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.

XII.

TO ROSEMOUNDE. A BALADE.

From MS. Rawl. Poet. 163, leaf 114.

No title in the MS.

Readings.

• • Madame, ye ben of al beautè shryne
  • As fer as cercled is the mappemounde ;^[ ]
  • For as the cristal glorious ye shyne,
  • And lyke ruby ben your chekes rounde.
  • Therwith ye ben so mery and so iocounde ,5
  • That at a revel whan that I see you daunce ,
  • It is an oynement unto my wounde,
  • Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce .
• • For thogh I wepe of teres ful a tyne,^[ ]
  • Yet may that wo myn herte nat confounde;^[ ]10
  • Your seemly voys that ye so smal out-twyne^[ ]
  • Maketh my thoght in Ioye and blis habounde.
  • So curteisly I go, with lovë bounde,
  • That to my-self I sey, in my penaunce,
  • Suffyseth me to love you, Rosemounde,15
  • Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce .
• • Nas never pyk walwed in galauntyne^[ ]
  • As I in love am walwed and y-wounde ;
  • For which ful ofte I of my-self divyne
  • That I am trewe Tristam the secounde.^[ ]20
  • My love may not refreyd be nor afounde ;^[ ]
  • I brenne ay in an amorous plesaunce.
  • Do what you list , I wil your thral be founde,
  • Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce .24

Tregentil. Chaucer.

[2. ]mapamonde.

[3. ]cristall.

[4. ]chekys.

[5. ]ioconde.

[6. ]Reuell; se; dance.

[8. ]Thoght (see 16); daliance.

[11. ]semy (sic); read seemly; fynall, for final (misreading of imal).

[12. ]Makyth; ioy; blys.

[13. ]curtaysly.

[18. ]I wounde.

[19. ]deuyne.

[20. ]trew.

[21. ]refreyde (with be above the line, just before it); affounde.

[22. ]amorouse.

[23. ]lyst; wyl.

[24. ]daliance.

[2.]‘As far as the map of the world extends.’ Mappemounde is the F. mappemonde, Lat. mappa mundi; it is used also by Gower, Conf. Amant. iii. 102.

[9.]tyne, a large tub; O. F. tine. The whole phrase occurs in the Chevalier au Cigne, as given in Bartsch, Chrest. Française, 350. 23:—‘Le jour i ot plore de larmes plaine tine.’ Cotgrave has:—‘Tine, a Stand, open Tub, or Soe, most in use during the time of vintage, and holding about four or five pailfuls, and commonly borne, by a Stang, between two.’ We picture to ourselves the brawny porters, staggering beneath the ‘stang,’ on which is slung the ‘tine’ containing the ‘four or five pailfuls’ of the poet’s tears.

[10.]The poet, in all his despair, is sustained and refreshed by regarding the lady’s beauty.

[11.]seemly, excellent, pleasing; this is evidently meant by the semy of the MS.

smal, fine in tone, delicate; perhaps treble. A good example occurs in the Flower and the Leaf, 180:—

• ‘With voices sweet entuned, and so smalle,
• That it me thoughte the swetest melodye,’ &c.

Cf. ‘his vois gentil and smal’; Cant. Tales, A 3360. The reading fynall (put for finall) is due to mistaking the long ſ (s) for f, and m for in.

out-twyne, twist out, force out; an unusual word.

[17.]‘Never was pike so involved in galantine-sauce as I am completely involved in love.’ This is a humorous allusion to a manner of serving up pikes which is well illustrated in the Fifteenth-Century Cookery-books, ed. Austin, p. 101, where a recipe for ‘pike in Galentyne’ directs that the cook should ‘cast the sauce under him and aboue him, that he be al y-hidde in the sauce.’ At p. 108 of the same we are told that the way to make ‘sauce galentyne’ is to steep crusts of brown bread in vinegar, adding powdered cinnamon till it is brown; after which the vinegar is to be strained twice or thrice through a strainer, and some pepper and salt is to be added. Thus ‘sauce galentine’ was a seasoned pickle. See further in the note to l. 16 of Sect. IX.

[20.]‘True Tristram the second.’ For Tristram, see note to Sect. V. l. 290. Tristram was a famous example of ‘truth’ or constancy, as his love was inspired by having drunk a magical love-potion, from the effects of which he never recovered. The MS. has Tristam.

[21.]refreyd, cooled down; lit. ‘refrigerated.’ This rare word occurs twice in Troilus; see bk. ii. 1343, v. 507; cf. Pers. Ta. I 341. Dr. Murray tells me that no writer but Chaucer is known to have used this form of the word, though Caxton has refroid, from continental French, whereas refreid is from Anglo-French.

afounde, sink, be submerged. See O. F. afonder, to plunge under water, also, to sink, in Godefroy; and affonder in Cotgrave. Chaucer found this rare word in Le Roman de la Rose, 19914. (I once thought it was the pp. of afinden, and meant ‘nor be explored’; but it is better to take it as infin. after may not). See Afounder in the New E. Dict.