Tale in the Specimens of English was formed in precisely the same way; and similar remarks apply to my other volume of Chaucer Selections.

The books most useful for explaining Chaucer are much the same as those which help to explain 'Piers the Plowman'; see the list of them given in the preface to Piers the Plowman (Clarendon Press), 2nd ed. p. xlv. Such as are cited in the Notes are there sufficiently indicated. The spelling of the words cited in the Glossarial Index has been carefully verified by reference to the usual Dictionaries; for foreign languages, small pocket-dictionaries have been used, that the student may easily, if he pleases, look out such words for himself, which he is strongly recommended to do. The etymologies are merely suggested, in the very briefest manner; in French words, for example, the Latin root is often given without any account of the mode of derivation. The Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic words cited should be looked out, and their various meanings ascertained; and some idea of the grammatical rules of those languages should be attained to. The mere 'cramming up' of such root-words (to be reproduced, as is sometimes done, with some slight change in the spelling which at once reveals a most discreditable ignorance), is worse than useless. The books actually used were the following. Pocket-dictionaries of German (Flügel's edited by Feiling), of Dutch (the Tauchnitz edition), of Danish (by Ferrall and Repp), of Welsh (by Spurrell), and of Italian and Spanish (both by Meadows); Wedgwood's English Etymology; Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary; Skeat's MosoGothic Glossary; Stratmann's Old English Dictionary; Cleasby and Vigfusson's Icelandic Dictionary; Wackernagel's Altdeutsches Handwörterbuch. For French words, Brachet's Etymological French Dictionary (Clarendon Press) is very useful; and the Dictionary by Randle Cotgrave (ed. 1660) is often quoted. The Old French words are taken from Burguy, except when Roquefort is expressly cited. The Low-Latin words are from the Lexicon Manuale ad Scriptores Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis, compiled from Ducange's great work by Maigne d'Arnis, and

published at Paris by Migne in 1866; price, 12 francs. Prompt. Parv. is an abbreviation for Promptorium Parvulorum, ed. Way (Camden Society).

With respect to the subject of Chaucer's metre, a brief explanation is necessary. In an essay by myself, printed at pp. 172-196 of vol. i. of the Aldine edition of Chaucer (Bell and Daldy, 1866), the results there given were due to an independent investigation, before I had met with the work by Professor Child. Nearly all of them agree with his, though they were obtained with less care, and are deficient in some of the details. But with respect to many minuter points, I have no doubt I must have since learnt much from him; and it ought never to be forgotten that the only full and almost complete solution of the question as to the right scansion of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is due to what Mr. Ellis1 rightly terms 'the wonderful industry, acuteness, and accuracy' of Professor F. J. Child, of Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass. U.S. I wish also to express my obligations to Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, with its learned and scholarly notes; to Mr. A. J. Ellis's great work on Early English Pronunciation; to Mr. Furnivall's Sixtext Edition of the Canterbury Tales, and his numerous useful contributions to our knowledge concerning both the poet and his works; to Mr. H. Bradshaw, Cambridge University Librarian, for much help of various kinds; to Mr. Hales, for a few hints for this second edition; and especially to the Rev. Dr. Morris, who kindly assisted me in revising the proof-sheets of the first edition.

1 The account of Chaucer's metre by Mr. Ellis (Early English Pronunciation, pp. 318-342) is much fuller than that in my slight essay, and contains the results of independent work. In the main, the results obtained thus independently agree very well together.

LIST OF CHAUCER'S WORKS.

The following list, in which the Works are arranged (approximately) in chronological order, is mainly taken from Mr. Furnivall's 'Trial Fore-words to my Parallel-text edition of Chancer's Minor Poems,' Chaucer Society, 1871. I append some observations upon it.

Chaucer's A. B. C., or, La Priere de Nostre Dame.

Compleynte to Pite. [The Compleynte of the Dethe of Pite.-Bell, Morris.]

1369. Deth of Blaunche. [The Booke of the Duchesse.]
(Lyf of Sainte Cecile; afterwards inserted in the Canter-
bury Tales.)

Parlement of Foules. [The Assembly of Foules.]
The Complaint of Mars. [The Complaint of Mars and
Venus.] But the Venus is a separate poem; see below.

Anelida and Arcite.

(a) *Translation of Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiæ.' (b) *The Former Age; or, Ætas Prima.

Troilus and Criseyde.

Chaucer's Words to his Scrivener Adam 1.

ab. 1384? The House of Fame.

The Legend of Good Women.

ab. 1386. The Canterbury Tales.

Good Counseil of Chaucer; or, Truth; or, 'Fle from

the pres.'

(c) *Moder of God, and Virgin undefouled.'

Two Proverbes. [Eight lines; with 16 spurious and unconnected lines sometimes appended.]

1 Genuine but the third line Under thy longè lokkes maist thou haue the skalle' is too long; omit longè, inserted when lokkes had become a monosyllable.

1391 (d) *A Treatise on the Astrelabie.

Complaint of Venus. (See Complaint of Mars, above.)
Lenvoy to Scogan.

Lenvoy to Bukton.

Gentilesse. [A Ballade teaching what is gentilnesse.]

ab.1397? Lack of Stedfastnesse. [A Balade sent to King Richard.]

Balade de Visage saunz Peinture. [A Ballade of the

Village (sic) without Painting.]

1399. Compleint to his Purse. [To his empty Purse.]

All the above poems, except those marked with an asterisk, are to be found in the common editions, Where the title stands somewhat differently in the editions, a note has been made of it. The other four pieces may be thus accounted for. (a) Edited by Dr. Morris for the Early English Text Society. (b) Printed in the Aldine edition, ed. Morris, vol. vi. p. 300. Undoubtedly genuine; and closely connected with the preceding. (c) Printed in the Aldine edition, vi. 308. Translated from the Latin; attributed to Chaucer in 1490; apparently genuine. (d) Edited by the Rev. W. W. Skeat for the Early English Text Society and the Chaucer Society.

LOST WORKS. The Book of the Lion; mentioned at the end of the Persones Tale.

Origenes upon the Maudeleyne; mentioned in the prologue to the Legend of Good Women.

A translation of Pope Innocent's treatise De Miseria Conditionis Humanæ; mentioned in the Cambridge MS. of the Legend of Good Women (MS. Gg. 4. 27).

DOUBTFUL WORK. Chaucer translated the Romaunt of the Rose; whether the only translation now extant is his, is doubtful. SPURIOUS WORKS. The following poems are included in some editions. Complaint of the Black Knight (or, Complaint of a Loveres Life); now known to be Lydgate's. The Cuckow and the Nightingale; first two lines quoted from the Knightes Tale; of early date, and less unlike Chaucer than many of the

rest. The Flower and the Leaf; written by a woman, and clearly belonging to the fifteenth century. Chaucer's Dream; first printed in 1598. The Court of Love; written about 1500, and first printed in 1561. Virelai (no final e).

The following are to be found in the Aldine edition. A Goodly Ballad, vi. 275. A Praise of Women, p. 278. Prosperity (8 lines), p. 296. Leaulte vaut richesse (8 lines), p. 302. Three short Roundels, p. 304. Chaucer's Prophecy (13 lines), p. 307.

Of works printed in the old editions, the principal one is The Testament of Love, written by one who greatly praises Chaucer, and an obvious imitation of his translation of Boethius.