I never the contrarye. Shulde than renomè accorde with a shrewe? It may not sinke in my stomake til I here more.' 15 'Now,' quod she, 'have I not sayd alwayes, that shrewes shul not have the knotte?' 'What nedeth,' quod I, 'to reherse that any more? I wot wel every wight, by kyndely reson, shrewes in knitting wol eschewe.' 'Than,' quod she, 'the good ought thilke knotte to have.' 20 'How els?' quod I. 'It were greet harm,' quod she, 'that the good were weyved and put out of espoire of the knotte, if he it desyred.' 'O,' quod I, 'alas! On suche thing to thinke, I wene that heven wepeth to see suche wronges here ben suffred on erthe; the 25 good ought it to have, and no wight els.' 'The goodnesse,' quod she, 'of a person may not ben knowe outforth but by renomè of the knowers; wherfore he must be renomed of goodnesse, to come to the knot.' 'So must it be,' quod I, 'or els al lost that we carpen.' 30 'Sothly,' quod she, 'that were greet harm, but-if a good man might have his desyres in service of thilke knot, and a shrewe to be +weyved, and they ben not knowen in general but by lacking and praysing, and in renomè; and so by the consequence it foloweth, a shrewe to ben praysed and knit; and a good to be 35 forsake and unknit.' 'Ah,' quod I tho, 'have ye, lady, ben here abouten; yet wolde I see, by grace of our argumentes better declared, how good and bad do acorden by lacking and praysing; me thinketh it ayenst kynde.' 40 'Nay,' quod she, 'and that shalt thou see as yerne; these elementes han contrarious qualitees in kynde, by whiche they mowe not acorde no more than good and badde; and in [some] qualitees they acorde, so that contraries by qualitè acorden by qualitè. Is not erthe drye; and water, that is next and bitwene 45 th'erthe, is wete? Drye and wete ben contrarie, and mowen not acorde, and yet this discordaunce is bounde to acorde by cloudes; for bothe elementes ben colde. Right so the eyre, that is next the water, is wete; and eke it is hot. This eyre by his hete contrarieth water that is cold; but thilke contrarioustè is oned +by 50 moysture; for bothe be they moyst. Also the fyr, that is next the +eyre and it encloseth al about, is drye, wherthrough it contrarieth +eyre, that is wete; and in hete they acorde; for bothe they ben hote. Thus by these acordaunces discordantes ben joyned, and in a maner of acordaunce they acorden by 55 conneccion, that is, knitting togither; of that accorde cometh a maner of melodye that is right noble. Right so good and bad arn contrarie in doinges, by lacking and praysing; good is bothe lacked and praysed of some; and badde is bothe lacked and praysed of some; wherfore their contrarioustee acorde bothe by 60 lacking and praysing. Than foloweth it, though good be never so mokel praysed, [it] oweth more to ben knit than the badde; or els bad, for the renomè that he hath, must be taken as wel as the good; and that oweth not.' 'No, forsothe,' quod I. 65 'Wel,' quod she, 'than is renomè no way to the knot. Lo, foole,' quod she, 'how clerkes wryten of suche glorie of renomè:--"O glorie, glorie, thou art non other thing to thousandes of folke but a greet sweller of eeres!" Many oon hath had ful greet renomè by false opinion of variaunt people. And what is fouler than 70 folk wrongfully to ben praysed, or by malice of the people giltlesse lacked? Nedes shame foloweth therof to hem that with wrong prayseth, and also to the desertes praysed; and vilanye and reproof of him that disclaundreth. Good child (quod she) what echeth suche renomè to the 75 conscience of a wyse man, that loketh and mesureth his goodnesse, not by slevelesse wordes of the people, but by sothfastnesse of conscience? By god, nothing. And if it be fayr, a mans name be eched by moche folkes praysing, and fouler thing that mo folk not praysen? I sayd to thee a litel here-beforn, that no folk in 80 straunge countreyes nought praysen; suche renomè may not comen to their eeres, bycause of unknowing and other obstacles, as I sayde: wherfore more folk not praysen, and that is right foul to him that renomè desyreth, to wete, lesse folk praisen than renomè enhaunce. I trowe, the thank of a people is naught 85 worth in remembraunce to take; ne it procedeth of no wyse jugement; never is it stedfast pardurable. It is veyne and fleing; with winde wasteth and encreseth. Trewly, suche glorie ought to be hated. If gentillesse be a cleer thing, renomè and glorie to enhaunce, as in reckening of thy linage, than is gentilesse of thy 90 kinne; for-why it semeth that gentilesse of thy kinne is but praysing and renomè that come of thyne auncestres desertes: and if so be that praysing and renomè of their desertes make their clere gentillesse, than mote they nedes ben gentil for their gentil dedes, and not thou; for of thy-selfe cometh not such 95 maner gentilesse, praysinge of thy desertes. Than gentillesse of thyne auncesters, that forayne is to thee, maketh thee not gentil, but ungentil and reproved, and-if thou continuest not their gentilesse. And therfore a wyse man ones sayde: "Better is it thy kinne to ben by thee gentyled, than thou to glorifye of thy 100 kinnes gentilesse, and hast no desert therof thy-selfe." How passinge is the beautee of flesshly bodyes, more flittinge than movable floures of sommer! And if thyne eyen weren as good as the lynx, that may seen thorow many stone walles, bothe fayre and foule, in their entrayles, of no maner hewe shulde apere to 105 thy sight; that were a foule sight. Than is fayrnesse by feblesse of eyen, but of no kynde; wherfore thilke shulde be no way to the knot; whan thilke is went, the knotte wendeth after. Lo, now, at al proves, none of al these thinges mowe parfitly ben in understanding, to ben way to the during blisse of the knotte. 110 But now, to conclusion of these maters, herkeneth these wordes. Very sommer is knowe from the winter: in shorter cours draweth the dayes of Decembre than in the moneth of June; the springes of Maye faden and +falowen in Octobre. These thinges ben not unbounden from their olde kynde; they have not lost her werke 115 of their propre estat. Men, of voluntarious wil, withsitte that hevens governeth. Other thinges suffren thinges paciently to werche; man, in what estat he be, yet wolde he ben chaunged. Thus by queynt thinges blisse is desyred; and the fruit that cometh of these springes nis but anguis and bitter; al-though it 120 be a whyle swete, it may not be with-holde; hastely they departe; thus al-day fayleth thinges that fooles wende. Right thus hast thou fayled in thy first wening. He that thinketh to sayle, and drawe after the course of the sterre _de polo antartico_, shal he never come northward to the contrarye sterre of _polus articus_; of whiche 125 thinges if thou take kepe, thy first out-waye-going "prison" and "exile" may be cleped. The ground falsed underneth, and so hast thou fayled. No wight, I wene, blameth him that stinteth in misgoing, and secheth redy way of his blisse. Now me thinketh (quod she) that it suffyseth in my shewing; the wayes 130 by dignetè, richesse, renomè, and power, if thou loke clerely, arn no wayes to the knotte.' CH. VIII. 2. waye. 11. Fayne. howe. 14. maye. 16. Nowe. 18. wotte. 19. reason. 21. Howe. 22. great harme. 25. se. 31. great harme. 33. veyned; _read_ weyued. 38. se. howe. 41. se. 42. qualyties. 43. _I supply_ some. 46. therthe. 49. hotte. 50. colde. co_n_trariousty. my; _read_ by. 51. fyre. 52. erthe; _read_ eyre (_twice_). 56. connection. 58. arne. 60. contraryoustie. 62. _I supply_ it. 66. waye. 67. howe. 68. arte none. thynge. 69. great. one. great. 71. folke. 74. reprofe. 75. chylde. 76. measureth. 78. fayre. 79. folke. 80. the. beforne. folke. 83. folke. foule. 84. folke. 85. thanke. 86. worthe. 88. encreaseth. 89. clear thynge. 97-100. the (_thrice_). 101. haste. deserte. 102. Howe. beautie. 104. maye sene thorowe. 106. fayrenesse. 109-111. nowe (_twice_). 110. waye. 111. nowe. 114. folowen; _read_ falowen. 115. loste. 116. estate. 119. fruite. 121. maye. 122. al-daye. haste. 125. northwarde. 127. grounde. 129. Nowe. 132. ways. CHAPTER IX. 'Every argument, lady,' quod I tho, 'that ye han maked in these fore-nempned maters, me thinketh hem in my ful witte conceyved; shal I no more, if god wil, in the contrarye be begyled. But fayn wolde I, and it were your wil, blisse of the knotte to me were declared. I might fele the better how my 5 herte might assente, to pursue the ende in service, as he hath begonne.' 'O,' quod she, 'there is a melodye in heven, whiche clerkes clepen "armony"; but that is not in brekinge of voice, but it is a maner swete thing of kyndely werching, that causeth joye[s] 10 out of nombre to recken, and that is joyned by reson and by wysdome in a quantitè of proporcion of knitting. God made al thing in reson and in witte of proporcion of melody, we mowe not suffyse to shewe. It is written by grete clerkes and wyse, that, in erthly thinges, lightly by studye and by travayle the knowinge 15 may be getten; but of suche hevenly melody, mokel travayle wol bringe out in knowing right litel. Swetenesse of this paradyse hath you ravisshed; it semeth ye slepten, rested from al other diseses; so kyndely is your herte therein y-grounded. Blisse of two hertes, in ful love knitte, may not aright ben imagined; ever 20 is their contemplacion, in ful of thoughty studye to plesaunce, mater in bringinge comfort everiche to other. And therfore, of erthly thinges, mokel mater lightly cometh in your lerning. Knowledge of understonding, that is nigh after eye, but not so nigh the covetyse of knittinge in your hertes. More soverain 25 desyr hath every wight in litel heringe of hevenly conninge than of mokel material purposes in erthe. Right so it is in propertee of my servauntes, that they ben more affiched in steringe of litel thinge in his desyr than of mokel other mater lasse in his conscience. This blisse is a maner of sowne delicious in 30 a queynte voice touched, and no dinne of notes; there is non impression of breking labour. I can it not otherwyse nempne, for wantinge of privy wordes, but paradyse terrestre ful of delicious melody, withouten travayle in sown, perpetual service in ful joye coveyted to endure. Only kynde maketh hertes in understonding 35 so to slepe, that otherwyse may it nat be nempned, ne in other maner names for lyking swetnesse can I nat it declare; al sugre and hony, al minstralsy and melody ben but soot and galle in comparison, by no maner proporcion to reken, in respect of this blisful joye. This armony, this melody, this perdurable joye may 40 nat be in doinge but betwene hevens and elementes, or twey kyndly hertes ful knit in trouth of naturel understonding, withouten weninge and disceit; as hevens and planettes, whiche thinges continually, for kyndly accordaunces, foryeteth al contrarious mevinges, that in-to passive diseses may sowne; evermore it 45 thirsteth after more werking. These thinges in proporcion be so wel joyned, that it undoth al thing whiche in-to badnesse by any way may be accompted.' 'Certes,' quod I, 'this is a thing precious and noble. Alas! that falsnesse ever, or wantrust shulde ever be maynteyned, this 50 joye to voyde. Alas! that ever any wrecche shulde, thorow wrath or envy, janglinge dare make, to shove this melody so farre a-backe, that openly dar it nat ben used; trewly, wrecches ben fulfilled with envy and wrathe, and no wight els. Flebring and tales in suche wrecches dare appere openly in every wightes 55 eere, with ful mouth so charged, [with] mokel malice moved many innocentes to shende; god wolde their soule therwith were strangled! Lo! trouth in this blisse is hid, and over-al under covert him hydeth; he dar not come a-place, for waytinge of shrewes. Commenly, badnesse goodnesse amaistreth; with my-selfe 60 and my soule this joye wolde I bye, if the goodnesse were as moche as the nobley in melody.' 'O,' quod she, 'what goodnesse may be acompted more in this material worlde? Truly, non; that shalt thou understonde. Is nat every thing good that is contrariant and distroying yvel?' 65 'How els?' quod I. 'Envy, wrathe, and falsnesse ben general,' quod she; 'and that wot every man being in his right mynde; the knotte, the whiche we have in this blisse, is contrariaunt and distroyeth such maner yvels. _Ergo_, it is good. What hath caused any wight 70 to don any good dede? Fynd me any good, but-if this knotte be the cheef cause. Nedes mot it be good, that causeth so many good dedes. Every cause is more and worthier than thing caused; and in that mores possession al thinges lesse ben compted. As the king is more than his people, and hath in 75 possession al his rëalme after, right so the knot is more than al other goodes; thou might recken al thinges lasse; and that to him longeth, oweth in-to his mores cause of worship and of wil +to turne; it is els rebel and out of his mores defending to voyde. Right so of every goodnesse; in-to the knotte and 80 in-to the cause of his worship [it] oweth to tourne. And trewly, every thing that hath being profitably is good, but nothing hath to ben more profitably than this knot; kinges it mayntayneth, and hem, their powers to mayntayne. It maketh misse to ben amended with good governaunce in doing. It closeth hertes 85 so togider, that rancour is out-thresten. Who that it lengest kepeth, lengest is glad[d]ed.' 'I trowe,' quod I, 'heretykes and misse-mening people hence-forward wol maintayne this knotte; for therthorough shul they ben maintayned, and utterly wol turne and leve their olde yvel 90 understanding, and knitte this goodnesse, and profer so ferre in service, that name of servauntes might they have. Their jangles shal cese; me thinketh hem lacketh mater now to alege.' 'Certes,' quod Love, 'if they, of good wil thus turned, as thou sayst, wolen trewly perfourme, yet shul they be abled party 95 of this blisse to have; and they wol not, yet shul my servauntes the werre wel susteyne in myn helpe of maintenaunce to the ende. And they, for their good travayle, shullen in reward so ben meded, that endelesse joye body and soule +to-gider in this shullen abyden. There is ever accion of blisse withouten possible 100 corrupcion; there is accion perpetuel in werke without travayle; there is everlasting passife, withouten any of labour; continuel plyte, without cesinge coveyted to endure. No tonge may telle, ne herte may thinke the leest point of this blisse.' 'God bring me thider!' quod I than. 105 'Continueth wel,' quod she, 'to the ende, and thou might not fayle than; for though thou spede not here, yet shal the passion of thy martred lyfe ben written, and rad toforn the grete Jupiter, that god is of routhe, an high in the holownesse of heven, there he sit in his trone; and ever thou shalt forward ben holden 110 amonge al these hevins for a knight, that mightest with no penaunce ben discomfited. He is a very martyr that, livingly goinge, is gnawen to the bones.' 'Certes,' quod I, 'these ben good wordes of comfort; a litel myne herte is rejoyced in a mery wyse.' 115 'Ye,' quod she; 'and he that is in heven felith more joye, than whan he firste herde therof speke.' 'So it is,' quod I; 'but wist I the sothe, that after disese comfort wolde folowe with blisse, so as ye have often declared, I wolde wel suffre this passion with the better chere. But my 120 thoughtful sorowe is endelesse, to thinke how I am cast out of a welfare; and yet dayneth not this yvel non herte, non hede, to meward throwe: which thinges wolde greetly me by wayes of comfort disporte, to weten in my-selfe a litel with other me[n] ben y-moved; and my sorowes peysen not in her balaunce the 125 weyght of a peese. Slinges of her daunger so hevily peysen, they drawe my causes so hye, that in her eyen they semen but light and right litel.' 'O! for,' quod she, 'heven with skyes that foule cloudes maken and darke +weders, with gret tempestes and huge, 130 maketh the mery dayes with softe shyning sonnes. Also the yere with-draweth floures and beautee of herbes and of erth; the same +yere maketh springes and jolitè in Vere so to renovel with peinted coloures, that erthe semeth as gay as heven. Sees that blasteth and with wawes throweth shippes, of whiche the 135 living creatures for greet peril for hem dreden; right so, the same sees maketh smothe waters and golden sayling, and comforteth hem with noble haven that firste were so ferde. Hast thou not (quod she) lerned in thy youth, that Jupiter hath in his warderobe bothe garmentes of joye and of sorowe? What 140 wost thou how soone he wol turne of the garment of care, and clothe thee in blisse? Pardè, it is not ferre fro thee. Lo, an olde proverbe aleged by many wyse:--"Whan bale is greetest, than is bote a nye-bore." Wherof wilt thou dismaye? Hope wel and serve wel; and that shal thee save, with thy good bileve.' 145 'Ye, ye,' quod I; 'yet see I not by reson how this blisse is coming; I wot it is contingent; it may falle on other.' 'O,' quod she, 'I have mokel to done to clere thyne understanding, and voyde these errours out of thy mynde. I wol prove it by reson, thy wo may not alway enduren. Every thing 150 kyndely (quod she) is governed and ruled by the hevenly bodyes, whiche haven ful werchinge here on erthe; and after course of these bodyes, al course of your doinges here ben governed and ruled by kynde. Thou wost wel, by cours of planettes al your dayes proceden; 155 and to everich of singuler houres be enterchaunged stondmele about, by submitted worching naturally to suffre; of whiche changes cometh these transitory tymes that maketh revolving of your yeres thus stondmele; every hath ful might of worchinge, til al seven han had her course about. Of which worchinges and 160 possession of houres the dayes of the weke have take her names, after denominacion in these seven planettes. Lo, your Sonday ginneth at the first hour after noon on the Saturday, in whiche hour is than the Sonne in ful might of worching; of whom Sonday taketh his name. Next him foloweth Venus, and after 165 Mercurius, and than the Moone; so than Saturnus, after whom Jovis; and than Mars; and ayen than the Sonne; and so forth +by .xxiiii. houres togider; in whiche hour ginning in the seconde day stant the Moone, as maister for that tyme to rule; of whom Monday taketh his name; and this course foloweth of al other 170 dayes generally in doing. This course of nature of these bodyes chaunging stinten at a certain terme, limitted by their first kynde; and of hem al governementes in this elemented worlde proceden, as in springes, constellacions, engendrures, and al that folowen kynde and reson; wherfore [in] the course that foloweth, sorowe 175 and joy kyndely moten entrechangen their tymes; so that alway oon wele, as alway oon wo, may not endure. Thus seest thou appertly, thy sorowe in-to wele mot ben chaunged; wherfore in suche case to better syde evermore enclyne thou shuldest. Trewly, next the ende of sorowe anon entreth joy; by maner 180 of necessitè it wol ne may non other betyde; and so thy conti[n]gence is disproved; if thou holde this opinion any more, thy wit is right leude. Wherfore, in ful conclusion of al this, thilke Margaryte thou desyrest hath ben to thee dere in thy herte, and for her hast thou suffred many thoughtful diseses; herafter shal 185 [she] be cause of mokel mirth and joye; and loke how glad canst thou ben, and cese al thy passed hevinesse with manifolde joyes. And than wol I as blythly here thee speken thy mirthes in joye, as I now have y-herd thy sorowes and thy complayntes. And if I mowe in aught thy joye encrese, by my trouthe, on 190 my syde shal nat be leved for no maner traveyle, that I with al my mightes right blythly wol helpe, and ever ben redy you bothe to plese.' And than thanked I that lady with al goodly maner that I worthily coude; and trewly I was greetly rejoysed in myne herte of her fayre behestes; and profered me to be 195 slawe, in al that she me wolde ordeyne, while my lyf lested. CH. IX. 4. fayne. 5. howe. 10. ioye; _read_ joyes. 11-3. reason. 14. great. 19. diseases. hertes; _read_ herte. 22. comforte. 24-5. nyghe (_twice_). 25. soueraine desyre. 27. propertie. 29. desyre. 31. none. 32. breakynge laboure. canne. 35. Onely. 38. soote. 39. respecte. 45. diseases. 51. wretch. thorowe. 53. dare. 53-5. wretches. 56. eare. _I supply_ with. 57. innocte_n_es; _misprint for_ innoce_n_tes. 59. dare. 65. distroyeng. 66. Howe. 71. Fynde. 72. chefe. mote. 73. thynge. 79. do; _read_ to, _as in_ l. 81. 81. _Supply_ it. 88. meanynge. 89. forwarde. 90. leaue. 93. cease. nowe. 99. togyther. 100-1. action (_twice_). 103. ceasynge. tel. 104. hert. 108. radde toforne. great. 110. sytte. forwarde. 114. comforte. 118. disease comforte. 121. howe. 122. none (_twice_). 123. mewarde. greatly. 124. comforte. me; _read_ men? 130. wethers; _read_ weders. 132. beautie. 133. yeres; _read_ yere. 136. great. 141. howe. 142. the. 143. greatest. 144. wylte. 145. the. 146. se. reason howe. 147. wote. fal. 150. reason. 162. denomination. 168. be; _for_ by. 169. stante. 172. certayne. 175. _Supply_ in. 177. on (_for_ oon; _twice_). 178. mote. 181. contygence. 184. the. 185. diseases. 186. _Supply_ she. howe. canste. 187. cease. 188. the. 189. ioy. nowe. yherde. 190. encrease. 191. leaued. 194. worthely. greatly. 195. hert. 196. lyfe. CHAPTER X. 'Me thinketh,' quod I, 'that ye have right wel declared, that way to the knot shuld not ben in none of these disprovinge thinges; and now, order of our purpos this asketh, that ye shulde me shewe if any way be +thider, and whiche thilke way shulde ben; so that openly may be seye the verry 5 hye way in ful confusioun of these other thinges.' 'Thou shalt,' quod she, 'understande that [of] one of three lyves (as I first sayd) every creature of mankynde is sprongen, and so forth procedeth. These lyves ben thorow names departed in three maner of kyndes, as bestialliche, manliche, and resonabliche; 10 of whiche two ben used by flesshely body, and the thirde by his soule. "Bestial" among resonables is forboden in every lawe and every secte, bothe in Cristen and other; for every wight dispyseth hem that liveth by lustes and delytes, as him that is thral and bounden servaunt to thinges right foule; suche 15 ben compted werse than men; he shal nat in their degree ben rekened, ne for suche one alowed. Heritykes, sayn they, chosen lyf bestial, that voluptuously liven; so that (as I first sayde to thee) in manly and resonable livinges our mater was to declare; but [by] "manly" lyfe, in living after flesshe, or els flesshly wayes 20 to chese, may nat blisse in this knotte be conquered, as by reson it is proved. Wherfore by "resonable" lyfe he must nedes it have, sithe a way is to this knotte, but nat by the firste tway lyves; wherfore nedes mot it ben to the thirde; and for to live in flesshe, but nat after flessh, is more resonablich than manliche rekened 25 by clerkes. Therfore how this way cometh in, I wol it blythely declare. See now (quod she) that these bodily goodes of manliche livinges yelden +sorowfulle stoundes and smertande houres. Who-so +wol remembre him to their endes, in their worchinges they 30 ben thoughtful and sorie. Right as a bee that hath had his hony, anon at his flight beginneth to stinge; so thilke bodily goodes at the laste mote awaye, and than stinge they at her goinge, wherthrough entreth and clene voydeth al blisse of this knot.' 'Forsothe,' quod I, 'me thinketh I am wel served, in shewing 35 of these wordes. Although I hadde litel in respect among other grete and worthy, yet had I a fair parcel, as me thought, for the tyme, in forthering of my sustenaunce; whiche while it dured, I thought me havinge mokel hony to myne estat. I had richesse suffisauntly to weyve nede; I had dignitè to be reverenced in 40 worship. Power me thought that I had to kepe fro myne enemyes, and me semed to shyne in glorie of renomè as manhood asketh in mene; for no wight in myne administracion coude non yvels ne trechery by sothe cause on me putte. Lady, your-selve weten wel, that of tho confederacies maked by my soverains 45 I nas but a servaunt, and yet mokel mene folk wol fully ayenst reson thilke maters maynteyne, in whiche mayntenaunce [they] glorien them-selfe; and, as often ye haven sayd, therof ought nothing in yvel to be layd to me-wardes, sithen as repentaunt I am tourned, and no more I thinke, neither tho thinges ne 50 none suche other to sustene, but utterly distroye, without medlinge maner, in al my mightes. How am I now cast out of al swetnesse of blisse, and mischevously [is] stongen my passed joy! Soroufully muste I bewayle, and live as a wrecche. Every of tho joyes is tourned in-to his contrary. For richesse, 55 now have I povertè; for dignitè, now am I emprisoned; in stede of power, wrecchednesse I suffre; and for glorie of renomè, I am now dispysed and foulich hated. Thus hath farn Fortune, that sodaynly am I overthrowen, and out of al welth dispoyled. Trewly, me thinketh this way in entree is right hard; god graunt 60 me better grace er it be al passed; the other way, lady, me thought right swete.' 'Now, certes,' quod Love, 'me list for to chyde. What ayleth thy darke dulnesse? Wol it nat in clerenesse ben sharped? Have I nat by many resons to thee shewed, suche bodily goodes 65 faylen to yeve blisse, their might so ferforth wol nat strecche? Shame (quod she) it is to say, thou lyest in thy wordes. Thou ne hast wist but right fewe that these bodily goodes had al atones; commenly they dwellen nat togider. He that plentè hath in riches, of his kinne is ashamed; another of linage right noble and wel 70 knowe, but povert him handleth; he were lever unknowe. Another hath these, but renomè of peoples praysing may he nat have; overal he is hated and defamed of thinges right foule. Another is fair and semely, but dignitè him fayleth; and he that hath dignitè is croked or lame, or els misshapen and foully dispysed. 75 Thus partable these goodes dwellen commenly; in one houshold ben they but silde. Lo! how wrecched is your truste on thing that wol nat accorde! Me thinketh, thou clepest thilke plyte thou were in "selinesse of fortune"; and thou sayest, for that the selinesse is departed, thou art a wrecch. Than foloweth 80 this upon thy wordes; every soule resonable of man may nat dye; and if deth endeth selinesse and maketh wrecches, as nedes of fortune maketh it an ende. Than soules, after deth of the body, in wrecchednesse shulde liven. But we knowe many that han geten the blisse of heven after their deth. How than may this 85 lyf maken men blisful, that whan it passeth it yeveth no wrecchednesse, and many tymes blisse, if in this lyfe he con live as he shulde? And wolt thou acompt with Fortune, that now at [t]he first she hath don thee tene and sorowe? If thou loke to the maner of al glad thinges and sorouful, thou mayst nat nay it, that 90 yet, and namely now, thou standest in noble plyte in a good ginning, with good forth-going herafter. And if thou wene to be a wrecch, for such welth is passed, why than art thou nat wel fortunate, for badde thinges and anguis wrecchednesse ben passed? Art thou now come first in-to the hostry of this lyfe, or els the 95 both of this worlde? Art thou now a sodayn gest in-to this wrecched exile? Wenest there be any thing in this erthe stable? Is nat thy first arest passed, that brought thee in mortal sorowe? Ben these nat mortal thinges agon with ignorance of beestial wit, and hast receyved reson in knowing of vertue? What comfort is 100 in thy herte, the knowinge sikerly in my service [to] be grounded? And wost thou nat wel, as I said, that deth maketh ende of al fortune? What than? Standest thou in noble plyte, litel hede or recking to take, if thou let fortune passe dy[i]ng, or els that she fly whan her list, now by thy lyve? Pardy, a man hath 105 nothing so leef as his lyf; and for to holde that, he doth al his cure and diligent traveyle. Than, say I, thou art blisful and fortunat sely, if thou knowe thy goodes that thou hast yet +beleved, whiche nothing may doute that they ne ben more worthy than thy lyf?' 110 'What is that?' quod I. 'Good contemplacion,' quod she, 'of wel-doing in vertue in tyme coming, bothe in plesaunce of me and of thy Margarit-peerle. Hastely thyn hert in ful blisse with her shal be esed. Therfore dismay thee nat; Fortune, in hate grevously ayenst thy bodily person, 115 ne yet to gret tempest hath she nat sent to thee, sithen the holding cables and ankers of thy lyfe holden by knitting so faste, that thou discomforte thee nought of tyme that is now, ne dispayre thee not of tyme to come, but yeven thee comfort in hope of weldoing, and of getting agayn the double of thy lesing, with 120 encresing love of thy Margarite-perle therto! For this, hiderto, thou hast had al her ful daunger; and so thou might amende al that is misse and al defautes that somtyme thou diddest; and that now, in al thy tyme, to that ilke Margaryte in ful service of my lore thyne herte hath continued; wherfore she ought moche 125 the rather enclyne fro her daungerous sete. These thinges ben yet knit by the holding anker in thy lyve, and holden mote they; to god I pray, al these thinges at ful ben perfourmed. For whyle this anker holdeth, I hope thou shalt safely escape; and [in a] whyle thy trewe-mening service aboute bringe, in dispyte of al 130 false meners that thee of-newe haten; for [in] this trewe service thou art now entred.' 'Certayn,' quod I, 'among thinges I asked a question, whiche was the way to the knot. Trewly, lady, how-so it be I tempt you with questions and answers, in speking of my first service, I am 135 now in ful purpos in the pricke of the herte, that thilke service was an enprisonment, and alway bad and naughty, in no maner to be desyred; ne that, in getting of the knot, may it nothing aveyle. A wyse gentil herte loketh after vertue, and none other bodily joyes alone. And bycause toforn this in tho wayes I was 140 set, I wot wel my-selfe I have erred, and of the blisse fayled; and so out of my way hugely have I ronne.' 'Certes,' quod she, 'that is sothe; and there thou hast miswent, eschewe the path from hens-forward, I rede. Wonder I trewly why the mortal folk of this worlde seche these ways 145 outforth; and it is preved in your-selfe. Lo, how ye ben confounded with errour and folly! The knowing of very cause and way is goodnesse and vertue. Is there any thing to thee more precious than thy-selfe? Thou shalt have in thy power that thou woldest never lese, and that in no way may be taken fro thee; and thilke 150 thing is that is cause of this knot. And if deth mowe it nat reve more than an erthly creature, thilke thing than abydeth with thy-selfe soule. And so, our conclusion to make, suche a knot, thus getten, abydeth with this thinge and with the soule, as long as they laste. A soule dyeth never; vertu and goodnesse evermore 155 with the soule endureth; and this knot is parfit blisse. Than this soule in this blisse endlesse shal enduren. Thus shul hertes of a trewe knot ben esed: thus shul their soules ben plesed: thus perpetually in joye shul they singe.' 'In good trouth,' quod I, 'here is a good beginning; yeve us 160 more of this way.' Quod she, 'I said to thee nat longe sithen, that resonable lyf was oon of three thinges; and it was proved to the soule. CH. X. 3. nowe. purpose. 4. thyther. 5. maye be sey. 6. waye. 7. _I supply_ of. 7-10. thre (_twice_). 9. thorowe. 13. christen. 17. sayne. 18. lyfe. 19. the. lyueng_es_. 20. _Supply_ by. lyueng. 21. reason. 24. mote. 26. howe. waye. 28. Se nowe. 29. lyuenges. soroufully; _read_ sorowfulle. 30. wele; _read_ wol. 31. hadde. 32. anone. 36. respecte amonge. 37. great. faire. 39. estate. 42. manhode. 43. meane. -tion. 46. meane folke. 47. reason. _I supply_ they. 48. sayde. 49. nothynge. layde. 52. Howe. nowe caste. 53. _Supply_ is. 54. wretche. 56. nowe (_thrice_). 57. wretchednesse. 58. nowe. 60. entre. harde. 61. ladye. 63. Nowe. 65. reasons. the. 66. ferforthe. stretche. 74. faire. 75. fouly. 77. sylde. howe reetched (!). 80. arte a wretch. 82. dethe. wretches. 83. dethe. 84-6. wretchednesse. 85. dethe. Howe. 86. lyfe. 88. wolte. now. he; _read_ the. 89. done the. 91. nowe. 93. wretch. 94. wretchednesse. 95-6. nowe (_twice_). 96. sodayne. 97. wretched. thynge. 98. the (_sic_). 100. reason. co_m_forte. 101. hert. _I supply_ to. 102. woste. 104. rcekyng. dyng (_sic_). 106. lefe. lyfe. 109. beloued; _read_ beleued. nothynge. 112. conte_m_plation. 114. eased. 115-9. the (_five times_). 119. comforte. 120. agayne. encreasynge. 129. shalte. _Supply_ in a. 130. meanyng. 131. meaners. the. _Supply_ in. 132. arte nowe. 133. Certayn _begins with a large capital_ C, _on fol._ 306, verso. amonge. 134. howe. 136. nowe. purpose. 136-9. hert. 140. toforne. 141. sette. wote. 142. ron. 144. pathe. -forwarde. 145. folke. 146. howe. 148. thynge. the. 150. the. 151. dethe. 152. thynge. 155. last. 156. p_ar_fite. 158. eased. pleased. 162. the. lyfe. 163. one. thre. CHAPTER XI. Every soule of reson hath two thinges of stering lyf, oon in vertue, and another in the bodily workinge; and whan the soule is the maister over the body, than is a man maister of him-selfe. And a man, to be a maister over him-selfe, liveth in vertu and in goodnesse, and as reson of vertue techeth. So the soule and the 5 body, worching vertue togider, liven resonable lyf, whiche clerkes clepen "felicitè in living"; and therein is the hye way to this knot. These olde philosophers, that hadden no knowing of divine grace, of kyndly reson alone, wenden that of pure nature, withouten any helpe of grace, me might have y-shoned th'other livinges. 10 Resonably have I lived; and for I thinke herafter, if god wol, and I have space, thilke grace after my leude knowing declare, I leve it as at this tyme. But, as I said, he that out-forth loketh after the wayes of this knot, [his] conning with whiche he shulde knowe the way in-forth, slepeth for the tyme. Wherfore he that 15 wol this way knowe, must leve the loking after false wayes out-forth, and open the eyen of his conscience, and unclose his herte. Seest nat, he that hath trust in the bodily lyfe is so besy bodily woundes to anointe, in keping from smert (for al-out may they nat be heled), that of woundes in his true understanding he taketh no 20 hede; the knowing evenforth slepeth so harde: but anon, as in knowing awake, than ginneth the prevy medicynes, for heling of his trewe intent, inwardes lightly +helen conscience, if it be wel handled. Than must nedes these wayes come out of the soule by stering lyfe of the body; and els may no man come to parfit 25 blisse of this knotte. And thus, by this waye, he shal come to the knotte, and to the parfit selinesse that he wende have had in bodily goodes outforth.' 'Ye,' quod I, 'shal he have both knot, riches, power, dignitè, and renomè in this maner way?' 30 'Ye,' quod she, 'that shal I shewe thee. Is he nat riche that hath suffisaunce, and hath the power that no man may amaistrien? Is nat greet dignitè to have worship and reverence? And hath he nat glorie of renomè, whos name perpetual is during, and out of nombre in comparacion?' 35 'These be thinges that men wenen to getten outforth,' quod I. 'Ye,' quod she; 'they that loken after a thing that nought is therof, in al ne in partie, longe mowe they gapen after!' 'That is sothe,' quod I. 'Therfore,' quod she, 'they that sechen gold in grene trees, and 40 wene to gader precious stones among vynes, and layn her nettes in mountains to fisshe, and thinken to hunte in depe sees after hart and hynd, and sechen in erth thilke thinges that surmounteth heven, what may I of hem say, but folisshe ignoraunce misledeth wandring wrecches by uncouth wayes that shulden be forleten, 45 and maketh hem blynde fro the right pathe of trewe way that shulde ben used? Therfore, in general, errour in mankynde departeth thilke goodes by mis-seching, whiche he shulde have hole, and he sought by reson. Thus goth he begyled of that he sought; in his hode men have blowe a jape.' 50 'Now,' quod I, 'if a man be vertuous, and al in vertue liveth, how hath he al these thinges?' 'That shal I proven,' quod she. 'What power hath any man to lette another of living in vertue? For prisonment, or any other disese, [if] he take it paciently, discomfiteth he nat; the 55 tyrant over his soule no power may have. Than hath that man, so tourmented, suche power, that he nil be discomfit; ne overcome may he nat ben, sithen pacience in his soule overcometh, and +is nat overcomen. Suche thing that may nat be a-maistred, he hath nede to nothing; for he hath suffisaunce y-now, to helpe 60 him-selfe. And thilke thing that thus hath power and suffisance, and no tyrant may it reve, and hath dignitè to sette at nought al thinges, here it is a greet dignitè, that deth may a-maistry. Wherfore thilke power [with] suffisaunce, so enclosed with dignitè, by al reson renomè must have. This is thilke riches with suffisaunce 65 ye sholde loke after; this is thilke worshipful dignitè ye shulde coveyte; this is thilke power of might, in whiche ye shulde truste; this is the ilke renomè of glorie that endlesse endureth; and al nis but substaunce in vertuous lyving.' 'Certes,' quod I, 'al this is sothe; and so I see wel that vertue 70 with ful gripe encloseth al these thinges. Wherfore in sothe I may saye, by my trouth, vertue of my Margarite brought me first in-to your service, to have knitting with that jewel, nat sodain longinges ne folkes smale wordes, but only our conversacion togider; and than I, seinge th'entent of her trewe mening with 75 florisshing vertue of pacience, that she used nothing in yvel, to quyte the wicked lesinges that false tonges ofte in her have laid, I have seye it my-selfe, goodly foryevenesse hath spronge out of her herte. Unitè and accord, above al other thinges, she desyreth in a good meke maner; and suffereth many wicked 80 tales. Trewly, lady, to you it were a gret worship, that suche thinges by due chastisment were amended.' 'Ye,' quod she, 'I have thee excused; al suche thinges as yet mowe nat be redressed; thy Margarites vertue I commende wel 85 the more, that paciently suche anoyes suffreth. David king was meke, and suffred mokel hate and many yvel speches; no despyt ne shame that his enemys him deden might nat move pacience out of his herte, but ever in one plyte mercy he used. Wherfore god him-selfe took reward to the thinges; and theron suche 90 punisshment let falle. Trewly, by reson, it ought be ensample of drede to al maner peoples mirth. A man vengeable in wrath no governance in punisshment ought to have. Plato had a cause his servant to +scourge, and yet cleped he his neibour to performe the doinge; him-selfe wolde nat, lest wrath had him a-maistred; and 95 so might he have layd on to moche: evermore grounded vertue sheweth th'entent fro within. And trewly, I wot wel, for her goodnesse and vertue, thou hast desyred my service to her plesance wel the more; and thy-selfe therto fully hast profered.' 'Good lady,' quod I, 'is vertue the hye way to this knot that 100 long we have y-handled?' 'Ye, forsoth,' quod she, 'and without vertue, goodly this knot may nat be goten.' 'Ah! now I see,' quod I, 'how vertu in me fayleth; and I, as a seer tree, without burjoning or frute, alwaye welke; and 105 so I stonde in dispeyre of this noble knot; for vertue in me hath no maner workinge. A! wyde-where aboute have I traveyled!' 'Pees,' quod she, 'of thy first way; thy traveyle is in ydel; and, as touchinge the seconde way, I see wel thy meninge. Thou 110 woldest conclude me, if thou coudest, bycause I brought thee to service; and every of my servantes I helpe to come to this blisse, as I sayd here-beforn. And thou saydest thy-selfe, thou mightest nat be holpen as thou wenest, bycause that vertue in thee fayleth; and this blisse parfitly without vertue may nat be 115 goten; thou wenest of these wordes contradiccion to folowe. Pardè, at the hardest, I have no servant but he be vertuous in dede and thought. I brought thee in my service, yet art thou nat my servant; but I say, thou might so werche in vertue herafter, that than shalt thou be my servant, and as for my servant 120 acompted. For habit maketh no monk; ne weringe of gilte spurres maketh no knight. Never-the-later, in confort of thyne herte, yet wol I otherwyse answere.' 'Certes, lady,' quod I tho, 'so ye muste nedes; or els I had nigh caught suche a +cardiacle for sorowe, I wot it wel, I shulde 125 it never have recovered. And therfore now I praye [thee] to enforme me in this; or els I holde me without recovery. I may nat long endure til this lesson be lerned, and of this mischeef the remedy knowen.' 'Now,' quod she, 'be nat wroth; for there is no man on-lyve 130 that may come to a precious thing longe coveited, but he somtyme suffre teneful diseses: and wenest thy-selfe to ben unliche to al other? That may nat ben. And with the more sorowe that a thing is getten, the more he hath joye the ilke thing afterwardes to kepe; as it fareth by children in scole, that for lerninge arn 135 beten, whan their lesson they foryetten. Commenly, after a good disciplyning with a yerde, they kepe right wel doctrine of their scole.' CH. XI. 1. euery (_with small_ e). reason. lyfe. one. 6. lyfe. 7. lyueng. 9. reason. 10. thother lyuenges. 13. leaue. 14. _I supply_ his. 16. leaue. 19. anoynt. 20. healed. 22. healyng. 23. healeth; _read_ helen. 25. maye. p_ar_fite. 27. p_ar_fyte. 30. waye. 31. the. 33. great. 34. whose. 35. co_m_paration. 37. thynge. 40. golde. 41. amonge. layne. 42. hunt. 43. hynde. 45. wretches. 48. mysse. 49. reason. 51. Nowe. 52. howe. 54. let. lyueng. 55. _I supply_ if. 56. maye. 59. as; _read_ is. 60. ynowe. 63. great. 64. _I supply_ with. 67. coueyt. 69. lyueng. 70. se. 74. onely. co_n_versation. 75. thentent. 76. nothynge. 77. leasynges. layde. 78. sey. 79. hert. accorde. 82. Trewly (_with large capital_ T). 84. the. 87. dispite. 89. Werfore. 90. toke rewarde. 91. fal. reason. 94. scoure (!); _read_ scourge. 96. layde. 97. thentent. wotte. 99. haste. 100. waye. 104. nowe I se. howe. 105. tre. 109. Peace. 110. se. meanyng. 111. the. 112. one. 113. beforne. 114. wenyst. 115. the. maye. 116. co_n_tradiction. 118. the. arte. 121. habyte. monke. wearynge. 122. conforte. 125. nyghe. cordiacle; _read_ cardiacle. wotte. 126. nowe. _I supply_ thee. 127. recouerye. 128. mischefe. 130. Nowe. wrothe. 131. maye. 132. diseases. wenyst. 133. maye. 134. thynge. 135. schole. arne. 136. beaten. 138. schole. CHAPTER XII. Right with these wordes, on this lady I threw up myne eyen, to see her countenaunce and her chere; and she, aperceyving this fantasye in myne herte, gan her semblaunt goodly on me caste, and sayde in this wyse. 'It is wel knowe, bothe to reson and experience in doinge, 5 every active worcheth on his passive; and whan they ben togider, "active" and "passive" ben y-cleped by these philosophers. If fyr be in place chafinge thing able to be chafed or hete[d], and thilke thinges ben set in suche a distaunce that the oon may werche, the other shal suffre. Thilke Margarite thou desyrest is 10 ful of vertue, and able to be active in goodnesse: but every herbe sheweth his vertue outforth from within. The sonne yeveth light, that thinges may be seye. Every fyr heteth thilke thing that it +neigheth, and it be able to be hete[d]. Vertue of this Margarite outforth +wercheth; and nothing is more able to suffre worching, 15 or worke cacche of the actife, but passife of the same actife; and no passife, to vertues of this Margaryte, but thee, in al my Donet can I fynde! So that her vertue muste nedes on thee werche; in what place ever thou be, within distaunce of her worthinesse, as her very passife thou art closed. But vertue may thee nothing 20 profyte, but thy desyr be perfourmed, and al thy sorowes cesed. _Ergo_, through werchinge of her vertue thou shalt esely ben holpen, and driven out of al care, and welcome to this longe by thee desyred!' 'Lady,' quod I, 'this is a good lesson in ginning of my joye; 25 but wete ye wel forsothe, though I suppose she have moche vertue, I wolde my spousaile were proved, and than may I live out of doute, and rejoice me greetly, in thinking of tho vertues so shewed.' 'I herde thee saye,' quod she, 'at my beginning, whan I receyved 30 thee firste for to serve, that thy jewel, thilke Margaryte thou desyrest, was closed in a muskle with a blewe shel.' 'Ye, forsothe,' quod I; 'so I sayd; and so it is.' 'Wel,' quod she, 'every-thing kyndly sheweth it-selfe; this jewel, closed in a blewe shel, [by] excellence of coloures sheweth 35 vertue from within; and so every wight shulde rather loke to the propre vertue of thinges than to his forayne goodes. If a thing be engendred of good mater, comenly and for the more part, it foloweth, after the congelement, vertue of the first mater (and it be not corrupt with vyces) to procede with encrees of good 40 vertues; eke right so it fareth of badde. Trewly, greet excellence in vertue of linage, for the more part, discendeth by kynde to the succession in vertues to folowe. Wherfore I saye, the +colour of every Margarit sheweth from within the fynesse in vertue. Kyndely heven, whan mery +weder is a-lofte, apereth in mannes 45 eye of coloure in blewe, stedfastnesse in pees betokening within and without. Margaryte is engendred by hevenly dewe, and sheweth in it-selfe, by fynenesse of colour, whether the engendrure were maked on morowe or on eve; thus sayth kynde of this perle. This precious Margaryte that thou servest, sheweth it-selfe 50 discended, by nobley of vertue, from this hevenlich dewe, norisshed and congeled in mekenesse, that +moder is of al vertues; and, by werkes that men seen withouten, the significacion of the coloures ben shewed, mercy and pitee in the herte, with pees to al other; and al this is y-closed in a muskle, who-so redily these vertues 55 loken. Al thing that hath soule is reduced in-to good by mene thinges, as thus: In-to god man is reduced by soules resonable; and so forth beestes, or bodyes that mowe not moven, after place ben reduced in-to manne by beestes +mene that moven from place to place. So that thilke bodyes that han felinge soules, and move 60 not from places, holden the lowest degree of soulinge thinges in felinge; and suche ben reduced in-to man by menes. So it foloweth, the muskle, as +moder of al vertues, halt the place of mekenesse, to his lowest degree discendeth downe of heven, and there, by a maner of virgine engendrure, arn these Margarytes 65 engendred, and afterward congeled. Made not mekenesse so lowe the hye heven, to enclose and cacche out therof so noble a dewe, that after congelement, a Margaryte, with endelesse vertue and everlasting joy, was with ful vessel of grace yeven to every creature, that goodly wolde it receyve?' 70 'Certes,' quod I, 'these thinges ben right noble; I have er this herd these same sawes.' 'Than,' quod she, 'thou wost wel these thinges ben sothe?' 'Ye, forsothe,' quod I, 'at the ful.' 'Now,' quod she, 'that this Margaryte is ful of vertue, it is wel 75 proved; wherfore som grace, som mercy, among other vertues, I wot right wel, on thee shal discende?' 'Ye,' quod I; 'yet wolde I have better declared, vertues in this Margarite kyndely to ben grounded.' 'That shal I shew thee,' quod she, 'and thou woldest it lerne.' 80 'Lerne?' quod I, 'what nedeth suche wordes? Wete ye nat wel, lady, your-selfe, that al my cure, al my diligence, and al my might, have turned by your counsayle, in plesaunce of that perle? Al my thought and al my studye, with your helpe, desyreth, in worshippe [of] thilke jewel, to encrese al my travayle and al my 85 besinesse in your service, this Margaryte to gladde in some halve. Me were lever her honour, her plesaunce, and her good chere thorow me for to be mayntayned and kept, and I of suche thinge in her lykinge to be cause, than al the welthe of bodily goodes ye coude recken. And wolde never god but I putte my-selfe in 90 greet jeopardy of al that I +welde, (that is now no more but my lyf alone), rather than I shulde suffre thilke jewel in any pointe ben blemisshed; as ferre as I may suffre, and with my mightes strecche.' 'Suche thing,' quod she, 'may mokel further thy grace, and 95 thee in my service avaunce. But now (quod Love) wilt thou graunte me thilke Margaryte to ben good?' 'O! good +god,' quod I, 'why tempte ye me and tene with suche maner speche? I wolde graunt that, though I shulde anon dye; and, by my trouthe, fighte in the quarel, if any wight wolde 100 countreplede.' 'It is so moche the lighter,' quod Love, 'to prove our entent.' 'Ye,' quod I; 'but yet wolde I here how ye wolde prove that she were good by resonable skil, that it mowe not ben denyed. For although I knowe, and so doth many other, manifold goodnesse 105 and vertue in this Margaryte ben printed, yet some men there ben that no goodnesse speken; and, wher-ever your wordes ben herd and your resons ben shewed, suche yvel spekers, lady, by auctoritè of your excellence, shullen be stopped and ashamed! And more, they that han non aquayntaunce in her persone, yet 110 mowe they knowe her vertues, and ben the more enfourmed in what wyse they mowe sette their hertes, whan hem liste in-to your service any entree make. For trewly al this to beginne, I wot wel my-selfe that thilke jewel is so precious perle, as a womanly woman in her kynde; in whom of goodnesse, of vertue, and also 115 of answeringe shappe of limmes, and fetures so wel in al pointes acording, nothing fayleth. I leve that kynde her made with greet studye; for kynde in her person nothing hath foryet[en], and that is wel sene. In every good wightes herte she hath grace of commending and of vertuous praysing. Alas! that ever kynde 120 made her deedly! Save only in that, I wot wel, that Nature, in fourminge of her, in no-thinge hath erred.' CH. XII. 1. threwe. 2. se. 5. Reason. 7. ycleaped. 8. fyre. thynge. hete; _read_ heted. 9. sette. one. 12. outforthe. 13. sey. fyre. 14. neighed; _read_ neigheth. hete; _read_ heted. 15. wrethe (!); _read_ wercheth. nothynge. 16. catche. 17-8. the (_twice_). 20. arte. the. 21. desyre. ceased. 22. shalte easely. 24. the. 26. thoughe. 27. maye. 28. greatly. 30. the say. 31. the. 35. _Supply_ by. 38. parte. 40. encrease. 41. great. 42. parte. 43. colours; _read_ colour. 45. wether; _read_ weder. 46. peace. 48. coloure. 52, 63. mother; _read_ moder. 53. sene. signification. 54. pytie. 56. meane. 58. forthe. 59. meue; _misprint for_ mene. mouyn. 62. meanes. 63. halte. 65. arne. 66. afterwarde. 67. catche. 72. herde. 73. woste. 75. Nowe. 76. some (_twice_). amonge. 77. wotte. 77, 80. the (_twice_). 85. _I supply_ of. encrease. 87. leauer. pleasaunce. 88. thorowe. kepte. 90. put. 91. great ieoperdye. wolde; _read_ welde. nowe. lyfe. 94. stretche. 95. maye. 96. the. nowe. wylte. 98. good good; _read_ good god. 99. thoughe. anone. 100. fyght. 103. howe. 104. reasonable. 105. dothe. 108. herde. reasons. 110. none. 113. entre. wote. 115. whome. 117. nothynge. great. 118. foryet. 121. onely. CHAPTER XIII. 'Certes,' quod Love, 'thou hast wel begonne; and I aske thee this question: Is not, in general, every-thing good?' 'I not,' quod I. 'No?' quod she; '+saw not god everything that he made, and weren right good?' 5 'Than is wonder,' quod I, 'how yvel thinges comen a-place, sithen that al thinges weren right good.' 'Thus,' quod she, 'I wol declare. Everiche qualitè and every accion, and every thing that hath any maner of beinge, it is of god; and god it made, of whom is al goodnesse and al being. 10 Of him is no badnesse. Badde to be, is naught; good to be, is somwhat; and therfore good and being is oon in understanding.' 'How may this be?' quod I. 'For often han shrewes me assailed, and mokel badnesse therin have I founden; and so me 15 semeth bad to be somwhat in kynde.' 'Thou shalt,' quod she, 'understande that suche maner badnesse, whiche is used to purifye wrong-doers, is somwhat; and god it made, and being [it] hath; and that is good. Other badnesse no being hath utterly; it is in the negative of somwhat, and that is 20 naught and nothing being. The parties essential of being arn sayd in double wyse, as that it is; and these parties ben founde in every creature. For al thing, a this halfe the first being, is being through participacion, taking partie of being; so that [in] every creature is difference bitwene being of him through whom 25 it is, and his own being. Right as every good is a maner of being, so is it good thorow being; for it is naught other to be. And every thing, though it be good, is not of him-selfe good; but it is good by that it is ordinable to the greet goodnesse. This dualitè, after clerkes +determinison, is founden in every 30 creature, be it never so single of onhed.' 'Ye,' quod I; 'but there-as it is y-sayd that god +saw every-thing of his making, and [they] were right good (as your-selfe sayd to me not longe tyme sithen), I aske whether every creature is y-sayd "good" through goodnesse unfourmed eyther els fourmed; 35 and afterward, if it be accept utterly good?' 'I shal say thee,' quod she. 'These grete passed clerkes han devyded good in-to good being alone, and that is nothing but +god, for nothing is good in that wyse but god: also, in good by participacion, and that is y-cleped "good" for far fet and 40 representative of +godly goodnesse. And after this maner manyfold good is sayd, that is to saye, good in kynde, and good in gendre, and good of grace, and good of joy. Of good in kynde Austen sayth, "al that ben, ben good." But peraunter thou woldest wete, whether of hem-selfe it be good, or els of anothers goodnesse: 45 for naturel goodnesse of every substaunce is nothing els than his substancial being, which is y-cleped "goodnesse" after comparison that he hath to his first goodnesse, so as it is inductatife by menes in-to the first goodnesse. Boece sheweth this thing at the ful, that this name "good" is, in general, name in kynde, as it is comparisoned 50 generally to his principal ende, which is god, knotte of al goodnesse. Every creature cryeth "god us made"; and so they han ful apeted to thilke god by affeccion such as to hem longeth; and in this wyse al thinges ben good of the gret god, which is good alone.' 55 'This wonder thing,' quod I, 'how ye have by many resons proved my first way to be errour and misgoing, and cause[d] of badnesse and feble meninge in the grounde ye aleged to be roted. Whence is it that suche badnesse hath springes, sithen al thinges thus in general ben good, and badnesse hath no being, as ye have 60 declared? I wene, if al things ben good, I might than with the first way in that good have ended, and so by goodnesse have comen to blisse in your service desyred.' 'Al thing,' quod she, 'is good by being in participacion out of the firste goodnesse, whiche goodnesse is corrupt by badnesse 65 and badde-mening maners. God hath [ordeyned] in good thinges, that they ben good by being, and not in yvel; for there is absence of rightful love. For badnesse is nothing but only yvel wil of the user, and through giltes of the doer; wherfore, at the ginninge of the worlde, every thing by him-selfe was good; and in universal 70 they weren right good. An eye or a hand is fayrer and betterer in a body set, in his kyndely place, than from the body dissevered. Every thing in his kyndly place, being kyndly, good doth werche; and, out of that place voyded, it dissolveth and is defouled him-selve. Our noble god, in gliterande wyse, by armony this world 75 ordeyned, as in purtreytures storied with colours medled, in whiche blacke and other derke colours commenden the golden and the asured paynture; every put in kyndely place, oon, besyde another, more for other glitereth. Right so litel fayr maketh right fayr more glorious; and right so, of goodnesse, and of other 80 thinges in vertue. Wherfore other badde and not so good perles as this Margaryte that we han of this matier, yeven by the ayre litel goodnesse and litel vertue, [maken] right mokel goodnesse and vertue in thy Margaryte to ben proved, in shyning wyse to be founde and shewed. How shulde ever goodnesse of pees have 85 ben knowe, but-if unpees somtyme reigne, and mokel yvel +wrathe? How shulde mercy ben proved, and no trespas were, by due justification, to be punisshed? Therfore grace and goodnesse of a wight is founde; the sorouful hertes in good meninge to endure, ben comforted; unitè and acord bitwene hertes knit in joye to 90 abyde. What? wenest thou I rejoyce or els accompte him among my servauntes that pleseth Pallas in undoinge of Mercurye, al-be-it that to Pallas he be knit by tytle of lawe, not according to resonable conscience, and Mercurie in doinge have grace to ben suffered; or els him that +weyveth the moone for fayrenesse of 95 the eve-sterre? Lo! otherwhyle by nightes, light of the moone greetly comforteth in derke thoughtes and blynde. Understanding of love yeveth greet gladnesse. Who-so list not byleve, whan a sothe tale is shewed, a dewe and a deblys his name is entred. Wyse folk and worthy in gentillesse, bothe of vertue and of 100 livinge, yeven ful credence in sothnesse of love with a good herte, there-as good evidence or experience in doinge sheweth not the contrarie. Thus mightest thou have ful preef in thy Margarytes goodnesse, by commendement of other jewels badnesse and yvelnesse in doing. Stoundemele diseses yeveth several houres 105 in joye.' 'Now, by my trouthe,' quod I, 'this is wel declared, that my Margaryte is good; for sithen other ben good, and she passeth manye other in goodnesse and vertue; wherthrough, by maner necessarie, she muste be good. And goodnesse of this Margaryte 110 is nothing els but vertue; wherfore she is vertuous; and if there fayled any vertue in any syde, there were lacke of vertue. Badde nothing els is, ne may be, but lacke and want of good and goodnesse; and so shulde she have that same lacke, that is to saye, badde; and that may not be. For she is good; and that is good, 115 me thinketh, al good; and so, by consequence, me semeth, vertuous, and no lacke of vertue to have. But the sonne is not knowe but he shyne; ne vertuous herbes, but they have her kynde werchinge; ne vertue, but it strecche in goodnesse or profyt to another, is no vertue. Than, by al wayes of reson, sithen mercy and pitee ben 120 moste commended among other vertues, and they might never ben shewed, [unto] refresshement of helpe and of comfort, but now at my moste nede; and that is the kynde werkinge of these vertues; trewly, I wene, I shal not varye from these helpes. Fyr, and-if he yeve non hete, for fyre is not demed. The sonne, but 125 he shyne, for sonne is not accompted. Water, but it wete, the name shal ben chaunged. Vertue, but it werche, of goodnesse doth it fayle; and in-to his contrarie the name shal ben reversed. And these ben impossible; wherfore the contradictorie, that is necessarye, nedes muste I leve.' 130 'Certes,' quod she, 'in thy person and out of thy mouthe these wordes lyen wel to ben said, and in thyne understanding to be leved, as in entent of this Margaryte alone. And here now my speche in conclusion of these wordes. CH. XIII. 1. haste. 2, 4. thynge. 4. saue; _read_ saw. 5. werne. 6. howe. 9. action. 12. one. 14. Howe. 18. wronge. 19. _I supply_ it. 21. arne. 24. _I supply_ in. and of; _I omit_ and. 27. thorowe. 29. great. determission (!); _read_ determinison. 32. ysayde. saue; _read_ saw. 33. _I supply_ they. 35. ysayde. 36. afterwarde. accepte. 37. the. great. 39. good; _read_ god. 40. farre fette. 41. goodly; _read_ godly. manyfolde. 44. saythe. 47. ycleaped. 48. meanes. 53. affection. 56. howe. reasons. 57. waye. cause; _read_ caused. 59. baddesse (!). 65. corrupte. 66. meanynge. _I supply_ ordeyned. 68. nothynge. onely. 71. werne. hande. 72. sette. disceuered. 73. dothe. 75. worlde. 78. putte. one. 79. lytle fayre. 80. fayre. 83. _Supply_ maken. 85. Howe. peace. 86. vnpeace. wrothe; _read_ wrathe. 87. Howe. trespeace (!). 89. meanynge. 90. acorde. knytte. 91. amonge. 92. pleaseth. 93. knytte. 94. reasonable. 95. weneth; _read_ weyveth. 97. greatly. 98. great. lyste. 99. adewe. 100. folke. 101. hert. 103. prefe. 105. diseases. 107. Nowe. 109. wherthroughe. 111. no thynge. 113. wante. 115. maye. 119. stretche. profyte. 120. reason. pytie. 121. amonge. 122. _Supply_ unto. comforte. nowe. 124. Fyre. 125. none heate. 128. dothe. 133. nowe. CHAPTER XIV. In these thinges,' quod she, 'that me list now to shewe openly, shal be founde the mater of thy sicknesse, and what shal ben the medicyn that may be thy sorowes lisse and comfort, as wel thee as al other that amisse have erred and out of the way walked, so that any drope of good wil in amendement 5 [may] ben dwelled in their hertes. Proverbes of Salomon openly techeth, how somtyme an innocent walkid by the way in blyndnesse of a derke night; whom mette a woman (if it be leefly to saye) as a strumpet arayed, redily purveyed in turninge of thoughtes with veyne janglinges, and of rest inpacient, by 10 dissimulacion of my termes, saying in this wyse: "Com, and be we dronken of our swete pappes; use we coveitous collinges." And thus drawen was this innocent, as an oxe to the larder.' 'Lady,' quod I, 'to me this is a queynte thing to understande; I praye you, of this parable declare me the entent.' 15 'This innocent,' quod she, 'is a scoler lerninge of my lore, in seching of my blisse, in whiche thinge the day of his thought turning enclyneth in-to eve; and the sonne, of very light faylinge, maketh derke night in his conninge. Thus in derknesse of many doutes he walketh, and for blyndenesse of understandinge, he ne 20 wot in what waye he is in; forsothe, suche oon may lightly ben begyled. To whom cam love fayned, not clothed of my livery, but [of] unlefful lusty habit, with softe speche and mery; and with fayre honyed wordes heretykes and mis-meninge people skleren and wimplen their errours. Austen witnesseth of an 25 heretyk, that in his first beginninge he was a man right expert in resons and swete in his wordes; and the werkes miscorden. Thus fareth fayned love in her firste werchinges. Thou knowest these thinges for trewe; thou hast hem proved by experience somtyme, in doing to thyne owne person; in whiche thing thou hast 30 founde mater of mokel disese. Was not fayned love redily purveyed, thy wittes to cacche and tourne thy good thoughtes? Trewly, she hath wounded the conscience of many with florisshinge of mokel jangling wordes; and good worthe thanked I it for no glose. I am glad of my prudence thou hast so manly her 35 +weyved. To me art thou moche holden, that in thy kynde course of good mening I returne thy mynde. I trowe, ne had I shewed thee thy Margaryte, thou haddest never returned. Of first in good parfit joye was ever fayned love impacient, as the water of Siloë, whiche evermore floweth with stilnesse and privy 40 noyse til it come nighe the brinke, and than ginneth it so out of mesure to bolne, with novelleries of chaunging stormes, that in course of every renning it is in pointe to spille al his circuit of +bankes. Thus fayned love prively, at the fullest of his flowinge, [ginneth] newe stormes [of] debat to arayse. And al-be-it that 45 Mercurius [servants] often with hole understandinge knowen suche perillous maters, yet Veneriens so lusty ben and so leude in their wittes, that in suche thinges right litel or naught don they fele; and wryten and cryen to their felawes: "here is blisse, here is joye"; and thus in-to one same errour mokel folk they 50 drawen. "Come," they sayen, "and be we dronken of our pappes"; that ben fallas and lying glose, of whiche mowe they not souke milke of helthe, but deedly venim and poyson, corrupcion of sorowe. Milke of fallas is venim of disceyt; milke of lying glose is venim of corrupcion. Lo! what thing cometh out of these 55 pappes! "Use we coveited collinges"; desyre we and meddle we false wordes with sote, and sote with false! Trewly, this is the sorinesse of fayned love; nedes, of these surfettes sicknesse muste folowe. Thus, as an oxe, to thy langoring deth were thou drawen; the sote of the smoke hath thee al defased. Ever the deper thou 60 somtyme wadest, the soner thou it founde; if it had thee killed, it had be litel wonder. But on that other syde, my trewe servaunt[s] not faynen ne disceyve conne; sothly, their doinge is open; my foundement endureth, be the burthen never so greet; ever in one it lasteth. It yeveth lyf and blisful goodnesse 65 in the laste endes, though the ginninges ben sharpe. Thus of two contraries, contrarye ben the effectes. And so thilke Margaryte thou servest shal seen thee, by her service out of perillous tribulacion delivered, bycause of her service in-to newe disese fallen, by hope of amendement in the laste ende, with joye 70 to be gladded. Wherfore, of kynde pure, her mercy with grace of good helpe shal she graunte; and els I shal her so strayne, that with pitè shal she ben amaystred. Remembre in thyne herte how horribly somtyme to thyne Margaryte thou trespasest, and in a grete wyse ayenst her thou forfeytest! Clepe ayen thy 75 mynde, and know thyne owne giltes. What goodnesse, what bountee, with mokel folowing pitè founde thou in that tyme? Were thou not goodly accepted in-to grace? By my pluckinge was she to foryevenesse enclyned. And after, I her styred to drawe thee to house; and yet wendest thou utterly for ever 80 have ben refused. But wel thou wost, sithen that I in suche sharpe disese might so greetly avayle, what thinkest in thy wit? How fer may my wit strecche? And thou lache not on thy syde, I wol make the knotte. Certes, in thy good bering I wol acorde with the psauter: "I have founde David in my service true, and 85 with holy oyle of pees and of rest, longe by him desyred, utterly he shal be anoynted." Truste wel to me, and I wol thee not fayle. The +leving of the first way with good herte of continuance that I see in thee grounded, this purpose to parfourme, draweth me by maner of constrayning, that nedes muste I ben thyne helper. 90 Although mirthe a whyle be taried, it shal come at suche seson, that thy thought shal ben joyed. And wolde never god, sithen thyne herte to my resons arn assented, and openly hast confessed thyne amisse-going, and now cryest after mercy, but-if mercy folowed; thy blisse shal ben redy, y-wis; thou ne wost how sone. 95 Now be a good child, I rede. The kynde of vertues, in thy Margaryte rehersed, by strength of me in thy person shul werche. Comfort thee in this; for thou mayst not miscary.' And these wordes sayd, she streyght her on length, and rested a whyle. ¶ THUS ENDETH THE SECONDE BOOK, AND HERE AFTER FOLOWETH THE THIRDE BOOK. CH. XIV. 1. nowe. 4. the. 6. _Supply_ may. 7. teacheth. howe. 8. lefely. 11. sayeng. Come. 14. thynge. 16. scholer. 17. daye. 21. wote. one. 22. whome came. 23. _Supply_ of. unleful lustye habyte. 24. misse-. 26. heretyke. experte. 27. resones. 29. haste. 32. catche. 35. gladde. 36. veyned; _read_ weyved. arte. 37. meanyng. 38. the. 39. parfyte. 42. measure. 43. spyl. 44. cankes (!); _read_ bankes. 45. _I supply_ ginneth _and_ of. debate. 46. _I supply_ servants. 51. sayne. 52-4. lyeng. 54. disceyte. 55. thynge. 58. must. 60. the. 61. the. 63. seruaunt. 65. great. lyfe. 68. sene the. 70, 82. disease. 72. graunt. 74. howe. 75. great. 76. knowe. 77. bountie. 80. the. 82. greatly. 83. howe ferre maye my wytte stretche. 86. peace. 87. the. 88. leanyng (!). 89. se. the. 93. reasones arne. haste. 94. nowe. 96. chylde. 98. Comforte the. 99. sayde. COLOPHON. booke. boke. BOOK III. CHAPTER I. Of nombre, sayn these clerkes, that it is naturel somme of discrete thinges, as in tellinge oon, two, three, and so forth; but among al nombres, three is determined for moste certayn. Wherfore in nombre certayn this werk of my besy leudenesse I thinke to ende and parfourme. Ensample by this worlde, in 5 three tymes is devyded; of whiche the first is cleped +Deviacion, that is to say, going out of trewe way; and al that tho dyeden, in helle were they punisshed for a man[ne]s sinne, til grace and mercy fette hem thence, and there ended the firste tyme. The seconde tyme lasteth from the comming of merciable grace until the ende 10 of transitorie tyme, in whiche is shewed the true way in fordoinge of the badde; and that is y-cleped tyme of Grace. And that thing is not yeven by desert of yeldinge oon benefyt for another, but only through goodnesse of the yever of grace in thilke tyme. Who-so can wel understande is shapen to be saved in souled 15 blisse. The thirde tyme shal ginne whan transitorie thinges of worldes han mad their ende; and that shal ben in Joye, glorie, and rest, both body and soule, that wel han deserved in the tyme of Grace. And thus in that heven +togider shul they dwelle perpetuelly, without any imaginatyfe yvel in any halve. These 20 tymes are figured by tho three dayes that our god was closed in erthe; and in the thirde aroos, shewing our resurreccion to joye and blisse of tho that it deserven, by his merciable grace. So this leude book, in three maters, accordaunt to tho tymes, lightly by a good inseër may ben understonde; as in the firste, 25 Errour of misse-goinge is shewed, with sorowful pyne punisshed, +that cryed after mercy. In the seconde, is Grace in good waye proved, whiche is faylinge without desert, thilke first misse amendinge, in correccion of tho erroures, and even way to bringe, with comfort of welfare in-to amendement wexinge. And in the 30 thirde, Joye and blisse graunted to him that wel can deserve it, and hath savour of understandinge in the tyme of grace. Thus in Joye, of my thirde boke, shal the mater be til it ende. But special cause I have in my herte to make this proces of a Margarit-perle, that is so precious a gemme +whyt, clere and 35 litel, of whiche stones or jewel[les] the tonges of us Englissh people tourneth the right names, and clepeth hem 'Margery-perles'; thus varieth our speche from many other langages. For trewly Latin, Frenche, and many mo other langages clepeth hem, Margery-perles, [by] the name 'Margarites,' or 'Margarite-perles'; 40 wherfore in that denominacion I wol me acorde to other mens tonges, in that name-cleping. These clerkes that treten of kyndes, and studien out the propertee there of thinges, sayn: the Margarite is a litel whyt perle, throughout holowe and rounde and vertuous; and on the see-sydes, in the more Britayne, in 45 muskle-shelles, of the hevenly dewe, the best ben engendred; in whiche by experience ben founde three fayre vertues. Oon is, it yeveth comfort to the feling spirites in bodily persones of reson. Another is good; it is profitable helthe ayenst passions of sorie mens hertes. And the thirde, it is nedeful and noble in staunching of bloode, 50 there els to moche wolde out renne. To whiche perle and vertues me list to lyken at this tyme Philosophie, with her three speces, that is, natural, and moral, and resonable; of whiche thinges hereth what sayn these grete clerkes. Philosophie is knowing of devynly and manly thinges joyned with studie of good living; 55 and this stant in two thinges, that is, conninge and opinion. Conninge is whan a thing by certayn reson is conceyved. But wrecches and fooles and leude men, many wil conceyve a thing and mayntayne it as for sothe, though reson be in the contrarye; wherfore conninge is a straunger. Opinion is whyl a thing is in 60 non-certayn, and hid from mens very knowleging, and by no parfit reson fully declared, as thus: if the sonne be so mokel as men wenen, or els if it be more than the erthe. For in sothnesse the certayn quantitè of that planet is unknowen to erthly dwellers; and yet by opinion of some men it is holden for more than midle-erth. 65 The first spece of philosophie is naturel; whiche in kyndely thinges +treteth, and sheweth causes of heven, and strength of kyndely course; as by arsmetrike, geometry, musike, and by astronomye techeth wayes and cours of hevens, of planetes, and of sterres aboute heven and erthe, and other elementes. 70 The seconde spece is moral, whiche, in order, of living maners techeth; and by reson proveth vertues of soule moste worthy in our living; whiche ben prudence, justice, temperaunce, and strength. Prudence is goodly wisdom in knowing of thinges. Strength voideth al adversitees aliche even. Temperaunce distroyeth 75 beestial living with esy bering. And Justice rightfully jugeth; and juging departeth to every wight that is his owne. The thirde spece turneth in-to reson of understanding; al thinges to be sayd soth and discussed; and that in two thinges is devyded. Oon is art, another is rethorike; in whiche two al 80 lawes of mans reson ben grounded or els maintayned. And for this book is of LOVE, and therafter bereth his name, and philosophie and lawe muste here-to acorden by their clergial discripcions, as: philosophie for love of wisdom is declared, lawe for mainteynaunce of pees is holden: and these with love must 85 nedes acorden; therfore of hem in this place have I touched. Ordre of homly thinges and honest maner of livinge in vertue, with rightful jugement in causes and profitable administracion in comminaltees of realmes and citees, by evenhed profitably to raigne, nat by singuler avauntage ne by privè envy, ne by soleyn 90 purpos in covetise of worship or of goodes, ben disposed in open rule shewed, by love, philosophy, and lawe, and yet love, toforn al other. Wherfore as sustern in unitè they accorden, and oon ende, that is, pees and rest, they causen norisshinge; and in the joye maynteynen to endure. 95 Now than, as I have declared: my book acordeth with discripcion of three thinges; and the Margarit in vertue is lykened to Philosophy, with her three speces. In whiche maters ever twey ben acordaunt with bodily reson, and the thirde with the soule. But in conclusion of my boke and of this Margarite-perle 100 in knittinge togider, Lawe by three sondrye maners shal be lykened; that is to saye, lawe, right, and custome, whiche I wol declare. Al that is lawe cometh of goddes ordinaunce, by kyndly worching; and thilke thinges ordayned by mannes wittes arn y-cleped right, which is ordayned by many maners and in constitucion written. 