The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• General Introduction.
• Life of Geoffrey Chaucer.
• List of Chaucer’s Works.
• Errata and Addenda.
• Introduction.: the Romaunt of the Rose.
• Introduction: the Minor Poems.
• The Romaunt of the Rose.
• Fragment A.: Le Roman De La Rose.
• Fragment B.
• Fragment C.
• The Minor Poems.
• I.: An A. B. C.
• II.: The Compleynte Unto Pite.
• III.: The Book of the Duchesse.
• IV.: The Compleynt of Mars.
• V.: The Parlement of Foules.
• VI.: A Compleint to His Lady.
• VII.: Anelida and Arcite.
• VIII.: Chaucers Wordes Unto Adam, His Owne Scriveyn.
• IX.: The Former Age.
• X.: Fortune.
• XI.: Merciles Beaute: a Triple Roundel.
• XII.: To Rosemounde. a Balade.
• XIII.: Truth.
• XIV.: Gentilesse.
• XV.: Lak of Stedfastnesse.
• XVI.: Lenvoy De Chaucer a Scogan.
• XVII.: Lenvoy De Chaucer a Bukton.
• XVIII.: The Compleynt of Venus.
• XIX.: The Compleint of Chaucer to His Empty Purse.
• XX.: Proverbs.
• Appendix.
• XXI.: Against Women Unconstant.
• XXII.: An Amorous Compleint. (compleint Damours.)
• XXIII.: A Balade of Compleynt.
• Notes to the Romaunt of the Rose.
• Notes to the Minor Poems.

XI.

MERCILES BEAUTE: A TRIPLE ROUNDEL.

This excellent text is from P. (MS. Pepys 2006, p. 390). I note all variations from the MS.

• I. Captivity.
• • Your yën two wol slee me sodenly,^[ ]
  • I may the beautè of hem not sustene,
  • So woundeth hit through-out my herte kene.^[ ]
• • And but your word wol helen hastily^[ ]
  • My hertes wounde, whyl that hit is grene,5
  • Your yënYour yëntwo wol slee me sodenly,^[ ]
  • I may the beautè of hem not sustene.
• • Upon my trouthe I sey yow feithfully,^[ ]
  • That ye ben of my lyf and deeth the quene;
  • For with my deeth the trouthe shal be sene.10
  • Your yëntwo wol slee me sodenly,
  • I may the beautè of hem not sustene,
  • So woundeth hit through-out my herte kene.

• II. Rejection.
• • So hath your beautè fro your herte chaced
  • Pitee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne ;^[ ]15
  • For Daunger halt your mercy in his cheyne.^[ ]
  • Giltles my deeth thus han ye me purchaced;^[ ]
  • I sey yow sooth , me nedeth not to feyne ;
  • Sohath yourbeautè fro your herte chaced
  • Pitee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne.20
• • Allas! that nature hath in yow compassed
  • So greet beautè, that no man may atteyne
  • To mercy, though he sterve for the peyne .
  • So hath your beautèfro your herte chaced
  • Pitee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne;25
  • For Daunger halt your mercy in his cheyne.

• III. Escape.
• • Sin I fro Love escaped am so fat,^[ ]
  • I never thenk to ben in his prison lene;^[ ]
  • Sin I am free , I counte him not a bene.
• • He may answere , and seye this or that;30
  • I do no fors, I speke right as I mene.^[ ]
  • Sin I fro Loveescaped am so fat,
  • I never thenk to ben in his prison lene.
• • Love hath my name y-strike out of his sclat,
  • And he is strike out of my bokes clene35
  • For ever-mo; [ther] is non other mene.
  • Sin I fro Loveescaped am so fat,
  • I never thenk to ben in his prison lene;
  • Sin I am free, I counte him not a bene.39

Explicit.

[1. ]P. Yowre two yen; but read Your yen two; for in ll., 6, 11, the MS. has Your yen, &c. P. wolle sle.

[2. ]them; read hem.

[3. ]wondeth it thorowout (out in the margin).

[4. ]wille.

[5. ]Mi hertis wound while; it.

[6, 7. ]Your yen, &c.

[8. ]trouth.

[9. ]liffe; deth.

[10. ]deth; trouth.

[11-13. ]Your yen, &c.

[14. ]yowre.

[15. ]nauailleth; pleyn.

[16. ]danger.

[17. ]deth.

[18. ]soth; fayn.

[19, 20. ]So hath your, &c.

[21. ]compased.

[22. ]grete; atteyn.

[23. ]peyn.

[24-26. ]So hath your beaute, &c.

[28. ]neuere.

[29. ]fre.

[30. ]answere & sey.

[32, 33. ]Syn I fro loue, &c.

[34. ]I strike.

[36. ]this is (read ther is).

[37-39. ]Syn I fro loue, &c.

[1.]The MS. has Yowre two yen; but the scribe lets us see that this ill-sounding arrangement of the words is not the author’s own; for in writing the refrain he writes ‘Your yen, &c.’ But we have further evidence: for the whole line is quoted in Lydgate’s Ballade of our Ladie, printed in Chaucer’s Works, ed. 1550, fol. 347 b, in the form—‘Your eyen two wol slee me sodainly.’ The same Ballad contains other imitations of Chaucer’s language. Cf. also Kn. Tale, 260 and 709 (A 1118, 1567).

[3.]So woundeth hit . . . kene, so keenly it (your beauty) wounds (me). The MS. has wondeth, which is another M. E. spelling of woundeth. Percy miscopied it wendeth, which gives but poor sense; besides, Chaucer would probably have used the contracted form went, as his manner is. In l. 5, the scribe writes wound (better wounde).

[4.]And but, and unless. For word Percy printed words, quite forgetting that the M. E. plural is dissyllabic (word-es). The final d has a sort of curl to it, but a comparison with other words shews that it means nothing; it occurs, for instance, at the end of wound (l. 5), and escaped (l. 27).

Wounde (MS. wound) is dissyllabic in Mid. English, like mod. G. Wunde. See wunde in Stratmann.

[6.]I give two lines to the first refrain, and three to the second. The reader may give three lines to both, if he pleases; see note to sect. V, l. 675. We cannot confine the first refrain to one line only, as there is no stop at the end of l. 14.

[8.]Trouth-e is dissyllabic; see treouthe in Stratmann.

[15.]Ne availeth; with elided e. MS. nauailleth; Percy prints n’availeth.

[16.]Halt, i. e. holdeth; see Book of Duch. 621.

[17.]MS. han ye me, correctly; Percy omits me, and so spoils both sense and metre.

[27.]Lovers should be lean; see Romaunt of the Rose (E. version), 2684. The F. version has (l. 2561):—

• ‘Car bien saches qu’ Amors ne lesse
• Sor fins amans color ne gresse.’

[28.]MS. neuere; Percy prints nere; but the syllables in his occupy the time of one syllable. I suspect that the correct reading is thenke ben; to is not wanted, and thenke is better with a final e, though it is sometimes dropped in the pres. indicative. Percy prints thinke, but the MS. has thenk; cf. AS. þencan. With l. 29 cf. Troil. v. 363.

[31.]I do no fors, I don’t care; as in Cant. Ta. 6816 (D 1234).