Chaucerian and Other Pieces

Title: Chaucerian and Other Pieces

Editor: Walter W. Skeat

Release date: July 11, 2013 [eBook #43195] Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43195

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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

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

*******

'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

Oxford

PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS BY HORACE HART, M.A., PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

[v]

CONTENTS.

[viii]

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.

[ix]

INTRODUCTION

§ 1. The following pieces are selected, as being the most important, from among the very numerous ones which have been appended to Chaucer's works in various editions.

I use the word 'appended' advisedly. It is not true that these works were all attributed to Chaucer in the black-letter editions. The Praise of Peace was marked as Gower's in Thynne's first edition of 1532. Another piece in that edition is attributed to Scogan. The Letter of Cupid is expressly dated 1402, though Chaucer died in 1400. The Flower of Curtesye contains the words 'Chaucer is dede'; and The Testament of Cresseid contains a remark which, in modern English, would run thus—'Who knows if all that Chaucer wrote is true?'

Those who, through ignorance or negligence, regard Thynne's edition of Chaucer as containing 'Works attributed to Chaucer' make a great mistake; and even if the mistake be excused on the ground that it has been very generally and very frequently made, this does not lessen its magnitude. The title of Thynne's book is very instructive, and really runs thus:—'The Workes of Geffray Chaucer newly printed, with dyuers workes which were neuer in print before, &c.' This is strictly and literally true; for it contains such works of Chaucer's as had previously been printed by Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and Julian Notary (see vol. i. p. 28), together with 'dyuers workes [of various authors] which were neuer in print before.' Which is the simple solution of the whole matter, as far as this edition is concerned. The same remarks apply to the second edition in 1542, and the third, printed about 1550. But Stowe, in 1561, altered the title so as to give it a new meaning. The title-page of his edition runs thus:—'The Woorkes of Geffrey Chaucer, newly

printed with diuers [x]Addicions which were neuer in printe before.' Here the authorship of Chaucer was, for the first time, practically claimed for the whole of Thynne's volume. At the same time, Stowe did not really mean what he seems to say, for it was he who first added the words—'made by Ihon lidgate'—to the title of 'The Flower of Curtesie,' and who first assigned a title (ascribing the poem to dan Ihon lidgat) to the poem beginning 'Consider wel'; see no. 40 (vol. i. p. 33).

§ 2. It is clear that Thynne's intention was to print a collection of poems, including all he could find of Chaucer and anything else of a similar character that he could lay his hands on[1]. In other words, the collection was, from the beginning, a collection of the Works of Chaucer and other writers; and this fact was in no way modified by the adoption by Stowe and Speght of misleading titles that actually assigned to Chaucer all the poems in the volume! See further, as to this subject, in the discussion of The Court of Love below.

The number of pieces appended, at various times, to Chaucer's Works are so numerous that I have been obliged to restrict myself to giving a selection of them only.

Of the non-Chaucerian pieces printed by Thynne in 1532, I have included all but three. The rejected pieces are those numbered 18, 21, and 22 in the list given at p. 32 of vol. i. They are all poor and uninteresting, but I add a few words of description.

18. A Praise of Women. Noticed in vol. i. p. 37. Though decisively rejected by Tyrwhitt, and excluded from Moxon's reprint, it was revived (for no good reason) by Bell, and consequently appeared in the Aldine edition, which was founded on Bell's. It enumerates the merits of womankind, and condemns the slanders of men concerning them. We ought to worship all women out of reverence for the Queen of heaven, [xi]and we shall do well to pray to Our Lady to bring us to the heaven in which she and all good women will be found. Thynne is not the sole authority for this poem, as it occurs also (in a Scottish dress) in the Bannatyne MS., fol. 275. The whole of this MS. (written in 1568) was printed for the Hunterian Club in 1873-9; see p. 799 of that edition.

21. The Lamentation of Mary Magdalen. Noticed in vol. i. p. 37. This lugubrious piece was probably the wail of a nun, who had no book but a Vulgate version of the Bible, from which all her quotations are taken. It bears no resemblance to any work by Chaucer, nor to any of the pieces in the present volume. It consists of 102 seven-line stanzas. The metre resembles Lydgate's, but the final -e is hardly ever used. Bell's text is not taken from Thynne, but from some later and inferior reprint of it. For this poem, Thynne's first edition is the sole authority.

22. The Remedy of Love. Noticed in vol. i. p. 38. It appears that the 'remedy of love' is to be found in a consideration of the wicked ways of women. Twelve whole stanzas are taken up with a metrical translation of one of the chapters in the book of Proverbs. The author refers us to 'the fifth chapter,' but he is wrong. He means chapter vii, verses 6-27. He also quotes from Ecclesiasticus, ix. 9, and xxv. 25.