105 But custome is a thing that is accepted for right or for lawe, there-as lawe and right faylen; and there is no difference, whether it come of scripture or of reson. Wherfore it sheweth, that lawe is kyndly governaunce; right cometh out of mannes probable reson; and custome is of commen usage by length of tyme 110 used; and custome nat writte is usage; and if it be writte, constitucion it is y-written and y-cleped. But lawe of kynde is commen to every nation, as conjunccion of man and woman in love, succession of children in heritance, restitucion of thing by strength taken or lent; and this lawe among al other halt 115 the soveraynest gree in worship; whiche lawe began at the beginning of resonable creature; it varied yet never for no chaunging of tyme. Cause, forsothe, in ordayning of lawe was to constrayne mens hardinesse in-to pees, and withdrawing his yvel wil, and turning malice in-to goodnesse; and that innocence 120 sikerly, withouten teneful anoye, among shrewes safely might inhabite by proteccion of safe-conducte, so that the shrewes, harm for harme, by brydle of ferdnesse shulden restrayne. But forsothe, in kyndely lawe, nothing is commended but such as goddes wil hath confirmed, ne nothing denyed but contrarioustee of 125 goddes wil in heven. Eke than al lawes, or custome, or els constitucion by usage or wryting, that contraryen lawe of kynde, utterly ben repugnaunt and adversarie to our goddes wil of heven. Trewly, lawe of kynde for goddes own lusty wil is verily to mayntayne; under whiche lawe (and unworthy) bothe professe 130 and reguler arn obediencer and bounden to this Margarite-perle as by knotte of loves statutes and stablisshment in kynde, whiche that goodly may not be withsetten. Lo! under this bonde am I constrayned to abyde; and man, under living lawe ruled, by that lawe oweth, after desertes, to ben rewarded by payne or by mede, 135 but-if mercy weyve the payne. So than +by part resonfully may be seye, that mercy bothe right and lawe passeth. Th' entent of al these maters is the lest clere understanding, to weten, at th'ende of this thirde boke; ful knowing, thorow goddes grace, I thinke to make neverthelater. Yet if these thinges han a good 140 and a +sleigh inseër, whiche that can souke hony of the harde stone, oyle of the drye rocke, [he] may lightly fele nobley of mater in my leude imaginacion closed. But for my book shal be of joye (as I sayd), and I [am] so fer set fro thilke place fro whens gladnesse shulde come; my corde is to short to lete my boket 145 ought cacche of that water; and fewe men be abouten my corde to eche, and many in ful purpos ben redy it shorter to make, and to enclose th' entrè, that my boket of joye nothing shulde cacche, but empty returne, my careful sorowes to encrese: (and if I dye for payne, that were gladnesse at their hertes): good lord, send 150 me water in-to the cop of these mountayns, and I shal drinke therof, my thurstes to stanche, and sey, these be comfortable welles; in-to helth of goodnesse of my saviour am I holpen. And yet I saye more, the house of joye to me is nat opened. How dare my sorouful goost than in any mater of gladnesse thinken to 155 trete? For ever sobbinges and complayntes be redy refrete in his meditacions, as werbles in manifolde stoundes comming about I not than. And therfore, what maner of joye coude [I] endyte? But yet at dore shal I knocke, if the key of David wolde the locke unshitte, and he bringe me in, whiche that childrens tonges both 160 openeth and closeth; whos spirit where he +wol wercheth, departing goodly as him lyketh. Now to goddes laude and reverence, profit of the reders, amendement of maners of the herers, encresing of worship among Loves servauntes, releving of my herte in-to grace of my jewel, 165 and fren[d]ship [in] plesance of this perle, I am stered in this making, and for nothing els; and if any good thing to mennes lyking in this scripture be founde, thanketh the maister of grace, whiche that of that good and al other is authour and principal doer. And if any thing be insufficient or els mislyking, +wyte 170 that the leudnesse of myne unable conning: for body in disese anoyeth the understanding in soule. A disesely habitacion letteth the wittes [in] many thinges, and namely in sorowe. The custome never-the-later of Love, +by long tyme of service, in termes I thinke to pursue, whiche ben lyvely to yeve understanding 175 in other thinges. But now, to enforme thee of this Margarites goodnesse, I may her not halfe preyse. Wherfore, nat she for my boke, but this book for her, is worthy to be commended, tho my book be leude; right as thinges nat for places, but places for thinges, ought to be desyred and praysed. 180 BOOK III: CH. I. 1. sayne. 2. one. thre. 3. amonge. thre. 3, 4. certayne. 4. werke. 6. thre. Demacion; _read_ Deuiacion. 8. hel. 13. thynge. deserte. one benefyte. 14. onely. 16. gyn. 17. made. 19. togyther. dwel. 21. thre. 22. arose. resurrection. 24. boke. thre. 25. maye. 26. erroure. 27. is (!); _read_ that. 28. deserte. 29. correction. waye. 30. comforte. 31. canne. 34. hert. processe. 35. peerle. with; _read_ whyt (_see_ l. 44). 36. iewel; _read_ iewelles. 39. cleapeth. 40. _Supply_ by. 42. treaten. 43. propertie. sayne. 44. whyte. 47. One. 48. comforte. reason. 51. ren. 52. thre. 54. sayn. great. 56. stante. 57. certayne. 58. wretches. 60. whyle. 61. -certayne. hydde. 62. parfyte reason. 64. certayne. 67. treten; _read_ treteth. 69. course. 73. lyueng. 74. wysdome. 76. lyueng. easy bearyng. 78. reason. 80. one. arte. 81. reason. 82. booke. beareth. 84. wisdome. 85. peace. 88. administration. 89. co_m_mynalties. cytes. 91. purpose. 93. susterne. one. 94. peace. 96. Nowe. boke. discription. 97-8. thre. 99. reason. 100. peerle. 101. thre. 105. co_n_stitution. 110. reason. 112. co_n_stitutyon. 113. co_n_iunction. 114. restitution. 115. halte. 117. reasonable. 119. peace. 121. amonge. 122. harme for harme. 123. ferdenesse. 124. nothynge. 125. contraryoustie. 130. law. 131. arne. 133. maye. 134. lyueng. 135. payn. 136. be; _read_ by. parte reasonfully. 137. sey. thentent. 139. thende. thorowe. 141. sleight; _read_ sleigh. 142. _I insert_ he. 143. ymagination. boke. 144. _Supply_ am. ferre. 145. let. 146-8. catch. 147. purpose. 148. thentre. 150. lorde sende. 152. sta_n_ch. 157. meditatio_n_s. 158. _I supply_ I. 160. vnshyt. bring. 161. whose spirite. wel; _read_ wol. 163. Nowe. profite. 165. hert. 166. frenship. _I supply_ in. peerle. 170. with; _read_ wyte. 172. habitation. 173. _I supply_ in. 174. be; _read_ by. 176. nowe. enform the. 178-9. boke (_thrice_). CHAPTER II. 'Now,' quod Love, 'trewly thy wordes I have wel understonde. Certes, me thinketh hem right good; and me wondreth why thou so lightly passest in the lawe.' 'Sothly,' quod I, 'my wit is leude, and I am right blynd, and that mater depe. How shulde I than have waded? Lightly 5 might I have drenched, and spilte ther my-selfe.' 'Ye,' quod she, 'I shal helpe thee to swimme. For right as lawe punissheth brekers of preceptes and the contrary-doers of the written constitucions, right so ayenward lawe rewardeth and yeveth mede to hem that lawe strengthen. By one lawe this 10 rebel is punisshed and this innocent is meded; the shrewe is enprisoned and this rightful is corowned. The same lawe that joyneth by wedlocke without forsaking, the same lawe yeveth lybel of departicion bycause of devorse both demed and declared.' 15 'Ye, ye,' quod I, 'I fynde in no lawe to mede and rewarde in goodnes the gilty of desertes.' 'Fole,' quod she, 'gilty, converted in your lawe, mikel merit deserveth. Also Pauly[n] of Rome was crowned, that by him the maynteyners of Pompeus weren knowen and distroyed; and yet 20 toforn was this Paulyn cheef of Pompeus counsaile. This lawe in Rome hath yet his name of mesuring, in mede, the bewraying of the conspiracy, ordayned by tho senatours the deth. Julius Cesar is acompted in-to Catons rightwisnesse; for ever in trouth florissheth his name among the knowers of reson. Perdicas was 25 crowned in the heritage of Alexander the grete, for tellinge of a prevy hate that king Porrus to Alexander hadde. Wherfore every wight, by reson of lawe, after his rightwysenesse apertely his mede may chalenge; and so thou, that maynteynest lawe of kynde, and therfore disese hast suffred in the lawe, reward is 30 worthy to be rewarded and ordayned, and +apertly thy mede might thou chalenge.' 'Certes,' quod I, 'this have I wel lerned; and ever hens-forward I shal drawe me therafter, in oonhed of wil to abyde, this lawe bothe maynteyne and kepe; and so hope I best entre in-to 35 your grace, wel deservinge in-to worship of a wight, without nedeful compulsion, [that] ought medefully to be rewarded.' 'Truly,' quod Love, 'that is sothe; and tho[ugh], by constitucion, good service in-to profit and avantage strecche, utterly many men it demen to have more desert of mede than good wil 40 nat compelled.' 'See now,' quod I, 'how +many men holden of this the contrary. And what is good service? Of you wolde I here this question declared.' 'I shal say thee,' quod she, 'in a fewe wordes:--resonable 45 workinges in plesaunce and profit of thy soverayne.' 'How shulde I this performe?' quod I. 'Right wel,' quod she; 'and here me now a litel. It is hardely (quod she) to understande, that right as mater by due overchaunginges foloweth his perfeccion and his forme, right so every 50 man, by rightful werkinges, ought to folowe the lefful desyres in his herte, and see toforn to what ende he deserveth. For many tymes he that loketh nat after th'endes, but utterly therof is unknowen, befalleth often many yvels to done, wherthrough, er he be war, shamefully he is confounded; th'ende[s] therof neden to 55 be before loked. To every desirer of suche foresight in good service, three thinges specially nedeth to be rulers in his workes. First, that he do good; next, that he do [it] by eleccion in his owne herte; and the thirde, that he do godly, withouten any surquedry in thoughtes. That your werkes shulden be good, in 60 service or in any other actes, authoritès many may be aleged; neverthelater, by reson thus may it be shewed. Al your werkes be cleped seconde, and moven in vertue of the firste wercher, whiche in good workes wrought you to procede; and right so your werkes moven in-to vertue of the laste ende: and right in 65 the first workinge were nat, no man shulde in the seconde werche. Right so, but ye feled to what ende, and seen their goodnes closed, ye shulde no more +recche what ye wrought; but the ginning gan with good, and there shal it cese in the laste ende, if it be wel considred. Wherfore the middle, if other-wayes it drawe 70 than accordant to the endes, there stinteth the course of good, and another maner course entreth; and so it is a partie by him-selve; and every part [that] be nat accordant to his al, is foul and ought to be eschewed. Wherfore every thing that is wrought and be nat good, is nat accordant to th'endes of his al hole; it is 75 foul, and ought to be withdrawe. Thus the persons that neither don good ne harm shamen foule their making. Wherfore, without working of good actes in good service, may no man ben accepted. Truely, the ilke that han might to do good and doon it nat, the crowne of worship shal be take from hem, and with shame shul 80 they be anulled; and so, to make oon werke acordant with his endes, every good servaunt, by reson of consequence, muste do good nedes. Certes, it suffiseth nat alone to do good, but goodly withal folowe; the thanke of goodnesse els in nought he deserveth. For right as al your being come from the greetest 85 good, in whom al goodnesse is closed, right so your endes ben directe to the same good. Aristotel determineth that ende and good ben one, and convertible in understanding; and he that in wil doth awey good, and he that loketh nat to th'ende, loketh nat to good; but he that doth good and doth nat goodly, [and] 90 draweth away the direction of th'ende nat goodly, must nedes be badde. Lo! badde is nothing els but absence or negative of good, as derkenesse is absence or negative of light. Than he that dooth [not] goodly, directeth thilke good in-to th'ende of badde; so muste thing nat good folowe: eke badnesse to suche 95 folke ofte foloweth. Thus contrariaunt workers of th'ende that is good ben worthy the contrary of th'ende that is good to have.' 'How,' quod I, 'may any good dede be doon, but-if goodly it helpe?' 100 'Yes,' quod Love, 'the devil doth many good dedes, but goodly he leveth be-hynde; for +ever badly and in disceyvable wyse he worketh; wherfore the contrary of th'ende him foloweth. And do he never so many good dedes, bicause goodly is away, his goodnes is nat rekened. Lo! than, tho[ugh] a man do good, 105 but he do goodly, th'ende in goodnesse wol nat folowe; and thus in good service both good dede and goodly doon musten joyne togider, and that it be doon with free choise in herte; and els deserveth he nat the merit in goodnes: that wol I prove. For if thou do any-thing good by chaunce or by happe, in what thing 110 art thou therof worthy to be commended? For nothing, by reson of that, turneth in-to thy praysing ne lacking. Lo! thilke thing doon by hap, by thy wil is nat caused; and therby shulde I thanke or lacke deserve? And sithen that fayleth, th'ende which that wel shulde rewarde, must ned[e]s faile. Clerkes sayn, no man 115 but willinge is blessed; a good dede that he hath doon is nat doon of free choice willing; without whiche blissednesse may nat folowe. _Ergo_, neither thanke of goodnesse ne service [is] in that [that] is contrary of the good ende. So than, to good service longeth good dede goodly don, thorow free choice in herte.' 120 'Truely,' quod I, 'this have I wel understande.' 'Wel,' quod she, 'every thing thus doon sufficiently by lawe, that is cleped justice, [may] after-reward clayme. For lawe and justice was ordayned in this wyse, suche desertes in goodnesse, after quantitè in doinge, by mede to rewarde; and of necessitè of 125 suche justice, that is to say, rightwysenesse, was free choice in deserving of wel or of yvel graunted to resonable creatures. Every man hath free arbitrement to chose, good or yvel to performe.' 'Now,' quod I tho, 'if I by my good wil deserve this Margarit-perle, 130 and am nat therto compelled, and have free choice to do what me lyketh; she is than holden, as me thinketh, to rewarde th'entent of my good wil.' 'Goddes forbode els,' quod Love; 'no wight meneth otherwyse, I trowe; free wil of good herte after-mede deserveth.' 135 'Hath every man,' quod I, 'free choice by necessary maner of wil in every of his doinges that him lyketh, by goddes proper purvyaunce? I wolde see that wel declared to my leude understanding; for "necessary" and "necessitè" ben wordes of mokel entencion, closing (as to saye) so mote it be nedes, and otherwyse 140 may it nat betyde.' 'This shalt thou lerne,' quod she, 'so thou take hede in my speche. If it were nat in mannes owne libertè of free wil to do good or bad, but to the one teyed by bonde of goddes preordinaunce, than, do he never so wel, it were by nedeful compulcion 145 of thilk bonde, and nat by free choice, wherby nothing he desyreth: and do he never so yvel, it were nat man for to wyte, but onlich to him that suche thing ordayned him to done. Wherfore he ne ought for bad[de] be punisshed, ne for no good dede be rewarded; but of necessitè of rightwisnesse was therfore 150 free choice of arbitrement put in mans proper disposicion. Truely, if it were otherwyse, it contraried goddes charitè, that badnesse and goodnesse rewardeth after desert of payne or of mede.' 'Me thinketh this wonder,' quod I; 'for god by necessitè forwot al thinges coming, and so mote it nedes be; and thilke 155 thinges that ben don +by our free choice comen nothing of necessitè but only +by wil. How may this stonde +togider? And so me thinketh truely, that free choice fully repugneth goddes forweting. Trewly, lady, me semeth, they mowe nat stande +togider.' 160 CH. II. 1. Nowe. 4. blynde. 5. howe. 7. Yea. the. swym. 9. constitutions. aye_n_warde. 17. gyltie. 18. gyltie. merite. 19. Pauly (_for_ Paulyn; _first time_). 21. toforne. chefe. 25. amonge. 25-8. reason. 26. great. 30. disease. rewarde. 31. apartly (_for_ ap_er_tly). 34. onehed. 37. _I supply_ that. 38. constitution. 39. profite. stretch. 42. Se. howe may. 45. the. 46. profite. 47. Howe. 48. nowe. 50. perfection. 51. leful. 52. hert. se. 55. ware. 57. thre. 58. _I supply_ it. electyon. 59. hert. 62. reason. maye. 68. recth (_for_ retch); _read_ recche. 69. cease. 73. p_ar_te. _I supply_ that. 73-5. foule. 77. harme. 79. done. 81. one. 82. reason. 85. greatest. 90. _I supply_ and. 92. bad. negatyfe (_first time_). 94. _I supply_ not. 99. done. 101. dothe. 102. even; _read_ ever. 105. tho. 107-8. done (_twice_). 108. hert. 109. merite. 111. reason. 113. done. shulde I; _put for_ shuldest thou. 115. neds (_sic_). 116-7. done (_twice_). 118. _I supply_ is _and_ that. 120. thorowe fre. hert. 122. done. 123. _I supply_ may. rewarde claym. 130. Nowe. 134. meaneth. 135. hert. 136. fre. 138. se. 140. ente_n_tion. 142. lern. 143-6. fre (_twice_). 148. onelych. 149. bad. 151. fre. 151. disposition. 153. payn. 155. forwote. 156. be; _for_ by. fre. 157. onely be; _for_ by. Howe. 157-60. togyther; _read_ togider. 158. fre. CHAPTER III. Than gan Love nighe me nere, and with a noble countenance of visage and limmes, dressed her nigh my sitting-place. 'Take forth,' quod she, 'thy pen, and redily wryte these wordes. For if god wol, I shal hem so enforme to thee, that thy 5 leudnesse which I have understande in that mater shal openly be clered, and thy sight in ful loking therin amended. First, if thou thinke that goddes prescience repugne libertè of arbitrement, it is impossible that they shulde accorde in onheed of sothe to understonding.' 10 'Ye,' quod I, 'forsothe; so I it conceyve.' 'Wel,' quod she, 'if thilke impossible were away, the repugnaunce that semeth to be therin were utterly removed.' 'Shewe me the absence of that impossibilitè,' quod I. 'So,' quod she, 'I shal. Now I suppose that they mowe 15 stande togider: prescience of god, whom foloweth necessitè of thinges comming, and libertè of arbitrement, thorow whiche thou belevest many thinges to be without necessitè.' 'Bothe these proporcions be sothe,' quod I, 'and wel mowe stande togider; wherfore this case as possible I admit.' 20 'Truely,' quod she, 'and this case is impossible.' 'How so?' quod I. 'For herof,' quod she, 'foloweth and wexeth another impossible.' 'Prove me that,' quod I. 25 'That I shal,' quod she; 'for somthing is comming without necessitè, and god wot that toforn; for al thing comming he before wot, and that he beforn wot of necessitè is comming, as he beforn wot be the case by necessary maner; or els, thorow necessitè, is somthing to be without necessitè; and wheder, to 30 every wight that hath good understanding, is seen these thinges to be repugnaunt: prescience of god, whiche that foloweth necessitè, and libertè of arbitrement, fro whiche is removed necessitè? For truely, it is necessary that god have forweting of thing withouten any necessitè cominge.' 35 'Ye,' quod I; 'but yet remeve ye nat away fro myne understanding the necessitè folowing goddes be foreweting, as thus. God beforn wot me in service of love to be bounden to this Margarite-perle, and therfore by necessitè thus to love am I bounde; and if I had nat loved, thorow necessitè had I ben kept from al 40 love-dedes.' 'Certes,' quod Love, 'bicause this mater is good and necessary to declare, I thinke here-in wel to abyde, and not lightly to passe. Thou shalt not (quod she) say al-only, "god beforn wot me to be a lover or no lover," but thus: "god beforn wot me to be a lover 45 without necessitè." And so foloweth, whether thou love or not love, every of hem is and shal be. But now thou seest the impossibilitè of the case, and the possibilitè of thilke that thou wendest had been impossible; wherfore the repugnaunce is adnulled.' 'Ye,' quod I; 'and yet do ye not awaye the strength of necessitè, 50 whan it is said, th[r]ough necessitè it is me in love to abyde, or not to love without necessitè for god beforn wot it. This maner of necessitè forsothe semeth to some men in-to coaccion, that is to sayne, constrayning, or else prohibicion, that is, defendinge; wherfore necessitè is me to love of wil. I understande 55 me to be constrayned by some privy strength to the wil of lovinge; and if [I] no[t] love, to be defended from the wil of lovinge: and so thorow necessitè me semeth to love, for I love; or els not to love, if I not love; wherthrough neither thank ne maugrè in tho thinges may I deserve.' 60 'Now,' quod she, 'thou shalt wel understande, that often we sayn thing thorow necessitè to be, that by no strength to be neither is coarted ne constrayned; and through necessitè not to be, that with no defendinge is removed. For we sayn it is thorow necessitè god to be immortal, nought deedliche; and it 65 is necessitè, god to be rightful; but not that any strength of violent maner constrayneth him to be immortal, or defendeth him to be unrightful; for nothing may make him dedly or unrightful. Right so, if I say, thorow necessitè is thee to be a lover or els noon; only thorow wil, as god beforn wete. It is nat to understonde 70 that any thing defendeth or forbit thee thy wil, whiche shal nat be; or els constrayneth it to be, whiche shal be. That same thing, forsoth, god before wot, whiche he beforn seeth. Any thing commende of only wil, that wil neyther is constrayned ne defended thorow any other thing. And so thorow libertè of 75 arbitrement it is do, that is don of wil. And trewly, my good child, if these thinges be wel understonde, I wene that non inconvenient shalt thou fynde betwene goddes forweting and libertè of arbitrement; wherfore I wot wel they may stande togider. Also farthermore, who that understanding of prescience 80 properlich considreth, thorow the same wyse that any-thing be afore wist is said, for to be comming it is pronounced; there is nothing toforn wist but thing comming; foreweting is but of trouth[e]; dout[e] may nat be wist; wherfore, whan I sey that god toforn wot any-thing, thorow necessitè is thilke thing to be comming; 85 al is oon if I sey, it shal be. But this necessitè neither constrayneth ne defendeth any-thing to be or nat to be. Therfore sothly, if love is put to be, it is said of necessitè to be; or els, for it is put nat to be, it is affirmed nat to be of necessitè; nat for that necessitè constrayneth or defendeth love to be or nat to be. For 90 whan I say, if love shal be, of necessitè it shal be, here foloweth necessitè the thing toforn put; it is as moch to say as if it were thus pronounced--"that thing shal be." Noon other thing signifyeth this necessitè but only thus: that shal be, may nat togider be and nat be. Evenlich also it is soth, love was, and is, and shal 95 be, nat of necessitè; and nede is to have be al that was; and nedeful is to be al that is; and comming, to al that shal be. And it is nat the same to saye, love to be passed, and love passed to be passed; or love present to be present, and love to be present; or els love to be comminge, and love comminge to be 100 comming. Dyversitè in setting of wordes maketh dyversitè in understandinge; altho[ugh] in the same sentence they accorden of significacion; right as it is nat al oon, love swete to be swete, and love to be swete. For moch love is bitter and sorouful, er hertes ben esed; and yet it glad[d]eth thilke sorouful herte on 105 suche love to thinke.' 'Forsothe,' quod I, 'outherwhile I have had mokel blisse in herte of love that stoundmele hath me sorily anoyed. And certes, lady, for I see my-self thus knit with this Margarite-perle as by bonde of your service and of no libertè of wil, my herte wil 110 now nat acorde this service to love. I can demin in my-selfe non otherwise but thorow necessitè am I constrayned in this service to abyde. But alas! than, if I thorow nedeful compulsioun maugre me be with-holde, litel thank for al my greet traveil have I than deserved.' 115 'Now,' quod this lady, 'I saye as I sayde: me lyketh this mater to declare at the ful, and why: for many men have had dyvers fantasyes and resons, both on one syde therof and in the other. Of whiche right sone, I trowe, if thou wolt understonde, thou shalt conne yeve the sentence to the partie more probable 120 by reson, and in soth knowing, by that I have of this mater maked an ende.' 'Certes,' quod I, 'of these thinges longe have I had greet lust to be lerned; for yet, I wene, goddes wil and his prescience acordeth with my service in lovinge of this precious Margarite-perle. 125 After whom ever, in my herte, with thursting desyre wete, I do brenne; unwasting, I langour and fade; and the day of my desteny in dethe or in joye I +onbyde; but yet in th'ende I am comforted +by my supposaile, in blisse and in joye to determine after my desyres.' 130 'That thing,' quoth Love, 'hastely to thee neigh, god graunt of his grace and mercy! And this shal be my prayer, til thou be lykende in herte at thyne owne wil. But now to enforme thee in this mater (quod this lady) thou wost where I lefte; that was: love to be swete, and love swete to be swete, is not al oon for to 135 say. For a tree is nat alway by necessitè white. Somtyme, er it were white, it might have be nat white; and after tyme it is white, it may be nat white. But a white tree evermore nedeful is to be white; for neither toforn ne after it was white, might it be togider white and nat white. Also love, by necessitè, is nat 140 present as now in thee; for er it were present, it might have be that it shulde now nat have be; and yet it may be that it shal nat be present; but thy love present whiche to her, Margarite, thee hath bounde, nedeful is to be present. Trewly, som doing of accion, nat by necessitè, is comminge fer toforn it be; it may be 145 that it shal nat be comminge. Thing forsoth comming nedeful is to be comming; for it may nat be that comming shal nat be comming. And right as I have sayd of present and of future tymes, the same sentence in sothnesse is of the preterit, that is to say, tyme passed. For thing passed must nedes be passed; and 150 er it were, it might have nat be; wherfore it shulde nat have passed. Right so, whan love comming is said of love that is to come, nedeful is to be that is said; for thing comming never is nat comminge. And so, ofte, the same thing we sayn of the same; as whan we sayn "every man is a man," or "every lover is a lover," 155 so muste it be nedes. In no waye may he be man and no man togider. And if it be nat by necessitè, that is to say nedeful, al thing comming to be comming, than somthing comming is nat comminge, and that is impossible. Right as these termes "nedeful," "necessitè," and "necessary" betoken and signify thing nedes 160 to be, and it may nat otherwyse be, right [so] +this terme "impossible" signifyeth, that [a] thing is nat and by no way may it be. Than, thorow pert necessitè, al thing comming is comming; but that is by necessitè foloweth, with nothing to be constrayned. Lo! whan that "comming" is said of thinge, nat alway thing 165 thorow necessitè is, altho[ugh] it be comming. For if I say, "to-morowe love is comming in this Margarites herte," nat therfore thorow necessitè shal the ilke love be; yet it may be that it shal nat be, altho[ugh] it were comming. Neverthelater, somtyme it is soth that somthing be of necessitè, that is sayd "to come"; as 170 if I say, to-morowe +be comminge the rysinge of the sonne. If therfore with necessitè I pronounce comming of thing to come, in this maner love to-morne comminge in thyne Margarite to thee-ward, by necessitè is comminge; or els the rysing of the sonne to-morne comminge, through necessitè is comminge. Love sothely, 175 whiche may nat be of necessitè alone folowinge, thorow necessitè comming it is mad certayn. For "futur" of future is said; that is to sayn, "comming" of comminge is said; as, if to-morowe comming is thorow necessitè, comminge it is. Arysing of the sonne, thorow two necessitès in comming, it is to understande; that oon is 180 to-for[e]going necessitè, whiche maketh thing to be; therfore it shal be, for nedeful is that it be. Another is folowing necessitè, whiche nothing constrayneth to be, and so by necessitè it is to come; why? for it is to come. Now than, whan we sayn that god beforn wot thing comming, nedeful [it] is to be comming; yet therfore make 185 we nat in certayn evermore, thing to be thorow necessitè comminge. Sothly, thing comming may nat be nat comming by no way; for it is the same sentence of understanding as if we say thus: if god beforn wot any-thing, nedeful is that to be comming. But yet therfore foloweth nat the prescience of God, thing thorow 190 necessitè to be comming: for al-tho[ugh] god toforn wot al thinges comming, yet nat therfore he beforn wot every thing comming thorow necessitè. Some thinges he beforn wot comming of free wil out of resonable creature.' 'Certes,' quod I, 'these termes "nede" and "necessitè" have 195 a queint maner of understanding; they wolden dullen many mennes wittes.' 'Therfore,' quod she, 'I wol hem openly declare, and more clerely than I have toforn, er I departe hen[ne]s. CH. III. 1. nygh. 5. the. 6. vndersta_n_d. 8. lyberte of arbetry of arbitrement; _omit_ arbetry of. 15. Nowe. 17. thorowe. 22. Howe. 29. beforne. maner than (_omit_ than). thorowe. 30. whed_er_to. 38. beforne wote. 40. thorowe. kepte. 44. shalte. onely. 44-5. beforne wote (_twice_). 47. nowe. 51. though; _read_ through. 52. beforne wote. 53. coaction. 57. _Supply_ I; _for_ no _read_ not; _see_ l. 59. 58. thorowe. 59. thanke. 60. maye. 61. Nowe. shalte. 62. sayne. thorowe. 63. throughe. 64. sayne. 65. thorowe. 67. violente. 69. thorowe. the. 70. none. onely thorowe. beforne. 71. the. 73-4. thynge. 74. co_m_mende; _for_ comminge. onely. 75. thorowe (_twice_). 76. done. 77. childe. vndersto_n_d. 81. thorowe. 84. trouth. dout. 85. wote. thorowe. 86. if it shal be; _omit_ if. 92. toforne. 93. None. 94. onely. 102. altho. 103. signification. one. 105. eased. hert. 108. hert. 109. se. peerle. 110. hert. 111. nowe. 112. thorowe. 113. thorowe. 114. thanke. great. 116. Nowe. 118. reasons. 120. shalte con. 121. reason. 123. great luste. 126. hert. weete. 128. vnbyde (!). 129. be; _for_ by. 133. nowe. the. 135. one. 138. maye. 141. nowe. the. 142. nowe. maye. 143. the. 144. some. 145. action. ferre. 154. thynge. 155. sayne. 161. _I supply_ so. these termes; _read_ this terme. 162. _I supply_ a. 163-6. thorowe. (_twice_). 166. altho. 167. hert. 169. altho. 171. by; _read_ be. 173. the warde. 176. thorowe. 177. made certayne. 179. thorowe. 180. one. 181. to forgoing. 184. Nowe. 185. _I supply_ it. 186. certayne. thynge. thorowe. 187. maye. 190. thorowe. 191. wote. 193. thorowe. 200. hense; _read_ hennes. CHAPTER IV. Here of this mater,' quod she, 'thou shalt understande that, right as it is nat nedeful, god to wilne that he wil, no more in many thinges is nat nedeful, a man to wilne that he wol. And ever, right as nedeful is to be, what that god wol, right so to be it is nedeful that man wol in tho thinges, whiche 5 that god hath put in-to mannes subjeccion of willinge; as, if a man wol love, that he love; and if he ne wol love, that he love nat; and of suche other thinges in mannes disposicion. For-why, now than that god wol may nat be, whan he wol the wil of man thorow no necessitè to be constrayned or els defended for to 10 wilne, and he wol th'effect to folowe the wil; than is it nedeful, wil of man to be free, and also to be that he wol. In this maner it is soth, that thorow necessitè is mannes werke in loving, that he wol do altho[ugh] he wol it nat with necessitè.' Quod I than, 'how stant it in love of thilke wil, sithen men 15 loven willing of free choice in herte? Wherfore, if it be thorow necessitè, I praye you, lady, of an answere this question to assoyle.' 'I wol,' quod she, 'answere thee blyvely. Right as men wil not thorow necessitè, right so is not love of wil thorow necessitè; 20 ne thorow necessitè wrought thilke same wil. For if he wolde it not with good wil, it shulde nat have been wrought; although that he doth, it is nedeful to be doon. But if a man do sinne, it is nothing els but to +wilne that he shulde nat; right so sinne of wil is not to be [in] maner necessary don, no more than wil is 25 necessarye. Never-the-later, this is sothe; if a man wol sinne, it is necessarye him to sinne, but th[r]ough thilke necessitè nothing is constrayned ne defended in the wil; right so thilke thing that free-wil wol and may, and not may not wilne; and nedeful is that to wilne he may not wilne. But thilke to wilne nedeful is; for 30 impossible to him it is oon thing and the same to wilne and not to wilne. The werke, forsothe, of wil, to whom it is yeve that it be that he hath in wil, and that he wol not, voluntarie +or spontanye it is; for by spontanye wil it is do, that is to saye, with good wil not constrayned: than by wil not constrayned it is constrayned to 35 be; and that is it may not +togider be. If this necessitè maketh libertè of wil, whiche that, aforn they weren, they might have ben eschewed and shonned: god than, whiche that knoweth al tr[o]uthe, and nothing but tr[o]uthe, al these thinges, as they arn spontanye or necessarie, +seeth; and as he seeth, so they 40 ben. And so with these thinges wel considred, it is open at the ful, that without al maner repugnaunce god beforn wot al maner thinges [that] ben don by free wil, whiche, aforn they weren, [it] might have ben [that] never they shulde be. And yet ben they thorow a maner necessitè from free wil +discended. 45 Hereby may (quod she) lightly ben knowe that not al thinges to be, is of necessitè, though god have hem in his prescience. For som thinges to be, is of libertè of wil. And to make thee to have ful knowinge of goddes beforn-weting, here me (quod she) what I shal say.' 50 'Blythly, lady,' quod I, 'me list this mater entyrely to understande.' 'Thou shalt,' quod she, 'understande that in heven is goddes beinge; although he be over al by power, yet there is abydinge of devyne persone; in whiche heven is everlastinge presence, withouten 55 any movable tyme. There * is nothing preterit ne passed, there is nothing future ne comming; but al thinges togider in that place ben present everlasting, without any meving. Wherfore, to god, al thing is as now; and though a thing be nat, in kyndly nature of thinges, as yet, and if it shulde be herafter, yet evermore 60 we shul saye, god it maketh be tyme present, and now; for no future ne preterit in him may be founde. Wherfore his weting and his before-weting is al oon in understanding. Than, if weting and before-weting of god putteth in necessitè to al thinges whiche he wot or before-wot; ne thing, after eternitè or els after any 65 tyme, he wol or doth of libertè, but al of necessitè: whiche thing if thou wene it be ayenst reson, [than is] nat thorow necessitè to be or nat to be, al thing that god wot or before-wot to be or nat to be; and yet nothing defendeth any-thing to be wist or to be before-wist of him in our willes or our doinges to be don, or els 70 comminge to be for free arbitrement. Whan thou hast these declaracions wel understande, than shalt thou fynde it resonable at prove, and that many thinges be nat thorow necessitè but thorow libertè of wil, save necessitè of free wil, as I tofore said, and, as me thinketh, al utterly declared.' 75 'Me thinketh, lady,' quod I, 'so I shulde you nat displese, and evermore your reverence to kepe, that these thinges contraryen in any understanding; for ye sayn, somtyme is thorow libertè of wil, and also thorow necessitè. Of this have I yet no savour, without better declaracion.' 80 'What wonder,' quod she, 'is there in these thinges, sithen al day thou shalt see at thyne eye, in many thinges receyven in hem-selfe revers, thorow dyvers resons, as thus:--I pray thee (quod she) which thinges ben more revers than "comen" and "gon"? For if I bidde thee "come to me," and thou come, after, whan 85 I bidde thee "go," and thou go, thou reversest fro thy first comming.' 'That is soth,' quod I. 'And yet,' quod she, 'in thy first alone, by dyvers reson, was ful reversinge to understande.' 90 'As how?' quod I. 'That shal I shewe thee,' quod she, 'by ensample of thinges that have kyndly moving. Is there any-thing that meveth more kyndly than doth the hevens eye, whiche I clepe the sonne?' 'Sothly,' quod I, 'me semeth it is most kyndly to move.' 95 'Thou sayest soth,' quod she. 'Than, if thou loke to the sonne, in what parte he be under heven, evermore he +hyeth him in moving fro thilke place, and +hyeth meving toward the ilke same place; to thilke place from whiche he goth he +hyeth comminge; and without any ceesinge to that place he neigheth 100 from whiche he is chaunged and withdrawe. But now in these thinges, after dyversitè of reson, revers in one thinge may be seye without repugnaunce. Wherfore in the same wyse, without any repugnaunce, by my resons tofore maked, al is oon to beleve, somthing to be thorow necessitè comminge for it is comming, and 105 yet with no necessitè constrayned to be comming, but with necessitè that cometh out of free wil, as I have sayd.' Tho liste me a litel to speke, and gan stinte my penne of my wryting, and sayde in this wyse. 'Trewly, lady, as me thinketh, I can allege authoritees grete, 110 that contrarien your sayinges. Job saith of mannes person, "thou hast put his terme, whiche thou might not passe." Than saye I that no man may shorte ne lengthe the day ordayned of his +dying, altho[ugh] somtyme to us it semeth som man to do a thing of free wil, wherthorow his deeth he henteth.' 115 'Nay, forsothe,' quod she, 'it is nothing ayenst my saying; for god is not begyled, ne he seeth nothing wheder it shal come of libertè or els of necessitè; yet it is said to be ordayned at god immovable, whiche at man, or it be don, may be chaunged. Suche thing is also that Poule the apostel saith of hem that tofore 120 wern purposed to be sayntes, as thus: "whiche that god before wiste and hath predestined conformes of images of his +sone, that he shulde ben the firste begeten, that is to saye, here amonges many brethren; and whom he hath predestined, hem he hath cleped; and whom he hath cleped, hem he hath justifyed; and 125 whom he hath justifyed, hem he hath magnifyed." This purpos, after whiche they ben cleped sayntes or holy in the everlasting present, wher is neither tyme passed ne tyme comminge, but ever it is only present, and now as mokel a moment as sevin thousand winter; and so ayenward withouten any meving is nothing lich 130 temporel presence for thinge that there is ever present. Yet amonges you men, er it be in your presence, it is movable thorow libertè of arbitrement. And right as in the everlasting present no maner thing was ne shal be, but only _is_; and now here, in your temporel tyme, somthing was, and is, and shal be, but 135 movinge stoundes; and in this is no maner repugnaunce: right so, in the everlasting presence, nothing may be chaunged; and, in your temporel tyme, otherwhyle it is proved movable by libertè of wil or it be do, withouten any inconvenience therof to folowe. In your temporel tyme is no suche presence as in the tother; for 140 your present is don whan passed and to come ginnen entre; whiche tymes here amonges you everich esily foloweth other. But the presence everlasting dureth in oonhed, withouten any imaginable chaunging, and ever is present and now. Trewly, the course of the planettes and overwhelminges of the sonne in dayes 145 and nightes, with a newe ginning of his circute after it is ended, that is to sayn, oon yeer to folowe another: these maken your transitory tymes with chaunginge of lyves and mutacion of people, but right as your temporel presence coveiteth every place, and al thinges in every of your tymes be contayned, and as now both 150 seye and wist to goddes very knowinge.' 'Than,' quod I, 'me wondreth why Poule spak these wordes by voice of significacion in tyme passed, that god his sayntes before-wist hath predestined, hath cleped, hath justifyed, and hath magnifyed. Me thinketh, he shulde have sayd tho wordes 155 in tyme present; and that had ben more accordaunt to the everlasting present than to have spoke in preterit voice of passed understanding.' 'O,' quod Love, 'by these wordes I see wel thou hast litel understanding of the everlasting presence, or els of my before 160 spoken wordes; for never a thing of tho thou hast nempned was tofore other or after other; but al at ones evenlich at the god ben, and al togider in the everlasting present be now to understanding. This eternal presence, as I sayd, hath inclose togider in one al tymes, in which close and one al thinges that ben in 165 dyvers tymes and in dyvers places temporel, [and] without posterioritè or prioritè ben closed ther in perpetual now, and maked to dwelle in present sight. But there thou sayest that Poule shulde have spoke thilke forsaid sentence +by tyme present, and that most shulde have ben acordaunt to the everlasting presence, 170 why gabbest thou +in thy wordes? Sothly, I say, Poule moved the wordes by significacion of tyme passed, to shewe fully that thilk wordes were nat put for temporel significacion; for al [at] thilk tyme [of] thilke sentence were nat temporallich born, whiche that Poule pronounced god have tofore knowe, and have cleped, than 175 magnifyed. Wherthorow it may wel be knowe that Poule used tho wordes of passed significacion, for nede and lacke of a worde in mannes bodily speche betokeninge the everlasting presence. And therfore, [in] worde moste semeliche in lykenesse to everlasting presence, he took his sentence; for thinges that here-beforn 180 ben passed utterly be immovable, y-lyke to the everlasting presence. As thilke that ben there never mowe not ben present, so thinges of tyme passed ne mowe in no wyse not ben passed; but al thinges in your temporal presence, that passen in a litel while, shullen ben not present. So than in that, it is more 185 similitude to the everlasting presence, significacion of tyme passed than of tyme temporal present, and so more in accordaunce. In this maner what thing, of these that ben don thorow free arbitrement, or els as necessary, holy writ pronounceth, after eternitè he speketh; in whiche presence is everlasting sothe and nothing but 190 sothe immovable; nat after tyme, in whiche naught alway ben your willes and your actes. And right as, while they be nat, it is nat nedeful hem to be, so ofte it is nat nedeful that somtyme they shulde be.' 'As how?' quod I; 'for yet I must be lerned by some 195 ensample.' 'Of love,' quod she, 'wol I now ensample make, sithen I knowe the heed-knotte in that yelke. Lo! somtyme thou wrytest no art, ne art than in no wil to wryte. And right as while thou wrytest nat or els wolt nat wryte, it is nat nedeful thee to wryte 200 or els wilne to wryte. And for to make thee knowe utterly that thinges ben otherwise in the everlastinge presence than in temporal tyme, see now, my good child: for somthing is in the everlastinge presence, than in temporal tyme it was nat; in +eterne tyme, in eterne presence shal it nat be. Than no reson 205 defendeth, that somthing ne may be in tyme temporal moving, that in eterne is immovable. Forsothe, it is no more contrary ne revers for to be movable in tyme temporel, and [im]movable in eternitè, than nat to be in any tyme and to be alway in eternitè; and to have be or els to come in tyme temporel, and 210 nat have be ne nought comming to be in eternitè. Yet never-the-later, I say nat somthing to be never in tyme temporel, that ever is [in] eternitè; but al-only in som tyme nat to be. For I saye nat thy love to-morne in no tyme to be, but to-day alone I deny it to be; and yet, never-the-later, it is alway in eternitè.' 215 'A! so,' quod I, 'it semeth to me, that comming thing or els passed here in your temporal tyme to be, in eternitè ever now and present oweth nat to be demed; and yet foloweth nat thilke thing, that was or els shal be, in no maner ther to ben passed or els comming; than utterly shul we deny for there without 220 ceesing it is, in his present maner.' 'O,' quod she, 'myne owne disciple, now ginnest thou [be] able to have the name of my servaunt! Thy wit is clered; away is now errour of cloude in unconning; away is blyndnesse of love; away is thoughtful study of medling maners. Hastely 225 shalt thou entre in-to the joye of me, that am thyn owne maistres! Thou hast (quod she), in a fewe wordes, wel and clerely concluded mokel of my mater. And right as there is no revers ne contrarioustee in tho thinges, right so, withouten any repugnaunce, it is sayd somthing to be movable in tyme 230 temporel, +afore it be, that in eternitè dwelleth immovable, nat afore it be or after that it is, but without cessing; for right naught is there after tyme; that same is there everlastinge that temporalliche somtyme nis; and toforn it be, it may not be, as I have sayd.' 235 'Now sothly,' quod I, 'this have I wel understande; so that now me thinketh, that prescience of god and free arbitrement withouten any repugnaunce acorden; and that maketh the strength of eternitè, whiche encloseth by presence during al tymes, and al thinges that ben, han ben, and shul ben in any 240 tyme. I wolde now (quod I) a litel understande, sithen that [god] al thing thus beforn wot, whether thilke wetinge be of tho thinges, or els thilke thinges ben to ben of goddes weting, and so of god nothing is; and if every thing be thorow goddes weting, and therof take his being, than shulde god be maker and auctour 245 of badde werkes, and so he shulde not rightfully punisshe yvel doinges of mankynde.' Quod Love, 'I shal telle thee, this lesson to lerne. Myne owne trewe servaunt, the noble philosophical poete in Englissh, whiche evermore him besieth and travayleth right sore my name 250 to encrese (wherfore al that willen me good owe to do him worship and reverence bothe; trewly, his better ne his pere in scole of my rules coude I never fynde)--he (quod she), in a tretis that he made of my servant Troilus, hath this mater touched, and at the ful this question assoyled. Certaynly, his noble sayinges 255 can I not amende; in goodnes of gentil manliche speche, without any maner of nycetè of +storiers imaginacion, in witte and in good reson of sentence he passeth al other makers. In the boke of Troilus, the answere to thy question mayst thou lerne. Never-the-later, yet may lightly thyne understandinge somdel ben lerned, 260 if thou have knowing of these to-fornsaid thinges; with that thou have understanding of two the laste chapiters of this seconde boke, that is to say, good to be somthing, and bad to wante al maner being. For badde is nothing els but absence of good; and [as] that god in good maketh that good dedes ben good, 265 in yvel he maketh that they ben but naught, that they ben bad; for to nothing is badnesse to be [lykned].' 'I have,' quod I tho, 'ynough knowing therin; me nedeth of other thinges to here, that is to saye, how I shal come to my blisse so long desyred.' 270 CH. IV. 1. shalte. 6. subiection. 8. disposition. 9. nowe. 10. thorowe. 11. theffecte. folow. 12. fre. 13. thorowe. 14. altho. 15. howe stante. 16. thorowe. 19. the. 20-1. thorowe (_thrice_). 23. dothe. doone. 24. wyl; _read_ wilne; _see_ l. 30. 25. _I supply_ in. done. 28. thynge. 29. frewyl. maye. 30. maye. 30-1. _Some words repeated here._ 31. one. 32. whome. 33. of; _read_ or. 36. togyther; _read_ togider. 37. libertie. aforne. 39. truthe (_twice_). 40. arne. syght; _read_ seeth. 42. beforne. 43. _I supply_ that. fre. aforne. 44. _I supply_ it _and_ that. 45. frewyl discendeth (!). 46. maye. 48. libertie. the. 49. beforne. 53. shalte. * _A break here in_ Th. 59. nowe. thynge. 61. nowe. 63. one. 66. dothe. 67. reason. _I supply_ than is. thorowe. 69. thynge. 70. done. 71. haste. 72. declarations. 73-4. thorowe (_twice_). 76. displease. 78. sayne. 78-9. thorowe. 80. declaration. 82. shalte se. 83. reasons. the. 84. gone. 85-6. thee (_twice_). 89. reasone. 91. howe. 92. the. 97. heigheth; _read_ hyeth. 98. higheth; _read_ hyeth. towarde. 99. gothe. heigheth; _read_ hyeth. 100. ceasynge. 101. nowe. 102. reason. sey. 104. reasons. one. 105. thorowe. 108. list. stynt. 109. sayd. 110. gret. 111. sayenges. 112. putte. 113. length. 114. doyng; _read_ dying. some. 115. thynge. -thorowe. dethe. 116. Naye. sayeng. 119. done. 120. saithe. toforne werne. 122. wyst. sonne; _read_ sone. 124. brethern. 126. purpose. 129. onely. nowe. thousande. 130. ayenwarde. 132. thorowe. 134. onely. nowe. 141. done. 142. easely. 143. onehed. 144. nowe. 147. one yere. 148. mutation. 150. nowe. 151. sey. 152. spake. 153. signification. 155. sayde. 159. se. 163, 167. nowe. 166. _I supply_ and. 167. therin; _read_ ther in. 168. dwel. 169. be; _read_ by. 171. to; _read_ in. 172-3. signification (_twice_). 173. _I supply_ at. 174. were nat thilke sentence; _transpose, and insert_ of. borne. 176. Wherthorowe. know. 177. signification. 178. spech. 179. _I supply_ in; _and omit_ is _after_ worde. 180. toke. 181. beforne. 186. signification. 188. thynge. done thorowe fre. 189. writte. 197. nowe. 199. arte (_twice_). 200. the. 201. the. 203. se nowe. childe. somthynge. 205. eternite; _read_ eterne. reason. 208. movable (!). 210. and have to be. 213. _I supply_ in. al onely. somtyme. 215. deny ne it; _omit_ ne. alwaye. 217. nowe. 219. thynge. thereto; _read_ ther to. 221. ceasyng. 222. nowe. _I supply_ be. 223. witte. 224. nowe. awaye. 226. shalte. 227. haste. 229. contrarioustie. 231. and for; _read_ afore. 234. toforne. maye. 236. Nowe. 237. nowe. fre. 241. nowe. 242. _I supply_ god. beforne. 244. nothynge. thorowe. 248. tel the. 251. encrease. 253. schole. treatise. 255. sayenges. 256. gentyl manlyche. 257. nycite. starieres (!). 258. reason. 259. mayste. 260. somdele. 263. want. 265. _I supply_ as. 267. _I supply_ lykned. 269. howe. CHAPTER V. 'In this mater toforn declared,' quod Love, 'I have wel shewed, that every man hath free arbitrement of thinges in his power, to do or undo what him lyketh. Out of this grounde muste come the spire, that by processe of tyme shal in greetnesse sprede, to have braunches and blosmes of waxing frute in grace, 5 of whiche the taste and the savour is endelesse blisse, in joye ever to onbyde.'* 'Now, trewly, lady, I have my grounde wel understonde; but what thing is thilke spire that in-to a tree shulde wexe? Expowne me that thing, what ye therof mene.' 10 'That shal I,' quod she, 'blithly, and take good hede to the wordes, I thee rede. Continuaunce in thy good service, by longe processe of tyme in ful hope abyding, without any chaunge to wilne in thyne herte, this is the spire. Whiche, if it be wel kept and governed, shal so hugely springe, til the fruit of grace is 15 plentuously out-sprongen. For although thy wil be good, yet may not therfore thilk blisse desyred hastely on thee discenden; it must abyde his sesonable tyme. And so, by processe of growing, with thy good traveyle, it shal in-to more and more wexe, til it be found so mighty, that windes of yvel speche, ne scornes 20 of envy, make nat the traveyle overthrowe; ne frostes of mistrust, ne hayles of jelousy right litel might have, in harming of suche springes. Every yonge setling lightly with smale stormes is apeyred; but whan it is woxen somdel in gretnesse, than han grete blastes and +weders but litel might, any disadvantage to 25 them for to werche.' 'Myne owne soverayne lady,' quod I, 'and welth of myne herte, and it were lyking un-to your noble grace therthrough nat to be displesed, I suppose ye erren, now ye maken jelousy, envy, and distourbour to hem that ben your servauntes. I have lerned 30 ofte, to-forn this tyme, that in every lovers herte greet plentee of jelousyes greves ben sowe, wherfore (me thinketh) ye ne ought in no maner accompte thilke thing among these other welked wivers and venomous serpentes, as envy, mistrust, and yvel speche.' 35 'O fole,' quod she, 'mistrust with foly, with yvel wil medled, engendreth that welked padde! Truely, if they were distroyed, jelousy undon were for ever; and yet some maner of jelousy, I wot wel, is ever redy in al the hertes of my trewe servauntes, as thus: to be jelous over him-selfe, lest he be cause of his own 40 disese. This jelousy in ful thought ever shulde be kept, for ferdnesse to lese his love by miskeping, thorow his owne doing in leudnesse, or els thus: lest she, that thou servest so fervently, is beset there her better lyketh, that of al thy good service she compteth nat a cresse. These jelousies in herte for acceptable 45 qualitees ben demed; these oughten every trewe lover, by kyndly [maner], evermore haven in his mynde, til fully the grace and blisse of my service be on him discended at wil. And he that than jelousy caccheth, or els by wening of his owne folisshe wilfulnesse mistrusteth, truely with fantasy of venim he is foule 50 begyled. Yvel wil hath grounded thilke mater of sorowe in his leude soule, and yet nat-for-than to every wight shulde me nat truste, ne every wight fully misbeleve; the mene of these thinges +oweth to be used. Sothly, withouten causeful evidence mistrust in jelousy shulde nat be wened in no wyse person commenly; 55 suche leude wickednesse shulde me nat fynde. He that is wyse and with yvel wil nat be acomered, can abyde wel his tyme, til grace and blisse of his service folowing have him so mokel esed, as his abydinge toforehande hath him disesed.' 'Certes, lady,' quod I tho, 'of nothing me wondreth, sithen 60 thilke blisse so precious is and kyndly good, and wel is and worthy in kynde whan it is medled with love and reson, as ye toforn have declared. Why, anon as hye oon is spronge, why springeth nat the tother? And anon as the oon cometh, why receyveth nat the other? For every thing that is out of his kyndly place, by ful 65 appetyt ever cometh thiderward kyndely to drawe; and his kyndly being ther-to him constrayneth. And the kyndly stede of this blisse is in suche wil medled to +onbyde, and nedes in that it shulde have his kyndly being. Wherfore me thinketh, anon as that wil to be shewed and kid him profreth, thilke blisse shulde him 70 hye, thilk wil to receyve; or els kynde[s] of goodnesse worchen nat in hem as they shulde. Lo, be the sonne never so fer, ever it hath his kynde werching in erthe. Greet weight on hye on-lofte caried stinteth never til it come to +his resting-place. Waters to the see-ward ever ben they drawing. Thing that is light 75 blythly wil nat sinke, but ever ascendeth and upward draweth. Thus kynde in every thing his kyndly cours and his beinge-place sheweth. Wherfore +by kynde, on this good wil, anon as it were spronge, this blisse shulde thereon discende; her kynde[s] wolde, they dwelleden togider; and so have ye sayd your-selfe.' 80 'Certes,' quod she, 'thyne herte sitteth wonder sore, this blisse for to have; thyne herte is sore agreved that it tarieth so longe; and if thou durstest, as me thinketh by thyne wordes, this blisse woldest thou blame. But yet I saye, thilke blisse is kyndly good, and his kyndely place [is] in that wil to +onbyde. Never-the-later, 85 their comming togider, after kyndes ordinaunce, nat sodaynly may betyde; it muste abyde tyme, as kynde yeveth him leve. For if a man, as this wil medled gonne him shewe, and thilke blisse in haste folowed, so lightly comminge shulde lightly cause going. Longe tyme of thursting causeth drink to be the more 90 delicious whan it is atasted.' 'How is it,' quod I than, 'that so many blisses see I al day at myne eye, in the firste moment of a sight, with suche wil accorde? Ye, and yet other-whyle with wil assenteth, singulerly by him-selfe; there reson fayleth, traveyle was non; service had no tyme. This 95 is a queynt maner thing, how suche doing cometh aboute.' 'O,' quod she, 'that is thus. The erthe kyndely, after sesons and tymes of the yere, bringeth forth innumerable herbes and trees, bothe profitable and other; but suche as men might leve (though they nought in norisshinge to mannes kynde serven, or 100 els suche as tournen sone unto mennes confusion, in case that therof they ataste), comen forth out of the erthe by their owne kynde, withouten any mannes cure or any businesse in traveyle. And the ilke herbes that to mennes lyvelode necessarily serven, without whiche goodly in this lyfe creatures mowen nat enduren, 105 and most ben +norisshinge to mankynde, without greet traveyle, greet tilthe, and longe abydinge-tyme, comen nat out of the erthe, and [y]it with sede toforn ordayned, suche herbes to make springe and forth growe. Right so the parfit blisse, that we have in meninge of during-tyme to abyde, may nat come so lightly, but with greet 110 traveyle and right besy tilth; and yet good seed to be sowe; for ofte the croppe fayleth of badde seede, be it never so wel traveyled. And thilke blisse thou spoke of so lightly in comming, trewly, is nat necessary ne abydinge; and but it the better be stamped, and the venomous jeuse out-wrongen, it is lykely to enpoysonen 115 al tho that therof tasten. Certes, right bitter ben the herbes that shewen first [in] the yere of her own kynde. Wel the more is the harvest that yeldeth many graynes, tho longe and sore it hath ben traveyled. What woldest thou demen if a man wold yeve three quarters of nobles of golde? That were a precious gift?' 120 'Ye, certes,' quod I. 'And what,' quod she, 'three quarters ful of perles?' 'Certes,' quod I, 'that were a riche gift.' 'And what,' quod she, 'of as mokel azure?' Quod I, 'a precious gift at ful.' 125 'Were not,' quod she, 'a noble gift of al these atones?' 'In good faith,' quod I, 'for wanting of Englissh naming of so noble a worde, I can not, for preciousnesse, yeve it a name.' 'Rightfully,' quod she, 'hast thou demed; and yet love, knit in vertue, passeth al the gold in this erthe. Good wil, accordant 130 to reson, with no maner propertè may be countrevayled. Al the azure in the worlde is nat to accompte in respect of reson. Love that with good wil and reson accordeth, with non erthly riches may nat ben amended. This yeft hast thou yeven, I know it my-selfe, and thy Margarite thilke gift hath receyved; in whiche 135 thinge to rewarde she hath her-selfe bounde. But thy gift, as I said, by no maner riches may be amended; wherfore, with thinge that may nat be amended, thou shalt of thy Margarites rightwisenesse be rewarded. Right suffred yet never but every good dede somtyme to be yolde. Al wolde thy Margarite with 140 no rewarde thee quyte, right, that never-more dyeth, thy mede in merit wol purvey. Certes, such sodayn blisse as thou first nempnest, right wil hem rewarde as thee wel is worthy; and though at thyn eye it semeth, the reward the desert to passe, right can after sende suche bitternesse, evenly it to rewarde. So 145 that sodayn blisse, by al wayes of reson, in gret goodnesse may not ben acompted; but blisse long, both long it abydeth, and endlesse it wol laste. See why thy wil is endelesse. For if thou lovedest ever, thy wil is ever ther t'abyde and neveremore to chaunge; evenhed of rewarde must ben don by right; than muste 150 nedes thy grace and this blisse [ben] endelesse in joye to +onbyde. Evenliche disese asketh evenliche joye, whiche hastely thou shalt have.' 'A!' quod I, 'it suffyseth not than alone good wil, be it never so wel with reson medled, but-if it be in good service longe 155 travayled. And so through service shul men come to the joye; and this, me thinketh, shulde be the wexing tree, of which ye first meved.* CH. V. 2. fre. 4. greatnesse. 6. ioy. * _A break here in_ Th. 8. Nowe. 10. meane. 12. the. 15. fruite. 16. al thoughe. 17. the. 24. somdele. 25. great. wethers; _read_ weders. 28. hert. 29. displeased. nowe. 31. to-forne. hert great plentie. 33. thynge. 38. vndone. 41. disease. 42. thorowe. 47. _I supply_ maner. 49. catcheth. 50. venyme. 53. trust. meane. 54. owen; _read_ oweth. 58. eased. 59. diseased. 62. reason. 63. one. sprong. 64. anone. one. 66. appetite. thiderwarde. 68. vnbyde; _read_ onbyde. 70. kydde. 71. kynde; _read_ kyndes. 72. ferre. 73. great. 74. this; _read_ his. 75. see warde. 77. course. 78. be; _read_ by. 79. kynde; _read_ kyndes. 80. sayde. 81-2. hert. 85. _I supply_ is. vnbyde; _read_ onbyde. 87. maye. leaue. 90. drinke. 92. Howe. se. daye. 95. reason. none. 96. thynge howe. 97. seasons. 98. forthe. 99. leaue. 100. they were nought; _omit_ were. 101. soone. 102. forthe. 106. norisshen; _read_ norisshinge. 106-7. great (_twice_). 108. it; _read_ yit; _see_ l. 111. seede toforne. spring. 109. forthe. parfyte. meanynge. 110. great. 111. seede. 117. _I supply_ in. 119-122. thre (_twice_). 122. peerles. 123-6. gifte (_thrice_). 129. haste. knytte. 130. golde. 131. reason. 132. respecte. 132-3. reason (_twice_). 136. gifte. 141. the. 142. sodayne. 143. the. 144. rewarde. 146. sodayne. reason. 148. last. Se. 149. tabyde. 151. _I supply_ ben. ioy. vnbyde (!). 152. ioy. 157. tre. * _A break here in_ Th. CHAPTER VI. Now, lady,' quod I, 'that tree to sette, fayn wolde I lerne.' 'So thou shalt,' quod she, 'er thou depart hence. The first thing, thou muste sette thy werke on grounde siker and good, accordaunt to thy springes. For if thou desyre grapes, thou goest not to the hasel; ne, for to fecchen roses, thou sekest not 5 on okes; and if thou shalt have hony-soukels, thou levest the frute of the soure docke. Wherfore, if thou desyre this blisse in parfit joye, thou must sette thy purpos there vertue foloweth, and not to loke after the bodily goodes; as I sayd whan thou were wryting in thy seconde boke. And for thou hast set thy-selfe in 10 so noble a place, and utterly lowed in thyn herte the misgoing of thy first purpos, this +setling is the esier to springe, and the more lighter thy soule in grace to be lissed. And trewly thy desyr, that is to say, thy wil algates mot ben stedfast in this mater without any chaunginge; for if it be stedfast, no man may it voyde.' 15 'Yes, pardè,' quod I, 'my wil may ben turned by frendes, and disese of manace and thretning in lesinge of my lyfe and of my limmes, and in many other wyse that now cometh not to mynde. And also it mot ofte ben out of thought; for no remembraunce may holde oon thing continuelly in herte, be it never so lusty 20 desyred.' 'Now see,' quod she, 'thou thy wil shal folowe, thy free wil to be grounded continuelly to abyde. It is thy free wil, that thou lovest and hast loved, and yet shal loven this Margaryte-perle; and in thy wil thou thinkest to holde it. Than is thy wil knit 25 in love, not to chaunge for no newe lust besyde; this wil techeth thyn herte from al maner varying. But than, although thou be thretened in dethe or els in otherwyse, yet is it in thyn arbitrement to chose, thy love to voyde or els to holde; and thilke arbitrement is in a maner a jugement bytwene desyr and thy 30 herte. And if thou deme to love thy good wil fayleth, than art thou worthy no blisse that good wil shulde deserve; and if thou chose continuaunce in thy good service, than thy good wil abydeth; nedes, blisse folowing of thy good wil must come by strength of thilke jugement; for thy first wil, that taught thyn 35 herte to abyde, and halt it from th'eschaunge, with thy reson is accorded. Trewly, this maner of wil thus shal abyde; impossible it were to turne, if thy herte be trewe; and if every man diligently the meninges of his wil consider, he shal wel understande that good wil, knit with reson, but in a false herte 40 never is voyded; for power and might of keping this good wil is thorow libertè of arbitrement in herte, but good wil to kepe may not fayle. Eke than if it fayle, it sheweth it-selfe that good wil in keping is not there. And thus false wil, that putteth out the good, anon constrayneth the herte to accorde in lovinge of 45 thy good wil; and this accordaunce bitwene false wil and thyn herte, in falsitè ben lykened +togider. Yet a litel wol I say thee in good wil, thy good willes to rayse and strengthe. Tak hede to me (quod she) how thy willes thou shalt understande. Right as ye han in your body dyvers membres, and fyve sondrye 50 wittes, everiche apart to his owne doing, whiche thinges as instrumentes ye usen; as, your handes apart to handle; feet, to go; tonge, to speke; eye, to see: right so the soule hath in him certayne steringes and strengthes, whiche he useth as instrumentes to his certayne doinges. Reson is in the soule, 55 which he useth, thinges to knowe and to prove; and wil, whiche he useth to wilne; and yet is neyther wil ne reson al the soule; but everich of hem is a thing by him-selfe in the soule. And right as everich hath thus singuler instrumentes by hemselfe, they han as wel dyvers aptes and dyvers maner usinges; and 60 thilke aptes mowen in wil ben cleped affeccions. Affeccion is an instrument of willinge in his apetytes. Wherfore mokel folk sayn, if a resonable creatures soule any thing fervently wilneth, affectuously he wilneth; and thus may wil, by terme of equivocas, in three wayes ben understande. Oon is instrument of willing; 65 another is affection of this instrument; and the third is use, that setteth it a-werke. Instrument of willing is thilke strength of the soule, which that constrayneth to wilne, right as reson is instrument of resons, which ye usen whan ye loken. Affeccion of this instrument is a thing, by whiche ye be drawe desyrously any-thing 70 to wilne in coveitous maner, al be it for the tyme out of your mynde; as, if it come in your thought thilke thing to remembre, anon ye ben willing thilke to done or els to have. And thus is instrument wil; and affeccion is wil also, to wilne thing as I said; as, for to wilne helth, whan wil nothing theron 75 thinketh; for anon as it cometh to memorie, it is in wil. And so is affeccion to wilne slepe, whan it is out of mynde; but anon as it is remembred, wil wilneth slepe, whan his tyme cometh of the doinge. For affeccion of wil never accordeth to sicknesse, ne alway to wake. Right so, in a true lovers affeccion of willing, 80 instrument is to wilne tr[o]uthe in his service; and this affeccion alway abydeth, although he be sleping or thretned, or els not theron thinking; but anon as it cometh to mynde, anon he is stedfast in that wil to abyde. Use of this instrument forsothe is another thing by himselfe; and that have ye not but whan 85 ye be doing in willed thing, by affect or instrument of wil purposed or desyred; and this maner of usage in my service wysely nedeth to be ruled from wayters with envy closed, from spekers ful of jangeling wordes, from proude folk and hautayn, that lambes and innocentes bothe scornen and dispysen. Thus 90 in doing varieth the actes of willinge everich from other, and yet ben they cleped "wil," and the name of wil utterly owen they to have; as instrument of wil is wil, whan ye turne in-to purpos of any thing to don, be it to sitte or to stande, or any such thing els. This instrument may ben had, although affect and usage be 95 left out of doing; right as ye have sight and reson, and yet alway use ye* +nat to loke, [ne] thinges with resonning to prove; and so is instrument of wil, wil; and yet varyeth he from effect and using bothe. Affeccion of wil also for wil is cleped, but it varyeth from instrument in this maner wyse, by that nameliche, whan it 100 cometh in-to mynde, anon-right it is in willinge desyred, and the negatif therof with willing nil not acorde; this is closed in herte, though usage and instrument slepe. This slepeth whan instrument and us[e] waken; and of suche maner affeccion, trewly, some man hath more and some man lesse. Certes, trewe lovers 105 wenen ever therof to litel to have. False lovers in litel wenen have right mokel. Lo, instrument of wil in false and trewe bothe, evenliche is proporcioned; but affeccion is more in some places than in some, bycause of the goodnesse that foloweth, and that I thinke hereafter to declare. Use of this instrument is wil, 110 but it taketh his name whan wilned thing is in doing; but utterly grace to cacche in thy blisse +desyreth to ben rewarded. Thou most have than affeccion of wil at the ful, and use whan his tyme asketh wysely to ben governed. Sothly, my disciple, without fervent affeccion of wil may no man ben saved. This 115 affeccion of good service in good love may not ben grounded, without fervent desyr to the thing in wil coveited. But he that never reccheth to have or not to have, affeccion of wil in that hath no resting-place. Why? For whan thing cometh to mynde, and it be not taken in hede to comin or not come, therfore in 120 that place affeccion fayleth; and, for thilke affeccion is so litel, thorow whiche in goodnesse he shulde come to his grace, the litelnesse wil it not suffre to avayle by no way in-to his helpes. Certes, grace and reson thilke affeccion foloweth. This affeccion, with reson knit, dureth in everiche trewe herte, and evermore 125 is encresing; no ferdnesse, no strength may it remove, whyle tr[o]uthe in herte abydeth. Sothly, whan falsheed ginneth entre, tr[o]uthe draweth away grace and joye bothe; but than thilke falsheed, that trouth[e] hath thus voyded, hath unknit the bond of understanding reson bytwene wil and the herte. And who-so 130 that bond undoth, and unknitteth wil to be in other purpose than to the first accorde, knitteth him with contrarye of reson; and that is unreson. Lo, than, wil and unreson bringeth a man from the blisse of grace; whiche thing, of pure kynde, every man ought to shonne and to eschewe, and to the knot of wil and reson 135 confirme. Me thinketh,' quod she, 'by thy studient lokes, thou wenest in these wordes me to contrarien from other sayinges here-toforn in other place, as whan thou were somtyme in affeccion of wil to thinges that now han brought thee in disese, which I have thee 140 consayled to voyde, and thyn herte discover; and there I made thy wil to ben chaunged, whiche now thou wenest I argue to with[h]olde and to kepe! Shortly I say, the revers in these wordes may not ben founde; for though dronkennesse be forboden, men shul not alway ben drinklesse. I trowe right, for 145 thou thy wil out of reson shulde not tourne, thy wil in one reson shulde not +onbyde. I say, thy wil in thy first purpos with unreson was closed; constrewe forth of the remenant what thee good lyketh. Trewly, that wil and reson shulde be knit togider, was free wil of reson; after tyme thyne herte is assentaunt to them 150 bothe, thou might not chaunge. But if thou from rule of reson varye, in whiche variaunce to come to thilke blisse desyred, contrariously thou werchest; and nothing may knowe wil and reson but love alone. Than if thou voide love, than +weyvest [thou] the bond that knitteth; and so nedes, or els right lightly, that 155 other gon a-sondre; wherfore thou seest apertly that love holdeth this knot, and amaystreth hem to be bounde. These thinges, as a ring in circuit of wrethe, ben knit in thy soule without departing.' 'A! let be! let be!' quod I; 'it nedeth not of this no rehersayle to make; my soule is yet in parfit blisse, in thinking of 160 that knotte!'* CH. VI. 1. Nowe. set fayne. 3. set. 5. fetchen. 6. leauest. 8. parfite ioy. set. purpose. 10. booke. haste. 12. purpose. setteles; _read_ setling. 13. desyre. 14. mote. 15-16. maye (_twice_). 17. disease. 18. nowe. 19. mote. 20. one. 32. Nowe se. 22, 23. frewyl (_twice_). 24. haste. 26. teacheth. 27. varyeng. 30. desyre. 31. arte. 36. halte. 38. hert. 40. reason. 42. thorowe. hert. 45. anone. 47. togyther. 48. the. strength. Take. 49. howe. 51-2. aparte (_twice_). 52. fete. 53. se. 55. Reason. 57. reason. 61. affections. Affection. 62. folke. 65. thre. One. 68. reason. 69. Affection. 74. affection. 75. thynge. 77-81. affection (_four times_). 86. affecte. 93. purpose. 94. syt. 97. * _A break here in_ Th. ne ought; _read_ nat. _I supply_ ne. 98. effecte. 99. Affection. 100. name lyche. 102. negatyfe. 103. thoughe. 104. vs. 104-8. affection (_twice_). 112. catche. desyred; _read_ desyreth. 113. muste. affection (_often_). 117. desyre. 118. retcheth. 120. comyn. 124-5. reason (_twice_). 125. knytte. 126. encreasyng. maye. 128. ioy. both. 129. bonde. 130-2. reason. 131. bonde vndothe. 133. unreason (_twice_). 135. reason. 138. sayenges. toforne. 139. affection. 140. nowe. the. disease. the. 146. reason (_twice_). 147. vnbyde; _read_ onbyde. purpose. 148. unreason. remenante. the. 150. fre. 149-151. reason (_thrice_). 154. weuest; _read_ weyvest thou. 155. bonde. 156. gone. 158. ringe. 160. parfyte. * _A break here in_ Th. CHAPTER VII. 'Very trouth,' quod she, 'hast thou now conceyved of these thinges in thyne herte; hastely shalt thou be able very joye and parfit blisse to receyve; and now, I wot wel, thou desyrest to knowe the maner of braunches that out of the tree shulde springe.' 5 'Therof, lady,' quod I, 'hertely I you pray; for than leve I +wel, that right sone after I shal ataste of the frute that I so long have desyred.' 'Thou hast herd,' quod she, 'in what wyse this tree toforn this have I declared, as in grounde and in stocke of wexing. First, 10 the ground shulde be thy free wil, ful in thyne herte; and the stocke (as I sayde) shulde be continuaunce in good service by long tyme in traveyle, til it were in greetnesse right wel woxen. And whan this tree suche greetnesse hath caught as I have rehersed, the braunches than, that the frute shulde forth-bringe, 15 speche must they be nedes, in voice of prayer in complayning wyse used.' 'Out! alas!' quod I tho, 'he is soroufully wounded that hydeth his speche, and spareth his complayntes to make! What shal I speke the care? But payne, even lyk to helle, sore hath 20 me assayled, and so ferforth in payne me thronge, that I leve my tree is seer, and never shal it frute forth bringe! Certes, he is greetly esed, that dare his prevy mone discover to a true felowe, that conning hath and might, wherthrough his pleint in any thinge may ben amended. And mokel more is he joyed, that with herte 25 of hardinesse dare complayne to his lady what cares that he suffreth, by hope of mercy with grace to be avaunced. Truely I saye for me, sithe I cam this Margarit to serve, durst I never me discover of no maner disese; and wel the later hath myn herte hardyed suche thinges to done, for the grete bountees and worthy 30 refresshmentes that she of her grace goodly, without any desert on my halve, ofte hath me rekened. And nere her goodnesse the more with grace and with mercy medled, which passen al desertes, traveyls, and servinges that I in any degre might endite, I wolde wene I shulde be without recover, in getting of this blisse for 35 ever! Thus have I stilled my disese; thus have I covered my care; that I brenne in sorouful anoy, as gledes and coles wasten a fyr under deed asshen. Wel the hoter is the fyr that with asshen it is overleyn. Right longe this wo have I suffred.' 'Lo,' quod Love, 'how thou farest! Me thinketh, the palasy-yvel 40 hath acomered thy wittes; as faste as thou hyest forward, anon sodaynly backward thou movest! Shal nat yet al thy leudnesse out of thy braynes? Dul ben thy skilful understandinges; thy wil hath thy wit so amaistred. Wost thou nat wel (quod she) but every tree, in his sesonable tyme of burjoninge, shewe his 45 blomes fro within, in signe of what frute shulde out of him springe, els the frute for that yere men halt delivered, be the ground never so good? And though the stocke be mighty at the ful, and the braunches seer, and no burjons shewe, farwel the gardiner! He may pype with an yvè-lefe; his frute is fayled. 