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NOTES. - 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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NOTES.

I.

THE TESTAMENT OF LOVE.

The text is from Thynne’s first edition (1532); the later reprints are of inferior value. No MS. of this piece is known. Rejected spellings are given at the bottom of each page. Conjectural emendations are marked by a prefixed obelus (†). In many places, words or letters are supplied, within square brackets, to complete or improve the sense. For further discussion of this piece, see the Introduction.

Book I.

Book II.

Chap. I.

The initials of the fourteen Chapters in this Book give the words: virtw have merci. Thynne has not preserved the right division, but makes fifteen chapters, giving the words: virtw have mctrci. I have set this right, by making Chap. XI begin with ‘Every.’ Thynne makes Chapter XI begin with ‘Certayn,’ p. 86, l. 133, and another Chapter begin with ‘Trewly,’ p. 89, l. 82. This cannot be right, because the latter word, ‘Trewly,’ belongs to the last clause of a sentence; and the Chapter thus beginning would have the unusually small number of 57 lines.

Book III.

Chap. I.

This chapter is really a Prologue to the Third Book.

II.

THE PLOWMAN’S TALE.

Numerous references are given to Pierce the Ploughman’s Crede, ed. Skeat (E.E.T.S.); a poem by the same author. See the Introduction.

III.

JACK UPLAND.

To this piece, which is an attack upon the friars, a reply was made by one of them (probably a Dominican, see notes to ll. 100, 130), which is printed at length in Wright’s Political Poems and Songs (Record Series), vol. ii. pp. 39–114; together with a rejoinder by Jack Upland, printed on the same pages. The friar’s reply is often cited in the Notes below, where the number refers to the page of the above-named volume. See further in the Introduction.

IV.

GOWER: THE PRAISE OF PEACE.

This piece has no English title except that printed at p. 205; for the Latin title, see p. 216. See the Introduction.

V.

THOMAS HOCCLEVE: THE LETTER OF CUPID.

This poem is imitated, rather than translated, from the French poem entitled L’Epistre au Dieu d’Amours, written by Christine de Pisan in May, 1399; printed in Œuvres Poétiques de Christine de Pisan, publiées par Maurice Roy, ii. 1–27; Société des Anciens Textes Français, 1891. Hoccleve even rearranges some of the material; and Dr. Furnivall has printed all the lines of the original of which the English poet has made use, in the Notes to his edition of Hoccleve’s Works, published for the Early English Text Society, in 1892. It thus appears that the lines of Christine’s poem are to be taken in the following order: 1–116, 537–54, 126–30, 531–4, 131–96, 721–5, 259–520, 321–5, 271–4, 387–460, 643–77, 608–23, 559–75, 759–800. The following stanzas, on the other hand, are wholly Hoccleve’s own: 71–7, 92–8, 127–33, 141–7, 162–8, 176–89, 267–73, 316–29, 379–434. The last set extends to 56 lines.

Cupid, god of Love, is supposed to write a letter to all lovers, who are his subjects, reproving men for their slander and ill-treatment of women, and defending women against all that is alleged against them. In fact, it is a reply, by Christine de Pisan, to the numerous severe things that Jean de Meun had said about women in the famous Roman de la Rose. He is expressly mentioned by name in l. 281.

I here quote, as a specimen, the first 7 lines of the original, answering to Hoccleve’s first stanza—

  • ‘Cupido, roy par la grace de lui,
  • Dieu des amans, sans aide de nullui,
  • Regnant en l’air du ciel tres reluisant,
  • Filz de Venus la deesse poissant,
  • Sire d’amours et de tous ses obgiez,
  • A tous vos vrais loiaulx servans subgiez,
  • Salut, Amour, Familiarite!’

VI.

THOMAS HOCCLEVE: TO THE KING; AND TO THE KNIGHTS OF THE GARTER.

