with the present editor, resist the temptation of setting down these 'freely' constructed lines either to the poet's bad ear or (when all the MS. authorities agree) to the copyist's careless hand, but will look for an explanation in the survival of that rhythmic but non-syllabic system of verse which still lived on in England down to Chaucer's day, though much corrupted from its original purity. These native measures must have echoed in the young poet's ear when he first began to write in the foreign manner, and hence most of the so-called lame lines in the Boke of the Duchesse. THE ABC About the same time as the Boke of the Duchesse, perhaps a little later,1 Chaucer wrote this poetical prayer to the Virgin. It is based upon a similar A B C contained in Guillaume de Deguilleville's Pèlerinage de la vie humaine, a French Pilgrim's Progress of the fourteenth century.2 Chaucer simplified the measure by increasing the number of rhymes from two to three, and reducing the length of the stanzas from twelve to eight; but the result is little more than an exercise. would fain be a literal translator, but is forced by the exigences of the verse away from his model, only rising here and there, notably in the opening and the nineteenth strophes, above mechanical excellence. He There are thirteen MSS. and one printed edition (that of Speght 1602) available as authorities for this poem. I agree with Koch in the following classification :— Pep. B Pep. Ef = Pepys 2006, Magdalene College, Cambridge (two copies), both incomplete. Gg= Cambridge University Library, Gg 4. 27. Sion Sion College MS. (Shirley's). Bedf. Bedford MS. (Bedford Library). Ff=MS. Ff 5. 30 in Cambridge University Library. Glasg. Glasgow, Hunterian Museum, Q 2. 25. La. Laud 740 (Bodleian Library). John St. John's College, Cambridge, G. 21. 1 Ten Brink places it as late as 1374. 2 It was commenced in 1330. The thirteenth MS. Harl. 2257 cannot with certainty be assigned its place in the above scheme. It has general similarity with group B, but it is of little or no value. The best group is C, which is used as the basis of the text. THE COMPLEYNT UNTO PITE This is a better poem than the preceding one, and the mark of sincerity and deep feeling is upon it, though the metaphor is carried too far here and there for clearness. It is usual to place this poem before 1369, and to make it Chaucer's first original work extant, but both the style and the verse lead me to agree with Ten Brink (whose critical edition of the poem should be a pattern for all editors) in assigning a later date than this somewhere in the two years subsequent to the writing of the Dethe of the Duchesse. Whatever the date, this poem is the earliest example of the famous Chaucer stanza, or rhyme royal,' as it was subsequently called. Professor Skeat has pointed out recollections of a phrase or two from the Thebeis (Book xi.), and Mr. Pollard suggests a parallel between the adversaries of Pity and the first part of the Roman de la Rose. But the poem, French in style as it is, is yet original, and is generally interpreted, together with a passage of similar feeling in the Boke of the Duchesse (1. 30 ff.), as referring to an incident of unrequited love in the poet's life. There are nine extant MSS., eight of which (in agreement with Ten Brink and Koch) I would arrange in the following scheme : The dotted line is intended to show that there is evidence of contamination. MS. Harleian 7578 clearly belongs to the same group as H, but is a much better authority, and more frequently agrees with the derivatives from C. In several cases it supports emendations made by Ten Brink without consulting it (e.g. ll. 15, 19, and IOI). I am in some doubt whether H and Ha. should be traced from the same original as the other MSS., or whether we should not rather in this case as in others look on H and Ha. as derivatives from an earlier draft of the poem made by Chaucer himself. MS. Phillipps 9053 I have not yet collated. The best group of MSS. is that marked C in the diagram, and of these MS. F has been used as the basis for the text. THE COMPLEYNT OF MARS This poem falls well within the second period of Chaucer's work, and was probably written after the poet's second mission to Italy in 1378-79, while the A B C and the Compleynt unto Pite came in all probability soon after the date of the first mission in 1372-73. The story is founded on one told in the Metamorphoses iv. 170-189 of the love of Mars for Venus and its discovery by Apollo. With this story Chaucer combines the popular astronomy of the day in accordance with which the planet Mars is in conjunction with the planet Venus in the sign of Taurus. Taurus is one of the two astrological houses of Venus, and into this the Sun (Phoebus Apollo) enters on April 12th each year. On the basis of two notes made by Shirley in the Trinity College MS. this astrological mythical story is also an allegory written at the comandement of the renowned and excellent Prynce my lord the Duc John of Lancastre,' and 'made by (i.e. about) my lady of York, doughter to the kyng of Spaygne and my lord huntingdoon, some tyme Duc of Excestre.' The lady of York' was John of Gaunt's sister-in-law, through his second wife Constance of Castile. 