50 Wherfore thy braunches must burjonen in presence of thy lady, if thou desyre any frute of thy ladies grace. But beware of thy lyfe, that thou no wode lay use, as in asking of thinges that strecchen in-to shame! For than might thou nat spede, by no maner way that I can espy. Vertue wol nat suffre villany out of him-selfe to 55 springe. Thy wordes may nat be queynt, ne of subtel maner understandinge. Freel-witted people supposen in suche poesies to be begyled; in open understandinge must every word be used. "Voice without clere understanding of sentence," saith Aristotel, "right nought printeth in herte." Thy wordes than to abyde in 60 herte, and clene in ful sentence of trewe mening, platly must thou shewe; and ever be obedient, her hestes and her wils to performe; and be thou set in suche a wit, to wete by a loke ever-more what she meneth. And he that list nat to speke, but stilly his disese suffer, what wonder is it, tho[ugh] he come never 65 to his blisse? Who that traveyleth unwist, and coveyteth thing unknowe, unweting he shal be quyted, and with unknowe thing rewarded.' 'Good lady,' quod I than, 'it hath ofte be sene, that +weders and stormes so hugely have falle in burjoning-tyme, and by perte 70 duresse han beten of the springes so clene, wherthrough the frute of thilke yere hath fayled. It is a greet grace, whan burjons han good +weders, their frutes forth to bringe. Alas! than, after suche stormes, how hard is it to avoyde, til efte wedring and yeres han maked her circute cours al about, er any frute be able 75 to be tasted! He is shent for shame, that foule is rebuked of his speche. He that is in fyre brenning sore smarteth for disese; him thinketh ful long er the water come, that shulde the fyr quenche. While men gon after a leche, the body is buryed. Lo! how semely this frute wexeth! Me thinketh, that of tho 80 frutes may no man ataste, for pure bitternesse in savour. In this wyse bothe frute and the tree wasten away togider, though mokel besy occupacion have be spent, to bringe it so ferforth that it was able to springe. A lyte speche hath maked that al this labour is in ydel.' 85 'I not,' quod she, 'wherof it serveth, thy question to assoyle. Me thinketh thee now duller in wittes than whan I with thee first mette. Although a man be leude, commenly for a fole he is nat demed but-if he no good wol lerne. Sottes and foles lete lightly out of mynde the good that men techeth hem. I sayd therfore, 90 thy stocke must be stronge, and in greetnesse wel herted: the tree is ful feble that at the firste dent falleth. And although frute fayleth oon yere or two, yet shal suche a seson come oon tyme or other, that shal bringe out frute that [is parfit]. *Fole, have I not seyd toforn this, as tyme hurteth, right so ayenward tyme heleth 95 and rewardeth; and a tree oft fayled is holde more in deyntee whan it frute forth bringeth. A marchaunt that for ones lesinge in the see no more to aventure thinketh, he shal never with aventure come to richesse. So ofte must men on the oke smyte, til the happy dent have entred, whiche with the okes owne swaye 100 maketh it to come al at ones. So ofte falleth the lethy water on the harde rocke, til it have thorow persed it. The even draught of the wyr-drawer maketh the wyr to ben even and supple-werchinge; and if he stinted in his draught, the wyr breketh a-sonder. Every tree wel springeth, whan it is wel grounded and 105 not often removed.' 'What shal this frute be,' quod I, 'now it ginneth rype?' 'Grace,' quod she, 'in parfit joy to endure; and therwith thou begon[ne].' 'Grace?' quod I; 'me thinketh, I shulde have a reward for my 110 longe travayle?' 'I shal telle thee,' quod she; 'retribucion of thy good willes to have of thy Margarite-perle, it bereth not the name of mede, but only of good grace; and that cometh not of thy desert, but of thy Margarytes goodnesse and vertue alone.' 115 Quod I, 'shulde al my longe travayle have no reward but thorow grace? And som-tyme your-selven sayd, rightwisnesse evenliche rewardeth, to quyte oon benefit for another.' 'That is sothe,' quod Love, 'ever as I sayde, as to him that doth good, which to done he were neyther holden ne yet 120 constrayned.' 'That is sothe,' quod I. 'Trewly,' quod she, 'al that ever thou doest to thyne Margaryte-perle, of wil, of love, and of reson thou owest to done it; it is nothing els but yelding of thy dette in quytinge of thy grace, which 125 she thee lente whan ye first mette.' 'I wene,' quod I, 'right litel grace to me she delivered. Certes, it was harde grace; it hath nyghe me astrangled.' 'That it was good grace, I wot wel thou wilt it graunte, er thou departe hence. If any man yeve to another wight, to whom 130 that he ought not, and whiche that of him-selfe nothing may have, a garnement or a cote, though he were the cote or els thilke clothing, it is not to putte to him that was naked the cause of his clothinge, but only to him that was yever of the garnement. Wherfore I saye, thou that were naked of love, and of thy-selfe 135 non have mightest, it is not to putte to thyne owne persone, sithen thy love cam thorow thy Margaryte-perle. _Ergo_, she was yever of the love, although thou it use; and there lente she thee grace, thy service to beginne. She is worthy the thank of this grace, for she was the yever. Al the thoughtes, besy doinges, 140 and plesaunce in thy might and in thy wordes that thou canst devyse, ben but right litel in quytinge of thy dette; had she not ben, suche thing hadde not ben studyed. So al these maters kyndly drawen hom-ward to this Margaryte-perle, for from thence were they borowed; al is hoolly her to wyte, the love that thou 145 havest; and thus quytest thou thy dette, in that thou stedfastly servest. And kepe wel that love, I thee rede, that of her thou hast borowed, and use it in her service thy dette to quyte; and than art thou able right sone to have grace; wherfore after mede in none halve mayst thou loke. Thus thy ginning and ending is 150 but grace aloon; and in thy good deserving thy dette thou aquytest; without grace is nothing worth, what-so-ever thou werche. Thanke thy Margaryte of her grete grace that +hiderto thee hath gyded, and praye her of continuaunce forth in thy werkes herafter; and that, for no mishappe, thy grace overthwartly 155 tourne. Grace, glorie, and joye is coming thorow good folkes desertes; and by getting of grace, therin shullen ende. And what is more glorie or more joye than wysdom and love in parfit charitè, whiche god hath graunted to al tho that wel +conne deserve?' And with that this lady al at ones sterte in-to 160 my herte: 'here wol I onbyde,' quod she, 'for ever, and never wol I gon hence; and I wol kepe thee from medlinge while me liste here onbyde; thyne entermeting maners in-to stedfastnesse shullen be chaunged.' CH. VII. 1. nowe. 2. hert. 3. parfyte. nowe. 5. spring. 7. wol; _read_ wel. soone. atast. 9. herde. tre. 11. grounde. frewyl. hert. 13. greatnesse. 14. gretnesse. 20. lyke. hel. 22. tre. bring. 23. greatly eased. 28. came. 29. disease. 30. great bounties. 36. disease. 37. bren. 38. fyre (_twice_). 40. howe. 41. forwarde. 42. backwarde. 47. spring. halte. 48. grounde. 53. wodelay. stretchen. 56. spring. 58. worde. 60-1. hert (_twice_). 64. meaneth. 65. disease. 69. wethers; _read_ weders. 70. fal. 71. beaten. 72. great. 73. wethers; _read_ weders. forthe. 74. howe harde. 77. disease. 78. fyre. 79. gone. 80. howe. 81. maye. sauoure. 83. occupation. spente. ferforthe. 84. spring. 87. the nowe. 89. fooles lette. 90. teacheth. 91. greatnesse. 93. one (_twice_). season. 94. _I supply_ is parfit. * _A break here in_ Th. 95. healeth. 96. deyntie. 97. forthe. 102. thorowe. 103-4. wyre (_thrice_). 104. breaketh. 105. tre. 107. nowe. 108. parfyte. 109. begon; _read_ begonne. 110. rewarde. 112. tel the. 113. beareth. 114. onely. deserte. 116. rewarde. thorowe. 118. one benefyte. 120. dothe. 124. _catchword_ it is; _misprinted_ yet is _on the next page_. 126. the lent. 127. lytle. 129. graunt. 131. nothynge maye. 132. weare. 133. put; _read_ putte. 134. onely. 136. put. 137. came thorowe. 138. althoughe. lent. the. 139. thanke. 141. canste. 144. homewarde. 145. holy. 147. the. 149. arte. 151. alone. 152. worthe. 153. great. hytherto; _read_ hiderto. 154. the. forthe. 156. thorowe. 158. wysdome. 159. parfyte. 160. canne; _read_ conne. 161. hert. CHAPTER VIII. Soberliche tho threw I up myn eyen, and hugely tho was I astonyed of this sodayne adventure; and fayn wolde I have lerned, how vertues shulden ben knowen; in whiche thinges, I hope to god, here-after she shal me enfourmen; and namely, sithen her restinge-place is now so nygh at my wil; and anon al 5 these thinges that this lady said, I remembred me by my-selfe, and revolved the +lynes of myne understondinge wittes. Tho found I fully al these maters parfitly there written, how mis-rule by fayned love bothe realmes and citees hath governed a greet throwe; how lightly me might the fautes espye; how rules in love 10 shulde ben used; how somtyme with fayned love foule I was begyled; how I shulde love have knowe; and how I shal in love with my service procede. Also furthermore I found, of perdurable letters wonderly there graven, these maters whiche I shal nempne. Certes, non age ne other thing in erthe may the leest sillable of 15 this in no poynte deface, but clerely as the sonne in myne understandinge soule they shynen. This may never out of my mynde, how I may not my love kepe, but thorow willinge in herte; wilne to love may I not, but I lovinge have. Love have I non, but thorow grace of this Margarite-perle. It is no maner doute, that 20 wil wol not love but for it is lovinge, as wil wol not rightfully but for it is rightful it-selve. Also wil is not lovinge for he wol love; but he wol love for he is lovinge; it is al oon to +wilne to be lovinge, and lovinges in possession to have. Right so wil wol not love, for of love hath he no partie. And yet I denye not lovinge 25 wil [may] wilne more love to have, whiche that he hath not whan he wolde more than he hath; but I saye, he may no love wilne if he no love have, through which thilke love he shuld wilne. But to have this loving wil may no man of him-selfe, but only through grace toforn-going; right so may no man it kepe, but by grace 30 folowinge. Consider now every man aright, and let seen if that any wight of him-selfe mowe this loving wel gete, and he therof first nothing have; for if it shulde of him-selfe springe, either it muste be willing or not willing. Willing by him-selfe may he it not have, sithen him fayleth the mater that shulde it forth bringe. 35 The mater him fayleth; why? He may therof have no knowing til whan grace put it in his herte. Thus willing by him-selfe may he it not have; and not willing, may he it not have. Pardè, every conseyt of every resonable creature otherwyse wil [wol] not graunte; wil in affirmatif with not willing by no way mowe acorde. 40 And although this loving wol come in myn herte by freenesse of arbitrement, as in this booke fully is shewed, yet owe I not therfore as moche alowe my free wil as grace of that Margaryte to me lened. For neyther might I, without grace to-forn going and afterward folowing, thilke grace gete ne kepe; and lese shal I it 45 never but-if free wil it make, as in willinge otherwyse than grace hath me graunted. For right as whan any person taketh willing to be sobre, and throweth that away, willing to be dronke; or els taketh wil of drinking out of mesure; whiche thing, anon as it is don, maketh (thorow his owne gilte by free wil) that [he] leseth 50 his grace. In whiche thing therfore upon the nobley of grace I mote trusten, and my besy cure sette thilke grace to kepe, that my free wil, otherwyse than by reson it shulde werche, cause not my grace to voyde: for thus must I bothe loke to free wil and to grace. For right as naturel usage in engendring of children may 55 not ben without +fader, ne also but with the +moder, for neyther +fader ne +moder in begetting may it lacke; right so grace and free wil accorden, and withoute hem bothe may not lovinge wil in no partie ben getten. But yet is not free wil in gettinge of that thing so mokel thank-worthy as is grace, ne in the kepinge therof 60 so moche thank deserveth; and yet in gettinge and keping bothe don they accorde. Trewly, often-tyme grace free wil helpeth, in fordoinge of contrarye thinges, that to willinge love not accorden, and +strengtheth wil adversitees to withsitte; wherfore +al-togider to grace oweth to ben accepted, that my willing deserveth. Free 65 wil to lovinge in this wyse is accorded. I remembre me wel how al this book (who-so hede taketh) considereth [how] al thinges to werchinges of mankynde evenly accordeth, as in turning of this worde 'love' in-to trouthe or els rightwisnesse, whether that it lyke. For what thing that falleth to man in helping of free 70 arbitrement, thilke rightwisnesse to take or els to kepe, thorow whiche a man shal be saved (of whiche thing al this book mencion hath maked), in every poynte therof grace oweth to be thanked. Wherfore I saye, every wight havinge this rightwisnesse rightful is; and yet therfore I fele not in my conscience, that to al 75 rightful is behoten the blisse everlastinge, but to hem that ben rightful withouten any unrightfulnesse. Some man after some degree may rightfully ben accompted as chaste men in living, and yet ben they janglers and ful of envy pressed; to hem shal this blisse never ben delivered. For right as very blisse is without al maner 80 nede, right so to no man shal it be yeven but to the rightful, voyde from al maner unrightfulnesse founde; so no man to her blisse shal ben folowed, but he be rightful, and with unrightfulnesse not bounde, and in that degree fully be knowe. This rightfulnesse, in as moche as in him-selfe is, of none yvel is it cause; and of al 85 maner goodnesse, trewly, it is +moder. This helpeth the spirit to withsitte the leude lustes of flesshly lykinge. This strengtheth and maintayneth the lawe of kynde; and if that otherwhyle me weneth harm of this precious thing to folowe, therthorough is [it] nothing the cause; of somwhat els cometh it aboute, who-so 90 taketh hede. By rightfulnesse forsothe wern many holy sayntes good savour in swetenesse to god almighty; but that to some folkes they weren savour of dethe, in-to deedly ende, that com not of the sayntes rightwisnesse, but of other wicked mennes badnesse hath proceded. Trewly, the ilke wil, whiche that the 95 Lady of Love me lerned 'affeccion of wil' to nempne, which is in willing of profitable thinges, yvel is it not, but whan to flesshly lustes it consenteth ayenst reson of soule. But that this thing more clerely be understande, it is for to knowe, whence and how thilke wil is so vicious, and so redy yvel dedes to perfourme. 100 Grace at the ginninge ordeyned thilke wil in goodnesse ever to have endured, and never to badnesse have assented. Men shulde not byleve, that god thilke wil maked to be vicious [in] our firste +faders, as Adam and Eve; for vicious appetytes, and vicious wil to suche appetytes consentinge, ben not on thing in kynde; other 105 thing is don for the other. And how this wil first in-to man first assented, I holde it profitable to shewe; but if the first condicion of resonable creature wol be considred and apertly loked, lightly the cause of suche wil may be shewed. Intencion of god was, that rightfully and blissed shulde resonable nature ben maked, 110 himselfe for to kepe; but neyther blisful ne rightful might it not be, withouten wil in them bothe. Wil of rightfulnesse is thilke same rightfulnesse, as here-to-forn is shewed; but wil of blisse is not thilke blisse, for every man hath not thilke blisse, in whom the wil therof is abydinge. In this blisse, after every 115 understandinge, is suffisaunce of covenable comoditees without any maner nede, whether it be blisse of aungels or els thilke that grace first in paradise suffred Adam to have. For al-though angels blisse be more than Adams was in paradyse, yet may it not be +denyed, that Adam in paradyse ne had suffisaunce of blisse; 120 for right as greet herte is without al maner of coldenesse, and yet may another herte more hete have; right so nothing defended Adam in paradyse to ben blessed, without al maner nede. Al-though aungels blisse be moche more, forsothe, it foloweth not [that], lasse than another to have, therfore him nedeth; but 125 for to wante a thing whiche that behoveth to ben had, that may 'nede' ben cleped; and that was not in Adam at the first ginning. God and the Margaryte weten what I mene. Forsothe, where-as is nede, there is wrecchednesse. +God without cause to-forngoing made not resonable creature wrecched; for him to 130 understande and love had he firste maked. God made therfore man blissed without al maner indigence; +togider and at ones took resonable creature blisse, and wil of blissednesse, and wil of rightfulnesse, whiche is rightfulnesse it-selve, and libertee of arbitrement, that is, free wil, with whiche thilke rightfulnesse may 135 he kepe and lese. So and in that wyse [god] ordayned thilke two, that wil (whiche that "instrument" is cleped, as here-toforn mencion is maked) shulde use thilke rightfulnesse, by teching of his soule to good maner of governaunce, in thought and in wordes; and that it shulde use the blisse in obedient maner, withouten 140 any incommoditè. Blisse, forsothe, in-to mannes profit, and rightwisnesse in-to his worship god delivered at ones; but rightfulnesse so was yeven that man might it lese, whiche if he not lost had, but continuelly [might] have it kept, he shulde have deserved the avauncement in-to the felowshippe of angels, in whiche thing 145 if he that loste, never by him-selfe forward shulde he it mowe ayenward recovere; and as wel the blisse that he was in, as aungels blisse that to-him-wardes was coming, shulde be nome at ones, and he deprived of hem bothe. And thus fil man un-to lykenesse of unresonable bestes; and with hem to corrupcion and 150 unlusty apetytes was he under-throwen. But yet wil of blisse dwelleth, that by indigence of goodes, whiche that he loste through greet wrecchednesse, by right shulde he ben punisshed. And thus, for he weyved rightfulnesse, lost hath he his blisse; but fayle of his desyr in his owne comoditè may he not; and +where 155 comodites to his resonable nature whiche he hath lost may he not have, to false lustes, whiche ben bestial appetytes, he is turned. Folye of unconning hath him begyled, in wening that thilke ben the comoditees that owen to ben desyred. This affeccion of wil by libertè of arbitrement is enduced to wilne thus thing that 160 he shulde not; and so is wil not maked yvel but unrightful, by absence of rightfulnesse, whiche thing by reson ever shulde he have. And freenesse of arbitrement may he not wilne, whan he it not haveth; for while he it had, thilke halp it not to kepe; so that without grace may it not ben recovered. Wil of commoditè, 165 in-as-moche as unrightful it is maked by willinge of yvel lustes, willing of goodnesse may he not wilne; for wil of instrument to affeccion of wil is thralled, sithen that other thing may it not wilne; for wil of instrument to affeccion desyreth, and yet ben bothe they 'wil' cleped. For that instrument wol, through affeccion it wilneth; 170 and affeccion desyreth thilke thing wherto instrument him ledeth. And so free wil to unlusty affeccion ful servaunt is maked, for unrightfulnesse may he not releve; and without rightfulnesse ful fredom may it never have. For kyndly libertee of arbitrement without it, veyne and ydel is, forsothe. Wherfore yet I say, (as 175 often have I sayd the same), whan instrument of wil lost hath rightfulnesse, in no maner but by grace may he ayen retourne rightfulnesse to wilne. For sithen nothing but rightfulnesse alone shulde he wilne, what that ever he wilneth without rightfulnesse, unrightfully he it wilneth. These than unrightful appetytes and 180 unthrifty lustes whiche the +flesh desyreth, in as mokel as they ben in kynde, ben they nat bad; but they ben unrightful and badde for they ben in resonable creature, where-as they being, in no waye shulde ben suffred. In unresonable beestes neyther ben they yvel ne unrightful; for there is their kynde being. 185 CH. VIII. 1. threwe. 2. fayne. 3. howe. 5. nowe. nyghe. 7. lyues (!). founde. 8. parfytely. howe. mysse-. 9. cyties. great. 10-12. howe (_five times_). 13. founde. 15. none. thynge. maye. 17. maye. 18. howe. maye. thorowe. 19. maye. none. 20. thorowe. 23. one. wil; _read_ wilne. 26. _I supply_ may. 27. maye. 29. onely. 30. toforne. maye. 31. nowe. sene. 32. get. 33. nothynge. spring. 35. forthe bring. 36. maye. 39. reasonable. _I supply_ wol. 40. graunt. affyrmatife. 41. hert. frenesse. 43. frewyl (_throughout_). 44. leaned. 45. afterwarde. get; _read_ gete. 50. done. thorowe. _I supply_ he. 52. set. 53. reason. 55. maye. 56-7. father (_twice_); _read_ fader. mother (_twice_); _read_ moder. 57-8. maye. 60. thankeworthy. 61. thanke. 62. done. 64. strength; _read_ strengtheth; _see_ l. 87. al togyther. 66. howe. 67. booke. _Supply_ how. 71. thorowe. 72. booke. 78. maye. 86. mother; _read_ moder. 89. harme. _Supply_ it. 90. nothynge. 91. werne. 93. come; _read_ com. 96. affectyon. 98. reason. thynge. 99. vndersta_n_d. howe. 100. redye. 103. vycious. _I insert_ in; Our (_sic_). 104. father; _read_ faders. 106. done. howe. 108-110. reasonable (_twice_). 113. -forne. 119, 122. maye. 120. denyded (!). 121. great. 122. heate. nothynge. 124. thoughe. 125. _I supply_ that. 126. thynge. maye. 128. meane. 129. wretchydnesse. good; _read_ God. 130. reasonable. wretched. 132. togyther. 133. toke reasonable. 134. lybertie. 135. fre. 136. _I supply_ god. 137. cleaped. toforne. 138. teachyng. 141. profyte. 143. not loste had not; _I omit second_ not. 144. _I supply_ might. kepte. 146. forwarde. 147. ayenwarde. 150. vnreasonable. 153. great wretchydnesse. 154. loste. 155. desyre. were; _read_ where. 156. reasonable. loste. 159. affection. 162. reason. 163. frenesse. 164. halpe. 167-170. affection (_thrice_). 172. frewyl. affection. 173. maye. 174. fredome. libertie. 176. loste. 181. flyes (!); _read_ flesh. 184. vnreasonable. CHAPTER IX. Knowen may it wel ben now of these thinges toforn declared, that man hath not alway thilke rightfulnesse which by dutè of right evermore haven he shulde, and by no way by him-selfe may he it gete ne kepe; and after he it hath, if he it lese, recover shal he it never without especial grace. Wherfore 5 the comune sentence of the people in opinion, that every thing after destenee is ruled, false and wicked is to beleve. For though predestinacion be as wel of good as of badde, sithen that it is sayd, god +hath destenees made, whiche he never ne wrought; but, for he suffreth hem to be maked, as that he hardeth, whan he 10 naught missayth, or +let in-to temptacion, whan he not delivereth: wherfore it is non inconvenient if in that maner be sayd, god toforn have destenyed bothe badde and her badde werkes, whan hem ne their yvel dedes [he] neyther amendeth ne therto hem grace +leneth. But specialliche, predestinacion of goodnesse 15 alone is sayd by these grete clerkes; for in him god doth that they ben, and that in goodnesse they werchen. But the negatif herof in badnesse is holden, as the Lady of Love hath me lerned, who-so aright in this booke loketh. And utterly it is to weten, that predestinacion properly in god may not ben demed, no more 20 than beforn-weting. For in the chapitre of goddes beforn-weting, as Love me rehersed, al these maters apertly may ben founden. Al thinges to god ben now +togider and in presence duringe. Trewly, presence and predestinacion in nothing disacorden; wherfore, as I was lerned how goddes before-weting and free 25 choice of wil mowe stonden +togider, me thinketh the same reson me ledeth, that destenye and free wil accorden, so that neyther of hem bothe to other in nothing contrarieth. And resonabliche may it not ben demed, as often as any thing falleth [thorow] free wil werching (as if a man another man wrongfully anoyeth, wherfore 30 he him sleeth), that it be constrayned to that ende, as mokel folk cryeth and sayth: 'Lo, as it was destenyed of god toforn knowe, so it is thorow necessitè falle, and otherwyse might it not betyde.' Trewly, neyther he that the wrong wrought, ne he that him-selfe venged, none of thilke thinges thorow necessitè wrought; 35 for if that [oon] with free wil there had it not willed, neyther had [he] wrought that he perfourmed; and so utterly grace, that free wil in goodnesse bringeth and kepeth, and fro badnesse it tourneth, in al thinge moste thank deserveth. This grace maketh sentence in vertue to abyde, wherfore in body and in soule, in ful 40 plentee of conninge, after their good deserving in the everlastinge joye, after the day of dome shul they endelesse dwelle; and they shul ben lerned in that kingdom with so mokel affect of love and of grace, that the leste joye shal of the gretest in glorie rejoice and ben gladded, as if he the same joye had. What wonder, 45 sith god is the gretest love and the *gretest wisdom? In hem shal he be, and they in god. Now than, whan al false folk be ashamed, which wenen al bestialtè and erthly thing be sweter and better to the body than hevenly is to the soule; this is the grace and the frute that I long have desyred; it doth me good the 50 savour to smelle. Crist, now to thee I crye of mercy and of grace; and graunt, of thy goodnes, to every maner reder ful understanding in this leude pamflet to have; and let no man wene other cause in this werke than is verily the soth. For envy is ever redy, al 55 innocentes to shende; wherfore I wolde that good speche envy evermore hinder. But no man wene this werke be sufficiently maked; for goddes werke passeth man[ne]s; no man[ne]s wit to parfit werke may by no way purvay th'ende. How shuld I than, so leude, aught wene of 60 perfeccion any ende to gete? Never-the-later, grace, glorie, and laude I yelde and putte with worshipful reverences to the sothfast god, in three with unitè closed, whiche that the hevy langour of my sicknesse hath turned in-to mirthe of helth to recover. For right as I was sorowed thorow the gloton cloud of manifolde 65 sickly sorow, so mirth [of] ayencoming helth hath me glad[d]ed and gretly comforted. I beseche and pray therfore, and I crye on goddes gret pitè and on his mokel mercy, that this[e] present scorges of my flessh mow maken medecyne and lechecraft of my inner man[ne]s helth; so that my passed trespas and tenes 70 through weping of myn eyen ben wasshe, and I, voyded from al maner disese, and no more to wepe herafter, y-now be kept thorow goddes grace; so that goddes hand, whiche that merciably me hath scorged, herafter in good plite from thence merciably me kepe and defende. 75 In this boke be many privy thinges wimpled and folde; unneth shul leude men the plites unwinde. Wherfore I pray to the holy gost, he lene of his oyntmentes, mennes wittes to clere; and, for goddes love, no man wonder why or how this question come to my mynde. For my greet lusty desyr was of this lady to ben 80 enfourmed, my leudenesse to amende. Certes, I knowe not other mennes wittes, what I shulde aske, or in answere what I shulde saye; I am so leude my-selfe, that mokel more lerninge yet me behoveth. I have mad therfore as I coude, but not sufficiently as I wolde, and as mater yave me sentence; for my 85 dul wit is hindred by +stepmoder of foryeting and with cloude of unconning, that stoppeth the light of my Margarite-perle, wherfore it may not shyne on me as it shulde. I desyre not only a good reder, but also I coveite and pray a good book-amender, in correccion of wordes and of sentence; and only this 90 mede I coveite for my travayle, that every inseër and herer of this leude fantasye devoute horisons and prayers to god the greet juge yelden; and prayen for me in that wyse, that in his dome my sinnes mowe ben relesed and foryeven. He that prayeth for other for him-selfe travayleth. 95 Also I praye, that every man parfitly mowe knowe thorow what intencion of herte this tretys have I drawe. How was it, that sightful manna in deserte to children of Israel was spirituel mete? Bodily also it was, for mennes bodies it +norisshed; and yet, never-the-later, Crist it signifyed. Right so a jewel 100 betokeneth a gemme, and that is a stoon vertuous or els a perle. Margarite, a woman, betokeneth grace, lerning, or wisdom of god, or els holy church. If breed, thorow vertue, is mad holy flesshe, what is that our god sayth? 'It is the spirit that yeveth lyf; the flesshe, of nothing it profiteth.' Flesshe is flesshly 105 understandinge; flessh without grace and love naught is worth. 'The letter sleeth; the spirit yeveth lyfelich understanding.' Charitè is love; and love is charitè. God graunt us al[le] therin to be frended! And thus THE TESTAMENT OF LOVE is ended. 110 CH. IX. 1. nowe. toforne. 4. get. 7. destenye. thoughe. 9. sayde. god hadnest (!); _read_ god hath destenees. 11. missaythe. ledde; _read_ let = ledeth. 12. none. toforne. 14. _I supply_ he. 15. leueth. 16. sayde. great. dothe. 17. negatyfe. 21. beforne (_twice_). 22. apertely maye. 23. nowe to-gyther. 24. nothynge. 25. howe. 26. togyther. reason. 27. leadeth. frewyl. 28. reasonablyche. 29. demyd. _I supply_ thorow. frewyl. 32. folke. toforne know. 33. thorowe. fal. 34. wronge. 35. thorowe. 36-7. _I supply_ oon _and_ he. 39. thanke. 41. plentie. 42. ioy. dwel. 43. kyngdome. affecte. 44-6. greatest (_twice_). * _A break here in_ Th. 47. folke. 48. swetter. 50. dothe. 51. smel. 52. Christ. the. 59. mans; _read_ mannes (_twice_). 61. get. 62. put. 63. thre. 66. _I supply_ of. 68. this; _read_ thise. 69. medecyn. lechcraft. 70. mans. 72. I now; _for_ y-now. 73. thorowe. ha_n_de. 80. great. desyre. 84. made. 86. wytte. -mother; _read_ moder. 89. onely. booke. 90. correction. onely. 92. great. 94. released. 96. thorowe. 97. treatyse. Howe. 99. meate. norissheth; _read_ norisshed. 100. Christ. 101. stone. 103. thorowe. made. 104. saythe. spyrite. 105. lyfe. 109. al; _read_ allë. * * * * * II. THE PLOWMANS TALE. HERE BEGINNETH THE PLOWMANS PROLOGUE. The Plowman plucked up his plow, Whan midsommer mone was comen in, And sayd, 'his beestes shuld ete y-now, And lig in the grasse, up to the chin; They ben feble, both oxe and cow, 5 Of hem nis left but boon and skin.' He shook of share, and cultre of-drow, And hong his harneys on a pin. He took his tabard and his staf eke, And on his heed he set his hat; 10 And sayde, he wolde saynt Thomas seke, On pilgrimage he goth forth plat. In scrippe he bar both breed and lekes, He was forswonke and all forswat; Men might have seen through both his chekes, 15 And every wang-toth and where it sat. Our hoste beheld wel all about, And saw this man was sunne y-brent; He knew well by his senged snout, And by his clothes that were to-rent, 20 He was a man wont to walke about, He nas nat alway in cloystre y-pent; He coud not religiousliche lout, And therfore was he fully shent. Our host him axed, 'what man art thou?' 25 'Sir,' quod he, 'I am an hyne; For I am wont to go to the plow, And erne my mete yer that I dyne. To swete and swinke I make avow, My wyf and children therwith to fynd, 30 And servë god, and I wist how; But we lewd men ben full[y] blynd. For clerkes saye, we shullen be fayn For hir lyvelod [to] swete and swinke, And they right nought us give agayn, 35 Neyther to ete ne yet to drinke. They mowe by lawë, as they sayn, Us curse and dampne to hell[e] brinke; Thus they putten us to payn, With candles queynt and belles clinke. 40 They make us thralles at hir lust, And sayn, we mowe nat els be saved; They have the corn and we the dust, Who speketh ther-agayn, they say he raved.' 'What, man,' quod our host, 'canst thou preche? 45 Come neer, and tell us some holy thing.' 'Sir,' quod he, 'I herde ones teche A prest in pulpit a good preching.' 'Say on,' quod our host, 'I thee beseche.' 'Sir, I am redy at your bidding. 50 I pray you that no man me reproche Whyl that I am my tale telling. THUS ENDETH THE PROLOGUE, AND HERE FOLOWETH THE FIRST PART OF THE TALE. PART I. A sternë stryf is stered newe In many stedes in a stounde, Of sondry sedes that ben sewe; 55 It semeth that som ben unsounde. For some be gretë growen +on grounde, Some ben souple, simple and small; Whether of hem is falser founde, The falser, foul mote him befall! 60 That oon syde is, that I of tell, Popes, cardinals, and prelates, Parsons, monkes, and freres fell, Priours, abbottes of grete estates; Of heven and hell they kepe the yates, 65 And Peters successours they ben all; This is demed by oldë dates; But falshed, foul mote it befall! The other syde ben poore and pale, And people put [al] out of prees; 70 And semë caytifs sore a-cale, And ever in oon without encrees, +I-cleped lollers and londlees; Who toteth on hem, they been untall. They ben arayed all for the pees; 75 But falshed, foul mote it befall! Many a countrey have I sought, To know the falser of these two; But ever my travail was for nought, All so fer as I have go. 80 But as I wandred in a wro, In a wode besyde a wall, Two foules saw I sitte tho; The falser, foul mote him befall! That oon did plede on the Popes syde, 85 A Griffon of a grim stature. A Pellicane withouten pryde To these lollers layde his lure; He mused his matter in mesure, To counsayl Christ ever gan he call. 90 The Griffon shewed as sharp as fyre, But falshed, foul mote it befall! The Pellican began to preche Both of mercy and of mekeness; And sayd, that "Christ so gan us teche, 95 And meke and merciable gan bless. The Evangely bereth witness A lamb, he lykneth Christ over-all, In tokening that he mekest was, Sith pryde was out of heven fall. 100 And so shulde every Christned be; Preestes, Peters successours, Beth lowlich and of low degree, And usen none erthly honours, Neyther crown, ne curious cove[r]tours, 105 Ne +pelure, ne other proudë pall; Ne nought to cofren up greet tresours; For falshed, foul mote it befall! Preest[e]s shuld for no cattel plede, But chasten hem in charitè; 110 Ne to no batail shuld men lede For inhaunsing of hir own degree; Nat wilnë sittings in hy see, Ne soverayntè in hous ne hall; All worldly worship defye and flee; 115 For who willeth highnes, foul shal fall! Alas! who may such sayntes call That wilneth welde erthly honour? As lowe as Lucifer such shal fall, In baleful blacknesse y-builde hir bour; 120 That eggeth the people to errour, And maketh hem to hem [be] thrall; To Christ I hold suche oon traytour, As lowe as Lucifer such shal fall. That willeth to be kinges peres, 125 And hygher than the emperour; Some that were but pore freres Now wollen waxe a warryour. God is nat hir governour, That holdeth no man his +peragall; 130 Whyl covetyse is hir counsaylour, All such falshed mot nedë fall. That hye on horse willeth ryde In glitterand golde of grete aray, I-paynted and portred all in pryde; 135 No commun knight may go so gay. Chaunge of clothing every day, With golden girdles grete and small; As boystous as is bere at bay; All such falshed mot nedë fall. 140 With prydë +punysheth the pore, And somë they sustayn with sale; Of holy churche maketh an hore, And filleth hir wombe with wyne and ale; With money filleth many a male, 145 And chaffren churches when they fall, And telleth the people a lewed tale; Such falsë faytours, foul hem fall! With chaunge of many maner metes, With song and solace sitting long, 150 And filleth hir wombë, and fast fretes, And from the metë to the gong; And after mete with harp and song, And ech man mot hem lordes call; And hotë spyces ever among; 155 Such falsë faytours, foul hem fall! And myters mo than oon or two, I-perled as the quenes heed; A staf of golde, and +perrey, lo! As hevy as it were mad of leed; 160 With cloth of gold both newe and reed, With glitterand +gown as grene as gall, By dome will dampnë men to deed; All suche faytours, foul hem fall! And Christes people proudly curse 165 With brode bokes, and braying bell; To putte pennyes in hir purse They woll sell both heven and hell; And in hir sentence, and thou wilt dwell, They willen gesse in hir gay hall; 170 And though the soth thou of hem tell, In greet cursinge shalt thou fall. That is blessed, that they blesse, And cursed, that they cursë woll; And thus the people they oppresse, 175 And have their lordshippes at full; And many be marchauntes of woll, And to purse penyes woll come thrall; The porë people they all to-pull, Such falsë faytours, foul hem fall! 180 Lordes motë to hem loute, Obeysaunt to hir brode blessing; They ryden with hir royall route On a courser, as it were a king; With saddle of golde glitt[e]ring 185 With curious harneys quayntly crallit, Styroppes gaye of gold-mastling; All suche falshed, foul befall it! Christes ministers +cleped they been, And rulen all in robberye; 190 But Antichrist they serven clene, Attyred all in tyrannye; Witnesse of Johns prophecye, That Antichrist is hir admirall, Tiffelers attyred in trecherye; 195 All suche faytours, foul hem fall! Who sayth, that some of hem may sinne, He shal be +demed to be deed; Some of hem woll gladly winne All ayenst that which god forbed; 200 "All-holyest" they clepen hir heed, That of hir rulë is regall; Alas! that ever they eten breed; For all such falshed woll foul fall. Hir heed loveth all honour, 205 And to be worshipped in worde and dede; Kinges mot to hem knele and coure; To the apostles, that Christ forbede; To popes hestes such taketh more hede Than to kepe Christes commaundëment; 210 Of gold and silver mot ben hir wede, They holdeth him hole omnipotent. He ordayneth by his ordinaunce To parish-preestes a powére; To another a greter avaunce, 215 A greter poynt to his mystere; But for he is hyghest in erth here, To him reserveth he many a poynt; But to Christ, that hath no pere, Reserveth he neither opin ne joynt. 220 So semeth he above[n] all, And Christ aboven him nothing; Whan he sitteth in his stall, Dampneth and saveth as him think. Such pryde tofore god doth stink; 225 An angell bad John to him nat knele, But only to god do his bowing; Such willers of worship must evil fele. They ne clepen Christ but _sanctus deus_, And clepen her heed _Sanctissimus_; 230 They that such a sect[ë] sewis, I trowe, they taken hem amisse. In erth[ë] here they have hir blisse, Hir hye master is Belial; +Christ his people from hem wisse! 235 For all such falsë will foul fall! They mowë both[ë] binde and lose, And all is for hir holy lyf; To save or dampne they mowë chose, Betwene hem now [ther] is gret stryf. 240 Many a man is killed with knyf, To wete which of hem have lordship shall; For such, Christ suffred woundes fyve; For all such falshed will foul fall. Christ sayd: _Qui gladio percutit_ 245 With swerdë shall [he surely] dye; He bad his preestes pees and grith, And bad hem not drede for to dye; And bad them be both simple and slye, And carkë not for no cattall, 250 And +truste on god that sitteth on hye; For all [such] falsë shull foul fall. These wollen makë men to swere Ayenst Christes commaundëment; And Christes membres all to-tere 255 On rode as he wer newe y-rent. Suche lawes they make by commun assent, Ech on it choweth as a ball; Thus the pore be fully shent, But ever falshed foule it +fall! 260 They usen [never] no symonye, But sellen churches and prioryes; Ne [yet] they usen no envye, But cursen all hem contraryes; And hyreth men by dayes and yeres 265 With strength to holde hem in hir stall; And culleth all hir adversaryes; Therefor, falshed! foul thou fall! With purse they purchase personage, With purse they paynen hem to plede; 270 And men of warrë they woll wage, To bringe hir enemyes to the dede. And lordes lyves they woll lede, And moche take, and give but small; But he it so get, from it shall shede, 275 And make such falsë right foul fal! They halowe nothing but for hyre, Churchë, font, ne vestëment; And make[n] orders in every shyre, But preestes paye for the parchement; 280 Of ryatours they taken rent, Therwith they smere the shepes skall; For many churches ben oft suspent; All such falshed, yet foul it fall! Some liveth nat in lecherye, 285 But haunten wenches, widdowes, and wyves, And punisheth the pore for putrye; Them-selfe it useth all their lyves. And but a man to them [him] shryves, To heven comë never he shall; 290 He shal be cursed as be captyves, To hell they sayn that he shall fall. There was more mercy in Maximien, And in Nero, that never was good, Than [there] is now in some of +hem 295 Whan he hath on his furred hood. They folowe Christ that shedde his blood To heven, as bucket in-to the wall; Suche wreches ben worse than wood; And all such faytours, foule hem fall! 300 They give hir almesse to the riche, To maynteynours, and to men of lawe; For to lordes they woll be liche, An harlottes sone nat worth an hawe! Sothfastnessë suche han slawe, 305 They kembe hir crokets with cristall; And drede of god they have down drawe; All suche faytours, foul hem fall! They maken parsons for the penny, And canons of hir cardinals; 310 Unnethes amongest hem all any That he ne hath glosed the gospell fals! For Christ made never no cathedrals, Ne with him was no cardinall Wyth a reed hatte as usen mynstrals; 315 But falshed, foul mote it befall! +Hir tything, and hir offring both, They cle[y]meth it by possessio[u]n; Thérof nill they none forgo, But robben men as [by] raunsoun. 320 The tything of _Turpe lucrum_ With these maisters is meynall; Tything of bribry and larson Will makë falshed full foul fall! They taken to fermë hir sompnours 325 To harme the people what they may; To pardoners and false faytours Sell hir seles, I dar well say; And all to holden greet array, To multiply hem more metall, 330 They drede full litell domes day Whan all such [falsë] shall foul fall. Suche harlottes shull men disclaunder For they shullen make hir gree, And ben as proude as Alexaunder, 335 And sayn to the pore, "wo be ye!" By yere ech preest shall paye his fee To encrese his lemmans call; Suche herdes shull well yvell thee, And all such falsë shull foul fall! 340 And if a man be falsly famed, And woldë make purgacioun, Than woll the officers be agramed, And assigne him fro town to town; So nede he must[e] paye raunsoun 345 Though he be clene as is cristall, And than have an absolutioun; But all such falsë shull foul fall! Though he be gilty of the dede, And that he [yet] may money pay, 350 All the whyle his purse woll blede He may use it fro day to day! These bishoppes officers goon full gay, And this game they usen over-all; The pore to pill is all +hir pray; 355 All such falsë shull foul fall! Alas! god ordayned never such lawe, Ne no such craft of covetyse; He forbad it, by his sawe, Such governours mowen of god agryse; 360 For all his rules +ben rightwyse. These newe poyntes ben pure papall, And goddes lawë they dispyse; And all such faytours shul foul fall! They sayn that Peter had the key 365 Of hevin and hell, to have and hold; I trowe Peter took no money For no sinnes that he sold! Such successours ben to bold, In winning all their wit they wrall; 370 Hir conscience is waxen cold; And all such faytours, foule hem fall! Peter was never so great a fole To leve his key with such a lorell, Or to take such cursed such a tole 375 He was advysed nothing well. I trowe, they have the key of hell; +Hir maister is of that place marshall; For there they dressen hem to dwell, And with fals Lucifer there to fall. 380 They ben as proude as Lucifer, As angry, and as envious; From good fayth they ben full fer, In covetyse they ben curious; To catche catell as covytous 385 As hound, that for hunger woll yall; Ungoodly, and ungracious; And nedely, such falshed shal foul fall! The pope, and he were Peters heyr, Me think, he erreth in this cas, 390 Whan choyse of bishoppes is in dispeyr, To chosen hem in dyvers place; A lord shall write to him for grace, For his clerke +pray anon he shall; So shall he spede[n] his purchas; 395 And all such falsë, foule hem fall! Though he +conne no more good, A lordes prayer shal be sped; Though he be wild of will or wood, Nat understanding what men han red, 400 A boster, and (that god forbede!) As good a bishop +as my hors Ball, Suche a pope is foule be-sted, And at [the] lastë woll foul fall! He maketh bishops for erthly thank, 405 And nothing for Christes sake; Such that ben ful fatte and rank, To soulë hele non hede they take. Al is well don what ever they make, For they shal answere at +ones for all; 410 For worldes thank, such worch and wake, And all such falsë shall foul fall! Suche that +connë nat hir Crede With prayer shull be mad prelates; Nother +conne the gospell rede, 415 Such shull now welde hye estates. The hye goodes frendship hem makes, They toteth on hir somme totall; Such bere the keyes of hell-yates, And all such falsë shall foul fall. 420 They forsake, for Christes love, Traveyl, hunger, thurst, and cold; For they ben ordred ever all above Out of youthe til they ben old. By the dore they go nat in-to the fold, 425 To helpe +hir sheep they nought travall; Hyred men all suche I holde, And all such falsë, foule hem fall! For Christ hir king they woll forsake, And knowe him nought for his povert; 430 For Christes lovë they woll wake, And drink pyment [and] ale apart. Of god they seme nothing a-ferd; As lusty liveth, as Lamuall, And dryve hir sheep into desert; 435 All such faytours shull foul fall! Christ hath twelve apostels here; Now say they, ther may be but oon, That may nat erre in no manere; Who leveth nat this, ben lost echoon! 440 Peter erred, so dide nat John; Why is he cleped the principall? Christ cleped him Peter, but himself the stoon; All falsë faytours, foule hem fall! Why cursen they the croysery, 445 Christes Christen crëatures? For bytwene hem is now envy To be enhaunsed in honours. And Christen livers, with hir labours, For they leve on no man mortall, 450 +Ben do to dethe with dishonours; And all such falsë, foule hem fall! What knoweth a tillour at the plow The popes name, and what he hat? His crede suffyseth him y-now, 455 And knoweth a cardinall by his hat. Rough is the pore, unrightly lat, That knoweth Christ his god royall; Such maters be nat worth a gnat; But such false faytours, foule hem fall! 460 A king shall knele and kisse his sho; Christ suffred a sinfull kisse his feet. Me thinketh, he holdeth him hye y-now, So Lucifer did, that hye +seet. Such oon, me thinketh, him-self foryet, 465 Either to the trouth he was nat call; Christ, that suffred woundes wet, Shall makë such falshed foul fall! They layeth out hir largë nettes For to take silver and gold, 470 Fillen coffers, and sackes fettes, There-as they soules cacche shold. Hir servaunts be to +hem unhold, But they can doublin +hir rentall To bigge hem castels, and bigge hem hold; 475 And all such falsë, foule hem fall! HERE ENDETH THE FIRST PART OF THIS TALE, AND HERAFTER FOLOWETH THE SECONDE PART. PART II. To accorde with this wordë "fal" No more English can I find; Shewe another now I shall, For I have moche to say behind, 480 How preestes han the people pynd, As curteys Christ hath me [y-]kend, And put this matter in my mind To make this maner men amend. Shortly to shende hem, and shewe now 485 How wrongfully they worche and walke; O hye god, nothing they tell, ne how, But in goddes word, +tell many a balke. In hernes holde hem and in halke, And prechin of tythes and offrend, 490 And untruely of the gospell talke; For his mercy, god it amend! What is Antichrist to say But evin Christes adversáry? Such hath now ben many a day 495 To Christes bidding full contráry, That from the trouthë clenë vary; Out of the wayë they ben wend; And Christes people untruely cary; God, for his pitè, it amend! 500 That liven contráry to Christes lyf, In hye pride agaynst mekenesse; Agaynst suffraunce they usen stryf, And angre ayenst sobrenesse; Agaynst wisdom, wilfulnesse; 505 To Christes tales litell tend; Agaynst mesúre, outragiousnesse; But whan god woll, it may amend! Lordly lyf ayenst lowlinesse, And demin all without mercy; 510 And covetyse ayenst largesse, Agaynst trewth[e], trechery; And agaynst almesse, envy; Agaynst Christ they comprehend. For chastitè, they maynteyn lechery; 515 God, for his gracë, this amend! Ayenst penaunce they use delytes, Ayenst suffraunce, strong defence; Ayenst god they use yvel rightes, Agaynst pitè, punishments; 520 Open yvell ayenst continence; Hir wicked winning wors dispend; Sobrenesse they sette in-to dispence; But god, for his goodnesse, it amend! Why cleymen they hoolly his powére, 525 And wranglen ayenst all his hestes? His living folowen they nothing here, But liven wors than witles beestes. Of fish and flesh they loven feestes, As lordes, they ben brode y-kend; 530 Of goddes pore they haten gestes; God, for his mercy, this amend! With +Dives such shall have hir doom That sayn that they be Christes frendes, And do nothing as they shuld doon; 535 All such ben falser than ben fendes. On the people they ley such bendes, As god is in erthe, they han offend; Sucour for suchë Christ now sende us. And, for his mercy, this amend! 540 A token of Antichrist they be, His careckes ben now wyde y-know; Receyved to preche shall no man be Without[ë] token of him, I trow. Ech Christen preest to prechen ow, 545 From god abovë they ben send. Goddes word to all folk for to show, Sinfull man for to amend. Christ sente the pore for to preche; The royall riche he did nat so; 550 Now dar no pore the people teche, For Antichrist is over-all hir fo. Among the people he mot go; He hath bidden, all such suspend; Some hath he hent, and thinketh yet mo; 555 But all this god may well amend. All tho that han the world forsake, And liven lo[w]ly, as god bad, In-to hir prison shullen be take, Betin and bounden, and forth lad. 560 Herof I rede no man be drad; Christ sayd, his [servaunts] shulde be shend; Ech man ought herof be glad; For god ful well it woll amend. They take on hem royáll powére, 565 And saye, they havë swerdes two, Oon curse to hell, oon slee men here; For at his taking Christ had no mo, Yet Peter had [that] oon of tho. But Christ to Peter smyte gan defend, 570 And in-to the sheth bad putte it tho; And all such mischeves god amend! Christ bad Peter kepe his sheep, And with his swerde forbad him smyte; Swerd is no tole with sheep to kepe 575 But to shep[h]erdes that sheep woll byte. Me thinketh, suche shep[h]erdes ben to wyte Ayen hir sheep with swerd that contend; They dryve hir sheep with greet dispyte; But al this god may well amend. 580 So successours to Peter be they nought Whom [that] Christ madë cheef pastour; A swerd no shep[h]erde usen ought But he wold slee as a bochour. For who-so were Peters successour 585 Shuld bere his sheep till his bak bend, And shadowe hem from every shour; And all this god may wel amend. Successours to Peter ben these In that that Peter Christ forsook, 590 That had lever the love of god [to] lese Than a shep[h]erde had to lese his hook. He culleth the sheep as doth the cook; Of hem [they] taken the woll untrend, And falsely glose the gospell-book; 595 God, for his mercy, +hem amend! After Christ had take Peter the kay, Christ sayd, he mustë dye for man; That Peter to Christ gan withsay; Christ bad him, 'go behind, Sathan!' 600 Such counsaylours many of these men han For worldes wele, god to offend; Peters successours they ben for-than, But all such god may well amend. For Sathan is to say no more 605 But he that contrary to Christ is; In this they lernë Peters lore, They sewen him whan he did mis; They folowe Peter forsothe in this, In al that Christ wolde +him reprende, 610 Nat in that that longeth to hevin blis; God for his mercy hem amend! Some of the apostels they sewen in cas, Of ought that I can understonde, Him that betrayed Christ, Judas, 615 That bar the purse in every londe; And al that he might sette on honde, He hidde and stal, and [gan] mispend; His rule these traytours han in honde; Almighty god [now] hem amend! 620 And at last his lord gan tray Cursedly, through his covetyse; So wolde these trayen him for money, And they wisten in what wyse! They be seker of the selfe ensyse; 625 From all sothnesse they ben frend; And covetyse chaungen with queyntyse; Almighty god all suche amend! Were Christ on erthë here eft-soon, These wolde dampnë him to dye; 630 All his hestes they han fordon, And sayn, his sawes ben heresy; Ayenst his +maundëments they cry, And dampne all his to be [y-]brend; For it lyketh nat hem, such losengery; 635 God almighty hem amend! These han more might in England here Than hath the king and all his lawe, They han purchased hem such powére To taken hem whom [they] list nat knawe; 640 And say, that heresy is hir sawe, And so to prison woll hem send; It was nat so by elder dawe, God, for his mercy, it amend! The kinges lawe wol no man deme 645 Angerliche, withouten answere; But, if any man these misqueme, He shal be baited as a bere; And yet wel wors they woll him tere, And in prisón woll hem [be] pend 650 In gyves, and in other gere; Whan god woll, it may [a]mend. The king taxeth nat his men But by assent of the comminaltè; But these, ech yere, woll raunsom hem 655 Maysterfully, more than doth he; Hir seles, by yerë, better be Than is the kinges in extend; Hir officers han gretter fee; But this mischeef [may] god amend! 660 For who-so woll prove a testament Thát is natt all worth ten pound, He shall paye for the parchëment The third part of the money all round. Thus the people is raunsound, 665 They say, such part to hem shulde apend; There as they grypen, it goth to ground; God, for his mercy, it amend! A simple fornicacioun, Twenty shillings he shall pay; 670 And than have an absolucioun, And al the yere usen it forth he may! Thus they letten hem go a-stray, They recke nat though the soul be brend; These kepin yvell Peters key, 675 And all such shep[h]erdes god amend! Wonder is, that the parliament And all the lordes of this lond Here-to taken so litell entent To helpe the people out of hir hond; 680 For they ben harder in +hir bond, Wors bete[n] and [more] bitter brend Than to the king is understond; God him helpe this to amend! What bisshoppes, what religio[u]ns 685 Han in this lande as moch lay-fee, Lordshippes, and possessio[u]ns More than the lordes, it semeth me! That maketh hem lese charitè, They mowë nat to god attend; 690 In erthe they have so high degree, God, for his mercy, it amend! The emperour yaf the pope somtyme So hyghe lordship him about, That, at [the] laste, the sely kyme, 695 The proudë popë putte him out! So of this realme is in dout, But lordes be ware and +hem defend; For now these folk be wonder stout, The king and lordes now this amend! 700 THUS ENDETH THE SECONDE PART OF THIS TALE, AND HERAFTER FOLOWETH THE THIRDE. PART III. Moyses lawe forbood it tho, That preestes shuld no lordshippes welde, Christes gospel biddeth also Thát they shuld no lordship helde; Ne Christes apostels were never so bold 705 No such lordshippes to +hem enbrace; But smeren hir sheep and kepe hir fold; God amende hem for his grace! For they ne ben but countrefet, Men may knowe hem by hir fruit; 710 Hir gretnesse maketh hem god foryet, And take his mekenesse in dispyt. And they were pore and had but lyte, They nolde nat demen after the face, But norishe hir sheep, and hem nat byte; 715 God amende hem for his grace!" GRIFON. "What canst thou preche ayenst chanons Thát men clepen seculere?" PELICAN. "They ben curates of many towns, On erthë they have greet powére. 720 They han greet prebendes and dere, Some two or three, and some [han] mo, A personage to ben a playing-fere, And yet they serve the king also; And let to fermë all that fare 725 To whom that woll most give therfore; Some woll spende, and some woll spare, And some woll laye it up in store. A cure of soule[s] they care nat for, Só they mowë money take; 730 Whether hir soules be wonne or lore, Hir profits they woll nat forsake. They have a gedering procuratour That can the pore people enplede, And robben hem as a ravinour, 735 And to his lord the money lede; And cacche of quicke and eke of dede, And richen him and his lord eke, And to robbe the pore can give good rede Of olde and yonge, of hole and seke. 740 Therwith they purchase hem lay-fee In londë, there hem lyketh best, And builde +als brode as a citè Both in the est, and eke in the west. To purchase thus they ben ful prest, 745 But on the pore they woll nought spend, Ne no good give to goddes gest, Ne sende him some that all hath send. By hir service such woll live, And trusse that other in-to tresour; 750 Though all hir parish dye unshrive, They woll nat give a rosë-flour. Hir lyf shuld be as a mirrour Bothe to lered and to leude also, And teche the people hir leel labour; 755 Such mister men ben all misgo. Some of hem ben hardë nigges, And some of hem ben proude and gay; Some spende hir good upon [hir] gigges, And finden hem of greet aray. 760 Alas! what think these men to say That thus dispenden goddis good? At the dredfull domes day Such wrecches shul be worse than wood. Some hir churc[h]es never ne sye, 765 Ne never o peny thider ne sende; Though the pore parishens for hunger dye, O peny on hem wil they nat spende. Have they receivinge of the rent, They reck never of the remënant; 770 Alas! the devill hath clene hem blent! Suche oon is Sathanas sojournant. And usen horedom and harlotry, Covetysë, pompe, and pride, Slouthë, wrathe, and eke envy, 775 And sewen sinne by every syde. Alas! where thinkë such t'abyde? How woll they accomptes yeld? From hy god they mow hem nat hyde, Such willers wit is nat worth a neld. 780 They ben so roted in richesse, That Christes povert is foryete, Served with so many messe, Hem thinketh that manna is no mete. All is good that they mow get, 785 They wenë to live evermore; But, whan god at dome is set, Such tresour is a feble store. Unneth mot they matins say, For counting and for court-holding; 790 And yet he jangleth as a jay, And understont him-self nothing. He woll serve bothe erl and king For his fynding and his fee, And hyde his tything and his offring; 795 This is a feble charitè. Other they ben proude, or coveytous, Or they ben harde, or [els] hungry, Or they ben liberall or lecherous, Or els medlers with marchandry; 800 Or maynteyners of men with maistry, Or stewardes, countours, or pledours, And serve god in hypocrisy; Such preestes ben Christes fals traytours! They ben false, they ben vengeable, 805 And begylen men in Christes name; They ben unstedfast and unstable; To tray hir lord, hem thinketh no shame. To servë god they ben full lame, Goddes theves, and falsly stele; 810 And falsly goddes word defame; In winning is hir worldes wele. Antichrist these serven all; I pray thee, who may say [me] nay? With Antichrist such [folk] shull fall, 815 They folowen him in dede and fay; They servin him in riche array, To servë Christ such falsly fayn; Why, at the dredful domes day, Shull they not folowe him to payn? 820 That knowen hem-self, that they don ill Ayenst Christes commaundëment, And amende hem never ne will, But serve Sathan by one assent. Who sayth [the] sothe, he shal be shent, 825 Or speketh ayenst hir fals living; Who-so well liveth shal be brent, For such ben gretter than the king! Pope, bishoppes, and cardinals, Chanons, persons, and vicaire, 830 In goddes service, I trow, ben fals, That sacramentës sellen here. And ben as proude as Lucifere; Ech man loke whether that I ly! Who-so speketh ayenst hir powére, 835 It shall be holden heresy. Loke how many orders take Only of Christ, for his servyce, That the worldes goodes forsake? Who-so taketh orders +on other wyse, 840 I trow, that they shall sore agryse! For all the glose that they conne, All sewen not this [same] assyse; In yvell tyme they thus bigonne. Loke how many among hem all 845 Holden not this hyë way! With Antichrist they shullen fall, For they wolden god betray. God amende hem, that best may! For many men they maken shende; 850 They weten well, the sothe I say, Bút the divell hath foule hem blend. Some [up]on hir churches dwell, Apparailled porely, proude of port; The seven sacraments they don sell, 855 In cattel-cacching is hir comfort. Of ech mattér they wollen mell, And don hem wrong is hir disport; To afray the people they ben fell, And holde hem lower then doth the lord. 860 For the tythinge of a ducke, Or of an apple, or an ay, They make men swere upon a boke; Thus they foulen Christes fay. Such beren yvell heven-kay, 865 They mowen assoyl, they mowë shryve; With mennes wyves strongly play, With trewë tillers sturte and stryve At the wrestling, and at the wake; And chefe chauntours at the nale; 870 Market-beters, and medling make, Hoppen and houten with heve and hale. At fayrë freshe, and at wynë stale, Dyne and drinke, and make debat; The seven sacraments set at sale; 875 How kepe such the kayes of heven-gat? Mennes wyves they wollen holde; And though that they ben right sory, To speke they shull not be so bolde For sompning to the consistory; 880 And make hem say [with] mouth "I ly," Though they it sawë with hir y; His lemman holden openly, No man so hardy to axë why! He wol have tythinge and offringe, 885 Maugrè who-so-ever it gruche; And twyës on the day woll singe; Goddes prestes nere none suche! He mot on hunting with dogge and bic[c]he, And blowen his horn, and cryën "hey!" 890 And sorcery usen as a wicche; Such kepen yvell Peters key. Yet they mot have som stocke or stoon Gayly paynted, and proudly dight, To maken men [to] +leven upon, 895 And say, that it is full of might; About such, men sette up greet light, Other such stockes shull stand therby As darkë as it were midnight, For it may make no ma[i]stry. 900 That lewed people see it mow, Thou, Mary, worchest wonder thinges; About that, that men offren to now, Hongen broches, ouches, and ringes; The preest purchaseth the offringes, 905 But he nill offre to none image; Wo is the soule that he for singes, That precheth for suche a pilgrimage! To men and women that ben pore, That ben [in] Christes own lykenesse, 910 Men shullen offre at hir dore That suffren honger and distresse; And to suche imáges offre lesse, That mow not felë thurst ne cold; The pore in spirit gan Christ blesse, 915 Therfore offreth to feble and old. Buckelers brode, and swerdes longe, +Baudriks, with baselardes kene, Such toles about hir necke they honge; With Antichrist such preestes been; 920 Upon hir dedes it is well sene Whom they serven, whom they hono[u]ren; Antichristes they ben clene, And goddes goodes fa[l]sly deuouren. Of scarlet and grene gay[ë] gownes, 925 That mot be shapë for the newe, To clippen and kissen counten in townes The damoseles that to the daunce sewe; Cutted clothes to sewe hir hewe, With longë pykes on hir shoon; 930 Our goddes gospell is not trewe, Eyther they serven the divell or noon! Now ben prestes pokes so wyde, Men must enlarge the vestëment; The holy gospell they don hyde, 935 For they contrarien in rayment. Such preestes of Lucifer ben sent, Lyk conquerours they ben arayd, Proude pendaunts at hir ars y-pent, Falsly the truthe they han betrayd. 940 Shryft-silver suchë wollen aske is, And woll men crepë to the crouche; None of the sacraments, save askes, Without[ë] mede shall no man touche. On hir bishop their warant vouche, 945 That is lawe of the decrè; With mede and money thus they mouche, And +this, they sayn, is charitè! In the middes of hir masse They nill have no man but for hyre, 950 And, full shortly, let forth passe; Such shull men finde[n] in ech shyre That personages for profite desyre, To live in lykinge and in lustes; I dar not sayn, _sans ose ieo dyre_, 955 That such ben Antichristes preestes. Or they yef the bishops why, Or they mot ben in his servyce, And holden forth hir harlotry; Such prelats ben of feble empryse. 960 Of goddes grame such men agryse, For such mattérs that taken mede; How they excuse hem, and in what wyse, Me thinketh, they ought greetly drede. They sayn, that it to no man longeth 965 To reprove +hem, though they erre; But falsely goddes good they fongeth, And therwith maynteyn wo and werre. Hir dedes shuld be as bright as sterre, Hir living, lewed mannes light; 970 They say, the popë may not erre, Nede must that passë mannes might. Though a prest ly with his lemman al night, And tellen his felowe, and he him, He goth to massë anon-right, 975 And sayeth, he singeth out of sinne! His bryde abydeth him at his inne, And dighteth his dyner the mene whyle; He singeth his masse for he wolde winne, And so he weneth god begyle! 980 Hem thinketh long till they be met; And that they usen forth all the yere; Among the folk when he is set, He holdeth no man half his pere; Of the bishop he hath powére 985 To soyle men, or els they ben lore; His absolucion may make +hem skere; And wo is the soul that he singeth for!" The Griffon began for to threte, And sayd, "of monkes canst thou ought?" 990 The Pellican sayd, "they ben full grete, And in this world moch wo hath wrought. Saynt Benet, that hir order brought, Ne made hem never on such manere; I trowe, it cam never in his thought 995 That they shulde use so greet powér[e]; That a man shulde a monk lord cal, Ne serve on kneës, as a king. He is as proud as prince in pall In mete, and drink, and [in] all thing; 1000 Some weren myter and ring, With double worsted well y-dight, With royall mete and riche drink, And rydeth on courser as a knight. With hauke[s] and with houndes eke, 1005 With broches or ouches on his hode, Some say no masse in all a weke, Of deyntees is hir moste fode. With lordshippes and with bondmen This is a royall religioun; 1010 Saynt Benet made never none of hem To have lordship of man ne town. Now they ben queynte and curious, With fyn cloth cladde, and served clene, Proude, angry, and envyous, 1015 Malyce is mochë that they mene. In cacching crafty and covetous, Lordly liven in greet lyking; This living is not religious According to Benet in his living. 1020 They ben clerkes, hir courtes they oversee, Hir pore tenaunts fully they flyte; The hyer that a man amerced be, The gladlyer they woll it wryte. This is fer from Christes povertè, 1025 For all with covetyse they endyte; On the pore they have no pitè, Ne never hem cherish, but ever hem byte. And comunly suche ben comen Of pore people, and of hem begete, 1030 That this perfeccion han y-nomen; Hir +faders ryde not but on hir fete, And travaylen sore for that they ete, In povert liveth, yonge and old; Hir +faders suffreth drought and wete, 1035 Many hongry meles, thurst, and cold. All this the monkes han forsake For Christes love and saynt Benet; To pryde and esë have hem take; This religio[u]n is yvell beset. 1040 Had they ben out of religioun, They must have honged at the plow, Threshing and dyking fro town to town With sory mete, and not half y-now. Therfore they han this all forsake, 1045 And taken to riches, pryde, and ese; Full fewe for god woll monkes hem make, Litell is suche order for to prayse! Saynt Benet ordayned it not so, But bad hem be [ful] cherelich; 1050 In churlich maner live and go, Boystous in erth, and not lordlych. They disclaunder saynt Benet, Therfore they have his holy curse; Saynt Benet with hem never met 1055 But-if they thought to robbe his purse! I can no more herof [now] tell, But they ben lykë tho before, And clenë serve the divell of hell, And ben his tresour and his store. 1060 And all suche other counterfaytours, Chanons, canons, and such disgysed, Ben goddes enemies and traytours, His true religion han foul dispysed. Of freres I have told before 1065 In a making of a 'Crede,' And yet I coud tell worse and more, But men wold werien it to rede! As goddes goodnes no man tell might, Wryte ne speke, ne think in thought, 1070 So, hir falshed and hir unright May no man tell, that ever god wrought." The Gryffon sayd, "thou canst no good, Thou cam never of no gentill kind; Other, I trow, thou waxest wood, 1075 Or els thou hast [y-]lost thy mynd. Shuld holy churchë have no heed? Who shuld be her governayl? Who shuld her rule, who shuld her reed, Who shuld her forthren, who shuld avayl? 1080 Ech man shall live by his travayl; Who best doth, shall have moste mede; With strength if men the churche assayl, With strength men must defende her nede. And the pope were purely pore, 1085 Nedy, and nothing ne had, He shuld be driven from dore to dore; The wicked of him nold not be drad. Of such an heed men wold be sad, And sinfully liven as hem +list; 1090 With strength, amendes +shuld be made, With wepen, wolves from sheep be +wist. If the pope and prelats wold So begge and bidde, bowe, and borowe, Holy churche shuld stand full cold, 1095 Hir servaunts sitte and soupë sorowe! And they were noughty, foule, and horowe, To worship god men woldë wlate; Bothe on even and on morowe Such harlotry men woldë hate. 1100 Therfore men of holy churche Shuld ben honest in all thing, Worshipfully goddes workes werche, So semeth it, to serve Christ hir king In honest and in clene clothing; 1105 With vessels of golde and clothes riche, To god honestly to make offring; To his lordship non is liche." The Pellican caste an houge cry, And sayd, "alas! why sayest thou so? 1110 Christ is our heed that sitteth on hy, Heddes ne ought we have no mo. We ben his membres both also, And +fader he taught us to cal him als; Maysters be called defended he tho; 1115 All other maysters ben wicked and fals, That taketh maystry in his name, Gostly, and for erthly good; Kinges and lordes shuld lordship han, And rule the people with myldë mode. 1120 Christ, for us that shedde his blood, Bad his preestes no maystership have, Ne carkë nat for cloth ne fode; From every mischef he will hem save. Hir riche clothing shal be rightwysnesse, 1125 Hir tresour, trewë lyf shal be; Charitè shal be hir richesse, Hir lordship shal be unitè; Hope in god, hir honestè; Hir vessell, clenë conscience; 1130 Pore in spirit, and humilitè, Shal be holy churches defence." "What," sayd the Griffon, "may thee greve That other folkes faren wele? What hast thou to donë with hir +leve? 1135 Thy falsheed ech man may fele. For thou canst no catell gete, But livest in londe, as a lorell, With glosing gettest thou thy mete; So fareth the devell that wonneth in hell. 1140 He wold that ech man ther shuld dwell, For he liveth in clene envy; So with the tales that thou doest tell Thou woldest other people distry, With your glose, and your heresy, 1145 For ye can live no better lyf, But clenë in hypocrisy, And bringest thee in wo and stryf. And therwith have [ye] not to done, For ye ne have[n] here no cure; 1150 Ye serve the divell, +not god ne man, And he shall payë you your hyre. For ye woll farë well at feestes, And warm [be] clothed for the colde, Therfore ye glose goddes hestes, 1155 And begyle the people, yonge and olde. And all the seven sacraments Ye speke ayenst, as ye were sly, Ayenst tythings with your entents, And on our lordes body falsly ly. 1160 All this ye don to live in ese, As who sayeth, ther ben non suche; And sayn, the pope is not worth a pese, To make the people ayen him gruche. And this commeth in by fendes, 1165 To bringe the Christen in distaunce; For they wold that no man were frendes; Leve thy chattring, with mischaunce! If thou live well, what wilt thou more? Let other men live as hem list; 1170 Spende in good, or kepe in store; Other mennes conscience never thou nist. Ye han no cure to answere for; What meddell ye, that han not to don? Let men live as they han don yore, 1175 For thou shalt answere for no +mon." The Pellican sayd, "Sir, nay, [nay], I dispysed not the pope, Ne no sacrament, soth to say; But speke in charitè and good hope. 1180 But I dispyse hir hyë pryde, Hir richesse, that shuld be pore in spryt; Hir wickednesse is knowe so wyde, They servë god in fals habyt; And turnen mekenesse into pryde, 1185 And lowlinesse into hy degrè, And goddes wordes turne and hyde; And that am I moved by charitè To lettë men to livë so With all my conning and al my might, 1190 And to warne men of hir wo And to tell hem trouth and right. The sacraments be soulë-hele If they ben used in good use; Ayenst that speke I never a del, 1195 For then were I nothing wyse. But they that use hem in mis manére, Or sette hem up to any sale, I trow, they shall abye hem dere; This is my reson, this is my tale. 1200 Who-so taketh hem unrightfulliche Ayenst the ten commaundëments, Or by glosë wrechedliche Selleth any of the sacraments, I trow, they do the devell homage 1205 In that they weten they do wrong; And therto, I dar well wage, They serven Satan for al her song. To tythen and offren is hoolsom lyf, So it be don in dew manére; 1210 A man to houselin and to shryve, Wedding, and all the other in-fere, So it be nother sold ne bought, Ne take ne give for covetyse; And it be so taken, it is nought; 1215 Who selleth hem so, may sore agryse. On our Lordes body I do not ly, I say soth, thorow trewë rede, His flesh and blood, through his mystry, Is there, in the forme of brede. 1220 How it is there, it nedeth not stryve, Whether it be subget or accident, But as Christ was, when he was on-lyve, So is he there, verament. If pope or cardinall live good lyve, 1225 As Christ commaunded in his gospell, +Ayenës that woll I not stryve; But, me thinketh, they live not well. For if the pope lived as god bede, Pryde and hyghnesse he shuld dispyse, 1230 Richesse, covetyse, and crowne on hede, Mekenesse and povert he shulde use." The Gryffon sayd, he shulde abye-- "Thou shal[t] be brent in balefull fyre; And all thy secte I shall distrye, 1235 Ye shal be hanged by the swyre! Ye shullen be hanged and to-drawe. Who giveth you levë for to preche, Or speke +agaynës goddes lawe, And the people thus falsly teche? 1240 Thou shalt be cursed with boke and bell, And dissevered from holy churche, And clene y-dampned into hell, Otherwyse but ye woll worche!" The Pellican sayd, "that I ne drede; 1245 Your cursinge is of litell value; Of god I hope to have my mede, For it is falshed that ye shewe. For ye ben out of charitè And wilneth vengeaunce, as did Nero; 1250 To suffren I woll redy be; I drede not that thou canst do. Christ bad ones suffre for his love, And so he taught all his servaunts; And but thou amend for his sake above, 1255 I drede not all thy mayntenaunce. For if I drede the worldes hate, Me thinketh, I were litell to prayse; I drede nothing your hye estat, Ne I drede not your disese. 1260 Wolde ye turne and leve your pryde, Your hyë port, and your richesse, Your cursing shuld not go so wyde; God bring you into rightwysnesse! For I drede not your tyranny, 1265 For nothing that ye can doon; To suffre I am all redy, Siker, I recke never how soon!" The Griffon grinned as he were wood, And loked lovely as an owle! 1270 And swor, by cockes hertë blood, He wolde him terë, every doule! "Holy churche thou disclaundrest foule! For thy resons I woll thee all to-race; And make thy flesh to rote and moule; 1275 Losell, thou shalt have hardë grace!" The Griffon flew forth on his way; The Pellican did sitte and weep; And to him-selfë he gan say, "God wolde that any of Christes sheep 1280 Had herd, and y-takë kepe Eche a word that here sayd was, And wolde it wryte and well it kepe! God wolde it were all, for his grace!" PLOWMAN. I answerde, and sayd I wolde, 1285 If for my travayl any wold pay. PELICAN. He sayd, "yes; these that god han sold; For they han [greet] store of money!" PLOWMAN. I sayd, "tell me, and thou may, Why tellest thou mennës trespace?" 