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XXVII.: LEAULTE VAULT RICHESSE. - Geoffrey Chaucer, The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. 7 (Supplement: Chaucerian and Other Pieces) [1897]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, edited from numerous manuscripts by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat (2nd ed.) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1899). 7 vols.

Part of: The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 7 vols.

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XXVII.

LEAULTE VAULT RICHESSE.

XXVII. From MS. Arch. Seld. B. 24, fol. 138; I give rejected spellings.

  • THIS warldly joy is only fantasy,
  • Of quhich non erdly wicht can be content;
  • Quho most has wit, lest suld in it affy,
  • Quho taistis it most, most sall him repent;
  • Quhat valis all this richess and this rent,5
  • Sen no man wat quho sall his tresour have?
  • Presume nocht gevin that god has donbut lent ,
  • Within schort tyme the quhiche he thinkis to crave.

Leaulte vaultrichesse .

[1. ]Ioy; onely.

[3. ]leste.

[6. ]wate.

[7. ]done.

[9. ]richess.

[7.]don but lent, lit. ‘done but lent,’ i. e. merely lent (you). For this idiom, see note to Ch. C. T., B 171 (vol. v. p. 145).