Nos. 28, 29, 30 (vol. i. p. 32) are not found in Thynne, but were first printed by Stowe. I give them below, at p. 297. The first two stanzas are Lydgate's; and probably the third is his also. It is no great matter.

No. 41 (vol. i. p. 33) was also first printed by Stowe. To save words, I have printed it below, at p. 450, from the original MS.

§ 3. I now consider the non-Chaucerian pieces in Part II. of Stowe's Edition (see vol. i. p. 33). Of these, nos. 45, 50, 56, and 59 are here reprinted.

Nos. 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, and 55 were all taken by Stowe from MS. Trin. R. 3. 19. Perhaps they are sufficiently noticed in vol. i. p. 41, as they present few points of interest. However, I enumerate them, adding a few remarks.

No. 46. The Craft of Lovers. In 23 seven-line stanzas; 161 lines. Besides the copy in the Trin. MS., there are copies (almost duplicates) in MSS. Addit. 34360, fol. 73, back (p. 142), [xii]and Harl. 2251, fol. 53 (now called 52). Dated 1448 in the Trin. MS., but 1459 in the other two. The first line ought to run:—'To moralise, who list these ballets sewe'; but it is clear that some one added the words 'A similitude' in the margin, and that this remark was afterwards incorporated in the text. Hence the first line, in the latter MSS., stands:—'To moralise a similitude who list these balettis sewe'; which is more than enough for a line of five accents. After two introductory stanzas, the poem becomes a dialogue, in alternate stanzas, between a wooer, named Cupido, and a lass, named Diana[2]; the result of which is successful. This may be compared with La Belle Dame sans Merci, and with the Nut-brown Maid. The twenty-third stanza forms the author's Conclusio, which is followed by an Envoy in the Addit. MS., and in the Harl. MS. only. The same MSS. seem to superadd two more

stanzas; but they really belong to another piece.

No. 47. Taken by Stowe from MS. Trin. R. 3. 19, fol. 156, back. A Balade. In 4 seven-line stanzas; 28 lines. Begins—'Of their nature they greatly them delite'; i.e. Women are by nature hypocrites; they like kissing live images rather than shrines. So I advise young men to take warning: 'Beware alwaye, the blind eateth many [a] flye'; a line which is quoted from Lydgate's ballad printed at p. 295. The author then prays God to keep the fly out of his dish; and ends by congratulating himself on being anonymous, because women would else blame him.

No. 48. The Ten Commandments of Love; from Trin. MS., fol. 109. Also in MS. Fairfax 16. Begins:—'Certes, ferre extendeth yet my reason.' In 14 stanzas of seven-lines; the last two form the Envoy. After two introductory stanzas, the author gives the ladies their ten commandments. They are, it appears, to exhibit Faith, Entencion, Discrecion, Patience, Secretnesse, Prudence, Perseverance, Pity, Measure [Moderation], and Mercy. In the Envoy, the author says, truly enough, that he is devoid of cunning, experience, manner of enditing, reason, and eloquence; and that he is 'a man unknown.'

No. 49. The Nine Ladies Worthy. In 9 seven-line stanzas, one stanza for each lady. Begins: 'Profulgent in preciousnes, [xiii]O Sinope the quene.' Only remarkable for the curious selection made. The Nine Ladies are: (1) Sinope, daughter of Marsepia, queen of the Amazons; see Orosius, Hist. i. 10; (2) Hippolyta, the Amazon, wife of Theseus; (3) Deipyle, daughter of Adrastus, wife of Tydeus; (4) Teuta, queen of the Illyrians; see note to C. T., F 1453 (vol. v. p. 398); (5) Penthesilea the Amazon, slain by Achilles before Troy; (6) queen Tomyris, who slew Cyrus in battle, B.C. 529; (7) Lampeto the Amazon, sister of Marsepia, and aunt of Sinope; (8) Semiramis of Babylon; (9) Menalippe or Melanippe, sister of Antiope, queen of the Amazons, taken captive by Hercules, according to Justinus, ii. 4. 23. Most of these queens are mentioned by Orosius, i. 10, ii. 1, ii. 4; see also Higden's Polychronicon, bk. ii. chapters 9, 21, 24, and bk. iii. c. 7. From the Trin. MS., fol. 113, back.

[No. 50. Virelai. Printed below, at p. 448.]

No. 51. A Ballade. Begins:—'In the season of Feuerere when it was full colde.' In 7 seven-line stanzas. In praise of the daisy. Very poor. From the Trin. MS., fol. 160.

