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.

XIV.

GENTILESSE.

Title;so in Harl., but spelt Chaucier; T. has—Balade by Chaucier.

The MSS. are A. (Ashmole 59); T. (Trin. Coll. R. 3. 20); Harl. (Harl. 7333); Ct. (Cotton, Cleopatra D. 7); Ha. (Harl. 7578); Add. (Additional 22139, Brit. Museum). Also Cx. (Caxton’s printed edition). I follow chiefly the last of these, and note variations.

• Moral Balade of Chaucer.
• • Thefirste stok, fader of gentilesse —^[ ]
  • 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 ,^[ ]5
  • And noght the revers, saufly dar I deme,
  • 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 ,10
  • Ageinst the vyce of slouthe, in honestee ;
  • And, but his heir love vertu, as dide he,
  • He is noght gentil, thogh he riche seme,
  • Al were he mytre , croune , or diademe.
• • Vyce may wel be heir to old richesse;^[ ]15
  • But ther may no man, as men may wel see,^[ ]
  • 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 ,^[ ]20
  • Al were he mytre, croune , or diademe.

[1. ]Cx. first; Harl. ffirste; Ct. firste. T. gentilesse; rest gentilnesse.

[3. ]Cx. om. alle.

[4. ]A. T. suwe; Harl. shew (for sewe); Cx. folowe (!).

[5. ]Cx. vertue; dignyte.

[6. ]Cx. not; rest nouȝt, nought, noȝte.

[7. ]Cx. mytor; A. T. Harl. Add. mytre. Cx. crowne; dyademe.

[8. ]Cx. rightwisnes.

[9. ]A. Ct. Ha. pitous; Cx. pyetous.

[10. ]Cx. besynes.

[11. ]A. Ageinst; T. Ageynst; Cx. Agayn. Cx. om. the. Cx. honeste.

[12. ]Cx. eyer; rest heire, heyre, eyre.

[13. ]Cx. not; Ct. Ha. nought. Cx. though; Add. though.

[14. ]Cx. mytor; crowne.

[15. ]Cx. omits heir. Cx. holde; rest olde; but read old.

[16. ]Cx. al; rest as.

[17. ]Cx. eyer.

[18. ]Cx. degre.

[19. ]Cx. first; mageste.

[20. ]Ct. That maketh his heires hem that hym queme (omitting can); A. That maþe his heyre him that wol him qweme; T. That makeþe heos heyres hem þat wol him qweeme; Add. That maketh his eires hem that can him queme; Cx. That makes hem eyres that can hem queme; with other variations. I follow Cx., supplying his, and putting him and heir in the singular; cf. he in l. 21.

[21. ]Cx. crowne mytor.

[1.]With this first stanza compare R. Rose, 18881:—

• ‘Quiconques tent à gentillece
• D’orguel se gart et de parece;
• Aille as armes, ou à l’estuide,
• Et de vilenie se vuide;
• Humble cuer ait, cortois et gent
• En tretous leus, vers toute gent.’

Two MSS., both written out by Shirley, and MS. Harl. 7333, all read:—‘The first fader, and foundour (or fynder) of gentylesse.’ This is wrong, and probably due to the dropping of the final e in the definite adjective firste. We must keep the phrase firste stok, because it is expressly repeated in l. 8.

The first line means—‘With regard to, or As to the first stock (or source), who was the father of gentilesse.’ The substantives stok and fader have no verb to them, but are mentioned as being the subject of the sentence.

[3.]The former his refers to fader, but the latter to man.

[4.]Sewe, follow. In a Ballad by King James the First of Scotland, printed at p. 54 of my edition of the Kingis Quair, the first five lines are a fairly close imitation of the opening lines of the present poem, and prove that King James followed a MS. which had the reading sewe.

• ‘Sen throu vertew encressis dignite,
• And vertew flour and rut [root] is of noblay,
• Of ony weill or quhat estat thou be,
• His steppis sew, and dreid thee non effray:
• Exil al vice, and folow trewth alway.’

Observe how his first, third, and fourth lines answer to Chaucer’s fifth, second, and fourth lines respectively.

[5.]‘Dignitees apertienen . . . to vertu’; Boeth. iii. pr. 4, l. 25.

[7.]Al were he, albeit he may wear; i. e. although he may be a bishop, king, or emperor.

[8.]This firste stok, i. e. Christ. In l. 12, his heir means mankind in general.

Compare Le Rom. de la Rose, 18819:—

• ‘Noblece vient de bon corage,
• Car gentillece de lignage
• N’est pas gentillece qui vaille,
• Por quoi bonté de cuer i faille,
• Por quoi doit estre en li parans [apparent]
• La proece de ses parens
• Qui la gentillece conquistrent
• Par les travaux que grans i mistrent.
• Et quant du siecle trespasserent,
• Toutes lor vertus emporterent,
• Et lessierent as hoirs l’avoir;
• Que plus ne porent d’aus avoir.
• L’avoir ont, plus riens n’i a lor,
• Ne gentillece, ne valor,
• Se tant ne font que gentil soient
• Par sens ou par vertu qu’il aient.’

And cf. Dante, Purg. vii. 121-3, to which Ch. refers in his Wife of Bath’s Tale (D 1128).

[15.]Vyc-e is dissyllabic; hence two MSS. turn it into Vices, and one even has Vicesse!

With this stanza compare part of the French quotation above, and compare Rom. Rose, 19064, &c.:—

• ‘Mes il sunt mauvais, vilain nastre,
• Et d’autrui noblece se vantent;
• Il ne dient pas voir, ains mentent,
• Et le non [name] de gentillece emblent,
• Quant lor bons parens ne resemblent;’ &c.

[16.]In MS. A. is this side-note, in a later hand:—

• ‘Nam genus et proauos et quæ non fecimus ipsi
• Vix ea nostra voco.’

[20.]This is a difficult line to obtain from the MSS. It is necessary to keep heir in the singular, because of he in l. 21. In MS. A., maþe clearly stands for makeþe, i. e. maketh, as in nearly all the MSS. This gives us—That maketh his heir him that wol [or can] him queme. The change from his heir him to the more natural order him his heir is such a gain to the metre that it is worth while to make it.