'My lord huntingdon ' was John Holande, half-brother to Richard II., who married Elizabeth, daughter of Blaunche, first Duchess of Lancaster. There are eight extant MSS. and one edition (that of Julian Notary 1499-1502) available as authorities. Of these the Fairfax, Tanner, and Longleat MSS., which belong to one group, are the best on the whole. The remaining authorities are difficult to arrange with certainty, but the following scheme expresses my view of their general interconnection. There is some room for doubt as to whether groups B and C should be traced to a single original rather than two drafts made by the poet at different times. F= Fairfax MS. 16 (Bodleian Library). Lt. Longleat MS. 258 (Marquis of Bath). Tn. Tanner 346 (Bodleian Library). P(E) Pepys 2006 Hand E (Magdalene College, Cambridge). T=Trinity College, Cambridge, 3. 20. Ha. Harleian 7333 (British Museum). Ar. Arch. Selden B 24 (Bodleian Library). Th. = William Thynne's Edition, London 1532. The dotted line is intended to show that there is evidence of contamination. The MSS. belonging to group B are certainly better on the whole than any single MS. in group C, but were a satisfactory example of this latter tradition available it would undoubtedly be the one to form the basis of a text. In ll. 1, 3, 4, II, and many others the right reading is clearly furnished by one or more of this group, which has possibly been neglected because it has been seen to include such MSS. as the Harleian 7333 and Arch. Selden. These two authorities are of little or no independent value, more particularly the latter, which gives a text that has been purposely edited, yet they sometimes support good readings in MSS. of the B group in opposition to other MSS. of their own group, and such testimony is valuable. Examples are— 1. 20, to dure for to endure; 1. 75, is for was; l. 120, this for the, and smoking for smoketh or smoked; 1. 143, Venus weping for weping Venus, etc. Had P(E) been complete, it would have been the best basis for this text; as it is, some approach to a satisfactory result has, it is hoped, been obtained by a combination of P(E) as far as it goes (viz. to 1. 84) and P(B), with aid here and there from Ju. and T, and the adoption where called for of readings from the B group, such as e.g. 1. 66, where the C group read that thilke, 1. 80, where they read he fil (=fell), and some others, among them 11. 20, 75, 120, and 143 referred to above. A COMPLEYNT TO HIS LADY This interesting pot pourri of verse-forms is found in only two MSS. and one edition, that of Stowe 1561. The two MSS. are Harleian 78 (by Shirley), and MS. Phillipps 9053 at Cheltenham, which last I have not been able to consult except indirectly through the critical notes in Professor Skeat's six-volume edition of Chaucer. He there says that Ph. is copied from Harleian 78, and this seems to be the case. All three authorities tack this fragment on to the Compleynt unto Pite, which is, however, complete without it. The poem is clearly intended as a metrical experiment, or series of experiments, and should not be taken too seriously. The similarity of a phrase here and there to the Anelida and Arcite, and of the opening of the third section with the Parlement of Foules (11. 90, 91), which are both serious poems, may just as well point to this work preceding them as following them in date. shortly after 1373-74 seems, therefore, still to be most probable. Some time ANELIDA AND ARCYTE This poem, like the preceding one, is chiefly interesting for the elaborate metrical experiments for which Chaucer made it the excuse. It opens with three stanzas from the Teseide, which Chaucer recast later into heroic couplets for his Knightes Tale. These are followed by four based partly on Statius, and these in turn by three more from the Teseide. It is possible that at least the first six stanzas and a half formed part of an earlier translation of the Teseide, now lost, and that the poet refers to this earlier work in the Prologue to the Legende of Good Women when he says he made . . . al the love of Palamon and Arcyte of Thebes, thogh the story is knowen lyte.' At 1. 47 commences the story of 'quene Anelida and fals Arcite,' and this continues down to 1. 210. What the source of this tale may be we do not know. At 1. 211 begins the elaborate Compleynt of feire Anelida upon fals Arcite,' a more ambitious poem of the same kind as the Compleynt to his Lady. The fourteen stanzas of which it consists are arranged in a proem or introduction, two movements of six stanzas each, and a conclusion. With the exception of the last two stanzas in each of the movements of six, the stanzas are of nine decasyllabic lines rhyming aab, aab, bab. The fifth stanzas in the two movements or Strophes of six are divided into two parts, each of eight lines of octosyllabics, except the fourth and eighth which are decasyllabic. In the first part the rhymes run aaab, aaab, in the second the same rhymes are used in the reverse order bbba, bbba. The sixth stanza in each of the movements is of nine decasyllabics, rhymed as in the main body of the poem, but with the additional ornament of an internal rhyme on the fourth and eighth syllable of each line. At the conclusion of the Compleynt the story is resumed, but breaks off after a single stanza which is only found in five of the eleven MSS. Chaucer doubtless intended to reintroduce Theseus, with whom the poem opens, as the avenger of Anelida. There are eleven MSS. and one edition (Caxton's) of this poem, which I agree with Koch in arranging as follows: The best group of MSS. is C, and this is the one used as the basis of the text. |