Copyright, 1879,

BY HOUGHTON, OSGOOD & CO.

All rights reserved.

RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY
H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.

POEMS ATTRIBUTED TO CHAUCER.

The Romaunt of the Rose .

The Court of Love.

The Flower and the Leaf

183

. 184

190

. 190

193

195

197

198

199

. 203

207

476

532

• 554

The Cuckow and the Nightingale, or the Boke of Cupide,

565 568

THE HOUSE OF FAME.1

FIRST BOOK.

Proem.

GOD turne us every dreme to goode !
For hyt is wonder, be the Roode,2
To my wytte, what causeth swevenes

Eyther on morwes, or on evenes ;
And why theffecte folweth of somme,
And of somme hit shal never come;
Why that is an avisioun,

And why this a revelacioun ;

8

Why this a dreme, why that a swevene,
And noght to every man lyche evene;
Why this a fantome, why these oracles,
I not: but who-so of these meracles
The causes knoweth bet then I,
Devyne he; for I certenly

Ne kan hem noght, ne never thinke
To besely my wytte to swinke,*

ΤΟ

1 Professor Bernhard Ten Brink, in his Studien, pp. 89-94, points out the suggestions that Chaucer derived for this poem from Dante, and says that the general plot is imitated from the Divina Commedia. The coincidences are indicated in the notes. A number of lines also resemble passages in Virgil's Eneid and in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Holy Rood. 3 Visions. Belabor.

2

To knowe of hir signifiaunce

The gendres, neyther the distaunce
Of tymes of hem, ne the causis,

For-why this is more then that cause is;
As yf folkys complexiouns 1

Make hem dreme of reflexiouns

;

Or ellis thus, as other sayne,
For to grete feblenesse of her brayne,
By abstinence, or by sekenesse,
Prisoun, stewe2 or grete distresse ;
Or ellis by disordynaunce,
Or naturell acustumaunce,

That somme man is to curiouse

In studye, or melancolyouse;

Or thus, so inly ful of drede,

That no man may hym bote bede; 3
Or ellis that devocioun

Of somme, and contemplacioun,
Causeth suche dremes ofte;
Or that the cruelle lyfe unsofte
Whiche these ilke lovers leden,
Oft hopen over moche or dreden,
That purely here impressions
Causeth hem avisions;

Or yf that spiritis have the myght
To make folke to dreme anyght;
Or yf the soule, of propre kynde,*
Be so parfit as men fynde,

20

30

40

2 That is, confine 3 Offer cure

1 Temperaments or dispositions of the body. ment in prison or small apartment (stewe, closet). Peculiar nature (sui generis).