Chaucerian and Other Pieces

by Various (14th - 15th century)

CHAUCERIAN

AND OTHER PIECES

EDITED, FROM NUMEROUS MANUSCRIPTS

BY THE REV.

WALTER W. SKEAT, Litt.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Ph.D.
ELRINGTON AND BOSWORTH PROFESSOR OF ANGLO-SAXON
AND FELLOW OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE,
CAMBRIDGE

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BEING A SUPPLEMENT TO THE
COMPLETE WORKS OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER
(OXFORD, IN SIX VOLUMES, 1894)

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'And yit ye shul han better loos,
Right in dispyt of alle your foos,
Than worthy is; and that anoon.'
⁠Hous of Fame, 1667-9.

Oxford

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

M DCCC XCVII

IN GRATEFUL MEMORY
OF
HENRY BRADSHAW

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CONTENTS.

Introduction.—§ 1. Works appended to those of Chaucer in various editions. § 2. Thynne's collection in 1532. A Praise of Women. The Lamentation of Mary Magdalen. The Remedy of Love. § 3. Other non-Chaucerian pieces. The Craft of Lovers. A Balade. The Ten Commandments of Love. The Nine Ladies Worthy. Virelai. The Judgement of Paris. A Balade pleasaunte. Another Balade. The Court of Love. § 4. Additions by Speght. Chaucer's Dream. Eight Goodly Questions. § 5. Editions and MSS. consulted. § 6. Authorities for the pieces here printed. § 7. I. The Testament of Love. § 8. The acrostic found in it. Name of the author. § 9. Fate of Thomas Usk. § 10. Idea of the work. § 11. The author's plagiarisms from Chaucer. § 12. How he stole a passage from The House of Fame. § 13. Borrowings from Troilus and Piers Plowman. § 14. The author's inaccuracies. § 15. The title; and the meaning of Margaret. § 16. Plan of the work. § 17. Outline of Book I. § 18. Outline of Book II. § 19. Outline of Book III. § 20. II. The Plowmans Tale. § 21. Never supposed to be Chaucer's. § 22. Written by the author of The Ploughmans Crede. § 23. III. Jack Upland. § 24. Date, A.D. 1402. § 25. Traces of two texts. § 26. Not originally written in alliterative verse. § 27. IV. The Praise of Peace. By John Gower. § 28. The Trentham MS. § 29. Date, A.D. 1399. § 30. V. The Letter of Cupid. By Thomas Hoccleve. § 31. VI. Two Balades. By Thomas Hoccleve. § 32. VII. A Moral Balade. By Henry Scogan. Date, about 1407. § 33. The supper at the Vintry. § 34. VIII. The Complaint of the Black Knight. By John Lydgate. § 35. His quotations from Chaucer's version of the Romaunt of the Rose. Date, about 1402. § 36. IX. The Flour of Curtesye. By John Lydgate. Date, about 1401. § 37. X. A Balade in Commendation of our Lady. By John Lydgate. § 38. A new stanza and a new MS. § 39. XI. To my Soverain Lady. By John Lydgate. § 40. XII. Ballad of Good Counsel. By John Lydgate. § 41. XIII. Beware of Doubleness. By John Lydgate. § 42. XIV. A Balade: Warning Men, &c. By John Lydgate. § 43. XV. Three Sayings. By John Lydgate. § 44. XVI. La Belle Dame sans Mercy. By Sir Richard Ros. Date, about 1460. § 45. Apparently in the Leicestershire dialect. § 46. Alan Chartier. § 47. Thynne's text and the MSS. § 48. XVII. The Testament of Cresseid. By Robert Henryson. Date, about 1460. § 49. XVIII. The Cuckoo and the Nightingale. Probably by Sir Thomas Clanvowe. § 50. The queen at Woodstock; about A.D. 1403. § 51. Clanvowe's excessive use of the final -e. § 52. His partiality for 'headless' lines. § 53. Milton's Sonnet to the Nightingale. § 54. XIX. Envoy to Alison. Not by Clanvowe. § 55. XX. The Flower and the Leaf. By the authoress of The Assembly of Ladies. § 56. The former is the earlier poem. Neither of them is by Chaucer. § 57. Variations from Chaucer's usages. § 58. Examination of the Rimes. § 59. Change in pronunciation. § 60. Gower on the Flower and the Leaf. § 61. XXI. The Assembly of Ladies. By the authoress of The Flower and the Leaf. § 62. Ordering of a medieval household. § 63. XXII. A Goodly Balade. By John Lydgate. Imperfect. § 64. XXIII. Go forth, King. By John Lydgate. § 65. Duodecim Abusiones. § 66. XXIV. The Court of Love. First printed in 1561. § 67. Tyrwhitt's plan for a Glossary to the Canterbury Tales. § 68. Moxon's edition of Chaucer; establishing an erroneous canon of Chaucer's Works. § 69. How to draw up such a canon correctly. § 70. The Court of Love discussed. § 71. The Trinity MS. and the language. § 72. Artificiality of the archaisms affected. § 73. Examination of the Rimes. § 74. Comparison with Chaucerian English. § 75. The Courts of Love. § 76. Pieces numbered XXV-XXIX. § 77. Twelve authors (at least) distinguished in the present volume. § 78. There are probably four more. § 79. Improvements in the present edition
I.	Thomas Usk: The Testament of Love.
	Book I: Prologue and Chapters I-X
	Book II: Chapters I-XIV
	Book III: Chapters I-IX
II.	The Plowmans Tale
III.	Jack Upland
IV.	John Gower: The Praise of Peace
V.	Thomas Hoccleve: The Letter of Cupid
VI.	The same: To the Kinges most noble Grace
	The same: To the Lordes and Knightes of the Garter
VII.	Henry Scogan: A Moral Balade
VIII.	John Lydgate: The Complaint of the Black Knight; or, The Complaint of a Loveres Lyfe
IX.	The same: The Flour of Curtesye
X.	The same: A Balade; in Commendation of our Lady
XI.	The same: To my Soverain Lady
XII.	The same: Ballad of Good Counsel
XIII.	The same: Beware of Doubleness
XIV.	The same: A Balade: Warning Men to beware of deceitful Women
XV.	The same: Three Sayings
XVI.	Sir Richard Ros: La Belle Dame sans Mercy
XVII.	Robert Henryson: The Testament of Cresseid
XVIII.	The Cuckoo and the Nightingale; or, the Book of Cupid, God of Love. (By Clanvowe)
XIX.	An Envoy to Alison
XX.	The Flower and the Leaf (By a Lady)
XXI.	The Assembly of Ladies (By the same)
XXII.	A Goodly Balade. (By John Lydgate)
XXIII.	Go forth, King. (By John Lydgate)
XXIV.	The Court of Love
XXV.	A Virelai
XXVI.	Prosperity. (By John Walton)
XXVII.	Leaulte vault Richesse
XXVIII.	Sayings printed by Caxton
XXIX.	Balade in Praise of Chaucer
Notes to the Foregoing Pieces
Glossarial Index
Index of Names
Index to some subjects explained in the Notes

