APPENDIX. [The following Poems are also probably genuine; but are placed here for lack of external evidence.] 16 Ye han me cast in thilke spitous yle ვი Hath nought to done, although she do me sterve; Hit is nat with hir wil that I hir serve! 35 Than sith I am of my sorowe the cause And sith that I have this, withoute hir reed, Than may 40 deed; [And] yet alwey two thinges doon me dyë, That is to seyn, hir beutee and myn yë. So that, algates, she is the verray rote Of my disese, and of my dethe also; For with oon word she might be my bote, If that she vouched sauf for to do so. 46 But [why] than is hir gladnesse at my wo? It is hir wone plesaunce for to take, To seen hir servaunts dyen for hir sake! But certes, than is al my wonderinge, 50 Sithen she is the fayrest creature As to my dome, that ever was livinge, The benignest and beste eek that nature Hath wrought or shal, whyl that the world may dure, Explicit. XXIII. A BALADE OF COMPLEYNT. [This is added as being a good example of a Compleynt in Chaucer's style.] And deeth also, whan ye my peynes newe, My worldes joye, whom I wol serve and sewe, My heven hool, and al my suffisaunce, Whom for to serve is set al my plesaunce. Beseching yow in my most humble wyse Myn observaunce eek have nat in despyte, BOETHIUS DE CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIE. BOOK I. METRE I. Carmina qui quondam studio florente peregi. ALLAS! I, weping, am constreined to biginnen vers of sorowful matere, that whylom in florisching studie made delitable ditees. For lo! rendinge Muses of 5 poetes endyten to me thinges to be writen; and drery vers of wrecchednesse weten my face with verray teres. At the leeste, no drede ne mighte overcomen tho Muses, that they no weren 10 felawes, and folweden my wey, that is to seyn, whan I was exyled; they that weren glorie of my youthe, whylom weleful and grene, comforten now the sorowful werdes of me, olde man. For elde 15 is comen unwarly upon me, hasted by the harmes that I have, and sorow hath comaunded his age to be in me. Heres hore ben shad overtymeliche upon myn heved, and the slake skin trembleth upon 20 myn empted body. Thilke deeth of men is weleful that ne cometh not in yeres that ben swete, but cometh to wrecches, often y-cleped. Allas! allas! with how deef an ere deeth, cruel, torneth awey 25 fro wrecches, and naiteth to closen wepinge eyen! Whyl Fortune, unfeithful, favorede me with lighte goodes, the sorowful houre, that is to seyn, the deeth, hadde almost dreynt myn heved. But 30 now, for Fortune cloudy hath chaunged hir deceyvable chere to me-ward, myn unpitous lyf draweth a-long unagreable dwellinges in me. O ye, my frendes, what or whertoavauntede ye me to ben weleful? for he that hath fallen stood nat in 35 stedefast degree. PROSE L Hec dum mecum tacitus ipse reputarem. Whyle that I stille recordede thise thinges with my-self, and markede my weeply compleynte with office of pointel, I saw, stondinge aboven the heighte of myn heved, a woman of ful greet re- 5 verence by semblaunt, hir eyen brenninge and cleer-seinge over the comune might of men; with a lyfly colour, and with swich vigour and strengthe that it ne mighte nat ben empted; al were it 10 so that she was ful of so greet age, that men ne wolde nat trowen, in no manere, that she were of oure elde. The stature of hir was of a doutous jugement; for som-tyme she constreinede and shronk 15 hir-selven lyk to the comune mesure of men, and sum-tyme it semede that she touchede the hevene with the heighte of hir heved; and whan she heef hir heved hyer, she percede the selve hevene, so 20 that the sighte of men looking was in ydel. Hir clothes weren maked of right delye thredes and subtil crafte, of perdurable matere; the whiche clothes she 25 hadde woven with hir owene hondes, as I knew wel after by hir-self, declaringe and shewinge to me the beautee; the whiche clothes a derknesse of a forleten and dispysed elde hadde dusked and aderked, as it is wont to derken bismokede images. In the nethereste hem or bordure of thise clothes men redden, y-woven in, a Grekissh P, that signifyeth the lyf Actif; and aboven that 5 lettre, in the heyeste bordure, a Grekissh T, that signifyeth the lyf Contemplatif. And bi-twixen these two lettres ther weren seyn degrees, nobly y-wroght in manere of laddres; by whiche degrees 40 men mighten climben fro the nethereste lettre to the uppereste. Natheles, handes of some men hadde corven that cloth by violence and by strengthe; and everiche man of hem hadde born awey 45 swiche peces as he mighte geten. And forsothe, this forseide woman bar smale bokes in hir right hand, and in hir left hand she bar a ceptre. And whan she say thise poetical Muses aprochen aboute 30 my bed, and endytinge wordes to my wepinges, she was a litel amoved, and glowede with cruel eyen. 'Who,' quod she, hath suffred aprochen to this syke man thise comune strompetes of swich 55 a place that men clepen the theatre ? The whiche nat only ne asswagen nat hise sorwes with none remedies, but they wolden feden and norisshen hem with swete venim. Forsothe, thise ben tho 6o that with thornes and prikkinges of talents or affecciouns, whiche that ne ben no-thing fructefyinge nor profitable, destroyen the corn plentevous of fruites of resoun; for they holden the hertes 65 of men in usage, but they ne delivere nat folk fro maladye. But if ye Muses hadden withdrawen fro me, with your flateryes, any uncunninge and unprofitable man, as men ben wont to finde comunly amonges the poeple, I wolde wene suffre the lasse grevously; for-why, in swiche an unprofitable man, myn ententes ne weren no-thing endamaged. But ye withdrawen †from me this man, that hath be norisshed in the studies or scoles of Eleaticis and of Achademicis in Grece. But goth now rather awey, ye mermaidenes, whiche that ben swete til it be at the laste, and suffreth this man to be cured and heled by myne Muses,' 80 that is to seyn, by noteful sciences. And thus this companye of Muses y-blamed casten wrothly the chere dounward to the erthe; and, shewinge by reednesse hir shame, they passeden sorowfully the 85 threshfold. And I, of whom the sighte, plounged in teres, was derked so that I ne mighte not knowen what that womman was, of so imperial auctoritee, I wex al abaisshed and astoned, and caste 90 my sighte doun to the erthe, and bigan stille for to abyde what she wolde don afterward. Tho com she ner, and sette hir doun up-on the uttereste corner of my bed; and she, biholdinge my chere, 95 that was cast to the erthe, hevy and grevous of wepinge, compleinede, with thise wordes that I shal seyen, the perturbacioun of my thought. METRE II. Пеи quam precipiti mersa 'Allas! how the thought of man, dreint in over-throwinge deepnesse, dulleth, and forleteth his propre cleernesse, mintinge to goon in-to foreine derknesses, as ofte as his anoyous bisinesse wexeth with- 5 oute mesure, that is driven to and fro with worldly windes! This man, that whylom was free, to whom the hevene was open and knowen, and was wont to goon in heveneliche pathes, and saugh 10 the lightnesse of the rede sonne, and saugh the sterres of the colde mone, and whiche sterre in hevene useth wandering recourses, y-flit by dyverse speres-this man, overcomer, hadde comprehended 15 al this by noumbre of acountinge in astronom ye. And over this, he was wont to seken the causes whennes the souning windes moeven and bisien the smothe water of the see; and what spirit torneth 20 the stable hevene; and why the sterre aryseth out of the rede eest, to fallen in the westrene wawes; and what atempreth |