1290 PELICAN. He said, "to amende hem, in good fay, If god woll give me any grace. For Christ him-selfe is lykned to me, That for his people dyed on rode; As fare I, right so fareth he, 1295 He fedeth his birdes with his blode. But these don yvell +ayenës good, And ben his foon under frendes face; I tolde hem how hir living stood; God amende hem, for his grace!" 1300 PLOWMAN. "What ayleth the Griffon, tell [me] why, That he holdeth on that other syde?" PELLICAN. "For they two ben [of kind], lykly, And with [lyk] kindes robben wyde. The foul betokeneth [evill] pryde, 1305 As Lucifer, that hygh +flowe was; And sith he did him in evell hyde, For he agilted goddes grace. As bird [that] flyeth up in the ayr, And liveth by birdes that ben meke, 1310 So these be flowe up in dispayr, And shenden sely soules eke. The soules that ben in sinnes seke, He culleth hem; knele therfore, alas! For brybry goddes forbode breke, 1315 God amende it, for his grace! The hinder part is a lyoun, A robber and a ravinere, That robbeth the people in erth a-down, And in erth holdeth non his pere; 1320 So fareth this foul, both fer and nere; With temporel strength they people chase, As a lyon proud in erthë here; God amende hem for hys grace!" He flew forth with his winges twayn, 1325 All drouping, dased, and dull. But soone the Griffon cam agayn, Of his foules the erth was full; The Pellican he had cast to pull. So greet a nombre never seen ther was; 1330 What maner of foules, tellen I woll, If god woll give me of his grace. With the Griffon comen foules fele, Ravins, rokes, crowes, and pye, Gray foules, agadred wele, 1335 Y-gurd, above they woldë hye. Gledes and bosardes weren hem by; Whyt molles and puttockes token hir place; And lapwinges, that wel conneth ly, This felowship han for-gerd hir grace. 1340 Longe the Pellican was out, But at [the] laste he cometh agayn; And brought with him the Phenix stout. The Griffon wolde have flowe full fayn; His foules, that flewen as thycke as rayn, 1345 The Phenix tho began hem chace; To fly from him it was in vayn, For he did vengeaunce and no grace. He slew hem down without mercy, Ther astartë neyther free ne thrall; 1350 On him they cast a rufull cry When the Griffon down was fall. He beet hem not, but slew hem all; Whither he hem drove, no man may trace; Under the erthe, me thought, they yall; 1355 Alas! they had a feble grace! The Pellican then axed right, "For my wryting if I have blame, Who woll for me fight of flight? Who shall sheldë me from shame? 1360 He that had a mayd to dame, The lamb that slayn [for sinners] was, Shall sheldë me from gostly blame; For erthly harm is goddes grace. Therfore I praye every man, 1365 Of my wryting have me excused." This wryting wryteth the Pellican, That thus these people hath dispysed; For I am, fresh, fully advysed, I nill not maynteyn his manace. 1370 For the devell is +oft disguysed, To bringe a man to yvell grace. Wyteth the Pellican, and not me, For herof I nil not avowe, In hy ne in low, ne in no degrè, 1375 But as a fable take it ye mowe. To holy churche I will me bowe; Ech man to amende him, Christ send space! And for my wryting me alowe He that is almighty, for his grace.' 1380 FINIS. _From_ Thynne (ed. 1542). _I give rejected spellings._ 1. Ploweman; plowe. 3. eate ynowe. 4. lyge; chynne. 5. cowe. 6. bone; skynne. 7. shoke; -drowe. 8. honge; pynne. 9. toke; tabarde; staffe. 12. pylgremage; platte. 13. bare. 14. forswatte. 15. sene. 17. behelde wele. 18. sawe. 19. knewe; snoute. 23. coulde; loute. 27. plowe. 28. meate. 29. auowe. 30. wyfe; fynde. 31. howe. 32. leude; bene; full (_read_ fully; _see_ l. 24); blynde. 33. fayne. 34. her; _supply_ to; swet. 35. agayne. 36. eate. 37. The (_for_ They; 1550, They); sayne. 38. hell. 39. payne. 41. her. 42. sayne. 43. corne. 44. speaketh. 45. preache. 46. nere; thynge. 47. ons (1550, ones); teache. 48. preachynge. 49. Saye; the. 51. praye; noman. 52. Whyle; tellynge. COLOPHON: fyrst parte. 53. stryfe. 55. bene. 57. great; vngrounde (!). 58. souble (_error for_ souple). 60. foule. 61. one. 63. freers. 64. great. 65. heuyn. 68. foule mought. 70. _Supply_ al; prease. 71. caytyffes. 72. one; encrease. 73. I-clepeth (!); londlese. 74. bene. 75. peace. 76. foule. 78. knowe. 79. trauayle. 80. ferre. 82. wodde. 83. sawe. 85. one. 86. grymme. 89. measure. 90. counsayle. 91. sharpe. 92. foule. 93. preache. 94. mekenesse. 95. teache. 96. blesse. 97. beareth wytnesse. 98. lambe; lykeneth. 99. tokenynge. 103. lowlyche; lowe. 105. crowne; couetours (_read_ covertours). 106. pylloure (_for_ pelure). 107. great treasours. 108. foule. 109. Preests shulde. 111. bateyle shulde. 112. her owne. 113. syttynges; hye. 114. souerayntie; house. 115. worshippe. 116. Who so (_omit_ so); foule shall. 117. suche. 118. erthlye. 119. suche shall. 120. y-buylden her boure. 122. them to hem; _supply_ be. 123. holde; one. 124. suche one shall (_om._ one). 125. peeres. 127. poore freers. 128. Nowe. 129. her. 130. noman; permagall. 131. Whyle; her. 132. suche; mote. 134. glytterande; great araye. 136. co_m_men; maye; gaye. 137. daye. 138. great. 139. baye. 140. suche; mote. 141. punyshed (!); _see_ l. 143. 142. sustayne. 144. her. 147. leude. 148. Suche; foule them befall (_see_ ll. 156, 164). 149. meates. 150. songe; syttynge longe. 151. her. 152. meate; gonge. 153. meate; harpe; songe. 154. eche; mote. 155. amonge. 156. Suche; foule. 157. one. 159. staffe; pyrrey; _read_ perrey. 160. made; lead. 161. golde; redde. 162. glytterande; golde (_repeated from_ l. 161; _read_ gown). 164. foule. 167. her. 168. hel. 169. her. 170. her gaye. 172. great. 179. poore. 180. Suche; foule. 182, 3. her. 184. kynge. 185. glyttryng (1550, glytteryng). 187. golde. 188. foule. 189. clepen (!); bene. 194. Antichriste; her. 196. foule. 198. done (_but_ 1550, dome; _read_ demed). 200. whiche. 201, 202. her. 204. suche; foule. 205. Her. 207. mote. 208. forbede (= forb[=e]d). 209. suche. 211. mote; her. 215, 216. greater. 224. thynke. 225. Suche; stynke. 227. bowynge. 228. must nede euyll; _I omit_ nede. 231. suche; sect sewys. 233. her. 234. Her. 235. Chrystes (!); _read_ Christ his. 236. suche; foule. 238. her; lyfe. 240. _Supply_ ther; great stryfe. 241. a knyfe (_om._ a). 243. suche. 244. suche; foule. 246. _Supply_ he surely. 247. peace. 248. bade. 251. trusteth (!). 252. _Supply_ such; foule. 256. roode. 257. co_m_men. 258. Echeon. 259. poore. 260. befall; _read_ fall. 261. _Supply_ never. 263. _Supply_ yet. 266. her. 267. her. 268. foule; falle. 272. her. 276. suche; foule. 282. shyppes (!); 1550, shepes. 283. ofte. 284. suche; foule. 287. poore. 289. _Supply_ him. 292. sayne. 295. _Supply_ there; nowe; them. 296. hoode. 297. blode. 298. buckette; (wall = well). 299. wode. 300. suche. 301. her. 302. _Omit_ to? 304. sonne; worthe. 306. her crokettes; christall. 307. downe. 308. foule. 310. her. 315. Redde; vsyn. 316. falsshed foule. 317. Their (_read_ Hir); her. 318. clemeth; _see_ l. 525. 320. _Supply_ by; raunsome. 324, 332, 340. foule. 324. to fall (_omit_ to). 325. her. 328. her seales; dare. 329. great. 332. suche; _supply_ false. 334. her. 336. sayne; poore. 337. eche preeste. 338. encrease. 339. heerdes; the. 340. suche. 341. falsely. 344. towne (_twice_). 345. raunsome. 346. christall. 348. suche. 348, 356, 364. foule. 349. gyltie. 350. _Supply_ yet; maye. 352. maye. 353. gone. 355. poore; theyr (_read_ hir). 356. suche. 357. suche. 358. suche crafte. 359. forbade. 360. Suche. 361. is (_read_ ben). 363. dispyce. 364. suche. 365. sayne. 366. heuyn; holde. 367. toke. 368. solde. 369. Suche; bolde. 370. wytte. 371. colde. 372. suche. 374. leaue. 375. suche (_twice_). 378. Theyr (_for_ Hir). 380. false Lucifere. 381. Lucifarre. 383. faythe; farre. 386. hou_n_de; hungre. 387. vngratious. 388. suche. 388, 396, 404. foule. 389. heyre. 390. thynke; case. 391. dispeyre. 393. lorde. 394. anone pray. 395. purchase. 396. suche. 397. can (_read_ conne). 398. spedde. 399. wylde. 400. redde. 401. leude boster (_om._ leude). 402. byshoppe; is (_read_ as); horse. 403. be stedde. 404. _Supply_ the; last. 405. byshoppes. 407. Suche; ranke. 408. heale none. 409. done. 410. one fors (!); _misprint_. 411. thanke suche. 412. suche. 412, 420, 436. foule. 413. canne; _read_ conne; her. 414. made. 415. canne. 416. Suche; nowe. 418. her. 419. Suche. 420. suche. 422. Traueyle hungre; colde. 424. olde. 425. folde. 426. theyr (_for_ hir); shepe. 428. suche. 429. her. 430. pouerte. 432. drynke; pyement; _supply_ and; aparte. 433. a ferde. 434. as dyd (_om._ dyd). 435. dryuen her shepe; deserte. 436. suche. 437. xij. 438. Nowe; there; one. 440. echone. 443. stone. 447. nowe. 449. her. 450. leuyn. 451. But (_read_ Ben). 452. suche. 453. plowe. 454. hate (!). 455. to hym (_om._ to); ynowe. 456. hatte. 457. poore; latte. 459. Suche; gnatte. 460. suche. 461. showe. 462. to kysse (_om._ to); fete. 463. ynowe. 464. sette; _read_ seet (= sat). 465. Suche one; hym selfe foryete. 466. _For_ call _read_ tall (?); _cf. l._ 74. 467. wete. 468. suche; foule. 469. her. 470. golde. 472. catche sholde. 473. Her seruauntes; them (_read_ hem); vnholde. 474. theyr (_for_ hir). 475. holde. 476. suche. 478. fynde. 479. nowe. 480. saye behynde. 481. Howe; pynde. 482. kende; _see_ l. 530. 483. putte; mynde. 484. amende. 485. nowe. 486. Howe. 487. howe. 488. worde; telleth (_see_ l. 487). 490. offrende. 492. amende. 493. saye. 495. Suche hathe nowe. 497. varry. 498. wende. 500. pytie; amende. 501. lyfe. 503. sufferaunce; stryfe. 505. wysedome. 506. tende. 507. measure. 508. maye amende. 509. lyfe. 514. comprehende. 515. maynteyne. 516. amende. 517. delyghtes. 518. stronge. 519. vsen. 520. Agaynste pytie punishementes. 522. Her; worse dispende. 524. amende. 525. holy. 528. worse; wytlesse. 529. fyshe; fleshe. 530. ykende. 531. poore. 532. amende. 533. Dyuers (_read_ Dives); suche; her dome. 534. sayne. 535. shulde done. 536. suche. 537. suche. 538. offende. 539. nowe. 540. amende. 542. nowe; yknowe. 544. trowe. 545. Eche; owe (!). 546. sende. 547. worde; folke; showe. 548. amende. 549. poore. 551. Nowe dare; poore. 552. her foe. 553. Amonge; mote. 554. suche suspende. 555. hente. 556. amende. 557. worlde. 558. loly; badde. 559. her. 560. forthe ladde. 561. dradde. 562. _Supply_ servaunts; shende. 563. Eche; gladde. 564, 572, 580, 588. amende. 567. One; one. 569. _Supply_ that; one. 570. defende. 571. badde. 572. suche. 573. badde; shepe. 574. forbade. 575. Swerde; shepe. 576. shepe. 578. her shepe; swerde; contende. 579. her shepe; great. 582. _Supply_ that; chefe pastoure. 583. swerde. 584. bochoure. 586. Shulde; shepe; backe bende. 587. shoure. 590. forsoke. 591. _Supply_ to (_as in_ l. 592). 592. hoke. 593. shepe; dothe; coke. 594. _Supply_ they; vntrende. 595. -boke. 596. them amende. 600. badde; behynde. 601. Suche. 602. offende. 604. suche; amende. 606. _Read_ contrar. 608. mysse. 610. Peter (_read_ him); reprehende. 611. But nat (_om._ But); heuyn blysse. 612. amende. 613. case. 616. bare. 618. stale; _supply_ gan; myspende. 620. _Supply_ now; amende. 622. hys false (_om._ false). 626. frende = fremd. 628. amende. 629. efte sone. 631. fordone. 632. sayne. 633. And ayenst (_omit_ And); commaundementes (_read_ maundements); crye. 634. brende. 635. suche. 636. amende. 637. Englande. 638. kynge. 639. suche. 640. _Supply_ they (_or_ hem); lyste. 641. her. 642. prysone; sende. 644. amende. 648. bayghted. 649. worse. 650. prysone; _supply_ be; pende. 652. maye mende. 654. assente. 655. eche. 657. Her seales. 658. extende. 660. mischefe; _supply_ may; amende. 662. worthe tenne pounde. 664. thyrde parte; rounde. 665. raunsounde. 666. saye suche parte; apende. 667. gothe; grounde. 668. amende. 669. fornycatioun. 670. shyllynges; paye. 671. absolution. 672. forthe; maye. 674. soule; brende. 676. suche; amende. 678. londe. 680. her honde. 681. theyr (_for_ hir); bonde. 682. Worse beate; _supply_ more; brende. 683. vnderstande. 684. amende. 685. _Read_ religiouns. 686. moche laye. 690. attende. 691. hyghe. 692. amende. 694. aboute. 695. _Supply_ the. 697. doute. 698. them defende. 699. nowe; folke; stoute. 700. kynge; nowe; amende. 701. forbode. 702. shulde. 704. shulde; lordshyppe. 705. bolde. 706. suche lordeshyppes; them (_for_ hem). 707. her shepe; her folde. 709. countrefete. 710. her fruite. 711. Her; foryete. 712. dispyte. 713. poore. 715. her shepe. 720-1. great. 722. thre; _supply_ han. 723. playeng. 724. kynge. 725. lette. 729. soule; fore. 731. her. 732. Her profytes. 734. poore. 736. lorde. 737. catche. 738. lorde. 739. poore. 740. syke (_for_ seke); _see l._ 1313. 743. also (_read_ als). 746. poore; spende. 748. sende. 749. her; suche. 750. treasour. 751. her paryshe. 752. -floure. 753. Her lyfe shulde. 755. her lele. 756. Suche. 759. her; _supply_ hir. 760. great. 761. thynke. 763. dredefull. 764. Suche wretches. 765. her. 767. poore; hungre. 769. rente. 770. recke. 772. one. 773. horedome. 777. suche tabyde. 778. Howe; yelde. 779. hye; mowe. 780. Suche; wytte; nelde. 782. foryet. 785. mowe gete. 787. sette. 788. Suche treasour. 789. mote; saye. 790. holdynge. 791. iaye. 792. selfe nothynge. 793. erle; kynge. 795. tythynge; offrynge. 798. _Supply_ els. 804. false. 808. her lorde. 811. falsely; worde. 812. her. 814. the; _supply_ me. 815. suche; _supply_ folk. 818. suche falsely fayne. 819. dredeful. 820. payne. 821. selfe; done. 825. _Supply_ the. 826. her false. 828. suche. 830. _Read_ vikere. 831. trowe; false. 834. Eche; lye. 835. _Read_ Who speke ayeinës; her. 837. howe. 838. Onely; Christe. 840. or (_read_ on). 841. trowe. 843. _Supply_ same. 845. howe; amonge. 846. waye. 848. betraye. 849. maye. 851. saye. 852. blende. 853. on (_read_ upon); her. 854. poorely; porte. 855. sacramentes; done. 856. catchynge; her comforte. 857. eche. 858. done; wronge; her dysporte. 859. afraye. 860. lorde. 862. aye. 863. sweare. 865. Suche bearen; heauen. 866. assoyle. 868. true (_better_ trewë). 869. wrestlynge. 871. Markette beaters; medlynge. 874. debate. 875. sacramentes; sayle (!). 876. Howe; suche; gate. 879. speake. 880. sompnynge. 881. saye; _supply_ with; lye. 882. her eye. 887. twyse; daye he (_om._ he). 889. mote. 890. horne. 891. wytche. 892. Suchen. 893. mote; some; stone. 895. _Supply_ to; lyuen. 896. saye. 897. Aboute suche; great. 898. suche; stande. 900. maye. 901. That it leude people se mowe. 902. Mary thou (_om._ thou). 903. Aboute; nowe. 909. poore. 910. _Supply_ in; owne. 911. her. 914. mowe; colde. 915. poore; sprete; Christe. 916. olde. 917. sweardes. 918. Baudryke (_read_ Baudriks). 919. Suche; her. 920. suche; bene. 921. her. 922. Whome (_twice_). 923. bene. 925. gay. 926. mote. 929. her. 930. her shone. 932. none. 933. Nowe. 934. That men (_om._ That). 935. done. 937. Suche. 938. Lyke. arayde. 939. The proude (_om._ The); pendauntes; her. 940. Falsely; betrayde. 941. Shryfte-. 943. sacramentes. 945. her byshoppe. 948. thus (_read_ this); sayne. 949. her. 952. Suche; eche. 953. profyte. 955. dare; sayne. 956. suche. 957. byshoppes. 958. mote. 959. her. 960. Suche prelates. 961. suche. 962. suche. 963. Howe. 964. greatly. 965. sayne. 966. them (_for_ hem). 967. goddes goodesse (!). 968. maynteyne. 969. Her; shulde. 970. Her lyuynge leude. 971. saye; maye. 972. muste. 973. lye. 975. anone. 978. meane. 981. longe; mette. 983. Amonge; folke; sette. 984. halfe. 985. byshoppe. 987. absolution maye; them (_for_ hem). 988. soule; fore. 993. her. 994. suche. 995. came. 996. great. 997. monke lorde. 998. kynge. 999. proude. 1000. meate; drynke; _supply_ in. 1001. wearen; rynge. 1003. meate; drynke. 1004. on a (_om._ a). 1007. saye. 1008. deynties; her; foode. 1010. religion. 1012. lordshyppe; towne. 1013. Nowe. 1014. fyne clothe. 1016. meane. 1017. catchynge. 1018. great lykynge. 1019. lyuynge. 1020. Accordynge; Benette; lyuynge. 1021. her; ouerse. 1022. Her poore tenaunce. 1023. hyre (1550, hyer). 1025. farre. 1027. poore. 1028. cheryshe. 1029. co_m_menly. 1030. poore. 1031. perfection. 1032. Her fathers ryden; her. 1034. olde. 1035. Her fathers. 1036. colde. 1037. And all (_om._ And). 1038. Benette. 1039. ease. 1040. besette. 1042. plowe. 1043. Threshynge; dykynge; towne; towne. 1044. halfe ynowe. 1046. ease. 1050. badde; _supply_ ful; cherelyche. 1051. churlyche. 1052. earth. 1053. Benette. 1055. mette. 1057. _Supply_ now. 1060. treasoure. 1062. suche. 1064. foule. 1065. tolde. 1066. makynge. 1067. coulde. 1068. wolde. 1069. goodnesse. 1070. speake; thynke. 1071. her (_twice_). 1074. came; kynde. 1075. trowe. 1076. lost; mynde. 1077-80. shulde. 1078. gouernayle. 1080. auayle. 1081. Eche; trauayle. 1083. assayle. 1085. poore. 1086. nothynge; hadde. 1087. shulde. 1088. nolde; dradde. 1089. wolde; sadde. 1090. lust (_read_ list). 1091. such (_read_ shuld). 1092. shepe; wust (_read_ wist). 1093. prelates wolde. 1095. shulde stande; colde. 1096. Her seruauntes. 1098. worshyppe. 1100. Suche. 1102. Shulde; thynge. 1104. her kynge. 1105. clothynge. 1107. offrynge. 1108. lordshypppe (!) none. 1109. crye. 1111. hye. 1114. father. 1115. to be (_om._ to). 1116. _Read_ wikke? 1118. Goostly; earthly. 1119. shulde; hane. 1121. blode. 1122. Badde. 1124. myschefe. 1125-30. Her. 1125. clothynge. 1126. treasoure; lyfe. 1128. lordshyppe. 1131. Poore; spirite. 1133. the. 1135. haste; lyue (_read_ leve). 1136. eche. 1139. glosynge. 1141. wolde; eche; there shulde. 1142. enuye. 1146. lyfe. 1148. the; stryfe. 1149. _Supply_ ye. 1151. neyther (_read_ not). 1154. warme; _supply_ be. 1157. sacramentes. 1158. speake; slye. 1159. tythynges offringes w_i_t_h_ (_omit_ offringes); ente_n_tes. 1160. lye. 1161. done; ease. 1162. there; none. 1163. sayne; pease. 1167. wolde. 1168. Leaue; chattrynge. 1173. fore. 1174. done. 1175. done. 1176. shalte; man. 1177. _Supply_ nay. 1179. sacramente. 1180. speake. 1181-3. her. 1182. shulde; poore; spirite. 1184. false habyte. 1186. hye. 1190. connynge. 1191. her. 1193. sacramentes. 1195. speake; dele. 1196. nothynge. 1197. vsen; mysse. 1199. trowe. 1200. reason. 1202. co_m_maundementes. 1204. sacramentes. 1205. trowe. 1206. wronge. 1207. dare. 1208. songe. 1209. holsome lyfe. 1210. done; dewe. 1212. Weddynge. 1213. solde. 1216. maye. 1217. lye. 1218. saye; thorowe. 1219. fleshe; blode; mystrye. 1221. Howe. 1222. subgette. 1227. Ayenst. 1230. shulde. 1232. pouerte. 1235. dystrye. 1238. leaue; preache. 1239. speake agaynst. 1240. falsely teache. 1245. sayde. 1248. falshede. 1253. badde. 1254. seruauntes. 1255. amende. 1259. nothynge; estate. 1260. dysease. 1261. leaue. 1262. porte. 1263. cursynge shulde. 1264. brynge. 1266. nothynge; done. 1268. howe soone. 1269. wode. 1271. swore; bloode. 1274. reasons; the. 1275. fleshe. 1276. shalte. 1277. flewe; waye. 1278. wepe. 1279. saye. 1280. shepe. 1281. herde. 1282. worde. 1283. wrytte. 1286. trauayle; any man wolde (_om._ man). 1287. solde. 1288. _Supply_ greet. 1293. lykened. 1297. done; ayenst gode. 1298. fone. 1299. howe her lyuynge stode. 1301. _Supply_ me. 1303. _Supply_ Pellican (_wrongly prefixed to_ l. 1305); _supply_ of kind. 1304. _Supply_ lyk. 1305. foule; _supply_ evill. 1306. flewe (_read_ flowe; _see_ l. 1311). 1309. byrde; _supply_ that; ayre. 1311. into (_read_ in); dyspayre. 1317. parte. 1319. earth a downe. 1320. none. 1321. foule; ferre. 1322. And wyth (_om._ And). 1323. proude; earth. 1325. (Pellican _is written above this line_); flewe; twayne. 1326. droupynge. 1327. came agayne. 1328. earth. 1338. great; sene there. 1336. Igurde. 1338. Whyte; her. 1339. lye. 1340. for gerde her. 1342. _Supply_ the. 1343. stoute. 1344. fayne. 1345. rayne. 1345. flye; vayne. 1349. slewe; downe. 1350. There. 1352. downe. 1353. bete; slewe. 1358. wrytynge. 1361. mayde. 1362. And the lambe (_om._ And); _supply_ for sinners. 1364. erthely harme. 1366-7. wrytynge. 1369. freshe. 1370. maynteyne. 1371. often (_read_ oft). 1375. hye; lowe. 1378. Eche; sende. 1379. wrytynge. * * * * * III. JACK UPLAND. I, Jack Uplande, make my mone to very god and to all true belevinge in Christ, that Antichrist and his disciples, by colour of holines, walken and deceiven Christes church by many fals figures, wherethrough, by Antichrist and his, many vertues been transposed to vices. 5 But the fellest folk that ever Antichrist found been last brought into the church, and in a wonder wyse; for they been of divers sectes of Antichrist, sowen of divers countrees and kinredes. And all men knowen wel, that they ben not obedient to bishoppes, ne lege men to kinges; neither they tillen ne 10 sowen, weden, ne repen woode, corn, ne gras, neither nothing that man shuld helpe but only hem-selves, hir lyves to sustein. And these men han all maner power of god, as they sayen, in heaven and in earth, to sell heaven and hell to whom that hem lyketh; and these wrecches wete never where to been 15 hemselves. And therfore, frere, if thine order and rules ben grounded on goddes law, tell thou me, Jack Upland, that I aske of thee; and if thou be or thinkest to be on Christes syde, kepe thy pacience. Saynt Paul techeth, that al our dedes shuld be don in charitè, 20 and els it is nought worth, but displesing to god and harm to oure owne soules. And for because freres chalengen to be gretest clerkes of the church, and next folowinge Christ in livinge, men shulde, for charitè, axe hem some questions, and pray hem to grounde their answers in reson and in holy writ; for 25 els their answere wolde nought be worth, be it florished never so faire; and, as me think, men might skilfully axe thus of a frere. 1. Frere, how many orders be in erthe, and which is the perfitest order? Of what order art thou? Who made thyn order? What is thy rule? Is there ony perfiter rule than Christ 30 himselfe made? If Christes rule be moost perfit, why rulest thou thee not therafter? Without more, why shall a frere be more punished if he breke the rule that his patron made, than if he breke the hestes that god himself made? 2. Approveth Christ ony more religions than oon, that saynt 35 James speketh of? If he approveth no more, why hast thou left his rule, and taken another? Why is a frere apostata, that leveth his order and taketh another secte; sith there is but oon religion of Christ? 3. Why be ye wedded faster to your habits than a man is to his 40 wyfe? For a man may leve his wyf for a yere or two, as many men do; and if +ye leve your habit a quarter of a yere, ye shuld be holden apostatas. 4. Maketh youre habit you men of religion, or no? If it do, than, ever as it wereth, your religion wereth; and, after that 45 the habit is better, is you[r] religion better. And whan ye liggen it besyde you, than lig ye youre religion besyde you, and ben apostatas. Why by ye you so precious clothes, sith no man seketh such but for vaine glorie, as saynt Gregory saith? 5. What betokeneth youre grete hood, your scaplerye, youre 50 knotted girdel, and youre wyde cope? 6. Why use ye al oon colour, more then other Christen men do? What betokeneth that ye been clothed all in one maner clothinge? 7. If ye saye it betokeneth love and charitè, certes, than ye be 55 ofte ypocrites, whan ony of you hateth other, and in that, that ye wollen be said holy by youre clothinge. 8. Why may not a frere were clothing of an-other secte of freres, sith holines stondeth not in the clothes? 9. Why holde ye silence in one howse more than in another; 60 sith men ought over-al to speke the good and leve the evell? 10. Why ete you flesh in one house more than in another, if youre rule and youre order be perfit, and the patron that made it? 11. Why gette ye your dispensacions, to have it more esy? 65 Certes, either it semeth that ye be unperfit; or he, that made it so hard that ye may not holde it. And siker, if ye holde not the rule of youre patrons, ye be not than hir freres; and so ye lye upon youre-selves! 12. Why make ye you as dede men whan ye be professed; 70 and yet ye be not dede, but more quicke beggars than ye were before? And it semeth evell a deed man to go aboute and begge. 13. Why will ye not suffer youre novices here your councels in youre chapter-house, er that they been professed; if youre councels 75 been trew, and after god[d]es lawe? 14. Why make ye you so costly houses to dwell in; sith Christ did not so, and dede men shuld have but graves, as falleth to dede men? And yet ye have more gorgeous buildinges than many lordes of Englonde. For ye maye wenden through the 80 realme, and ech night, wel nigh, ligge in youre owne courtes; and so mow but right few lordes do. 15. Why hyre ye to ferme youre limitors, gevinge therfore eche yeer a certain rente; and will not suffer oon in an-others limitacion, right as ye were your-selves lordes of contreys? 85 16. Why be ye not under youre bisshops visitacions, and liege men to oure kinge? 17. Why axe ye no letters of bretherhedes of other mens prayers, as ye desyre that other men shulde aske letters of you? 18. If youre letters be good, why graunte ye them not generally 90 to al maner men, for the more charitè? 19. Mow ye make ony man more perfit brother for your prayers, than god hath by oure beleve, by our baptyme and his owne graunte? If ye mowe, certes, than ye be above god. 20. Why make ye men beleve that your golden trentall songe 95 of you, to take therfore ten shillinges, or at the leest fyve shillinges, will bringe soules out of helle, or out of purgatorye? If this be sooth, certes, ye might bring all soules out of payne. And that wolle ye nought; and than ye be out of charitè. 21. Why make ye men beleve, that he that is buried in youre 100 habit shall never come in hell; and ye wite not of youre-selfe, whether ye shall to hell, or no? And if this were sooth, ye shulde selle youre high houses, to make many habites, for to save many mens soules. 22. Why stele ye mens children for to make hem of youre 105 secte; sith that theft is agaynst goddes heste; and sithe youre secte is not perfit? Ye know not whether the rule that ye binde him to, be best for him or worst! 23. Why undernime ye not your brethren, for their trespas after the lawe of the gospell; sith that underneminge is the best 110 that may be? But ye put them in prison ofte, whan they do after goddes lawe; and, by saynt Austines rule, if ony did amisse and wolde not amende him, ye should put him from you. 24. Why covete ye shrifte, and burying of other mens parishens, and non other sacrament that falleth to Christen folke? 115 25. Why busie ye not to here shrifte of poore folke, as well as of riche lordes and ladyes; sith they mowe have more plentee of shrifte-fathers than poore folk may? 26. Why saye ye not the gospel in houses of bedred men; as ye do in riche mens, that mowe go to churche and here the 120 gospell? 27. Why covette +ye not to burye poore folk among you; sith that they ben moost holy, as ye sayn that ye ben for youre povertee? 28. Why will ye not be at hir diriges, as ye been at riche mens; 125 sith god prayseth hem more than he doth riche men? 29. What is thy prayer worth; sith thou wilt take therefore? For of all chapmen ye nede to be moost wyse; for drede of symonye. 30. What cause hast thou that thou wilt not preche the 130 gospell, as god sayeth that thou shuldest; sith it is the best lore, and also oure beleve? 31. Why be ye evell apayed that secular prestes shulde preche the gospel; sith god him-selfe hath boden hem? 32. Why hate ye the gospell to be preched; sith ye be so 135 moche holde thereto? For ye winne more by yere with _In principio_, than with all the rules that ever youre patrons made. And, in this, minstrels been better than ye. For they contraryen not to the mirthes that they maken; but ye contraryen the gospell bothe in worde and dede. 140 33. Frere, whan thou receivest a peny for to say a masse, whether sellest thou goddes body for that peny, or thy prayer, or els thy travail? If thou sayest thou wolt not travaile for to saye the masse but for the peny, +than certes, if this be soth, than thou lovest to littel mede for thy soule. And if thou sellest 145 goddes body, other thy prayer, than it is very symony; and art become a chapman worse than Judas, that solde it for thirty pens. 34. Why wrytest thou hir names in thy tables, that yeveth thee moneye; sith god knoweth all thing? For it semeth, by thy 150 wryting, that god wolde not rewarde him but thou wryte him in thy tables; god wolde els forgetten it. 35. Why berest thou god in honde, and sclaundrest him that he begged for his mete; sith he was lord over all? For than hadde he ben unwyse to have begged, and no nede therto. 155 36. Frere, after what law rulest thou thee? Wher findest thou in goddes law that thou shuldest thus begge? 37. What maner men nedeth for to begge? Of whom oweth suche men to begge? Why beggest thou so for thy brethren? 160 If thou sayest, for they have nede; than thou doest it for the more perfeccion, or els for the leest, or els for the mene. If it be the moost perfeccion of all, than shulde al thy brethren do so; and than no man neded to begge but for him-selfe, for so shuld no man begge but him neded. And if it be the leest perfeccion, why 165 lovest thou than other men more than thy-selfe? For so thou art not well in charitè; sith thou shuldest seke the more perfeccion after thy power, livinge thy-selfe moost after god; and thus, leving that imperfeccion, thou shuldest not so begge for hem. And if it is a good mene thus to begge as thou doest, than shuld no man 170 do so but they ben in this good mene; and yet such a mene, graunted to you, may never be grounded in goddes lawe; for than both lered and lewed that ben in mene degrè of this worlde shuld go aboute and begge as ye do. And if all suche shuld do so, certes, wel nigh al the world shuld go aboute and begge as 175 ye do: and so shulde there be ten beggers agaynst oon yever. 38. Why procurest thou men to yeve thee hir almes, and sayest it is so meedful; and thou wilt not thy-selfe winne thee that mede? 39. Why wilt thou not begge for poore bedred men, that ben 180 poorer than ony of youre secte, that liggen, and mow not go aboute to helpe themselves; sith we be all brethren in god, and that bretherhed passeth ony other that ye or ony man coude make? And where moost nede were, there were moost perfeccion; either els ye holde hem not youre pure brethren, or worse. But 185 than ye be imperfite in your begginge. 40. Why make ye you so many maisters among you; sith it is agaynst the techinge of Christ and his apostels? 41. Whos ben all your riche courtes that ye han, and all your riche jewels; sith ye sayen that ye han nought, in proper ne in 190 comune? If ye sayn they ben the popes, why +geder ye then, of poore men and of lordes, so much out of the kinges honde to make your pope riche? And sith ye sayen that it is greet perfeccion to have nought, in proper ne in comune, why be ye so fast aboute to make the pope (that is your +fader) riche, and putte on him 195 imperfeccion? Sithen ye sayn that your goodes ben all his, and he shulde by reson be the moost perfit man, it semeth openlich that ye ben cursed children, so to sclaunder your +fader, and make him imperfit. And if ye sayn that tho goodes be yours, then do ye ayenst youre rule; and if it be not ayenst your rule, than might 200 ye have both plough and cart, and labour as other good men don, and not so begge to by losengery, and ydell, as ye don. And if ye say that it is more perfeccion to begge than to travaill or worch with youre hand, why preche ye not openly, and teche all men to do so, sith it is the best and moost perfit lyf to helpe of her 205 soules, as ye make children to begge that might have been riche heyres? 42. Why make ye not your festes to poore men, and yeveth hem yeftes, as ye don to the riche; sith poore men han more nede than the riche? 210 43. What betokeneth that ye go tweyne and tweyne +togeder? If ye be out of charitè, ye accorden not in soule. 44. Why begge ye, and take salaries therto, more than other prestes; sith he that moost taketh, most charge he hath? 45. Why holde ye not saynt Fraunces rule and his testament; 215 sith Fraunces saith, that god shewed him this living and this rule? And certes, if it were goddes will, the pope might not fordo it; or els Fraunces was a lyar, that sayde on this wyse. And but this testament that he made accorde with goddes will, els erred he as a lyar that were out of charitè; and as the law 220 sayeth, he is accursed that letteth the rightfull last will of a deed man lacke. And this testament is the last will of Fraunces that is a deed man; it seemeth therefore that all his freres ben cursed. 46. Why wil ye not touche no coined money with the crosse, 225 ne with the kinges heed, as ye don other jewels both of golde and silver? Certes, if ye despyse the crosse or the kinges heed, than ye be worthy to be despysed of god and the kinge. And sith ye will receyve money in your hertes and not with youre handes, it seemeth that ye holde more holinesse in your hondes than in your 230 hertes; and than be ye false to god. 47. Why have ye exempt you fro our kinges lawes and visitinge of our bishoppes more than other Christen men that liven in this realme, if ye be not gilty of traitory to our realme, or trespassers to oure bishoppes? But ye will have the kinges lawes for trespas 235 don to you; and ye wil have power of other bishops more than other prestes; and also have leave to prison youre brethren as lordes in youre courtes, more than other folkes han that ben the kinges lege men. 48. Why shal some secte of you freres paye eche yere a certaine 240 to hir generall provinciall or minister, or els to hir soverains, but-if he stele a certain number of children, as some men sayn? And certes, if this be soth, than be ye constrayned, upon certaine payne, to do thefte, agaynst goddes commaundement, _non furtum facies_. 245 49. Why be ye so hardy, to graunte, by letters of fraternitè, to men and women, that they shall have part and merit of all your good dedes; and ye witen never whether god be apayed with youre dedes because of youre sinne? Also ye witen never whether that man or woman be in state to be saved or damned; than shall 250 he have no merit in heven for his owne dedes, ne for none other mans. And all were it so, that he shuld have part of youre good dedes; yet shulde he have no more than god would geve him, after that he were worthy; and so much shall eche man have of goddes yefte, withoute youre limitacion. But if ye will saye that 255 ye ben goddes felowes, and that he may not do without youre assent, than be ye blasphemers to god. 50. What betokeneth that ye have ordeined, that when such oon as ye have mad youre brother or sister, and hath a letter of your sele, that letter +mot be brought in youre holy chapter and 260 there be red; or els ye will not praye for him? But and ye willen not praye specially for all other that weren not mad youre brethren or sistren, than were ye not in right charitè; for that ought to be commune, and namely in goostly thinges. 51. Frere, what charitè is this--to overcharge the people by 265 mighty begginge, under colour of prechinge or praying or masses singing? Sith holy writ biddeth not thus, but even the contrary; for al such goostly dedes shulde be don freely, as god yeveth hem freely. 52. Frere, what charitè is this--to begyle children or they 270 commen to discrecion, and binde hem to youre orders, that been not grounded in goddes lawe, against hir frendes wil? Sithen by this foly ben many apostatas, both in will and dede, and many ben apostatas in hir will during all hir lyfe, that wolde gladly be discharged if they wist how; and so, many ben apostatas that 275 shulden in other states have ben trewe men. 53. Frere, what charitè is this--to make so mony freres in every countrey, to the charge of the people? Sith persounes and vicares alone, ye, secular prestes alone, ye, monkes and chanons alone, with bishops above hem, were y-nough to the 280 church, to do prestes office. And to adde mo than y-nough is a foul errour, and greet charge to the people; and this is openly against goddes will, that ordeined all thinges to be don in weight, nomber, and mesure. And Christ himself was apayed with twelve apostles and a few disciples, to preche and do prestes office to all 285 the hole world; than was it better don than it is now at this tyme by a thousand deel. And right so as foure fingers with a thumbe in a mannes hande, helpeth a man to worche, and double nomber of fingers in one hond shuld lette him more; and the more nomber that there were, passing the mesure of goddes ordinaunce, 290 the more were a man letted to worke: right so, as it semeth, it is of these newe orders that ben added to the church, without grounde of holy writ and goddes ordinaunce. 54. Frere, what charitè is this--to lye to the people, and saye that ye folowe Christ in povertè more than other men don? 295 And yet, in curious and costly howsinge, and fyne and precious clothing, and delicious and lykinge fedinge, and in tresoure and jewels and riche ornamentes, freres passen lordes and other riche worldly men; and soonest they shuld bringe hir cause aboute, be it never so costly, though goddes lawe be put abacke. 300 55. Frere, what charitè is this--to +gader up the bokes of holy writ and putte hem in tresory, and so emprisoune hem from secular prestes and curates; and by this cautel lette hem to preche the gospell freely to the people without worldly mede; and also to defame good prestes of heresy, and lyen on hem openly, 305 for to lette hem to shew goddes lawe, by the holy gospell, to the Christen people? 56. Frere, what charitè is this--to fayn so much holines in your bodily clothing, that ye clepe your habit, that many blinde foles desyren to dye therin more than in an-other? And also, 310 that a frere that leveth his habit (late founden of men), may not be assoiled till he take it again, but is an apostata, as ye sayn, and cursed of god and man both? The frere beleveth treuth and pacience, chastitè, mekenesse, and sobrietè; yet for the more part of his lyfe he may soone be assoiled of his prior; and if he 315 bringe hoom to his house much good by yere, be it never so falsly begged and pilled of the poore and nedy people in courtes aboute, he shal be hold[en] a noble frere! O lord, whether this be charitè! 57. Frere, what charitè is this--to prese upon a riche man, 320 and to entyce him to be buried among you from his parish-church, and to suche riche men geve letters of fraternitè confirmed by youre generall sele, and therby to bere him in honde that he shall have part of all your masses, matins, prechinges, fastinges, wakinges, and all other good dedes don by your brethren of youre 325 order (both whyles he liveth and after that he is deed), and yet ye witen never whether youre dedes be acceptable to god, ne whether that man that hath that letter be able by good living to receive ony part of youre dedes? And yet a poore man, that ye wite wel or supposen in certain to have no good of, ye ne geve 330 no such letters, though he be a better man to god than suche a riche man; nevertheles, this poore man doth not recche therof. For, as men supposen, suche letters and many other that freres behesten to men, be full of false deceites of freres, out of reson and god[d]es lawe and Christen mens faith. 335 58. Frere, what charitè is this--to be confessoures of lordes and ladyes, and to other mighty men, and not amend hem in hir living; but rather, as it semeth, to be the bolder to pille hir poore tenauntes and to live in lechery, and there to dwelle in your office of confessour, for winning of worldly goodes, and to be holden grete 340 by colour of suche goostly offices? This seemeth rather pryde of freres than charitè of god. 59. Frere, what charitè is this--to sayn that who-so liveth after youre order, liveth most parfitly, and next foloweth the state of aposteles in povertè and penaunce; and yet the wysest 345 and gretest clerkes of you wende, or sende, or procure to the court of Rome to be mad cardinales or bishoppes or the popes chapelayns, and to be assoiled of the vowe of povertè and obedience to your ministers; in the which, as ye sayn, standeth moost perfeccion and merite of youre orders? And thus ye faren 350 as Pharisees, that sayen oon, and do another to the contrarye. 60. Why name ye more the patron of youre order in youre _Confiteor_, whan ye beginne masse, than other saintes, as apostels, or marters, that holy churche holde[th] more glorious than hem, and clepe hem youre patrons and youre avowries? 355 61. Frere, whet[h]er was saint Fraunces, in making of his rule that he sette thyne order in, a fole and lyar, or els wyse and trew? If ye sayn that he was not a fole but wyse; ne a lyar, but trew; why shewe ye the contrary by youre doing, whan by youre suggestion to the pope ye said that Fraunces rule was mad so hard that ye might 360 not live to holde it without declaracion and dispensacion of the pope? And so, by youre dede, ye lete your patron a fole, that made a rule so hard that no man may wel kepe [it]; and eke youre dede proveth him a lyar, where he sayeth in his rule, that he took and lerned it of the holy gooste. For how might ye, for shame, 365 praye the pope to undo that the holy goost biddeth, as whan ye prayed him to dispense with the hardnesse of your order? 62. Frere, which of the foure orders of freres is best, to a man that knoweth not which is the beste, but wolde fain enter into the beste and none other? If thou sayest that thyn is the best, than 370 sayest thou that noon of the other is as good as thyn; and in this eche frere in the three other orders wolle say that thou lyest; for in the selve maner eche other frere woll say that his order is beste. And thus to eche of the foure orders ben the other three contrary in this poynte; in the which if ony say sooth, that is oon 375 aloon; for there may but oon be the beste of foure. So foloweth it, that if ech of these orders answered to this question as thou doest, three were false and but oon trew; and yet no man shulde wite who that were. And thus it semeth, that the moost part of freres ben or shulde be lyars in this poynt, and they shulde 380 answere therto. If +ye say that an-other ordre of the freres is better than thyn or as good; why toke ye not rather therto as to the better, whan thou mightest have chosen at the beginning? And eke, why shuldest thou be an apostata, to leve thyn order and take thee to that that is better? And so, why goest thou not 385 from thyn order into that? 63. Frere, is there ony perfiter rule of religion than Christ, goddes sone, gave in his gospell to his brethren, or than that religion that saynt James in his epistle maketh mencion of? If +ye saye 'yes,' than puttest thou on Christ, that is wysdom of 390 god the +fader, uncunning, unpower, or evil will. For eyther than he coude not make his rule so good as an-other did his, (and so he hadde be uncunning, that he might not make his rule so good as another man might, and so were he unmighty and not god); or he wolde not make his rule so perfit as an-other did his 395 (and so had he ben evill-willed, namely to himselfe!) For if he might, and coude, and wold[e] have mad a rule perfit without defaute, and did not, he was not goddes sone almighty. For if ony other rule be perfiter than Christes, than must Christes rule lacke of that perfeccion by as much as the other were more 400 perfiter; and so were defaute, and Christ had failed in makinge of his rule. But to putte ony defaute or failinge in god, is blasphemy. If thou saye that Christes rule and that religion that saynt James maketh mencion of, is the perfitest; why holdest thou not than thilke rule without more? And why clepest thou 405 thee rather of saynt Frances or saynt Dominiks rule or religion or order, than of Christes rule or Christes order? 64. Frere, canst thou assigne ony defaute in Christes rule of the gospell, with the whiche he taught al men sikerly to be saved, if they kepte it to hir endinge? If thou saye it was to hard, 410 than sayest thou that Christ lyed; for he saide of his rule: 'My yoke is softe, and my burthen light.' If thou saye Christes rule was to light, that may be assigned for no defaute, for the better may it be kept. If thou sayst that there is no defaute in Christes rule of the gospell, sith Christ him-selfe saith it is light and esy: 415 what nede was it to patrons of freres to adde more therto, and so to make an harder religion, to save freres, than was the religion that Christes apostels and his disciples helden and weren saved by; but-if they wolden that her freres saten above the apostels in heven, for the harder religion that they kepen here? And so 420 wolde they sitten in heven above Christ himselfe for the moo and strait observaunces; than so shulde they be better than Christ himselfe, with misc[h]aunce! Go now forth, and frayne youre clerkes, And grounde you in goddes lawe, and geve Jack answere. 425 And whan ye han assoiled me that I have said, sadly in treuth, I shall soill thee of thyn order, and save thee to heven! If freres cunne not or mow not excuse hem of these questions asked of hem, it semeth that they be horrible gilty against god and hir even-Christen; for which gyltes and defautes it were 430 worthy that the order that they calle hir order were for-don. And it is wonder that men susteyne hem or suffer hem live in suche maner. For holy writ biddeth that thou do well to the meke, and geve not to the wicked, but forbid to geve hem breed, lest they be mad thereby mightier through you. Finis. 435 ¶ Prynted for Jhon Gough. Cum Priuilegio Regali. _From_ C. (= printed copy in Caius Coll. library, Cambridge); _I give here rejected spellings; readings marked_ Sp. _are from_ Speght. 3. walkyn. deceauen. 5, 6, 7. bene (_for_ been; _very often_). 6. folke. founde. 9. kynreddes. 11. grasse, nether nething (_sic_). 12. onely. her lyfes. 13. had; Sp. han. 15. hym (_for_ hem). wreches. 16. -selfes. 18. the. 20. teacheth. don. 21. not; Sp. nought. dyspleasynge. harme. 22. because (Sp. that). 23. greatest. 25. reason. write. 26. not; Sp. nought. 28. earthe. 29. thyne. 31. perfyte. 32. the. 33. break. 34. breake. 35. one. 36. speaketh. mor; Sp. more. lef; Sp. left. 37. leaueth. 38. one. 39. Christe. 40. abytes; Sp. habits. 41. leaue. wyfe. yeare. 42. you; _read_ ye. leaue. abyte; Sp. habit. yeare. 44. abyte; Sp. habit. 45. weareth (_twice_). 46. the abbyte; Sp. your habit. 48. apostatase; Sp. apostataes. by; Sp. buy. 50. greate hoode. 51. coape. 52. one coloure. 53. bene. 57. sayde. clotynge (!). 58. maye. weare clothynge. 60. Sp. _om._ in _before_ another. 61. speake. leaue. 62. eate. 65. easy. 66. ether; Sp. either. vnperfyte. 67. harde. seker; Sp. siker. 68. her. 69. selfes. 70. ye you; Sp. _om._ ye (!). 70, 71. deade (_twice_). beggers; Sp. beggars. ye; Sp. you. 72. deade. 74. heare. 75. eare; Sp. ere. Sp. haue ben (C. _om._ haue). 78. Sp. falleth it to. 78, 79. deade (_twice_). 79. gorgeous buyldi_n_ges; Sp. courts. 80. maye; Sp. now (_error for_ mow). 81. welnygh; Sp. will (!). 83. here; Sp. heire (_read_ hyre). geuynge. 84. yeare. certayne. one. 91. Sp. of men. 92. perfyte. Sp. brether (!). 93. baptyme; Sp. baptisme. 96. Sp. _om._ the. least. 97. oute. 98, 102. south; Sp. sooth. 101. abyte; Sp. habit. 103. abytes. 105. steale. 107. wether; Sp. whether. 109. vndermyne (_for_ vndernyme); Sp. vnderneme. 111. maye. presonne; Sp. prison. 112. Sp. Augustines. dyd; Sp. doe. 114. buryenge. 115. none. 116. heare; Sp. heare to. 117. plentie. 118. folke maye. 120. heare. 122. _Both_ you. folke amonge. 123. sayne. 124. pouertye. 125. her. bene. 126. Sp. other (_for_ riche). 128. Sp. _om._ of. 130. wylte. preache. 133. payed; Sp. apaid. preache. 134. gosgel (!). Sp. bodden. hym; Sp. hem. 135. preached. 136. yeare. 139. myrtes; Sp. mirths. 142. Sp. thy; C. _om._ (_before_ prayer). 144. Sp. that certes (_error for_ than certes); C. & certes. 149. her. the. 150. thynge. 151. Sp. writest; Sp. _om._ him. 152. Sp. forgotten (!). 153. bearest. 154. meate. 156. the. 159. C. Of; Sp. For. 162. perfection (_but_ perfeccion _in l._ 163). least. meane (_often_). 165. least. 166. arte. 167. charytye. sithe. 168. leauynge. 169. Sp. them (_for_ hem). 170. doeste. 173. learned and lewd; Sp. lerid and leaud. 174. Sp. _om._ suche. 176. one. 177. the here. 178. C. medefull; Sp. needful. the. 182. themselfes. 183. coulde. 185. hym; Sp. them (_read_ hem). C. or; Sp. but. 187. amonge. 188. teachynge. 189. Whose. rych. 190. yewels; Sp. iewels. improper ne; Sp. ne in proper ne in. 191. cumune; Sp. common. sayne. gether; Sp. gather. 192. Sp. _om._ of. 193. great. 194. in p_ro_per ne comune; Sp. in proper be (!) in common. 195. father rych. put. 197. reason. perfite. 198. father. 199. imperfyte. sayne. Sp. the (_for_ tho). 201. carte. done. 202. lesyngery; Sp. losengery. done. 204. preach. teach. 205. perfyte lyfe. 206. be; Sp. bin. 208. feastes. 209. done. rych. 211. together. 212. charitie. 214. Sp. _om. 2nd_ he. 220. C. as; Sp. is (!) charytie. 221. Sp. accursed; C. cursede. C. _om._ last. dead. 222. Sp. _om._ lacke. least; Sp. last. 223. dead. C. _om._ therefore. 226. hedde. done. 227. heade. 229. receaue. 229, 231. hartes (_twice_). 231. Sp. _om._ ye. 232. exempte. 234. gyltye. traytery. trespasers. 235. Sp. your (_for_ oure). Sp. the trespasse (_for_ trespas). 236. done. 240. eche yeare; Sp. ech a yere. 241. her (_twice_). 242. steale. certayne. sayne. 247. merite. 248. whyther; Sp. whether. payde; Sp. apayed. 249. weten; Sp. witten. 251. meryte. heauen. 252. man (_for_ mans, s _having dropped out_); Sp. mans. 253. ye (_for_ he); Sp. he. 256. folowes; Sp. fellowes. maye. 258. tokeneth; Sp. betokeneth. 259. one. made. 260. seale. mought (_read_ mot). 261. redde; Sp. rad. Sp. And but. 262. Sp. _om. 1st_ not. specyally; Sp. especially. made. 264. co_m_mne (!). goostely; Sp. ghostly. 266. myghtie. coloure. preachynge. prayeng. 267. write. 268. done frely. 269. frely. 271. him; Sp. hem. 272. her. 273-275. apostatase; Sp. apostataes. 278. personnes. 280. him; Sp. them. 282. foule. greate. 283. done. 284. measure. payd; Sp. apaied. 285. preache. 286. Sp. whole. Sp. _om. 2nd_ it. 287. deal; Sp. dele. 289. let. Sp. and so the (_om._ so). 290. measure. 293. wryte. 295. pouertye. done. 297. treasoure. 298. rych. 299. wordly; Sp. worldly. bring her. 300. costely. abake; Sp. abacke. 301. gather (_read_ gader). 302. wryte. put. emprysonne. 303. let. him; Sp. hem. 304. preache. frely. wordely; Sp. worldly. 306. let. 308. fayn. 309. bodely. 309, 311. abyte; Sp. habit. 311. leaueth. 311, 315. maye. 312. Sp. _om._ an. sayne. 315. parte. 316. home. by yeare; Sp. by the yeare. 317. courtes &; Sp. countries (_perhaps better_). 318. C. Sp. hold (_for_ holden). 320. _Both_ prease. 323. seale. beare. 324. parte. preachynges. 325. done. 326. dead. 329. receaue. 330. certaine. 331. no; Sp. to (!). 332. rych. reche; Sp. retch. 334. behesten; Sp. behoten. reason; Sp. all reason. 337. laydes (_for_ ladyes). her. 338. pyl her. 339. dwel. 340. greate. 341. coloure. 344. mooste perfytely. 345. wyseste. 346. greatest clarkes. 347. made. 348. chappelaynes. povertye. 351. one. 354. hol (_for_ holy); Sp. holy. holde; Sp. hold (_read_ holdeth). them. 357. set. 358. sayne. 359. shew. 360. C. that Fraunces rule was made so harde; Sp. that your rule that Francis made was so hard. C. might; Sp. mow. 363. harde. maye. _Supply_ it. 364. toke. 365. learned. 366. Sp. _om._ to. C. byddeth; Sp. bit. Sp. when; C. _om._ 369. fayne. 370. thyne. 371. none. thyne. 372, 374. thre. 373. C. selfe; Sp. self same. 375. one. 376. alone. one. 378. thre. one. 381. _Both_ you; _read_ ye. 382. thine. 384. apostate; Sp. apostata. leaue. 385. the. 388. sonne. 390. _Both_ you; _read_ ye. wysdome. 391. father vncunyng. Sp. _om._ eyther. 392, 397. coulde (_twice_). 393. Sp. had he. 395. perfyte. 397. made. perfyte. 398. defate; Sp. default. sonne. 401. weren. 402. put. 404. C. that saynt; Sp. which saint. the perfytest; Sp. perfectest. 405. Sp. _om._ than. 406. the (_read_ thee). 408. Sp. any default or (!) assigne. 409. sekerly; Sp. sikerly. 410. her. harde. 415. easye. 416. mor; Sp. more. 418. that; Sp. of (!). 420, 421. heauen (_twice_). 421. Christe. 424. fraye_n_ (_for_ frayne); Sp. fraine. 425. C. ye in; Sp. ye you in (_read_ you in). 426. sayde. _Read_--And whan ye han soiled that I saide, sadly in treuthe. 427. soyll the. thyne. order; Sp. orders. the; Sp. thee. heauen. 428. C. cunne; Sp. kun. 430. her. 431. her. fordone. 432. hem lyue; Sp. hir live. 433. wryte. 434. bread leste. 435. made. Sp. _om._ Finis. * * * * * IV. JOHN GOWER UNTO THE WORTHY AND NOBLE KINGE HENRY THE FOURTH. O noble worthy king, Henry the ferthe, In whom the gladde fortune is befalle The people to governe here upon erthe, God hath thee chose, in comfort of us alle; The worship of this land, which was doun falle, 5 Now stant upright, through grace of thy goodnesse, Which every man is holde for to blesse. The highe god, of his justyce alone, The right which longeth to thy regalye Declared hath to stande in thy persone; 10 And more than god may no man justifye. Thy title is knowe upon thyn auncestrye; The londes folk hath eek thy right affermed; So stant thy regne, of god and man confermed. Ther is no man may saye in other wyse 15 That god him-self ne hath the right declared; Wherof the land is boun to thy servyse, Which for defaute of helpe hath longe cared. But now ther is no mannes herte spared To love and serve, and worche thy plesaunce; 20 And al this is through goddes purveyaunce. In alle thing which is of god begonne Ther foloweth grace, if it be wel governed; Thus tellen they whiche olde bokes conne, Wherof, my lord, I wot wel thou art lerned. 25 Aske of thy god; so shalt thou nat be werned Of no request [the] whiche is resonable; For god unto the goode is favorable. King Salomon, which hadde at his askinge Of god, what thing him was levest to crave, 30 He chees wysdom unto the governinge Of goddes folk, the whiche he wolde save; And as he chees, it fil him for to have; For through his wit, whyl that his regne laste, He gat him pees and reste, unto the laste. 35 But Alisaundre, as telleth his historie, Unto the god besoughte in other weye, Of al the worlde to winne the victorie, So that under his swerde it might[e] obeye; In werre he hadde al that he wolde preye. 40 The mighty god behight[e] him that behest; The world he wan, and hadde it of conquest. But though it fil at thilke tyme so, That Alisaundre his asking hath acheved, This sinful world was al[le] payën tho; 45 Was noon whiche hath the highe god beleved; No wonder was, though thilke world was greved. Though a tyraunt his purpos mighte winne, Al was vengeaunce, and infortune of sinne. But now the faith of Crist is come a-place 50 Among the princes in this erthe here, It sit hem wel to do pitè and grace, But yet it mot be tempred in manere. For as they fynden cause in the matere Upon the poynt, what afterward betyde, 55 The lawe of right shal nat be layd a-syde. So may a king of werre the viage Ordayne and take, as he therto is holde, To clayme and aske his rightful heritage In alle places wher it is with-holde. 60 But other-wyse, if god him-selve wolde Afferme love and pees bitween the kinges, Pees is the beste, above alle erthly thinges. Good is t'eschewe werre, and nathelees A king may make werre upon his right; 65 For of bataile the fynal ende is pees; Thus stant the lawe, that a worthy knight Upon his trouthe may go to the fight. But-if so were that he mighte chese, Betre is the pees of which may no man lese. 70 To stere pees oughte every man on-lyve, First, for to sette his liege lord in reste, And eek these othre men, that they ne stryve; For so this land may standen atte beste. What king that wolde be the worthieste, 75 The more he mighte our deedly werre cese, The more he shulde his worthinesse encrese. Pees is the cheef of al the worldes welthe, And to the heven it ledeth eek the way; Pees is of soule and lyfe the mannes helthe 80 Of pestilence, and doth the werre away. My liege lord, tak hede of that I say, If werre may be left, tak pees on honde, Which may nat be withoute goddes sonde. With pees stant every crëature in reste, 85 Withoute pees ther may no lyf be glad; Above al other good, pees is the beste; Pees hath him-self, whan werre is al bestad; The pees is sauf, the werre is ever adrad. Pees is of al[le] charitè the keye, 90 Whiche hath the lyf and soule for to weye. My liege lord, if that thee list to seche The sothe ensamples, what the werre hath wrought, Thou shalt wel here, of wyse mennes speche, That deedly werre tourneth in-to nought. 95 For if these olde bokes be wel sought, Ther might thou see what thing the werre hath do Bothe of conquest and conquerour also. For vayne honóur, or for the worldes good, They that whylom the stronge werres made, 100 Wher be they now? Bethink wel, in thy mood, The day is goon, the night is derke and fade; Hir crueltè, which made hem thanne glade, They sorowen now, and yet have naught the more; The blood is shad, which no man may restore. 105 The werre is moder of the wronges alle; It sleeth the preest in holy chirche at masse, Forlyth the mayde, and doth her flour to falle. The werre maketh the grete citee lasse, And doth the lawe his reules overpasse. 110 Ther is nothing, wherof mescheef may growe Whiche is not caused of the werre, I trowe. The werre bringth in póverte at his heles, Wherof the comun people is sore greved; The werre hath set his cart on thilke wheles 115 Wher that fortune may not be beleved. For whan men wene best to have acheved, Ful ofte it is al newe to beginne; The werre hath nothing siker, thogh he winne. For-thy, my worthy prince, in Cristes halve, 120 As for a part whos fayth thou hast to gyde, Ley to this olde sore a newe salve, And do the werre away, what-so betyde. Purchace pees, and sette it by thy syde, And suffre nat thy people be devoured; 125 So shal thy name ever after stande honóured! If any man be now, or ever was Ayein the pees thy prevy counsaylour, Let god be of thy counsayl in this cas, And put away the cruel werreyour. 130 For god, whiche is of man the creatour, He wolde not men slowe his crëature Withoute cause of deedly forfayture. Wher nedeth most, behoveth most to loke; My lord, how so thy werres be withoute, 135 Of tyme passed who that hede toke, Good were at home to see right wel aboute; For evermore the worste is for to doute. But, if thou mightest parfit pees attayne, Ther shulde be no cause for to playne. 140 Aboute a king, good counsayl is to preyse Above al othre thinges most vailable; But yet a king within him-self shal peyse And seen the thinges that be resonable. And ther-upon he shal his wittes stable 145 Among the men to sette pees in evene, For love of him whiche is the king of hevene. A! wel is him that shedde never blood But-if it were in cause of rightwysnesse! For if a king the peril understood 150 What is to slee the people, thanne, I gesse, The deedly werres and the hevinesse Wher-of the pees distourbed is ful ofte, Shulde at som tyme cesse and wexe softe. O king! fulfilled of grace and of knighthode, 155 Remembre upon this poynt, for Cristes sake; If pees be profred unto thy manhode, Thyn honour sauf, let it nat be forsake! Though thou the werres darst wel undertake, After resoun yet temper thy corage; 160 For lyk to pees ther is non avauntage. My worthy lord, thenk wel, how-so befalle Of thilke lore, as holy bokes sayn; Crist is the heed, and we be membres alle, As wel the subject as the soverayn. 165 So sit it wel, that charitè be playn, Whiche unto god him-selve most accordeth, So as the lore of Cristes word recordeth. In th'olde lawe, or Crist him-self was bore, Among the ten comaundëments, I rede, 170 How that manslaughter shulde be forbore; Such was the wil, that tyme, of the godhede. But afterward, whan Crist took his manhede, Pees was the firste thing he leet do crye Ayenst the worldes rancour and envye. 175 And, or Crist wente out of this erthe here, And stigh to heven, he made his testament, Wher he bequath to his disciples there And yaf his pees, which is the foundement Of charitè, withouten whos assent 180 The worldes pees may never wel be tryed, Ne lovë kept, ne lawë justifyed. The Jewes with the payens hadden werre, But they among hem-self stode ever in pees; Why shulde than our pees stonde out of herre, 185 Which Crist hath chose unto his owne encrees? For Crist is more than was Moÿses; And Crist hath set the parfit of the lawe, The whiche shulde in no wyse be withdrawe. To yeve us pees was causë why Crist dyde, 190 Withoute pees may nothing stonde avayled; But now a man may see on every syde How Cristes fayth is every day assayled, With the payens distroyed, and so batayled That, for defaute of helpe and of defence, 195 Unneth hath Crist his dewe reverence. The righte fayth to kepe of holy chirche The firste poynt is named of knighthode; And every man is holde for to wirche Upon the poynt that stant to his manhode. 200 But now, alas! the fame is spred so brode That every man this thing [alday] complayneth; And yet is ther no man that help ordayneth. The worldes cause is wayted over-al; Ther be the werres redy, to the fulle; 205 But Cristes owne cause in special, Ther ben the swerdes and the speres dulle. And with the sentence of the popes bulle As for to doon the folk payën obeye, The chirche is tourned al another weye. 210 It is wonder, above any mannes wit, Withoute werre how Cristes fayth was wonne; And we that been upon this erthë yit Ne kepe it nat as it was first begonne. To every crëature under the sonne 215 Crist bad him-self, how that we shulde preche, And to the folke his evangely teche. More light it is to kepe than to make; But that we founden mad to-fore the hond We kepe nat, but lete it lightly slake; 220 The pees of Crist hath al to-broke his bond. We reste our-self, and suffren every lond To slee eche other as thing undefended; So stant the werre, and pees is nat amended. But though the heed of holy chirche above 225 Ne do nat al his hole businesse Among the men to sette pees and love, These kinges oughten, of hir rightwysnesse, Hir owne cause among hem-self redresse. Thogh Peters ship, as now, hath lost his stere, 230 It lyth in hem that barge for to stere. If holy chirche after the dewetè Of Cristes word ne be nat al avysed To make pees, accord, and unitè Among the kinges that be now devysed, 235 Yet, natheles, the lawë stant assysed Of mannes wit, to be so resonable Withoute that to stande hem-selve stable. Of holy chirche we ben children alle, And every child is holde for to bowe 240 Unto the moder, how that ever it falle, Or elles he mot reson disalowe. And, for that cause, a knight shal first avowe The right of holy chirche to defende, That no man shal the privilege offende. 245 Thus were it good to setten al in evene The worldes princes and the prelats bothe, For love of him whiche is the king of hevene; And if men shulde algate wexen wrothe, The Sarazins, whiche unto Crist ben lothe, 250 Let men be armed ayenst hem to fighte, So may the knight his dede of armes righte. Upon three poynts stant Cristes pees oppressed; First, holy chirche is in her-self devyded; Which oughte, of reson, first to be redressed; 255 But yet so high a cause is nat decyded. And thus, whan humble pacience is pryded, The remenaunt, which that they shulde reule, No wonder is, though it stande out of reule. Of that the heed is syk, the limmes aken; 260 These regnes, that to Cristes pees belongen, For worldes good, these deedly werres maken, Which helpelees, as in balaunce, hongen. The heed above hem hath nat underfongen To sette pees, but every man sleeth other; 265 And in this wyse hath charitè no brother. The two defautes bringen in the thridde Of miscreants, that seen how we debate; Between the two, they fallen in a-midde Wher now al-day they fynde an open gate. 270 Lo! thus the deedly werre stant al-gate. But ever I hopë of king Henries grace, That he it is which shal the pees embrace. My worthy noble prince, and king anoynt, Whom god hath, of his grace, so preserved, 275 Behold and see the world upon this poynt, As for thy part, that Cristes pees be served. So shal thy highe mede be reserved To him, whiche al shal quyten atte laste; For this lyf herë may no whyle laste. 280 See Alisandre, Hector, and Julius, See Machabeus, David, and Josuë, See Charlemayne, Godfray, and Arthus Fulfild of werre and of mortalitee! Hir fame abit, but al is vanitee; 285 For deth, whiche hath the werres under fote, Hath mad an ende, of which ther is no bote. So may a man the sothe wite and knowe, That pees is good for every king to have; The fortune of the werre is ever unknowe, 290 But wher pees is, ther ben the marches save. That now is up, to-morwe is under grave. The mighty god hath alle grace in honde; Withouten him, men may nat longe stonde. Of the tenetz to winne or lese a chace 295 May no lyf wite, or that the bal be ronne; Al stant in god, what thing men shal purchace: Th'ende is in him, or that it be begonne; Men sayn, the wolle, whan it is wel sponne, Doth that the cloth is strong and profitable, 300 And elles it may never be durable. The worldes chaunces upon aventure Ben ever set; but thilke chaunce of pees Is so behovely to the crëature That it above al other is peerlees. 305 But it may nat +be gete, nathelees, Among the men to lasten any whyle, But wher the herte is playn, withoute gyle. The pees is as it were a sacrament To-fore the god, and shal with wordes playne 310 Withouten any double entendëment Be treted; for the trouthe can nat feyne. But if the men within hem-self be vayne, The substaunce of the pees may nat be trewe, But every day it chaungeth upon newe. 315 But who that is of charitè parfyte, He voydeth alle sleightes fer aweye, And set his word upon the same plyte Wher that his herte hath founde a siker weye; And thus, whan conscience is trewly weye, 320 And that the pees be handled with the wyse, It shal abyde and stande, in alle wyse. Th'apostel sayth, ther may no lyf be good Whiche is nat grounded upon charitè; For charitè ne shedde never blood. 325 So hath the werre, as ther, no propertè; For thilke vertue which is sayd 'pitè' With charitè so ferforth is acquaynted That in her may no fals sembla[u]nt be paynted. Cassodore, whos wryting is authorysed 330 Sayth: 'wher that pitè regneth, ther is grace'; Through which the pees hath al his welthe assysed, So that of werre he dredeth no manace. Wher pitè dwelleth, in the same place Ther may no deedly crueltè sojourne 335 Wherof that mercy shulde his wey[e] tourne. To see what pitè, forth with mercy, doth, The cronique is at Rome, in thilke empyre Of Constantyn, which is a tale soth, Whan him was lever his owne deth desyre 340 Than do the yonge children to martyre. Of crueltee he lefte the quarele; Pitè he wroughte, and pitè was his hele. For thilke mannes pitè which he dede God was pitous, and made him hool at al; 345 Silvester cam, and in the same stede Yaf him baptyme first in special, Which dide away the sinne original, And al his lepre it hath so purifyed, That his pitè for ever is magnifyed. 350 Pitè was cause why this emperour Was hool in body and in soule bothe; And Rome also was set in thilke honour Of Cristes fayth, so that the leve, of lothe Whiche hadden be with Crist tofore wrothe, 355 Receyved werë unto Cristes lore. Thus shal pitè be praysed evermore. My worthy liege lord, Henry by name, Which Engëlond hast to governe and righte, Men oughten wel thy pitè to proclame, 360 Which openliche, in al the worldes sighte, Is shewed, with the helpe of god almighte, To yeve us pees, which long hath be debated, Wherof thy prys shal never be abated. My lord, in whom hath ever yet be founde 365 Pitè, withoute spotte of violence, Keep thilke pees alway, withinne bounde, Which god hath planted in thy conscience. So shal the cronique of thy pacience Among the saynts be take in-to memórie 370 To the loënge of perdurable glorie. And to thyn erthely prys, so as I can, Whiche every man is holde to commende, I Gower, which am al thy liege man, This lettre unto thyn excellence I sende, 375 As I, whiche ever unto my lyves ende Wol praye for the stat of thy persone, In worshipe of thy sceptre and of thy trone. Nat only to my king of pees I wryte, But to these othre princes Cristen alle, 380 That eche of hem his owne herte endyte And cese the werre, or more mescheef falle. Set eek the rightful pope upon his stalle; Keep charitè, and draw pitè to honde, Maynteyne lawe; and so the pees shal stonde. 385 EXPLICIT CARMEN DE PACIS COMMENDACIONE, QUOD AD LAUDEM ET MEMORIAM SERENISSIMI PRINCIPIS DOMINI REGIS HENRICI QUARTI, SUUS HUMILIS ORATOR JOHANNES GOWER COMPOSUIT. Electus Christi, pie rex Henrice, fuisti, Qui bene venisti, cum propria regna petisti; Tu mala vicisti -que bonis bona restituisti, Et populo tristi nova gaudia contribuisti. Est mihi spes lata, quod adhuc per te renovata 390 Succedent fata veteri probitate beata; Est tibi nam grata gratia sponte data. Henrici quarti primus regni fuit annus Quo mihi defecit visus ad acta mea. Omnia tempus habent, finem natura ministrat, 395 Quem virtute sua frangere nemo potest. Ultra posse nihil, quamvis mihi velle remansit, Amplius ut scribam non mihi posse manet. Dum potui, scripsi, sed nunc quia curua senectus Turbauit sensus, scripta relinquo scolis. 400 Scribat qui veniet post me discretior alter, Ammodo namque manus et mea penna silent. Hoc tamen in fine verborum queso meorum, Prospera quod statuat regna futura deus. ¶ _Explicit._ _From_ Th. (Thynne, ed. 1532.); _corrected by_ T. (Trentham MS.) _I give the rejected spellings of_ Th. (Thynne), _except where they are corrected by the_ MS. 1. T. worthi noble. 3. T. _om._ here. 4. _Both_ the. T. chose; Th. chosen. 9. T. regalie; Th. regaly. 11. T. iustifie; Th. iustify. 12. T. ancestrie; Th. auncestry. 17. T. boun; Th. bounde. 20. T. wirche. 26. T. Axe; Th. Aske. 27. T. reqwest; Th. request. (_Perhaps read_--Of no request the whiche is resonable.) 29. T. axinge; Th. askyng. 30. Th. _om._ to. 31. T. ches; Th. chase. Th. _om._ the. 33. T. ches; Th. chase. 35. T. gat; Th. gate. T. pes; Th. peace. _So_ T.; Th. in-to his last. 36. T. histoire; Th. storie. 39. T. might; Th. myght. 41. _Both_ behight. T. beheste. 42. Th. _om._ he. _Both_ had. T. conqweste. 44. T. axinge. T. achieued; Th. atcheued. 45. _Both_ al. T. paiene; Th. paynem. 46. T. belieued. 47. T. grieued. 48. T. mihte; Th. might. 50. T. feith; Th. faithe. 53. T. mot; Th. must. 54. Th. _om._ as. 56. T. leid; Th. layde. 57. T. viage: Th. voyage. 59. T. axe. 61. T. silve; Th. selfe. 62, 63. T. pes; Th. peace. 70. T. Betre; Th. Better. 71. _Both_ peace. T. euery man; Th. eueriche. T. alyue. 74. Th. lande; T. world. 76. T. cesse; Th. cease. 77. T. encresse; Th. encrease. 78. T. chief; Th. chefe. 79, 81, 82. T. weie, aweie, seie. 83. _Both_ lefte. 90. _Both_ al. 92. _Both_ the. 93. T. that; Th. what. 96. T. soght; Th. ysought. 97. _Both_ se. 98. T. conqueste. 101. T. bethenk. 102. _Both_ gone. 103. _Both_ Her. 108. T. _om._ doth; Th. dothe. 110. _Both_ dothe. T. reules; Th. rules. 111. T. meschef; Th. myschefe. 113. T. bringth; Th. bringeth. 114. T. comon; Th. co_m_men. 121. T. to; Th. be. 129. T. Lete; Th. Lette. 130. Th. crewel warryour. 132. Th. slough. 136. T. than; Th. that. 137. _Both_ se. 146. T. euene; Th. euyn. 147. T. heuene; Th. heuyn. 148. T. Ha. 153. Th. _om._ the. 155. Th. _om. 2nd_ of. 160. T. reson; Th. reason. 162. T. thenke; Th. thynke. 165. T. the subiit; Th. be subiecte. 169. T. er. 173. T. aftirwards; Th. afterwarde. 174. T. let; Th. lette. 176. T. er. 177. Th. styghed. 183. T. paiens; Th. paynyms. 185. Th. erre (!). 192. T. sen; Th. se. 194. Th. paynems. T. destruied. 200. Th. that; T. which. 201. T. helas; T. sprad. 202. _I supply_ alday. 203. Th. that; T. which. 209. T. do; Th. done. T. paien; Th. payne (_for_ payen). 211. T. to wonder; Th. wonder. _For_ any _read_ a? 216. Th. _om._ how. 217. T. euangile. 219. _Both_ made. Th. _om._ the. 222. Th. selfe; T. selue. 227. T. men; Th. people. 231. Th. the (_for_ that). 232. Th. dewte; T. duete. 238. T. hem-selue; Th. him-selfe. 242. Th. must. 246. T. _om._ good. T. euene; Th. euyn. 248. T. heuene; Th. heuyn. 253. _Both_ thre. 254. Th. _om._ is. 256. _Both_ highe. 260. T. sick; Th. sicke. 263. Th. helplesse; T. heliples. 269. _Both_ Betwene. 274. T. enoignt. 276. _Both_ Beholde; se. 278. Th. deserved (!). 280. _Both_ lyfe. 281. T. Ector. 282. T. Machabeu. 283. T. Godefroi Arthus. 287. _Both_ made. 288. T. mai; Th. many (!). 289. T. man (_for_ king). 291. Th. is (_for_ ben). 292. T. _om._ up. 295. T. tenetz; Th. tennes. 296, 298. T. er (_for_ or). 305. Th. is (_for_ it). Th. _om._ is. T. piereles; Th. peerles. 306. _Both_ begete; _read_ be gete. 316. T. perfit. 318. T. plit. 321. Th. these (_for_ the pees). Th. ben. 326. T. proprite. 329. _Both_ semblant. 330. T. Cassodre. _Both_ writinge. T. auctorized. 331. Th. _om._ ther. 336. T. wei; Th. way. 337. _Both_ se. 342. T. crualte; Th. creweltie. 347. T. baptisme. 359. Th. England. 370. T. seintz; Th. sayntes. T. memoire; Th. memory. 371. T. loenge; Th. legende (!). T. gloire; Th. glory. 378. Th. _om. 2nd_ of. _Both_ throne. 382. T. sese (_for_ cese); Th. se (!). T. er (_for_ or). T. meschiefe; Th. myschefe. 383. _Both_ Sette. 384. T. draugh. 385. T. Maintene; Th. Maynteyn. 399. Th. curua; T. torua. * * * * * V. THOMAS HOCCLEVE. THE LETTER OF CUPID. LITERA CUPIDINIS, DEI AMORIS, DIRECTA SUBDITIS SUIS AMATORIBUS. Cupido, unto whos comaundëment The gentil kinrede of goddes on hy And people infernal been obedient, And mortel folk al serven besily, The goddesse sonë Cithera soothly, 5 To alle tho that to our deitee Ben sugets, hertly greting sende we! In general, we wolë that ye knowe That ladies of honour and reverence, And other gentil women, haven sowe 10 Such seed of compleynt in our audience Of men that doon hem outrage and offence, That it our eres greveth for to here; So pitous is th'effect of this matere. Passing al londes, on the litel yle 15 That cleped is Albion they most compleyne; They seyn, that there is croppe and rote of gyle. So conne tho men dissimulen and feyne With stonding dropes in hir eyen tweyne, When that hir hertes feleth no distresse, 20 To blinden women with hir doublenesse. Hir wordes spoken ben so syghingly, With so pitousë chere and contenaunce, That every wight that meneth trewely Demeth that they in herte have such grevaunce; 25 They seyn so importáble is hir penaunce That, but hir lady lust to shewe hem grace, They right anoon +mot sterven in the place. 'A, lady myn!' they seyn, 'I yow ensure, As doth me grace, and I shal ever be, 30 Whyl that my lyf may lasten and endure, To yow as humble and lowe in ech degree As possible is, and kepe al thing secree Right as your-selven liste that I do; And elles moot myn herte breste a-two.' 35 Ful hard it is to knowe a mannes herte; For outward may no man the trouthe deme; When word out of his mouthe may noon asterte But it by reson any wight shuld queme, So is it seyd of herte, as hit wolde seme. 40 O feythful woman, ful of innocence, Thou art deceyved by fals apparence! By proces women, meved of pitee, Wening that al thing were as thise men sey, They graunte hem grace of hir benignitee 45 For that men shulde nat for hir sake dey; And with good herte sette hem in the wey Of blisful lovë--kepe it if they conne; Thus other-whylë women beth y-wonne. And whan this man the pot hath by the stele, 50 And fully is in his possessioun, With that woman he kepeth not to dele, After if he may fynden in the toun Any woman, his blinde affeccioun On to bestowë; evel mote he preve! 