No. 52. A Ballade. Begins—'O Mercifull and o merciable.' In 12 seven-line stanzas. The Trin. MS. has 13 stanzas; but Stowe omitted the tenth, because it coincides with st. 19 of the Craft of Lovers. It is made up of scraps from other poems. Stanzas 1-4 form part of a poem on the fall of man, from Lydgate's Court of Sapience (see vol. i. p. 57). In st. 8 occurs the assonance of hote (hot) and stroke; and in st. 9, that of cureth and renueth. From the Trin. MS., fol. 161.

No. 53. The Judgement of Paris. In 4 seven-line stanzas; the first is allotted to Pallas, who tells Paris to take the apple, and give it to the fairest of the three goddesses. After this, he is addressed in succession by Juno, Venus, and Minerva (as she is now called). Then the poem ends. Trin. MS., fol. 161, back.

No. 54. A Balade pleasaunte. Begins—'I haue a Ladie where so she bee.' In 7 seven-line stanzas. Meant to be facetious; e.g. 'Her skin is smothe as any oxes tong.' The author says that when he was fifteen years old, he saw the wedding of queen Jane; and that was so long ago that there cannot be many such alive. As Joan of Navarre was married to Henry IV in 1403, he was born in 1388, and would have been sixty-two in 1450. It is an imitation of Lydgate's poem entitled A Satirical [xiv]Description of his Lady; see Minor Poems, ed. Halliwell, p. 199. Trin. MS., fol. 205.

No. 55. Another Balade. Begins—'O mossie Quince, hangyng by your stalke.' In 4 seven-line stanzas, of which Stowe omits the second. A scurrilous performance. Trin. MS., fol. 205, back.

[No. 56. A Ballad by Lydgate; printed below, at p. 295.]

No. 58 is a Balade in 9 seven-line stanzas, of no merit, on the theme of the impossibility of restoring a woman's chastity.

No. 59. The Court of Love. Printed below, at p. 409.

No. 60 is a genuine poem; and no. 61 is Lydgate's Story of Thebes. And here Stowe's performance ceases.

§ 4. The subsequent additions made by Speght are discussed in vol. i. pp. 43-46. Of these, The Flower and the Leaf, Jack Upland, and Hoccleve's poem to Henry V, are here reprinted; and Chaucer's ABC is genuine. He also reprinted the Sayings at p. 450. The pieces not reprinted here are Chaucer's Dream and Eight Goodly Questions.

Chaucer's Dream is a false title, assigned to it by Speght; its proper name is The Isle of Ladies. Begins—'Whan Flora, the quene of pleasaunce.' The MS. at Longleat is said to have been written about 1550. A second MS. has been acquired by the British Museum, named MS. Addit. 10303; this is also in a hand of the sixteenth century, and presents frequent variations in the text. It is very accessible, in the texts by Moxon, Bell, and Morris; but how Tyrwhitt ever came to dream that it could be genuine, must remain a mystery. I originally hoped to include this poem in the present selection, but its inordinate length compelled me to abandon my intention. In a prologue of seventy lines, the author truthfully states, at l. 60, that he is 'a slepy[3] writer.' There are many assonances, such as undertakes, scapes (337); named, attained (597); tender, remember (1115, 1415); rome, towne (1567). Note also such rimes as destroied, conclude (735); queen, kneen, pl. of knee (1779); nine, greene (1861); vertuous, use (1889). Some rimes exhibit the Northern dialect; as paines,

straines, pr. s., 909; wawe, overthrawe, pp., 1153; servand, livand, pres. pt., 1629; greene, eene (pl. of e, eye), 1719; hand, avisand, pres. pt., 1883; &c. Yet the writer is not particular; if he wants a rime to wroth, he uses the Southern form [xv]goth, 785; but if he wants a rime to rose, he uses the Northern form gose (goes), 1287, 1523. But before any critic can associate this poem with Chaucer, he has first to prove that it was written before 1450. Moreover, it belongs to the cycle of metrical romances, being connected (as Tyrwhitt says) with the Eliduc of Marie de France; and, perhaps, with her Lanval.

To the Isle of Ladies Speght appended two other poems, of which the former contains a single stanza of 6 lines, and the latter is a ballad in 3 seven-line stanzas.

No. 66. Eight Goodly Questions; in Bell's Chaucer, iv. 421. In 9 seven-line stanzas. First printed in 1542. There are at least two manuscript copies; one in the Trinity MS., marked R. 3. 15; and another in the Bannatyne MS., printed at p. 123 of the print of the Bannatyne MS., issued by the Hunterian Club in 1873. In l. 19, the latter MS. corrects tree to coffour, the Scottish form of cofre. It is merely expanded from the first seven lines of a poem by Ausonius, printed in Walker's Corpus Poetarum Latinorum, with the title Eorundem Septem Sapientum Sententiae. This English version is quite in Lydgate's style.

