TO HIS PURSE.

203

THE COMPLEYNTE OF CHAUCER TO HIS PURSE.

To you, my purse, and to noon other wight
Compleyn I, for ye be my lady dere!
I am so sory now that ye been lyght,

For, certes, but-yf ye make me hevy chere, Me were as leef be layde upon my bere, For whiche unto your mercy thus I crye, Beeth hevy ageyne, or elles mote I dye !

Now voucheth sauf this day, or it be nyghte,
That I of you the blissful soune may here,
Or see your colour lyke the sonne bryghte,
That of yelownesse hadde never pere.
Ye be my lyfe! ye be myn hertys stere !1
Quene of comfort and goode companye !
Beth hevy ageyne, or elles mote I dye.

Now, purse, that ben to me my lyves lyght

And saveour, as doun in this worlde here, Oute of this toune helpe me thurgh your myght, Syn that ye wole not bene my tresorere; For I am shave as nye as is a frere.

But I praye unto your curtesye,

Beth hevy ageyn, or elles moote I dye!

1 Guide.

L'Envoye de Chaucer.

O conquerour of Brutes Albyoun,1

Whiche that by lygne and free eleccioun

Been verray kynge,2 this song to you I sende, And ye that mowen alle myn harme amende, Have mynde upon my supplicacioun !

1 The Albion of Brutus, a descendant of Æneas. King Henry IV. seems to be meant. s' May.

POEMS

ATTRIBUTED TO CHAUCER.

THE ROMAUNT OF THE ROSE.

MANY men sayen that in swevenynges,
Ther nys but fables and lesynges;
But men may some swevene sene,
Whiche hardely that false ne bene,
But afterwarde ben apparaunt.

This
maye
I drawe to warraunt,
An authour that highte Macrobes,1
That halte nat dremes false ne lees,2
But undoth us the avysyoun

That whylom mette kyng Cipioun.
And who-so sayth or weneth 5 it be
A jape, or elles nycetie

To wene that dremes after falle,
Lette who-so lyst a foole me calle.
For this trowe I, and saye for me,
That dremes signifiaunce be

Of good and harme to many wightes,
That dremen in her sleep a-nyghtes
Ful many thynges covertly,
That fallen after al openly."
Within my twenty yere of

age,

Whan that love taketh his corage

Of yonge folk, I wente soon

ΙΟ

20

1 Macrobius. Cf. Parlement of Foules, 1. 31. joldeth. Dreamed. 5 Thinketh. 6 A joke or else an ignorance. Cf. House of Fame, ll. 1-65, and Canterbury Tales, 1. 8591.

2 Lies.

3 Un