55 A man, for al his othes, is hard to leve! And, for that every fals man hath a make, (As un-to every wight is light to knowe), Whan this traitour this woman hath forsake, He faste him spedeth un-to his felowe; 60 Til he be there, his herte is on a lowe; His fals deceyt ne may him not suffyse, But of his treson telleth al the wyse. Is this a fair avaunt? is this honour, A man him-self accuse thus, and diffame? 65 Now is it good, confesse him a traitour, And bringe a woman to a sclandrous name, And telle how he her body hath do shame? No worship may he thus to him conquere, But greet esclaundre un-to him and here! 70 To herë? Nay, yet was it no repreef; For al for vertu was it that she wroughte; But he that brewed hath al this mischeef, That spak so faire, and falsly inward thoughte, His be the sclaundre, as it by reson oughte, 75 And un-to her a thank perpetuel, That in a nede helpe can so wel! Althogh of men, through sleyght and sotiltee, A sely, simple, and innocent woman Betrayed is, no wonder, sith the citee 80 Of Troye--as that the storie telle can-- Betrayed was, through the disceyt of man, And set on fyre, and al doun over-throwe, And finally destroyed, as men knowe. Betrayen men not citees grete, and kinges? 85 What wight is that can shape remedye Ageynes thise falsly purpósed thinges? Who can the craft such craftes to espye But man, whos wit ay redy is t'aplye To thing that souneth in-to hy falshede? 90 Women, beth ware of mennes sleight, I rede! And furthermore han thise men in usage That, where as they not lykly been to spede, Suche as they been with a double visage They prócuren, for to pursewe hir nede; 95 He prayeth him in his causë to procede, And largely guerdoneth he his travayle; Smal witen wommen how men hem assayle! Another wrecche un-to his felowe seyth: 'Thou fisshest faire! She that thee hath fyred 100 Is fals and inconstaunt, and hath no feyth. She for the rode of folke is so desyred And, as an hors, fro day to day is hyred That, when thou twinnest fro hir companye, Another comth, and blered is thyn eyë! 105 'Now prikke on fastë, and ryd thy journey Whyl thou art there; for she, behind thy bak, So liberal is, she wol no wight with-sey, But smertly of another take a snak; For thus thise wommen faren, al the pak! 110 Who-so hem trusteth, hanged mote he be! Ay they desyren chaunge and noveltee!' Wher-of procedeth this but of envye? For he him-selve her ne winne may, He speketh her repreef and vileinye, 115 As mannes blabbing tonge is wont alway. Thus dyvers men ful often make assay For to distourben folk in sondry wyse, For they may not acheven hir empryse. Ful many a man eek wolde, for no good, 120 (That hath in love his tyme spent and used) Men wiste, his lady his axing withstood, And that he were of her pleynly refused, Or wast and veyn were al that he had mused; Wherfore he can no better remedye 125 But on his lady shapeth him to lye: 'Every womman,' he seyth, 'is light to gete; Can noon sey "nay," if she be wel y-soght. Who-so may leyser han, with her to trete, Of his purpós ne shal he faile noght, 130 But he on madding be so depe y-broght That he shende al with open hoomlinesse; That loven wommen nat, as that I gesse!' To sclaundre wommen thus, what may profyte To gentils namely, that hem armen sholde, 135 And in defence of wommen hem delyte As that the ordre of gentilesse wolde? If that a man list gentil to be holde, He moot flee al that ther-to is contrarie; A sclaundring tonge is his grete adversarie. 140 A foul vice is of tonge to be light; For who-so michel clappeth, gabbeth ofte. The tonge of man so swift is and so wight That, whan it is areysed up-on lofte, Resoun it seweth so slowly and softe, 145 That it him never over-take may: Lord! so thise men ben trusty in assay! Al-be-it that man fynde oo woman nyce, Inconstant, rechelees, or variable, Deynouse or proud, fulfilled of malyce, 150 Withouten feyth or love, and deceyvable, Sly, queynt, and fals, in al unthrift coupable, Wikked and feers, and ful of crueltee. It foloweth nat that swiche al wommen be. Whan that the high god aungels formed had, 155 Among hem alle whether ther werë noon That founden was malicious and bad? Yis! al men woot that ther was many oon That, for hir pryde, fil from heven anoon. Shul men therfore alle aungels proude name? 160 Nay! he that that susteneth is to blame. Of twelve apostels oon a traitour was; The remënant yit godë were and trewe. Than, if it happe men fyndë, per cas, Oo womman fals, swich good is for t'eschewe, 165 And deme nat that they ben alle untrewe. I see wel mennes owne falsenesse Hem causeth wommen for to trusten lesse. O! every man oghte have an herte tendre Unto womman, and deme her honurable, 170 Whether his shap be outher thikke or slendre, Or be he bad or good; this is no fable. Every man woot, that wit hath resonable, That of a womman he descended is: Than is it shame, of her to speke amis. 175 A wikked tree good fruit may noon forth bring, For swich the fruit is, as that is the tree. Tak hede of whom thou took thy biginning; Lat thy moder be mirour unto thee. Honoure her, if thou wolt honoured be! 180 Dispyse thou her nat, in no manere, Lest that ther-by thy wikkednesse appere! An old provérbë seyd is in English: Men seyn, 'that brid or foul is dishonest, What that he be, and holden ful churlish, 185 That useth to defoule his owne nest.' Men, to sey wel of wommen it is best, And nat for to despyse hem ne deprave, If that they wole hir honour kepe and save. Thise ladies eek compleynen hem on clerkes 190 That they han maad bokës of hir diffame, In which they lakken wommen and hir werkes And speken of hem greet repreef and shame, And causëlees yive hem a wikked name. Thus they despysed been on every syde, 195 And sclaundred, and bilowen on ful wyde. The sory bokes maken mencioun How they betrayden, in especial, Adam, David, Sampsoun, and Salamoun, And many oon mo; who may rehersen al 200 The treson that they havë doon, and shal? The world hir malice may not comprehende; As that thise clerkes seyn, it hath non ende. Ovyde, in his boke called 'Remedye Of Lovë,' greet repreef of wommen wryteth; 205 Wherin, I trowe, he dide greet folye, And every wight that in such cas delyteth. A clerkes custom is, whan he endyteth Of wommen, be it prose, or ryme, or vers, Sey they ben wikke, al knowe he the revers. 210 And that book scolers lerne in hir childhede, For they of wommen be war sholde in age, And for to love hem ever been in drede, Sin to deceyve is set al hir corage. They seyn, peril to caste is avantage, 215 And namely, suche as men han in be wrapped; For many a man by woman hath mishapped. No charge is, what-so that thise clerkes seyn; Of al hir wrong wryting I do no cure; Al hir travayle and labour is in veyn. 220 For, betwex me and my lady Nature, Shal nat be suffred, whyl the world may dure, Thise clerkes, by hir cruel tyrannye, Thus upon wommen kythen hir maistrye. Whylom ful many of hem were in my cheyne 225 Y-tyed, and now, what for unweldy age And for unlust, may not to love atteyne, And seyn, that love is but verray dotage. Thus, for that they hem-self lakken corage, They folk excyten, by hir wikked sawes, 230 For to rebelle agayn me and my lawes. But, maugre hem that blamen wommen most, Suche is the force of myn impressioun, That sodeinly I felle can hir bost And al hir wrong imaginacioun. 235 It shal not been in hir eleccioun The foulest slutte of al a toun refuse, If that me list, for al that they can muse; But her in herte as brenningly desyre As thogh she were a duchesse or a quene; 240 So can I folkes hertes sette on fyre, And (as me list) hem sende joye or tene. They that to wommen been y-whet so kene My sharpe persing strokes, how they smyte, Shul fele and knowe; and how they kerve and byte. 245 Perdee, this grete clerk, this sotil Ovyde And many another han deceyved be Of wommen, as it knowen is ful wyde; Wot no man more; and that is greet deyntee, So excellent a clerk as that was he, 250 And other mo that coude so wel preche Betrapped were, for aught they coude teche. And trusteth wel, that it is no mervayle; For wommen knewen pleynly hir entente. They wiste how sotilly they coude assayle 255 Hem, and what falshood they in herte mente; And thise clerkes they in hir daunger hente. With oo venym another was distroyed; And thus thise clerkes often were anoyed. Thise ladies ne thise gentils, nevertheles, 260 Were noon of tho that wroughten in this wyse; But swiche filthes as were vertules They quitten thus thise olde clerkes wyse. To clerkes forthy lesse may suffyse Than to deprave wommen generally; 265 For worship shul they gete noon therby. If that thise men, that lovers hem pretende, To wommen weren feythful, gode, and trewe, And dredde hem to deceyven or offende, Wommen to love hem wolde nat eschewe. 270 But every day hath man an herte newe; It upon oon abyde can no whyle. What fors is it, swich a wight to begyle? Men beren eek thise wommen upon honde That lightly, and withouten any peyne, 275 They wonne been; they can no wight withstonde That his disese list to hem compleyne. They been so freel, they mowe hem nat refreyne; But who-so lyketh may hem lightly have; So been hir hertes esy in to grave. 280 To maister Iohn de Meun, as I suppose, Than it was a lewd occupacioun In making of the Romance of the Rose; So many a sly imaginacioun And perils for to rollen up and doun, 285 So long proces, so many a sly cautele For to deceyve a sely damosele! Nat can I seen, ne my wit comprehende That art and peyne and sotiltee sholde fayle For to conquére, and sone make an ende, 290 Whan man a feble place shal assayle; And sone also to venquisshe a batayle Of which no wight dar maken resistence, Ne herte hath noon to stonden at defence. Than moot it folwen of necessitee, 295 Sin art asketh so greet engyn and peyne A womman to disceyve, what she be, Of constauncë they been not so bareyne As that somme of thise sotil clerkes feyne; But they ben as that wommen oghten be, 300 Sad, constant, and fulfilled of pitee. How frendly was Medea to Jasoun In the conquéring of the flees of gold! How falsly quitte he her affeccioun By whom victórie he gat, as he hath wold! 305 How may this man, for shame, be so bold To falsen her, that from his dethe and shame Him kepte, and gat him so gret prys and name? Of Troye also the traitour Eneas, The feythles wrecche, how hath he him forswore 310 To Dido, that queen of Cartágë was, That him releved of his smertes sore! What gentilesse might she han doon more Than she with herte unfeyned to him kidde? And what mischeef to her ther-of betidde! 315 In my Legende of Martres men may fynde (Who-so that lyketh therin for to rede) That ooth noon ne behest may no man bynde; Of reprevable shame han they no drede. In mannes herte trouthe hath no stede; 320 The soil is noght, ther may no trouthe growe! To womman namely it is nat unknowe. Clerkes seyn also: 'ther is no malyce Unto wommannes crabbed wikkednesse!' O woman! How shalt thou thy-self chevyce, 325 Sin men of thee so muchel harm witnesse? No fors! Do forth! Takë no hevinesse! Kepë thyn ownë, what men clappe or crake; And somme of hem shul smerte, I undertake! Malyce of wommen, what is it to drede? 330 They slee no men, distroyen no citees; They not oppressen folk ne overlede, Betraye empyres, remes, ne duchees, Ne men bereve hir landes ne hir mees, Empoyson folk, ne houses sette on fyre, 335 Ne false contractes maken for non hyre! Trust, perfit love, and entere charitee, Fervent wil, and entalented corage To thewes gode, as it sit wel to be, Han wommen ay, of custome and usage; 340 And wel they can a mannes ire aswage With softe wordes discreet and benigne; What they be inward, sheweth outward signe. Wommannes herte un-to no crueltee Enclyned is, but they ben charitable, 345 Pitous, devout, fulle of humilitee, Shamfaste, debonaire, and amiable, Dredful, and of hir wordes mesurable: What womman thise hath not, peraventure, Ne folweth nat the wey of her nature. 350 Men seyn: 'our firste moder, natheles, Made al man-kynde lese his libertee, And naked it of joye, douteles; For goddes hestes disobeyed she, Whan she presumed tasten of a tree, 355 Which god forbad that she nat ete of sholde; And, nad the devel been, namore she wolde.' Th' envýous swelling that the feend, our fo, Had unto man in herte, for his welthe, Sente a serpent, and made her for to go 360 To disceyve Eve; and thus was mannes helthe Beraft him by the fende, right in a stelthe, The womman noght knowing of the deceyt; God wot, ful fer was it from her conceyt. Wherfore I sey, this godë womman Eve 365 Our fader Adam ne deceyved noght. Ther may no man for a deceyt it preve Proprely, but-if that she, in her thoght, Had it compassed first, er it was wroght; And, for swich was nat her impressioun, 370 Men calle it may no déceyt, by resoun. No wight deceyveth but he it purpóse; The feend this déceyt caste, and nothing she. Than is it wrong to demen or suppose That she sholde of this harm the cause be. 375 Wyteth the feend, and his be the maugree; And for excused have her innocence, Sauf only that she brak obedience. And touching this, ful fewe men ther been, Unnethes any, dar I saufly seye-- 380 Fro day to day, as that men mow wel seen, But that the hest of god they disobeye. Have this in mynde, sires, I yow preye; If that ye be discreet and resonable, Ye wol her holde the more excusable. 385 And wher men seyn, 'in man is stedfastnesse, And woman is of her corage unstable,' Who may of Adam bere swich witnesse? Telleth me this:--was he nat chaungeable? They bothe weren in a caas semblable, 390 Sauf willingly the feend deceyved Eve, And so did she nat Adam, by your leve. Yet was this sinne happy to mankynde, The feend deceyved was, for al his sleight; For aught he coude him in his sleightes wynde, 395 God, to discharge mankynde of the weight Of his trespas, cam doun from hevenes height, And flesh and blood he took of a virgyne, And suffred deeth, him to deliver of pyne. And god, to whom ther may nothing hid be, 400 If he in woman knowe had such malyce As men of hem recorde in generaltee, Of our lady, of lyf reparatryce, Nolde han be born; but, for that she of vyce Was voyde, and of al vertu (wel he wiste) 405 Endowed, of her to be bore him liste. Her heped vertu hath swich excellence That al to lene is mannes facultee To déclare it, and therfor in suspence Her duë preysing put mot nedes be. 410 But this we witen verrayly, that she, Next god, the best frend is that to man longeth; The key of mercy by her girdil hongeth. And of mercy hath every man swich nede That, cessing that, farwel the joye of man! 415 Of her power now taketh right good hede; She mercy may, wol, and purchace can. Displese her nat, honoureth that womman, And other wommen alle, for her sake! And, but ye do, your sorowe shal awake. 420 Thou precious gemme, O martir Margarete, Of thy blood draddest noon effusioun! Thy martirdom ne may I nat foryete; Thou, constant womman in thy passioun, Overcoom the feendes temptacioun; 425 And many a wight converted thy doctryne Unto the feith of god, holy virgyne! But understondeth, I commende hir noght By enchesoun of hir virginitee; Trusteth right wel, it cam not in my thoght; 430 For ever I werrey ayein chastitee, And ever shal; but this, lo! meveth me, Her loving herte and constant to her lay Dryve out of rémembrauncë I ne may. In any boke also wher can ye fynde, 435 That of the werkes or the dethe or lyf Of Jesu speketh, or maketh any mynde, That womman him forsook, for wo or stryf? Wher was ther any wight so ententyf Abouten him as wommen? Pardee, noon! 440 Th'apostels him forsoken, everichoon. Womman forsook him noght; for al the feyth Of holy chirche in womman lefte only. This is no lees, for holy writ thus seyth; Loke, and ye shal so fynde it, hardely. 445 And therfore it may preved be therby, That in womman regneth stable constaunce And in men is the chaunge and variaunce! Now holdeth this for ferme and for no lye, That this trewe and just commendacioun 450 Of wommen is nat told for flaterye, Ne to cause hem pryde or elacioun, But only, lo! for this entencioun, To yeve hem corage of perseveraunce In vertu, and hir honour to enhaunce. 455 The more vertu, the lasse is the pryde; Vertu so digne is, and so noble in kynde That vyce and she wol not in-fere abyde. She putteth vyce clene out of her mynde, She fleeth from him, she leveth him behynde. 460 O womman, that of vertu art hostesse, Greet is thyn honour and thy worthinesse! Than wol we thus concluden and diffyne: We yow comaunde, our ministres, echoon That redy been to our hestes enclyne, 465 That of thise false men, our rebel foon, Ye do punisshëment, and that anoon! Voide hem our court and banish hem for ever So that ther-inne they ne come never. Fulfilled be it, cessing al delay; 470 Look that ther be non excusacioun. Writen in th'ayr, the lusty month of May, In our paleys (wher many a millioun Of loveres trewe han habitacioun) The yere of grace joyful and jocounde 475 A thousand and foure hundred and secounde. EXPLICIT LITERA CUPIDINIS, DEI AMORIS, DIRECTA SUIS SUBDITIS AMATORIBUS. From F (Fairfax); various readings from B (Bodley 638); T (Tanner 346); S (Arch. Selden B. 24); A (Ashburnham MS.); Tr. (Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 3. 20). _Also in_ Th. (Thynne, ed. 1532); D (Digby 181); Ff (Camb. Univ. Library, Ff. 1. 6); _and in the_ Bannatyne MS. 2. F. goddis an. 3. F. pepill. F. ben. 4. A. folk; F. folke. F. besely; A. bisyly. 5. F. Th. Of the; S. _om._ Of. S. Cithera; F. Sythera. S. sothly; F. oonly. 6. A. Tr. alle; F. al. 7. F. sugetes. 8. A. wole; F. wol. 10. F. wymen. A. han I-sowe. 11. F. Suche. 12. A. doon; F. do. 13. F. oure. 14. F. pitouse; effecte. 15. A. And passyng_e_ alle londes on this yle. 17. A. seyn; F. seye. 18. A. dissimulen; F. dyssimule. 19. A. Tr. S. Th. in; F. on. F. her. 20. A. herte. 20-22. F. her. 23. A. And with so pitous. S. Tr. pitouse a. 24. A. trewely; F. truly. 25. F. hert. A. han swich. 26. A. seyn; F. sey. F. her. 27. F. her. Tr. list. F. schew. 28. F. anoone. F. _om._ mot; S. Tr. most; Th. must (_but read_ mot); cf. l. 35. 29. A. seyn; F. sey. F. yowe; Th. you. 31. F. While. F. lyfe. A. lasten; F. last. 33. F. Th. thing as; A.S. _om._ as. 34. F. youre. F. self; S. seluen. Th. lyste; F. lyst; A. lykith. 35. A. moot myn herte; F. myn hert mote. A. breste; F. brest. 36. F. herd. Th. knowe a mannes; F. know a manys. A. herte; F. hert. 37. F. outwarde. 38. S. word; F. worde. F. non astert. 39. _So_ S. Tr.; A. sholde any wight by reson; F. Th. by reson semed euery wight to queme. 40. F. seyde; Th. sayd. F. hert; Th. herte. 41. F. _om._ of. 42. F. arte. F. be; Th. by. 43. F. processe. A. Tr. S. wom_m_en meeued of; F. moveth oft woman. 44. S. that; _rest om._ 46. F. her. 47. F. hert set. 48. F. blesful. A.S. they; F. ye. 49. F. And thus; A.S. Tr. _om._ And. 50. A.S. pot; Th. pan; F. penne. 52. A. he keepith; F. kepeth he. S. not; A. nat; F. no more. 53. A. fynden; F. fynde. F. tovne. 55. A. On to; F. Vnto. 56. A. hard; F. herde. A.S. leue; F. beleue. 59. Th. traytour; F. traytoure. 60. A. faste him speedith; F. fast spedeth him. 61. Th. herte; F. hert. 62. A.S. Tr. ne; F. _om._ 64. F. faire avaunte. 65. F. silfe. 66. S. A. Tr. Now; F. _om._ S. A. him; F. Th. himselfe. A.S. a; F. _om._ 67. A.S. a (2); F. _om._ 68. F. tel; hir; hathe. 69. F. worshippe. 70. A. greet; F. grete. S. a sclander; T. Th. disclaunder. 71. F. hir; reprefe. 72. A. Tr. it; _rest om._ F. wroght. 73. F. myschefe. 74. F. spake; thoght. 75. F. be; Th. by. F. oght. 76. S. a thank; Tr. hye thank; F. thank. 77. D. Th. A. nede; F. rede. 78. Th. through; F. thorgh. 81. A. that; _rest om._ F. tel. 82. Th. through; F. thorgh. 83. A.S. Tr. Th. al; F. _om._ F. dovne. 84. F. fynaly. 85. A. Tr. Betrayen; B. S. T. Betray; F. Betraied. 86. F. is yt that; S. A. Tr. _om._ yt. 87. A. Ageynes; F. Ayens. F. falsely. 88. F. crafte suche. 89. F. wytte; A. Tr. wil. A. Tr. ay reedy is; S. redy ay is; F. is euer redy. A. tapplie; Th. taply; F. to aplye. 90. A. hy; S. Tr. hie; F. _om._ 93. T. A. Tr. as; F. _om._ F. ben. 94. B. A. Tr. Th. they; F. _om._ 95. Th. pursewe; F. pursw. 98. A. Smal witen; F. Lytell wote; Tr. Litel knowe. 99. F. wrechch; Th. wretche. 101. F. inconstant; feythe. 105. F. cometh. 106. F. fast (_read_ faste). F. ride (_read_ ryd). 107. F. While. Th. behynd; F. behinde. F. bake. 109. A. snak; F. snake; Th. smacke. 110. F. thes; pake. 111. Th. mote; F. mot. 114. F. selfe hyr. 115. F. hir reprefe; vileyny. 116. F. tong. 118. F. folke. 120. F. eke. 124. F. wer. A. D. Th. had; F. hath. 126. F. shapith. 129. F. han leyser; D. T. Th. leisur haue; A. Tr. leiser han. 130. F. purpose. 131. Th. madnesse. 132. F. homelynesse. 133. F. wy_m_men. 134. F. sclaunder women. 135. F. Too. 139. A. Al moot he flee. 140. Th. tonge; F. tong. 141. F. foule. A. vice; Th. vyce; F. thing. 143. A. Tr. Th. S. man; F. men. 147. Th. ben; Tr. been; F. beth. A. at (_for_ in). A. Th. assay; F. asay. 148. F. hyt. F. o; Th. one. 149. F. varriable. 150. S. and (_for_ or). S. proud; F. proude. 152. F. vnthrift; Th. vntrust. 154. F. swich; D. Th. suche. 155. D. god the hie. 156. A. all_e_; F. al. A. whether; F. wheither. A. was (_for_ were). 160. F. al. 161. F. _om. 2nd_ that. 163. Tr. goode; F. good. 164. F. caas. 165. Th. good is; F. is good. 166. F. al. 167. Th. owne falsenesse; F. oone falsnesse. 169. F. oght. 171. F. wheither. 172. F. badde. 173. F. witte. 175. F. hir. 176. F. tre gode frute. 177. F. swiche; A. swich. 178. F. Take. 179. F. Merour; Th. myrrour. 180. F. Honure; honured. 181. A. nat hir. 183. F. seyde; Th. sayd. 184. F. foule. 185. F. chirlyssh; Th. churlysshe. 187. F. wymen; Th. women. 188. D. B. T. A. Tr. for to despyse; F. to displesen. 189. F. wol. 191. F. made. 192. A. they lakken; Th. they dispyse; F. dispisen they. Th. women and her; F. wo_m_mans; A. wo_m_menes. 193. F. grete reprefe. 194. F. yiven; D. yeve; Th. yeue. 195. F. ben. 198. Th. D. especial; F. special. 203. F. theys; noon. 205. F. grete reprefe. 206. F. grete. 207. F. case. 208. F. custome. 209. F. women. D. B. A. Th. _om. 1st_ or. 210. F. Seye; Th. Say. 211. F. boke. 212. F. women. 213. F. louen; S. D. Tr. Th. loue. 215. A. They (_glossed_ s. libri). F. perylle; Th. p_er_el. F. cast. 216. F. B. wrappes (!) 217. D. S. Th. women. F. B. myshappes (!) 218. S. Th. is; F. _om._ A. that; _rest om._ 222. A.S. T. nat; D. Th. not; F. noon. F. while. 223. F. tyranie. 224. F. wy_m_men. 225. D. Th. many; F. mony. F. wer. 226. Th. Tyed; A. Tyd. 228. F. werray; S. veray; D. verry; Th. very. 229. F. selfe; D. silf. 230. F. folke. 232. F. mawgre; Th. maugre. 233. F. _om._ the. 234. F. sodenly; Th. sodainly. 236. F. ben; Th. be. F. ellecciou_n_. 237. F. tovne; A. town. 239. Th. her; F. hir. Th. herte; F. hert. F. brenyngly. 241. F. hertys set. 242. F. Ioy. 243. F. ben. 244. Th. sharpe; F. sharp. 248. F. women. 249. S. Wote; A. Wat; F. Th. What (!). F. grete; Th. great. 252. F. aght; Th. aught. 253. Th. it; F. ys (!) F. mervaylle; Th. meruayle. 254. F. women knywen; entent. 255. F. sotyly. 256. F. falshode; Th. falsheed. F. hert ment; Th. herte mente. 257. F. this clerkys. F. hent; Th. hente. 261. F. wroghten; Th. wrought. F. wysse; Th. wyse. 262. S. fillok_es_ (_for_ filthes). F. weren; Th. were. 263. F. wisse; Th. wyse. 263, 264. F. clerkis. 264. A. Th. To; F. D. The (!). 266. F. worshippe; Th. worshyp. 268. F. women. F. good. 269. F. dreden; Th. dredde. 270. F. Women. 271. F. hert. 273. A. swich oon for to. 274. F. eke this women. 276. F. ben. 280. F. ben; hertys; craue (!). 281. F. I (!); _for_ To. Th. Moone. 282. F. lewde. 286. F. longe processe. F. slye; Th. slygh. 287. F. damesele; Th. damosel. 288. F. wytte. 289. F. peyn; Th. payne. T. Th. schulde; F. holde (!). 291. F. assaylle; Th. assayle. 292. F. bataylle; Th. batayle. 293. F. whiche. 294. F. hert; Th. herte. 295. F. yt moot folowen; A. moot it folwen. 296. F. grete. 297. F. dysceve. 298. F. constance; ben. 299. F. clerkys. 301. F. pite. 302. F. frendely; Th. frendly. 303. F. flee (!); golde. 304. F. quyt; hir. 305. F. gate; wolde. 306. F. bolde. 307. F. hir. 308. F. kept; grete. 310. F. wrechch; Th. wretche; A. man. 314. F. That (_for_ Than). F. hert; Th. herte. 315. F. mischefe; hir. 316. Th. natures (_for_ Martres). 318. F. oothe in no; A. ooth noon ne; S. T. Th. othe ne. 320. A. Th. herte; F. hert. A. In herte of man conceites trewe arn dede. 324. A. wommannes; Th. D. womans; F. a womans. Th. wicked crabbydnesse. 326. F. the; harme. 327. F. No fors; A. Yee strab (_or_ scrab). Th. Beth ware women of her fykelnesse. F. take; S. and take. 329. F. smert; Th. smerte. 331. F. sle. 332. F. folke. 335. F. Empoysone folkys; set. 337. F. perfyte. 338. D. B. Th. A. entalented; F. entenlented. 339. F. Be; Th. Al; _rest_ To. F. sytt. 340. F. women. 342. A. softe; F. Th. soft. 343. F. outwarde. 344. A. Wommannes; F. Th. Womans. 346. F. Pitouse devoute ful. 348. F. _om._ and. 350. F. hir. 351. F. oure; Th. our. A. firste; F. Th. first. 353. F. Ioy; Th. ioye. 356. A. nat; F. ne. 357. F. nade; Th. ne had; A. nad. F. she ne wolde. 358. F. The enviouse; Tr. Thenvyous. F. suellyng. F. fend. 359. Th. herte; F. D. hert. 359. F. Sent; hir. 361. F. deceyve; Th. disceyue. 363. F. woman. 364. F. Gode wote; hir. 365. F. good; Tr. goode. F. woman. 369. F. er; A. Th. or. 370. F. hir. 373. F. cast. 374. F. wronge. 375. F. harme. A. of th_a_t gilt. 376. F. fende; mawgre. 377. F. hir. 378. F. oonly. F. breeke; D. Th. brake. 379. F. that; Th. this. F. ben. 381. A. D. mowe; T. mow; Th. may; F. now. 385. A. Th. holde; F. hold. 386. F. Th. where; B. whan. 388. F. swiche. 391. A. F. feende; Tr. worme. 392. F. dide; Th. dyd. 394. F. feende. 395. F. sleythes; Th. sleyghtes; A. sleightes. 397. F. trespase; Th. trespace. F. the hevenes; A. Tr. S. Th. _om._ the. 398. F. tooke. 401. F. suche. 403. F. Yf (_for_ Of). F. lyfe. 405. F. woyde; Th. voyde. 406. F. hir. 408. F. leene; Th. leane; S. low; A. weyke. 410. Th. dewe. F. moot. 411. A. we witen; _rest_ I sey. F. verraly. 412. F. men (_for_ man). 413. F. mercye; hir girdille. 414. F. mercye. 415. F. farewel; Ioy. 417. F. mercye. 418. F. honureth; Th. honoureth. 419. A. Tr. alle; F. al. 423. F. martirdome. Th. Thou louer trewe. thou mayden mansuete. 425. F. feendis. 427. _From_ A; F. B. _omit_ (!). 430. A. nat; Tr. not; _rest_ neuer. 431. F. _om._ I. 433. F. hert; hir. 434. F. of my; Th. _om._ my. 435-448. _Precedes_ 421-434 _in_ Th. 435. F. where. 436. F. werkis; lyfe. 438. F. wommen (_read_ womman, _as in_ l. 442). F. stryfe. 439. F. ententyfe. 441. _So_ Th.; F. B. forsoken hym. 442. F. forsooke. 443. F. left oonly. 444. Tr. holy wryt thus; F. thus holy wryt. 445. F. Lok. 446. _So_ A.; F. B. I may wel preve herby. 447, 448. F. constance, variance. 450. F. trew; Th. trewe. 451. A. is nat told for; F. tolde I nat for; Th. tel I for no. 453. F. oonly loo. 455. F. honure; Th. honour. Th. auaunce. 458. A.S. she; _rest_ he. 459, 460. A.S. She; _rest_ He. S. hir; F. hi (!); _rest_ his. 461. F. wertu. 462. F. Gret; honor. 464. F. oure; echon. 465. F. oure. 466. F. D. _om._ false. F. reble; Th. rebel. 469. A. ynne; F. in. F. more neuer; A. _om._ more. 471. S. Tr. that; _rest om._ 472. F. the ayer; A. their; Tr. theyre. F. moneth. 473. F. oure; where; milion. 474. F. louers trwe. 475. F. Iocunde. COLOPHON. D. T. amatoribus; F. _om._ B. _has_--The lettre of Cupide, god of love, directed to his suggestys louers. * * * * * VI. TO THE KINGES MOST NOBLE GRACE; AND TO THE LORDES AND KNIGHTES OF THE GARTER. CESTES BALADES ENSUYANTES FEURENT FAITES AU TRES NOBLE ROY HENRY LE QUINT (QUE DIEU PARDOINT!) ET AU TRES HONOURABLE CONPAIGNIE DU JARTER. I. To you, welle of honour and worthinesse, Our Cristen king, the heir and successour Un-to Justinians devout tendrenesse In the feith of Jesu, our redemptour; And to you, lordes of the Garter, 'flour 5 Of chevalrye,' as men you clepe and calle; The lord of vertu and of grace auctour Graunte the fruit of your loos never appalle! O lige lord, that han eek the lyknesse Of Constantyn, th'ensaumple and the mirour 10 To princes alle, in love and buxumnesse To holy chirche, O verray sustenour And piler of our feith, and werreyour Ageyn the heresyës bitter galle, Do forth, do forth, continue your socour! 15 Hold up Cristes baner; lat it nat falle! This yle, or this, had been but hethenesse, Nad been of your feith the force and vigour! And yit, this day, the feendes fikilnesse Weneth fully to cacche a tyme and hour 20 To have on us, your liges, a sharp shour, And to his servitude us knitte and thralle. But ay we truste in you, our prótectour; On your constaunce we awayten alle. Commandeth that no wight have hardinesse, 25 O worthy king, our Cristen emperour, Of the feith to despute more or lesse Openly among people, wher errour Springeth al day and engendreth rumour. Maketh swich lawe, and for aught may befalle, 30 Observe it wel; ther-to be ye dettour. Doth so, and god in glorie shal you stalle. II. Ye lordes eek, shyninge in noble fame, To whiche appropred is the maintenaunce Of Cristes cause; in honour of his name 35 Shove on, and putte his foos to the outrance! God wolde so; so wolde eek your ligeaunce; To tho two prikketh you your duëtee. Who-so nat kepeth this double observaunce Of merit and honour naked is he! 40 Your style seith that ye ben foos to shame; Now kythe of your feith the perséveraunce, In which an heep of us arn halte and lame. Our Cristen king of England and of Fraunce, And ye, my lordes, with your alliaunce, 45 And other feithful people that ther be (Truste I to god) shul quenche al this nuisaunce And this land sette in hy prosperitee. Conquest of hy prowesse is for to tame The wilde woodnesse of this mescreaunce; 50 Right to the rote repe ye that same! Slepe nat this, but, for goddes plesaunce And his modres, and in signifiaunce That ye ben of seint Georges liveree, Doth him servyce and knightly obeisaunce; 55 For Cristes cause is his, wel knowen ye! Stif stande in that, and ye shul greve and grame The fo to pees, the norice of distaunce; That now is ernest, torne it into game; Dampnáble fro feith werë variaunce! 60 Lord lige, and lordes, have in rémembraunce, Lord of al is the blessed Trinitee, Of whos vertu the mighty habundaunce You herte and strengthe in feithful unitee! Amen. _Cest tout._ _From_ P. (Phillipps 8151); _also in_ Ed. (ed. 1542). 1. Ed. honour; P. honur. 2. P. Our right cristen; Ed. _om._ right. Ed. the heire; P. _om._ the. 6. P. ch_iua_lrie; Ed. cheualry. 8. P. nat; Ed. neuer. 10. Ed. _om._ the. 11. P. loue and; Ed. humble. 14. P. bittir; Ed. bytter. 15. P. foorth; Ed. forthe (_twice_). 16. P. Ed. Holde. 19. P. fikilnesse; Ed. crabbydnesse. 20. P. Weeneth; Ed. Weneth. 22. P. seruiture; Ed. seruytude. 25. P. Commandith; Ed. Co_m_maundeth. 26. Ed. O; P. Our. Ed. our; P. and. 27. Ed. dispute. 28. P. where; Ed. Her. 29. P. Spryngith; engendrith. 30. P. Makith. P. aght; Ed. ought. 31. P. been; Ed. be. 32. P. Dooth. 33. P. Yee. 34. P. approped (!). 38. Ed. duite. 39. P. keepith; Ed. kepeth. 40. P. nakid; Ed. naked. 41. Ed. _om._ that. P. yee been. 43. P. arn; Ed. be. 44. P. Engeland and; Ed. England and of. 45. P. yee. 46. P. othir. 47. P. qwenche. P. nusance; Ed. noysaunce (_read_ nuisance). 49. P. Conqueste; Ed. Conquest. 50. Ed. myscreaunce. 51. P. roote rype; Ed. rote repe. P. yee. 52. P. Sleepe; Ed. Slepe. 54. P. yee been. 55. P. Dooth. 56, 57. P. yee. 57. P. shuln; Ed. shal. P. greeue. 58. Ed. the; P. and. 59. Ed. tourne. 60. Ed. Nowe kythe of your beleue the constaunce. 62. P. blissid; Ed. blysfull. * * * * * VII. A MORAL BALADE. BY HENRY SCOGAN, SQUYER. HERE FOLOWETH NEXT A MORAL BALADE, TO MY LORD THE PRINCE, TO MY LORD OF CLARENCE, TO MY LORD OF BEDFORD, AND TO MY LORD OF GLOUCESTRE, BY HENRY SCOGAN; AT A SOUPER OF FEORTHE MERCHANDE IN THE VYNTRE IN LONDON, AT THE HOUS OF LOWYS JOHAN. My noble sones, and eek my lordes dere, I, your fader called, unworthily, Sende un-to you this litel tretys here Writen with myn owne hand full rudëly; Although it be that I not reverently 5 Have writen to your estats, yet I you praye, Myn unconning taketh benignëly For goddes sake, and herken what I seye. I complayn sore, whan I remembre me The sodeyn age that is upon me falle; 10 More I complayn my mispent juventè The whiche is impossible ayein to calle. But certainly, the most complaynte of alle Is for to thinke, that I have been so nyce That I ne wolde no virtue to me calle 15 In al my youthe, but vyces ay cheryce. Of whiche I aske mercy of thee, lord, That art almighty god in majestè, Beseking thee, to make so even accord Betwix thee and my soule, that vanitè 20 Of worldly lust, ne blynd prosperitè Have no lordship over my flesshe so frele. Thou lord of reste and parfit unitè, Put fro me vyce, and keep my soules hele. And yeve me might, whyl I have lyf and space, 25 Me to conforme fully to thy plesaunce; Shewe upon me th'abundaunce of thy grace, In gode werkes graunt me perséveraunce. Of al my youthe forget the ignoraunce; Yeve me good wil, to serve thee ay to queme; 30 Set al my lyf after thyn ordinaunce, And able me to mercy, or thou deme! My lordes dere, why I this complaint wryte To you, alle whom I love entierly, Is for to warne you, as I can endyte, 35 That tyme y-lost in youthe folily Greveth a wight goostly and bodily, I mene hem that to lust and vyce entende. Wherfore, I pray you, lordes, specially, Your youthe in vertue shapeth to dispende. 40 Planteth the rote of youthe in suche a wyse That in vertue your growing be alway; Loke ay, goodnesse be in your exercyse, That shal you mighty make, at eche assay, The feend for to withstonde at eche affray. 45 Passeth wysly this perilous pilgrimage, Thinke on this word, and werke it every day; That shal you yeve a parfit floured age. Taketh also hede, how that these noble clerkes Write in hir bokes of gret sapience, 50 Saying, that fayth is deed withouten werkes; So is estat withoute intelligence Of vertue; and therfore, with diligence, Shapeth of vertue so to plante the rote, That ye therof have ful experience, 55 To worship of your lyfe and soules bote. Taketh also hede, that lordship ne estat, Withoute vertue, may not longe endure; Thinketh eek how vyce and vertue at debat Have been, and shal, whyles the world may dure; 60 And ay the vicious, by aventure, Is overthrowe; and thinketh evermore That god is lord of vertue and figure Of al goodnesse; and therfore folowe his lore. My mayster Chaucer, god his soulë have! 65 That in his langage was so curious, He sayde, the fader whiche is deed and grave, Biquath nothing his vertue with his hous Unto his sone; therfore laborious Ought ye to be, beseching god, of grace, 70 To yeve you might for to be vertuous, Through which ye might have part of his fayr place. Here may ye see that vertuous noblesse Cometh not to you by way of auncestrye, But it cometh thorugh leefful besinesse 75 Of honest lyfe, and not by slogardrye. Wherfore in youthe I rede you edefye The hous of vertue in so wys manere That in your age it may you kepe and gye Fro the tempest of worldly wawes here. 80 Thinketh how, betwixë vertue and estat There is a parfit blessed mariage; Vertue is cause of pees, vyce of debat In mannes soule; for which, with ful corage, Cherissheth vertue, vyces to outrage: 85 Dryveth hem away; let hem have no wonning In your soules; leseth not the heritage Which god hath yeve to vertuous living. Taketh hede also, how men of povre degree Through vertue have be set in greet honour, 90 And ever have lived in greet prosperitee Through cherisshing of vertuous labour. Thinketh also, how many a governour Called to estat, hath oft be set ful lowe Through misusing of right, and for errour, 95 Therfore I counsaile you, vertue to knowe. Thus 'by your eldres may ye nothing clayme,' As that my mayster Chaucer sayth expresse, 'But temporel thing, that man may hurte and mayme'; Than is god stocke of vertuous noblesse; 100 And sith that he is lord of blessednesse, And made us alle, and for us alle deyde, Folowe his vertue with ful besinesse, And of this thing herke how my mayster seyde:-- _The firste stok, fader of gentilesse,_ 105 _What man that claymeth gentil for to be_ _Must folowe his trace, and alle his wittes dresse_ _Vertu to sewe, and vyces for to flee._ _For unto vertu longeth dignitee,_ _And noght the revers, saufly dar I deme,_ 110 _Al were he mytre, croune, or diademe._ _This firste stok was ful of rightwisnesse,_ _Trewe of his word, sobre, pitous, and free,_ _Clene of his goste, and loved besinesse_ _Ageinst the vyce of slouthe, in honestee;_ 115 _And, but his heir love vertu, as dide he,_ _He is noght gentil, though he riche seme,_ _Al were he mytre, croune, or diademe._ _Vyce may wel be heir to old richesse;_ _But ther may no man, as men may wel see,_ 120 _Bequethe his heir his vertuous noblesse;_ _That is appropred unto no degree,_ _But to the firste fader in magestee_ _That maketh him his heir, that can him queme,_ _Al were he mytre, croune, or diademe._ 125 Lo here, this noble poete of Bretayne How hyely he, in vertuous sentence, The losse in youthe of vertue can complayne; Wherfore I pray you, dooth your diligence, For your estats and goddes reverence, 130 T'enprintë vertue fully in your mynde, That, whan ye come in your juges presence, Ye be not set as vertules behynde. Ye lordes have a maner now-a-dayes, Though oon shewe you a vertuous matere, 135 Your fervent youthe is of so false alayes That of that art ye have no joy to here. But, as a ship that is withouten stere Dryveth up and doun, withouten governaunce, Wening that calm wol lastë, yeer by yere, 140 Right so fare ye, for very ignoraunce. For very shamë, knowe ye nat, by réson That, after an ebbe, ther cometh a flood ful rage? In the same wyse, whan youth passeth his séson, Cometh croked and unweldy palled age; 145 Sone after comen kalends of dotage; And if your youth no vertue have provyded, Al men wol saye, fy on your vassalage! Thus hath your slouth fro worship you devyded. Boëce the clerk, as men may rede and see, 150 Saith, in his Boke of Consolacioun, What man desyreth +have of vyne or tree Plentee of fruit, in the ryping sesoun, Must ay eschewe to doon oppressioun Unto the rote, whyle it is yong and grene; 155 Ye may wel see, by this conclusioun, That youthë vertulees doth mochel tene. Seeth, there-ayenst, how vertuous noblesse Roted in youthe, with good perséveraunce, Dryveth away al vyce and wrecchednesse, 160 As slogardrye, ryote and distaunce! Seeth eek how vertue causeth suffisaunce, And suffisaunce exyleth coveityse! And who hath vertue hath al abundaunce Of wele, as fer as reson can devyse. 165 Taketh hede of Tullius Hostilius, That cam fro povertee to hy degree; Through vertue redeth eek of Julius The conquerour, how povre a man was he; Yet, through his vertue and humanitee, 170 Of many a countree had he governaunce. Thus vertue bringeth unto greet degree Eche wight that list to do him entendaunce. Rede, here-ayenst, of Nero vertulees; Taketh hede also of proude Balthasar; 175 They hated vertue, equitee, and pees. Loke how Antiochus fil fro his char, That he his skin and bones al to-tar! Loke what meschauncë they had for hir vyces! Who-so that wol not by these signes be war, 180 I dar wel say, infortunat or nyce is. I can no more; but here-by may ye see How vertue causeth parfit sikernesse, And vyces doon exyle prosperitee; The best is, ech to chesen, as I gesse. 185 Doth as you list, I me excuse expresse; I wolde be sory, if that ye mischese. God you conferme in vertuous noblesse, So that through negligence ye nothing lese! _Explicit_. _From_ Th. (Thynne, ed. 1542); _collated with_ A. (Ashmole 59), _and_ Cx. (Caxton); _readings also given from_ H. (Harl. 2251). TITLE; _from_ A. (_which has_ folowethe nexst); Cx. _has_ Here next foloweth a tretyse, whiche John Skogan sente vnto the lordes and gentilmen of the kynges hows, exortyng them to lose no tyme in theyr yougthe, but to vse vertues; Th. _has_ Scogan vnto the lordes and gentylmen of the kynges house. 1. Th. A. sonnes. 2. Th. A. vnworthely. 3. Th. lytel treatyse; A. balade folowing. 4. Th. with; A. H. of. 5. Th. H. Although; Cx. And though; A. Yitte howe. 6. Th. A. estates. A. yet; H. Th. Cx. _om._ 8. Cx. herkne (_better_). 9. Th. me sore; A. H. _om._ me. 10. A. H. falle; Th. fal. 11. Th. But more; A. H. Cx. _om._ But. Th. iuuentute. 12. Th. ayen for; A. ageine. A. H. calle; Th. cal. 13. Th. H. certainly; A. comvnely. Th. A. moste. A. H. alle; Th. al. 14. A. H. for; Th. _om._ A. beon; Th. be. 15. A. H. no; Th. _om._ A. vertue; Th. vertues. A. calle; Th. cal. 16. A. ay; Th. aye. 17. A. thee; Th. the. Th. lorde. 18. Th. H. god; A. lorde. 20. Th. Betwyxe; A. Bytwene. 21. A. H. Of; Th. Cx. _om._ Th. blynde. 22. A. so freel; Th. H. to frele. 23. Th. lorde; perfyte. 24. A. H. Cx. soules; Th. soule. 25. Th. whyle; lyfe. 26. A. H. confourme; Th. confyrme (!). 27. A. H. vpon; Th. to. 28. Th. And in; A. H. _om._ And. 30. A. thee; Th. the. 31. Th. lyfe. A. H. thy governaunce. 34. A. alle whome; Cx. whom that; Th. whom. Th. moste entyrely; Cx. A. entierly. 36. A. eloste; Th. loste; H. Cx. lost. 37. A. H. goostely and bodely; Th. Cx. bodily and gostly. 38. Th. meane. 39. A. I prey you lordes; Th. lordes I pray you. A. tendrely. 41. Cx. _transposes_ 41-80 _and_ 81-125. A. Plantethe; Th. Cx. Plante. 43. A. ay; Th. alway. 45. Cx. The frende (!) for to withsto_n_de; A. For to withstonde the feonde; Th. The fende to withstande. 46. Th. peryllous; H. perilous. 47. H. Th. Cx. werke; A. vse. 48. Th. parfyte. 50. Th. Writen; A. Wrote. Th. her. Th. great; H. grete; A. noble. 52. _So_ A.; Th. And right so is estate with negligence. 57. A. Then kepe also that. 58. Cx. A. Withoute; Th. Without. 59. Cx. vice; A. H. Th. vices. 60. A. whiles; Th. while. Th. worlde. 61. A. H. ay; Th. Cx. euer. 63. Th. lorde of al; H. A. lord of. 67. Th. sayd that the; A. saide that the; H. Cx. _om._ that. Th. father; A. H. fader. 68. H. A. Beqwath; Th. Byqueth. Th. house. 69. _So_ A. Cx.; Th. children and therefore laborouse. 70. H. Th. Ought; A. Aught; Cx. Owe. Th. _om._ to. Th. besekyng; A. beseching. 72. Th. haue; A. H. gete. Th. p_ar_te. A. feyre; Th. H. _om._ 74. A. Comþe. 75. A. thorugh; Cx. thurgh; Th. by. A. leofful; Th. leful; H. leeful. 77. Th. you ye; A. H. _om._ ye. 78. Th. house. A. soo wyse; Th. H. suche a. 79. Th. _om._ it. 80. H. A. worldly; Th. worldes. 81. Th. howe betwyxe; A. howe bytwene. 82. Th. parfyte. 84. H. A. for whiche with full; Th. the whiche be ful of. 85. Th. than vertue; A. _om._ than. 86. A. Cx. _om. 1st_ hem. 87. A. leese; H. lesith. 89. Th. howe. A. poure; Th. poore. 90, 91. Th. great. 92. Th. H. Through; A. By. 94. Th. H. Called; A. Calde. A. offt; H. Th. Cx. _om._ 95. A. for; Th. H. Cx. of. 96. Th. And therfore; _rest om._ And. 97. A. By auncetrye thus; Th. H. Thus by your auncestres; Cx. Thus by your eldres. 99. Th. men (_for_ man). 100. Cx. Than god is. 101. Th. sythe; lorde. Th. blyssednesse; A. blessednesse. 102. A. That (_for_ And). A. H. alle; Th. al (1). Cx. alle; Th. al (2). _For_ us alle A. _has_ mankynde that. 103. _So_ A.; Th. H. Foloweth hym in vertue. 105-125. Chaucer's poem of _Gentilesse_ is here quoted; see vol. i. p. 392. 127. A. Howe hyely he; Th. Howe lightly. 128. A. lesse (!); Th. losse. A. H. in; Th. on. 129. A. Wherfore; Th. And therefore. A. doothe; Th. with (!). 130. A. estates; Th. profyte. 131. A. Tenprynte; Th. Tempereth (!). A. H. vertue fully; Th. fully vertue. 132. Cx. in; A. H. in-to; Th. to. 133. A. H. sette as vertulesse; Th. vertulesse than. 134. H. Cx. Ye; A. For yee; Th. Many. Th. A. nowe. 135. Cx. H. you; Th. hem. A. Thaughe one of you here of a gode matere. 136. Cx. H. Your feruent; Th. Her feruent; A. Your vnsure. 137. Th. arte. Cx. H. ye; Th. they. A. That of suche artes you liste not to. 138. Cx. A. withouten; Th. without a. 139. A. withouten; Th. without. 140. Th. calme. A. wol laste you; Th. wolde last. Th. yere by yere. 141. Cx. A. H. ye; Th. they. 142. Cx. A. H. ye; Th. they. 143. A. Cx. _om._ ful. 144. A. Right euen so whane. 145. A. Comthe. 146. A. Soone; Th. And sone. Th. comen the; Cx. come; A. comthe. 147. Th. if that; Cx. A. H. _om._ that. Cx. A. your; Th. her. A. H. no vertue haue; Cx. no vertue hath; Th. haue no vertue. 148. Th. fye. Cx. A. your; Th. her. 149. A. H. your; Th. her. Cx. H. you; Th. hem. A. _has_ Thus hathe youre youthe and slouthe you al misgyded. 152. Cx. A. H. to haue; Th. _om._ (_read_ haue). 153. A. Plenty of; Cx. Plentyuous; Th. Plentous. Th. fruite. A. H. Cx. the; Th. _om._ A. H. Cx. riping; Th. reapyng. 154. A. H. Cx. ay; Th. euer. A. doon; Th. do. 156. A. H. Cx. Yee may; Th. Thus may ye. A. H. wele see; Cx. see; Th. se wel. A. H. this; Th. that. A. Cx. conclusioun; Th. inclusyon (!). 157. A. youthe; Th. youth. A. Th. vertulesse. Th. moche; Cx. ofte muche; A. ay michil (_read_ mochel). 158. Th. Nowe seeth; A. H. Cx. _om._ Nowe. Th. howe; A. that. 159. A. youthe; Th. youth. 160. A. Cx. vyce; H. vice; Th. vyces. 161. A. Al (_for_ As). A. al ryote; H. Cx. Th. _om._ al. 162. Th. eke howe. 163. _So_ A. Cx.; H. _om._; Th. _has_ Seeth eke howe vertue voydeth al vyce (!). 164. Th. H. Cx. whoso; A. _om._ so. 165. Th. ferre; A. far. Th. reason. 167. A. came frome pouertee; Th. fro pouert came. Th. hygh; A. hye. 168. Th. eke. 169. Th. howe poore. 170. A. H. Cx. humanite; Th. his humylite. 171. Th. _om._ a. 172. A. unto gret; Cx. to hye; Th. a man to great. 173. A. Cx. list; Th. H. lust. Th. entendaunce; _rest_ attendaunce. 174. Th. nowe of; A. H. Cx. _om._ nowe. 177. Th. And loke; _rest om._ And. Th. howe; chare. 178. Th. tare. 179. A. meschaunces. 180. Th. H. Cx. _om._ that. Th. ware. 181. A. Th. infortunate. A. H. Cx. or; Th. and. 182. Th. no more nowe say; Cx. no more say; H. no more; A. more (!). Th. herby; se. 183. A. Th. Howe. A. Th. perfyte. 184. A. done exyle; Th. H. exylen al; Cx. exyles al. 185. Th. eche man to; Cx. man to; A. dethe to (dethe _is put for_ eche). A. cheesen; Th. chose. 186. Th. A. Dothe. 187. A. Cx. wil (_for_ wolde). Th. right sorie; A. H. Cx. _om._ right. 188. A. you conferme; Th. confyrme you. 189. A. no thing; Cx. H. nothing; Th. not it. COLOPHON. Cx. Thus endeth the traytye wiche John Skogan sent to the lordes and estates of the kynges hous. * * * * * VIII. JOHN LYDGATE. THE COMPLAINT OF THE BLACK KNIGHT; OR, THE COMPLAINT OF A LOVERES LYFE. In May, whan Flora, the fresshe lusty quene, The soile hath clad in grene, rede, and whyte, And Phebus gan to shede his stremes shene Amid the Bole, with al the bemes brighte, And Lucifer, to chace awey the night, 5 Ayen the morowe our orizont hath take To bidde lovers out of hir sleepe awake, And hertes hevy for to recomforte From dreriheed of hevy nightes sorowe, Nature bad hem ryse, and hem disporte, 10 Ayen the goodly, gladde, greye morowe; And Hope also, with seint Johan to borowe, Bad, in dispyt of daunger and dispeyre, For to take the hoolsom lusty eyre: And with a sigh I gan for to abreyde 15 Out of my slombre, and sodainly up sterte As he, alas! that nigh for sorowe deyde, My sekenes sat ay so nigh my herte. But, for to finde socour of my smerte, Or at the leste som réles of my peyne, 20 That me so sore halt in every veyne, I roos anon, and thoghte I wolde goon Into the wode, to here the briddes singe, Whan that the misty vapour was agoon And clere and faire was the morowning; 25 The dewe also, lyk silver in shyning Upon the leves, as any baume swete, Til fyry Tytan, with his persaunt hete, Had dryed up the lusty licour newe Upon the herbes in the grene mede, 30 And that the floures, of many dyvers hewe, Upon hir stalkes gonne for to sprede And for to splaye[n] out hir leves on-brede Agayn the sonne, gold-burned in his spere, That doun to hem caste his bemes clere. 35 And by a river forth I gan costey Of water clere as berel or cristal Til at the laste I found a litel wey Toward a park, enclosed with a wal In compas rounde, and by a gate smal 40 Who-so that wolde frely mighte goon Into this park, walled with grene stoon. And in I wente, to here the briddes song, Whiche on the braunches, bothe in playn and vale, So loude songe, that al the wode rong 45 Lyke as it shulde shiver in peces smale; And, as me thoughte, that the nightingale With so gret mighte her voys gan out-wreste Right as her herte for love wolde breste. The soil was playn, smothe, and wonder softe 50 Al oversprad with tapites that Nature Had mad her-selve, celured eek alofte With bowes grene, the floures for to cure, That in hir beautè they may longe endure From al assaut of Phebus fervent fere, 55 Whiche in his spere so hote shoon and clere. The eyre attempre, and the smothe wind Of Zepherus, among the blossomes whyte, So hoolsom was and norisshing by kind, That smale buddes, and rounde blomes lyte 60 In maner gonnen of her brethe delyte To yeve us hope that hir fruit shal take, Ayens autumpne, redy for to shake. I saw ther Daphne, closed under rinde, Grene laurer, and the hoolsom pyne; 65 The myrre also, that wepeth ever of kinde; The cedres hye, upright as a lyne; The philbert eek, that lowe doth enclyne Her bowes grene to the erthe adoun Unto her knight, y-called Demophoun. 70 Ther saw I eek the fresshe hawëthorn In whyte motlè, that so swote doth smelle, Ash, firre, and ook, with many a yong acorn, And many a tree--mo than I can telle; And, me beforn, I saw a litel welle, 75 That had his cours, as I gan beholde, Under an hille, with quikke stremes colde. The gravel gold, the water pure as glas, The bankes rounde, the welle envyroning; And softe as veluët the yonge gras 80 That therupon lustily cam springing; The sute of trees aboute compassing Hir shadowe caste, closing the welle rounde, And al the herbes growing on the grounde. The water was so hoolsom and vertuous 85 Through might of herbes growing there besyde, Not lyk the welle, wher-as Narcisus Y-slayn was, through vengeaunce of Cupyde, Where so covertly he didë hyde The grayn of cruel dethe upon ech brinke, 90 That deeth mot folowe, who that ever drinke; Ne lyk the pittë of the Pegacè Under Pernaso, where poetës slepte; Nor lyk the welle of pure chastitè Which that Dyane with her nymphes kepte, 95 Whan she naked into the water lepte, That slow Acteon with his houndes felle Only for he cam so nigh the welle! Bút this welle, that I here reherce, So hoolsom was, that it wolde aswage 100 Bollen hertes, and the venim perce Of pensifheed, with al the cruel rage, And evermore refresshe the visage Of hem that were in any werinesse Of greet labour, or fallen in distresse. 105 And I, that had, through daunger and disdayne, So drye a thrust, thoughte I wolde assaye To taste a draughte of this welle, or twayne, My bitter langour if it mighte alaye; And on the banke anon adoun I lay, 110 And with myn heed unto the welle I raughte, And of the water drank I a good draughte; Wherof, me thought, I was refresshed wele Of the brenning that sat so nigh my herte, That verily anon I gan to fele 115 An huge part relesed of my smerte; And therwithallë anon up I sterte, And thoughte I wolde walke, and see more Forth in the parke, and in the holtes hore. And through a laundë as I yede a-pace 120 And gan aboute faste to beholde, I found anon a délitable place That was beset with treës yonge and olde, Whose names here for me shal not be tolde; Amidde of whiche stood an herber grene, 125 That benched was, with colours newe and clene. Thís herber was ful of floures inde, In-to the whiche as I beholde gan, Betwix an hulfere and a wodëbinde, As I was war, I saw wher lay a man 130 In blakke and whyte colour, pale and wan, And wonder deedly also of his hewe, Of hurtes grene and fresshe woundes newe. And overmore distrayned with sekenesse, Besyde al this, he was, ful grevously; 135 For upon him he had an hoot accesse, That day by day him shook ful pitously; So that, for constreynt of his malady And hertly wo, thus lying al alone, It was a deeth for to here him grone. 140 Wherof astonied, my foot I gan withdrawe, Greetly wondring what it mighte be That he so lay, and hadde no felawe, Ne that I coude no wight with him see; Wherof I hadde routhe, and eek pitè, 145 And gan anon, so softely as I coude, Among the busshes me prively to shroude; If that I mighte in any wyse espye What was the cause of his deedly wo, Or why that he so pitously gan crye 150 On his fortune, and on his ure also; With al my might I layde an ere to, Every word to marke, what he seyde, Out of his swough among as he abrayde. But first, if I shulde make mencioun 155 Of his persone, and plainly him discryve, He was in sothe, without excepcioun, To speke of manhode, oon the best on-lyve; Ther may no man ayen the trouthe stryve. For of his tyme, and of his age also 160 He proved was, ther men shulde have ado, For oon the beste there, of brede and lengthe So wel y-mad by good proporcioun, If he had be in his deliver strengthe; But thought and seknesse were occasioun 165 That he thus lay, in lamentacioun, Gruffe on the grounde, in place desolat, Sole by him-self, awhaped and amat. And, for me semeth that it is sitting His wordes al to putte in remembraunce, 170 To me, that herdë al his complayning And al the groundë of his woful chaunce, If ther-withal I may you do plesaunce, I wol to you, so as I can, anon, Lyk as he sayde, reherce hem everichon. 175 But who shal helpe me now to complayne? Or who shal now my style gye or lede? O Niobè, let now thy teres rayne In-to my penne; and helpe eek in this nede, Thou woful Mirre, that felest my herte blede 180 Of pitous wo, and myn hand eek quake Whan that I wryte, for this mannes sake! For unto wo accordeth complayning And doleful cherë unto hevinesse; To sorowe also, syghing and weping, 185 And pitous mourning, unto drerinesse; And whoso that shal wryten of distresse In party nedeth to knowe felingly Cause and rote of al such malady. But I, alas! that am of witte but dulle, 190 And have no knowing of such matere, For to discryve and wryten at the fulle The woful complaynt, which that ye shal here, But even-lyk as doth a skrivenere That can no more what that he shal wryte, 195 But as his maister besyde doth endyte; Right so fare I, that of no sentement Saye right naught, as in conclusioun, But as I herde, whan I was present, This man complayne with a pitous soun; 200 For even-lyk, without addicioun Or disencrees, either more or lesse, For to reherce anon I wol me dresse. And if that any now be in this place That fele in love brenning or fervence, 205 Or hindred werë to his lady grace With false tonges, that with pestilence Slee trewe men that never did offence In word nor dede, ne in hir entent-- If any suche be here now present, 210 Let him of routhe lay to audience, With doleful chere and sobre countenaunce, To here this man, by ful high sentence, His mortal wo and his gret perturbaunce Cómplayning, now lying in a traunce, 215 With lokes upcaste, and with ruful chere, Th' effect of whiche was as ye shal here.-- COMPLEYNT. The thought oppressed with inward sighes sore, The painful lyf, the body languisshing, The woful gost, the herte rent and tore, 220 The pitous chere, pale in compleyning, The deedly face, lyk ashes in shyning, The salte teres that fro myn eyën falle, Parcel declare grounde of my peynes alle: Whos herte is grounde to blede in hevinesse; 225 The thought, resceyt of wo and of complaynt; The brest is cheste of dole and drerinesse; The body eek so feble and so faynt; With hote and colde myn acces is so meynt, That now I chiver for defaute of hete, 230 And, hoot as gleed, now sodainly I swete. Now hoot as fyr, now cold as asshes dede, Now hoot fro cold, now cold fro hete agayn; Now cold as ys, now as coles rede For hete I brenne; and thus, betwixe twayne, 235 I possed am, and al forcast in payne; So that my hete plainly, as I fele, Of grevous cold is causë, every-deel. This is the cold of inward high disdayne, Cold of dispyt, and cold of cruel hate; 240 This is the cold that doth his besy payne Ayeines trouthe to fighte and to debate. This is the cold that wolde the fyr abate Of trewe mening; alas! the harde whyle! This is the cold that wolde me begyle. 245 For ever the better that in trouthe I mente With al my mighte faythfully to serve, With herte and al for to be diligent, The lesse thank, alas! I can deserve! Thus for my trouthe Daunger doth me sterve. 250 For oon that shulde my deeth, of mercy, lette Hath mad despyt newe his swerd to whette Ayeines me, and his arowes to fyle To take vengeaunce of wilful crueltè; And tonges false, through hir sleightly wyle, 255 Han gonne a werre that wil not stinted be; And fals Envye, Wrathe, and Enmitè, Have conspired, ayeines al right and lawe, Of hir malyce, that Trouthe shal be slawe. And Male-Bouche gan first the tale telle, 260 To slaundre Trouthe, of indignacioun; And Fals-Report so loude rong the belle, That Misbeleve and Fals-Suspeccioun, Have Trouthe brought to his dampnacioun, So that, alas! wrongfully he dyeth, 265 And Falsnes now his placë occupyeth, And entred is in-to Trouthes lond, And hath therof the ful possessioun. O rightful god, that first the trouthe fond, How may thou suffre such oppressioun, 270 That Falshood shulde have jurisdiccioun In Trouthes right, to slee him giltëlees? In his fraunchyse he may not live in pees. Falsly accused, and of his foon forjuged, Without answere, whyl he was absent, 275 He dampned was, and may not ben excused, For Crueltè sat in jugëment Of hastinesse, withoute avysëment, And bad Disdayn do execute anon His jugëment, in presence of his foon. 280 Attourney noon ne may admitted been T'ëxcuse Trouthë, ne a word to speke; To fayth or ooth the juge list not seen, There is no gayn, but he wil be wreke. O lord of trouthe, to thee I calle and clepe; 285 How may thou see, thus in thy presence, Withoute mercy, murdred innocence? Now god, that art of trouthe soverain And seëst how I lye for trouthe bounde, So sore knit in loves fyry chain 290 Even at the deth, through-girt with many a wounde That lykly are never for to sounde, And for my trouthe am dampned to the deeth, And not abyde, but drawe along the breeth: Consider and see, in thyn eternal right, 295 How that myn herte professed whylom was For to be trewe with al my fulle might Only to oon, the whiche now, alas! Of voluntè, withoute any trespas, Myn accusours hath taken unto grace, 300 And cherissheth hem, my deth for to purchace. What meneth this? what is this wonder ure Of purveyauncë, if I shal it calle, Of god of love, that false hem so assure, And trewe, alas! doun of the whele ben falle? 305 And yet in sothe, this is the worst of alle, That Falshed wrongfully of Trouthe hath name, And Trouthe ayenward of Falshed bereth the blame. This blinde chaunce, this stormy aventure, In lovë hath most his experience; 310 For who that doth with trouthe most his cure Shal for his mede finde most offence, That serveth love with al his diligence; For who can faynë, under lowliheed, Ne fayleth not to finde grace and speed. 315 For I loved oon, ful longë sith agoon, With al my herte, body, and ful might, And, to be deed, my herte can not goon From his hest, but holde that he hath hight; Though I be banisshed out of her sight, 320 And by her mouth dampned that I shal deye, +To my behest yet I wil ever obeye. For ever, sithë that the world began, Who-so list lokë, and in storie rede, He shal ay finde that the trewe man 325 Was put abakke, wher-as the falshede Y-furthered was; for Love taketh non hede To slee the trewe, and hath of hem no charge, Wher-as the false goth freely at hir large. I take recorde of Palamides, 330 The trewe man, the noble worthy knight, That ever loved, and of his payn no relees; Notwithstonding his manhood and his might Love unto him did ful greet unright; For ay the bet he did in chevalrye, 335 The more he was hindred by envye. And ay the bet he did in every place Through his knighthood and his besy payne, The ferther was he from his lady grace, For to her mercy mighte he never attayne; 340 And to his deth he coude it not refrayne For no daungere, but ay obey and serve As he best coude, plainly, til he sterve. What was the fyne also of Hercules, For al his conquest and his worthinesse, 345 That was of strengthe alone pereles? For, lyk as bokes of him list expresse, He sette pillers, through his hy prowesse, Away at Gades, for to signifye That no man mighte him passe in chevalrye. 350 The whiche pillers ben ferre beyonde Inde Beset of golde, for a remembraunce; And, for al that, was he set behinde With hem that Love liste febly avaunce; For [he] him sette last upon a daunce, 355 Ageynes whom helpe may no stryf; For al his trouthe, yit he loste his lyf. Phebus also, for al his persaunt light, Whan that he wente here in erthe lowe, Unto the herte with fresh Venus sight 360 Y-wounded was, through Cupydes bowe, And yet his lady liste him not to knowe. Though for her love his herte didë blede, She leet him go, and took of him no hede. What shal I saye of yonge Piramus? 365 Of trew Tristram, for al his hye renoun? Of Achilles, or of Antonius? Of Arcite eke, or of him Palemoun? What was the endë of hir passioun But, after sorowe, deeth, and than hir grave? 370 Lo, here the guerdon that these lovers have! But false Jason, with his doublenesse, That was untrewe at Colkos to Medee, And Theseus, rote of unkindënesse, And with these two eek the false Enee; 375 Lo! thus the falsë, ay in oon degrè, Had in love hir lust and al hir wille; And, save falshood, ther was non other skille. Of Thebes eek the false [knight] Arcyte, And Demophon +also, for [al] his slouthe, 380 They had hir lust and al that might delyte For al hir falshode and hir greet untrouthe. Thus ever Love (alas! and that is routhe!) His false leges forthereth what he may, And sleeth the trewe ungoodly, day by day. 385 For trewe Adon was slayn with the bore Amid the forest, in the grene shade; For Venus love he feltë al the sore. But Vulcanus with her no mercy made; The foule chorl had many nightes glade, 390 Wher Mars, her worthy knight, her trewe man, To finde mercy, comfort noon he can. Also the yonge fresshe Ipomenes So lusty free [was], as of his corage, That for to serve with al his herte he chees 395 Athalans, so fair of hir visage; But Love, alas! quitte him so his wage With cruel daunger plainly, at the laste, That, with the dethe, guerdonles he paste. Lo! here the fyne of loveres servyse! 400 Lo! how that Love can his servaunts quyte! Lo! how he can his faythful men despyse, To slee the trewe, and false to respyte! Lo! how he doth the swerd of sorowe byte In hertes, suche as most his lust obeye, 405 To save the false, and do the trewe deye! For fayth nor ooth, word, ne assuraunce, Trewe mening, awayte, or besinesse, Stille port, ne faythful attendaunce, Manhood, ne might, in armes worthinesse, 410 Pursute of worship, nor no hy prowesse, In straunge lande ryding, ne travayle, Ful lyte or nought in lovë doth avayle. Peril of dethe, nother in see ne lande, Hunger ne thurst, sorowe ne sekenesse, 415 Ne grete empryses for to take on hande, Sheding of blode, ne manful hardinesse, Ne ofte woundinge at sautes by distresse, Nor +juparting of lyf, nor deeth also-- Al is for nought, Love taketh no hede therto! 420 But lesings, with hir false flaterye, Through hir falshede, and with hir doublenesse, With tales newe and many fayned lye, By fals semblaunt and counterfet humblesse, Under colour depeynt with stedfastnesse, 425 With fraude covered under a pitous face Accepte been now rathest unto grace, And can hem-selve now best magnifye With fayned port and fals presumpcioun; They haunce hir cause with fals surquedrye 430 Under meninge of double entencioun, To thenken oon in hir opinioun And saye another; to sette hemselve alofte And hinder trouthe, as it is seyn ful ofte. The whiche thing I bye now al to dere, 435 Thanked be Venus and the god Cupyde! As it is sene by myn oppressed chere, And by his arowes that stiken in my syde, That, sauf the deth, I nothing abyde Fro day to day; alas, the harde whyle! 440 Whan ever his dart that him list to fyle, My woful herte for to ryve a-two For faute of mercy, and lak of pitè Of her that causeth al my payne and wo And list not ones, of grace, for to see 445 Unto my trouthe through her crueltee; And, most of alle, yit I me complayne, That she hath joy to laughen at my peyne! And wilfully hath [she] my deeth y-sworn Al giltëlees, and wot no cause why 450 Save for the trouthe that I have had aforn To her alone to serve faithfully! O god of lovë! unto thee I cry, And to thy blinde double deitee Of this gret wrongë I compleyne me, 455 And to thy stormy wilful variaunce Y-meynt with chaunge and greet unstablenesse; Now up, now doun, so renning is thy chaunce, That thee to truste may be no sikernesse. I wyte it nothing but thy doublenesse; 460 And who that is an archer and is +blent Marketh nothing, but sheteth as he +went. And for that he hath no discrecioun, Withoute avys he let his arowe go; For lakke of sight, and also of resoun, 465 In his shetinge, it happeth ofte so, To hurte his frend rather than his fo; So doth this god, [and] with his sharpe floon The trewe sleeth, and let the false goon. And of his wounding this is the worst of alle, 470 Whan he hurteth, he doth so cruel wreche And maketh the seke for to crye and calle Unto his fo, for to been his leche; And hard it is, for a man to seche, Upon the point of dethe in jupardye, 475 Unto his fo, to finde remedye! Thus fareth it now even by me, That to my fo, that yaf myn herte a wounde, Mote aske grace, mercy, and pitè, And namëly, ther wher non may be founde! 480 For now my sore my leche wil confounde, And god of kinde so hath set myn ure, My lyves fo to have my wounde in cure! Alas! the whyle now that I was born! Or that I ever saw the brighte sonne! 485 For now I see, that ful longe aforn, Or I was born, my desteny was sponne By Parcas sustren, to slee me, if they conne; For they my deth shopen or my sherte Only for trouthe! I may it not asterte. 490 The mighty goddesse also of Nature That under god hath the governaunce Of worldly thinges committed to her cure, Disposed hath, through her wys purveyaunce, To yeve my lady so moche suffisaunce 495 Of al vertues, and therwithal purvyde To murdre trouthe, hath take Daunger to gyde. For bountè, beautè, shappe, and semeliheed, Prudence, wit, passingly fairnesse, Benigne port, glad chere with lowliheed, 500 Of womanheed right plenteous largesse, Nature did in her fully empresse, Whan she her wroughte; and alther-last Disdayne, To hinder trouthe, she made her chamberlayne; Whan Mistrust also, and Fals-Suspeccioun, 505 With Misbeleve, she made for to be Cheef of counsayl to this conclusioun, For to exyle Routhe, and eek Pitè, Out of her court to make Mercy flee, So that Dispyt now holdeth forth her reyne, 510 Through hasty bileve of tales that men feyne. And thus I am, for my trouthe, alas! Murdred and slayn with wordes sharpe and kene, Giltlees, god wot, of al maner trespas, And lye and blede upon this colde grene. 515 Now mercy, swete! mercy, my lyves quene! And to your grace of mercy yet I preye, In your servyse that your man may deye! But if so be that I shal deye algate, And that I shal non other mercy have, 520 Yet of my dethe let this be the date That by your wille I was brought to my grave; Or hastily, if that you list me save, My sharpe woundes, that ake so and blede, Of mercy, charme, and also of womanhede. 525 For other charme, playnly, is ther non But only mercy, to helpe in this case; For though my woundes blede ever in oon, My lyf, my deeth, standeth in youre grace; And though my gilt be nothing, alas! 530 I aske mercy in al my beste entente, Redy to dye, if that ye assente. For ther-ayeines shal I never stryve In worde ne werke; playnly, I ne may; For lever I have than to be alyve 535 To dye soothly, and it be her to pay; Ye, though it be this eche same day Or whan that ever her liste to devyse; Suffyceth me to dye in your servyse. And god, that knowest the thought of every wight 540 Right as it is, in +al thing thou mayst see, Yet, ere I dye, with all my fulle might Lowly I pray, to graunte[n] unto me That ye, goodly, fayre, fresshe, and free, Which slee me only for defaute of routhe, 545 Or that I dye, ye may knowe my trouthe. For that, in sothe, suffyseth unto me, And she it knowe in every circumstaunce; And after, I am wel apayd that she If that hir list, of dethe to do vengeaunce 550 Untó me, that am under her legeaunce; It sit me not her doom to disobeye, But, at her luste, wilfully to deye. Withoute grucching or rebellioun In wille or worde, hoolly I assent, 555 Or any maner contradiccioun, Fully to be at her commaundëment; And, if I dyë, in my testament My herte I sende, and my spirit also, What-so-ever she list, with hem to do. 560 And alder-last unto her womanhede And to her mercy me I recommaunde, That lye now here, betwixe hope and drede, Abyding playnly what she list commaunde. For utterly, (this nis no demaunde), 565 Welcome to me, whyl me lasteth breeth, Right at her choise, wher it be lyf or deeth! In this matere more what mighte I seyn, Sith in her hande and in her wille is al, Both lyf and deeth, my joy and al my payn? 570 And fynally, my heste holde I shal, Til my spirit, by desteny fatal, Whan that her liste, fro my body wende; Have here my trouthe, and thus I make an ende!' And with that worde he gan syke as sore 575 Lyk as his herte ryve wolde atwayne, And held his pees, and spak a word no more. But, for to see his wo and mortal payne, The teres gonne fro myn eyen rayne Ful pitously, for very inward routhe 580 That I him saw so languisshing for trouthe. And al this whyle my-self I kepte cloos Among the bowes, and my-self gan hyde, Til, at the laste, the woful man aroos, And to a logge wente ther besyde, 585 Where, al the May, his custome was t'abyde, Sole, to complaynen of his paynes kene, Fro yeer to yere, under the bowes grene. And for bicause that it drow to the night And that the sonne his ark diurnál 590 Y-passed was, so that his persaunt light, His brighte bemes and his stremes al Were in the wawes of the water fal, Under the bordure of our ocëan, His char of golde his cours so swiftly ran: 595 And whyl the twylight and the rowes rede Of Phebus light were dëaurat a lyte, A penne I took, and gan me faste spede The woful playntë of this man to wryte Word by wordë, as he did endyte; 600 Lyk as I herde, and coude him tho reporte, I have here set, your hertes to disporte. If ought be mis, layeth the wyte on me, For I am worthy for to bere the blame If any thing [here] misreported be, 605 To make this dytè for to seme lame Through myn unconning; but, to sayn the same, Lyk as this man his complaynt did expresse, I aske mercy and forgivënesse. And, as I wroot, me thoughte I saw a-ferre, 610 Fer in the weste, lustely appere Esperus, the goodly brighte sterre, So glad, so fair, so persaunt eek of chere, I mene Venus, with her bemes clere, That, hevy hertes only to releve, 615 Is wont, of custom, for to shewe at eve. And I, as faste, fel doun on my knee And even thus to her gan I to preye:-- 'O lady Venus! so faire upon to see, Let not this man for his trouthe deye, 620 For that joy thou haddest whan thou leye With Mars thy knight, whan Vulcanus you fond, And with a chayne invisible you bond Togider, bothe twayne, in the same whyle That al the court above celestial 625 At youre shame gan for to laughe and smyle! A! fairë lady! welwilly founde at al, Comfort to careful, O goddesse immortal! Be helping now, and do thy diligence To let the stremes of thyn influence 630 Descende doun, in forthering of the trouthe, Namely, of hem that lye in sorowe bounde; Shew now thy might, and on hir wo have routhe Er fals Daunger slee hem and confounde. And specially, let thy might be founde 635 For to socourë, what-so that thou may, The trewe man that in the herber lay, And alle trewe forther, for his sake, O gladde sterre, O lady Venus myne! And cause his lady him to grace take. 640 Her herte of stele to mercy so enclyne, Er that thy bemes go up, to declyne, And er that thou now go fro us adoun, Fór that love thou haddest to Adoun!' And whan that she was gon unto her reste, 645 I roos anon, and hoom to bedde wente, For verily, me thoughte it for the beste; Prayinge thus, in al my best entente, That alle trewe, that be with Daunger shente, With mercy may, in reles of hir payn, 650 Recured be, er May come eft agayn. And for that I ne may no lenger wake, Farewel, ye lovers alle, that be trewe! Praying to god; and thus my leve I take, That, er the sonne to-morowe be risen newe, 655 And er he have ayein his rosen hewe, That eche of you may have suche a grace, His owne lady in armes to embrace. I mene thus, that, in al honestee, Withoute more, ye may togider speke 660 What so ye listë, at good libertee, That eche may to other hir herte breke, On Jelousyë only to be wreke, That hath so longe, of malice and envye, Werreyed Trouthe with his tirannye. 665 LENVOY. Princesse, plese it your benignitee This litel dytè for to have in mynde! Of womanhedë also for to see Your trewe man may youre mercy finde; And Pitè eek, that long hath be behinde, 670 Let him ayein be próvoked to grace; For, by my trouthe, it is ayeines kinde, Fals Daunger for to occupye his place! Go, litel quayre, unto my lyves queen, And my very hertes soverayne; 675 And be right glad; for she shal thee seen; Suche is thy grace! But I, alas! in payne Am left behinde, and not to whom to playne. For Mercy, Routhe, Grace, and eek Pitè Exyled be, that I may not attayne 680 Recure to finde of myn adversitè. _Explicit._ _From_ Th. (Thynne, ed. 1532); _collated with_ F. (Fairfax 16); B. (Bodley 638, _imperfect_); T. (Tanner 346); D. (Digby 181); S. (Arch. Selden B. 24); _I have also consulted_ Ad. (Addit. 16165); _and_ P. (Pepys 2006). 2. Th. reed; F. D. rede. 4. S. his (_for 2nd_ the). 5. Th. away; F. awey. 6. Th. D. orizont; F. T. S. orisont. 7. Th. bidde al; MSS. _om._ al. F. T. _om._ lovers. 10. Th. bade. F. T. D. S. _om. 2nd_ hem. 11. D. gladde; _rest_ glad. _All_ grey (_or_ gray). 13. Th. Bade; MSS. Bad. _All_ dispyte (dispite). 14. S. go take (_rest om._ go). 15. Th. syghe. 16. F. out stert. 18. Th. sicknesse; MSS. sekenes. F. S. sat; _rest_ sate. Th. aye. Th. nye. 20. F. atte; T. at; _rest_ at the. S. sum; _rest_ some, su_m_me. P. reles; D. relece; T. relese; F. relesse; Th. release. 21. F. halt; Th. halte. 22. T. S. roos; _rest_ rose. Th. thought. 23. Th. wodde; S. wod; _rest_ wode. Th. byrdes. 24. Th. T. D. vapoure; F. S. vapour. F. D. agoon; T. Th. agone. 25. F. morownyng; T. morownynge; Th. moronyng. 26. Th. lyke; F. lykyng (!); _rest_ like; _read_ lyk. 27. Th. leaues. 32. F. the (_for_ hir). 