§ 5. Editions and MSS. consulted.

I have repeatedly explained that there were but four black-letter editions of Collected Works before Speght's; and these I call Thynne's first edition (1532), Thynne's second edition (1542), the undated edition (about 1550, which I call 1550 for brevity), and Stowe's edition (1561) respectively. I shall denote these editions below by the symbols 'Th.,' ed. 1542, ed. 1550, and 'S.' respectively. Of these editions, the first is the best; the second is derived from the first; the third is derived from the second; and the fourth from the third[4]. In every case it is useless to consult a later edition when an earlier one can be found.

The following is the list of the pieces which depend on the editions only, or for which the editions have been collated. [xvi]I always cite the earliest; that the later ones also contain the piece in question must, once for all, be understood.

Caxton.—XXVIII. No. VII. was also collated with a print by Caxton.

Wynkyn de Worde.—XXIII.

Wynkyn de Worde.—VIII.

Chepman and Miller (1508).—VIII.

Th.—I. IX. XI. XXII. Also collated for IV. V. VII. VIII. X. XII. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XXI. XXIII.

Thynne had access to excellent MSS., and is always worth consulting.

Ed. 1542.—II. XXVIII. Collated for VI.

An early printed edition of Jack Upland.—III.

S. (1561).—XV. Collated for XIII. XIV. XXIV. XXV. XXIX.

A printed edition of the Testament of Cresseid (1593).—XVII.

Speght (1598).—XX. Collated for III.

The following twenty MSS. have been collated or consulted.

Trentham MS.—IV. (See Introduction.)

Fairfax 16.-V. VIII. XIII. XVI. XVIII. XIX. (See vol. i. p. 51.)

Bodley 638.—V. VIII. XVIII. (See vol. i. p. 53.)

Tanner 346.—V. VIII. XVIII. XIX. (See vol. i. p. 54.)

Ashmole 59.—VII. X. XIII. (See vol. i. p. 53.)

Arch. Selden B. 24.—V. VIII. XVIII. XXVI. XXVII. (See vol. i. p. 54.)

Digby 181.—V. VIII. (See vol. i. p. 54.)

Camb. Univ. Lib. Ff. 1. 6.—V. XII. XVI. XVIII. (See vol. i. p. 55.)

Pepys 2006.—VIII. (See vol. i. p. 55.)

Trin. Coll. R. 3. 19.—XIV. XVI. XXI. XXIV. XXV. XXIX. (See vol. i. p. 56.)

Trin. Coll. R. 3. 20.—V. (One of Shirley's MSS.)

Trin. Coll. O. 9. 38.—XIV.

Addit. 16165, B. M.—XIII. (See vol. i. p. 56.)

Addit. 34360, B. M.—XXI.

Harl. 372, B. M.—XVI. (See vol. i. p. 58.)

Harl. 2251, B. M.—VII. XII. XIV. (See vol. i. p. 57.)

Harl. 7578, B. M.—XIII. (See vol. i. p. 58.)

Sloane 1212, B. M.—X. (A fair copy.) [xvii]

Phillipps 8151.—VI. (See Hoccleve's Poems, ed. Furnivall, p. 1.)

Ashburnham 133.—V. (See the same, p. xxvii.)

§ 6. Conversely, I here give the authorities from which each piece is derived. For further comments on some of them, see the separate introductions to each piece below.

I. The Testament of Love (prose).—Th. (Thynne, 1532).

II. The Plowmans Tale (1380 lines).—Th. (Thynne, 1542).

III. Jack Upland (prose).—Early edition, Caius College library; Speght (1598).

IV. Praise of Peace (385 lines).—Th. (1532); Trentham MS.

V. Letter of Cupid (476 lines).—Th. (1532); Fairfax, Bodley, Tanner, Selden, Ashburnham, Digby MSS.; Trin. Coll. R. 3. 20; Camb. Ff. 1. 6; also in the Bannatyne MS.

VI. To the King's Grace (64).—Th. (1542); Phillipps 8151.

VII. A Moral Balade (189).—Th. (1532); Caxton; Ashmole 59, Harl. 2251. (I also find a reference to Harl. 367, fol. 85, back.)

VIII. Complaint of the Black Knight (681).—Th. (1532); Fairfax, Bodley, Tanner, Digby, Selden, Pepys; Addit. 16165. Also printed, separately, by Wynkyn de Worde (n. d.); and at Edinburgh, by Chepman and Miller, in 1508.

IX. The Flour of Curtesye (270).—Th. (1532).

X. In Commendation of our Lady (140).—Th.; Ashmole 59; Sloane 1212.

XI. To my Soverain Lady (112).—Th.