These two Balades, each of 32 lines, are written in a highly artificial metre; for, in each case, the four stanzas of which each consists shew the same rimes throughout. The riming syllables in Balade 1 are -esse, -our, and -alle; and in Balade 2, are -ame, -aunce, and -ee. A similar example of metrical arrangement occurs in Chaucer’s Balade to Rosemounde.

VII.

HENRY SCOGAN: A MORAL BALADE.

For remarks upon the heading of this poem, see the Introduction.

VIII.

JOHN LYDGATE; COMPLAINT OF THE BLACK KNIGHT.

There are some excellent notes relative to this poem in Schick’s edition of Lydgate’s Temple of Glas (E. E. T. S.); I refer to them below as ‘Schick, T. G.’

IX.

JOHN LYDGATE: THE FLOUR OF CURTESYE.

I know of no MS. copy of this piece.

X.

IN COMMENDATION OF OUR LADY.

XI.

TO MY SOVERAIN LADY.

XII.

BALLAD OF GOOD COUNSEL.

XIII.

BEWARE OF DOUBLENESS.

This piece is gently ironical throughout, as, for example, in ll. 15, 23, 31, 39, 47, &c.

XIV.

A BALADE: WARNING MEN, etc.

XV.

THREE SAYINGS.

XVI.

LA BELLE DAME.

XVII.

THE TESTAMENT OF CRESSEID.

This sequel to Chaucer’s ‘Troilus,’ written by Robert Henryson of Dunfermline, is in the Northern dialect of the Scottish Lowlands. Thynne has not made any special attempt to alter the wording of this piece, but he frequently modifies the spelling; printing so instead of sa (l. 3), whan for quhen (l. 3), right for richt (l. 4), and so on. I follow the Edinburgh edition of 1593. See further in the Introduction.

XVIII.

THE CUCKOO AND THE NIGHTINGALE.

In this piece, the final -e is much used as forming a distinct syllable; indeed, more freely than in Chaucer.

XIX.

ENVOY TO ALISON.

XX.

THE FLOWER AND THE LEAF.

I give numerous references below to ‘A. L.’, i. e. the Assembly of Ladies, printed at p. 380. The two poems have much in common.

XXI.

THE ASSEMBLY OF LADIES.

For numerous references to this poem, see Notes to the preceding poem.

Though apparently written by the authoress of the Flower and the Leaf, it is of later date, and much less use is made of the final e. That the author was a woman, is asserted in ll. 7, 18, 259, 284, 370, 379–85, 407, 450, 625.

XXII.

A GOODLY BALADE.

Obviously Lydgate’s. See the Introduction.

XXIII.

GO FORTH, KING.

This poem really consists of twelve precepts, intended to redress twelve abuses. The twelve abuses are given by the Latin lines above, which should be compared throughout. The whole poem is thus easily understood.

The accent is on the first syllable of the line in most of the lines. In l. 3, the word Lord stands alone in the first foot. The lines are somewhat unsteady, quite in Lydgate’s usual manner. In l. 6, jug -e is probably dissyllabic. See further in the Introduction.

XXIV.

THE COURT OF LOVE.

This late piece abounds with imitations of Lydgate, especially of his Temple of Glas; many of the resemblances are pointed out in Schick’s edition of that poem, which I refer to by the contraction ‘T. G.’

XXV.

VIRELAI.

Not a true virelay, as the ending -ing does not reappear in the second stanza; for a correct example, see note to Anelida and Arcite, 256 (vol. i. p. 536). But it is of the nature of a virelay, inasmuch as the rime -ate, which concludes the first stanza, reappears in the second; and similarly, the ending -ure, which concludes the second stanza, reappears in the third; and so on, with the rime-endings -ain and -aunce. Compare the poem by Lord Rivers, in the same metre, alluded to in vol. i. p. 42.

XXVI.

PROSPERITY.

From John Walton’s translation of Boethius, ad 1410. See the Introduction.

XXVII.

LEAULTE VAULT RICHESSE.

From the same MS. as the last.

XXVIII.

SAYINGS.

XXIX.

BALADE.

This Balade, printed by Stowe, seems like a poor imitation of the style of Lydgate.