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ERRATA AND ADDENDA

P. 26, l. 45. For conuersion read conversion.

P. 32, l. 38. Mr. Bradley suggests that maistresse is a misprint of Thynne's for maistres secrè, i.e. master's secret; alluding to John of Northampton.

P. 33, l. 75. For may it be sayd in that thinge 'this man thou demest, read may it be sayd, 'in that thinge this man thou demest,

P. 50, l. 28. For in sacke, sowed with wolle perhaps read in sacke sowed, with wolle.

P. 52, ll. 107, 109. Mr. Bradley suggests that 'Caynes' and 'Cayn' are Thynne's misprints for 'Cames' and 'Cam'; where Cam (misread as Cain) means Ham, for which the Vulgate has Cham.

P. 153, l. 187. Insert a hyphen in gold-mastling.

P. 163, l. 520. For punishments read punishëments. (See note.)

P. 180, l. 1050. For [ful] read [not]. (See note.)

P. 186, l. 1231. End the line with a semicolon.

P. 192, l. 36. Insert a mark of interrogation after speketh of.

P. 206, l. 27. For request [the] read requestë. (See note.)

P. 213, l. 294. For men perhaps read pees. (See note.)

P. 215, l. 363. For debated read delated. (See note.)

P. 237; footnotes, l. 1. For 1542 read 1532.

P. 256, l. 371. For tha read that.

P. 458; note to l. 117. See also P. Pl. B. xiii. 277, 292.

P. 458; note to l. 53. For fuller details, see the Introduction.

P. 473; note to l. 155. Chaucer's Astrolabe was not written till 1391, after Usk's death.

P. 475; note to Ch. XI. l. 11. On the subject of Grace, see Bk. iii. ch. 8.

P. 478; note to l. 47. For taken from read compare.