33. Th. D. splaye; F. T. S. splay; _read_ splayen. F. S. on; _rest_ in. 34. Th. T. Agayne; F. Ageyn; D. Ayen. S. gold; _rest_ golde. 35. Th. T. downe; F. dovn; D. down; S. doun. 36. Th. forthe. 37. F. berel; S. beriall; Th. byrel; T. byrell; D. birele. 39. D. S. Toward; F. Tovard; Th. T. Towarde. 40. Th. compace; MSS. compas. 41. T. myghte; S. m_ich_ty (!); _rest_ might. Th. gone; F. goon. 42. S. park; _rest_ parke. 43. T. wente; _rest_ went. Th. byrdes; _rest_ briddes. S. song; _rest_ songe. 44. Th. branches; F. T. D. braunches. Th. and (_correctly_); _rest omit_. 45. Th. sange; S. sang; P. song; F. T. D. songe. Th. woode. S. P. rong; _rest_ ronge. 47. T. thoughte; Th. F. D. thought. 48. T. myghte; _rest_ might. T. D. wraste; S. brest; Th. F. wrest. 49. T. breste; D. braste; Th. F. brest; S. to-brest. 51. F. T. P. tapites; Th. D. tapettes. 52. Th. F. T. -selfe (_better_ selve). F. celured; D. coloured; S. silu_er_ed; Th. T. couered. 54. Th. beautie. F. T. may not (_for_ may). 55. S. assaut; _rest_ assaute. 56. Th. sphere; hotte. Th. F. T. D. shone (_read_ shoon). 57, 59. S. wynd, kynd; _rest_ wynde, kynde. 58. S. P. among; _rest_ amonge. T. blossomes; D. blossoms; Th. blosomes; F. blosmes. 59. _All_ holsom (holsum). Th. F. T. D. and so; S. _om._ so. 60. F. T. blomes; S. blomys; Th. blosmes; D. blossoms. 61. _All_ gan, can; _see_ l. 579. 62. S. that; _rest om._ F. their; T. theire; Th. D. there; S. thai; _read_ hir. 63. F. D. Ayens; Th. Ayenst; T. Agayne. 64. T. S. saw; Th. F. D. sawe (!). F. ther; _rest_ the; _cf._ l. 71. S. Daphin; _rest_ Daphene; _read_ Daphne. 65. Th. holsome; _rest_ holsom (-sum). 68. F. phibert; Th. T. filberte; D. filberde; S. filbard. Th. F. dothe. 69. Th. S. adoun; _rest_ doun. 70. F. I-called; _rest_ called. 71. Th. T. D. sawe. P. hawethorn; _rest_ hawthorn, hawthorne, hauthorne. 72. S. motle; F. motele; _rest_ motley. (_Read_ swoot?). Th. dothe smel. 73. _All_ Asshe; _read_ Ash. _All_ oke; _read_ ook. S. [gh]ong; T. fressh (!); _rest_ yonge. S. accorne; _rest_ acorne. 74. Th. tel. 75. S. beforn; D. before; _rest_ beforne. Th. sawe; wel. 76. T. cours; S. courss; _rest_ course. 77. Th. hyl; quicke streames. 78. S. P. gold; D. colde; _rest_ golde. 78, 80. F. glas, gras; Th. glasse, grasse. 79. wel. 80. Ad. velowet. 81. Th. T. D. lustely (T. lustily) came (cam) springyng; F. lustely gan syng (!); S. lustily gan spryng. 83. Th. F. wel; T. D. welle. 85. _From this point I silently correct obvious errors in spelling of_ Th. _by collation with the_ MSS. Th. holsome. S. and; _rest_ and so. 86. Th. Thorowe. S. there; _rest omit_. 87, 92, 94. _I read_ lyk _for_ lyke. 87. F. T. D. Narcius (!). 89. T. dyde; _rest_ dyd, did. 90. S. cruell; _rest omit_. 95. Th. that; _rest_ as. F. T. P. his; _rest_ her. 101. S. perce; D. perce; Th. peerce; F. T. perysh (!) 103. Th. ouermore (!). 107. Th. F. thrust; T. thurste; P. D. thurst. 110. S. adoun; Th. F. P. downe; _rest_ down, doun. 113-126. S. _omits_. 122. Th. delectable. 127. D. ynde; T. Iende; F. cende (?); Th. gende; S. of Inde. 138. S. constreynt; _rest_ constraynyng. 147. Th. priuely me; _rest_ me priuely. (_Read_ busshes prively me shroude?). 151. Th. _om. 2nd_ his. 154. _For_ among _perhaps read_ anon. 159. S. the; _rest omit_. 162. Th. therto; _rest_ there. 168. F. P. awaped. 175. D. hem; S. thame; _rest om._ 179. Th. _om._ this. 181. _So all._ 184. F. delful; T. delefull; S. dulefull; D. doilfull. 187. S. quhoso; _rest_ who. S. writen; _rest_ write (wryte). 191. D. no knowyng haue; _rest_ haue no knowyng. 192. S. writen; _rest_ write (wryte). 198. F. S. as; _rest om._ 202. Th. disencrease; F. disencrese; T. disencrece; D. disencrees. 205. S. louyng. 206. F. hindered; S. hind_er_it; _rest_ hindred. 212. F. T. deleful; S. dulfull; D. wofull. 214. S. grete; _rest om._ 216. S. with full; _rest omit_ (_I omit_ full). COMPLEYNT; _in_ F. _only_. 225. D. grownded. 227. F. S. dule; D. dooll. 230. Th. T. chyuer; F. shyuer; D. chevir; S. chill. 233. T. D. fro; S. from; Th. F. for (_twice_). 234. Th. T. D. yse; F. Ise; S. Iss. 239. S. distress. 241. _So_ D. P.; S. doth his besyness; Th. euer doth his besy payne; F. eu_er_e doth besy peyn; T. euur doth his bysy hate (_sic_). 242. T. Agaynes; F. D. Ayens; Th. Ayenst; S. A[gh]eynis. S. and to; _rest om._ to. 243. Th. _om._ wolde. 245. T. wolde; S. wold; Th. D. wol; F. will. 247. T. myghte; Th. F. might. 248. S. for; _rest om._ 251, 252. T. D. lette, whette; Th. F. let, whet. _All_ despite. 253. S. A[gh]eynes; T. Agaynes; F. D. Ayens; Th. Agaynst. 257. P. of wrath. 258. S. a[gh]eynes; T. agaynes; F. D. ayens; Th. agaynst. 260, 262. Th. tel, bel; _rest_ telle, belle. S. rong; F. T. D. ronge; Th. range. 267, 269. S. lond, fond; _rest_ londe, fonde. 271. Th. D. falshode; F. S. falshed; T. falsehede. 276. Th. D. be; _rest_ ben. 277. S. sat; _rest_ sate, satte. 281. F. non ne may; _rest_ may non. 283. D. oth; S. soth; _rest_ othe. 285. Th. F. T. P. clepe; D. speke; S. cleke (!). 297. T. D. full_e_; Th. F. ful. 298. Th. S. one; _rest_ oon. 299. F. more (_for_ any). 303. Th. cal. 305. Th. fal. 306. Th. al. 307. _All_ the name; _I omit_ the. 308. _All_ the blame; _read_ ber'the. 314, 315. D. lowlyheed, speed; _rest_ -hede, spede. 322. _All_ Vn-to; _read_ To. 323. F. sithe; S. sithen; _rest_ sith. 332. _Perhaps omit_ his. D. payn; T. peyn; _rest_ payne (peyne). 337. S. bet; F. bette; _rest_ better. 338. Th. F. _om. 2nd_ his. 339. T. lady; F. ladye; _rest_ ladyes. 346. D. perelees; F. T. S. P. pereles; Th. peerles. 347. T. liste of hym; S. can of him. 349. F. Gades; S. Gadis; _rest_ Gaddes. 351. Th. P. _om._ ben. 352. S. Y-sett; D. Sette. 355. _I supply_ he. 357. S. [gh]it; _rest omit_. 360. S. fresch; _rest omit_. 363. T. dide; _rest_ did. 368. S. eke; _rest omit_. 374. F. Tereus (_for_ Theseus). 378. F. falshed; S. falshede. 379. _I supply_ knight. 380. _All_ eke; _read_ also. _I supply_ al. 382. S. and thair (_for_ and hir); _rest omit_ thair (= hir). 384. Th. lieges. 386. _So all._ 391. S. worthi kny_ch_t & hir trew; _rest omit_ worthi _and_ trew. _I follow_ S.; _but omit_ and. 393. F. T. Ipomones; Th. Ypomedes; S. P. Ypomenes; D. Ipomeus. 394. _I supply_ was. 400. F. lovers; T. louys; _rest_ loues. 403. S. trewe; _rest_ trewe men. 405. Th. moost. 407. D. S. oth; _rest_ othe. 409. F. P. S. port; _rest_ porte. 411. S. no; _rest omit_. 413. Th. lytel; P. litill; D. litle; _rest_ lyte. 414. F. nother; _rest_ nor. 415. Th. syknesse; F. sekenesse. 419. D. Iupardy; _rest_ in partynge (_for_ iupartynge); _read_ juparting; cf. l. 475. 421. F. fals (_error for_ false); _rest omit_. 426. S. double (_for_ pitous). 429. S. falss; _rest om._ 435. Th. F. P. bye; D. bie; T. bey; S. by. 437. Th. T. S. sene; F. seen; P. D. seyn. 438. Th. sticken; P. D. stekyn. 439. S. P. the; _rest om._ 447. S. [gh]it; _rest om._ 449. _I supply_ she. S. ysuorn; _rest om._ y-. 451. Th. _om._ have. 453. T. D. S. aboue (_for_ of love); _see_ l. 454. 461. S. blend (_read_ blent); _rest_ blynde (blinde). 462. S. as he wend (_read_ went); Th. by wende (!); _rest_ by wenynge (!). 464. F. T. avise; D. avice; S. aviss; Th. aduyse. 467. S. P. frend; _rest_ frende. 468. B. _begins here_. _I supply_ and. 469. T. lette; F. leteth; Th. letteth; B. D. letith; S. lattith. 471. B. F. S. he doth; Th. T. doth to. 475. Th. ieopardye; S. Iup_ar_tye; F. partie (!); B. D. T. Iupardye; P. Iupard. 488. Th. systerne. 489. S. haue schapen (_for_ shopen). 494. F. hath; Th. haue. 501. F. B. plentevous. Th. largnesse. 508. Th. trouthe; S. treuth; _rest_ routhe; _see_ l. 679. 514. Th. Gyltlesse; F. Giltles; P. Gylteles. 523. F. B. P. ye (_for_ you). 530. F. B. S. gilt; _rest_ gylte (gilte). 533. S. a[gh]eynes; T. agaynes; F. B. D. ayens; Th. agaynst. 536. S. [gh]ow to pay; _rest_ her to pay. 537. Th. _om._ eche. 538. T. D. liste; _rest_ list. 541. _All_ euery; _read_ al. 543. _All_ graunte (graunt); _read_ graunten. 545. Th. onely sle me; MSS. slee me only. 547. S. vnto; _rest om._ 548. S. If (_for_ And). 549. S. apaid; _rest_ payd (paid). 550. _For_ to _read_ shal? 551. F. P. legeaunce; Th. D. ligeaunce; T. lygeaunce. 553. T. D. luste; Th. F. B. lust. S. Quherso hir list to do me lyue or deye. 555. S. hoolly; Th. holy. 560. Th. T. D. lyste; F. S. P. list. 561. S. vnto; _rest_ to. 566. S. quhill þ_a_t me. 568. Th. mater. 571. F. B. P. hest. 573. T. liste; _rest_ list (lust). 575. T. sike; S. to sike; Th. D. sygh; F. B. sile (!). 577. Th. no worde. 581. Th. long wisshing (!). Th. S. for; F. B. D. P. for his; T. for her. 583. S. P. gan; _rest_ gonne (gunne). 587. S. compleynen; _rest_ complayne. 598. T. faste; _rest_ fast. 605. _I supply_ here. 606. Th. dytte. 611. T. D. weste; _rest_ west. 617. T. D. faste; _rest_ fast. S. D. F. doun; Th. adowne; D. T. Adoun. 622. T. you; _rest om._ 626. S. for to; _rest om._ 627. MSS. welwilly; Th. wyl I (!). 636. Th. socouer (_misprint_). 645. S. vnto; _rest_ to. 647. S. verily; Th. T. D. wery (!); B. very wery (!); F. werry wery (!); P. very. 650. F. B. reles; T. D. relese; Th. release; S. relesche. 656. Th. T. S. P. _om._ his. 659. Th. _om._ that. 663. Th. ialousyes; D. Ielosies; _rest_ Ielosye. 664. T. B. P. of; _rest_ of his. 665. S. Werreyed; D. Werried; _rest_ Werred. 666. MSS. Princes; Th. Pryncesse. Th. pleaseth; F. pleseth; P. plesith (_read_ plese). Th. it to your; _rest om._ to. 667. S. P. for; _rest om._ 669. Th. D. _om._ trewe. 673. S. for; _rest om._ * * * * * IX. THE FLOUR OF CURTESYE. In Fevrier, whan the frosty mone Was horned, ful of Phebus fyry light, And that she gan to reyse her stremes sone, Saint Valentyne! upon thy blisful night Of duëtee, whan glad is every wight, 5 And foules chese (to voyde hir olde sorowe) Everich his make, upon the nexte morowe; The same tyme, I herde a larke singe Ful lustely, agayn the morowe gray-- 'Awake, ye lovers, out of your slombringe, 10 This gladde morowe, in al the haste ye may; Some óbservaunce doth unto this day, Your choise ayen of herte to renewe In cónfirming, for ever to be trewe! And ye that be, of chesing, at your large, 15 This lusty day, by custome of nature, Take upon you the blisful holy charge To serve lovë, whyl your lyf may dure, With herte, body, and al your besy cure, For evermore, as Venus and Cipryde 20 For you disposeth, and the god Cupyde. For joye owe we playnly to obeye Unto this lordes mighty ordinaunce, And, mercilesse, rather for to deye Than ever in you be founden variaunce; 25 And, though your lyf be medled with grevaunce, And, at your herte, closed be your wounde, Beth alway one, ther-as ye are bounde!' Thát whan I had herd, and listed longe, With devout herte, the lusty melodye 30 Of this hevenly comfortable songe So ágreable, as by harmonye, I roos anon, and faste gan me hye Toward a grove, and the way [gan] take Foules to sene, everich chese his make. 35 And yet I was ful thursty in languisshing; Myn ague was so fervent in his hete, Whan Aurora, for drery complayning, Can distille her cristal teres wete Upon the soile, with silver dewe so swete; 40 For she [ne] durste, for shame, not apere Under the light of Phebus bemes clere. And so, for anguisshe of my paynes kene, And for constraynte of my sighes sore, I sette me doun under a laurer grene 45 Ful pitously; and alway more and more, As I beheld into the holtes hore, I gan complayne myn inward deedly smerte, That ay so sore +crampisshed myn herte. And whyl that I, in my drery payne, 50 Sat, and beheld aboute on every tree The foules sitten, alway twayne and twayne, Than thoughte I thus: 'alas! what may this be, That every foul hath his libertee Frely to chesen after his desyre 55 Everich his make thus, fro yeer to yere? The sely wrenne, the titmose also, The litel redbrest, have free eleccioun To flyen y-ferë and +togider go Wher-as hem liste, abouten enviroun, 60 As they of kynde have inclinacoun, And as Nature, emperesse and gyde, Of every thing, liste to provyde; But man aloon, alas! the harde stounde! Ful cruelly, by kyndes ordinaunce, 65 Constrayned is, and by statut bounde, And debarred from alle such plesaunce. What meneth this? What is this purveyaunce Of god above, agayn al right of kynde, Withoute cause, so narowe man to bynde?' 70 Thus may I [soothly] seen, and playne, alas! My woful houre and my disaventure, That dolefully stonde in the same cas So fer behyndë, from al helth and cure. My wounde abydeth lyk a sursanure; 75 For me Fortune so felly list dispose, My harm is hid, that I dar not disclose. For I my herte have set in suche a place Wher I am never lykly for to spede; So fer I am hindred from her grace 80 That, save daunger, I have non other mede. And thus, alas! I not who shal me rede Ne for myn helpe shape remedye, For Male-bouche, and for false Envye: The whiche twayne ay stondeth in my wey 85 Maliciously; and Fals Suspeccioun Is very causë also that I dey, Ginning and rote of my distruccioun; So that I fele, [as] in conclusioun, With hir traynes that they wol me shende, 90 Of my labour that deth mot make an ende! Yet, or I dye, with herte, wil, and thought To god of lovë this avowe I make, (As I best can, how dere that it be bought, Wher-so it be, that I slepe or wake, 95 Whyl Boreas doth the leves shake) As I have hight, playnly, til I sterve, For wele or wo, that I shal [ay] her serve. And, for her sake, now this holy tyme, Saint Valentyne! somwhat shal I wryte 100 Al-though so be that I can not ryme, Nor curiously by no crafte endyte, Yet lever I have, that she putte the wyte In unconning than in negligence, What-ever I sayë of her excellence. 105 What-ever I saye, it is of duëtee, In sothfastnesse and no presumpcioun; This I ensure to you that shal it see, That it is al under correccioun; What I reherce in commendacioun 110 Of herë that I shal to you, as blyve, So as I can, her vertues here discryve.-- ¶ Right by example as the somer-sonne Passeth the sterre with his bemes shene, And Lucifer among the skyës donne 115 A-morowe sheweth to voyde nightes tene, So verily, withouten any wene, My lady passeth (who-so taketh hede) Al tho alyve, to speke of womanhede. And as the ruby hath the soveraintè 120 Of riche stones and the regalyë; And [as] the rose, of swetnesse and beautè, Of fresshe floures, withouten any lyë; Right so, in sothe, with her goodly yë, She passeth al in bountee and fairnesse, 125 Of maner ekë, and of gentilnesse. For she is bothe the fairest and the beste, To reken al in very sothfastnesse; For every vertue is in her at reste; And furthermore, to speke of stedfastnesse, 130 She is the rotë; and of seemlinesse The very mirrour; and of governaunce To al example, withouten variaunce. Of port benigne, and wonder glad of chere, Having evermore her trewe advertence 135 Alway to reson; so that her desyre Is brydeled ay by witte and providence; Thereto, of wittë and of hy prudence She is the wellë, ay devoide of pryde, That unto vertue her-selven is the gyde! 140 And over this, in her daliaunce Lowly she is, discret, wyse, [and secree], And goodly gladde by attemperaunce, That every wight, of high and low degree, Are gladde in herte with her for to be; 145 Só that, shortly, if I shal not lye, She named is 'The Flour of Curtesye.' And there, to speke of femininitee, The leste mannish in comparisoun, Goodly abasshed, having ay pitee 150 Of hem that been in tribulacioun; For she aloon is consolacioun To al that arn in mischeef and in nede, To comforte hem, of her womanhede. And ay in vertue is her besy charge, 155 Sadde and demure, and but of wordes fewe; Dredful also of tonges that ben large, Eschewing ay hem that listen to hewe Above hir heed, hir wordes for to shewe, Dishonestly to speke of any wight; 160 She deedly hateth of hem to have a sight. The herte of whom so honest is and clene, And her entent so faithful and entere That she ne may, for al the world, sustene To suffre her eres any word to here, 165 Of frend nor fo, neither fer ne nere, Amis resowning, that hinder shulde his name; And if she do, she wexeth reed for shame. So trewëly in mening she is set, Without chaunging or any doublenesse; 170 For bountee and beautee ar togider knet In her personë, under faithfulnesse; For void she is of newëfangelnesse; In herte ay oon, for ever to perséver Ther she is set, and never to dissever. 175 I am to rude her vertues everichoon Cunningly [for] to discryve and wryte; For wel ye wot, colour[es] have I noon Lyk her discrecioun craftely t'endyte; For what I sayë, al it is to lyte. 180 Whérfor to you thus I me excuse, That I aqueynted am not with no muse! By rethoryke my style to governe, In her preyse and commendacioun, I am to blind, so hyly to discerne, 185 Of her goodnesse to make discripcioun, Save thus I sayë, in conclusioun, If that I shal shortly [her] commende, In her is naught that Nature can amende. For good she is, lyk to Policene, 190 And, in fairnesse, to the quene Helayne; Stedfast of herte, as was Dorigene, And wyfly trouthë, if I shal not fayne: In constaunce eke and faith, she may attayne To Cleopatre; and therto as +secree 195 As was of Troye the whyte Antigone; As Hester meke; lyk Judith of prudence; Kynde as Alceste or Marcia Catoun; And to Grisilde lyk in pacience, And Ariadne, of discrecioun; 200 And to Lucrece, that was of Rome toun, She may be lykned, as for honestè; And, for her faith, unto Penelope. To faire Phyllis and to Hipsiphilee, For innocencë and for womanhede; 205 For seemlinessë, unto Canacee; And over this, to speke of goodlihede, She passeth alle that I can of rede; For worde and dede, that she naught ne falle, Acorde in vertue, and her werkes alle. 210 For though that Dydo, with [her] witte sage, Was in her tyme stedfast to Enee, Of hastinesse yet she did outrage; And so for Jason did also Medee. But my lady is so avisee 215 That, bountee and beautee bothe in her demeyne, She maketh bountee alway soverayne. This is to mene, bountee goth afore, Lad by prudence, and hath the soveraintee; And beautee folweth, ruled by her lore, 220 That she +n'offendë her in no degree; So that, in one, this goodly fresshe free Surmounting al, withouten any were, Is good and fair, in oon persone y-fere. And though that I, for very ignoraunce, 225 Ne may discryve her vertues by and by, Yet on this day, for a rémembraunce, Only supported under her mercy, With quaking hondë, I shal ful humbly To her hynesse, my rudenes for to quyte, 230 A litel balade here bineth endyte, Ever as I can suppryse in my herte, Alway with fere, betwixe drede and shame, Lest out of lose any word asterte In this metre, to make it seme lame; 235 Chaucer is deed, that hadde suche a name Of fair making, that [was], withoute wene, Fairest in our tonge, as the laurer grene. We may assaye for to counterfete His gaye style, but it wil not be; 240 The welle is drye, with the licour swete, Bothe of Clio and of Caliopè; And first of al, I wol excuse me To her, that is [the] ground of goodlihede; And thus I saye until hir womanhede:-- 245 BALADE SIMPLE. ¶ 'With al my mightë, and my beste entente, With al the faith that mighty god of kynde Me yaf, sith he me soule and knowing sente, I chese, and to this bonde ever I me bynde, To love you best, whyl I have lyf and mynde':-- 250 Thus herde I foules in the dawëninge Upon the day of saint Valentyne singe. 'Yet chese I, at the ginning, in this entente, To love you, though I no mercy fynde; And if you liste I dyed, I wolde assente, 255 As ever twinne I quik out of this lynde! Suffyseth me to seen your fetheres ynde':-- Thus herde I foules in the morweninge Upon the day of saint Valentyne singe. 'And over this, myn hertes lust to-bente, 260 In honour only of the wodëbynde, Hoolly I yeve, never to repente In joye or wo, wher-so that I wynde Tofore Cupyde, with his eyën blynde':-- The foules alle, whan Tytan did springe, 265 With dévout herte, me thoughte I herde singe! LENVOY. ¶ Princesse of beautee, to you I represente This simple dytè, rude as in makinge, Of herte and wil faithful in myn entente, Lyk as, this day, [the] foules herde I singe. 270 HERE ENDETH THE FLOUR OF CURTESYE. _From_ Th. (Thynne, ed. 1532). TITLE: Th. The Floure of Curtesy; (ed. 1561 _adds_--made by Ihon Lidgate). _I note here the rejected spellings._ 1. Feverier. 2. firy. 3. streames. 5. dutie. 6. her. 7. Eueryche; next. 9. agayne. 11. glad. 12. dothe. 15. chosyng. 18. whyle; lyfe. 20. Cipride. 22. obey. 26. lyfe. 26. closet. 27. there. 29. herde. 30. deuoute. 32. ermonye. 33. rose. 34. Towarde; _supply_ gan. 35. eueryche chose. 39. distyl; (_read_ distille); chrystal teeres. 41. _Supply_ ne. 42. beames. 45. set; downe. 47. behelde. 48. inwarde. 49. aye; crampessh at (_read_ crampisshed). 50. whyle. 51. Sate; behelde; tre. 52. sytte (_read_ sitten). 53. thought. 54. foule. 55. chose (_read_ chesen). 56. Eueryche; yere to yere. 57. tytemose. 58. election. 59. togyther (_read_ togider). 60. Where as; lyst aboute envyron. 61. inclynacion. 62. empresse (_read_ emperesse). 63. lyst. 64. alone. 66. statute. 67. al suche. 69. agayne. 70. Without. 71. _Supply_ soothly; sene. 73. doulfully; caas. 74. ferre. 75. lyke. 76. lyste. 77. harme; dare. 79. lykely. 80. ferre. 81. none. 83. myne. 85. aye. 86. false suspection. 88. distruction. 89. _Supply_ as; conclusyon. 91. dethe mote. 94. howe. 95. Where so. 96. Whyle; dothe; leaues. 98. wel; _supply_ ay. 99. nowe. 103. put. 106. say; dute (_read_ duetee). 107. presumpcion. 108. se. 109. correction. 110. co_m_mendacion. 111. her (_read_ here). 114. beames. 115. amonge. 122. _Supply_ as; swetenesse. 123. without. 124. eye. 125. bountie; fayrenesse. 128. reken (_read_ reknen?). 131. semelynesse. 136. reason. 137. aye. 138. hye. 139. aye. 142. discrete and wyse (_read_ discret wyse; _and supply_ secree _for the rime_). 144. lowe. 145. glad. 147. Floure. 148. femynyte (!). 149. mannyshe; comparison. 150. aye pyte. 151. ben; trybulacion. 152. alone; -cion. 153. arne; mischefe. 155. aye. 157. Dredeful. 158. aye. 159. her (_twice_.) 164. worlde. 165. eeres; worde. 166. frende; foe; ferre. 167. Amysse. 169. trewly; is in sette (_om._ in). 171. bountie; beautie are togyther knette. 173. voyde; newfanglenesse (_or read_ voide _and_ newfangelnesse). 174. aye one. 175. There; sette. 176. euerychone. 177. _Supply_ for. 178. colour; none. 179. Lyke; to endyte. 180. say. 181. Wherfore. 184. co_m_mendacion. 185. blynde; hylye. 186. discrypcion. 187. say; conclusyon. 188. _Supply_ her. 190. lyke. 191. fayrenesse. 193. wyfely. 194. faythe. 195. setrone (!); _read_ secree (_see note_). 197. lyke. 198. Alcest. 199. lyke. 202. lykened. 203. faythe. 206. semelynesse; Canace. 208. al. 209, 210. fal, al. 211. _Supply_ her. 216. bountie; beautie. 217. bountie. 218. meane bountie gothe. 220. beautie foloweth. 221. ne fende (!); degre. 222. fre. 224. fayre; one. 228. Onely. 230. rudenesse. 233. feare; betwyxt. 234. Leste; worde. 236. had. 237. fayre; _supply_ was; without. 239. assay. 240. gay. 241. lycoure. 242. Clye (!). 244. _Supply_ the; grounde. 245. say. 246. might; best entent. 247. faythe. 248. yaue; sent. 250. whyle; lyfe. 251. daunynge. 252, 259. saynte Valentyne (? _om._ saynte). 253. begynnyng (_read_ ginning); entent. 255. assent. 256. quicke; lyne (_misprint_). 257. sene; fethers. 258. mornynge (_for_ morweninge). 260. myne; luste. 261. onely; wodde bynde. 262. Holy. 263. where so. 265. al. 266. deuoute hert; thought. 267. Lenvoye. beautie; represent. 269. entent. 270. Lyke; _supply_ the. COLOPHON: Floure; Curtesy. * * * * * X. A BALADE; IN COMMENDATION OF OUR LADY. (A DEVOUTE BALADE BY LIDEGATE OF BURY, MADE AT THE REVERENCE OF OURE LADY, QWENE OF MERCY.--A.) A thousand stories coude I mo reherce Of olde poetes, touching this matere, How that Cupyde the hertes gan so perce Of his servauntes, setting hem on fere; Lo, here the fyn of th'errour and the were! 5 Lo, here of love the guerdon and grevaunce That ever with wo his servaunts doth avaunce! Wherfor now playnly I wol my style dresse Of one to speke, at nede that wol nat fayle; Alas! for dole, I ne can ne may expresse 10 Her passing pryse, and that is no mervayle. O wind of grace, now blow into my sayle! O aureat licour of Cleo, for to wryte My penne enspyre, of that I wolde endyte! Alas! unworthy I am and unable 15 To love suche oon, al women surmounting, To be benigne to me, and merciable, That is of pitè the welle and eek the spring! Wherfor of her, in laude and in praysing, So as I can, supported by her grace, 20 Right thus I say, kneling tofore her face:-- O sterre of sterres, with thy stremes clere, Sterre of the see, to shipmen light and gyde, O lusty living, most plesaunt to apere, Whos brighte bemes the cloudes may not hyde; 25 O way of lyf to hem that go or ryde, Haven from tempest, surest up to ryve, On me have mercy, for thy joyes fyve! O rightful rule, O rote of holinesse, And lightsom lyne of pitè for to playne, 30 Original ginning of grace and al goodnesse, Clenest conduit of vertue soverayne, Moder of mercy, our trouble to restrayne, Chambre and closet clenest of chastitè, And named herberwe of the deitè! 35 O hoolsom garden, al voyde of wedes wikke, Cristallin welle, of clennesse clere consigned, Fructif olyve, of foyles faire and thikke, And redolent cedre, most dereworthly digned, Remembre on sinners unto thee assigned 40 Er wikked fendes hir wrathe upon hem wreche; Lanterne of light, thou be hir lyves leche! Paradyse of plesaunce, gladsom to al good, Benigne braunchelet of the pyne-tree, Vyneyerd vermayle, refressher of our food, 45 Licour ayein languor, palled that may not be, Blisful bawme-blossom, byding in bountè, Thy mantel of mercy on our mischef sprede, And er wo wake, wrappe us under thy wede! O rody rosier, flouring withouten spyne, 50 Fountayne filthles, as beryl currant clere, Som drope of graceful dewe to us propyne; Light withoute nebule, shyning in thy spere, Medecyne to mischeves, pucelle withouten pere, Flame doun to doleful light of thyn influence 55 On thy servauntes, for thy magnificence! Of al Christen protectrice and tutele, Retour of exyled, put in prescripcioun To hem that erre in the pathe of hir sequele; To wery wandred tent and pavilioun, 60 The feynte to fresshe, and the pausacioun; Unto unresty bothe reste and remedye, Fruteful to al tho that in her affye. To hem that rennen thou art itinerárie, O blisful bravie to knightes of thy werre; 65 To wery werkmen thou art diourn denárie, Mede unto mariners that have sayled ferre; Laureat crowne, streming as a sterre To hem that putte hem in palestre for thy sake, Cours of her conquest, thou whyte as any lake! 70 Thou mirthe of martyrs, sweter than citole, Of confessours also richest donatyf, Unto virgynes eternal lauriole, Afore al women having prerogatyf; Moder and mayde, bothe widowe and wyf, 75 Of al the worlde is noon but thou alone! Now, sith thou may, be socour to my mone! O trusty turtle, trewest of al trewe, O curteyse columbe, replete of al mekenesse, O nightingale with thy notes newe, 80 O popinjay, plumed with al clennesse, O laverok of love, singing with swetnesse, Phebus, awayting til in thy brest he lighte Under thy winge at domesday us dighte! O ruby, rubifyed in the passioun 85 Al of thy sone, among have us in minde, O stedfast dyamaunt of duracioun, That fewe feres that tyme might thou finde, For noon to him was founden half so kinde! O hardy herte, O loving crëature, 90 What was it but love that made thee so endure? Semely saphyre, depe loupe, and blewe ewage, Stable as the loupe, ewage of pitè, This is to say, the fresshest of visage, Thou lovest hem unchaunged that serven thee. 95 And if offence or wrything in hem be, Thou art ay redy upon hir wo to rewe, And hem receyvest with herte ful trewe. O goodly gladded, whan that Gabriel With joy thee grette that may not be nombred! 100 Or half the blisse who coude wryte or tel Whan the holy goost to thee was obumbred, Wherthrough fendes were utterly encombred? O wemlees mayde, embelisshed in his birthe, That man and aungel therof hadden mirthe! 105 Lo, here the blossom and the budde of glorie, Of which the prophet spak so longe aforn; Lo, here the same that was in memórie Of Isaie, so longe or she was born; Lo, here of David the delicious corn; 110 Lo, here the ground that list [him] to onbelde, Becoming man, our raunsom for to yelde! O glorious vyole, O vytre inviolat! O fyry Tytan, persing with thy bemes, Whos vertuous brightnes was in thy brest vibrat, 115 That al the world embelisshed with his lemes! Conservatrice of kingdomes and remes; Of Isaies sede O swete Sunamyte, Mesure my mourning, myn owne Margaryte! O sovereignest, sought out of Sion, 120 O punical pome ayens al pestilence; And aureat urne, in whom was bouk and boon The agnelet, that faught for our offence Ayens the serpent with so high defence That lyk a lyoun in victorie he was founde; 125 To him commende us, of mercy most habounde! O precious perle, withouten any pere, Cockle with gold dew from above berayned, Thou busshe unbrent, fyrles set a-fere, Flambing with fervence, not with hete payned; 130 Thou during daysye, with no +weder stayned; Flees undefouled of gentil Gedeon, And fructifying yerd thou of Aaron. Thou misty arke, probatik piscyne, Laughing Aurora, and of pees olyve; 135 Columpne and base, up bering from abyme; Why nere I conning, thee for to discryve? Chosen of Joseph, whom he took to wyve, Unknowing him, childing by greet mirácle, And of our manhode trewe tabernacle! 140 _From_ Th.; _collated with_ A. (Ashmole 59); _and_ Sl. (Sloane 1212). 1. A. I kouþe to you. 2. A. clerkis (_for_ poetes); the (_for_ this). 3. A. cane mens hertes presse (!). 4. Th. hem; A. þeire hertes. Th. in fere; A. a fuyre. 5. A. With ful daunger payeþe his subgettes hyre. Sl. weere; Th. fere. 7. Th. Sl. euer; A. aye. Sl. A. his ... doth; Th. her ... do. 8. Th. nowe; A. _om._ Sl. redresse. 10. A. Ellas I ne can ne may not ful expresse. 11. Th. Sl. and that; A. the whiche. 12. Th. wynde. Sl. into; Th. unto. A. þou blowe nowe to my. 13. Th. auryate; A. aureate. A. _om._ of. 14. A. tenspyre of whiche I thenk to wryte. Sl. wold; Th. wol. 15. A. But sith I am sonworthy (!). 16. Sl. on; Th. A. one. 17. A. To; Th. Sl. But she. 18. A. Whiche of pytee is welle. 19. Th. Sl. of; A. to. 20. Th. Sl. can; A. am. 22. A. O souereine sterre. 24. Sl. lemand (_for_ living). Sl. most; Th. A. moste. 25. Th. Whose bright beames. Th. Sl. may; A. cane. 26. A. lyff; Th. Sl. lyfe. 27. A. frome; Th. Sl. after. 29. Sl. rote; Th. A. bote. 31. A. gynnyng of grace and; Th. Sl. begynning of grace and al. 32. A. Clennest; Th. And clenest. Th. Sl. _ins._ most _bef._ sovereyne. 33. A. Moder; Th. Mother. 34. A. al cloose closette; Th. Sl. and closet clennest. 35. Th. herbrough; Sl. herberwe. A. The hyest herber (!) of al the. 36. A. holsome; Th. Sl. closed. A. _om._ al. 37. A. Welle cristallyne. A. Sl. clennesse; Th. clerenesse. 38. A. Fructyff; Th. Fructyfyed. Th. fayre; A. so feyre. 39. A. _om._ And. A. _om._ most. 40. A _om._ on. Sl. pecchours (_for_ sinners). A. unto; Th. Sl. that to the be. 41. Th. Sl. Or wikked; A. Er foule. A. on hem þeire wrathe. Sl. upon; Th. on. 42. Th. _om._ be. 43. A. Thou Paradys plesante, gladnesse of goode. 44. A. And benigne braunche. 45. A. Vyneyerde vermayle; Th. Sl. Vynarie enuermayled. Sl. food; Th. A. bote. 46. Th. ayen al langour; A. geyne langoure. A. palde that; Th. Sl. that palled. 47. Sl. Blisful bawme; A. Thou blessed; Th. Blysful blomy. 48. Sl. misericord on our myschef. Th. on our myserie; A. vppon vs spilt thou. 49. Th. awake. A. wake and wrappe vs ay vnder. 50. A. O rede roos raylling withouten. Th. without. 51. Th. al fylthlesse; A. _om._ al. A. currant as beryle. Th. byrel. 52. Th. Sl. of thy; _I omit_ thy. A. Grace of thy dewe til vs thou do propyne. 53. Th. O light; Sl. Thou lyght. A. Thou louely light, shynynge in bright spere. 54. A. missers; Th. mischeues; Sl. myscheuows. A. withouten; Th. without. 55. Th. Flambe; A. Dryve. Sl. to; Th. A. the. A. _om._ doleful. 56. A. On; Th. Sl. Rem_em_bring. 58. Sl. Retour; Th. Returne; A. Recure. A. Sl. in; Th. in the. 59. A. To therroures of the pathe sequele. 60. A. For (_for_ To). Sl. wandrid; Th. forwandred; A. wandering. 61. _So_ A. Th. To faynte and to fresshe the. 62. A. To wery wightes ful reste. 63. Th. tho that; A. that hem. A. _omits_ ll. 64-119. 64. Th. arte. 66. Sl. thou art; Th. she is. Th. diourne. 68. Th. Laureate. 69. Th. put; palastre. 71. Sl. Thow; Th. O. Th. myrthe; swetter; sytole. 72. Sl. _om._ also. Th. donatyfe. 74. Th. -tyfe. 75. Th. Mother; wyfe. 76. Sl. In all this. Sl. noon; Th. none. 78. Sl. trewest; Th. truefastest. 81. Sl. plumed; Th. pured. 82. Sl. larke. 83. Sl. in; Th. on. 83, 84. lyght, dyght. 85. passyon. 86. Sl. All_e_; Th. _om._ Th. sonne. Sl. among haue us; Th. vs haue amonge. 87. Sl. dyamaunt; Th. dyametre. 88. Sl. that; Th. any. 89. halfe. 91. the. 92. Th. saphre (_sic_); Sl. saffyr. 95. _So_ Sl. Th. unchaunged hem. 96. Sl. writhyng; Th. varyeng. 97. arte; her. 98. hert; _see note_. 99. gladed. 100. the. 102. goste; the. 103. Sl. vtterly; Th. bytterly. 104. wemlesse. Th. in; Sl. with. 106. blosme. 107. Th. prophete; Sl. prophetys. Sl. spak so long aforn; Th. so longe spake beforne. 109, 110. borne, corne. 111. Th. of lyfe in to bilde; Sl. that list to onbelde. 113. Sl. o vitre; Th. and vyte. Th. inuyolate. 115. Th. _om._ thy; vibrate. 116. Sl. his; Th. the. 117. Sl. kyngdamys; Th. kynges dukes. Sl. remys; Th. realmes. 118. Sl. o; Th. _om._ 120. A. souereine. Th. A. sought; Sl. sowth. Th. out of; Sl. of out; A. fer oute. 121-127. _In_ Sl. _only_. 121. Sl. alle. 122. Sl. auryat; book and born (!); _see note_. 125. Sl. victory. 126. Sl. moost. 127. Sl. ony. 128. Th. golde dewe; A. glorie. 129. A. Sl. Thou; Th. Dewe (!). Sl. ferlett (!) set affere; A. fuyrles thou sette vppon; Th. fyrelesse fyre set on. 130. Sl. peyned; A. empeyred (!). 131. Sl. Th. _om._ Thou. A. with; Th. that. Th. A. wether. A. disteyned. 132. Th. Fleece. A. gentyle; Th. gentylest. 133. Th. Sl. _insert_ fayrest _after_ fructifyeng (_sic_). A. yerde thowe; Th. Sl. the yerde. 134. A. Thowe; Sl. Th. The. Sl. mysti; Th. A. mighty. Sl. probatyk; Th. probatyfe; A. the probatyf. 135. A. Aurora; Th. aurore. A. tholyve; Sl. Th. olyue. 136. A. Pillor from base beryng from abysme. 137. A. Why nad I langage. Sl. the for; A. hir for; Th. here. 138. Th. toke. A. Chosen of god, whome Joseph gaf (!) to wyve. 139. Th. Sl. childyng; A. bare Cryste. Th. Sl. _om._ greet. 140. Th. And of our manly figure the; Sl. And of oure mar (!) figure; A. And of Ihesus manhode truwe. * * * * * XI. TO MY SOVERAIN LADY. I have non English convenient and digne Myn hertes hele, lady, thee with t'honoure, Ivorie clene; therfore I wol resigne In-to thyn hand, til thou list socoure To help my making bothe florisshe and floure; 5 Than shulde I shewe, in love how I brende, In songes making, thy name to commende. For if I coude before thyn excellence Singen in love, I wolde, what I fele, And ever standen, lady, in thy presence, 10 To shewe in open how I love you wele; And sith, although your herte be mad of stele, To you, withoute any disseveraunce, _J'ay en vous toute ma fiaunce_. Wher might I love ever better besette 15 Than in this lilie, lyking to beholde? The lace of love, the bond so wel thou knette, That I may see thee or myn herte colde, And or I passe out of my dayes olde, Tofore singing evermore utterly-- 20 'Your eyën two wol slee me sodainly.' For love I langour, blissed be such seknesse, Sith it is for you, my hertely suffisaunce; I can not elles saye, in my distresse, So fair oon hath myn herte in governaunce; 25 And after that I +ginne on esperaunce With feble entune, though it thyn herte perce, Yet for thy sake this lettre I do reherce. God wot, on musike I can not, but I gesse, (Alas! why so?) that I might say or singe, 30 So love I you, myn own soverain maistresse, And ever shal, withouten départinge. Mirrour of beautè, for you out shuld I ringe, In rémembraunce eke of your eyen clere, Thus fer from you, my soverain lady dere! 35 So wolde god your love wold me slo, Sith, for your sake, I singe day by day; Herte, why nilt thou [never] breke a-two, Sith with my lady dwellen I ne may? Thus many a roundel and many a virelay 40 In fresshe Englisshe, whan I me layser finde, I do recorde, on you to have minde! Now, lady myn! sith I you love and drede, And you unchaunged finde, in o degree, Whos grace ne may flye fro your womanhede, 45 Disdayneth not for to remembre on me! Myn herte bledeth, for I may nat you see; And sith ye wot my mening désirous, _Pleurez pur moi, si vous plaist amorous!_ What marveyle is, though I in payne be? 50 I am departed from you, my soveraine; Fortune, alas! _dont vient la destenee_, That in no wyse I can ne may attayne To see the beautè of your eyën twayne. Wherfore I say, for tristesse doth me grame, 55 _Tant me fait mal departir de ma dame!_ Why nere my wisshing brought to suche esploit That I might say, for joye of your presence, '_Ore a man cuer ce quil veuilloit,_ _Ore a man cuer_ the highest excellence 60 That ever had wight;' and sith myn advertence Is in you, reweth on my paynes smerte, I am so sore wounded to the herte. To live wel mery, two lovers were y-fere, So may I say withouten any blame; 65 If any man [per cas] to wilde were, I coude him [sonë] teche to be tame; Let him go love, and see wher it be game! For I am brydled unto sobernesse For her, that is of women cheef princesse. 70 But ever, whan thought shulde my herte embrace, Than unto me is beste remedye, Whan I loke on your goodly fresshe face; So mery a mirrour coude I never espye; And, if I coude, I wolde it magnifye. 75 For never non was [here] so faire y-founde, To reken hem al, and also Rosamounde. And fynally, with mouthe and wil present Of double eye, withoute repentaunce, Myn herte I yeve you, lady, in this entent, 80 That ye shal hoolly therof have governaunce; Taking my leve with hertes obeysaunce, '_Salve, regina!_' singing laste of al, To be our helpe, whan we to thee cal! Al our lovë is but ydelnesse 85 Save your aloon; who might therto attayne? Who-so wol have a name of gentillesse, I counsayle him in love that he not fayne. Thou swete lady! refut in every payne, Whos [pitous] mercy most to me avayleth 90 To gye by grace, whan that fortune fayleth. Nought may be told, withouten any fable, Your high renome, your womanly beautè; Your governaunce, to al worship able, Putteth every herte in ese in his degree. 95 O violet, _O flour desiree_, Sith I am for you so amorous, _Estreynez moy_, [lady,] _de cuer joyous_! With fervent herte my brest hath broste on fyre; _L'ardant espoir que mon cuer poynt, est mort,_ 100 _D'avoir l'amour de celle que je desyre_, I mene you, swete, most plesaunt of port, _Et je sai bien que ceo n'est pas mon tort_ That for you singe, so as I may, for mone For your departing; alone I live, alone. 105 Though I mighte, I wolde non other chese; In your servyce, I wolde be founden sad; Therfore I love no labour that ye lese, Whan, in longing, sorest ye be stad; Loke up, ye lovers [alle], and be right glad 110 Ayeines sëynt Valentynes day, For I have chose that never forsake I may! _Explicit._ _From_ Th. (Thynne, ed. 1532); _I note rejected spellings_. 1. none englysshe. 2. heale; the; to honour. 3. cleane. 4. thyne hande; socoure. 5. helpe; flour. 6. howe. 8. thyne. 11. howe. 12. made. 13. withouten; disceueraunce. 14. tout. 15. Where; beset. 17. bonde; knyt. 18. se the; myne. 22. sicknesse. 23. Sythe. 24. els say. 25. fayre one; myne. 26. begynne; _read_ ginne. 27. thyne. 28. letter. 30. wote. 31. owne; maistres. 32. without. 35. ferre. 36. wolde (_twice_). 37. Sythe. 38. nylte; _I supply_ never; breake. 39. Sythe; dwel. 43. Nowe; myne sithe. 44. euer fynde (_om._ euer). 45. Whose. 47. Myne; se. 48. sithe; wotte; meanyng. 49. Plures; moy. 52. destenie. 53. canne. 54. se. 55. dothe. 56. male. 58. ioye. 61. sithe myne. 66. _Short line; I insert_ per cas. 67. _Short line; I insert_ sone. for to; _I omit_ for. 68. Lette; se where. 70. chefe. 71. my hert shuld. 72. best remedy. 74. espy. 76. none; _I insert_ here. 79. without. 81. holy. 82. leaue. 84. the. 86. your loue alone; _om._ loue. 89. refute. 90. Whose; _I insert_ pitous. 92. tolde. 95. ease. 96. floure. 97. Sythe; amerous. 98. Estreynes; _I insert_ lady _to fill out the line_. 99. brost. 102. meane; porte. 103. say. 106. myght; none. 107. sadde. 109. stadde. 110. _I supply_ alle; gladde. 111. Ayenst saynt. 112. chese (_read_ chose). * * * * * XII. BALLAD OF GOOD COUNSEL. Consider wel, with every circumstaunce, Of what estat so-ever that thou be-- Riche, strong, or mighty of puissaunce, Prudent or wyse, discrete or avisee, The doom of folke in soth thou mayst nat flee; 5 What-ever that thou do, trust right wel this, A wikked tonge wol alway deme amis. For in thy port or in thyn apparayle If thou be clad or honestly be-seyn, Anon the people, of malice, wol nat fayle, 10 Without advyce or reson, for to sayn That thyn array is mad and wrought in vayn; What! suffre hem spekë!--and trust right wel this, A wikked tonge wol alway deme amis. Thou wilt to kinges be equipolent, 15 With gretë lordes even and peregal; And, if thou be to-torn and al to-rent, Than wol they say, and jangle over-al, Thou art a slogard, that never thryvë shal; Yet suffre hem spekë!--and trust right wel this, 20 A wikked tonge wol alway deme amis. If thou be fayr, excelling of beautee, Than wol they say, that thou art amorous; If thou be foul and ugly on to see, They wol afferme that thou art vicious, 25 The peple of langage is so dispitous; Suffre hem spekë, and trust right wel this, A wikked tonge wol alway deme amis. And if it fallë that thou take a wyf, [Than] they wol falsly say, in hir entent, 30 That thou art lykly ever to live in stryf, Voyd of al rest, without alegëment; Wyves be maistres, this is hir jugëment; Yet suffre hem spekë--and trust right wel this, A wikked tonge wol alway deme amis. 35 And if it so be that, of parfitnesse, Thou hast avowed to live in chastitee, Thán wol folk of thy persone expresse Say thou art impotent t'engendre in thy degree; And thus, whether thou be chast or deslavee, 40 Suffre hem spekë--and trust right wel this, A wikked tonge wel alway deme amis. And if that thou be fat or corpulent, Than wol they say that thou art a glotoun, A devourour, or ellës vinolent; 45 If thou be lene or megre of fassioun, Cal thee a nigard, in hir opinioun; Yet suffre hem spekë--and trust right wel this, A wikked tonge wol alway deme amis. If thou be richë, som wol yeve thee laud, 50 And say, it cometh of prudent governaunce; And som wol sayen, that it cometh of fraud, Outher by sleight, or by fals chevisaunce; To say the worst, folk have so gret plesaunce; Yet suffre hem sayë--and trust right wel this, 55 A wikked tonge wol alway deme amis. If thou be sad or sobre of countenaunce, Men wol say--thou thinkest som tresoun; And if [that] thou be glad of daliaunce, Men wol deme it dissolucioun, 60 And calle thy fair speche, adulacioun; Yet let hem spekë--and trust right wel this, A wikked tonge wol alway deme amis. Who that is holy by perfeccioun, Men, of malyce, wol calle him ipocryte; 65 And who is mery, of clene entencioun, Men say, in ryot he doth him delyte; Som mourne in blak; som laughe in clothes whyte; What! suffre them spekë--and trust right wel this, A wikked tonge wol alway deme amis. 70 Honest array, men deme, +is pompe and pryde, And who goth poore, men calle him a wastour; And who goth [mene], men marke him on every syde, And saye that he is a spye or a gylour; Who wasteth, men seyn [that] he hath tresour; 75 Wherfore conclude, and trust [right] wel this, A wikked tonge wil alway deme amis. Who speketh mochë, men calle him prudent; And who debateth, men say, he is hardy; And who saith litel with gret sentiment, 80 Som men yet wol edwyte him of foly; Trouth is put down, and up goth flatery; And who list plainly know the cause of this, A wikked tonge wol alway deme amis. For though a man were al-so pacient 85 As was David, through his humilitee, Or with Salamon in wysdom as prudent, Or in knighthode egal with Josuë, Or manly proved as Judas Machabee, Yet, for al that--trust right wel this, 90 A wicked tonge wol alway deme amis. And though a man hadde the high prowesse Of worthy Hector, Troyes champioun, The love of Troilus or the kindenesse, Or of Cesar the famous high renoun, 95 With Alisaundres dominacioun, Yet, for al that--trust right wel this, A wikked tonge wol alway deme amis. And though a man of high or low degree Of Tullius hadde the sugred eloquence, 100 Or of Senek the greet moralitee, Or of Catoun the foresight or prudence, Conquest of Charles, Arthurs magnificence, Yet, for al that--trust right wel this, A wikked tonge wol alway deme amis. 105 Touching of women the parfit innocence, Thogh they had of Hestre the mekenes, Or of Griseldes [the] humble pacience, Or of Judith the proved stablenes, Or Policenes virginal clennes, 110 Yit dar I say and truste right wel this, A wikked tonge wol alway deme amis. The wyfly trouthë of Penelope, Though they it hadde in hir possessioun, Eleynes beautè, the kindnes of Medee, 115 The love unfeyned of Marcia Catoun, Or of Alcest the trewe affeccioun, Yit dar I say and truste right wel this, A wikked tonge wol alway deme amis. Than sith it is, that no man may eschewe 120 The swerde of tonge, but it wol kerve and byte, Ful hard it is, a man for to remewe Out of hir daunger, so they hem delyte To hindre or slaundre, and also to bakbyte; For [this] hir study fynally it is 125 And hir plesaunce, alwey to deme amis. Most noble princes, cherisshers of vertue, Remembreth you of high discrecioun, The first vertue, most plesing to Jesu, (By the wryting and sentence of Catoun), 130 Is a good tonge, in his opinioun; Chastyse the révers, and of wysdom do this, Withdraw your hering from al that deme amis. _From_ Th. (Thynne's edition, 1532); _collated with_ Ff. (MS. Ff. 1. 6, Camb. Univ. Library). _Another copy in_ H. (Harl. 2251). 1. H. with; Ff. wiht; Th. _om._ 2. Ff. H. estat; Th. estate. Th. _om._ that. 3. Th. stronge. 4. Ff. avisee; H. avice; Th. besy. 5. Th. Ff. dome; H. doome. Th. sothe. H. mayst; Th. Ff. may. Th. Ff. flye; H. flee. 6. H. that; _rest om._ Ff. H. do; Th. doste. Th. _om._ right. 7. H. Ff. deme; Th. say. 8. Ff. port; Th. porte. Th. thyne. 9. _All_ cladde. Ff. H. or; Th. and. Ff. beseyn; Th. be sayne. 10. Ff. Anon; Th. Anone (_and so in other places I correct the spelling by the_ MSS.). 12. _All_ made. 13. Th. H. _om._ right. 14. Ff. H. deme; Th. say. 15. Ff. H. wylt; Th. wolde. Ff. H. equipolent; Th. equiuolent. 16. Ff. H. grete; Th. great. 17. Ff. to-torn; Th. H. torn. 19. Ff. H. Thou; Th. That thou. 20. Th. H. _om._ right. 21. Ff. H. deme; Th. say. 22-35. _So in_ H.; Th. Ff. _transpose_ ll. 21-28 _and_ 29-35. Th. fayre and; Ff. H. _om._ and. H. excellyng; Ff. Th. excellent. 23. Ff. H. Than; Th. Yet. _All_ amerous. 24. _All_ foule. 26. Ff. H. peple of; Th. peoples. 27. _So_ Ff.; Th. H. Suffre al their speche and truste (H. deme) wel this. 28. Ff. H. deme; Th. say. 29. Ff. And yif hit falle; Th. If it befal. 30. _Insert_ Than; _see_ l. 23. 31. Ff. Thou art euer lykkely to lyue in stryve. 32. Ff. alleggement. 33. Ff. H. be maistres; Th. hem maystren. 34. _So_ Ff.; Th. suffren their speche; _om._ right. 35. Ff. H. deme; Th. say. 36. H. And if; Ff. And yif; Th. If. H. it; Th. Ff. _om._ Th. that thou; Ff. H. _om._ thou. 37. Ff. H. Thou hast; Th. Haue. 39. Ff. H. Say; Th. That. Th. tengendre; Ff. to gendre. 40. Ff. Th. chaste. Ff. dyslave (_better_ deslavee); Th. delauie. 41. Th. H. _om._ right. 42. Ff. H. deme; Th. say. 43. Th. _om._ And. 44. Th. H. _om._ that. 45. Th. H. deuourer; Ff. devowrer (_better_ devourour). 46. Ff. H. lene or megre; Th. megre or leane. 47. Ff. H. her; Th. H. their. 48. Th. H. _om._ right. 49. Ff. H. deme; Th. say. 50. _All_ the. Th. laude; Ff. H. lawde. 52. Ff. Th. say; H. sayne. H. that; Th. Ff. _om._ 53. Ff. Outher; Th. H. Or. 55. Th. What; Ff. H. Yit. Ff. Th. say. Th. H. _om._ right. 56. Ff. H. deme; Th. say. 57. _All_ sadde. 58. Ff. tresone; Th. H. treason. 59. _I supply_ that. 60. Ff. it is; Th. H. _om._ is. 61. Th. Callyng; Ff. H. And calle. Th. _om._ thy. 62. Th. H. _om._ right. 63. Ff. H. deme; Th. say. 64. Ff. H. Who; Th. And who. 65. Th. him an; Ff. H. _om._ an. 66. Th. who that; Ff. H. _om._ that. 69. Ff. speke; Th. say. Th. H. _om._ right. 70. Ff. H. deme; Th. say. 71-77. _In_ H. _only_. 71. H. in; _read_ is. 72. H. vastour. 73. _I insert_ mene; _see note_. 75. H. wastith; _I insert_ that. 76. H. coclude(!); H. _om._ right. 78. Ff. H. men calle him; Th. is holden. 79. Th. And who; Ff. H. Who that. Th. H. say that; Ff. _om._ that. 80. Th. who that; Ff. H. _om._ that. 81. Th. men yet; Ff. folke. Ff. H. edwyte; Th. wyte. 82. Ff. H. vp; Th. nowe. 83. H. who; Ff. ho (= who); Th. who that. Ff. H. cause; Th. trouth. 84. _So_ H. Ff.; Th. It is a wicked tonge th_a_t alway saythe amys. 85. Ff. also; Th. H. as. 86. Th. _om._ his. 87. H. wisdom; Th. wisedome; Ff. wysdome. 88. Ff. to; Th. H. with. 91. _So_ Ff. H.; Th. Some wycked tonge of hym wol say amys. 92. Ff. _om._ a. _All_ had. Ff. H. _om._ high. 94. Ff. H. kyndenes; Th. kyndnesse. 96. Th. Wyth al; Ff. H. _om._ al. 98. _So_ Ff.; Th. Some wycked tonge of hym wol say amys. 99. Ff. H. And; Th. Or. 101. H. Senek; Ff. Senec; Th. Seneca. Th. great; Ff. H. _om._ 102. Ff. or prudence; Th. H. and prouidence. 103. Th. The conquest; Ff. _om._ The. Ff. Arthurs; Th. H. Arturs. 105. _See note to_ 96. 106-112. _Not in_ Thynne; _from_ Ff. H. 106. H. of; Ff. to. 108. Ff. grecildes; H. Gresieldis; _I supply_ the. 110. H. Polycenes; Ff. Penilops. 113. H. wyfly; Th. wyfely; Ff. wylfull_e_ (!). Th. H. trouth; Ff. trowth; _read_ trouthe. 114. Th. had; Ff. H. hadde. Th. her; Ff. thaire; H. theyr. 115. H. Eleynes; Ff. Eleyons; Th. Holynesse (_for_ Heleynes). Th. kyndenesse; Ff. kyndnes. 116. Ff. H. loue; Th. lyfe (!). Th. Mertia; Ff. H. Marcia. Th. Caton; Ff. H. and catou_n_. 117. Ff. H. Alcestys (_om._ the). 119. _So_ Ff.; Th. A wycked tonge wol say of her amys. 120. Ff. suyth; H. sith; Th. sythen. H. it is; Ff. it; Th. it is so (_om._ that). 121. Ff. wyll (= wol); H. wil; Th. _om._ 122. Ff. H. _om._ for. 123. H. hir; Ff. ar; Th. theyr. Ff. so them hem delyte; Th. him for to aquyte. 124. Ff. Tho (_for_ To) hindre sclau_n_der, and also to bacbyte; Th. Wo to the tonges that hem so delyte. 125. Ff. For thayre study fynaly it ys; Th. To hynder or sclaunder, and set theyr study in this (cf. l. 124). 126. Th. And theyr pleasaunces to do and say amis; H. And theyr plesaunce alwey to deme amys; Ff. _has (as usual)_ A wicked tonge wol alway deme amis. 127. Ff. princesse; Th. princes. 129. Th. and most; Ff. H. _om._ and. Ff. plesing; Th. pleasyng. 132. H. revers; Th. reuerse; Ff. reu_er_ce. H. wisdom; Th. Ff. wysdome. 133. H. Voydeth (_for_ Withdraw). Ff. deme; Th. saine. * * * * * XIII. BEWARE OF DOUBLENESS. (BALADE MADE BY LYDGATE.) This world is ful of variaunce In every thing, who taketh hede, That faith and trust, and al constaunce, Exyled ben, this is no drede; And, save only in womanhede, 5 I can [nat] see no sikernesse; But for al that, yet, as I rede, Be-war alway of doublenesse. Also these fresshe somer-floures Whyte and rede, blewe and grene, 10 Ben sodainly, with winter-shoures, Mad feinte and fade, withoute wene; That trust is non, as ye may seen, In no-thing, nor no stedfastnesse, Except in women, thus I mene; 15 Yet ay be-war of doublenesse. The croked mone, this is no tale, Som whyle is shene and bright of hewe, And after that ful derk and pale, And every moneth chaungeth newe; 20 That, who the verray sothe knewe, Al thing is bilt on brotelnesse, Save that these women ay be trewe; Yet ay be-war of doublenesse. The lusty fresshe somers day, 25 And Phebus with his bemes clere, Towardes night, they drawe away, And no lenger liste appere; That, in this present lyf now here Nothing abit in his fairnesse, 30 Save women ay be founde intere And devoid of doublenesse. The see eke, with his sterne wawes, Ech day floweth newe again, And, by concours of his lawes, 35 The ebbe foloweth, in certain; After gret drought ther comth a rain, That farewel here al stabelnesse, Save that women be hole and plain; Yet ay be-war of doublenesse. 40 Fortunes wheel goth round aboute A thousand tymes, day and night: Whos cours standeth ever in doute For to transmew; she is so light. For which adverteth in your sight 45 Th'untrust of worldly fikelnesse, Save women, which of kindly right Ne have no tache of doublenesse. What man may the wind restraine Or holde a snake by the tail, 50 Or a sliper eel constraine That it nil voide, withouten fail; Or who can dryve so a nail To make sure new-fangelnesse, Save women, that can gye hir sail 55 To rowe hir boot with doublenesse. At every haven they can aryve Wher-as they wote is good passage; Of innocence, they can not stryve With wawes nor no rokkes rage; 60 So happy is hir lodemanage, With nelde and stoon hir cours to dresse, That Salamon was not so sage To find in hem no doublenesse. Therfor who-so hem accuse 65 Of any double entencioun, To speke, rowne, other to muse, To pinche at hir condicioun; Al is but fals collusioun, I dar right wel the sothe expresse; 70 They have no better proteccioun But shroude hem under doublenesse. So wel fortúned is hir chaunce The dys to turnen up-so-doun, With sys and sink they can avaunce, 75 And than, by revolucioun, They sette a fel conclusioun Of ambes as, in sothfastnesse; Though clerkes make mencioun Hir kind is fret with doublenesse. 80 Sampsoun had experience That women were ful trewe founde, Whan Dalida, of innocence, With sheres gan his heer to rounde; To speke also of Rosamounde 85 And Cleopatras feithfulnesse, The stories plainly wil confounde Men that apeche hir doublenesse. Sengle thing ne is not preised, Nor oo-fold is of no renoun; 90 In balaunce whan they be peised, For lakke of weght they be bore doun; And for this cause of just resoun, These women alle, of rightwisnesse, Of chois and free eleccioun 95 Most love eschaunge and doublenesse. LENVOY. O ye women, which been enclyned, By influence of your nature, To been as pure as gold y-fyned In your trouth for to endure, 100 Arm your-self in strong armure Lest men assaile your sikernesse: Set on your brest, your-self t'assure, A mighty sheld of doublenesse. 1. _From_ F. (Fairfax 16); _collated with_ Ed. (ed. 1561). _Also in_ A. (Ashmole 59), _in which it is much altered; other copies in_ Ha. (Harl. 7578), _and_ Ad. (Addit. 16165). 2. F. whoo. 6. _I supply_ nat. 9. F. A. these; Ed. that. 12. F. feynt; Ha. Ed. feinte. 13. F. Ed. sene. 18. F. A. Ad. is shene; Ed. ishene. 21. F. A. who so; Ha. Ad. Ed. who. 23. Ad. these; _rest om._ 28. Ha. Ad. no; F. Ed. non. 29. F. So; _rest_ That. 30. F. abytte; Ed. abieth; Ad. abydeth. 32. _In the margin of_ F. Ad.--Per Antifrasim. 36. F. Ad. Ha. foloweth; Ed. _repeats_ floweth _from_ l. 34. A. Soone affter that comthe thebbe certeyne. 38. F. Ha. farewel al her; Ed. Ad. farewel here al. 48. F. Ad. Ha. haue; Ed. hath. F. tachche; Ed. teche. 51. F. slepur; Ha. sleper; Ed. Ad. slipper. 52. A. nyl; Ad. nil; Ha. wol; F. wil; Ed. will. 53. A. dryve so depe a. 54. Ed. suere. 55, 56. Ad. hir; Ha. F. her; Ed. their. 61. F. happe; Ha. Ed. happy. F. her (= hir); Ed. their. 62. F. nelde; Ed. Ha. nedle. F. Ha. her; Ed. their. 64. F. Ha. hem; Ed. them. 65. F. Wherfor; Ed. Ha. Ad. Therefore. MSS. hem; Ed. them. 67. Ed. rowme (!). 68. F. hyr; Ad. hir; Ha. her; Ed. their. 69. A. Ad. nys (_for_ is). 71. Ed. better; F. bette; Ha. Ad. bet. 72. MSS. hem; Ed. them. 73. Ad. Ed. their. 74. F. Ed. turne; Ad. Ha. turnen. 78. F. Ambes ase; Ad. Ha. aumbes as; Ed. lombes, as (!) 82. F. weren; Ed. A. were. MSS. founde; Ed. ifound. 84. A. heres; Ad. here; Ed. heere; F. hede. 87. F. Ad. Ed. The; A. Hir. 88. MSS. hir, her; Ed. their. 90. F. oo folde; A. oone folde; Ed. ofolde. 92. F. A. Ad. weght; Ha. wight; Ed. waighte. A. borne. 96. A. Ad. Haue stuffed hem with doublenesse. 97. A. that (_for_ which). 100. A. In alle youre touches for. Ad. trouthe for tendure. 101. _For_ Arm _read_ Armeth? 102. Ha. assaye. 103. F. A. Ad. tassure; Ed. Ha. to assure. 104. F. Ed. shelde; A. sheelde. * * * * * XIV. A BALADE: WARNING MEN TO BEWARE OF DECEITFUL WOMEN. Loke wel aboute, ye that lovers be; Lat nat your lustes lede you to dotage; Be nat enamoured on al thing that ye see. Sampson the fort, and Salamon the sage Deceived were, for al hir gret corage; 5 Men deme hit is right as they see at y; Bewar therfore; the blinde et many a fly. I mene, in women, for al hir cheres queinte, Trust nat to moche; hir trouthë is but geson; The fairest outward ful wel can they peinte, 10 Hir stedfastnes endureth but a seson; For they feyn frendlines and worchen treson. And for they be chaungeáble naturally, Bewar therfore; the blinde et many a fly. Though al the world do his besy cure 15 To make women stonde in stablenes, Hit may nat be, hit is agayn nature; The world is do whan they lak doublenes; For they can laughe and love nat; this is expres. To trust in hem, hit is but fantasy; 20 Bewar therfore; the blind et many a fly. What wight on-lyve trusteth in hir cheres Shal haue at last his guerdon and his mede; They can shave nerer then rasóurs or sheres; Al is nat gold that shyneth! Men, take hede; 25 Hir galle is hid under a sugred wede. Hit is ful hard hir fantasy t'aspy; Bewar therfore; the blinde et many a fly. Women, of kinde, have condicions three; The first is, that they be fulle of deceit; 30 To spinne also hit is hir propertee; And women have a wonderful conceit, They wepen ofte, and al is but a sleight, And whan they list, the tere is in the y; Bewar therfore; the blinde et many a fly. 35 What thing than eyr is lighter and meveable? The light, men say, that passeth in a throw; Al if the light be nat so variable As is the wind that every wey [can] blow; And yet, of reson, som men deme and trow 40 Women be lightest of hir company; Bewar therfore; the blind et many a fly. In short to say, though al the erth so wan Were parchëmyn smothe, whyte and scribable, And the gret see, cleped the occian, 45 Were torned in inke, blakker then is sable, Ech stik a penne, ech man a scriveyn able, They coud nat wryte wommannes traitory; Bewar therfore; the blinde et many a fly. _From_ Trin. (Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 3. 19), _printed in_ Ed. (ed. 1561); T. (Trin. Coll. O. 9. 38); H. (Harl. 2251). 1. Trin. welle. T. abowte; Trin. about. 2. Trin. leede. 3. Trin. se. 4. T. H. Salamon; Trin. Salomon. 5. T. her_e_ (_read_ hir); Trin. H. theyr (_and elsewhere_). 6. _So_ T.; Trin. H. hit right that they se with. T. eye; Trin. ey; H. ye; (_read_ y). 7. T. ette, _alt. to_ ettyth; Trin. H. eteth (_read_ et, _and so elsewhere_). 8. H. T. in; Trin. of. Trin. wemen; queynt. 9. Trin. H. hem nat (T. _om._ hem). Trin. trowth; geason (T. geson). 10. T. full_e_; Trin. H. _om._ Trin. peynt. 12. Trin. feyne. 13. T. be; Trin. ar; H. are. Trin. chaungeabylle. 15-28. _So_ T. H.; Trin. _transposes_ 15-21 _and_ 22-28. 16. Trin. wemen stond; stabylnes. 17. T. H. may; Trin. wolle. 18. Trin. doubylnes. 19. Trin. lawgh; expresse. H. _om._ nat. 20. H. T. in; Trin. on. Trin. theym. 22. T. yn; Trin. on. Trin. cherys. 24. T. They; Trin. For wemen. 25. Trin. shynyth. 26. Trin. sugryd. 27. T. harde; Trin. H. queynt. Trin. to aspy. 29. T. _has the note_: Fallere flere nere tria sunt hec in muliere. Trin. thre. 30. T. that; Trin. H. _om._ 31. T. hyt; Trin. _om._ T. properte; Trin. p_ro_purte. 32. H. haue; T. hath; Trin. _om._ Trin. conseyte. 33. Trin. H. For they; T. _om._ For. T. wepyth (_read_ wepen); Trin. wepe. T. H. but; Trin. _om._ H. a sleight; T. deceyt; Trin. asteyte; Ed. a sleite. 34. Trin. teere; ey. 36-42. _In_ T. _only_. 37. T. passyth. 38. T. All yff; waryabylle. 39. T. wynde; ys blow (_alt. to_ blowth; _read_ can blow). 40. T. yut; summen. 41. T. ther (_for_ hir). 43. T. schorte; Trin. sothe. Trin. erthe; wanne. 44. Trin. parchemyne; scrybabylle. 45. T. H. that clepyd is; Trin. that callyd ys (_read_ cleped). H. _om._ the. Trin. occiane. 46. T. yn; Trin. into; H. to. T. H. is; Trin. _om._ 47. T. H. Eche; Trin. Euery. Trin. yche; abylle. H. scryven; T. Trin. scriuener. 48. T. They cowde not; Trin. Nat cowde then (!). T. wymmenys; Trin. womans; H. wommans. T. treytorye; Trin. H. trechery. * * * * * XV. THREE SAYINGS. (A). A SAYING OF DAN JOHN. Ther beth four thinges that maketh a man a fool, Hónour first putteth him in outrage, And alder-next solitarie and sool; The second is unweldy croked age; Women also bring men in dotage; 5 And mighty wyne, in many dyvers wyse, Distempreth folk which [that] ben holden wyse. (B). YET OF THE SAME. Ther beth four thinges causing gret folye, Honour first, and [than] unweldy age; Women and wyne, I dar eek specifye, Make wyse men [to] fallen in dotage; Wherfore, by counseil of philosophers sage, 5 In gret honour, lerne this of me, With thyn estat have [eek] humilitee. (C). BALADE DE BON CONSAIL. If it befalle, that god thee list visyte With any tourment or adversitee, Thank first the lord; and [than], thyself to quyte, Upon suffrauncë and humilitee Found thou thy quarrel, what-ever that it be; 5 Mak thy defence (and thou shall have no losse) The rémembraunce of Crist and of his crosse. A. _From_ Stowe (ed. 1561). 1. bethe foure; foole. 3. soole. 7. Distempren (!); folke whiche; _supply_ that; bene. B. _From the same._ 1. bene (_read_ beth, _as above_) foure. 2. _I supply_ than; vnwildy. 3. dare eke specify. 4. _I supply_ to. 6. learne. 7. thine estate; _I supply_ eek. C. _From the same._ 1. befall; the. 2. aduersite. 3. Thanke; lorde; _I supply_ than; selfe. 4. humilite. 5. Founde; quarel. 6. Make. * * * * * XVI. LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCY. TRANSLATED OUT OF FRENCH BY SIR RICHARD ROS. Half in a dreme, not fully wel awaked, The golden sleep me wrapped under his wing; Yet nat for-thy I roos, and wel nigh naked, Al sodaynly my-selve rémembring Of a matér, leving al other thing 5 Which I shold do, with-outen more delay, For hem to whom I durst nat disobey. My charge was this, to translate by and by, (Al thing forgive), as part of my penaunce, A book called Belle Dame sans Mercy 10 Which mayster Aleyn made of rémembraunce, Cheef secretarie with the king of Fraunce. And ther-upon a whyle I stood musing, And in my-self gretly imagening What wyse I shuld performe the sayd processe, 15 Considering by good avysement Myn unconning and my gret simplenesse, And ayenward the strait commaundement Which that I had; and thus, in myn entent, I was vexed and tourned up and doun; 20 And yet at last, as in conclusioun, I cast my clothes on, and went my way, This foresayd charge having in rémembraunce, Til I cam to a lusty green valey Ful of floures, to see, a gret plesaunce; 25 And so bolded, with their benygn suffraunce That rede this book, touching this sayd matere, Thus I began, if it plese you to here. Nat long ago, ryding an esy paas, I fel in thought, of joy ful desperate 30 With greet disese and payne, so that I was Of al lovers the most unfortunate, Sith by his dart most cruel, ful of hate, The deeth hath take my lady and maistresse, And left me sole, thus discomfit and mate, 35 Sore languisshing, and in way of distresse. Than sayd I thus, 'it falleth me to cesse Eyther to ryme or ditees for to make, And I, surely, to make a ful promesse To laugh no more, but wepe in clothes blake. 40 My joyful tyme, alas! now is it slake, For in my-self I fele no maner ese; Let it be written, such fortune I take, Which neither me, nor non other doth plese. If it were so, my wil or myn entent 45 Constrayned were a joyful thing to wryte, Myn pen coud never have knowlege what it ment; To speke therof my tonge hath no delyte. And with my mouth if I laugh moche or lyte, Myn eyen shold make a countenaunce untrewe; 50 My hert also wold have therof despyte, The weping teres have so large issewe. These seke lovers, I leve that to hem longes, Which lede their lyf in hope of alegeaunce, That is to say, to make balades and songes, 55 Every of hem, as they fele their grevaunce. For she that was my joy and my plesaunce, Whos soule I pray god of his mercy save, She hath my wil, myn hertes ordinaunce, Which lyeth here, within this tombe y-grave. 60 Fro this tyme forth, tyme is to hold my pees; It werieth me this mater for to trete; Let other lovers put hem-self in prees; Their seson is, my tyme is now forgete. Fortune by strength the forcer hath unshet 65 Wherin was sperd al my worldly richesse, And al the goodes which that I have gete In my best tyme of youthe and lustinesse. Love hath me kept under his governaunce; If I misdid, god graunt me forgifnesse! 70 If I did wel, yet felte I no plesaunce; It caused neither joy nor hevinesse. For whan she dyed, that was my good maistresse, Al my welfare than made the same purchas; The deeth hath set my boundes, of witnes, 75 Which for no-thing myn hert shal never pas.' In this gret thought, sore troubled in my mynde, Aloon thus rood I al the morow-tyde, Til at the last it happed me to fynde The place wherin I cast me to abyde 80 Whan that I had no further for to ryde. And as I went my logging to purvey, Right sone I herde, but litel me besyde, In a gardeyn, wher minstrels gan to play. With that anon I went me bakker-more; 85 My-self and I, me thought, we were y-now; But twayn that were my frendes here-before Had me espyed, and yet I wot nat how. They come for me; awayward I me drow, Somwhat by force, somwhat by their request, 90 That in no wyse I coud my-self rescow, But nede I must come in, and see the feest. At my coming, the ladies everichoon Bad me welcome, god wot, right gentilly, And made me chere, everich by oon and oon, 95 A gret del better than I was worthy; And, of their grace, shewed me gret curtesy With good disport, bicause I shuld nat mourne. That day I bood stille in their company, Which was to me a gracious sojourne. 100 The bordes were spred in right litel space; The ladies sat, ech as hem semed best. Were non that did servyce within that place But chosen men, right of the goodliest: And som ther were, peravénture most fresshest, 105 That sawe their juges, sitting ful demure, Without semblaunt either to most or lest, Notwithstanding they had hem under cure. Among al other, oon I gan espy Which in gret thought ful often com and went 110 As man that had ben ravished utterly, In his langage nat gretly diligent; His countenaunce he kept with greet tourment, But his desyr fer passed his resoun; For ever his eye went after his entent 115 Ful many a tyme, whan it was no sesoun. To make good chere, right sore him-self he payned, And outwardly he fayned greet gladnesse; To singe also by force he was constrayned For no plesaunce, but very shamfastnesse; 120 For the complaynt of his most hevinesse Com to his voice alwey without request, Lyk as the sowne of birdes doth expresse Whan they sing loude, in frith or in forest. Other ther were, that served in the hal, 125 But non lyk him, as after myn advyse; For he was pale, and somwhat lene with-al; His speche also trembled in fereful wyse; And ever aloon, but when he did servyse. Al blak he ware, and no devyce but playn. 130 Me thought by him, as my wit coud suffyse, His hert was no-thing in his own demeyn. To feste hem al he did his diligence, And wel he couth, right as it semed me. But evermore, whan he was in presence, 135 His chere was don; it wold non other be. His scole-maister had suche auctoritè That, al the whyle he bood stille in the place, Speke coude he nat, but upon her beautè He loked stil, with right a pitous face. 140 With that, his heed he tourned at the last For to behold the ladies everichon; But ever in oon he set his ey stedfast On her, the which his thought was most upon. And of his eyen the shot I knew anon 145 Which federed was with right humble requestes. Than to my-self I sayd, 'By god aloon, Suche oon was I, or that I saw these gestes.' Out of the prees he went ful esely To make stable his hevy countenaunce; 150 And, wit ye wel, he syghed tenderly For his sorowes and woful remembraunce. Than in him-self he made his ordinaunce, And forth-withal com to bringe in the mes; But, for to juge his most ruful semblaunce, 155 God wot, it was a pitous entremes! After diner, anon they hem avaunced To daunce about, these folkes everichoon; And forth-withal this hevy lover daunced Somtyme with twayn, and somtyme but with oon. 160 Unto hem al his chere was after oon, Now here, now there, as fel by aventure; But ever among, he drew to her aloon Which he most dredde of living creature. To myn advyse, good was his purveyaunce 165 Whan he her chase to his maistresse aloon, If that her hert were set to his plesaunce As moche as was her beauteous persone. For who that ever set his trust upon The réport of the eyen, withouten more, 170 He might be deed and graven under stoon Or ever he shulde his hertes ese restore. In her fayled nothing, as I coud gesse, O wyse nor other, prevy nor apert; A garnison she was of al goodnesse 175 To make a frounter for a lovers hert; Right yong and fresshe, a woman ful covert; Assured wel her port and eke her chere, Wel at her ese, withouten wo or smert, Al underneth the standard of Daungere. 180 To see the feest, it weried me ful sore; For hevy joy doth sore the hert travayle. Out of the prees I me withdrew therfore, And set me down aloon, behynd a trayle Ful of leves, to see, a greet mervayle, 185 With grene withies y-bounden wonderly; The leves were so thik, withouten fayle, That thorough-out might no man me espy. To this lady he com ful curteisly Whan he thought tyme to daunce with her a trace; 190 Sith in an herber made ful pleasauntly They rested hem, fro thens but litel space. Nigh hem were none, a certayn of compace, But only they, as fer as I coud see; And save the trayle, ther I had chose my place, 195 Ther was no more betwix hem tweyne and me. I herd the lover syghing wonder sore; For ay the neer, the sorer it him sought. His inward payne he coud not kepe in store, Nor for to speke, so hardy was he nought. 200 His leche was neer, the gretter was his thought; He mused sore, to conquere his desyre; For no man may to more penaunce be brought Than, in his hete, to bringe him to the fyre. The hert began to swel within his chest, 205 So sore strayned for anguish and for payne That al to peces almost it to-brest, Whan bothe at ones so sore it did constrayne; Desyr was bold, but shame it gan refrayne; That oon was large, the other was ful cloos; 210 No litel charge was layd on him, certayn, To kepe suche werre, and have so many foos. Ful often-tymes to speke him-self he peyned, But shamfastnesse and drede sayd ever 'nay'; Yet at the last so sore he was constrayned, 215 Whan he ful long had put it in delay, To his lady right thus than gan he say With dredful voice, weping, half in a rage:-- 'For me was purveyd an unhappy day Whan I first had a sight of your visage! 220 I suffre payne, god wot, ful hoot brenning, To cause my deeth, al for my trew servyse; And I see wel, ye rekke therof nothing, Nor take no hede of it, in no kins wyse. But whan I speke after my best avyse, 225 Ye set it nought, but make ther-of a game; And though I sewe so greet an entrepryse, It peyreth not your worship nor your fame. Alas! what shulde be to you prejudyce If that a man do love you faithfully 230 To your worship, eschewing every vyce? So am I yours, and wil be verily; I chalenge nought of right, and reson why, For I am hool submit to your servyse; Right as ye liste it be, right so wil I, 235 To bynde my-self, where I was in fraunchyse! Though it be so, that I can nat deserve To have your grace, but alway live in drede, Yet suffre me you for to love and serve Without maugrè of your most goodlihede; 240 Both faith and trouth I give your womanhede, And my servyse, withoute ayein-calling. Love hath me bounde, withouten wage or mede, To be your man, and leve al other thing.' Whan this lady had herd al this langage, 245 She yaf answere ful softe and demurely, Without chaunging of colour or corage, No-thing in haste, but mesurabelly:-- 'Me thinketh, sir, your thought is greet foly! Purpose ye not your labour for to cese? 250 For thinketh not, whyl that ye live and I, In this matére to set your hert in pees!' _Lamant._ 'Ther may non make the pees, but only ye, Which ar the ground and cause of al this werre; For with your eyen the letters written be, 255 By which I am defyed and put a-fer. Your plesaunt look, my verray lode-sterre, Was made heraud of thilk same défyaunce Which utterly behight me to forbarre My faithful trust and al myn affyaunce.' 260 _La Dame._ 'To live in wo he hath gret fantasy And of his hert also hath slipper holde, That, only for beholding of an y, Can nat abyde in pees, as reson wolde! Other or me if ye list to beholde, 265 Our eyen are made to loke; why shuld we spare? I take no kepe, neither of yong nor olde; Who feleth smert, I counsayle him be ware!' _Lam._ 'If it be so, oon hurte another sore, In his defaut that feleth the grevaunce, 270 Of very right a man may do no more; Yet reson wolde it were in remembraunce. And, sith Fortune not only, by her chaunce, Hath caused me to suffre al this payn, But your beautè, with al the circumstaunce, 275 Why list ye have me in so greet disdayn?' _La D._ 'To your persone ne have I no disdayn, Nor ever had, trewly! ne nought wil have, Nor right gret love, nor hatred, in certayn; Nor your counsayl to know, so god me save! 280 If such beleve be in your mynde y-grave That litel thing may do you greet plesaunce, You to begyle, or make you for to rave, I wil nat cause no suche encomberaunce!' _Lam._ 'What ever it be that me hath thus purchased, 285 Wening hath nat disceyved me, certayn, But fervent love so sore hath me y-chased That I, unware, am casten in your chayne; And sith so is, as Fortune list ordayne, Al my welfare is in your handes falle, 290 In eschewing of more mischévous payn; Who sonest dyeth, his care is leest of alle.' _La D._ 'This sicknesse is right esy to endure, But fewe people it causeth for to dy; But what they mene, I know it very sure, 295 Of more comfort to draw the remedy. Such be there now, playning ful pitously, That fele, god wot, nat alther-grettest payne; And if so be, love hurt so grevously, Lesse harm it were, oon sorowful, than twayne!' 