The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Errata and Addenda
• Introduction
• I: The Testament of Love.
• Book I Prologue. [ ]
• Book II.
• Book III.
• II.: The Plowmans Tale.
• III.: Jack Upland.
• IV.: John Gower Unto the Worthy and Noble Kinge Henry the Fourth.
• V.: Thomas Hoccleve. the Letter of Cupid.
• VI.: To the Kinges Most Noble Grace; and to the Lordes and Knightes of the Garter.
• VII.: A Moral Balade.
• VIII.: John Lydgate. the Complaint of the Black Knight; Or, the Complaint of a Loveres Lyfe.
• IX.: The Flour of Curtesye.
• X.: A Balade; In Commendation of Our Lady.
• XI.: To My Soverain Lady.
• XII.: Ballad of Good Counsel.
• XIII.: Beware of Doubleness.
• XIV.: A Balade: Warning Men to Beware of Deceitful Women.
• XV.: Three Sayings.
• XVI.: La Belle Dame Sans Mercy. Translated Out of French By Sir Richard Ros.
• XVII.: The Testament of Cresseid.
• XVIII.: The Cuckoo and the Nightingale; Or the Book of Cupid, God of Love.
• XIX.: Envoy to Alison.
• XX.: The Flower and the Leaf.
• XXI.: The Assembly of Ladies.
• XXII.: A Goodly Balade.
• XXIII.: Go Forth, King.
• XXIV.: The Court of Love.
• XXV.: Virelai.
• XXVI.: Prosperity.
• XXVII.: Leaulte Vault Richesse.
• XXVIII.: Sayings Printed By Caxton.
• XXIX.: Balade In Praise of Chaucer.
• Notes.
• Glossarial Index.
• List of Subscribers.

XXII.

A GOODLY BALADE.

From Th. (Thynne’s ed. 1532). Title. A goodly balade of Chaucer. I note here rejected spellings.

• • ¶ MODER of norture , best beloved of al,
  • And fresshest flour , to whom good thrift god sende.
  • Your child , if it list you me so to cal,
  • Al be I unable my-self so to pretende,
  • To your discrecioun I recommende5
  • Myn herte and al, with every circumstaunce,
  • Al hoolly to be under your governaunce.
• • Most desyre I, and have, and ever shal
  • Thing , whiche might your hertës ese amende;
  • Have me excused, my power is but smal ;10
  • Natheles , of right ye ought[e] to commende
  • My good[e] will, which fayn wolde entende
  • To do you service; for al my suffisaunce
  • Is hoolly to be under your governaunce.
• • Meulx un : in herte, which never shal apal,15
  • Ay fresshe and newe, and right glad to dispende
  • My tyme in your servyce, what-so befal ,
  • Beseching your excéllence to defende
  • My simplenesse, if ignoraunce offende
  • In any wyse; sith that myn affiaunce20
  • Is hoolly to be under your governaunce.
• • ¶ Daisy of light ! very ground of comfort !
  • The sonnes doughter ye hight, as I rede;
  • For when he westreth, farwel your disport !
  • By your nature anon, right for pure drede25
  • Of the rude night, that with his boystous wede
  • Of derkness shadoweth our emispere,
  • Than closen ye, my lyves lady dere!
• • Dawing the day to his kinde resort ,[ ]
  • Phebus your fader , with his stremes rede,30
  • Adorneth the morow , cónsuming the sort
  • Of misty cloudës, that wolde overlede
  • Trewe humble hertës with hir mistihede,
  • Nere comfort a-dayes, whan eyën clere[ ]
  • Disclose and sprede my lyves lady dere.35

[A stanza lost; lines 36–42.]

• • ¶ Je vouldray :—but [the] gret[e] god disposeth
  • And maketh casuel by his providence
  • Such thing as mannës frelë wit purposeth;45
  • Al for the best, if that our conscience
  • Nat grucche it, but in humble pacience
  • It receyve ; for god saith, without[e] fable,
  • A faithful hertë ever is acceptáble.
• • Cautels who useth gladly, gloseth;50
  • To eschewe suche it is right high prudence;
  • What ye said[e] onës, [now ] myn herte opposeth,
  • “That my wryting japës , in your absence,
  • Plesed you moche bet than my presence!”
  • Yet can I more, ye be nat excusáble;55
  • A faithful hertë ever is acceptáble.
• • Quaketh my penne ; my spirit supposeth
  • That in my wryting ye finde wol som offence;
  • Myn herte welkeneth thus sone, anon it †roseth ;[ ]
  • Now hot, now cold , and eft in [al ] fervence;60
  • That mis is, is caused of negligence
  • And not of malice; therfor beth merciable;
  • A faithful hertë ever is acceptáble.

