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.

XXV.

VIRELAI.

From Trin. (Trin. Coll. Cam. R. 3. 19); collated with S. (Stowe’s ed. 1561).

• • ALONE walking, In thought pleyning,
  • And sore sighing, All desolate,
  • Me remembring Of my living,
  • My deth wishing Bothe erly and late.
• • Infortunate Is so my fate5
  • That, wote ye what? Out of mesure
  • My lyf I hate Thus desperate;
  • In pore estate Do I endure.
• • Of other cure Am I nat sure,
  • Thus to endure Is hard, certain;10
  • Such is my ure , I yow ensure;
  • What creature May have more pain?
• • My trouth so pleyn Is take in veyn,
  • And gret disdeyn In remembraunce;
  • Yet I full feyn Wold me compleyn15
  • Me to absteyn From this penaunce.
• • But in substaunce Noon allegeaunce
  • Of my grevaunce Can I nat finde;
  • Right so my chaunce With displesaunce
  • Doth me avaunce; And thus an ende .20

Explicit.

[4. ]S. death. Trin. wyssyng; S. wishyng. S. early.

[5. ]Trin. soo; S. so.

[6. ]Trin. whate Oute. S. measure.

[7. ]Trin. lyfe; S. life.

[8. ]Trin. In suche pore (I omit suche). S. Doe.

[9. ]S. not.

[12. ]S. Maie.

[13. ]S. truthe; plain; vain.

[14. ]S. greate disdain.

[15. ]Trin. feyne; S. faine. S. Would. Trin. compleyne; S. complaine.

[16. ]Trin. absteyne; S. abstaine.

[17. ]S. None.

[18. ]S. not.

[20. ]S. Doeth.

[11.]ure, destiny; as above, sect. XXIV. 634 (and note, p. 546).

[20.]The pronunciation of ende as ind is not uncommon in East Anglia, and may have been intended.