300 _Lam._ 'Alas, madame! if that it might you plese, Moche better were, by way of gentilnesse, Of one sory, to make twayn wel at ese, Than him to stroy that liveth in distresse! For my desyr is neither more nor lesse 305 But my servyce to do, for your plesaunce, In eschewing al maner doublenesse, To make two joyes in stede of oo grevaunce!' _La D._ 'Of love I seke neither plesaunce nor ese, Nor greet desyr, nor right gret affyaunce; 310 Though ye be seke, it doth me nothing plese; Also, I take no hede to your plesaunce. Chese who-so wil, their hertes to avaunce, Free am I now, and free wil I endure; To be ruled by mannes governaunce 315 For erthely good, nay! that I you ensure!' _Lam._ 'Love, which that joy and sorowe doth departe, Hath set the ladies out of al servage, And largëly doth graunt hem, for their parte, Lordship and rule of every maner age. 320 The poor servaunt nought hath of avauntage But what he may get only of purchace; And he that ones to love doth his homage, Ful often tyme dere bought is the rechace.' _La D._ 'Ladies be nat so simple, thus I mene, 325 So dul of wit, so sotted of foly, That, for wordes which sayd ben of the splene, In fayre langage, paynted ful plesauntly, Which ye and mo holde scoles of dayly, To make hem of gret wonders to suppose; 330 But sone they can away their hedes wrye, And to fair speche lightly their eres close.' _Lam._ 'Ther is no man that jangleth busily, And set his hert and al his mynd therfore, That by resoun may playne so pitously 335 As he that hath moche hevinesse in store. Whos heed is hool, and sayth that it is sore, His fayned chere is hard to kepe in mewe; But thought, which is unfayned evermore, The wordes preveth, as the workes sewe. 340 _La D._ 'Love is subtel, and hath a greet awayt, Sharp in worching, in gabbing greet plesaunce, And can him venge of suche as by disceyt Wold fele and knowe his secret governaunce; And maketh hem to obey his ordinaunce 345 By chereful wayes, as in hem is supposed; But whan they fallen in-to repentaunce, Than, in a rage, their counsail is disclosed.' _Lam._ 'Sith for-as-moche as god and eke nature Hath +love avaunced to so hye degrè, 350 Moch sharper is the point, this am I sure, Yet greveth more the faute, wher-ever it be. Who hath no cold, of hete hath no deyntè, The toon for the tother asked is expresse; And of plesaunce knoweth non the certeyntè 355 But it be wonne with thought and hevinesse.' _La D._ 'As for plesaunce, it is nat alway oon; That you is swete, I thinke it bitter payne. Ye may nat me constrayne, nor yet right non, After your lust, to love that is but vayne. 360 To chalenge love by right was never seyn, But herte assent, before bond and promyse; For strength nor force may not atteyne, certayn, A wil that stant enfeffed in fraunchyse!' _Lam._ 'Right fayr lady, god mote I never plese, 365 If I seke other right, as in this case, But for to shewe you playnly my disese And your mercy to abyde, and eke your grace. If I purpose your honour to deface, Or ever did, god and fortune me shende! 370 And that I never rightwysly purchace Oon only joy, unto my lyves ende!' _La D._ 'Ye and other, that swere suche othes faste, And so condempne and cursen to and fro, Ful sikerly, ye wene your othes laste 375 No lenger than the wordes ben ago! And god, and eke his sayntes, laughe also. In such swering ther is no stedfastnesse, And these wrecches, that have ful trust therto, After, they wepe and waylen in distresse.' 380 _Lam._ 'He hath no corage of a man, trewly, That secheth plesaunce, worship to despyse; Nor to be called forth is not worthy The erthe to touch the ayre in no-kins wyse. A trusty hert, a mouth without feyntyse, 385 These ben the strength of every man of name; And who that layth his faith for litel pryse, He leseth bothe his worship and his fame.' _La D._ 'A currish herte, a mouth that is curteys, Ful wel ye wot, they be not according; 390 Yet feyned chere right sone may hem apeyse Where of malyce is set al their worching; Ful fals semblant they bere and trew mening; Their name, their fame, their tonges be but fayned; Worship in hem is put in forgetting, 395 Nought repented, nor in no wyse complayned.' _Lam._ 'Who thinketh il, no good may him befal; God, of his grace, graunt ech man his desert! But, for his love, among your thoughtes al, As think upon my woful sorowes smert; 400 For of my payne, wheder your tender hert Of swete pitè be not therwith agreved, And if your grace to me were discovert, Than, by your mene, sone shulde I be releved.' _La D._ 'A lightsom herte, a folly of plesaunce 405 Are moch better, the lesse whyl they abyde; They make you thinke, and bring you in a traunce; But that seknesse wil sone be remedyed. Respite your thought, and put al this asyde; Ful good disportes werieth men al-day; 410 To help nor hurt, my wil is not aplyed; Who troweth me not, I lete it passe away.' _Lam._ 'Who hath a brid, a faucon, or a hound, That foloweth him, for love, in every place, He cherissheth him, and kepeth him ful sound; 415 Out of his sight he wil not him enchace. And I, that set my wittes, in this cace, On you alone, withouten any chaunge, Am put under, moch ferther out of grace, And lesse set by, than other that be straunge.' 420 _La D._ 'Though I make chere to every man aboute For my worship, and of myn own fraunchyse, To you I nil do so, withouten doute, In eschewing al maner prejudyse. For wit ye wel, love is so litel wyse, 425 And in beleve so lightly wil be brought, That he taketh al at his own devyse, Of thing, god wot, that serveth him of nought.' _Lam._ 'If I, by love and by my trew servyse, Lese the good chere that straungers have alway, 430 Wherof shuld serve my trouth in any wise Lesse than to hem that come and go al-day, Which holde of you nothing, that is no nay? Also in you is lost, to my seming, Al curtesy, which of resoun wold say 435 That love for love were lawful deserving.' _La D._ 'Curtesy is alyed wonder nere To Worship, which him loveth tenderly; And he wil nat be bounde, for no prayere, Nor for no gift, I say you verily, 440 But his good chere depart ful largely Where him lyketh, as his conceit wil fal; Guerdon constrayned, a gift don thankfully, These twayn may not accord, ne never shal.' _Lam._ 'As for guerdon, I seke non in this cace; 445 For that desert, to me it is to hy; Wherfore I ask your pardon and your grace, Sith me behoveth deeth, or your mercy. To give the good where it wanteth, trewly, That were resoun and a curteys maner; 450 And to your own moch better were worthy Than to straungers, to shewe hem lovely chere.' _La D._ 'What cal ye good? Fayn wolde I that I wist! That pleseth oon, another smerteth sore; But of his own to large is he that list 455 Give moche, and lese al his good fame therfore. Oon shulde nat make a graunt, litel ne more, But the request were right wel according; If worship be not kept and set before, Al that is left is but a litel thing.' 460 _Lam._ 'In-to this world was never formed non, Nor under heven crëature y-bore, Nor never shal, save only your persone, To whom your worship toucheth half so sore, But me, which have no seson, lesse ne more, 465 Of youth ne age, but still in your service; I have non eyen, no wit, nor mouth in store, But al be given to the same office.' _La D._ 'A ful gret charge hath he, withouten fayle, That his worship kepeth in sikernesse; 470 But in daunger he setteth his travayle That feffeth it with others businesse. To him that longeth honour and noblesse, Upon non other shulde nat he awayte; For of his own so moche hath he the lesse 475 That of other moch folweth the conceyt.' _Lam._ 'Your eyen hath set the print which that I fele Within my hert, that, where-so-ever I go, If I do thing that sowneth unto wele, Nedes must it come from you, and fro no mo. 480 Fortune wil thus, that I, for wele or wo, My lyf endure, your mercy abyding; And very right wil that I thinke also Of your worship, above al other thing.' _La D._ 'To your worship see wel, for that is nede, 485 That ye spend nat your seson al in vayne; As touching myn, I rede you take no hede, By your foly to put your-self in payne. To overcome is good, and to restrayne An hert which is disceyved folily. 490 For worse it is to breke than bowe, certayn, And better bowe than fal to sodaynly!' _Lam._ 'Now, fair lady, think, sith it first began That love hath set myn hert under his cure, I never might, ne truly I ne can 495 Non other serve, whyle I shal here endure; In most free wyse therof I make you sure, Which may not be withdrawe; this is no nay. I must abyde al maner aventure; For I may not put to, nor take away.' 500 _La D._ 'I holde it for no gift, in sothfastnesse, That oon offreth, where that it is forsake; For suche gift is abandoning expresse That with worship ayein may not be take. He hath an hert ful fel that list to make 505 A gift lightly, that put is in refuse; But he is wyse that such conceyt wil slake, So that him nede never to study ne muse.' _Lam._ 'He shuld nat muse, that hath his service spent On her which is a lady honourable; 510 And if I spende my tyme to that entent, Yet at the leest I am not reprevable Of feyled hert; to thinke I am unable, Or me mistook whan I made this request, By which love hath, of entreprise notable, 515 So many hertes gotten by conquest.' _La D._ 'If that ye list do after my counsayl, Secheth fairer, and of more higher fame, Whiche in servyce of love wil you prevayl After your thought, according to the same. 520 He hurteth both his worship and his name That folily for twayne him-self wil trouble; And he also leseth his after-game That surely can not sette his poyntes double.' _Lam._ 'This your counsayl, by ought that I can see, 525 Is better sayd than don, to myn advyse; Though I beleve it not, forgive it me, Myn herte is suche, so hool without feyntyse, That it ne may give credence, in no wyse, To thing which is not sowning unto trouthe; 530 Other counsayl, it ar but fantasyes, Save of your grace to shewe pitè and routhe.' _La D._ 'I holde him wyse that worketh folily And, whan him list, can leve and part therfro; But in conning he is to lerne, trewly, 535 That wolde him-self conduite, and can not so. And he that wil not after counsayl do, His sute he putteth in desesperaunce; And al the good, which that shulde falle him to, Is left as deed, clene out of rémembraunce.' 540 _Lam._ 'Yet wil I sewe this mater faithfully Whyls I may live, what-ever be my chaunce; And if it hap that in my trouthe I dy, That deeth shal not do me no displesaunce. But whan that I, by your ful hard suffraunce, 545 Shal dy so trew, and with so greet a payne, Yet shal it do me moche the lesse grevaunce Than for to live a fals lover, certayne.' _La D._ 'Of me get ye right nought, this is no fable, I nil to you be neither hard nor strayt; 550 And right wil not, nor maner customable, To think ye shulde be sure of my conceyt. Who secheth sorowe, his be the receyt! Other counsayl can I not fele nor see, Nor for to lerne I cast not to awayte; 555 Who wil therto, let him assay, for me!' _Lam._ 'Ones must it be assayd, that is no nay, With such as be of reputacioun, And of trew love the right devoir to pay Of free hertes, geten by due raunsoun; 560 For free wil holdeth this opinioun, That it is greet duresse and discomfort To kepe a herte in so strayt a prisoun, That hath but oon body for his disport.' _La D._ 'I know so many cases mervaylous 565 That I must nede, of resoun, think certayn, That such entree is wonder perilous, And yet wel more, the coming bak agayn. Good or worship therof is seldom seyn; Wherefore I wil not make no suche aray 570 As for to fynde a plesaunce but barayn, Whan it shal cost so dere, the first assay.' _Lam._ 'Ye have no cause to doute of this matere, Nor you to meve with no such fantasyes To put me ferre al-out, as a straungere; 575 For your goodnesse can think and wel avyse, That I have made a prefe in every wyse By which my trouth sheweth open evidence; My long abyding and my trew servyse May wel be knowen by playn experience.' 580 _La D._ 'Of very right he may be called trew, And so must he be take in every place, That can deserve, and let as he ne knew, And kepe the good, if he it may purchace. For who that prayeth or sueth in any case, 585 Right wel ye wot, in that no trouth is preved; Suche hath ther ben, and are, that geten grace, And lese it sone, whan they it have acheved.' _Lam._ 'If trouth me cause, by vertue soverayne, To shew good love, and alway fynd contráry, 590 And cherish that which sleeth me with the payne, This is to me a lovely adversary! Whan that pitè, which long a-slepe doth tary, Hath set the fyne of al myn hevinesse, Yet her comfort, to me most necessary, 595 Shuld set my wil more sure in stablenesse.' _La D._ 'The woful wight, what may he thinke or say? The contrary of al joy and gladnesse. A sick body, his thought is al away From hem that fele no sorowe nor siknesse. 600 Thus hurtes ben of dyvers businesse Which love hath put to right gret hinderaunce, And trouthe also put in forgetfulnesse Whan they so sore begin to sighe askaunce.' _Lam._ 'Now god defend but he be havëlesse 605 Of al worship or good that may befal, That to the werst tourneth, by his lewdnesse, A gift of grace, or any-thing at al That his lady vouchsauf upon him cal, Or cherish him in honourable wyse! 610 In that defaut what-ever he be that fal Deserveth more than deth to suffre twyse!' _La D._ 'There is no juge y-set of such trespace By which of right oon may recovered be; Oon curseth fast, another doth manace, 615 Yet dyeth non, as ferre as I can see, But kepe their cours alway, in oon degrè, And evermore their labour doth encrese To bring ladyes, by their gret soteltè, For others gilte, in sorowe and disese!' 620 _Lam._ 'Al-be-it so oon do so greet offence, And be not deed, nor put to no juÿse, Right wel I wot, him gayneth no defence, But he must ende in ful mischévous wyse, And al that ever is good wil him dispyse. 625 For falshed is so ful of cursednesse That high worship shal never have enterpryse Where it reigneth and hath the wilfulnesse.' _La D._ 'Of that have they no greet fere now-a-days, Suche as wil say, and maynteyne it ther-to, 630 That stedfast trouthe is nothing for to prays In hem that kepe it long for wele or wo. Their busy hertes passen to and fro, They be so wel reclaymed to the lure, So wel lerned hem to withholde also, 635 And al to chaunge, whan love shuld best endure.' _Lam._ 'Whan oon hath set his herte in stable wyse In suche a place as is both good and trewe, He shuld not flit, but do forth his servyse Alway, withouten chaunge of any newe. 640 As sone as love beginneth to remewe, Al plesaunce goth anon, in litel space; For my party, al that shal I eschewe, Whyls that the soule abydeth in his place.' _La D._ 'To love trewly ther-as ye ought of right, 645 Ye may not be mistaken, doutëlesse; But ye be foul deceyved in your sight By lightly understanding, as I gesse. Yet may ye wel repele your businesse And to resoun somwhat have attendaunce, 650 Moch better than to byde, by fol simplesse, The feble socour of desesperaunce.' _Lam._ 'Resoun, counsayl, wisdom, and good avyse Ben under love arested everichoon, To which I can accorde in every wyse; 655 For they be not rebel, but stille as stoon; Their wil and myn be medled al in oon, And therwith bounden with so strong a cheyne That, as in hem, departing shal be noon, But pitè breke the mighty bond atwayne.' 660 _La D._ 'Who loveth not himself, what-ever he be In love, he stant forgete in every place; And of your wo if ye have no pitè, Others pitè bileve not to purchace; But beth fully assured in this case, 665 I am alway under oon ordinaunce, To have better; trusteth not after grace, And al that leveth tak to your plesaunce!' _Lam._ 'I have my hope so sure and so stedfast That suche a lady shulde nat fail pitè; 670 But now, alas! it is shit up so fast, That Daunger sheweth on me his crueltè. And if she see the vertue fayle in me Of trew servyce, then she to fayle also No wonder were; but this is the suretè, 675 I must suffre, which way that ever it go.' _La D._ 'Leve this purpos, I rede you for the best; For lenger that ye kepe it thus in vayn, The lesse ye gete, as of your hertes rest, And to rejoice it shal ye never attayn. 680 Whan ye abyde good hope, to make you fayn, Ye shal be founde asotted in dotage; And in the ende, ye shal know for certayn, That hope shal pay the wrecches for their wage!' _Lam._ 'Ye say as falleth most for your plesaunce, 685 And your power is greet; al this I see; But hope shal never out of my rémembraunce, By whiche I felt so greet adversitè. For whan nature hath set in you plentè Of al goodnesse, by vertue and by grace, 690 He never assembled hem, as semeth me, To put Pitè out of his dwelling-place.' _La D._ 'Pitè of right ought to be resonable, And to no wight of greet disavantage; There-as is nede, it shuld be profitable, 695 And to the pitous shewing no damage. If a lady wil do so greet out-rage To shewe pitè, and cause her own debate, Of such pitè cometh dispitous rage, And of the love also right deedly hate.' 700 _Lam._ 'To comforte hem that live al comfortlesse, That is no harm, but worship to your name; But ye, that bere an herte of such duresse, And a fair body formed to the same, If I durst say, ye winne al this defame 705 By Crueltè, which sitteth you ful il, But-if Pitè, which may al this attame, In your high herte may rest and tary stil.' _La D._ 'What-ever he be that sayth he loveth me, And peraventure, I leve that it be so, 710 Ought he be wroth, or shulde I blamed be, Though I did noght as he wolde have me do? If I medled with suche or other mo, It might be called pitè manerlesse; And, afterward if I shulde live in wo, 715 Than to repent it were to late, I gesse.' _Lam._ 'O marble herte, and yet more hard, pardè, Which mercy may nat perce, for no labour, More strong to bowe than is a mighty tree, What vayleth you to shewe so greet rigour? 720 Plese it you more to see me dy this hour Before your eyen, for your disport and play, Than for to shewe som comfort or socour To respite deth, that chaseth me alway!' _La D._ 'Of your disese ye may have allegeaunce; 725 And as for myn, I lete it over-shake. Also, ye shal not dye for my plesaunce, Nor for your hele I can no surety make. I nil nat hate myn hert for others sake; Wepe they, laugh they, or sing, this I waraunt, 730 For this mater so wel to undertake That non of you shal make therof avaunt!' _Lam._ 'I can no skil of song; by god aloon, I have more cause to wepe in your presence; And wel I wot, avauntour am I noon, 735 For certainly, I love better silence. Oon shuld nat love by his hertes credence But he were sure to kepe it secretly; For avauntour is of no reverence Whan that his tonge is his most enemy.' 740 _La D._ 'Male-bouche in courte hath greet commaundement; Ech man studieth to say the worst he may. These fals lovers, in this tyme now present, They serve to boste, to jangle as a jay. The most secret wil wel that some men say 745 How he mistrusted is on some partyes; Wherfore to ladies what men speke or pray, It shuld not be bileved in no wyse.' _Lam._ 'Of good and il shal be, and is alway; The world is such; the erth it is not playn. 750 They that be good, the preve sheweth every day, And otherwyse, gret villany, certayn. Is it resoun, though oon his tonge distayne With cursed speche, to do him-self a shame, That such refuse shuld wrongfully remayne 755 Upon the good, renommed in their fame?' _La D._ 'Suche as be nought, whan they here tydings newe, That ech trespas shal lightly have pardoun, They that purposen to be good and trewe-- Wel set by noble disposicioun 760 To continue in good condicioun-- They are the first that fallen in damage, And ful freely their hertes abandoun To litel faith, with softe and fayr langage.' _Lam._ 'Now knowe I wel, of very certayntè, 765 Though oon do trewly, yet shal he be shent, Sith al maner of justice and pitè Is banisshed out of a ladyes entent. I can nat see but al is at oo stent, The good and il, the vyce and eek vertue! 770 Suche as be good shal have the punishment For the trespas of hem that been untrewe!' _La D._ 'I have no power you to do grevaunce, Nor to punisshe non other creature; But, to eschewe the more encomberaunce, 775 To kepe us from you al, I holde it sure. Fals semblaunce hath a visage ful demure, Lightly to cacche the ladies in a-wayt; Wherefore we must, if that we wil endure, Make right good watch; lo! this is my conceyt.' 780 _Lam._ 'Sith that of grace oo goodly word aloon May not be had, but alway kept in store, I pele to god, for he may here my moon, Of the duresse, which greveth me so sore. And of pitè I pleyn me further-more, 785 Which he forgat, in al his ordinaunce, Or els my lyf to have ended before, Which he so sone put out of rémembraunce.' _La D._ 'My hert, nor I, have don you no forfeyt, By which ye shulde complayne in any kynde. 790 There hurteth you nothing but your conceyt; Be juge your-self; for so ye shal it fynde. Ones for alway let this sinke in your mynde-- That ye desire shal never rejoysed be! Ye noy me sore, in wasting al this wynde; 795 For I have sayd y-nough, as semeth me.' VERBA AUCTORIS. This woful man roos up in al his payne, And so parted, with weping countenaunce; His woful hert almost to-brast in twayne, Ful lyke to dye, forth walking in a traunce, 800 And sayd, 'Now, deeth, com forth! thy-self avaunce, Or that myn hert forgete his propertè; And make shorter al this woful penaunce Of my pore lyfe, ful of adversitè!' Fro thens he went, but whider wist I nought, 805 Nor to what part he drow, in sothfastnesse; But he no more was in his ladies thought, For to the daunce anon she gan her dresse. And afterward, oon tolde me thus expresse, He rente his heer, for anguissh and for payne, 810 And in him-self took so gret hevinesse That he was deed, within a day or twayne. LENVOY. Ye trew lovers, this I beseche you al, Such +avantours, flee hem in every wyse, And as people defamed ye hem cal; 815 For they, trewly, do you gret prejudyse. Refus hath mad for al such flateryes His castelles strong, stuffed with ordinaunce, For they have had long tyme, by their offyce, The hool countrè of Love in obeysaunce. 820 And ye, ladyes, or what estat ye be, In whom Worship hath chose his dwelling-place, For goddes love, do no such crueltè, Namely, to hem that have deserved grace. Nor in no wyse ne folowe not the trace 825 Of her, that here is named rightwisly, Which by resoun, me semeth, in this case May be called LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCY. VERBA TRANSLATORIS. Go, litel book! god sende thee good passage! Chese wel thy way; be simple of manere; 830 Loke thy clothing be lyke thy pilgrimage, And specially, let this be thy prayere Un-to hem al that thee wil rede or here, Wher thou art wrong, after their help to cal Thee to correcte in any part or al. 835 Pray hem also, with thyn humble servyce, Thy boldënesse to pardon in this case; For els thou art not able, in no wyse, To make thy-self appere in any place. And furthermore, beseche hem, of their grace, 840 By their favour and supportacioun, To take in gree this rude translacioun, The which, god wot, standeth ful destitute Of eloquence, of metre, and of coloures, Wild as a beest, naked, without refute, 845 Upon a playne to byde al maner shoures. I can no more, but aske of hem socoures At whos request thou mad were in this wyse, Commaunding me with body and servyse. Right thus I make an ende of this processe, 850 Beseching him that al hath in balaunce That no trew man be vexed, causëlesse, As this man was, which is of rémembraunce; And al that doon their faythful observaunce, And in their trouth purpose hem to endure, 855 I pray god sende hem better aventure. _Explicit._ _From_ Th. (Thynne, ed. 1532); _collated with_ F. (Fairfax 16); and H. (Harl. 372). _Also in_ Ff. (Camb. Univ. Lib. Ff. 1. 6). _Bad spellings of_ Th. _are corrected by the_ MSS. TITLE. Th. H. La ... mercy; F. Balade de la Bele Dame sanz mercy. H. _adds_--Translatid ... Ros. 1. Th. F. Halfe; H. Half. 2. F. H. Ff. wrapt. 3. _All_ rose. 4. Th. Ff. -selfe; H. F. self. 5. F. matere; H. matier. Th. leuynge. 6. Th. must; F. sholde; H. shold. 7. H. to whom; F. the which; Th. whiche. Th. F. dysobey; H. sey nay. 9. Th. thynge. Ff. part; _rest_ parte. 10. Th. F. boke; H. book. Th. La bel; F. la bele; H. _om._ La. H. F. sanz; Th. sauns. 11. Th. Whiche. 12. Th. secratairie; F. secretare; H. secretarie. 13. H. ther-; Th. F. her-. Th. F. stode; H. stood. 14. Th. greatly ymagenynge. 15. Th. shulde; F. H. sholde; Ff. shuld. Th. the; F. H. this. 16. Ff. avysement; _rest_ adv. 17. F. H. Ff. Myn; Th. My. F. H. Ff. symplesse. 18. Th. -warde; strayte. 19. Th. myne. 20. Th. downe. 21. Th. conclusyon. 24. H. in-to. H. green; Th. F. grene. 25. Th. se; great. 26. F. H. Ff. bolded; Th. boldly. F. benyng; Th. benygne; H. benyngne. 27. F. H. Ff. That; Th. Whiche. Th. F. boke; H. booke. H. F. the; Th. Ff. this. Th. _om._ seid. 28. F. H. begynne. Th. please. (_From this point I silently correct the spelling of_ Th.) 33. Th. Ff. by; F. H. with. 35. Ff. soleyne (_for_ sole thus); _perhaps better_. 41. F. H. Ff. is; Th. doth. 42. F. felde. Th. maner of ease. 43. F. H. I; Th. as I. 44. F. H. Ff. nor doth noon other. 46. F. H. Ff. Were constreyned. 47. H. Myn eyen; F. Myn eyn; Th. My penne; Ff. My pen. Ff. neu_er_ haue knolege; H. haue knowlege (!); Th. neuer knowe; F. haue no knowlych. 49. F. H. Ff. And; Th. Tho. Th. _om._ if. 53. F. H. Ff. seke; Th. sicke. 54. Th. Ff. theyr; H. F. her (_often_). 55. F. H. balade or. 60. F. H. Ff. lyth with hir vndir hir tumbe in graue (Ff. I-graue). 65. Th. Ff. by; F. H. with. F. hath the forser vnschete. 66. Th. sperde; Ff. spred; F. sprad; H. spradde (!). 73. Th. H. _om._ good. 74. Th. _om._ Al. H. made than. 75. F. Ff. set; H. sette; Th. shette. F. H. Ff. boundes; Th. bondes. 77. F. H. thoughtes. Th. _om._ my. 79. F. I (_for_ it). 80. H. I purposid me to bide. 81. H. forth to. 83. F. H. Ff. but; Th. a. 84. F. H. gardeyn; Th. garden. 88. F. _om._ yet I; H. _om._ yet. 89. F. H. come; Th. came. 90. Th. her; F. H. Ff. their. 92. F. H. nede; Th. nedes. 95. H. F. Ff. eueryche by one and one; Th. euery one by one. 103. _So_ Ff.; H. F. Were none that serued in that place (!); Th. Ther were no deedly seruaunts in the place. 105. Ff. _per_aunt_er_. H. _om._ most. 106. Th. _om._ sitting. 110. F. com; H. come; Th. came. 111. H. F. man; Th. one; Ff. on. 115. Th. F. Ff. went; H. yode. 116. Th. F. Ff. Ful; H. At. 117. Th. _om._ good _and_ right. 122. F. H. Come; Th. Came. 124. F. H. _om. 2nd_ in. 133. F. H. feste; Th. feest. 134. Th. coude; _rest_ couth. F. H. _om._ it. 138. Th. H. bode. 143. F. eey; H. yee; Th. eye. Th. F. Ff. stedfast; H. faste. 144. Th. _om._ the. 145. F. H. And; Th. For. Th. Ff. shot; H. sight; F. seght. 146. H. fedired; F. fedred; Ff. federid; Th. fereful. 148. Th. I, or that; F. ther that; H. I that there. Th. iestes. 151. F. H. tendirly; Th. wonderly. 154. F. H. come; Th. came. 155. F. H. _om._ most. F. H. ruful; Ff. rewfull; Th. woful. F. H. Ff. semblaunce; Th. penaunce. 158. F. H. these; Th. the. 159. F. H. louer; Th. man he. 160. Th. _om._ but. 166. _All_ chase. 168. F. H. beautevous. 169. F. H. that; Th. so. F. H. set; Th. setteth. H. trist. 170. Th. the (_rightly_); H. there; F. Ff. their. 171. F. vndir a. 173. F. H. as; Th. that. 174. F. Ff. O; H. On; Th. One. F. H. vice. (!). H. ner (_for 1st_ nor). Th. Ff. nor; H. or; F. ne. Ff. apert; Th. H. perte;F. pert. 175. Th. garyson. Th. goodlynesse. 176. _All_ frounter. 178. F. H. Ff. her; Th. of (_twice_). 180. Th. standerde; F. standarte; H. standart. 183. Th. -drawe; H. -drewh. 184. Th. Ff. alone; F. H. _om._ 186. F. withes; H. Ff. wythyes; Th. wrethes. 188. H. Ff. thorughe; Th. through; F. thorgh. Th. no man might. 189. Th. this; H. his. F. H. come; Th. came. 191. Th. Set (_for_ Sith). H. herbier. 192. H. them. Th. but a. 193. Th. of a certayne. 195. Th. _om._ And. 196. _So_ F. H.; Th. bytwene hem two. 201. Th. more; H. Ff. neer. 204. Ff. hete; Th. heate; F. H. hert. 209. Th. Ff. gan; F. H. can. 210. F. H. The toon. 213-220. F. _omits_. 224. F. H. Ff. kyns; Th. kynde. 225. H. Ff. avise; Th. aduyse. 226. Th. it at; F. H. _om._ at. 227. H. enterprise. 228. F. H. It; Th. Yet. 229. Th. it be; F. H. _om._ it. 231. Th. Ff. eschewynge; F. H. escusyng. 234. F. H. to; Th. vnto. 235. _All_ ye. Th. Ff. right; F. even; H. euyn. 237. H. _om._ that. 238. Th. alway; F. H. ay to. 239. F. H. _om._ for. 240. Th. Withouten; F. Without. 241. H. gif; F. geve. 242. F. H. ayein; Th. any (!). 243. F. withouten; H. withoughtyn; Th. withoute. 248. F. Ff. mesurabely; Th. H. mesurably. 249. Th. Ff. your thought is; F. H. ye do ful. 251. Th. thynketh; F. H. think ye. Th. whyles; H. whil that; Ff. whils that. 252. F. matere; H. matier; Th. mater. 258. F. Ff. dyffiaunce. 259. F. H. Ff. to forbarre; Th. for to barre. 262. Th. _om._ hath. 263 Th. eye; F. eeye; H. yee; (_read_ y). 265. F. if that ye lyst to beholde; H. Ff. if ye liste to biholde; Th. if ye list ye may beholde. 267. H. nor; Th. F. Ff. ne. 273. Th. _om._ not. Th. her; F. H. Ff. his. 275. F. H. Ff. But; Th. By (!). 278. H. _om._ trewly. Th. Ff. nought; F. H. neuer. 281. F. beleue; H. bileue; Th. loue (!). 282. _So_ Ff.; H. F. _om._ greet (Th. you dyspleasaunce!). 284. _So_ F. Th.; H. encombrance. 290. F. I-falle; H. y-falle; Ff. falle; Th. fal. 297. Th. F. Ff. now; H. nought. 302. Th. it were; F. H. _om._ it. 303. F. sorow; H. sorwe; Th. Ff. sory. 304. F. H. stroye; Th. destroye. 308. F. H. oo; Th. one. 309. Th. Ff. nor; F. H. ne. 310. F. H. grete desire nor; Th. haue therin no. Th. _om._ right. 311. F. H. seke; Th. sicke. 312. Th. of; F. H. Ff. to. 313. F. H. their; Th. her. 317. Th. that ioy; F. H. _om._ that. 318. F. H. _om._ al. 319. F. H. their; Th. her. 320. Th. maner of age. 322. Th. by; F. H. Ff. of. Th. purchesse; F. H. purchace. 324. Th. tymes. F. _om._ the. H. dere his richesse bought has. Ff. rechace; _rest_ richesse. 326. Th. in (_for 2nd_ of). 327. F. ben; Th. be; H. are. 329. H. scoolys holden dieuly. 330. F. H. of; Th. al. 331. F. H. their hedes away. 334. F. set; Ff. sette; Th. H. setteth. 337. F. H. _om._ that. 340. Th. shewe; F. sue; H. Ff. sewe. 341. Th. Ff. awayte; F. H. abayte. 342. F. worching; H. worsching; Th. workyng. 344. F. H. know and fele. 346. F. H. him; Th. Ff. hem. 347. F. H. when that; Th. _om._ that. 348. F. H. their; Th. her. 350. _All_ avaunced loue. 351. Th. sharpe. F. H. this; Th. thus. 352. F. H. It; Th. Ff. Yet. 354. F. ton; H. toon; Th. one. F. H. the tother; Th. that other. 355. Th. _om._ the. Th. certeyne (!). 356. F. wonne; H. wonnen; Th. one (!). F. H. with; Th. in. 358. F. H. is; Th. thi_n_ke. 363. F. nor; H. ner; Th. and. Th. _om._ certayn. 364. F. H. stant; Th. standeth. F. enfeoffed. 366. Th. _om._ as. 371. F. H. rightwysly; Th. vnryghtfully (!). 384. Th. Ff. ayre; F. eir; H. heire. 386. Th. Thus be. F. H. Ff. man of; Th. maner. 387. F. layth; Th. layeth; H. latith. 388. H. losith. 389. F. Ff. currisch; H. kurressh; Th. cursed. 391. Th. F. right; H. ful. 392. F. H. their; Th. her. F. worchyng; H. werchyng; Th. workynge. 393. Th. and; F. H. a. F. Th. Ff. semyng; H. menyng. 394. F. H. Their; Th. Her (_thrice_). Th. _om._ be. Th. but; F. H. not. 400. H. sorowe. 401. Th. wheder; Ff. whedre; F. H. wher. 403. F. H. Ff. if; Th. of. 404. F. Ff. Then; H. Thanne; Th. That. 408. Th. sicknesse. 410. Th. disporte. Th. me. 411. Th. Ff. nor; F. H. ne. 412. F. H. Ff. it; Th. hem. 413. Th. Ff. byrde; F. bride; H. bridde. 415. H. _om. 2nd_ him. 416. F. H. _om. 2nd_ him. 419. Th. farther. 420. F. H. sett lesse. 422. F. H. Ff. of; Th. for. 424. F. H. of all; Th. Ff. _om._ of. 425. Th. wote; F. H. wytt. 429-716. _Misarranged in_ F. H.; Th. Ff. _follow the right order_. 429. (Th.) = 669 (F. H.). F. _om. 2nd_ by. 431. F. There-of. F. H. shulde; Th. shal. 432. Th. him that cometh and goth. 433. Th. holdeth. 434. Th. as to; F. H. Ff. _om._ as. 435. F. H. wolde; Th. Ff. wyl. 436. Th. desyringe (!). 438. Th. To; F. H. With. F. H. best and tendyrly; Th. Ff. _om._ best and. 440. F. H. _om._ no. F. H. Ff. yift; Th. gyftes. 442. F. Wheryn hym. 443. F. H. Ff. constreynte. 444. F. H. Ff. may not; Th. ca_n_ neuer. F. H. ne; Th. Ff. nor. 445. H. seche; F. beseche. 446. F. H. _om._ it. 450. Th. a curtyse; Ff. a corteys; F. H. curteysy. 456. Th. _om._ al. 460. H. loste (_for_ left). 461. F. H. Ff. neuer formed (fourmed); Th. founded neuer. 467. Th. no (_for_ non). F. eeyn; H. yeen. 468. H. That ne alle ar. 472. F. feoffeth. 474. Th. be (_for_ he). 475. F. H. _om._ his. 477-524. _Follows_ 572 _in_ F. H. 477 (Th.) = 525 (F. H.). 478. Th. Ff. so; H. sum; F. some. 479. H. sowndith. 481. H. Ff. thus; Th. this. 486. F. _om._ ye. H. F. your sesoun spende not. 488. H. Ff. foly; Th. folly. 489. Th. H. herte. H. F. folyly; Th. follyly. 492. H. F. And; Th. _om._ Th. to fal. 493. H. Th. faire. 494. H. Ff. had (_for_ hath). H. F. your; Th. Ff. his. 495. F. H. I neuer; Th. Ff. It neuer. 496. F. H. whiles. 500. H. F. not; Ff. nought; Th. neyther. 501. Th. gyfte; H. yifte. 502. Th. _om._ that. 503. Th. a gifte; H. F. Ff. _om._ a. 505. H. F. _om._ an. H. hurte ful fele (!). 506. H. F. Ff. in; Th. to. 508. H. F. neuer; Th. neyther. 509. H. F. Who; Th. Ff. He. 512. F. _om._ the. Th. reproveable. 513. F. H. feyled; Th. fayned. 514. Th. I mystoke; H. F. Ff. me mystoke. 515. F. entrepris. 516. H. F. goten. 517. H. Th. liste. 518. F. H. Secheth; Th. Seche a. 519. Th. preuayle. 523. H. hosithe (_for_ leseth). 525-572. _Follows_ 716 _in_ F. H. 528. H. hoole; Th. hole. 529. H. F. it; Th. I. H. F. _om._ ne. 530. H. soundyng. 531. H. F. it ar; Th. I se be. Th. Ff. fantasise; F. fantasyse; H. fantaisise. 533. H. F. Ff. folily; Th. no foly (!). 534. H. Th. parte. 536. F. condyte. 538. Th. Ff. sute; H. F. suerte. H. F. in; Th. in to. 539. Th. _om._ which. H. F. _om._ that. 540. H. F. Ff. left as; Th. lost and. F. dethe (!). 542. H. Ff. Whils; Th. Whyles. Th. _om._ may. 544. Th. Than; H. F. Ff. That. H. not; Th. F. _om._ 545. Ff. full; _rest om._ Th. H. harde. 546. H. triew; Th. true. H. grete; Th. great. F. Ff. _om._ a. 547. F. H. _om._ the; _read_ mochel less? 550. H. F. nyl; Th. wyl. H. Th. harde. 551. Th. no man (_for_ nor maner). 555. Th. cast me not. 556. H. F. ther-to; Th. therof. 558. H. F. beth. 559. H. trewe; Th. true. Ff. devoyr; H. duetes; F. dewtis; Th. honour. 560. Th. gotten. H. F. due; Th. dewe. 562. H. grete; Th. great. H. Th. -forte. 564. H. F. oo; Ff. on; Th. one. H. Th. -porte. 565. Ff. H. cases; _rest_ causes. 566. H. F. Which; Th. Ff. That. 567. H. F. Ff. entre; Th. auenture (!). 570. Th. Where I ne wyl make suche. 571. Th. but a; H. F. _om._ a. 573-620. _Follows_ 668 _in_ H. F. 573. F. matere; Th. mater. 574. Th. fantasyse; F. fantasise; H. fantesye. 576. F. Ff. avyse; Th. H. aduyse. 577. H. Ff. prefe; F. p_re_ue; Th. prise. 578. H. trouthe; Th. truthe. 579. H. Th. trewe. 581. H. Th. trewe. 583. H. Ff. deserue; Th. discerne (!). H. Th. knewe. 585. H. Ff. sueth; F. seweth; Th. swereth. 587. Th. geten; H. F. getith. 588. H. F. Ff. it haue; Th. haue it. 590. Th. H. shewe; fynde. 593. H. F. a slepe; Th. on slepe. 595. Th. H. comforte. 596. Ff. Shuld; H. F. Shulde; Th. Shal. 599. Th. sycke; H. F. seke. F. _om._ his. H. F. Ff. al awaye; Th. alway. 600. H. Ff. fele; Th. felen. H. sorwe; F. Ff. sorowe; Th. sore. 602. Th. _om._ right. Th. hindraunce. 604. H. Ff. so; Th. ful; F. _om._ 605. H. Th. defende. H. F. haueles; Th. harmlesse (!). 607. Th. _om._ the. 608. Th. gyfte; H. yifte. 609. Th. Ff. vouchesafe; H. vouchith sauf. 610. H. F. cherissh; Th. Ff. cherissheth. 611. H. Th. defaute. 613. H. F. of; Th. on. H. Th. suche. 614. H. one; F. [=o]n; Th. loue. 615. H. Th. One. 616. H. Th. none. 617. H. Th. her; _see_ 618. Th. course; H. corse. Th. H. one; F. a. 618. H. F. euere newe; Th. Ff. euermore. Ff. their; Th. theyr; H. there; F. thair. 619. Th. Ff. their great; H. F. _om._ great. H. F. subtilite; Th. subtelte; Ff. sotelte. 621-668. _Follows_ 524 _in_ F. H. 621. F. oone; H. on; Th. one. Th. dothe; great. 622. H. F. Ff. be; Th. is. H. F. Ff. Iuyse; Th. iustyse. 625. _So_ H. F. Ff.; Th. And al euer sayd god wyl. 626. Th. _om._ so. 627. Ff. highe; H. F. her; Th. his. H. F. shal; Th. Ff. may. 629. Th. great; F. H. _om._ Th. dayse; H. daies. 631. H. preys; Th. prayse. 632. F. H. Ff. for; Th. in. 633. Th. F. Theyr; H. There. 637. Th. one; H. on; Ff. won. 638. H. Ff. which (_for_ as). 643. _So_ F. H.; Th. As for my partie that. 644. Th. Whyle; H. F. Ff. Whils that. 645. F. H. ye; Th. it. 647. Th. H. foule. H. F. deceyued; Th. disceyued. 648. H. F. lightly; Th. light. 649. H. F. this; Th. Ff. your. 650. H. Ff. sumwhat haue; Th. haue some. 651. _All_ Moche. H. sonner; F. sunner; Th. Ff. better. Th. to abide. Ff. fole; _rest_ foly. Th. simplenes; _rest_ simplesse. 653. F. Ff. avyse; Th. H. aduyse. 656. Th. as a; H. F. Ff. _om._ a. 657. H. There. Th. H. one; Ff. won. 659. Th. Ff. as (_rightly_); H. F. is. Th. H. none. 660. Th. H. bonde. 661. H. Ff. Who loueth; F. Who love; Th. Ye loue. H. F. hym-; Th. your-. H. F. he be; Th. ye be. 662. _So_ H. F. Ff.; Th. That in loue stande. 664. Th. bileue ye; _rest om._ ye. 665. H. F. beth; Th. be. Th. as in; _rest om._ as. 666. Th. alway; H. F. alwaies. Th. one; Ff. on; H. an. 667. F. H. trusteth; Th. trust. 668. Th. H. take. 669-716. _Follows_ 428 _in_ F. H. 670. Th. lacke; H. F. Ff. faile. 673. H. faileth. 674. F. H. Ff. then she to; Th. thoughe she do. 675. Th. my; F. H. Ff. the. H. surtee; F. seurte. 677. H. purpos; Th. pupose. 678. Th. For the lenger ye. H. F. Ff. thus; Th. is. 680. H. F. Ff. ye; Th. you. 684. Th. _om._ That. H. ther; Th. her. 686. Th. great. 688. F. H. Ff. felt; Th. fele. Th. great. 691. H. F. semeth; Th. semed. 694. H. F. of; Th. do no. 696. F. damage; H. da_m_mage; Th. Ff. domage. 697. H. F. _om._ wil. 699. H. dispetous. 700. Th. suche; H. F. Ff. the. 702. Th. H. harme. H. F. Ff. worship; Th. co_m_forte. 703. H. F. Ff. bere an; Th. haue a. Th. H. suche. 704. H. F. Ff. _om._ And. _All_ fayre. H. F. Ff. body; Th. lady (!). H. formed to; F. Ff. y-formed to; Th. I must affirme (!). 710. H. F. Ff. that; Th. wel. 712. H. noght; Th. not. 714. H. F. Ff. manerles; Th. mercylesse. 717. _Here_ H. F. _agree with_ Th. _again_. Ff. marbre. Th. H. harde. 720. H. F. Ff. vaileth; Th. auayleth. Th. great. 721. H. F. Please; Th. Pleaseth. Th. H. dye. 722. Th. H. dysporte. 723. H. F. Ff. or; Th. and. 724. Th. H. dethe. H. F. that; Th. whiche. 725. Th. H. disease. 726. H. F. Ff. shake; Th. slake. 728. Th. heale. 729. H. F. Ff. nyl; Th. wyl. H. F. Ff. hate myn herte; Th. hurte my selfe. 730. Th. they I; H. F. Ff. this I. 731. H. F. wel to: Th. wyl I. 732. H. F. you; Th. hem. 733. H. noo; Th. nat. H. F. Ff. song; Th. loue. Th. alone. 735. H. F. Ff. I; Th. ye. Th. H. wote. Th. none. 737. Th. One; H. On. 739. Th. H. a vauntour; _cf._ l. 735. 741. Th. great. 744. H. F. Ff. to boste; Th. best. 745. H. wil wele; F. Ff. wille wel; Th. ywis. H. F. Ff. that; Th. yet. 746. H. F. on; Th. in. F. Th. p_ar_tyse; Ff. partyes; H. party. 747. H. F. Ff. what; Th. whan so. Th. say (_for_ pray). 748. H. F. shal; Ff. schuld; Th. shulde. 750. Th. H. suche. Th. Ff. erth; H. F. dethe. H. F. Ff. it is not; Th. is not al. 751. H. F. preve; Th. profe. 752. Th. great villony. 753. F. Ff. Is it; Th. H. It is. Th. H. one. 755. H. F. refuse. 756. Th. renomed; H. renommeed. F. H. her (_for_ their). 757. Th. here; H. herde. 758. Th. H. eche. 759. H. purposen; F. porposyn; Th. pursuen. 760. _So_ H. F. Ff.; Th. Wyl not set by none il d. 761. Th. in euery; H. F. _om._ euery. 763. Ff. thair; F. ther; H. theym; Th. the. F. H. _om._ hertes. 764. Th. faithe. Th. Ff. softe and fayre; H. faire and softe. 766. F. H. Though; Th. Ff. If. _All_ one. 768. H. banshid. 769. H. F. oo; Th. one. 770. Th. the (_for 1st_ and); H. F. and. Ff. eke; _rest_ eke the. 771. H. Ff. shal; Th. such. 772. H. F. ben; Ff. beth; Th. lyue. 777. F. H. Ff. visage; Th. face (!). 778. H. F. Ff. the; Th. these. Th. H. Ff. a wayte. 779. F. H. Ff. yf that we wil; Th. if we wyl here. 780. Th. H. co_n_ceyte. 781. F. H. oo; Th. a. Th. worde. H. F. Ff. allone; Th. nat one. 782. F. H. not; Th. nowe. Th. kepte. 783. H. F. Ff. pele; Th. appele. _All_ mone (_read_ moon). 785. H. Ff. pleyne me; F. pleyn me; Th. complayne. 786. Th. H. forgate. 787. H. elles. 788. Ff. H. F. he so sone put; Th. so sone am put. 789. Th. H. forfeyte. 791. _So_ H. F. Ff.; Th. Nothing hurteth you but your owne conceyte. 792. H. shal ye. 793. H. F. Ones for; Th. Thus. 794. _So_ H. Ff.; _so_ F. (_with_ the _for_ ye); Th. That your desyre shal neuer recouered be. 796. Th. ynoughe. TITLE; _in_ H. 797. Th. rose; H. rosse. H. F. al in; Th. Ff. in al. 798. Ff. partyd; _rest_ departed. 799. Th. to-brast; H. F. Ff. it brest. 800. H. forth walkyng; Th. Ff. walkynge forth. 801. Th. _om._ Now. 803. Th. Ff. shorter; H. shorte; F. short. 805. H. Ff. whider; Th. whither. 806. F. party. F. Ff. drow; H. drowh; Th. drewe. 809. Th. Ff. thus; H. it; F. _om._ 811. Th. great. TITLE; _in_ Th. 813. H. F. Ff. Ye; Th. The. F. trew; H. trewe; Th. true. Th. thus; H. Ff. this. 814. Ff. aventours; _rest_ aventures (_see note_). Th. flie; H. F. fle. 816. Th. great. 817. Th. _omits this line; from_ H. F. Ff. H. F. made. H. F. Ff. flaterise. 821. Th. H. estate; Ff. astate. 822. H. F. Ff. In; Th. Of. 824. Ff. haue; F. hath; H. _om._ Th. _omits the line_. 825. H. folwe ye not; F. folowe ye not; Ff. folowe not; Th. foule not. _After_ 828, F. _has_--Explicit la bele dame sanz mercy; H. F. Verba translatoris. 829. Th. H. Ff. the. 833. H. F. _om._ al. _All_ the. 834. Th. hir (_for_ their). 835. Th. H. The. 837. Th. cace; H. caas. 838. H. elles. 840, 841. Th. her (_for_ their). 843. Th. H. wote. 844. Th. _om._ and. 845. H. F. Wilde; Th. Ff. Lyke. 846. Ff. tabyde; Th. to abyde. 847. H. axe. 848. Th. Ff. were made; F. was made; H. made was. 850. H. F. Ff. processe; Th. prosses. 852. Th. H. trewe. 854. Th. done her; Ff. do thair; H. dothe here; F. doth thair. 855. Th. her (_for_ their). _After_ 856; Th. Explicit; H. Amen. * * * * * XVII. THE TESTAMENT OF CRESSEID. Ane dooly sesoun to ane cairfull dyte Suld correspond, and be equivalent. Richt sa it wes quhen I began to wryte This tragedy; the wedder richt fervent, Quhen Aries, in middis of the Lent, 5 Shouris of haill can fra the north discend; That scantly fra the cauld I micht defend. Yit nevertheles, within myn orature I stude, quhen Tytan had his bemis bricht Withdrawin doun and sylit under cure; 10 And fair Venus, the bewty of the nicht, Uprais, and set unto the west full richt Hir goldin face, in oppositioun Of god Phebus direct discending doun. Throwout the glas hir bemis brast sa fair 15 That I micht see, on every syde me by, The northin wind had purifyit the air, And shed the misty cloudis fra the sky. The froist freisit, the blastis bitterly Fra pole Artyk come quhisling loud and shill, 20 And causit me remuf aganis my will. For I traistit that Venus, luifis quene, To quhom sum-tyme I hecht obedience, My faidit hart of luf sho wald mak grene; And therupon, with humbil reverence, 25 I thocht to pray hir hy magnificence; But for greit cald as than I lattit was, And in my chalmer to the fyr can pas. Thocht luf be hait, yit in ane man of age It kendillis nocht sa sone as in youthheid, 30 Of quhom the blude is flowing in ane rage; And in the auld the curage +douf and deid, Of quhilk the fyr outward is best remeid, To help be phisik quhair that nature failit; I am expert, for baith I have assailit. 35 I mend the fyr, and beikit me about, Than tuik ane drink my spreitis to comfort, And armit me weill fra the cauld thairout. To cut the winter-nicht, and mak it short, I tuik ane quair, and left all uther sport, 40 Writtin be worthy Chaucer glorious, Of fair Cresseid and lusty Troilus. And thair I fand, efter that Diomeid Ressavit had that lady bricht of hew, How Troilus neir out of wit abraid, 45 And weipit soir, with visage paill of hew; For quhilk wanhope his teiris can renew, Quhill +esperans rejoisit him agane: Thus quhyl in joy he levit, quhyl in pane. Of hir behest he had greit comforting, 50 Traisting to Troy that sho suld mak retour, Quhilk he desyrit maist of eirdly thing, For-quhy sho was his only paramour. Bot quhen he saw passit baith day and hour Of hir gaincome, than sorrow can oppres 55 His woful hart in cair and hevines. Of his distres me neidis nocht reheirs, For worthy Chaucer, in the samin buik, In guidly termis and in joly veirs Compylit hes his cairis, quha will luik. 60 To brek my sleip ane uther quair I tuik, In quilk I fand the fatall desteny Of fair Cresseid, that endit wretchitly. Quha wait gif all that Chauceir wrait was trew? Nor I wait nocht gif this narratioun 65 Be authoreist, or fenyeit of the new Be sum poeit, throw his inventioun, Maid to report the lamentatioun And woful end of this lusty Cresseid, And quhat distres sho thoillit, and quhat deid. 70 Quhen Diomed had all his appetyt, And mair, fulfillit of this fair lady, Upon ane uther he set his haill delyt, And send to hir ane lybel of répudy, And hir excludit fra his company. 75 Than desolait sho walkit up and doun, And, sum men sayis, into the court commoun. O fair Cresseid! the flour and _A-per-se_ Of Troy and Grece, how was thou fortunait, To change in filth all thy feminitee, 80 And be with fleshly lust sa maculait, And go amang the Greikis air and lait Sa giglot-lyk, takand thy foull plesance! I have pity thee suld fall sic mischance! Yit nevertheles, quhat-ever men deme or say 85 In scornful langage of thy brukilnes, I sall excuse, als far-furth as I may, Thy womanheid, thy wisdom, and fairnes, The quilk Fortoun hes put to sic distres As hir pleisit, and na-thing throw the gilt 90 Of thee, throw wikkit langage to be spilt. This fair lady, in this wys destitut Of all comfort and consolatioun, Richt prively, but fellowship, on fut Disgysit passit far out of the toun 95 Ane myle or twa, unto ane mansioun Beildit full gay, quhair hir father Calchas, Quhilk than amang the Greikis dwelland was. Quhan he hir saw, the caus he can inquyr Of hir cuming; sho said, syching full soir, 100 'Fra Diomeid had gottin his desyr He wox wery, and wald of me no moir!' Quod Calchas, 'Douchter, weip thow not thairfoir; Peraventure all cummis for the best; Welcum to me; thow art full deir ane gest.' 105 This auld Calchas, efter the law was tho, Wes keeper of the tempill, as ane preist, In quhilk Venus and hir son Cupido War honourit; and his chalmer was thaim neist; To quhilk Cresseid, with baill aneuch in breist, 110 Usit to pas, hir prayeris for to say; Quhill at the last, upon ane solempne day, As custom was, the pepill far and neir, Befoir the none, unto the tempill went With sacrifys devoit in thair maneir. 115 But still Cresseid, hevy in hir intent, In-to the kirk wald not hir-self present, For giving of the pepil ony deming Of hir expuls fra Diomeid the king: But past into ane secreit orature 120 Quhair sho micht weip hir wofull desteny. Behind hir bak sho cloisit fast the dure, And on hir knëis bair fell down in hy. Upon Venus and Cupid angerly Sho cryit out, and said on this same wys, 125 'Allas! that ever I maid yow sacrifys! Ye gave me anis ane devyn responsaill That I suld be the flour of luif in Troy; Now am I maid an unworthy outwaill, And all in cair translatit is my joy. 130 Quha sall me gyde? quha sall me now convoy, Sen I fra Diomeid and nobill Troilus Am clene excludit, as abject odious? O fals Cupide, is nane to wyte bot thow And thy mother, of luf the blind goddes! 135 Ye causit me alwayis understand and trow The seid of luf was sawin in my face, And ay grew grene throw your supply and grace. But now, allas! that seid with froist is slane, And I fra luifferis left, and all forlane!' 140 Quhen this was said, doun in ane extasy, Ravishit in spreit, intill ane dream sho fell; And, be apperance, hard, quhair sho did ly, Cupid the king ringand ane silver bell, Quhilk men micht heir fra hevin unto hell; 145 At quhais sound befoir Cupide appeiris The sevin planetis, discending fra thair spheiris, Quhilk hes powèr of all thing generábill To reull and steir, be thair greit influence, Wedder and wind and coursis variábill. 150 And first of all Saturn gave his sentence, Quhilk gave to Cupid litill reverence, But as ane busteous churl, on his maneir, Com crabbitly, with auster luik and cheir. His face fronsit, his lyr was lyk the leid 155 His teith chatterit and cheverit with the chin His ene drowpit, how, sonkin in his heid Out of his nois the meldrop fast can rin With lippis bla, and cheikis leine and thin The yse-shoklis that fra his hair doun hang 160 Was wonder greit, and as ane speir als lang. Atour his belt his lyart lokkis lay Felterit unfair, ourfret with froistis hoir; His garmound and his +gyte full gay of gray; His widderit weid fra him the wind out woir. 165 Ane busteous bow within his hand he boir; Under his gyrdil ane flash of felloun flanis Fedderit with yse, and heidit with hail-stanis. Than Juppiter richt fair and amiábill, God of the starnis in the firmament, 170 And nureis to all thing[is] generábill, Fra his father Saturn far different, With burely face, and browis bricht and brent; Upon his heid ane garland wonder gay Of flouris fair, as it had been in May. 175 His voice was cleir, as cristal wer his ene; As goldin wyr sa glitterand was his hair; His garmound and his gyte full gay of grene, With goldin listis gilt on every gair; Ane burely brand about his middill bair. 180 In his right hand he had ane groundin speir, Of his father the wraith fra us to weir. Nixt efter him com Mars, the god of ire, Of stryf, debait, and all dissensioun; To chyde and fecht, als feirs as ony fyr; 185 In hard harnes, hewmound and habirgeoun, And on his hanche ane rousty fell fachioun: And in his hand he had ane rousty sword, Wrything his face with mony angry word. Shaikand his sword, befoir Cupide he com 190 With reid visage and grisly glowrand ene; And at his mouth ane bullar stude of fome, Lyk to ane bair quhetting his tuskis kene Richt tuilyour-lyk, but temperance in tene; Ane horn he blew, with mony bosteous brag, 195 Quhilk all this warld with weir hes maid to wag. Than fair Phebus, lanterne and lamp of licht Of man and beist, baith frute and flourishing, Tender nuréis, and banisher of nicht, And of the warld causing, be his moving 200 And influence, lyf in all eirdly thing; Without comfort of quhom, of force to nocht Must all ga dy, that in this warld is wrocht. As king royáll he raid upon his chair, The quhilk Phaeton gydit sum-tyme unricht; 205 The brichtnes of his face, quhen it was bair, Nane micht behald for peirsing of his sicht. This goldin cart with fyry bemes bricht Four yokkit steidis, full different of hew, But bait or tyring throw the spheiris drew. 210 The first was soyr, with mane als reid as rois, Callit Eöy, in-to the orient; The secund steid to name hecht Ethiös, Quhytly and paill, and sum-deill ascendent; The thrid Peros, richt hait and richt fervent; 215 The feird was blak, callit +Philegoney, Quhilk rollis Phebus down in-to the sey. Venus was thair present, that goddes gay, Hir sonnis querrel for to defend, and mak Hir awin complaint, cled in ane nyce array, 220 The ane half grene, the uther half sabill-blak; Quhyte hair as gold, kemmit and shed abak; But in hir face semit greit variance, Quhyles perfit treuth, and quhylës inconstance. Under smyling sho was dissimulait, 225 Provocative with blenkis amorous; And suddanly changit and alterait, Angry as ony serpent venemous, Richt pungitive with wordis odious. Thus variant sho was, quha list tak keip, 230 With ane eye lauch, and with the uther weip:-- In taikning that all fleshly paramour, Quhilk Venus hes in reull and governance, Is sum-tyme sweit, sum-tyme bitter and sour, Richt unstabill, and full of variance, 235 Mingit with cairfull joy, and fals plesance; Now hait, now cauld; now blyth, now full of wo; Now grene as leif, now widderit and ago. With buik in hand than com Mercurius, Richt eloquent and full of rethory; 240 With pólite termis and delicious; With pen and ink to réport all redy; Setting sangis, and singand merily. His hude was reid, heklit atour his croun, Lyk to ane poeit of the auld fassoun. 245 Boxis he bair with fine electuairis, And sugerit syropis for digestioun; Spycis belangand to the pothecairis, With mony hailsum sweit confectioun; Doctour in phisik, cled in scarlot goun, 250 And furrit weill, as sic ane aucht to be, Honest and gude, and not ane word coud le. Nixt efter him com lady Cynthia, The last of all, and swiftest in hir spheir, Of colour blak, buskit with hornis twa, 255 And in the nicht sho listis best appeir; Haw as the leid, of colour na-thing cleir. For all hir licht sho borrowis at hir brothir Titan; for of hir-self sho hes nane uther. Hir gyte was gray, and full of spottis blak; 260 And on hir breist ane churl paintit ful evin, Beirand ane bunch of thornis on his bak, Quhilk for his thift micht clim na nar the hevin. Thus quhen they gadderit war, thir goddis sevin, Mercurius they cheisit with ane assent 265 To be foir-speikar in the parliament. Quha had ben thair, and lyking for to heir His facound toung and termis exquisyte, Of rhetorik the praktik he micht leir, In breif sermone ane pregnant sentence wryte. 270 Befoir Cupide vailing his cap a lyte, Speiris the caus of that vocacioun; And he anon shew his intencioun. 'Lo!' quod Cupide, 'quha will blaspheme the name Of his awin god, outhir in word or deid, 275 To all goddis he dois baith lak and shame, And suld have bitter panis to his meid. I say this by yonder wretchit Cresseid, The quhilk throw me was sum-tyme flour of lufe, Me and my mother starkly can reprufe. 280 Saying, of hir greit infelicitè I was the caus; and my mother Venus, Ane blind goddes hir cald, that micht not see, With slander and defame injurious. Thus hir leving unclene and lecherous 285 Sho wald returne on me and [on] my mother, To quhom I shew my grace abone all uther. And sen ye ar all sevin deificait, Participant of dévyn sapience, This greit injúry don to our hy estait 290 Me-think with pane we suld mak recompence; Was never to goddis don sic violence. As weill for yow as for myself I say; Thairfoir ga help to révenge, I yow pray.' Mercurius to Cupid gave answeir, 295 And said, 'Shir king, my counsall is that ye Refer yow to the hyest planeit heir, And tak to him the lawest of degrè, The pane of Cresseid for to modify; As god Saturn, with him tak Cynthia.' 300 'I am content,' quod he, 'to tak thay twa.' Than thus proceidit Saturn and the Mone, Quhen thay the mater rypely had degest; For the dispyt to Cupid sho had done, And to Venus oppin and manifest, 305 In all hir lyf with pane to be opprest And torment sair, with seiknes incurábill, And to all lovers be abominábill. This dulefull sentence Saturn tuik on hand, And passit doun quhair cairfull Cresseid lay; 310 And on hir heid he laid ane frosty wand, Than lawfully on this wyse can he say; 'Thy greit fairnes, and al thy bewty gay, Thy wantoun blude, and eik thy goldin hair, Heir I exclude fra thee for evermair. 315 I change thy mirth into melancholy, Quhilk is the mother of all pensivenes; Thy moisture and thy heit in cald and dry; Thyne insolence, thy play and wantones To greit diseis: thy pomp and thy riches 320 In mortall neid; and greit penuritie Thow suffer sall, and as ane beggar die.' O cruel Saturn, fraward and angry, Hard is thy dome, and to malicious! On fair Cresseid quhy hes thow na mercy, 325 Quhilk was sa sweit, gentill, and amorous? Withdraw thy sentence, and be gracious As thow was never; so shawis thow thy deid, Ane wraikfull sentence gevin on fair Cresseid. Than Cynthia, quhen Saturn past away, 330 Out of hir sait discendit down belyve, And red ane bill on Cresseid quhair sho lay, Contening this sentence diffinityve:-- 'Fra heil of body I thee now depryve, And to thy seiknes sal be na recure, 335 But in dolóur thy dayis to indure. Thy cristall ene minglit with blude I mak, Thy voice sa cleir unplesand, hoir, and hace; Thy lusty lyre ourspred with spottis blak, And lumpis haw appeirand in thy face. 340 Quhair thow cummis, ilk man sall flee the place; Thus sall thou go begging fra hous to hous, With cop and clapper, lyk ane lazarous.' This dooly dream, this ugly visioun Brocht to ane end, Cresseid fra it awoik, 345 And all that court and convocatioun Vanischit away. Than rais sho up and tuik Ane poleist glas, and hir shaddow coud luik; And quhen sho saw hir face sa déformait, Gif sho in hart was wa aneuch, god wait! 350 Weiping full sair, 'Lo! quhat it is,' quod she, 'With fraward langage for to mufe and steir Our crabbit goddis, and sa is sene on me! My blaspheming now have I bocht full deir; All eirdly joy and mirth I set areir. 355 Allas, this day! Allas, this wofull tyde, Quhen I began with my goddis to chyde!' Be this was said, ane child com fra the hall To warn Cresseid the supper was redy; First knokkit at the dure, and syne coud call-- 360 'Madame, your father biddis you cum in hy; He has mervell sa lang on grouf ye ly, And sayis, "Your prayërs been to lang sum-deill; The goddis wait all your intent full weill."' Quod sho, 'Fair child, ga to my father deir, 365 And pray him cum to speik with me anon.' And sa he did, and said, 'Douchter, quhat cheir?' 'Allas!' quod she, 'father, my mirth is gon!' 'How sa?' quod he; and sho can all expone, As I have tauld, the vengeance and the wrak, 370 For hir trespas, Cupide on hir coud tak. He luikit on hir ugly lipper face, The quhilk befor was quhyte as lilly-flour; Wringand his handis, oftymes he said, Allas! That he had levit to see that wofull hour! 375 For he knew weill that thair was na succour To hir seiknes; and that dowblit his pane; Thus was thair cair aneuch betwix tham twane. Quhen thay togidder murnit had full lang, Quod Cresseid, 'Father, I wald not be kend; 380 Thairfoir in secreit wyse ye let me gang To yon hospítall at the tounis end; And thidder sum meit, for cheritie, me send To leif upon; for all mirth in this eird Is fra me gane; sik is my wikkit weird.' 385 Than in ane mantill and ane bevar hat, With cop and clapper, wonder prively, He opnit ane secreit yet, and out thairat Convoyit hir, that na man suld espy, Unto ane village half ane myle thairby; 390 Deliverit hir in at the spittail-hous, And dayly sent hir part of his almous. Sum knew hir weill, and sum had na knawlege Of hir, becaus sho was sa déformait With bylis blak, ourspred in hir visage, 395 And hir fair colour faidit and alterait. Yit thay presumit, for hir hy regrait And still murning, sho was of nobill kin; With better will thairfoir they tuik hir in. The day passit, and Phebus went to rest, 400 The cloudis blak ourquhelmit all the sky; God wait gif Cresseid was ane sorrowful gest, Seeing that uncouth fair and herbery. But meit or drink sho dressit hir to ly In ane dark corner of the hous allone; 405 And on this wyse, weiping, sho maid hir mone. THE COMPLAINT OF CRESSEID. 'O sop of sorrow sonken into cair! O caytive Cresseid! now and ever-mair Gane is thy joy and all thy mirth in eird; Of all blyithnes now art thow blaiknit bair; 410 Thair is na salve may saif thee of thy sair! Fell is thy fortoun, wikkit is thy weird; Thy blis is baneist, and thy baill on breird! Under the eirth god gif I gravin wer, Quhar nane of Grece nor yit of Troy micht heird! 415 Quhair is thy chalmer, wantounly besene With burely bed, and bankouris browderit bene, Spycis and wynis to thy collatioun; The cowpis all of gold and silver shene, The swete meitis servit in plaittis clene, 420 With saipheron sals of ane gude sessoun; Thy gay garmentis, with mony gudely goun, Thy plesand lawn pinnit with goldin prene? All is areir thy greit royáll renoun! Quhair is thy garding, with thir greissis gay 425 And fresshe flouris, quhilk the quene Floray Had paintit plesandly in every pane, Quhair thou was wont full merily in May To walk, and tak the dew be it was day, And heir the merle and mavis mony ane; 430 With ladyis fair in carrolling to gane, And see the royal rinkis in thair array In garmentis gay, garnischit on every grane? Thy greit triumphand fame and hy honour, Quhair thou was callit of eirdly wichtis flour, 435 All is decayit; thy weird is welterit so, Thy hy estait is turnit in darknes dour! This lipper ludge tak for thy burelie bour, And for thy bed tak now ane bunch of stro. For waillit wyne and meitis thou had tho, 440 Tak mowlit breid, peirry, and syder sour; But cop and clapper, now is all ago. My cleir voice and my courtly carrolling, Quhair I was wont with ladyis for to sing, Is rawk as ruik, full hiddeous, hoir, and hace; 445 My plesand port all utheris precelling, Of lustines I was held maist conding; Now is deformit the figour of my face; To luik on it na leid now lyking hes. Sowpit in syte, I say with sair siching-- 450 Lugeit amang the lipper-leid--"Alas!" O ladyis fair of Troy and Grece, attend My misery, quhilk nane may comprehend, My frivoll fortoun, my infelicitie, My greit mischief, quhilk na man can amend. 455 Be war in tyme, approchis neir the end, And in your mynd ane mirrour mak of me. As I am now, peradventure that ye, For all your micht, may cum to that same end, Or ellis war, gif ony war may be. 460 Nocht is your fairnes bot ane faiding flour, Nocht is your famous laud and hy honour Bot wind inflat in uther mennis eiris; Your roising reid to rotting sall retour. Exempill mak of me in your memour, 465 Quhilk of sic thingis wofull witnes beiris. All welth in eird away as wind it weiris; Be war thairfoir; approchis neir the hour; Fortoun is fikkil, quhen sho beginnis and steiris.'-- Thus chydand with her drery desteny, 470 Weiping, sho woik the nicht fra end to end, But all in vane; hir dule, hir cairfull cry Micht nocht remeid, nor yit hir murning mend. Ane lipper-lady rais, and till hir wend, And said, 'Quhy spurnis thou aganis the wall, 475 To sla thyself, and mend na-thing at all? Sen that thy weiping dowbillis bot thy wo, I counsall thee mak vertew of ane neid, To leir to clap thy clapper to and fro, And +live efter the law of lipper-leid.' 480 Thair was na buit, bot forth with thame sho yeid Fra place to place, quhill cauld and hounger sair Compellit hir to be ane rank beggair. That samin tyme, of Troy the garnisoun, Quhilk had to chiftane worthy Troilus, 485 Throw jeopardy of weir had strikkin doun Knichtis of Grece in number mervellous. With greit triúmph and laud victorious Agane to Troy richt royally thay raid The way quhair Cresseid with the lipper baid. 490 Seing that company cum, all with ane stevin They gaif ane cry, and shuik coppis gude speid; Said, 'Worthy lordis, for goddis lufe of hevin, To us lipper part of your almous-deid.' Than to thair cry nobill Troilus tuik heid; 495 Having pity, neir by the place can pas Quhair Cresseid sat, nat witting quhat sho was. Than upon him sho kest up baith her ene, And with ane blenk it com in-to his thocht That he sum-tyme hir face befoir had sene; 500 But sho was in sic ply he knew hir nocht. Yit than hir luik in-to his mind it brocht The sweit visage and amorous blenking Of fair Cresseid, sumtyme his awin darling. Na wonder was, suppois in mynd that he 505 Tuik hir figure sa sone, and lo! now, quhy; The idole of ane thing in cace may be Sa deip imprentit in the fantasy, That it deludis the wittis outwardly, And sa appeiris in forme and lyke estait 510 Within the mynd as it was figurait. Ane spark of lufe than till his hart coud spring, And kendlit all his body in ane fyre; With hait fevir ane sweit and trimbilling Him tuik, quhill he was redy to expyre; 515 To beir his sheild his breist began to tyre; Within ane whyle he changit mony hew, And nevertheles not ane ane-uther knew. For knichtly pity and memoriall Of fair Cresseid, ane girdill can he tak, 520 Ane purs of gold and mony gay jowáll, And in the skirt of Cresseid doun can swak; Than raid away, and not ane word he spak, Pensive in hart, quhill he com to the toun, And for greit cair oft-syis almaist fell doun. 525 The lipper-folk to Cresseid than can draw, To see the equall distribucioun Of the almous; but quhan the gold they saw, Ilk ane to uther prevely can roun, And said, 'Yon lord hes mair affectioun, 530 However it be, unto yon lazarous Than to us all; we knaw be his almous.' 'Quhat lord is yon?' quod sho, 'have ye na feill, Hes don to us so greit humanitie?' 'Yes,' quod a lipper-man, 'I knaw him weill; 535 Shir Troilus it is, gentill and free.' Quhen Cresseid understude that it was he, Stiffer than steill thair stert ane bitter stound Throwout hir hart, and fell doun to the ground. Quhen sho, ourcom with syching sair and sad, 540 With mony cairfull cry and cald--'Ochane! Now is my breist with stormy stoundis stad, Wrappit in wo, ane wretch full will of wane'; Than swounit sho oft or sho coud refrane, And ever in hir swouning cryit sho thus: 545 'O fals Cresseid, and trew knicht Troilus! Thy luf, thy lawtee, and thy gentilnes I countit small in my prosperitie; Sa elevait I was in wantones, And clam upon the fickill quheill sa hie; 550 All faith and lufe, I promissit to thee, Was in the self fickill and frivolous; O fals Cresseid, and trew knicht Troilus! For lufe of me thou keipt gude countinence, Honest and chaist in conversatioun; 555 Of all wemen protectour and defence Thou was, and helpit thair opinioun. My mynd, in fleshly foull affectioun, Was inclynit to lustis lecherous; Fy! fals Cresseid! O, trew knicht Troilus! 560 Lovers, be war, and tak gude heid about Quhom that ye lufe, for quhom ye suffer paine; I lat yow wit, thair is richt few thairout Quhom ye may traist, to have trew lufe againe; Preif quhen ye will, your labour is in vaine. 565 Thairfoir I reid ye tak thame as ye find; For they ar sad as widdercock in wind. Becaus I knaw the greit unstabilnes Brukkil as glas, into my-self I say, Traisting in uther als greit unfaithfulnes, 570 Als unconstant, and als untrew of fay. Thocht sum be trew, I wait richt few ar thay. Quha findis treuth, lat him his lady ruse; Nane but my-self, as now, I will accuse.' Quhen this was said, with paper sho sat doun, 575 And on this maneir maid hir TESTAMENT:-- 'Heir I beteich my corps and carioun With wormis and with taidis to be rent; My cop and clapper, and myne ornament, And all my gold, the lipper-folk sall have, 580 Quhen I am deid, to bury me in grave. This royall ring, set with this ruby reid, Quhilk Troilus in drowry to me send, To him agane I leif it quhan I am deid, To mak my cairfull deid unto him kend. 585 Thus I conclude shortly, and mak ane end. My spreit I leif to Diane, quhair sho dwellis, To walk with hir in waist woddis and wellis. O Diomeid! thow hes baith broche and belt Quhilk Troilus gave me in takinning 590 Of his trew lufe!'--And with that word sho swelt. And sone ane lipper-man tuik of the ring, Syne buryit hir withoutin tarying. To Troilus furthwith the ring he bair, And of Cresseid the deith he can declair. 595 Quhen he had hard hir greit infirmitè, Hir legacy and lamentatioun, And how sho endit in sik povertè, He swelt for wo, and fell doun in ane swoun; For greit sorrow his hart to birst was boun. 600 Syching full sadly, said, 'I can no moir; Sho was untrew, and wo is me thairfoir!' Sum said, he maid ane tomb of merbell gray, And wrait hir name and superscriptioun, And laid it on hir grave, quhair that sho lay, 605 In goldin letteris, conteining this ressoun:-- 'Lo! fair ladyis, Cresseid of Troyis toun, Sumtyme countit the flour of womanheid, Under this stane, late lipper, lyis deid!' Now, worthy wemen, in this ballet short, 610 Made for your worship and instructioun, Of cheritè I monish and exhort, Ming not your luf with fals deceptioun. Beir in your mynd this short conclusioun Of fair Cresseid, as I have said befoir; 615 Sen sho is deid, I speik of hir no moir. _From_ E. (Edinburgh edition, 1593); _collated with_ Th. (Thynne, ed. 1532). 1. E. Ane; Th. A (_often_). E. doolie; Th. doly. E. to; Th. tyl. 4. E. tragedie (_I substitute_ -y _for_ -ie). 6. E. Schouris (_I substitute_ Sh- _for_ Sch-). 7. Th. my[gh]t me defende. 8. E. oratur; Th. orature. 10. Th. scyled. 16. _Both_ se. 17. Th. northern. 18. Th. shedde his. 19. Th. frost. 20. E. Artick; Th. Artike. Th. whiskyng. 21. E. remufe; Th. remoue. 24. Th. faded. 28. Th. chambre. _Both_ fyre. 29. E. lufe; Th. loue. 30. E. youtheid; Th. youthheed. 32. E. doif; Th. dull; _read_ douf. 34. E. phisike. 36. E. mend; Th. made. _Both_ fyre. Th. beaked. 37. E. ane; Th. I. 40. Th. queare. 42. E. worthy; Th. lusty. 43. Th. founde. 45. Th. of his wytte abrede. 46. Th. wepte. 48. Th. esperous; E. Esperus. 49. E. quhyle. Th. and while (_for 2nd_ quhyl). 51. E. suld; Th. wolde. 52. Th. of al erthly. 55. E. ganecome; Th. gayncome. Th. in (_for_ than). 58. Th. in that same. 63. Th. which ended. 66. Th. authorysed or forged. 67. Th. Of some; by (_for_ throw). 70. Th. she was in or she deyde. 71. _Both_ appetyte. 73. Th. sette was al his delyte. 74. Th. _om._ of. 77. Th. As (_for_ And); in the courte as co_m_mune. 78. Th. Creseyde. _Both_ floure. 79. Th. were. 80. E. feminitie. 82. Th. early (_for_ air). 84. Th. the; E. thow. 86. E. scornefull. E. brukkilnes; Th. brutelnesse. 88. E. wisdome. 91. E. wickit. 92. E. in; Th. on. _Both_ wyse destitute. 94. E. but; Th. without. Th. or refute; E. on fute. 95. E. Disagysit; Th. Dissheuelde. Th. passed out. 99. E. inquyre; Th. enquyre. 101. _Both_ desyre. 108. E. sone; Th. sonne. 109. E. hir; Th. his. Th. chambre. E. thame; Th. _om._ 110. E. aneuch in; Th. enewed. 113. _Both_ custome. 115. _Both_ sacrifice. Th. deuout. 117. Th. churche. 118. E. givin; Th. gyueng. E. pepill; Th. people. 120. Th. oratore. 122. Th. closed; dore. 124. _Both_ Cupide. 125. Th. _om._ same. _Both_ wyse. 126. E. Allace; Th. Alas. _Both_ sacrifice. 127. E. devine; Th. diuyne. 132. E. Sen; Th. Sithe. 135. E. lufe; Th. loue. E. the; Th. that. 136. Th. vnderstande alway. 137. E. lufe; Th. loue. 138. Th. souple grace. 139. E. allace; Th. alas. Th. frost. 140. Th. louers; -layne. 143. Th. herde. 144. _Both_ Cupide. E. ringand; Th. tynkyng. 145. Th. in-to. 147. Th. speres. 150. Th. course. 151. _Both_ Saturne. 152. _Both_ Cupide. 153. Th. boystous. E. on; Th. in. 154. _Both_ Come. E. crabitlie; Th. crabbedly. Th. austryne. 155. E. frosnit (_for_ fronsit); Th. frounsed. E. lyre; Th. lere. _Both_ lyke. 156. Th. sheuered. 157. Th. drouped hole. 158. E. of; Th. at. Th. myldrop. 159. Th. blo. 160. E. ic-eschoklis; Th. yse-yckels. 162. E. Atouir; Th. Attour. 163. E. ovirfret; Th. ouerfret; _read_ ourfret. 164. Th. garment. E. gyis; Th. gate; _see_ l. 178. 165. Th. wyddred; wore. 166. Th. boustous; bor[e]. 167. E. gyrdill. Th. a fasshe(!); flayns. 168. Th. holstayns (!). 170. Th. sterres. 171. Th. norice; thinge. 172. _Both_ Saturne. 173. Th. burly. 174. Th. wonders. 175. E. bene; Th. ben. 177. E. wyre; Th. wyer. Th. glyttryng. 178. Th. garment. E. gyis; Th. gyte. 180. Th. A burly; myddle he beare. 182. Th. wrathe. E. weir; Th. bere. 183. E. come; Th. came. 184. E. strife; Th. stryfe. 185. _Both_ fyre. 186. Th. hewmo_n_de. 187. Th. fauchoun. 190. Th. Shakyng his brande. _Both_ come. 191. Th. glowyng. 192. E. bullar; Th. blubber. 193. Th. boore. 194. E. tuilyeour; Th. tulsure (!). _Both_ lyke. 195. _Both_ horne; Th. _om._ he. Th. boustous. 196. E. weir; Th. warre. 199. Th. norice. 201. _Both_ lyfe. Th. erthly. 203. Th. _om._ all. Th. that al this worlde hath. 204. Th. a chare. 205. Th. Phiton somtyme gyded. E. upricht (!); Th. unright. 210. Th. speres. 211. Th. sorde (_for_ soyr). 212. _Both_ Eoye. 213. Th. Ethose. 215. Th. Perose; and eke. 216. E. Philologie; Th. Philologee. 218. E. _om._ gay. 219. Th. _om._ for. 222. Th. kembet. 224. Th. While parfite. E. perfyte. 227. E. suddanely; Th. sodaynly. 228. E. vennemous; Th. venomous. 232. Th. tokenyng. 237. E. blyith; Th. blyth. 238. Th. wyddred. 239. _Both_ come. 242. E. reddie; Th. redy. 244. E. atouir; Th. attour. 245. _Both_ Lyke. 250. E. phisick. Th. cledde in a scarlet. 252. E. culd lie; Th. couth lye. 253. _Both_ come. 254. Th. spere. 256. Th. tapere. 258. E. hir (1); Th. the. 260. E. gyse; Th. gyte. 261. E. churle; Th. chorle. 262. E. bunche; Th. busshe. 263. Th. theft; no ner. 264. Th. gadred were the. 267. E. bene. 269. E. rhetorick; Th. rethorike. E. prettick; Th. practyke. 273. E. anone. E. schew; Th. shewde. 276. E. lak; Th. losse. 278. E. yone; Th. yonder. Th. wretche Creseyde. 280. E. starklie; Th. she stately. 281. E. -tie. 283. Th. She called a blynde goddes and myght. 286. E. returne; Th. retorte. E. on; Th. in. _I supply 2nd_ on. 287. E. schew; Th. shewde (_as in_ l. 273). Th. aboue. 289. E. devyne; Th. diuyne. 290. E. iniurie; Th. iniure. _Both_ done. 290. E. hie; Th. hye. 292. _Both_ goddes done. 295. _Both_ Cupide. 299. E. modifie; Th. modifye. 300. _Both_ Saturne. 303, 309, 323, 330. _Both_ Saturne. 304. _Both_ Cupide. E. scho; Th. that she. 305. Th. open. 306. _Both_ lyfe. 308. E. abhominabill; Th. abhominable. 309. Th. doleful. 318. E. in; Th. into. 319. E. and; Th. and thy. 321. E. In; Th. Into. E. penuritie; Th. -te. 322. Th. shalte. Th. dye. 324. E. malitious. 325. E. On; Th. Of. 328. Th. sheweth through. 329. Th. _om._ fair. 331. Th. seate. 334. E. heit; Th. heale. 336. Th. endure. 338. Th. vnplesaunt heer. 339. Th. lere. E. ouirspred; Th. ouerspred. 342. E. This; Th. Thus. 343. Th. cuppe. _Both_ lyke. 344. _Both_ dreame. E. uglye. 347. Th. rose she. 348. Th. polysshed. E. culd; Th. couth. 349. E. face; Th. visage. 350. Th. were wo, I ne wyte god wate. 352. Th. _om._ for. E. mufe; Th. moue. 353. E. craibit; Th. crabbed. 355. Th. erthly. 356. E. Allace; Th. Alas. 357. E. for to; Th. _om._ for. 358. E. come; Th. came. 359. _Both_ warne. Th. Creseyde. E. reddy; Th. redy. 360. E. syne culd; Th. efte couth. 362. E. merwel; Th. marueyle. 363. E. prayers bene; Th. bedes bethe. 365. _Both_ chylde. 366. _Both_ anone. 368. _Both_ gone. 370. E. wraik; Th. wrake. 371. E. culd. 372. E. uglye. Th. lepers. 374. Th. _om._ he. 378. Th. ynow. E. thame; Th. he_m_. 380. Th. Creseyde. 382. Th. To yon; E. Unto yone. 383. Th. charite. 384. Th. lyue; erthe. 385. Th. werthe(!). 386. E. Than; Th. Whan(!). Th. Beuer; E. bawar. 387. Th. cuppe. 388. Th. secrete gate. 389. Th. Conueyed. 390. Th. There to. 393. E. knawledge. 395. E. ovirspred; Th. ouerspred. 397. E. hie; Th. hye. 399. Th. there (_for_ thairfoir). 401. E. ovirquhelmit; Th. ouerheled. 402. E. was; Th. were. 403. Th. fare. 405, 406. _Perhaps read_ alane, mane. 408. E. cative; Th. caytife. E. for now; Th. _om._ for. 409. Th. erthe. 410. Th. blake and bare. 411. Th. helpe (_for_ saif thee of). 412. Th. werthe (!). 413. Th. bale vnberd (!). 414. Th. Vnder the great god. 415. Th. men (_for_ nane). Th. herd. 416. Th. chambre. 417. Th. burly; bankers brouded. 418. Th. wyne. 419. Th. cuppes. 420. Th. plates. 421. Th. sauery sauce. 423. Th. pene (!). 424. Th. arere. 425. Th. thy greces. 430. E. mawis. 432. Th. renkes. E. array; Th. ray. Th. _omits_ ll. 433-437. 434, 437. E. hie. 438. Th. leper loge. E. burelie; Th. goodly. 439. E. bunche; Th. bonch. 441. E. peirrie; Th. pirate. E. ceder; Th. syder. 442. Th. cuppe. 443. E. _om._ my. 444. Th. _om. this line_. 445. Th. ranke as roke, ful hidous heer. Th. _om._ ll. 446, 447. 448. Th. Deformed is. 449. Th. no pleople (_sic_) hath lykyng (!). 450. Th. Solped in syght. 451. E. Ludgeit; Th. Lyeng. Th. leper folke. E. allace; Th. alas. 453. Th. _omits_. 454. Th. freyle fortune. 455. Th. war therfore; your ende. 456. Th. _places after_ l. 460. 459. E. that; Th. the. 460. Th. worse, if any worse. 464. Th. rosyng. 465. Th. memore. 468. Th. your hour. 469. Th. _omits_. 471. Th. woke. 472. Th. dole. 473. Th. remedy ne. 474. Th. rose. 477. E. Sen; Th. Sithe. E. _om._ that. Th. but doubleth. 479. E. To leir; Th. Go lerne. 480. E. leir; Th. lerne; _read_ live. Th. lepers lede. 486. Th. warre. 488. _Both_ tryumphe; laude. 489. Th. rode. 490. E. baid; Th. stode. 491. E. thai come; Th. come; _read_ cum. 492. Th. shoke cuppes. 493. Th. _om._ Said. 495. Th. her (_for_ thair). 496. Th. pyte; E. pietie. 