Lenvoy.

• ¶ Forth , complaynt! forth, lakking eloquence,[ ]
• Forth , litel lettre, of endyting lame!65
• I have besought my ladies sapience
• Of thy behalfe, to accept in game
• Thyn inabilitee ; do thou the same!
• Abyd! have more yet; Je serveJonesse .[ ]
• Now forth; I close thee , in holy Venus name;70
• Thee shal unclose my hertes governeresse.

Finis.

[3. ]childe; lust.

[4. ]selfe.

[5. ]discrecion; recomende.

[7. ]holy.

[9. ]ease.

[10. ]small.

[11. ]Nathelesse; ought.

[12. ]good; whiche fayne.

[14. ]holy.

[17. ]befall.

[20. ]sythe.

[21. ]holy; ben.

[22. ]grounde; comforte.

[24. ]disporte.

[27. ]derkenesse.

[29. ]resorte.

[30. ]And Phebus (I omit And); father.

[31. ]morowe; sorte.

[32. ]wolden.

[34. ]comforte.

[43. ]great (read the grete).

[45. ]Suche; mans (read mannes); witte.

[47. ]grutche.

[48. ]Read Receyve it (?); saythe withoute.

[52. ]sayd; I supply now.

[53. ]Read wryting of iapes (?).

[54. ]Pleased; better (read bet).

[58. ]Omit wol (?); some.

[59. ]ryseth (!); read roseth.

[60. ]Nowe hotte, nowe colde; efte; I supply al.

[61. ]mysse.

[62. ]therfore bethe.

[64. ]Headed Lennoye. Forthe; forthe lackyng.

[65. ]Forthe.

[68. ]inabylite.

[69. ]Iouesse.

[70. ]Nowe; the.

[71. ]The.

[1.]Moder of norture, model of good breeding. The poem is evidently addressed to a lady named Margaret.

[2.]flour, daisy (for Margaret); see ll. 22, 23.

[4.]Al be I, although I am; common in Lydgate.

[9.]Thing, i. e. anything, everything, whatever thing.

[15.]Mieulx un, one (is) better; evidently cited from a motto or device. The meaning seems to be: it is better to have but one lover, and you have found one in a heart that will never shrink. In the Temple of Glas, 310, Lydgate uses the motto de mieulx en mieulx.

[22–3.]‘Daisy (born) of light; you are called the daughter of the sun.’ Alluding to the name day’s eye, which was also applied by Lydgate to the sun; see note in vol. iii. p. 291 (l. 43). Imitated from Legend of Good Women, 60–4.

[29.]‘When the day dawns, (repairing) to its natural place (in the east), then your father Phœbus adorns the morrow.’

[34.]‘Were it not for the comfort in the day-time, when (the sun’s) clear eyes make the daisy unclose.’ Awkward and involved; cf. Legend of Good Women, 48–50, 64–5.

[43.]Je vouldray, I should like; purposely left incomplete.

[44.]casuel, uncertain; see New E. Dict.

[48–9.]god saith; implying that it is in the Bible. I do not find the words; cf. Prov. xxi. 3; 1 Pet. ii. 20.

[50.]Cautels, artifices, deceits; a word not used by Chaucer, but found in Lydgate; see New E. Dict.

[57.]Quaketh my penne, my pen quakes; an expression used once by Chaucer, Troil. iv. 13, but pounced upon by Lydgate, who employs it repeatedly. See more than twenty examples in Schick’s note to the Temple of Glas, 947. Cf. IX. 229.

[59.]Read roseth, grows rosy, grows red, as opposed to welkeneth, withers, fades. We find the pp. rosed twice in Shakespeare; ‘a maid yet rosed over,’ Henry V, v. 2. 423; and ‘thy rosed lips’; Titus And. ii. 4. 24. The emendation seems a safe one, for it restores the sense as well as the rime.

welkeneth should probably be welketh; I find no other example of the verb welkenen, though welwen occurs in a like sense; and welketh suits the rhythm.

[60.]eft, once again hot. These sudden transitions from cold to heat are common; see Temple of Glas, 356:—‘For thoughe I brenne with feruence and with hete.’

[64.]Lydgate is always deploring his lack of eloquence; cf. notes to Temple of Glas, ed. Schick, ll. 1393, 1400.

[69.]I can find no such word as jouesse, so I alter it to jonesse, i. e. youth. For the spelling jonesce in the 14th century, see Littré, s. v. jeunesse. The expression have more yet implies that the phrase or motto je serve jonesse is added as a postscript, and that there was some special point in it; but the application of it is now lost to us. Cf. ‘Princes of youthe, and flour of gentilesse,’ Temple of Glas, 970.