499. _Both_ come. 501. E. plye; Th. plyte. 502. E. it; Th. he. 504. E. awin; Th. owne. 508. Th. enprynted. 512. E. culd; Th. couth. 514. E. fewir; Th. feuer. Th. in swette. _Both_ trimbling. 515. E. reddie. 516. Th. brest. 517. Th. many a hewe. 519. Th. pyte; E. pietie. 520. Th. gan. 521. Th. many a gay iewel. 522. E. swak; Th. shake. 523. E. _om._ he. 524. E. come; Th. came. 525. E. -syis; Th. -syth. 526. E. can; Th. couth. 527. _Both_ se. 529. E. prewelie; Th. priuely. 530. Th. yon; E. yone. 534. Th. That dothe. E. humanitie; Th. -te. 536. Th. _ins._ a knight _after_ is. 540. E. ovircome; Th. ouerco_m_e. 541. Th. colde atone (!). 542. Th. brest. 543. Th. _om._ ane; Th. one (_for_ wane). 544. Th. Than fel in swoun ful ofte. E. culd; Th. wolde. Th. fone (!); _for_ refrane. 547. E. lufe; Th. loue. Th. laude and al thy. 549. Th. So effated (_or_ essated). 551. Th. promytted. 552. Th. thy selfe; furious (!). 554. Th. countenaunce (_om._ gude). 557. Th. were. 558. E. in; Th. on. 562. E. Quhome; Th. Whom. E. quhome; Th. whan. 563. Th. thrughout. 565. Th. Proue. 569. Th. Brittel; unto. 570. Th. great brutelnesse. 572. Th. Though. 576. Th. maner. 577. E. beteiche; Th. bequeth. Th. corse. 578. Th. toodes. 579. Th. cuppe my. 580. E. the; Th. these. 583. E. drowrie; Th. dowry (!). 587. Th. spirite. 590. E. takning; Th. tokenyng; _read_ takinning. 593. E. withouttin. 596. E. infirmitie; Th. -te. 598. E. povertie; Th. -te. 600. Th. _om._ greit. 605. Th. where as she. 607. Th. Troy the toun. 612. E. cheritie; Th. charyte. 613. E. lufe; Th. loue. 614. E. schort; Th. sore (!). 616. E. Sen; Th. Sithe. * * * * * XVIII. THE CUCKOO AND THE NIGHTINGALE; OR THE BOOK OF CUPID, GOD OF LOVE. The god of love, a! _benedicite!_ How mighty and how greet a lord is he! For he can make of lowe hertes hye, And of hye lowe, and lyke for to dye, And harde hertes he can maken free. 5 And he can make, within a litel stounde Of seke folk ful hole, fresshe and sounde, And of [the] hole, he can make seke; And he can binden and unbinden eke What he wol have bounden or unbounde. 10 To telle his might my wit may not suffyse; For he may do al that he wol devyse. For he can make of wyse folk ful nyce, And [eke] in lyther folk distroyen vyce; And proude hertes he can make agryse. 15 Shortly, al that ever he wol he may; Ageines him ther dar no wight sey nay. For he can gladde and greve whom him lyketh; And, who that he wol, he laugheth or he syketh; And most his might he sheweth ever in May. 20 For every trewe gentil herte free That with him is, or thinketh for to be, Ageines May now shal have som steringe Other to joye, or elles to morninge, In no sesoun so greet, as thinketh me. 25 For whan they mowe here the briddes singe, And see the floures and the leves springe, That bringeth into hertes rémembraunce A maner ese, medled with grevaunce, And lusty thoughtes fulle of greet longinge. 30 And of that longing cometh hevinesse, And therof groweth ofte greet seknesse, And al for lak of that that they desyre; And thus in May ben hertes sette on fyre, So that they brennen forth in greet distresse. 35 I speke this of feling, trewely; For, althogh I be old and unlusty, Yet have I felt of that seknesse, in May, Bothe hoot and cold, an acces every day, How sore, y-wis, ther wot no wight but I. 40 I am so shaken with the fevers whyte, Of al this May yet slepte I but a lyte; And also it naught lyketh unto me, That any herte shulde slepy be In whom that Love his fyry dart wol smyte. 45 But as I lay this other night wakinge, I thoghte how lovers had a tokeninge, And among hem it was a comune tale, That it were good to here the nightingale Rather than the lewde cukkow singe. 50 And then I thoghte, anon as it was day, I wolde go som whider to assay If that I might a nightingalë here; For yet had I non herd of al this yere, And hit was tho the thridde night of May. 55 And than, anon as I the day espyde, No lenger wolde I in my bedde abyde, But unto a wode, that was faste by, I wente forth alone, boldely, And held my way doun by a broke-syde, 60 Til I com to a launde of whyte and grene; So fair oon had I never in[ne] been; The ground was grene, y-poudred with daisye, The floures and the gras y-lyke hye, Al grene and whyte; was nothing elles sene. 65 Ther sat I doun among the faire floures; And saw the briddes trippe out of her boures Ther-as they had hem rested al the night. They were so joyful of the dayes light That they +begonne of May to don hir houres! 70 They coude that servyce al by rote; Ther was many a lovely straunge note; Some songe loudë, as they hadde pleyned, And some in other maner vois y-feyned, And some al out, with al the fulle throte. 75 They proyned hem, and made[n] hem right gay, And daunseden, and lepten on the spray, And evermore two and two in-fere; Right so as they had chosen hem to-yere In Feverere, on seint Valentynes day. 80 And eke the river, that I sat upon, It made suche a noise, as it ron, Accordaunt with the briddes armonye, Me thoughte, it was the best[e] melodye That mighte been y-herd of any mon. 85 And for delyt ther-of, I wot never how, I fel in suche a slomber and a swow, Not al a-slepe, ne fully wakinge; And in that swow me thoughte I herde singe That sory brid, the lew[e]de cukkow. 90 And that was on a tree right fast[e] by; But who was than evel apayd but I? 'Now god,' quod I, 'that dyëd on the crois Yeve sorow on thee, and on thy lewde vois! For litel joye have I now of thy cry.' 95 And as I with the cukkow thus gan chyde, I herde, in the nexte bush besyde, A Nightingalë so lustily singe That with her clere vois she made ringe Through-out al the grene wode wyde. 100 'A! goode Nightingale!' quod I thenne, 'A litel hast thou been to longe henne; For here hath been the lew[e]de Cukkow, And songen songes rather than hast thou; I pray to god that evel fyr him brenne!' 105 But now I wol you telle a wonder thing: As longë as I lay in that swowning, Me thoughte, I wiste what the briddes ment, And what they seyde, and what was her entent, And of her speche I hadde good knowing. 110 And than herde I the Nightingale say, 'Now, gode Cukkow! go som-where away, And let us that can singen dwellen here; For every wight escheweth thee to here, Thy songes be so elenge, in good fay!' 115 'What?' quod he, 'what may thee eylen now? It thinketh me, I singe as wel as thou, For my song is bothe trewe and playn; Al-though I can not crakel so in vayn As thou dost in thy throte, I wot never how. 120 And every wight may understande me; But, Nightingale, so may they not do thee; For thou hast many a nyce queinte cry. I have herd thee seyn, "_ocy! ocy!_" How mighte I knowe what that shulde be?' 125 'A fole!' quod she, 'wost thou not what it is? Whan that I say "_ocy! ocy!_" y-wis, Than mene I that I wolde, wonder fayn, That alle they were shamfully y-slayn That menen aught ayeines love amis. 130 And also I wolde alle tho were dede That thenke not in love hir lyf to lede; For who that wol the god of love not serve, I dar wel say, is worthy for to sterve; And for that skil "_ocy! ocy!_" I grede.' 135 'Ey!' quod the Cukkow, 'this is a queint lawe, That every wight shal love or be to-drawe! But I forsake al suchë companye. For myn entent is neither for to dye, Ne, whyl I live, in loves yok to drawe. 140 For lovers ben the folk that been on-lyve That most disesë han, and most unthryve, And, most enduren sorow, wo, and care; And, at the laste, failen of welfare; What nedeth hit ayeines trouth to stryve?' 145 'What?' quod she, 'thou art out of thy minde! How might thou in thy cherles herte finde To speke of loves servaunts in this wyse? For in this worlde is noon so good servyse To every wight that gentil is of kinde. 150 For ther-of, trewly, cometh al goodnesse, Al honóur, and [eke] al gentilnesse, Worship, esë, and al hertes lust, Parfit joye, and ful assured trust, Jolitee, plesauncë, and freshnesse, 155 Lowliheed, and trewe companye, Seemliheed, largesse, and curtesye, Drede of shame for to doon amis; For he that trewly Loves servaunt is Were lother to be shamed than to dye. 160 And that this is sooth, al that I seye, In that beleve I wol bothe live and deye, And Cukkow, so rede I thou do, y-wis.' 'Ye, than,' quod he, 'god let me never have blis If ever I to that counseyl obeye! 165 Nightingale, thou spekest wonder fayre, But, for al that, the sooth is the contrayre; For loving is, in yonge folk, but rage, And in olde folk hit is a greet dotage; Who most hit useth, most he shal apeyre. 170 For therof comth disese and hevinesse, Sorowe and care, and mony a greet seknesse, Dispyt, debat, [and] anger, and envye, Repreef and shame, untrust and jelousye, Pryde and mischeef, povértee, and woodnesse. 175 What! Loving is an office of dispayr, And oo thing is ther-in that is not fayr; For who that geteth of love a litel blis, But-if he be alway therwith, y-wis, He may ful sone of age have his heyr. 180 And, Nightingale, therfor hold thee ny; For, leve me wel, for al thy queynte cry, If thou be fer or longe fro thy make, Thou shalt be as other that been forsake, And than[ne] thou shalt hoten as do I!' 185 'Fy!' quod she, 'on thy namë and on thee! The god of love ne let thee never y-thee! For thou art wors a thousand-fold than wood. For many on is ful worthy and ful good, That had be naught, ne hadde love y-be! 190 For Love his servaunts ever-more amendeth, And from al evel taches hem defendeth, And maketh hem to brenne right as fyr In trouthë and in worshipful desyr, And, whom him liketh, joye y-nough hem sendeth.' 195 'Thou Nightingale,' he seyde, 'hold thee stille; For Love hath no resoun but his wille; For ofte sithe untrewe folk he eseth, And trewe folk so bitterly displeseth That, for defaute of grace, he let hem spille. 200 With such a lorde wol I never be; For he is blind alwey, and may not see; And whom he hit he not, or whom he fayleth; And in his court ful selden trouthe avayleth; Só dyvérs and so wilfúl is he.' 205 Than took I of the Nightingale kepe, She caste a sigh out of her herte depe, And seyde, 'Alas! that ever I was bore! I can, for tene, say not oon word more;' And right with that she brast out for to wepe. 210 'Alas!' quod she, 'my herte wol to-breke To heren thus this false brid to speke Of love, and of his worshipful servyse; Now, god of love, thou help me in som wyse That I may on this Cukkow been awreke!' 215 Me thoughte than, that I sterte up anon, And to the broke I ran, and gat a stoon, And at the Cukkow hertely I caste; And he, for drede, fley away ful faste; And glad was I when that he was a-goon. 220 And evermore the Cukkow, as he fley, He seyde, 'Farewel! farewel, papinjay!' As though he hadde scorned, thoughte me; But ay I hunted him fro tree to tree Til he was fer al out of sighte awey. 225 And thanne com the Nightingale to me, And seyde, 'Frend, forsothe I thanke thee That thou hast lyked me thus to rescowe; And oon avow to Love I wol avowe, That al this May I wol thy singer be.' 230 I thanked her, and was right wel apayed; 'Ye,' quod she, 'and be thou not amayed, Though thou have herd the Cukkow er than me. For, if I live, it shal amended be The nexte May, if I be not affrayed. 235 And oon thing I wol rede thee also; Ne leve thou not the Cukkow, loves fo; For al that he hath seyd is strong lesinge.' 'Nay,' quod I, 'therto shal no thing me bringe Fro love; and yet he doth me mochel wo.' 240 'Ye, use thou,' quod she, 'this medicyne; Every day this May, or that thou dyne, Go loke upon the fresshe dayësyë. And though thou be for wo in poynt to dye, That shal ful gretly lissen thee of thy pyne. 245 And loke alwey that thou be good and trewe, And I wol singe oon of my songes newe, For love of thee, as loude as I may crye;' And than[ne] she began this song ful hye-- 'I shrewe al hem that been of love untrewe!' 250 And whan she hadde songe hit to the ende, 'Nów farewel,' quod she, 'for I mot wende; And god of love, that can right wel and may, As mochel joye sende thee this day As ever yet he any lover sende!' 255 Thus took the Nightingale her leve of me. I pray to god, he alway with her be, And joye of love he sende her evermore; And shilde us fro the Cukkow and his lore; For ther is noon so fals a brid as he. 260 Forth she fley, the gentil Nightingale, To al the briddes that were in that dale, And gat hem alle into a place in-fere, And +hem besoughte that they woldë here Her disese; and thus began her tale:-- 265 'Ye witen wel, it is not fro yow hid How the Cukkow and I faste have chid Ever sithen it was dayes light; I pray yow alle, that ye do me right Of that foule, false, unkinde brid.' 270 Than spak oo brid for alle, by oon assent, 'This mater asketh good avysement; For we ben fewe briddes here in-fere. And sooth it is, the Cukkow is not here; And therefor we wol have a parlement. 275 And therat shal the Egle be our lord, And other peres that ben of record, And the Cukkow shal be after sent. And ther shal be yeven the jugement, Or elles we shal make som accord. 280 And this shal be, withouten any nay, The morow of seynt Valentynes day, Under a maple that is fayr and grene, Before the chambre-window of the quene At Wodestok, upon the grene lay.' 285 She thanked hem, and than her leve took, And fley into an hawthorn by the brook, And ther she sat, and song upon that tree, 'Terme of [my] lyf, Love hath with-holde me,' So loude, that I with that song awook. 290 EXPLICIT CLANVOWE. _From_ Th. (Thynne, ed. 1532); _collated with_ F. (Fairfax 16); B. (Bodley 638); S. (Arch. Selden, B. 24); T. (Tanner 346); _also in_ Ff. (Camb. Univ. Ff. 1. 6). TITLE: Th. Of the C. and the N.; F. B. The boke of Cupide, god of loue. 1. Th. ah; F. a; S. a. a. 2. Th. Howe; gret; lorde. 4. Th. of his; Ff. S. of hye; F. B. high hertis. 6. F. B. S. Ff. And he; Th. _om._ And. 7. Th. folke; _om._ ful. 8. _I supply_ the. S. hole folke. 9. S. And he; _rest om._ And. Th. F. B. bynde; _read_ binden. 10. Th. T. That; F. B. Ff. What; S. Quhom. 11. Th. tel; wytte. 12, 13. Th. T. _transpose these lines_. 12. Th. Ff. wol; _rest_ can. 13. Th. folke. 14. _I supply_ eke. Th. T. _om._ in (S. _has_ in-to). F. lyther; S. lidd_er_; Th. Ff. lythy; T. leþi. Th. folke. Th. T. to distroyen; _rest om._ to. 17. Ff. T. Ageynes; S. Ageynest; Th. Agaynst; F. B. Ayenst. Th. Ff. T. _om._ ther. 18. Th. glad; _rest_ glade. 19. Th. loweth. S. _has 2nd_ he; _rest omit_. F. B. don hym laugh or siketh. 20. Th. T. shedeth. 21. Th. fre. 22. F. B. _om._ for. 23. S. Ff. A[gh]eynes; F. B. Ayenst; Th. T. Agayne. Th. nowe. 24. F. B. Other; S. Outhir; Th. T. Ff. Or. Th. ioy. F. B. S. T. ellis; Th. els. Th. T. Ff. some mournyng; _rest om._ some. 25. F. B. grette; Ff. S. grete; Th. moche. 26. F. then; _rest_ whan (when). Th. may; T. mai; F. B. S. mow; Ff. mowe. Th. byrdes; S. foulis; _rest_ briddes. 27. Th. leaues. 28. Th. T. her (_for_ hertes). 29. Th. T. ease; S. ess; F. B. case (!). Ff. y-medled. 30. Th. ful; Ff. fulle. Th. great. 32. Th. great sicknesse. 33. S. all; _rest om._ Th. lacke. 35. Th. forthe; great. 36. S. trewely; Th. trewly. 37. F. B. S. For althogh; Th. T. If(!). Th. olde. 38. Th. T. I haue; _rest_ haue I. Th. felte; sicknesse. Th. Ff. through; _rest_ in. 39. _All_ hote. Th. F. B. colde. Th. T. and (!); _for_ an. Th. axes; F. B. acces. 40. Th. Howe; wote. 42. Th. T. _om._ yet; (Ff. _has_ ne.) Th. T. slepe; Ff. S. slepte; F. B. slept. 43. S. naught likith vnto me; Th. T. Ff. is not lyke to me; F. B. is vnlike for to be. 45. Th. darte. 47. Th. howe. 48. Th. amonge. 50. Th. cuckowe. 51. Th. thought. 52. T. Ff. whider; S. quhid_er_; F. B. whedir; Th. where. 54. Th. none herde. F. B. T. this; Ff. the; Th. S. that. 55. S. thridde; T. thridd; Th. F. B. thirde. 56. S. than; _rest om._ Th. aspyde. 58. Ff. to; Th. T. vnto; F. B. into; S. in. Th. wodde; F. B. wode. 59. Th. T. went; F. B. wente. Th. forthe. Th. boldely; Ff. T. boldly; _rest_ priuely. 60. Th. helde. F. B. S. my; Th. Ff. the; T. me the. Th. downe. 61. F. B. come; S. cam; Th. T. came (_read_ com). 62. _All_ in; _read_ inne. S. _has_ in y-ben. 63, 64. B. _transposes_. 64. F. B. gras; S. greses; Th. greues; T. Ff. grenes. S. ylike; F. B. al I-like; Th. T. Ff. lyke. 65. Th. els. 66. Th. sate; downe. 67. Th. sawe; birdes. Th. trippe; T. trip; S. flee; F. B. crepe. 68. Th. T. Ff. _om._ had. S. thame rested; _rest_ rested hem. 70. Th. T. _om._ That. _All_ began; _read_ begonne. Ff. to don hir; Th. T. for to done. F. B. of Mayes ben her houres (!); S. on mayes vss thair houres. 72. S. lusty (_for_ lovely). S. straunge; _rest om._ 73. Ff. lowe. T. hade; _rest_ had. S. compleyned. 74. Th. voice yfayned. 75. Ff. S. all (2); _rest om._ Th. Ff. T. the ful; S. full_e_; F. B. a lowde. 76. F. B. pruned. _All_ made; _read_ maden. 80. Th. Feuerere; T. Feuir[gh]ere; _rest_ Marche (!). _All_ upon; _read_ on. 81. S. eke; _rest om._ 83. Th. T. with; _rest_ to. T. Ff. briddes; S. birdis; Th. byrdes; F. B. foules. S. T. Ff. armonye; Th. armony; F. B. ermonye. 84. Th. thought. _All_ best (!). 85. Th. myght; yherde. 86. _All_ delyte. S. therof; _rest om._ Th. wotte; F. B. note; S. wote; T. wot. F. B. ner (_for_ never). Th. howe. 87. Th. swowe; Ff. swough; S. slowe (!); B. slow (!). 88. F. B. S. on slepe. 89. Th. swowe; thought. 90. F. B. Ff. That; _rest_ the. F. B. Ff. bridde; S. T. brid; Th. byrde. Th. Cuckowe. 91. _All_ fast. 92. Th. yuel apayde. 93. Th. Nowe. F. B. vpon (_for_ on). 94. Th. the. 95. Th. nowe. 96. Th. cuckowe. Th. T. thus gan; Ff. now gan; S. gan to; F. B. gan. 97. Th. B. busshe; Ff. T. bussh; F. busshes (!); S. beugh. F. B. me beside. 100. Th. T. Ff. _om._ out. Ff. the greues of the wode (_better_). 101. Th. Ah. Ff. S. thenne; T. thanne; _rest_ then. 102. Th. haste. Ff. S. T. henne; _rest_ hen. 103. F. B. lewde; S. lewed; T. Ff. loude (!). (_The line runs badly._) 104. F. B. _om._ hast. 105. Th. T. _om._ that. Th. yuel fyre. Th. S. her; _rest_ him. Th. bren; _rest_ brenne. 106. Th. nowe; tel. 107. Th. laye. (_The line runs badly; read_ longë _or_ swowening.) 108. Th. thought; wyst. Th. T. what; _rest_ al that. 109. Th. sayd. 110. T. hade; _rest_ had. 111. Th. _om._ And. Th. T. there (_for_ than). 112. Th. Nowe good. 113. Th. lette. 114. Th. the. 116. F. B. she (_for_ he). Th. the. 118. Th. songe; playne. 119. Th. T. And though; _rest_ Al-though. Th. crakel; T. crakil; S. crekill; Ff. crake; F. B. breke hit (!). Th. vayne. 120. Th. doest; S. dois; _rest_ dost. Th. Ff. S. neuer; T. not; F. B. ner. 122. Th. done; T. S. Ff. do; F. B. _om._ Th. the. 123. Th. haste. Th. T. Ff. nyce queynt(e); S. queynt feyned; F. B. queint. 124. F. B. S. herd the; T. the herd; Th. the herde. Th. sayne; T. seyn; F. B. seye; S. sing. 125. Th. Howe. F. B. Who myghte wete what; S. Bot quho my_ch_t vnderstand quhat. 126. Th. Ah; Ff. T. A; _rest_ O. Th. foole; woste. Th. T. Ff. it; _rest_ that. 128. Th. meane; fayne. 129. Ff. all_e_; S. all; _rest_ al. Th. T. Ff. they; _rest_ tho. Th. yslayne. 130. Th. meanen. S. a[gh]eines; F. B. ayen; T. again; Th. agayne. 131. F. B. al tho were dede; Th. T. Ff. that al tho had the dede. S. And al they I wold also were dede. 132. Th. thynke; T. think; S. thinkith; Ff. thenke; F. B. thenk. F. B. S. Ff. her lyue in loue. 133. Th. S. who so; _rest om._ so. Th. T. Ff. _place_ not _after_ wol. 134. Th. T. F. B. Ff. he is; S. _om._ he. Th. Ff. T. _om._ for. 136. Th. Eye; cuckowe. F. B. _insert_ ywis _before_ this. 137. Th. T. Ff. That euery wight shal loue or be to-drawe; F. B. That eyther I shal love or elles be slawe. 139. Th. myne. F. B. neyther; S. nouthir; Th. T. Ff. not. 140. Th. T. Ff. Ne neuer; _rest om._ neuer. Th. T. on; _rest_ in. 141. Th. S. ben; Ff. T. bene; F. B. lyven (_for_ been). 142. Th. moste (_twice_); disease. 143. Th. moste. F. B. S. enduren; Th. Ff. T. endure. 144. _So_ F. B. (_with_ of her _for_ of); Th. T. Ff. And leste felen of welfare; S. And ald_er_last have felyng of welefare. 145. S. a[gh]eynes; Th. B. ayenst; F. T. ayens. 146. S. Quhat brid q_uo_d. Th. arte. 147. Th. T. Ff. might thou; F. maist thou; B. S. maistow. Th. Ff. churlnesse; T. clerenes (!); F. B. cherles hert; S. cherlish hert. 148. Th. seruauntes. 149. Th. none. 152. S. Honestee estate and all gentilness; Th. T. F. Ff. Al honour and al gentylnesse; B. Al honour and al gentillesse. 153. Th. ease. 154. Th. Parfyte. F. B. ensured. 155. S. and eke. 156, 157. _All but the first words transposed in_ Th. T. 158. F. B. S. and for; Th. T. Ff. _om._ and. Th. done. 160. Th. T. Ff. _om. 1st_ to. 161. F. B. Ff. _om._ this. F. B. S. al; Th. T. Ff. _om._ 162. Th. T. _om._ bothe. 163. F. B. S. rede I; Th. T. Ff. I rede. Th. that thou. 164. Th. T. Ff. _om._ Ye. F. B. she; _rest_ he. Th. T. _om._ god. 165. Th. T. vnto; F. B. Ff. S. to. F. B. thy (_for_ that). 167. F. B. the sothe; S. full sooth. Th. T. Ff. is the sothe contrayre. 168. F. B. S. Ff. loving; Th. T. loue. Th. folke. 169. Th. folke; F. B. Ff. _om._ F. B. hit is; Th. T. _om._ Th. great. 170. Th. moste (_twice_). F. B. he; S. it; Th. T. Ff. _om._ 171. F. mony an; B. mony a; Th. T. S. Ff. disease and. 172. Th. So sorowe; _rest om._ So. Th. many a gret. F. B. _om._ greet. 173. Th. Dispyte debate. _I supply_ and. 174. F. Repreve and; B. Repreff and; S. Repref and; Th. T. Deprauyng. 175. Th. T. B. Ff. _om. 1st_ and. Th. mischefe. S. pou_er_tee; Ff. pouerte; _rest_ pouert. 176. Th. T. Ff. _om._ What. Th. dispayre. 177. B. T. oo; S. o; F. oon; Th. one. Th. fayre. 178. Th. getteth; S. get (_better_). Th. blysse. 179. F. B. _om._ if. F. B. S. Ff. therby. 180. Th. heyre; T. eyre; S. aire; F. B. crie (!); Ff. heiere. 181. F. B. therfor Nyghtyngale. Th. therefore holde the nye. 182. Th. Ff. T. S. queynt; F. B. loude. 183. Th. T. Ff. ferre. F. of (_for_ or). 184. Th. T. S. ben; F. B. be (_read_ been). 185. Th. Ff. than; F. B. T. then (_read_ thanne); S. _om._ F. B. shalt thou. 186. Th. the. 188. Th. T. worse. Th. folde. 189. Th. one; Ff. on; F. B. _om._ S. ar; _rest_ is. 190. T. hade (_twice_); _rest_ had. 191. Th. T. Ff. _put_ evermore _after_ For. Th. seruauntes; F. B. seruant. 192. Ff. T. euel; S. euell; Th. yuel; F. B. _om._ F. tachches; S. stachis (!). F. B. him. 193. F. B. him. F. B. as eny; T. right as a; Ff. right as; Th. right in a. S. be brynnyng as a. Th. fyre. 195. Th. whan; T. when; Ff. whanne (_for_ whom). F. B. Ff. him; S. he; Th. T. hem. Th. ioy. 196. F. B. Ye (_for_ Thou). Th. sayd. T. F. B. S. Ff. hold the; Th. be. Th. styl. 197. F. B. S. Ff. his; Th. T. it is. Th. wyl. 198. F. B. Ff. sithe; Th. T. tyme; S. tymes. Th. folke; easeth. 199. Th. folke. Th. T. Ff. he displeaseth; _rest om._ he. 200. F. B. And (_for_ That). Th. corage; _rest_ grace. Th. spyl. 201-205. _From_ F. B. Ff. S.; Th. T. _omit_. 201. Ff. will_e_; F. wolde; B. wull; S. wole. 202. F. B. blynde; S. blynd. S. alweye; F. B. Ff. _om._ 203. Ff. And whom he hit he not, or whom he failith (_best_); F. B. And whan he lyeth he not, ne whan he fayleth; S. Quhom he hurtith he note, ne quhom he helith (!). 204. _So_ Ff.; F. B. In; S. Into. Ff. S. his; F. B. this. F. B. selde. 205. F. B. dyuerse. 206. Th. toke. 207. Th. T. Howe she; F. B. S. _om._ Howe. Th. T. Ff. _om._ herte. 208. Th. sayd. 209. Th. not say one; T. nou[gh]t sey oo. 210. Th. that worde; _rest om._ worde. F. B. on (_for_ out). Th. _om._ for. 212. Th. leude; Ff. false; _rest_ fals. T. B. brid; Ff. bridde; Th. byrde; S. bird. F. B. Ff. to; _rest om._ 214. Th. helpe; some. 215. Th. cuckowe ben. 216. S. thocht; _rest_ thought (_read_ thoughte). F. B. S. that I; T. Ff. I; Th. he. 217-219. Th. T. _omit_. 217. S. gat; F. B. gatte. 218. S. hardily; F. B. Ff. hertly. 219. Ff. flye[gh]; F. flyed; B. flye; S. gan flee (_read_ fley, _as in_ 221). 220. Th. _om._ when. Th. agon; T. S. agone; Ff. goon; F. gone; B. gon. 221. F. B. fley; Th. flaye; Ff. S. flay; T. flai. 222. Th. T. _om._ He. Th. sayd. Th. popyngaye; F. B. papyngay; S. papaIay; Ff. papeiay. 223. T. hade; _rest_ had. F. B. Ff. thoght me; S. as thocht me (_read_ thoughte me); Th. me alone (_to rime with_ 217). 224, 225. Th. T. _omit_. 225. F. B. Ff. sight away. 226. Th. S. than; F. B. T. then; Ff. thanne. F. B. T. S. come; Th. Ff. came. 227. F. B. seyde; Th. sayd. Th. the. 228. Th. haste. F. B. thus; S. for; Th. T. Ff. _om._ T. rescow; _rest_ rescowe. 229. Th. one. Ff. I wol avowe; F. B. I avowe; Th. T. make I nowe. S. And ry_ch_t anon to loue I wole allowe. 231. Th. apayde; T. apaied. 232. F. B. Ff. S. amayed; Th. T. dismayde. 233. Th. herde. F. B. er; Th. T. Ff. erst. 235. Ff. nexte; _rest_ next. Th. affrayde; T. affraied. 236. Th. one. 237. S. leue; _rest_ loue (!). Th. cuckowe ne his; F. B. S. _om._ ne his. 238. Th. stronge leasyng. 239. F. B. S. Ff. there (_for_ therto). T. man (_for_ thing). 240. F. B. S. Fro; Th. T. Ff. For (!). _So_ Ff. F. B. S.; Th. T. and it hath do me moche (T. myche) wo. 241. F. B. Yee; S. Ya. S. thou schalt vss. Th. T. Ff. _om._ thou. 242. Ff. F. B. er; _rest_ or. Th. T. Ff. _om._ that. 243. F. B. S. fressh flour; Ff. Th. T. _om._ flour. S. dayeseye. 245. Th. greatly. B. lisse; F. Ff. lyssen; Th. T. S. lessen. S. _om._ thee. 246--_end_. _Lost in_ S. 247. Th. one. Ff. my; _rest_ the. 248. Th. the. 249. Th. T. Ff. than; F. B. then (_read_ thanne). Th. songe. 250. F. B. Ff. hem al. Th. ben; T. bene. 251. Ff. hadde; T. hade; _rest_ had. 252. Th. Nowe. F. most; B. must; Th. Ff. mote; T. mot. 254. Ff. mochel; F. B. mekil; T. mykil; Th. moche. Th. the. 255. _So_ F. B. Ff.; Th. T. As any yet louer he euer sende. 256. Th. T. Ff. taketh; F. B. toke. Th. leaue. 257. Th. T. Ff. _om._ he. 259. Th. cuckowe. 260. Ff. noon; F. B. non; Th. T. not. T. Ff. brid; F. B. bridde; Th. byrde. 261. F. B. fley; T. fleigh; Ff. fle[gh]t; Th. flewe. 262. Th. byrdes; _rest_ briddes. B. the vale; F. the wale; Th. T. Ff. that dale. 263. Th. T. gate; F. B. gat. 264. _All put_ hem _after_ besoughte. Ff. bysought; _rest_ besoughten (!). 265. Th. T. disease. 266. Ff. Ye wyten; F. B. Ye knowe; Th. T. The cuckowe (!). F. B. fro yow hidde; Th. T. for to hyde (!). 267. F. B. How that; _rest om._ that. Th. T. Ff. fast; F. B. _om._ Th. chyde; T. chide; F. B. Ff. chidde. 268. Th. Ff. daye; _rest_ dayes. 269. Th. Ff. praye; _rest_ pray (prey). Ff. all_e_; _rest_ al. 270. Th. bride; T. Ff. brid; F. B. bridde. 271. Th. o; _rest_ oon. T. all; _rest_ al. Th. one; T. oon; F. B. _om._ 273. Th. _om._ fewe. Th. byrdes. 274. _All_ soth. Th. cuckowe. 276. T. Ff. lord; _rest_ lorde. 277. T. Ff. record; _rest_ recorde. 278. Th. cuckowe. 279. Ff. Th. T. _om._ And. Th. There. Th. T. yeue; F. yeuen; B. yeuyn; Ff. youe. 280. F. B. make summe; Th. T. fynally make. 281. Th. without; _rest_ withouten. Th. T. Ff. _om._ any. 282. F. B. of; Th. T. Ff. after. 283 Th. T. Ff. a; F. B. the. Th. fayre. 284. Th. wyndowe. 285. Th. wodestocke; F. B. wodestok. 286. F. B. thanketh. Th. leaue toke. 287. F. B. fleye; Th. T. _om._ Th. T. Ff. an; F. B. a. Th. hauthorne; T. hauthorn. _All_ broke. 288. _All_ sate. T. Ff. song; _rest_ songe. Th. T. that; F. B. the; Ff. a. 289. _I supply_ my. Th. T. Ff. lyfe; F. B. lyve. _After_ 290, Ff. _has_ Explicit Clanvowe. * * * * * XIX. ENVOY TO ALISON. O lewde book, with thy foole rudenesse, Sith thou hast neither beautee n'eloquence, Who hath thee caused, or yeve thee hardinesse For to appere in my ladyes presence? I am ful siker, thou knowest her benivolence 5 Ful ágreable to alle hir obeyinge; For of al goode she is the best livinge. Allas! that thou ne haddest worthinesse To shewe to her som plesaunt sentence, Sith that she hath, thorough her gentilesse, 10 Accepted thee servant to her digne reverence! O, me repenteth that I n'had science And leyser als, to make thee more florisshinge; For of al goode she is the best livinge. Beseche her mekely, with al lowlinesse, 15 Though I be fer from her [as] in absence, To thenke on my trouth to her and stedfastnesse, And to abregge of my sorwe the violence, Which caused is wherof knoweth your sapience; She lyke among to notifye me her lykinge; 20 For of al goode she is the best livinge. LENVOY. Aurore of gladnesse, and day of lustinesse, Lucerne a-night, with hevenly influence Illumined, rote of beautee and goodnesse, Suspiries which I effunde in silence, 25 Of grace I beseche, alegge let your wrytinge, Now of al goode sith ye be best livinge. _Explicit._ _From_ F. (Fairfax 16); _collated with_ T. (Tanner 346); _and_ Th. (Thynne, ed. 1532). 1. F. boke; T. Th. booke. Th. foule. 2. _All_ beaute. 3. _All_ the (_twice_). 5. _So all._ 6. Th. abeyeng (!). 7. F. T. goode; Th. good. Th. best; F. T. beste. 9. _All_ so_m_me, some. Th. plesaunt; F. plesant. 10. T. thurugh; F. thorgh; Th. through. 11. _All_ the. 12. _All_ ne (_before_ had). 13. _So all_ (_with_ the _for_ thee). 14. Th. good. Th. best; F. T. beste. 16. _I supply_ as. 17. T. Th. trouth; F. trouthe. 18. F. abregge; Th. abrege; T. abrigge. T. sorow; F. sorwes; Th. sorowes. 20. _All_ amonge. T. Th. notifye; F. notefye. 21. T. Th. al; F. alle. F. T. goode; Th. good. Th. Lenuoye; T. The Lenuoye; F. _om._ 24. Th. T. Illumyned; F. Enlumyned. F. Rote (_with capital_). _All_ beaute. F. and of; Th. T. _om._ of. 25. F. Suspiries; Th. Suspires. 26. T. beseke. Th. alege. 27. F. goode; Th. T. good. _After_ 27: Th. Explicit; F. T. _om._ * * * * * XX. THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF. When that Phebus his chaire of gold so hy Had whirled up the sterry sky aloft, And in the Bole was entred certainly; Whan shoures swete of rain discended +soft, Causing the ground, felë tymes and oft, 5 Up for to give many an hoolsom air, And every plain was [eek y-]clothed fair With newe grene, and maketh smalë floures To springen here and there in feld and mede; So very good and hoolsom be the shoures 10 That it reneweth, that was old and deede In winter-tyme; and out of every seede Springeth the herbë, so that every wight Of this sesoun wexeth [ful] glad and light. And I, só glad of the seson swete, 15 Was happed thus upon a certain night; As I lay in my bed, sleep ful unmete Was unto me; but, why that I ne might Rest, I ne wist; for there nas erthly wight, As I suppose, had more hertës ese 20 Than I, for I n'ad siknesse nor disese. Wherfore I mervail gretly of my-selve, That I so long withouten sleepë lay; And up I roos, three houres after twelve, About the [very] springing of the day, 25 And on I put my gere and myn array; And to a plesaunt grovë I gan passe, Long or the brightë sonne uprisen was, In which were okës grete, streight as a lyne, Under the which the gras, so fresh of hew, 30 Was newly spronge; and an eight foot or nyne Every tree wel fro his felawe grew, With braunches brode, laden with leves new, That sprongen out ayein the sonnë shene, Som very rede, and som a glad light grene; 35 Which, as me thought, was right a plesaunt sight. And eek the briddes song[ës] for to here Would have rejoised any erthly wight. And I, that couth not yet, in no manere, Here the nightingale of al the yere, 40 Ful busily herkned, with herte and ere, If I her voice perceive coud any-where. And at the last, a path of litel brede I found, that gretly had not used be, For it forgrowen was with gras and weede, 45 That wel unneth a wight [ther] might it see. Thought I, this path som whider goth, pardè, And so I folowèd, til it me brought To right a plesaunt herber, wel y-wrought, That benched was, and [al] with turves new 50 Freshly turved, wherof the grenë gras So small, so thik, so short, so fresh of hew, That most lyk to grene +wol, wot I, it was. The hegge also, that yede [as] in compas And closed in al the grene herbere, 55 With sicamour was set and eglantere, Writhen in-fere so wel and cunningly That every braunch and leef grew by mesure, Plain as a bord, of on height, by and by, [That] I sy never thing, I you ensure, 60 So wel [y-]don; for he that took the cure It [for] to make, I trow, did al his peyn To make it passe al tho that men have seyn. And shapen was this herber, roof and al, As [is] a prety parlour, and also 65 The hegge as thik as [is] a castle-wal, That, who that list without to stond or go, Though he wold al-day pryen to and fro, He shuld not see if there were any wight Within or no; but oon within wel might 70 Perceive al tho that yeden there-without In the feld, that was on every syde Covered with corn and gras, that, out of dout, Though oon wold seeken al the world wyde, So rich a feld [ne] coud not be espyed 75 [Up]on no cost, as of the quantitee, For of al good thing ther was [greet] plentee. And I, that al this plesaunt sight [than] sy, Thought sodainly I felt so sweet an air [Come] of the eglantere, that certainly, 80 Ther is no hert, I deme, in such despair, Ne with [no] thoughtës froward and contrair So overlaid, but it shuld soone have bote, If it had onës felt this savour sote. And as I stood and cast asyde myn y, 85 I was ware of the fairest medle-tree That ever yet in al my lyf I sy, As full of blossomës as it might be. Therin a goldfinch leping pretily Fro bough to bough, and, as him list, he eet 90 Here and there, of buddes and floures sweet. And to the herber-sydë was joining This fairë tree, of which I have you told; And, at the last, the brid began to sing, Whan he had eten what he etë wold, 95 So passing sweetly, that, by manifold, It was more plesaunt than I coud devyse; And whan his song was ended in this wyse, The nightingale with so mery a note Answéred him, that al the wodë rong 100 So sodainly, that, as it were a sot, I stood astonied; so was I with the song Through ravishèd, that, [un]til late and long Ne wist I in what place I was, ne where; And +ay, me thought, she song even by myn ere. 105 Wherfore about I waited busily On every syde, if I her mightë see; And, at the last, I gan ful wel aspy Wher she sat in a fresh green laurer-tree On the further syde, even right by me, 110 That gave so passing a delicious smel According to the eglantere ful wel. Wherof I had so inly greet plesyr That, as me thought, I surely ravished was Into Paradyse, where my desyr 115 Was for to be, and no ferther [to] passe As for that day, and on the sotë gras I sat me doun; for, as for myn entent, The birdës song was more convenient, And more plesaunt to me, by many fold, 120 Than mete or drink, or any other thing; Thereto the herber was so fresh and cold, The hoolsom savours eek so comforting That, as I demed, sith the beginning Of the world, was never seen, or than, 125 So plesaunt a ground of non erthly man. And as I sat, the briddës herkning thus, Me thought that I herd voices sodainly, The most sweetest and most delicious That ever any wight, I trow trewly, 130 Herde in +his lyf, for [that] the armony And sweet accord was in so good musyk, Thát the voice to angels most was lyk. At the last, out of a grove even by, THE LEAF. That was right goodly and plesaunt to sight, 135 I sy where there cam singing lustily A world of ladies; but to tell aright Their greet beautè, it lyth not in my might, Ne their array; nevertheless, I shal Tell you a part, though I speke not of al. 140 +In surcotes whyte, of veluet wel sitting, They were [y-]clad; and the semes echoon, As it were a maner garnishing, Was set with emeraudës, oon and oon, By and by; but many a richë stoon 145 Was set [up-]on the purfils, out of dout, Of colors, sleves, and trainës round about; As gret[e] perlës, round and orient, Diamondës fyne and rubies rede, And many another stoon, of which I +want 150 The namës now; and everich on her hede A richë fret of gold, which, without drede, Was ful of statly richë stonës set; And every lady had a chapëlet On her hede, of [leves] fresh and grene, 155 So wel [y-]wrought, and so mervéilously, Thát it was a noble sight to sene; Some of laurer, and some ful plesauntly Had chapëlets of woodbind, and sadly Some of _agnus-castus_ ware also 160 Chápëlets fresh; but there were many tho That daunced and eek song ful soberly; But al they yede in maner of compas. But oon ther yede in-mid the company Sole by her-self; but al folowed the pace 165 [Which] that she kept, whos hevenly-figured face So plesaunt was, and her wel-shape persòn, That of beautè she past hem everichon. And more richly beseen, by manifold, She was also, in every maner thing; 170 On her heed, ful plesaunt to behold, A crowne of gold, rich for any king; A braunch of _agnus-castus_ eek bering In her hand; and, to my sight, trewly, She lady was of [al] the company. 175 And she began a roundel lustily, That _Sus le foyl de vert moy_ men call, _Seen, et mon joly cuer endormi_; And than the company answéred all With voice[s] swete entuned and so small, 180 That me thought it the sweetest melody That ever I herdë in my lyf, soothly. And thus they came[n], dauncing and singing, Into the middes of the mede echone, Before the herber, where I was sitting, 185 And, god wot, me thought I was wel bigon; For than I might avyse hem, on by on, Who fairest was, who coud best dance or sing, Or who most womanly was in al thing. They had not daunced but a litel throw 190 When that I herd, not fer of, sodainly So greet a noise of thundring trumpës blow, As though it shuld have départed the sky; And, after that, within a whyle I sy From the same grove, where the ladyes come out, 195 Of men of armës coming such a rout As al the men on erth had been assembled In that place, wel horsed for the nones, Stering so fast, that al the erth[ë] trembled; But for to speke of riches and [of] stones, 200 And men and hors, I trow, the largë wones Of Prester John, ne al his tresory Might not unneth have bought the tenth party! Of their array who-so list herë more, I shal reherse, so as I can, a lyte. 205 Out of the grove, that I spak of before, I sy come first, al in their clokes whyte, A company, that ware, for their delyt, Chapëlets fresh of okës cereal Newly spronge, and trumpets they were al. 210 On every trumpe hanging a brood banere Of fyn tartarium, were ful richly bete; Every trumpet his lordës armës +bere; About their nekkës, with gret perlës set, Colers brode; for cost they would not lete, 215 As it would seme; for their scochones echoon Were set about with many a precious stoon. Their hors-harneys was al whyte also; And after hem next, in on company, Cámë kingës of armës, and no mo, 220 In clokës of whyte cloth of gold, richly; Chapelets of greene on their hedes on hy, The crownës that they on their scochones bere Were set with perlë, ruby, and saphere, And eek gret diamondës many on; 225 But al their hors-harneys and other gere Was in a sute àccording, everichon, As ye have herd the foresayd trumpets were; And, by seeming, they were nothing to lere; And their gyding they did so manerly. 230 And after hem cam a greet company Of heraudës and pursevauntës eke Arrayed in clothës of whyt veluët; And hardily, they were nothing to seke How they [up]on hem shuld the harneys set; 235 And every man had on a chapëlet; Scóchones and eke hors-harneys, indede, They had in sute of hem that before hem yede. Next after hem, came in armour bright, Al save their hedes, seemely knightës nyne; 240 And every clasp and nail, as to my sight, Of their harneys, were of red gold fyne; With cloth of gold, and furred with ermyne Were the trappurës of their stedës strong, Wyde and large, that to the ground did hong; 245 And every bosse of brydel and peitrel That they had, was worth, as I would wene, A thousand pound; and on their hedës, wel Dressed, were crownës [al] of laurer grene, The best [y-]mad that ever I had seen; 250 And every knight had after him ryding Three henshmen, [up]on him awaiting; Of whiche +the first, upon a short tronchoun, His lordës helme[t] bar, so richly dight, That the worst was worth[y] the raunsoun 255 Of a[ny] king; the second a sheld bright Bar at his nekke; the thridde bar upright A mighty spere, ful sharpe [y-]ground and kene; And every child ware, of leves grene, A fresh chapelet upon his heres bright; 260 And clokes whyte, of fyn veluet they ware; Their stedës trapped and [a]rayed right Without[en] difference, as their lordës were. And after hem, on many a fresh co[u]rsere, There came of armed knightës such a rout 265 That they besprad the largë feld about. And al they ware[n], after their degrees, Chapëlets new, made of laurer grene, Some of oke, and some of other trees; Some in their handës berë boughës shene, 270 Some of laurer, and some of okës kene, Some of hawthorn, and some of woodbind, And many mo, which I had not in mind. And so they came, their hors freshly stering With bloody sownës of hir trompës loud; 275 Ther sy I many an uncouth disgysing In the array of these knightës proud; And at the last, as evenly as they coud, They took their places in-middes of the mede, And every knight turned his horse[s] hede 280 To his felawe, and lightly laid a spere In the [a]rest, and so justës began On every part about[en], here and there; Som brak his spere, som drew down hors and man; About the feld astray the stedës ran; 285 And, to behold their rule and governaunce, I you ensure, it was a greet plesaunce. And so the justës last an houre and more; But tho that crowned were in laurer grene Wan the pryse; their dintës were so sore 290 That ther was non ayenst hem might sustene; And [than] the justing al was left of clene; And fro their hors the +nine alight anon; And so did al the remnant everichon. And forth they yede togider, twain and twain, 295 That to behold, it was a worldly sight, Toward the ladies on the grenë plain, That song and daunced, as I sayd now right. The ladies, as soone as they goodly might, They breke[n] of both the song and dance, 300 And yede to mete hem, with ful glad semblance. And every lady took, ful womanly, Bý the hond a knight, and forth they yede Unto a fair laurer that stood fast by, With levës lade, the boughës of gret brede; 305 And to my dome, there never was, indede, [A] man that had seen half so fair a tree; For underneth it there might wel have be An hundred persons, at their own plesaunce, Shadowed fro the hete of Phebus bright 310 So that they shuld have felt no [greet] grevaunce Of rain, ne hail, that hem hurt[ë] might. The savour eek rejoice would any wight That had be sick or melancolious, It was so very good and vertuous. 315 And with gret reverence they +enclyned low [Un]to the tree, so sote and fair of hew; And after that, within a litel throw, +Bigonne they to sing and daunce of-new; Some song of love, some playning of untrew, 320 Environing the tree that stood upright; And ever yede a lady and a knight. And at the last I cast myn eye asyde, THE FLOWER. And was ware of a lusty company That came, roming out of the feld wyde, 325 Hond in hond, a knight and a lady; The ladies alle in surcotes, that richly Purfyled were with many a riche stoon; And every knight of greene ware mantles on, Embrouded wel, so as the surcotes were, 330 And everich had a chapelet on her hede; Which did right wel upon the shyning here, Made of goodly floures, whyte and rede. The knightës eke, that they in hond lede, In sute of hem, ware chapelets everichon; 335 And hem before went minstrels many on, As harpës, pypës, lutës, and sautry, Al in greene; and on their hedës bare Of dyvers flourës, mad ful craftily, Al in a sute, goodly chapelets they ware; 340 And so, dauncing, into the mede they fare, In-mid the which they found a tuft that was Al oversprad with flourës in compas. Where[un]to they enclyned everichon With greet reverence, and that ful humblely; 345 And, at the last[ë], there began anon A lady for to sing right womanly A bargaret in praising the daisy; For, as me thought, among her notës swete, She sayd, '_Si doucë est la Margarete_.' 350 Thén they al answéred her infere, So passingly wel, and so plesauntly, Thát it was a blisful noise to here. But I not [how], it happed sodainly, As, about noon, the sonne so fervently 355 Wex hoot, that [al] the prety tender floures Had lost the beautè of hir fresh coloures, For-shronk with hete; the ladies eek to-brent, That they ne wist where they hem might bestow. The knightës swelt, for lak of shade ny shent; 360 And after that, within a litel throw, The wind began so sturdily to blow, That down goth al the flourës everichon So that in al the mede there laft not on, Save suche as socoured were, among the leves, 365 Fro every storme, that might hem assail, Growing under hegges and thikke greves; And after that, there came a storm of hail And rain in-fere, so that, withouten fail, The ladies ne the knightës n'ade o threed 370 Drye [up]on hem, so dropping was hir weed. And when the storm was clene passed away, Tho [clad] in whyte, that stood under the tree, They felt[ë] nothing of the grete affray, That they in greene without had in y-be. 375 To hem they yedë for routh and pitè, Hem to comfort after their greet disese; So fain they were the helpless for to ese. Then was I ware how oon of hem in grene Had on a crown[ë], rich and wel sitting; 380 Wherfore I demed wel she was a quene, And tho in greene on her were awaiting. The ladies then in whyte that were coming Toward[ës] hem, and the knightës in-fere Began to comfort hem and make hem chere. 385 The quene in whyte, that was of grete beautè, Took by the hond the queen that was in grene, And said, 'Suster, I have right greet pitè Of your annoy, and of the troublous tene Wherein ye and your company have been 390 So long, alas! and, if that it you plese To go with me, I shal do you the ese In al the pleisir that I can or may.' Wherof the tother, humbly as she might, Thanked her; for in right ill aray 395 She was, with storm and hete, I you behight. And every lady then, anon-right, That were in whyte, oon of hem took in grene By the hond; which when the knightes had seen, In lyke wyse, ech of hem took a knight 400 Clad in grene, and forth with hem they fare [Un]to an heggë, where they, anon-right, To make their justës, [lo!] they would not spare Boughës to hew down, and eek treës square, Wherewith they made hem stately fyres grete 405 To dry their clothës that were wringing wete. And after that, of herbës that there grew, They made, for blisters of the sonne brenning, Very good and hoolsom ointments new, Where that they yede, the sick fast anointing; 410 And after that, they yede about gadring Plesaunt saladës, which they made hem ete, For to refresh their greet unkindly hete. The lady of the Leef then gan to pray Her of the Flour, (for so to my seeming 415 They should[ë] be, as by their [quaint] array), To soupe with her; and eek, for any thing, That she should with her al her people bring. And she ayein, in right goodly manere, Thanketh her of her most freendly chere, 420 Saying plainly, that she would obey With al her hert al her commaundëment, And then anon, without lenger delay, The lady of the Leef hath oon y-sent For a palfray, [as] after her intent, 425 Arayed wel and fair in harneys of gold, For nothing lakked, that to him long shold. And after that, to al her company She made to purvey hors and every thing That they needed; and then, ful lustily, 430 Even by the herber where I was sitting, They passed al, so plesantly singing, That it would have comfórted any wight; But then I sy a passing wonder sight:-- For then the nightingale, that al the day 435 Had in the laurer sete, and did her might The hool servyse to sing longing to May, Al sodainly [be]gan to take her flight; And to the lady of the Leef forthright She flew, and set her on her hond softly, 440 Which was a thing I marveled of gretly. The goldfinch eek, that fro the medle-tree Was fled, for hete, into the bushes cold, Unto the lady of the Flour gan flee, And on her hond he set him, as he wold, 445 And plesantly his wingës gan to fold; And for to sing they pained hem both as sore As they had do of al the day before. And so these ladies rood forth a gret pace, And al the rout of knightës eek in-fere; 450 And I, that had seen al this wonder case, Thought [that] I would assay, in some manere, To know fully the trouth of this matere, And what they were that rood so plesantly. And, when they were the herber passed by, 455 I drest me forth, and happed to mete anon Right a fair lady, I you ensure; And she cam ryding by herself aloon, Al in whyte, with semblance ful demure. I salued her, and bad good aventure 460 +Might her befall, as I coud most humbly; And she answered, 'My doughter, gramercy!' 'Madam,' quod I, 'if that I durst enquere Of you, I wold fain, of that company, Wit what they be that past by this herbere?' 465 And she ayein answéred right freendly: 'My fair daughter, al tho that passed hereby In whyte clothing, be servants everichoon Unto the Leef, and I my-self am oon. See ye not her that crowned is,' quod she, 470 'Al in whyte?' 'Madamë,' quod I, 'yis!' 'That is Diane, goddesse of chastitè; And, for bicause that she a maiden is, In her hond the braunch she bereth, this That _agnus-castus_ men call properly; 475 And alle the ladies in her company Which ye see of that herb[ë] chaplets were, Be such as han kept +ay hir maidenhede; And al they that of laurer chaplets bere Be such as hardy were and +wan, indede, 480 Victorious name which never may be dede. And al they were so worthy of hir hond, [As] in hir tyme, that non might hem withstond. And tho that werë chapelets on hir hede Of fresh woodbind, be such as never were 485 To love untrew in word, [ne] thought, ne dede, But ay stedfast; ne for plesaunce, ne fere, Though that they shuld hir hertës al to-tere, Would never flit, but ever were stedfast, Til that their lyves there asunder brast.' 490 'Now, fair madam,' quod I, 'yet I would pray Your ladiship, if that it might be, That I might know[ë], by some maner way, Sith that it hath [y-]lyked your beautè, The trouth of these ladies for to tel me; 495 What that these knightës be, in rich armour; And what tho be in grene, and were the flour; And why that some did reverence to the tree, And some unto the plot of flourës fair?' 'With right good wil, my fair doughter,' quod she, 500 'Sith your desyr is good and debonair. Tho nine, crownèd, be very exemplair Of all honour longing to chivalry, And those, certain, be called the Nine Worthy, Which ye may see [here] ryding al before, 505 That in hir tyme did many a noble dede, And, for their worthines, ful oft have bore The crowne of laurer-leves on their hede, As ye may in your old[ë] bokes rede; And how that he, that was a conquerour, 510 Had by laurer alway his most honour. And tho that bere boughës in their hond Of the precious laurer so notáble, Be such as were, I wol ye understond, Noble knightës of the Round[ë] Table, 515 And eek the Douseperes honourable; Which they bere in signe of victory, +As witness of their dedes mightily. Eek there be knightës olde of the Garter, That in hir tyme did right worthily; 520 And the honour they did to the laurer Is, for by [it] they have their laud hoolly, Their triumph eek, and martial glory; Which unto hem is more parfyt richesse Than any wight imagine can or gesse. 525 For oon leef given of that noble tree To any wight that hath don worthily, And it be doon so as it ought to be, Is more honour then any thing erthly. Witnesse of Rome that founder was, truly, 530 Of all knighthood and dedës marvelous; Record I take of Titus Livius. And as for her that crowned is in greene, It is Flora, of these flourës goddesse; And al that here on her awaiting been, 535 It are such [folk] that loved idlenes, And not delyte [had] of no busines But for to hunt and hauke, and pley in medes, And many other such [lyk] idle dedes. And for the greet delyt and [the] plesaunce 540 They have [un]to the flour, so reverently They unto it do such [gret] obeisaunce, As ye may see.' 'Now, fair madame,' quod I, 'If I durst ask what is the cause and why That knightës have the signe of [al] honour 545 Rather by the Leef than by the Flour?' 'Sothly, doughter,' quod she, 'this is the trouth: For knightës ever should be persévering, To seeke honour without feintyse or slouth, Fro wele to better, in al maner thing; 550 In signe of which, with Levës ay lasting They be rewarded after their degree, Whos lusty grene may not appeired be, But ay keping hir beautè fresh and greene; For there nis storm [non] that may hem deface, 555 Hail nor snow, wind nor frostës kene; Wherfore they have this propertè and grace. And for the Flour within a litel space Wol be [y-]lost, so simple of nature They be, that they no grevance may endure, 560 And every storm wil blow hem sone away, Ne they last not but [as] for a sesoun, That +is the cause, the very trouth to say, That they may not, by no way of resoun, Be put to no such occupacioun.' 565 'Madame,' quod I, 'with al my hool servyse I thank you now, in my most humble wyse. For now I am acértainèd throughly Of every thing I désired to know.' 'I am right glad that I have said, sothly, 570 Ought to your pleysir, if ye wil me trow,' Quod she ayein, 'but to whom do ye ow Your servyce? and which wil ye honour, Tel me, I pray, this yeer, the Leef or Flour?' 'Madame,' quod I, 'though I [be] leest worthy, 575 Unto the Leef I ow myn observaunce.' 'That is,' quod she, 'right wel don, certainly, And I pray god to honour you avaunce, And kepe you fro the wikked rémembraunce Of Male-Bouche, and al his crueltè; 580 And alle that good and wel-condicioned be. For here may I no lenger now abyde, I must folowe the gret[ë] company That ye may see yonder before you ryde.' And forth[right], as I couth, most humblely, 585 I took my leve of her as she gan hy After hem, as fast as ever she might; And I drow hoomward, for it was nigh night; And put al that I had seen in wryting, Under support of hem that lust it rede. 590 O litel book, thou art so unconning, How darst thou put thy-self in prees for drede? It is wonder that thou wexest not rede, Sith that thou wost ful lyte who shal behold Thy rude langage, ful boistously unfold. 595 _Explicit._ _From_ Speght's edition (1598); _I note rejected readings_. 1. hie. 3. Boole. 4. sweet; raine; oft (!). 6. wholesome aire. 7. plaine was clothed faire. 8. new greene. small flours. 9. field and in mede. 10. wholsome. 11. renueth. 13. hearbe. 14. season; _I supply_ ful. 15. season. 16. certaine. 17. sleepe. 19. earthly. 20. hearts ease. 21. Then; nad sicknesse; disease. 22. meruaile greatly; selfe. 24. rose; twelfe. 25. _I supply_ very. 26. geare; mine. 27. pleasaunt. 28. bright. 29. great. 30. grasse. 31. sprong. 32. well; fellow. 33. lade. 34. ayen. 35. Some; red; some. 36. song (_read_ songes); fort (_sic_). 38. earthly. 40. Heare; all. 41. Full; herkened; hart and with eare. 43. litle breade. 44. greatly. 45. grasse. 46. well; _I supply_ ther. 47. some. 48. followed till. 49. pleasaunt; well. 50. _I supply_ al; turfes. 52. thicke. 53. lyke vnto (_read_ to); wel (!; _read_ wol). 54. _I supply_ as. 55. (_Perhaps imperfect_); all; green. 56. eglatere; _see_ l. 80. 57. Wrethen. 58. branch; leafe. 59. an (_better_ on). 60. _I supply_ That; see. 61. done; tooke. 62. _I supply_ for; all; peine. 63. all; seyne. 64. roofe. 65. _I supply_ is. 66. thicke; _I supply_ is; wall. 68. would all. 69. should. 70. one; well. 71. all. 72. field. 73. corne; grasse; doubt. 74. one would seeke all. 75. field; _I supply_ ne; espide. 76. On; coast; quantity. 77. all; _I supply_ greet; plenty. 78. all; pleasannt sight sie. 79. aire. 80. _I supply_ Come; eglentere. 81. heart; dispaire. 82. with thoughts; contraire. 83. should. 84. soote. 85. mine eie. 87. all; life; sie. 88. blosomes. 89. leaping pretile. 91. buds. 95. eaten; eat. 97. pleasaunt then. 98. when. 99. merry. 100. all; wood. 101. sote. 103. Thorow; till. 104. I ne wist (_better_ Ne wist I). 105. ayen (!). 106. I waited about. 107. might. 108. full well. 109. greene laurey (_error for_ laurer); _see_ l. 158. 111. smell. 112. eglentere full well. 113. great pleasure. 115. desire. 116. _I supply_ to. 117. grasse. 118. downe; mine. 119. birds. 120. pleasaunt. 121. meat; drinke. 123. wholsome; eke. 126. pleasaunt; none earthly. 127. birds harkening. 128. heard. 131. Heard; their (_error for_ his); _I supply_ that. 132. musike. 133. like. 135. pleasant. 136. sie; came. 138. great beauty; lieth. 139. shall. 140. speake; all. 141. The (!; _read_ In); wele. 142. were clad; echone. 144. Emerauds one and one. 145. rich. 146. on; purfiles. 148. great pearles. 149. Diamonds; red. 150. stone; went (_for_ want). 151. head. 152. rich; dread. 153. stately rich. 155. head; _I supply_ leves. 156. wele wrought; meruelously. 158. pleasantly. 160. were; _read_ ware, _as in_ 335. 161. of tho (_om._ of). 162. eke. 163. all; compace. 164. one. 165. Soole; selfe; all followed. 166. _I supply_ Which; whose heauenly. 167. pleasaunt; wele. 168. beauty; -one. 169. beseene. 171. head; pleasaunt. 172. goldë (?). 173. eke bearing. 175. _I supply_ al. 176. roundell lustely. 177. Suse; foyle. 178. Seen (_sic_); en dormy, _before which we should perhaps supply_ est. 180. voice sweet. 182. heard. 183. came. 186. bigone. 187. one by one. 189. all. 190. little. 191. heard. 192. great; thundering trumps. 193. skie. 194. sie. 196. comming. 197. all. 198. wele. 199. all; earth. 200. speake; _I supply_ of. 201. horse. 202. Pretir (!); all. 204. their (_read_ hir?); heare. 205. rehearse. 206. spake. 207. sie; all; their (_read_ hir?). 208. were: _read_ ware (_as in_ 329); delite. 209. seriall (_for_ cereal). 210. sprong; all. 211. broad. 212. fine; richely. 213. lords; here (_read_ bere); _see_ 223. 214. (_and often_): their (_for_ hir). neckes; great pearles. 216. echone. 217. stone. 218. horse; all. 219. them (_for_ hem); one. 220. kings. 222. heads; hye. 223. crowns. 224. pearle. 225. eke great Diamonds; one. 226. all; horse; geare. 227. euerichone. 228. heard. 230. there guiding. 231. great. 232. herauds; purseuaunts. 233. white. 235. on; should. 237. horse. 238. him (_for 2nd_ hem). 240. heads; knights. 241. claspe; naile. 242. their (_for_ hir?); _so in_ 214, 216, 218, 222, 223, 230 (there), 240; &c. 244. their (_for_ hir?); _so in_ 248, &c. 246. boose (!); bridle; paitrell. 248. heads well. 249. _I supply_ al. 250. made; sene. 252. on. 253. whiche euery on a. 254. lords helme bare. 255. worth. 256. a (_read_ any); shield. 257. Bare; neck; thred bare. 258. spheare (!); ground. 260. haires. 261. fine. were; _read_ ware (_as in_ 259). 262. steeds; raied. 263. Without; lords. 265. knights. 266. field. 267. were; _read_ waren. 270. honds bare. 272. hauthorne. 274. horses. 276. sie; disguising. 277. knights. 279. their (_for_ hir? _see_ 275); _so in_ 286, &c. 280. horse. 281. fellow; speare. 282. rest. 283. about. 284. Some brake; some. 285. field; steeds. 287. great pleasaunce. 290. dints. 291. none. 292. _I supply_ than; all. 293. horse. ninth; _read_ nine. 296. worldly (_perhaps read_ worthy). 297. green. 300. brake; they (_error for_ the). 301. meet; full. 302. tooke. 304. faire. 305. great. 307. _I supply_ A; halfe; faire. 308. underneath. 309. their (_for_ hir?); plesance. 310. heat. 311. should; _I supply_ greet. 312. raine; haile; hurt. 313. eke. 314. sicke; melancolius. 316. enclining; _read_ enclyned; _see_ 344. 317. To; soot; faire. 318. little. 319. They began to. 323. mine. 325. field. 327. all; richely. 328. rich. 330. well. 331. hed. 332. well. 333. red. 334. knights; led. 335. euerichone. 336. before hem; one. 338. heads. 339. made full craftely. 344. Whereto. 345. great; humbly. 346. last. 348. daisie. 350. douset & la. 351. all. 352. well; pleasauntly. 354. _I supply_ how. 355. noone. 356. Waxe whote; _I supply_ al. 357. beauty. 358. Forshronke; heat; eke. 360. knights; lack; nie. 361. little. 363. down goeth all; euerichone. 364. all; one. 365. succoured. 366. assaile. 367. thicke. 368. storme; haile. 369. raine in feare; faile. 370. knights. 371. on them so; her. 372. cleane. 373. _I supply_ clad. 374. felt; great. 376. them (_for_ hem). 377. Them (_for_ Hem); great disease. 378. faine; helplesse; ease. 379. one. 380. crown; well. 384. Toward them; knights. 386. Queen; great beauty. 387. Tooke. 388. great pity. 390. bene. 391. please. 392. shall; ease. 393. all; pleasure. 396. heat. 398. one; them. 399. knights; sene. 400. them. 402. To. 403. iusts; _supply_ lo. 404. downe; eke. 405. great. 406. weat. 407. hearbs. 409. wholsome. 410. annointing. 411. gadering. 412. Pleasaunt; eat. 413. great; heat. 414. leafe; began (_for_ gan). 415. floure. 416. should; _I supply_ quaint. 417. eke. 418. all. 419. ayen. 420. friendly cheare. 421. obay. 422. all; hart all. 424. Leafe; one. 425. _I supply_ al. 426. well; faire. 427. lacked; should. 428. all. 429. horse. 432. all; pleasantly. 434. sie. 435. all. 437. whol seruice. 438. gan. 439. leafe. 441. greatly. 442. eke; medill. 443. heat. 444. Flower; fle. 445. hir. 446. pleasantly; wings. 448. all. 449. rode; great. 450. knights. 451. sene all. 452. _I supply_ that. 454. rode; pleasantly. 457. faire. 458. come; hir selfe alone. 459. All. 460. saluted (_read_ salued); bad her good (_omit_ her). 461. Must (_read_ Might). 464. faine. 465. arbere. 466. ayen; friendly. 467. faire; all. 468. euerichone. 469. Leafe; selfe; one. 471. All; yes (_read_ yis). 472. goddes; chastity. 476. all. 477. hearb. 478. kepte; alway (_read_ ay); her. 479. beare. 480. manly (_read_ wan). 482. all; ther (_read_ hir). 483. _I supply_ As; none. 484. weare; ther (_read_ hir). 486. untrue; _I supply_ ne. 487. aye; pleasance. 488. their harts all. 490. Till; their (_read_ hir?). 491. faire. 493. know. 494. liked. 495. tell. 496. knights. 497. weare. 499. faire. 500. will; doghter. 501. youre desire; debonaire. 502. exemplaire. 504. certaine. 505. _I supply_ here. 507. their (_read_ hir? _see_ 506); _so in_ 512, &c. 508. leaues. 509. old bookes. 512. beare. bowes; _see_ 270. 514. woll. 515. knights; round. 516. eke; douseperis. 517. beare. 518. It is (_but read_ As). 519. Eke; knights old. 522. _I supply_ it; wholly. 523. eke; marshall (!). 524. them; riches. 526. one leafe. 527, 528. done. 529. earthly. 530. Witnes. 531. deeds. 535. all; beene. 536. _I supply_ folk. 537. delite of; busines. 539. _I supply_ lyk. 540. great delite; _I supply_ the; pleasaunce. 541. to; and so (_omit_ and). 542. _I supply_ gret. 543. faire. 544. aske. 545. knights; _I supply_ al. 546. leafe; floure. 548. knights. 550. all. 551. leaues aye. 552. their; _read_ hir? 553. Whose; green May may (_sic_). 554. aye; their beauty. 555. storme; _I supply_ non. 556. Haile; frosts. 557. propertie. 558. floure; little. 559. Woll; lost. 560. greeuance. 561. storme will; them. 562. _I supply_ as; season. 563. That if their (_read_ That is the). 564. reason. 565. occupacion. 566. all mine whole. 567. thanke. 571. pleasure; will. 572. ayen; whome doe; owe. 573. woll. 574. Tell; yeere; leafe or the flour. 575. I least. 576. leafe; owe mine. 577. well done. 580. male bouch; all; crueltie. 581. all. 583. follow; great. 585. forth as; humbly. 586. tooke; hie. 587. them. 588. homeward. 589. all. 590. them; it to rede (_omit_ to). 591. little booke. 594. shall. 595. full. * * * * * XXI. THE ASSEMBLY OF LADIES. In Septembre, at the falling of the leef, The fressh sesoun was al-togider doon, And of the corn was gadered in the sheef; In a gardyn, about twayn after noon, Ther were ladyes walking, as was her wone, 5 Foure in nombre, as to my mynd doth falle, And I the fifte, the simplest of hem alle. Of gentilwomen fayre ther were also, Disporting hem, everiche after her gyse, In crosse-aleys walking, by two and two, 10 And some alone, after her fantasyes. Thus occupyed we were in dyvers wyse; And yet, in trouthe, we were not al alone; Ther were knightës and squyers many one. 'Wherof I served?' oon of hem asked me; 15 I sayde ayein, as it fel in my thought, 'To walke about the mase, in certayntè, As a woman that [of] nothing rought.' He asked me ayein--'whom that I sought, And of my colour why I was so pale?' 20 'Forsothe,' quod I, 'and therby lyth a tale.' 'That must me wite,' quod he, 'and that anon; Tel on, let see, and make no tarying.' 'Abyd,' quod I, 'ye been a hasty oon, I let you wite it is no litel thing. 25 But, for bicause ye have a greet longing In your desyr, this proces for to here, I shal you tel the playn of this matere.-- It happed thus, that, in an after-noon, My felawship and I, by oon assent, 30 Whan al our other besinesse was doon, To passe our tyme, into this mase we went, And toke our wayes, eche after our entent; Some went inward, and +wend they had gon out, Some stode amid, and loked al about. 35 And, sooth to say, some were ful fer behind, And right anon as ferforth as the best; Other ther were, so mased in her mind, Al wayes were good for hem, bothe eest and west. Thus went they forth, and had but litel rest; 40 And some, her corage did hem sore assayle, For very wrath, they did step over the rayle! And as they sought hem-self thus to and fro, I gat myself a litel avauntage; Al for-weried, I might no further go, 45 Though I had won right greet, for my viage. So com I forth into a strait passage, Which brought me to an herber fair and grene, Mad with benches, ful craftily and clene, That, as me thought, ther might no crëature 50 Devyse a better, by dew proporcioun; Safe it was closed wel, I you ensure, With masonry of compas enviroun, Ful secretly, with stayres going doun Inmiddes the place, with turning wheel, certayn; 55 And upon that, a pot of marjolain; With margarettes growing in ordinaunce, To shewe hemself, as folk went to and fro, That to beholde it was a greet plesaunce, And how they were acompanyed with mo 60 Ne-m'oublie-mies and sovenez also; The povre pensees were not disloged there; No, no! god wot, her place was every-where! The flore beneth was paved faire and smothe With stones square, of many dyvers hew, 65 So wel joynëd that, for to say the sothe, Al semed oon (who that non other knew); And underneth, the stremës new and new, As silver bright, springing in suche a wyse That, whence it cam, ye coude it not devyse. 70 A litel whyle thus was I al alone, Beholding wel this délectable place; My felawship were coming everichone, So must me nedes abyde, as for a space. Rememb[e]ring of many dyvers cace 75 Of tyme passed, musing with sighes depe, I set me doun, and ther I fel a-slepe. And, as I slept, me thought ther com to me A gentilwoman, metely of stature; Of greet worship she semed for to be, 80 Atyred wel, not high, but by mesure; Her countenaunce ful sad and ful demure; Her colours blewe, al that she had upon; Ther com no mo [there] but herself aloon. Her gown was wel embrouded, certainly, 85 With sovenez, after her own devyse; On her purfyl her word [was] by and by _Bien et loyalment_, as I coud devyse. Than prayde I her, in every maner wyse That of her name I might have remembraunce; 90 She sayd, she called was Perséveraunce. So furthermore to speke than was I bold, Where she dwelled, I prayed her for to say; And she again ful curteysly me told, "My dwelling is, and hath ben many a day 95 With a lady."--"What lady, I you pray?" "Of greet estate, thus warne I you," quod she; "What cal ye her?"--"Her name is Loyaltè." "In what offyce stand ye, or in what degrè?" Quod I to her, "that wolde I wit right fayn." 100 "I am," quod she, "unworthy though I be, Of her chambre her ussher, in certayn; This rod I bere, as for a token playn, Lyke as ye know the rule in such servyce Pertayning is unto the same offyce. 105 She charged me, by her commaundëment, To warn you and your felawes everichon, That ye shuld come there as she is present, For a counsayl, which shal be now anon, Or seven dayës be comen and gon. 110 And furthermore, she bad that I shuld say Excuse there might be non, nor [no] delay. Another thing was nigh forget behind Whiche in no wyse I wolde but ye it knew; Remembre wel, and bere it in your mind, 115 Al your felawes and ye must come in blew, Every liche able your maters for to sew; With more, which I pray you thinke upon, Your wordës on your slevës everichon. And be not ye abasshed in no wyse, 120 As many been in suche an high presence; Mak your request as ye can best devyse, And she gladly wol yeve you audience. There is no greef, ne no maner offence, Wherin ye fele that your herte is displesed, 125 But with her help right sone ye shul be esed." "I am right glad," quod I, "ye tel me this, But there is non of us that knoweth the way." "As of your way," quod she, "ye shul not mis, Ye shul have oon to gyde you, day by day, 130 Of my felawes (I can no better say) Suche oon as shal tel you the way ful right; And Diligence this gentilwoman hight. A woman of right famous governaunce, And wel cherisshed, I tel you in certayn; 135 Her felawship shal do you greet plesaunce. Her port is suche, her maners trewe and playn; She with glad chere wol do her besy payn To bring you there; now farwel, I have don." "Abyde," sayd I, "ye may not go so sone." 140 "Why so?" quod she, "and I have fer to go To yeve warning in many dyvers place To your felawes, and so to other mo; And wel ye wot, I have but litel space." "Now yet," quod I, "ye must tel me this cace, 145 If we shal any man unto us cal?" "Not oon," quod she, "may come among you al." "Not oon," quod I, "ey! _benedicite!_ What have they don? I pray you tel me that!" "Now, by my lyf, I trow but wel," quod she; 150 "But ever I can bileve there is somwhat, And, for to say you trouth, more can I nat; In questiouns I may nothing be large, I medle no further than is my charge." "Than thus," quod I, "do me to understand, 155 What place is there this lady is dwelling?" "Forsothe," quod she, "and oon sought al this land, Fairer is noon, though it were for a king Devysed wel, and that in every thing. The toures hy ful plesaunt shul ye find, 160 With fanes fressh, turning with every wind. The chambres and parlours both of oo sort, With bay-windowes, goodly as may be thought, As for daunsing and other wyse disport; The galeryes right wonder wel y-wrought, 165 That I wel wot, if ye were thider brought, And took good hede therof in every wyse, Ye wold it thinke a very paradyse." "What hight this place?" quod I; "now say me that." "Plesaunt Regard," quod she, "to tel you playn." 170 "Of verray trouth," quod I, "and, wot ye what, It may right wel be called so, certayn; But furthermore, this wold I wit ful fayn, What shulde I do as sone as I come there, And after whom that I may best enquere?" 175 "A gentilwoman, a porter at the yate There shal ye find; her name is Countenaunce; If +it so hap ye come erly or late, Of her were good to have som acquaintaunce. She can tel how ye shal you best avaunce, 180 And how to come to her ladyes presence; To her wordës I rede you yeve credence. Now it is tyme that I depart you fro; For, in good sooth, I have gret businesse." "I wot right wel," quod I, "that it is so; 185 And I thank you of your gret gentilnesse. Your comfort hath yeven me suche hardinesse That now I shal be bold, withouten fayl, To do after your ávyse and counsayl." Thus parted she, and I lefte al aloon; 190 With that I saw, as I beheld asyde, A woman come, a verray goodly oon; And forth withal, as I had her aspyed, Me thought anon, [that] it shuld be the gyde; And of her name anon I did enquere. 195 Ful womanly she yave me this answere. "I am," quod she, "a simple crëature Sent from the court; my name is Diligence. As sone as I might come, I you ensure, I taried not, after I had licence; 200 And now that I am come to your presence, Look, what servyce that I can do or may, Commaundë me; I can no further say." I thanked her, and prayed her to come nere, Because I wold see how she were arayed; 205 Her gown was blew, dressed in good manere With her devyse, her word also, that sayd _Tant que je puis_; and I was wel apayd; For than wist I, withouten any more, It was ful trew, that I had herd before. 210 "Though we took now before a litel space, It were ful good," quod she, "as I coud gesse." "How fer," quod I, "have we unto that place?" "A dayes journey," quod she, "but litel lesse; Wherfore I redë that we onward dresse; 215 For, I suppose, our felawship is past, And for nothing I wold that we were last." Than parted we, at springing of the day, And forth we wente [a] soft and esy pace, Til, at the last, we were on our journey 220 So fer onward, that we might see the place. "Now let us rest," quod I, "a litel space, And say we, as devoutly as we can, A _pater-noster_ for saint Julian." "With al my herte, I assent with good wil; 225 Much better shul we spede, whan we have don." Than taried we, and sayd it every del. And whan the day was fer gon after noon, We saw a place, and thider cam we sone, Which rounde about was closed with a wal, 230 Seming to me ful lyke an hospital. Ther found I oon, had brought al myn aray, A gentilwoman of myn aquaintaunce. "I have mervayl," quod I, "what maner way Ye had knowlege of al this ordenaunce." 235 "Yis, yis," quod she, "I herd Perséveraunce, How she warned your felawes everichon, And what aray that ye shulde have upon." "Now, for my love," quod I, "this I you pray, Sith ye have take upon you al the payn, 240 That ye wold helpe me on with myn aray; For wit ye wel, I wold be gon ful fayn." "Al this prayer nedeth not, certayn;" Quod she agayn; "com of, and hy you sone, And ye shal see how wel it shal be doon." 245 "But this I dout me greetly, wot ye what, That my felawes ben passed by and gon." "I warant you," quod she, "that ar they nat; For here they shul assemble everichon. Notwithstanding, I counsail you anon; 250 Mak you redy, and tary ye no more, It is no harm, though ye be there afore." So than I dressed me in myn aray, And asked her, whether it were wel or no? "It is right wel," quod she, "unto my pay; 255 Ye nede not care to what place ever ye go." And whyl that she and I debated so, Cam Diligence, and saw me al in blew: "Sister," quod she, "right wel brouk ye your new!" Than went we forth, and met at aventure 260 A yong woman, an officer seming: "What is your name," quod I, "good crëature?" "Discrecioun," quod she, "without lesing." "And where," quod I, "is your most abyding?" "I have," quod she, "this office of purchace, 265 Cheef purveyour, that longeth to this place." "Fair love," quod I, "in al your ordenaunce, What is her name that is the herbegere?" "For sothe," quod she, "her name is Acquaintaunce, A woman of right gracious manere." 270 Than thus quod I, "What straungers have ye here?" "But few," quod she, "of high degree ne low; Ye be the first, as ferforth as I know." Thus with talës we cam streight to the yate; This yong woman departed was and gon; 275 Cam Diligence, and knokked fast therat; "Who is without?" quod Countenaunce anon. "Trewly," quod I, "fair sister, here is oon!" "Which oon?" quod she, and therwithal she lough; "I, Diligence! ye know me wel ynough." 280 Than opened she the yate, and in we go; With wordës fair she sayd ful gentilly, "Ye are welcome, ywis! are ye no mo?" "Nat oon," quod she, "save this woman and I." "Now than," quod she, "I pray yow hertely, 285 Tak my chambre, as for a whyl, to rest Til your felawës come, I holde it best." I thanked her, and forth we gon echon Til her chambre, without[en] wordës mo. Cam Diligence, and took her leve anon; 290 "Wher-ever you list," quod I, "now may ye go; And I thank you right hertely also Of your labour, for which god do you meed; I can no more, but Jesu be your speed!" Than Countenauncë asked me anon, 295 "Your felawship, where ben they now?" quod she. "For sothe," quod I, "they be coming echon; But in certayn, I know nat wher the